Laurel stared openmouthed at his ramblings. She wanted to shout that she’d never been asked to marry him and, if she had been, she would have said no.
Jeffery didn’t stop. “You’ll work with me at the bank Monday through Thursday, then I’ll drive you out and you can do your father’s books Friday and Saturday. Your father said you could ride out alone. You’ve been making the trip between there and town for years, but I see no need to have to board a horse in town. I’ll take you and pick you up.”
He paused as if allowing questions in his lecture.
A hundred screams log-piled in her mind, but all she managed to say was, “I’ll have Sundays off?”
He huffed again. “Of course. A banker and his family are expected to be in church every week. It adds stability to his name. After church, we’ll want to invite your father and sisters to dinner. It’s only proper if they make the drive into town. He assures me you’re a passable cook. Once they’re gone, you’ll need time to do the laundry.”
Her head felt like mice were eating away inside it. All rational thought left her. “Family. What family?” she started before he interrupted her.
“Don’t be an idiot. You’re far too old for it to be cute to play dumb.” He frowned at her as if he found her only mildly tolerable. “I’m not a young man, Laurel. We’ll have a baby before we’re married a year. I prefer a son, but if it doesn’t happen, we’ll try again until I have an heir who can eventually take over the bank.”
He stared at her. “You are a virgin? I told your father I’d have nothing less.”
As she reddened, he laughed. “Of course you are. You know little of these things, but I know my seed is strong. My first wife was pregnant within a month of our marriage, but she wasn’t healthy enough to stay alive to deliver full term.” He stared at her. “Don’t worry, your father says you ride every day. Such exercise makes you strong and hardy.” He grinned to himself. “My seed will grow in you. You’re like rich dirt, from strong stock and ready to be made use of. Lots of children will round that thin frame out nicely in time.”
Laurel was too horrified to answer. She lowered her head and focused on the piece of paper Jeffery had given her. Rowdy Darnell’s name stood out.
He had to win, her mind whispered. He had to.
The banker heard her sisters and hurried to pay his respects without another word to her. He was all smiles and pats with them. Like her father, Jeffery seemed to think every senseless thing they said was funny. She could imagine what his Sunday dinners would be like.
She almost laughed aloud. They’d be pretty much like they were now. Sunday was the housekeeper’s day off. So Laurel cooked and cleaned up while everyone else complained that none of the food was good enough, hot enough or served fast enough.
Laurel closed her eyes and blocked out all the noise coming from the others. She focused on the way Rowdy had touched her waist so gently when he’d helped her down from the surrey and again in the shadows when he’d bumped into her.
She smiled. He’d touched her as if she mattered.
Chapter 3
The sun bore down on Rowdy as he rode toward his father’s farm. He’d always hated the place and July was the worst month, hot and dry. But he looked forward to being alone. When he’d first gone to prison at fifteen, he thought he’d go mad with the loneliness, but finally he grew to prefer it. There were so many people in town for the rodeo that he felt like the air had thinned just so it would last. He rode hard until town was well out of sight and land, more prairie than farm, stretched before him.
His father had sold their farm in East Texas and moved here after Rowdy’s mom died. He could get almost ten times the acreage for the same money. The old man had planned to get away from the memories of her death, but West Texas hadn’t been far enough. He’d continued the journey into a bottle.
Rowdy remembered his father being drunk when they’d pulled up to the place and as far as he knew the old man had never sobered up enough to care where he was. They’d brought fifty head of cattle with them. His dad sold them off one by one. After three years he didn’t have enough cows left to sell to pay for a lawyer for his son. The horses he’d bred with pride a few years ago had withered into nags.
Reaching the gate, Rowdy was surprised it had been closed. Sheriff Barnett had written twice over the last five years. Once to tell Rowdy that his father had died, and once to tell him the place was still his. Rowdy guessed the sheriff wanted him to know that he had a home; he couldn’t have known how little the place meant to Rowdy. It was just something to sell so he could make a fresh start where no one knew him.
As he saw the shack of a house and the barn, he thought of burning the place down, but he knew memories would shift through even the ashes. His father hadn’t been a bad man, only a weak one. He’d loved one woman and when she’d died he couldn’t seem to find his footing, not even to finish raising his only son.
When the sheriff and some men came to get Rowdy before dawn five years ago, his father’s only words had been, “I’m sorry.” Not, “I’ll help.” Or “I don’t believe you could shoot anyone.” Just, “I’m sorry.”
The night before there had been a gang of boys drinking and firing off guns down by the creek bordering Darnell land. One was shot. With no one to stand beside Rowdy, the drunk’s son was an easy target. Everyone wanted to lay the blame somewhere.
Rowdy shoved the memory aside as he rode up to the house. He wasn’t surprised to find the sheriff waited on the porch. Barnett had put on a few pounds in five years and his hair looked whiter, but he still had the same sad eyes that seemed to say he’d seen too much in this world.
“Darnell.” He nodded in greeting.
Rowdy swung down. He owed the lawman. If it hadn’t been for Barnett, the judge wouldn’t have considered his age at the sentencing and Rowdy would have drawn far more than five years. The sheriff had also rounded up a few strays his father hadn’t taken the trouble to chase and sold them, along with the corral stock, to pay the taxes on this place for five years.
“I figured you’d be looking me up,” Rowdy said as he offered his hand.
Barnett gripped his hand. “Just stopped by to say hello, son.”
Rowdy waited. Barnett had been the only man in town who hadn’t wanted to string him up five years ago. “I want to thank you for—”
“You don’t owe me nothing, but I would like to give you one last piece of advice. If I were you, I’d keep low and just stay long enough to sell the place and move on. No sense looking for trouble.”
Rowdy nodded. “I agree. This place has never been home. If I could make a few bucks, I plan to head south. There’s a man down near the border who said he’d give me a job breaking horses when I got out. I figured I’d look him up. Maybe buy a little spread down there in time.”
The sheriff moved toward his horse. “I’ll get the word out that you’re looking for a buyer. With the rodeo in town, it should get around fast. I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t have an offer within a week. Captain Hayes to the north will probably make you a fair one. He’s gobbling up land as fast as he can lately. You’d think he had sons and not daughters.”
“That would be fine with me. I don’t much care who takes it off my hands.”
Barnett shoved his hat back and seemed to pick his words carefully. “You know, son, you were mighty angry when you left.”
Rowdy almost said he’d had a right to be, but he knew nothing would change the past. “I still fire up now and then before I think,” he admitted, remembering the fights he’d had in prison. “But all I want to do is sell this place and move on now. I’m not looking for any trouble.”
The sheriff smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. I’m getting too old for any new worries.”
Rowdy watched the sheriff climb on his horse and ride away with only a wave. He wasn’t sure he had a friend in Barnett, but at least the man seemed fair and at this point in Rowdy’s life that was about the best he could hope for.
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br /> He checked the barn, then decided to unsaddle his horse and let her graze on wild grass growing in the corral. Walking through the house, he found it just as he’d left it, filthy. It had to be his imagination, but the smell of whiskey seemed to linger in the air. More to use up energy than out of any need to clean the place, Rowdy opened all the doors and windows and swept a layer of top soil out of the house.
At sunset he pulled his bedroll from behind his saddle, deciding to sleep on the porch. It was too hot to build a fire. Besides, he didn’t even have coffee to boil anyway. The jerky and hard tack in his saddlebags wasn’t worth eating.
He fell asleep listening to the sounds of freedom around him. Tomorrow he’d ride into town and win the first event. He hadn’t even checked to see what came first. He didn’t care.
Just after dawn he woke to the smell of blueberry muffins. He hadn’t tasted one since his mother died, but he’d never forget the aroma. He opened his eyes. Laurel Hayes sat three feet away on the steps.
Rising, he raked his hair back and mumbled, “What are you doing here?”
She smiled. “Watching you sleep.”
“I don’t think that’s proper,” he said.
“Probably not,” she agreed. “I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that wasn’t proper. I might as well start with you.”
He growled at her and to his surprise, she laughed. It seemed to him that if she had any sense, she’d be afraid of him.
He studied her, all prim and proper in her white blouse and navy riding skirt. She didn’t look quite so “old maid” today. He had a feeling her rich daddy would shoot him on sight if the old man thought he was even talking to Laurel.
When he frowned, she added, “I brought you a good horse.”
He stood, dusting off his clothes. “I don’t think the Captain would like me riding one of his horses.”
“It’s not his, but if you don’t want the mare, I’ll just take my muffins and go.”
“Wait.” Rowdy shook sleep from his head. “How about I think about the offer while I test the muffins?”
“All right.” She pushed back her wide brimmed hat and studied him with the same look she’d given most of the stock in the corral yesterday. “You want to wash up and make coffee first before you eat?”
“No,” he said, then backtracked when he saw her frown. “I can’t make coffee. No supplies around here. All my father left was the pot, but I could wash up.”
She watched as he went to the well and drew up water. “I’m surprised the rope and bucket are still here,” he mumbled as he washed.
“I put them there last year,” she said. “I ride this way often and I like to stop to water my horse. Hope you don’t mind.”
It hadn’t occurred to him to mind. “You happen to bring a towel too?”
She laughed and tossed him the towel she’d spread over the basket of muffins.
He dried and placed the towel on the nail by the well. “Great, I got the towel wet so now I guess I’ll have to eat all the muffins.” He took the first one from her hand and asked, “Now tell me how come you own this horse?” If she had horses and maybe even cattle, she’d have no use for half the herd they might win.
They walked toward her mount. A lead rope had been tied to the saddle horn. A chestnut mare was at the other end of the rope. At first glance it appeared ordinary, but Rowdy didn’t miss the look in the animal’s eyes. Intelligent, he thought. He downed another muffin while he circled the horse.
“I don’t own him,” she said when he returned to her side. “You do.”
When he showed no sign of believing her, she added, “When the sheriff came to get the stock after your father died, she was only a colt limping around the corral. The sheriff didn’t figure she’d last to town so he turned her loose.” Laurel brushed the roan’s neck. “I found her the next day and knew she’d be coyote dinner if I didn’t put her in the barn for a few weeks.”
The horse pushed her with its nose as if playing.
“I checked on her every day until she was big enough to run the land. Whenever I was home from school, I rode by to check on her. The wound on her leg healed with a little help from the whiskey I found in the cabin and she began to grow. I was afraid someone might ride by and see her, so I moved her down to the little canyon by the stream. There’s water and grass there year-round along with plenty of shallow caves to get out of the worst weather.”
Rowdy ran his hand along the horse’s withers and back, feeling strong muscles. “Looks like she’d have had the sense to run.”
“I thought that too, but every time I came back, she was somewhere on your place.” Laurel pulled an apple from her pocket. “I taught her to come when I whistle.” She offered the apple to Rowdy. “Here, you feed her. She’s yours.”
“No.” Just because the horse survived here didn’t make the mare his.
“You need a better horse than one of the livery mounts. Cinnamon can be that horse.”
“Cinnamon? Don’t tell me you named her?” He’d called a few horses names over the years, but nothing he’d want to repeat in her company.
She laughed at the face he made, then handed him the basket and moved away. “You two share breakfast and get acquainted. I have to get back.”
He set the basket down and followed her to her horse. He offered her a step up, but she didn’t take it. She hadn’t needed it. Her long legs flew over the saddle with ease.
“Good luck tonight.”
“Thanks,” he said, realizing he didn’t want her to leave. “When will I see you again?”
“I’ll be around. My father insists we all go every night. He goes for the rodeo and my sisters go for the dance afterward.”
“And why do you go?” he asked as he took the lead rope from her hand.
She looked down at him. “I’ll go to watch my partner win.” Kicking her horse, she was gone before he had time to answer.
He watched her ride away. With her height and lean form, she rode like a man, one with the horse, not bumping along like most women he’d seen ride. He decided she probably wouldn’t think that a compliment, even though he meant it as such.
He tossed the apple in the air and caught it, proud of the way he’d handled himself. He’d managed to talk to her, even made her laugh. It was only a guess, but he thought that Laurel laughed very little in her life. She’d been different this morning, but he couldn’t put his finger on why. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they were alone, out of sight of any prying eyes or ears.
Winning this rodeo might prove great fun with her as his partner.
Walking back to the mare, Rowdy swore when he realized the horse had eaten the basket of muffins and left him with the apple.
Laughing, he patted the horse’s neck. “Well, Cinnamon, since you’ve had my breakfast it looks like we’d better go to work. I got about ten hours to turn you into a cow horse.”
Chapter 4
The rodeo started with little more than an hour until sunset. Men drew for events and nights. Since the celebration lasted four nights, one fourth of the men did each event each night. That way anyone coming only to one night got to see all the rodeo had to offer even if he got to watch only one out of four of the men compete for any one event.
Laurel checked the charts. Rowdy had drawn saddleback riding the first night. Good. That would give him at least one more day to work with the horse on steer roping. She was so excited she couldn’t wait for the buggy, so she’d insisted on riding in with her father. He didn’t talk to her, but it didn’t matter. In four days, she would have the money to leave.
Deep down she hoped that if she had the means to leave, he might tell her he wanted her to stay. She knew she was only fooling herself. Since the day he’d married Rosy when Laurel had been four, the Captain had always tried to make his oldest daughter disappear. Leftover children never mattered much when the new batch came along. Laurel had a feeling that when she left the ranch Sunday night after Rowdy won, her f
ather would be more angry about losing a free bookkeeper than a daughter.
When they arrived at the rodeo, she stood just behind him listening to the men talk and hoping to learn something that might help Rowdy. As usual, no one noticed her.
After an hour, Laurel moved behind the row of wagons and buggies pulled in a circle. She’d sat quietly waiting for her chance. Finally, her father had stepped into a crowd of men who were placing bets on a horse race to be run in the morning and passing around a bottle. Her sisters were flirting with half a dozen cowhands who’d stopped by for a cool drink from the pitcher of lemonade in the back of their rig. No one would miss her.
She found Rowdy off by himself in the shadows of a barn. Since he’d drawn bronc riding as his first challenge, he’d be part of the last group to compete.
Without a word, she moved beside him, leaned her back on the barn only a few inches from his arm and handed him a canteen. She could feel the tension in his body.
“A fellow named Dan O’Brien offered to ride drag for me during the calf roping.”
“He’s all right, I guess,” she said without looking at Rowdy. “He owns a little farm to the south of here.” She hesitated, then added, “I’m not sure he’s much of a cowhand. I think he raises mostly hogs at his place.”
“I’ve already told him I’d trade the favor off for him. He only entered calf roping, so he must feel like he can handle his own.”
Laurel nodded once. “All right.” She could have suggested a few others who might have been better, but he hadn’t asked.
While he drank, she decided to tell him what she knew before he made another mistake, “I’ve been watching the black you drew for tonight. He goes to his left more than his right and fires up easy even in the pen. I think you should—”
“I know how to ride,” he snapped as if resenting her advice. “I’m no greenhorn.”
Silence hung still and heavy between them.
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