Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1)

by Mary Connealy

  She grabbed her rifle, checked it was loaded, and gave him the drenched cloth. With her back pressed to the wall, she edged close to the doorframe and aimed toward the woods. “Go!”

  Aaron was out and back so fast that Kylie barely had time to worry. No one shot at him. “It’s out. Now I want to go down the steps and make sure the roof isn’t burning.”

  “No. Wait. Listen for a minute.”

  He surprised her by waiting. Kylie hadn’t had much experience with anyone doing as she asked, not her bossy big sisters and for sure not her pa. But Aaron . . . well, she might go so far as to say he obeyed her. It was a heady feeling.

  They both stood in a profound silence. They heard nothing but the breeze stirring the trees. There was no sound of crackling flames from overhead.

  “We’d hear if the roof was burning.” Kylie felt the worst of her tension ease. But she had plenty to spare.

  “And smoke would be coming through the rafters.” Aaron’s jaw loosened, and his shoulders lowered a bit. Even so, he still looked more than ready for trouble. “I’d say we got them all.”

  Kylie remembered nearly collapsing into Aaron’s arms after Gage Coulter had ridden off. She fought to keep from doing that again. It could get to be a habit.

  “Have you heard about any Indian trouble around here?” Kylie had never even seen an Indian, but she’d heard stories of the Wild West and knew the dangers.

  “They weren’t Indians.” Anger flashed in Aaron’s blue eyes.

  Kylie tended to agree, though she wasn’t sure why. Something niggled at her. “But arrows—surely that means it was a war party.”

  “I heard them speaking English. The man I wounded yelled, and it wasn’t an Indian word.”

  “You’re right.” That’s what had bothered her. That shout had been a single curse word. One Kylie recognized.

  “But why?” Kylie wheeled to face Aaron. For some reason this was more upsetting than an Indian attack. “I’ve got no cattle to rustle, no money to steal.”

  “The very fact that there isn’t a burning arrow on your roof tells me this was meant mostly to scare you, not burn you out.”

  Kylie’s eyes went to Aaron’s shirtsleeve. It was burnt black, but she didn’t see any blood. “Your shirt was on fire. That’s a real serious way to scare someone. Come and sit down, so I can take care of your arm.”

  “I’ll have a burn, but the arrow missed. It’s not serious. You burned your hands just as badly.”

  Kylie looked at her reddened fingers. She’d singed them somewhere along the way, and she hadn’t noticed until now. Well, she’d burned her fingers before; she’d be fine. So would Aaron most likely. Still, it was a mighty mean business.

  “Who wants me scared?” And the answer came so quickly, Kylie didn’t need Aaron to answer.

  He did anyway. “I know of one man who’d like to see you scared into running off.”

  “Coulter.”

  “He’s got the reputation of an honest man, but a hard one. If he scared you into abandoning your claim, he might see that as justice. He thinks of this land as his.”

  “If he and his men did this, then he loses any claim he has to decency.”

  “No argument there.” Aaron scowled at the bucket with the blackened arrows. “I intend to ride over there right now and make that clear to him.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  Aaron stumbled, then turned and crossed his arms. “Absolutely not. Coulter attacked you today. I’m not going to give him a second chance. His men have ridden off now, so you’ll be safer here than anywhere.”

  “No, I’ll be safer with you.”

  “Kylie, no. All four of the Wilde homesteads sit on important Coulter water holes and meadows. If he did this, he’s dangerous. We can’t know how he’ll react when he sees you riding up to his property.”

  “This attack was on me, Aaron. I’m not going to sit here like a scared little girl while you go off and fight my battles.”

  “I’m the law when it comes to land in this area. It’s my job to fight battles.”

  “Well, I was in the war, so I fought battles, too. I want to be there. I want to look Coulter in the eye. All the spying I did made me a good judge of character.”

  Kylie hated doing it, but she smiled and fluttered her lashes just a bit. She’d been practicing flirting for years, but rarely did she try it—not much opportunity for that when she dressed like a man all the time.

  “Besides, I’m scared to stay here alone.” That part was true. And she thought of the night ahead. Would those men come back? How could she stay awake and on watch all night? This concern added weight to her plea. “Please take me with you.”

  “You can’t come, but you’re right that you shouldn’t be here alone. What can your father have been thinking to leave his daughter alone like this?”

  “No one thinks a thing of a young man living alone in a cabin, and until your interference, that’s just what I was.”

  “Well, Coulter didn’t drive his cattle in here and harass you because you’re a woman. Those arrows didn’t come flying because you’re a woman. Until just a few days ago, no one even knew you were one.”

  Kylie thought of that frightening night when she felt like someone had watched her from the shadowy woods. Had there been someone there? If so, they knew she was a woman.

  “You’ve got a heap of trouble, Kylie, and it’s not safe for you here anymore. I’ll take you to the nearest Wilde holding. Your brother Shannon is the closest, right?”

  “I’m not going to be left like I’m a child who needs tending.”

  “Not a child. A woman.” Aaron scowled at her. “A very childish woman.”

  “You can leave me at Shannon’s, but I’ll just follow you. When you ride off, look behind. I’ll be right there. I’m not letting you fight my battles.”

  “You”—Aaron jabbed his finger right in her face—“are not going!”

  “Oh, yes I am!”

  “If you say one more word about it, I’m going to arrest you for pure stupidity and haul you straight to the jailhouse.”

  Kylie jammed her fists into her waist and took a step forward. Let him jab her. No decent man laid his hands on a woman. She’d just see how decent Aaron Masterson was.

  With no notion of using her rusty flirting skills, she said slowly, clearly, and without hesitation, “You wouldn’t dare.”

  9

  Don’t you dare—!” The jail cell door slamming closed shut her up.

  Finally. The first silence for a lot of miles.

  “The man I sent will give word to your pa and brothers. I’ll release you to them, if and only if they convince me they can control you until after I’ve talked to Coulter.” Aaron didn’t figure the silence would last, so he enjoyed it while he could. “Until then, I’m leaving you locked up.”

  Glaring, gripping the iron bars, she looked so mad he half expected steam to blast out of her ears. She reached for a tin cup resting on a little table in her cell, picked it up, and hurled it straight at Aaron’s head.

  He was watching her real close, so it was easy to snatch it out of the air, glad it didn’t have water in it. He decided then and there not to give her anything to eat or drink that he wasn’t willing to wear.

  “The closest they have to law in this town is the U.S. marshal, and he has a big area to cover. He just needed a place for his family to settle. We’re lucky they even have a jail.”

  She growled something; he thought it might be some mangled, outraged version of the word lucky.

  The town of Aspen Ridge was so raw it looked like it’d been carved out of the wilderness a few weeks ago. The few buildings and businesses were standing scattered here and there. No streets, unless a body had a mighty good imagination.

  “If Marshal Langley is in town, I’ll tell him you’re not allowed to have any hot liquids in this cup until you calm down.” He tossed the cup lightly in the air and caught it, then set it on the marshal’s desk with a sharp cl
ick.

  He’d found the jail unlocked and the cell open. A key had hung handy on the wall. Not a lot of crime in Aspen Ridge.

  A good thing, because it meant Kylie wouldn’t have to share the cell, for there was only the one. That could’ve gotten tricky if there’d been another prisoner who was a man. If Langley did come in with a man, Aaron would have to let her out. And he really didn’t want to. Not yet. She was the safest here she’d been since he met her.

  “You’ve managed to wear out the day, Miss Wilde. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get out to Coulter’s. For now, I’ll leave you to throw everything else that’s not tied down. I’ll be back later with a meal from Erica’s Diner.” Erica was married to the marshal, so he could get food and find out the marshal’s whereabouts at the same time. “Maybe if I wait long enough, you’ll be hungry and eat it instead of flinging it.”

  Her furious scream followed him outside. He found himself grinning. His dealings with the little spitfire were proving more fun than he’d had since before the war.

  He set about finding Marshal Langley and hadn’t begun to finish searching when a man came tearing into town—young, skinny, and none too tall. The rider, blond and with a tan that was more red than brown on his fair skin, rode a buckskin mustang that was larger than most of the mountain ponies Aaron had seen. The cowpoke galloped straight for the jail, and Aaron knew it was either someone with need of the marshal or maybe a member of the Wilde family.

  He jogged across the dusty street of Aspen Ridge just as the cowpoke swung off his horse. Every move was unusually skillful, and Aaron knew he was looking at a frontiersman who would make it in the West.

  The cowpoke lashed his reins to the hitching post, and as he strode up the two steps to the wooden walk that fronted the jail, Aaron called out, “The marshal isn’t in.”

  The newcomer turned to face him, and Aaron saw a more finely made version of Cudgel Wilde. This youth had none of Cudgel’s bitterness and grief carved into his face.

  “I heard Kylie Wilde is in custody.” The youngster’s voice was unusual. Aaron would remember it. “She’s my sister. I’m Bailey Wilde.”

  Aaron stepped up beside Bailey and gestured toward the door. “Yep, she’s locked up tight. More for her own good than for breaking the law, although she resisted my arrest of her.”

  Bailey grabbed the doorknob and wrenched it open.

  Kylie stood, both hands gripping the cell door. “Bailey, you came.”

  “When have I ever not come to take care of you?”

  Kylie smiled. Bailey smiled back. A smile that lit up an otherwise unremarkable face.

  Aaron shook his head. “Oh, good grief. You’re a girl, too.”

  Bailey whirled to face Aaron, but her eyes went past him. Aaron glanced back; there was no one there. He moved to close the door, knowing Bailey didn’t want the whole town to know.

  Before she could say anything, Aaron said, “I’m changing your paper work, as well.”

  With narrowed eyes, Bailey replied, “That’s so unjust, I’m surprised you can speak those words to me without shame.”

  “It’s the law, Miss Wilde.”

  “Shhh . . . don’t call me that.”

  “It’s your name.”

  “My name is Bailey Wilde.” She jerked off her gloves, and Aaron saw her fine-boned hands. Much like Kylie had kept her gloves on when she was disguised, Bailey did too. Their hands gave them away. And now that he knew she was a woman, Bailey’s face was really quite pretty.

  “I enlisted in the Union Army as Bailey Wilde. I served four years as Bailey Wilde. I did the work and earned the pay and served the United States of America honorably as Bailey Wilde.” Bailey jammed her fists on her hips. “What’s more, I don’t need that exemption. I plan to stay out here for good, so putting in five years isn’t a problem for me like it is for Kylie. But it’s still unjust. I’ve got my honorable discharge papers, and I used them to get my exemption. No one ever asked if I was a woman, not once the whole time I served.”

  Aaron felt his shoulders slump under Bailey’s logic. “I can’t change the law, Miss . . . Bailey. It’s illegal, though, for a woman to enlist in the Army.”

  “I never told a single lie. No one asked if I was a man.”

  “Just because the question wasn’t asked doesn’t mean it’s not a written down, fully legal act of Congress that the Army only allows men to serve.”

  “I don’t want that exemption because I need it.” Bailey slammed her right fist into her left hand. “I earned it. It’s right I should be given it. And because I served four years, I’m almost done. I would own my homestead free and clear in just a couple more months.”

  Aaron studied her face. “I have no idea how anyone could’ve thought you were a man for more than ten minutes.”

  “No one’s ever had much trouble believing it. You’d believe it too if you hadn’t caught on to Kylie.”

  “I doubt it. Give up, Bailey. I won’t be a party to fraud.”

  Bailey stared at him. He could see the wheels turning in her head. He thought he might be dealing with a very bright young woman, and he braced himself to stand up to her next argument. It wasn’t that easy, because she made a lot of sense. Denying her those years of fighting made him feel like he was the fraud, not her.

  “More than the exemption, I don’t want anyone to know I’m a woman.”

  “Too late,” Kylie said from the cell.

  Aaron turned to her. “You’ve been pretty quiet. How come you’re never quiet with me?”

  “Because,” Kylie said, “I had a hope she could maybe sway you. No one ever turns Bailey from her path.”

  “If I can’t convince you to give me that exemption, can I convince you to keep your mouth shut about me being a woman? Surely running your mouth all over town about it isn’t the same as committing fraud.”

  “Why should I keep silent? What’s the matter with you Wilde women that you want to deny you’re female?”

  With her jaw so tight it might crack her teeth, Bailey said, “For the reason that my sister is right now locked up in jail.”

  “It’s for her own safety.”

  “That’s exactly my point. I don’t want anyone doing anything for my own safety.”

  “Being a woman is a powerful protection out here in the West. Not too many men will hurt a woman.”

  Bailey stomped right up to Aaron. “I don’t want protection; I want freedom. I don’t want some well-meaning stubborn ox of a man slamming a cell door shut in my face for my own good. And being locked up is about as far as a body can get from freedom. I want to fork my own broncs. I want to own my land and run my cattle and do as much or as little as the strength of my back and the wits in my head will let me do.”

  Since she was close, Aaron snatched the broad-brimmed hat off her head, expecting long curls to rain down like Kylie’s had.

  They didn’t.

  Her blond hair was shorter than his. He tossed the hat onto the jailhouse desk. “I can’t believe you hacked all your hair off. You’re about the strangest filly I’ve ever heard tell of.” Then, knowing it would infuriate her, Aaron smirked and said, “But you’re sure a pretty little thing.”

  He caught the fist she threw with the sharp slap of flesh on flesh. Laughing, he let her go and stepped back, almost all the way to the cell. Not all the way of course. He didn’t put it past Kylie to grab him from behind and try to strangle him.

  “Now, if we can stop with all this female fussing, maybe you’d like to know that someone tried to kill your little sister today.”

  And that did stop Bailey. The anger in her face disappeared, and she turned to Kylie. “I should never have let you stay alone once it came out you were a woman.”

  Aaron wondered why Cudgel hadn’t said exactly those words. Instead, he’d bullied and wheedled and gotten his daughter to go along with him, then ridden off, leaving her alone and defenseless with a man Cudgel didn’t even know. And then the attack had come. Aaron shudder
ed to think what might have happened if Kylie had been there alone.

  It wasn’t like Cudgel wanted Kylie to be in danger; Aaron just got the real strong impression he didn’t think of it at all. His life was centered on himself, or maybe it was centered around mourning his son.

  The truth hit Aaron, and he wanted to kick himself for being so slow. “Your pa’s half mad with grief over the death of his son. His only son. And he’s trying to turn the rest of you into replacement sons. All three of you. Shannon is a woman, too.” Aaron wasn’t asking; he was just stating the obvious.

  Bailey and Kylie both turned to glare at Aaron, and he knew then he was right. Sighing, he added, “I’m changing her paper work, too. You Wilde sisters are the limit.”

  With a shake of her head, Bailey seemed to toss away her annoyance at Aaron. “What does he mean, someone tried to kill you? Tell me what happened.”

  Kylie gave a brief explanation.

  “You’re right that it’s not Indians,” Bailey said. “I’ve met a few of the Shoshone people in these parts.”

  “You have?” Kylie straightened.

  “I’ve been trading with them a little. I hope to do more of it. I don’t believe this of the Shoshone that I’ve come to know.”

  Kylie looked to Aaron. “The only person we know who’s upset about me living on that land is—”

  “Gage Coulter.” Bailey said the word low. Her deep, raspy voice seethed. Where Kylie’s voice had a bit of the same roughness, Bailey’s was a deeper, darker version. “I haven’t had a run-in with him yet, but I’m sure my time is coming. I’ve heard he used to run cattle in my canyon.”

  “My canyon?” Aaron said. “Strange you’d think of it that way, Bailey. The land in that canyon is only yours because you homesteaded across the mouth of it. You have no ownership except you can stop a man from crossing your property, and no one knows another way in. You’re doing exactly what you hate Coulter for doing.”

  Bailey didn’t respond, as she was busy thinking. Aaron saw the signs and braced himself. A moment later, she pulled her gloves out of her back pocket and tugged them on. She turned to Kylie. “I think Masterson’s right. You need to stay here where it’s safe.”