Something Borrowed

Chapter 55

***Crimony, this story will NOT END.***

Amelia

They got along peaceably for a week after the fire. The first two days were a strange, nervous kind of bliss. Josh stayed home, leaving the ranch in the capable hands of his employees. They sat around in the cozy warmth of the cabin, doing only the bare minimum of chores while their bodies recovered from the fire. They made quiet plans for where they'd go. Denver City they decided, as a start. They had a few hundred dollars in the bank that would get them there. The dream, of course, was to purchase their own spread, but they simply didn't have the funds. Amelia hated the idea of her husband working someone else's land, of moving from house to house while they found a place to settle, but it was their only option until they had more money set aside.

As anxious as Amelia was to be leaving the security of the ranch, she was used to upheaval. She'd spent her whole life moving and, although she'd hoped to have found a place to settle, it was no great hardship to be uprooted. It was Josh she worried about. He'd traveled, certainly, but he'd never had any home other than this, and she knew it pained him something awful to be leaving.

After those first two days, Josh went back to work. Of course, that first day he was gone she stepped outside to find two ranch hands on the deck chairs with their boots up on her porch rail.

"Boss said to keep an eye on the place, ma'am," one said when she asked why they were there. She had rolled her eyes but fetched them coffee, and she did feel better having them around.

Her days were peaceful and quiet. Melissa stayed and they worked together, taking turns watching Rebecca. Since Melissa was staying over, Amelia got to see her friend at work. It turned out having her home burn to the ground didn't absolve the girl of her responsibilities. Three ranch hands showed up on the porch throughout the week, one with a broken arm, one with frostbitten toes, and the third with an untreated burn from the stable fire that had begun to fester. On the third day without Josh, she was fetched by a man in a sled to deliver his wife's baby. She returned a day later, weary but satisfied, and fell into bed. Amelia had known her friend liked to help people, but she had no idea how often they called upon her and how many trusted her.

"You ought to go out east to study," she prodded her friend one day while they were bent over the laundry. "There are universities that admit women, you know."

Melissa sighed. "I don't think so."

"Why?"

"I can't leave my father behind, or the people in this town. They need me. The doctor's an old hack and he never reads the new literature. Lord knows how many people he'd kill if I left. Besides, I learned a lot from his predecessor, and I'm learning more every day from my books and journals, and from experience. What could they offer me besides a certificate to put on the wall?"

Pride, Amelia thought. Legitimacy.

"You should still think about it," she said. Melissa shrugged noncommittally and that was the end of the conversation.

The steady ease of those days after the fire only increased Amelia's longing to stay behind. She loved her little home, and she loved the vast and wild land. She loved Melissa and the ever-rotating stream of jovial ranch hands who came to guard her house. She wanted to watch her daughter grow up here, wild and free. Josh had been coming home earlier these days, slinging Rebecca up onto his shoulders and carrying her with him as he went about the outside chores. She guessed he was feeling the same way as her, trying to squeeze in as many moments with his daughter in the place that had raised him.