Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) (22 page)

Langley managed a half smile. “Sounds good, Bert.”

Archie wasn’t so polite. Aaron got the feeling he was the most like his pa and the furthest gone down the path to worthless. He said to Kylie, “Sorry we brought you trouble, Mrs. Masterson.” But he sounded less than sincere, more like he was sorry he’d gotten caught.

Kylie nodded, stood, and moved toward the door. “I think we’re done here, Aaron. Can we get back to our new cabin? We can get more work done before the sun sets if we hurry.”

Aaron took her arm and led his wife out of the jailhouse.

“I thought to take you out for supper, Kylie, but I’m not much in the mood to take a meal at Erica’s Diner tonight if you don’t mind.”

Kylie smiled. “I think I’d rather eat grass with the horses.”

“Maybe all our troubles are finally under lock and key.” As Aaron boosted her up on her horse, though he wasn’t a superstitious man, he regretted saying that—like he was begging for more trouble to land smack-dab on top of his head.

T
ucker kicked his horse into a full gallop and was halfway to Masterson’s new cabin before his head cleared enough to even know where he was going or why.

Sunrise.

He was going to see his ma. She’d be there. He knew her as he knew no one else on earth, and she’d taken Kylie under her wing. So she’d be at the cabin, building it, making sure a chick she’d decided to claim had a snug nest.

And those varmints in town had tried to make it look like Sunrise and her people were attempting murder. Things in the West were touchy enough. What they’d done could’ve flared up into killing with not much to ignite the blaze.

Those kids were too stupid to know the damage they might’ve caused, but that didn’t make Tucker any less furious. He bent low over his horse and rode like a bat escaping the fiery depths of Hades.

Finally the drumming of the grulla’s hooves penetrated his anger, and he let the forest in. He’d been riding like a
fool. Tucker wasn’t a man who ran around blind, and not paying attention was as good as blind.

Now he listened and it soothed his raging soul. He eased his mare to a trot and then to a walk. Resting his hand on his mustang’s sweating shoulder, he let the wiry animal’s strength soak into him and silently apologized for working the loyal critter so hard. This was no way to treat the best horse he ever had.

The breeze sighed through the lodgepole pines. The aspens quaked until he could drink in the peace of their flutter. A sudden quiet rush of activity overhead drew his eyes up to see a falcon swooping away from the regal tip of a fir tree, its narrow peak dipping gently.

It all helped.

This was his land, his heart. He understood how this world worked. It was people that were a mystery.

Give him a grizzly bear or a wolverine and he knew just what to do. Let him stumble onto the edge of a glacier or find himself hungry in the middle of a Rocky Mountain blizzard, and he’d handle it without much worry.

But people. Tucker dragged one hand over his eyes. Those three young whelps trying to steal a claim when they could as soon work for their own. Trying to trick a good man into a marriage he didn’t want.

What kind of fool woman wants a man who’d only marry her for her land? What kind of worthless kid wants a job wrangled by his sister?

Thinking of it got Tucker riled again, so he went back to patting his horse and enjoying the woods, hoping he’d find Ma at Masterson’s house.

He loved that woman. He reckoned he owed her his life,
because Pa would’ve probably made a bungle of raising him. And he sure as certain owed her for his love of this beautiful mountain land.

He checked the powder horn and knife strapped crosswise on his chest, the gun holstered at his hip. The knife up his sleeve, and the two in his boots. His rifle was across his back, his whip was hooked on his belt, and he had a second pistol tucked into the small of his back, with a stiletto—needle thin and razor sharp—slipped into a hidden pocket in the seam of his pants.

A man didn’t wander this rugged land without being prepared to defend himself, and the more prepared he was, the less trouble he faced.

All of his upset was gone, and his usual cool head was back in control as he neared the clearing where Masterson was building. He shook his head, wondering why anyone would want to live this close to the noise and smell and bother of all those folks in Aspen Ridge. He’d talked a bit to Masterson and knew this wasn’t permanent. Why then was he building at all? Was the man so narrow-minded he couldn’t think of a teepee? He was killing trees and clearing land for a place he’d only live in a few weeks or months maybe. Certainly he had no permanent plans to stay.

Tucker liked his ma’s way of living better, and although Tucker had a cabin in the high-up hills, he’d thought long and hard before he’d picked the spot. He’d tramped a lot of miles and lived in caves and teepees and out under the open sky for years before he’d settled.

Emerging from the woods, he saw movement on the roof of Masterson’s nearly finished cabin. A pair of eyes turned and locked on him. Something in those eyes drew
his attention in a way he couldn’t quite explain. He couldn’t look away. Then that head with its dark curls ducked out of sight.

Masterson had killed back the trees to make a decent-sized clearing, which Tucker was just entering. He was probably forty or fifty feet from the house, and he’d only seen those curls and those eyes for a moment when he knew he’d never seen them before. And he knew he wanted to see them again.

Words he couldn’t make out passed between two people behind the house. A skinny young man with blond hair peeked around the corner, then quickly disappeared.

Tucker touched his holstered gun, wondering where Ma was. Then he saw her. She walked out of the house, where a door had been neatly hung. He swung down and noticed a hitching post had already been put in place in front. He smelled something cooking and heard a fire crackling behind the house. Beef. Ma didn’t go hunting for beef, so someone had brought it over. Probably one of these visitors.

Scanning the place, Tucker saw a corral finished behind the house. The house wasn’t closed up yet, but there were split aspens laid overlapping each other about halfway up on all four walls. Probably a bigger job than could be tackled today, but it didn’t look like rain. If it suited them, Masterson and his wife could sleep here tonight.

A lot had been done since he’d come out here to get Aaron and Kylie. Ma was a mighty handy woman, yet she sure hadn’t done all this. Who were the folks building on the house?

Hooves pounded away on the far side, and Tucker knew
whoever it was, they were hightailing it. He had a momentary stab of worry for Ma just as she stepped out of the house, looking just fine. Jumping off the grulla, he stripped off the hackamore bridle and let the mustang roam.

“Howdy, Ma.” He jogged up and hugged Sunrise, lifting her off her feet as he often did. She slapped his shoulders and smiled. It was their usual greeting. “Who was helping you?”

“That was Kylie’s family. All but her pa.”

Tucker quit smiling. “I’ve met Cudgel Wilde. I had a run-in with him in the woods. He told me I was on his property and threatened to fill my backside full of buckshot if I didn’t move along. A sour old goat who doesn’t deserve to have a pretty young daughter.” He thought of that head of dark curls. Those eyes. He waited for Ma to tell him more, not wanting to get caught showing interest.

“Shannon and Bailey are good builders. They came to help with the house. They are not ones to mix with folks, so when they heard you, they headed home.”

“I remember her brothers were at her house the other day. Is that the whole family?” That hadn’t looked like a brother up there. Except what woman had short hair like that? “They wouldn’t come out of Kylie’s house when Coulter and I rode over. I understand keeping to yourself. I like that as well as any man, but it don’t make no sense to be quite so standoffish.”

Sunrise waved a hand. “It is their way. Now you help.”

Ma hadn’t answered his question about Kylie’s family. Was there a sister? Shannon and Bailey sounded like men. “Masterson had a few more things to see to in town before he could come home. Let’s see if we can surprise him.”

There was a nice pile of aspens ready for the roof. They were neatly done, and it was all new, since Tucker had been here just a few hours ago. Must’ve been the brothers’ work. The Wildes were skilled woodsmen. A nice change from the Hughes family.

Tucker looked up at the roof and pictured those dark curls and bright eyes. He’d bet he could get Kylie to tell him about her family. He bit back a grin as he leaned a long row of split logs on end against the wall, then headed for the corner of the house and scaled it. The corners were logs notched and crossed so they stuck out like steepled fingers, a perfect ladder.

He pulled the first log up and set it in place.

Over the years he’d helped his ma build a barn, and they’d re-roofed that and her cabin a couple of times. Sunrise didn’t like admitting any white man’s ways made sense, but Pierre had himself a cabin, so that was where she lived and she’d finally let Tucker build her horse a shelter in the winter.

Sunrise was a lot younger than her husband, and as Pierre had aged, Tucker had done a lot for them. He and Ma knew how to work well together.

There was plenty left to do before the cabin could be called finished. Building the chimney, hanging the windows, chinking the cracks, and Masterson would probably want to lay a floor.

But with his ma’s help, Tucker was setting the last log in place on the peak of the roof when the Mastersons rode into the clearing. Kylie and Aaron could sleep here tonight.

Kylie saw Tucker straddling their roof. She smelled food cooking. The people after her were locked up. She had a
handsome new husband who showed signs of real decency. Except he wanted to move farther into the wilderness.

It was all she could do not to cry.

And if they weren’t completely tears of gratitude, well, she had no intention of letting them fall, so what difference did it make?

Tucker hailed them and then turned his attention back to the roof. He was right at the peak; he had it all enclosed.

Sunrise waved from the ground, where she picked up scraps of log. “There is stew around back.”

Aaron helped her down from her horse and kept a supporting hand on the small of her back as he led the horses toward the corral.

Why, she was being waited on hand and foot. She might as well be a princess.

They sat on the dirt floor of the roughly finished house. Tucker ate with them.

“I saw your brothers today, Mrs. Masterson.”

“Oh, call me Kylie, for heaven’s sake. Mrs. Masterson takes too long.”

Tucker grinned. Kylie couldn’t help remembering him with all that wild fur on his face. He looked much more civilized now, though the long hair and full beard was probably more who he truly was. A kind, hardworking, decent man, but only half tame.

He nodded. “Obliged, Kylie.”

“So you got to know Bailey and Shannon a bit, then?” Aaron asked.

Kylie could hear the amusement in his voice, even if he was doing his best to keep it under control.

“Nope, I barely caught a glimpse of ’em. The dark-haired
one on top of the roof and the fair-haired one working on the ground. They rode away the minute they saw me. I never even spoke to ’em. Your brothers are mighty unfriendly.” Tucker might have stressed the word
brothers
, but Kylie wasn’t sure and wasn’t going to mention it.

“Shannon has dark hair.” Kylie looked around. “I can see Bailey’s been working here. Bailey has a lathe and some other fine woodworking tools. I haven’t seen them since my wedding. I reckon they’re upset that I gave up my claim, but still they came, prepared to help. That sounds like my family.”

“Does it?” Tucker got up, empty plate in hand, and carried it to a basin of hot water set on the dirt floor. He crouched beside it and made short work of washing his plate and fork. “Well, then you’re lucky in your family, lucky indeed. I am going to make a point of getting to know them, despite their standoffish ways. Good night, everyone.” Then he left the cabin.

Kylie had no doubt he’d meant those words as a warning. Her sisters were going to have to watch out.

“I moved in bedrolls and clothes from your homestead cabin today, nothing large or heavy,” Sunrise said. She made that announcement and was gone moments after Tucker.

Kylie was alone again with her husband.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get the rest of your things moved, Kylie. Your bed and stove and your rocking chairs. For tonight we’ll have to make do with a bedroll on the ground.”

Kylie smiled and caressed Aaron’s face with her open palm. “That’s fine. I never dreamed we’d be sleeping here tonight. I can’t believe the house is so close to done. I came
west in a covered wagon, Aaron, so I slept on the ground for months. And before that I slept in a tent. I’ve slept in muddy trenches. I’ve crawled across battlefields with cannons exploding around me. I’ve—”

Aaron reached out and touched her lips with one finger. “We need to talk about that. I’d even like to share war stories.” He gave her a sad smile. “But I hate knowing you’ve seen such ugliness. I wish I’d have known you then and been able to shelter you from such hard things.”

Kylie kissed that callused fingertip. “Thank you, but I don’t think I carry it around with me the way you do, Aaron. Maybe in some ways, the fact that I was pretending to be someone else, a man, makes it easier to leave it all behind. And Pa was already planning to take advantage of our service exemption, so we headed west as soon as we all got home. Bailey was the slowest getting there. I’m not sure why. She never would talk about it. But she returned months after Shannon and I did. Then, just days after she came walking up our lane, Pa told us our disguises would have to stay on. He loaded us in a covered wagon and we headed west. We weren’t leaving much behind. We always had a miserable little farm that didn’t produce much. And we were all pretty beaten down by the war. Letting Pa take charge was easy enough. We weren’t giving up a nice place like you did, with a long, prosperous family heritage.”