She found two more nicely furnished bedrooms, but she knew that they had never been used. She soon reached the kitchen and was very pleased with everything she found, including the well-stocked pantry and cold room.
She then returned to get her bags, but when she picked them up, she glanced at the only closed door in the house. She was sure it was Mister Elliott’s office and wasn’t sure if she should include it in her tour. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to just open the door and take a look, so she stepped across the large front room and set her bags down.
When she opened the door, she was mildly relieved that it didn’t hold any hideous surprises. After Mister McCallister told her of the foreman’s disappearance, she had almost expected to find his dead body slumped over the desk.
She was about to close the door when she noticed an envelope sitting in the center of the desk. Sara glanced behind her even though she knew she was alone before she entered the office and slowly approached the desk.
She didn’t touch the envelope because she didn’t need to read open it. Written across its face in a man’s hand was just ‘Jake’. She was certain that it was the missing foreman’s explanation or confession, so she simply turned around, left the office and closed the door.
After picking up her bags, she carried them to the empty bedroom next to Jake’s and set them on the bed. It only took her five minutes to put her clothes and personal necessities away.
Twenty minutes later, Charlie Shimshock surprised Sara when he delivered an overloaded tray of food without even asking if she had already eaten lunch. Until he arrived, she had completely forgotten about her missed meal because of her excitement.
As she accepted the overloaded tray and set it on the table, Sara said, “Thank you. This is enough food for two meals and that’s only if I share them with Orville’s horse.”
Charlie snickered then said, “We figured that Jake might be comin’ back even sooner than we reckoned. If he does, then you young folks would need some private time to talk and now you won’t have to cook.”
Sara quickly asked, “Do you really think he could be back before Monday?”
“If Jake left Helena yesterday really early, we got our heads together and figgered he could be back before sunset. If he was ridin’ just a regular horse, it might take him three days, but Mars and Vulcan are the best four-legged critters on the Elk.”
“I hope you’re right. I’ll set up a chair in the front room near the window after I have lunch and do some cleaning. I’d wait on the porch, but I want to surprise him.”
“You won’t have to sit there waitin’, Miss Sara. We had a meetin’ and set up a kind of watch. We’ll have a lookout in the barn loft, and he’ll spot Jake about five miles out. Then we’ll send somebody to let you know he’s comin’. You’ll have more than a half an hour to get ready. But we’re all gonna stay in the chow house, so you can really scare the pants off him.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Charlie shot past blush into a stammering beet red as he quickly stuttered, “I…I didn’t mean…I know that…well, Jake, he’s a….and…and you’re not…”
Sara felt a laugh coming but was able to control it after a few seconds before she smiled and said, “I understand, Mister Shimshock. It was just a figure of speech.”
Charlie still hadn’t returned to his normal skin shade as he nodded and said, “Thank you for understandin’, Miss Sara.”
“Call me Sara. It won’t be long before I’m a regular fixture on the Elk. And maybe I will get lucky and scare Jake’s pants off anyway.”
Charlie chuckled before saying, “All of us reckon you are gonna be really good for Jake. We’re glad you came here, ma’am.”
“Jake is already really good for me, too.”
Charlie nodded, then turned and walked out the back door and pulled on his hat. Sara closed the door and hoped that the cook was right about Jake returning early.
When she finished her lunch twenty minutes later, she wondered if it was a magical tray because she swore that the pile of food was even larger now. She put most of it in the cold room then began cleaning. She knew it wouldn’t take long to dust, but she could use the time to arrange her new bedroom to suit her. Even if Jake returned today, she would use the room and was sure that Jake would sleep in his own bed. Sara was certain about one thing. She wasn’t going to return to her family home again. The Elk was her home now.
_____
Jake’s conversation with the two ranch hands continued almost unabated for another three hours before they stopped for lunch and to let the horses rest and get some water.
Jake still had more and better food than they did, and he expected to be having his supper in the ranch house, so they enjoyed a much bigger meal than one would normally expect on the trail.
While they ate, the mystery of Dave’s disappearance still haunted Jake, and he hoped that he’d find a note
