Kari (Walker Creek Brides Book 1)

by Miriam Minger

  Kari smiled with understanding, imagining if the same news might have swept through Faribault—but then again, it surely must have already, since Caleb had sent a telegram and wired money to the bank for her family. How people must be chattering and they didn’t yet know the full story! Wondering what her sisters and brother must be thinking, she resolved to write them a long letter as soon as she got back to the ranch.

  “Let’s bow our heads and give thanks, shall we?”

  As Molly gave a simple prayer, Kari felt such a wave of longing for her own mother who had always said grace in their home. When she finished, Molly began to bustle again around the kitchen.

  “Go on now, eat, while I make some tea.”

  Kari didn’t need Molly’s urging, her stomach growling loud enough for Seth to laugh and reach for her hand to squeeze her fingers. Instead of sitting opposite her, he’d taken the seat right next to her, and Kari hadn’t missed the inquisitive glance Molly had shot at her son nor the lovely brow raising now at the two of them.

  If Seth had noticed, he gave no indication of it as he made sure Kari’s plate was full before he dug with gusto into his own. He seemed as hungry as Kari, bringing to mind again the book she’d read about cowboys and how they looked forward to mealtimes out on the trail after a hard day’s work.

  “Everything is so delicious, Mrs. Davis, thank you,” Kari murmured between bites of buttered cornbread that melted in her mouth.

  “Call me Molly, please,” she insisted, finally sitting down to eat with them. “I hope Charles will be home soon so he can meet you. He’s out paying a visit outside of town on Mrs. Fletcher, her rheumatism acting up again, poor dear.”

  As Kari and Seth ate in companionable silence, Seth’s mother chatted on between bites about her garden and the potluck supper coming up in a couple weeks at the church—until Seth pushed himself back from the table, a satisfied grin on his face.

  “Best cook in Walker Creek, bar none. Do you have any room left for a piece of my mother’s apple cobbler, Kari?”

  She shook her head, embarrassed really, that she’d eaten so much, but everything had tasted so good! He laughed, leaning toward her and using his knuckle to wipe what she imagined was a smudge of cream gravy from the corner of her mouth, which made Molly’s brow rise again, her expression very close to exasperation.

  “All right, Seth, are you going to come out with it? Or do you intend to just leave me in suspense—”

  “Kari and I are courting. I know it’s sudden and we just met yesterday, but she’s the one I’ve been waiting for and I told her so, too.”

  Seth had blurted it out, he knew, glancing from Kari, whose pretty blush made his heart beat all the faster, to his mother, who sat there smiling as if she wasn’t surprised by his announcement at all. Yet just as suddenly her smile faded and she leaned back in her chair with a sigh.

  “Oh, son, I’m amazed my hair hasn’t turned gray from the trials we’ve shared, but this time I think it’s going to happen. Caleb’s not going to be pleased.”

  Knowing exactly what his mother was talking about, Seth glanced at Kari to see her brow knit with dismay and he reached out to squeeze her hand.

  Her fingers felt cold as if she had suddenly remembered what he’d said yesterday about his uncle believing him part Comanche, and Uncle Caleb’s explosive outburst when they had arrived at the ranch. If she hadn’t sensed then the barely concealed tension between them, what his mother had just said must have revealed it.

  “You’re the only one that can reason with him, Ma. He’s going to object and we both know why. I’m not good enough for his daughter, you can hear him now. You’ve seen time and again how ugly he can be when his temper flares up or somebody challenges him.”

  Molly glanced wistfully out the kitchen window. “My brother’s not at all like the man who came home from the war filled with hopes and dreams in spite of the savagery he’d witnessed. Something had saved him…something pure and lovely and bright—”

  “My mother, Lara.” Distressed more than she could say by the somber exchange between Molly and Seth, Kari had never experienced more emotional ups and downs in her life as since she’d arrived in Walker Creek. She wasn’t surprised when Molly nodded, Kari struck again by sadness at how so many lives had been affected by two lovers being forever torn apart.

  “Would you tell me what she wrote in her letter?” Molly asked softly, reaching out to clasp Kari’s hand.

  Her other hand still held by Seth, Kari recounted what her mother had poured out to Caleb, tears swimming in Molly’s eyes when Kari had finished. No one spoke for the longest moment until Molly seemed to swallow them back and lifted her chin, and then rose from her chair.

  “You’d best head back to the ranch, Seth. When do you plan to tell Caleb that you and Kari are courting?”

  “As soon as he comes home tonight, well, unless he’s drunk. Then I’ll have to wait until morning.”

  “Wait until morning either way,” Molly gently bade him as he and Kari rose, too. “It will give me time to talk to your father and decide the best way to approach Caleb. We’ll drive out first thing.”

  As Seth nodded, Kari extended her hand to his mother. “Thank you for the lovely lunch. I’m so glad to have met you.”

  “And I, you,” Molly murmured, looping her arm through Kari’s and walking with her toward the front door. “I look forward to spending more time with you, Kari. Your mother must have been beautiful indeed, to have such a lovely daughter.”

  Warmed by the compliment, Kari returned Molly’s hug and then Seth led her out of the house and back to the phaeton.

  Henry whinnied to see them again and the two harnessed mares pricked up their ears, which made Kari smile, glad for something to lighten the pall that seemed to hang over their departure. Even Molly’s wave goodbye seemed subdued, Seth’s mother retrieving the cobbler and going back inside before they had driven away.

  A question burned in Kari’s mind, but Seth appeared as if his thoughts were miles away as he steered the carriage out of town. Thankfully they headed in the opposite direction than the Red Dog Saloon, and she opened her parasol again to protect her from the afternoon sun. How would she ever adjust to such heat?

  “Wait until summer,” Seth said with a laugh, Kari astonished that once again, he’d read her thoughts. Yet not all of them, the same question troubling her as Walker Creek receded into the distance.

  Determined to know the answer before their courtship progressed any further, Kari decided it was best just to have it out.

  “Seth, do you hate Caleb?”

  No ready answer came, Kari feeling Seth stiffen beside her. He clucked his tongue to the mares and seemed to be mulling his reply, and then he shrugged and glanced at her.

  “I don’t hate him…but I don’t like him, either. Why do you ask?”

  Kari drew a deep breath and plunged ahead. “If you don’t like him, I don’t understand why you work for him. Surely there are other ranches that would hire you as foreman.”

  “As a ranch hand, maybe, but not foreman. He’s not the only rancher with a grudge against Indians. Lots of folks have seen their homes burned to the ground in the past and lost loved ones to raids. That hatred runs deep.”

  “But you said yourself that your blue eyes have always stumped him, so you have no idea if you’re part Comanche or not.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Perception is a hard thing to change, and my uncle’s the one who first voiced his suspicion a year or so after he returned from the war. Like Ma said, he became a different man when he got that letter from Lara telling him that she was married. Hard, cruel even, and my mother’s the only one who’s been able to temper it. He’d already been gone a year when I was abandoned and I was three when he came home, but I remember him playing piggyback with me and laughing—always laughing. Then the laughter stopped.”

  Seth’s expression grown grim, a tic working along his jaw, Kari didn’t know if she should press him further, but she had
to ask. She had to!

  “Seth, are you courting me to spite him somehow? After everything you’ve told me, it would make sense—oh!”

  He’d pulled up on the reins so sharply to slow the carriage that Kari almost lost her seat. She dropped the parasol, though, the pointy end striking the closest mare in the rump and causing her to rear in the harness and whinny in fright.

  The other mare whinnied, too, the two of them bolting so suddenly that Kari did lose her seat. She cried out as she tumbled to the hard ground and landed on her stomach, the wind knocked out of her.

  A dazed glance to her left told her that Seth had managed to bring the startled horses under control, the carriage rolling to a stop some thirty feet away. Kari heard it, then, a dull-sounding rattle not far off to her right. Fear sluiced through her as she turned her head and came face-to-face with a coiled snake ready to strike.

  “Don’t move, Kari, don’t move!”

  She didn’t blink, didn’t breathe, the report from a revolver deafening as the snake flew into the air, its head shot from its body.

  Only to plop down right in front of her, the sightless eyes staring at her, its bloodied mouth gaping open to reveal poisonous fangs.

  Kari nearly vomited, choking down bile as she felt herself pulled backward by her legs until she was several feet away from the still-lethal head. Seth dropped to his knees beside her and pulled her into his arms, hugging her fiercely even as she flung her arms around his neck.

  “Oh, God, Kari.” Over and over he whispered the words against her ear, his voice choked, his embrace only tightening while she held onto him for dear life.

  She couldn’t say how long they remained there together, holding each other close, until Seth lifted his head to stare at her. His eyes had darkened to a stormy blue, his face stricken.

  “God help me, Kari, if I’d been any farther away…” His hoarse voice faltered again as if he couldn’t bear to finish the thought, his trembling fingers tenderly wiping loose strands of hair from her face.

  She reached up to touch his face, too, and found his cheek wet, Seth staring into her eyes as if he couldn’t believe how narrowly she had escaped death. His gaze dropped to her mouth. Her lips parted as she fought still to steady her breathing, Kari staring at his mouth as he lowered his head to kiss her—

  “Good gracious, Seth, is everything all right? What’s happened here?”

  Chapter 7

  Kari gasped and Seth stiffened, both of them looking up as an older man dismounted from his horse and came running toward them.

  “Lord help me, were either of you bitten?”

  “We’re fine, Pa, at least I hope we are. Kari took a hard fall from the carriage, but I don’t think anything’s broken.”

  “Lay her down, son, let me see to her,” came the urgent command, Seth releasing Kari though he stayed close to her side.

  Seth’s father! Kari watched wide-eyed as Dr. Charles Davis knelt on the ground to feel her limbs for any broken bones. He looked every bit a distinguished physician with his side whiskers and moustache, his expression intensely focused as he examined her. Only when he came to her right ankle did she gasp in pain.

  “I fear you’ve suffered a sprain, Miss—”

  “Kari Hagen, Pa,” Seth interjected. “Uncle Caleb’s daughter.”

  Charles glanced from him to Kari, but his dark brown eyes held no surprise or censure, only concern. “We need to get you home, Miss Hagen. Not only a sprain, but a terrible fright, I’m sure. Thank God my son’s an expert marksman.”

  As Charles rose to his feet, Seth gathered Kari into his arms and carried her to the phaeton, but carefully so as not to jostle her.

  Walking behind him, Charles for the first time sounded shaken. “You gave me a scare, too, Seth. I had just turned onto the road from the Fletchers’ ranch when I heard the gunshot. That’s the biggest rattler I’ve seen in some time, a six-footer easy. Must have spooked those mares out of their wits.”

  Seth didn’t say anything to correct his father’s impression of what had happened, but focused on lifting Kari onto the seat as gently as he possibly could. Even so, she winced in pain, which made him feel sick inside. He was to blame for her tumbling from the carriage, his sense of guilt nearly choking him.

  She looked so pale, her dress all dusty and her shawl askew—and where the heck was her parasol?

  Seth saw it then, lying in the road and broken from being trampled upon by the horses. Just as Kari could have been trampled if she’d pitched forward instead of to the side—blast it, why had he yanked up so hard on the reins when she’d asked him if he was courting her to spite his uncle? Just like she’d said, after everything she had heard today, it made perfect sense that she might be troubled.

  “I’ll drive her to the ranch, Seth,” said his father, climbing into the phaeton. “Untie Henry and bring along my horse.”

  Seth nodded, his disappointment acute that he would have to wait to assure Kari of his intentions.

  She looked crestfallen, too, as the carriage rumbled away, leaving Seth to grab the reins of his father’s horse and to mount Henry for the ride back.

  He still felt shaken by the tragedy so narrowly averted, a fresh wave of guilt overwhelming him when he glanced at the dead snake on the side of the road.

  Kari’s query had struck a nerve and he couldn’t deny it. Why else had he overreacted like he did? He hadn’t consciously wanted to court her as some sort of retaliation, but he’d known all along that Uncle Caleb wouldn’t think him worthy of her.

  Seth’s jaw tightened at the thought and he kicked Henry into a gallop to catch up with the carriage.

  If the horses hadn’t bolted, how would he have answered her? A denial, most likely, even though he had to admit to himself, however much it sickened him, that deep down his motives might not have been so pure no matter his feelings for her.

  “How are you going to face her now?” Seth said under his breath, falling back so he wouldn’t catch up with the phaeton after all. Clearly, Uncle Caleb was right. He didn’t deserve her!

  “Is there anything else you need, Miss Walker?”

  Kari shook her head and murmured, “Not right now, thank you,” as Sarah adjusted the pillows to better elevate her sprained ankle and then bustled from the room. In truth, she longed to see Seth, but she wasn’t going to reveal that to the housekeeper given the Irishwoman’s tendency to share with Caleb everything they discussed.

  When Dr. Davis had turned the carriage into the ranch, Kari had been surprised to see Seth so far back along the road. Wouldn’t he want to ride closer to make sure she was all right?

  A last glance over her shoulder as Seth’s father had carried her into the house, his raised voice bringing servants running, had shown Seth still a good distance away. Whatever had he been thinking? Only when Dr. Davis had handed her over to one of the menservants to carry her upstairs had he rushed back to the door, calling out for Seth to bring him his medical bag at once.

  Yet it hadn’t been Seth to bring the black leather bag to her room, but Sarah, telling Dr. Davis that Seth had said he would wait for him downstairs. Kari had reasoned then that it wasn’t appropriate for him to come upstairs, but in such extreme circumstances, wouldn’t an exception have been made?

  She had wanted to see him, needed to see him! If anything to assure him that she wasn’t too badly hurt even though her ankle by then had swelled to twice its normal size, her ribs aching from how hard she had hit the ground when she fell from the carriage.

  Wouldn’t he want to hear about her condition from her own lips rather than a report from his father, who hadn’t left her side until her ankle had been thoroughly bandaged and instructions for her care given to Sarah and Maria? Yet that was hours ago already, hours ago!

  Kari heaved a sigh, the day fading into a fiery sunset that bathed her west-facing bedroom in warm hues of orange and gold.

  What could have happened to him? His mother had asked him to wait to speak to Caleb in the mor
ning when she and Seth’s father came out together to the ranch, so perhaps Seth had thought it best not to talk to his uncle at all until then.

  Yet surely Caleb would want a full accounting of events from Seth when he returned from town. Dr. Davis had said little to her during the ride back to the house, other than to inquire every so often how she was feeling and to reach down and gingerly check the swelling in her ankle. He’d told Sarah earlier that the horses had been spooked by a rattlesnake alongside the road and Kari had held her tongue, not wishing to embellish upon what was an entirely plausible story.

  She had no idea what Caleb would think if he knew in reality that Seth had slowed the phaeton so abruptly that Kari had dropped her parasol, startling the horses into bolting—and she had no intention of sharing it with him.

  The only important thing for him to know was that Seth had saved her life, which she hoped would make him hold his nephew in much higher esteem. Perhaps now Caleb wouldn’t object to Seth’s courtship of her after all!

  Cheered by that thought, Kari shifted in the bed, even the slightest movement still causing her to grimace in pain. She’d never suffered a sprained ankle before, and it wasn’t pleasant at all. Dr. Davis had said she must have bed rest for at least a week and not attempt to get up unless she had someone to help her to keep the weight off her right foot.

  To think all the while Seth was holding her in his strong arms, she hadn’t felt any pain in her ankle at all. No, not even when he had grabbed her legs to drag her backwards out of danger. She must have been too much in shock, the vivid memory of him embracing her bringing her a sense of comfort even now, unlike anything she’d ever known.

  She’d felt his heartbeat pounding against her breast, and wondered now if he’d felt hers, too. How could he not when they had held each other so fiercely? When he’d lifted his head to look at her, she’d seen both agony and wonder in his eyes as if he couldn’t quite believe she still lived and breathed.