The woman studied him.
“You hardly know me.”
“I know you can read a ledger better than I can.”
“That doesn't tell you whether I'm trustworthy.”
“No,” he admitted. “But I can learn that.”
She looked down at the book.
Employment would mean independence.
She could rebuild her savings.
She would not have to return east immediately and explain that the marriage arrangement had collapsed before she even unpacked.
And perhaps, for a little while, she could remain somewhere she did not feel like a burden.
“I would like that,” she said.
The cowboy nodded.
“Then we'll draw up an agreement.”
She looked surprised.
“A written agreement?”
“Of course.”
“Most men wouldn't bother.”
He shrugged.
“Most men seem to make a lot of poor decisions.”
She laughed again.
The sound filled the kitchen.
The cowboy looked toward the window so she would not see the emotion in his face.
Eighteen years earlier, he had promised a frightened girl that he would never forget her kindness.
Now she was sitting at his table, smiling over an untidy ledger.
He had never imagined life would give him such an opportunity.
But he still did not tell her.
He knew that recognition was not the same thing as love.
He wanted her to know the adult man he had become.
And he wanted to know the adult woman she was.
Over the following days, the woman settled into the rhythms of ranch life.
The carpenter inspected the bed frame and strengthened several supports.
A second broad chair was built for the kitchen.
The cowboy arranged for frequently used items to be placed where she could reach them without unnecessary strain.
He never described those adjustments as sacrifices.
When she thanked him, he simply said that a home ought to work for the people living in it.
She began organizing the ranch accounts.
Within a week, she had corrected several months of errors.
She discovered that a freight company had been overcharging the ranch for deliveries.
She identified unpaid invoices that had been forgotten.
She negotiated a better arrangement with the local grain supplier by combining smaller orders into regular shipments.