“We are all God’s children, Miss Carson. And like any good father, He cares for His children.”
“Your faith is strong.”
He cocked a brow, as if asking, “And yours isn’t?”
The tipi’s opening flapped back, and the doctor crawled out. He rose and pushed his fist in the small of his back. The man Conall had called Edward Scott ambled toward them. Wrinkles creased his leathery skin and bags rested beneath kind brown eyes. “Your sister’s ankle is broken, but I fully expect her to recover and be able to use it again, providing she stays off it for the next month or so. No walking.”
Thoughts stampeded across her mind faster than an elk fleeing a hungry wolf. That meant no tree climbing. No hiding from strangers. And keeping their active sister off her feet would be no easy task.
“You understand?” Dr. Scott raised his voice.
Mattie nodded.
“Good. I set and wrapped your little sister’s foot and ankle. Don’t remove the binding, even if she complains about it. I’ll come back and check on it in a week. I left your sister Millicent some laudanum to give Jessamine for the pain.”
“Thank you.” Mattie ducked her head. She hadn’t gotten used to being in one man’s presence, much less two. If only her father were here. What would he do if he were? She suddenly realized she owed the doctor for his services. “I have no money, but I do have a deer I killed this morning. Will you take that as payment?”
He nodded, and Mattie relaxed, even though losing the deer meant they had no meat for today and no hide for Jess’s pants.
Milly exited the tipi. “If you can wait around for a little while, Doctor, I’ll prepare some coffee for you and a bite to eat.”
He glanced up at the sky. “Thank you, but I should be getting home. Looks like we’re in for a toad strangler tonight.”
A heavy rain would only make hunting and tending Jess more difficult, but there was little Mattie could do about that. “If you’ll follow me, Doctor, I’ll take you to the deer. It should be bled out by now.” Mattie waited for his nod then started up the path to where she’d hung the deer. Like her father had taught her, she never hung a carcass near their camp in case a wolf or bear caught the scent and came hunting for it.
“Conall,” she heard the doctor say, “be seeing you around.” Hoofbeats soon followed her, and ten minutes later, she reached the spot where the deer hung. She climbed the tree, untied the rope, and then lowered down the carcass. The deer would have fed them for several days—longer if they’d been able to make jerky, but now she’d need to go hunting again. Unless she found something before the rains came, supper tonight would be slim fare.
“I don’t hardly feel right taking the whole deer.” The doctor dismounted and rubbed his whiskers.
“You said you have to return. You will earn it.”
He studied her for a moment then nodded. He secured the carcass behind his saddle then remounted. After a tip of his hat, he reined his horse back up the path and soon disappeared through the trees.
Mattie blew out a sigh then walked down to the clearing to check on the horses. She untied the hobbles on each one and led them to the creek to drink and then to a new patch of winter grass. With Jess injured, she and her sisters would have to stay here longer than they’d planned. She needed to build some kind of enclosure rather than keeping her horses hobbled, but Conall Donegan had said this was his land. How would he feel about them living on it for a month? But what choice did they have?
If he wanted them off his land, she could build a travois for Jess to ride on, since sitting on the back of a horse would probably cause her ankle to hurt with all the flopping around it would do.
She rechecked the hobbles, making sure her horses were secure, then walked back to camp. Conall was gone, but his sister and brother had arrived—and a delicious aroma made her stomach complain of its emptiness.
Milly smiled and rushed to her side. “Glynna Donegan has brought us some stew.” She wrinkled her forehead. “She called it Bubble and Squeak, such an odd name for the cabbage and potato mixture, but it does smell tasty.”
Mattie stared at Glynna’s backside as the woman stirred the pot cooking on a new campfire someone had built. She wondered how Glynna managed to keep from catching her wide skirt on fire. Mattie frowned, glad she didn’t have to mess with all that fabric. Climbing a tree would be nearly impossible, as would sneaking through the woods or riding astride.
First, Brian Donegan had fetched Dr. Scott, and now his sister was cooking for them. Mattie didn’t like being beholden to the Donegan family. What would they require in exchange for the niceties they were doing?
Milly shook her shoulder. “Did you hear me?”
“Yes. How’s Jess?”
“Better. Resting.” Milly turned and watched Glynna then moved closer to Mattie. She picked up one of her braids and rolled it around her finger. “I wonder how my hair would look done up like Glynna’s. And don’t you love her dress? It’s the exact same color as a bluebird, and it’s so, so feminine.”
“Humph. Looks dangerous to me.”
“You’re impossible. You’ll never catch the eye of a man with that attitude.” Milly sighed. “I think we should take the Donegans up on their offer to stay with them. Jess would be warmer and much more comfortable in a soft bed than lying on furs on the ground.”
Mattie turned and caught her sister’s eye. They hadn’t known the Donegans a full day, and Milly was ready to take up their way of living. “We’re staying here unless they tell us we must leave their land. I’ll not be any more beholden to those people than we already are.”
“Then we should take Jess to a town and get a room in a boardinghouse.”
“No!”
“But—”
Mattie gave a quick shake of her head, cutting off her sister. “Pa left me in charge. We’re staying put.”
Spinning around, Mattie stomped off, in spite of how her stomach grumbled at leaving behind such enticing food. She’d find some dried berries or maybe catch a fish for dinner, but she wouldn’t touch the Donegans’ food.
Down at the creek, she sat on the bank holding a cane rod over the water. The wind had picked up, chilling her to the bone, and a few sprinkles dampened her hair. She had never felt so overwhelmed. The cheerless iron-colored sky mirrored her emotions, but Conall’s gentle encouragement that God cared what happened to them gave her a measure of hope. “God, are You really up there? Do You care about us like Ma used to say?”
Tears burned her eyes, even though she never cried, not even when she sliced her palm with her knife the first time she tried to skin a rabbit. “Show me what to do.”
Some time later, Mattie shivered and awoke to rain splattering her face. She wiped her eyes and realized she must have dropped the fishing pole after falling asleep. She would have to look for it tomorrow after the sun came out, since that pole held her last hook. Hurrying up the slippery path, she was thankful for her buckskins and how they shed water.
Just before she reached the tipi, the skies opened up. She dove under the flap covering the opening then set several stones along the bottom lip to secure it back into place. The warmth of the fire heated her back, stealing away the cold chill. Mattie squeezed what water she could from her braid then looked across the small fire at her sisters. All she could make out of Jess was the top of her head as she huddled under a heavy bearskin. Milly lay between Jess and the fire to protect their little sister, who tended to roll around in her sleep.
Rain pelted the outside of the tipi. The canvas walls lit up from lightning then went dark again. Mattie added several pieces of wood they’d collected earlier to the fire, warming her chilled flesh. Droplets of water fell down from the opening overhead and hissed as they hit the fire. Thankfully the rain came at an angle and not straight down, or they would have a lot more water to deal with. Mattie removed her muddy moccasins and crawled under an elk hide. She couldn’t help being a little envious of the Donegans and their cabin. Was s
he wrong to make her sisters stay here?
She yawned, exhausted from the stress of the day. Tomorrow she would have to endure the mud and go hunting again. Maybe tomorrow her father would return.
Conall rode into the Carsons’ camp and waved at one of the twins, who tossed an animal hide over a shrub. He hadn’t yet figured out how to tell them apart. The woman smiled. “Ah, Milly, right?”
“How did you know?”
He slid to the ground and tied his horse to a sapling. “You tend to smile, while your sister frowns at me.”
“Don’t think the worst of Mattie. She has a lot of responsibility with our father gone and now with Jess hurt.”
He picked up a wet hide from the pile on the ground and threw it over another skeleton of a shrub. “I see that last night’s rain got inside your tipi. I wondered about that, since you have a hole in the top.”
Milly nodded and brushed her hands together, glancing past Conall down the trail. “Is Brian coming to visit?”
Conall shook his head. “He’s mending some shakes that the wind blew off the roof during the storm. Wild, wasn’t it?”
Milly shrugged and smiled. “I slept through—at least until the rain started gushing through the hole and put out our fire.”
“How’s your sister?”
“Which one?”
Conall wanted to ask about Mattie, considering it was odd that he hadn’t seen her yet. “Is Jess faring well?”
Milly wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m worried about her. We got so much rain last night that it seeped under the tipi, and Jess’s hair was wet, as were her buckskins. She has a fever now, and I can’t get a fire going in the tipi because things are so damp.”
“You should bring her to our cabin. It’s warm and dry. Your sister can have my bed.”
Milly shook her head. “Mattie doesn’t want to leave here, in case our father returns.”
Conall considered what to say to sway the woman. The girl needed to be somewhere warm. “Do you always do what Mattie says?”
Shrugging, Milly stared off toward the trees. “Father put her in charge. I’m good at cooking, sewing—domestic things, but…” She picked up one braid and brushed the end of it across her lips. “Mattie is smart. That’s why Pa put her in charge, and it was the right choice. She can hunt, fish, track, and she doesn’t get flustered like I do.”
She was right. Mattie’s self-control was what attracted him to her—that and those intense blue eyes that seemed to stare right through a man’s soul and find him lacking. He wanted to prove to her that he could be trusted. “Try to talk her into bringing Jess to our place. We’re happy to have you. Brian and I can move to the barn—or maybe the dugout we lived in before building the cabin—so you won’t have to worry about us. Glynna would enjoy the company of other women. She gets lonely.”
He knew by Milly’s reaction that the words had hit home, and he also knew that she was more sympathetic of others’ feelings—yet another reason Mattie should be in charge. She wasn’t swayed by emotions.
He cleared his throat. “Where is Mattie?”
Cocking her head, Milly stared at him a moment, and then a knowing smile pulled at her lips. “She was out late, probably hunting since she gave our deer to the doctor, so she’s still resting. She came in sometime after I went to sleep.”
Conall didn’t like the idea of Mattie out after dark all alone. What if she a encountered a pack of wolves? Or one of the groups of cowboys or other men who often traveled through central Oklahoma Territory as they journeyed from Texas to Kansas?
His mother had drilled into them that a man cares for a woman, no matter what. But how was a man supposed to do that when the woman refused his help? Brain had asked that once, Conall remembered. “Shower her with kindness,” had been his mam’s response. Conall smiled. “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“Thank you for your assistance with the furs. They’re heavy when they’re wet.” Milly nibbled her lip and looked around. Her eyes brightened. “Would you have any dry wood we could use? Ours is almost used up, and what’s out here is soakin’ wet. I’d like to keep Jess warm.”
“I do have some—quite a lot, actually. I’ll return home and fetch it, and maybe by then Glynna will have some food ready to send.”
The flap on the tipi flew up and stuck to the wet side. Mattie climbed out, her hair mussed and in bare feet. She splashed over to him. “I can take care of my family.”
Conall wondered why Mattie found accepting their help so difficult. It’s what people out here on the prairie did. They survived by neighbor helping neighbor.
Mild-mannered Milly surprised him and took a step toward her sister, her expression hardening. “No, you listen, Matilda Carson. Jess woke up cryin’, wet with a fever. She needs to be some place dry. You don’t want her to get worse and d–die, do you?”
Mattie’s tanned skin turned pale, and her eyes widened. She stared at her sister for a moment then glanced at him. Conall smiled, hoping to dispel her fears. “She can have my bed, and my brother and I can stay—”
“I heard.” Mattie lifted her chin. “Why do you want to help us?”
Conall considered what to say that wouldn’t push her away. “Because we’re Christians, and it’s what people out here do. We have to help one another, or none of us would be able to make it.”
Mattie crossed her arms. “And what do you want in exchange?”
He blinked, trying to make sense of her question. He held out his hands. “Nothing. It gives us pleasure to know that we helped someone in need. My family wants to help yours, and we don’t expect a thing a’tall in return.” Conall winced at how his Irish accent was more prominent when he was flustered. How was it this stubborn snippet of a woman could agitate him when he was trying to do them a favor?
Mattie held his gaze. She twisted her lips up on one side, and a number of expressions crossed her pretty face. “Fine. We will stay with you, but we’re taking all of our belongings with us.”
Chapter 4
Where did she get those horses?” Brian nudged his chin toward the two large bays that pulled the Carsons’ belongings toward their cabin.
“From a leprechaun, if you ask me.” Conall leaned back against the barn and grinned. “It’s fascinating how they pack up that tipi and use the poles to make a travois.”
Brian nodded. “It’s good they brought the little girl to our cabin, although I don’t look forward to sleeping in the barn. I’ll miss my bed.”
“Maybe we should ask to borrow one of the Carsons’ bear hides to sleep on. Better that than getting poked by hay.”
“Be my guest. Can you just imagine what those must smell like? I’ll settle for a wool blanket or two.”
Conall pushed away from the barn, remembering the pungent odor of the hide he’d thrown over a bush earlier, and walked toward the Carson women. He’d offered to help pack up the tipi, but Mattie had insisted she and her sister could do it—and she’d been correct.
“How’s Jess?” one of the twins asked.
“Sleeping, last time Glynna looked in on her.”
He stared at the twins as they stood side by side. Their similarity was uncanny. The twin on the right—the one with a tiny mole under her left eye—blushed under his perusal, while the other scowled, and then he knew which was which. If Mattie ever smiled at him, he’d think she was Milly, but there was as much chance of that as there was that he’d find a pot of gold at the end of an Oklahoma rainbow.
“Do you want to set up the tipi again?”
Mattie eyed the sky. “It will be dark soon. We will lay out the lodge poles and spread the canvas across them for tonight.”
“Can we be of assistance?” Conall asked.
Mattie stared at him for a long moment, and he struggled to hold her gaze. He’d never met a woman like her. Strong, tenacious, beautiful. Finally, she nodded and turned back to her horse and began untying the long poles that held up the tipi. They clattered to the ground, and th
e horse that had pulled them didn’t flinch a muscle. How many times had the bay borne that load and had the poles dropped to the ground near his hooves?
Mattie lifted the end of one pole then glanced at him. “Where should we put it?”
He scanned the yard then pointed to the right of the house. A large open area close to one of the turned-under fields would work. “There.”
Mattie and Milly both dragged a ten-foot-long rod over to the place he’d indicated, dropped it, then returned for another. Conall grabbed three poles and placed them next to theirs. In just a few minutes, they had the posts all aligned and the tipi laid out across them.
Conall dusted his palms, rubbing them together. “See, an extra set of hands helps finish a task quicker.”
“Thank you for helping us.” Milly smiled. “I’m going to look in on Jess.”
“I’ll go, too,” Mattie muttered. She followed her sister then paused, looking back at him, and gave a brief nod.
He repeated the action, and much to his surprise, a tiny smile quirked at the corner of her lips. The difference was startling, and it stirred something deep in his gut. He stood taller as he watched her walk toward the cabin. How was it he was attracted to one twin and not the other when they so closely resembled one another?
He had wanted to marry for a long time, but until he had land and a home, he had little to offer a woman. Now he had both but found himself attracted to a woman dressed in buckskin britches whose home traveled on tree limbs behind a horse. He shook his head and walked back to the barn. The only reason Mattie had stepped inside his home was because her sister was injured and ill. He doubted she’d ever consent to living in a cabin, and he was foolish to allow his heart to stray in her direction.
Conall sat at the table, staring into his half-emptied cup of coffee. Mattie had shoveled down her breakfast and hurried out the door to who knew where. The woman drove him crazy. How was he supposed to protect her when she gallivanted alone all over the prairie?
He blew out a sigh. She didn’t want his protection, and he knew it, but was a man supposed to change his nature to suit one puny female? He had offered to go hunting with her, but she was used to being alone.
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