beholden to someone, and neither did she. If she could pull her weight around here it would benefit them both. She’d look for other ways to help and right now she needed to get the beans on.
She returned to the kitchen, pausing to check on the twins, stealing a kiss from each one. Worn-out from everything she’d done, Anna Mae sat at the kitchen table and began sorting the dry beans, making sure not one black rock remained in the mix. She could almost taste tomorrow’s meal.
She heard Josiah before she saw him. He stomped the snow from his feet, then entered the house, triumphantly waving a ham hock in his hand. “I found it, took a while, but we now have meat.” He seemed undecided what to do with it and she stifled a giggle. “Boy, it’s cold out there. Brrr.”
Anna Mae laughed. “Set the ham hock in that bowl to thaw. I’ll put the beans on to soak on the stove as soon as I finish sorting them.”
If he noticed she’d changed clothes, Josiah didn’t say anything about it. Instead he asked, “Would you mind having fried eggs and ham for dinner tonight?”
“Not at all.” Anna Mae set a rock off to the side of her bowl.
“Good. Eggs, bacon, ham and beans are about all I know how to make. Mary was the cook, not me.” He pulled a chair out and sat down. “And when I’m on the trail of bad guys, I don’t have to cook much.” He grinned.
Anna Mae focused on the job at hand. She wondered about his wife, but didn’t want to be nosy. She knew that Mary had been killed during a bank robbery and that she was William Barns’s sister, but that was all anyone seemed to know about her. “Back when we lived together, Emily Jane did all our cooking, before she married William. I’d gotten used to her fixing all my meals, and now that I’m staying at the boardinghouse and Beth provides my meals, well, I’m a little rusty at cooking myself. But together I think we’ll do just fine.”
“Well, we won’t starve to death, that’s for sure. Emily Jane helped me stock the pantry before the storm hit, and the root cellar is full of meats and vegetables.” He leaned back and studied her. “But I don’t want you to overdo it today.”
She smiled. It was nice having someone care about her. Since Emily Jane married, Anna Mae had felt alone. A feeling she was very familiar with, since she’d felt that way most of her life. She couldn’t deny that of all the things she longed for in her life, belonging to someone, being important to at least one person, ranked right at the top of her list.
The flames crackled in the fireplace, drawing her back to the present. There was nothing like a fire to give the house a cozy feeling. She raised her eyes to find the sheriff watching her, a glint of concern in his analyzing gaze.
“I won’t overdo, I promise.” She dumped the clean beans in the pot beside her. “It just feels so good to actually be up and moving about. To be doing something of importance. I am not fond of idleness at all.”
Josiah picked up the pot of beans and moved to the counter. He rinsed the beans well before setting the pot on the back of the stove. When he returned to the table Anna Mae asked him, “What do you normally do while the girls have their afternoon nap?”
Josiah shrugged. “Read or clean my guns.”
Anna Mae pushed away from the table. “I don’t want you to change your routine because of me.” She walked back to the couch and sat down.
Josiah followed. He dropped into the rocker beside the fireplace. “All right. What do you normally do midafternoon?” he asked, setting the rocker into motion.
“Well, if I’m at the school I teach math, but if I’m at home I sew, read or create lessons for the next day.” She pulled her legs up onto the couch and slipped them under the quilt she’d left there earlier.
“What made you want to be a teacher?” Josiah asked as he put a cloth ball back into the corral with the girls, who had awakened when the adults started talking.
Her gaze moved to Rose and Ruby. “I loved to read as a child and my teacher had all kinds of books he’d loan me. He told me I was smart enough that I could teach, if I wanted to. So when I got old enough to do so, I did.” She paused, watching the twins play together. They rolled the ball back and forth between them and giggled as if each time something new happened. Their enjoyment of such a simple task reminded Anna Mae of her calling.
“Watching children learn new things and the excitement on their faces when they realize they’ve figured out a math problem, or understand a new word they just read, gives me a thrill that I can’t explain.” Anna Mae looked up to see Josiah studying her face.
“What made you want to become a farmer?” she asked, feeling a little self-conscious.
He laughed. “I never wanted to be a farmer. William bought this place, and while I’m happy for the home, I never figured to be a farmer.” He shook his head as if to shake away funny memories.
“So was your dream to become a sheriff?”
Josiah set the rocker into motion again with his foot. “I’m not sure I’d call it a dream. When I was a boy, I was accused of stealing my neighbor’s puppy.” He chuckled. “I didn’t take the pup, but since it was the doctor’s dog and his son was pitching a fit, the sheriff came to ‘talk’ to me about it. Well, I tried to convince him I hadn’t taken the puppy, but he didn’t believe me. So after he left our house, I set out to find out where the little dog had gone.” He closed his eyes and rocked.
When it became apparent he wasn’t going to continue, Anna Mae leaned forward and asked, “Did you find the puppy?”
His eyes flittered open. “Sure did. It was at the meat market, trapped under the boardwalk with a bone too big to get out.” Josiah chuckled. “I enjoyed looking for that pup and proving to the sheriff that I hadn’t stolen it. It was then that I decided I wanted to be a lawman when I grew up.” He glanced at the girls, who continued to crawl about the corral like playful puppies.
“I imagine it’s an exciting job.” Anna Mae sat back against the cushions.
“It can be, but it’s also dangerous and stressful when you have a family to consider.”
Her gaze moved to the girls once more and narrowed speculatively. “Have you ever considered a different line of work?”
“Yes and no.” He sighed. “Right after Mary died, while I searched for the bank robbers who shot her, I thought a lot about quitting. But what can a seasoned lawman do besides upkeep the law?”
Anna Mae grinned at him. “Farm?”
He chuckled. “I know little to nothing about farming.”
She tucked the thin quilt closer around her legs. Even covered as she was, she felt the chill in the air. “So I take it you grew up in town?”
Again he nodded. “Yep, I was known as a street rat. My mother had died when I was a baby and my father...he hadn’t taken her death well. So to my way of thinking, when the doctor’s kid accused me of stealing his puppy, he did me a great favor.”
“Gave you a direction to follow?”
“You could say that. I went to Sheriff Grady and told him I wanted to work for him. He took a twelve-year-old boy under his wing and helped me grow to manhood.” For a moment
