How would he guard his heart from loving them too deeply? Daniel honestly didn’t think he could, and that scared him. If he couldn’t guard his heart, then there was always the chance it could be broken. With small children on a ranch there was always the danger of one of them getting hurt, or worse, dying.
Was that part of the reason he hadn’t left Hannah in town and sent off for a new bride? As long as she refused to marry him, his heart was safe from both her and any future children they might have.
He felt as if a thunderstorm was building in his brain. If he didn’t marry before Levi and have the first grandchild, then his brother would get the ranch. Daniel knew he wanted it himself. But to have the ranch, would he take a chance on love, and on losing another loved one to the hazards of ranch life?
Thankfully, it seemed as if Levi had given up on sending off for a mail-order bride. Daniel had bought six months with Hannah, but after that, what was he going to do?
He closed his eyes, and immediately the night of his sister’s death came racing back. He and Levi had returned during a thunderstorm and found her small, trampled body in the barn. Remembering took his breath away.
Gracie Joy had only wanted to comfort her pony, of that he was certain, but instead the little Shetland had pushed her down and run over her in his fear. The doctor said she’d died instantly, but he wasn’t so sure.
“Daniel?” He opened his eyes to find Hannah staring at him. “The house is very nice.”
He tried to smile, but the action felt stiff upon his face. “I’m glad you like it.” And he was glad. But now that she was here, and it all seemed so real, Daniel was beginning to think he should have bought a house in town. At least there the children would be safe from ranching dangers.
“Do you think we can go back now?” she asked, eyeing Tornado doubtfully. It was clear she didn’t want to get on the horse again.
Daniel picked up the reins and walked toward her. She backed away. He stopped and asked, “Want to talk about it?”
“You’ll think I’m... Well, I don’t know what you’ll think, but I feel foolish.” She tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.
He reached out and grasped one of her hands, which felt cold in his. Daniel gently pulled her to him. “I know Tornado scares you, but you didn’t seem to mind riding on him this afternoon.”
She didn’t drop his hand, but moved to the right, placing Daniel between herself and the big stallion. “I don’t mind riding Tornado.”
Daniel began walking. “Then what are you afraid of?”
“Promise not to laugh?” she asked, twisting her free hand in her skirt.
“I’ll do my best.”
Hannah pulled her shoulders back, raised her chin and said, “I’m afraid he might step on my foot.”
She’d never told him how she’d acquired the limp, but Daniel thought he knew now. “You’ve been stepped on before?” he asked.
“Yes, when I was a kid. A stallion tromped on me.” Hannah continued to stare straight ahead.
“I’d like to know what happened. Can you talk about it?” Daniel asked. Again his thoughts went to the possibility that someday his child could be hurt by a horse or bull, or bitten by a snake. The dangers of ranch life were endless.
Hannah nodded. “I was ten years old and my father and I were gathering the cattle out of the back pasture. I’d climbed off my horse and was trying to pull a calf out of the mud when Pa rode up. I’d gotten the calf out and had just turned to get back on my own horse when something spooked Blaze. He stepped sideways and my ankle ended up under his hoof.”
She looked off into the distance, but not before Daniel saw the tears welling in her eyes.
“Pa said I screamed and passed out. When I woke up, the doctor was there, and I heard him tell my father and stepmother I’d probably never walk on that foot again.” She took a deep breath. “But he was wrong.” Determination laced her words. “I wasn’t about to let a little limp keep me from working beside my pa on our ranch.” A tear escaped and ran down her cheek.
Daniel stopped walking and turned her to face him. He wiped the tear away with his thumb. He looked deeply into her eyes and could see the hurt little girl there. “What happened next?” Something told him the worst was yet to come.
Her voice cracked as she said, “Pa didn’t want me anymore. As soon as I could walk, he sent me away to school.” Tears streamed down her face and her bottom lip began to tremble. The broken words tumbled from her lips. “He didn’t love me anymore, Daniel. He wanted to get rid of me. I’d always thought he loved me, but he didn’t.” She sobbed, “He’d only used me as a ranch hand.”
Daniel gathered her into his arms, then rubbed her back and held her tight. No wonder Hannah was asking for unconditional love. If she truly believed her own father didn’t love her, how could she trust someone else to?
As she sobbed, he decided to see if he could find her parents and reunite Hannah with her family. Daniel couldn’t help but think that maybe her father had sent her away out of fear of her getting hurt even more.
Wasn’t that what he might have done? Now that he could see the pain it was causing Hannah, Daniel knew he could never send a child away. Which still left him wondering what he was going to do about the ranch and about marrying Hannah.
* * *
After several minutes in Daniel’s arms, Hannah calmed down. Her tears slowly dried and she was left feeling foolish once more. She’d never cried about her father’s rejection. Why did she have to choose now to do so?
She eased away slowly. “I’m sorry, Daniel.” Hannah turned from him and wiped at her damp face with the dirty sleeve of her dress. She really was a mess today.
“There is nothing to be sorry for, Hannah. Your parents hurt you.”
She wanted to tell him it wasn’t her parents, just her father. Her mother had died six years earlier and her father had remarried. When she’d left home, Hannah had had a four-year-old brother and a two-year-old sister. Caught up in remembering them, she almost forgot about Daniel until he tugged on her hand.
He waited for her to face him, and then continued, “We all have things in our past that have hurt us. Thank you for sharing yours. I promise if we ever have children, I will not send them away.”
Hannah didn’t trust herself to speak. His kindness was bringing up the flood of tears again and she refused to let it burst a second time in front of him. She ducked her head and nodded.
“Are you ready to go home now?”
Home. She looked at the house behind them and wished it was home. Wished she and Daniel didn’t still have things to work through before they could make it their home. “Yes, please.” The words came out soft and tearful, something Hannah decided she couldn’t control at this moment.
He turned her toward the big stallion. “Will you trust me?”
She knew they’d come a long way on the animal and would need to return on him, as well. Hannah swallowed the lump of fear in her throat. She’d just poured her heart out to Daniel, told him what she’d never told another. Did she trust him? She raised her head and looked him in the eyes. “Yes, I trust you.”
Daniel smiled in approval. He scooped her up into his arms and walked the rest of the way to the stallion. He placed her in the saddle and then swung up behind her.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
When his arms snaked around her, Hannah relaxed. “No. Thanks.”
As the horse set off, rocking them with a smooth canter, her thoughts returned to Daniel’s kind words. He’d said, We all have things in our past that have hurt us. This troubled Hannah. What or who had hurt Daniel? He’d shown her that he was a kind, caring man. She didn’t like the idea of him being hurt.
She tilted her head and looked up at him. His jawline was sprinkled with day-old stubble. He seemed more re
laxed than she’d ever seen him as his eyes scanned the land about them. What was he thinking? Did he regret having sent for her, now that he’d seen her broken and crying?
“It’s peaceful out here, isn’t it?” he asked.
She wondered if he’d sensed her looking at him. Hannah allowed her gaze to follow his. Cows bawled softly in a pasture in the distance. Crows called to each other overhead, and the sweet scent of honeysuckle filled the warm afternoon breeze. “It is.”
“Hannah, I wish I could keep it this peaceful, but I know that trouble is always near. If you are going to stay here, you should learn to be more aware of your surroundings.” He tightened his grip on the reins.
She wanted to get angry with him for telling her that she’d been neglectful, but she knew he was right. Until he’d mentioned the peacefulness of their surroundings, she’d been unaware. “I will.”
His arms closed around her in a brief hug. “Good. I told you earlier someone is on Westland land that shouldn’t be. I’d like to tell you the whole story.”
“All right,” Hannah answered. She saw a rabbit jump out of a bush and rush to another.
“They started with simply cutting fences, then moved on to running our stock off our land and now they have taken to slaughtering stock and completely destroying fences, so that it takes a couple of days to get them back up.” Daniel shifted his weight.
Hannah wondered who would have done such a thing. “Do you have any idea who it might be?”
“Not at this point,” he answered. His breath ruffled the top of her hair.
A shiver crawled up Hannah’s spine. She tried to ignore the sensation. “Could it be a disgruntled neighbor?”
“I don’t believe so. Most of the men will be at Sunday service. I plan on asking if any of them are having the same problems.” He brought his left hand down and rested it on his leg.
Hannah nodded. “That’s a good plan.”
His voice hardened as he said, “Hannah, please stay at the schoolhouse. I don’t want you wandering the ranch by yourself.”
So now he felt he could boss her around. She straightened her spine. “I’ve promised I’ll help Opal in the mornings, so I won’t be staying at the schoolhouse, Daniel. I’ll be walking over to the ranch house every morning.” Hannah cut her eyes upward and looked at his jaw. Yep, as she’d suspected, it had tightened and no longer looked relaxed.
“Someone who doesn’t belong here has been killing cattle is on this land. I can’t look after you all the time, Hannah.” He stressed her name.
She shifted away from him. “I didn’t ask you to, Daniel.” She’d put emphasis on his name just as he had hers. “I told you I can take care of myself.”
He ignored her declaration of independence. “What time will you be going over to the ranch house?”
“Before breakfast.” Hannah realized as soon as the words were out of her mouth that she didn’t know what time Opal served the first meal of the day.
Daniel laid his chin on top of her head. “You do realize breakfast is at five, don’t you?”
Hannah prayed her voice sounded confident when she answered, “I grew up on a farm, Daniel.” She said it as if that should be obvious, but the truth was she’d been young and hadn’t really thought about time when she lived there.
“Good. Then I’ll see you around four. I believe this is where you get off.” He slipped from Tornado’s back and turned to lift her down.
Hannah looked at the schoolhouse, and then slid into Daniel’s waiting arms. She felt like a little girl again as he swung her away from the horse.
When her feet touched the ground she said, “Daniel, you don’t have to come for me in the morning. I can make my way to the house alone.”
He remounted Tornado and gathered the reins. “I’m sure you can, but I don’t want you stumbling around in the dark. See you tomorrow.” With that, he sent the horse into a gallop and rode away.
Hannah grinned. Maybe, just maybe, Daniel Westland was starting to care about her. She wouldn’t label it love just yet.
The grin slipped from her face. Hannah knew she liked him, too, but she didn’t want to fall for Daniel until she was sure that he loved her. Weariness weighed on her shoulders at the thought.
Chapter Seventeen
Daniel arrived at the schoolhouse a little after four-thirty the next morning, with Clover in tow for Hannah to ride. He knew she wasn’t going to be happy to see the little mare, but if Hannah was going to travel about the ranch, she needed to overcome her fear of horses’ hooves.
She answered the door with a big smile, until she saw the mare. It slipped from her face like hot wax dripping down a candle. “I see you brought Clover for a visit.”
His gaze ran over her. Daniel was glad to see she didn’t seem as distressed as the day before. It appeared she’d had a bath and washed her hair. The gown she wore was faded, but he assumed that was so that she wouldn’t ruin one of her best dresses. “Yes, I thought it time you started riding again,” he answered, moving aside so she could join him. “Think of it as a way to prove to your father that you can do anything anyone else can do.”
“I don’t have to prove anything to him.” Her face had gone ashen, but she followed Daniel down the stairs. “Besides, I don’t mind walking the short distance.”
“True, but I do mind walking, and if you are going to start going places on the ranch, you really need to learn to ride again.” Daniel turned and put both hands on her shoulders. “Hannah, you can do this. You taught yourself to walk with an ankle that a doctor said you’d never use again. You went to school and became a teacher. You can do this!” he declared.
“All right.” Hannah nodded, but he could feel her shoulders trembling.
Daniel took one of her hands in his and walked to where he’d tied Clover’s reins to a low branch. “Hannah, you know where your feet are at all times, right?”
Again she nodded.
“Then you can make sure they stay away from Clover’s hooves.” He went to the horse’s head and petted her nose.
Hannah moved closer to the little mare. He watched as she checked the cinch, then took a deep breath and accepted the reins from him. Had Levi reminded her to check the cinch when they’d attempted to get her on the horse before? Or were her instincts kicking in? Daniel prayed it was the latter.
Hannah exhaled. She put the reins in her left hand and also grasped Clover’s mane with it, then put her left foot in the stirrup and grabbed the saddle with her right hand. Hannah’s memories must have taken over, because seconds later she was in the saddle.
He averted his gaze while she straightened her skirt. Daniel released the mare. He walked to Tornado, gathered the reins and swung up into the saddle.
“I did it.” She beamed over at him.
He laughed. “Yes, you did. I knew you could.”
Her smile warmed his heart. “Thank you, Daniel. I can’t believe how easy that was. All these years I’ve been afraid to climb on by myself.” She looked like a kid who’d just won the pie-eating contest at the fair.
What he’d taken for granted was something she’d just experienced again for the first time in years. “You’re welcome, but I didn’t do anything but bring you a horse.”
“You encouraged me.” She patted Clover’s neck.
Daniel prompted the stallion to walk beside Hannah and the old mare. “What are you helping Opal with this morning?”
“I’m going to feed the chickens and gather the eggs. Then I’ll do whatever else she asks me to.” Hannah allowed Clover to fall into step with Tornado.
Daniel made sure to keep the horses far enough apart that the stallion wouldn’t act up. “Why?”
“Yesterday I was looking for something to do, and Jeb let me whitewash the chicken coop. Well, I noticed it needed a few repai
rs, and the eggs collected, so I took it upon myself to do those things.”
Daniel felt guilty once more. If he had checked on her sooner, Hannah wouldn’t have gotten bored. “That still doesn’t answer my question. Why are you going to help today?”
Her soft giggle filled the crisp morning air. “Oh, I’m sorry. When Opal came to collect the eggs yesterday, we got to talking and she told me her daughter is having difficulties with the new baby. With all she normally does, and helping her daughter, she’d gotten behind on some of her chores. I offered to help, and here we are.”
Hannah seemed to be talking more this morning. She sounded nervous and excited at the same time. Was it because of him? Or did she realize that since she’d gotten on Clover by herself, she’d have to learn to get down, too?
“That’s very nice of you to offer to help her, but you don’t have to do that. I’ll talk to her and see if she wants me to hire another girl to help her out.” He enjoyed the sounds of a rooster crowing. Mornings were his favorite time of day, with everything seeming fresh and new. His gaze moved to Hannah, who looked fresh and new this morning, also.
She flicked her ponytail over her shoulder and looked at him. “You’ll do no such thing. I want to help. If this is going to be my home, too, I want to do all I can to make it successful.”
Daniel grinned. He liked the idea that she was thinking of the ranch as her home. Holding his hands up in surrender, he laughed and said, “All right, but don’t forget that after we’re married, you’ll have your own household chores to do. Speaking of which, we’re here, and I have work to do, too, before breakfast.” He spun Tornado around and headed across the yard to the east pasture.
As he rode away, he remembered Hannah might need help dismounting from Clover. Daniel didn’t want her to think he was checking up on her, so he entered the edge of the woods, making sure she could no longer see him, and then turned to see how she fared.
She hesitated, twisting in the saddle and looking down. After she’d judged the distance, she swung her leg over the saddle and sort of leaped from the horse.
Taming The Texas Rancher (Love Inspired Historical) Page 12