“No, just cattle, plus a dairy cow, some chickens and two little goats that are Lissa’s pets.” He chuckled. “Along with three dogs and I don’t know how many cats in the barn, that she also considers pets. We have so many cats it seems like a cat is having kittens every week or so.”
She widened her eyes. “Oh, my. Do you feed all those animals?”
Edward shrugged. “All of them but the cats. They have to find their own food.” He angled his head toward her. “Don’t you start feeding them either, except for the first few squirts of milk. If you do, they’ll expect it and won’t keep the house, barn and hay free of mice.”
Squirts of milk? She lifted a brow. “Do you expect me to milk the cows?”
“Of course. That’s one of your chores, at least, until Lissa is old enough to do it by herself. But that won’t be for another three or so years.”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “I haven’t milked a cow since I was a child.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll teach you. I didn’t expect you to know how to do the chores except for cooking, cleaning and laundry—”
We obviously should have corresponded more, but I wouldn’t have changed my mind even if we had. Adele held up an arm bent at the wrist. “Stop right there. I haven’t done my own laundry in more than seven years. I’m not sure I remember how. As for cooking and cleaning, I can do those but you’ll have to have someone teach me anything else you want me to do.”
He chuckled. “I have a housekeeper, Mrs. Underhill. She’ll help you with the laundry and whatever other chores in the house that you need to know. She lives in a room off the kitchen and although you will be responsible for the upkeep of the house, I have no plans to relieve us of her services. I don’t want all of your time taken up with chores. I want you to spend as much time as possible with Lissa.”
Adele’s stomach turned over. “What if she doesn’t want to spend time with me? I don’t want to alienate her right from the start, but I do know that children her age like to learn new things. When my little sister was small, she would watch intently as my mother and I mended clothes and darned socks. She wanted to learn and she was younger than Lissa. By the time my father broke his hip and we all had to get jobs to fill the void, Madeline was very good at mending and helped mother with it to bring in money. Father’s jobs didn’t pay well, but better than all of us together.” Her hands fisted in her lap. “My brother took over both of father’s jobs but they started him at a very low wage because they knew they could.”
“She may want to learn or not. You’ll have to find out for yourself and then find things she wants to do with you or you with her. She loves being in the barn with the kittens. Go with her. Make friends with her goats. Do you know how to ride?”
She widened her eyes. “Ride a goat? Definitely not.”
Edward laughed. “No, ride a horse.” He muttered under his breath. “Ride a goat? Whoever heard of such a thing?”
Heat invaded her face and then she laughed. “That was a rather silly answer wasn’t it? Oh well, in response to your question, yes I know how to ride.” Richard took me riding in the park once a week at what seemed like the busiest time he could. Like he was showing me off. I never minded. I was just glad to ride.
“Good. I’d like to show you the ranch and many places a wagon or buggy can’t go.”
“I’d like that. Will we take Lissa?”
“Probably not the first time, but some places we’ll see are good for a picnic and when the weather is warmer we can bring her then. One I like best is by a shallow, slow moving stream. We all can go wading.”
“That would be fun if the season was summer, but being that it is fall and the temperature of the water is probably freezing, I don’t think a wading picnic is the best idea.”
He shrugged. “That’s true, but we will still have some very hot days until the first snow. Indian summer, they call it.”
I guess there were some days in the fall in New York that were very warm. I do remember riding in the park when the leaves were changing and the weather was warm enough that even my riding outfit was too warm. But the water in the streams was still very cold when the horse splashed it up on me as we galloped through. “Hot enough to wade in cold water?”
“Yup.” He flicked the reins on the horses’ backs. They walked faster.
She faced the front but then faced him as another question occurred to her. “How far is it to your ranch?”
Will Lissa be there to greet us? What if she hates me right off? How will I win her trust?
CHAPTER 3
“Maybe I should ask how much longer until we get to your ranch?”
He smiled. “Not long. You’re already on it.”
Her jaw dropped. “But there are no buildings. Where is your house?”
“Oh, in another twenty minutes or so you’ll see it.”
“How big is your ranch?” Hundreds maybe thousands of people live within twenty minutes of New York City. Ginger said Catherine couldn’t live this far from town, but I’m looking forward to it. She realized if she was living this far out in the country, Richard wouldn’t be likely to find her, should he come looking, though she couldn’t fathom why he would come looking since he’d tired of her charms.
Letting her go would save him money. He wouldn’t have to keep up her house and her servants, but she also knew that he was rich enough the amount he paid for her upkeep was a pittance to him. Besides wouldn’t he be more interested in his new mistress rather than come after his old one?
Something in the back of her mind, a memory perhaps, told her he would never let her go until he was good and ready and maybe not even then. That was it. He’d paid her parents for her. He believed he owned her and he never gave up the things he owned. Never.
“Big enough that the tour of the property I want to take you on will be an overnight trip. That’s the reason I don’t want to bring Lissa. She wouldn’t be comfortable and wouldn’t want to sleep alone. That’s my fault. I’ve let her sleep with me when we are camping…at least since her mother left.”
Adele looked through her eyelashes. At the mention of his wife, his mouth closed and his jaw clenched. Not that she blamed him. Though she never would have wished harm to the woman, at least she wasn’t around to make Edward’s life miserable any longer. Still Adele knew Edward wasn’t over Catherine, he either still loved her or felt guilty because she left in the first place. Neither boded well for Adele winning his affection.
As the wagon turned onto another road, Adele saw a small bunch of buildings. One was very large and red. She thought the structure might be the barn. The next largest building was two-stories and painted white. As the wagon got closer she saw the windows had green shutters.
In addition to the large buildings a long one-story building also with green shutters, a variety of small structures were situated on the property.
“Tell me about your land. I see a lot of buildings but I don’t see any people.”
“It’s after lunch, so the men are probably working in the corral with the horses for the Army or out riding the fence, looking for places that need repair.”