Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) (20 page)

Pa had always been in charge of his girls. The neighbors back home had put up with him and mostly stayed clear of the whole Wilde family.

Bailey had cooperated, but she’d made it clear that she did it because she liked the outdoor life, liked wearing britches, liked pushing herself to see how tough she could be.

Shannon had worked hard out of her love for the animals, both tame and wild. She loved plants and enjoyed nothing more than hiking in the woods for hours. She was more at home in the outdoors than anyone Kylie had ever seen. And she had a knack for sneaking off into the woods and not coming back until she pleased.

Kylie had never stood up to Pa. She’d charmed her way around him, teased and flattered. She did whatever it took to get her way and she usually got it. But never by facing Pa down and saying, You’re wrong, and I refuse to do things your way.

But Aaron had done just that, and watching him she
became a proud wife. What’s more, Pa had backed down. And that reminded Kylie that Pa had two more daughters who might end up married someday—if anyone got on to their being women.

His troubles were just starting.

Even feeling a bit sorry for Pa didn’t make her want to spend another minute in his company. Instead, she pushed her pity down deep and rode alongside her husband on the long trail to the snake house.

And wasn’t that just going to be the most romantic place a woman ever spent her wedding night?

A
aron wasn’t a man to think much about making a wedding night romantic. Truth be told, he wasn’t a man to think much about a wedding night, period. He’d spent most of his time with men in recent years, and when he was young, with his sisters, whom he mostly lived to torment. Having Northern sympathies in the South had kept most of the girls his age away when he reached courting age, and it’d kept him away from them, as well.

And now here he was, married, and without spending much time with Kylie at all.

Oh, he wanted to be married to her. He had no regrets about that. But how did a man go on with a woman? Kill her snakes? Force her to hand over her land? Yell at her pa?

That didn’t sound real romantic to Aaron, but then he had no idea what he was doing, so who could say? And killing the snakes had been heroic and that might count as
romantic, except there’d been snake blood and screaming and Kylie had cried a lot. Not Aaron’s idea of romance.

When they reached the cabin, dusk was settling in. Sunrise came out to greet them, and she quietly watched Aaron lift Kylie down from her horse.

He took his wife’s hand and turned to the Shoshone woman. “We got married today.”

Sunrise nodded.

“We let Coulter have the land,” Kylie added.

That made Sunrise frown just a bit for no reason Aaron could understand. He saw his wife’s eyes go between Sunrise and the cabin door. “Did you find more snakes?”

“No more. You are safe from snakes. And without the land, the attacks should end. Where will you live?”

“I’ll have to figure that out, but for now we’re staying here with Coulter’s approval.” Aaron was mighty tired of talking. He wanted to be alone with his wife.

“I left a meal.” Sunrise walked away with no further talk.

Much as he liked the woman, Aaron wasn’t sorry to see her go. He headed into the house, wife in tow. He shut the door firmly.

“I wonder why Sunrise didn’t stay to eat sup—”

Aaron’s kiss cut off Kylie’s question. He pulled her hard against him, not a bit interested in supper. He slanted his head to deepen the kiss and engage Kylie’s attention fully. The woman, with her worries about snakes and supper and her pa and flaming arrows, needed to pay attention to her brand-new husband.

He felt her hands sliding up his chest, slowly but steadily. Maybe he wasn’t so bad at romance, after all.

“I’ve figured out where we’re going to live.” Aaron lifted his coffee cup and smiled at his beautiful wife, who’d just refilled it.

It was a pure fact that he’d been smiling pretty much nonstop all night and morning, and he didn’t see himself stopping anytime soon. Being married was the best idea he’d ever had.

Kylie blushed as she peeked over her shoulder at him. She set the pot down on the stove with a clumsy little scrape of metal on metal that told him she was thinking about something else.

Him, to be specific.

Then she hurried back to the table as if she’d hated to leave his side, to walk all of five steps away to return the pot. She was smiling a lot, too.

Aaron’s heart did something strange, something nice and heated that he’d never felt before. She sat down right around the corner from him without once taking her stunning eyes off of him. He knew that because he never once took his eyes off her.

His wife. He might never go to work again.

“Where?”

For a second he was so distracted by how happy he was to have her for his wife that when she said “where,” a completely different notion popped into his head. He knew exactly where—and when. Right here. Right now.

Then he remembered about the cabin.

His heart felt a little less nice, because he knew she was wishing he’d say, I’ve decided we’re going to live in Vir
ginia. And he wasn’t going to. He wasn’t even going to stay here in this little cabin, not even for the day.

And leaving this place seemed like about the worst idea he’d ever had. He wanted to spend the day making love to her, talking with her, pampering her. Letting her know he was absolutely thrilled they were married, and it had nothing to do with her being in danger or whether or not Coulter wanted her land. It was because he cared about her, and because she was a sweet, beautiful, smart, interesting, and passionate woman. He was realizing more every minute that he was blessed to be given a chance to spend the rest of his life with her.

He’d spend every minute ridding her of all the nonsense her father had filled her head with all these years, as if being a son would have been better than the glorious woman that she was.

And they
should
stay here in the cabin, alone, getting to know each other better. There was nothing wrong with a pair of newlyweds having a honeymoon.

There was a good chance, now that Coulter owned the pond, that no one would try to kill Kylie or burn her out or scare her to death.

That’d make a nice switch.

Instead, they needed to get moving. Which brought him back to
where
.

“There have been so many folks coming west since the war ended that there isn’t a single empty house in Aspen Ridge, and the only rooms to rent are at the boardinghouse, which is out of the question. But I’ve got to stay in the area until this land rush is over. I gave my word, and I’m meaning to keep it.”

Her smile dimmed a bit. “What do you have in mind?”

“I’ll build us a little cabin close to town. I even know the place. There’s a clearing with a good spring only a mile or so out. It’s not part of Coulter’s grazing land, and it’s not open to homesteading, but it is for sale—just a little acreage. No one will mind what we do there. I can get a simple one-room building up in a few days or so, and we can move in. I can’t spend a lot of time making it nice right now, Kylie. I’m sorry. I’ll give you a pretty house when we finally get settled. But for now, I need to finish up my land agent work here, which I hope to do before the snow flies. Then we’ll get on with starting our life together.”

“Deeper into the mountains.” She said it in a steady voice. A calm voice, not unlike a person bravely facing her own hanging.

Aaron didn’t respond to that. Instead, he said, “We’ll ride out right now. We’ll come back here at night until the new house is done.”

Kylie nodded. Aaron knew she was a woman who spent most of her life putting up with not getting her way. Why should marriage be any different? She said, “Do you need my tools?”

They started packing, and Sunrise, in the mysterious way she had of being around when she was needed and vanishing when she was not, arrived to help. With her efficient hands, they had everything packed and were on the trail early.

As they left Kylie’s clearing, Sunrise said, “I followed those who left snakes.”

That stopped Aaron in his tracks. He’d been so busy being a newly married man that he’d forgotten all about
those sidewinders who’d unleashed snakes on his wife. “What did you find?”

“Two riders. The woman again and one man. One man stayed away.”

Aaron wanted to fire questions at her, but he held off. He knew Sunrise would tell him everything in her own time and in her own way.

“Different horses.”

Sunrise fell silent.

It took Aaron a second to realize the significance. “Rented.”

Sunrise gave him a muted smile, which on her was close to beaming. They’d just eliminated every person in town who owned their own horse. Few folks owned more than a single horse for themselves. A cattleman like Coulter had a remuda, but homesteaders and folks in town were doing well to own a single horse or maybe a team. Different horses meant . . .

“If I find out which women own horses and which rent, we might be down to a handful of suspects.” Aaron heard the satisfied tone. “Maybe even just one.”

“I thought the danger was over.” Kylie had spent the morning sounding cheerful and calm and happily married. Now he was reminded that only yesterday she’d been in full-blown hysterics over those snakes.

“I’m hopeful your attackers will break off trying to frighten you, sweetheart. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to see them jailed. Burning arrows, even used as a scare tactic, is attempted murder.” He thought of something else. “If one was wounded bad enough not to ride out with them, his injury is serious. We can use that to identify him.”

“I find Tucker.” Sunrise turned her horse toward Coulter’s place. “My boy asks questions. You build.”

“Let me give you directions to where we’re putting the house,” Aaron said as Sunrise reined her horse away.

This time Sunrise really did smile. “I will find you.” She rode away.

Aaron chafed as the Shoshone woman rounded Kylie’s cabin. He wanted to know more. He knew she’d seen more in those tracks, and now Sunrise would tell what she knew to Tucker and not him. But he didn’t have time to investigate a crime right now. He had a wife and no home. They needed a roof over their heads. “Let’s get on to town.”

Kylie was riding beside him, and she leaned close and said, “I had a little talk with my sisters.”

Having her close was enough to distract him from his frustration with Sunrise. He smiled at her, inhaled her. Being married was brilliant. “The fact that you’re as good as whispering about this proves you don’t believe anyone is going to think they’re—”

Kylie’s hand came up to shush him. Aaron supposed someone could be skulking around in the woods, listening.

He whispered, “No one’s going to think they’re women.”

Kylie gave one of her shoulders a cute little shrug. “They’ll handle their own lives their own way. My big sisters aren’t exactly famous for taking advice from me, so I knew I was probably wasting my time, but I decided it needed saying. I told them it’s time they chose an honest path. I let them know I was glad I’d admitted to the world I was a woman.” Kylie gave him a broad smile. “And that was before I married you. Now I like it even more.”

Aaron felt the smile melt off his face as he stared at the
woman he had married for practical reasons, heroic reasons even. To protect her. To do the right thing by a woman in danger. And because a man needed a wife, and a woman needed a husband. Because he respected her and wanted her.

All very practical.

But right now he was having a hard time being practical. Instead, he was finding all sorts of foolish reasons to be glad she was his. Reasons of the heart, of passion. Soul-deep reasons about finding the woman God had made for him. Even reasons of fun.

“What’s the matter?” She sounded confused, uncertain.

Wondering what she was seeing on his face, he said, “You need to be mighty careful when you say that to me, woman.”

“Why’s that?” Now she sounded hurt.

“Because we’ve got a house to build, and right now, what’s the matter is, all I want to do is drag you off that horse and kiss the living daylights out of you.”

All Kylie’s hurt was instantly gone, and those hazel eyes flashed as if they were fired by the sun. “I want that, too.”

Aaron reined his horse to a stop.

It was their honeymoon, after all.

K
ylie couldn’t believe how much she didn’t care what this cabin looked like. Honestly, she caught herself often daydreaming about how much she was enjoying married life. And that had nothing at all to do with building a house.

But the house was good, too.

It was just a larger version of the chicken coop, but unlike the coop, in the days since Aaron had started building, Kylie had helped very little.

Aaron never once scolded her for not grabbing an ax and hacking down a tree. When she offered to try to chink out the corners, he gave her a kindhearted look as if she were the sweetest thing in the world for offering and kissed her for far too long.

Aaron did ask her to sew some curtains. About the third day of their marriage—most of which Aaron had spent felling trees—Aaron took her to town. He’d left her several
times to go work, but Sunrise was always close by. Never once had he left her on her own.

Kylie had ridden miles on end in these mountains alone without giving it much thought, at least not until she’d been attacked. But now she wasn’t left alone for a minute. The tiny general store had very little, and the one piece of cloth was dark blue wool, so buying that took little time.

Afterward they went to lunch at Erica’s Diner. She’d never been to lunch in town before. Pretending to be a man had made it a bad idea to let anyone see her. Which was just such obvious proof that it was a lame-brain idea she never should have agreed to in the first place.

Now she was being taken out to lunch, and it was thrilling to walk into the diner on Aaron’s arm.

When a girl near Kylie’s age brought them their beefsteak, Aaron didn’t pass up the chance to make introductions and spread the news, in case it hadn’t reached every ear in town already. “Myra, I don’t think you’ve met my new wife. Kylie and I got married a few days back.”

Their plates skidded.

Kylie was quick or she might have gotten a lap full of beef.

Myra gave Kylie a hard look. “I . . . I hadn’t heard.”

“Yep, Kylie homesteaded a ways from town, so she hasn’t gotten to Aspen Ridge much.”

Myra looked so dismayed, Kylie wondered if this pretty young woman had set her cap for Aaron. Well, that was a disappointment she’d just have to learn to live with.

“A woman homesteader, imagine that.” Myra’s voice rang false. Her gaze shifted to Aaron in a way that seemed overly interested. “So you’re living out there now on her homestead?”

“Nope, Kylie’s claim became mine on her marriage, but I’ve dropped my rights to it. Gage Coulter bought it. He was in for supper after he stood witness at our wedding. I figured he’d be crowing about it. He wanted the water hole on Kylie’s place bad.”

“Ma gives me a night away from the diner once in a while. Maybe he came in when I was gone. I didn’t hear.” Myra cleared her throat. “Well, congratulations. So you’re planning to live somewhere else, then? Here in town maybe?”

Myra’s voice steadied, and she sounded friendly. Maybe Kylie was reading too much into her surprised reaction to the news of the wedding. But the girl had just admitted to being gone the day Kylie got married—the same day the snakes were let loose in her cabin.

“We’re building near town, but we won’t homestead here,” Aaron said. “I want to settle elsewhere after my land office work is done.”

“Well, I’ve got more to serve. I’ll refill your coffee as soon as I can get back.” She bustled away.

A woman had been involved with the attacks on her place. She looked at Aaron, who arched a brow at her and gave Myra another quick glance. He was wondering the same thing.

Myra didn’t speak to them again, not even when she poured more coffee.

Aaron was in a hurry to get back to building, or seemed to be.

The minute they were outside, Kylie said, “Why didn’t we question her? That was our chance to—”

“Hush!” Aaron nearly dragged her toward the horses. He boosted her up, then vaulted into his own saddle. Kylie
respected Aaron’s instincts, so even though she wanted to march right back in there and shake some answers out of that girl, she followed her husband. Aaron didn’t lead her back toward the clearing where the house was going to be; instead, he rode toward the livery stable and around back. Tucker was set up there with his own fire, roasting a hunk of meat.

“Myra at the café,” Aaron said.

Tucker looked at Aaron; his eyes sharpened and veered toward the corral. “It fits. I’ve narrowed it down to three women, and that includes her.”

“Marshall Langley’s her pa, so have a mind.”

“Her stepfather. And word is, he’s got no use for her or her two brothers. They’re all old enough to be out on their own. Myra Hughes is her name. She works in the diner, but she’s past the age where she should’ve accepted one of the marriage proposals she’s gotten. Looks as though no one’s good enough for her. And the two boys, Archie and Norbert Hughes, are just pure lazy to the bone.”

“Three of them?” Aaron said.

“Yep. I don’t know much about the rest of Langley’s family.”

“I do. Their ma, Erica, is expecting a baby, and she’s already got a little one. I didn’t know Langley was her second husband, but it explains why the children are so far apart in age. I thought maybe the war separated Bo and Erica for years.”

“Langley’s back in town. I’ll have a talk with him and tell him what we know. He’s been out here since right after the war and he’s a good man, mighty fed up with his layabout stepchildren. I’ll ask him if one of his boys is wounded.”

“How come I don’t know those boys? It’s a small town.”

“I heard they spend their days in the woods. Both decent hunters, and they supply the diner with meat. That’s the only reason Langley hasn’t tossed them out on their ears.”

“Good hunters? Like maybe good enough to know how to use a bow and arrow?”

Tucker arched a brow. “Could be.”

Aaron jerked his chin in agreement. “I gotta get back to the cabin site. Come for me if you need any help.”

Tucker gave Aaron a cocky smile that seemed to say he couldn’t imagine needing help.

Aaron shook his head and looked at Kylie. “We might be getting to the bottom of this at last. Let’s go on home.”

When they got back, he found a comfortable stump for her to sit on, out of the wind and in the shade.

She got to work on the curtains.

He went on with building their little house and was seeing to her protection.

It was confusing. Aaron was shifting a lifetime of thinking. And all the more confusing, because she was pretty sure she was shifting her thinking from wrong to right.

She really liked being married. She set her stitches to the pulse of that swinging ax of his. As he chopped the trees back from the site, she was only slightly aware that he’d gotten a good distance away from her on the far side of the house.

He wasn’t even visible when an unusual snap of a twig drew her attention. It reminded her of how Sunrise had deliberately broken that twig before she’d stepped into sight
to let them know she was coming. Looking up, wondering if Sunrise had come, she saw nothing.

Then she heard, “Kylie.” A whisper.

Staring, she thought she saw a shadow move, yet no one came into sight. Though Aaron was chopping the trees back, just as he had at the cabin on her homestead, there was still dense forest all around.

A chill ran up her spine. It reminded her of that night she’d stood alone on her porch and seen eyes watching her.

They’d just accounted for Myra at the diner. She’d been hard at work only hours ago. But she had two brothers, unaccounted for. But the land was sold now, which took away any reason for someone to attack her.

She opened her mouth to call for Aaron, and in a flash she was certain that whatever had frightened her was nonsense. Or gone now.

She thought of how she’d decided to be reborn into a grown-up woman who took control of her life. Even now, married and under Aaron’s protection, she could do that. She gathered up her sewing and very calmly went around the house until she could see her husband.

“Aaron?”

He straightened from his chopping and swiped the back of his wrist across his brow as he turned to her. “Yes?”

She must have sounded calm, because he smiled. “I like working where I’m closer to you. I wanted to warn you I was moving. Where will I be out of the way of falling trees?”

His smile widened. “A very wise question, Mrs. Masterson.” He pointed to a stump near the corner of the half-built cabin. “That one should be safe.”

She nodded, then settled herself again. He went back to work. If she couldn’t completely forget that odd whisper on the wind, she gave up her worries to God with a prayer as she stitched and watched Aaron work.

There weren’t going to be any tea parties in her future, though. Probably not even any tea. Where they were in the mountains, tea was very expensive and hard to find, even if you did have coin enough to pay for it. As she stitched, she berated herself for being shallow and silly, and she distracted herself from foolish dreams by watching her extremely attractive husband chop down trees with a skill that made Bailey look like a shirker.

When he seemed satisfied with his new stack of logs, he set the ax aside and looked at the house, the walls about halfway built.

“I can help.” Kylie knew building went better with two people, and her curtains were done.

“I’d appreciate that.” He straightened, swiping his forearm across his sweating brow again. “I’m to the point where I need to put the windows in, and you can help hold things in place for me.”

Kylie waited until he set a notched log on top of one corner.

“Hold this, please.”

She hurried to do as he asked. He actually wanted less from her than she was capable of. They worked quietly; he barely had to tell her what he needed. He left gaps for the windows and talked while he built, so Kylie could see what he had in mind, and it all went smoothly.

It was about thirty feet square overall. As time went on, they finished erecting the walls and putting in windows,
all the while talking and in most ways just being a good team. Then suppertime came and Aaron called it a night.

“Let’s ride on back to your cabin.”

“I don’t mind making a long day of it.” Kylie knew the relentless pace her sisters always set.

“Well, I mind, darlin’.” Aaron smiled and kissed her until she forgot all about the house.

“Sunrise said your sisters are coming over to help build, is that right?”

“She saw Bailey yesterday and told them we got married.” Kylie nodded as they got back to work the next morning. “She stormed around some, but she said she’d get Shannon and come over to help. They’re good carpenters. They’ll be a big help.”

She looked at the house, raised to where they could start on the roof.

“Good. I need to go do some land agent work. If you don’t run into any trouble, we might be able to sleep here tonight.” Aaron exhaled. “No chimney yet, dirt floors, and we won’t be able to stay if it looks like rain and we don’t get the roof closed up, but that’s the way in a new land—folks building under their feet and over their heads.”

The sound of hooves drew their attention.

Though Kylie assumed it would be either Bailey or Shannon, Aaron moved to stand between her and whoever approached. His hand went to his six-gun, which he always wore on his hip.

Tucker trotted out of the woods on his wild gray horse.

“I’m having trouble with Langley.” Tucker leapt down
off the grulla mare with its long black mane. “Langley’s got his wife’s children figured to be lazy no-accounts but not outlaws. He won’t make an arrest on my say-so of events. He wants to talk to you and Kylie.” Tucker looked over at the cabin. “You want me to stay and put some time in on it?”

“I want you with me, Tucker. I don’t want Langley to have any doubts about this, and he trusts you. I don’t blame the man for not liking to hear his stepchildren accused of something so low-down. Help me saddle a horse for Kylie.”

Aaron strode toward the horses, where they’d staked them out just minutes ago to graze. Even in a hurry, he didn’t expect Kylie to do men’s work. In this case, she’d have been glad to do anything to get in there and look those varmints right in the eyes.