Belle shook her head. “No time today. I need to be at the boardinghouse first thing since you aren’t going to be there to help.”
Zoe gave Belle a second look. Had there been animosity in that statement? But after only a moment she gave herself a little head-shake. No. Belle had been a bit snippy about her taking the teaching exam at first. But they’d had a good talk and ever since then Belle had changed her attitude. Her sister had merely stated a fact. And she appreciated Belle doing extra work so Ma could go on this trip with her.
“Well, all right.” Ma scooped eggs into the middle of one pancake and rolled it up, tucking one end in. She thrust it at Aidan. Then repeated the process for the twins. Shiloh frowned. “But there’s no syrup.”
“It will have to do for today,” Ma said. “Get your lunches.” She hurried to Belle with one as well, then tugged her into a quick embrace that might have squished the pancake to Belle’s blouse if she hadn’t thought quickly and thrust it off to one side. “I don’t like to see you going without breakfast.”
Belle lifted the pancake roll and Zoe could see her tucking away her humor. “Thanks, Ma.”
“Of course. And thank you for seeing to the young ones for the next couple of days. It’s a blessing that I can count on you.”
Belle nodded. “Of course. I’m happy to help.” She strode to Zoe then and pulled her in for a quick one-armed hug. They shared a humorous glance over Ma’s insistence that none of her children leave the house without breakfast and then Belle said, “You will do amazing. Don’t be nervous.”
Zoe laughed apprehensively. “I’m afraid there’s not much I can do about that.”
Belle gave her shoulder a squeeze, then flapped her hands at the kids to get moving. “Just remember how smart you are and that Mrs. Callahan always said you were one of the brightest pupils in the room.”
Zoe tilted her a look. “She said that about you too.”
Holding the door open with one foot so the kids could file out, Belle gave an exaggerated sweep of her hair. “Of course she did.”
Joining in with Belle’s chuckle, Zoe flapped a hand. “Get on with you.”
“Right. Everyone ready?” Belle said to the kids. “Let’s go.” She pulled the door shut.
Zoe blew out a breath, undeniably thankful to have them off for town. She and Ma could share a bite to eat, and still have a couple minutes before Wash arrived.
“Aidan?” Belle’s words drifted in from the yard.
Footsteps slapped against the porch boards, and then the door burst open. Aidan flung himself across the room and into Ma’s arms. “Don’t go, Ma! What if I never see you again?”
Ma’s lips pressed together, even as tears filled her eyes. She wrapped her arms around Aidan and held him close. “There, there. Nothing’s going to happen to me, love. I’m healthy and whole, without any ailment whatsoever. And no one is going to shoot me.”
They were Aidan’s recurring fears, ever since their pa had been shot by an outlaw and died last year after a long bout of illness.
“I don’t want you to go!” Aidan wailed, hugging Ma tighter.
Zoe felt a wave of hopelessness crash over her. Because when Aidan got into one of these fits, there was no changing his mind. He was as stubborn as a mule and twice as dogged.
Zoe clenched her fists. Oh! Why today of all days!?
She forced herself to pull in a long, slow breath and then push it out on a measured exhale. But it didn’t do anything to quell the storm that had arisen in her middle.
Aidan! The little jackanapes! He was probably only trying to get out of school! She didn’t even feel guilty for being irritated with him.
This was definitely going to make her late!
Chapter 2
Washington Nolan dipped a double handful of water from the icy bucket on the back porch and doused it over his hair. He gasped at the frigidity of it. This was good. He could come back to the memory of this moment every time he thought of Zoe Kastain as more than simply his childhood friend during this trip.
He’d made a really big mistake last spring and kissed her. And it had been nice. Really nice. But nothing could come of it. He wasn’t ready to settle down and start a family. Had no idea how he would provide for one. No. He definitely needed to get back to thinking of her as only a friend.
As if to solidify the thought, he dashed another handful of water into his face. He couldn’t suppress a shiver. That water hadn’t gotten any warmer in the past few seconds.
His father chuckled, from where he stood next to the door peering into the small mirror while shaving. “Guess it might be time to start bringin’ the bucket inside, nights.” He jutted his jaw to one side and stretched his skin tight as the razor scraped over his cheek.
Wash fumbled for the piece of toweling. “Seems so, yes.” He dried his face and scrubbed at his hair.
Pa set down his razor and held out a hand for the towel.
Wash handed it over.
Using it to wipe the remaining bits of froth from his face, Pa asked, “So they got the trains runnin’ again?”
“From what I understand. It took them nearly two weeks to clear the tracks though. There were slides in several places.” Wash glanced at the pocket watch Pa had given him last Christmas, and decided to forgo his own shave today. He tucked the watch into his pants pocket and reached for his shirt. He still could hardly believe that Pa had given his great grandfather’s watch to him. It was a beautiful piece with an intricately engraved gold housing.
Pa made a tsking noise. “Every modern convenience comes with its own set of problems.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So you’ll be back in two days?”
“Yes, sir.” Wash worked at his shirt buttons.
Pa took up his hat. He stopped on the top step and stared out across the yard for a few minutes, and Wash could tell he was pondering on something he wanted to say. Pa was thoughtful like that. Never uttered a word he didn’t think through first. Finally, he settled his hat on his head and offered, “Just remember that a gentleman never leaves hisself behind.” He gave a little dip of his chin, as though giving approval to what he’d just said.
He strode toward the barn then, leaving Wash to stare after him.
He chuckled. Never leaves himself behind? It was such a Pa thing to say. Something that sounded so meaningful and packed a punch, yet didn’t really mean anything at all.
Wash tucked in his shirt, pushed his hair back, and then settled his Stetson on his head. He grabbed his jacket from the hook inside the door. It was time they got going. He knew how Zoe fretted about being on time for things like this.
“Jax! We need to go!” he called into the house.
“We don’t need to leave for half an hour yet!” his brother hollered back.
“Yeah. But Zoe likes to be early.”
“Zoe likes to be early.” Jackson mimicked as he tromped past. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Wash rolled his eyes, hefted his small valise, and trailed his brother to the barn. Jackson had been in a real snit ever since Pa had demanded that he drive Wash, Zoe, and her ma to the train station, so he could bring the wagon back home. But thankfully Jackson knew better than to disobey Pa’s orders.
The quiet of the frosty morning was broken only by the jangle of the harness bells, the crunch of the wagon wheels over the snow-packed road, and the occasional twitter of a bird. Wash had always loved cold mornings like this, with the sun shining and steam rising from every place the rays touched. Crisp blue sky above, and the snow-dusted winter branches stretching upward as though glorying to be alive.
The trip didn’t take them long, but the moment Jackson pulled to a stop in the Kastains’ yard, it became obvious that something wasn’t right.
Belle and the twins, bundled in coats and scarves, stood off to one side. Belle kept checking her timepiece, and it was obvious she was feeling impatient. The twins stood with books in one arm and lunch buckets dangling by their sides. They all watched
Mrs. Kastain and Zoe who were on the porch with Aidan.
Mrs. Kastain took Aidan by the shoulders and bent to look right into his face. “You have to go to school. Everything is going to be fine. I promise we will be home in just a couple days.”
Aidan fought through the restraint of her grip and flung himself against her. “No! You can’t go! You just can’t!”
Mrs. Kastain rested one hand on Aidan’s head and gave Zoe an apologetic look. Zoe gave a little bounce on her toes, the only thing that revealed her impatience with the situation.
Washington jumped down from the wagon and strode onto the porch. “Hey now, what’s with this fuss?” He squatted down so that he was on Aidan’s eye level when Aidan turned from his ma to see who’d spoken.
Aidan tilted his head a bit sheepishly. “I don’t want Ma to go. Or Zoe either. I won’t be there to protect them. I’m the man of the house now. I’m supposed to protect them.”
Wash tilted his head. “I see. And what if I told you that I was going to be along to protect them? Would that suffice?”
Aidan shook his head. “No. You can’t stop a bullet.” Large tears brimmed on his lower lids.
From the corner of his eye, Washington saw Zoe lift one hand to cover her mouth. A quick glance showed her own tears brimming. And Mrs. Kastain had lifted her gaze to the ceiling of the porch and was blinking rapidly. Washington couldn’t imagine what a burden little Aidan had been carrying since the death of his pa.
He scrubbed one hand along his jaw. He didn’t figure it would do much good to point out to young Aidan that he wouldn’t be able to stop a bullet either. This was one situation that he’d best let Mrs. Kastain handle herself. He glanced at her as he stood back up.
She dropped one hand against the top of Aidan’s blond mop and gave his head a bit of a ruffle. “Right then, you can come with us and be our protector.”
From across the yard, Shiloh gasped. “What!? If I throw a big conniption and demand to come with you, do I get to skip school too?”
“Absolutely not.” Mrs. Kastain leveled her with a look that, to Shiloh’s credit, she was smart enough not to buck. “You and Sharon get on to school, and please let Mr. Haversham know that Aidan won’t be there for a couple days.”
Belle nudged the twins. “Let’s go, girls.” She lifted her hand and waved to her mother and sister.
Aidan had already scrambled into the house and Mrs. Kastain followed him. “I’ll need five minutes to pack him a few things.”
Zoe paced the porch rubbing her temples. “This has made us late. Are we late? What time is it? Are we going to miss the train?”
“Zo!” Wash stepped into her path and bumped her with his hat to stop her pacing. “I made sure to get here half an hour early. We aren’t going to be late.”
Zoe rolled her eyes and paced away from him. “What you mean to say is, we aren’t going to be late so long as nothing else delays us.”
Washington bit back a grin and decided it was probably the better part of valor not to reply to her comments. “How about we load your bags into the wagon while she gets Aidan ready to go?”
“Right.” Zoe motioned to the pile just inside the kitchen door. “These are what we are taking.”
Washington eyed the mound of luggage. Did they think this trip was going to last for a month? How much stuff did one woman need? Again, deciding to exercise discretion, he simply hefted two bags and went to the wagon.
Quietly he said to Jackson, “Best you come help me or we won’t get on the road until next week with all the luggage they’ve got.”
Jackson pressed his lips together, but he did swing down from the seat and come help him.
They were just loading the last piece of baggage into the back of the wagon when Mrs. Kastain stepped from the cabin with Aidan and a small cloth knapsack.
She motioned the boy toward the wagon. “Go on. You get in the back there.”
Grinning like a monkey with a pile of bananas, Aidan scrambled to do as he was told. He sank down next to the luggage, swiping the remnants of tears from his cheeks.
Wash couldn't help a little smile as he helped first Zoe’s ma, and then Zoe up onto the seat next to Jackson. He had a feeling that Aidan had just pulled a good amount of wool over his ma’s eyes. But it wasn’t his place to say anything. He hauled himself up to the seat and by the time he sank down next to Zoe, Jackson already had the wagon rolling. Wash tossed him an irritated glance, but with both Zoe and her ma between them, he decided to let a reprimand go. Jackson wouldn’t listen to him at any rate.
Realizing how crowded they were, Wash tried to scoot as close to the arm of the bench as possible, but it was no use. They were crammed onto the bench like so many peas in a pod.
Beside him, Zoe shifted a little. And hang it, if just the feel of her arm brushing his didn’t bring to mind that springtime kiss. It had happened just down the road a little way from here.
Mrs. Kastain adjusted her skirts, tucking them tighter about her legs. Then she reached over and did the same for Zoe.
“Ma!” Zoe brushed her mother’s hands back. “I’ve got it. I’m fine.”
“Well, we don’t want you catching your death of a cold the night before your big exam.”
“I’m not going to get sick. I’ll be fine.”
“Yes, well… Better safe than sorry.”
Washington decided that he had better save Zoe from her ma’s ministrations. He swept a gesture to the sunlight all around them. “Lovely day for a trip, isn’t it, Mrs. Kastain?”
The woman blinked and glanced around. “Why yes. I guess it is a beautiful day. I’ve been running like a hen in cracked corn all morning. And I suppose I haven’t noticed until just this moment.”
“I like cracked corn,” Aidan piped up from the back.
Something about the muffled quality of the boy’s words drew Washington’s gaze.
Aidan was hanging from the side of the wagon by one arm, leaning out as far as he possibly could and trying to grab handfuls of snow from the drifts piled up along the embankment.
Eyes widening, Wash leaned over the back of the seat to grab him just as the wagon hit a good-sized bump. It was a good thing Aidan wore a belt, because it was the only thing Wash could catch. He hauled Aidan up like a book he’d grabbed by the spine.
“Whoa!” Aidan gasped, arms and legs dangling.
“Aidan! Do behave!” Despite Mrs. Kastain’s curt words, Wash did see her give the lad a once over to make sure he was unharmed before she returned her focus to the fore.
Wash lowered Aidan to the safety of the buckboard once more.
The boy looked up from beneath his brows. “Thanks.”
Wash gave him a nod. “I think it might be a good idea if you set your backside down right there and didn’t move.”
Aidan gave a sigh of resignation. “All right.” He sank against the pile of luggage and rested his wrists against his knees. And with his mussed hair and tear-tracked face, he looked for all the world like a discarded waif in a New York slum.
Wash quickly faced forward before the boy could catch his grin.
Zoe gave him an elbow in the ribs. She leaned close and spoke in a low voice. “Don’t encourage him. He’s already incorrigible enough without prodding.”
Washington made no reply, but he well remembered the days just after his ma had passed when he had often felt like he might come apart at the seams for no reason at all.
The horses bobbed their heads in the cool winter morning, causing their harness bells to jangled melodically. A tree branch snapped from just behind them.
Wash twisted to see that Aidan had broken a branch from a bush they had just passed. But the kid was seated and what harm was there in letting him have a bit of wood to play with?
Next to him on the seat, Zoe seemed to have relaxed a little, and well she might for they still had plenty of time to make it to the station. After they crossed the Wyldhaven Creek bridge just ahead, the station would only be five minutes fart
her on.
Wash was doing his best to ignore the pleasant feel of Zoe sitting so close to him. He studied the clear cerulean sky. He looked across the field to the lacework of the bare winter branches. He picked at a rough spot on the arm of the wagon’s bench seat. None of it served to distract him.
Behind them Aidan methodically snapped little pieces off of the branch he’d grabbed. Wash couldn’t help but envy the kid a little. Oh for the carefree days when he hadn’t been thinking about growing up, creating a family, or how to provide for them. Certainly for the days before his nearly every waking thought was of Zoe Kastain and the softness of her lips against his under the trees of the Wyldhaven forest.
“Come on, now.” Jackson spoke softly to the horses.
Only then did Wash realize the wagon had come to a stop.
Pa’s team never had like crossing this bridge. Maybe it was the loud thumps their hooves made on the old plank boards, or the hollow rumble of the wagon’s wheels behind them, or the fact that there were no rails along the sides. Whatever it was, it always took some coaxing to get them across. They bobbed their heads and pawed at the ground snorting and huffing in protest as Jackson clucked to them and tried to get them moving again.
Zoe squeaked out a little sound of misery. She pressed one hand over her stomach.
And Wash knew she was worrying again about being late.
He leaned close, and was just about to give her a bit of a hard time over her anxiety, when from the back of the wagon Aidan lurched to his feet. “I can get them moving, Zoe!” The eight-year-old loosed a great feral bellow. “Hiyah!” He scrambled up to lean over the back of the bench and Wash’s shoulder on the right, and proceeded to throw a handful of the broken bits of branch. They pelted the rump of the off horse. “Let’s go!”
Despite the fact that Pa’s team was a bit skittish, Aidan’s yell might not have caused any problems. But his yell not only startled the horses, it also startled a white rabbit that must have been sunning itself on the riverbank. It darted out into the middle of the road right beneath the horse’s feet and then shot off the other side to bound away across the field.
Marshal Zane's Christmas Horse: A Wyldhaven Series Christmas Romance Novella Page 6
