by Merry Farmer
“I suppose something should have been done beforehand to ensure the cattle wouldn’t interfere with the fences,” Alice said. She was at as much of a loss as Howard was. More so. She didn’t know anything about cattle or about fences.
“I was under the impression something was done to ensure it,” Howard went on, shaking his head. He glanced to Franklin, but Franklin was still too deep in his own thoughts to see his father’s disapproval.
Howard had been genuinely distressed when Jarvis and the others had brought Jake back to the house. They’d carried Jake the entire way on their shoulders, moving as quickly as they could with his injury. Alice regretted that she hadn’t stayed close enough to the scene to drive him back in the wagon, but Ginny had insisted she would be safer if she drove the wagon all the way home to Howard’s house and let the men handle the cattle. At least the doctor had come quickly to examine Jake and set his ankle.
“It’s a miracle and a blessing that no one else was hurt,” Howard went on with his pacing and with his thinking out loud. “Jake has a wife and a baby. I don’t want to think about what they would have done if something worse had happened.”
Alice lowered her head and twisted her hands together in her lap. She hated the idea of one more widow in the world, and said a quick prayer of thanks that Jake had only broken his ankle.
“John Bryant tells me it took them all afternoon to separate the herds,” Howard went on.
“It was a huge waste of time,” Franklin grumbled. He didn’t catch Howard’s ire when he turned to glare at his son. Instead, Franklin said, “Why did you listen to John Bryant anyhow? He works for Aunt Virginia.”
Howard crossed from the mantel to the sofa and Franklin in a few angry steps. “I listened to him because he’s a wise, experienced man who knows what he’s talking about. Those are the people that are worth listening to. Do you understand?”
“No,” Franklin grumbled and crossed his arms tighter.
Alice let out a breath as unobtrusively as she could. Franklin certainly didn’t understand, which made him more of a problem than he would ever have admitted to.
“What are we going to do about the competition?” Franklin asked.
Howard’s frown darkened. He pivoted and paced back to the fireplace, running a hand through his gray hair.
“We’ll have to call it off,” he said after a few steps.
“What?” Franklin balked. “No!”
Howard spun to him. “What else are we supposed to do? We’ve lost the head of our crew, all of the day’s work was undone, and too many of the rails were dashed to splinters when the cattle walked on them.”
“But—” Franklin’s protest petered out. He slumped against the back of the sofa, face red.
Alice couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so angry with anyone. Clearly, Franklin had something to do with the mishaps that day, and just as clearly, he wasn’t going to own up to it. Good men had been hurt because of him, and now he wanted to keep the competition going?
“Why don’t I ride over to Ginny’s house and see if she’s willing to stop the competition?” she offered, if only so she could get out of the house where Franklin was for a few hours.
Howard met her eyes with a wariness that told her he didn’t want her to go. But he was a sensible man.
“You might as well,” he said. “I don’t think she’d listen to me, but she’ll listen to you.”
“I’ll go then.”
Alice slid off of the arm of the sofa and headed for the door. She’d have one of Howard’s stable hands saddle up Blossom for her. Blossom was gentle enough for her to ride by herself. There was still enough light for her to find her way there and back.
“I’ll go with you.” Franklin popped up off the sofa.
“You will not go with her,” Howard blustered, pulling himself to his full, considerable height. “You will stay right here. You and I need to have a talk, son.”
Prickles of the doom that was about to descend on Franklin shivered down Alice’s back as she skittered out of the room. Franklin deserved a dressing-down, but being around people who were in trouble always made Alice feel as though she were in trouble too. She headed out of the house and across the sunset-orange yard to the stable.
The stable hands were more than ready to saddle Blossom for her, and amused at her insistence that she ride astride. Blossom seemed glad for the walk, and within a few minutes, half the cares of the day loosened and fell from Alice’s shoulders as she rode across the quiet fields to Ginny’s house. Ginny may have claimed that life as a spinster wasn’t worth much, but Alice admired the woman’s spark. She wouldn’t mind spending more time with her. The things Ginny had to say were fascinating.
Jarvis loved her.
The thought swung in out of nowhere and hit Alice straight in the heart. He loved her. That was the key message of all that Ginny had told her before the cattle got loose. That and the message that love should be embraced, not pushed aside. It should be embraced because it might not come again.
Would there be another man if she let go of Jarvis? As soon as her mind asked the question, Alice rejected it. She didn’t want another man, she wanted Jarvis.
That in itself was a wonderful, terrible concept.
By the time she dismounted at Ginny’s house and walked up the porch to knock on the front door, her hands were trembling and her heart was unsettled. It didn’t help matters when Jarvis opened the door for her.
“Hello,” he said, bursting into a smile as bright as the sunset. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Lord help her, but Alice turned into a smiling ball of happy at the sight of him. It felt so right and so, so wrong.
“I came to talk to Ginny on Howard’s behalf,” she said. Maybe the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in would be enough to battle her butterflies into submission so she could hold on to the dignity Harry deserved in his widow.
“Hold on a second,” Jarvis said, opening the door wider. “We were just about to come outside to sit on the porch and enjoy the sunset.”
“Is that Alice?” Ginny’s voice sounded from deeper in the house. “I thought I saw her riding this way from Howard’s place.”
“It is me,” Alice replied as Ginny came to the door. “I’m here on Howard’s behalf to talk about what we can do about the fences.”
Ginny stepped out onto the porch, and the three of them circled around to the side to where several rocking chairs were laid out facing the sunset. Ginny motioned for Alice and Jarvis to have a seat. In no time, the three of them were rocking in the warm light of sunset as though they hadn’t a care in the world. Unfortunately, they did have cares.
“So Howard wants to weasel out of our competition, does he?” Ginny said with a chuckle. “I should have known.”
“That’s not it,” Alice said. She wasn’t sure Ginny was being fair. “But with Jake Masters hurt, he wants to delay things.”
“Because he knows he’ll lose now,” Ginny replied with a grin.
“I’m sure that’s not it,” Jarvis came to Alice’s defense. “I was there when Jake was injured. It shook everyone up. A delay might be good.”
“You think so?” Ginny arched an eyebrow.
Jarvis squirmed in his seat, running a hand through his hair, which was down now. Down and slightly damp, as though he’d just washed it. A tremor of longing swirled through Alice’s gut and lower. She had to force herself to pay attention to the conversation.
“To be honest, Ginny,” he said, “the men are a little fed up with the whole thing. They think they’ve got better things to do.”
“They do,” Ginny agreed. “But this feud with Howard has gone on long enough and needs to be solved. This is the only thing Howard has ever come close to agreeing on as a way to put the matter to bed once and for all. Now he’s trying to back out of it. What do you think that will do?”
Alice shrugged and Jarvis sighed.
“That will keep this whole stupid
thing going for that much longer,” Ginny answered herself. “No, we have to keep going with this, one way or another. I’m tired of fighting, and I want a solution.”
As tempted as Alice was to find Ginny’s ultimatum unfeeling, she couldn’t. It would be better if the fight could be resolved and peace made. Peace now would mean fewer people would be hurt in the future.
“I suppose you’re right,” Alice sighed. She stopped rocking and sat forward in her chair. “I’ll go back to Howard and tell him what you said. We’ll just have to think of some other way to keep the competition going tomorrow.”
She moved to stand. Ginny pushed herself to her feet and held out a hand for Alice to stay where she was.
“Why don’t you take that message back to Howard a little later,” she said. “You two stay here and visit for a while. I think I’ll call it an early night.”
There was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that spoke volumes. Half of Alice was certain she should get up and leave before that twinkle started catching and she found herself doing things she really shouldn’t. The other half of her wondered why she shouldn’t do whatever she wanted.
It didn’t help matters that Jarvis relaxed into his chair with a wide grin. “Good night, Ginny. Sleep well.”
It was as close to a dismissal as Alice figured anyone had ever given the stalwart older woman.
“’Night, son.” Ginny winked at him and sashayed her way back into the house.
Alice and Jarvis were left alone. Silence spread across the darkening plain. Somewhere cattle were lowing and a few night birds were coming out to sound their calls. There were crickets in the grass too, adding to the symphony of evening.
Alice risked a sideways glance at Jarvis. He smiled out at the landscape, his cheeks rosy from being in the sun all day. His long hair hung down his back, nearly dry now, and more than anything, Alice wanted to run her hands through it. She wanted to trace her fingers along the line of his jaw and feel his breath against them. The kisses he’d given her were still hot in her memory. All she needed to do to relive each one was close her eyes.
“I bet you never thought your journey west would take a turn like this,” he said at length, shifting to catch her drinking him in with her eyes.
“No.” She lowered those hungry eyes. What was she doing? The fresh air must have gone to her head. She stood. “I really should be going. Howard will miss me, and I’m not sure of my way home.”
Jarvis stood and stepped closer to her. Very close. He brushed a hand across her heated cheek, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, then cradling her jaw.
“I can show you the way home,” he said.
His beautiful, simple words wrapped around Alice’s heart like an embrace. She leaned closer to him. But no, something stood in her way. Her heart ached for Jarvis, but something else—like a hook around her gut, pulling her back—made her turn away and start for the stairs.
“Oh Jarvis,” she sighed, unsurprised when he followed her. “I can’t. I wish I could, but I’m not ready.”
The words sounded weak, even to herself, but they had a kind of power over her that she couldn’t name.
“It’s all right,” Jarvis said, surprising her. “If you’re not ready, I’ll wait.”
She paused as she reached Blossom in the yard to stare at him. “Do you mean that? You’ll wait?”
Jarvis smiled, his hands in his pockets, as comfortable in the falling darkness as he was in front of a cozy fire. “Of course.”
Alice took up Blossom’s reins, but stood still. “That’s not what I expected.”
“It isn’t?” It was his turn to be confused. “Do you think I would push you into something?”
The sudden memory of Harry’s proposal—of the way he’d dropped to one knee, the paper with his marching orders in one hand, and told her she had to marry him right then, as soon as possible, before he went off to war—rolled back on her. They’d been sweethearts, even though her parents didn’t approve, but she hadn’t considered marrying him like that.
“Not push,” she told Jarvis. “Maybe rush.”
Her marriage to Harry had been rushed. Wonderful, beautiful, but rushed. She didn’t regret a moment of it, especially not of the two weeks they had spent together as man and wife.
“What are you thinking?” Jarvis asked.
“I’m thinking about Harry,” she confessed, winding Blossom’s reins around her hand.
“Oh.” Jarvis lowered his head.
Off to the side, near the bunkhouse where Ginny’s workers lived, a round of raucous laughter split the tension between them. They were too far away to see Alice and Jarvis, but Jarvis took Alice’s elbow and led her and Blossom around the corner of the house, heading for the barn.
Alice let herself go with him almost all the way to the door before stopping.
“I really should be going,” she protested.
“I wish you would change your mind and stay here,” he countered.
“I can’t,” she said. “Howard needs me. If I could just talk to him a little more, I feel like I could soften him toward Ginny and this whole conflict.”
“It’s not Howard that worries me.” Jarvis smirked.
She had a feeling she knew exactly where his thoughts were going. “You don’t have to worry about Franklin,” she said.
He replied with a doubtful hum. “I think he was responsible for the cattle wrecking the fences today, though I don’t think it went the way he planned.”
“I agree.” Alice frowned. “Someone had to have helped him.”
“That’s what I don’t like,” Jarvis said. “And that’s why I wish you would stay here, where I can keep an eye on you and know that you’re safe. Where I can protect you.”
Alice’s heart fluttered at the words. “You want to protect me?”
“Yes.” That one simple word, and the heat from his body as he leaned closer, filled Alice with a deep, almost painful longing down to her soul. Why hadn’t Harry ever said that to her? Why had he run off to fight someone else’s war instead of staying and protecting her from the fuss and scandal caused by their rushing into marriage?
A flash of anger licked at her heart. It startled her enough to make her step back from Jarvis and lower her eyes. In all this time, she had never once been angry at Harry. Perhaps she should have been. She should have been furious all this time. He told her he loved her, that he wanted to live his whole life with her, and as quickly as he had made that happen, he ran off and was killed. How could he ruin her life like that?
“What?” Jarvis whispered, stepping close enough to take her into his arms. All he had to do was reach for her.
“Why do men promise to love and protect a woman, then run off and get themselves killed for some stupid cause?” she asked him, her voice a hoarse whisper.
Tears sprung to her eyes at the tender understanding of his reaction. He did pull her into his arms then, but only to give her a comforting hug. She clung to him, awash with old memories of the way she hadn’t wanted to let Harry go the day he’d marched off to war, as she cried.
“My guess is that your Harry thought he was making a better world for you,” Jarvis said at last.
“But he wasn’t.” Alice shook her head against his shoulder. “He died. How is that making a better world?”
Jarvis shrugged. He started to say more, but another round of laughter echoed from the bunkhouse. A couple of Ginny’s workers wandered around the corner of the house, talking loud and joking with each other. Jarvis stood straighter and searched for a second, then led Alice and Blossom right up to the barn door and inside.
The barn was darker than the lawn, but Jarvis found a lamp hanging inside of the barn door and lit it. He let Blossom wander over to a bale of hay, and took Alice’s hand, drawing her deeper into the barn to a large hay pile. Alice sat with him on the soft, fragrant pile. When Jarvis drew her close, she didn’t fight it.
“I never knew your Harry,” Jarvis began, “but I have to admir
e a man who was willing to give up someone as perfect as you to fight for what he believed in.”
“I’m not perfect.” She lowered her eyes. “Right now, I’m so angry at him for leaving, for leaving me alone like this.” Her tears didn’t seem to want to stop now that they’d started.
“Shh,” Jarvis hushed her. He cradled her face and brushed her tears away with his thumbs. “It’s okay.”
“But it’s not,” Alice insisted. “Not if a man can love a woman so much and still be killed.”
“It’s the love that matters,” Jarvis said.
He leaned forward to brush his lips against hers. It was a simple, tender touch, but it ignited a heat in Alice’s blood that only added to the confusion and longing in her heart. She wanted more, so much more of him, and at the same time, she was afraid of everything that could happen.
“I love you, Alice Porter,” Jarvis whispered, meeting her eyes with a strong steadiness. “I love you more than anything I’ve ever known. I swear, if you let me, I’ll protect you and keep you safe from the trials of this world. But even I can’t promise that I’ll never die. No one can make that promise. All I can say is that I will never willingly leave you or hurt you. Just say that you’re mine.”
The world seemed to stop breathing. Even the storm of emotion in her heart froze, listening, waiting. Her heart beat a steady rhythm of “Yes, yes, yes,” but the words refused to form on her lips. She wanted Jarvis, wanted him like she hadn’t wanted anything for so long. He’d brought her back to life, made her feel again. Yes, yes, yes. She ached for him, but she couldn’t speak.
Her body took over from her timid heart. She swayed into Jarvis, sliding her arms around him and kissing him with a passion fueled by the furious ache in her heart. She wanted him. She wanted to feel like a woman, like a woman loved by a man, more than anything.
Jarvis responded to her burst of desire by returning her kiss and then some. His mouth slanted over hers, tongue teasing, lips caressing hers. Alice hummed deep in her throat, encouraging him to take more. He rose to the challenge, tightening his arms around her and rolling her to her back.
