Cowboy Caveat (2 page)

“
Enough, okay? Gee, don’t
go gettin’ yourself all bowed up, Eth. I get it, all right!
Bellamy’s as gentle as old Mr. Harris’s flea-bit hound!”

Ethan growled and shook
her again, “Bellamy is a doggone bull, dagnabbit, and easily
spooked. He’s unpredictable and weighs in at about twenty-seven
hundred pounds! This is not negotiable, Amelia Jane. Anymore
back-talk from you, and I
will put you
over my knee......got that!”

Amy scowled but nodded.

“
Right. I’ve got the cart
with me so we’ll ride home together and tether Bellamy to the
back.”

Ethan started to stride
off when he heard Amy mutter a soft expletive under her breath. He
spun his surly fiancée around and walloped her rounded backside
just the once. Amy jumped and glared back at him. “Ethan, we aren’t
even married yet....you can’t
do
that!”

“
No? Well I jus’ did....
an’ try me any further darlin’ and see what happens! Now quit yer
jaw jackin an’ come along with me. We can catch the minister and
set a date while we’re both in town.”

“
Ethan,
noo
.....I’m not dressed
to meet the minister today, look at me!” she wailed. Ethan looked
and frowned.

Oh no, thought Amy, another lecture on the
way!

“
Humph....that’s another
thing, Amy: after we’re wed, no more britches except on the ranch.
I want my wife to be seen looking her best when we’re out, wearin’
pretty dresses an’ such.” Amy groaned and rolled her eyes. Ethan
saw and gave another light swat to her swaying posterior, which, in
Ethan’s opinion, was all too exposed in britches. Her butt and legs
were on clear display within the tight boy trousers she’d pilfered
from Tyler’s cupboard.

“
Home – now!”

Ethan decided to get Amy out of town and out
of sight as soon as he could. He was going to have some serious
words with Ed when he got back to the Lazy Z.

* * * * *

Amy wriggled through the long grass, her
rifle cocked and ready. The rabbit sniffed the air and Amy
carefully raised her gun to fire.

“
Amy, where in blazes are
you?” The bellow frightened the rabbit away and Amy cussed long and
loud. What was the matter now! Why couldn’t everyone just leave her
be! Again, that angry male voice. “Amelia Campbell, I’m warning
you, git your hide inside this minute!” Ed was trying to sound mad.
Amy grinned to herself; Ed just couldn’t do mad.

“
Yup, okay, keep your hair
on, Ed!” Amy knew that when her brother Ed called her Amelia he
meant business – even if he wasn’t angry. So Amy jumped up from the
long grass, broke her rifle and hooked it over her arm. She
sauntered up to her brother where he sat frowning on his horse,
Major.

Ed glowered at his sister, “Where in
tarnation have you bin all day?” Amy held up a bunch of rabbits as
an answer. Ed took the rabbits and held his hand out to Amy. She
gripped his forearm and swung herself up behind him with the ease
of someone used to being on and around horses every day.

They didn’t speak until they arrived at the
ranch house and Ed set her down on the front stoop. “Get yourself
cleaned up and put on a dress. We’ve got company for dinner and
Lucy will need your help,” Ed told her.

Amy sighed and muttered an oath; she hated
‘company’ and she hated anything to do with cooking or housework.
“I heard that!” Ed snapped.

“
You were meant to!
Who’s
company?” Amy
asked.

Ed wheeled his horse and began to walk to
the stables. ”You’ll see!” Amy swore at him and banged the door as
she went into the house. First thing she did was to go into the
kitchen and kiss and hug her diminutive sister-in-law, Lucy. Lucy
returned the hug but then held Amy away from her, frowning.

“
Oh Amy, look at you! Go
wash up and please do something with your hair, will you, we’ve
company tonight!”

Amy reached over to the table and stuck her
finger in the bowl of mix sitting there. “Mmm, pudding! Where are
the boys?” she asked.

Ed and Lucy had two small boys named Ben and
Nat. “They are upstairs with Millie getting cleaned up. Now shoo!”
The door banged open and a young boy with an overlong thatch of
dirty blond hair wandered in and went straight to the mixing bowl,
sticking his finger in the goo and then licking it appreciatively.
“Tyler!” Lucy smacked his hand away from the apricot pudding. Tyler
grinned and went to pour himself a cup of milk from the
pitcher.

“
I hear tell Ethan’s
comin’ over,” he said to no one in particular.

Amy, who was on her way
out of the room, swung around with a frown. “Ethan?
He’s
the darn ‘company’
tonight? You‘ve
got
to be kidding me!”

“
Now, Amy......” Lucy
began.

“
Amy, go clean up and
watch your mouth!” Ed had come in quietly behind Tyler. He ruffled
his brother’s hair and added, “You wash up too, boy.”

Amy stood and glared at her brother, “I knew
it, you done stopped preaching and gone to meddlin’! I told you I
ain’t interested in marrying Ethan, not after the way he laid down
the law in town this morning! I mean you no offense, Lucy, but that
brother of yours is jus’ a doggone bully!”

Lucy gave a half smile and turned her back
on them; she had a meal to fix and it wouldn’t cook itself.
Thankfully Millie rushed into the kitchen and went straight to the
apples and started to peel them. Lucy smiled at her little
sister-in-law, she didn’t know how she would cope with all the work
around here if it wasn’t for that darling little girl, well not so
little, Millie was twelve now. Goodness, had it been eight years
already since that dreadful day?

They had all thought that Amy would never
recover; she didn’t speak for almost a year after her parents’
murder, and Ed and Lucy had decided to postpone their wedding to
concentrate on helping the children through the shock. To lose
their parents in that sudden and horrific way was too dreadful for
words! They never did find baby Luke but they did find footsteps in
the muddy river bank and it was assumed that whoever had killed
Daniel and Suzie, had thrown the baby in the river to drown. Lucy
shivered; the horror of that day still raised goose bumps under her
skin.

Lucy looked at Amy arguing with her brother.
She was a real beauty and she wasn’t even aware of the effect she
had on men. Her sherry golden eyes were flashing and her shiny
caramel hair was a long, tangled curling mass bouncing with every
shake of her head. Oh my, she was wild that one. Lucy hoped her
brother Ethan knew what he was taking on with Amy. Why couldn’t he
be sweet on Jayne Littleton, the grocer’s daughter? Jayne had been
after Ethan since they were all at school together, but Ethan had
not shown any interest in the pretty blonde girl. He and Amy had
formed a bond that involved horses and cattle and he’d only had
eyes for Amy, especially once she had grown into a beautiful young
woman. They argued and disagreed more than they agreed, but the
friendship had stayed strong.

Ethan mentioned marriage and then they had
got engaged, but at some point Amy had closed herself off from
Ethan and what she called his boring old lectures. Now she wouldn’t
talk properly to Ethan or even stay around to see him when he
visited. Lucy had invited her brother to dinner in the hope that
the young couple would sort things out between them.

Lucy banged a wooden spoon
onto a pan and yelled into the escalating fight between her husband
and his sister, “That’s
enough,
y’all! Amy get on up stairs and wash up, put on a
dress and come and help me,
NOW
!” The siblings stopped their
squabbling and turned to look at Lucy. Amy nodded tersely and ran
to do as she was told.

Ed looked sheepishly at his wife. “Sorry
darlin’, what can I do?”

“
Go wash up an’ put on a
clean shirt and stop goading your sister and let her be. She is
Ethan’s problem now...
not
ours
!”

“
Lucy, we don’t know that
Amy will ever accept Ethan,” Ed said as he turned to go.

But Lucy raised her voice so that her
husband could hear her as he walked away. “Ethan is determined and
Amy loves him. It will all work out just fine, you’ll see!”

Dinner went well, chaotic but full of happy
banter and laughter. Amy stole glances at Ethan when she thought he
wasn’t looking. He was still the best-looking man around these
parts and tonight he wore a soft blue shirt that Amy hadn’t seen
before. She was touched that he had bought a new shirt for the
occasion and she felt sad that she would be hurting him later when
she would tell him she couldn’t marry him. Amy was sure Ethan
intended to ask her to set a wedding date tonight because he had
never brought her flowers before. The bright daisies sat in a
pretty milk jug, which had been her mother’s, in the middle of the
table.

Amy fell in love with Ethan on the fateful
day they had met. When Ed and Ethan had ridden up to the wagon, Ed
had reached out to his youngest siblings first. They’d set up a
wail as soon as they had seen Ed, whereas Ethan had taken one look
at Amy’s white face and had jumped up onto the wagon seat beside
her. He had prised the reins out of her tight grip and scooped her
onto his lap, whereupon Amy had buried her face into his large
comforting chest, gripping his solid and reassuring body, clinging
to him like a limpet. They had never spoken of that day, but Amy
had trailed around after Ethan from then on, learning everything
she could from him about horses and cattle. Ethan taught her to
shoot, too.

Ethan coughed. “Amy darlin’, I’m fixin’ ta
walk around the stables. Why don’t you join me? I reckon we need to
discuss a few things.”

Amy stood and nodded her
assent.
Okay, we’ll get
this over with and then we can move
on
, she decided while heading toward the
door that Ethan held open for her. Ed looked at Lucy and quirked an
eyebrow at her. She cocked her head slightly to one side in silent
reply; all was going well...so far.

“
Amy and Ethan sittin’ in
a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” chanted Millie loudly.

Ed pulled one of her braids lightly and
glared at his little sister. She stuck out her tongue at him and
ran away giggling from the table. Ed grinned and said, “Well at
least Millie turned out to be a normal kid!”

Lucy clucked her tongue and replied, “Amy is
normal, Ed. She just shut down for a little while. I agree with
Ethan; half the reason she’s so wild is because you let her do
whatever she wants and she has had no boundaries at all!”

Ed looked somberly at his wife. “You know
how I feel about that. Amy saw things no kid, especially a young
girl, should see, and she needed time to recover.”

Lucy sighed. “Like I have
said before, I agreed with you then but now ... come on, Ed,
eight years
!”

“
Let it alone, Lucy. I
don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

Ed left the table and called his sons to go
with him. Lucy sighed again and began to clear the table of
dishes.

* * * * *

Ethan and Amy leaned on the stock fence and
gazed out over the prairie to the creek in the distance. “I spoke
to the Reverend and he said we can be married this Sunday.” Ethan
watched Amy’s face change, and sure enough, that cold, closed look
settled across her features.

“
I told you already,
Ethan. I don’t aim to marry yet.”

Ethan took hold of her arm and turned her to
face him. “Look at me, Amy,” he said quietly.

Amy looked up into his strong beautiful
face, so beloved and therefore so dangerous. She could lose him,
too, and she just couldn’t let herself love him so much.

“
Amy, I‘m going nowhere
and neither is your family. You have to start to live life, get
married, have children and help me build our ranch and stock. I
need you, honey! Amy, say yes, and I’ll do the rest.......just
trust me, darlin’.”

Amy tugged her arm free
from Ethan’s hand and stalked away, throwing her answer over her
shoulder, “I
can’t
marry you, Ethan, and that is that!”

Ethan growled and strode after her, his
six-foot-two frame easily catching up with Amy, who was slight and
only five-feet-four. Gripping her elbow, he towed her toward the
hay barn and no amount of pulling and struggling on Amy’s part
could slow the man down.

“
Ethan, let go of me!” Amy
fumed; Ethan didn’t bother to reply but shoved her inside the
sweet-smelling barn and dragged her over to a low stack of grain
sacks. He pushed Amy over the pile and flung up her skirts so that
her shapely bottom was revealed, encased in a pair of pink
pantaloons.
Well now, that is a surprise
after seeing her in britches all the time
,
thought Ethan with an appreciative grin.

Ethan grabbed hold of her hands and held
them behind her back, keeping her firmly in place. “Right, now that
you’re in this position, perhaps you’ll listen and listen real
good!” he barked.

Amy hissed back,
“Sometimes I just
hate
you, Ethan Walker!”

Ethan gave a low chuckle.
“You know darlin’, one of the things I love best about you is how
brave you are....foolish....but brave.” He raised his hand and
slapped his intended across her prettily clothed backside,
hollering, “Now quiet down and
listen
!”