Elsie ate two biscuits.
June scraped every bit of jam from her plate.
Lottie tried to eat slowly, as though afraid revealing her hunger would embarrass her mother.
Gideon noticed that too.
He noticed everything.
Afterward, Mabel washed the final plate.
Outside, darkness had swallowed the prairie.
She gathered their coats.
“Thank you for the work.”
Gideon stood beside the stove.
“You haven’t asked what I’m paying you.”
“Whatever is fair.”
“How do you know I’m fair?”
“I don’t.”
“You walked five miles with three children to work for a man you’ve never met.”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t sound very careful.”
Mabel looked at him.
“Careful is a luxury people with choices can afford.”
Gideon flinched.
Mabel took Elsie’s hand.
“Good night, Mr. Cross.”
She reached for the door.
“Mabel.”
She stopped.
It was the first time he had used her given name.
She turned.
His hands were clenched at his sides.
He looked more frightened now than he had when she first knocked.
“There are two empty bedrooms upstairs.”
Mabel’s heartbeat quickened.
“I told you—”
“This isn’t charity.”
“What is it?”
“Employment.”
She stared.
“I need a cook. A housekeeper. Somebody who can make this place look less like wolves own it.”
Despite herself, Mabel almost smiled.
Gideon continued.
“Room. Meals. Three dollars a week.”
Mabel’s lips parted.
Three dollars.
It was more than the boarding house had offered before rejecting her.
“You don’t know me.”
“I watched you work.”
“That isn’t knowing me.”
“No.”
His gaze moved to the girls.
“But it’s enough for tonight.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
Mabel whispered, “Why?”
Gideon’s jaw tightened.
“For once in your life, Mrs. Harlo, must every open door be a trap?”
Her eyes burned.
“No.”
“Then stay.”
That was the decision neither of them would ever be able to take back.
By the end of the first week, the Cross ranch no longer smelled like dust and old coffee.
By the end of the second, curtains hung straight in the windows.
By the third, wildflowers appeared in a jar on the table.
The girls transformed the house even faster.
Elsie adopted a three-legged barn cat and named it President.
June discovered that Gideon owned six books and immediately decided he required educating.
Lottie remained suspicious.
She watched Gideon whenever he spoke to her mother.
One evening he finally asked, “You planning to shoot me?”
Lottie blinked.
“No, sir.”
“You look like you’re considering it.”
“My papa said a man should be watched by what he does, not what he says.”
Gideon went very quiet.
“Your papa was right.”
“Did you know him?”
Mabel looked up sharply.
Gideon’s spoon stopped halfway to his mouth.
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Mabel noticed.
But then Elsie spilled milk and the moment disappeared.
The ranch prospered beneath Mabel’s hands.
She canned peaches.
Repaired shirts.
Started a vegetable patch beside the house.
She discovered she could make more butter than the household needed and began selling the extra in town.
