Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1)

by Mary Connealy

  Kylie smiled through the curls that’d come loose and now dangled in front of her eyes. She blew a particularly annoying one aside. “This is the last of it. We can get going for my house and have the whole place set up in time for when Aaron comes home. Tonight I can make him a nice dinner on my own stove.”

  It hadn’t taken much nagging on Bailey’s part to get Kylie to change into her britches. It made all the bending and hoisting much easier, and the ride was sure to be more comfortable. Much as she loved feminine things, Kylie dearly loved some of the more practical parts of dressing and acting manly. Kylie would have to figure out how to give that bad news to Aaron, because she didn’t want to give it up entirely.

  They shoved and lifted until they got the stove in line with the door, and then Bailey, who was always thinking, tied a rope around it while it was still inside, lashed the rope to her horse, and used the horse’s muscle instead of their own to drag it outside and down Kylie’s steps. It took a little more maneuvering before they had it on the travois, along with the stovepipe, hooked up to the gentlest of Bailey’s mustangs.

  Sunrise had worked right alongside them, saying very little. But what she did say reminded them clearly that she considered it all foolishness. She thought the ways of white people with their cumbersome stoves and houses and beds and clothes and possessions of all sorts were all very odd.

  “The fire I started is still hot, and the coffee is warm,” Sunrise said. “I kept the cups out of the packs so we could use them. A fire that took minutes to build and did not need four women and a strong horse to haul, unlike your stove. The sun is overhead. It is time to stop for food.”

  Shannon searched in her saddlebags. “I didn’t think we’d want to cook a meal, so I brought biscuits and cookies.”

  Bailey rolled her eyes at Shannon. “I figured you’d want to feed us and that you wouldn’t have the heart to serve us up one of your lambs, so there are some roast beef sandwiches in my saddlebags.”

  Shannon smiled unrepentantly and sat on Kylie’s porch, facing the pond, her legs dangling between the spindles she’d worked on so hard. She handed out hard biscuits while Bailey shared her sandwiches. Sunrise poured coffee.

  Kylie drew in a long breath, scented with pine and the sweet smell of lake water. The tin cup of coffee sat beside her on the porch. She threaded her legs through the porch spindles and swung them as she took in the scenery.

  “This is a beautiful place.” She took a bite of the roast beef sandwich and chewed Bailey’s good hearty bread and tender beef.

  “It is a good place,” said Sunrise. “I have told Coulter I mean to live here. We are in agreement.”

  Kylie gasped and choked on her sandwich. Both rocking chairs had been tied to the packhorses, so Sunrise sat leaning against the cabin wall next to Bailey. Sunrise shifted and pounded Kylie on the back.

  When she could breathe again, Kylie turned to her friend. “He’s letting you live here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why wouldn’t he let me live here?”

  “He would have.”

  Silence seemed to spread between all four women as Kylie looked at Sunrise, and Sunrise looked back as if she had no idea what Kylie was confused about.

  Finally, Bailey said into the silence, “I reckon he just wants the water. If you’d have given him clear title, he’d’ve let you live here. He don’t care if someone’s in the cabin. At least not if they don’t cause any trouble. And I’m sure he trusts Sunrise. He probably figures having her here is a good thing.”

  “So Aaron and I didn’t even need to build a house?” Kylie thought of the work they’d done, and how heavy that stove was.

  “Well, Aaron needs to live a lot closer to Aspen Ridge than this, so yes, you needed to move.”

  Shannon probably deliberately waited until Kylie took another bite before she asked, “What can you tell us about being married?”

  Kylie choked again.

  When Sunrise quit pounding her back, Kylie looked at Shannon, who had an innocent expression on her face. Like maybe she hadn’t meant to ask about the first thing that came into Kylie’s mind. So the fact that the more personal side of marriage had come to mind said more about Kylie than it did about Shannon. Then there was a glint in Shannon’s eyes, and Kylie didn’t think she was mistaken at all. But the only time Kylie would talk about that would be on Shannon’s wedding day, at which time she might have a talk with her sister.

  Kylie decided to discuss something else instead. “Aaron is really worried about protecting me. It’s a wonderful feeling. Pa has really done wrong by all of us, making us dress and act like men. Sending us off to war, thrusting us into the middle of an army full of men. It’s terrible we were put in that position. Pa oughta be ashamed of himself. I’m really hoping you two figure out real soon you can’t go on living the way you are.”

  Bailey narrowed her eyes and kept chewing. Shannon smiled her pretty dimpled smile, and Kylie could only roll her eyes at how pretty and feminine they both looked.

  “When Coulter came to this cabin, neither of you went outside to greet him. That’s because you knew he’d immediately recognize you were women. And yesterday, when Tucker came to help build the house, both of you ran for home for the same reason. Do you really think you can keep hiding for the rest of your lives? You’re admitting you don’t believe anyone will be fooled by your britches and short hair, and you know Aaron changed your paper work. So why are you doing it? I’d say by now it’s just an old habit. When are you two going to grow up and start behaving like the women the good Lord made you?”

  Bailey finished her cookie and took a long drink of her coffee. “I wouldn’t want to try and break a mustang wearing a skirt.”

  “Somehow it seems shameful for a woman to wear trousers. If we’re pretending to be men, it’s not so bad.” Shannon shrugged. “That’s nonsense, I suppose.”

  “It’s all nonsense,” Sunrise said, gathering up the cups. “This is the West. Live as you please, but live honestly.”

  Kylie took the last bite of her food and wondered if Aaron would let her wear her britches part of the time.

  They stowed the cups and coffeepot and made sure everything was ready. Bailey swung up on the lead horse, leading a remuda of four mustangs strung together, each of them heavily packed. They carried bed slats, her bed tick, and her rocking chairs, as well as her table and chairs, tools, pots, and the few other things she owned.

  Sunrise followed the line of packhorses with what load her horse could carry. Shannon followed, riding the horse pulling the travois with the heavy stove. Bailey had trained the horse Shannon rode, and it was the steadiest of any of their animals. While Bailey was the best at breaking and training, Shannon had an almost magical touch with any animal, including keeping this horse steady as it pulled the unusual load on its back.

  Kylie brought up the rear to make sure the stove didn’t tumble off the travois. Her horse was also loaded down. They set a snail’s pace, so that the stove wouldn’t bounce and startle Shannon’s horse.

  They had the whole of the afternoon, though, and it was a beautiful day in the dappled shade of the woods. The people terrorizing her were taken care of, and Kylie didn’t have a care in the world. As she rode through the heavy forest, Kylie thought of Shannon’s question about marriage. Her thoughts went right back to where they’d gone at that question, and she looked forward to seeing her husband again soon.

  The distinct crack of a twig in the forest caused her to turn in the saddle in the direction of the sound. She heard the wind breathe her name again.

  “Kylie.”

  This time she couldn’t convince herself she’d imagined it. She opened her mouth to tell everyone to stop. She was going to find out what or who that was.

  A hand covered her mouth.

  Not even a whimper escaped.

  She was lifted off her horse by arms that made her feel as if she weighed nothing. Her horse shied a few steps, but she was whisked away so fast an
d quiet that her horse resumed walking after the others with barely a missed step.

  With the utter hush of a ghost, she was swept into the woods. Only that one warning snap. It reminded her of the times she’d felt watched, the times she’d jumped at shadows.

  As he dragged her deeper into the woods, farther from rescue, he leaned so close his whiskers brushed her face. “Kylie,” he whispered with rancid breath.

  He moved with complete silence just as he’d stood in the woods, just as he’d watched her. She realized he’d stood in those woods very near where they were attacked by the arrows. But neither Sunrise nor Tucker had noticed the tracks of another man, besides the three from the Hughes family.

  This man was better than either of them. And now he moved with a skill that might make him hard to follow, which meant she was at the mercy of someone who knew how to make himself invisible in the woods.

  He’d just used his talent to make her invisible, too.

  Aaron was practically lying down on his gelding’s neck. He’d raced to his cabin first, hoping he’d find the Wilde sisters there. They hadn’t arrived. He’d then charged on toward Kylie’s homestead. They’d be on their way by now if Nev hadn’t gotten to them, killed them already.

  The thought drove him with crazed recklessness. He closed the distance between himself and the place he prayed Kylie would be, the whole time asking God how he could have been such a fool as to think distance had anything to do with hate.

  He should have stayed.

  He should have ripped that rifle out of Nev’s hands and held him down until he came to his senses.

  He should have talked of their memories and reminded him of their friendship.

  He should have sown love where hate bloomed and thrived.

  If he had, that land could have born a new crop of faith and goodness. But Aaron had been too weak. No, that wasn’t true. He’d been too filled with his own hate to sow those seeds. And now he’d led his private war out here, and Kylie and her sisters might die as a result.

  “Forgive me, God. Forgive my own failure. Make me new again.” He thought of the way Kylie had cast off those britches and put on a skirt. She’d let her hair grow long before she’d met him. His mixed-up little wife, who talked of wanting fussy things, was braver than he was. “She had the courage to start over, to begin again. Help me to be a new creation in you, God.”

  In the midst of the worst terror of his life, because he had no one to turn to but God, he let the love of God pour in. It pushed aside his fear, even as it deepened his determination to get to Kylie and protect her. And then together they’d make a new life together, pleasing to God and to them both.

  Finally, he saw Bailey ahead. She smiled and glanced over her shoulder as if knowing he’d come looking for his wife.

  She reined her horse to a halt, drew her gun, and hopped to the ground. “Kylie!”

  Although he was still a ways off, he heard the urgency in her voice. She was shouting something he couldn’t make out.

  A string of heavily laden ponies were behind Bailey. Past them, Sunrise swung off her horse while Shannon behind her dismounted.

  And behind Shannon was . . . a horse ridden by no one. Where was Kylie? There was only a saddled horse without its rider. Aaron didn’t pull up until he was nose to nose with Bailey’s horse on a trail too narrow to pass. He leapt off his horse and sprinted toward the back of the caravan.

  Sunrise was already down the trail. Not running, yet moving fast. Bailey was trailing her.

  At last, Aaron caught up with them. “How long has she been gone?”

  “I don’t know,” Bailey replied.

  Grabbing her by the shoulders, Aaron said, “That’s not good enough. What were you doing, leaving her behind like that? Why weren’t you watching her?”

  Her sisters would be coming. Kylie had no doubt about that. Coming right into the teeth of danger.

  That was all it took. The ground was steep, broken up, sloping downhill, and studded with boulders. She slammed her bootheels into the dirt. Her kidnapper stumbled, and they both fell. She wrenched away and dove forward down the unforgiving slope.

  Falling, then scrambling, then falling again, she heard the man roar behind her. Not so silent now.

  She clawed her way to her feet and knocked loose a rock from where it clung to the wooded mountainside. Dirt kicked up the beginning of a small avalanche. The man tackled her, and together they rolled and careened into a tree.

  Her battered body stopped. He leapt on her just as her hand, gripping a stone the size of her fist, came at him and crashed against his head. It stunned him enough that she was able to wriggle free. She used both feet to kick him in the chest, a move that sent her hurling back down.

  Getting to her feet again, she saw what lay below—downhill for hundreds of yards, all in the wrong direction, away from her family and safety.

  She ran up. He was only a few paces behind her. She grabbed an aspen as she rushed past and used her weight to spin around. She heard the kidnapper stumble on past. Dropping to her hands and knees, she scrambled.

  He was coming. She heard him. Every inch she gained was one step closer to her sisters and help. And the end of whoever this watcher was who’d added to her torment. She recognized a faint trail cutting along the side of the mountain. She dodged aspen trees and boulders, praying with every breath. He’d most likely catch up, but she saw no reason to make it easy for him.

  Heavy footsteps pounded behind her. He’d gained the trail. Ahead was a fork in the path. She sprinted toward what she thought was the direction of safety, taking it just as his weight slammed her facedown in the dirt.

  Where all defeated foes end.

  With brutal strength, he flipped her over, this time careful to keep her hands under control as he pinned her to the ground. She kicked her feet but gained no leverage. He panted as he leaned down, his gaping mouth only inches from her face, so that she couldn’t avoid his stinking breath.

  She saw cruel satisfaction in his eyes as he watched her squirm. His lips twisted into a grotesque smile, and he whispered, “Kylie.”

  “Enough.” Sunrise didn’t yell, but her quiet order cut through Aaron’s nearly out-of-control rage. “I need quiet.”

  He realized he was on the verge of shaking Bailey.

  “I’m sorry.” Aaron took Bailey into his arms and hugged her. “I’m so sorry.”

  She froze as if she’d turned to stone.

  “None of this is your fault. I should never have blamed you. Forgive me.”

  Bailey reached up with halting movements and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Sure, Aaron. Y-you can let me go now.”

  Finally, he released her and stepped back. Bailey watched him with wide eyes. She hadn’t been this unsettled when he’d been rough with her. Aaron wondered if her father had ever touched her in kindness before. He turned to look at Shannon, who was studying him as though he’d grown a second head.

  Quietly she said, “You were in a panic when you came riding up. You know what’s going on, don’t you? Did the Hughes family break out of jail? Is that what’s got you scared to death?”

  “Not the Hughes family. No, they were all pranks compared to this. This is about the war and a hatred that has stretched across a continent. And it’s all my fault, none of it yours.”

  “Come.” Sunrise cut off Aaron’s need to blame himself more. “Leave the horses. No trail big enough to ride. The man who has her moves fast, but he is on foot.” Sunrise strode into the woods while Aaron, Bailey, and Shannon rushed to catch up, leaving their horses ground-hitched.

  “Who’s doing this, Aaron, if it’s not the Hughes family?” Bailey asked. The ground slanted sharply downward, so narrow they couldn’t make good time. They had to duck branches and step around boulders. It looked as if nothing bigger than a deer had gone this way before them.

  “It all goes back to the war and an old friend who fought for the South. I found out this morning he came here to get revenge for the
death of his family. He blames me for all of it. He can’t be in his right mind.”

  “He’s sane enough to track you down, find out you’re married, and slip silently through the woods. I think that makes him responsible for whatever crimes he commits. Is he planning to kill Kylie?”

  “From what I hear, he’s planning to kill every one of you. Then kill me.”

  Nev’s words echoed in his mind. “I swear before God that if you had any family left, I’d shoot every one of them and make you watch.”

  Was it possible Nev wouldn’t kill Kylie until he got his hands on Aaron? Did Aaron dare to hope for something based on the ravings of a madman months ago?

  “Your old friend?” Bailey said with a frown.

  “Yep,” Aaron replied.

  Bailey nodded, a determined look on her face. “Sunrise, let’s pick up the pace!”

  Her urgency scared Aaron even more than he already was, and that was saying something, because he was terrified right down to his bones.

  23

  He dragged her to her feet, and she screamed like to peel skin off someone’s hide. The man just smiled and pushed her back against a massive tree. He wasn’t particularly rough; he didn’t gag her or hit her. In fact, she had the sense that he wanted her to scream. Which was the reason she stopped.

  He was a living scarecrow, dressed in rags, skinny as a stick. His hair hung like filthy brown straw, and his tattered black hat sagged over eyes which gleamed with hatred and soul-deep pain that reached to where no medicine could heal.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  He smiled, his teeth green, his face skeletal beneath a scraggly beard, close enough that his foul breath was nearly overwhelming. “Scream some more, Mrs. Masterson. I want your husband to come running to save you. I want your sisters here. I want Aaron to watch his brand-new family die, just like my family died.” The man inched closer, and the stink of his body pushed aside the odor of his breath. His face was lined, each line creased with dirt. He couldn’t have washed in months.