“Honestly, when I’m not with you, your sisters keep me well occupied. I’ve not had much time to speak with her.”
“I’m certain you will eventually.” A bird skittered out of the trees and disappeared into the colors of the mountain peaks. Only then did he notice the non-evergreen trees were painted in yellows and orange near the peaks. “It looks like fall is going to be here soon. I’m probably going to have to leave to help my father gather cattle. Will you be okay staying alone on the ranch?”
“I won’t be alone. Your family will keep me well occupied. And I’ve got some letters to send out.”
“When I get back, I’ll show you the swimming hole. Before it gets too cold down here in the valley.” He moved his horse closer to hers, and bent toward her, pulling her in for a kiss.
She tensed at first, but after only a second melted into the moment.
It seemed like forever since he’d felt her warm lips beneath his in his room, and she’d drawn back since the meeting with his father. He needed to remind her, and maybe himself of what they had between them.
He straightened once more, and Victoria tipped one side of her mouth back in a smile. “You can only bring me to the swimming hole if we can go alone. Without your sisters or brother.”
“Deal.” The sparkle in her chocolate eyes sent heat down past his stomach and made him hard. No woman had ever made him think of nothing but her the way Victoria did. Wall was a bachelor. A cowboy. A pugilist. A Devil May Care. One of the men the Missoulian had called ‘touched in the head’ for what he did as a job. But he turned into a ninny whenever Victoria gave him one of her genuine smiles.
Wall was lost to Victoria.
Chapter 16
“Will you be okay with my sisters today?” Wall slid a nervous glance toward the four Adair women standing innocently next to Victoria. They were anything but innocent. Trouble followed them like a swarm of bees to a boy with a honey-covered stick.
“I’m certain she’d be better taken care of with us than following you around out there in the mountains.” Willa waved toward the peaks of the range behind their homestead.
“I’ll be fine,” Victoria said. “Are you certain you had enough coffee this morning? I only saw you drink one pot at breakfast.”
Wall chuckled at the memory of her face earlier when she’d watched him at breakfast. Clearly not impressed by his ravenous ways…at least where food and coffee were concerned. “Jax helped. We’ll be home by sundown.”
They planned to round up the first of the cattle to bring to lower ground before fall set in, and with it snow. They did this twice a year. The first to bring the cows up to summer range, and the second to bring them down closer to the house for the winter.
When Victoria talked the other day about the cold mornings, she hadn’t realized how right she’d been. In his world, this meant a change in the ranch operation. One from haying, breeding and calving, to health checks and fighting off the fierce hand of winter.
And an early crisp meant an early snowfall. Which after last year’s lack thereof, was a great reprieve from the fires and destruction a dry winter brought.
Jax mounted his horse, and his father, the Lazy Heart cowhands, and Pappy sat impatient on their own horses.
The ride to the summer range would give Wall the needed time to talk to his father. Convince him to at least give Victoria his blessing in her fight for lumber from the townsfolk.
After they left Old Man Jones’s they were met with nothing but rejection. Most of which were based solely on his father’s stance on the matter. When a man such as Hamilton Adair runs a town, and the people of the town are happy with the way things are going. They will do nothing to upset the balance they’ve created. That much Wall knew. Especially seeing as he was expected to take his father’s place as overseer of Hartland once his father passed the torch on.
Wall tipped his hat at Victoria as they rode away, but his heart felt as though it stayed behind. He felt a hollowness growing the farther he rode away from her.
How was he going to do this? Let her go. He didn’t want to. Wouldn’t if he could find any other way.
He now knew what he needed to do to save her. To also save Great Mountain and the town of Bonner Montana, and all who depended on the mill. But a part of him wanted to be selfish and keep her for himself. To hell with the rest of the world.
He needed to leave his job as a Devil May Care boy, and retire back home as nothing but a cowboy. Send Victoria on the train home—once Garrett gets the rails to Hartland—to run her business in Bonner. What he wished she’d do is let go of everything and run to him, to the Lazy Heart. Forever.
Chances are they’d never see each other again. For aside from the occasional visit to the lumber site, once Victoria secured the trees needed to rebuild Great Mountain, she had no reason to come back to Hartland.
And in order for him to get her the needed land, all he had to do was come home.
Wall’s horse adjusted his gait as he drew even with his father.
“You play a hard game, old man.” Wall let one hand rest on his thigh and the other gripped the reins.
“You know what you have to do.”
The cowhands, Jax, and his pappy bounded up a hill with their horses, leaving Wall and his father to talk in peace, as their own horses took the hill.
“I’m not saying I’m going to, but were I to accept your terms, would you back Victoria with the townsfolk?”
His father gave a single nod. “Yep.”
“So you don’t have a problem with her taking lumber in the valley?”
“What those folks do with their land is of no business of mine.”
“Would you rent her two sections of the Lazy Heart to harvest?”
“No. I can’t do that, son. I’ve already got a contract with Boilson Mines in the works. If we lend out all of our land, what’s left for the cattle?”
“What sort of contract?”
“They’re a mining company, aren’t they?” His father looked at him as if his head were made of lead.
“Not in this valley.”
“Well, they will be.” His father slowed his horse, and stood in the saddle to watch as his brother and pappy drew even farther ahead. “Boilson and I have entered into a little partnership recently. I discovered some shine in Northfork Creek. Since I’ve already got my hands full running the ranch and Hartland, I need a partner for the gold.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before?”
His father gave a tense chuckle. “I wanted to make certain it was a real strike before I went and told anyone. Pappy doesn’t even know.”
“And now you’re confident it’s real?”
“Real as the land we’re riding on now belongs to Lazy Heart.”
“Are you going to tell the family?” Wall struggled to make sense of the information. In all his life on the ranch, his father had always grown and succeeded in everything he’d done. Which was why he was now one of the biggest cattle barons Wall knew.
But gold?
“I’ll tell them when Miss Victoria is gone. No use having an outsider in on family business before the rest of the town even knows.”
“Victoria isn’t an outsider.” His heart beat as the ramifications of his next words raced through his head. “I aim to marry her.”
“Well, now, how do you expect to live with a woman like that out here? Is she going to pick up an entire mill and move it out to the middle of nowhere like some traveling merchant?” His father’s face turned gray, and he frowned. “Or do you intend to defy the family. Betray everything you’ve been taught. Have been forged to be, and move to the city?”
“Bonner is hardly a city, and I don’t even know if she’ll have me yet.”
“Get the idea out of your head, son. Give up and come home, and I’ll back your woman with the townsfolk. I’ll even
ride to their farms with her, but I won’t give her any Lazy Heart land.”
“What about north of Lazy Heart?”
“That’s unchartered. Wild. And already claimed by the government.”
“What’s your aim there?”
“What do you mean?” A heifer came into view, and his father turned his horse toward the animal.
Wall waited to speak. Helping as they rounded the frightened animal up and began to push her with their horses the way they wanted her to go.
Once settled at a slow enough pace, Wall caught his father’s eyes once more. “Nichols. What’s your hold on him? What do you stand to win from leading him like a green gelding?”
“Representative Nichols is a friend of mine who I happen to enjoy a good cigar with every now and then when he’s in town. If he happens to want to help me out on suggestions I have during our social time, that’s on him.”
“Like forcing me home by destroying the mill?” Wall said. Ahead of him, his brother and pappy wrangled a few other head of cattle and guided them into the growing herd.
“Oh, now, son.” His father waggled his finger like Wall was a boy again. “I did no such thing. All I did was play a little politics. That business I hear about the sabotage and whatnot wasn’t me.”
“No. A man named Luther and his father did that to gain a footing with the local politicians so they could control the local government timber contracts. You are broadening your horizons to include the entire territory of Montana.”
“Only the area that is of interest to me.”
“I’ll come home when I’m ready. Whether you force me to or not.”
His father leaned over as their horses kept walking, and slapped him on the shoulder. “Well, it’s time to be ready, son. Pappy’s got the town, I’ll be working the mining partnership, and I need you to take over the ranch. I can give you until spring. After which, we can’t do without you.”
Wall inclined his head, but the muscles between his eyes ached. He didn’t have a choice, but at least he had some time. “What do you think about bringing the railroad to Hartland?”
“Hartland isn’t important enough for the railroad. I’ve been trying to get a line out ever since they brought the tracks into Montana. If you can get an engine to run through here, you’re a better man than I am.”
“Not me. Victoria.” Wall grasped the reins tight in his gloved hand, waiting for his father’s response. He wasn’t quite certain whether his father disliked Victoria for who she was, or what she stood for.
To his amazement his father simply huffed. “I suppose you’re expecting me to argue?”
“It had crossed my mind.”
“You don’t know me at all, son. I’m not one to put my pride above progress for Hartland. If Miz Victoria has success where others have failed, then I applaud her gumption.”
“But you don’t think she can do it?”
His father shrugged. “All I know is I haven’t been able to get the rails to Hartland in all the years I’ve been running this town.”
His horse skittered to the side and neighed, jerking his attention away from the topic. To his left, his father’s did the same as the few cattle they’d collected began to fight to run in the opposite direction.
“What is it?” he called to his family as they struggled to keep the cattle under control.
Pappy motioned into the trees. “Grizzly!”
Wall turned as the muscles in the giant bear’s shoulders dipped and shuddered as he swiped at something on the ground. His growl reverberated through the trees as the shrieking screech of the weak creature beneath his massive body cried out.
“Let’s go!” his father ordered. “Get the cattle to a safer meadow, and check for more higher up the hillside.”
Wall took one last look at the powerful beast, and followed his family, pushing the cattle as he went. He’d seen bears before. What man, or woman, living in Montana hadn’t?
But this one was ferocious. Starving, and late at getting his winter’s worth of fat stores. A place like this wasn’t meant for a woman. Wasn’t meant for Victoria, and he lived barely on the outskirts of the mountain. Still well within this grizzly’s territorial range. He could have just as easily come down to the homestead to find a meal to keep him through the hard winter ahead.
Did he really want to ask a woman like Victoria to live in a place like this? Especially when she was used to having the safety of her mill yard cocoon her like the butterfly she was.
At least he had a few more weeks to figure out what to do. Right now, he needed to concentrate on the cattle, and the safety of his family and their livestock.
* * * *
Victoria slipped on the tough leather gloves Willa had lent her the first day she’d gone out and about on the ranch, and listened to Wall’s sisters bicker over which one would be first to enter the pen. She had no clue what they were about to do, but Willa promised it would be exciting.
By Georgiana’s sunken posture, and Bethany’s triumphant smile, the elder sister had won the squabble.
“Okay.” Willa grabbed Victoria’s hand and towed her to a spot along the fence. “When I yank up the divider you get ready to use this board to shove Frank left. He won’t want to go. He’ll want to go right with all of the others, but he can’t. Got it?”
“I think so.” Victoria took the wide planked board. She still wasn’t certain who exactly Frank was, or why she was shoving him to the left. She gathered he was an animal of sorts, but the line of fence where they stood lead to the barn. And in the barn housed the horses, some milk cows, a few pigs, a goat, and some very entertaining chickens. Frank could belong to any of them.
“Frank’s a mean one, and he’s tough,” Willa said. “You gotta get wide and low and use the board to shove him over. Don’t let him knock you down or he’ll run right over you.”
“I’ll be behind you if you need me,” Layla offered, and ducked through the wood fence to take up a spot.
Victoria steeled herself and followed Layla through, taking a spot at the fence junction, and adjusted her board in her hands to angle it toward the other opening.
“Don’t duck away!” Bethany trudged past her into the line of corral where they’d intended Frank to go.
“Where’s Georgiana?”
“She’s at the end to secure the gate.”
“Oh.” Victoria jumped as Frank thumped behind the long wooden divider where he waited.
“Ready?” Willa shouted?
Victoria nodded as the other’s shouted out their response.
To her dismay, Willa didn’t even bother to count before she lifted the divider, and the biggest pig she’d ever seen came charging out from his holding.
“Get low!” She heard one of the girls shout.
She obeyed, and held her board tight, hoping it would make her look stronger to the pig. The beast had to be up toward six hundred pounds. Frank charged straight toward her, not the least bit deterred by her board.
“Shout at him!” another sister suggested.
“Pig!” Victoria shouted, not knowing what else to say. “Go away!”
Somewhere in the distance of her focus, she half heard Wall’s sisters laugh, and she couldn’t help but laugh at herself as well. Even with the adrenaline coursing through her fingertips as she gripped the board.
As if he noticed a weakness in her, Frank’s black, beady eyes met with hers, and he charged. Her whole body went numb the closer he got.
“Go away!” she yelled so hard her throat scratched.
Her mind screamed for her to duck out of his way, but Willa shouted. “Shove him!”
Victoria bent down to use her shoulder behind the board when Frank jammed his snout straight into her exposed thigh, causing instant pain to erupt up her leg and hips. At the same time, she shoved. He staggered a bit, but butted agains
t her again.
She wasn’t down. Hadn’t lost to the pig so she pushed again and again. Fighting with the animal until she inched him toward the open length of corral where they’d intended him to go.
Seeing the opening, the animal gave up and ran toward Bethany.
Once Frank was well away from her, Victoria stood straight to watch his progress, only to see Bethany step to the side as Frank drew close to her.
Like a cowboy in one of those rodeos she’d seen at the county fair, Bethany swung her leg over the top of Frank’s back, and rode the beast down the length of the corral until she reached Georgiana. Once there, she leapt off and into the mud as Georgiana slammed the gate shut to the corral where Frank would stay for the time being.
“What in blue hell?” Victoria never swore, but the moment warranted the words. She wouldn’t call Wall’s sisters ladies of the first water, but they were certainly ladies. What she experienced just now with them was perhaps the most dirty and exhilarating moment of her life. And it involved a giant pig named Frank.
If she wasn’t careful, she might start to turn into a filthy cowboy. If she hadn’t already, because frankly these last few weeks at Wall’s home were perhaps the best ones she’d ever experienced in her entire life.
“You can have next turn,” Layla said as she brushed by and headed toward her sisters.
“I think I’d rather not.” Victoria rushed to catch up, dragging the board along as she went.
“Suit yourself. It’s quite fun. Even I enjoy a good ride on old Frank, and I’m the one who hates to work the animals with the men.” Layla stopped next to her sisters, and then dipped down to step out of the corral. “Now we get to help Ma.”
“Why’d we have to move Frank?” Victoria asked, following Layla’s path through the fence as the other girls found their way out as well.
Bethany dusted the mud off her split skirt, a grin still stretched across her face. “When the men are gone it’s up to us to take care of the chores around here. Frank’s a bully. He broke through his holding pen and into the main pig pen. He started tearing up some of the other pigs so we had to put him in the bigger one until Pa comes home to fix it.”
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