“No, you didn’t frighten me. I was thinking of my father, the day he died three years ago…” Kari sighed heavily. “I must be overtired. It’s been such a long journey. I swore to my mother I’d deliver her letter and then I just want to go home.”
“Tell me about your mother.”
Kari met Seth’s gaze, still filled with concern, and suspected he was trying to distract her from her melancholy thoughts. She smiled gratefully and looked out over the rolling countryside.
“She was sweet-tempered. Kind. Beautiful. As fair as a Viking princess, my father used to say. Long blond hair—my Norwegian father was fair-haired, too, and my two sisters and brother, not like my honey-colored hair at all. It used to make me cry that I looked so different than the rest of the family, but Mama said it only made me more special.”
Kari gave a small laugh as she glanced at Seth to find him listening intently. That made her blush anew to reveal so much to someone who had been a stranger no more than an hour ago, and she shifted the topic to something else.
“What of you? What did you mean that Mr. Walker is your adopted uncle? I’ve never heard of such a thing before.”
To her surprise, Seth’s expression darkened, but then he shrugged as if telling himself whatever unpleasant thought had come to mind was of no consequence to him.
“You know the story of Moses in a basket? Mine is something like that. I was left outside the home of Uncle Caleb’s sister, Molly, when I was a few days old. No one stepped forward as my mother or my father, and Molly and her husband, Dr. Charles Davis, were childless. They adopted me and brought me up as their own.”
Letting his story sink in, Kari slowly shook her head. “Your poor mother, whoever she was. She must have been truly desperate to have given up her baby.”
Now Seth sighed. “You might as well hear it now if you’ll be in Walker Creek for a spell, however short, but some insist I’m part Comanche to be so dark…my uncle included. It’s the blue eyes that have always stumped him.”
Kari didn’t miss the bitterness that had crept into Seth’s voice. Once again, he urged the packhorses into a faster pace by sharply snapping the reins.
“My guess is my mother was some settler’s wayward daughter and they abandoned me when passing through town. Either way, I’m amazed to this day that my uncle made me foreman over Walker Creek Ranch, but that’s more owing to my folks’ influence, especially Ma’s, than any affection on his part. Thank God I’m good at my job. There’s the ranch now.”
Kari was so stunned at how much Seth had revealed—and her, a total stranger tohimuntil an hour ago!—that she didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.
Instead she focused upon the expanse of land ahead dotted with spreading oak trees and fenced with barbed wire. The lowing of cattle, hundreds of them, maybe more, carried to her on the breeze. In the distance, she spied a sprawling two-story house that was bigger than any residence she’d ever seen before, with cedar posts as thick as tree trunks bracing the wraparound front porch.
“Is that Mr. Walker’s home?” At Seth’s nod, Kari felt a mixture of nerves and apprehension overwhelming her. She really hadn’t known what to expect once she arrived in Walker Creek, but Seth’s uncle must be a wealthy man indeed, to live in such a house surrounded by huge barns and multiple outbuildings.
“Walker Creek Ranch is one of the largest in the county, which keeps me pretty busy.” Seth glanced at Kari, who felt her nervousness only growing. “So my uncle was a friend of your mother?”
Kari took a slow steadying breath to try and calm herself as the wagon turned into a wide avenue lined by newly planted oak trees. “They knew each other years ago, but she told me very little. Only that she’d loved him once and he loved her, but he left Minnesota to return home to Texas and she married my father. Your uncle wrote her letters over the years, but she answered only the first one and told him to forget her. She burned the rest, never opening them. I’d never heard anything about Caleb Walker until the morning she died.”
Seth’s low whistle caught her by surprise, and he’d shoved his hat further back on his head. “So your mother was the woman who broke his heart and turned him meaner than a rattlesnake.Lara.”
Astonished, Kari could only gape at Seth, while he shook his head as if he hadn’t fully absorbed what she’d revealed to him. Now he took off his hat and whopped his thigh with it, and looked at Kari as if really seeing her for the first time.
“Holy moly, I thought there was something familiar about you.”
“I…I don’t know what you mean…”
“Do you have any idea what’s in that letter you’re carrying, Miss Hagen? I’m thinking you don’t, but I couldn’t resist asking. Holy moly…”
Kari shook her head and fingered the silken cord of her reticule looped around her wrist. “No, I’ve no idea at all. I asked my mother, but she wouldn’t say. Then she grew so weak she couldn’t speak any more…”
Swallowing hard, Kari felt tears once more jump to her eyes and Seth must have seen them, too. To her surprise, he reached for her hand and squeezed it.
“You’re braver than most to make such a journey, Miss Kari Hagen, and all by yourself, too. No chaperone, no companion. You must have a guardian angel watching over you, is all I can say. If you find yourself in need of a friend to talk to, just know you have one in me. I mean it.”
He stared at her so intently that Kari had no doubt of his sincerity, or what appeared almost pity as he released her hand and focused once more upon driving the wagon.
Her fingers felt warm from him having clasped her hand so tightly, her cheeks warmed, too, and her eyes still misted with tears.
What could he have possibly meant when he’d said he knew there was something familiar about her? His praise for her courage had touched her more than she could say, but everything else was so confusing. Surely she must have imagined a glimmer of pity in his gaze—heaven help her, none of this made any sense at all!
Exhaustion swept over Kari. All she knew was that she felt dizzy, hungry, and more anxious than ever as Seth steered the wagon around a circular drive and stopped in front of limestone steps leading up to the imposing porch.
Only then did Kari realize with a start that she’d never mentioned her mother’s given name once to Seth during the ride out to the ranch, and yet he’d known it! Caleb Walker must have spoken to him about her mother, but perhaps had never mentioned her last name though Seth had made the connection.
