A Horsewoman for Harlan by Barbara Goss (the top 100 crime novels of all time TXT) 📕

carried the boots in one hand and strolled along the wooden walkway to meet her mother at the post office.

Her mother met her halfway, waving a letter in her hand.  “I’ve a letter from Martha!  I haven’t heard from her in a few months.  I can’t wait to open it."  She looked down at the envelope.  “Oh, dear.  It’s addressed to you, Elise.”

“I didn’t think she even remembered my name.”

“She didn’t.  Look—it’s addressed to the daughter of Florence Ansell.  How odd.   I wonder why she wrote you a letter.”

Elise shrugged and pocketed the letter.  “Maybe your last letter to her got lost in the post, and she’s writing to ask after your welfare.”

“That’s possible.  Dear Martha would be very worried if I didn’t answer one of her letters.”

Elise tried on her new boots as soon as she got home.  They’d need breaking in, but they looked so fine.  She sat on a bedroom chair to remove them, and she heard the crinkle of paper.  The letter!  She’d almost forgotten it.

She tore it open, skimmed the words, and went back to read them slowly.  Martha worked for a horse breeder who needed a trainer. Had her prayers been answered?  Would her parents let her go to Kansas?  She held the letter to her heart.  They just had to.  She was twenty-years-old, so she didn’t need their permission, but she’d feel better about going if she had their blessings. Elise thought after dinner might be the best time to introduce the subject.

Once Elise’s father, Alf, had settled into his overstuffed chair with a book, and her mother sat in the rocking chair with her knitting, Elise made her announcement:  “I’m accepting a job offer in Russell, Kansas.”

Elise never saw a book close or knitting drop to the floor so fast.  “What?” they chorused.

“Martha offered me a job training horses for a ranch owner in Kansas, the one she works for.  The pay is good, and I think I’m old enough now to select my own career.”

Her mother started to speak, but her father shushed her.  “Let me handle this, dear.”

Elise’s mother grimaced while she picked her knitting up off the floor.

“So, you are going to Kansas to work and live among strangers?  What if you run into trouble?  You don’t know these people.  Haven’t you read the papers?  Kansas is still part of the untamed West.  There are gunfights and what not.  There’s Hays, and Dodge Cities... always shootings.  Elise, the West is lawless.”

 “Father, with all due respect, the West isn’t so bad these days.  It’s much tamer now.  The ranch isn’t in town; it’s a mile away from Russell.  The family has two children and a housekeeper.  The ranch sits on four hundred acres of fenced land, and they own two stables full of horses.  The man who did the training left to nurse his ailing mother in Texas, and they’re in desperate need for someone to train their colts and fillies.  They have over a dozen ready to be trained as we speak.”

Florence finally spoke up.  “You’re our only daughter, and we’d miss you terribly. Not to mention that we'd worry about you.  We always thought you’d marry locally and take care of me and your father in our old age.”

“Mother, if a horse trainer job opens up around here, write me, and I’ll rush back home. Besides, you have other relatives nearby.”

“How do you suppose you’ll get to Kansas from Pennsylvania?” her father asked.

“Martha, the housekeeper, said I should take a train to Kansas City and a stagecoach to Russell.  The ranch owner will reimburse all my expenses.  That’s how desperate they are.”

Alf mumbled something beneath his breath about train hold-ups and Indians. Then, he leaned back and closed his eyes as if praying.

“Please, give me your blessings.  This is what I truly want to do with my life.  Marriage is the last thing on my mind,” Elise said.

Florence pulled out her handkerchief and wept silently.

Alf still had his eyes closed.

“If you both loved me you’d want me to be happy.”

Florence sniffed. “But so far away?  We may never see you again.”

Alf sat up straight and said, “We love you too much to let you go.”

“Father, Mother, I love you as well, but when a baby bird learns to fly, the parents let it go.  I need to carve out my own future.”

“So,” Alf said, “you’re going to spend the rest of your life training horses?  That’s it?”

Elise nodded.  “That’s it.  It’s all I want to do with my life.”

Elise pulled a large trunk from the attic and began packing the very next day.  She’d already sent a letter to Martha Donovan accepting the position.   As she folded her clothes, she felt many emotions all at once: excitement, fear, trepidation, and emptiness at leaving Pennsylvania and her beloved parents.  Yet, there was nothing for her here anymore.

Her tearful parents saw her off on the train at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station.  As she waved to them from the moving train, she felt a touch of anxiety, but that soon passed once she was on her way.

The train traversed the Alleghany Mountains, and the views were so breathtaking she forgot her worries.  She was off to begin her adult life.

Chapter Three

 Millie jumped up and down. “She said yes?”

“She’ll be arriving soon since this letter was written two weeks ago,” Martha said.  “I’m sure all the rain we’ve been having may have slowed down the mail.

“What’s her name, Miss Martha?”

“Elise Ansell.”

“It sure is a pretty name.”

“It is.” Martha frowned. “Now, I have to break the news to your father.”

“Won’t he be happy we found him a horse trainer?” Millie asked

“Oh, yes. He’ll be very glad until he finds out it’s a woman.”

“Why would Papa be upset? What