Wyoming Wildfire (30 page)

“Maybe I’d better. If I make it hot enough, maybe it can melt that block of ice she calls a heart.” Sibyl stormed off to the kitchen and Augusta went upstairs to see to the bestowing of the bags. She knew Sibyl well enough to know that the battle lines were drawn. She did not expect to enjoy this party.

Chapter 19

“You should see the goings-on in the bunkhouse, ma’am,” Jesse informed Augusta. “You might mistake it for the Laramie Hotel before the spring dance. The boys are washing clothes, shaving, and scrubbing places that only get wet if they fall in the creek. I never knew them to get so excited over any party. It’s a good thing the weather is holding, or they’d be offering a month’s pay to anyone willing to take their place on the line.”

“It has been nice all day,” Augusta agreed, torn between wondering which was better for Sibyl: being kept inside and forced to endure the Strattons’ company, or knowing that Burch had spent the enure day riding over the ranch with Emma and her brother. “Thank heavens the snow has melted. At least it will make it easier for people to get here.”

“Some of the hands are here already. There’s plenty of room for them to bunk in with our men,” he said, answering Augusta’s questioning glance. “There’s a year’s worth of gossip to catch up on.”

Sibyl took no part in the conversation, just as she had taken no part in any since Emma blithely waltzed in and took command of Burch, much as a mother hen would an errant chick. Emma had not left his side for the whole of the previous evening. She had sat next to him at dinner and then pulled him down beside her on the sofa, keeping him there with childhood reminiscences long after everyone else had gone to bed. Augusta had expected Sibyl to make one of her caustic remarks, but she had been uncharacteristically quiet, rarely speaking, and devoting her energies to dinner and seeing that the guests were comfortable.

Emma did not relinquish her hold the next day. She was up before Burch and invaded his bedroom, smiling brightly and teasing him about lying in bed till all hours. “I don’t see how you get anything done like that,” she say coyly. “You need someone to get you started on your way each day. A man can’t be expected to greet the day without a proper beginning.” The discovery that Sibyl was up before any of them, preparing a huge breakfast, took the steam out of her engine, but only for a moment.

“I never saw anything like this in my life,” observed Auggie, awed at the feast set before them. With heroic determination, he plowed his way through more food than Sibyl though any one man could put away without having to go back to bed to sleep it off. A confidential wink from Burch sent Sibyl’s spirits soaring, but Emma saw it and dug in with even greater determination.

“Let’s go for a ride,” she said with overflowing enthusiasm. “I can’t bear to be cooped up for very long. And I haven’t seen any of the improvements you’ve made since last year.”

“There’s not much to see except for what Sibyl’s done around the ranch,” said Burch. “I’ve had all I could do to keep the cows alive this year.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Auggie added, his mouth full of pancakes and fresh sausage. Tm afraid we’ll find the herds didn’t do so well come spring.”

“Don’t you provide for your cattle through the winter?” inquired Augusta, innocently assuming that everyone did as Burch and Lasso.

“Lord no, ma’am,” he said, reaching for the plate of ham. “No sane man ventures out of Cheyenne until spring, but Emma swore she’d bust if we didn’t stay long enough to come to this party.”

Augusta shut her mouth, aware that she had exposed a vulnerable side of the Strattons.

“Naturally we do all we can for our herds,” Emma said, with a glance that would have slain a more stalwart foe than Augusta. “After all, it is the source of our wealth. And I’m so anxious to see what you’re doing,” she said, turning her heavily penciled eyes to Burch. “Daddy always said no one would know a thing about ranching until they’ve seen the Elkhorn.” Auggie’s mouth was too full to defend himself, but Sibyl wasn’t sure she could stand any more without getting sick.

“It’s a little cool for a ride,” Burch pointed out.

“Pooh, what do I care for cold,” Emma scoffed. “You must have miss—oh dear, I’ve forgotten your name again,” she claimed apologetically to Sibyl. “I have such a terrible memory.”

“It’s Cameron, but don’t worry about it,” replied Sibyl. “ I wouldn’t want you to be overtaxed while you’re here.”

Auggie grinned at his sister’s discomfiture, but Emma had no time to waste on Sibyl.

“It would be awfully nice if your cousin would pack a lunch for us. Then we wouldn’t have to come back so soon, and I could
really
see the ranch.”

“It’s rather cold for that much riding.”

“Fifty dollars says I can stay in the saddle as long as you,” Emma challenged Burch gleefully. “Dare you.”

“Done!” Burch capitulated, unable to resist a challenge. “But Auggie must be the judge.” That didn’t suit either brother or sister, but neither objected and Emma and Auggie both rose to go change their clothes.

Burch turned to Sibyl with his disarming smile. “I’m sorry they had to come so early, but at least this will keep them out of your way.”

“I don’t mind,” she lied.

“Don’t let Emma get on your nerves,” he said, taking her hands in his. “She’s a bit bossy, but I’ve known her since she was ten and she’s an old friend.”

Sibyl nodded, unable to trust her tongue with even the most commonplace remark.

Burch looked over his shoulder, saw that Augusta’s back was turned, and gave Sibyl a swift kiss. “There’s a whole lot more I’d like to do,” he whispered softly in her ear.

“Well you won’t do it now” Sibyl said, reviving magically under his touch. “I dare not imagine what Emma would think.”

“I’ve got all day to learn what Emma thinks,” he said with a look of resignation, “and if I know Emma, she won’t be shy of telling me. Don’t wear yourself out. This party’s supposed to be fun for you too.” He chucked Sibyl under the chin and left to join me Strattons, to all outward appearances content to be spending his day with Emma.

Sibyl’s happiness faded as quickly as it had bloomed. Burch’s departure represented a repudiation of her, a preference of Emma’s company over hers, and the hurt was almost more man she could hide.

Burch couldn’t see that what was perfect solution for him was tearing Sibyl apart. Being with Emma would be easy—there was no desire, no temptation. And he’d get Emma out of Sibyl’s hair. He didn’t realize how his absence would hurt her, how much she needed his touch, his smile, or any other small tokens of his affection. To him such tiny signs were of no consequence and only made his physical torture more exquisitely painful. Thus, unknowingly, he denied her the very assurances that would have enabled her to ignore Emma’s presence.

Lasso’s arrival further aggravated the situation by depriving Sibyl of Augusta’s company. She had nothing to do for the day and no one to do it with; consequently, she spent her time concentrating on her unhappiness and distorting the little looks and inflections of speech she had witnessed between Emma and Burch. By the time they returned from their ride, she had talked herself into believing they were in love and she was standing in the way of their true happiness.

It was late in the afternoon when they returned. They hurried in, blue from the cold, exhausted from a day in the saddle, and starved for something hot to eat. Emma had also returned with a burning desire to have one of the bulls from the breeding herd Burch had showed them. She didn’t despair of getting a cow and one of the calves, but a yearling bull was her immediate objective.

“Wait until you sit down to one of Sibyl’s dinners,” Lasso said when the spicy smells of roast chicken and frying sausage met them at the door. “You’ve never tasted anything like it.”

“If it’s better than breakfast, I can’t wait,” said Auggie, disappearing to change his clothes. Emma, doing her best to disguise that a day spent in the saddle had made her extremely sore and stiff, smiled sweetly.

“How nice,” she said curtly and passed on.

“Did you have a nice day?” asked Augusta, trying to detain Burch at least a moment, for Sibyl’s benefit.

“Very pleasant,” Burch replied, making her sorry she’d asked. “Auggie is a fool, but Emma is a very sensible woman. She seemed to think very highly of Sibyl’s haystacks.”

Sibyl hoped that, after being away all day, Burch would linger after Emma had gone. But Burch, unaware that Sibyl wouldn’t have cared if they never ate as long as she got him to herself for just a few minutes, hurried away determined to compensate for his absence by a prompt and well-scrubbed appearance at dinner.

At dinner, Emma soon made it clear that she had no intention of crediting Sibyl with the haystacks—or anything else if she could help it.

“I don’t think Auggie enjoyed our ride today” she said, sacrificing her brother on the altar of her ambition, “but it was worth it to see what Burch has done in one year. I could have cried with vexation when I saw all those cows placidly eating away at one haystack after another, and just as fat as though they’d had decent grass all summer. I begged Auggie to pay attention to our hayfields, but I couldn’t get him to listen to a word I said.”

“The men out here do have an unfortunate tendency to think that they have all the answers,” commented Sibyl.

“But Burch does,” Emma gushed. “I’ve never seen a man who could come up with so many new ideas. Next I expect to hear he’s found a way to double the amount of beef on his steers.”

“It won’t be all that difficult with the bull in his shed,” Auggie observed on cue. I would give half my herd for two of those bull calves.”

“Two of those calves would make our herd,” Emma remarked pointedly to Burch.

Then you’d better start sweet-talking Sibyl,” Burch suggested. “Her father bred them and they belong to her.”

“I’m sure she leaves their management to you,” purred Emma.

“You don’t know Sibyl very well,” Burch replied, banishing Sibyl’s scowl with his smile. “She can manage her property without any help from me.”

“I tried to give them to the Elkhorn, but Burch wouldn’t let me,” Sibyl explained with silky politeness.

“Even I’ve had to come crawling to Sibyl to let me send a few of my cows to that bull,” Lasso interposed, not very taken with Emma himself.

“They were her father’s life’s work,” explained Augusta, willing to add her mite.

But Emma was not to be borne down by any such paltry obstacles. “But men he didn’t have a son, did he? He most certainly meant that they should go to his brother.”

“As a matter of fact, he didn’t,” countered Augusta, showing a combative side no one expected. “Stuart was quite angry with Wesley for deserting the South, and they hadn’t spoken for ten years. If he had any suspicion that they would end up in Wyoming, I’m sure he would have given them to the first farmer to show an interest in them.”

Sibyl could not repress a smile. “Daddy thought that the West was full of terribly uncivilized ruffians and the sooner the South was separated from them the better.”

“Like your grandfather?” Burch said with a wink at Sibyl.

“What a terribly stupid view,” remarked Emma, piqued.

“Maybe, but true to his heritage,” Burch said.

“That’s all beside the point now,” said Emma, dismissing a subject that didn’t interest her at all. “Those cows are here and Burch is the only one who knows how to make use of them. Of course you’ll turn them over to him.”

“I probably will,” replied Sibyl, spiking her guns quite effectively. “After Lasso’s help in recapturing the yearlings, I’ve decided to give him one of the young bulls for his own use, but the rest are to be used solely to improve the Elkhorn herds.”

Auggie knew nothing of the raid on Chalk Canyon and loudly demanded to be told all about it. While Burch recounted the story, Lasso insisted, in loud whispers, on expressing his surprise and appreciation. Emma used the time to reorganize. She had been badly shocked by Burch’s quiet acceptance of Sibyl’s ownership of the herd. She was finding that he had quite a lot of ties to this intruder and that getting him for herself was going to be harder than she had thought.

“I think we’ve talked enough about the ranch and cows,” she almost sneered. “We don’t want to bore your cousins. Tell us about the party. What do you have in store for us?”

“Whatever it is, it can’t possibly be what you deserve,” Sibyl professed innocently.

“There isn’t anything really
planned
,” Augusta intervened hurriedly. “We’ve tried to provide as much food and drink as we could and hope that everyone will enjoy themselves.”

“We ought to set up some competitions if the weather holds,” suggested Emma. “A party is much more fun when you have a little excitement.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” agreed Jesse. “The boys would love a chance to show off.”

“I think it’s only fair to make Burch promise not to enter more than one or two,” Emma simpered, giving Burch a look that made Sibyl want to claw her eyes out. “It would not be gentlemanly to win all the prizes at your own party.”

“But we don’t have any prizes,” Augusta pointed out.

“Surely you could make some ribbons or sashes or something of that kind. After all, you’ll have the whole day to sit inside.”