When the refreshment tables became visible through the leafy branches, Pippa paused midstride and, turning toward Grace, placed a beseeching hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”
Unwilling to add another lie on the pile she’d already constructed, she met the other woman’s gaze and opted for the truth. “No, Pippa. I’m not.”
The actress studied her with those lively hazel eyes, a pleat between her ginger-hued brows. Grace knew she wouldn’t have to wait long for her opinion. They’d spent a pleasant afternoon together earlier in the week, enjoying pastries and tea at the bakery while the girls ate and played quietly at another table, after which she’d given them a tour of the opera house. Pippa had respected Grace’s decision not to let the girls perform. Nor had she pressed her for information about her life in Chicago. While she felt they were on the way to being friends, she couldn’t ever be her true self, not when she had to keep up this deception.
“There’s something between you and the sheriff, isn’t there?”
“I care for him.” It felt wonderful to admit her private feelings to someone. “The problem is he doesn’t feel the same.”
Pippa heaved a deep sigh, the purple feather dangling from her hat sweeping low. “Why must some men insist on making our lives difficult? For what it’s worth, I don’t get the impression he doesn’t care. He’s not an easy man to read, however. Still waters run deep, and all that.” She fluttered her fingers.
Grace twisted the heavy ruby ring on her first finger, hating what these jewels represented—not tokens of affection from a husband who adored her but meaningless objects intended to flaunt the Longstreet wealth—and wished she could forget them in a drawer somewhere to collect dust. But they’d provide instant funds if she and the girls ever had to leave town in a rush.
“You came here on the first bride train. Have you not met anyone you can see yourself marrying?”
“There are plenty of nice gentlemen in Cowboy Creek,” Pippa said. “Of course I’d fancy the one who isn’t planning on sticking around.”
“Gideon.”
“Yes.”
Grace gave her a commiserating look. “Is there a chance he’ll change his mind?”
“He loves his job. All he talks about is how grand his life is, the adventures he gets to experience traveling the nation. There’s no possibility of him staying in a boring Kansas boomtown.”
“I wouldn’t call Cowboy Creek boring. Perhaps he’s testing you, gauging your reaction, before working up the courage to ask you to join him.”
“I don’t know.” Her usual confidence slipped, allowing Grace a glimpse of vulnerability. Pippa truly cared for Gideon, that much was obvious.
Hitching up her purple-and-black-striped skirts, Pippa squared her shoulders. “Come. Let’s forget about our irksome gentlemen and take advantage of the celebration.”
Grace’s smile was halfhearted, her mind consumed with Noah’s kiss, the joy his embrace had evoked and the sorrow following his heartbreaking rejection.
As soon as they left the tree line, a man with a stocky build, wavy brown hair and kind brown eyes approached with his hat in his hands. He possessed boyish good looks and a hesitant manner.
“Mrs. Miller?”
Her stomach tightened. “Yes?”
“I’m Colton Bailey. Sheriff Burgess was supposed to introduce us today. Guess he forgot.” Sticking out his hand, he shook hers as if sealing a deal with a fellow rancher. “Would you like to accompany me on a picnic tomorrow after services?”
Grace considered postponing before Noah’s parting words reminded her the kiss didn’t mean anything to him. She had an obligation to find a replacement husband as soon as possible. Because he’d rebuffed her. Over and over again. Pain arrowed through her.
“Why don’t you join us for Sunday lunch out at the ranch?” she offered on the spur of the moment, savoring the thought of Noah’s reaction.
Colton’s expression faltered. “You don’t think the sheriff will mind?”
Oh, he’ll mind, all right. “He doesn’t have to join us.”
He nodded. “Then I accept. Thank you kindly, Mrs. Miller.”
“Please, call me Constance.”
Pippa, who’d been silent during the exchange, shot her a surprised sideways glance.
Colton smiled. He had a nice smile. He struck her as young, but apparently he was old enough to have his own spread and old enough to be searching for a wife.
“Good day, Constance.”
After he’d swaggered away, Pippa’s laugh was low. “I’d like to be a fly on the wall of the sheriff’s cabin tomorrow.”
Grace shrugged, striving for a nonchalance she didn’t feel. “Noah doesn’t want to marry me. In fact, he’s helping Will and Daniel in this scheme to marry me off to someone else. Courting potential suitors is what I’m expected to do. If he doesn’t like it, he shouldn’t have insisted I stay at the ranch.”
Pippa grinned. “I’ll expect a full report on Monday.”
* * *
Noah pondered his options with careful consideration. He could throw Colton Bailey out of his house and order him off his property over threat of bodily harm. He could toss Constance over his shoulder, cart her outside and demand to know why she thought inviting another man to eat at his table—a man clearly besotted with her—was a good idea. Especially considering Noah had held her in his arms just yesterday.
Less than twenty-four hours ago, he’d made a naive mistake, one he somehow couldn’t regret. He’d take those precious moments with him to the grave.
Grinding his back teeth together, he sliced into the roast on his plate with too much force, the resulting screech causing everyone at the table to cease their conversation and stare. Meeting Constance’s inscrutable gaze, he set his utensils aside and focused on getting his coffee down without choking.
She’d done this to goad him. If her notable unease was anything to go by, she regretted it as much as Noah. Her laughter in response to Bailey’s jokes was forced, her speech stilted as she answered his questions.
Jane had been telling him about the fun things she liked to do in Chicago. Unaware of the adults’ tension, she gushed, “My second cousin played dolls with me. She sewed dresses and bonnets for them out of scrap material.”
Bailey’s smile was authentic. He didn’t seem to mind the girls’ chatter. Good for him, Noah thought sourly.
“That was thoughtful of her. What’s her name?”
“Oh, um...” What could only be described as a guilty air came over her. From beneath lowered lashes, she shot her mother a questioning glance. “I—”
“The girls really miss their family.” Constance rushed to intervene, her color heightened. “Do you have family close by, Colton?”
Something wasn’t right. Noah studied the three females. Jane kept her gaze downcast, as if she’d blundered. Abigail gaped at her sister. Constance was clearly flustered. But why? Was there some secret family scandal involving her cousin?
The moment passed, and eventually the topic of favorite hobbies came up. When Bailey mentioned he liked to fish, Jane brightened. “Would you teach me how?”
“Me, too!” Abigail bounced in her seat.
Noah scowled. If anyone was going to teach the twins how to fish, it was going to be him. Why they’d asked a man they’d just met instead of him he couldn’t figure. He was pretty sure Colton Bailey had never fixed little girls’ hair before.
“I’ll show you, girls.” Scraping his chair back, he carried his half-full plate to the counter. “In fact, why don’t we head out to the stream now and give your ma and Mr. Bailey a few moments alone?”
The suggestion delighted the twins. Bailey dipped his head, his attention on his plate, while Constance’s lips pressed into a line of displeasure.
“That’s not necessary,” she said, starting to get up.
Noah aimed a false smile at her. “I don’t mind. You and your beau take your time over coffee and dessert. No need to rush.”
His mouth felt full of nails at Bailey’s obvious approval of that idea.
Angry as a hornet whose nest had been disturbed, he stalked toward the door. “Jane. Abigail. I’ll be in the barn fetching the poles. Meet me at the stream.”
“Yes, sir!”
Resting on the porch, Wolf hopped up and followed him across the yard and into the barn. Rummaging through his tool room, he said over his shoulder, “This is a disaster, Wolf. A nightmare.”
The wolf dog stood watching him, his tail wagging, looking almost as if he was smiling.
“There’s nothing funny about this, you know.”
If only he could wake up and find this messy situation was just a dream. That he’d returned from the fruitless search for the Murdoch gang to an empty cabin. That his friends had actually listened and heeded his objections.
He pinched the bridge of his nose trying to ward off a headache.
But then, he wouldn’t have met Constance. Or the girls. He wouldn’t have had anyone to read to. Or share delicious meals with. He wouldn’t have pictures drawn specifically for him. He wouldn’t feel connected or wanted or needed. And he had to be honest, it felt amazing to be those things to the widow and her daughters. Sure, the town needed him to do a job, but that was different. This thing with Constance, Jane and Abigail, it was personal.
He was beginning to dread the day they would leave.
Emerging into the steady sunshine, he joined the girls on the bank and showed them how to dig for worms. Abigail surprised him. The worms didn’t seem to bother her. Jane was more squeamish, her freckled nose wrinkling as she held one away from her body.
He found himself fighting a grin. Which was shocking, considering his brain persisted in conjuring images of Constance and Bailey together inside.
When they at long last had their lines in the water, Noah sank against the tree and rested his pole against his bent leg. Wasn’t difficult to picture endless lazy Sundays just like this one, the mint-scented breeze lifting his hair and cooling his skin, the kids’ giggles of delight mixing with the birds’ song above their heads. He could picture more children. His and Constance’s. Maybe a little boy to tease his older sisters, one with dark hair and honey-colored eyes and impish features like his ma. Or would he have blond hair and blue eyes like him?
Longing for the impossible lodged in his chest as sorrow weighed his heart.
He’d made his decision. Pushed her away repeatedly. She deserved a man like Colton Bailey. A man whose soul hadn’t been darkened by past horrors.
Jane lifted her gaze from the water. “Where’s your ma and pa, Mr. Noah?”
“And your sisters?” Abigail added. “The ones whose hair you said you fixed.”
Noah didn’t like discussing his family because it brought him grief and remorse. He couldn’t, however, snub their innocent curiosity.
“They’re in Virginia.”
At least, he thought they were. He couldn’t say for sure. Constance’s rebuke fresh in his mind, he decided then and there to write to his parents. He owed them that much.
* * *
“I ain’t no thief!”
Noah kept a firm hold on the cowboy’s arm, propelling him away from Drover’s Place, where the drovers who didn’t camp on the town’s outskirts paid for a real bed and a solid roof over their heads.
“I have proof that says otherwise.”
“I don’t know how those wallets wound up in my room, honest. You’ve got the wrong man, Sheriff.”
“Well, you see, your trail boss told me you’ve been accused of stealing before. Said he warned you to keep your hands clean this trip or you’d be finished. Should’ve listened.”
At the corner of Second and Eden, mere steps from the jail, Deputy Hanley rushed up, hat waving in the air. “Sheriff, I’ve been lookin’ all over for you,” he panted. “Mr. Canfield wants you to come to his house right away. The county seat rep arrived on the one-o’clock train.”
He was a day early. Noah thrust the thief toward Hanley. “Lock him up. I’ll be round to do a report later today.”
Hanley looked the man up and down. “Yes, sir.”
After waiting until the two men were inside the jail, Noah continued up the street and turned left on Third. Will’s house was almost complete. There weren’t as many workers milling on the property today because the brick facade was nearly done. The couple was surely impatient for peace and quiet.
Tomasina answered his summons, grinning like a cat with a big bowl of cream. “Well, good afternoon, Noah. How was your Sunday? I heard you had a gentleman caller.”
He glared at her, knowing she wouldn’t be cowed. “I didn’t have a caller. Where’d you hear that, anyway?”
“Will told me.” Stepping back in a sweep of green skirts, she waved him inside the grand entryway.
He slapped his Stetson on the side table, careful not to disturb the vase of fresh-picked flowers. “And who told him?”
“I believe Pippa told Leah, who in turn told Daniel. And you know Will and Daniel share most everything.”
Boldly linking her arm with his, she led him in the direction of the parlor. “Know what I think?”
“You’re going to tell me whether I want to know or not.”
Her grin grew even wider, if that were possible. “I think you should give in to your friends’ wishes and marry the woman. You’ll have meals on your table, holes in your socks mended and, best of all, you won’t have to come home to a silent house.”
Noah had no trite response for her because he’d already considered these things. Fortunately, she took pity on him, letting him stew over her comments. In the parlor’s wide entry, she slipped free to go to her husband’s side. Will stood to welcome him, as did Daniel and Gideon Kendricks. A distinguished gentleman with wiry gray hair and a beard occupying one of two wingback chairs gained his feet while Will made the introductions.
“Gregory McAllister, this is the man we told you about, Noah Burgess. He’s one of the main reasons we’re here today. Without him, Cowboy Creek wouldn’t have earned a place on the map.”
Noah shook the man’s smooth, age-spotted hand. “Pleasure to meet you, sir. And I can’t take all the credit. These two are the ones with the big dreams. I just happened to be here from the outset.”
“A pleasure.”
When they were seated again, Gideon relaxed into the sofa cushions, one long leg propped over the other. “My employer, the Union Pacific, is very pleased with how the town has grown and prospered. We chose Cowboy Creek because we believed it to be the best spot for a railroad terminus in this part of Kansas. We haven’t been disappointed.”
Mr. McAllister wore a stern expression. Gideon’s recommendation didn’t appear to impress him. “That’s good to hear, Mr. Kendricks.” To Daniel, he said, “On my way from the station, I saw that the stockyards were full of longhorn cattle. How are your local ranchers handling their presence?”
“A couple of issues have arisen, occasional disputes and such, but we resolved them to all parties’ satisfaction. It’s to be expected when you’ve got a fluctuating population.”
Noah could see the sudden tension in his friend’s shoulders. Did McAllister? Daniel didn’t plan on mentioning the rancher’s poisoned cattle unless asked directly. That they didn’t know who was responsible or why they’d done it wouldn’t reflect well on their leadership abilities.
“I see.” Adjusting the rims of his spectacles, he peered at Will. “I’d like to see the town proper and speak to some of the residents. I’d also like to confer with the trail boss of this cattle drive and a couple of his drovers to discover their point of view.”
“Certainly.” Will nodded, his demeanor more relaxed than Daniel’s. “As soon as we have coffee and refreshments, we’ll take you on a tour. We’ve planned a gathering for tomorrow evening so that you can mingle with the locals.”
“I’ll make sure the drovers are represented,” Daniel added.
“I look forward to it.”
Noah, who’d remained standing by an unoccupied cushioned chair, took the opportunity to welcome the man again and make his escape.
“I’ll see you at the gathering tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve got to get back to the jail.”
Tomasina brought a tray of tea cakes. “Don’t you want to stay for coffee?”
He lifted a hand. “No, thanks. Another time.”
Mr. McAllister’s gaze sharpened. “You have pressing business, Sheriff Burgess?”
“Just some papers to fill out.”
Not willing to linger, he bid everyone goodbye and left before the man could question him further. He was uncomfortable with this entire situation. While they weren’t required to divulge every single tidbit of information about the town, deliberately hiding the recent troubles—unsolved, serious troubles that included a bank robbery and the murder of the previous sheriff—struck him as deceptive. He had plenty of faults, but deceit wasn’t one of them. His parents had insisted on honesty, had taught him and his sisters to tell the truth from the time they were old enough to understand.
He knew Will and Daniel shared his sentiments.
Passing the saddle shop, he encountered Colton Bailey, who lit up like a bonfire when their gazes met.
“Just the man I wanted to see,” he said, grinning. “I wanted to thank you for allowing me to call on Constance. It was a pleasant afternoon.”
For you maybe. “No problem.” He started to walk on, but Bailey continued speaking.
“I was wondering if you’d mind watching the girls tomorrow night so Constance and I can go out alone. I’d like to treat her to dinner at the hotel.”
“She’s busy tomorrow night.” He seized on the excuse, only just now deciding to ask if she’d accompany him to the gathering at Will and Tomasina’s. “Besides, you’ll have to ask her if she’s inclined to go first.”
“Oh, I already have.” His dark eyes danced merrily. “She accepted my invitation.”
Noah’s nails bit into his palms. She must fancy Bailey then. Especially seeing as how she had declined to see Pete Lyle a second time.
“Unless something comes up, I’m free Thursday evening.”
Colton slapped his hat against his leg. “Wonderful! Thursday it is. I have a feeling, Sheriff, that I may be taking her off your hands really soon.”
The familiar dread weighed down his feet. “Not just her, Bailey. Are you prepared to be a father to those girls?”
He kicked up a shoulder. “I like the girls. They’re sweet. Cute as a button, too.”
“Raising kids is hard work,” he snapped.
He wasn’t a father, but in the brief time he’d spent with Jane and Abigail, he’d seen it was a daunting task. Frustrating at times. Yet the rewards couldn’t be underestimated. Smiles. Hugs. That feeling of wonder and accomplishment when a child mastered a new challenge.
“I’m a quick learner.” His positive manner didn’t falter. “Look, I have an order to pick up and a sick cow to get back to. See you Thursday, Sheriff.”
Noah watched him leave with the knowledge that, in his eyes, no one would ever be good enough for Constance.