Taming the Trainer

by Sara Jolene

  Otto pulled Sophia to a stop. He made sure they were facing each other, then lifted her chin. Sophia felt like he had to do that a lot. His words stopped her internal ramblings quickly, though.

  “I love you. I am going to make you my wife.”

  Sophia felt herself relax. She searched his eyes for any hidden meaning, words he wasn’t saying, anything that might let her know he wasn’t being truthful. She found none. He looked as happy as she’d ever seen him. His eyes, despite their darkness, were bright, like a light was shining from behind them. She smiled and turned to begin walking again.

  “We’ll go see Callum tomorrow.”

  “I need to get back to the cabin. I have to make sure that Mrs. Sanderson eats.” Sophia hit herself on the forehead gently.

  “What is it?”

  “Mrs. Sanderson!”

  “You’ll be back at the cabin in plenty of time to make sure she’d fed before dark.”

  “No! I can’t leave her. Not now. She’s used to me being there, used to me helping her. The place was in shambles. She can’t be alone.” Sophia started to fret. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of Mrs. Sanderson before she’d agreed to marry Otto. She might be thinking she was in love with him, but she knew already that she cared deeply for the crotchety old woman. They’d become close in a short period of time. Such close quarters would do that to people. She’d been there for Sophia when she’d needed it, and Sophia knew she couldn’t leave her.

  Otto pat her hand as they arrived outside the livery. “I told you we’d make sure she was taken care of. I’ve thought a lot about it. I think the best thing to do would be to bring her here.”

  “Here? To the livery?”

  Otto shook his head. “No. Here to my house.” He looked her full in the face. “What will soon be our house. She can live with us. I have an extra room. Plus there’s room in the barn for Midnight and Marigold. They can all come. We can be a family.”

  Sophia felt like she could burst with happiness. She’d found such a loving, forgiving, and understanding man. She vowed right in that moment to be the best wife possible. She’d try harder at cooking. She’d learn to sew even if she lost her fingertips in the process. She would make sure he never for a moment regretted making her his wife.

  “What if she doesn’t want to come? She never wants to leave that cabin. I’ve tried to get her to come to town with me before.”

  “Talk to her. I’m sure it’s not what you think. She doesn’t get around well … maybe it was as simple as transportation.”

  “But the cabin. What would she do with it?”

  “There’s always folks around here looking for a place to rest their heads. New folks come to Creede every day. Might be that someone will need it. She can charge boarding for it.”

  Sophia sighed. She wasn’t sure it would work, but she hoped it would. She wanted to be able to have them both in her life.

  “Come on, we’ll saddle and ride out to the cabin together. That way I can meet Mrs. Sanderson.”

  Otto couldn’t believe she thought he hadn’t thought about her having to care for Mrs. Sanderson. He’d given it a lot of thought, but then had been thinking selfishly and had only thought about wanting her himself. He hadn’t given another moment’s thought to how much others relied on her. He was glad he’d thought of a solution quickly. He did wish he’d remembered to bring it up to her again sooner. He just hoped it would work out. Mrs. Sanderson seemed like she could be stubborn when the situation warranted it.

  He planned what he was going to say to her as he tightened down the straps on Marigold’s saddle. He’d take one of the many he had stashed around the livery for Sophia to use. He didn’t like her riding without one. The folks in town already thought she was daring enough. He knew she didn’t like the extra attention, plus he wanted to be sure she was as comfortable as possible.

  Once the horses were ready, they set off on their way. Otto was on high alert, watching closely for Archie and his minions to be moving about town causing trouble. He was thankful Sophia was agreeable to him visiting her elderly companion. It not only gave him an excuse to ride with his beautiful fiancée while escorting her home, but he could also take a look at Midnight and the saddles. He’d need to bring them back with him for repairs.

  They were quiet on the journey, speaking only a few times before the cabin came into view. Otto couldn’t be sure, but Sophia seemed as lost in thought as he knew himself to be. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking about the conversation with the new preacher and how much less inclined he was to attend service on Sunday. He decided that was petty, though. He’d been wanting to go to service for a long time. He occasionally made the trip to Bachelor and would stay to check in on a few customers when needed. He would sometimes bring oats or other supplies to deliver to folks that didn’t have their own buggies. It wasn’t something he did often, so he’d been looking forward to the fellowship that having a church right there in Creede would provide. The thought made him chuckle at himself. Creede wasn’t a fellowship sort of town. But things seemed to be changing.

  Once they reached the cabin, Sophia went inside to tend to Mrs. Sanderson and let her know they were going to have a visitor for supper while Otto went to the barn to check on the horses. He left Ash in the small corral just outside of the barn, between it and the cabin. Entering the dark space, he could see that Midnight was where Sophia had presumably left her, tiptoeing away in her stall. He brushed down Marigold, gave her some feed, and visited with Midnight before ducking into the tack room to inspect the saddles.

  He’d had a bad feeling when Sophia was telling him about her morning the day before, but as he looked at the straps, he could tell they’d been worn through, not cut, which was what he’d been concerned about. He would have normally had only one guess as to who could do something so malicious, but that wasn’t necessarily the case lately. They’d had some outsiders in town for a few weeks, and suddenly all the ranchers started having cattle come up missing. Luckily, Royce Clark had a head as hard as could be, and he and his crew had called in some extra hands, found the cattle, and set the ranches back to rights.

  Otto had spent a lot of time on the road. He’d traveled most of his early life when he lived with his parents and sister, and even more so when he was older and had become a trainer for the rodeo. He’d seen his fair share of outlaws and bandits. He’d met bad men and good ones. He knew it never did much good to try to figure out why the bad ones were the way they were. Men like Archibald Grady weren’t meant to be understood by the majority of folks, and Otto was thankful for it.

  After the incident Sophia had with Grady two days before, then waking up the next day to broken saddles and a stray horse—suffice it to say, Otto had been worried that someone had made their way up the hill to try to rustle up an issue for his lovely bride-to-be. As he held the ripped straps of worn, rotted leather in his hand, he let out a breath, thankful that he’d been wrong this time.

  Otto carried the saddle from the barn to the fence of the corral. He’d bring it back to Creede with him and repair it before Sophia came to town the next day. Standing next to the corral fence, Otto spotted Sophia in the window of the kitchen. She was hustling back and forth through the space, he guessed trying to prepare something for them all to eat. He was struck by the look of concentration and determination on her face. He marveled at the idea of getting to look at her each morning when he woke, and each night before he went to sleep. It made him think of all the nights he’d lain awake wondering if he was doing the right thing with his life. When he’d traveled with the rodeo, he often wondered if it had been the place for him.

  It had been exciting. There was always a horse to break or a stallion to rope. Money moved through hands faster than water through a sieve, and emotions ran high each hour of the day. It had been thrilling, and he’d loved every minute of it … until one day he hadn’t. That was the night he’d first lain there, running through all his decisions. He’d seemed a natural ho
rse trainer, but growing up traveling the way he did wasn’t stable, and he’d always vowed to be more consistent. It took less than three weeks of him lying awake at night for him to leave the rodeo and head back to Colorado. He’d seen as much of the world as he’d cared to and thought going home might give him an idea of what to do next.

  “How can you possibly be wondering if you’re on the right path?”

  Tecu was suddenly beside him. Otto swallowed, trying to get his heart rate to slow after the angel had scared him. “Who said I was?”

  The Indian shook his head. “I know things. It comes with the job. If you were on the wrong path, I’d tell you. Now, go on in.”

  Otto sighed and shook his head. Tecu was bothersome, and he hated that the angel would pop in and out whenever he felt like it. But Otto had to admit he had his uses. He waved and slowly walked to the door of the cabin. He knocked gently, and when Sophia came to the door, he had shaken his negative thoughts and had a huge smile for her.

  “Mrs. Sanderson seemed excited to meet you. I told her you came out to tend to the horses and check on the saddles for us. Did you take a look?”

  Otto nodded as he entered the cabin. “I’ll take the one you usually use for Marigold when I go tonight. I’ll be able to mend that one quickly so Marigold can have her own saddle back.”

  Sophia fussed about and went back toward the kitchen. Otto followed. A quiet “thank you” floated back to him.

  Sophia was in a blind panic. Otto was at the cabin. He was there for dinner. He was going to find out what an absolutely horrid cook she was. She shuffled around with Mrs. Sanderson sitting at the table. She’d told the old woman they were having male company for dinner, and she seemed to be pleased. She’d nodded enthusiastically. Sophia had taken that as a positive sign. She was happy when she realized there was plenty of stew left from the night before that she could serve. She knew that was edible, even pretty good, so she didn’t have to be worried about embarrassing herself in front of Otto. She didn’t want him thinking she was going to be a terrible wife.

  All too quickly, Otto was tapping at the door. She answered it and let him in. He joined Mrs. Sanderson at the table and attempted to engage her in conversation. She said a few words here and there but mostly just stared at him. Sophia smiled as she watched them. She couldn’t blame Mrs. Sanderson—Otto was enjoyable to look at. He was strong and angular, but his smile and eyes were soft and kind. He was a walking contradiction … and as she thought those words, she laughed. Out loud.

  “Something funny?” Otto asked as both he and Mrs. Sanderson looked at her.

  She kept laughing. It was like once she’d started, she couldn’t stop. She just laughed and laughed, until both of them started laughing with her. It was contagious. Otto got ahold of himself first and asked what they were laughing about. His words sobered her. She tilted her head, seeing him a whole new way.

  “We’re more alike than I thought.”

  Otto smiled. “Is that so?”

  She nodded. “Mmm hmm. You’re strong … maybe the strongest person I know. Yet you’re so gentle; with me, with Mrs. Sanderson, with the horses. You’re so many things, yet you don’t seem to let any single one of them define you. You are the sum of several factors.”

  She started to turn back to the stove but stopped herself. She’d realized earlier in the day that Otto had to constantly lift her chin to get her to look at him. She’d realized the last time that she did that because she’d felt unworthy. Not anymore. She decided she’d be the best wife to him she could be and figured out that to do so, she’d have to be wholly her—and happy about it—for that to happen.

  She locked eyes with him. “I knew you were special. I just never thought I was. I didn’t look at myself as being anything other than what I was forced to be. Sure, since I’ve been in Creede I’ve been trying to be different, but that doesn’t really work. Being with you today, after everything that’s happened, I realize that I am just like you. The sum of many factors. My past is part of that, and if I keep trying to cover it up, I can’t be whole.”

  Otto started to rise from his chair. Sophia knew he wanted to go to her, to comfort her somehow … but she didn’t need him to. She had found her strength, and she wanted to have it for herself for a little while.

  Mrs. Sanderson was watching them with narrowed, hawk-like eyes, so Sophia waved him to stay where he was. She went back to work on heating and dishing up bowls of stew.

  Chapter Ten

  Sophia was still smiling from her evening the night before as she climbed onto Marigold’s back. They’d had dinner and talked for a long while with Mrs. Sanderson—who, in her own way, had told them that she enjoyed being with Sophia more than she needed to stay in the cabin. She was looking forward to getting to know Otto better and was excited about the wedding. She’d even had Sophia dig through her wardrobe and find her a suitable dress to wear.

  Sophia was nervous, though. She was going into Bachelor today. She wanted to see her friends, and then she’d be meeting Otto there so they could talk to Reverend Bing together. She’d done a lot of thinking as she’d cleaned up the kitchen and gotten Mrs. Sanderson into bed. She wanted everything she was to be part of who she was, including her past. Which meant that it needed to come out into the open. She thought that by going early and meeting with her friends, she could be honest with them and see how she felt—and how they treated her—before they found out from someone else. Julianne knew and had promised to keep her secret. Sophia would forever be grateful for it. Her being there would help when she told Millie. She wasn’t sure how Millie was going to react.

  The ride to Bachelor was shorter than the trip to Creede, which used to make it more enjoyable. But that was when Sophia was still making the journey on foot. Now that she was riding, she enjoyed her travel time much more.

  The leaves were still clinging to the trees, though they’d soon fall, and the chill that was in the air would become shrill. She’d have to make sure to focus on her knitting lessons so she could make herself and Otto mittens and scarves. He spent most of his days out of doors and would need protection from the elements. It would snow there in Creede and Bachelor, just as it had in Denver. She didn’t remember a lot from her time in Arizona, but she knew that it hadn’t ever gotten cold enough to snow. She briefly wondered if her mother had known how to knit. She remembered her sewing and quilting, but not much else.

  As she rode, she daydreamed about building big fires and snuggling, and maybe reading, with Otto once they were married. Or she and Mrs. Sanderson could bake or play a game while he was out working with the horses. She hadn’t thought she could love him more, but then he’d suggested the old woman coming to live with them, and she knew she’d been wrong. He was the sweetest. She still hadn’t been able to figure out how she’d gotten so lucky.

  Bachelor was a smaller place than Creede. More tents and even less stick buildings. One drastic difference was the absence of the charred remains of businesses that once were, which meant the air didn’t have the slight sooty smell that Creede did. Sophia inhaled deeply as she rode through town on her way to the church. She thought she’d go there first, hoping to find Millie and Julianne already together.

  Sophia wasn’t disappointed when she arrived at the church. She found both her friends talking and giggling around a quilt frame. They both jumped up when they saw her. Exclamations of joy at being able to see each other were exchanged, and Sophia asked them to fill her in on all the goings-on in Bachelor. She had been away too long. She’d been focusing so much time on figuring things out, as well as being with Otto, that she hadn’t been spending as much time with her friends.

  Sophia sat and listened as the ladies talked and worked. She didn’t dare touch the piece they were working on. It was gorgeous, with intricate stitching and lovely patterns. She listened as the ladies told her about the Meeks family. The community had been discussing in service that Sunday what they could do to help the family prepare for winter. Sophia felt
for the children and their mother. Losing their sole provider at such a young age in such a precarious position. She’d heard that the mother wasn’t well after the birth of the latest little one. She had trouble nursing the baby and taking care of the others. Willie had stepped into the role of breadwinner and was doing as many odd jobs for as many people as possible, and the oldest sister, Bekka, was caring for the smaller ones, keeping them in line and trying to keep them fed.

  The Bachelor’s loop wasn’t the most charitable area of the country. Most men didn’t bring families with them to places like that, and if something happened to those that did, the family usually moved on. The folks that remained were trying hard to change that pattern, trying to make it more of a settled area. Something permanent. People like the Bings and the Fontaines would do all they could to help little families like the Meeks so they could stay. Julianne was running a school in Bachelor. She didn’t have a lot of students each day, but a few always turned up for at least part of the day. Millie was Millie. She was tough as nails and worked extra hard to make sure her brother’s ministry was reaching the people that needed it the most, even if it was a fruitless endeavor that put her in harm’s way. Sophia was in awe of them both. They were wonderful women, and she was lucky to have them both in her life.

  Once the stories seemed to slow down, she set her resolve. She tightened her muscles and sat up as straight as possible. “You two are just wonderful. The people here are lucky to have you both.” She looked them both in the eye in turn. “Including myself.” Sophia settled on Julianne. “I have something I need to talk to you both about, but before I do—Julianne, I want to thank you for keeping my secret. You most certainly didn’t have to, and I’m indebted to you for your loyalty.” She turned to Millie. “And Millie, I must start by first apologizing. I’m terribly sorry I haven’t told you any of this earlier. I just … well, for lots of reasons, I didn’t feel like I could. But I do now.”