Page 14 of A Steadfast Heart (Wind River Mail-Order Brides #2)

T hey all know.

Kaitlyn glanced around the churchyard. Two women whispered to each other behind their hands. Their arms dropped to their sides, and they blushed before they looked away. Michael’s telegram had arrived a week ago, and the McGraws seemed to be the most popular topic of conversation at church today.

Kaitlyn’s cheeks heated. She’d hoped to never live this scene again, but Drew had said it would be good to attend church together and stay for the social time afterward. They’d even brought Jo, despite yesterday’s accident.

Didn’t he know that truth never interfered with people sharing a salacious story?

Of course he did. The stories must have flown when his wife left him.

Tillie ran up, her shoes scraping against the pebbles. “I miss-ed you.” She grabbed Kaitlyn’s hand and swung it a couple of times. “Can we play one, two, three?”

Kaitlyn smiled. Tillie loved being swung between two adults when they hit three. “Maybe later, Tillie. I need someone to hold your other hand, right?”

“Okay, later. Promise?”

“I promise.”

Tillie ran back to play with her friends. Kaitlyn glanced around the churchyard and found Drew standing among a group of men but watching her. One side of his mouth quirked up—his version of a comforting smile. Her chest lightened.

Gossip was still gossip, but facing it with family beside her made all the difference in the world.

Danna and Merritt stopped next to her, Danna’s skirt whipping around her legs from her long strides.

Merritt tipped her head with a teasing smile. “Kaitlyn, did my cousin just smile at you? I’d almost forgotten what his smile looked like.”

Kaitlyn’s cheeks warmed. She’d come to know Drew’s cousin, the local schoolteacher, over the past weeks. She liked Merritt. Even her teasing. “He was smiling at Tillie.”

Merritt shook her head. “He checks to see where you are every few minutes. Maybe seconds.”

Kaitlyn’s heart skipped a beat. Could Merritt be right? She snuck a glance back at Drew. Sure enough, he was still looking her direction, and Tillie was nowhere near.

Danna cleared her throat. “That dress Tillie’s wearing is adorable.”

Danna and Merritt had planted themselves next to Kaitlyn and weren’t moving, daring anyone to say an unkind word. “I made over one of Jo’s old dresses. Tillie does love pink.” And even a couple of years ago, Jo probably hadn’t, since the dress showed no wear at all.

“I knew you’d made it,” Danna said. “I know every ready-made item at the general store. I’m hopeless with a needle.”

“But not with a badge.”

Danna shrugged. “We each have our skills. It’s a good thing my husband can cook, or we’d starve.”

Kaitlyn scanned the area near them. No one close enough to hear. She lowered her voice. “Have you heard anything from my brother? Or found out if he contacted any other marshals?”

Danna shook her head. Apprehension churned Kaitlyn’s stomach. If Michael hadn’t contacted anyone else, he probably knew where she was. It had been a week. Had he arrived secretly? Hidden in a nearby town?

Danna laid a hand on Kaitlyn’s shoulder. “Let me worry about him. My job is protecting my town. And my friends.”

Friend.

Danna called her friend . Kaitlyn’s stomach settled a bit. Danna wouldn’t run from trouble, unlike Kaitlyn’s society friends back in St. Louis.

Merritt looked toward Drew, who was still watching the three of them. Then she looked back at Kaitlyn, her lips quirking. “Yeah, you let Danna handle Michael. You need to focus on teaching my cousin a full smile now that he has the half smile down pat.”

They were right, of course.

Still, Kaitlyn found herself trying to locate each of her charges. David stood out by the wagons with some other boys. Ed had Tillie’s hand.

Jo. Where was Jo?

Kaitlyn scanned the yard a couple of times before she found a cluster of girls near the back of the church. Was Jo there? “Excuse me. I’d better check this out.” She made her way toward the knot of girls. They were surrounding someone. Kaitlyn picked up her pace.

“You stole it. You must have. Your family doesn’t have money to waste trying to make you look pretty.”

Kaitlyn winced. No doubt who that bit of meanness was aimed at. Sure enough, a break in the group revealed Jo standing in the middle, her hand clutched around the end of her braid. “It was my ma’s.”

“Was not. I lost it at school last week. Give it back to me. Ribbons look stupid with pants anyway.” The girl tried to pull Jo’s hand from her braid, but Jo clutched it tight, her other elbow landing squarely in the girl’s midsection.

“Ouch.” The girl stepped back from Jo and rubbed her stomach.

Kaitlyn stopped next to them. “Girls, I’m so glad to see you. I was hoping to invite some of Jo’s friends out to the ranch for a visit. We could play some games.”

The ringleader of the girls sniffed. “My friends live in town, not out in the country.” She spun around and flounced off, the two other girls following in her wake.

Jo stared at her, anger glittering in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell them the ribbon was my ma’s?”

“Because they already knew it. You didn’t think she really lost a ribbon just the same color, did you?”

Jo shook her head. “If you knew they were lying, why didn’t you say so?”

“In Proverbs, it says, ‘A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.’ I thought it was worth a try.”

“I want to stir up anger with them. They called me a thief!”

“Well, in another verse it says to treat your enemy kindly, and in doing so you’ll heap burning coals on his head.” Kaitlyn paused. “Um, that means make him even madder. It isn’t literal.”

“I wish it was. They’d look good dancing away from coals. Next time, don’t help me.” Jo pulled the precious ribbon off the end of her braid and stuffed it into her pocket, then she stalked off and sat on the church steps. Kaitlyn smothered a sigh. She’d been so happy that Jo had worn the ribbon Kaitlyn had removed from one of Amanda’s skirts. One step forward and two steps back seemed to characterize their relationship. But Jo needed some time to cool off, and finding a place to sit by herself was better than brawling with the other girls.

A wagon pulled out from the churchyard, the horse’s harnesses jangling. Kaitlyn glanced toward the sound. It was the Cummins family. David stood near their own wagon, where he’d been keeping company with the two Cummins boys, and Drew was still with the men. David’s shoulders drooped, and he kicked at the gravel. Definitely unhappy.

Kaitlyn made her way across the church grounds and stood next to him. “Missing your friends already?”

David sighed. “They’re gonna be gone so long.”

“Really? Where are they going?”

“Back east.”

“East, hmm?” Kaitlyn tensed. “Have you ever wanted to go back east?”

“Never thought much about it.”

“It’d be natural to wonder, since your mother came from there and your grandparents still live there.”

David squinted at her, his cheeks flushed. “How do you know? Did you read my letter?”

She nodded. A few days ago, she’d been in his room putting up laundry. It had been open on his desk.

“That was private!” David glared at her.

Kaitlyn shoved her hands into the pockets of her skirt. Private between Drew and his father-in-law, not David. Mentioning that wouldn’t help. “It’s natural that you would wonder about your grandparents.”

“He didn’t want me, not till I grew up and I wouldn’t cause him any trouble.”

That’s how Kaitlyn had read the letter as well, but there were other interpretations. “Maybe he meant you could come visit when you would be old enough to not be homesick.”

David dropped his gaze, his toe drawing lines in the dust. “He came out here when Ma died.”

David’s flat tone told her a lot. The visit hadn’t gone well. “Did he? What did he say?”

“He yelled at Pa. Called him a murderer for bringing his daughter out here.” David looked up at her, his eyes moist. “But Ma died in a train wreck.”

Kaitlyn’s breath caught. So much pain and confusion in that statement. She laid a hand on David’s shoulder. “He didn’t mean it literally. He meant that this land is a hard place, too hard for his daughter to survive.”

“But that’s just stupid. Look at all of us, doing just fine. You too, and you’re even a city girl.”

“People say and do things when they are grieving that make no sense, not even to themselves sometimes.”

David pulled away from her and ran his foot along the marks he’d left earlier in the dust, his shoulders hunched over and his arms crossed in front of himself. What had happened that day? David hadn’t told her everything, that much was clear.

“Did your grandfather say anything else?”

“He said that he never wanted to see us—me and Jo and Tillie. That we’d been too much for her, no wonder she’d left.”

She wished she had that man in front of her right now. She’d tell him a few things that were too much for him to hear.

Kaitlyn looked down at the boy so carefully not meeting her eyes. “That is not true. Not even a little bit. Even he knows it. That’s probably why he sent that letter to your father. He’s realized that he’s cut himself off from three parts of his daughter that are still living, and he wants to fix the bridge he burned.” She smiled at the boy. “Like I said, people say stupid things when they’re grieving.”

David blinked a few times, then looked away from her. “I thought it wasn’t true. I’d never hurt my ma.”

“If you want to visit your grandfather, you could talk to your father. I’m sure he would make arrangements.”

David backed away from her, his hands clenching and unclenching and his eyes wide. “No! I won’t talk to my pa, and you can’t either. You shouldn’t have been reading my letter anyway. You’re not getting rid of me.”

She seized his hands before he could run. “I’d never try to get rid of you. I love you and your sisters, all of you. I just thought you might like to see your grandfather back east. For a short trip, not forever.”

His expression calmed a bit, but his eyes were still wide. “McGraws belong in the West, just like Pa says. So don’t you go bothering him about something that ain’t gonna happen. And stay out of my mail!” He yanked his hands from hers and ran down the boardwalk.

How had that gone so wrong? Kaitlyn watched the boy disappear, her heart aching for all the pain this family was grappling with. She didn’t know how to even start fixing the problems they faced.

Family sticks . That was what Drew had told Jo. This was Kaitlyn’s family, and she was sticking.

She glanced toward the men gathered by the horseshoe pit, found Drew standing to the side. He looked so tired. So far, she’d brought more trouble than help to the ranch. She could change that, if only she could get her inheritance. She could use it to help him with supplies to build on the homesteads, to relieve some of the burdens he carried.

She sighed. Fixing finances was a lot easier than repairing broken hearts.

* * *

“The bull is worth twice that.” Drew kept his voice steady with effort, his mouth so dry he was surprised he got the words out at all. He’d hoped to find someone to buy his bull in the visiting time after church, but he needed a better price than this.

Wilson wasn’t a bad sort, and his ranch probably had no more to spare than the McGraws’ did.

Or he knew the deadline for proving up the McGraw homesteads was only three weeks away. Three weeks, and they only had the studs up. Plus, they had used all the wood they’d chopped. They needed the money the bull would bring in—needed it to have any hope of finishing Ed’s cabin.

Drew pushed the uncharitable thoughts away. Times were tight for everyone these days.

Wilson shrugged. “I’m sorry, Drew, but that’s all I can spare. I could throw in some logs, but I can’t cut them until ranch work slows.”

Drew grimaced. Ranch work didn’t slow until winter, far too late to do him any good, at least for Ed’s homestead. He’d work around the clock, but swinging an axe in the dark while exhausted would be sheer stupidity. Not that he hadn’t considered it. “I’ll think about it. Meantime, I think Ed is looking for me.”

Wilson scanned the crowd, noted Tillie pulling Ed in their direction, and shoved his hands into his pockets. “It’s hard when they want your attention every second, but enjoy it as much as you can. You’ll miss it when it’s gone.”

“That I will,” Drew replied, then made his way toward Ed. His brother pointed Tillie toward the Boutwell family. Tillie took off toward her friends, and Ed ambled toward Drew, bumping into a diminutive redhead in the process. Rebekah Edwards. Drew smothered a smile as the two glared at each other. You’d think they would have learned to ignore each other by now.

Ed signaled Drew to meet him away from the crowd. He must have heard some rumors. Drew sighed. He’d asked his brothers to listen for news about Kaitlyn or Michael but had hoped they would hear nothing.

Looked like that was asking for too much.

He joined Ed, then looked around. No one seemed to be paying attention except Rebekah. Her sharp gaze noted their movements. They’d best be careful, or she’d convince her boss to print Kaitlyn’s family issues in the local paper.

Drew moved closer to Ed, then gestured toward Rebekah. “I see your schoolroom feud is still going strong.”

Ed frowned. “She’s a pill.”

“A dangerous one if the story of Michael’s telegram is circulating.” Drew kept his voice low. Rebekah stood several yards away, but she had sharp ears.

“It’s circulating, but as irritating as she is, she doesn’t print gossip. And she doesn’t control the paper anyway. She just wants to.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Besides, she’s probably only wondering where Isaac is.”

“Maybe.” Drew glanced around, then gestured for Ed to follow him to a more isolated spot. “No one can hear us from here, so tell me what you heard about Kaitlyn.”

“Nothing much about her. Just whispers that drop off if any of our family gets near. But Jack did tell me something about the Tates.”

Ed’s frown grew deeper, and Drew felt a cold trickle of unease. This wouldn’t be good. “What about them?”

“Seems no one has seen or heard from them for more than two weeks.” Ed glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone had moved closer. “Talk around town is they pulled up stakes and left.”

Drew winced. The Tates had always kept to themselves, but that was a long time for no one to hear anything. Plus, they had agreed to let the McGraws use their land for grazing. Without it, he’d have to buy hay, and then where would the money for Ed’s cabin come from?

He forced himself to take a deep breath. Panic wouldn’t serve him well. “They can’t have left. Last month, they were almost ready to prove up their land.”

Ed shrugged. “I don’t know. It’d be odd for them to leave when they were so close to proving up, but two weeks is a long time for no one to hear from them.”

“Maybe they’re sick. Or something happened to put them behind on planting. Or…well, it could be a hundred things.”

“Either way, Jack asked if we could check on them after we get home. He said it would be a while before a deputy would be free for the trip.”

Drew suppressed a sigh. One more chore in his never-ending list. Still, something might really be wrong, and he couldn’t ignore that possibility. They’d have to leave soon to have time to ride over. He glanced toward their wagon. “That’s strange.”

“What is?”

Drew nodded toward the parking area. “David’s talking with Kaitlyn. I’d expect him to be with his friends.”

Ed glanced the same direction. “The Cumminses probably left already. They have even farther to go than we do.”

“Hmm.” Drew watched his son. The boy’s shoulders were tight and his legs were planted wide. Finally, he stomped off.

Ed sighed. “That didn’t look like it went well.”

Drew kept his eyes on Kaitlyn. Her shoulders slumped, and she reached a hand out to the wagon as if she needed help with her balance. David had hurt her. Drew started toward her, but before he could take five steps, she pulled herself up straight and dropped her arms to her sides. Her chin lifted, and he’d bet her mouth was set in a stubborn line.

He smiled. David didn’t stand a chance.

She was wearing the green dress that made her eyes glow. Sunlight caught in her blonde hair, giving it an extra sparkle. Even from here, he could see a tendril that had worked loose. His fingers itched to tuck it back behind her ear. He curled them into a fist, trying to subdue the burning.

Ed’s bumped his shoulder. “See something you like, big brother?”

Drew cleared his throat and tore his gaze from Katie. His eyes scrunched closed. When had he started thinking of her as Katie?

He swallowed hard and tried to mask his expression before he faced Ed. From his younger brother’s grin, he hadn’t been fast enough. “What’s not to like? She’s great with the kids. And what she did yesterday?” Drew shook his head. Jumping in that corral and covering Jo? That took more courage than he’d seen in any woman. Most men too. “I never thought I’d see anything like what she did yesterday.”

“So all you see when you look that direction is that she loves the kids. Right.”

“I could do without the sarcasm.”

“If you’d admit the truth, I’d omit the sarcasm.”

The truth. That the burden on his shoulders felt lighter when she smiled at him? That she seemed to understand what he couldn’t figure out how to say? Or that he had a hard time looking away from her anytime they were in the same room?

Ed bumped his shoulder again. “Come on, brother. You’re not fooling any of us. And I’d have to say your taste in women has improved.” Ed’s mouth tightened at the thought of Amanda. She had hurt the kids, hurt Drew, and Ed had a hard time forgiving that.

“Ranching’s a hard life for a woman. Specially a city girl like Amanda. Or Kaitlyn.”

Ed laughed. “You can’t seriously be comparing the two.” When Drew didn’t respond, Ed’s smile faded. “Can’t you see the difference? Kaitlyn’s been brighter and more cheerful by the day since she’s been here. Amanda never even tried.”

Drew thought back to the day Kaitlyn had arrived. She had seemed sad, uncertain.

Ed smirked. “Seems I gave you something to think about, so let me add to it. Her smiles are warmer when they’re directed at you.”

“She’d have never chosen a two-bit rancher. She just got stuck with me.” Drew’s gaze found Kaitlyn again without his permission.

Ed’s jaw dropped, then his gaze hardened. “I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that. If anyone else said that about you, I’d slug them. If I didn’t know it originally came from Amanda, I’d…”

“You’d what?”

“I’d slug you myself.”

“Glad to know where I stand.”

“You can always depend on a brother to knock some sense into you. And enjoy the process.”

“You can try, little brother. You can try.”

Ed’s head tilted to the side, his eyes serious. “If anyone deserves a bit of happiness, it’s you. Kaitlyn isn’t Amanda.” Ed started toward the wagon. “Meanwhile, if we’re going to check on the Tates, we’d better go.”

Drew watched his brother make his way across the yard. Kaitlyn’s smiles had gotten brighter over time, but that didn’t necessarily mean she had feelings for him. In fact, it probably meant she felt safer the longer she was away from Michael.

Safety. He might not have the money her family had, but he could protect her. Would that be enough?