The Rancher (37 page)

Although, Max Grayson won’t be there.”

“And young Carson?” Raine asked,lifting his foot to rest on a fallen stalldoor. “Mr. Carson isn’t coming to gethim?”

“Doc said not to move him for a couple of days. He’ll be fine where he’s at until then.   Best to keep him close.” Clay winked at a disconcerted Cole.

Cole raised an eyebrow.

“All the same, I’ll have Marty keep aneye on him,” Cole said with finality, heatrising under his collar.

Clay chuckled.

Raine and Rafe headed into thebunkhouse and Abby to the main house.

Clay walked past Cole to the charreddebris in the corner of the ruins where a

large support beam had fallen across a

surrey.   It now looked like a mound of splinters with charcoal wheels.

“Good thing we had more’n one of these buckboards. Just bought two more wagons to add to those we already had.  This one was used mostly for trips to town on Sunday and such.”

Clay looked around at the devastation at his feet.  “We’re lucky,” he said, “we got all the livestock out before the roof collapsed and no one was seriously hurt.” Clay stood there, his head making a circle his body followed. Piles of singed rubble met them all around. “This time,” he added.

“I’m sorry about the barn, Clay,” Cole offered.

“Yeah, me too.   Horse tack, feed, a wagon, and a few breeding supplies, all

lost to the flames. There’s not much left.” Clay clapped his gloved hands together releasing clouds of newly accumulated dust. “I’ll get some of the boys to get out here and clean up this mess after church.  There’s no sense pinin’ over what’s lost.”

“Mr. Patterson agreed to open the mercantile long enough today to pick up some grain and feed for the animals,” Cole told Clay.   “We’ll have to drive back into town tomorrow to pick up timbers from the mill and the rest of the building supplies—tools, nails, and any other materials we’ll need.”

“Caleb and I made a supply list this morning before ya’ll got back.”   Clay scratched his whiskered chin.  “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Caleb since he left for the Campbell’s this mornin’. Ah,

well.  He’ll turn up.  Always does.”

Chapter Eighteen

Abby’s laugh was unmistakable and Cole attuned his ears to the refreshingsound.  He perked up in time to see Abbywalk out of the homestead on Rafe’s arm.

She had changed into a high-waisted topazdress, lined in a sheer overhang, an olderstyle without the bustle.   Her hair waspulled back away from her face withsporadic tendrils wrestling free from theentanglement. She looked like a visionwith the morning light behind her,illuminating her golden tresses and pullinghenna undertones from the wisps of hairthat framed her face.

Cole stood up straight.  Watching her

smile up at his brother so easily brought a scowl to his face and his insides glowered with envy.   With keen awareness he watched them approach.

“Your   wife   is   quite   delightful, Charcoal,” Rafe flashed one of those smiles he’d always bragged could capture the heart of any woman. “She was just telling me all about my little brother jumping in the mud on his wedding day.”

Cole grimaced.

“Raine, you ready?” Rafe called loudly, turning his focus to their oldest brother, who was saddling his horse.

When Raine didn’t acknowledge him, Rafe took Abby’s hand from the crook of his arm and kissed the back of it.  “Ma’am,” he said with a tip of his hat before climbing over a few scorched

boards toward the corral.

Cole kicked at an imaginary rock in the dirt.  He pushed his hands even farther into the already snug pockets of his trousers.

The low neckline of Abby’s dressrevealed a cluster of freckles just belowher collarbone that diverted him from allrelevant thought.

“I think we’re in for another stormyday,” he said aloud.

The weather?

She was distracting him more than hecared to admit.   With horse thieves,saboteurs, and killers on the loose in Silver Falls, he didn’t have time forchildish jealousies.

“Abby?” Raine led his horse over towhere they stood and walked up behind

them, surprise in his voice.  A long, low whistle fell off his lips.  “I had no idea you’d married so well, Charcoal.”

Raine nudged Cole from behind as he removed his hat and bent forward in an

exaggerated bow. “I have never seen any girl of Cole’s quite so lovely as you, ma’am.”

When Raine was upright again, Cole jerked his elbow backward into his brother’s ribs, who hunched over in another bow, laughing and groaning at the same time.

Abby  blushed.   “Why,  thank  you, Raine,” she spoke in a breathy sweetvoice, very unlike her own. Her thicklashes lowered onto her cheek.

When she looked up, the expression onher face quickly changed.

“Davey,” she yelled across the yard.

A gangly red-headed ranch hand was dumping a bucket of oats into the stable feeding trough.

“Why’s Chester out in the yard?”

She pushed past them and marched over to where the young stallion was grazing on some tall grass in next to the stable in front of the corral.

That was more like the Abby he wasgetting to know, headstrong and willful. He had to stop thinking about her.  Aboutthe way her hips swayed when she walkedor the small indentation just below herright eye when she smiled. How she kepther chin high, even when it quivered

some.

Stop
, Cole screamed inside his head.

Abby grabbed a hold of the rust colored

Morgan’s reins and led him back into thestable.

“It’s about time the girl wore a dress to church.   Maybe gettin’ married has knocked some female sense into her.”

Clay looked admiringly toward the corral.

Abby emerged wearing the oversizedgreen coat she’d worn the first time they’dmet.

Cole’s  eyes  narrowed.   Clay  hadwarned him that Abby usually attendedchurch in trousers and sat on the very back

row—if she wasn’t standing in the back.  So, he’d been unprepared for the vision that flaunted before him.  Now, with her father’s coat bunched up all around her and the look of satisfaction on her face, Cole could only surmise one thing.  She was definitely up to something.

From what Cole had already learnedabout his wife, she was not about to sitback and let the men take care of things. There was a reason she was so anxious to

go into town today, all gussied up, and Cole intended to find out exactly what that

reason was.

Anxious to learn more about the man

she’d married, and with nearly two hours before Sunday services would begin, Abby thought the ride to church would provide the perfect opportunity to talk with his brothers and get to know more about their family.  And just maybe she could get some information from Ben Spencer and his brothers.   They might know more than they were letting on.

“You are not riding into town in the wagon with my brothers and those hooligans.  We’ve only been married two days, woman, and you want to make a fool of me already?” He stood on the top porch step and looked down at her, standing between Raine and Rafe.

“Since when do you care about appearances, Charcoal?” Raine asked playfully, casually placing his arm around Abby’s shoulder.

“And since when do
 
you
 
decide with whom I may ride to church?”   Abby asked.  The defiance in her stare did not

falter. Why did this stubborn man have to

be so handsome?

“Since the day
 
I
 
became your husband.”

Cole shot Raine a look that promised hot

spears.

Raine dropped his arm from around her.

“Friday, to be precise.” Cole’s jawclenched and he raised a brow as if daringher to challenge him. She was sure hiseyes darkened a shade.

Looking around at the others, who wereall now looking at some miniscule speckin the dirt, she determined she would notbe embarrassed.  Now was the best time

to establish the fact that, husband or not, attractive or not, she would not be ordered about like a little servant girl.  She was a grown woman and it was time everyone around her noticed.

“Don’t you want me to get to know your brothers, Cole?”

“If you wanted to get to know
 
them
, why on earth did you marry me?”

Was that hurt in his voice?

“You asked.”

“I asked?” He nodded a few times.  “I

asked you.  Well, Mrs. Redbourne, you’re riding with me.”

A split second of indecision was smothered before it could take root.  She looked up briefly at her two very large brothers-in-law who stood on either side of her.  They were
 
his
 
brothers.  Of course they would side with him.

Well she needed answers and talking with Benjamin Spencer may be the only way to get them.  She turned on her heel and darted backward, breaking into a dead run toward the west pasture beyond the corral where she’d seen three stock horses

grazing. If Cole wasn’t going to let her ride with them, she’d just have to ride alongside them.

Booming laughter trailed her on thebreeze.   She glanced back.   Raine and Rafe both stood at the bottom of the stepswatching  her,   laughing,  while   Coleremained stoic, his eyes following herevery move. She smiled to herself.

The billowing skirt of the outdateddress offered Abby a stronger sense offreedom as she ran. There were too manylayers to most women’s clothing and shefound the bustles and corsets unsuitable

for even the simplest of tasks to be done

around the ranch.

Abby’s hair floated in disarray aroundher as she moved quickly to the oppositeside of the fenced corral.   Her chest

heaving, she placed a hand on the fence, attempting to unlatch the gate into the west pasture.

The lock was being more difficult thanusual.  She checked behind her.  To her

horror, Cole’s six foot plus form jumped all four porch steps in one motion.  When his feet hit the ground he was running full force   in  her  direction.   Exhilaration mingled with fear at the sight of him and for a fraction of a moment she simply admired his strong physique and agility.

Her eyes flitted to his face.   The resolve in his features was enough to incite her to action.   The lock simply wouldn’t budge, so she darted to the area behind the small square training paddock that had been temporarily set up after the fire.   She positioned herself where she could see him through the sparse wooden fence planks.

“Abby.”

While she could not read the tone in hisvoice, her heart nearly stopped when hesaid her name.

“I’m riding with them.” Her voicesounded breathless, but she wasn’t at allsure it was from running.

She darted to the left and he mimicked

her actions.  She ran to the right and again

he countered the move.

She glanced around.   There wasnowhere to run except into the fieldbehind her and the fence blocked the way.  Why had she chosen to wear a dresstoday? Catching his eye, it was her turn toraise an eyebrow.  Cole started after her.  Abby ran to the pasture fence, grabbed ahold of the top plank, pulled herself upand rolled over into the field.  Relieved