“Oh, Miss Trask…of course. I have the will right here.” Mr. Hart reached into a drawer and handed Caroline some papers. “I was going to send these to you.”
She read quickly. Her father had left everything to John Raven. Everything—the cattle, the house, the land. He also directed that John Raven was to see that she, Caroline Trask, was taken care of.
She looked at the big black X at the place where her father should have signed his will.
Caroline was puzzled. “Mr. Hart, my father didn’t sign this. This isn’t his signature.”
“It certainly is, Miss Trask. I saw him make that X myself. As you can see, I signed as witness,” the lawyer said.
Caroline looked at the X again. “But why didn’t he sign his name?”
“Because Carl Trask couldn’t read or write, that’s why.”
Caroline shook her head. “That can’t be. My father wrote many letters to me. I have them at home. I can show you.” Her voice shook with anger.
The lawyer stood. “I’m telling you that Carl Trask couldn’t read or write. I wrote this will. He told it to me and I wrote it. He left everything to his neighbor, John Raven.”
“I wish to see a judge, Mr. Hart,” Caroline said.
“This isn’t the big city, Miss Trask. The judge makes his rounds on horseback? Eli Hart checked some papers on his desk. “But you’re in luck. Judge Parker will pass through here in about a month.”
“Fine. I will see him then,” Caroline said, wondering if she had enough money to last that long. “Thank you and good-bye, Mr. Hart.”
She left his office and walked onto the dusty street. Caroline felt as if she had been run over by a herd of wild horses. Questions buzzed in her head.
Who wrote all those letters if my father didn’t? Why didn’t he leave me the ranch? And why did Raven let me make a fool of myself and think the ranch was mine?
As she rode home, more questions nagged at her mind.
Where am I going to live now? And what about Rosebud and the colt, Buddy? Are they Raven’s too?
She let the tears fall down her face. No one was there to see her cry on the long, dusty trail back home.
Home? No. It wasn’t her home anymore. It was Raven’s home.
“How could you do this to me, Father?” Caroline sobbed.
No one answered. There was just the creak of the team pulling the wagon.
Raven’s wagon. It all was Raven’s.
What was she going to do?
Chapter Eight
When she came over the last hill, Caroline saw Raven on the roof of the cabin. He was hammering. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and with every swing of the hammer, muscles bulged in his back and arms. His hat was off, and his long, black hair was tied back with a thin strip of leather.
He saw her coming toward him. “Hello, Caroline. All that rain last night reminded me that your roof was probably leaking. I thought I’d fix it.”
She shaded her eyes from the hot afternoon sun and said, “You mean your roof, don’t you?”
He didn’t answer for a while, then climbed down the ladder and walked toward her. “You know?” he asked softly.
“I went to town today. I saw Mr. Greengate, the banker, and Mr. Hart, the lawyer,” Caroline said, looking into his sky-blue eyes. “They say that the Lazy Circle T is yours.”
“But you don’t think so, Caroline?”
“No, I don’t. There is no way that my father would sign with an X when he wrote me so many letters. I have my father’s letters, Raven. I am going to present this matter before the judge when he comes through here. I’ll show him the letters, and let him decide who owns this ranch, me or you.”
“Carl did leave me the ranch, Caroline. I tried to talk him out of it, but you know he didn’t want you here in Wyoming. That’s why he didn’t leave it to you,” Raven said.
Raven looked away, than sighed. “Caroline, I am just following Carl’s wishes. This ranch doesn’t mean anything to me, other than it was his and he was good to me.”
“And it means everything to me.” She turned to leave. “I’ll see you in court, Mr. Raven. Now get off my land.”
She didn’t mean to yell, but everything was going wrong. This was not how she dreamed things would happen. Not at all.
He raised an eyebrow. “This ranch is mine, until the judge says otherwise, and I’m not about to let it fall apart. I am going to fix this roof, and you can either help or get out of my way.”
“Are you going to throw me out of the cabin, too?” she asked, turning away She hoped he wouldn’t throw her out. She had nowhere else to go.
“Of course not.” Raven gently took her elbow and turned her around. “Look, until this is settled, how about if we work together? Whether the judge says the ranch is mine or yours, I’d like it still to be standing.” He smiled. “I’m sure you feel the same way.”
“I do.”
“May the best man, or woman, win,” he said.
Caroline tried to tell herself that she shouldn’t be mad at Raven. It wasn’t his fault that her father’s stubbornness caused all this.
“You’re right. Let’s work together until then. I’ll go change into work clothes,” Caroline said.
Perhaps working would take her mind off things.
Chapter Nine
Caroline came out of the house wearing Carl’s trousers and one of his shirts. She and Raven continued working on the roof. Caroline learned fast and soon was swinging a hammer with skill.
A few days later, they started putting a new roof on the barn. A few days after that, they planted corn and hay. Caroline planted some vegetable seeds that she had found in the barn.
Some evenings, Raven rode to his ranch from the Lazy Circle T to check the cattle. Most nights, he camped by the creek. He drove the team to Dry Creek for supplies a few times each week. Every time he left, he couldn’t wait to get back to Caroline.
They talked for many hours as they sat by the creek under the stars. But they never talked about who really owned the Lazy Circle T.
One Monday, the law clerk, Josh Jenkins rode out and brought Caroline a letter from Eli Hart.
The letter stated that Judge Parker would hear Caroline’s case on Tuesday at nine o’clock in Eli Hart’s office. John Raven was to attend also.
That night Caroline and Raven ate in silence.
“Shall we ride in to Dry Creek together in the morning?” Caroline finally asked after dinner.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Raven agreed. “I’ll be back at sunrise.”
He took a lantern from the hook and walked down the steps of the cabin.
Caroline hurried onto the porch. “Wait. I’d like to say something.”
“I’m listening.”
“These past five weeks have been happy and it’s because of you. I want you to know that if I win the case tomorrow, you are welcome here any time,” Caroline said. Secretly, she hoped it would be often.
“It’s been the best time of my life,” Raven said. And no matter what happens tomorrow, the ranch is yours, he thought. You’ve proved that you belong here. You love this land, and I want you to be happy.
Raven wanted to take her in his arms. But he knew he couldn’t—not yet. He also knew that he needed her. She filled the space in his lonely heart. He tugged his hat brim. “Tomorrow.”
Chapter Ten
“Miss Trask, just sign here and the Lazy Circle T is yours,” said Judge Parker.
“I don’t understand,” Caroline said, confused. “I thought we were going to have a court hearing to decide if the ranch is mine or Raven’s.”
“That’s no longer needed. Mr. Raven has signed the Lazy Circle T over to you,” replied Judge Parker.
The lawyer, Eli Hart, dipped a pen in ink and handed it to her, He pointed to where she was to sign on the paper.
Caroline turned and looked at Raven. “Why?”
Raven shifted his tall body in the hard wooden chair. “I can’t take it away from you, Car
oline. If Carl had seen how much you love the ranch and the land, he would have never left it to me.”
Caroline stared at the paper before her. All she had to do was sign her name and it would all be hers.
She held the paper before her. Something wasn’t right.
Caroline looked at the paper, than to her stack of letters tied with the blue ribbon, then back to the paper again.
Her heart pounded in her chest and her face flushed. The writing was the same on the letters as it was on the paper that would give her the ranch.
“You wrote those letters to me, didn’t you, Raven?” she asked quietly. “You were the one who wrote me all those years, not my father.”
“Yes,” Raven admitted. “But most of the time Carl told me what he wanted to say I just filled in the rest.”
“My father didn’t read you my letters. You read them to him,” Caroline said. “Isn’t that true, Raven?”
He nodded slowly.
“I feel so stupid. Stupid and foolish.”
Caroline sighed and smoothed down her dark green dress.
The judge snapped his law book shut. “Let’s get out of here, Hart, and let these young people talk. We’ve got time before the next case.”
Caroline and Raven now found themselves alone in Eli Hart’s office.
“Carl didn’t want you to know he couldn’t read or write. He didn’t want you to think less of him,” Raven said.
Caroline looked up at him. “I would never think less of my father because of that.” She stood up and looked out of Eli Hart’s window. “All my stupid talk about getting the ranch running—you knew I couldn’t do it alone.”
“I admired you,” he said. Raven walked toward her and held out his arms. He reached for her hand and gently pulled her close to him, into his arms.
“I love you, Caroline” She lifted her chin to look up at him, and he kissed her. It started as a soft whisper of a kiss, but when she put her arms around him and held him close, it deepened.
He heard a soft sound from Caroline, and his kiss became harder, stronger, until he knew he had to stop.
“I love you, too, Raven. I feel as if I’ve known you my whole life. The moment I met you, I felt that I’d been with you forever.”
“I feel the same way Caroline” His feelings were so strong that he could barely get the words out.
“I was so lonely in New York…so lonely” Caroline said softly.
“I know, Caroline. I know you were.” Raven held her head tight to his chest and smoothed her hair. “I was lonely here. I lived for your letters.”
His hand was warm on her cheek. “The letters—your letters—kept me from going crazy” Caroline said.
“It was the same for me. I fell in love with you through your letters, you know,” Raven said.
Raven smiled and kissed her forehead.
“You don’t know how much I wanted to go to New York and meet you.”
Caroline’s heart beat with joy. “I think I fell in love with you the minute I saw you in Dry Creek,” she said.
He smiled. “It’s hard to believe that a lady like you could ever love a cowboy like me.”
“Just tell me why you made me worry and wonder if I’d have a place to live?” Caroline asked.
“I was hoping to win your love before you ever found out.” Raven began. “Then who owned the ranch wouldn’t have mattered at all. But that didn’t happen. I knew you wouldn’t accept the ranch if I tried to give it to you. You’re so strong and proud. It’s part of why I love you. So I decided to make sure the place was fit to live in. That way I got to help you and be with you every day”
“You’re a smart man, Mr. Raven.”
He picked her up and swung her around as she laughed. “Marry me, Caroline.”
Caroline smiled. “I’d be proud to be your wife.”
He kissed her softly at first, then hard. It was a kiss full of love and laughter and a promise of a long, wonderful life together. The lady and the cowboy—a perfect match.
Caroline knew that with Raven she would never be lonely again.
About the Author
Chris Wenger has worked in the criminal justice field for more years than she cares to remember. She has a dual master’s degree in Probation and Parole Studies and Sociology from Fordham University, but the knowledge gained from such studies certainly has not prepared her for what she loves to do the most - write romance!
Her first book, The Lady and the Cowboy, a western historical, was written for beginning adult readers and was sold to Laubach Literacy. In 1998, it was chosen by the Publishers Liaison Committee of the Public Library Association’s Adult Lifelong Learning Section as one of the “Top Titles for Adult New Readers.”
One of the biggest thrills of her life was receiving “the call” from Susan Litman at Silhouette Special Edition in January of 2004 that they wanted to publish The Cowboy Way. Yeee-haw!!
The Cowboy Way was released in January 2005.
A native Central New Yorker, she enjoys watching professional bull riding and rodeo with her favorite cowboy, her husband, Jim.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
The Lady and the Cowboy Page 3
