The Ranger's Wife (Hero Hearts; Lawmen's Brides Book 1)

by Natalie Dean

  He looked across the table and gave Lizzie that bright smile. The one that made his brown eyes beam brightly at her. She found she could only halfheartedly return it. A guilty knot had settled in her stomach when she realized that the wedding this poor boy had in his mind would, in all likely hood, not take place at all.

  Lizzie was pleased to discover that she would not be required to say much at breakfast. Between Mrs. Matthews and Billy talking about the ranch and the running of the hotel, Lizzie barely had room to utter much more than the occasional “yes,” “no” or “please pass the marmalade.”

  When breakfast was over, Lizzie offered to help clean up. Mostly to delay the inevitable trip to this ranch with her new fiancé. She knew the less time she spent with Billy, the less guilty she would feel about breaking off her engagement with him one week from now.

  “Oh, don’t worry about this dear,” Mrs. Matthews told her. “I’m used to cleaning up after guests. Besides, you and Billy will need to set out before the sun gets too warm. You wouldn’t expect it so far up, but, temperatures can climb fairly quickly here in the summer.”

  Lizzie looked back at the table where Billy had already stood and was now waiting for her, hat in hand with that eager smile on his face. The smile that both warmed her and annoyed her at the same time.

  With another guilty lump in her stomach, Lizzie nodded to Mrs. Matthews and allowed herself to be led outside to the carriage by Billy.

  The small wagon was hitched to a beautiful strawberry roan horse who looked to be a mare. The animal’s bright, reddish brown coat shone so impressively that Lizzie could not help but feel drawn to it.

  She smiled, genuinely, for what felt like the first time since she’d arrived in Laramie, as she moved to stroke the animal.

  “She’s a sweet little thing, isn’t she?” she heard Billy ask as she stroked the horse’s mane. She turned to him and could see a slightly smug grin on his face. This one was different from the bright, boyish smile she was accustomed to.

  This grin was proud and a bit sly. It still made his eyes sparkle, but, it also made him look a bit older and a good deal wiser.

  “She is lovely,” Lizzie admitted. “What do you call her?”

  “Rosa,” Billy answered making his way over to the wagon. “Bought her from one of Mr. Miles farm hands last week. He said Mr. Miles was planning on sending her off to a horrible fate at the glue factory, so I bought her out right before he could get rid of her.”

  Lizzie looked into the animals deep, brown eyes with a hint of sadness. She imagined she could see that sadness reflected in Rosa. It seemed to be a silent despair they shared. As though Rosa had some share in the curse that had been placed on Lizzie.

  Lizzie raised her hand and patted the horse.

  Unlike most horses who would almost ignore a touch from a stranger, Rosa leaned her head into Lizzie’s pat and even nudged the woman’s shoulder as though asking for more. Billy let out a small snort of laughter when this happened.

  “Rosa can’t get enough pats,” he said. “you pet her on the side like that, and you’ve made a friend for life.”

  Lizzie found that she could not help but smile as her hand remained on the horse’s side.

  “It’s sad to see a good animal put out to pasture,” she said.

  “Especially when she didn’t have to be,” Billy agreed. “Rosa here’s still got a lot of fight left in her. And she’s the best-tempered mare you’ll find anywhere. It seemed a damn shame to let a good horse like this be sent to the glue factory. Oh, I hope you’ll pardon my language.”

  She looked over to Billy to see that his face had gone slightly red. Her annoyance with his quick and eager speech dissipated when she saw his loyalty to the sweet old mare.

  “Don’t worry about your language on my account,” Lizzie said. “Running a boarding house, you hear all sorts of things a fine lady would never hear. Besides, I agree with you. Selling a beautiful animal like this to a glue factory would be a…damn shame.”

  She nearly giggled when the word left her mouth. Though she had heard rough language in the boarding house, she was careful never to use it herself.

  The matron of such an establishment was always under the most intense scrutiny. Now, she found that there was a certain freedom in uttering it.

  Billy apparently thought so too. He let out an impressed chuckle as he gave the mare one last pat and moved back to climb into the wagon.

  “Lizzie,” he said jovially. “I think you and I are going to get on just fine.”

  As he hopped into the wagon, Lizzie was surprised to find that the guilty knot in her stomach was not as intense as it had been before. Even though she still planned on leaving after a week, she realized that taking a ride with this young man might not be as awkward as she feared.

  This was confirmed when Billy climbed into the wagon and reached out his hand to Lizzie.

  She took his outstretched hand and, surprisingly, felt a warm shiver run down her spine as she did.

  His hand was much warmer than she had expected it to be. He had the usual calluses typical of a manual worker. But there was a softness in his touch too. Like the brightness that matched him.

  She looked up at him as he pulled her into the wagon. His bright brown eyes, once again made him look slightly older and wiser than she had previously thought him to be.

  For the first time in his presence, Lizzie’s stomach gave a small flip that she had remembered feeling the first time she had set eyes on George Dixon.

  “Thank you,” she said softly. He grinned again.

  “My pleasure,” he said.

  As they made their way down the rocky path out of town, as Billy told her all about his plans for his ranch, Lizzie was reminded, once again, of how young this boy was. And how little education he had acquired.

  “I’ve only got one herd of cattle now,” he said. “But, within a year, I’m hoping that we’ll be able to rival the size of the largest ranch in these parts.”

  “And how large is that ranch?” she asked already feeling skeptical. A first-time operator of any business was unlikely to rival a mainstay in the area. And certainly, not within the span of one year.

  “Mr. Miles owns a few hundred acres,” he said. “And a few hundred head of cattle that he sells to the big buyers back east. But, I know for a fact that he cuts corners with his stock. I don’t plan to do that with mine.”

  “I see,” Lizzie said. “And by offering a superior product, you hope to lure his customers away?”

  “Well, not all of them, obviously,” he said. “And we’ll have to buy at least two more herds of cattle before we can do that.”

  “I assume you have money for that,” Lizzie said. Spending money before a profit could be made was typical of most businesses. But, she also knew it was best to find buyers for the first product before purchasing more stock.

  “Oh, of course,” he said. “I’ve been saving up for years. That’s why Mr. Miles fired me in the first place. He heard some of the other boys at the ranch talking about how I was saving up to buy my own land.”

  “I take it that Mr. Miles does not like the idea of anyone cutting into his profits,” Lizzie said disapprovingly.

  “Oh, we won’t need to worry about him,” Billy said with an air that was much too light-hearted for Lizzie’s liking. “He just needs a bit of competition to put him in his place. Once my ranch gets up and running, he’ll have to start behaving more ethically. He won’t be able to get away with a lot of the things he’s doing now.”

  “Hmm,” was all Lizzie found that she could say.

  There was some truth to what Billy said, of course. Once Mr. Miles was not the only ranch nearby that could provide cattle, people who had been wronged by him in the past would be more likely to seek out Billy’s operation.

  But, that also gave Mr. Miles good reason not to want to see that operation ever make it off the ground. And, Mr. Miles did not seem like the type of man to simply give into another ranch so near
his own.

  In her letters, Bernadette had told Lizzie about this Mr. Miles. Apparently, he was the largest landowner in the county and not a man to be trifled with.

  Lizzie’s sister-in-law had written to her about how Mr. Miles not only openly cheated his business partners but openly bragged about doing so. Furthermore, there had been tales of him blackmailing people to get his way.

  The fact that little Billy wanted to go up against this man told her that he was either very brave or very foolish. Quite possibly both.

  She thought of voicing her fears to Billy but, before she could, a much more pleasant sight caught her eye and took up space in her mind.

  As the wagon turned the corner onto an open plain guarded only by a small wire fence, she looked out and saw several horses, similar in color to Rosa, galloping alongside the wagon as though desperate to beat them in a race.

  “Beautiful creatures, aren’t they?” Billy asked.

  Lizzie looked over and found that smug smile on his face once again. Lizzie found that she could not help but return it. This seemed to encourage him, and his face brightened.

  “All mine,” he continued. “Of course, most of them are older. All bound for the glue factory like Rosa here. So, I could come by them cheap. Well…I suppose I should say they’re ours now.”

  His smile turned slightly sheepish, and a pink tinge came into his cheeks as he glanced towards Lizzie.

  This time, the knot she felt in her stomach was not one of guilt but regret. Even so, she found that she could barely smile at him in return. His face flushed a deeper hue of pink at this, and he became uncharacteristically silent.

  The truth was, as she looked out at the green pastures on either side of her; wildflowers blooming all around, horses gently grazing as the mountains rose above them in the distance, she could not pretend that this was not the sort of place she had always dreamed of living when she was young.

  Ever since she was a little girl, of course, she’d had a fondness for horses. But, more than that, she’d secretly dreamed of a life lived somewhere with open fields.

  Pennsylvania, even the more rural areas of it, tended to be crowded and cramped. There was hardly room to breathe much less run about freely. There were few mountains to be seen, and nearly all the flowers were cultivated into neat little gardens, the horses placed in fancy stables.

  But this, Lizzie thought, was how all of it was meant to be.

  She could not help but think that this was how God had meant the entire earth to look.

  Before humans had been kicked out of paradise, The Garden of Eden, she imagined that garden had looked a good deal like this.

  And, the idea that, in one week, she would be leaving this behind made her heart sink more than a little in her chest.

  But, she reminded herself, she did not make the trip to Wyoming for the land.

  No, she had come here to be married to an older, educated businessman.

  What she had received instead was a young, naive dreamer who saw the world through rose-colored glasses. She could not, in good conscience, allow the marriage to take place.

  It would be a disaster both for her and for Billy, even if he did not yet realize it.

  Still, as she glanced at Billy; his smug smirk replaced by a simple, contented smile as he viewed his newly acquired home, she couldn’t help but feel more than a hint of regret that she would have to be the first of many disappointments this boy would face.

  They drove a bit further down the path until at last, they came to a large house. The front façade was freshly painted, and Lizzie could see the plain, unfinished wood staring out at her from the back.

  “I’ve been working on it on and off since I bought the land several months ago,” he said. “I’m hoping to have it ready by the time of the wedding. That way we’ll be able to move in straight away.”

  A tiny flush came into his cheeks again. And, as he pulled Rosa to a stop, Lizzie felt another regretful sinking in her chest.

  This only intensified when he again gave her his hand to help her down from the wagon.

  This time, his hand remained in hers, and the regret-filled ping mingled strangely with an excited leap in her stomach as he led her eagerly to the home’s front door.

  “The hinges still creak a bit,” he said pulling the door open. “Sam said he’s been working on that. But, he hasn’t found a cure so far.”

  “Sam?” Lizzie asked curiously as Billy pulled her once more inside.

  “He’s my hand,” Billy said. “Though, that still feels strange to say. I think of him as more of a partner. We used to work together at Mr. Mile’s ranch. When I got a loan from the bank for this plot of land, Sam left Mr. Miles and followed me instead.”

  “Are all your employees taken from Mr. Miles’ ranch?” Lizzie asked. Once again, a hint of fear struck her as she thought of what Mr. Miles must be thinking of his new competition.

  “A few,” Billy answered. “But, Mr. Miles hasn’t been very popular ever since Matt left. Did you know he tried to keep Matt and Bernadette from buying their farm? All because Matt wanted to leave the ranch. He couldn’t stand to lose good help. But, once word got out what he’d done to the two of them, good help started to leave him in droves.”

  Lizzie was about to ask just what Billy thought Mr. Miles might do about that help leaving but, before she could ask, Billy was pulling her eagerly through the still sparse house to the back attachment.

  In this area, there was only a hint of a ceiling and the late morning sun beat down on them from the rafters.

  “There you are!” a voice from above them called out. “I was wondering what was keeping you! That must be your bride!”

  Lizzie looked up to find another blonde boy, several years younger than Billy, with a round face and ready grin looking down at her. He stood on a platform just next to the ceiling’s railing, a hammer and nails in his hand.

  Billy let out a good-natured chuckle as the boy above set his tools down.

  “Observant as ever, Sam,” he said. “Now, where are your manners? Come down here and meet the new lady of the house.”

  Quickly, the boy stepped from one platform to another lower one. He did this several times until he finally landed on the makeshift wood floor.

  “Lizzie,” Billy said when the boy arrived. “This is Sam Merson. Sam, this is Lizzie Dixon.”

  “Soon to be Lizzie Peters I hear,” Sam said grinning.

  “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Merson,” she said, careful not to acknowledge the possible change in her name.

  Sam laughed.

  “No last names on the ranch,” he said. “That’s Billy’s rule. It’s just Sam.”

  “Sam then,” Lizzie said evenly. “Like I said, a pleasure.”

  “Pleasure for me as well,” Sam said. “Just glad to see Billy hasn’t scared you off yet.”

  “There’s still time,” Billy said with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t want you to jinx me.”

  Lizzie tried to smile good-naturedly at that and hoped she didn’t give herself and her plans to leave away.

  Before long, they left Sam to finish the ceiling and Billy insisted on showing Lizzie the cattle pasture.

  He led her by the hand through tall grass that, she soon discovered, was much nicer to look at than it was to walk through.

  Finally, they reached an area with another thin, barbed wire fence behind which several cattle were grazing.

  “My first herd,” Billy said proudly. “There aren’t many now. But, they’ll grow soon enough.”

  “How do you know that?” Lizzie asked, interested in spite of herself.

  Billy leaned over to her and put a warm hand on her shoulder. Lizzie nearly jumped at the contact but, tried her best to hide just how much the sudden, warm touch had unsettled her.

  A man had not leaned this close to her since her husband had passed. In fact, she had nearly forgotten what it felt like to have a man lean in to speak to her as intimately as Billy was now.

  “Do
you see that cow over there?” he asked. “The one flicking her tail?”

  “Yes,” Lizzie replied, looking where Billy was pointing and trying her best to ignore how close the boy now was to her.

  “That means she’s ready to mate,” he said. Then, he shifted his gaze and pointed to two other, larger cows at the far end of the pasture. “And, you see that bull over there?”

  Lizzie didn’t trust herself to speak this time. She nodded instead.

  “He’s taken notice,” Billy said with a wry smile. “With any luck, we’ll have calves by next spring.”

  Lizzie tilted her head inspecting the bull. Now that she could see him fully, she noticed that his attention did seem to be turned towards the tail flicking female.

  “You can tell all of that by the flick of a tail?” she asked looking to Billy, impressed, in spite of herself.

  Billy gave a shrug. He was attempting to appear modest, but that smug grin gave away just how highly he thought of his abilities.

  “I’ve grown up with animals,” he said. “Sometimes I think I know them better than I know people.”

  She gave him a small smile and realized too late that they were still very close together.

  If she had not been planning to leave this man and his ranch behind in one week. If she were not a barren, thirty-three-year-old widow and if Billy were not a young man barely in his twenties with his entire life ahead of him, she may have been tempted to kiss him at that moment.

  Billy’s brown eyes had relaxed now. They seemed to flick from Lizzie’s own eyes down towards her lips.

  It was clear that Billy was thinking along the same lines. And, what’s more, if this young man did try to kiss her, Lizzie feared she might not have the strength to resist him.

  “Billy!”

  Lizzie felt a silent sigh of relief well up inside her when she heard Sam’s voice cut across the field.

  Both Lizzie and Billy turned to him, and Lizzie’s relief faded when she saw the panic stricken look on Sam’s face.

  “Sam, what is it?” Billy asked. His hand dropped from Lizzie’s shoulder as he moved towards the other man.

  “It’s Rosa! Miles’ men came and…they…they said you’d stolen her from him. The just unhitched her and took her!”