Second-Chance Bride (Dakota Brides Book 3)(55)

A wagon pulled up a few feet from her. It was Mr. Hampton from the south. Four gangly youths armed with shovels, buckets, and gunnysacks tumbled over the side. They quickly filled the buckets and attacked the fire.

Water hit the flames and sizzled.

One of the boys dampened his sack and beat out flames springing up where sparks hit dry grass.

A second wagon pulled to a stop beside the first and two men jumped down. In the glare of the firelight and the sharp shadows, Lena wasn’t certain but thought them to be the two families from down by the river. The men joined the battle.

After a hard fight, the fire died down to glowing embers. Lena shuddered at the sight of the charred corner posts. Her house had been reduced to rubble.

“I’m sorry, missus.”

She nodded to Mr. Hampton, unable to speak around the throb in her throat.

“It’s too bad,” one of the other men said. “But now you’ll have to go home, for sure. This is no place for a young woman with a baby.”

By “home” she knew they meant back east. But she had no one back there to go to. Her only friend, Sky, shared a tiny room with her husband at the back of their store and had recently had a baby. They had no space for two more people.

Besides, Lena wasn’t about to ask for charity. She would make it on her own. Owe nobody.

Lena shuddered. She’d heard people speak of being burned out but, until now, it was only an expression, not something reaching down into her body and pulling hope out by its heels.

One of the youths slapped his sack against his boot. His eyes met hers and she saw a mixture of shock and fascination before she turned away.

Four more wagons pulled into the yard, drawing into a semi-circle facing the smoldering house.

While the men climbed down from the wagons to gather and compare notes, the women who had come with them remained in their seats, staring straight ahead.

Lena didn’t need to study their stiff posture and averted eyes to understand the unspoken message. They would make sure the neighborly thing was done in controlling the fire, while pretending she didn’t exist.

She hugged Charlie close, silently daring any of them to make a comment about him.

I don’t need them. But her insides were frozen. What will I do?

One man inched toward her. “You will need a place to stay.”

“Albert,” the nearest woman croaked, and the man turned away without offering anything.

Shock, cold, and fear raced through Lena and she shook violently.

The biggest of the Hampton boys grabbed a blanket from the wagon seat and ambled toward her. Awkwardly, he draped it across her shoulders. It did little to ease the cold encasing her, but she murmured her thanks and pulled it close.

“Lady.” His voice cracked. “We don’t have an inch to spare at our house, or we’d take you with us.”

She nodded, painfully aware no one was about to offer help. Despair filled her mind, as black and empty as the darkness beyond the fire.

“She will come with me. I have the room. I take care of her and Charlie just like I promised her good man before he die.”

The women gasped at Anker’s suggestion.

Mr. Hampton stepped forward. “We don’t do things that way in this country. She can’t live with you unless you two are married.”

“I will marry her.”

“No.” Lena tried to gain her feet. Anker, seeing her struggle, took Charlie, who went to him all too readily. Then Anker grabbed her hand and pulled her to his side. When her legs wobbled, he steadied her.

“I can manage on my own.” She’d meant to sound bold and strong, but her words were little more than a whisper.

Disbelieving eyes watched her.

“We talk.” Anker steered her toward the barn. He waited until they stepped into the dark interior before he shifted away to stand in front of her. “You have no place to live.”

“I will live in the barn.”

“You will freeze.”

“I’ll build a little room and put in a stove.” Maybe the kitchen stove had survived the fire. And she’d find bits of lumber somewhere. Maybe from a kindly neighbor, though she’d seen few enough of those in the past months.

“Little Charlie will freeze. You be wanting that, ja?”

“Of course not.” Hadn’t she fought the elements all summer, struggling to run the farm on her own for Charlie’s sake? So he’d have this farm when he grew up? “Nor do I want to owe you for your kindness.”

He mumbled something in that strange language of his. It sounded harsh.

“What did you say?”

“I say you are one stubborn woman. I tell you over and over I take care of you and little Charlie.”

“You’ve already done enough.”

“I promised Johnson. You fight me all summer, but now you need to let me do this. First, we must marry, but I not be one to push you to do something you not want.”

He stopped and let her consider his offer.

“I don’t want to marry again. I want to keep my farm.” She heard the doubt and fear in her voice and clamped her teeth together.

He waited silently.

If she could see his expression, perhaps she could guess how he felt, what his offer meant.

But she already knew. He believed he was obligated because of a foolish promise. The last thing she wanted was to feel beholden.