Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Robert blinked twice, and not to get the soot out of his eyes since he was always careful to keep them clear. He wanted to make sure this woman smiling at him, professing to have all the answers to his dilemma was real.
She widened her eyes, then took a few steps forward. “I can start this instant,” she claimed. “Elijah and I are a team, so we’ll need a place to sleep as your ad proclaims there will be room and board. Are these details correct?”
He took a few steps closer before realizing how dirty he was and stopped. He was so drawn to her from the moment he had turned around and saw her face. She was quite lovely to look at with red hair pulled loosely back from her face and tied together with a ribbon. Tendrils of her hair had fallen free and she didn’t seem to care that it was not perfectly groomed. She wore a simple dress for traveling, he assumed, since she held a suitcase in one hand.
Robert noticed the boy at her side, who was glaring at him suspiciously. He looked nothing like the woman. He wore a tattered cowboy hat, a dirty vest and a pair of faded brown boots that looked twice his size. “What’s your name, boy?” he asked. Robert didn’t like to talk to people, but the kid was giving him hard looks that made him wonder why he looked so angry.
He continued to stare at Robert until the woman nudged him with her arm. “It’s okay. You can tell Mr. Smithy.”
“My name’s Robert Adams. Smithy is what they call me because I’m the local blacksmith.”
“My name is Elijah Blume. What’s a blacksmith?”
Robert tilted his head and stared at the boy. He seemed pleasant enough except for the small tremor he caught in the boy’s voice. The kid was scared to death but he was acting so brave. It drew him to the boy immediately. “Good afternoon, Elijah Blume.”
The boy nodded, then took a step closer to the woman. Robert looked at her. She was still smiling. It was actually frozen on her face but there was a twinkle in her eyes he hadn’t noticed before. It was almost like a victory. As if she had already won a prize and was thanking him with her smile.
He took a step back. What in the world was wrong with him? He wasn’t usually so attracted to a person from the first moment he met them, but the instant she came up to him and declared she could solve all his problems with his sister, he was fascinated. That didn’t happen ever.
“My name is Madeline Emmett,” she told him, the confidence she had a moment ago starting to slip. Then, she pulled her shoulders back as if remembering why she was there and looked him right in the eye. “We’ll take the job.”
He raised a brow. “You don’t even know what the job entails,” he told her, a warning in his voice. Did he tell her what it was or hire her first? After all, she was the only person that asked about the position since he placed the signs all over the place four days ago. If she refused to take the job, he’d be back to the drawing board and he didn’t want to go backwards. “You’re hired,” he said before she had a chance to ask.
She laughed out loud. “Truly? I’m hired?” She looked at the boy and gave him a hug. “We’re hired, Elijah! I have a job!”
He grinned as his face lit up, too. Robert was surprised and yet he was curious who the kid belonged to. He had heard gossip about Tom and his wife getting an orphan this week. Was the boy from the orphan train that ran every so often as well? If so, then who was the woman and why did she want a job?
If he were honest with himself, he wanted to jump up and down like Miss Emmett was doing. He was so far behind on his work since he lost his helper that his customers were starting to grumble.
Thankfully, Catherine Cooper, the reverend’s wife, had taken his sister to the church to help with a project today. He had wanted to hug her when she stopped down to offer to help him today. He had to fetch her in an hour but that gave him time to finish the customer’s work he was doing today. He turned to the beaming Miss Emmett. “Do you see that house across the street catty-corner from here?”
She turned to where he was pointing. “The one with the bright red shutters?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“They stick out like a sore thumb,” she mentioned.
“I painted them a bright color on purpose. I’ll explain this evening, but you can go on over there and get settled in. I’ll be there after I close up here in an hour or so.”
She stared at him, looking confused. “You’re not coming with us?”
He shook his head. “I don’t have time to dally. You go on now. There’s a bedroom off the kitchen you can settle in, and one empty room upstairs for the boy.”
“I get my own room?”
Elijah’s voice sounded so surreal. Just by the way he said those words, Robert knew his hunch was right. He was an orphan from the train. He didn’t understand who Miss Emmett was or why she had the boy, but he made a mental note to ask those questions later this evening. Right now he needed to get this job done for the farmer who was coming back in thirty minutes.
“Yep, you sure do. I’ve got a nice big house. Now go on and take a look at it. I have work to do.”
“Yes, sir,” he answered, then straightened his back and turned around. He almost left without Miss Emmett. She giggled and followed the boy, taking his hand when they crossed the street. Robert stood watching for a moment wondering if he had made the right decision.
Then he remembered why he had hired her, or them. She said they were a team. Which was probably a good thing. Taking care of Violet would require a lot of work. Maybe Robert got lucky after all. Two pairs of eyes to look after his sister was a win, he decided, then picked up the rod he had been working on.
Yes, indeed. He was going to get some normalcy back into his life. A grin crossed his sooty face as he got back to the work at hand. He began to whistle. He hadn’t done that in ages. He almost felt like a new man.
*****
Madeline and Elijah hurried towards the house he pointed them to. The red shutters stuck out so it wasn’t hard to miss. There had to be a reason why he had bothered to paint them like that so she put it on her mental list to ask. Although, he did say he’d explain later.
They went up the three steps to the porch, then she noticed the front door was painted bright red as well. A brass bell was attached to the door, so when she turned the knob and opened it, the bell rang loudly from the movement.
Madeline thought that was strange since hanging a bell on your door wasn’t something she ever saw on a person’s home. Most businesses had a bell of some form to alert them when a customer entered and left. He surely didn’t conduct business in his home, so why the bell?
Elijah reached for her hand as they moved inside. He looked around, then gazed up at the high ceilings. “Hello?” he called out, his voice echoing through the rooms. When he heard that he giggled.
So did Madeline. She did the same thing. “Hello? Anyone here?” Even though they knew the house was empty since Mr. Smithy, er, Mr. Adams was at his shop, she was so relieved at how easy it was to get a job, plus, a place to stay.
She noticed the house was bare except for a settee and two chairs in the parlor where they stood. To the left was a small room that held a wooden table and chairs so she assumed it was the dining room. A set of open stairs leading to the second floor ran off the hallway. She walked down the hallway to find a huge kitchen.
Elijah ran up the stairs to see his room. She laughed at how excited he was. At least for now he’d have his own room. How did they happen to get so lucky? Then, she looked up with a grin. She knew who to give the glory to.
Her mouth dropped when she walked into the kitchen. It was so huge. She’d be able to cook in here to her heart’s delight, assuming that he wanted to hire a cook. Even though she wasn’t sure why he’d want a cook for one person. She hurried to a door at the backside and flung it open. It led to a small porch and backyard. She closed it quickly since it was still a little chilly out.
Where was her room? She walked around the kitchen, then found the small door that led to a rather large room off the kitchen. It had a single bed, a dresser and a rocker. She set her suitcase on the bed and looked around to find a window that gave her a view of the backyard. Spinning around, she knew it was much more than the small closet she had as a bedroom at the orphanage.
Elijah was yelling from upstairs. “Madeline! Come see my room!” She hurried up the steps and found him practically bouncing off the walls in a small room at the end of the hallway. Like her room downstairs, there was a single bed, a dresser and a rocking chair sitting by the window.
“It’s lovely, Elijah.” She didn’t want to disappoint him on their first day here, but at some point she needed to explain that this was temporary. They’d talk later. After Mr. Adams explained her duties. Maybe Elijah would be adopted by a wonderful family right here that didn’t know he was coming and she’d be able to visit him since she was going to be working and living here for now. After all, there was no reason to return to Lancaster without a job.
“I have my own room! I didn’t ever think I would.” He hopped onto the bed and began to jump until Madeline pulled him off.
“No jumping on the bed, young man. You must be grateful and act like a little gentleman.”
His eyes got huge. “I’m an outlaw. Isn’t that how outlaws behave?”
Madeline shook her head. “Outlaws can be quite courteous, too. They have manners and must use them twice as much as anyone else.”
Elijah sighed, lifting his shoulders up and moving to the window. “There’s a yard out there I can play in. Look at that tree. Can I climb the tree?” he asked. He was so excited she didn’t want to tell him that he couldn’t.
“We’ll see, Elijah. Let’s get our clothing unpacked and wait for Mr. Adams to arrive. I have to find out what my work duties are.”
“I want work duties too. Can I go to school? Are there other kids here?”
“One thing at a time. Now you get your suitcase unpacked and put your clothes into the dresser, then take a twenty minute rest. Do you hear me, Elijah? Repeat them to me, please?”
“Empty my suitcase into the dresser and lay on the bed for twenty minutes. How am I supposed to know when the time is up?
“Can you tell time?”
“Yes.”
“Can you pull the stopwatch out of your pocket and open it up?”
He grinned. “I forgot I had it.”
“Well, use it young man. Now get to work.” She left his room, smiling. His stopwatch had been a gift from his father before he was abandoned by him. At least the boy had that. Madeline always tried to tell him that he had belonged to someone and that he would again. Whether he believed her or not, she wasn’t sure. All she knew was she felt protective of the young man and she wanted him to have a good home. She was here to make sure he’d get one too, no matter what she had to do.
Madeline went downstairs to the kitchen, peeking at the shelves of pots and utensils thrown haphazardly there. She wasn’t sure what her duties were, but she knew one thing; this kitchen was a mess. It needed her special touch and she was going to focus on this room first.
Hopefully, he wanted her to cook and clean and do the laundry. She had many years of experience and started out learning as a child orphan how to do the household duties. When she got older, they allowed her to work in the kitchen more often where she learned cooking skills from a wonderful cook. It became a place of peace for her, where she found the joy that was missing from her life.
She noticed an apron on a hook by the back door. After she placed it over her neck, she looked in the pantry and found a basket of potatoes, then another basket of eggs and some dry-cured pork strips. A huge smile came across her face.
Madeline got busy, not realizing that time truly did fly when she got busy. In no time, she had a handful of potatoes peeled and sliced, along with a cut up onion that was sizzling in a cast iron frying pan on the wood stove that she fired up. A warmth began to permeate through the kitchen, just like she always dreamed about doing.
She had free reign of the kitchen and never noticed when Elijah came downstairs. “It smells so good. I’m hungry,” he told her.
“Would you like to taste?”
He nodded his head while she picked out a slice of potato and handed it to him. The potato and onion flavor had him rubbing his belly. “This is delicious! Can I have more?”
“You know you have to wait until supper is done. Would you like to walk outside in the back yard until then? I’m pretty sure it will be all right with Mr. Adams. I saw a bench out there you can sit on if you’d like.”
He didn’t ask twice and slipped out the back door. She didn’t think he could get into any trouble in the yard. Besides, the sun was still shining and would do him some good, so she checked to see if the second iron skillet was hot enough by now for the meat.
It sizzled when she took a strip of the sliced pork and filled up the skillet, then let it simmer and cook before she flipped it onto the other side. Meanwhile, she cracked a bunch of eggs, then added them to the potatoes. Everything was coming out just right. It made her mouth water.
She hoped Mr. Adams would be pleased that she made a meal for everyone. She had helped herself to his things and hoped that he wasn’t too particular. As she finished up at the cook stove, she wondered what he looked like.
Was he old? He moved quite freely so she didn’t think he was that old. He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen in a man, but then the dark soot that covered his face may have made them look bluer than what they were.
Either way, it didn’t really matter. As long as he needed her to keep house and cook, she’d do a good job no matter what he looked like. It occurred to her that no one wanted the job. She remembered the sheriff saying he had posted the help wanted sign over four days ago.
Why hadn’t anyone responded? Surely, someone from town needed a position like this? It didn’t seem like it would be difficult.
Madeline jumped when she heard the front door open and close. She heard a girl’s voice giggling and shoes sliding along the hall. Then she heard a heavier shoe click along the hallway. If it was Mr. Adams, he had someone with him.
She was about to find out if he would appreciate a good meal. Most men wouldn’t complain. Was he a grumpy man or not? She held her breath and turned around with a smile.
A young lady in her teens came around the corner, giggling as if she had a secret no one else knew about. Her eyes sparkled and when she noticed Madeline standing there with an apron on and she came closer then stopped in front of her, curiosity on her face. Madeline returned her smile.
“I’m Violet,” she said, her cheeks pink and her smile bright.
“Hello Violet. I’m Madeline. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Hello.”
That was the blacksmith’s voice. She turned away from Violet and gasped.