When Laura went outside, she was once again captivated by the beauty of the ranch. She could see Leadville in the distance, so far away, yet standing strong against the backdrop of the mountains towering above it. Though she didn’t have the same aversion to the city that Lena did, Laura had to admit that here the air was fresher and cleaner.
A quaint white picket fence surrounded the ranch house. Laura let herself out the gates and made the short trek to the field she’d spied from her bedroom window. Here wildflowers abounded, making Laura’s own attempts at growing a few flowers around her house seem pathetic. As she picked flowers, she hummed one of the new tunes they learned in church.
In the vastness of the open range, Laura felt a sense of the bigness of God. He’d made all this beautiful land, and here she was, enjoying it.
She gathered flowers, continuing to hum the refrain. The only reason she stopped was the loud grumble her stomach gave. Satisfied at the variety of beautiful flowers she’d collected, Laura turned to go back to the ranch house. She hadn’t realized she’d wandered so far. But just as she began to make her way toward the house, she noticed Owen storming toward her.
“Just what do you think you were doing, wandering off like that?”
His harsh tone made Laura want to cringe. Once again, he was speaking to her in a way she was no longer used to. Though she supposed she should start getting used to it. The old Owen never spoke to her like this, and it reminded her so much of James. Angry and accusing, without concern for her feelings.
“I was just gathering some flowers,” she said firmly. When James would treat her like that, she would cower and apologize for herself.
But that was the old Laura. The new Laura had nothing to apologize for. She was her own woman, and she would not cower just because a man raised his voice at her.
One more reason to tamp down any affectionate feelings she might have for Owen.
“You can’t just wander around here, especially without telling anyone where you’re going. James and his men could be out there. Didn’t Lena tell you to stay inside the fence?”
Laura tried to remember if Lena had said something, but she honestly wasn’t sure. It seemed like there was so much new information she’d been given over the past day, that she didn’t know.
“I...”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Owen grabbed her by the elbow and turned her in the direction of the house. “You have to stay in the yard. If we were in town, you would be confined to being indoors only. Don’t make me regret giving you even this little bit of freedom.”
Laura jerked her arm out of Owen’s grip. “And I don’t need you manhandling me to get me to go back inside. I understand the danger. In the future, I will be more cautious. However, you don’t need to be so rough with me. I’m not a child.”
Owen glared at her. “Then stop acting like one. I’m trying to save your life, and all you seem to do is gripe about the inconvenience it is to you. At least my children know not to leave the yard without letting someone know where they’re going.”
“Is someone after them, too?”
He paused, looking like he needed a moment to gather his thoughts. Perhaps they both did, with the way they were arguing. Then Owen looked at her with a gentler gaze.
“No, no one is after them. But there are dangers aplenty out here. Though we don’t get too many bears, they have been known to come onto ranch property. And then there are the mountain lions, who follow the herds of deer that like to graze in my pastures. When we were in town, you mentioned being able to take care of yourself with your pistol. Did you even remember to bring it on your little stroll?”
Laura’s face heated at his words. She didn’t have her gun, which was probably obvious to him since all she held in her hands was a bunch of wildflowers. As for his reminders about the wild animals, she did remember Lena warning her. She’d given a more extensive list, but all the same, Laura should have known better. Though Owen was still in the wrong for how unkindly he spoke to her, she knew he was right. She hadn’t thought of the danger, only about brightening the room with some pretty flowers.
“I’m sorry,” Laura said. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking. I was enjoying the fresh air, and the idea of having some fresh flowers in the house was too tempting. I only thought to cheer the place up.”
Even those words were wrong. Owen’s face darkened. “Is that a complaint about my house?”
Laura sighed as she shook her head. “No. The accommodations are wonderful. I couldn’t ask for better. But as you may have noticed from your brief visit to my home, I simply adore having flowers.”
Owen appeared mollified by her words. Not completely happy, but no longer as angry.
He held out his hand to her. “I’m sorry, too. I know that it’s difficult to be away from home and the things you love. If I seem overbearing, it’s only because I’m doing everything I can to protect you. I won’t let him hurt you again.”
The sincerity in his voice made her wish she hadn’t questioned him so harshly. Before, they’d gotten on so well. But now, it seemed like they were constantly rubbing each other the wrong way even though that wasn’t their intention.
Owen was just trying to do his job, not be her friend. Besides, did she really want a friend with such volatile reactions?
* * *
Owen followed Laura into the house, trying not to be frustrated. Once again, she had to turn everything into an argument. She’d acquiesced a little easier than normal, but still. Why couldn’t she just trust him to keep her safe?
Worse, now he had to figure out what to do with an ornery rooster. When he’d tried to trim the spurs off the rooster’s legs, the first one bled so much the girls thought he was going to die. Which had left his daughters in more tears. So he’d only gotten one of them off. He had put the creature in a feed sack and had brought it into the house for doctoring.
Which is when he’d discovered Laura was missing.
Now that Laura was accounted for, he could return to reassuring his daughters that Henry, which is what they decided to name the rooster, would be fine.
“Papa! Look at Henry. Auntie helped us bandage his leg.” Anna’s smile was a welcome ray of sunshine.
However, the rooster under her arm was not.
“What is that contraption on the back of him?”
Emma smiled at him. “One of my old bonnets. We put it there so’s it would catch the droppings. Auntie said we could keep him in the house as long as he doesn’t make too big of a mess. Well, we fixed that.”
Behind him, Laura was trying to stifle a giggle. He would laugh himself, except he knew that it would hurt his daughters’ feelings. More important, a rooster in the house was no laughing matter.
“What have I told you about keeping barn animals in the house?”
“But he’s hurt,” Anna said.
Emma nodded. “You let the sick ones in the kitchen before.”
Owen tried not to groan. The only thing sick about that rooster was in his head. A few days and there would be a little scabby knob where the spur had been, making the rooster less of a threat. But he could still jump and attack with his feet. The claws were sharp, meant to fend off any intruders and to fight off the competition.
“He’ll be fine. He doesn’t belong in the house. As I told you, even missing a spur, he can be dangerous when threatened. The last thing we need is a rooster in the house attacking people.”
The girls looked at each other like they were expecting his objection. Which was no surprise, considering the two of them often schemed together. Sometimes he was no match for twin girls.
“Well, Papa, we’ve been thinking,” Anna said. “The reason he attacks is because he’s scared of us. If we let him live with us for a little while and show him that there is nothing to be afraid of, he’ll be nice.”
Emma looked up at him
with bright blue eyes that he was often powerless to resist. “Papa, we’re going to train the rooster.”
Train the rooster. Of all the harebrained ideas. But as Owen looked at his daughters, and the pleading expressions on their faces, he found he didn’t have the heart to say no.
In all his days, Owen had never heard of a person training a rooster. But if the girls wanted to try, he supposed there wouldn’t be any harm in it.
“What does your aunt Lena say?”
Lena entered the parlor shaking her head. “It can’t be worse than the skunk they wanted to train.”
Owen let out a long sigh. Earlier in the year, the girls had found a baby skunk all on its own. Though Owen had tried to explain to them that his mother was probably out gathering food for him, and they should leave it alone, somehow their nonsense had gotten to him in such a way that he ended up letting them keep the thing in the barn. They were going to train that skunk not to spray anyone. Ha. Sometimes he thought he could still smell the remnants of that unfortunate experience.
“Have you thought about the kind of mess it’s going to make in the house?” Owen looked at Lena, hoping she could tell from his expression that he was looking for any excuse to not have a rooster in the house.
Lena sighed. “So far the bonnet contraption is preventing any messes. And I will admit that, as of yet, the rooster hasn’t gotten into anything he shouldn’t. But I’ve told the girls that they are responsible for cleaning up after him, and the first cross word I get out of them about it, that rooster is going back into the henhouse.”
At least this rooster experiment wouldn’t last very long. Owen gave them an hour, maybe two, before that rooster created a ruckus big enough that Lena would banish the creature from the house.
“All right.” Owen sighed. “If you want to, we can try it. But the first I hear of that rooster causing any trouble, he’s back in the pen with the others.”
Anna and Emma exchanged glances. Then Anna gave him a stern look. “His name is not rooster. His name is Henry. If we are going to civilize him, then we must give him a civilized name.”
A tiny giggle slipped out of Laura. Owen turned and gave her a sharp look. She obviously wasn’t used to children, because anyone who was knew that you shouldn’t laugh at their silly ideas.
“It’s not funny,” Anna said, giving Laura a haughty glare. “No one refers to you as human instead of your name, so why would we refer to Henry as rooster?”
Laura seemed to get the hint, and she smiled at his daughters. “Of course not. I was just thinking about how my father was named Henry, and they don’t resemble one another at all. Except, of course, my father’s nose was rather like a beak.”
The girls giggled, and Laura giggled with them. Owen was pleased to see how readily Laura had joined in their game. She didn’t treat them as silly, and she didn’t openly mock their ideas. Some people thought the girls strange for the way they adopted every stray and injured animal they found. But Owen liked the compassion they were developing for all God’s creatures. When they got older, their ability to gently tend animals would be very useful on the ranch. They could help with the doctoring and win the animals’ trust in such a way as to make the work easier. Perhaps they could become veterinarians. Maybe that wasn’t a traditional role for a woman, but nothing about Owen’s family had ever been traditional.
The girls seemed to notice the flowers in Laura’s hand, pointing to them and whispering to each other.
“I love flowers!” Emma, who was usually more timid around strangers, rushed over to Laura. “Next time you go pick wildflowers, you should invite us. It’s the polite thing to do.”
It was Owen’s turn to bite back a chuckle. Lena had been working extra diligently with the girls on their manners, and obviously, this was one lesson that had stuck. And of course, it would. Those girls loved to traipse all over the countryside and would use any excuse to do so.
“But remember,” Owen said. “No one is allowed to leave the yard without talking to your aunt or me.”
The little girls glowered at his statements. Though they knew the rules, it was good to remind them from time to time.
“But all the good flowers are in the meadow.” Anna crossed her arms over her chest as she stared at her father.
“And we can go to the meadow as a family at some point. But you and your sister may not go without either your aunt or me giving you permission.”
The stubborn look didn’t leave Anna’s face.
“Laura is an adult. She could take us.”
Owen hadn’t explained to the girls exactly why Laura was there. He tried to keep them separated from his law work as much as possible. It was dangerous, and Anna already had an appetite for danger. The last thing he needed was for his daughter to get it in her head that she was helping protect someone.
“Laura is new here. She doesn’t know the ranch the way your aunt and I do. She’s not familiar with the dangers, and wouldn’t know how to handle it if she got into trouble. Besides that, she is our guest, not your nursery maid. So please don’t bother her.”
He looked over at Laura and gave her a small smile, hoping she understood that he wanted her to feel like a welcome guest, not an extra set of hands. Though sometimes they could use the help, he would do everything in his power not to inconvenience her more than he already had. He knew she was angry at him for forcing her to leave town, but this was the safest option.
She gave the tiniest of nods, but it almost seemed like he’d done something to offend her yet again. It didn’t matter. Whatever bee she had in her bonnet now, she’d just have to get over it. Why she needed to be so difficult after being so cooperative the last time he protected her, he didn’t know. And frankly, he didn’t have the energy to find out. He turned his attention back to the girls.
“But you never take us to the meadow,” Anna said. “You’ve been promising us a picnic for ages, but then you get busy, and we can’t do it. Now that we have a guest, shouldn’t we entertain her by taking her there?”
A picnic.
Owen shouldn’t have been surprised by that demand; after all, the girls often wanted to go on picnics. It didn’t seem like such a terrible request, and yet, Owen could think of dozens of reasons why it was a bad idea. The biggest one being the madman after Laura.
“We need to stick around the ranch.” Owen tried to look regretful as he addressed his daughters. “We might have visitors, and I don’t want to miss them.”
Owen hesitated, trying not to give away the fact that he was concerned about everyone’s safety. Here at the ranch, he could protect Laura and his family. But the farther they got away from the house and out onto open range, the more dangerous things were.
“But the meadow isn’t very far.” Those sweet little doe eyes Anna had never failed to twist his heart. When it came time for his daughter to be courted, he almost felt sorry for the poor unfortunate soul she decided she liked. Not just because his daughter was impossible to resist, but because Owen wasn’t sure there was a man alive good enough for his little girls.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea right now,” he said, hoping it would get him off the hook.
Everyone, including Lena, glared at him.
Owen tried not to groan. Once his sister got involved with the girls’ plans, saying no was as hard as sawing off his own arm. And probably more painful.
But it was the wistful look on Laura’s face that got him. He knew she thought he was being unreasonable, and even though he had plenty of good reasons for all of his actions, he didn’t like how she saw him as the enemy. She was just supposed to be a case. He wasn’t supposed to care one way or another what she thought of him.
Yet something inside him yearned to have her look at him in a different light. Like she had when she’d trusted him. He’d known she’d developed a tendre for him, and he’d done his best to ignore it.
He’d gotten good at deflecting the misguided affections of victims he looked after.
The way she looked at him now, though, he’d do just about anything to erase the disappointment on her face. To make her care about him again.
Owen shook his head, trying to banish the thought from his mind. What was he thinking? Any feelings Laura might develop for him were based on the stress of the situation. Not real love. He’d learned that the hard way with Sadie. Once the thrill of being chased by bandits faded away and she was left sitting at home with a couple of squalling infants, she’d gotten bored of him. Of normal life.
People thought he was a lawman because he loved the excitement. Far from it. What he craved most was the peace he’d found here at the ranch with his daughters and sister. He’d only picked up his badge to honor a promise. But after that, once again, he’d be back to the quiet.
Falling in love with Owen the lawman wasn’t falling in love with the real man. So to even consider...anything...with Laura—it wasn’t fair to her or to him. He wasn’t giving his heart to someone who didn’t know the man behind the badge.
Still, as she continued to look more wounded than that silly rooster, he found himself saying, “All right. I’ll see what I can arrange.”
Chapter Five
After breakfast, Laura helped Lena clear the table and do the dishes. She was pleased that finally, there was no argument from the other woman as she helped out. Owen had been silent through most of the meal as the twins chattered about what they wanted to bring on the picnic the next day, then had gone to the barn immediately after.
The man was a mystery, and the woman standing next to her, drying dishes, seemed to be a clue to that mystery, only she wasn’t talking either.
“Auntie! Look what we taught Henry to do. He just sits nicely in our arms now and doesn’t put up a fuss.”
Anna beamed as she held up the rooster.
Honor-Bound Lawman Page 6
