“I’m sorry.” The statement felt so inadequate, but he meant it. “She was a good woman. My mother’s dearest friend.”
Rose nodded stiffly, looking away toward the mountains. “She was.”
After a moment, her gaze dropped to her hands. “Mrs. Wang…she taught me to make her special dumplings. Does she still serve them?”
“She does.” A spark of hope lit inside him at the softening in Rose’s voice. “They’re my favorites.”
They sat in silence, the aspens rustling overhead. A hawk circled high above the meadow, riding the mountain wind with lazy grace.
He had to give her an out, in case that’s what she truly wanted. He wouldn’t force her to come. “If you don’t want to take the position, I can drive you back to Butte. Or arrange passage wherever you’d rather go. No questions asked.”
Rose stayed quiet so long, it seemed she might not answer. When she finally spoke, her voice came out barely audible. “What would the work entail? Exactly?”
“Helping Mrs. Wang with the cooking, the cleaning. Some mending, perhaps. Keeping my sister-in-law company—Mandie, Enoch’s wife. She gets lonely with the men out working the ranch all day.” He paused. “Nothing you haven’t done before, from what I remember.”
“And your brothers? Are they all still there?”
He nodded. “Enoch, Robert, and Thomas. Enoch is married, of course, and they’re expecting a babe in another month or so.” He studied her profile, the ache rising in his throat at this next part. Both for him, and for her, hearing the news fresh. “Will passed last year. An accident with one of the colts in training.”
That still felt surreal to say. Will had been so strong and capable. To think he was gone…forever…
Rose gasped, and she spun back to him as her hand moved to cover her mouth. “Will? Oh, Jamie.” The old nickname slipped out again, and with it came another crack in her careful composure. “I’m so sorry. He was so… He was always so kind to me.”
This was the Rose he remembered—the one whose heart broke for others’ pain, who’d once cried when they found a baby bird fallen from its nest.
He nodded. “He would have been glad to see you again. They all will be.”
She remained quiet another long moment, her fingers worrying the edge of her glove. When she spoke again, her voice had regained that careful control. “The position—it would include room and board?”
“Your own room, the same one you and your mother shared. Meals with the family.”
Emotions played across her features—hope warring with fear, longing battling with some deep-seated caution. “Would it be…” She hesitated, then straightened her shoulders, and her tone turned more business-like. “Would it be acceptable if I stayed for a trial period? Two weeks, perhaps? To see if the arrangement suits everyone?”
The tension slipped from his chest. “Of course.” He kept the eagerness out of his voice, though his heart already raced ahead to the moment she’d walk through the familiar doors of the ranch house. “And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll personally see you get safe passage back to…wherever you’d like to go.”
She nodded, though he caught the flicker of something—gratitude, perhaps, or simply relief—before she looked away to the mountains again. “Then I accept. For two weeks.”
“Good.” He turned back to the horses, releasing the brake. “If we push, we should reach the ranch by nightfall.”
CHAPTER 5
The morning brought no escape from the reckoning Rose had been dreading since the moment she’d recognized Lord James Balfour on that dusty road.
Except not Lord Balfour. Just…James. It felt odd not thinking of them as gentry. Her mother had called him Master James most of the time.
Will had been the heir apparent, bearing his father’s lesser title—the earl of something, if she remembered correctly—until he would take over the dukedom on their father’s death. Enoch had a different title, passed through their mother. The Baron of Stafford, or something close to that.
If Will was gone, did that mean Enoch was now the earl? And James a baron? The titles of the peerage had always been a bit convoluted in her mind, probably because they’d left England when she was four. No matter how the inherited designations had changed with Will’s death, the fact remained—the Balfour family were peers of the realm.
And she would be one of their servants.
They’d reached the ranch so late last night, everyone else had already been asleep. For her part, even after collapsing into the familiar bed of her childhood, she’d barely slept. So many memories she’d long-since forgotten surfaced like spring wildflowers pushing through snow.
How many times had she dreamed of James coming to rescue her in Virginia City? It’d been a hopeless wish. Something she’d known couldn’t come true. James hadn’t known where she was. And in truth, she’d only been the help. A servant. Why would he come after her?
She’d prayed so many times too. If James wouldn’t save her, maybe God would. She’d sent up desperate, whispered pleas in the dark. Please let me go home. Please let someone find me. Please let this end.
She’d stopped praying eventually, when the silence from heaven grew too heavy. Too disappointing.
