Now and Forever

by Mary Connealy

  Several still gone. There was a Bible story about Jesus searching for lost sheep. Tucker reckoned he oughta go hiking and see if he could find them.

  He entered the barn. A small building. The sheep were mostly lying down, pressed together, lazy on the stormy day.

  “You found another one?”

  “I heard him.” Shannon still held the lamb in her arms. “I wanted to go have a look at the wolves, and I heard this little fellow. He’d gotten twisted up in some scrub pine. So trapped he couldn’t do a thing but call for help.”

  Tucker smiled at the little guy and rested a hand on his head. He was so cute, Tucker almost understood why Shannon couldn’t stand to eat them. Tucker couldn’t see extending that to every kind of meat, though.

  “Let’s go search for the others.”

  Shaking her head, Shannon hugged her sheep tight. “I found them. They didn’t make it. One of my ewes and two more lambs.” Then her blue eyes flashed with anger. “I know it’s a hard world. I understand I can’t save every one of my critters. I had a couple of babies die this spring and I had a ewe die in a blizzard last winter. I accept that. But that doesn’t mean someone has any business doing what that man did last night. Did you find tracks?”

  Tucker nodded. “But the rain is washing them away right now. I can’t follow them. And he’d tied rags around his horse’s hooves. They were hard to find. I couldn’t read a thing about the tracks. I suspect he did the same with his own shoes, which explains why I couldn’t find where he walked around your barn.”

  Shannon looked around. “We might have lost the horse’s prints and our chance at tracking him, but I’ll bet he came in here. He did more than just unlatch that door. He probably came in and herded the sheep out. He’d want to make sure they all ran off. Maybe we can find his tracks inside.”

  Tucker smiled. Then he kissed her, right over top of that wiggling lamb. “There is no end of good that comes from being married to a smart woman.”

  She kissed him back.

  And her good thinking and her toughness last night reminded him of something she’d never really told him, and considering how much time they’d spent together, that suddenly struck him as odd. “You really fought in the war?”

  “I did. Three years I fought in that dreadful war.”

  “Disguised as a man?” Tucker couldn’t keep the disbelief out of his voice.

  “Are you calling me a liar?” Shannon sounded offended.

  Tucker smiled. “Nope. I’m calling every man who didn’t see you for a beautiful woman an idiot. But then that whole war was madness, so why wouldn’t the people fighting it be idiots?”

  “Let’s see if we can find those tracks.” Shannon turned.

  He’d brought up her war service before, and she’d always distracted him. Well, not this time. “Shannon, while we hunt, tell me about it.”

  Shannon carefully set the little lamb on the barn floor. It wasn’t necessary to be so careful. He’d have been fine with jumping out of her arms. But she was trying hard not to look at Tucker, trying to think of a way out of talking about that blasted war.

  His strong, warm hand settled on her arm and turned her around. If he’d been rough at all, she might have gotten angry, might have used that as an excuse to start a fight or refuse to talk, go off to the cabin in a huff.

  “Tell me, Shannon. Is this why your hair is short? Is this why you and Bailey both wear britches? Did Bailey go too? Were you at least together?”

  Shaking her head, she found she could answer a direct question. “We all went at different times.”

  “All? Kylie too?”

  Shannon understood the disbelief. Kylie—pretty, girlish Kylie. With her dresses and long curls. It was impossible to imagine she had ever attempted a manly disguise.

  “Yes. Bailey went first. I know she did it for Kylie and me, hoping if she went, Pa would be satisfied. We couldn’t get Pa to stop talking about wanting to avenge Jimmy’s death.”

  “Jimmy, this brother your pa wants to build a big old ranch to honor?”

  Shannon nodded. “My big brother. He went to war and died almost right away. He’d only marched off to war a couple of months before we got notice he died. Pa was devastated. He always wanted sons. We lived a long way out, and he’d always treated us more like boys than girls. He even named us manly names. I didn’t really mind. I liked wearing britches.” She looked down at how she was dressed. It was so comfortable. She didn’t even own a skirt. “When we got word Jimmy had died, we were all heartbroken, but Pa was half mad with grief. And he started goading us to go in Jimmy’s name. To dress as we always did, to use our real names. To fight in Jimmy’s place.”

  “So Bailey went, but sacrificing one daughter wasn’t enough.” Tucker sounded cold.

  Shannon flinched and looked at him. “No, it wasn’t. He calmed down for a while, and I managed to last at home for most of another year, but he started in again. If we loved Jimmy, we’d want revenge. If we wanted to honor his memory, we’d fight.”

  Shannon swallowed hard. “I don’t want to act like he completely shoved me into that war.”

  “Even though he did,” Tucker said flatly.

  Shrugging, Shannon went on, “Every time we’d hear of some new battle, we’d talk about all the men killed by Confederate soldiers. It fed my hate. I did want revenge. Finally the day came that I decided no Reb was going to kill my brother and get away with it. I ran off and enlisted in the fight. I know Pa pushed me into that, but it didn’t feel like it at the time. I thought it was my idea. Before I left, I made Kylie swear she’d never go to war, and she said she wouldn’t. She was always wily when it came to handling Pa. But in the end she gave in, too.”

  Tucker dropped his crutch and pulled her into his arms.

  Shannon shivered and clung to him as she realized how cold she’d gotten. They were both soaking wet. “This rain can’t have done your cast any good.”

  “I hope it falls right off my leg.”

  She laughed against his strong, broad shoulder. “Being married to you is turning out to be a really wonderful thing.”

  Tucker kissed her neck, and she shivered for another reason. “After last night I couldn’t agree more.”

  Shannon knew he wasn’t talking about the wolf attack, but rather the time they’d spent together as man and wife.

  They held each other tight and listened to the rain pound down and the quiet rustling of the sheep.

  “You told me how you got into the war, but that isn’t the half of it, Shannon. Did you have to fight? Did you have to kill anyone? Did you ever get wounded? You had to be in close quarters with hundreds of men. How did you manage that and not get found out? Didn’t you say you learned doctoring in the war? Those nightmares you have, when was—?”

  She kissed him.

  When the kiss ended, Tucker lifted his head and frowned, though there wasn’t much serious about it. “Don’t try and distract me.”

  She kissed him again, harder, deeper.

  “If you do this every time I try and ask you about the war”—Tucker kissed her so hard he bent her back over his arm—“then you are going to find yourself questioned about it many times a day.” He laughed. “Now let’s go back to the house, wife. We need to get out of these wet clothes.”

  Shannon heard exactly what she suspected Tucker meant her to hear in those words. She handed him the crutch. They closed and fastened the barn door carefully. They didn’t make a run for it, for despite his poor cast they really couldn’t get any wetter.

  And they whiled away a rainy day getting to know each other better with every passing minute.

  Which didn’t mean Shannon spent any more time talking about that awful, ugly war, even though it was part of every decision she’d made about her life.

  Or it had been until she’d thrown a mountain man off a cliff.

  21

  We need to get to town, Tucker. I want you along.” Aaron had shown up at the cabin bright and early the day after
the rain. Nev tagged along, as did Kylie.

  “Cut this cast off my leg, Nev.” Tucker held it up, what was left of it. The rain had done it no favors. Strips of ragged cloth hung down, and one whole chunk had crumbled.

  “It’s too soon.”

  “Do it for me or I’ll do it for myself. I got caught out in the rain, and it’s halfway to falling off. It don’t hurt anymore. I’ll get a sturdy boot in town and be careful. If it takes to hurting too much, I’ll let you put a new plaster on. But this one’s got to go.”

  Before Nev was done with the cast, Bailey and Sunrise turned up.

  Tucker told them what had happened with the sheep and his tracking.

  “I don’t want to leave my place unguarded,” Shannon said. “He probably wouldn’t attack during the day, but there’s no sense making it easy for him by all of us showing up in town together.”

  Tucker looked at Shannon, frowning. “I like keeping you close by where I can protect you.”

  She smiled. “I know you do. But this man’s a coyote—he’s too much of a coward to attack me head on. Seeing both of us in town, though, if he’s there, might send him running out here to torch the barn.”

  “I’ll stay with her,” Sunrise said.

  “And me.” Bailey looked from Aaron to Tucker. “Don’t make a long trip out of it. I want to get back to my place. I don’t like leaving it alone when some fool who likes fire is running around loose.”

  Tucker’s eyes slid to Nev, discreetly, so that Nev didn’t notice. Shannon saw it, however.

  “We’ll be careful. We’ll stay right here until you get back. Won’t we, ladies?” She looked at Bailey especially, already itching to be back at her place.

  “Yep, I want this place well-defended, Shannon. We’ll be here.” Bailey looked Aaron in the eye in that way she had that was so much like a man.

  None of the Wilde sisters had taken to being a man like Bailey.

  Aaron nodded with one jerk of his chin. “All right then. We won’t be gone a minute longer than we need to.”

  Finally, Tucker’s cast came off. He stretched his foot and stood. “It hurts, but that’s mostly the ankle from it not being bent for weeks. The bone feels solid.”

  Sunrise had made him new moccasins, and he strapped them on. The men were out the door and Tucker had his horse out and they were on the trail within minutes.

  Bailey turned to her sisters. “Now, here’s how we’re going to catch this varmint who’s trying to kill your sheep.”

  Shannon caught her breath. It didn’t sound like Bailey was planning to stay home.

  “Stewbold, we need to talk to you.” Tucker led the way into the land office. So happy to be walking again he could just barely stay furious about his homestead being attacked.

  Hiram was standing there pulling on a gray coat. He lifted his rounded hat off a second hook as he turned and looked at the taller men over the top of his wire-rimmed glasses. His mustache quivered. “I’m just ready to take my morning coffee break.”

  “That can wait, Hiram.”

  “I’m a man of strict routine, but I would be glad for the company, gentlemen.” Stewbold walked straight for them. Tucker almost smiled as he waited, wondering if the man really thought he could make any of them give way.

  Stewbold stopped, glared at Tucker. Then his eyes shifted, in that rodent-like way, to Aaron. “Do you have some serious objection to a cup of coffee, Mr. Masterson?”

  There was a tense silence.

  Finally, Aaron said, “I see no reason we can’t discuss this over coffee. Let’s go, Tucker.”

  Tucker saw a couple of reasons not to but decided to keep his powder dry.

  He stepped aside. Stewbold gave him a little smirk as if he thought he’d won something. Tucker found his opinion of the man could drop even lower.

  The four of them walked to Erica’s Diner. It was mostly empty, which suited Tucker just fine. No sense in the whole world watching if Tucker decided to feed Stewbold his hat.

  Myra, who’d thought to scare Kylie off her property and get it for herself as a way of marrying Gage Coulter, came out with a coffeepot in her hand. She was sort of pale and washed-out looking, whereas Tucker preferred dark hair and bright blue eyes himself. Still, Myra was a pretty little thing. Tucker couldn’t figure out why she hadn’t caught herself a husband by now. There just weren’t any single women out here. They were scarce, and there were many lonely bachelors in the West. Myra was on the tall, skinny side, with fair skin, flyaway white hair, and freckles on her nose. She saw Tucker, her eyes shifted to Aaron, and she stumbled to a stop. Last time Tucker had seen her, he’d about torn her head off for being a lying little sneak trying to hurt Kylie and snare Gage.

  Myra’s lip started to tremble, she kept her eyes downcast, but her shoulders squared and she came on with the coffee. It struck Tucker as brave. Maybe the girl was learning to face what she’d done.

  Tucker still didn’t trust her, but then Tucker mostly didn’t trust anyone unless he absolutely had to.

  “Just coffee, Miss Hughes.” Stewbold proved he was a regular and that his odd formal ways never relaxed.

  Myra poured coffee so carefully you’d have thought she expected them to start yelling if she sloshed a single drop. “We found someone with an apple tree near town, and we made apple pie for the noon meal, if you’d like a slice. The first one’s just now comin’ out of the oven.”

  Tucker hadn’t had a slice of apple pie but once or twice in his life, but now that she mentioned it, he could smell it and he couldn’t resist. “I’ll have some, sure.”

  “I’ll have a piece too, please.” Aaron sounded mighty reasonable for a man talking to someone who’d attacked his wife two months ago.

  Myra gave him a nervous glance, shifted her eyes fearfully to Aaron, then went back to studying the cups intensely as she poured.

  Nev, sitting and holding his coffee cup like the warmth in it was all that was keeping him alive, said, “Apple pie would be a treat, Miss Hughes.”

  Myra looked at Nev. He went on, “I can’t remember the last time I had a slice of apple pie. Reckon it’s been years.”

  “I . . . I made this one that’s comin’ out now. It’s the first one I’ve ever done. I hope you like it.” She said it like she was maybe . . . flirting. With Nev? “The rest Ma made. She’s been teaching me, and she was the best cook in Alabama. I’ll understand if you want to wait for one of hers.”

  She blinked her eyes at him, looking soft and helpless, as if she were at his mercy, begging him to give her poor little pie a chance. Tucker almost snorted.

  “Your pie will be fine, Miss Hughes. I expect I’ll enjoy it thoroughly. Alabama, you say? I’m a Southern boy myself.”

  Aaron arched one brow almost to his hairline. Tucker shook his head and looked at Nev, a bag of skin and bones even after months of settling down and eating right. Maybe a woman who could cook saw great possibilities in fattening him up.

  Nev smiled. Myra smiled back. The moment lasted too long.

  “I’ll be right back.” Myra whirled away to fetch the pie.

  Nev watched every step she took.

  “Hiram, we’ve got trouble.” Aaron spoke before Tucker could. “Three homesteaders have been burned out.” Aaron rattled off the names.

  Tucker was impressed that Aaron had been doing some work to track down information.

  “As land agent, you need to investigate what’s happened. You also need to start checking other homesteaders. There have been three we know of, but there may be more. We need to ride out to all the homesteads, make sure these folks are all right, and warn them that someone’s out attacking claims. As far as I know, no one has died, but—”

  “I’ve already talked with each of the families you mentioned.”

  “You have?” Aaron looked surprised. “Why didn’t you say something? You should have talked to me about this. I know these people. I want to help them.”

  “It never occurred to me to consult you.” Stew
bold sniffed as he adjusted his glasses. “You’re no longer the land agent. I discussed the circumstances with them. They’ve given up their claims. Some homesteaders can afford to start over, some can’t. These particular people decided the frontier wasn’t for them and went back east.”

  “Gage Coulter has visited each of these homesteads. He said the fires were set.”

  “I didn’t hear a single one of them say such a thing. They didn’t seem to think it was anything but bad luck. Fire is a common enough occurrence.”

  “Coulter is a mighty knowing man, Stewbold. If he says the fires were set, then they were. Someone is driving homesteaders off their land. We have to do something.”

  Hiram Stewbold sat at the table, looking in his fidgety way between Aaron, Tucker, and Nev. “Well, I’ll look into it then. The worst of the land rush seems to be over, as you know. I’ll ride out to the claims and tell the homesteaders to be on their guard. How do you propose we track down whoever set the fires?”

  Hiram sat patiently, as if he didn’t believe there was a problem but he was completely willing to cooperate. Too willing, in Tucker’s opinion. If Stewbold had opposed them and tried to stop them from investigating, it would have been suspicious. Everything about the man hit Tucker all wrong. But why would a land agent steal land? There was no sign that Stewbold was grabbing the land for himself.

  So who was grabbing it? That’s what they needed to find out.

  About the time the pie came, Tucker wished Stewbold would go away so they could debate the matter.

  Of course the man seemed settled in for good.

  As he ate the tasty pie, Tucker mulled over what he knew. Coulter was the main rancher in the area, but not the only one. Tucker mostly spent his life wandering far and wide in the high-up hills. He knew Coulter and had worked for him when their paths had crossed, but beyond that he hadn’t had much to do with area ranchers, homesteaders, or Aspen Ridge.