by Emma Ashwood
She did neither. She held on for dear life, clamping her arms around his waist with every ounce of strength she had even as she watched the bull race after them from over Carson’s shoulder.
“Hang on!” Carson shouted.
Annie was about to ask why when the horse leapt into the air clearing the fence, and for a second they were flying. Just as suddenly the horse’s hooves thundered onto the ground and Carson pulled on the reins, bringing the horse to a halt.
Annie still couldn’t seem to move. She felt Carson slowly unclamp her hands before meeting her gaze. His eyes were dark, the color of the sky before a midnight storm, his breath coming in shallow gasps.
She heard the bull huff, stomping the ground in anger because his quarry had escaped him, but she didn’t look away from Carson’s face.
His hand reached up and he gently brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “Are you alright?” his voice was hoarse, but kind.
Annie nodded, her heart still racing, but she wasn’t sure now whether it was caused by the near escape from the bull or the man searching her gaze.
Their eyes held for a moment and the rest of the world disappeared. The bull, the horse breathing heavily beneath them, even the cries of concern coming from Cassidy and Bonnie who had rushed outside when they realized what was going on.
Carson dropped his hand to his side and broke the gaze before he swung himself off the horse. Almost instantly the horse began shuffling, trying to dislodge the weight that remained on its back. Carson reached up and lifted her down to the ground. Annie had never felt as confused about a man as she was right now. The way he looked at her made her heart swell but the words that spilled from his mouth were pure anger.
“Are you crazy? You could have been killed. That bull’s a monster. Why do you think I keep him separate? This is a workin’ ranch. You can’t go around sniffin’ about without knowin’ what’s what. You hear?” Carson all but shouted.
Annie still had enough adrenalin coursing through her veins to keep her from shriveling beneath his anger. She tilted her chin upwards and met him head on. “At least then I would no longer be your problem.”
Carson’s brows drew together. “What do you mean?”
Annie shrugged. “You could have just let that bull take care of me. That way I would be out of your way.”
Before waiting for his answer Annie turned on her heel and walked away. She didn’t thank him for saving her life, because it was clear that he was already regretting it. What Carson also seemed to be forgetting was that she was as much a victim of this situation as he was.
Chapter 12
15 June 1882, San Antonio, Texas
She’d been on his ranch for a week. For a whole week Carson couldn’t seem to turn anywhere without seeing her. She clouded his mind and made him alternate between being furious and feeling guilty for being angry.
It wasn’t her fault that she was stuck on this ranch, it was the fault of Bonnie and Cassidy. But Carson couldn’t seem to remind himself of that when his heart skipped a beat whenever he looked at her or when his breath simply caught when she smiled at his sisters.
She was a nuisance, another mouth to feed and another burden on his mother’s shoulders. A frown creased Carson’s brow as he crossed the yard towards the house. Was he imagining it, or had his mother been spending considerably less time in bed since Annie’s arrival? He pushed the thought aside, reminding himself that his mother went through periods of improvement as a matter of course, only to deteriorate to a worse condition after every short reprieve.
Regardless of his sisters’ promises to find a way to deal with their mistake, Annie still had no plans to leave, to the best of Carson’s knowledge, anyway. He scuffed his boot in the dirt and spat out a wad of chew tobacco before he ascended the porch. Today he was going to change all that. Somewhere in town had to be someone who would hire a girl from Boston.
“I’m headin’ to town. Need some maize for the chickens and a few other things. I’ll be back later,” he called out before grabbing his money bag. As he opened the door, Annie spoke out from behind him.
“Can I join you?”
Carson turned with a heavy frown. “What? I’m goin’ to the feed store. I’m not goin’ to high tea. You best stay here and inside before you find your death. The rattlers are out,” he said by way of warning, but Annie didn’t back down.
“If I remember correctly the fabric merchant isn’t far from the feed store. I won’t be long, but I do need a few things from there,” Annie said firmly.
Carson shook his head. “Fabric? What you need fabric for?”
“I’m making dresses for your sisters. They have their childhood dresses we’re repurposing, but I need a few things.”
“I ain’t payin’ for no buttons,” he warned through clenched teeth.
“You won’t have to. I have a little money left that I can use.”
“Bonnie, you comin’?” Carson called out, realizing his well laid plans for the day were falling to pieces. With Annie accompanying him, he couldn’t exactly ask around for employment opportunities for her.
“No, I gotta do the laundry and Cassidy’s takin’ care of Ma,” Bonnie called back.
Carson let out a huff before calling over his shoulder. “I leave in a few minutes. You ain’t on the wagon, you ain’t goin.”
Now he had to take the wagon instead of his horse, Carson thought as he crossed to the barn. Apart from being directly rude he didn’t have much choice but to let her accompany him.
The ride into town was quiet except for the creaking of the wagon. Carson stopped by the fabric merchant and helped Annie off, simply because his mother had taught him good manners. Then he headed to the feed store. He dealt with his business quickly and then prepared himself for a long wait, but when he reached the fabric merchant, Annie was already standing outside holding a brown bag.
She jumped into the wagon without saying a word. Carson snapped the reins and started for home.
After a while it was Annie who broke the silence. “If I knew, I never would have come.”
“Why don’t you go back?” Carson bit back.
Annie turned to him with a curious frown. “You’re right. I should go back to the stepfather who raised me as his own daughter and then decided to make me his wife after my mother passed. It’s completely ridiculous of me not to be grateful for his affections.”
Carson’s jaw all but dropped. He pulled on the reins and turned to Annie with a frown. “Your step-father wanted to take you for his wife?”
Annie shrugged but looked away. Carson could see the shadows in her eyes. “Yes.”
He shook his head. “I see now why you can’t go back. Why didn’t you report him?”
“He’s a prominent man in Boston. I don’t know how things work in San Antonio, but in Boston it’s not what you know but who you know. He gambles with the law every night and drinks with the judge. Even had a pastor lined up for the wedding.”
Carson stared off into the distance and realized that Annie really had nowhere else to be. He couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty for not wanting her on his ranch. “I didn’t know…”
“Just like I didn’t know your sisters lied. Don’t worry, Carson, I won’t be a burden to you for long. I just need to figure out my next step. The merchant at the fabric store said I might be able to do some sewing for him from time to time. You can have the money to pay for my keep.”
“I don’t want your money,” Carson said with a sigh. “Save it for… for whatever.”
Annie shrugged. “It’s still yours.”
He glanced at her and knew that he had underestimated her. She had found work for herself and although Carson knew it wouldn’t pay much, she was still willing to take it on.
He let out a heavy sigh. “Just… stay away from the bull’s paddock. You can help my sisters with their chores while you’re here. You’re welcome to stay until you decide where you’re headed. I won’t give you anymore grief over it.”
There, he said it, although deep down he had a feeling he didn’t want her to leave.
Annie’s eyes widened. “And here I thought you and your bull were cut from the same cloth. Carson, you surprise me.”
Carson couldn’t help but chuckle. “Don’t worry, it won’t happen again. There’s water in the bottle if you’d like some.”
This time Annie laughed. “And yet you just surprised me again. Careful, I might think you’re actually a friendly man instead of a heartless rancher.”
Carson smiled as he took the reins. “Careful, we can’t let word get out.”
Their eyes met and for the first time since Annie arrived Carson allowed himself to enjoy her company. Instead of berating her presence, he learned about her love of sewing, her prowess on the piano, and how, regardless of all that had happened in her life, her love for God was evident in every word she spoke.
When they finally reached the ranch, Carson knew he had to guard his heart closer than ever before, because somewhere between San Antonio and his ranch Annie had slipped beneath his defenses.
Chapter 13
25 June 1882, San Antonio, Texas
The girls were in the kitchen peeling potatoes while Daphne rested. Bonnie and Cassidy were chatting up a storm about the visitors they expected that night, but Annie didn’t join in the idle conversation. Instead her attention was riveted by Carson who was outside grooming his stallion. In the few weeks since her arrival on the Evans ranch Annie had learned a few facts about the ranching life.
Firstly, a stallion was as good as a wild horse. Instinct could take over at any moment and its rider could be catapulted as a result. Carson preferred riding his stallion to the other geldings in the barn. Secondly, Annie had learned to always watch where she was going. A rattler, coyote or even a scorpion could surprise the unsuspecting with a lethal bite or sting if due care was not taken.
Thirdly, she had learned that Carson was the biggest mystery on the Evans ranch. A little more than a week before she had thought she had felt a connection to him. When they had returned home from town they had spoken freely after Annie had broken the ice. For a moment she had seen a different side of Carson. The side his sisters had lured her with through their letters. But as soon as they lowered over the ridge towards the ranch he had become sullen and withdrawn.
He was as unpredictable as the summer thunder showers that tempered the great Texas plains. Worse still was knowing that if she allowed herself the slightest chance she might just be able to fall in love with him. Something about the way in which he looked at her, about the way in which he cared for his sisters and the loving way in which he spoke to his mother appealed to her. Carson was a good man, of that there wasn’t a single doubt in her mind. But the hard fact she had to face was that Carson didn’t want to be her man.
A sigh escaped her just as Bonnie cried out beside her. “There they come!”
Annie glanced in the direction in which Bonnie was pointing to see a sizeable herd of cattle crossing the ridge in the distance. Behind them rode three men on horseback, keeping the herd together.
The sight was amazing: nature versus man. Her breath caught without even realizing it. When Carson had mentioned a few days earlier that cattle drivers who were friends of his, would be coming through today and spending the night on the ranch, she had imagined a few men with a few head of cattle. Not the large herd they now drove straight into an empty paddock with the skill she hadn’t even imagined ever seeing in her lifetime.
Cassidy laughed. “They come through every year and every year I’m gob smacked by it.”
“Where are they taking the cattle?” Annie asked as she placed the potatoes in a pot on the wood stove.
“Auction in Fort Worth. Young steers being sold for beef.”
One man waved to the other two before he set off on a gallop on the road towards town, leaving the remaining two men to head for the house.
She watched the men greet each other and when Carson turned to glance at the house with a smile, her heart skipped a beat. When was her heart going to accept that Carson wasn’t interested in her at all?
“Right, the stew just needs to simmer now. Let’s go say hello,” Cassidy announced after checking on the pot.
Annie followed the sisters outside where the men were catching up.
“Hello, Tom! Hiya, Pinkerton,” Bonnie called out with a broad smile.
Carson turned to look at them and Annie felt a blush sweep across her cheeks. Tom and Pinkerton met the girls at the base of the porch.
“Bonnie, you’re becoming a woman right before me very eyes,” Pinkerton said with a smile. “I still remember when you trailed after me when you were barely knee high.”
Bonnie cringed. “Pinkerton, you’re seven years older than me, not seventy.”
Annie couldn’t help but wonder if Bonnie was interested in Pinkerton.
“Bonnie, Cassidy, it only takes one look at you ladies to know why Carson is always ready with his shotgun.”
Both men turned to Annie with questioning looks before turning to Carson for an explanation.
Carson took off his hat and dragged a hand through his hair. “This is Annie.”
“Annie? It’s a pleasure to meet ya. We didn’t know you went and got yerself a wife,” Tom said, shaking Annie’s hand.
Annie and Carson both shook their heads. “We’re not… I’m visiting.” Annie clarified. “Bonnie and Cassidy. I’m visiting them.”
Pinkerton’s face lit up. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all year. Is that accent from up north?”
Annie nodded. “It is. Boston, to be precise. Where are you gentlemen from?”
Tom slapped a hand on his knee. “Never been called a gentleman before. Cattle rustler, rancher, ranch hand and even some more inappropriate words at times, but never a gentleman.” Tom took Annie’s hand and pressed a kiss to it. “Me lady.”
Annie blushed and stepped back.
Carson cast her an angry look. “Shouldn’t you check on the stew?”
His demand was the first of many for the rest of the evening. Annie found Tom and Pinkerton’s stories delightful, just as Bonnie and Cassidy did, but whenever either man flattered her or asked her a question, Carson would gruffly order her to do something.
By the time they had finished dinner, Annie’s temper was slowly starting to simmer. She checked on Daphne as Carson had asked her to and wondered what could be ailing his mother. Although Bonnie mentioned that her mother was ill, no one knew the exact nature of her ailment. Surely she should have recovered from fever of the lung if she suffered it a year before.
She took a seat on one of the big rocks situated around the fire and listened as Tom and Pinkerton told them about fighting off a pack of wolves the night before. “Only lost one steer,” Pinkerton concluded proudly.
Bonnie shook her head in amazement. “We nearly lost Annie. She thought to pay the bull a visit. When the bull came charging, it was mere luck that Carson was headed her way and saved her.”
Tom chuckled under his breath before smiling broadly at Annie. He was attractive in a rugged sort of way, but his smile didn’t make her heart skip a beat in the way that Carson’s did. “Can’t blame the bull, though, a pretty lady like Annie doesn’t come across your path every day.”
Annie felt a blush color her cheeks as Pinkerton suddenly spoke at her side. “Say Annie, want to take a walk with me? I haven’t had time to appreciate this starry night.”
Before Annie could agree Carson got up and glared at her. “Shouldn’t you be getting to bed?”
Annie frowned. “Bed? What?”
Carson grabbed her arm and all but dragged her from the group. “Get inside and stay there.”
Annie crossed her arms. “You’re nothing to me. You don’t tell me what to do. Why should I go to bed if your sisters are still there?”
“You’re livin’ on my land, my word is law. Get inside,” Carson ordered in a lowered voice, but Annie wouldn’t be int
imidated.
“No. I won’t go inside. You’re rude, arrogant and self-important if you think I’m going to jump at your bidding. The whole night you’ve been ordering me around like a servant girl. I’m not your servant or your girl,” she said with her chin jutted out.
For a moment she expected Carson to drag her over his knee such was the fire blazing in his gaze. Annie turned to rejoin the group but Carson all but picked her up and set her down on the porch, blocking her way down. “I told ya to ‘git inside,” he said firmly.
Annie clenched her fists ready to fight her way through, but something in Carson’s eyes made her clench her teeth, spin on her heel and head inside.
She huffed for about an hour before she finally came to the conclusion that he must be ashamed of her. Did she embarrass him in front of his friends? She knew he didn’t like her but surely she wasn’t such bad company. Annie cried herself to sleep wishing she had never come to Texas in the first place. She had dreamed of a new future and instead she had only found lies and a man who had stolen her heart and refused to even look at her twice.
Perhaps marrying Damien would have been a better option after all.
She had no place to go, but perhaps if she sold the brooch and the necklace she could at least get a room in town and try to find work. The last thing that crossed her mind before sleep lulled her under was that she needed to get off the ranch. She had already wasted almost a month of her life and she was no closer to finding the answers for her future. Perhaps it was time she started taking action in the hopes that maybe then everything would fall into place.
A short while later Cassidy and Bonnie retired to their room. As soon as the door was closed furious whispers could be heard. “What was going on with Carson and Annie? He seemed ready to skin her,” Bonnie asked.
Cassidy shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him that angry before. I know she didn’t do anythin’ wrong.”
“Unless,” Bonnie said with the start of a smile. “Tom and Pinkerton were enjoying her company, weren’t they? Perhaps a little too much.”
