Chapter 8

Seb moved into his own home. It was so new that he could smell the raw, newly chopped logs.

"The stove is in." He caught his pretty wife's hand and drew her toward the house. He kept busy working with Mr. Walther. He'd found he had decent skills, thanks to Oscar, but he'd learned more by working with Walther and his two hired men.

Walther told Seb that if he ever needed work, he'd be glad to add him to his building crew. Seb liked the idea, though he doubted he'd have the time. But the skills he'd refined while working on the cabin were important ones to have when living on the frontier.

Kat, meanwhile, had found plenty to do. Seb marveled at how hard she worked. Any job asked of her, she did it well and without complaint. And she thought of plenty that weren't asked of her.

She'd spent days gathering rocks the size of her head and stacking them in a pile to be used for a chimney. The carpenters said they'd do it, but Kat just smiled and said she wanted to have a part in building the cabin. The men seemed to understand, and they'd brought out a handcart like the one that had carried Seb out of Independence, only this one a woman could lift and roll. She worked fast enough so the men would have a good supply of rocks when they were ready to put up the chimney.

And she'd insisted on being taught how to hook up a log chain to a horse, then the log. The men and Seb did all the chopping, while she dragged the logs close to the building site.

Kat did all of this with a smile on her face.

Now that smile made Seb wonder. She'd gone through so much. Losing her husband so young. Being locked away in an asylum. Her ma had died when she was sixteen and her father while she was married, and she hadn't been married long. Could a woman who'd had so little be too content, too easily? Did Kat need to make demands instead of just throwing herself headlong into work to ease the load on others?

As he chipped away at the corners of the logs Kat dragged in, Seb thought of how full of ideas he was for inventions, and he knew he wanted time and quiet to focus his thoughts and work out solutions that he'd need to test and tweak and reimagine. He wasn't as generous and unselfish as his wife. He sincerely hoped the day wouldn't come when she realized she was giving much more than she got.

But at least for today she was getting a cookstove. That would make her life easier. When they'd approached the door with the stove, she gasped and clasped her hands together under her chin. "Oh, Seb. I could have cooked over the fireplace. Heaven knows I've had plenty of practice doing that."

Mr. Walther looked up from where he was connecting the stovepipe to the new potbellied stove Seb had bought as a surprise. Walther smiled and went right back to work. His men were outside even now, chopping down trees for the outbuildings and to lay a floor. He'd built a stone foundation for the fireplace, extending it far enough so the heavy stove could stand on it rather than on the logs they'd use for the floor. The cabin seemed less likely to catch fire that way.

"It's very much like the one my ma had," she said. "I will enjoy cooking on it."

"And look there." Seb pointed to a gap in the chimney above the fireplace.

"What is that?" Kat asked.

"Have you got the door ready, Mr. Walther?"

Their builder straightened away from the stovepipe. "All done here. The stove's ready to be put to work." He lifted a flat, metal rectangle off the floor and held it over the gap.

"There are hinges between the stones and..." Kat's eyes narrowed as she studied the little door.

Walther slipped pins in to attach the hinges on the door to those set in the rocks. With a rasp of metal on metal, he secured the hinges on the iron plate to those embedded in the rocks. Then he let the rectangle go. It stayed in place. There was a tidy little hook to hold it closed.

While he tightened the pins in place, Kat said, "It's a baking chamber." She whirled to grin at Seb, and he caught her when she threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. One quick kiss, then she let him go before he could think clearly enough to catch ahold of her.

She beamed. "That will make baking so much easier."

"Everything's ready now, Mrs. Jones, thanks to all the rocks you gathered," Walther said. "You can tear down your campsite and sleep inside tonight. I knocked together a bedstead, and my brother and partner Paul filled a straw tick for you. You've paid me a fair wage for my work here. Most folks around here are land rich but short on cash money, but you've been generous and paid promptly. I appreciate it. Because of that, I bought you some furniture. That is, the three of us did—Paul, Mike, and I. Our gift to you is a kitchen table and four chairs. These things were bartered for at the general store and have been stashed in rafters and sheds because the store gets more than they can sell. So I got them for a very good price. I also picked up a chest of drawers and two rocking chairs."

"That's very kind of you, Mr. Walther. You've made settling here so much easier than if we'd done the building ourselves."

"Glad to be of help. We said we'd build your building first, Mr. Jones, but we're done in here except for the floor. We'll go ahead and lay that by the end of the day. Logs are all split. Once that's done, we'll haul in the furniture." Walther turned to Kat. "By the way, my wife has a baking oven like this one. If you need to talk to someone about using it, I'm sure she'd be happy to give you some pointers."

Mr. Walther invited them to church to meet his wife. Seb and Kat had missed last week's services because Kat had lost track of the days and only realized it was Sunday when Walther and his brother and friend didn't arrive to work.

Seb helped haul in split logs for the floor while Kat gathered their possessions from around their campsite. They didn't have much. They all worked with great energy, and Kat especially was enjoying this new beginning they were making.

Seb was in his laboratory at last! Two weeks of building, although Walther had yet to erect the barn. He and his men had another job to do, and Seb had been agreeable to let them go work for someone else awhile. Since the horses were their only livestock, now that the corral was finished, they were all set outside.

The laboratory was done, though, so Seb could now get to work on his inventions. The first day he got into his laboratory, Seb started putting his supplies in order. Before long he was bending over chemicals, mixing and refining with the goal of building a dry cell battery. Using the sun to recharge it would be such a new invention, Seb might make himself rich and famous. Seeing the immodesty of such a thought, he told himself he needed to keep inventing just to earn a living. Yet he couldn't pretend he didn't like the idea of being famous for a world-changing invention.

Sebastian Jones, famous ... a man who'd spent most of his life in hiding so no one would steal his inventions. That was no match for fame. He juggled ideas in his head, trying to sort them into some sort of order, thinking without being hitched to old ideas. A true inventor always thought of the possibilities and looked to find a practical method to make them realities. He thought of his friend Marcus and wished he were here with him. Marcus had a knack for new ideas and going in different directions.

Seb had more materials being shipped to him, but since a few items had already arrived, that gave him plenty to work with.

A hand rested on his shoulder.

Whirling around, holding a wire in one hand that whipped out at her, Kat jumped back and pressed one hand flat against her chest as if to hold her heart steady.

He held up both hands. "Sorry. You startled me."

Kat's fear quickly faded, replaced by confusion and at least a little irritation. "You looked like you were going to attack me."

He smiled and shook his head. "I was long gone into my invention and thinking of how..." He felt his face heat up in what had to be a blush.

"Of how ... what?" She studied him, watching every nuance.

It struck him as wonderful to have someone pay such close attention to him.

He looked down and sheepishly admitted, "Of how famous I might become if I can get my battery built and power it with the sun."

She arched one very skeptical blond brow. "I'm sure you would be famous since what you're inventing sounds a bit like magic. Very fancy to invent magic."

That made him smile.

He wanted to launch into an explanation of chemical compounds and the periodic table and magnetic fields crossed with acids and bases. But he'd seen her eyes glaze over before, so he spared her all that. Marcus came to mind again. He'd already contacted his lawyers and his bank. Why not Marcus? He needed someone who had an inventive turn of mind to talk things through with.

"Did you need something? I suppose I've been in here for hours, leaving everything to you."

"It's time for supper. And I've kept it warming on the stove to not interrupt your work. But the sun is setting."

"The days are long," Seb said ruefully. "I've been lost in my work."

"And you started early. It's time to finish up for the day, I'd say."

Which made him think of how hungry he was, and that bedtime was right after the evening meal if they didn't eat until nine o'clock at night. He liked bedtime with his new wife even more than he liked the idea of being famous.

"Let's go. Thank you for being so patient and for figuring out a meal that won't be dried out and awful to eat. And for doing all the work around the homestead by yourself. I apologize. I promise to be more help starting tomorrow. It's just that with getting everything set up and reviewing my notes, this first day I—"

"Don't make promises you can't keep. I'm not doing any real heavy work. If I was, I'd've interrupted you without a qualm. So don't give me too much credit. It's been interesting getting things set up out here, just as your work is interesting. In time we'll find a good balance of the labor around here if we give ourselves a little grace. You're making decent money with your inventions after all. My pa's job took long hours, so I'm used to it. I can run the homestead mostly, and if there's any heavy work I can't do on my own, I'll nag you until you help me."

Seb's money had come into the bank, transported by train. It had arrived fast, just like the chemical supplies he'd ordered. He marveled at the speed of things. Kat had seen the amount and been impressed. Yet he couldn't help but think of the Wadsworth fortune, knowing he was a poor man by comparison.

He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. "I'm real hungry. Thank you for supper. For everything."

"You haven't eaten it yet. Best to withhold your thanks for now."

It turned out the meal was indeed delicious. And bedtime was blissful.

The next day, as Seb rose from their new, pretty kitchen table to head back to his laboratory, belly full of breakfast, Kat told him she was riding into town.

"Should you do that without me?" He seemed startled.

She considered that her husband was easily startled and wondered if that was a good trait. "Y-you mean you'd go along?"

She could see plainly he didn't want to. His invention called to him. "Well—"

"I'll be fine." She cut him off before he could try to persuade her to wait.

"What do you need that we don't have?"

"I need a few more things for the kitchen, another good knife, more seeds, and a few items Mr. Walther recommended." Walther had come out to the homestead the last day of building, bringing with him a sod-busting plow. He'd broken up the land for her garden, saving her hours of backbreaking toil. "I did some hiking in what that land agent called ‘wasteland.' You know the place—where we climbed to look down on our property?"

Seb nodded. "It's a beautiful view."

"I wasn't looking for pretty views; I was looking for grouse and jackrabbits. I saw some deer and found signs of an elk herd up there. Oscar taught me how to fire a gun and follow tracks."

"So you're going hunting?"

"I am indeed, Mr. Inventor. I won't try for an elk until the weather gets cold enough to freeze the meat. It's mid-August, so the wait won't be a long one. I need to find the herd, learn where they bed down at night. Oscar says they're regular in their habits. In the meantime, rabbit and grouse will help keep us fed until I can get some chickens. They're a rarity out here. If I could find us a few hens, we'd have an egg supply. For now, I'll buy eggs and milk in town and hunt for our supper. Milk won't keep—I'd like to ride to town twice a week to resupply."

"It's a wild land, Mrs. Homesteader. Be careful."

She saw affection in Seb's eyes and genuine concern for her safety, and that warmed her heart. Then his eyes strayed to his laboratory, and her heart cooled off fast.

This was her life now. She needed to learn to live with an inventor. And she was afraid Mrs. Homesteader would need to be very self-sufficient. "I'll be careful," Kat promised.

Later, once at the general store, she bought a Springfield rifle and a pair of Colt Peacemakers. She also visited the storage space behind the store and found a few more things they needed and began to wish she'd brought along a packhorse.

She got home in plenty of time to startle Seb again to join her for their noon meal.