A Western Heart (Choc Lit)

by Liz Harris

  Instinctively, she took a step back. The shawl slipped down her arms.

  ‘Don’t be afear’d. I’m not gonna violate you, ma’am,’ he said, his voice amused. ‘I’m just gonna push a piece of hair back into place. If you’ll forgive me.’

  He raised his hand to her again, caught up a couple of strands that had fallen from the loose bun into which she’d gathered her long brown hair, and wound them back over her ear. The scent of leather, cigars and maleness embraced her. His fingers lightly brushed her throat and her cheek, and a shiver ran down the length of her spine.

  Leaning slightly closer to her as he tucked her hair into her bun, his fingers slipped to the sensitive place behind her ear and lingered there.

  Her skin broke out in goosebumps. Low in her stomach, she felt an insistent throb begin.

  Catching her breath in a short gasp, she reached out to him, wanting to touch his chest, wanting to feel his hard muscle beneath her fingers. But in a sudden sharp burst of awareness, she swiftly pulled her hand back and stared at him, aghast.

  He withdrew his hand from her hair, hooked his thumbs in his belt and took a step back from her. ‘You see, Miss Rose. A gentleman knows how to behave – there was nothing for you to fear. Exceptin’ yourself, of course,’ he added quietly.

  His gaze travelled slowly down the length of her body, and back again to her face. Then his eyes dropped to her lips.

  ‘I’m gonna go in now,’ she said.

  For a long moment, they stared at each other. Trapped in his hooded gaze, her eyes locked with his, she found she couldn’t move.

  Silence hung heavily in the air between them.

  ‘Goodnight, Mr Galloway,’ she said at last, and she forced herself to turn away and walk steadily into the house.

  Closing the door behind her, she leaned back against the cool wood and let out a long, low groan. Had she really been about to touch him like that?

  Guilt wound its way through her body.

  She struggled to push it back. She’d done nothing wrong and had nothing to feel guilty about. Sure, she’d felt something ache deep in her stomach when he’d touched her face … the way he’d touched her … But she’d not touched him, not done anything to reproach herself for. She’d walked away from temptation.

  Temptation.

  She straightened up and felt cold all over. Yes, she’d been tempted by Nate. But a woman expecting to be wed to one man shouldn’t be tempted by another, yet she had been. What did this say about her true feelings for Will?

  Questions crowded in on her, and she found she couldn’t breathe.

  The questions frightened her, and she wasn’t of a mind to try to answer them. She needed to think, but not that night, not when she was in such a state. She’d ask herself what it all meant the following day. Things were always clearer in the morning.

  More urgently, she needed to get out of the hall and into the safety of her bedroom before Nate came back into the house.

  She picked up the kerosene lamp from the hall table with one hand, held up her skirts with the other, and made her way up the stairs as fast as she could.

  Lying in the darkness, Cora stared across at Rose’s empty bed and listened to the muffled sound of Rose and Nate talking together downstairs outside the house.

  They liked each other, she was sure. Much as she hated to admit it to herself, Rose was beautiful. No one in or around Hope came near to matching Rose for the way she looked and the air of niceness that clung to her. It was no wonder that when her sister was around, no one saw her and Mattie. True, Will had started to do so, but deep in her heart she knew it would all change in a moment if Rose looked at Will so much as once in the way she looked at Mr Galloway.

  But if Rose were to wed Mr Galloway, and not Will …

  If only her plan worked!

  They wouldn’t need long together. With so little time left, Mr Galloway would be certain to make the most of finding himself alone with Rose. Why, he might even propose to her.

  She hugged herself in excitement. So much depended upon what happened on Wednesday morning. If it all went well, Wednesday could end with her being wildly happy, and Rose, too.

  Of course, if she and Mattie were wrong about Rose being real taken with Mr Galloway …

  She felt a sharp prick of alarm. She knew she was right about Rose’s feelings, but just supposing she wasn’t? She needed to think about that.

  Hearing Rose’s footsteps on the stairs, she turned quickly on to her other side. She was still thinking hard when she closed her eyes and gave in to sleep.

  Chapter Eleven

  The weight of the Tuesday afternoon heat lay heavily on Cora.

  Sitting back in the chair on the veranda, she tilted her bonnet forward to shield herself from the bright light and fanned herself while her eyes impatiently scanned the track that led to the ranch.

  At last the buggy appeared in the distance, a small speck that grew larger and larger as it neared the house. Before it had even reached the yard, she’d sprung up and moved to the edge of the veranda, and the moment it had passed through the gates, she ran down the steps to greet Mattie.

  ‘Jesse will do the horses,’ she called as her friend pulled the buggy to a halt, ‘so we can leave them. I told him you were coming and he said he’d look out for you.’ She pulled a couple of pails of water over to the horses. ‘We’ll give them some water and Jesse will do the rest. I can’t wait to hear if Sam agreed to say what we wanted.’

  ‘He did,’ Mattie said, beaming as she climbed down from her seat. ‘I knew he would,’ she added, winding the reins over the hitching post. ‘He’s real helpful like that.’

  ‘He must be. Come on, let’s go up and talk.’ Cora picked up her skirts and ascended the steps to the house with Mattie close behind.

  ‘I couldn’t come earlier as Ma made me do my share of the ironing and then help with the lunch,’ Mattie said, following Cora into the living area.

  ‘I guessed that. I’d hoped you’d come this morning, but it doesn’t matter – I had chores to do, too. Look, I’ve already put out some lemonade and flapjacks. We’ll be fine in here as there’s no one around to disturb us. If anyone does come in, we’ll say we’re having a break from sewing.’ She sat down in one of the deep leather armchairs. ‘They won’t come in, though. Ma and Maria have finished ironing and are in the vegetable garden now, Pa and Mr Galloway have gone into town for the ranchers’ meeting and won’t be back till later today, and Rose is resting upstairs. She said she found it hard to get to sleep last night,’ Cora added with a giggle. ‘I’m thinking it might be something to do with her and Mr Galloway being out on the veranda by themselves after dinner last night. I heard them talking.’

  Mattie’s eyes opened wide. ‘By themselves? Didn’t your ma and pa mind?’

  Cora shrugged her shoulders. ‘They went to bed right after dinner so they didn’t know.’

  ‘Will’s gone into town, too,’ Mattie said, leaning across and taking a flapjack. ‘He took Boy rather than go in the wagon with Pa. I asked him real casually what he was doing tomorrow, and he said that he and Pa are coming here tomorrow morning. They all wanna discuss what was said at the meeting today before they go to the ranchers’ meeting in the afternoon. I asked if I could come over with them, and Will said I could. I reckon he was mighty pleased I wouldn’t be at the ranch alone when Sam was around and he wasn’t.’

  ‘Which means they’ll want Mr Galloway out of the way tomorrow,’ Cora said in satisfaction. ‘That’ll work out real well. Mr Galloway will know they’ll wanna talk among themselves and that he’d do better not to be around, so he’ll jump at having a good reason to leave the ranch. He knows he’ll find out what everyone thinks on Thursday, and I reckon he’ll be real interested in hearing what Mr Poole has to say before that.’

  Mattie gave a low whistle of appreciation. ‘That’s a mighty clever plan, Cora. When he and Rose find themselves alone, they’ll be able to talk freely about their feelings for each other.
’

  Cora nodded. ‘And there’s one other thing I decided when I was thinking about it all last night,’ she said, glancing sideways at Mattie. She took a deep breath. ‘I think Will oughta see for himself that Rose and Mr Galloway are meeting each other. All he needs to do is see their horses outside Jonah’s Cabin – that’d be enough.’

  Mattie gasped. ‘It’d make Will real unhappy. D’you think that’s necessary?’

  Cora nodded. ‘Yup, I do. When he finds out they’ve got feelings for each other, he’s gonna be unhappy anyway – there’s no way of avoiding that. But if I’m right about Rose, she’ll put off telling Will about her and Mr Galloway for as long as possible. I wouldn’t even be surprised if she didn’t suggest keepin’ it a secret till Mr Galloway comes back in two weeks’ time. She’d reason it’d be easier for her if Ma and Pa didn’t know till then. If she tells them now, less than a week after meeting Mr Galloway, they’d only say it was too soon for her to know her mind.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ Mattie said, her voice doubtful.

  ‘When Will knows the truth about the way Rose feels, he’ll be real sad, I know, but I’ll be there to comfort him. Then our folks will see Will and me getting on well together and they’ll realise it doesn’t have to be Rose who marries him.’

  ‘You sure have thought of everything, Cora.’ She hesitated. ‘Do I have to say something to Will to make him ride out after Rose? I don’t know what I could say …’

  ‘Nope, he’ll be over here so I’ll do that. Maybe I’ll tell him I heard Rose say she was going to Jonah’s Cabin, but I thought she looked real ill when she left. That would be enough to make Will ride out after her. He’d go to help anyone if he thought they might be alone on the range and unwell.’ She paused. ‘Or I might ask him to help me find my bracelet. I could say I’d lost it somewhere near the cabin when you and I were out there. Yes, maybe I’ll say that.’ She paused. ‘So you reckon that would work?’

  ‘I suppose so,’ Mattie said slowly. ‘I guess I feel a mite bad about telling so many lies though, and about how Will’s gonna feel.’

  ‘Me, too, and I wouldn’t suggest this if I wasn’t sure that Rose and Mr Galloway had feelings for each other. But I am, and it can’t be wrong to help them just because it helps us, too, can it?’

  ‘I guess not. But just suppose you’re mistaken about Rose and Mr Galloway? Will might think he’s lost Rose when he hasn’t.’

  ‘If I thought for one minute I was wrong, I wouldn’t do any of this, even though I like Will a lot. But I noticed them the night they met, the way they looked at each other, and we both saw the way they were at the summer picnic. And then I saw them when they were sitting next to each other at lunch yesterday and again at dinner last night. And when I went to bed, I heard them talking outside the house – just her and Mr Galloway. Rose would never have gone outside alone with him like that if she hadn’t got deep feelings for him.’

  ‘No, you’re right about that. But even so, she might decide she doesn’t want to marry him enough to leave Hope and go and live somewhere far away.’

  ‘That’s no reason to marry Will. Will needs someone who really loves him, not someone who’s afraid to move away so settles for him,’ Cora said sharply. ‘And anyway, the way she looks at Mr Galloway, she shouldn’t marry Will. He deserves someone who could never look at another man. If Will and I were affianced, I’d never look at anyone else. You know the way I feel about him, Mattie.’ She paused. ‘You do still want me to wed Will, don’t you?’

  ‘Course I do. I’d much rather have you than Rose as a sister.’

  Cora nodded. ‘I was worried for a minute. And you know I’ll help you with Sam when I’m walking out with Will, don’t you?’ she added. ‘Sisters help each other even more than close friends do.’

  Chapter Twelve

  Rose stood in the centre of Jonah’s Cabin, her bonnet hanging from her fingers as she stared around the empty room. The windows on either side of the front door creaked beneath the pressure of the wind that was gathering force outside the house.

  ‘Will,’ she called tentatively, glancing towards the bedroom doors.

  There was no answer.

  She put her bonnet on the table and crossed the kitchen-living area to the back door that led outside, and saw that it was still bolted from the inside. He couldn’t have gone outside the house through the back door while waiting for her then, she thought, and she turned and went back into the room.

  Uncertain what to do, she stood by the table in the centre of the room, biting her lower lip. It was already late in the morning. Could she have missed him because she was late getting there? She hadn’t been able to leave the ranch as early as she’d have liked because she’d been forced to do some mending before she went anywhere.

  She’d done hardly any chores that week, her ma had complained, and she wasn’t getting out of the mending, too. Hopefully it hadn’t made her so late that Will had come and gone. Whatever it was he wanted to say to her – and when no one else was around – she needed to hear it.

  The clip-clop of a horse’s hoofs on hard earth sounded outside.

  Relief raced through her – she hadn’t missed him after all. She smoothed down her hair and her overskirt, went quickly to the front door and pulled it open.

  ‘Will,’ she exclaimed, stepping outside with a smile. Then she stopped abruptly. Nate Galloway was walking towards the cabin, his head bent low against the wind. ‘Mr Galloway! What are you doing here?’ Her smile died away and she took a step back.

  He looked up, saw her in the doorway and stopped. Surprise spread across his face. Frowning slightly, he touched the brim of his hat to her, but she saw that his gaze went over her shoulder to the inside of the cabin.

  Then he looked back at her. ‘For your sake, I’m sorry it’s me here, not Will, Miss Rose,’ he said. ‘When I rode up, I saw a horse tethered and thought it looked like your mare, but I wasn’t real sure.’ He went closer to her, his brow creased. ‘You asked what I was doin’ here. I might ask you the same. It’s not that I’m not pleased to see you, ’cos I am. It’s just that I’m wonderin’ why I’m seein’ you.’

  ‘I’ve every right to be here – this has long been McKinley property. I’m expecting Will any time now. You must leave before he gets here.’

  ‘I don’t know anything about Will comin’ here, but I do know that I’m meetin’ Silas Poole here. McKinley property or not, I reckon I’ll wait inside if you don’t mind. There’s a mighty strong wind getting up, and what with the sky takin’ on a greenish tinge, and the cattle all lowing and bein’ so frolicsome this morning, I’m guessin’ there’s a violent storm headin’ our way.’

  ‘You expected Silas Poole to be here?’ she asked in amazement, standing aside to let him go past her into the cabin. ‘I don’t know why you’d think he’d be here,’ she added, following him inside and closing the door behind them. ‘Like I said, this is McKinley ground.’

  He glanced at her and shrugged his shoulders. ‘That’s as may be. I reckon I expected Poole ’cos he sent word he’d like to talk with me today and suggested this as a private place I’d be able to find quite easily.’

  She shook her head. ‘That can’t be right. I doubt he’s ever been here, and even if he had, he’d never arrange to meet anyone in a McKinley place. Surely meeting in town would have been the easiest thing for both of you.’

  ‘But not as private.’

  ‘Maybe not.’ She bit her lip. ‘It still seems real strange, though, him asking to meet you out here like this, without anyone else around.’

  ‘Not to me, it doesn’t. It’s not the first such message I’ve had from people wanting to see if there’s a way of them benefiting more than anyone else. From what your pa has said about Poole, I figured it was very much the sort of thing he’d be after, so I was interested in hearing what he had in mind.’ He paused. ‘But what made you think that Will would be here at this time of day? Surely he’ll be out on the range or workin’ at the ra
nch, especially with the weather not lookin’ so good?’

  ‘He sent me a message to meet him here. He said there was something he wanted to talk about without others being around. We used to come here a lot when we were little – it was like our secret hideout – so I wasn’t surprised he suggested coming here if he had something he wanted to say in private.’

  ‘Well,’ Nate said, taking off his hat, throwing it on the table and looking around the room. ‘I don’t see any Silas and I don’t see any Will.’ His gaze returned to Rose’s face. ‘I see only the two of us.’

  Her stomach gave a sudden lurch. ‘Do you mind if I look at the note Mr Poole sent you?’ she asked hesitantly, and she held out her hand.

  ‘Not at all, but it’d be real hard – it wasn’t a written note. His message was given to me by Sam, I think he said his name was. He’s one of the Hyde Ranch cowmen.’

  ‘Sam!’ she exclaimed. ‘Why would Silas Poole give Sam a message for you?’

  He gestured bafflement with his hands. ‘All I can tell you is Sam came up to me after the ranchers’ meeting yesterday just as I was about to get on my horse, and told me that Poole wanted to talk to me in private. He’d suggested I meet him at Jonah’s Cabin this morning and Sam told me how to get here. Apparently, Poole hadn’t wanted anyone to see him talkin’ to me, so he’d asked him to deliver the message.’ He paused. ‘And what about you – did Will send you a note?’

  She slowly shook her head. ‘Nope. When Mattie came over yesterday, she told me Will wanted to meet me this morning at Jonah’s Cabin. He had something particular to say to me and he didn’t want anyone else around.’

  He gave her a wry grin. ‘You know, I kinda figured you were gonna say something like that.’

  They stared at each other.

  ‘If Mattie and Sam were involved in getting both of us here on our own, and they obviously were,’ she said at last, ‘it means Cora was involved. In fact, Cora will have been behind it. Mattie wouldn’t plan anything like this on her own. And nor would Sam.’