by Jodi Thomas
Just as Davis helped Emily onto her mount, Boyd’s stallion kicked wildly, hitting Emily’s horse. Her mount reared, knocking her from the saddle and beneath the horses’ feet.
Everyone ran to help. Lewt and Davis reached her first and shoved horses aside as they yelled like madmen trying to get to Emily.
In what seemed like seconds, Emily’s horse bolted wildly across the field. Boyd held on to his mount by the neck, but the horse was lifting him off the ground each time he pitched and bucked. Davis and Lewt pulled Emily to the safety of the rocks, knowing Boyd was on his own. If he was half the rancher he claimed, he should be able to handle it.
The men stood guard as Beth and Rose knelt beside Emily, both asking questions at once. Lewt watched Boyd lose the war with his horse. The animal kicked him a few more times, then pulled free and ran into the wind, following Emily’s horse.
When Lewt turned back to the women, Emily was crying in Beth’s arms as Rose stood slowly.
“How is she?” Davis asked in almost a whisper. His face was pale, but he’d acted when necessary.
“I think she may have a broken rib. She says her leg hurts, but I didn’t feel any bone broken, so maybe it’s just bruised. It’d take too long to get a wagon up here, but I think if one of you could hold her, we’d make it home without doing any more damage.” Lewt looked at Boyd. “How about you?”
He rubbed his leg but said simply, “I’m fine.”
Lewt understood. Right now bruises didn’t count.
“I’ll carry her,” Davis offered. “How about we wrap a few blankets around her legs to buffer any jolts? I saw my dad do that to my little sister once.”
“Good idea.” As always, it seemed Rose tackled the job. She wrapped two blankets around Emily, then used her belt to secure them.
Lewt watched. He didn’t know what to do with a woman who was crying, but everyone else seemed to. Davis patted her hand. Beth talked softly. Even Boyd knelt down and brushed her cheek, telling her how sorry he was.
Emily seemed embarrassed by all the attention and told everyone she felt much better.
Lewt doubted anyone believed her.
Beth gave up trying to keep her hat on in the wind. Her curly hair was flying around her face. “Give me your bandanna,” she ordered.
Davis did so without asking questions.
She tied her hair back out of her face and announced, “I’m riding hard and fast toward home. I’ll have everything ready for you, Rose, when you get there with Emily. I’ll also send one of the men with a buggy to pick up old Doctor Hutchison.”
Rose nodded.
Bethie urged her horse into a run even before her foot was secured in the stirrups. All her gentle, ladylike manner was gone. She was a horsewoman who could ride as fast as the wind, and they all stood watching for a moment in amazement.
The men circled Emily and carefully lifted her onto Davis’s saddle, with Rose telling them to be careful with each step. Davis climbed up behind her, talking to her softly as he turned his horse toward home at a walk.
“Boyd,” Rose, the planner, said, “if you’ll double up with me, we can ride beside Davis just in case something happens. Lewt, since you know the way home, would you mind putting out the fire? With this wind it might catch on the dried grass.”
“Sure.” Lewt saw the logic. “I’ll catch up to you.”
He would have liked to ride double with her all the way home, but since Boyd was the one who’d lost his horse, this plan made more sense. Besides, after the mess Boyd had made, she probably was afraid to leave the man out here alone.
Lewt decided he should feel good about how she trusted him, but he still didn’t like the way Boyd’s arms circled around Rose’s waist when he climbed on behind her.
He decided he’d put the fire out fast and catch up to them.
But putting a fire out in a strong wind wasn’t as easy as he thought.
CHAPTER 15
EM WATCHED THE SMALL GATHERING AROUND A BLAZING fire. It never should have been that big, she thought, but Boyd Sinclair kept tossing extra wood on it like he thought there’d be a snowstorm before their afternoon was over. They were laughing and picnicking.
She waited in the trees as they spread blankets and relaxed in the cool afternoon sun. Finally she got bored and circled around them, heading for the summit. She’d planned to check to make sure the fire was out on her way home, when they would have been long gone.
Only when she returned, no one was there but Lewt. It crossed her mind that maybe they had run off and left him, but his horse was tied twenty feet from the fire. He could have left if he’d wanted to.
Riding in, she watched him trying to shovel dirt on the blaze. The wind caught more dirt than landed on the fire. The breeze also caught him swearing at his efforts.
“Evening,” she said from five feet behind him.
He jerked around and frowned. “Rose told me to make sure the fire was out. I dumped all the water I had on it, and I even went down to the creek a couple of times and refilled the canteens, but every time I get back the fire seems bigger. At this rate I’ll burn the whole ranch down by nightfall.”
She fought down a laugh. “Want some help?”
“Are you offering?”
“I am, but you’ll have to ask me nice.”
He raised an eyebrow as if suspecting a trap. “Please give me a hand?”
She turned and rode off toward the creek.
A few minutes later she found him sitting on a rock waiting. “I guess there’s no need to tell you I’ve never camped out more than a few times in my life. You probably already figured it out.”
She tossed a dripping wet blanket toward him. Swinging off her horse, she took one end of the blanket while he held the other. “Follow me,” she said.
They walked on either side of the fire and lowered the blanket all at once, smothering the flames. Steam rose, creating a fog between them for a minute before she tossed him her corner and said, “Go wet it again. One more time should do it.”
He used her horse as he headed to the creek.
Em took his seat on the rock and tried to figure out this strange man. Apparently his rich, now dead, mole family never let him camp out. The only places they let him go seemed to be cheap restaurants without menu boards and parlor houses where women were rented by the hour. He didn’t know how to dress or ride, but he’d learned to throw a knife with deadly accuracy while attending church.
She decided someone should put Lewton under glass and study him. He was definitely some kind of freak of nature. Shaking her head, she knew she’d have to stay out here with him until the fire was out. She couldn’t leave him. She’d seen headless chickens running around with more sense of direction.
He returned with the blanket dripping with cold water. They repeated their walk on either side of the fire. This time when they pulled the blanket free, the fire was low, scattered among coals.
“You really should stay here awhile to make sure it’s out, or cover it with dirt.” She moved to her horse, wondering if he’d try to stop her from going.
“What are you going to do?” He didn’t look like he thought much of the idea of staying out here alone.
“I’m hoping to get back to the barn before dark,” she said.
“Em, if I asked you to stay, would you?”
“Why?”
“Because we’re friends.”
“So you’re asking me for a favor?”
“Yes.”
She pulled her saddlebags and rifle off her horse. “I’ll stay. Not because I want to be your friend or because I’m worried about you, but because one of these days I might want the favor back and you’ve got to swear you’ll do it.”
“I swear. No matter how mad I’ll probably be at you when it happens, if you call in the favor, you’ll have it.”
They sat down on the rocks close enough to the dying fire to feel the last of its warmth. She opened her saddlebag. “Rose packed me a sandwich and some cookie
s when she packed the picnic. I didn’t have time to eat it.”
He watched her unwrap the sandwich but didn’t say a word.
“You want some?”
“No thanks, you must be hungry.”
“Not really. Most days I don’t stop to eat lunch.”
“Afraid you’ll get fat?” he asked.
“No, I just don’t take the time. There’s always a handful of things I don’t get done every day.” She offered him half.
He took the sandwich slowly, as if he expected strings to come with it. When she didn’t say anything, he ate.
They sat watching the smoke drift up from the dying fire for a while, and then she asked, “How’d the courting go today?”
“Better, I think.” He stretched his long legs in front of him almost touching her. “I’m learning women are not near as easy to figure out as I thought.”
“You mean it’s simpler if you tell them what you want and they tell you how much it’ll be?”
“Yes, that would be nice. Then I could save up for just the right kind of wife.”
“So, Lewt, what do you want?”
“I want a good woman; you know, someone who doesn’t drink or swear or yell. Someone who’ll be home when I get there with a hot meal waiting. Someone who will keep the kids and will—”
“Stop right there.” She laughed. “If you want kids they cost extra.”
“All right. I’ll take two. A boy and a girl.”
“What about in the bedroom?”
“We’ll have the bedroom. That’s just the way it is when folks are married. She won’t mind the bedroom, she might even like it, but of course she’ll pretend she doesn’t because I think that’s what proper ladies do.”
“They do?”
He swore under his breath. “I can’t believe I’m even talking about this with you. If it weren’t dark I don’t think we’d be having this conversation. But since we are, if I could just go to the store and buy a proper wife, what do you think she’d cost?”
“Would she have to love you?”
“I don’t care. It’s not important. I’ve been living without love all my life, and from what I see, the emotion causes more pain than joy.” He thought about it a minute and added, “I’d tell her I loved her if she needed to hear it. I’d want her to be happy.”
Em handed him two cookies, ate two, and then gave him the last one.
He broke it in two and gave her half.
She stared down at the half, thinking that he was thoughtful even when he wasn’t trying to impress anyone. He’d also told her something very strange. His rich mole family hadn’t loved him.
“Do you know what it takes to make a woman happy?”
He laughed. “I thought I did. Money, a solid house, a man who comes home every night and never beats her. That should be enough to make any woman happy, don’t you think?”
“I think it’s a lot more than that, Lewt.” She stood and picked up her gear. “We’d better be getting back.”
They rode halfway back before the cloudy night grew so dark that Lewt had trouble following.
She stopped and pulled up close. “Turn your horse loose. She’ll go back to the barn eventually. You’d better ride double with me or we’ll be out here all night. There’s a shortcut through the trees and I’m not sure you’ll be able to keep up with me.”
He climbed down, looped his reins over the saddle horn, and slapped his horse hard enough on the rump to send her along. Then he felt for the stirrup and climbed up behind Em. Their hats bumped, along with knees. He spooned his long leg behind hers and removed both their hats and handed them to her so she could string them over the saddle.
She stiffened as he settled in behind her.
He let out a frustrated breath. “I know you don’t like it, but do you mind if I circle my arm around you? I feel like I could fall off without anything to hang on to.”
“All right,” she said. “I’ll just pretend you’re not there.”
“Fair enough,” he said, close to her ear.
They rode through the shadows of the trees. She’d crossed this way a hundred times in daylight, but never in darkness. Probably for fear he’d touch the wrong thing, he put one hand on the saddle horn and the other at her belt buckle. In the blackness, she laid her hand over his.
He seemed to understand. He turned his palm up and held her gloved hand tightly in his.
CHAPTER 16
AS THEY RODE THROUGH THE TREES, LEWT CLOSED his eyes, then opened them, realizing he could see nothing either way. It had been so long since he’d been in the country he’d forgotten how black the night could be on a cloudy, moonless night.
He felt like since he didn’t have his sight, his other senses were playing tricks on him. He was very much aware that he held a woman in his arms. She might look more like a man in the light, but in the darkness she seemed all woman. Her hair smelled slightly of honeysuckle, and once in a while the horse shifted and his arm brushed just below her breasts. He’d feel her stiffen in his arms, but she didn’t say a word. She must have been as sure as he almost was that each brush was simply an accident.
This time he had no intention of lying to himself and believing that the woman liked him. She’d made it plain how she felt about him and if he did one thing wrong, she’d probably dump him off the horse and leave him out here to bump into trees until he died.
A branch brushed just above them. Em turned her head toward his shoulder for protection, and Lewt’s arm went up to block the assault of dry branches. Instinctively, his other arm tightened around her as the limbs bombarded them.
A few feet later the branches disappeared as the horse moved on, but Lewt didn’t loosen his hold. “You all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she whispered as she straightened.
The straightening did more to make him aware she was a woman than if she’d stayed still.
“Want to tell me why you’re afraid of the dark?”
“No,” she said. “And I’m not afraid of the dark. I just don’t like it.”
“Oh.” He fought down a laugh.
She elbowed him hard, then said, “All right, maybe I am a little afraid, but it’s none of your business.”
“Got it,” Lewt answered.
They talked of the day. Lewt filled her in on what had happened to Emily about the time they emerged from the trees.
Em kicked the horse and they broke into a full run.
Lewt leaned against her, pulling their bodies close so they galloped as one, but she didn’t seem to notice. He knew her thoughts were now on Emily.
They didn’t stop at the barn but rode to the front door. Sumner must have anticipated her action, for he was waiting to take the horse.
“She’s in the great room,” he said, before they could ask.
Lewt hit the ground and swung her down with one quick action. When her feet touched, she was already running into the house.
He hesitated, unsure of what to do. He knew he’d be no help to Emily; she was surrounded by people worried about her. He’d be just an intruder, watching someone else’s pain.
“How is the girl?” Lewt asked Sumner. He’d figured out two days ago that very little happened on the ranch that Sumner wasn’t aware of.
The old man shrugged. “When Miss Beth rode in first, she sent one of the men for the doctor in town, but Mrs. Watson came out for air about ten minutes ago and said she thought the girl was milking it a bit. Mrs. Watson seems to think the leg is bruised, but not broken, and since she can take a good breath in and out, there’s little chance the rib is more than cracked.”
“So she’s playing up being wounded?” Lewt filled in the blanks. “What kind of woman would do that?”
Sumner laughed. “All of them, I figure, when there’s two men in there already fighting over who gets to carry her around.”
“Maybe I should join them.”
Sumner shook his head. “You do and the poor girl is liable to be at death’s
door. Besides, looked to me like you had your hands already full a minute ago.”
Lewt shook his head. “We were just riding double because she was worried that I might get lost in the trees. Believe me, if I wasn’t a guest here, Em would have left me to get back alone. I doubt she’d notice if I stopped breathing and fell dead in front of her. She’d just step over my body and go see about the horses.”
“It’s dark in those trees, is it?” Sumner whispered.
“Black as a closed trunk,” Lewt answered. “I would have never been able to follow her through the twists and turns.”
“Strange thing about horses, they can find their way at night like that. As long as you stay on your mount, it’ll follow the lead horse, and when horses are heading back to a warm barn it takes some effort to talk them into going the wrong direction.” Sumner’s gaze met Lewt. “You get my meaning, son?”
Lewt might not know horses, but he wasn’t dumb. No matter what Em had said to him, she’d wanted him close. Now all he had to figure out was whether she liked him or simply hated night.
“I think I’ll go in and check on everything.” Suddenly Lewt wanted to face Em in the light. He’d always been good at reading people once he could look them in the eye.
Sumner said softly, as Lewt took the first step, “Son, if you hurt Miss Em, every man on this place will take a turn at beating you to a pulp.”
Lewt turned. “None of you even talk to her. I thought you didn’t like her.”
“We like her just fine. She just don’t like to have much to do with nothing but horses. Every man here respects her and gives her the space she wants. If they didn’t, I’d see that they were riding over the bridge heading out by dawn.”
“Does Em know this?” Lewt couldn’t believe she had her own army of bodyguards here.
“She don’t need to know. We know and now you know.”
Lewt reached the porch and turned back. “I’m not going to hurt her, I promise. I’m here to court one of the McMurray girls. That’s all I’m interested in. Miss Em and I can never be more than friends, and until a minute ago, I didn’t even think we were that.”