The late summer heat bore down on them relentlessly as they left the familiar surroundings of Dallas behind, heading into country that grew increasingly wild with each passing mile. They traveled in relative silence for much of the first day, each lost in their own thoughts about the unusual arrangement they had entered into. It wasn't until they made camp that first night beneath a stand of cottonwoods beside a small creek that they began to truly talk. "Have you always lived in Dallas?" Yates asked as he built a fire, the practiced movements of his hands showing he'd done this many times before, Delilah nodded, arranging their meager dinner supplies. "My father moved us there when I was just a girl, after my mother died.
He was a doctor, not formally trained, but skilled enough that people respected him. She smiled faintly at the memory. He taught me to read using his medical books. Said a woman should know as much as a man, even if society didn't agree. Sounds like a wise man, Yates replied, glancing up at her.
He was. When he passed last year, I kept the house going by taking and mending and giving reading lessons to children. Her hands stillilled on the bundle of jerky she was unwrapping. I never thought I'd leave it all behind like this. You regret it already.
She considered the question honestly. No, she said finally. There's nothing left for me there now. As the fire light danced across his features, Yates seemed to debate whether to share something in return. Finally, he spoke.
I was born in Tennessee. My pod died in the war when I was young, and my ma raised me and my sister as best she could. The lines around his eyes deepened slightly. We lost her to fever 5 years back. My sister married and moved to California with her husband.
I've been drifting ever since, working ranches from Kansas to Texas. And now you want to put down roots, Delilah observed. A man can only wander so long before he starts wanting something of his own. Yates agreed, poking at the fire. I've saved every penny I could.
Worked extra jobs, lived lean. The land I bought isn't much by some standards, but it's good land, fertile, clean water, room to build. There was something in his voice, a quiet passion that surprised Delilah. This wasn't just an opportunistic scheme. It was a dream he'd been nurturing for years.
"What about you, Miss Prescott? What were your dreams before?" He trailed off, clearly not wanting to mention her failed wedding. "Dilah," she said abruptly. "If we're to be partners in this venture, you might as well use my given name," he nodded. "Yates, then." "As for my dreams," she continued, wrapping her shawl tighter around her shoulders as the evening air cooled.