Honor-Bound Lawman
That could account for Owen’s sour mood toward her.
“Not at all. His room is downstairs, off the kitchen. Our uncle used it as a study, but Owen likes the location for making sure everyone is safe.”
Laura nodded. That sounded like Owen. “He’s very concerned with safety, isn’t he?”
“He has a right to be,” Lena said stiffly. “I’ll leave you to unpack. The water in the pitcher is fresh.”
Before Laura could respond, or even thank Lena for her hospitality, she was gone. Lena might have encouraged Owen to invite her to stay, but it seemed like Lena was just as closed off as her brother was when it came to answering Laura’s questions. So many secrets, and even though Laura was curious about them, she wondered if she’d be better off not knowing.
She’d already developed feelings for Owen once, and clearly she’d been mistaken there. What heartache would she face if she learned all the things about him that he’d been keeping private, and he once again didn’t return her regard?
* * *
Owen didn’t turn around when he heard Lena enter the barn. “Hand me that liniment over there, will you? Troy’s leg feels hot.”
A few moments later, Lena handed him the jar. They had a good routine, and it was comforting to know he could always count on his sister.
“She seems nice,” Lena said.
“They always seem nice.” Owen rubbed the sore spot on Troy’s leg. He shouldn’t have pushed him hard that last mile. He’d seen signs that Troy was tiring, but he’d been so eager to get home. Owen just hoped he wouldn’t regret that decision later, which he would if his horse went lame.
“She had a lot of questions.”
“She is a woman.” Owen looked up at Lena and grinned. “You should understand that better than me.”
“You care for her, don’t you?” Lena’s probing expression made him turn away.
The trouble with Lena was that she knew him too well. He couldn’t keep a secret from her if he tried.
“Of course I do. That’s my problem. I care too much. About everyone. I can’t care about the victims. You know the trouble it’s gotten me into before.”
Lena sighed. “I know, but you’re a good lawman. A good man. You and Sadie were happy for a time.”
He stood and looked at her, then recapped the liniment. “Were we? I don’t remember. I was so busy trying to keep her alive, and she said she loved me, and I loved how that felt. Being the hero. Which is all it is with Laura. I know how she looks at me. A man would be a fool not to notice. But it’s just misplaced gratitude toward the man who took her out of a bad situation and was the first man to be kind to her in a long time.”
Finished with taking care of Troy, Owen looked around the barn to make sure he’d gotten everything else done.
“Maybe if you didn’t push people away, they could get to know the real you and figure out if it’s love or not.” Lena gave him that stubborn look of hers. When they were kids, he’d have shoved her and then they’d have wrestled until someone yelled at them to cut it out.
But they were adults now, so he shook his head instead. “I thought we’d agreed we weren’t going to do any matchmaking for one another. I have my reasons for not seeking out another wife, and you have yours for not finding a husband. So let’s try to get through the next few days of having a single woman under our roof without your planning a wedding. Otherwise, I’ll be forced to ask my various single male friends out for a visit to meet my charming sister.”
“You wouldn’t.”
Owen grinned. “I would, and you know it.”
The long sigh escaping Lena’s lips told him that he’d won. Then she said, “I just think that you can’t let your bad experiences keep you from a potentially wonderful future.”
Owen picked up the saddle from where he’d hung it on the stall. “Great advice, sis. Let me know if it works when you follow it yourself.”
He was needling her, but she’d started it. Some of their childish ways would never be broken.
“I just came to tell you that dinner’s ready. Since we have a guest, I will be on my best behavior, and I expect you to be, as well.”
Lena winked at him, and he grinned. His arrow had hit its mark, and even though Lena was aching to meddle in his love life, she wouldn’t. Not now.
That was sometimes the trouble with being so close to his sister. It made it harder to be close to others who didn’t understand that a man’s best friend could be his sister. He and Lena had been through a lot together, been each other’s rock when they’d had nothing else.
Among other problems in their relationship, Sadie had been jealous of Lena. To the point that Owen and Lena spent a good year without speaking. The hardest year of his life. And, it turned out, Lena’s hardest, as well.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Owen said. “Let me get this put away.”
“Don’t take too long or else I’ll eat your dessert.”
She stuck her tongue out at him as she left the barn, and he knew she was giving him his space before having to go in and deal with Laura. His first time protecting her had been so much easier when she wasn’t questioning his every move and he could ignore the calf eyes she made at him. But now she acted as if he owed her something.
And maybe he did. He’d promised he’d keep her safe from James, which is what he’d been trying to do. But she was making it really difficult.
He put his tack away, then stepped out of the barn. The ranch was positioned so that they could see a rider coming for miles. On a night like tonight, with so much cloud cover and not much moon, a man would have to be crazy to ride out here with all the rocks and shrubs in the way. But James wasn’t a sane man.
Still, as Owen scanned the area and could see the lights from town dotting the distance, he felt a sense of peace. James wouldn’t be coming tonight.
When he went into the house, the family was already seated at the dining table, eating.
“I told you we weren’t going to wait,” Lena said before taking another bite.
“I didn’t ask you to. I’ll just go wash up.”
He could feel Laura’s eyes on him as he left the room. Not just her eyes, but the weight of those questions in her eyes. His appetite fled as he thought about having to sit at the table with her and make small talk about things he didn’t want to discuss.
When he returned to the table, the girls had nearly finished, and the ladies appeared to be eating more slowly to give him time to catch up. Presumably to give him company so he wouldn’t have to eat alone.
“Papa, did you know Miss Laura doesn’t have any children?” Anna smiled at him like she had a whole day’s worth of conversation to catch him up on. And she did, he supposed, since he’d been gone most of it.
“I do know that. And that’s probably not a polite thing to say about a lady. It might hurt her feelings,” he said gently.
Anna turned her attention to Laura. “Did it hurt your feelings that I asked if you had children? Papa says I ask a lot of questions that I shouldn’t, but how do you know things if you don’t ask?”
Owen closed his eyes for a moment and prayed for patience. Anna was an inquisitive little girl with a zest for life, and Owen didn’t want to kill that spirit totally, but sometimes, she made it difficult.
Fortunately, Laura didn’t seem to mind the impertinent little girl. She smiled at Anna. “It did not hurt my feelings. But thank you for being willing to consider them.”
His daughter preened at being validated in her questioning of Laura. If there were ever someone with enough questions to match Laura’s, it would have to be Anna. But Anna’s questions were easier to answer.
Lena set her fork down on her plate with a clatter. Owen looked up at her, and she smiled sweetly. A little too sweetly.
“Girls, let’s clear the table and let your father finish his supper. Miss Laura can keep him company. I’m sure they have much to discuss.”
She gave him another sugary smile before picking up her plate and leaving the room. The girls followed suit, leaving Owen alone with Laura in the awkward silence.
“You have a very nice home,” Laura said.
“Thank you. My uncle had it built for his bride.”
“I know,” Laura said. “Lena told me.”
He gave a nod, then focused his attention back on the delicious roast Lena had prepared.
“I find it interesting,” Laura continued, “that you both refer to her as his bride and not your aunt.”
Owen set his fork down. Small talk was not something he enjoyed, nor was he capable of it. Especially because nothing about his life involved small talk.
“That’s because we don’t like talking about her. She hurt a lot of people, and my uncle stayed here, hoping that someday she’d come back to him. She never did. He put everything he had into this place, all for her. But she never appreciated it. He was never bitter, so I suppose we’re bitter on his behalf. He was a good man, and he didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
Something he and his uncle had in common. They both picked women they thought they could save, but in the end, they didn’t have that kind of power.
“I suppose that makes sense, then,” Laura said, sounding a little too cheerful. She was probably hoping this would open him up to more of her questions.
“So the girls’ mother is dead? I believe you said your wife died?”
Owen set his fork down and patted his lips with his napkin. “Yes. And that is all I will say on that matter. Please don’t bring it up again. With me, my sister or my daughters.”
He threw the napkin down on the table. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to—”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Lena said, reentering the room, carrying a pie. “The girls helped bake this, and we’re all going to enjoy a nice family dessert and chat about things.”
Had Lena heard Laura ask about Sadie? Her face was too innocent for him to be able to tell, but he had to think not. Though Lena liked to encourage him in that department, she’d never give a stranger such easy access to his pain.
“Owen, sit,” Lena said. “You don’t get to go off sulking tonight because your perfect little plans got ruined. We’re going to have pie and get to know Laura better, and it’s going to be fun.”
Emma sidled up to him. “Please, Papa. Auntie said you might even tell us a story about life on the trail.”
Owen shot Lena a quick glare. She knew he refused the girls little, and even though those stories were the last things he wanted to tell, especially in front of Laura, he would because the girls asked.
“Of course I will.” He pressed a kiss to the top of his daughter’s head, then he looked over at his sister. “Even though Auntie knows I don’t like to talk about those times, and she exaggerates about what a hero I am. But just as soon as I get this case wrapped up, we’ll invite my old friend Harold out, and he can tell you about life on the range.”
Two could play Lena’s game of torment.
Ignoring him, Lena turned to Laura. “Don’t believe a word he says about not being a hero. You can’t imagine all the wonderful things Owen has done, the lives he’s saved. He’s the best lawman you’ll ever meet.”
The smile Laura gave him made the dinner he’d just eaten turn over in his stomach. Back to the hero worship he detested. That was the trouble with people thinking he was so wonderful. Owen wasn’t that man. Just like Sadie had been all those years ago, Laura was over the moon about an illusion, not who he really was.
As a lawman, he’d made too many mistakes. Enough that he knew he didn’t deserve to wear a badge. Maybe he’d even been too prideful in keeping his promise to protect Laura. Could he keep her safe?
Looking around the table at the shining eyes directed at him, he wondered if he should have brought her here at all.
Chapter Four
The next morning, when Laura went down to the kitchen, she found Lena already hard at work.
“Good morning,” Laura said.
Lena smiled at her. “Good morning. Breakfast will be ready shortly. Owen is out feeding the animals.”
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
Lena shook her head, then turned to the stove. “No, I have everything in hand, thank you.”
It was the same conversation they’d had more than once since she arrived yesterday. She wanted to be useful, not a burden, in Owen’s household.
“Please,” Laura said. “Give me something to do. Otherwise, I’ll go crazy.”
Lena sighed as she turned back around. “Well, I suppose you—”
“Auntie! Tell Emma it’s her turn to get the eggs.”
“No. It’s your turn. That mean old rooster got me yesterday.” Emma held out her scratched arm.
“But I don’t want him to get me.” Anna’s face had the cutest little pout. It was hard for Laura not to laugh, considering how serious the two girls were taking the situation.
Lena sighed. “Well, I guess I know what’s for supper then. Laura, come with me.”
Laura followed her outside. “What are we doing?”
“Dealing with a mean rooster.”
As they passed a shed, Lena grabbed an ax.
Laura stopped.
Supper. The mean rooster. The ax.
“You mean you’re going to...” Laura couldn’t even say it.
Lena stopped and looked at her. “I know you’re supposed to be some wealthy heiress. But surely you know where supper comes from.”
Laura nodded. She wasn’t that sheltered.
“The way I figure, we take care of the ones who deserve it first.”
Before they were able to take another step, the two little girls came running out of the house, crying.
“No! Please don’t. It’s my fault the rooster got me. I should have known not to get so close. Papa has warned me. But did I listen? No. You cannot kill him because of my mistake. Kill me instead.”
Emma spoke with such passion; Laura had a hard time continuing, especially since she wasn’t looking forward to assisting with catching tonight’s supper. True, she did know that’s where her suppers came from. But she had always hired help to do the distasteful task. Even at her boardinghouse Laura employed a young maid to come in and help with some of the household chores. Procuring the chicken for dinner was one such chore.
Laura closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Had anyone thought to look after Betsy? The young woman depended on her wages to help her family get by. At fourteen, the girl should be in school, but her parents needed her to work. Laura did her best to pay the girl a good wage, and when things were slow, she tried to help with some of Betsy’s schooling. Maybe her family couldn’t afford for her to go to school, but that didn’t mean the girl wouldn’t get an education.
But thoughts of Betsy’s woes were the least of Laura’s concern right now. The two girls had caught up with the women and were sobbing hysterically.
“Please don’t kill him,” Anna said. “I’ll get the eggs every day, so Emma doesn’t get hurt again. You just can’t kill that rooster. He’s one mighty fine rooster, and we should protect him.”
“Yes, we should protect him,” Emma tearfully agreed.
Owen came running up to them. “What’s going on? Is everything all right? Why are the girls crying? And why do you have an ax, Lena?”
Lena let out a long sigh. “I was about to get our supper and dispatch the mean rooster that attacked one of our girls. But now these girls are saying they don’t want the rooster to die.”
Though Laura wasn’t sure how well she could read Owen anymore, she could tell that he was torn between being exasperated with the situation and genuinely concerned for the girls.
He walked over to his daughters and knelt. “Girls, if that rooster is being mean to you and he hurts you, then we can’t have him on our farm. It’s just not right. We don’t keep dangerous animals here.”
The girls hugged each other; then Anna looked up at him. “Please, Papa. I’ve already promised I’ll do Emma’s chores. Well, at least the eggs part. She said she’d do something else for me, only I haven’t quite figured out what it is.”
Emma nodded enthusiastically. “And it was my fault anyway. Like I told Auntie, I was the one in the wrong. It wouldn’t be fair to punish a poor old rooster for something I did.”
Owen sighed. “I can’t have you pleading for the life of every farm animal on the ranch. You girls know that we have to eat, and this is where our food comes from. So, unfortunately...”
“No!” The girls cried together.
“You wouldn’t kill me if I was mean to my sister, would you?”
“And she’s mean to me all the time.” Emma lifted up the hem of her skirt to show a bruised leg. “See here? This is where she kicked me yesterday.”
Owen’s groan was definitely one of exasperation. But he wrapped his arms around his daughters and hugged them tight against him.
“All right. We’ll give the rooster another chance. I’ll go cut off the spurs on his legs, and we’ll see what that does to keep him from attacking you. But if I hear any more grousing about the mean old rooster, he’s going in the stew pot.”
“Thank you, Papa,” the girls said in unison.
Laura had never been around twins before, so it was interesting to her to see how they not only looked alike, but they seemed to sound alike.
As she watched Owen continue to embrace his daughters, something stirred in her heart. Back when he was protecting her the first time, she’d wondered what kind of man he’d be with a family. He’d seemed like the type who belonged with one. How little had she known. Watching him with the girls now, she knew she’d underestimated him, and that was saying a lot, considering that at the time she would have thought he’d hung the moon.
Maybe that was why things were so different this time around. Back then, she’d put Owen on a pedestal. She thought him everything heroic and wonderful a man could be. But when she realized that he was just doing his job, it had stung. All the feelings he’d stirred up in her were hers alone. So now, even as her heart fluttered at the sight of this man tenderly embracing his daughters, she knew that anything she might think he felt for her wasn’t real.
Owen stood, then held his hands out to the girls. “All right, let’s go see about that rooster. Lena, you can put away the ax. For now.”
As soon as Owen was out of earshot, Lena shook her head and muttered, “The man has no sense when it comes to those girls. He would do just about anything for them. It’s a shame their mother didn’t feel that way, too.”
Owen had said talking about the girls’ mother was strictly off-limits. Hadn’t Lena just opened the door?
“Owen doesn’t speak of her. Just that she is dead.”
Lena nodded. “There is not much about her worth telling. I didn’t like her the first time we met, and I never started. I don’t know what Owen ever saw in her, except that she needed rescuing. In case you haven’t noticed, Owen likes to do the rescuing. Today the rooster, tomorrow it will be some other creature the girls have picked up. He might be a tough lawman, but his heart is as soft as they come.”
It was as if Lena’s words were confirming what Laura had just told herself. Owen liked to rescue. And once more, he was rescuing Laura.
“He does seem to have a tender heart,” Laura said, smiling at Lena. “I suppose that’s why they picked him for this job.”
Lena grinned. “That, and he’s the best shot this side of the Mississippi. The other side, too, since most of them can’t shoot worth the lead in their bullets.”
Laura couldn’t help but laugh at Lena’s idealized description of her brother. It was clear that Lena adored him, and just as Owen had vowed to protect Laura, Laura was certain that Lena would do just about anything to protect Owen.
No, there was no hope for them romantically. Except in the few and far between daydreams she allowed herself to indulge in.
Laura and Lena returned to the house, where Lena finished breakfast preparations.
“I suppose if you want to help by setting the table, that would be fine. Usually, the girls do it, but since they’re out there with their father, tending the rooster, you might as well do it.”
On one hand, Laura was slightly offended at being given a child’s job. But at least she was allowed to do something.
They took the dishes out of the cupboard, and Laura set the table. When she finished, Lena was still busy in the kitchen, flipping pancakes. It wouldn’t do to bother her again. Laura remembered that just outside the front door, there was a field sprinkled with wildflowers. She’d spied an empty vase in the dining room. Perhaps a little color at the table wouldn’t go amiss.
When Laura went outside, she was once again captivated by the beauty of the ranch. She could see Leadville in the distance, so far away, yet standing strong against the backdrop of the mountains towering above it. Though she didn’t have the same aversion to the city that Lena did, Laura had to admit that here the air was fresher and cleaner.
A quaint white picket fence surrounded the ranch house. Laura let herself out the gates and made the short trek to the field she’d spied from her bedroom window. Here wildflowers abounded, making Laura’s own attempts at growing a few flowers around her house seem pathetic. As she picked flowers, she hummed one of the new tunes they learned in church.
In the vastness of the open range, Laura felt a sense of the bigness of God. He’d made all this beautiful land, and here she was, enjoying it.
She gathered flowers, continuing to hum the refrain. The only reason she stopped was the loud grumble her stomach gave. Satisfied at the variety of beautiful flowers she’d collected, Laura turned to go back to the ranch house. She hadn’t realized she’d wandered so far. But just as she began to make her way toward the house, she noticed Owen storming toward her.
“Just what do you think you were doing, wandering off like that?”
His harsh tone made Laura want to cringe. Once again, he was speaking to her in a way she was no longer used to. Though she supposed she should start getting used to it. The old Owen never spoke to her like this, and it reminded her so much of James. Angry and accusing, without concern for her feelings.
“I was just gathering some flowers,” she said firmly. When James would treat her like that, she would cower and apologize for herself.
But that was the old Laura. The new Laura had nothing to apologize for. She was her own woman, and she would not cower just because a man raised his voice at her.
One more reason to tamp down any affectionate feelings she might have for Owen.
“You can’t just wander around here, especially without telling anyone where you’re going. James and his men could be out there. Didn’t Lena tell you to stay inside the fence?”
Laura tried to remember if Lena had said something, but she honestly wasn’t sure. It seemed like there was so much new information she’d been given over the past day, that she didn’t know.
“I...”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Owen grabbed her by the elbow and turned her in the direction of the house. “You have to stay in the yard. If we were in town, you would be confined to being indoors only. Don’t make me regret giving you even this little bit of freedom.”
Laura jerked her arm out of Owen’s grip. “And I don’t need you manhandling me to get me to go back inside. I understand the danger. In the future, I will be more cautious. However, you don’t need to be so rough with me. I’m not a child.”
Owen glared at her. “Then stop acting like one. I’m trying to save your life, and all you seem to do is gripe about the inconvenience it is to you. At least my children know not to leave the yard without letting someone know where they’re going.”
“Is someone after them, too?”
He paused, looking like he needed a moment to gather his thoughts. Perhaps they both did, with the way they were arguing. Then Owen looked at her with a gentler gaze.
“No, no one is after them. But there are dangers aplenty out here. Though we don’t get too many bears, they have been known to come onto ranch property. And then there are the mountain lions, who follow the herds of deer that like to graze in my pastures. When we were in town, you mentioned being able to take care of yourself with your pistol. Did you even remember to bring it on your little stroll?”