Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1)

by Mary Connealy

  “I got there just as a general was saying his right-hand man had been killed. I saw my chance and jumped at it. I told the general I could read and write. I made sure he knew I’d come from the infirmary and let him assume I’d been wounded. I was always too good at leading people to believe a lie without saying a dishonest word. I’m finally old enough to be ashamed of that. But back then I considered it a handy skill. I played on his concern for such a young boy facing the horrors of war. They needed someone’s help that very minute, and I got the job.”

  “You were manipulating people even then.” Aaron couldn’t help smiling.

  “We all have our talents.” With a sad smile that showed most of her spirit had returned, she said, “I always handled Pa better than my big sisters. I learned how to turn his attention, distract him, offer him food and a comfortable home, and with a great deal of subtlety let him know I’d have a hard time providing those comforts if I was running around wearing britches, plowing fields. No one can really handle Pa completely, but I did better than most. I used those same skills in the war. As the general’s aide, I was kept behind the battle lines. Mostly.”

  “And you were a spy, too?”

  “I was good at it for a reason none of my commanding officers ever realized. I’d leave camp as a sneaky young boy, change into women’s clothes, and do my spying as a woman. Army men had a weakness for just the sight of a woman, and also a disrespect for their intelligence. So they’d talk in front of me while I brought them food or cleaned whatever house they lived in. They really should have been more careful. Then I could vanish completely by turning myself back into a boy. Using this trick, I ran back and forth between enemy lines many times.”

  Aaron sat beside her in companionable silence in the beautiful mountain meadow. He didn’t know if she realized she was still on his lap, but it seemed like a good thing that she was so comfortable being there. It made it a bit easier to say what he wanted to, knowing he was asking for trouble.

  “I think I have the solution to your troubles with your homestead,” he said.

  But that was the wrong way to speak of what he had in mind. He dug deeper and thought of a better way.

  He drew her close and kissed her.

  17

  Kylie liked kissing Aaron a lot more than she liked remembering the war or the snakes or burning arrows or even flapping shingles. In fact, she liked it more than anything else in the whole world.

  Yet she knew it was a mistake. He was headed for the mountains and would no doubt soon be as wild a man as Matt Tucker. She was headed for the East, though admittedly she wasn’t heading there with any great speed.

  And her kissing him, and most certainly sitting in his lap, not to mention wrapping her arms around his neck and hanging on as if her life depended on it, wasn’t sending him the right message at all. Still, for something she knew with all her common sense to be absolutely wrong, she’d never felt anything so perfectly right and she couldn’t stand to let go.

  Finally, he straightened away from her. “Kylie, I want you to marry me.”

  “M-marry you?” Her voice squeaked in a way she’d never quite heard before. “I don’t think—”

  He cut off her answer by kissing her again. After far too long he spoke again, close this time, so that his lips moved on hers. “We have to get married.”

  “We do?” He sounded so sure that Kylie thought he might know better than she did.

  “Yes, because I want to hold you for the rest of my life. I want us to be together. We’ll find a life that makes us both happy.”

  But where? Was she to live the rest of her life in this hardscrabble country? Almost hysterically she had a vision of herself wearing buckskin and beaded fringe. She imagined Aaron with a wild full beard, his blond hair reaching halfway down his back. It was nothing she wanted.

  Except she wanted Aaron’s arms around her. She wanted him to stay with her and not leave her alone in the wild ever again.

  She even wanted Gage Coulter to take that stupid pond back and leave her alone. If Coulter wasn’t trying to scare her off, someone sure was. Once they knew they’d succeeded in making her run, they’d quit with the arrows and snakes and whatever other dangerous mischief they could devise.

  “But what about—?”

  His lips landed on hers again, longer this time, deeper. Every speck of sense in her muddled brain lost track of itself by the time he raised his head. “Say you’ll marry me, Kylie. That’s what a man and woman do who enjoy each other as much as we do. We can be together all day and . . .”

  She saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

  “. . . all night.” He kissed her again, soft and gentle, a kiss that woke up places inside her she hadn’t known were asleep. Places she hadn’t known existed.

  He hadn’t said they’d move east, but he said they’d find a life that would make them both happy. Kylie suspected happiness was too much to ask. Except right now was the happiest moment of her life. Could she be happy just to be held in Aaron’s arms? Yes, she could, but happy enough? Was it selfish of her to want more?

  A sad twist to her heart reminded her that he hadn’t spoken words of love, most likely because he didn’t love her. She suspected no men said such things. Her pa certainly never had. Love was something sweet but impractical, fit for fairy tales but not for real life. Kylie was a practical woman, and if it left an empty ache in her heart that Aaron couldn’t speak of love, well, still he had to be a big improvement on Pa.

  He was right. In fact, she suspected she had little choice. It felt like she was tearing apart inside, half wanting to stay beside him always, half wanting none of the life he offered . . . outside of his arms.

  Married, she’d be safe. It may be wrong to marry for such selfish reasons, but she couldn’t go back to that cabin. His hand slid down her back, and it was as if he claimed her, owned her. She couldn’t long for a man’s touch like this and not accept his proposal.

  She opened her mouth to say yes.

  Unshed tears closed her throat. To say yes was to give up all her dreams. To say no was to lose his protection and strength and being held in his arms.

  She made up her mind. Fighting to steady her voice, she said, “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  Before the words were even spoken, she wanted to call them back, but he was kissing her again. More passionately than ever. And before he let her go, she had accepted what was to come. A fine man to protect but not love her.

  Kisses that made her understand that to be a woman was a wonderful thing, even without foolishness like bonnets and tea parties and civilization.

  A life she wanted almost as much as she already dreaded it.

  “Snakes?” Coulter shoved back the hat he wore and scowled. “And you think I did that? A man who accuses me of turning snakes loose on a woman had better be prepared to draw.”

  “This has to do with you, and you know it.” Aaron tucked Kylie behind his back.

  “I’m not hiding from Coulter.” With a shove, she stepped out of grabbing range, darted around her fiancé, and stuck herself right between these two bull elks. She dodged Aaron’s outstretched hands. “And we’re not accusing you of doing this.”

  She crossed her arms, daring Coulter to take his temper out on her. Of course, he’d never do it. She could tell Gage had that code so many western men went by that wouldn’t let him hurt a woman—a code that whoever was attacking her apparently set no store by. But Gage had it, and she was in a better position to badger him than Aaron. There was no code about hurting other men.

  Despite her dodging, Aaron got ahold of her and clamped both hands on her shoulders, but he didn’t shove her behind him again.

  Although he might have if Coulter hadn’t waved his hand. “Leave her be. I want to punch someone, only it ain’t gonna be either of you.” Coulter jerked his buckskin gloves off and tucked them behind his belt, then removed his hat with a frustrated tug. He ran one big hand through his overly long dark hair.

&nb
sp; “Listen, Gage, whoever’s doing this knows you want that pond.” Kylie was trying to be friendly and at the same time make some progress on this mess. “They’re not doing it on your orders, but they might be doing it to gain your approval or maybe your attention. You say you’re sure of your men, then who else could it be?”

  His eyes flashed with temper as they shifted between Kylie and Aaron. “There’s a good way to find out who’s behind this, but I’m not putting up with it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You move out and we see who claims your homestead. It appears someone wants it real bad.” Coulter’s jaw tightened, until Kylie worried he might break his teeth. “But if we do that, I lose the water again. I ain’t letting that happen.”

  “We’d arrest whoever stepped forward.” Aaron’s hands tightened on her. “We wouldn’t have to let them stake their claim.”

  “How could you stop them?” Coulter’s cold eyes seemed to turn silver when he was angry. He looked from Aaron to Kylie, to the strong hands on her shoulders.

  Kylie knew he was reading things about right.

  “You’d have no proof they’d attacked Kylie. The first person who comes in to file that claim might not even be the one behind all this. You’d have about a minute to get to the bottom of it while they filled out that paper work. You can’t stop them without any proof, and if you couldn’t stop them, I’d lose that water hole.”

  Coulter’s ice-bitten eyes turned on Kylie, and she felt the chill all the way to the bone. Aaron was right there, though, holding her up. She found his strength so alluring it was all she could do not to lean back against him and let him bear all her burdens.

  “I want you,” Coulter said, jabbing a finger at Kylie, “to move out.”

  Kylie wanted to move out, too.

  “I’ll be right there at the land office with you. You rescind your claim, and I buy up those acres.”

  Kylie took an angry step forward, knowing it was Aaron who gave her the courage to be bold, despite any unwritten code about women. “So you get what you want, and whoever attacked me goes free. All I get out of the deal is losing my property.”

  Aaron leaned over to her ear from behind her. “You’re a lot braver around Coulter than you are around snakes.” Which might be his teasing her. She wasn’t exactly sure.

  “If you and Masterson get married,” Coulter said, his eyes lighting up, “you’re gonna lose your claim anyway, Miss Wilde. As I understand homesteading laws, married women have to turn their property over to their husbands, and the husband then takes over proving up.” With a smirk, Coulter looked at Aaron, standing so strong and tall, despite Kylie being in front of him. “So, judging by the way you’ve got your hand on this little missy here, I’d say my business is with you.”

  Something warmed deep inside Kylie to have Coulter talk of her and Aaron together as a couple. She knew she should be offended by the way Coulter brushed her off as unimportant, but the notion that all her problems were soon to be handed off to Aaron was so appealing she could hardly stand it. Was this how things worked with men and women? Because this was what she really wanted—to be treated as a woman ought. To tend a home and let her husband see to making the living.

  At the same time that she relished it, Kylie knew she’d been living by very different rules for a long time. She wasn’t a tough westerner, and certainly not a man by any stretch. But neither was she going to be a properly demure little wife.

  Coulter’s dismissal of her was insulting, even if it did lift a crushing weight off her back. Was this how it was for men, always bearing this weight? Would she be able to just step back into her role as a quiet, submissive wife after so many years of living as independently as she had?

  Honestly, she wanted all the good parts of both, leaving the bad parts for Aaron. That probably wasn’t exactly fair, and Aaron most likely had his own ideas of how a marriage worked. If she didn’t knuckle under to his ideas, would their lives be an endless battle? She’d been to war, and she never wanted to endure even a domestic version of it again.

  Then Aaron flexed his strong hands on her shoulders, and she was reminded again that she had little choice in the matter. Whatever their future brought, she wanted more than anything to share it with him.

  “Miss Wilde and I are going to be married. When that happens, her homestead is transferred into my name. But I have plans to move on and homestead elsewhere. As pretty as that stretch of land is that Kylie claimed, there isn’t enough grazing on it to run a herd or the kind of land that would grow a crop, so it’s not a practical place for us to get a start.”

  His hands tightened again as if apologizing for not liking her homestead, although he wasn’t saying a thing she didn’t already know. She’d picked the land mostly to annoy Pa, anyway. The water was good, but by itself, with no decent meadowland and the rocky soil, there was no way to make a living off of it. Pa had goaded her about that and tried to force her to take a different claim. She’d made it clear to him and her sisters that she’d claim the land and live on it for her required years, then sell out to them and leave. It would give her enough money to live in a city while she made other plans. It was the pond that gave Kylie’s claim value, making it a good enough investment. But without that, the place was beautiful but worthless.

  Her tormenting Pa had made signing up for that parcel of land even more attractive.

  Coulter flashed a smile of satisfaction that goaded Kylie. “Let’s ride to Aspen Ridge then and get this taken care of. And then if you’ve a mind to get married, I can stand as witness.”

  The thought of marrying Aaron without telling her sisters, and with this tyrannical land baron standing smugly by to take her land, was more than galling to Kylie. Yet she didn’t dare tell Bailey and Shannon the news. Well, maybe Shannon would understand, but Bailey would put so much pressure on her to change her mind, she just might buckle.

  Aaron might be pushing her to marry him, but at least he was pushing nicely. Coulter was pushing for that land, but at least he was straightforward about it.

  But sisters knew all the right things to say. And Pa didn’t bear thinking about. Which left Kylie with only one choice really. Do it quickly, before her family found out.

  For one wistful moment, Kylie remembered weddings she’d gone to before the war. Not elaborate affairs, because all their neighbors were hardscrabble farmers just like the Wilde family. But the weddings had all been in a church. There were wildflowers wrapped into bouquets, and almost always the bride’s pa walked her down the aisle to her waiting groom.

  She’d always known she couldn’t have that. Her pa was too cantankerous to do much but ruin a wedding. But she’d imagined it, even dreamed of it at times. Another dream died, and she knew her fondest dream—living in a city with lots of people and fine things—would die soon, too.

  All she’d be left with was a foolish longing that everyone she knew considered frivolous and selfish. But was it? Was it so bad to want to be around people, around other women, who loved being who they were?

  She’d never quite been able to figure out why her wants were so bad.

  Aaron stepped up beside her, his arm strong on her back. That strength guided her to do exactly as others wanted . . . at the price of her own happiness.

  “You live in the boardinghouse?” Kylie stopped dead in her tracks, most of the way out of the church where they’d had their hasty wedding.

  Aaron almost stumbled at that question. He hadn’t thought of where they’d spend the night. Oh, he’d thought of the night—Lord have mercy, he’d done little else but think of the night—just not the where. “Um . . . I reckon that’s no proper place for us. The rooms sleep ten, and it’s all men. Not a single woman or private room in the place.”

  They stood looking at each other. Coulter came up and stood next to them. He’d been trailing them out of the tiny clapboard church. At least Kylie had gotten her church. The parson was just behind Coulter and made something of a circle of the four
of them.

  Aaron didn’t want a circle; he wanted to be alone with his new wife. And he sure wasn’t going to manage that in the boardinghouse.

  “For tonight, we can sleep at your cabin.” Aaron realized when he’d thought of their wedding night, the location had been at Kylie’s.

  “I told you . . . I’m not going back there.” Kylie nervously sucked her bottom lip just the littlest bit into her mouth. A distracting thing to do, and Aaron found himself watching her do that when he oughta be thinking.

  “It’s my cabin now, Mrs. Masterson.”

  Aaron liked the sound of “Mrs. Masterson” real fine, and he went back to thinking about Kylie’s lips.

  “But you’re welcome to stay the night and clear your things out.” Coulter’s reminding them that he’d bought the land wasn’t a welcome reminder. In fact, Coulter’s entire presence here wasn’t welcome. Aaron would be obliged if the man would just move along.

  “She signed those papers, dropping her homestead,” Aaron said, “and I signed the papers as land agent, selling you that stretch. We’ll honor the law, so you don’t need to push, Coulter.” Aaron saw Kylie’s shoulder sag, as if all of this was more burden than she could bear.

  To the parson, Aaron handed a few coins. “We thank you for conducting our wedding service, Parson. We’d appreciate it if you had an evening meal at the diner, our treat. While you’re at it, tell everyone who’ll listen that Kylie’s done with that claim, and Coulter now owns it. We want the word to get out, so that whoever’s been attacking her will find out.”

  “I’ll make sure and spread the word, too,” Coulter offered. “If one of my men is doing this in some bid to get that land for me, they’ll know by nightfall that they’re wasting their time. You should be safe now, ma’am.”