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Chapter 15

Danny recovered most of his strength quickly; however it took a long time for him to return to full working order. He was lucky that the accident had occurred after the harvest was in, as although he would have loathed firing him, Fergus Monroe could not afford to support a worker who was not pulling their weight. Since the markets crashed in '29 and the finances of all the businesses in the country were on rocky ground there was very little leeway for supporting extra people. As it was, now that the harvest was in there were less labour intensive jobs which needed doing, driving the produce to local shops, stations and markets, as well as feeding the animals. Danny was also put to use designing a new bridge which was needed over the river and ordering the materials they would need to build it. He was glad he had a project to get his teeth into whilst he recovered and had a chance to dust off the skills he had learned from Mac. It was something which Mr Monroe had been meaning to do for years and never gotten around to and this seemed the perfect opportunity.

Robbie had been arrested by the sheriff for being drunk and disorderly, and endangering another's life. He was subsequently shipped off by his father to work for one of his new companies out west. It was a major misdemeanour, and after a week in prison and paying a fine his father thought that he needed to get the boy away before he caused more serious trouble and away from the stiflingly close-knit community he grew up in. Lindsay had only seen him once from afar after that night, when she had been to town with Jem to pick up Violet. The gossip on the grape-vine said that he was leaving the next day, and she was glad that he would not be there to cause any more trouble for them. He had looked disgruntled as his Father had been loading his possessions onto the back of his truck, accompanied by an on-going tirade about how the boy had let the family's name down.

Since their mutual confessions of love Danny and Lindsay had only grown closer. They could frequently be found together after the day's work was done, sitting and talking or with him helping with her chores. On Sundays they rode out into the mountains surrounding the ranch and tied up the horses near the lake, where they swam in the water or read together on the shore. They were not without their problems; the constant watchful eye of her parents (his employers) was a constant source of tension, preventing the privacy they were both craving. They were both very aware that they were treading water with their lives, neither of them wanting to be in Montana for the long-term. However, conversely, they felt more settled in themselves, and used this enforced limbo they had been put in to solidify their relationship.

It was one afternoon in October when things began to change.

"You're going to ask her to marry you, aren't you", Jem asked as he gave Danny a sideways look. Lindsay was trotting her horse around the farmyard as Danny watched on looking captivated, leaning against the paddock fence. He let out a long sigh and turned to the taller man slowly, sized him up. He wondered if he was in for a fight.

"Hey I don't have a problem with", Jeremy continued defensively, holding up his hands, "There are just some things I think you should know first."

"Such as…"

"Well, for one, she will probably say 'No'."

"How do you figure that", Danny asked somewhat warily. He had never gotten the impression that Lindsay and Jeremy were particularly close but now he wondered if she had been discussing their relationship with her brother.

"That's what she always says", Jeremy replied looking Danny straight in the eye and then turning to gaze at his sister once again. Danny stared at his turned head, his jaw clenched slightly.

"She's been proposed to before?" He spluttered. Danny knew he loved Lindsay and that she was gorgeous, but she had never mentioned being that serious with someone else before he arrived.

Jeremy sighed and turned back to face a forlorn looking Danny.

"Look around you", he explained gently, trying to let him down easy, "we're a long way from any cities, hell even from any decent sized towns. And men outnumber women, what, five-to-one? Ten-to-one maybe even. Most girls either marry straight from school or move away to try their luck in the cities. And although she's my sister, I know she's pretty and even thought she has ruffled a lot of feather with some of her ideas, it's so rare for there to be single good-looking women in this part of the world that she's attracted a lot of attention."

"But she never married any of them". Danny argued, "maybe I have something she hasn't found in anyone else", he added vaguely.

"That may be true", Jem replied, "I don't know, she doesn't talk to me about this sort of thing. But this much is definitely true: she doesn't really want to be here, it's not much of a life for her as a farm hand, but she won't just up and leave with no good reason out of respect for our mother's feelings. She doesn't want to marry any of the local men though. I don't think she likes the idea of being tied down here forever. I know you are not from around here and one day you may move back to the city, but let's face it, your immediate future is here too."

Danny thought this through carefully. He wanted to marry Lindsay and build a life with her, but now he thought she might be reluctant to the idea. What had she been doing with him then? Was it a game or did she really want to be with him? Sure, he wasn't one of the men from this community like the others who had asked for her hand, but for the time being he was stuck here as much as she was. And who knows how long it would be before he made it back to the city.

I need to talk to her, he thought; I have to get this all out in the open even if it kills me.