Bartered Bride Romance Collection (64 page)

“We’ll both talk to them,” Gideon said. “But for now, school’s suspended for the rest of the week. He’s already spread the word. Bertie, he wants us to ride out and tell Anna’s family tomorrow.”

“I won’t. And I quit. I never wanted to be a schoolteacher anyhow.” Bess shook her head. “If you quit, then you’re giving up. And we Craig girls are not quitters.”

Gideon added, “Besides, you’ll be punishing the innocent. I’ve no doubt the Smit boys wish they’d kept their mouths shut. Seems they were smart enough to keep her attendance a secret. Mr. Smit overheard them after school today. That’s how he found out. You stop teaching school, and you’ll be heaping a whole lot of guilt on those boys’ consciences along with their losing out on schooling.

“And, fact is, if we don’t ride out and tell Anna’s family, Josiah says he will. Don’t you think it would be kinder coming from you?”

“I’ll do it,” Bess offered. “But, then we’re going to fight it.”

“No,” Bertie said. “I’ll do it.”

Bertie woke early—not that she’d gotten much sleep, knowing that Gideon wanted to get this done early so he could return to the restaurant. Bess was staying behind to handle the few who might show up to order breakfast.

Bertie wasn’t sure what words she’d use to crumble Anna’s world. Bertie had been the first to suggest Anna attend school, and it just might have been Bertie’s approach to teaching—so different from Bess’s—that had the Smit boys so talkative. If Gideon and Bess came along, they’d take over. Bertie was the schoolteacher now. Not a baby, not a squirt. Sitting down, she tried to think of the words to say. In a way, she was like a student passing an invisible test. She just hated that she had to visit the Two Horse to expel Anna. Bertie wanted to return to the ranch because Thomas missed her.

Crawling from bed, she quietly opened her bureau, and instead of taking the old brown homespun she favored because it blended in, she took the blue-and-white-striped calico skirt that Matty had given her. She’d not worn it yet. Tucking in a white blouse, she briefly considered taking the time to iron out the wrinkles, but her stomach roiled, protesting against what she had to do today. Shoes were the easiest. No choice there. She wore boots, brown and made of leather, just like her father had. They looked funny and big, peeking out from under her skirt.

Ramon barked. Bertie took a breath. Any minute they’d be leaving for Thomas’s farm. This morning she had to tell Anna not to come to school for a while. It almost seemed wrong to be wearing good clothes and doing something so ordinary as brushing her strawberry blond hair.

Her boots made loud
clop, clop
noises as she headed for the restaurant’s kitchen. Funny, she’d never noticed before.

Bess stirred eggs into a big bowl. “You hungry, Bertie?”

“No.”

For once, Bess didn’t insist. “I did it again. Called you Bertie when you want to be called Roberta. Guess I can’t get used to you growing up.”

“You ready?” Gideon called from the front.

Bess offered a quick hug and ordered Ramon to stay behind. Before Bertie was really ready, it was time to go.

They weren’t taking the wagon. Bertie half thought this was Gideon’s way of trying to do something to please her. It had been awhile since she’d ridden. Funny, she hadn’t really missed it, although at one time riding had been her favorite pastime.

She tossed saddlebags over one of Gideon’s horses and plopped her father’s hat on her head before climbing on the horse’s back. Then she artistically arranged her new skirt and galloped after her brother-in-law toward the Two Horse.

A few miles out, she told Gideon, “I want to do the talking.”

“You need any advice?” he offered.

“I’ll look to you if I do.”

“Fair enough.” He left it at that, and she was grateful.

An hour later, Gideon was off his horse.

“What’s wrong?” Bertie asked.

“He’s taken a stone. It will just take me a minute to deal with it. You ride on ahead.”

Freedom. She remembered it from when Papa and Mama were alive, and she experienced it now as she lived with Bess and Gideon.

Things were changing so quickly in her life that she almost felt like she was trying to catch a butterfly that always managed to fly just outside her grasp. She didn’t like being a schoolteacher, but she could be good at it. She didn’t enjoy being a waitress, although it was more fun than teaching, and she made money almost immediately. Why, a man from last Thursday’s train left her a quarter. A quarter! He also proposed marriage.

She brought her horse to a walk, trying to give Gideon time to catch up. Lost in her thoughts, she saw the men before she heard them. At first she thought she’d stumbled across Thomas. She reined the horse and slid from his back. No, it was not Thomas, and there were two men. One sat on a fallen tree and laughed at something the other man said.

What was Josiah Temple doing on Thomas’s land?

And who was the other man?

Josiah scared Bertie enough, and the other man looked meaner than a snake. She felt her legs start to wobble. She needed to get out of there before the horse snorted or before something else happened to alert the men of her proximity.

She quietly led the horse in the opposite direction and took off. She couldn’t say which bothered her more: thinking about telling Tien-Lu and his family about Anna not being allowed to attend school or thinking about Josiah meeting up with what looked like an outlaw on Thomas’s land.

Thomas slowed his horse and squinted at a landmark. He wanted to mark his land’s boundaries. He had an old map Cyrus had drawn and every reason to believe it was reliable, but it didn’t look like he’d get much done today. A female—wearing a blue-and-white-striped skirt and an old, ugly hat—galloped toward him followed by Gideon Riker. Thomas couldn’t help but smile. He’d have to be blind to miss the woman Bertie’d become.

The smile soon faded. As they neared him, he saw that something was wrong. He saw that not only was Bertie out of breath, but Gideon looked a bit concerned. His observations were confirmed as they slowed. Instead of a cheerful greeting, Bertie stammered, “Did you see the men?”

“What men?”

Gideon answered, “Bertie saw Josiah and some cowboy a few miles back. It spooked her.”

“It wasn’t a cowboy. He was an outlaw, and they were up to no good,” she urged, wheeling her horse around. “I just know it. We need to find where they’ve gone.”

Exchanging a quizzical look with Gideon, Thomas rode beside her as she galloped toward the east. He had to admire the way she handled a horse. Gideon followed a few paces behind. Finally, she stopped near a clump of fallen trees he’d been meaning to convert to firewood. Sweat glistened on her forehead, and her cheeks flushed a bright pink. “They were right here.”

“Who was with Josiah?” asked Thomas.

“Some outlaw.”

He almost laughed, but she didn’t look in the mood for pranks. “An outlaw?”

“Yes, talking to Josiah.”

“What were they talking about?”

“I didn’t get close enough to hear.”

“How do you know it was an outlaw?” Gideon asked.

“I’ve seen pictures of outlaws on the posters in Jones’s store.”

Bertie Craig was scared, and she looked up at Thomas with the same trust her niece had just a few weeks ago.

“Josiah is as free to roam it as you are. And, just because a man looks like an outlaw doesn’t mean he is one.”

Gideon added, “Bertie, I’m sure everything’s all right.”

She made a face and looked like she wanted to say more.

“Don’t worry about us out here at the Two Horse. We’ll be just fine. We can take care of ourselves. Besides, Josiah’s a mosquito I’d just love to squash.” Thomas rode next to her. “What brings you out to the Two Horse?”

“I’m here on school business.”

He grinned. “Anna tells me you’re her favorite teacher—never mind that you’re her only teacher. She’s pretending to read from the Bible each night. I think she mimics the stories you tell during the day. Most interesting. I’ve always thought Eve handed Adam an apple. Anna insists that the type of fruit is unknown. Is that your doing?”

To his surprise, Bertie didn’t pick up on his teasing. If she’d been a different girl, maybe he’d think the glistening in her eyes was the beginning of tears.

“Bertie, what is it? Are you still afraid because you think you saw an outlaw?”

“I did see an outlaw.”

“Phew, you are in a mood today. Why are you so grumpy?”

“Life isn’t fair.”

He wondered what brought this on. Life wasn’t fair; she was right. He’d been dealt some bad luck early in life, but he’d dealt with it alone. According to Donald, the Craig girls had been dealt an equal amount of bad luck, only they’d had each other. He noticed the way the girls watched over each other, and the way they hovered over Bertie made him understand why she acted as outrageously as she did.

They rode toward the Two Horse. Bertie was silent, seemingly lost in thought. Gideon just shook his head. Thomas figured she’d open up soon enough. Something certainly had her vexed today.

But she didn’t speak again. And when they got to his land and Anna’s head peeked from a window, he heard Bertie take a deep breath.

Oh no. No wonder Josiah and the outlaw had Bertie so spooked. If Thomas had been any other rancher, he’d have blamed the calamities his ranch seemed to attract on the townspeople warning the Chinese away. But in Lickwind, it was the Hardin name that most people wanted to forget. It maybe just took the town a bit longer to target Tien-Lu.

“Teacher! You look so pretty.” Anna burst from the house, a small tornado of energy with a smile that split her face.

And Bertie did look beautiful. Her hair, even topped by that ridiculous hat, cascaded down an elegant, curved back. She sat in the saddle poised and confident. The kind of woman any rancher would be proud to have by his side.

Whoa, those were thoughts Thomas didn’t deserve to consider, especially not about this female who changed from a boy to a child to woman back to child on a whim.

“Anna, go get your father. I need to speak with him.” Bertie’s face looked pale under the freckles.

Thomas watched Anna turn around and fly toward the back of the house where Tien-Lu prepared the noon meal.

“You don’t have the guts to tell that child she’s not welcome in your school, so you’ll tell her father and let him do the deed?”

“Slow down, Thomas,” Gideon advised.

“I’ve got guts and plenty extra,” said Bertie, pulling her horse to a halt in front of the house, dismounting, and tying Nugget to a post. “But if I didn’t come out here, your friend Josiah volunteered. I figured I was the lesser of the two evils.”

“Missy Bertie.” Tien-Lu rounded the house, grinning and bowing. He handed her a pastry wrapped in a towel.

“Josiah’s no friend of mine.” Thomas felt like he was losing control of the conversation.

Anna held on to her father’s knee. “I helpt to make that, Miss Craig.” She cast a look Gideon’s way. “Oh, I shoulda brought you one, too.”

“That’s all right, sweetie,” Gideon said.

Bertie took a bite and closed her eyes in contentment. If only she were here to visit and sample Tien-Lu’s cooking. Handing Gideon the pastry to finish, she knelt down so she was eye level with Anna. “What do you think, Anna, about me coming here to teach you on Saturdays so you won’t have to travel all the way to town?”

“I like town. It’s exciting. And Mama says I can’t have a brown hat like yours, but I’m gonna keep asking.”

“Town is exciting, but your papa has lots of chores, and town is a long way. Can we try it for a while and see how it works?”

Gideon cleared his throat, and Bertie looked at him, expecting some sort of rebuttal. “I’ll bring the ladies out here; I’m sure Bess will want to pitch in. You think you can see them home, Thomas?”

Anna looked up at Tien-Lu.

He nodded, his eyes meeting Bertie’s head-on.

It isn’t fair
, Thomas mentally agreed with Bertie’s earlier statement.

“Okay,” Anna whispered, looking unhappy.

“Great.” Bertie took off her hat. “Oh, and Anna, this hat always helped me when I did my homework. Why don’t you see if it helps you?”