“Jog him a little bit,” Edward called out to the jockey. “Give him a chance to get used to you.”
The jockey let up on the reins, and Crusader took off like a shot.
“Not like that,” Edward shouted, but the jockey was already trying to rein Crusader in and the horse was fighting him every step of the way. The boy finally got him stopped, turned around, and headed back to the start of the trail.
“He’s got to stop fighting the jockey, or he’ll use up too much energy,” Hawk said.
Eden knew Edward was fully aware of just how much energy Crusader was using. He rode the horse every day, knew all of his quirks, his strengths, and his shortcomings.
“Try the start again,” Edward called to the jockey.
Things went a little better this time. Crusader was still restive, but he only backed up instead of turning around or tossing his head from side to side. He did try to pull the reins from the jockey’s hands, but when that failed, he seemed to calm down a bit.
“Walk him forward like you’re coming up to the starting line,” Edward called.
Crusader moved forward in a straight line but didn’t stop until the jockey pulled hard on the reins. Eden winced involuntarily because she knew that had hurt Crusader’s mouth and would make him even harder to handle.
“That’s enough,” Edward called. Eden could hear the anger in his voice. “Work him a half mile. Start when I drop my arm.”
The jockey eased up on the reins. When Crusader calmed down, Edward dropped his hand.
Rising up in the saddle, the jockey let out a loud shout and brought the whip down in a rapid tattoo on Crusader’s left hindquarter.
Chapter Fifteen
Stop!”Edward’s shout was drowned out by the thunder of Crusader’s hooves as he raced down the trail at a hard gallop, the jockey bending over his neck and hitting him with the whip at regular intervals. Crusader ran the entire distance fighting the jockey for control.
“There was no reason to hit him like that,” Eden said to Hawk. “The jockey doesn’t even know what the horse can do yet.”
“That’s how most jockeys ride, especially when leaving the start in a big race.”
“If he does it again, Edward will send him back to San Antonio so fast he won’t know how he got there.” She would have done the same had anyone punished Black Cloud like that.
They watched as Crusader reached the end of the trail and the jockey fought to turn him around. He came back at a slow gallop. Edward went to meet them. Eden couldn’t hear what was said, but she could tell Edward and the jockey were arguing. Edward turned and beckoned to them.
“What does he want?” Eden asked Hawk.
“I think he wants you.”
Eden pointed to herself, and Edward nodded.
When Eden reached them, Edward told the jockey to dismount, and took hold of Crusader’s bridle to calm the horse. “I want Eden to show you how to ride a horse you’ve never been on.”
“I’ve ridden in more than a hundred races,” the jockey said, outraged.
“I don’t care if you’ve ridden a thousand,” Edward snapped, still patting the restless animal. “You don’t know how to ride my horse. Maybe your style works on mules. I don’t know. I’ve never tried to ride one. Now get down.”
The jockey slid to the ground and stalked off about ten feet. Edward took a few more minutes to soothe Crusader before he turned to Eden. “Let me give you a leg up.”
Eden swallowed a protest. She had never ridden Crusader and had no idea if he would respond to her any better than he had the jockey. She wanted to ask Edward a hundred questions, any one of which would defeat the whole purpose of showing the jockey how to ride an unknown mount.
Eden settled in the saddle. The stirrups were a little short for her—she was taller than the jockey—but she decided not to change them. She gathered the reins and patted Crusader on the neck to reassure him. Edward let go of the bridle and stepped back.
“Bring him up to the line and get him to stand still,” Edward said to her.
“He doesn’t have to stand still,” the jockey said, “just stay pointed in the right direction.”
Employing everything she knew to calm a restive horse, Eden brought Crusader up to the line Edward had drawn in the sandy soil. The horse tossed his head when he felt the reins tighten. Eden kept a steady but gentle pressure until he finally settled down. Edward moved beside the sullen jockey and raised his hand.
“When I drop my hand, shake the reins at him and give a shout.”
Eden didn’t remember Edward shouting when they’d raced together. Would Crusader respond to such a loud noise? Would he respond to a woman’s voice? She didn’t have time to worry. Edward dropped his hand, and she followed his instructions exactly.
Crusader bounded forward with a speed she’d only associated with cow ponies. She’d barely gotten her balance when he was in full stride, pounding down the trail as if he hadn’t run a half mile just minutes ago. Eden was used to fast horses, but she’d never been on one with such a smooth stride. It was almost like sitting in a rocking chair as his hooves glided over the ground underneath her. Crusader didn’t want to stop at the end of the trail, but again gentle, steady pressure slowed him down enough to turn and begin to canter back toward Edward.
“That’s how it ought to be done,” Edward said to the jockey when he helped Eden dismount. “Do you think you can do it?”
Eden walked back to rejoin Hawk and Zeke. Together they watched the jockey remount Crusader. The horse remembered his previous treatment and it took a while to calm him down, but finally the jockey brought him up to stand at the starting line. This time the jockey did exactly what Edward said, and Crusader bounded away as before.
“He’s not running as fast for him as he did for you,” Hawk observed.
The jockey was riding hard, not urging as Eden had done.
“He’s expecting that whip again,” Zeke said.
Eden didn’t know if that was the case, but Crusader fought being pulled up, and he fought coming back to the starting line.
“I wish Edward hadn’t put you in the saddle,” Hawk said. “I’m afraid showing the jockey up has made him your enemy.”
A hand on her shoulder woke Eden out of a sound sleep. She opened her eyes to see Zeke standing next to her bed.
“I hate to wake you, but Suzette has had a really bad night. Hawk has decided to take her into San Antonio until she has the baby. He’s already sent Brady over to Ward’s house to ask him to meet us there.”
Eden struggled to get the cobwebs of sleep out of her brain. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, we hope, but we’re not doctors.” He laughed. “If she were a horse, we’d know what to do.”
“Does she need any help packing?”
“Josie is helping her.”
“Then you don’t need me getting in the way.”
“I’m taking Josie, too. All four of us are going.”
Eden sat up in the bed. “Is Josie having trouble?”
“No, but she doesn’t want Suzette to be alone.”
Eden didn’t understand how Suzette could be alone if Hawk was with her, but it was none of her business if Josie wanted to keep Suzette company. For all Eden knew, Josie could be just as worried as Suzette about having her first child.
“You’ve got to go home,” Zeke said.
Eden shook her head to clear the last of the cobwebs away. “Who’s going to look after the men?”
“They can look after themselves.”
Eden threw back the covers and reached for her robe. “Since when did you know three men who could be in the kitchen without one of them burning down the house?”
“They can cook over a campfire. Hawk and I did it for twenty years.”
Eden put her feet in her slippers and stood. “Until he came here, Edward had never even been in a kitchen unless he was visiting one of his tenants. He’d starve before he figured out how to boil water.”
&
nbsp; Zeke turned to leave the room. “He can eat what Finn and Brady eat.”
Deciding she didn’t have time to dress properly, Eden buttoned her robe and followed her brother. After making sure neither Josie nor Suzette needed her help, she told her brothers she intended to stay at the ranch until they returned.
“You can’t do that.” Hawk didn’t look at Eden when he spoke but kept his attention on his wife. “Jake won’t let you.”
“I’m not a child. I can take care of myself.”
“You don’t have to convince us,” Suzette said with her sweet smile, “but I expect your parents will have something to say about that.”
“They won’t know,” Eden said.
“Hawk sent Edward to tell them that we’re leaving,” Suzette said. “Your father will be here shortly.”
Eden didn’t intend to be bundled off home like a little girl. Her parents had given her a job to do, one she intended to see through to the end.
Hawk handed Suzette down the steps and helped her mount up. They’d decided traveling by horseback would be more comfortable than bouncing all the way to San Antonio in a wagon. “Whatever you decide is okay with us.”
As Eden watched them disappear down the trail—Finn was going along to bring the horses back—she was already cataloging her reasons why it would be best for her to stay at the ranch. She had no intention of telling anyone the most important reason. She hadn’t quite admitted it to herself yet.
“You can’t stay here,” her father said. “Your mother wouldn’t hear of it.”
“If Mama had been that upset, she’d be here herself.”
Anticipating that her father and Edward would be hungry, Eden had prepared a late breakfast for them. Edward flashed a smile of genuine appreciation, but her father had been only slightly interested in food.
“Your mother went to stay with Pete and Anne for a few days. With the twins starting to teeth early, and Mary Anne determined to get her hands on everything within reach, Anne has her hands full.”
“Stop trying to make me go home to take care of you,” Eden said, pouring her father some more coffee. “Junie Mae can’t do enough for you.”
“Junie Mae is a fine woman, but she’s not you or your mother.”
“Then you’ll just have to suffer until Mama gets back.” Eden sat down with her own cup of coffee. “It’ll do you good. You’ve had it soft for a long time.”
Jake spent the next five minutes explaining to his daughter why running a ranch wasn’t easy even for a young man, not that Jake would admit to being old.
“If it’s such a hardship, why don’t you come stay with me?” Eden suggested. “You could make sure the boys are taking proper care of Hawk and Zeke’s horses.” Eden was pleased to see the twinkle in Edward’s eyes.
“I’ve known you for a long time, young woman,” Jake said with a deep laugh, “and I know when you’re trying to get something by me.” After a couple of kidding exchanges, Jake turned serious. “You can’t stay in this house alone with all this stuff going on at the ranches,” Jake said. “We’ve had more cut fences, more dead cattle, and one of Sean’s barns was set on fire. He lost most of his hay for the winter.”
“Do you have any idea who’s doing this?” Edward asked.
“None,” Jake said. “The family lives so close together, practically all the land is Maxwell land for miles around. We can’t figure out how the men are getting in and out again. It’s a chilling thought to believe several people are involved, but the attacks are too far apart for it to be a single person.”
“Do you know why they’re doing it?”
“They seem to be trying to annoy us more than anything else. And it is us because they’ve hit nearly every ranch in the family.”
Eden remembered thinking that someone had been spying on her earlier but decided not to mention it. She was certain it was the owner of another racehorse.
“I can’t have you stay in the house by yourself,” Jake said. “Someone could break in while you were asleep.”
“Then one of the men could stay here with me. What about you, Edward?”
Edward choked on his food.
“Why did you choose Edward?” Jake asked.
“You know him better than Brady, and Finn won’t be back until tomorrow.” Eden hoped her father couldn’t tell her stomach was turning somersaults, or that she’d dropped her hands into her lap because they were shaking too much to pick up her coffee. “You wouldn’t mind, would you?” she asked Edward.
He washed his food down with a swallow of coffee before answering. Eden wondered if he was giving himself time to come up with a graceful way to refuse.
“Where would I sleep?” he asked. “I’d feel uncomfortable sleeping in either Josie or Suzette’s beds.”
“They wouldn’t care,” Eden said. “If it really bothers you, I’ll sleep in one of their rooms, and you can have mine.”
“I don’t think that would be much better,” Edward said, his voice tight, his gaze fixed on Eden and avoiding Jake.
“Then you could sleep on the couch or use your bedroll,” Eden said. “It doesn’t matter as long as you are in the house.”
Jake looked from one to the other. “Am I missing something here?”
“I’m not the best person for this,” Edward said. “I don’t know much about Texans yet.”
“You don’t have to know much,” Jake said. “If anybody breaks in, shoot first and ask questions later. If they can’t answer, well, they should have knocked first.” Jake’s gaze focused on Edward. “You’re not going to go all funny on me, are you? I know you English are peculiar about the way you treat women, but just use your common sense. If you have any questions, ask Eden. She’ll know what to do.” Apparently thinking the situation had been resolved, Jake got to his feet. “I’d better be getting back. I don’t want Junie Mae having to hold supper. Scott likes to eat with me.”
Not having Will to spoil any longer, her parents had turned all their attention on Junie Mae’s son. Scott was such a sweet little boy, it was hard not to make much over him.
“Are you sure you’re okay with me staying here?” Edward asked.
“Are you afraid of Eden?” Jake asked. “Because if you’ve got something in mind, you ought to be.”
Eden was stunned to see Edward flush. “I was asking if you were worried I might have something in mind.”
“Not a bit. You’re so tied in knots by your gentlemanly principles, you’d strangle before you laid a finger on her. You also know if you tried anything, there’d be more than a dozen Maxwells ready to cut your heart out.”
“Dad!” Eden didn’t think Edward had a cowardly bone in his body, but there was no need to threaten him with the entire family.
“Just making sure he knows the score,” Jake said. “Now I’ll leave you to decide where you sleep. If I were you, I’d take Josie’s bed. That woman likes to be comfortable.” He patted Eden’s shoulder, and left.
If Eden hadn’t been so irritated at her father, she’d have been amused by the look on Edward’s face.
“Your father has a lot more faith in my gentlemanly principles than I do,” he said.
“Were you thinking about seducing me?”
“No, but I was thinking about another kiss.”
The twinkle was back in Edward’s eyes. Eden could feel answering butterflies in her stomach. “Dad wasn’t talking about kisses. We like our men to be a little forward. It lets us know they’re really interested. And if any man asks my father if he can marry me before he finds out what my feelings are, he won’t get the answer he’s looking for.”
Edward’s smile grew broader. “It’s a good thing you didn’t grow up in England. You’d have been utterly miserable.”
“I’d have run away like you did.”
That was the wrong thing to say. The wounds were too recent, too deep. She might complain that her life was going nowhere, but Edward must feel his life had nowhere to go. She stood. “Do you want somethi
ng else to eat?”
“I’ve had plenty.” He stood without any thought of taking his plate to the sink. He might be in Texas, but he still thought like an English gentleman.
“If you see Brady, tell him I’ll have supper ready about six,” Eden said as she picked up the plates. “If he can’t be back by then, I’ll save him something.”
“What if I can’t be back?”
“Then you’ll both have a cold supper. I don’t intend to be cleaning up in the kitchen at nine or ten o’clock.”
“In England I didn’t eat dinner until eight. If I went to a ball, we’d have supper after midnight.”
Eden poured some warm water from the stove in to the sink with the dirty dishes. “Well, this is Texas, and supper comes early. If you aren’t in bed long before midnight, you’ll never be in the saddle at dawn.”
Edward took a last swallow of coffee. “Are you trying to be as tough a boss as Zeke and Hawk?”
“We’re all Maxwells. We learned from the same man.”
Edward handed her his cup. “I guess this is good practice for running your own ranch.”
She didn’t want to think of the day her parents would be dead and she’d inherit the Broken Circle, nor did she want to think she would still be unmarried without children of her own. That vague feeling of disorientation, of wandering about without a destination in view, threatened to settle around her, but she shrugged it off. What she couldn’t shrug off was the feeling that Edward was stepping back, moving away from her rather than closer. Had his kisses been nothing more than a friendly way of saying he enjoyed her company? They hadn’t felt that way, but now that the two of them were alone, it felt like he was putting distance between them.
“I don’t know what my future holds, but I don’t intend to run a ranch. I’m not even sure I want to be a rancher’s wife,” she confessed.
“I’d better get going,” Edward said, making no comment on her admission. “With Zeke and Hawk gone, there’ll be more than enough work for the three of us.”
Texas Loving (The Cowboys) Page 18