by Merry Farmer
“So how do you solve it?” She looked up at him like a student ready to be instructed by a master.
Something warm and bolstering flooded Luke’s chest. “Well.” He shrugged as though it was no big deal. “If they start stampeding in earnest, the first thing you’ve got to do is make sure there’s no major source of danger in the immediate area, no cliffs or rivers or such.”
“Uh huh. Then what?”
“Turn them to the right.”
“The right?” She balked, smiling as though he was joking.
“I’m serious. Get them to turn to the right and start running in a circle. Once they get all balled up, they’ll stop.”
“By running to the right?”
Luke shrugged. “Cattle don’t like turning to the left when they’re running.”
Eden burst into giggles. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Well, it’s true.”
“Oh, I believe you, but still.”
Off to the right, Travis called out, “Luke, watch your tail.”
Luke twisted to check behind him. Another couple of cows had veered off, but only by a bit. He turned back to Eden. “Think you can handle them?”
“I know I can.” She nodded, then wheeled her horse around to go after the strays.
The rest of the day passed in far more pleasant a manner than Luke ever would have imagined. The weather was holding, the herd was calm, and Eden was much more of a help than he could have imagined. By some miracle, his first day as a trail boss was going well. Pete, his adopted pa, would be proud. He even slept well when they set up their bedrolls and lay down under the canopy of stars. Eden camped out close to him, and crazy though it was, Luke was kind of glad she didn’t try to climb in his bedroll with him. With all his buddies around, that would have been about as awkward as things got.
Morning dawned clear and cooler than days had been. Eden got up before the men—well, all the men except for Travis—and had a load of bacon and a pot of beans cooking over the campfire as everyone else came awake. The scent alone was divine.
“You sure did pick a winner,” Mason said around a mouthful of breakfast as they prepared for the morning’s work.
“Maybe you should think about getting married yourself,” Eden answered his praise. “I knew a lot of girls back in Nashville who would love a life out here.”
Mason shrugged. “I can’t say as I’m ready to tie myself down yet.”
“Why?” Cody snorted. “What are you doing that requires not being tied down?”
Mason flushed. “Well, I could go off on an adventure any day.”
Cody laughed. Even Travis shook his head. “If Luke here can settle down with a woman, than anyone can,” he said.
Luke frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Come on.” Mike thumped him in the arm from his seat beside him by the campfire. “You’ve never exactly been the serious and responsible type.”
Before Luke could protest and insist that he was as responsible as any of the others, Cody rushed on with, “Well I’m sending away for a wife. I already told Mrs. Evans I wanted one the other day, right Luke?”
“And what did she say?” Mason drawled, as if he knew the answer.
Cody’s enthusiasm faltered. “She said she’d think about it.” He hopped up, face more than a little red, and marched his dishes over to Eden.
One by one, the men finished their breakfast and got down to the business of cleaning up camp and saddling their horses. Eden tidied up breakfast and stored things away in the supply wagon. Whether because he was embarrassed or just because it was his turn, Cody volunteered to drive the wagon for the day. Luke thought about asking Travis if Eden could have more time to clean up their food, but by the time he thought of it, Eden already had everything stored and secure and the fire doused and covered in dirt.
“Where’d you learn to clean a camp that fast?” he asked her as the two of them rode on the right flank an hour later.
“From my brothers,” Eden answered.
That was all she answered. There was nothing wrong with that explanation, but now that Luke had spent some time with his new wife, he was beginning to see that sometimes she didn’t look him in the eye when she told him something. Nothing else gave him the idea that she was uncomfortable, but the more he looked, the more that didn’t seem normal.
He had more cause to doubt as the sun rose to its zenith above them.
A commotion rose up from the cattle on the left flank. Luke and Eden both twisted and craned their necks to see what was going on. Billy managed to keep the cows on the left flank from spooking, but his shout of “Coyote! Coyote on the left!” set everyone on edge.
“Steer the herd away from it,” Luke called out on instinct, nudging Marshall into a faster walk.
“Keep them moving,” Travis echoed him from the front.
“I’ve got it.”
Luke pulled his horse to a stop in surprise at his wife’s call. He twisted to check on where he’d left her behind him, only to find her reaching for her rifle. She’d stored it in her saddle, and as soon as it was in her hands, she checked the magazine and raised it to aim so fast Luke could only blink.
Eden stood in her stirrups, drew in a breath, and narrowed her eyes. The rifle cracked as she fired a shot. Her horse jolted, but she moved as though she hardly noticed. Far across the other side of the herd, fifty yards away at least, a cloud of dust and shower of splinters filled the air as her bullet hit its mark dead center.
“That’s no coyote,” she shouted to the others.
“It’s some sort of dead log,” Travis agreed, then laughed. “You seeing things, Billy?”
The tension that had gripped them all dissolved into chuckles and teasing.
“It looked like a coyote,” Billy grumbled.
Whether it looked like a coyote or a log or an elephant, Luke was captivated by something else entirely. He slowed his horse, waiting for Eden to catch up. She still held her rifle…as if it was perfectly at home in her hands.
“Oh, wife of mine,” he began with a crooked grin. “Where did you learn to shoot like that?”
She shrugged, and once again answered, “From my brothers.”
Her eyes wandered out over the herd, brow knit in concentration. Luke saw it as the ploy it was. Curiosity bubbled through him like a stream after a storm.
“So, if you have brothers who were willing to teach you so much about surviving, how come you were in a home for women in danger?” he asked with a sly grin and narrowed eyes.
For the first time in the tumultuous thirty-six hours since they’d met, his wife blushed and stammered. “Well…I…sometimes a woman wants to be around other women and not a bunch of rough and stinky men.” That explanation bled right into, “Watch out, someone’s trying to get away.”
She nudged her mount to hurry after a cow that might have looked in the wrong direction, but who was in no more danger of straying than Luke was.
Luke rubbed his face, trying to decide if he should be alarmed or amused. It was too late now for him to give a fig about what Eden’s life had been before Hurst Home. He’d already married her, and she was proving to be exactly what he’d prayed for. But he sure did wish she’d come out and tell him who these brothers of hers were.
Well, shoot. The last thing Eden expected was to feel bashful about telling her new husband the truth. After a quick lunch, they hit the trail again. Travis had moved Luke to the back of the herd and spent a half hour imparting wisdom about what a leader looked for from that position. Eden shifted into position with them, but her mind was a thousand miles away.
She should have known better than to draw her rifle and show off her shooting. If she’d just waited a few more minutes, someone else would have seen that the “coyote” was a log, and she could have ridden on, cool as you please. But no, it’d been so long since she’d felt the smooth grain of wood encasing that cool, metal barrel that she couldn’t resist its siren call.
But that wasn’t half as alarming as the way she’d gone all squirrely when Luke started asking her questions.
If Luke knew the truth about her family, about who she’d been before escaping to Hurst Home, he wouldn’t like it. If he didn’t like that, he wouldn’t like her. He’d either pull away and spend the rest of his life resenting the fact that he’d married someone who misrepresented herself, or he’d get rid of her entirely. And Lord help her, she liked Luke. A lot. Which meant she wanted him to like her. A lot.
“Stop being such a girl,” Brent’s voice echoed in her head.
She frowned and clenched her jaw, nudging her horse to ride up beside Luke’s. Brent was hundreds of miles away. He didn’t know where she was. Even if he did, if he had managed to trace her to Hurst Home somehow, what could he possibly do about it? No, she was free of him and that life forever.
“Once you get your eye for the position, you’ll be able to spot trouble before it happens and direct your men to cut it off before it develops into anything.” Travis was still instructing Luke.
Luke nodded with intense concentration. “I got it.”
Eden had no doubt that he did. His shoulders were set and the angle of his chin as he scanned the herd was the picture of confidence. Eden’s heart thrummed with promise, knowing that he was her husband…and it shivered with worry over whether she would lose him for things that had happened years before meeting him.
Luke’s intent gaze tripped across her as he assessed the cattle, and he smiled. Smiled like a bullet shot clean through to her heart.
“Enjoying yourself?” he asked, maneuvering his horse so he could ride closer to her.
“In every way.” She did everything she could to look carefree.
“Were you paying attention to everything Travis said about riding back here in drag position?” He nodded to Travis, who still rode only a few yards away.
“Nope,” Eden admitted proudly. “I was too busy watching you.”
Luke blushed and lowered his head a tad. “Shucks, ma’am,” he teased.
He opened his mouth to say more, but from the left flank, a call of, “So, is Travis teaching Eden to be a trail boss now?” from Cody stopped him.
Luke frowned and sat higher in his saddle. “Show some respect,” he called back.
But before he finished, Billy was already adding, “Seems to me like Mrs. Chance would make a mighty fine boss.”
Billy and Cody laughed. Luke’s jaw hardened to the point where knives could be sharpened on it. He scowled like a thunderstorm.
“Never mind them,” Travis said, shaking his head.
Easier said than done, especially when Mike and Mason caught on from the right flank.
“I’d take orders from Eden any day,” Mike shouted with a laugh.
“Why, because she’s prettier than Luke?” Mason asked, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“No, because she’s tougher than him.”
Luke’s shoulders sagged and his expression drooped as the other cowhands burst into guffaws. The men riding point turned in their saddles to see what was going on, but, blessedly, didn’t get involved. Eden was sorely tempted to draw her revolvers and offer to shoot the next man who made a disparaging comment about her husband, but it would only have proved the point of the joke.
“I’ll go talk to them,” Travis said and nudged his horse to trot off to the left flank.
“You don’t—” Luke tried to stop him, but gave up. He let out a string of colorful curses under his breath.
Of all things, that made Eden smile. “Well, I’ll be, Luke Chance. What an amazing vocabulary you have.”
He glanced to her, shoulders still down, with only a wisp of a grin.
“Oh boy,” Eden sighed to herself. She inched her horse closer to Luke’s and touched his arm. “Why do you care what they think anyhow? They’re just a bunch of dumb cowpokes.”
Luke sent her a look that was so mournful she was tempted to laugh. “If they’re just a bunch of dumb cowpokes, then so am I.”
“I beg to differ.”
He arched a brow, staring at her with a wary look that said he assumed she was pulling his leg.
Eden hissed out a breath and shook her head. “Why let them get to you? You’re the one who was chosen to learn to be a trail boss, not any of them. And from what I’ve seen over the last few days, you know what you’re doing and then some.”
Luke shook his head, but halfway through a dismissive gesture, he stopped and stared at her for a long time. Eden could practically see the gears turning in his head before he let out a breath and said, “Half the time, I’m not sure if I really do know what I’m doing or if I’m just stumbling along, making things up.”
Eden had spent enough time around her brothers and their egos to know that Luke had just handed her the most precious gift he had to give, his pride. The importance of giving a good answer, an answer that would help her husband feel like a man, pressed down on her.
“Everything I’ve learned about you in the last two days tells me that you’re a fine man with a solid head on his shoulders,” she said. “Am I right?”
Luke winced. He slipped his hat off, wiped the sweat and dust from his brow with his sleeve, then put his hat back on. Finally, he answered. “As long as I can remember, I’ve been getting into trouble. I thought it was my job to keep the adults from thinking they could control me or hurt my family.”
“That’s right noble of you.” Eden nodded.
He glanced sideways at her in surprise. “Then, one day, I woke up and realized I was the adult. Only, everyone around me still expects me to get into trouble and cause a ruckus.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re actually a troublemaker or a…a ruckus-causer.”
“Exactly,” he barked, as if arguing the point. Then he let out a sigh. “But do you ever get folks telling you you’re one thing for so long that even though you know you’re not, you’re not sure who or what you actually are?”
Eden thought of her brother, Brent. She thought of the midnight escapes and the heists. She thought of scouting out towns and climbing up to the roofs of buildings with her rifle to cover her brothers when they snatched the loot and ran. Most of all, she thought of the pistol that had been cocked and aimed at her head when she put her foot down and told Brent she didn’t want to be like him anymore, that she wanted to live a godly life. She’d trusted in God and walked out in spite of his threats, praying that he wouldn’t come after her. He wouldn’t. She kept telling herself that.
“Yes,” she answered, barely above a whisper. “I know exactly how that feels.”
Luke shook his head, unable to see the turmoil of her past. “Sometimes I wonder if I really am capable of being a leader or if God planted me here on this earth to be…entertainment.”
The way he said it, the sorrow and defeat in his eyes as he considered the path he felt forced to walk, lit a fire in Eden’s gut that reached up and grabbed her heart. She’d felt forced to walk her path too, until she risked her life to run from Brent. It was the least these stupid, blind cowpokes with cow pies for brains could do to respect a man for realizing he could do better than be a joke. Luke had competence in spades. She admired him for it more than she would have guessed she would when she met him, and she could feel that admiration growing into something more.
“I tell you what,” she said with all the force of fire behind her words. “Any man who doesn’t see that you’re a born leader is a crying fool.”
Luke balked, but his back straightened. “You think so?”
“Sweetie, I know so,” she insisted. “From the second I stepped off that train, you’ve been arranging things and facing things head on and doing the jobs you’re meant to do, as a rancher and as a husband.”
A hint of a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth, and this time it stayed there. “Well, the husband things were a might easier than the rancher things.” The blush that kissed his cheeks was a reflection of the heated mischief that came to his ey
es.
“And I know you’ll continue to fulfill those particular duties to the very best of your ability.”
He chuckled, his blush deepening. “Kinda makes me wish we weren’t out on a drive right now.”
She giggled—giggled like a schoolgirl. It felt so good to let herself get swept up in something as ordinary as being sweet on a man. Not just a man, her husband.
“Next time you get to feeling like those lard-for-brains fools expect you to act like one of them, just remember you’ve got at least one person who thinks you’re the king of the castle.”
He puffed up with such pride at her simple comment that Eden’s throat squeezed tight.
“I appreciate that,” he said, voice gruff with emotion. “I can’t say there’ve been many people who showed that kind of faith in me.”
She grinned. “I can’t say I’ve met that many people who I’ve wanted to believe in.”
He glanced sideways at her, his grin tightening. For a moment, Eden worried she’d said too much. Luke narrowed his eyes, deep in thought.
At last, he said, “You sure you’re only just looking to be a rancher’s wife and mother of his children?”
She let out a breath on a laugh. “Sweetheart, you have no idea.” She wanted to be a safe wife and mother. Her eyes danced off across the herd, over the wilderness that they walked through, at the other cowhands. Anywhere but at Luke.
Luke hummed as though figuring out a puzzle. “One of these days, maybe you’ll put all your trust in me instead of just some of it.”
His words were quiet, thoughtful, and they stung. He knew she was holding back. Shoot, now she’d have to work out a way to tell him about her past. She just needed to find a way to do it that didn’t end with him hating her.
Chapter 7
In spite of the fact that Eden wanted nothing more than to settle down with a constant roof over her head, steady food on the table, and enough safety to bring babies into the world, as the next few days passed on the cattle drive, she enjoyed herself. There was a world of difference between riding out with her brothers—always hiding, always looking over her shoulder—and ambling along with Howard Haskell’s ranch hands, a clear job to do in front of them.