“Right. You boys get off this place.” Logan drew his gun and stepped toward them.
The boys jumped on to their horses and galloped off.
“What on earth happened?” Logan asked when the boys were gone.
Jemma told him. He took the rifle from her trembling hands.
“You left the baby alone?
Sam was bent over the dog, splashing water on the animal’s face.
“I had to, it was four against one. They could have killed Sam.” Tears filled her eyes. “I made sure there was no-one else around who could harm Alice.”
He put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “She’s all right, I checked before coming here.”
“Oh, Logan, it was awful.”
The dog got up and tottered toward the house. “He’ll be all right,” Sam said. “They’d have killed me if she hadn’t rescued me. I owe you.”
“No, you don’t Sam. You were kind to me.”
“Marry the gal and be quick about it,” he said to Logan.
“I would, but she won’t have me.”
“I’ll go back to the wagon and stay with Alice, while you make sure Sam and the dog are all right. I can’t wait to get back to the peace and quiet of the ranch. Goodbye Sam, I don’t think they’ll trouble you again now they think you have relatives to look out for you. Logan, do you want me to make you coffee before we leave?”
“No thanks, I had one at the diner in town with the sheriff.
“Oh?”
“Nothing to eat, though, so if you’ve got any food I’ll eat it as we go. I did buy a couple of loaves of bread.”
“There are a couple of pancakes left over.”
Jemma dashed back to the wagon and peered inside. Alice was awake lying quietly, playing with her feet. Maybe a quick feed before they left so they wouldn’t have to stop on the way home. She wanted to get back to the safety and seclusion of the ranch. Four boys from the one family and all horrible. They probably wouldn’t have gone there to kill Sam, merely torment him, but she would never know for certain.
She packed the cooking utensils away and made sure the fire was out, then picked up Alice and changed her. She sat under a tree to feed her.
Logan arrived back and started toward Sam’s cart. “I bought Sam a loaf of bread, I’ll drop it off to him, then see to his horse.”
“Maybe you should have asked him if he wanted anything brought back from town.”
“I did ask, but he didn’t want anything. Apparently he has had run-ins with these young varmints before. The sheriff threatened to put them in jail, so this was probably a revenge visit.”
“Do you think Sam will be safe?”
“I think he will be, but I said he could come to the ranch.”
“What!”
“Don’t worry, he refused point blank like I knew he would. I had to make the offer, though.”
“I suppose so.”
“We’ve got a hungry little gal here.” He patted Alice on the head.
“She shouldn’t be. I only fed her a couple of hours ago, but I thought it would stop us having to feed her on the way home.”
Logan’s heart filled with happiness because Jemma thought of his ranch as home. If only she would consent to being his wife, he would be a happy man.
Jemma had just finished feeding the baby when Logan returned, carrying a rooster in a wire cage, an old butter churn, and leading a milking cow.
“Sam gave them to me.”
“You can’t take his livestock,” Jemma said. “He needs them.”
“He’s got a couple of roosters and he says his sick of milking the cow. He doesn’t use the milk, just gives it to the dogs, so he wanted us to have them and the butter churn. I offered to pay him for them, thankfully he refused, as I really don’t have money to spare at the moment.”
“Well, it was nice of him.”
“Yeah, he said they were for you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, for saving his life.”
Logan grinned. “He obviously thinks his life is only worth an old milking cow, a butter churn and a rooster.”
“That’s not funny.” She smiled. “I guess it is really, but it was nice of him. I didn’t do anything much.”
“It’s not what he says.”
A few days after the drama at Sam’s place, Jemma talked Logan in to showing her around the ranch. He was mounted on Prince while she rode bare-back on one of his old horses. She carried Alice in a sling fastened to her back.
“I don’t know whether she’ll be safe in that,” he said worriedly.
“She will be, I’ve already tried her out in it around the house.”
“You’re riding bare-back and….”
“It’s the way I’ve ridden all my life, you said the mare is old and placid, so stop worrying.”
“I can’t help it, you and Alice mean the world to me. I don’t know how I’d cope now if I didn’t have you in my life.”
“Well, we aren’t going anywhere. Come on, let’s get going I want to do some baking today, so I don’t want to be too late.”
They rode down to the paddock where the wild horses grazed.
“All the mares are in foal.”
“Is that black horse the stallion?”
“Yeah, doesn’t look much, too old and battle scarred. He would have been a fine looking horse in his day, and hopefully he sires good progeny.”
“There’s something wrong with his leg,” she said without dismounting.
“That’s why I caught them. I think the leg was badly injured and healed up crooked.”
They set off in a different direction, following the creek. “I do my panning down here.” He pointed to what appeared to be a small waterfall tumbling over rock strewn sand. “I move a few rocks and pan around them. I figure gold, being heavier, will sink into the sand and become trapped there. I have a couple of other places along the creek where I pan as well.”
“Don’t you move around, I mean once you’ve collected any gold in one spot it will be gone?”
“No it won’t, because the water keeps flowing and carries flecks and small nuggets from upstream all the time.”
“Have you picked up any nuggets?”
“Only a few small ones.”
The fences were sturdily built, the whole ranch well cared for. Logan was obviously a good rancher, but with little money it was taking him a while to build it up to what he wanted.
She sensed his frustration at the slow progress. With money spent on it, and with hired help, this could be a prosperous ranch.
“It takes time to build a ranch up,” she said.
“Too long. It burns me up seeing the sons of large ranchers, who inherit their wealth, sneering at small land holders.”
“It isn’t fair, although you’ve done well, you’ve got your own ranch.”
“Daniel had a ranch, too, and he was ten years younger than me.”
“You got your ranch through sheer hard work and should be proud of it.” You weren’t like Daniel who got his ranch from Sebastian Foster for services rendered she thought with a twinge of bitterness. The words nearly spilled out of her mouth. If the truth had been told at the time of Alice’s death, she wouldn’t have to refuse the marriage proposal of a man she now realized she loved.
When Logan had kissed her at Sam’s place, the mere touch of his lips had sent heat ricocheting from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. He was still sleeping in the barn, but when they were together in the house she watched desire burning in his eyes, sensed him fighting to keep his emotions in check. It wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge. The baby was the only buffer between them.
She tried to feed Alice when he wasn’t there, a task, which wasn’t always possible. No matter how careful she was he would always get a glimpse of her bare breast. A few times when the baby had suddenly released her breast and arched back, exposing her nipple, he would let out a strangled groan and rush out of the cabin.
“Sorry, what
did you say?” She forced herself to concentrate on him.
“I’ll show you my vegetable patch. I need to enlarge it and get rid of some of those stones, but it’s lower down on my list of priorities. I’d get a better yield if I had more planted. Then there are the weeds sucking up the water.”
“I could at least weed for you.”
“No.”
“I could do it, well some of it, anyway.”
“What about the baby?”
“She’ll be okay in the sling.”
“No.”
“I think she likes it, she can sleep when she wants to, or look around. She’s starting to focus on things now.”
“I won’t have you doing a man’s work.”
She didn’t argue with him anymore. She could do it easily. Two or three hours a day for a couple of weeks. She had spied a hoe in the barn and could use it to dig up the ground when there wasn’t any wind to blow the dust at Alice. The area wasn’t far from the cabin.
“I’ll come back with you and have a coffee, then I want to check in a gully near the ranch. It’s only about an hour from here. I’ve seen wild cattle there.”
“I could help you round them up.”
“I’d need a full day. I just want to check to make sure no-one else got to them first.”
They rode toward the barn without speaking. Alice had barely murmured, so she obviously enjoyed being in the sling.
Logan’s barn also had a stable down the far end opening into a corral, allowing his horses the comfort of a stall or to take fresh air outside. Presumably, he would close the door in winter. She had never seen a set up like this. It did make sense, though. He certainly had some good ideas. A bunk type bed, the ingeniously concealed loft ladder, he was obviously a clever man.
Jemma dismounted and left him to attend the horses. Walking over to the cabin she was pleased to see a ribbon of smoke drifting skyward, the fire was still burning. The first thing she did on entering the cabin was set the coffee pot on the stove.
She slipped the sling off her shoulders, lifted Alice out and propped her against a pillow in the cradle while she toasted a few slices of yesterday’s bread.
She milked the cow morning and night, a chore she didn’t mind as she had done it from as far back as she could remember. Now butter making was a different thing entirely, she detested it. Sam’s butter churn, after she had thoroughly scoured it, did the job as Logan liked butter on his food.
Hearing Logan’s booted feet on the floorboards, she swung around, blowing tendrils of hair out of her eyes as she did so. She always wore her hair tied back as she couldn’t stand it dangling loose around her face while she worked.
“You were quick,” she said. “I’ve made toast. Would you like some?”
“Yes, thanks.” He strode over to Alice. “Do you have a smile for Pa?” He squatted beside the cradle, making noises and Alice swiped at his face, causing him to laugh out loud. He had a nice laugh. Jemma wondered why she was being so idiotic.
“Coffee is ready, and I just need to butter your toast.”
“Good.”
“It was nice of Sam to let us have the cow and the rooster.”
“Yeah, I think it was his way of saying thank you, he reckons you saved his life.”
She laughed. “I don’t think those boys wanted to kill him, just torment or rile him.”
“I don’t think they’ll be back,” Logan said. “You scared them off. It was clever of you saying he was related.”
“I did it on purpose, so they would know he wasn’t alone or without someone to care what happened to him. It’s so sad, I wonder why he’s the way he is.”
She took the coffee over to the table and returned to the stove for the toast. Logan shrugged. “We’ve talked about this before, Jemma. He hasn’t told me anything about his personal life and I haven’t asked. He spoke to you more than he ever did to me.”
She buttered the toast, cutting it into halves. Three for him and one for herself.
“I won’t bother coming back for lunch, this will keep me going until supper.”
“I could do you a couple more pieces.”
“Thanks, this is enough, I’m anxious to be off.”
To get away from me she thought sadly. She was being unfair to him. He was a man with a man’s needs, but he wouldn’t take her because she wasn’t his wife. I’m doing this for you, Logan, even though you don’t know that I am. I can never tell you why I won’t marry you, no matter how much I want to.
She could deal with his hostility, his anger and frustration, but not his hatred if he found out what she had allowed Annabelle Foster to do. I could have stopped her but I didn’t. Too scared of losing my job, and because of it a young woman died. “You didn’t know there was anyone in the house,” an inner voice whispered. Over and over the voices inside her head argued with each other.
“I have to forget.”
“What did you say?” Logan drained his cup and stood.
“Oh, nothing much, just thinking out loud about what to do for supper. Would you like me to do some cake and cookies?”
“I sure would.” With a wave he strode out of the room.
Time to feed Alice and settle her down so I can start on my cooking. She had plenty of supplies since Logan’s trip into Trails End, but hadn’t been wasteful, knowing everything had to last. Logan was too proud to admit it, although she guessed he’d used up most of his money and gold. She could help him get gold if he showed her how.
It had been a kind gesture, him buying her the pretty material and the rattle for Alice, particularly when he was short of money. She wanted to do something to repay his kindness other than cooking and cleaning for him.
At six months old, Alice was becoming more aware and interested in her surroundings. She could smile and make sounds, and she certainly recognized Logan’s voice. He only had to speak and her eyes lit up. Such a pretty baby with big blue eyes and wispy blonde hair, Jemma’s heart swelled with pride and love at having such a beautiful daughter.
What would a child of Logan’s look like? Pain swept over her because she would never know, chances were, unless he found himself a woman, and the thought nearly killed her, he would father no children. Any wonder he was so devoted to Alice.
What a mess they were in. All of her doing. If only she dared risk becoming Logan’s wife. What were the chances they would ever meet anyone from Larriet or Yankton?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Two weeks later.
Jemma was up to her elbows in flour, kneading it to make pastry for the pie she planned on having for supper, when hoof beats sounded out the front. Logan must have finished his chores early.
“Anyone home?” a strange male voice called out.
She glanced around for something to defend herself with.
“It’s Sheriff Max Kirwin from Trails End.”
Jemma dashed to the door and edged it open.
“Mrs. McGregor, Jemma?”
“Yes.” She glanced at the tin star pinned on his waistcoat before opening the door any wider.
“Come in.”
“Thank you. I guess Logan isn’t here.”
“No, sorry, I’m not sure how long he’ll be.”
He followed her inside, glancing around as he did so. “Logan told me about you and the baby. I’m sorry about your husband.”
“Thank you.” She wasn’t sure exactly how much he knew, hopefully not that she was a jail-bird.
“Sit down, I’m thinking you could do with a coffee.”
“Sure could, thanks.” He swept his hat off. “This is a hell of a place to find, luckily I had a fair idea where to come.”
“How do you like your coffee?
“Black, with one sugar.” He sat on one of the kitchen chairs and rested his hat on the table. “Something smells good.”
She wiped her floury hands on a cloth. “I’m making a pie for supper, you’re welcome to stay, Sheriff.”
“No, thank you, I need to get back i
nto town. It took me a couple of hours to get here. I want to get back to Trails End before dark. I can sit a spell, give my horse a chance to rest.”
“What brings you out this way?”
“I’ve got some bad news.”
Her heart turned to stone. Had the Marshal from Golden Square been in contact with him? Worse still, someone from Larriet? Fear squeezed the air from her lungs until she could scarcely breathe.
“Old Sam Davey is dead.”
“Oh, no! What happened? He was fine when we left him. Those boys didn’t come back did they? They swore they wouldn’t” She wrung her hands. “I shouldn’t have believed them.”
“He came into town and dropped dead outside the bank. Doc says his heart gave out.”
“How terrible.” Tears sprung to her eyes and she blinked them back. “What about the dogs and other animals he’s got?”
“They’ll be taken care of. What did you mean about the boys?”
She handed him his coffee, then went over to the stove to check on a batch of cookies she was baking. Briefly she told him what happened.
“You’ll be meaning the Ashton boys, low down skunks all of them.”
She lifted the cookies from the stove and pricked one with a straw to make sure it was cooked.
“Like a cookie, Sheriff?”
“Call me Max. Don’t mind if I do.”
She placed several on a plate and with her own coffee, took them over to the table. “Mind they don’t burn you.”
“Yeah, I will. Anyway, I wanted to let Logan know. He was probably the only friend Sam ever had.”
“It was sad the way he lived.” Jemma shuddered. “The place was filthy.”
“He was happy with the way he lived. At least he died quick and clean.” Max took a small bite of the cookie. “Mm, nice. Why don’t you marry Logan, he’d make you a fine husband. It’s not good for you to be living like this….”
“I know. If it ever got out about us, Logan keeps telling me this, but I can’t.”
“Why not? I know your husband hasn’t been dead long.”
Daniel wouldn’t mind, but I can’t.” Tears filled her eyes and she angrily brushed them away. She didn’t know why, but instinctively knew this man could be trusted. She had to tell someone. Guilt was eating her alive.
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