The Shepherd's Daughter (Dry Bayou Brides Book 1) (5 page)

No, her mind wasn’t on her work.

There’s nothin’ to do for it but keep on goin’, finish up, and get into town.

She’d been invited to luncheon at Tilly’s house, and she didn’t want to miss Tilly’s sister, Dora’s, sandwiches and sweet tea.

Besides, the further she could get from the ranch, the better. She didn’t think she could face Billy and his new bride today.

She mounted Fitz, her mare, and headed into Dry Bayou proper. It only took her forty-five minutes to get to Tilly’s.

“You’re going to warp the leather, twisting it all up like that,” Tilly said, staring at the strands of leather twisted around Ray’s fist.

They’d had lunch and were now working on something Tilly called “fripperies”. Tilly, as usual, was knitting a delicate strip of lace she’d later sell at her parents’ store, but Ray was trying, and failing, to make a leather bracelet from thin straps of leather and one of Billy’s old belt buckles.

She’d started the thing a week ago, hoping to give Billy something special for his birthday next month—but that was before yesterday, when everything changed. Ray stared down at the mess in her lap and heaved a sigh. She threw the pile on the table between her and Tilly, and crossed her arms.

“What’s the point anyway? He’s gettin’ married. He don’t need my silly old bracelet. His new wife can knit him socks or sew him shirts or patch his boots—everythin’ I can’t do.”

Tilly blinked at Ray and gently placed her lace on the table beside Ray’s half-made bracelet.

Tilly Mosier was the youngest daughter of the town mercantile and her other best friend—well, her
only
friend besides Billy. Though Tilly would disagree, she was pretty, with her long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, an angel with a devilish side. Also, Tilly was the smartest and most forthright woman Ray knew—and she happened to be amazing with her hands. She drew designs of handbags, lace, and embroidery embellishments for old dresses, and then sewed what she drew.

“I thought you’d be happy for Billy—him finding a nice lady to marry.”

Tilly was right, Ray should be. But she wasn’t. She was angry and didn’t know why.

“Why would I be happy about some trollop comin’ into town and takin’ my Billy from me?” Ray gasped with horror once she realized what she’d just said. “
Aw-dingit
! I didn’t mean to say that.” She buried her face in her hands and groaned.

Tilly let out an excited noise and Ray looked up. Tilly had a huge smile on her face. “Why you…you love Billy!”

Ray shot up from her seat and turned away, her mind racing to catch up to Tilly’s words. “Nah, that ain’t it,” she denied, her heart climbing into her throat.

She heard Tilly get up from her chair and come to stand behind her. “You. Love. Billy. My gawt, why didn’t I see this coming?” Her voice was an awed whisper. “You love Billy and you’re jealous of this new woman.”

Ray spun and pinned Tilly with an angry glare. “Why do you keep sayin’ that? I don’t love Billy, not like—not like you’re implyin’. He’s my best friend, has been since we were kids. That’s all it is.” She said the words but suddenly didn’t believe them.

Tilly smiled bigger and Ray immediately despised her friend’s too-cheerful, gloating face. “I’m saying it because it’s true. Sure, you two were friends growing up, always together, heads always bent close over some slimy animal. It’s understandable that you would grow to love him.” Tilly placed her hands on Ray’s shoulders and forced her to look her in the eyes. “He’s handsome as sin, kind, and hardworking—it isn’t too hard to see why.”

Ray thought back on all the years she’d known him. All the scrapes they’d fallen into, all the times they’d lay in the hay loft and talk about their dreams, and all the times she’d watched him leave for home at the end of the day and wish he could stay with her forever…

“
Aw-dingit
… I’m in love with him, Tilly,” Ray marveled.

Her friend clapped her hands together. “Oh, Ray, this is wonderful! I am so happy for you.”

Ray wanted to stomp a hole in the floor and fall through it. She didn’t know how she was supposed to face Billy knowing her traitor heart had gone and fallen in love with him.

“What am I supposed to do now? How I can stand around, watchin’ him court his bride?” Ray collapsed back into her chair.

Tilly picked up the bracelet Ray was making. “Well, as far as I heard, he’s not going to marry her quite yet. Word is that he promised his mother he’d court Miss DuCastille for two weeks and then he’d decide.”

Tilly was repeating things she’d already overheard, but Ray wasn’t going to admit to snooping.

“So, what am I supposed to do?” Suddenly, a sinister thought occurred to her. “I could sneak into her room one night and cut off all that pretty gold hair. Or—”

Tilly held up her hand, trying to hold back a laugh. “No, no, no. None of that, Raychelle.”

“Then what,
Tilda
?”

Tilly scrunched up her little round nose at the sound of
her
full name.

“Let’s think… What is it about her that makes her the perfect wife for Billy? Why did his parents choose her?”

Ray thought on it.

“Well, she’s pretty, speaks proper, stands as straight as a May Pole, and has manners like Mrs. Ducharme.” Basically, she was everything Ray wasn’t.

Tilly nodded.

“So, she isn’t you.”

Ray’s gaze snapped to Tilly’s. “Yeah, so?”

“Well, if that’s the kind of woman Billy wants, why not become like her?”

Ray opened her mouth to speak but shut it again, unsure what she was supposed to say.

Tilly grinned as though she’d just come up with the best idea since spurs.

“It’s a perfect plan. I’ll call for Dora; she’s about your size and she has loads of dresses you can use. Pretty ones. We’ll at least get you looking like a proper lady in no time.”

Ray looked down at her plain leather skirt, her faded and worn shirt, and scuffed boots.

“Well, I guess I could use a few new dresses—but I don’t want to be beholden to Dora. I’ll pay her whatever the dresses are worth.”

Tilly’s grin grew ever wider.

“Oh, this is going to be such great fun. Billy isn’t going to know what hit him!”

B
illy tossed the
last hay bale from the wagon and climbed down, eager to finish up his chores and find Ray. He had a lot to tell her, lots of details about his forced courtship with Miss DuCastille.

But he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Ray the last two days and, to say that was unusual, was an understatement. Usually, she was underfoot all times of the day. In between completing her chores with the sheep and him working hard to make sure the breeding program ran smoothly, Ray would pop in unannounced and stick around for however long she had free. Sometimes, she’d help him with his work or would chatter his ear off. At other times, she’d try to talk him into leaving the chores alone and going down to the creek or into town, or out to the field behind the homestead to just
be together
.

Basically, if she wasn’t working or sleeping, she was with him.

But today…

Today, she was absent. Again. And he
felt
it. Deep down.

He didn’t have time to dwell on the empty feeling in his gut. His ma appeared over the rise from the house, waving excitedly.

Oh, boy. What now?

He didn’t have the heart to hear her spout on about how wonderful or lovely or
marriageable
Rebecca DuCastille was. He loved his ma, more than his own life, but the woman had become much too invasive. He couldn’t go anywhere without her asking him to take Rebecca with him to “get to know her better” or “to court her properly”.

Rebecca had been there for three days already and he’d spent more time with her than he had to spare. It wasn’t as though she were an unpleasant woman—on the contrary, she really would make some man a perfect wife. He just didn’t know if it was him.

He pulled off his gloves and met his mother on the rise. “Ma. What can I do for you?”
Polite, be polite.
He chanted the words she’d instilled in him.
She only wants what’s best for you…

“Good afternoon, dear. Your father has concluded his business for the day and has asked me to go to town for dinner at the hotel.”

The Dry Bayou Hotel was a large, whitewashed building smack in the middle of town. It boasted twenty guest rooms, a fine dining restaurant called La Beau Bayou, and a large ballroom—financed and planned by the town’s founder, Monsieur Leslie La Fontaine.

“Well, that’s great. Have a good evening.” He was glad she didn’t go on about Rebecca as he feared she would.

“Oh, we will and so will you,” his ma informed him.

He tipped his head to the side, wondering if he’d heard her right. “What do you mean, Ma?”

“Well, since your father and I will be in town, you have the house to yourselves—you and Rebecca.”

He fought the urge to groan in frustration. “Ma, Rebecca and I have been together every day since she arrived. I haven’t seen Ray in two days—”

“Forget about that girl. She’s around here somewhere, she always is; collecting frogs in buckets or getting into trouble somehow. She’s nearing twenty, you’d figure she’d settle on a life and grow up a little. You two aren’t kids any longer and I think it best that you both grow up and take your responsibilities seriously.”

In his entire twenty-one years on earth, he’d never heard his ma say a bad thing about anyone. Though what she’d said about Ray wasn’t exactly mean, it was uncalled for.

“Ma, now I know you’re coming from a place of love, but you shouldn’t say such things about Ray, not when she isn’t here to say her piece. And you know I’ve been working hard on my breeding program. Ray has been working her tail off to make up for the loss of her pa.” He tried to keep his tone soft, so as not to let his ma know how much her words affected him.

She had the grace to a least look contrite. “Son, I’m sorry if I seem rude. You know that’s not in me. I just want what’s best for you. I want you to find someone worthy of your love, someone who can help you build the life you deserve as the future owner of this ranch.” She put a hand on his arm. “Ray cannot be what you need her to be. She’s the shepherd’s daughter and will always be. She
cannot
be the rancher’s wife.”

She was right. Ray was a grown woman and she did get into more trouble than other girls her age. Though she spent her free time fishing, riding, and whiling away any free time she could find, she was still the most honest, lively, compassionate, intelligent woman he knew. And it wasn’t like she didn’t work hard; she put in her hours, from sun up to late afternoon, caring for his father’s sheep herd and trying to fill her pa’s well-worn boots.

She’d stepped up without hesitation because she knew that, despite her sorrow and grief at losing her pa, there was still work to be done.

He admired her willingness to dust off her knees, plunk her hat on her head, and move forward. Ray understood that, though she was sad, the sheep still needed tending and her family still needed the money his family paid for their services.

She’d never actually told him any of that, but he could see it. He saw it in the determination on her face.

He
was looking. He couldn’t help it. Ray was transforming before his eyes and he didn’t know what to think about it.

He just wished she’d let other people see that side of her. Most people, even his parents, only saw the rascal who flitted from field to creek and rarely the responsible, respectable woman she’d become.

His ma’s less than polite cough reminded him that he was supposed to be forgetting about Ray and focusing on the woman his ma and pa had picked for him to marry.

Billy sucked in a breath and tried to get his jumbled thoughts and emotions to form a straight line. “Ma, I’m not gonna marry Ray—we’re just friends, we’ve only ever been just friends.”

She’d been a constant companion; someone he could count on. A beautiful woman who just happened to be his first thought every morning and his last every night.

His ma’s smile took him by surprise. She patted his arm and then straightened her shoulders. “Good, I’m glad you’re at least making sense. Ray’s a loyal friend, but now you need to focus on a wife…like Rebecca…who is sitting alone in the ranch house right now, waiting for you to
further your acquaintance
.”

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Billy. “I’m not sure Rebecca and I, being alone in the house, is all that proper. Shouldn’t there be a chaperone?”

That’ll stop her plans right there.
His mother would have to either put her plans with his pa on hold or let Billy go find Ray.

“I see no reason why two people who’re getting married can’t spend a few hours alone together in the comfort of the ranch house, especially since Eva is there and more than willing to keep an ear out for anything.”

The cook was his chaperone? How far was his mother willing to go to get him alone with the pretty Rebecca DuCastille?

“Unless you want to take her for a ride in the carriage; maybe a short jaunt to the pretty little spot by the creek.”