“I reckon his burns hurt.” Ben frowned as he unwound several yards from the ball of string.
“It’s been five days, and I don’t think his burns were that serious to begin with.”
Ben shrugged. “Pa uses anything he can to get out of working. You know that.” He walked away from her backward, toward another stick he had pounded into the ground about ten yards away.
She had to admit it. Her father had always been lazy. It hurt to hear people say so, but they only spoke the truth.
“All right,” Ben said.
She let go of the string and walked toward him. “I think we’ll like the house here.”
“Yeah, we probably will.” He tied off the string and looked along what would be the front wall of their new home. “Those Harts are smart, and they’ll bring a lot of tools. We’ll make it square and true, Janie.”
She smiled. The new house was the one good thing that had come out of all this. Well, that and having all the neighbors come around and treat them nice. Ben’s mouth twisted in a scowl.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Sometimes I think we should go somewhere else and start over.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I dunno.”
“Yes, you do. Tell me.” She touched his shoulder, and his gaze met hers. Ben had the same green eyes she had, inherited from their mother, but today his looked troubled.
“When I was a kid, I hoped I could go to college someday. It was foolish of me, looking back.”
“No, it’s not. You’re plenty smart, Ben. You could do it.”
“That dream ended a long time ago. We could never pay for it. Now I just want to support you and me. That’s all I can think about anymore.”
She looked out at the view of the hills that never changed. Why couldn’t they have a normal family? Some families thrived, even if the mother died. Look at the Harts! They had the richest ranch in the whole valley. But GW Hart was a workhorse, and he expected his sons and the men he hired to work hard, too. Not Pa.
She looked at Ben. “No matter where we went, we’d have to take Pa with us. We couldn’t just leave him here on his own. And even if we did, his troubles would follow us.” Ben said nothing, but his face was set in grim lines.
“Ben, you won’t strike out on your own without telling me, will you?”
“I’ve thought of leaving,” he admitted. “But I’d tell you.”
Her stomach clenched. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for Ben to go work for another rancher. That would keep him away from Pa’s influence, at least, but she didn’t know how she could manage both the livestock and Pa without Ben.
“Before I knew about the fire, I was going to ask Mr. Leonard if I could work for him all the time.”
“And stay at his ranch?”
“Yeah. I was seriously thinking about it. I could send my pay home, and I’d come visit once a month. You’d be better off, Janie.”
She didn’t know what to say. How would she go on without Ben here? “You—you won’t do anything sudden-like, will you?”
“No. Let’s get a new house built for you, and then we’ll sort it out.”
Chapter Five
Jane had no mirror, but she could tell when she put on her new dress in the morning that it fit her well. She had tried it on in the barn before sundown last night, after Pa headed for the cave with Ben. She’d told them she wanted to stay down here and use the daylight that was left to get her clothes ready. All she’d ended up doing was to turn up the hem a bit. The soft material hugged her in all the right spots, but not too tight. It swished when she walked.
She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining twirling to the sound of Hays Hart’s fiddle. Would Crockett ask her to dance?
Her eyes snapped open at the sound of wagon wheels. They were here so soon, and she hadn’t even made Pa’s breakfast. She yanked on the new shoes and hurried to the barn door, pushing back her hair.
Crockett and his brother Travis. She ought to have known the Hart clan would arrive first. They were driving the wagonload of lumber Crockett had promised. Two of their ranch hands rode atop the load. Crockett pulled the team to a stop, and the men jumped down.
“’Morning, Jane,” Crockett called. His eyes flickered as he observed her dress from top to bottom and back up again. He grinned. “You look fine. Where are we building?”
She stepped forward, blushing. “Uh, over there. ’Morning, Travis.”
Travis touched his hat brim. “’Morning. How’s your father?”
“He’s all right. My brother put up some stakes and string where he thought we should build, unless you think it should be otherwise.”
She walked toward it, and the Hart brothers fell into step beside her.
“That looks good,” Crockett said. “Maybe kinda small?” He arched his dark eyebrows at her.
“It’s the same as the old house.” She smiled sheepishly. “I guess it was kinda small.”
Crockett laughed. “We’ll make it however you want it.”