The Western Dare (Harlequin Heartwarming) (13 page)

“You’re kidding?”

“’Fraid not. I can tell you’ve never farmed corn. Some places it grows so tall you can’t see daylight.”

“Yes, but can’t you just follow a row to the end?”

“Yep, providing you’re headed in the right direction. The rows crisscross.”

“I see. Well, let’s not waste any more time.”

* * *

M
AIZIE
ANXIOUSLY
awaited their return. “If this ain’t a pickle,” she said.

Harv from Philadelphia shoved his way between Robert and Maizie. “Don’t waste our time because of some broad’s stupidity. I say we go on to town and send a search party back. Your brochure promised a frontier day’s celebration. Why should the rest of us miss the parade?”

Maizie glared at him. “Nobody’s stopping you, Mr. Big Mouth. But it’s a far piece to Santa Fe. If you have trouble with your wagon, don’t count on help from trail mates.”

He made an ugly gesture, but he did shut up.

Robert rummaged in his wagon and pulled out binoculars and a rifle. “Gina might have run afoul of a rattlesnake or a rabid coyote.”

Emily handed Camp several clean white dishtowels. “If Gina’s injured, you may need to cover a wound or make a sling.”

Camp accepted them grimly. He pressed Emily’s hand in appreciation.

“Can Jared and me go?” asked Mark eagerly. “We wanna help.”

Searching his mind for some polite way to say no, Camp was relieved to hear Robert say it first. “You guys stay and help the ladies lay in a good supply of wood. Best thing you can do is have these wagons ready to roll the minute we return.”

Near seven-thirty the searchers stumbled across Gina’s footprints leading into a cornfield, just as Robert had predicted. Forty-five minutes later, Camp grabbed Robert’s arm. “Is it my imagination or are we covering the same ground twice?”

“It’s not your imagination. She wandered in circles for a while.”

Cupping his hands around his mouth, Camp shouted Gina’s name. Both men strained to hear over the moaning wind that sounded almost human at times.

Robert shook his head and turned to plunge deeper into the field.

“Wait!” Camp’s sharp command stopped him. “This way. I heard a shout.” Camp pointed in the opposite direction from the set of tracks.

“You may be right,” Robert said excitedly. “Listen.” Faintly, they heard what sounded like “Help,” above the constant rustle of the leaves.

The men angled diagonally through some forty rows before picking up Gina’s tracks again. This time they shouted in unison. The answer sounded weak but clear. Keeping up a running discourse, Camp stumbled through a wall of corn and fell over the woman they sought.

“I’m so thankful you found me. I feel like a fool,” Gina gasped through parched lips. “I’d set up my tripod for a close-up of the sunflowers mixed in with the corn. I stepped back and landed in a blasted prairie-dog hole. It threw me into the tripod, which toppled over on me. I’m afraid I broke my left leg and my right arm.”

“The arm is really swollen,” Camp concurred. He carefully immobilized her arm with a sling fashioned from the towels Emily had given him. A cursory glance at the odd angle of her leg had Camp fighting a queasy stomach. “Moving you will hurt. If we take you and your equipment, we’ll have to immobilize this leg and trade off carrying you.”

“Don’t think I’m going to louse up your paper, Campbell. I’ll need somebody to drive my wagon into Council Grove to a doctor. He’ll patch me up.”

Camp didn’t want to disillusion her, but he didn’t think Gina Ames would be continuing with this trip. There went the professional photographs he’d coveted. Oh, well, accidents happened now as they had to the pioneers—the difference being that Gina’s pioneer sisters would have tossed her into a wagon and forged on. She might or might not have healed properly. Today, medical equipment
and techniques virtually assured her of a full recovery.

Forcing his disappointment aside, Camp made his decision. No part of this reenactment—or his project—was worth taking risks with Gina’s health. She’d stay behind in Council Grove.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Pioneer women were little more than passive participants in their husbands’ ventures.”

—A statement in one of the standard history texts used by Nolan Campbell.

T
HE
MEN
TOOK
TURNS
carrying Gina and her heavy equipment. Camp developed a new respect for the scrappy woman who worried not about her injuries but for the safety of her camera and lenses. Her arm and leg had to hurt badly, yet she never once complained of her own discomfort.

Maizie, Emily, Sherry, Doris and Vi ran to meet the returning expedition. Sherry gripped Gina’s good hand.

Emily fussed and adjusted her sling. “What can we do to help, Gina?”

Mark and Jared sidled closer. Brittany and Megan hung back. The couple from Philadelphia showed no interest whatsoever in the plight of a fellow traveler.

“That ankle and knee look nasty,” Maizie said after giving Gina’s injuries a cursory once-over. “You step in front of an eighteen-wheeler, gal?”

Through clenched teeth, Gina retold her story.

“Boys.” Maizie waved Jared and Mark over. “We need splints, or the ride to town will be murder. See if you kids can round up some magazines for braces. We women will rip up an old sheet for ties.”

Mark screwed up his face. “Brittany’s got a slug of movie magazines. I ain’t gonna be the one to ask her to give ’em up.”

Sherry rallied. “I’ll talk to Brittany,” she said. “You boys hitch Gina’s team.”

“Sure,” replied Jared. “That’s easy. C’mon, Mark.”

Mark dawdled. “She can’t drive a team with that arm,” he noted. “Ms Ames, I’ll drive for you,” he volunteered.

It had been on the tip of Camp’s tongue to suggest that Sherry have Brittany drive their wagon, and his sister take over Gina’s. Mark’s request both surprised and pleased him. Ultimately, however, the decision to let the boy drive or not rested with Emily. Along with the others, Camp anxiously awaited her verdict.

Maizie clapped the youth on the back. “I’m proud of you, Mark. That’s a right gentlemanly offer.”

Megan hooted. “My brother a gentleman? He’s a baby. Who’d trust him to drive a wagon?”

Though it was one of the first smiles Camp had seen Megan crack, he still would have backed Mark on general principles. Except that Maizie beat him to it.

“For your information, missy, at the time of the real wagon trains, a twelve-year-old lad was considered a man.”

“Yeah, Megan, so shut your trap.” Mark glared at his sister.

“Enough, you two.” Emily shook a finger at both. “This is no time for bickering. We need to settle Gina in her wagon before she goes into shock.” As Emily spoke, Robert carried Gina toward her wagon. Jared ran to help his dad.

“Gina’s white as a ghost,” Emily announced at large. “Sherry, do you have any extrastrength analgesic on hand? Does anyone?”

“I do, dear,” Doris volunteered. Pointing to her white-haired wagon mate, she said with a twinkle in her eye, “Between us we have a pharmacy of across-the-counter pain medicine. Taking this trip at our age was defying nature. We didn’t want to be caught in the middle of nowhere and be a burden with our achy joints.”

Emily smiled. “I should be so spry after I retire from teaching. Ask Gina which of your medications she’d prefer, while I help Maizie tear sheets.”

“Mom.” Mark tugged at her arm. “Is it okay for me to drive Ms Ames’s wagon?”

Emily hooked her thumbs through her belt loops. “Ask Camp.”

At once Mark plied Camp with reasons he should be allowed to drive.

Camp listened intently, his eyes still on Emily. When Mark wound down, she was the one Camp addressed. “I’m glad you value my opinion.”

“You leased the wagons, after all.”

“Oh.” Camp’s smile fractured. “It’s fine by me. But the ball’s in your court.”

Emily tensed, then shrugged. “I have a tendency to try to protect my kids from possible failure. Mark,” she said, spinning toward him, her energy building. “I know you’ve watched me drive the team, but it’s a matter of threading the reins properly through your fingers in order to apply even pressure on the driving bit. Please have Maizie or Robert show you the basics.”

“You mean I can do it? All right!” Those near enough to hear him grinned.

* * *

G
INA
’
S
ACCIDENT
resulted in a several-hour delay. They all accepted that they’d miss the parade. Robert saddled a horse to ride ahead to set up a doctor’s appointment for Gina, and to try to reschedule tours. Jared drove their wagon, a switch that left two young drivers one behind the other. Maizie took it upon herself to exchange Gina’s wagon with the Shaw wagon. Of course Harv complained bitterly.

Regardless, Emily was grateful to Maizie. Experience had taught her that mothers weren’t always the best overseers of their children in new situations. This way, if Mark needed direction, he’d accept it much more readily from Maizie. Which didn’t mean Emily wasn’t worrying. Eventually she stopped leaning out to try to see how he was doing. It hurt her neck, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to help him.

Camp watched Emily’s head bob out time and again. He knew the agony she felt. It was like that first day on the trail, when they were all new to driving. He’d worried constantly—when he wasn’t in pain from the hard plank seat and the jolting ride—knowing he’d gotten everyone into what might be a risky undertaking. It’d given him a headache, until it occurred to him there wasn’t a thing he could do except look out for himself.

He laughed now. Then he’d been about as ill-equipped for this job as an ape from the wilds. Both he and Mark Benton had come a long way. Surprisingly, Camp felt a curious paternal pride in what the boy was doing.

Paternal!
Camp hauled back on the reins, slowing his team. That revelation was a shock. Or maybe not, considering his protective feelings for Emily. And her family.

In “family,” he’d included Megan. Teenage girls were scary. They resided in a mystery world of clothes, makeup and volatile moods. Megan and Brittany provided plenty of fodder for contrast to the young pioneer women Camp had become acquainted with through old diaries.

For instance, Megan and Brittany avoided work like the plague. Given chores, they either fooled around until someone else, usually Emily or Sherry, got fed up and completed the task. Or they grumped and finished their work only after constant nagging. Pioneer girls had toiled from sunup to sundown.

In all fairness he had to say Brittany and Megan were fastidious about their persons. Come rain or shine, their hair got washed daily. Would they, Camp wondered, if faced with the peril of a rattler, neatly dispatch the snake with one of their battery-powered curling irons? Or would they fall apart?

A few weeks ago, his money would have been on the latter. Now, after Mark’s surprising turnaround, Camp wasn’t so sure. The last few days he’d begun to revise a number of the notions he had held at the start of this trip.
Some
modern women might be wimpier than their pioneer cousins. Not all, by a long shot.

What would Lyle Roberts say about his discovery of the flaws in their teaching texts? He’d probably harp on Gina’s dropping out. Camp didn’t plan to make an issue of her accident. She had options that weren’t available to pioneer travelers, as he’d make very clear in his paper.

* * *

A
N
HOUR
AFTER
they pulled into Council Grove and set up in a park on the town’s outskirts, everyone grouped around Gina with long faces, staring at the splint on her arm and the long white cast on her leg.

“I’ve hired Mark to drive my wagon and me to Santa Fe,” she announced, and named a figure that was more than a generous wage.

Both Emily and Camp sucked in a sharp breath.

Mark, grinning like a fool, dug a wad of bills out of his pocket. “This is the first payment. Enough to buy me a fishing pole of my own. I’ll help settle Gina in the hotel room she’s rented for tonight, then me and Jared are going fishing with his dad.”

Sherry knelt by Gina’s side. “If you’re doing this to show Nolan that modern women are as tough as his precious pioneers, forget it. Thanks to modern medicine we don’t have to suffer the way our predecessors did. Em and I agreed that we’d put our heads together and find someone to drive you home.”

Camp nodded to show he approved. “Gina, I don’t think you should stay—”

“I’ve made up my mind.” Gina stubbornly waved them away with her good hand. “The doctor said my cast stays on for six weeks. Said I can remove the splint myself in four. We’ve already arranged transportation home from Santa Fe. There’s no reason to disrupt the schedule for me.”

The way Emily and Sherry were glaring at him, Camp was half-afraid to say anything lest it be misconstrued. Except that he agreed with them wholeheartedly. “Gina, how do you plan to manage simple things like climbing in and out of the wagon? Not to mention tending to...to, ah, personal matters.”

More blunt than Camp, Maizie came right to the point. “How are you gonna get to a bush, gal, let alone squat behind it?”

“Mark and I already had this discussion.” She looked affronted. “Not that my ablutions are anyone’s business, but the doctor’s providing me with a portable potty. Everything’s resolved. Mark will build my cook fires and set up my tripod as needed. For a fee, of course.” She met Emily’s eyes and winked. “Your son is a sharp financier. I predict he’ll make a killing in the stock market someday.”

“I don’t object to Mark’s pitching in,” Emily said. “But he shouldn’t take Gina’s money.”

“Sure he should,” Maizie asserted. “Gina wants to pay, and Mark wants the job. Teaches the kid solid work ethics. ’Nough said if you ask me.” She turned to Mark and her grandson. “You two run along before them fish stop bitin’. Tell Robert I’ve got a hankering for catfish for breakfast.” One by one, she made eye contact with the others in the circle. “Why are y’all standin’ around? Go soak up some history. I’ll take Gina to her room. Believe I’ll sit with her a spell and rest these old bones.”

“Only thing I’m going to soak is my body in a bubble bath,” Sherry said.

Megan and Brittany didn’t have to be told twice to go. They were itching to explore. But before they could cut and run, Emily pulled her daughter aside. “Megan, I’ll expect you back at the wagon for supper. Six-thirty, and don’t be late.”

“Mo...th...er!” the girl huffed indignantly. “Brittany and I planned to grab something at the rodeo. I wish you’d stop treating me like a kid.”

“You’ve been fourteen for all of a month, Megan. I’ll concede that you’re not a
kid
-kid, but neither are you an adult. I’m willing to negotiate curfew. What time is the rodeo over?”

“Ten,” the girl said sullenly. “But there’s a dance later. I’m going to be with Brittany, and she’s nineteen.”

“Yes...I know.” Emily definitely wasn’t reassured. After all, she’d witnessed Brittany’s assault on Camp. His back was toward Emily, and he was chatting with the older girl. Emily couldn’t gauge his reaction. For all she knew, things might have changed between those two. But no—she was replaying old tapes. Camp had handled Brittany with the utmost discretion. Anyway, Emily had no call to be jealous. Nolan Campbell had made it plain that all he wanted from her was friendship.

As if she wanted more from him.
So why was she having such a hard time staying focused on this skirmish with Megan?

“Mom!” Megan’s lower lip stuck out an inch. “Is it all right to eat at the rodeo with Brittany or not?”

Sensing Emily’s eyes on him, Camp turned. He broke into a smile and started toward her, making her blush.

“L-let me check with Camp,” she murmured. “Brittany and I are part of his project, remember. He may have specific tours he wants us to take for his study.”

“Oh, brother. I knew this trip was going to be a drag.” Megan kicked a loose stone. Brittany stood to one side cracking her gum.

“What’s going to be a drag?” Camp strolled up, hands casually tucked into his pockets. “According to Brittany, you two ladies have a full day planned.”

Megan slanted her mother an angry glance. “Tell that to my mom. She’s treating me like I’m no older than Mark.”

“No such thing. I’m not sure it’s safe for the girls to walk alone at night that’s all.”

Head swiveling, Camp studied the tree-lined streets, alive in the aftermath of a parade. Families collected in groups, talking. Girl Scouts sold lemonade. Craft booths littered the wedge-shaped park. “Town seems pretty tame to me.”

“Yes, but a rodeo and dance...” Emily wasn’t ready to give in.

“Sounds like fun.” Camp flashed a smile at the girls. “I heard two couples discussing the bands. The first half of tonight’s dance is bluegrass music, followed by a local country band. Wouldn’t you like to hear them, Emily? That way we can all walk back to the wagons together. Unless you plan to take a room at the hotel.”

“No, I’m not...” Emily wasn’t sure if he was asking her to go with him to the dance or just to meet afterward. Either way it solved her immediate problem. “Okay.” She caved in because of the girls. “I don’t know where the dance is being held, so I have no idea how to choose a place to meet. Do you?” she asked Camp.

“It’s somewhere on the rodeo grounds. In a town this size, we’re not talking Madison Square Garden. There’s bound to be a main gate where we can meet.”

The girls didn’t look overjoyed, but they nodded. So they could be off and about their business, Camp thought with a grin. “Hey,” he called, watching them exchange worried glances as if to say
Now what?
“There’s probably a fee for the dance as well as the rodeo. You two have enough money?”

The girls shrugged, but when Emily began digging in her purse, Camp placed a restraining palm on her arm. He pulled out two twenties and passed one to each girl. “Have fun on me. Just know that I may pick your brains later for my paper.”

Giggling, they stuffed the bills into their pockets and dashed off.

Emily rifled through her purse until she found a twenty, and slapped it into Camp’s hand. “I can pay my children’s way.”