by West, Everly
Tildie laughed so loud the horses pulling the wagon jerked their heads up, their ears swiveling. She also scooted back to her own side of the seat, which Clint wasn’t quite as happy about. “You do beat all, Clint Washington,” she said, still giggling.
She turned her face up to the sun—which looked as though it was about to dip behind a bank of clouds that stretched to the horizon—smiling as though they were on their way to heaven. If not for Simon, Jay, and Joe playing cards in the back of the wagon, he might have been tempted to pull off the rough road to see how far he could go while still keeping things above board.
“I’m glad I came on this adventure,” Tildie said with a happy sigh after a minute or so of silence. “We haven’t had a chance to just visit like this in ages.”
“We’ll have several more days of it too, providing the weather holds up,” Clint said. “And with any luck, I’ll be able to show you my bear frying skills before too long.”
Tildie started to laugh, but the sound was cut short as Jay stood up in the wagon bed behind them. He wedged himself between them, leaning on the back of the seat. “I killed a bear once,” he said, smiling at Tildie with too much fondness. “All by myself.”
“Oh? You did?” Tildie glanced past him to send a wry grin Clint’s way.
“Yep,” Jay went on, evidently not picking up on the fact that Tildie didn’t quite believe him. “A buddy of mine and I were out hunting up in the mountains last spring. We came across a grizzly that had just come out of its cave and was as hungry as the devil.”
“I suppose it would be after sleeping all winter,” Tildie said as if she were pretending to be one of the Ladies Club women.
“You shoulda heard the way that thing roared,” Jay went on, growing more full of himself as the story went on. “He took one look at me and decided I was supper. He charged, and all I had to fend him off was my Bowie knife.”
“I didn’t think bears ate people if they could help it,” Clint said.
Jay ignored him. “It was a battle for my life, make no mistake about that. You shoulda seen me, ducking those razor-sharp claws and dodging his slathering maw. I was certain I would die. But I wrestled that beast to the ground and stabbed it through its heart, killing it in one blow.”
“That’s…that’s positively unbelievable,” Tildie said, still pretending to be impressed. “Like something out of a dime novel.” She sent Clint another look as though she were having a hard time not bursting into laughter.
“It was a noble beast,” Jay finished, “but I got the better of it.” He puffed himself up, then turned to Clint. “You ever do anything half so brave, Washington?”
Clint couldn’t believe Jay’s nerve. It was plain as day what he was trying to do. He had no intention of playing into Jay’s hand. “Well,” he began slowly. “I once stumbled across Mrs. O’Brian stepping out onto her back porch in her nightgown with her hair still in rags one morning when I cut across her yard to go to the livery. She cursed me out something fierce.”
Tildie burst into peals of laughter. “I’m surprised you survived.”
Jay lost his smug grin. He stared bullets at Clint for a moment before turning back to Tildie and resuming his arrogant smirk. “Have I told you about my plans to start a business in Laramie?” he asked, leaning closer to Tildie.
Tildie scooted away from him, which also took her farther from Clint. “You keep mentioning plans, but you’ve never said what they are.”
“I’m going to make a fortune,” Jay went on. “More money than Washington here will ever see.”
“Doing what?” Tildie asked.
“Brokering,” Jay answered.
Clint arched one eyebrow.
Tildie blinked. “Brokering? What does that even mean?”
“It means I’ll connect people with the people they should know,” Jay went on. “I’ll broker deals between Laramie’s ranchers and the big meat-packing outlets in the East or on the West Coast.”
“People actually pay someone money to do that?” Clint asked, sounding incredulous even though he knew the practice was more and more widespread. Just because brokers were becoming necessary to business didn’t mean Jay had the wherewithal to become one.
“They do,” Jay said, sending a challenging look Clint’s way. “And once I get my brokerage up and running, I’ll be the richest man in Laramie.”
“Good for you,” Tildie said, though it was clear to Clint that she didn’t believe a word he said.
“Once I make my fortune, every girl in Wyoming will want to stand by my side,” he went on. “But I’ll only pick the best of them.” He fixed Tildie with a grin of obvious fondness.
“Well, whoever that girl is, she’ll be lucky,” Tildie said in a tone that made it clear that wouldn’t be her.
Jay didn’t really get the hint. He stayed where he was, leaning against the wagon’s seat as they rolled on, continuing to make all sorts of boastful claims that couldn’t possibly be true. Clint ignored it all for the most part. Tildie wasn’t buying any of it so he had no reason to feel threatened. In fact, hearing Jay’s ridiculous boasts was better than going to the theater.
Soon enough, Clint had other things to worry about. The clouds that had rolled in, covering the sun, turned darker. Before too long, he could smell the rain in the air and hear the distant rumble of thunder.
“We’d better stop,” he said as the light began to dim. “We need to hunker down if we’re going to ride out this storm.”
“I don’t see any place around that looks like it will provide adequate shelter,” Tildie said, a hint of worry in her voice.
“Don’t worry,” Jay said, hopping down from the wagon as Clint pulled it to a stop near a patch of scrubby bushes near the side of the road. “I’ll protect you, Tildie.”
“I’d prefer a good, solid house,” Tildie murmured to Clint as Simon and Jay climbed out the back of the wagon. “Or a cave.”
“Looks like it’ll be the tents we have and these bushes,” Clint sighed, hooking the reins to the side of the buckboard. “I hope you’re ready to get soaked.”
Tildie answered with a sigh and, “I did say I wanted an adventure.”
She smiled warily at Clint, then climbed down from the wagon. Clint watched her until he was certain she was safe on solid ground, then got down and started seeing to the horses. They would likely be spooked by the coming storm, and he would need to do whatever he could to ensure they felt safe from the rain. It was the potential for lightning that worried him, but as long as they took shelter in the bushes, they’d likely be okay.
“I can help you with that,” Jay’s voice sounded from the other side of the wagon as Clint and Simon unhitched the horses.
“I don’t need any help, but thank you,” Tildie said.
Clint glanced up from his work to keep an eye on the situation. Tildie was busy unloading the supplies they would need to make camp for the night and carrying them over to the bushes.
“That looks awfully heavy for a sweet thing like you,” Jay went on, trailing Tildie. Clint noticed that Jay didn’t offer to take the load from her, though.
“I’ve got it,” she said over her shoulder. She set the crate containing part of their food supplies down, then walked back to the wagon.
“A pretty thing like you shouldn’t have to work so hard,” Jay went on. “You should have someone catering to your every need, not putting you to work like Washington does.”
“Are you going to say something to him?” Simon asked Clint as they finished unharnessing the horses.
“Yeah, you bet I am,” Clint said with a scowl. “But Tildie looks like she’s holding her own right now, and that storm isn’t slowing down as it gets nearer.”
“Good point,” Simon said.
Whether it was a good point or not, Clint didn’t like the way Jay continued to follow Tildie as she picked up her pace in making camp. Jay continued to talk like he was God’s gift to Wyoming, but he didn’t do much to pitch in and help prepa
re for the coming storm.
“Would it help to cover the bushes with some of those tarps you brought along to keep the rain out?” Tildie asked when Clint finally had the horses as secure as they were going to get.
He strode to the space between the wagon and the stand of bushes, where Joe was working to light a fire so they could cook supper before the rain started. “It might,” he said, pushing a hand through his hair. “We’re still going to get wet, though.”
“You can wear my coat,” Jay said, stepping in between the two of them and smiling at Tildie. “It’s bigger than Washington’s.”
Clint rolled his eyes. He couldn’t help himself. Jay was so obvious that it was embarrassing. “Coats aren’t going to do much. We’re just going to have to wait this one out.”
Tildie stepped deliberately around Jay, pausing by Clint’s side to say, “I’d better see what I can do to turn those bushes into a fort, then.” She walked on, moving to stand beside the bushes with a frown. A moment later, she pushed her way straight into the cluster, breaking a few branches and looking as though she would hollow out a space for them to hunker down.
“I can help you,” Jay said, starting toward her.
Clint reached out and grabbed his arm before he could go more than a few steps. Jay flinched and glared at him, but Clint wasn’t deterred.
“I don’t know what you think you’re playing at,” he said in a low voice so that only the two of them could hear, “but Tildie’s not interested.”
A distant rumble of thunder underscored his words.
Jay yanked his arm out of Clint’s grip and stood tall, eyes narrowed. “Tildie doesn’t know what she wants. As far as I can tell, she’s never had any real options open to her.”
A lesser man might have growled or picked a fight, but Clint just laughed and shook his head. “If you think that’s why the two of us are together, then you’re just plain dumb.”
“Who are you calling dumb?” Jay snapped. “You think I couldn’t swipe her right out from under your nose?”
“No,” Clint said with a nonchalant shrug. A moment later, he glared at Jay with deadly seriousness. “And if you so much as try to make her do anything she doesn’t want to do or if you hurt her in any way, you’ll find out in a hurry I’m not as much of a nice guy as people say I am.”
“Is that a threat?” Jay took a step toward him, intending to intimidate him.
Clint wasn’t cowed. “It’s a promise,” he said. “The only reason I let you come along on this trip was because you volunteered. If I had known what a pain in my ass you’d be, I would have left you at home.”
“You can’t talk to me like that,” Jay said with all the maturity of a toddler.
“I can talk to you any way that I see fit,” Clint said, calm and steady. “This is my operation, after all.”
Jay opened his mouth, a threatening look in his eyes, but he stopped himself and rocked back a step. “You’d better watch your back, Washington,” he said, glaring.
“I won’t have to,” Clint replied. “I’ll be too busy watching you.”
A flash of uncertainty filled Jay’s eyes.
Clint took advantage of the moment to say, “Stay away from Tildie. She isn’t interested. That’s where it begins and ends.”
Thunder rumbled closer and Jay pulled himself together enough to say, “We’ll see, Washington. We’ll see.”
Chapter 4
The storm was harrowing, no matter how determined Tildie was to brave it with strength. It wasn’t so much the lightning and thunder that bothered her, but the rain and the wind. In spite of all her and Clint’s best efforts, their makeshift shelter in the bushes did nothing to keep them dry. Once the wind kicked up, they had to climb out of cover to keep the tarps and the rest of their supplies from blowing away. Even after the storm passed, everything was too soaked and muddy to sleep comfortably.
In the morning, they continued on along a soggy road, looking like a pack of bedraggled hounds. The best Tildie could say about their continuing journey, though, was that the sun came out and warmed them up, drying out most of what had been soaked through, and that everyone stayed mostly quiet throughout the day. Most importantly, Jay stayed quiet.
Jay Lehmann was more of a problem than Tildie ever would have imagined. Even when he was silent, he loomed over her like a wolf about to pounce. When she rode up front, sitting with Clint—who was silent and thoughtful for most of the day—Jay sat directly behind her in the wagon bed and flinched every time she moved. When she opted to sit in the wagon bed so that she could stretch her legs and maybe catch a bit of sleep, Jay moved to sit near her.
In the end, the only way she found to get Jay to leave her alone was to sit at the very back of the wagon, next to Simon.
“So what made you decide to come on this wild adventure?” she asked Simon, keeping a sharp eye on Jay to see if he would interfere.
Simon seemed to be as aware of Jay and his shenanigans as she was. He shrugged. “I’m fairly new to Laramie. I thought this would be a good way to get my foot in some doors and make some allies for when I open my business.”
“What kind of business are you in?” Tildie asked.
Jay perked up a bit, doing a terrible job of pretending he wasn’t listening. He nudged his friend, Joe, who had fallen asleep propped against Jay’s side.
“I’m a cobbler, of all things,” Simon laughed. He swept his hat off his head and used his sleeve to wipe his brow before putting his hat back on. “I know. It seems like an old-fashioned profession in these days when more and more shoes are being made in factories.”
Jay leaned closer to Joe, whispering something in his ear. Joe snorted out a laugh.
Clint glanced over his shoulder with a frown for a moment before turning his attention back to the road ahead.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a cobbler,” Tildie said, pretending to focus on Simon but raising her voice for Jay’s sake. “Handmade shoes are the best, after all. And they always fit better than factory-made ones.”
“That’s what I’m hoping everyone else in Laramie will see too,” Simon said. “But when I open my shop, I’ll sell manufactured shoes too.”
“Won’t that mean you’re competing with yourself?” Tildie asked.
“Stupid,” Jay muttered at the other end of the wagon.
Tildie glared at him.
“Maybe,” Simon said, staring Jay down for a moment, then ignoring him. “But it might just be the thing I need to keep the business afloat.”
“So when is this shoe shop of yours set to open?” Tildie asked.
“Never,” Joe mumbled, then shared a laugh with Jay.
“Later this summer, if I can get the capital I need,” Simon went on in a firmer voice, his chin tilted up in defiance. “That’s another reason I’ve come on this trip. I want to establish a reputation for myself so that the bank will see I’m a solid investment and give me a loan.”
“I think that’s very noble of you,” Tildie said, glaring at Jay and Joe as they continued to whisper to each other, like a pair of gossipy girls in a schoolyard. Honestly, Tildie had no idea how grown men could act like such children. It was clear to her that Jay was trying to make Simon look bad and himself look good. Any second now, he would start to brag and—
“I don’t need a loan from the bank to start my business,” Jay said, right on cue. “I’ve got a better idea to raise capital than any of you could ever come up with.”
Tildie glanced to Simon, rolling her eyes. It was their turn to laugh, although Tildie felt wrong doing it.
“You don’t believe me?” Jay said, clearly offended by having the tables turned on him. “I’ll show you. Just wait. Once my ship comes in, you’ll change your tune about whose missus you want to be in a hurry.”
Tildie raised her eyebrows, glad she was sitting next to Simon as Jay made the comment. She’d been so certain that everyone in Laramie, and in most of Wyoming, knew she and Clint were a done deal. It
sent a chill down her spine to hear Jay talking like he had a chance. Not just that, like he was determined to win her. Maybe it hadn’t been such a great idea for her to come along on the adventure after all.
Her worries were doubled the next day when they reached a river crossing.
“Looks like the bridge was washed out by the storm,” Clint said with a frustrated sigh as he pulled the wagon to a stop by the side of a flooded, fast-moving river.
“What do we do about it?” Tildie asked, standing from her place in the wagon bed and stepping around their crates and bags of supplies to stand behind the seat.
Simon was taking a turn riding with Clint while Jay and Joe snoozed in the back of the wagon bed. The three other men climbed down to get a better look at the river as soon as they stopped.
“We either continue along the river until we find another bridge or a spot that’s passable,” Clint said, his face set in a businesslike frown as he studied the flowing current, “or we—”
“Hell, we can go right through that,” Jay interrupted. He squared his shoulders and marched right up to the edge of the river. “It’s nothing.”
“I wouldn’t go charging into the water if I were you,” Clint cautioned him.
Jay made a dismissive sound. “It’s barely even a river to begin with. My baby sister could throw a stone and hit the other bank.”
“Yeah, but it’s swollen from the rain,” Clint said. “That current looks fierce.”
It was too late. His warning went unheeded. Jay plopped down into the scrub and pulled off his boots, then turned up the hem of his trousers.
“What does he think he’s doing?” Tildie murmured, shaking her head. “The water is deeper than he must think it is.”
Jay stood, bringing his boots over to the wagon. As he tossed them cavalierly into the back, he grinned at Tildie. “Watch this, missy,” he said. “You’re about to see how a real man deals with obstacles.”
