West Winds of Wyoming (34 page)

She pulled out of his arms ready to remind him how
he
had bumped
her
to the ground, when she’d merely knocked his briefcase to the boardwalk. But she stopped, her defense dying in her throat at the sight of his smile and humor-filled eyes.

“Yes?” he asked innocently. “Do you have something to say? Don’t hold back on me now.”

She let go her agitation and sighed, glancing at the clock. She’d been here over half an hour. “I need to be going.” His close proximity, as well as this most affable mood, had her heart doing cartwheels.
He’s a married man, Brenna.
A most attractive and congenial married man, to boot. Unless she wanted to feel like a bigger fool when Mrs. Hutton finally decided to show up in town, she’d best remember that.

“And Maddie? What about her?”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Lane. My answer is still the same.”

CHAPTER FORTY

A
lone at her campsite, Nell absorbed the absolute beauty of the velvety black sky that stretched as far as her eye could see. She took a deep breath and let the chilly night air fill her lungs. Life was good. Once they had this herd corralled and readied for breaking, it would be even better. So many good-looking animals.

Nell tossed another branch overtop her crackling fire and watched the sparks dance into the darkness. Dog was stretched out on the ground, his nose between his paws and his side to the flames. She smiled at how his brows rose and fell as he watched her.

How are Charlie and the boys making out?
After scouting the trail, they’d been pleased with the natural obstacles of the landscape that could help direct the horses on the course they wanted them to go. In the few instances where the logical choice would be to go otherwise, they’d stopped and gathered brush and, with the hammer and nails Charlie had thought to bring from the packhorse, they’d constructed barriers. Superficial, but the horses wouldn’t know that. They’d see resistance, and turn the other way. Because of the time spent doing that, darkness had fallen by the time Charlie had dropped her off.

“You sure you don’t mind staying alone?” he’d asked, standing so close that not thinking about their kiss in the kitchen was impossible. “I can easily stay. I’ll just get up a bit earlier and walk the five miles back. Won’t take a thing out of the black. I want to, Nell.” He’d run his hand down her arm and stopped at the elbow, the touch intimate.

Well, she was having none of it and sent him on his way. She’d spent nights out alone tending the cattle. This wasn’t any different.
You sure about that, Nell?
This was ridiculous. That rider, the stranger, was long gone. If he were still around, they would have seen traces of him, or run into him face-to-face. She liked the night. It had always been her friend.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on happy thoughts. Seth, his attempt to bake her a birthday cake going very badly wrong. Seth bringing in a small pine tree on Christmas morning and helping with the decorations. Seth, best man at her and Ben’s wedding, smiling ear-to-ear. He’d always been there for her. What would his life have been without her around? Would he have found a woman and married?

That was a disturbing thought. Had she held him back from a life of his own? A wife? Children? Uncomfortable now, Nell stood and meandered out to where Coyote was hobbled a few feet from her camp. Dog got up and followed. She rested her forehead against Coyote’s shoulder, letting her troubled thoughts ease away.

The horse took an awkward step, then lowered his muzzle back to the ground to continue cropping the grass. A pang of guilt for the foot-long leather strap of the hobbles pricked her heart.
I’m sorry
, she thought. She slung her arm over his back and ran her hands over his silky coat, loving the feel of it under her fingertips. Relief filled her when a shadowy impression eased through her veins like honey, telling her he didn’t mind the hobbles. He was anticipating running with the wild horses.

Nell almost gasped at the desire radiating from him. Dog, who’d buddied up close, let go a lonesome whine, then pushed his nose into her hand, as if not wanting to be left out. Nell fought back the hot prickle of tears behind her eyes and rubbed her cheek against Coyote’s side as she contemplated setting him free when the roundup was completed. She loved him, didn’t want to part ways. He reached around and nudged her with his muzzle. Her heart slowed down. Seemed he didn’t want that, either, and was content where he was. That’s when she picked up a crunching sound in the grass beyond the light of her fire. Dog spun around and advanced a few feet and then stopped, his right paw tight to his chest as he pointed. Her gaze cut to the campfire, and her gun sitting on her blanket.

Was it too late? Too late to make a grab for it—and maybe get shot?

“Nell?” More steps in the grass. “Nell? Don’t go and blow my head off.”

Charlie?
Dog bounded out to greet him. “What in Sam Hill are you doing here? I told you I was able and willing to stay out by myself. What do you have in that head of yours? Straw for brains?”

“Just settle down. When we started this venture, no one ever said anything about splitting up. That was my idea and I feel responsible—
for you
. Seth would have my tail in a corn husker if something happened to his sister under my watch.”

“Is that the only reason? Seth doing you bodily harm?”

He shook his head. “You know better.” His tone sent a ripple of awareness slipping down her back.

She glared, struggling to hold on to her anger. “Where’s the black?”

“Just off in the trees. I’ll go get him.”

Nell watched him and Dog go, then reappear shortly after that. “I guess telling you to cut out now won’t do a bit of good. Did you ever leave or have you been waiting in the trees watching me? As for you, Dog, some protector you are.”

“Ease up. I didn’t watch you from cover—just waited a little while before I showed my hand. As for Dog, he knows my scent. He came to visit me a time or two.” Charlie chuckled.

She stomped over to her campsite. “Well, get your mount turned out so he can graze and come set up your bedroll. I know there’s no way to talk you out of this.” Coyote’s head came up as Charlie led the black out to where the paint was hobbled.

She rattled the pot over her fire and scraped a few more beans onto her already dirty plate. “There’s some grub left. Not much, though.”

“Thanks. I also have mine.” He came into camp, tossed his bedroll across the fire from her, and set his saddle nearby. He opened his saddlebag and pulled out his portion of the jerky they’d doled out when they’d split up, the last of some dried fruit, another can of beans. “It’s gonna be good to get back and eat some real food. I was thinking about trying out the Silky Hen for supper and the fried chicken I keep hearing about.” He ate a strip of his jerky. “What I wouldn’t give for some right now. How about you?”

Does he think a little idle conversation will smooth things over?
Well, his scheme wasn’t going to work. Staying the night here put more strain on the black with the extra miles the gelding would have to travel in the morning, albeit at a walk.

She took a breath, and let it out, thinking about what these horses would do for the ranch. A means to hire more help. Then Seth could get well and maybe, just maybe, take a little time to court a wife. That brought a small smile to her lips as she imagined him gaining weight from being pampered and loved. But that only lasted a second. Her and Charlie’s bickering from the past few days popped into her mind and her smile fizzled. Maybe Seth was better off staying a bachelor.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

C
oyote’s deep nicker rousted Charlie out of his sleep. He pulled his blanket up over his shoulder and snuggled deeper into his thick leather coat, shivering from the cold. Opening one eye, he glanced at the stars in search of the moon. It wasn’t much past two. Still several hours to rest.

“Mm,” Nell moaned in her sleep. “Seth . . .”

Charlie opened his eyes. He lifted his head and looked across the amber coals of the campfire to make sure she was all right. Last night, still gruff as all get-out, she’d wrapped up in her blanket and turned her back to him without a good-night.

She rolled to her back. “Get back . . .”

The sob at the end of her last word had him up and at her side in three strides. “Nell,” he said. “Wake up. You’re dreaming.” She seemed so small and vulnerable in her blankets. Not knowing what to do exactly, he took her shoulder, shaking gently. “Nell?”

With a gasp, she bolted into his waiting arms and buried her face against his chest.

“Nell,” he whispered against her hair. “You’re all right. I’m right here. It’s me, Charlie. Wake up.”

“Charlie,” she said shakily. “I finally remembered my pa. Seth has never spoken of him. Would never tell me anything about our father even if I asked. The memory was awful.”

She wrested in a few deep breaths, then calmed in his arms. “Seth took me away from him to keep me safe. I was little, and I guess I pushed those memories to the back of my mind. After our ma died, we ran away. I assumed that they both had died, but that’s not true. We snuck away the night after Pa buried her.”

Charlie laid her back on her bed and retrieved his own blankets from across the burned-out campfire, laying them next to hers. He pulled her close and she rested her head on his chest.

“Do you want me to build a fire for some light?” He gently smoothed her hair down her back and she snuggled in closer.

The shake of her head was almost imperceptible. “I just want to lie here with you . . .”

The horses snorted at something and moved around, probably unsettled by Nell’s distress.

“Sometimes talking helps.”

Several seconds went by in silence and he thought maybe she’d fallen back asleep. “I wish I could remember my mother,” she said wistfully. “Or had a picture of her. It’s hard going through life not knowing where you came from or the sound of your mama’s voice.”

He nodded. “Maybe this is just the first of more memories to come.”

“I don’t want to know about Pa. In my dream he was chasing Seth with a switch.” She quivered and he stroked her back. “I was hidden away somewhere small and dark. Seth told me not to come out until he came for me. I had a tiny peephole and watched Seth dart away, and Pa take off after him.”

She started to cry again and all Charlie knew how to do was hold her and whisper that she was all right, that he wouldn’t leave her, that she was safe with him.

She took a deep breath and let it out. “Sometimes dreaming about a family of my own is all I ever do.” Her voice was small, her hand gentle as it slowly traced circles on his chest.

He understood that all too well. Imagining Maddie happy and content, with a mother to love her. Would they ever be settled again? “I had a wife once,” he said through a tight jaw. “And even more. We were a happy family, scraping out a living on not much more than love and a prayer. When Annie was taken from me, I didn’t think I could go on. Didn’t think I’d ever recover. It was like somebody opened me up with a knife and cut out my heart.” He swallowed down a lump of grief. “A man is meant to have family around him, though, and I want that again. More children to hold in my lap and watch grow.”

He kept his gaze on the stars when she lifted her head to look up into his face. At that moment he realized he’d been wrong about Nell. Even as young as she was, she was the strongest, bravest women he’d ever met. Tenacious. Loyal to a fault. The way she guarded Seth was heartwarming. She might not hold womanly things in high esteem, but that wasn’t everything. She had an abundance of love just waiting to be shared. She would make an excellent mother for any child.

“Try to get some sleep,” he said into her hair. “Tomorrow’s going to be long and dangerous. You need to be alert. Close your eyes and dream about the land in the spring and how everything turns a soft, velvety green.”

He felt her nod as he gazed at the Big Dipper still bright in the sky.

Her hand moved higher on his chest. “This feels nice,” she whispered.