Rosaline watched his long strides as he strode back towards the cattle, noticing that his lanky frame was muscled beneath his shirt. She could still feel the heat of his skin beneath her fingers.
She jumped when Buena came from behind and suddenly spoke.
“We can feed Robbie and take him with us to the barn. He loves seeing the cows,” Buena smiled. “They’re gentle creatures that wouldn't harm a fly.”
Rosaline tried to steady the beating of her heart as they made their way to the kitchen where Arthur Stratton was waiting with Robbie in his arms.
He fussed and pulled away when Rosaline held out her arms to take him.
“He’s just hungry,” Buena reassured her and took the flailing child from Arthur.
“I heard him crying and thought I’d lend a hand,” Arthur smiled at Rosaline. “Chin up, lass.” He winked at her and left.
They went into the kitchen where she attempted to feed Robbie on her own, mixing the boiled bread in his porcelain pap boat. Rosaline’s heart fell when Robbie cried, not wanting her to feed him.
Buena took over and fed him. “Don’t be too downhearted, dear. I tell you what, you can carry him to the barn. Let him become accustomed to You. She wiped his mouth with a cloth and handed him to Rosaline.
Robbie was weary at first but more contented after having his food. He allowed Rosaline to take him and place him on her hip. She looked at Buena in surprise when he placed his chubby little fist in his mouth and allowed her to gently sway him back and forth, his large golden eyes watching her every move.
Buena smiled encouragingly.
“Hello there little one,” Rosaline smiled down at him.
Rosaline carried Robbie on her hip past the pens towards the barn. She glanced at the men feeding the cows and saw that Thomas was watching her with an expression she couldn’t make out. She had been hoping he would smile at them, but he looked away and carried on shoveling the hay into the pens. This was the first big step she felt she had achieved with Robbie. His lack of acknowledgement made her wonder if she was doing a good job with all of her duties.
The two dairy cows were waiting in their stalls when Buena, Rosaline, and Robbie entered the barn.
Buena lent over and took Robbie from her. “Have you ever milked a cow, dear?”
“No,” Rosaline admitted. “But I have seen it done once or twice.” She’d seen the milkmaids do it on the farm.
“Best to jump right in then,” Buena repeated for the third time that day.
Rosaline wasn’t sure about all this ‘jumping right in’ that Buena had been suggesting. Jumping right into the chicken coop had not been a good idea. She hesitantly fetched the pails that stood just outside the open stalls and placed one next to each cow.
Buena walked over to a cow and lowered Robbie to the floor. He crawled over to a pile of hay and began picking at the pieces. “I’ll do this one and you can follow my lead,” Buena encouraged, gesturing for Rosaline to take the stool by the other cow.
She took her place and gently grabbed the warm teats as Buena was doing.
“It’s more about pushing the milk out rather than puling. Grasp the teat at the top and gently push down like this,” she said as a thin stream of milk shot down into the bucket.
Rosaline concentrated and managed to squeeze a few drops into her bucket.
“You can use a little more pressure, that’s it. Like everything else in life, it just takes some practice,” Buena encouraged as they milked the cows.
Living on a ranch was more involved than Rosaline would have imagined. When Buena was gone she would have to do all the chores throughout the day as well as keep an eye on Robbie, who at present was proving to be more of a handful than anything else.
He crawled around and shoved anything and everything he could find into his mouth. Rosaline found herself having to jump up and chase him down every few minutes. She was coming to find that nothing was faster than a crawling infant.
When her bucket was eventually full, an endeavor that had taken her far longer than Buena, she bumped it over in an attempt to stop Robbie from shoving a bug into his mouth.
Startled he began to wail and wouldn’t allow Rosaline to pick him back up. Buena rushed to the rescue and picked the child up to console him.
Rosaline stood looking at the upturned milk and the crying infant in Buena’s arms and wondered how on earth she was going to do this without her help.
Chapter Eleven
Thomas stood looking out over the cattle, his hands on his hips. They were down more than half the bulls and as many cows. The herds were thinning to a worrying degree. Deep down he knew that he was to blame for this, partially, if not almost entirely.
