Frontier Bride

Hannah took a deep breath and looked down at the floor. “Of course. If I may, Mr…er…Reed?” She reached to take back the tray he’d been balancing easily on one arm.

“Ethan Reed, ma’am, at your service. I’m most pleased to make your acquaintance.”

He bowed to her once again, a formal bow as though they were standing in the middle of St. James’s palace. Then his eyes sought hers once more. Hannah was sure that her face was the color of Mr. MacDougall’s finest claret.

She turned quickly back into the kitchen. For once the steamy room seemed cooler than the front taproom. Mistress MacDougall had removed her apron and was drying her hands. She had witnessed the exchange and said in a low voice, “I’ll see to them, Hannah, if you prefer.”

Hannah shook her head. “No.” She would just as soon stay busy. With Mistress MacDougall’s help, she prepared a tray of cheese, cold chicken and bread.

Her heart had resumed its normal beat, and she decided that her overly strong reaction to Mr. Reed had been due to the fact that she was tired. She’d been up much of the night tending to Jacob’s croup. “Who is that man?” she asked Mistress MacDougall.

“Marry, girl. That’s Captain Reed. He was with Rogers’s Rangers, you know. We had some of them here at the inn a couple years ago, and a rowdier bunch of wild men you’ve never seen.”

“He’s a captain?”

“Well, not anymore. The war’s over now, of course. The French have hightailed it up to Canada and the Indians have calmed down—except for that Pontiac fellow.”

Hannah lifted the heavy tray and glanced toward the door to the front room. “Were the Rangers all so… big?” she asked.

Mistress MacDougall chuckled. “Captain Reed’s not big, lass, he’s just bonny. A fine specimen of manhood, if ye ask me.”

“What’s he doing with Mr. Webster?”

The older woman’s smile died. “Well ye may ask, child. I’m very much afraid the captain is here to take ye, Randolph and my dear Prissy’s bairns so far from here that I’ll never gaze upon ye again.”

It was long past sundown. The evening had grown so cool that it felt as if winter were attempting to sneak back. Hannah got up to close the tavern windows, then returned to her rocking chair with a yawn. At the far end of the room, the men were still poring over Captain Reed’s drawings and maps. Randolph Webster sat with Jacob on one knee and Peggy clinging to his side. The children had had so little time with their father lately that they both looked as if they would be willing to stay in his company all evening. But Hannah could see dark circles of fatigue on their pale cheeks. She wanted to take them and head back up the lane to the Websters’. Perhaps Jacob would sleep through the night tonight after taking some of his grandfather’s posset. The warmth of the fire felt good against her face. Her eyelids grew heavy.

“They’ve worn you out, Mistress Forrester.”

Again the rich voice jolted her. She straightened and twisted her head to find its owner. “It’s late for the children,” she managed to say.

“It’s not the children who I see dozing by the fire like a well-fed kitten.” His dark eyes teased.

Hannah was at a loss for words. She was not used to carrying on a conver-sation with a male. Though she had spoken a few times to the gentlemen who had visited Mr. Webster at his home, the conver-sation had always been circumscribed to her duties as a servant. Before that…well, her mother had made certain that Hannah’s exposure to men of any age was as limited as possible.

Hannah could still hear her voice. “I’ll not see you follow in the path of yer wretched mum, girl—flowery in the head after a few pretty words from a finelooking gent, then thrown over as neatly as an apple core pitched into the gutter. With a babe in my belly and not a farthing in my purse.”

It had been the litany of her childhood.

Captain Reed leaned closer. “They do feed you well, don’t they, mistress?”

Hannah found the question absurd. She straightened the rocker, almost knocking him in the chin. “I feed myself, Captain Reed. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’d best bundle up the children and take them home.”

He stepped around her chair and crouched down next to the fire. The position looked natural to him, as though he spent many hours in places where there was not a chair to be had.

“I was hoping to talk with you, mistress. It’s been a long, dry spell since I’ve been in feminine company.”

The words cajoled, but it was his smile that kept her rooted to her seat. She glanced across the room to where the other men still seemed engrossed in their papers. “Don’t you need to be over there—planning or routing or…something?”

“My routes are in here,” he said, tapping the side of his head with his finger. His hair was a deep, rich brown and he wore it long, not pulled back into the customary queue. His short dark whiskers emphasized the rugged line of his jaw.

“You know the wilderness well?” she asked after a moment.

He grinned. “Well now, I’m not a man to boast. Let me put it this way. Before I round a bend of the Ohio, I can tell you how many marsh rats we’ll find nesting on the other side.”

Hannah laughed. Ethan Reed’s utter lack of humility both irritated and fascinated her. Some of her nervousness subsided. Here was a man who actually knew this land Mr. Webster had described so glowingly and in such detail. “Is it as rich as they say? As beautiful?”

“The Ohio River valley’s richer than anything these colonies have seen. One of these days people will be clamoring to own a piece of it. You folks are lucky to be among those getting there first.”

“Do you ‘own a piece of it,’ Captain?”

He shook his head. “I’m not exactly the settling-down type, Mistress Forrester. I figure, why should I limit myself to a little piece of paradise when I can freely roam the whole thing?”

“But, surely, now that families are moving into the area, you’ll not feel quite so independent?”

“The tiny little chunks of land you folks will hack out of the wilderness won’t change things much.”

Hannah looked puzzled. “I thought Mr. Webster said that the tracts would be upward of two hundred acres.”

Reed laughed, rich and low. “There’s hundreds of thousands of acres out there, mistress. Your little portion of it won’t amount to more than a fly speck.”

Hannah shifted her eyes to the fire. “Not my portion, Captain Reed. I’m just going along to care for Mr. Webster’s children. At the end of three years I’ll return here to the city to seek employment.”

Reed was silent for a long moment. When Hannah turned back to him, he was looking at her with a half smile and eyes that had grown suddenly intense. “I’d not place a wager on that, mistress,” he said softly.

She wanted to look away again, but his gaze held hers. “Why not?” she asked. Her mouth suddenly felt dry.

“Webster’s not that big a fool.”

It was the second time that day she’d had to listen to insinuations about her relationship with Randolph Webster. Hannah gripped the arms of the rocker and said stiffly, “Mr. Webster is my employer, Captain Reed. He has just lost his beloved wife. And if we’re all to be traveling together, I’ll thank you not to embarrass the poor man with your preposterous comments.”

Reed was unruffled. “If not Webster, then some other man will snatch you up, Mistress Forrester. There’s a sore need for women on the frontier.”

Hannah stood briskly, setting the rocking chair swaying. “I’m not available to be ‘snatched,’ as you put it, Captain. I’m contracted to Mr. Webster, and that’s the end of it. In the future I’d appreciate it if you kept your speculations about my destiny to your-self.”

With no visible effort, Reed went from his easy crouch to a standing position. His broad chest was just inches from her face. “Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a grin.

“Thank you. I’ll bid you good-evening, sir.” She turned away with a flounce of her skirts.

Reed watched as she crossed the room to lift a drooping Jacob from Randolph Webster’s lap.

Hannah had cleaned the tiny office in the back of the Webster house many times, but this was the first time she had ever sat there in the stiff horsehair chair across the desk from Randolph Webster. It was after the noon meal. Peggy and Jacob were playing blindman’s wand with a group of children from the neighborhood. Hannah had been watching them from the front window, thinking that soon they would be leaving all their friends behind, when Mr. Webster had come up quietly behind her.

“Are you busy, Hannah?”

She’d jumped and a guilty flush had come over her. It was seldom that she could be found idling thus in the middle of the day. But Mr. Webster looked distracted and didn’t seem to be chiding her for her lack of activity.

“I wonder if I might have a moment of your time?” he’d continued.

He’d led her into the office that he used to keep his accounts and those of his in-laws and many other friends and neighbors. The neat rows of books and ledgers made Hannah question once again Mr. Webster’s decision to leave his home and comfortable city life. What did Randolph Webster know about carving a farm out of the wilderness? She sighed. It wasn’t her decision. And she supposed someday the frontier would need accountants, too.

Mr. Webster appeared to be studying her from his deep leather chair, and Hannah was just beginning to grow uncomfortable when he said, “I’ve not been the most attentive employer these past months.”

The remark surprised her. It had sounded almost apologetic. “You’ve had your grief to bear, Mr. Webster. ‘Tis understandable.”

“You’ve done a remarkable job with the children. They miss Priscilla, but I can’t imagine how they’d be faring if you hadn’t been here for them.”

“They’re very dear.” Hannah smiled uncertainly.

“Yes, well…” Randolph reached out to roll a marble blotter back and forth under his hand. “It’s been brought to my attention that it might be unfair of me to ask you to join us on the trip west.”

Hannah let out a breath. So this was what was on his mind. “My contract doesn’t specify where my services will be performed, Mr. Webster. I consider that you and…Mrs. Webster…have always been fair with me.”

Randolph gave the blotter a spin, then stopped the motion with a smash of his hand. “The MacDougalls want me to sell them your indenture.”

Hannah swallowed. She had thought of little else all morning. It wouldn’t be a bad life. The MacDougalls were honorable people, and Hannah had no doubt that her three years would pass pleasantly enough. But if she stayed in Philadelphia, she’d never see those silver rivers….

Randolph Webster watched her silently. His stern features had softened, and he looked almost like a little boy making a silent plea for permission to embark on an adventure.

All at once Hannah realized that her decision had already been made. “Mr. Webster,” she started slowly, “back in London when my mother became too ill to work, we moved to an almshouse. I lived with forty other people in a room the size of your Sunday parlor. On the crossing, there were over a hundred of us in a smelly ship’s hold not as big as this house. Now you tell me about a rich land where you can walk all day in the sunlight and never see another living soul. Just imagine!” Her blue eyes sparkled. “If you and the children want me, I’ll go west with you.”

Randolph seemed to let out a breath he’d been holding. He didn’t smile, but the tenseness left his face and he leaned back in his chair. “We do want you, Hannah.” The slightest bit of red began to show from underneath his stiff white collar. “Er…that is…the children are very fond of you.”

“Then it’s settled,” Hannah said briskly. “Please thank the MacDougalls for their offer and their concern.”

Randolph nodded. He didn’t speak further, but continued studying her.

“Was there anything else, sir?” she asked.

“No. Ah…thank you, Hannah.”

She got up and started to leave, but Mr. Webster’s voice stopped her at the door.

“Hannah, there is one more thing. Would you please prepare the back room?”

She turned back to him. “The back room, sir?”

“Yes. Captain Reed will be joining us tonight. He has accepted my offer to stay here until we’re ready to leave.”

Much to her annoyance, Hannah realized that her heart had given a thump inside her chest at the mention of the man’s name. “Very good, sir,” she said a little sharply.

Randolph looked up at her curiously. “Reed seemed taken with you last night at the inn.”

“He said it had been a spell since he’d been around women, and judging from his manners, I believe he was telling the truth.”

Randolph smiled. “It’s hard to fault a man for noticing a pretty girl, Hannah.”

Hannah’s cheeks grew hot. It was the first time that Randolph Webster had made the slightest comment on her person. His eyes had an odd expression, too, as he watched her from behind his big desk. She dropped her gaze to the floor. “I’d best see to getting his room ready, Mr. Webster.” Then she gave a bob of her head and escaped down the hall.

Chapter Two

Ethan Reed had spent the entire past year with a government survey party mapping the unknown territory along the Monongahela River north of the Ohio. The winter before that, he’d spent at Fort Pitt, the rough frontier stronghold that the English had built to replace the burned-out French Fort Duquesne. As he had told Webster’s servant yesterday, it had been a long spell since he’d been around a lot of women. It had been an even longer one since he’d seen any as pretty as Mistress Hannah Forrester.

He stood framed by the open doorway of Webster’s house and watched her as she bent dipping candles in a pan of tallow. She was too intent on her work to notice his arrival, and he took advantage of the moment to let his eyes roam over her long, slender body. Too slender, perhaps, for the rigors of the West. But with a willowy grace that put a hollow in his midsection. She wore no cap, and her bright blond hair hung in a thick braid down to the middle of her back.

She turned to hang a dripping row of candles on the drying rack, then stopped as she spied him. Her body stiffened. She was a skittish one, that was for sure. Like the fawn he’d tried to tame last fall when one of the members of the survey party had killed its mother. Ethan had patiently attempted to convince the little animal to trust him, but it had looked at him with big fearful eyes and jumped every time Ethan came near.

Mistress Forrester’s eyes were not fearful, but they were full of mistrust. He wondered if she’d been telling the truth about Webster’s lack of interest. The man must be daft…or blind. Of course, as she had said, Webster was still grieving for his wife. Ethan shook his head. If he had a woman like this living under the same roof, he’d do a lot more than notice.

“You startled me, Captain,” she said, putting the candles in their place.

“I beg your pardon, mistress. I should have announced myself. But you were standing there in that shaft of light, and I was trying to decide if that was your real hair or a halo of sunbeams wreathing your pretty face.”

Hannah wiped a wisp of hair from her forehead. “Captain Reed, it’s not seemly for you to address such remarks to me. I’m Mr. Webster’s servant.”

Ethan stepped inside the door and removed his felt tricorne. “I believe you’re going to find that west of the Ohio those kind of labels don’t make much difference anymore. Everyone’s as good as a servant out there. Those who don’t work hard won’t make it.”

Hannah’s eyes widened as he approached. He was clean shaven now and dressed in a well-tailored suit, tapered at the waist in the current style. He still looked big. His shoulders filled out the jacket in a way that she’d never noticed with Mr. Webster or his friends. With his whiskers gone and clean clothes, Captain Reed suddenly looked as if he could be one of the fine gents who had sauntered into Piccadilly back home in search of a good time and easy women. Her mum had always scurried away when one approached, dragging Hannah behind her. “They’ll not be after you with their fancy words, luv,” she’d say with that distressing look of desperation in her eyes.

“Perhaps you’re not aware that I’m indentured to Mr. Webster,” she told the captain. “I’m his servant not by choice, but by contract.”

His potent dark eyes watched her. “Contracts don’t mean a hell of a lot out West, either.”

“Nevertheless,” she said with quiet dignity, “I intend to honor my commitment to the Websters—Mr. Webster and the children.”

“It’ll not be a picnic.” He finally broke off his gaze and began looking around the large kitchen. “You’ll not be able to take much of this with you.”

Relieved to turn to a less personal topic of conver-sation, Hannah said, “The MacDougalls will be selling most of these things after we’re gone. Mr. Webster has spent the past few weeks packing up the essentials. We’re taking very little.”

“I saw his bundles out in the carriage house and told him to reduce the amount by two-thirds.”

“But surely…”

Ethan gestured impatiently. “As I told Webster, we’ll be traveling over little more than a mule track as far as Fort Pitt. From there we’ll move onto the flatboats, which will be a sight easier on everyone. You might be able to pick up some extra supplies at the fort.”

“We were hoping to take Priscilla’s vanity for Peggy,” Hannah said with a frown.

Ethan shook his head. “Tell her grandparents to save it for her. Someday the roads west will be broad enough to move a whole house, but not yet.”

Hannah nodded. She felt sorry for the little girl, who had lost her mother and must now leave almost every trace of her behind. But Hannah herself had gone through worse sacrifices during her childhood. Her mother had always said what didn’t kill you, made you strong.

“I’ll talk to the MacDougalls. They’ve plenty of room to save some of Mrs. Webster’s things for a future date.”

Ethan gave a smile of approval. “I like your attitude, Mistress Forrester. Most women put up a fuss about leaving their precious belongings behind.”

“I only asked for Peggy’s sake, Captain Reed. For myself, I’ve nothing precious to take or to leave.”

She spoke the words matter-of-factly, Ethan noted, without a trace of self-pity or bitterness. Webster’s servant was not only beautiful. There was an underlying strength to her character that would serve her well on the frontier.

Hannah’s back hurt again. She’d spent all day trying to prepare enough candles to last for the unknown number of weeks before she would be able to make more, and the bending and dipping had her muscles aching. Her unpredictable back was one of the curses of being tall and slender, her mother used to say. Of course, her mother had measured little more than a yeoman’s yard, which meant that Hannah’s height had to have come from the deserting black-guard who had fathered her. Her mother would see naught but ill in the trait.

“You’ve put in a long day, Hannah.” Mr. Webster stepped in the front door and clapped his hat on the wall peg.

Hannah smiled at him. Since their conver-sation in his office this morning, Mr. Webster’s remarks to her seemed to be subtly different. The day had gone much as most days, a busy combination of household chores and children, but more than once she had caught his eyes on her, and he had complimented her warmly on the supper, which had been nothing but an unpretentious beef stew. Of course, the presence of Captain Reed had made the meal more festive than usual. He’d regaled them with stories of the West until both Peggy and Jacob had jumped around in a circle and declared that they wanted to leave that very minute.

“I thought you would be staying up at the tavern with Captain Reed and the others,” she answered.

“The noise was giving me the headache. I decided I’d rather come home and tuck the bairns in their beds.”

Hannah’s smile dimmed at his use of Priscilla’s word for her children. It wasn’t a fair world that took a mother away from her little ones. “I’m afraid Jacob’s asleep already, but Peggy may be awake. She was working on her sampler.”

“I’ll just go upstairs and see. And then…” He glanced at the hand Hannah still held at her aching waist. “Are you too tired for a bit more work to-night?”

Hannah removed her hand and tried to straighten the crimp out of her back without being obvious. “Of course not. What would you like me to do?”

“Help me. We need to go through the household items I had planned to take and decide which ones can be left. Captain Reed claims that we’ll not be able to take such a load.”

“Aye. He told me the same thing.”

Webster looked annoyed. “When did he tell you that?”

“This afternoon. He surprised me in the kitchen as I was making the candles.”

“There’s no call for Reed to be telling you what to do, Hannah. He’s our trail guide, nothing more. If you wish, I’ll ask him not to speak to you unless necessary.”

“Oh, please no. He’s not a bother to me, Mr. Webster.”

“If he should become one, Hannah, kindly let me know. Mayhaps I shouldn’t say this to you, but I believe Captain Reed has something of a reputation with the ladies.”

“The ladies? To hear him talk, he’s spent the past two years with bears, wild Indians and even wilder soldiers.”

“Perhaps that’s all the more reason I should tell him to stay clear of you,” Randolph said grimly. “All I know is that they say he was raised in Boston of a good family and he left under somewhat cloudy circumstances that concerned a woman.”

Hannah sighed and stretched her back one more time. “I appreciate your concern, Mr. Webster, but I don’t believe I need protection from Captain Reed.”

“Yes, well…” Mr. Webster looked at her with the odd expression that seemed to have developed since the incident in the tavern last night. “It’s my responsibility to take care of you, Hannah. If anyone tries to bother you, you must tell me about it forthwith.”

Hannah was bewildered by the proprietary tone. For almost three years she’d lived in the same house with this man, feeling of no more importance to him than a sack of turnips. Now all at once he seemed concerned about her. Mistress MacDougall’s comments came back to her, but she dismissed them impatiently. “I was raised on the streets of London, Mr. Webster, not at a convent. I can take care of myself.”

Webster nodded. “I believe you. God knows, you’ve taken care of all of us well enough these past months.”

“Yes, well…” Hannah felt her cheeks grow warm. “I’ll just go on out to the stable and start looking at the packs.”

“You’re sure you aren’t too tired?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“You’re a hard worker, Hannah. But I intend to take a little bit better care of you in the future.”

She didn’t know what to reply, so she nodded and turned toward the door. But she felt Randolph Webster’s eyes follow her all the way out to the yard.

Hannah always felt a stitch in her heart when she walked by the big stone kiln at the corner of the Baker brickyard. It had been at that site over a year ago that carefree, young Johnny Baker had lost his life when an unbalanced load of bricks had fallen on him, crushing his throat. Johnny Baker had bantered with Hannah when she had first arrived in Philadelphia, and Priscilla had teased her that the handsome young man was sweet on her. But Hannah knew that Johnny flirted with every young maid in the area. He wasn’t likely to set his heart on an indentured servant with five long years to serve. Still, his death had shocked and saddened her. Johnny’s mother, Eliza, had been nearly crazy with grief, and Hannah had taken to spending some of her free moments with her. Johnny had been Eliza and Seth Baker’s only child, and in many ways it seemed as if their very future had died along with him.

Hannah walked up the neat brick path to the Baker cottage. Eliza’s beloved crocuses were making their first brave appearance, in spite of the continuing cold weather. The cheery splotches of yellow brought the natural smile back to Hannah’s lips. The Bakers would miss their home, she thought. When a recent German immigrant had made an offer to buy the brickyard, it had seemed to be the opportunity to flee from their grief. Some of Seth’s natural enthusiasm had returned as he joined in the plans to head west with the Websters, the Trasks and the Crawfords. But Hannah knew that Eliza would miss her crocuses in the spring, and she’d especially miss her daily climb up to the small cemetery behind the church.