Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) (23 page)

Aaron pulled Kylie into his arms and kissed her. By the time he let up, she was breathless. Aaron rested his forehead against hers.

“The war is going to rage on there in the Shenandoah Valley, in small, vicious ways until the entire generation is
gone. I wish I could take you back to the beautiful place I grew up, but I can’t do that just by going there. I have to go back in time, too. Into the past. Because the place I love no longer exists. I’m sorry, Kylie. Can you be happy out here in the mountains?”

Kylie saw in Aaron’s expression that he was truly grieving, for his family and for his home. She realized then that her dreams were the same as his. She was pining for exactly what he’d lost. For her to want what he would love to give her but couldn’t made him feel like the worst kind of failure, a man who couldn’t make his wife happy. That was how marriages became laced with bitterness over a lifetime. Hers wasn’t going to be like that.

“My home is where you are, Aaron. I’m happiest when at your side. We’ll find our own place and make a life together.” She smiled and made sure he saw only acceptance in her eyes. If she sometimes pined for nicer things and gentler ways, she wouldn’t be the first woman to give up a few bits of comfort in exchange for peace at home.

There was hope in his eyes, and it made her heart sing. Her respect and caring for him grew into something different, something deeper, which both pained and stretched her heart in ways she hadn’t known before. It was the most beautiful ache in the world.

She knew nothing about womanly love for a man, but she wondered if she might be falling in love with her husband. He kissed her, and she decided that she’d just go ahead and decide it was exactly that.

“Kylie, can you be happy out here? I wish I could give you that old life. I know that’s what you want, but—”

“Right now, an old life isn’t what I want at all, husband.
What I want is you.” She silenced him as her arms tightened around his neck.

She felt the world tilt, and suddenly she was lying on the pallet with Aaron above her. He brushed her hair off her forehead as his lips caressed her eyes and wandered across her cheeks to find her mouth once again.

T
he next morning, Kylie served him a surprisingly tasty breakfast cooked over an open fire. He knew she didn’t particularly like doing it, but he was already learning that his wife was competent at many things, including a lot of manly chores. Just because she liked things civilized didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of roughing it.

It made him want to give her the comforts of a settled land all the more. He needed to get her stove moved over, but today he had to make some headway on the land rush.

He stepped out of the cabin with a list of things to do and looked back at her, worried. “I don’t like it, Kylie. I just finished promising you and myself that you weren’t going to be alone in the wilderness.”

His kind smile lit him up and touched her all the way to her heart. “Riding with Bailey, Shannon, and Sunrise isn’t the same as being alone. That’s why you said yes.”

“I know.” They’d hashed this out last night, and he’d agreed, yet now that he was leaving it seemed like a bad idea.

“I can ride the few miles to Shannon’s without an escort, Aaron. I’ve made the trip dozens of times. And now that Myra Hughes and her brothers are taken care of, I’m all right on my own.”

“I’ll ride along. That’s proper and that’s how I’ll do it, Mrs. Masterson.” Aaron laced his words with a smile, but he wasn’t letting his wife hare off alone in these woods, no matter if it’d save him some time. Sunrise had gone back to Kylie’s homestead to sleep, so she would meet them there.

They were on the trail to Shannon’s within minutes.

“Bailey will come to Shannon’s,” Kylie told Aaron, “and we’ll meet up with Sunrise at my old cabin. Once we’re all together, we’ll stay together. Bailey helped me move the stove to my place. She complained about it nonstop, because no wagon could handle the narrow trail. My big sister makes a lot of noise, but she always gets done what needs doing. She built a travois, and we pulled the potbellied stove along the trail that way. I’m sure we’ll move it to our new home that same way.”

Aaron tugged at his hat in frustration. He should be doing this. But he was already guilty of shirking his job. His negligence wasn’t honorable. When they were within sight of Shannon’s holding, Aaron pulled Kylie’s horse to a halt and gave her a sound kiss. “I probably won’t see you until near sunset. I’m sorry to leave this all to you.”

“You’ve done precious little work this week, Aaron. Moving what’s left of my things isn’t that big a chore. Now stop worrying.” Kylie, looking demure, which didn’t fit on her face very well, said, “I’ll see you tonight at our place.”

Narrowing his eyes, Aaron said, “Just see that you don’t wait there alone.” He kissed her one more time, then rode
away while he still remembered why it was a good idea to leave his pretty wife’s side for even a minute. And he regretted being separated from her for a lot of reasons. Worrying about her safety was only one of them.

Aaron had gotten in a good morning of work. He could see the land rush was already tapering off. The worst would be over before the snow cut the area off, but Aaron had to accept that he and Kylie would be spending the winter in the house they’d just built. Moving on would have to wait until spring.

He wanted to be higher in the mountains, so that meant a late start because the mountain passes didn’t open early, and . . .

The door to the land office slammed open, and Myra Hughes rushed in. She was taut as a drawn bowstring, but then when she saw Aaron, she seemed to relax a little. “Good, y’all are here.”

“What’s the problem?”

“A man, he said some strange things. At first it didn’t worry me, and then this morning I thought I’d better tell you.”

“What is it?”

“A man came in the general store yesterday, asking after you. I didn’t even think about him being anything but a homesteader. He asked about the land agent, and I told him you’d gone home. He was right friendly at first and seemed to be a talker. He mentioned that he knew Kylie. But he sounded so friendly, I told him some about Kylie and her family and how you’d built a cabin and she’d given
up her claim. This morning I got to thinking. He seemed to know too much about you for a homesteader just coming into the country. You haven’t had any trouble, have you?” Myra wrung her hands nervously.

“No.” Aaron moved to the door and stepped outside. He looked around at the quiet little town. Strangers came and went with little notice, if they didn’t cause any trouble. “He knew too much. You mean like he’d been asking around?”

“Y-you know what I did to Kylie. I only mention that because of the way he said her name, like he was familiar with her.”

“How did he say her name?”

“It was strange is all. He whispered it, real soft, until a body might think she was hearing a breath of air instead of a name spoken. It was strange. ‘Kylie.’ He said it twice. Then he started muttering about the war and left the general store real sudden-like.”

“But who was it? Did the man have a name?”

She nodded. “He made a point of telling me to say hello if I saw you. He said to tell you to be watching out for him. Said his name was Neville Bassett.”

Aaron was stunned, stumbling against the open door.

Kylie. Like a name spoken on a breath
of wind . . .

Memories of his childhood friend raced through his mind. Nev swimming with him, climbing trees, chasing bullfrogs, riding horses, dreaming about working their land and marrying the pretty girls who lived nearby.

Playing war as boys. Playing a life-and-death game of war when they came home.

Then he thought of Kylie. Riding with her sisters and
Sunrise. Thinking the people threatening her were locked away. All her troubles were over.

Nev, standing in that cellar doorway, had said before going for his rifle,
“I swear before
God that if you had any family left, I’d
shoot every one of them and make you watch.”

Aaron ran for his horse with only one thought: get to Kylie before Nev took his hate out on the woman Aaron only this moment realized he loved.

I
f you could get married and not tell us, how come you couldn’t move and not tell us?” Bailey liked to complain, but that didn’t stop her from throwing her back into shoving the potbellied stove across the floor of Kylie’s cabin.

They’d emptied everything else out first and strapped it on the backs of the horses. Bailey had arrived at Shannon’s with a string of her mountain ponies. Bailey didn’t like admitting it, but she was a really nice big sister.

Kylie smiled through the curls that’d come loose and now dangled in front of her eyes. She blew a particularly annoying one aside. “This is the last of it. We can get going for my house and have the whole place set up in time for when Aaron comes home. Tonight I can make him a nice dinner on my own stove.”

It hadn’t taken much nagging on Bailey’s part to get Kylie to change into her britches. It made all the bending and hoisting much easier, and the ride was sure to be more
comfortable. Much as she loved feminine things, Kylie dearly loved some of the more practical parts of dressing and acting manly. Kylie would have to figure out how to give that bad news to Aaron, because she didn’t want to give it up entirely.

They shoved and lifted until they got the stove in line with the door, and then Bailey, who was always thinking, tied a rope around it while it was still inside, lashed the rope to her horse, and used the horse’s muscle instead of their own to drag it outside and down Kylie’s steps. It took a little more maneuvering before they had it on the travois, along with the stovepipe, hooked up to the gentlest of Bailey’s mustangs.

Sunrise had worked right alongside them, saying very little. But what she did say reminded them clearly that she considered it all foolishness. She thought the ways of white people with their cumbersome stoves and houses and beds and clothes and possessions of all sorts were all very odd.

“The fire I started is still hot, and the coffee is warm,” Sunrise said. “I kept the cups out of the packs so we could use them. A fire that took minutes to build and did not need four women and a strong horse to haul, unlike your stove. The sun is overhead. It is time to stop for food.”

Shannon searched in her saddlebags. “I didn’t think we’d want to cook a meal, so I brought biscuits and cookies.”

Bailey rolled her eyes at Shannon. “I figured you’d want to feed us and that you wouldn’t have the heart to serve us up one of your lambs, so there are some roast beef sandwiches in my saddlebags.”

Shannon smiled unrepentantly and sat on Kylie’s porch,
facing the pond, her legs dangling between the spindles she’d worked on so hard. She handed out hard biscuits while Bailey shared her sandwiches. Sunrise poured coffee.

Kylie drew in a long breath, scented with pine and the sweet smell of lake water. The tin cup of coffee sat beside her on the porch. She threaded her legs through the porch spindles and swung them as she took in the scenery.

“This is a beautiful place.” She took a bite of the roast beef sandwich and chewed Bailey’s good hearty bread and tender beef.

“It is a good place,” said Sunrise. “I have told Coulter I mean to live here. We are in agreement.”

Kylie gasped and choked on her sandwich. Both rocking chairs had been tied to the packhorses, so Sunrise sat leaning against the cabin wall next to Bailey. Sunrise shifted and pounded Kylie on the back.

When she could breathe again, Kylie turned to her friend. “He’s letting you live here?”

“Yes.”

“Then why wouldn’t he let me live here?”

“He would have.”

Silence seemed to spread between all four women as Kylie looked at Sunrise, and Sunrise looked back as if she had no idea what Kylie was confused about.

Finally, Bailey said into the silence, “I reckon he just wants the water. If you’d have given him clear title, he’d’ve let you live here. He don’t care if someone’s in the cabin. At least not if they don’t cause any trouble. And I’m sure he trusts Sunrise. He probably figures having her here is a good thing.”

“So Aaron and I didn’t even need to build a house?”
Kylie thought of the work they’d done, and how heavy that stove was.

“Well, Aaron needs to live a lot closer to Aspen Ridge than this, so yes, you needed to move.”

Shannon probably deliberately waited until Kylie took another bite before she asked, “What can you tell us about being married?”

Kylie choked again.

When Sunrise quit pounding her back, Kylie looked at Shannon, who had an innocent expression on her face. Like maybe she hadn’t meant to ask about the first thing that came into Kylie’s mind. So the fact that the more personal side of marriage had come to mind said more about Kylie than it did about Shannon. Then there was a glint in Shannon’s eyes, and Kylie didn’t think she was mistaken at all. But the only time Kylie would talk about that would be on Shannon’s wedding day, at which time she might have a talk with her sister.

Kylie decided to discuss something else instead. “Aaron is really worried about protecting me. It’s a wonderful feeling. Pa has really done wrong by all of us, making us dress and act like men. Sending us off to war, thrusting us into the middle of an army full of men. It’s terrible we were put in that position. Pa oughta be ashamed of himself. I’m really hoping you two figure out real soon you can’t go on living the way you are.”

Bailey narrowed her eyes and kept chewing. Shannon smiled her pretty dimpled smile, and Kylie could only roll her eyes at how pretty and feminine they both looked.

“When Coulter came to this cabin, neither of you went outside to greet him. That’s because you knew he’d im
mediately recognize you were women. And yesterday, when Tucker came to help build the house, both of you ran for home for the same reason. Do you really think you can keep hiding for the rest of your lives? You’re admitting you don’t believe anyone will be fooled by your britches and short hair, and you know Aaron changed your paper work. So why are you doing it? I’d say by now it’s just an old habit. When are you two going to grow up and start behaving like the women the good Lord made you?”

Bailey finished her cookie and took a long drink of her coffee. “I wouldn’t want to try and break a mustang wearing a skirt.”

“Somehow it seems shameful for a woman to wear trousers. If we’re pretending to be men, it’s not so bad.” Shannon shrugged. “That’s nonsense, I suppose.”

“It’s all nonsense,” Sunrise said, gathering up the cups. “This is the West. Live as you please, but live honestly.”

Kylie took the last bite of her food and wondered if Aaron would let her wear her britches part of the time.

They stowed the cups and coffeepot and made sure everything was ready. Bailey swung up on the lead horse, leading a remuda of four mustangs strung together, each of them heavily packed. They carried bed slats, her bed tick, and her rocking chairs, as well as her table and chairs, tools, pots, and the few other things she owned.

Sunrise followed the line of packhorses with what load her horse could carry. Shannon followed, riding the horse pulling the travois with the heavy stove. Bailey had trained the horse Shannon rode, and it was the steadiest of any of their animals. While Bailey was the best at breaking and
training, Shannon had an almost magical touch with any animal, including keeping this horse steady as it pulled the unusual load on its back.

Kylie brought up the rear to make sure the stove didn’t tumble off the travois. Her horse was also loaded down. They set a snail’s pace, so that the stove wouldn’t bounce and startle Shannon’s horse.

They had the whole of the afternoon, though, and it was a beautiful day in the dappled shade of the woods. The people terrorizing her were taken care of, and Kylie didn’t have a care in the world. As she rode through the heavy forest, Kylie thought of Shannon’s question about marriage. Her thoughts went right back to where they’d gone at that question, and she looked forward to seeing her husband again soon.

The distinct crack of a twig in the forest caused her to turn in the saddle in the direction of the sound. She heard the wind breathe her name again.

“Kylie.”

This time she couldn’t convince herself she’d imagined it. She opened her mouth to tell everyone to stop. She was going to find out what or who that was.

A hand covered her mouth.

Not even a whimper escaped.

She was lifted off her horse by arms that made her feel as if she weighed nothing. Her horse shied a few steps, but she was whisked away so fast and quiet that her horse resumed walking after the others with barely a missed step.

With the utter hush of a ghost, she was swept into the woods. Only that one warning snap. It reminded her of
the times she’d felt watched, the times she’d jumped at shadows.

As he dragged her deeper into the woods, farther from rescue, he leaned so close his whiskers brushed her face. “Kylie,” he whispered with rancid breath.

He moved with complete silence just as he’d stood in the woods, just as he’d watched her. She realized he’d stood in those woods very near where they were attacked by the arrows. But neither Sunrise nor Tucker had noticed the tracks of another man, besides the three from the Hughes family.

This man was better than either of them. And now he moved with a skill that might make him hard to follow, which meant she was at the mercy of someone who knew how to make himself invisible in the woods.

He’d just used his talent to make her invisible, too.

Aaron was practically lying down on his gelding’s neck. He’d raced to his cabin first, hoping he’d find the Wilde sisters there. They hadn’t arrived. He’d then charged on toward Kylie’s homestead. They’d be on their way by now if Nev hadn’t gotten to them, killed them already.

The thought drove him with crazed recklessness. He closed the distance between himself and the place he prayed Kylie would be, the whole time asking God how he could have been such a fool as to think distance had anything to do with hate.

He should have stayed.

He should have ripped that rifle out of Nev’s hands and held him down until he came to his senses.

He should have talked of their memories and reminded him of their friendship.

He should have sown love where hate bloomed and thrived.

If he had, that land could have born a new crop of faith and goodness. But Aaron had been too weak. No, that wasn’t true. He’d been too filled with his own hate to sow those seeds. And now he’d led his private war out here, and Kylie and her sisters might die as a result.

“Forgive me, God. Forgive my own failure. Make me new again.” He thought of the way Kylie had cast off those britches and put on a skirt. She’d let her hair grow long before she’d met him. His mixed-up little wife, who talked of wanting fussy things, was braver than he was. “She had the courage to start over, to begin again. Help me to be a new creation in you, God.”

In the midst of the worst terror of his life, because he had no one to turn to but God, he let the love of God pour in. It pushed aside his fear, even as it deepened his determination to get to Kylie and protect her. And then together they’d make a new life together, pleasing to God and to them both.

Finally, he saw Bailey ahead. She smiled and glanced over her shoulder as if knowing he’d come looking for his wife.

She reined her horse to a halt, drew her gun, and hopped to the ground. “Kylie!”

Although he was still a ways off, he heard the urgency in her voice. She was shouting something he couldn’t make out.

A string of heavily laden ponies were behind Bailey. Past them, Sunrise swung off her horse while Shannon behind her dismounted.

And behind Shannon was . . . a horse ridden by no one.
Where was Kylie? There was only a saddled horse without its rider. Aaron didn’t pull up until he was nose to nose with Bailey’s horse on a trail too narrow to pass. He leapt off his horse and sprinted toward the back of the caravan.

Sunrise was already down the trail. Not running, yet moving fast. Bailey was trailing her.

At last, Aaron caught up with them. “How long has she been gone?”

“I don’t know,” Bailey replied.

Grabbing her by the shoulders, Aaron said, “That’s not good enough. What were you doing, leaving her behind like that? Why weren’t you watching her?”