* * *
“Come in, Kari. Have some breakfast.”
Kari nodded from where she stood in the arched doorway to the dining room, Caleb sitting at one end of the immense table and gesturing for her to join him.
She didn’t know why she had hesitated, but she felt so nervous upon seeing him again.
She really didn’t know what to expect from the man, one moment explosively angry and then the next so overwhelmed with grief that her heart had gone out to him. Now he looked so calm that she might have imagined such extremes of emotion, but perhaps his composure unnerved her the most. His expression wasn’t unkind, just oddly calculating as if appraising her as she approached the table.
“Good morning, Mr. Walker—”
“Please, call me Caleb. We’re still strangers to each other, but I hope that will be remedied in time. Sit. You must be hungry.”
He didn’t rise to assist her, but instead gestured for an older Mexican gentleman standing nearby to pull out her chair. Kari was astonished by the servants she’d already encountered—Sarah Murphy, a trio of housemaids who’d brought buckets of hot water last night for her bath, a cook’s helper who had appeared with a savory pot roast supper, and a pretty young woman named Maria who spoke little English but indicated this morning that she was there to help Kari dress and fix her hair.
Dress and fix her hair! Never in her life had anyone helped her except for her mother or her sisters, but usually Kari and her siblings had looked after themselves. She murmured her thanks to the manservant and took her seat at the table graced with a white tablecloth and silver utensils, the grandness surrounding her truly overwhelming.
“We don’t thank them, Kari. It’s their job.”
So startled that Caleb would correct her for using common courtesy, Kari could but stare at him, though an instant later, she blurted, “My mother taught us that we’re all equal in God’s sight.”
Caleb blinked, the mere mention of her mother clearly affecting him, but his voice remained composed all the same. “True, but they’re servants nonetheless. It’s best they remember their place…and you remember yours as my daughter. Now have some breakfast. I’ve an excellent cook. Did you enjoy your supper last night?”
As a plateful of steaming scrambled eggs, thick slices of bacon, and a fluffy biscuit was placed in front of her, and hot tea poured into a porcelain cup, Kari nodded, though suddenly she didn’t feel very hungry.
How could her mother have been drawn to such a man? He must have been very handsome, was handsome still, though frown lines furrowed his brow, his mouth slightly downturned. He looked so austere, so cheerless, even, his demeanor so opposite that of her mother as he shook open a newspaper and began to read.
Lara had lightened every room with her lovely smile and laughter, Kari’s childhood truly a happy one. At that moment she couldn’t imagine Caleb Walker smiling or laughing, but then again, he and her mother had known each other years ago. A lifetime ago—
“I took the liberty of sending a telegram to your family in Faribault, your sisters, Ingrid and Anita, and your brother, Andreas, to let them know you arrived safely. I’ve also wired funds to the local bank to supplement any lost income while you’re here. I believe you told Sarah you work as a seamstress.”
Kari found it difficult to swallow her mouthful of scrambled eggs, the housekeeper clearly having informed Caleb of what Kari had shared with her last night. Somehow she did swallow, finally able to say, “My mother taught my sisters and me to sew, though Ingrid helps out at the school as well. She hopes one day to be employed as a teacher.”
“We’ve a fine schoolhouse here. I can arrange something for her if she and your siblings decide to join you in Walker Creek. We’ve a new playhouse, too. I believe Sarah said that Anita has a flair for theater. I could make contacts for her in Austin and San Antonio, and we have several blacksmiths who’d be happy to employ Andreas—ah, but there will be time enough to discuss such matters. Go ahead and finish your breakfast. I’ve arranged a busy day for you.”
Staring wide-eyed at Caleb, now Kari truly didn’t feel like eating as she realized he was quickly and matter-of-factly taking matters that concerned her into his own hands. Had he wired her sisters and brother, too, about the schoolhouse and playhouse and local blacksmiths?
“Mr. Walker—”
“Caleb. Please. I can understand you might not be comfortable yet in calling me ‘Father,’ but I hope one day…” He didn’t finish, but folded his newspaper and looked intently at Kari. “I know you spoke to Sarah about returning to Minnesota, but I ask you to consider staying for a while, at least until we’ve had time to become better acquainted. I’m sure Lara—your mother, would wish it as well. She asked me to protect you and I fully intend to do so, if you’ll allow it. Will you give me a chance, Kari, to finally know the daughter so long concealed from me?”
She didn’t know quite what to say, her first instinct to tell him she intended to stick to her plan and return home as soon as possible.
Yet his request was reasonable enough, she had to admit. She remembered what she’d considered yesterday, that Lara might have wanted to make amends to Caleb at last for withholding Kari’s existence from him, just as he’d said. Slowly, she nodded, and for the first time she saw the barest hint of a smile on his face, though it didn’t reach his hazel eyes.
“Good, it’s settled then. If you’re finished with your breakfast, I’d like to accompany you into town. You need new dresses, and whatever other items to go with them—no offense, of course, to your handiwork. I assume you made that yourself?”
Kari murmured “Yes,” feeling somewhat self-conscious at the plainness of her dark green dress, the second of only three she’d brought with her. She hadn’t planned to stay very long, after all.
Caleb wore a dark, expertly tailored three-piece suit, the man not dressed at all like Seth or any of the ranch hands she’d seen upon her arrival at Walker Creek Ranch, the contrast between the two men a stark one. Yet she couldn’t deny she preferred the appearance of a cowboy, her face flushing at how handsome Seth had looked to her, so tall and lean and strong.
Seth. She had thought of him the moment she awoke, and wondered what duties he must be attending to as foreman. Branding cattle? Checking barbed wire fences? Perhaps thinking about her, too?
Kari sharply drew in her breath to have considered such a thing, but Caleb hadn’t seemed to notice as he rose and pulled a gold pocket watch from his vest pocket to check the time.
“Ten o’clock. I made an appointment for you with the best seamstress in town for ten thirty. Have you ever ridden in a phaeton?”
Kari shook her head and rose, and Caleb at once placed his hand at her elbow to steer her from the dining room.
