Bartered Bride Romance Collection (35 page)

Bertie tiptoed over and knelt by the blanket. “Three, Matty—all gray-and-black striped like their mama.”

“We’ll be careful to keep the stall door shut so nothing can get in here to rile her—specially Ramon,” Jim promised. “Anytime you want to come check on her during the daytime, you feel free. She’s a fine mama—grooming them already, and they’re feeding well. Not a runt among them.”

Matty listened to the gentle way he spoke to her sister. He must have taken Bess’s words to heart about how much Bertie loved her pet. Instead of kicking up a fuss over the way the mess spoiled his bed, he squatted there, praising Rhubarb as if she’d won a prize at the county fair. Who would have ever guessed that beneath his gruff exterior, Jim Collingswood was gifted with compassion and mercy?

“James, could you wait a minute, please?”

Jim stopped but didn’t turn around. He didn’t know why Matty whispered to him, but he figured he’d stay silent. She closed the door so quietly, he barely heard it latch.

“I have something for you.” She pressed a bottle into his hand.

As he looked down, the muscles in his neck spasmed. He gritted his teeth against the pain. “What is it?”

“You’re stiff. Bertie told me you were breaking an especially ornery mustang today, and when we went out to see the kittens, you grimaced when you knelt. I figured this might help out.”

“I’m not a man to drown a few paltry aches in whiskey.”

She covered her mouth, but he could still see her shoulders shake in silent laughter. Moonlight glowed on her fair hair and sparkled in her big blue eyes. When she lowered her hands, she whispered, “It’s liniment.”

Hmm. Later, when I hit the hay, I’ll ponder on the fact that she’s discussing my activities and watching me
. For now, he lifted the bottle a bit higher. “It’s red. It doesn’t smell all flowery or girlie, does it?”

“No. Some of the hands back home tried it and claimed it worked well. Doc Timmons even said it’s so good, he stopped mixing his own. If that’s not enough, the company promises if you are dissatisfied with the results and only use it down to the ‘Trial Mark,’ you can return the bottle for a full refund.”

“Who ever heard of a company promising to give you your money back?”

“I guess there’s a first time for everything. The ingredients are sound—camphor, extract of capsicum, oil of spruce—”

Jim squinted and read, “ ‘J. R. Watkins Medical Company Red Liniment.’ If they’re as right about the effects as they are the color, it ought to do the trick just fine.”

“You’re a hardworking man, James Collingswood. I don’t doubt your abilities for a minute, but I do hope you’re being cautious.”

Her concern warmed him, but he didn’t want to feel that way. “Fretting doesn’t get a job done.”

“I suppose not.”

His hand fisted around the bottle. “Don’t think some good meals, cleaning, and a bit of doctoring are some kind of test like this try-it-for-a-bit cure-all, Matilda Craig. Sure as a coon has stripes, I’m not wife shopping. No matter what you do, you’re not staying.”

Chapter 6

T
he very next morning, Matty sat on the porch steps, humming and stitching. Jim thought about sauntering by to get a drink at the pump—maybe even tell her the liniment worked well—but before he could blink, Harvey and Mike ambled over to her. They stood there, jawing with her as if they had all day to talk and not a thing in the world to do. As a matter of fact, all of his hands were displaying the same bad habit. Every single time Jim turned around, one of them hovered over Matty.

It was her own fault, too. The woman was puppy-dog friendly. Why, she’d learn a man’s name and greet him whenever he happened by. She could converse intelligently about important, interesting subjects—weather, livestock, repair work, and essential duties. She didn’t fuss over fashions and simper silly things that left a man shuffling uncomfortably.

Luke nudged him out of his musings. “What are you scowling at?” Jim nodded toward her. “That. The hands act like this is a Sunday picnic instead of a workday. That woman’s setting out to find her a man, and I told her not to look for romance here. Bad enough I have to ride our own men, but half of Lickwind keeps roaming here to try to court, too.”

Luke shoved his hat back on his head and absently rubbed his jaw—a shaven jaw, Jim noticed. He used to shave every third day or so when the itch started to bug him. Now he did it every day.

“Seems to me you said you’re not interested. You don’t have any right to keep others from courting her.”

“I’m paying them to work—not woo women. And as long as she’s under my roof, she can good and well follow my orders not to flirt!”

“She doesn’t flirt. Matty doesn’t have wiles like that. She’s like a butterfly—she flits. She doesn’t show any favoritism, and she’s been good for morale.”

Jim jabbed his forefinger into Luke’s chest. “If you’re all that sold, then go claim her.”

“She’s not for me.”

“Then ride into town and make arrangements for them to be on the next train. Take the money out of the bank and buy the tickets now. I want this settled.”

“I’ll be going into town tomorrow,” Luke announced after saying grace over supper. “I’m going with you.” Bess passed the corn bread to Luke.

“No need,” Jim said as he snagged a pair of thick slices of tender roast. “We’ll buy your train tickets. It’s the least we can do.”

“No need,” Bess echoed back. She squared her shoulders. “We’re not leaving.”

Matty watched Jim’s eyes widen in surprise then narrow. Before he could speak, she shoved the butter at him and said, “We’ve decided to settle in town, but we’ve appreciated your hospitality.”

He stuck the butter plate on the table with a thump. “There’s no place in town.”

“There’s the jail,” Bertie chimed in.

“The jail!”

“We can sew and do laundry. Maybe cook or bake a bit,” Corrie said with resolve.

“There’s a laundry in town—not that it gets used much,” Jim growled. “And what makes you think men want you to sew? We all buy ready-made clothes.”

“There’s been plenty of mending,” Bess cut in. “Furthermore, there isn’t a decent place for anyone to get a nice meal.”

“The jail isn’t big enough for the four of you to turn around in. You can’t live there, let alone live and run a business out of it.”

“I can’t bear to get on the train again,” Corrie said quietly.

“None of us can,” Matty whispered to her. She looked Jim straight in the eye. “We’ve discussed it. This is the way it’s going to be. We’ll settle here in Lickwind.”

“Luke,” Jim barked, “explain to these women so it’ll make sense.”

Luke swallowed a bite and grinned. “Good roast beef. What’re we having for dessert?”

The next morning, Jim demanded his brother buy the train tickets; the women stubbornly asserted they were going to rent the jailhouse. The breakfast table crackled with tension.

Bess rose and ordered, “Bertie, no going out to the stable to see the kittens until you’ve helped Corrie with the dishes. Don’t pester Scotty either. And for pity’s sake, don’t take advantage of our absence to go gallivanting off to who-knows-where again. We all have enough on our minds without worrying where you’ve disappeared to. Corrie, after dishes, you lie down and nap awhile. Matty, get your reticule. We’re leaving.”

“Lickwind is not a town for ladies. I don’t know where you came up with this absurd notion, but I’ll not be party to it.” Jim stood and tossed his napkin onto the table. “Luke, ride on in. The ladies won’t be going.”

Luke casually spread freshly churned butter on a fluffy biscuit and didn’t even bother to look up. “Matty and I already hitched the buckboard.”

Jim gawked at Matty. “You did what?”

She shrugged. “We’re not frail flowers, James. Just as your telegram ordered, we’re sturdy, dependable, hardworking, and plain. My father had no sons. We all learned to do what was necessary.”

Jim glowered at her. “Three of you are sturdy. Dependable? The only thing I can depend on is that you’re stubborn and vexatious. Hardworking? You can work hard someplace where you won’t have every man for miles around trailing after you like a moonstruck calf. As for plain—” He shook his finger at her. “You can just forget blinking those great big blue eyes at me and trying to tell that ridiculous tale. I know a pretty woman when I see one.” He slapped his hat on his head and stomped out the door.

Matty stared at the door in disbelief. Back home, men said her dress was pretty or she’d done a fine job at something, but Jim stared her right in the eye and spoke with such unwavering conviction, it made her go weak in the knees.

“Hard to imagine he’s the same man who was singing to a fractious mare yesterday,” Bertie grumbled as she started stacking the dishes.

“It won’t much matter in a few days.” Bess lifted her chin and stabbed a hat pin through her bonnet to keep it in place. “We’ll be in town, so we won’t be here to plague him.”

Matty walked to the hall tree to fetch her reticule.
I don’t want to vex him … but I don’t want to move to town either. He thinks I’m pretty!

“Trying to git yerself kilt?” Scotty stuck out his weathered right hand and yanked Jim to his feet. Instead of letting go, the old man tugged him close and said in a gravelly undertone, “Son, you gotta pay attention to the horse you’re on—not the mares who went to town.”

After taking his third bone-jarring, spine-crunching fall in less than an hour, Jim knew he couldn’t deny the truth. He bent, picked up his hat, and smacked it against his thigh. Dust flew about him from that simple action—proof he’d spent more time out of the saddle than in it. He jutted his chin toward the mustang he’d been breaking. “He’s about to see who’s in charge.”

Three hours later, when he’d broken the mustang and rewarded it with plenty of affection and soothing, Jim shot another look at the sun. They still weren’t back from town.

Last night was sleepless and frustrating as could be. He should’ve been able to doze off in the stable—he’d slept on hard ground so much, it wasn’t any skin off his nose. Though he’d never admit it to Luke, the sumptuous meals that the women served more than made up for sleeping out here. The fact was, Jim had come to the conclusion he liked having Matty around. In fact, he didn’t even mind her sisters either.