For the Love of a Wounded Cowboy: A Historical Western Romance Book

by Cassidy Hanton

  Oliver listened to Melvin. His old friend was making sense. Still, to have an unmarried woman on the ranch could bring its own troubles, especially one who had come with a hope of marriage. He didn’t want Amelia getting any thoughts about him. He wasn’t getting married. He wasn’t interested.

  He turned and met Amelia’s gaze. Her doe eyes looked up at him with expectation. He knew whatever he said now would not only change his life but hers. She needed help. He wanted to help her. This was a way he could do that and help himself in the process. He just wasn’t sure it was the best idea. Still, what other plan was there? Was he going to take her back to town and hope she found a place for herself? What kind of employment would she find? He knew most of the people in town. There wasn’t any work available. The town was small and everyone had their place. There was nowhere for her to fit in. If he didn’t help her, what would become of her?

  “All right,” Oliver said finally. He watched in curious awe as Amelia’s entire demeanor changed before him. Her shoulders, which were so tense that they looked as if they were trying to reach her ears, suddenly lowered. Her breathing, which had hovered somewhere in her neck, finally deepened to her chest.

  How long had she been holding that breath?

  “Do you mean that?” she asked.

  Oliver unfolded his arms and turned to look at her properly. “Yes, I do. You can stay here and work.”

  “See Amelia, things are turning around for you already,” Melvin interjected.

  “We can discuss what your responsibilities will be and decide on a wage, but you can stay here,” Oliver continued. “I just have one concern.”

  One concern that I’d speak of.

  “What’s that?” Melvin asked quickly.

  Oliver turned to look at him. “It might not be appropriate for a single woman to live in a house with two unmarried men. We need to think of her reputation.”

  “You’re right,” Melvin agreed. He lowered his eyes as he considered what Oliver had just told him. He turned to look at Amelia. “It wouldn’t be right for you to live here like that. People might have a lot to say.”

  “What do I care about words?” Amelia stated. “I don’t have anything. I don’t know anyone here. What do I care if they talk about me? I just want to be able to support myself and live my own life.” She looked at them frankly. “They can’t say anything worse than what my own father would say about me.”

  Oliver couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She was indeed a different kind of woman. He liked it. “Very well. If you have no qualms about this, then I’d say that’s decided. You’ll live here and work for me.”

  Melvin chuckled. “Now that we’ve agreed on that, why don’t you sit down and get some breakfast?”

  Oliver smiled and grabbed the back of the chair beside his friend. He sat beside him and helped himself to breakfast. He looked across the table and watched Amelia as she ate. He still had so many questions about her, but was sure he would get some of the answers as time went on. He just had to be patient.

  “After breakfast, I can show you around the ranch, let you get familiar with everything, and decided on the chores that’ll be yours,” Oliver suggested. He stuffed a forkful of flapjacks and sausage into his mouth.

  Amelia looked up at him over a forkful of eggs. “All right.”

  “I can clean up in here so you can get right to it,” Melvin offered. “Tomorrow I can take you into town and show you around. Get anythin’ you need.”

  Amelia smiled demurely. “Thank you, Melvin.”

  “You’re very welcome,” Melvin replied.

  Breakfast progressed quickly and it wasn’t long before Oliver and Amelia were leaving the house.

  “Glenore is a hundred and sixty-acre ranch that spans from Rattleridge to close to Hidden Lake. It’s some of the most beautiful country in these parts. My Pop really knew how to pick a homestead,” Oliver mused.

  His father purchased the property when Oliver was only five. He might not have been able to make it what it was then, but he always knew what he wanted it to become, and each day he would tell Oliver of his plans. He never forgot it.

  “We do grow some crops, wheat and corn and such, and a few vegetables we sell when we have a surplus, but cattle are our primary income. We have a hundred head of cattle and only two of us to take care of it all. I hope to build the herd a bit more, but I need somewhere to sell them first. I haven’t been able to get the contracts I wanted since it requires me to travel to negotiate the deals and I can’t leave Melvin to take care of everything on his own. Until then, we serve the people of Rattleridge and those of Oakstead and Montcrest, our closest neighbors.”

  “So it’s really just the two of you who take care of all of this?” Amelia questioned. She tucked strands of gold hair behind her ear as the winds picked up around them. Oliver watched the gesture and tried not to stare, but he couldn’t help it. There was something in the way she moved that was almost mesmerizing. It was as if each action she took should be set to music. It was almost as if she were dancing. Oliver loved to dance.

  “That’s right,” Oliver confirmed proudly. “Melvin and I did all of this on our own. No one helped us, but us. It was the way we wanted it.”

  “It’s beautiful here,” she commented as she looked out on the sprawling homestead. “I can see why you’d be very careful to protect it.”

  Oliver looked at her. Could she really understand? The ranch was his everything. The one thing he had that was not only his but was his future as well. His father left it to him and he had done everything in his power to make it what his father wanted, and more. He wanted his mother and father to be proud of him, whether they were there or not.

  “I’ve never had anything close to this,” Amelia continued as she looked at him. “The ranch I lived on could fit into your house and a little into your yard,” she explained. “I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have someplace like this to call your own.”

  Her words touched his heart. “It wasn’t always this way,” he stated. “It took us three years to start over.”

  “What happened?”

  Oliver’s hands clenched at his sides at the question. He didn’t talk about that night three years ago. He didn’t talk about his father, his death, or the reasons he was no longer there. Oliver did his best to keep the promise he made to his father that night, as he lay on the ground in front of him, and begged him not to follow his example.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Oliver answered. “It was a long time ago, and we’ve turned everything around since then. This place has become the best ranch in this area and I intend to keep it that way.”

  Amelia’s gaze never faltered from his face. “Then I’ll help you.”

  Oliver’s brow furrowed. “You’ll help me?”

  “Yes,” Amelia asserted. “I’ll help you.”

  Oliver turned to face Amelia properly. “Why?”

  Amelia’s gaze faltered and she bit her bottom lip lightly. “Because I worked so hard to help a man who cared nothing for anything he had. Why shouldn’t I help a man who does care? You need help to keep this place the way you want it to be, and you’re willing to give me a place to stay and work to do so that I can take care of myself. Yes, I would most definitely help you.”

  Oliver’s gaze lingered on Amelia’s brown eyes. She had a very pretty face. Her features were so delicate and diminutive, just like her stature. Amelia’s head reached only up to his chest. Oliver was well over six feet tall, but he had no idea exactly how tall he was. It wasn’t something he cared about.

  “I promise that you’ll be safe and protected here, and have nothing to fear.” Oliver said. “I will protect your reputation and make things perfectly clear to everyone, that nothing is going on here. I want you to have every opportunity in Rattleridge, just like I did. This place has always been my home. I’ve known nothing else, and I know that it’s a great place to live and to make a new start for those who are looking for it. It can be that for y
ou, Miss Donnel.”

  She smiled up at him. “Amelia,” she corrected. “I think we’ve gone past formalities now,” she said with a gentle laugh.

  Oliver laughed with her.

  “Thank you,” she continued softly. “Thank you for being kind. You didn’t owe me anything. You didn’t need to do this.”

  Oliver replied, “We all need help at some point in time. We can only hope that someone is there to help when you need it.”

  “I suppose I was lucky that it was you, and not someone else, that I thought I was coming to meet.”

  Oliver grinned. “I don’t think you thought that yesterday.”

  Amelia’s cheeks turned pink at his comment. “No,” she admitted. “I didn’t, but I’m glad I was wrong.”

  “So I am,” Oliver replied. “So am I.”

  Chapter Nine

  A month and a half had passed since Amelia arrived, and Oliver had to admit that life was better for them. She was the most hardworking woman he had ever met. There wasn’t a task that he gave her that she didn’t find some way to accomplish. She even stepped in to help where she didn’t have to, and she never asked for payment, though she received it just the same. After a while it struck Oliver that Amelia wasn’t there to collect a fee, but that she seemed to truly care about Glenore.

  That day Amelia was working in the vegetable patch, while Oliver worked nearby repairing the loose door on the barn. He was standing on a short ladder to remove the nails so that he could take the door down to repair it. It was a large door, almost eight feet high, and it weighed nearly forty pounds. He was taking a lot longer to get it done than expected. Amelia constantly distracted him, but it wasn’t her fault, it was his.

  The collar of her blouse was damp with sweat. Amelia’s hair stuck to the back of her neck and her cheeks, yet it didn’t distract her from the task-at-hand. She raised the hoe high above her head and brought it down on the dry earth, working the clouds of earth into smaller pieces to prepare the ground for planting. She was hoping to get some turnips in the ground that week and a few rows of cabbages before winter rolled in.

  Oliver watched her. She was very tenacious. She was determined to get those plants in the ground and she didn’t ask for help. She simply did what needed to be done, without question or complaint, and Oliver admired her all the more for it.

  Amelia stood and stretched. She propped the hoe on the ground and leaned against it lightly as she leaned back and groaned.

  “Are you all right?” Oliver called from his perch.

  Amelia turned to look at him. She raised a hand and flashed him a smile. “Just fine. My back was just a little tired,” she explained. “The ground is a lot harder here than back home.”

  Oliver nodded. “You sure you can manage? I can do that for you after I’m finished here,” he offered.

  “No,” Amelia replied. “I can do it. I’ll just take my time.”

  He chuckled. “Do you ever let people help you without an argument?” he asked casually.

  Amelia paused for a moment. She blinked rapidly and Oliver began to wonder if he’d said something wrong. Finally, she answered.

  “No.”

  Oliver looked at her silently.

  “People don’t usually come to my aid,” she admitted. “I’ve always had to look out for myself. I suppose I’m used to it. I don’t mean to argue…”

  “Amelia,” Oliver interrupted. “It wasn’t a criticism. I was just playing with you.”

  “Oh,” she replied. Amelia looked away and returned to her work.

  Oliver felt like an idiot again. He didn’t mean to upset her, just thought it strange that she never took help easily. He should have understood it was because of her background. Her father wasn’t kind to her and there were only a few people in her hometown who had ever cared about the plight of the petite blonde. She was slowly turning his days on end.

  Oliver spent more time thinking about Amelia than he should have. He would never admit that to Melvin, of course, the older man would never let go.

  Oliver continued to watch Amelia as she worked. She worked as hard as he did but left the ranch far less. She didn’t like to go into town very often, only if there was something specific she needed, even then, she preferred to ask them to collect it on her behalf.

  She can’t keep going like this. She has to see something of this area other than the ranch and her work. I know she’s trying to save her money to buy herself some new things, but she can’t work all the time.

  Oliver had an idea.

  “Amelia?”

  She stopped her work to look at him. “Yes?”

  “Do you like to fish?”

  Her brow furrowed. “Yes,” she answered as she shielded her eyes with her hand. “Why?”

  “I was thinking you might like to join me to go fishing,” Oliver suggested. “There’s some great fishing over at Hidden Lake.”

  Amelia’s expression brightened. “I’ve heard of Hidden Lake from Sheriff Manchester,” she informed Oliver.

  “Oliver continued, “It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth if you ask me.”

  “Do we have time?” she questioned.

  “We can make the time,” Oliver replied. “Come on Amelia, you can set aside the garden work for a spell and come join me to catch your own dinner,” he mused. “Have you ever eaten what you caught before?”

  She smiled and shook her head. “No.”

  “Then that’s it,” Oliver declared. “Today, you and I are going fishing.”

  Melvin waved goodbye to them as Oliver drove the wagon from the front of the property and down the long road that forked to the left. It took them toward the path to Hidden Lake.

  Oliver was quiet as the wagon rolled on. Amelia sat beside him, her eyes fixed on the scenery as they passed it by. Oliver took the opportunity to observe her up-close.

  Amelia had a slender neck. Her skin was fair and for the first time, Oliver noticed that small freckles were dotting the base of her neck and shoulders. Her hair, which she usually wore in a bun, curled at the base of her skull.

  Is her hair curly?

  Oliver found he couldn’t answer the question. Amelia’s appearance was always so fixed and proper, she hardly ever had a hair out of place and her clothes were always simple and understated.

  “What did you do before you came here?”

  Amelia turned to look at him. “What do you mean?”

  “What did you do for work before you left Thinvale?” Oliver questioned.

  “I washed clothes for the wealthy families in town during the day. Some nights I was a barmaid serving drinks at the saloon. Otherwise, I worked the land on my father’s ranch and tried to sell what we grew.” She laughed lightly. “I didn’t make very much doing that. I couldn’t do it all and my father didn’t help, so sometimes insects would get to the fields, and people or animals would take the crops. I hoped to get the ranch to turn around, but in my heart, I knew I wasn’t going to get it done the way things were. “

  “And no one helped you?”

  Amelia sighed. “People liked to stay far away from my father,” she answered. “He was a mean, nasty drunk, and when he got to drinking anything could happen, and usually something bad. People tried to avoid that. I had no choice. He was my father.”

  Oliver looked at her. A sad expression was on Amelia’s face. She turned away from him. He didn’t want her to. He liked looking at her, sad or not, she was still very attractive and he found the desire to look at her was growing each day.

  Amelia had such a beautiful smile. He didn’t get to see it often, but when he did, Oliver couldn’t help but stare. Once, about a week before, Melvin had made some comment that made her laugh. Everything seemed to stop as her laughter filled the air. It took Melvin calling his name to make him realize that he’d been staring at her long after the laughter had stopped. His friend was very amused by it.

  The ride to Hidden Lake took more than two hours, but it was well worth the trip. They p
assed along the Overlook, so Amelia could see the full beauty of the area. The minute the scene came into view, he heard Amelia’s breath catch.

  The valley curved like a gentle half-moon below them. The valley was filled with low, vibrant green grass with patches of grey rock poking up on both sides of the basin. Bearhat Mountain was the focal point as they looked west. Fusillade Mountain stood the south and Gunsight Mountain and Sperry Glacier in the southwest. The sun reflected on the lake that ran beneath the mountains from east to west.