Page 8 of A Steadfast Heart (Wind River Mail-Order Brides #2)

H e had a short-term solution for his money woes.

Drew clicked his tongue, and Phantom increased his pace to a lope on the lunging line, following the oval corral fence. Instant response, flowing movements, complete trust in his handler, all the result of a week of intense training. Drew had hoped to keep this blue roan stallion, dreamed of one day starting a side business selling his colts and fillies.

But if he sold the horse, he could afford the lumber they needed.

Urgency spurred him on with breaking the three-year-old. They couldn’t delay building the cabins. Not with the news Ed had brought from town yesterday.

Ernie Duff was the new land office manager. He never should have gotten the promotion. Not when he’d been behind the town almost losing the lot the school stood on.

Now he was in charge of inspecting the improvements on homesteads. The Fogelsons had wintered in town after their cabin had burned, or been burned, and Duff had denied an extension for rebuilding. He’d taken back the claim when it was only one week past the deadline. No grace for extenuating circumstances, and only two days for packing.

The lunge line bit into his hand, and he relaxed his too-tight grip. They only had a little over a month to finish Ed’s claim. Six weeks to put up his cabin, and they didn’t even have the lumber. Isaac’s and Nick’s claims wouldn’t be due for six months after that, which would give them a little breathing space, but they had to get that land. The one claim they owned outright couldn’t support all his brothers. Plus, he’d expanded, counting on the new claims for grazing land. If they lost those homesteads, they might even lose Pa’s land.

Phantom’s body stiffened and his ears flicked back. Drew yanked his mind back to its proper place, slowly exhaling the fear that had built in his stomach. He had to sell this horse. The McGraw legacy would not end with him.

The colt rounded the western edge of the oval, and Drew pivoted in concert just as Kaitlyn came into view in the distance. She and Tillie paced out the area that he would need to plow for the family garden, Kaitlyn’s movements graceful despite the uneven ground she covered. She seemed excited at the idea of tackling a new project. Tillie giggled, and Kaitlyn tweaked the little girl’s braid, her smile bright. His gaze lingered.

He’d found himself watching her more than he should.

Pay attention to the horse, McGraw.

He signaled Phantom to slow, then stop. Drew approached the blue roan’s head and pulled one rein, then the other. Phantom easily followed the directions to curve his nose to his shoulder, a necessary skill before he’d be safe to ride.

“Pa, can I help?”

Phantom flinched and sidestepped.

Drew ran a hand along the horse’s neck, then flicked a quick look to his son, who had his boots on the bottom railing with his arms crossed over the top.

“Not today.”

He needed to get in the saddle if he was going to sell the horse this weekend.

“How come?”

Drew breathed through a pulse of annoyance. Because I don’t have time. Because you’re supposed to be caring for the calves. Because I said so.

“Not today,” he repeated, avoiding the question.

David shuffled off and Drew moved the stirrups around the horse’s sides, letting them brush his flanks. Finally, he gave them a firm yank. Phantom flinched at that, so Drew repeated it a few more times till the colt no longer responded.

When he looked up next, Kaitlyn had taken David’s spot, her arms folded over the top railing and her chin resting on them. Tillie was playing with the dog out in the field past the house.

He attempted to focus on the horse, but prickles of awareness skittered up his spine.

He tipped his chin toward her. “You need something?”

“Just watching.”

Huh.

It shouldn’t bother him. The kids liked to watch him break horses, especially David. This wasn’t any different.

Only it was.

He felt self-conscious knowing she was staring at him as he fed out the lunge line and started Phantom circling. Walk, then trot.

“You’re patient,” Kaitlyn said.

He felt her words like a physical jab against his skin. He hadn’t been patient with David. Hadn’t even taken the time for an explanation.

He chewed on that thought for a few moments, watching the horse go through its paces.

“I was a little short with David. Would you apologize to him for me?” he finally asked.

“I could.” She tilted her head, considering.

He paused the horse, watching Kaitlyn—her wrinkled forehead and downcast eyes.

Finally, she met his gaze. “But I think it would mean more if it came from you.”

He felt the frown as it formed on his mouth. He was the one who’d asked her to meddle in his business. She’d been careful to work on tutoring with the kids, but she left the discipline to him. As she should. She wasn’t their ma.

“He looks up to you. Values your opinion,” she said after a prolonged moment of quiet.

He didn’t know about that. He started Phantom lunging again and then began reeling the colt in slowly.

“And anyone with eyes can see how much you love your children. All three of them.”

This time, he couldn’t help the snort that escaped. He sounded more horse than man. Apt.

“It’s true.” She sounded slightly affronted, and he took his eyes off the horse long enough for a quick glance. She had a determined pinch to her lips. Something was chasing around in the depths of her eyes and then it seemed like she came to a decision.

“My father wasn’t like you.” She said the words quietly, firmly. Like a fact you’d find in a schoolbook.

He shouldn’t pry. Shouldn’t ask. But that didn’t stop the words from tumbling out as he jostled the stirrups again. “What d’you mean?”

“I can give you an example. Once, when I was nine years old, Michael interrupted me while I was having a snack that our housekeeper had left out for me. He and I were alone in the dining room.”

Her body tensed.

She looked in Drew’s direction but not at him. “He demanded I give him my food. I refused.”

Drew held Phantom’s bridle, focused on her. Her voice had gone soft and far off, like she was lost in the memory.

“He could’ve gone into the kitchen to make something for himself, but instead, he pitched a fit. Things escalated, and he picked up my teacup and threw it—at me or at the table, I don’t know. It shattered and tea splattered—everywhere.”

He heard the catch in her voice, saw the quickly hidden tremble of her lip. It couldn’t be more obvious that her brother had frightened her, and a protective urge rose up inside him.

“My father must’ve been nearby in the house, because he appeared in the doorway. Michael lied and said I’d broken the cup, but I protested.”

He wanted to hear her say that her father had done what he should have and taken a switch to Michael’s behind. But he guessed that she wouldn’t.

Her lips thinned into a line, and she spoke the last quickly and matter-of-factly. “Father sent me to my room. That was the last I heard of it. Michael rarely got punished.”

She seemed to shake herself out of the memory. “For a long time, I wished I had a father like you.”

He almost recoiled at her words. She had to be joking. He didn’t know what he was doing raising three kids. Couldn’t seem to get through to Jo no matter what he tried.

Kaitlyn was gazing at him with a small sincere smile on her lips.

And his gut was twisting with remembering David’s slumped shoulders as he’d shuffled toward the barn.

He passed a hand over his face. “Would you excuse me?”

He needed to talk to his son.

* * *

Kaitlyn stood beside the corral railing, watching the saddled colt where he stood. She rubbed her chest, trying to erase the ache that remained after sharing that memory with Drew.

She refused to let Michael or the past have any hold over her new life here.

She wouldn’t have told him the story if it hadn’t been for David’s dejectedness and the concern she’d read beneath Drew’s unruffled demeanor. She’d seen it in the barn the other day. Drew wanted to be closer to his kids, but for some reason he held back.

So she’d told her story.

Now Drew and David exited the barn together. David was bouncing on his toes, excitement radiating from him. Drew said something Kaitlyn couldn’t hear, and David steadied himself, visibly working to calm himself.

Soft, quick footsteps pattered behind Kaitlyn. Tillie stopped next to her and stepped onto the bottom rail of the fence. “What’re they doing?”

“I don’t know,” Kaitlyn said.

Drew glanced over briefly, his face unreadable. “David’s going to be the first to ride the colt.”

The back door slammed, and Jo stepped outside. Tillie abandoned Kaitlyn and ran toward her sister, calling out, “David’s gonna ride Phantom!”

The girls drifted to the corral, Tillie sticking to Jo’s side. Jo didn’t come near enough for Kaitlyn to converse with her. She ignored Kaitlyn completely, but at least she wasn’t aggravating her sister.

Nick and Ed appeared from behind the barn, both leading horses. When they saw the crew watching the corral, they changed course and came to stand near Kaitlyn.

David and Drew stepped up to the colt. Drew held the bridle as David ran his hands along the horse’s flanks and pulled on the stirrups just like his father had.

Finally, David put a foot into the stirrup and pulled himself up to stand in it. The colt stood completely steady, even after David lowered back to the ground.

“Remember the first time Drew broke a horse?” Ed wiped his hands on his pants legs. “David looks just like him.”

Kaitlyn’s heart was pounding hard enough for her to feel the pulse in her neck. She hadn’t realized how small David would look on the horse’s back. Slender like a reed.

“How old was he?” she asked Ed.

He shook his head, not understanding the question.

“Drew. The first time he rode,” she clarified.

“Probably a little younger than David,” Nick said.

David raised himself into the stirrup again, paused to read the horse’s body language, then glanced at his pa. Drew nodded, and David swung a leg over the colt, sat straight in the saddle.

Ed’s gaze flicked her way. “He didn’t break anything when he got thrown.”

She must’ve made a small gasp, because Drew turned his head briefly. He’d retreated several feet in their direction, letting David take the colt.

“You two quit telling tales. I didn’t get bucked off that first time.”

Nick guffawed. “Not that time. But remember when he was about fifteen and he got bucked off that black mare we had? Right into a sticker patch? He was dancin’ around, waving at his?—”

“Knock it off,” Drew drawled. He wouldn’t have seemed perturbed by his brothers’ antics except for the fact that his ears were turning pink underneath his hat.

Tillie cheered for David as he had the horse take a few tentative steps forward. Jo almost cracked a smile.

“I can picture you at fifteen,” she said to Drew’s back. “Full of responsibility. Probably running the whole ranch.”

Ed snorted, trying to hide the sound by looking down.

Drew shot him a quick glare.

Nick grinned widely as he said, “Drew wasn’t so responsible when he was David’s age.”

“He spent more hours in the barn than anywhere else,” Ed said.

“Skipped going to the neighbor’s for schooling a coupla times.”

Drew glared at Nick again. “It was one time. And Pa’s mare was foaling.”

“Ma would be looking for him because he hadn’t done his chores, and he’d be out riding,” Ed said.

Drew’s gaze cut to Kaitlyn and then back to David, who was making slow progress around the corral. Drew’s gaze never left his son for long. His posture eased a fraction as Phantom followed David’s commands.

Decades of affection laced the brothers’ teasing. She’d seen it at work these past weeks. Ed and Nick would do anything for Drew. And vice versa.

Something twinged deep inside her. This was family.

Something she’d longed for, for longer than she cared to admit.

She wanted to be a part of it. Be the one they were teasing, have years of stories to tell.

Could that happen if all she and Drew had was a business arrangement?

She was distracted from her thoughts when the wind picked up a handful of leaves and blew them directly across Phantom’s path.

The horse shied sideways, then took off.

A crowhop, then another. David slid sideways in the saddle.

“Stay with him,” Ed murmured. “Turn him in.”

Drew stayed silent and still, only his lips moving. He was too far away to do anything.

David regained his seat, settled deeper into the saddle. The horse bolted around the ring, his pounding hooves echoing across the corral.

“One-rein him, David. Turn him in.” Nick stepped onto a higher rung.

Kaitlyn’s breath caught in her chest. Her heart raced and her hands shook. If David got thrown, he could break his neck— God, if You’re listening, please help this boy.

David slid a hand along the inside rein, grabbed hold a foot nearer the bridle.

“Attaboy, David. You’ve got this.” Ed had settled on the highest rung of the fence, prepared to jump inside if needed. Another quarter lap, and David steadily pulled on the inside rein.

At first, nothing happened. Then slowly the horse’s head lowered. His ears lifted from his head, just a little. His pace slowed.

And finally, finally, his nose came around toward his flank as he eased to a stop.

Ed slipped down a couple of rungs on the fence. “That boy’s a chip off the old block, and no mistaking it.”

Drew was already approaching horse and boy. Kaitlyn couldn’t hear his words over Tillie’s excited jabbering. She gestured for her to quiet.

Drew held the colt’s bridle, drawing horse and boy toward the gate. “That was a mighty fine ride, son.”

David sat straighter in the saddle, a mile-wide grin on his face.

He slipped off the horse’s back, accepting congratulations from his uncles.

“We’ll help take him to the barn,” Nick said.

He seemed to be trying to give Drew a message with some wiggles of his eyebrows.

Kaitlyn and Drew were left standing near the corral. A couple of feet separated them, as well as a wooden fence.

She glanced over to see Tillie and Jo heading for the house, their heads together.

“You’ve got good instincts. With the kids.” Drew’s words brought her focus back to him.

She glanced toward Jo. “Not all of them.”

He made a soft sound. She didn’t know whether it meant he agreed or disagreed with her, but she didn’t ask.

She was still standing near the railing, and when he leaned his elbows on it, her breath caught. He was almost too close.

“What was your ma like?”

His question shocked her, and a glance at his face made her think he’d surprised himself too.

The image of her mother’s casket threatened to overwhelm her, as it always did when she thought of her mother. But she pushed past it. Her mother was more than the day that’d turned Kaitlyn’s world inside out. She dug deeper into her memories, and a calming, simple scent rose in her mind. “She smelled like flowers.” What flower? If only she knew, she’d buy the scented soap or perfume. Anything to hold on to the memories.

“What else?” Drew’s deep voice softened.

“She read to me.” Her eyes drifted shut as that voice echoed in her heart. “I always wanted the same book when I was little. We both had it memorized, but she still read it to me when I asked.” Kaitlyn smiled. “When I was older, she teased me about it. Told me she sometimes tried to skip a page or two but that I always caught her.”

“Sounds like a good ma.”

“She was gentle but strong. It sounds contradictory, but she was both.”

Drew’s arms rested on the top rail and his head cocked to the side as he studied her. Her cheeks warmed. Was her hair a mess? She wanted to look away, to check her hair for escaped tendrils, but his gaze held her captive.

He looked away first. “I can see that in you.” His voice sounded deeper, rougher than usual. He cleared his throat. “With Tillie, I mean. I can see it in you when you’re with Tillie.”

The girls’ voices floated through the air, pulling Drew’s and Kaitlyn’s attention toward the house. Tillie sang a bit of a made-up song, and Jo murmured.

Kaitlyn’s eyes slid closed at the sound. She’d been here over two weeks and had never heard Jo laugh. Surely she could reach her. Somehow.

She glanced at Drew. He was watching both daughters, and his brow was creased. He worried about the kids. Had married a stranger to help his children.

And Kaitlyn wasn’t lightening those worries like he’d hoped. Like she’d planned.

But she could lighten other worries.

Drew’s feet shuffled. She stepped onto the bottom rung of the fence and leaned against her side of it. Her sleeves brushed his hands. She inhaled, and the air was tinted with the smell of horse and work and man. She should step back, put some distance between them. But her feet refused to move.

“Drew, do you think I could go to town sometime soon? I need to send our marriage license to my lawyer. If we can get my funds released, I can help with the costs for the cabins. You wouldn’t have to sell Phantom.”

Drew’s eyes cooled and his jaw firmed. He stepped back and turned toward the horse. Away from her. “That’s my problem, not yours. Selling horses is part of life on a ranch.” He grabbed the colt’s bridle and headed toward the barn.