Thankful for the Cowboy

by Mary Connealy

  Lauren hadn’t built a sod house with anything but this sandy soil, but she couldn’t help but think sod dug up from dirt would be easier than sand. It wanted to fall apart and blow away.

  They didn’t dare let it dry for long. Lauren had learned that the hard way. Now her hard lessons would save the MacKinnons a lot of struggle, and wasn’t that just what the MacKinnons had wanted and the Drummonds had promised?

  Lauren worked hard at the youngsters’ sides. The first line of sod laid root side down, the next root side up. The sod would grow together that way, and make the walls solid.

  When mealtime came, Duncan left off his plowing and worked hauling the sod and building walls while she rode a horse home. The distance wasn’t great—they’d put the MacKinnon house as close as possible to the Drummond home. The thought of nearby neighbors warmed everyone’s hearts.

  Lauren went to make a real dinner and supper, and she made enough to feed…well, she admitted…she was feeding the exact number of people she’d always fed. Dougal and Conall were gone. Tommy and Megan were added.

  Then the family would show up and eat, Tommy and Niall in from digging the well. The others in from building. At noon, they’d compare how their mornings had gone as they swallowed their food fast and rushed back to work.

  At dinner they’d debate what was to be done the next day.

  The days were getting short. The October weather was cooling off at night and they could feel the winter coming on fast. There was no time to dawdle over a meal and get to know each other, though, judging by Megan’s willing work and the progress Tommy was making on the well, everything Lauren learned about them, she liked.

  Chapter Four

  Tommy’s house was framed and sodded by the end of the first week.

  No fireplace, no door and nothing inside like a bed or a chair, but the walls were up. That day, as Lauren dragged home, exhausted, ahead of the others to make the evening meal, she met Tommy and Niall driving the wagon in from the direction of the pond. Both had big smiles on their faces.

  Lauren knew before she asked that the well was done.

  “We’re going to work on the house with you now, Ma.” Niall was excited about the well. It had been his doing to grow the herd and he’d been optimistic that they’d find a way to tend so many cows. But only now when she saw the lightened expression on his face, did she realize the load he’d borne. Her son, only seventeen, carried the responsibilities of an adult man and it bothered Lauren that he not be allowed to claim a homestead. But she didn’t want him to build his own cabin and move out, either.

  “And your son has promised to take me hunting for fresh meat. I’ve that to learn. I need to fetch a winter’s supply of meat and a stack of hides to make coats, boots and a sling for chair seats and supports for our beds, before the snow closes in.”

  Lauren was coming from a different direction, following a draw rather than marching up and down the grassy sand hills.

  Niall and Tommy leapt from the wagon seat when they reached her. Tommy, reins in hand, lead the team toward home. The walked three abreast, him, Lauren, and Niall on past her. Together they finished the short hike to the ranch.

  Lauren might have asked if they could ride in the wagon, except the way was short and the team of horses looked as tired as she felt.

  Niall wrapped an arm around her back and she felt his strength, felt him bearing some of her weight. She made her decision and felt she was right in doing it.

  “Niall, if you want to go claim a homestead I won’t stand in your way.” She swallowed hard. “I think if I’d let Conall do that, he might not have left us as he did.”

  “He had a yen to wander for a time, Ma.” Niall’s strong hand tightened on her upper arm in a quiet hug. “I don’t think you could’ve kept him here.”

  “Maybe not. But they write these laws to decide when a boy becomes an adult, but they don’t know you. They don’t know Conall. You’re both men. Duncan is, too, come to that. Mature, adult men. There should be a chance for a younger man, already working at a man’s job, to claim land. If the youngster isn’t up to the task then he won’t stick to his claim and the land office can sign someone else to it. What harm is done letting him try?”

  They walked on a while. Lauren glanced at Tommy and saw him smiling at her. He had green eyes and waves of humor danced in them like the waving and weaving prairie grass.

  “What is it?”

  “You’re a good ma, Lauren. You love your children and want them at your side. And you see that, to do that, especially when a boy’s fully grown inside and out, and has a fire in him to make a beginning for himself, then it’s wrong to stand in his way.”

  “You’re admitting Megan isn’t twenty-one, then?” Her voice was as tart and crisp as a green apple.

  Tommy leaned close and, in an exaggeratedly loud whisper Niall could easily hear, said, “Ask me again after the lass has her deed firmly in her hand.”

  Lauren felt the reluctant curve of her lips.

  Niall laughed, squeezed her hard, then let go and walked on beside her.

  As they neared the house, Niall said, “I’m not quite ready to claim land, Ma. But I might want it before the law says it’s right. I have to rest that notion on my soul for a while. Flaunting the law doesn’t suit me, but I do feel the itch to get on with having land of my own. And it’s a powerful long stretch of years until I can.”

  Four years. He’d be near to having proved up by the time he reached adulthood. Nodding, Lauren said, “I won’t stand in your way, son.”

  “On the other hand, I want to be here every night to eat your good cooking.” He bent over, and she realized how tall he’d gotten. Then he kissed her on the forehead and said, “Whether right now or a few years from now, this life suits me. Conall may have needed to wander but I don’t. This is my home and my future. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Niall took over leading the team and turned toward the barn.

  Lauren watched him go and realized Tommy was standing beside her watching, too.

  Turning to see why he wasn’t going to help Niall, Tommy met her eyes, green locked onto blue.

  “I’ll go help him in a minute, lass. But I wanted one moment alone with you.”

  A smile quirked Lauren’s lips. “A moment without one of the young’uns at hand. That is something that never, ever happens.”

  “Sure, and it’s the truth you speak.” They watched Niall lash the reins to a corral post and unbuckle the harness leather.

  “He’s a good man, Lauren.” Tommy rested a hand on her back and it struck her how different it felt than when Niall had touched her.

  No man had been anywhere close since her Dougal had died. She asked, “How old are you?”

  Tommy’s hand came off her back as if he’d touched a hot branding iron. He looked at her. His green eyes unnaturally wide as if the question surprised him. “I-I’m—” his eyes lost focus as if he was looking for the answer and it eluded him. Then he looked at her again. “I’m thirty-five years old.”

  It was Lauren’s turn to be surprised. “Oh, I thought you were…were…”

  “Older?”

  Lauren felt herself blush. She shook her head.

  Tommy grinned. “How old are you?”

  Then she said, “Thirty-five.”

  The smile shrunk off his face like a woolen shirt in a vat of boiling water. “I thought you were…were…”

  “Much older?”

  Tommy shrugged a bit helplessly but didn’t answer. Smart man.

  “My sons are men grown, but I was near enough to a child bride. My oldest, Conall was born just before I turned seventeen. But girls married young in the Scottish Highlands. I along with them. The other sons came along fast.”

  Lauren saw him differently now. She hadn’t come close to guessing he was as old as her. “And I know Megan is…ahem…twenty-one. But that’s a lot of years between you.”

  “We were separated by more than years. My da had a mighty small pi
ece of land he worked and it was owned by our clan laird, a hard man. There wasn’t room for me at our home and I had no wish to be under the Laird MacKinnon’s thumb anyway. I went away as an apprentice to a man who built windmills before Megan was born. I learned well from him. A craft is an enemy if not learned, so I studied until I knew the way of it. I traveled far and wide, through Scotland and beyond. It was years until I made my way home.” Tommy’s voice deepened.

  Lauren saw his jaw go tight and his teeth clench as if trying to hold back the words.

  He gave her a look that shone with anger. But not toward her. She knew that.

  “I got home to find my ma long dead. Megan barely remembers her. My da lay abed, dying by inches of a wasting disease of the lungs. And Megan next thing to being stolen away by the mighty Laird Murdo MacKinnon.” His bitterness was so sharp Lauren could almost feel the cut.

  “He was already married and had no plans to marry my sister, only keep her as a leman, breed sons of her. She was ready to run away, hide, do anything. The man was known for his cruelty and he was above the law. In fact, he was the law. No one told him no and plenty had died trying.

  “If I’d been even a few days later she’d have been running before the wind. Lost to me forever, if she’d escaped. If not, he’d’ve had her in his clutches. I’d’ve had the fight of my life to reclaim her.”

  “But you got there in time?”

  “Yes. He hadn’t taken her yet. He’d left her to bury my father. And even that was through no generosity toward her, only an unwillingness to be burdened with an old man. The laird of the clan MacKinnon had told my sister she could stay to bury our father. I arrived and Da passed within hours of me coming. It was as if he held on until I came. I had my chance to say good-bye and he told me of money he had hidden. I had some of my own.”

  Lauren grasped his forearm and gave it a squeeze of sympathy.

  Tommy cleared his throat as if he struggled to go on. “We buried him, the two of us, in the night, left him to rest beside our ma. Then we slipped away to the docks.” Fury flushed his cheeks. “I ran away like a coward when I should have faced Murdo MacKinnon and beat him into the ground.”

  Shaking her head, Lauren said, “Win or lose, you’d’ve faced prison. The lairds are a power unto themselves. We both know it. To raise your fist to him would’ve seen you arrested. To kill him would’ve seen you hung. A good run is better than a bad stand.”

  “I know you’ve got the right of it. I knew it then and know it now. But he shouldn’t have been able to abuse a mere girl with no one to stop him. It’s not right.”

  Lauren bit back a smile as Tommy more or less admitted Megan was very young.

  “We picked the ship leaving soonest that would take us away. We were on board and sailing before the dawn broke. Before anyone knew we were gone. The ship was headed for America. I could have paid our fare, but they were short-handed and let me sign on to work in exchange for my passage among the crew, and Megan went to work in the ship’s galley. We both worked our hearts out on the journey to this country.”

  “So, you came to America by pure chance?”

  “We did. The captain pointed to a ship sailing shortly after it that was bound for Australia. Another for London. One was heading for India. We could have gone anywhere in the world.”

  “But you got Megan away. That’s the main thing.”

  “We barely made it. We saw the Laird from the ship’s deck. He rode into that coastal town with half his fighting men. And went running for a ship docked near where we’d launched. He had a ship of his own and set sail not long after us, but several ships had set sail and he didn’t know which one we were on. He chased after the wrong one. The sea captain saw Laird MacKinnon and he was known to be a privateer. Our captain had a fast ship. He opened the sails wide and rushed away. I’ve wondered if the laird ever gave up.”

  Lauren gasped. “You think he might still be searching?”

  “He was not a man to ever give up what was his. And he was known for sailing far and wide. He’d even been to America before. I’ll admit I’ve looked over my shoulder many’s the time. That’s why when we docked in New York City, I didn’t stay there, not even for a day. I hadn’t worn a plaid for a long time but I made Megan give hers up, too, as soon as we could get her a proper dress. Then we pushed far west, as fast as we could go. Once we were well into the country, I scraped all my money together to buy the parts for my first windmill. I built one and used the profits to get supplies for two more. I’ve been working non-stop for two years and pushing west all the time. I’ve made a good living but I’ve kept sinking money into windmill parts. Now, we’re far enough no one will ever find us.”

  Lauren felt a shiver at those words, as if he were asking for trouble. She saw a furrow on Tommy’s brow. He hadn’t given up all his worries.

  “I’m glad you told me. I’m sure you’re right and you’ve seen the last of Murdo MacKinnon, but I’ll warn my sons to be watching for strangers. And we’ll never leave Megan to go off by herself. With so many of us, that’s a promise I can keep.”

  Nodding, Tommy was silent for a time, then he shook off the worries of the past. “Niall is doing all the work himself.”

  “He’s good at it. Come in and help me get a meal on.” Lauren realized she’d been dawdling and turned to the house.

  Tommy followed along. He said quietly, “I work with your son every day and I’ve worked with plenty of men. I know a good one. Age has naught to do with it.”

  Nodding, Lauren said, “Praise youthfulness and it will respond to you. That’s what my ma used to say.”

  “Mine, too.” Tommy smiled. His memories of his mother must be sweet.

  “Niall turned seventeen last summer. With his hair the yellow of ripened wheat and eyes with the blue gleam of arctic ice, he looks like a Viking and acts like one. He’s already a man and no one had better tell him different.” They looked at her son. He refused to bother cutting his hair. “His head is always brimming with ideas, or maybe he has a calling to pillage.”

  She looked at Tommy and they smiled.

  “I paid him well, along with the rest of the boys, when I sold cattle. Instead of clinging to his money against bad times, as was my inclination, Niall pushed to buy more land. Then he pestered until we all went on east. He found young cattle, bought them and we drove them home. With what we’ve bought, the land is four times when Dougal and I homesteaded. And the herd now is over two hundred head. We’ve done a bit of buying from discouraged folks who’d tried to farm these Sandhills of Nebraska. The land isn’t fit for that, but a longhorn grows fat on the grass that anchors these strange sand dunes.”

  “An ambitious boy.”

  “Yes, he is. He’s thinking of owning a vast cattle ranch.”

  “Conall seemed a good sort, too. I didn’t work at his side, but I want you to know, he took riding off from here very seriously. He talked a lot about home when he saw my freight of windmill lumber and the metal brackets and pumps. Urging me to come out here was a way he could make up for leaving you. He loves you, aye, to the river and around the mountain and back.”

  “He was the leader among us, despite Niall’s need to build an empire. Restless Conall, was fond of saying his father had been married, left Scotland with a wife and son by the time he was seventeen. Niall came almost too fast, we got here and homesteaded and barely had a roof over our heads when Duncan was born. Dougal was a father of three and proud owner of a proved-up homestead only a couple of years after he was legally old enough to stake his claim to one.”

  “Conall was the leader, but he rode off?” Tommy asked.

  “I didn’t think he’d go. I knew he was itching to strike out on his own, find his place, make his mark on the world.”

  “How did your husband die?”

  “He was kicked and stomped to death by a cow defending her calf.” For a moment Lauren’s shoulders sagged under the weight that had landed on them. “Conall was like Dougal in some ways.
Dougal had the same restlessness. That’s what led us out here. We split off from the wagon train that wanted to follow the Platte. One of the others on the wagon train had heard there was fine farmland to the north in Nebraska. So here we came. It’s not much good as farmland but the grass is a wonder for a man who likes cattle. And we met folks smart enough to make us understand that. We found it suited us.”

  “I believe it suits me and Megan, too.” They reached the house and Tommy opened the door then held it for her. It was a bit of good manners Lauren hadn’t noticed before. She’d never taught her sons such a thing, not wanting them to treat her as if she wasn’t a strong, capable woman—well able to get the door.

  With a smile she stepped through and Tommy came in and swung the door shut against the cold.

  Lauren turned back to thank him just as he stepped forward. They collided.

  His hands came up to steady her and, for one dizzying moment, she was in his arms. Alone with a man, a fully adult man. Not a youngster at all. She could see that now. He had faint laugh lines around his eyes and he had the mature, calm look of a man. Not a barely grown boy.

  She felt the strength in his hands and she’d noticed the way he handled horses when they herded the cattle. He was more cowboy than farmer. A man of the soil who just happened to have the skill to build a windmill.

  All of that flashed through her mind as her hands came up to rest flat on his muscular chest and slid up to his broad shoulders.

  Their eyes met. The silence stretched. He was taller than her, as her sons were. Part of why she hadn’t thought much beyond him being young. A match in age for Megan who was her boys’ age. Lauren was used to tall young men.

  He bent slowly, inch by inch. She stretched upward, noticing him as only a woman can notice a man.

  The door swung open and smacked Tommy in the back. He was solid enough to stop the door but it made him yank his hands away from her.

  Lauren’s eyes went wide with horror and she spun around and nearly ran toward her fireplace. Tommy stepped out of the way of the door, stripping off his coat. He hung it on a deer antler.