Page 16 of The Rancher's Wedding

“My lips are sealed,” Megan said.

The whip helped her into the wagon, then took his seat at the reins of the horses.

“Travel safe,” Estelle said.

Megan waved goodbye to Estelle and Estelle felt a tear form in her eye. Almost every day since she was eight years old, she had seen Megan. Megan was more like a sister than a friend. And, as the wagon headed off down the road, Estelle feared that she may never see Megan again.

“Your friend seems to have charmed my brother,” Michael remarked, coming up behind her. “I was beginning to lose hope.”

“She’s quite a woman,” Estelle said.

“As are you.”

Michael eyed her up and down, looking at her frilly dress and boots. “Did you bring any work clothes?”

She shook her head. “I’m afraid I didn’t have any.”

“At the orphanage?”

“Yes,” Estelle said. “At the orphanage.”

“Let’s see what we have around here for you to wear for today. We can always pick you up something more in town later.”

***

Estelle looked in the mirror and laughed with joy. She couldn’t believe it was her in these loose farmer clothes. She had never worn denim before, and the frumpy overalls made her look like a completely different person. She almost looked like one of the men on the farm. From a distance, once she tied her hair up, anyways, she wasn’t sure anyone would be able to tell the difference.

“Oh, this is such fun!” Estelle said.

Michael offered a half-hearted chuckle. “You ready to get started, then?”

“Yes, I most certainly am!”

He walked her outside the house and whistled. Two dogs ran over from off in the distance.

“That one there on the right is Daisy and the other’s her brother, Buckley,” Michael said. “They’re Shepherds, so they’re good herding animals, but they like to help with all the work out here. They usually follow me around until I need them for something. In the meantime, they’ll play or find themselves a stick and fight over it.”

“Oh, my.”

The dogs approached and barked at Estelle, sniffing at her heels.

“Go ahead and show ‘em your hands so they can smell you.”

He took her hand and moved it in front of the dogs’ noses. After a second or two, she earned their approval in the form of Daisy licking her palm.

Estelle pet them each on the head. They were soft, but a bit more active than the dogs she was used to. They both had a bounce in their step as if they were full of energy that had to go somewhere, but didn’t have any place to go. She remembered seeing a bean once that her father had shipped to him from way down south. He’d put it on the table and it had popped in the air. And it had kept on doing it until, eventually, a worm had burrowed itself out.

The dogs were much like that bean, but without the worm.

“Come on,” Michael said. “I like to start with the hogs.”

“Certainly.”

He led her toward the barn and said, “That’s another thing you might want to work on.”

“What’s that?”

“The ‘certainly’s and the formal talking and such.”