Hill Country Courtship. Laurie Kingery

will have a place to grow up with you. And who knows? We may even come to like it there.”

      Maude blinked at the other woman’s unquestioning acceptance. “You don’t mind that I told him you would help the housekeeper? I’m sorry that I didn’t even ask you first.” She had taken so much for granted.

      Juana shrugged. “I was busy from dawn to dusk running our household when Tomás was alive. I don’t think I would enjoy being idle. I will be happy to help Senora Morales, when the little niña doesn’t need me. And now, if you don’t mind, I had better go tell my mother what I will be doing and take my leave of the family. I will take little Hannah with me. Mama will be so busy admiring her that she won’t think to object to my going so far away, I hope,” Juana added with a wink.

      “And I had better tell Mrs. Meyer what we’ll be doing, then check with Reverend Chadwick to make sure he can do the funeral service in the morning,” Maude said.

      Perhaps the preacher would have some wise counsel on how to deal with people such as the MacLarens, mother and son. What had she been thinking, to take on such a challenge? Was she at all suited to be a companion, much less to a woman of strong temper who would need soothing? She wasn’t the sweet and agreeable type full of soft answers that turned away wrath. She could be as fiery as her red hair and as full of opinions as a cactus was of stickers. But she had to make a success of this, or she would have no place to live with little Hannah.

       Lord, help me! I’m taking on the impossible!

      She shook away the thought. She had to remember that with the Lord, all things were possible.

      Even putting up with Jonas MacLaren.

      * * *

      Mrs. Meyer was predictably dismayed when she learned of Maude’s plans. “Maude, I was planning on you inheritin’ the boardinghouse when I die, since my children don’t want to move back here and take it on. I thought of us as partners here. Was that nothing to you? Now you’re going to go somewhere else, leaving me behind?”

      She saw hurt and insecurity lining the woman’s red-rimmed eyes, and felt a moment of regret at causing her pain. Truly, the woman had been kind and generous to her from the start. And the boardinghouse was a good, honest business. It just wasn’t the right business for Maude—not right now, with the responsibility for Hannah’s care resting on her shoulders.

      “I’m sorry, Mrs. Meyer. I hope you still think the place would be in good hands if I managed it someday—and we all hope that’s a very long time from now,” she assured the boardinghouse proprietress. “No one’s saying I will be living at Five Mile Hill Ranch for the rest of my life. I’m going to go try it. If I don’t like it, I’ll be back.”

      ‘“Like it’?” Mrs. Meyer responded with a laugh that edged on hysteria. “What is there to like? What sane woman would like living clear out there with that tyrant and his harridan of a mother? What could have induced you to make such an insane deal, girl?”

      Just then Hannah set up a thin wail above them. After Maude went and got her, she returned to finish the conversation, picking it up just where they had left off. “This—little Hannah—induced me to take Mr. MacLaren’s offer,” she said, cuddling the sweet-smelling baby closer. “I want to give her a home, Mrs. Meyer, a home with me as her mother. It wouldn’t be fair to you or the boarders to make that home here, not when she’s up crying several times a night. And you wouldn’t have let Juana stay indefinitely to nurse her, would you? She can’t afford to pay rent.”

      Mrs. Meyer was too honest a woman to dodge the truth. “No, I haven’t survived this long running a boardinghouse with butter for a heart, Maude. Nothing can be free forever, not if I’m to make a living. And you’re right that the lodgers haven’t been best pleased about the baby’s cries during the night since she’s been born. I should have realized you’d seek that baby’s good over your own. But have you thought about what you’re doing to your good name, taking on the raising of that child?”

      Something in the older woman’s tone made Maude bristle. “What do you mean, Mrs. Meyer?”

      The other woman shrugged. “Well, what will men think of you? Will they be interested in courting a girl that has a child with no apparent father? You should have a care to your reputation, Maude.”

      A sharp bark of bitter laughter erupted before Maude could stifle it. “You mean, the hordes of men who hang around outside every night, just hoping for a kind word from Maude Harkey, will be discouraged and stop serenading me? Pardon me, but unless I’m mistaken, they stopped coming years ago, which is why I’m the president of a dwindling Spinsters’ Club and still unmarried, years after most of my friends have achieved their happily-ever-afters.

      “I believe thinking of how my non-existent suitors will react is what’s known as a ‘forlorn hope,’ so yes, I’m not exactly worried about my reputation. I’m twenty-five years old, Mrs. Meyer, and I want to be a mother to this innocent baby here, who at this moment has no one in the world to care for her but Juana and myself. And anyone who wants to question her parentage can deal with me on that issue.” She heard her defensive tone, but knew a foolish questioner would have a very poor time of it indeed.

      “I—I am sorry, dear,” Mrs. Meyer said. “You know, I only want what’s best for you. If that big oaf of a Scotchman doesn’t treat you right, you just come right back here. I’ll hold your room open till we’re sure it’s going to work out for you to stay on the ranch.”

      It was no light promise. Mrs. Meyer usually had a waiting list of folks wanting to board with her. “Thank you,” she murmured. It made Maude feel a little less fearful about being “collected” the next day to know that she had a place to come back to, if she needed it. But it didn’t make it any easier to think of leaving the place that had been her home for so long now.

      It was even harder to take her leave of Ella, who had been her best friend through all that time. “But if you’re leaving tomorrow, you’ll miss the wedding this weekend!” she wailed. “You were going to stand up with me! Can’t you ask him to wait till Sunday to come for you?”

      Hating that she had to say no, she shook her head. “I’m so sorry, really I am, Ella, but I need this new job in order to keep little Hannah,” she said, nodding toward the infant whom she’d brought with her. “He wasn’t pleased that I asked even for another day in town, to see to April Mae’s funeral. I was afraid he’d change his mind about hiring me altogether if I asked him to wait any longer. From what I understood, they desperately need the help out at Five Mile Hill Ranch as soon as they can get it.”

      Ella nodded with a sad but accepting smile. “I understand, Maude. I just wish you weren’t going so far away...” She took the contented baby onto her lap and smiled down at Hannah’s happy face. “But looking down at this little one, I really do think the change you’re going to be making will be worth it. This precious child deserves a mother as wonderful as you, and the ranch is certainly the best place for the two of you. I just wish Jonas MacLaren’s mother wasn’t notorious for being a shrew!”

      Maude chuckled. “It’ll be a challenge, I imagine, but that’s why the job is available. If she were sweet-tempered, they’d have already hired someone.”

      “It’ll be good for your character,” her friend said, tucking a red curl that had fallen out of Maude’s chignon back behind her friend’s ear. It had always been a joke between them that Maude had a true redhead’s temperament, just as Juana had said.

      “It will,” Maude agreed. “You’ll see—I’ll learn to hold my tongue and keep my temper. I’ll give Mrs. MacLaren no reason to complain of me, no matter how shrewishly she behaves.”

      “Hmm,” Ella said, noncommittally. Maude bristled.

      “What’s that supposed to mean?”

      “Nothing of consequence,” Ella said, mischief twinkling in her eyes. She focused her attention down on little Hannah. “You’ll like it at the ranch,