Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) (8 page)

Which tempted her even more fiercely to launch herself at Aaron.

Kylie controlled the impulse and turned back to Aaron.
She knew, even if Pa didn’t, that her signature on this homestead claim was only as good as her presence here. She was promising to stay in exchange for the land. That didn’t mean she couldn’t forfeit the land and leave. But she wasn’t going to make that decision today.

“You have forms for me to sign?”

Aaron looked at her, reading her expression. She’d been a woman serving in the Army with thousands of men. Even more, she’d been a spy. But this wasn’t war, and she wasn’t trying to hide her feelings.

“Right here.” He reached in his dark suit coat and drew out a leather pouch containing a packet of papers. “I even have ink and a pen in case you don’t.”

Kylie quirked a sad smile. “Nice to see you weren’t missing a chance to ruin my life. Very efficient.”

“Let’s go inside.” Aaron nodded toward the house.

Kylie led the way. “I’ve got ink and a pen. Believe it or not, I know how to read and write.”

“I believe it,” Aaron said.

He was right behind her. So close. So strong. So utterly a man she could never have. As she swung the door open and stepped inside, she turned to him.

A flaming arrow slammed into the door inches from Aaron’s head. Kylie’s years of training kicked in, and she grabbed Aaron by the front of his coat and hauled him inside, throwing both of them to the floor. She kicked the door shut as they fell.

She heard another arrow hit, then a third with a vibrating twang. “Indians!”

Aaron leapt to his feet. “Your cabin will burn!”

She grabbed her Sharps off the hooks over the door.

Aaron rushed for the window to the left. Kylie went to the right.

Aaron drew his gun and smashed the window. She almost yelled. She’d worked hard to get real glass.

Biting back her foolishness, Kylie faced reality but lifted her own window from the bottom, then propped it with a ready-to-hand stick. She took a shot into the woods.

Aaron opened fire an instant later.

The arrows switched from aiming at the door to the windows.

Kylie poked her head out and then quickly jerked it back. A burning arrow tore past her and stabbed into the floor.

“Put it out!” Aaron never left his post. “Then swing the door open wide, standing behind it. You can extinguish the arrows so they won’t catch the place on fire without being a target.”

Kylie wanted to shoot someone, but keeping her cabin from burning down needed doing.

Jumping for the flaming arrow, Kylie wrenched it out of the floor, rushed to a bucket of water, and tossed it in. A soft hiss and a plume of smoke rose up from the bucket. Another arrow cut through Aaron’s window. She picked up the bucket and a heavy dishcloth and doused that one.

Aaron slapped at his shirt, and she saw fire. She quickly tossed water on his left arm.

He glanced at her. “Thanks.” Turning away, he kept up a steady rain of lead.

A cry of pain came from the woods. It sounded strange, but Kylie didn’t have time to wonder why. She’d left her rifle on the far side of the door. She grabbed it and leaned
it against the wall beside Aaron. “Use this until I have a chance to reload for you.”

“They’ve broken off the attack.” Aaron’s gun fell silent.

Careful not to expose herself, Kylie opened the door to see six burning arrows. With the door pressed wide open against the wall, she soaked a towel in the bucket and made short work of smothering each arrow, leaving them where they were. As she worked, hoofbeats thundered away.

“There are two more stuck in the wall on my side of the door.” Aaron looked behind him. “I watched close and didn’t see any hit the roof, but I might have missed one.”

Kylie’s stomach twisted. There may be burning arrows up there, but she couldn’t get at them without exposing herself. If all the shooters had ridden away, they might be safe, although what if it was a ruse to make them come out. She’d be risking her life . . . or Aaron’s.

Yet if she didn’t go, she might lose her cabin.

“They’re gone. I think I winged someone.”

“I heard the shout.”

“It sounded like three horses riding away. Looks as though they’re done with their mischief.”

“Assuming there were only three.” Kylie thought of how many might ride with an Indian war party.

“Soak that towel good and give it to me. Then cover me.” He reached across the open doorway to shove the Sharps in her direction.

She grabbed her rifle, checked it was loaded, and gave him the drenched cloth. With her back pressed to the wall, she edged close to the doorframe and aimed toward the woods. “Go!”

Aaron was out and back so fast that Kylie barely had
time to worry. No one shot at him. “It’s out. Now I want to go down the steps and make sure the roof isn’t burning.”

“No. Wait. Listen for a minute.”

He surprised her by waiting. Kylie hadn’t had much experience with anyone doing as she asked, not her bossy big sisters and for sure not her pa. But Aaron . . . well, she might go so far as to say he obeyed her. It was a heady feeling.

They both stood in a profound silence. They heard nothing but the breeze stirring the trees. There was no sound of crackling flames from overhead.

“We’d hear if the roof was burning.” Kylie felt the worst of her tension ease. But she had plenty to spare.

“And smoke would be coming through the rafters.” Aaron’s jaw loosened, and his shoulders lowered a bit. Even so, he still looked more than ready for trouble. “I’d say we got them all.”

Kylie remembered nearly collapsing into Aaron’s arms after Gage Coulter had ridden off. She fought to keep from doing that again. It could get to be a habit.

“Have you heard about any Indian trouble around here?” Kylie had never even seen an Indian, but she’d heard stories of the Wild West and knew the dangers.

“They weren’t Indians.” Anger flashed in Aaron’s blue eyes.

Kylie tended to agree, though she wasn’t sure why. Something niggled at her. “But arrows—surely that means it was a war party.”

“I heard them speaking English. The man I wounded yelled, and it wasn’t an Indian word.”

“You’re right.” That’s what had bothered her. That shout had been a single curse word. One Kylie recognized.

“But why?” Kylie wheeled to face Aaron. For some reason this was more upsetting than an Indian attack. “I’ve got no cattle to rustle, no money to steal.”

“The very fact that there isn’t a burning arrow on your roof tells me this was meant mostly to scare you, not burn you out.”

Kylie’s eyes went to Aaron’s shirtsleeve. It was burnt black, but she didn’t see any blood. “Your shirt was on fire. That’s a real serious way to scare someone. Come and sit down, so I can take care of your arm.”

“I’ll have a burn, but the arrow missed. It’s not serious. You burned your hands just as badly.”

Kylie looked at her reddened fingers. She’d singed them somewhere along the way, and she hadn’t noticed until now. Well, she’d burned her fingers before; she’d be fine. So would Aaron most likely. Still, it was a mighty mean business.

“Who wants me scared?” And the answer came so quickly, Kylie didn’t need Aaron to answer.

He did anyway. “I know of one man who’d like to see you scared into running off.”

“Coulter.”

“He’s got the reputation of an honest man, but a hard one. If he scared you into abandoning your claim, he might see that as justice. He thinks of this land as his.”

“If he and his men did this, then he loses any claim he has to decency.”

“No argument there.” Aaron scowled at the bucket with the blackened arrows. “I intend to ride over there right now and make that clear to him.”

“I’m coming with you.”

Aaron stumbled, then turned and crossed his arms. “Absolutely not. Coulter attacked you today. I’m not going to give him a second chance. His men have ridden off now, so you’ll be safer here than anywhere.”

“No, I’ll be safer with you.”

“Kylie, no. All four of the Wilde homesteads sit on important Coulter water holes and meadows. If he did this, he’s dangerous. We can’t know how he’ll react when he sees you riding up to his property.”

“This attack was on me, Aaron. I’m not going to sit here like a scared little girl while you go off and fight my battles.”

“I’m the law when it comes to land in this area. It’s my job to fight battles.”

“Well, I was in the war, so I fought battles, too. I want to be there. I want to look Coulter in the eye. All the spying I did made me a good judge of character.”

Kylie hated doing it, but she smiled and fluttered her lashes just a bit. She’d been practicing flirting for years, but rarely did she try it—not much opportunity for that when she dressed like a man all the time.

“Besides, I’m scared to stay here alone.” That part was true. And she thought of the night ahead. Would those men come back? How could she stay awake and on watch all night? This concern added weight to her plea. “Please take me with you.”

“You can’t come, but you’re right that you shouldn’t be here alone. What can your father have been thinking to leave his daughter alone like this?”

“No one thinks a thing of a young man living alone in a cabin, and until your interference, that’s just what I was.”

“Well, Coulter didn’t drive his cattle in here and harass
you because you’re a woman. Those arrows didn’t come flying because you’re a woman. Until just a few days ago, no one even knew you were one.”

Kylie thought of that frightening night when she felt like someone had watched her from the shadowy woods. Had there been someone there? If so, they knew she was a woman.

“You’ve got a heap of trouble, Kylie, and it’s not safe for you here anymore. I’ll take you to the nearest Wilde holding. Your brother Shannon is the closest, right?”

“I’m not going to be left like I’m a child who needs tending.”

“Not a child. A woman.” Aaron scowled at her. “A very childish woman.”

“You can leave me at Shannon’s, but I’ll just follow you. When you ride off, look behind. I’ll be right there. I’m not letting you fight my battles.”

“You”—Aaron jabbed his finger right in her face—“are not going!”

“Oh, yes I am!”

“If you say one more word about it, I’m going to arrest you for pure stupidity and haul you straight to the jailhouse.”

Kylie jammed her fists into her waist and took a step forward. Let him jab her. No decent man laid his hands on a woman. She’d just see how decent Aaron Masterson was.

With no notion of using her rusty flirting skills, she said slowly, clearly, and without hesitation, “You wouldn’t dare.”

D
on’t you dare—!” The jail cell door slamming closed shut her up.

Finally. The first silence for a lot of miles.

“The man I sent will give word to your pa and brothers. I’ll release you to them,
if
and only if they convince me they can control you until after I’ve talked to Coulter.” Aaron didn’t figure the silence would last, so he enjoyed it while he could. “Until then, I’m leaving you locked up.”

Glaring, gripping the iron bars, she looked so mad he half expected steam to blast out of her ears. She reached for a tin cup resting on a little table in her cell, picked it up, and hurled it straight at Aaron’s head.

He was watching her real close, so it was easy to snatch it out of the air, glad it didn’t have water in it. He decided then and there not to give her anything to eat or drink that he wasn’t willing to wear.

“The closest they have to law in this town is the U.S. marshal, and he has a big area to cover. He just needed a
place for his family to settle. We’re lucky they even have a jail.”

She growled something; he thought it might be some mangled, outraged version of the word
lucky
.

The town of Aspen Ridge was so raw it looked like it’d been carved out of the wilderness a few weeks ago. The few buildings and businesses were standing scattered here and there. No streets, unless a body had a mighty good imagination.

“If Marshal Langley is in town, I’ll tell him you’re not allowed to have any hot liquids in this cup until you calm down.” He tossed the cup lightly in the air and caught it, then set it on the marshal’s desk with a sharp click.

He’d found the jail unlocked and the cell open. A key had hung handy on the wall. Not a lot of crime in Aspen Ridge.

A good thing, because it meant Kylie wouldn’t have to share the cell, for there was only the one. That could’ve gotten tricky if there’d been another prisoner who was a man. If Langley did come in with a man, Aaron would have to let her out. And he really didn’t want to. Not yet. She was the safest here she’d been since he met her.

“You’ve managed to wear out the day, Miss Wilde. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get out to Coulter’s. For now, I’ll leave you to throw everything else that’s not tied down. I’ll be back later with a meal from Erica’s Diner.” Erica was married to the marshal, so he could get food and find out the marshal’s whereabouts at the same time. “Maybe if I wait long enough, you’ll be hungry and eat it instead of flinging it.”

Her furious scream followed him outside. He found
himself grinning. His dealings with the little spitfire were proving more fun than he’d had since before the war.

He set about finding Marshal Langley and hadn’t begun to finish searching when a man came tearing into town—young, skinny, and none too tall. The rider, blond and with a tan that was more red than brown on his fair skin, rode a buckskin mustang that was larger than most of the mountain ponies Aaron had seen. The cowpoke galloped straight for the jail, and Aaron knew it was either someone with need of the marshal or maybe a member of the Wilde family.

He jogged across the dusty street of Aspen Ridge just as the cowpoke swung off his horse. Every move was unusually skillful, and Aaron knew he was looking at a frontiersman who would make it in the West.

The cowpoke lashed his reins to the hitching post, and as he strode up the two steps to the wooden walk that fronted the jail, Aaron called out, “The marshal isn’t in.”

The newcomer turned to face him, and Aaron saw a more finely made version of Cudgel Wilde. This youth had none of Cudgel’s bitterness and grief carved into his face.

“I heard Kylie Wilde is in custody.” The youngster’s voice was unusual. Aaron would remember it. “She’s my sister. I’m Bailey Wilde.”

Aaron stepped up beside Bailey and gestured toward the door. “Yep, she’s locked up tight. More for her own good than for breaking the law, although she resisted my arrest of her.”

Bailey grabbed the doorknob and wrenched it open.

Kylie stood, both hands gripping the cell door. “Bailey, you came.”

“When have I ever not come to take care of you?”

Kylie smiled. Bailey smiled back. A smile that lit up an otherwise unremarkable face.

Aaron shook his head. “Oh, good grief. You’re a girl, too.”

Bailey whirled to face Aaron, but her eyes went past him. Aaron glanced back; there was no one there. He moved to close the door, knowing Bailey didn’t want the whole town to know.

Before she could say anything, Aaron said, “I’m changing your paper work, as well.”

With narrowed eyes, Bailey replied, “That’s so unjust, I’m surprised you can speak those words to me without shame.”

“It’s the law, Miss Wilde.”

“Shhh . . . don’t call me that.”

“It’s your name.”

“My name is Bailey Wilde.” She jerked off her gloves, and Aaron saw her fine-boned hands. Much like Kylie had kept her gloves on when she was disguised, Bailey did too. Their hands gave them away. And now that he knew she was a woman, Bailey’s face was really quite pretty.

“I enlisted in the Union Army as Bailey Wilde. I served four years as Bailey Wilde. I did the work and earned the pay and served the United States of America honorably as Bailey Wilde.” Bailey jammed her fists on her hips. “What’s more, I don’t need that exemption. I plan to stay out here for good, so putting in five years isn’t a problem for me like it is for Kylie. But it’s still unjust. I’ve got my honorable discharge papers, and I used them to get my exemption. No one ever asked if I was a woman, not once the whole time I served.”

Aaron felt his shoulders slump under Bailey’s logic. “I can’t change the law, Miss . . . Bailey. It’s illegal, though, for a woman to enlist in the Army.”

“I never told a single lie. No one asked if I was a man.”

“Just because the question wasn’t asked doesn’t mean it’s not a written down, fully legal act of Congress that the Army only allows men to serve.”

“I don’t want that exemption because I need it.” Bailey slammed her right fist into her left hand. “I earned it. It’s right I should be given it. And because I served four years, I’m almost done. I would own my homestead free and clear in just a couple more months.”

Aaron studied her face. “I have no idea how anyone could’ve thought you were a man for more than ten minutes.”

“No one’s ever had much trouble believing it. You’d believe it too if you hadn’t caught on to Kylie.”

“I doubt it. Give up, Bailey. I won’t be a party to fraud.”

Bailey stared at him. He could see the wheels turning in her head. He thought he might be dealing with a very bright young woman, and he braced himself to stand up to her next argument. It wasn’t that easy, because she made a lot of sense. Denying her those years of fighting made him feel like he was the fraud, not her.

“More than the exemption, I don’t want anyone to know I’m a woman.”

“Too late,” Kylie said from the cell.

Aaron turned to her. “You’ve been pretty quiet. How come you’re never quiet with me?”

“Because,” Kylie said, “I had a hope she could maybe sway you. No one ever turns Bailey from her path.”

“If I can’t convince you to give me that exemption, can I convince you to keep your mouth shut about me being a woman? Surely running your mouth all over town about it isn’t the same as committing fraud.”

“Why should I keep silent? What’s the matter with you Wilde women that you want to deny you’re female?”

With her jaw so tight it might crack her teeth, Bailey said, “For the reason that my sister is right now locked up in jail.”

“It’s for her own safety.”

“That’s exactly my point. I don’t want anyone doing anything for my own safety.”

“Being a woman is a powerful protection out here in the West. Not too many men will hurt a woman.”

Bailey stomped right up to Aaron. “I don’t want protection; I want freedom. I don’t want some well-meaning stubborn ox of a man slamming a cell door shut in my face for my own good. And being locked up is about as far as a body can get from freedom. I want to fork my own broncs. I want to own my land and run my cattle and do as much or as little as the strength of my back and the wits in my head will let me do.”

Since she was close, Aaron snatched the broad-brimmed hat off her head, expecting long curls to rain down like Kylie’s had.

They didn’t.

Her blond hair was shorter than his. He tossed the hat onto the jailhouse desk. “I can’t believe you hacked all your hair off. You’re about the strangest filly I’ve ever heard tell of.” Then, knowing it would infuriate her, Aaron smirked and said, “But you’re sure a pretty little thing.”

He caught the fist she threw with the sharp slap of flesh on flesh. Laughing, he let her go and stepped back, almost all the way to the cell. Not all the way of course. He didn’t put it past Kylie to grab him from behind and try to strangle him.

“Now, if we can stop with all this female fussing, maybe you’d like to know that someone tried to kill your little sister today.”

And that did stop Bailey. The anger in her face disappeared, and she turned to Kylie. “I should never have let you stay alone once it came out you were a woman.”

Aaron wondered why Cudgel hadn’t said exactly those words. Instead, he’d bullied and wheedled and gotten his daughter to go along with him, then ridden off, leaving her alone and defenseless with a man Cudgel didn’t even know. And then the attack had come. Aaron shuddered to think what might have happened if Kylie had been there alone.

It wasn’t like Cudgel wanted Kylie to be in danger; Aaron just got the real strong impression he didn’t think of it at all. His life was centered on himself, or maybe it was centered around mourning his son.

The truth hit Aaron, and he wanted to kick himself for being so slow. “Your pa’s half mad with grief over the death of his son. His
only
son. And he’s trying to turn the rest of you into replacement sons. All three of you. Shannon is a woman, too.” Aaron wasn’t asking; he was just stating the obvious.

Bailey and Kylie both turned to glare at Aaron, and he knew then he was right. Sighing, he added, “I’m changing her paper work, too. You Wilde sisters are the limit.”

With a shake of her head, Bailey seemed to toss away
her annoyance at Aaron. “What does he mean, someone tried to kill you? Tell me what happened.”

Kylie gave a brief explanation.

“You’re right that it’s not Indians,” Bailey said. “I’ve met a few of the Shoshone people in these parts.”

“You have?” Kylie straightened.

“I’ve been trading with them a little. I hope to do more of it. I don’t believe this of the Shoshone that I’ve come to know.”

Kylie looked to Aaron. “The only person we know who’s upset about me living on that land is—”

“Gage Coulter.” Bailey said the word low. Her deep, raspy voice seethed. Where Kylie’s voice had a bit of the same roughness, Bailey’s was a deeper, darker version. “I haven’t had a run-in with him yet, but I’m sure my time is coming. I’ve heard he used to run cattle in my canyon.”

“My canyon?” Aaron said. “Strange you’d think of it that way, Bailey. The land in that canyon is only yours because you homesteaded across the mouth of it. You have no ownership except you can stop a man from crossing your property, and no one knows another way in. You’re doing exactly what you hate Coulter for doing.”

Bailey didn’t respond, as she was busy thinking. Aaron saw the signs and braced himself. A moment later, she pulled her gloves out of her back pocket and tugged them on. She turned to Kylie. “I think Masterson’s right. You need to stay here where it’s safe.”

“Bailey, don’t you dare leave me in this cell.”

“I’m going out to talk to Coulter and put a stop to this right now.”

“Oh, no you’re not, Miss Wilde.”

Bailey scowled at Aaron, and he could see mistaking her for a man. The woman had the right attitude and the right toughness. But Aaron
hadn’t
made that mistake, and he had a feeling Coulter wouldn’t either. Then Bailey would be in big trouble, because a woman shouldn’t stay out on a holding alone, and how was she going to keep her homestead claim if she couldn’t live on it?

Her scowl deepened into a sneer. “I’d like to see someone try and stop me.”

The jail door clanked shut with Bailey on the business side of it and Aaron on the free side. Kylie would have just as soon been locked up with a rabid wolverine.

“You’re not going to get away with this. When I get out of here, I’m turning the law on you. I haven’t done a thing to deserve this!”

Aaron had managed to drag Kylie all the way in from her cabin. He’d had a fight on his hands getting Bailey the five feet from outside the cell to inside it with the door shut and locked. And Kylie thought Aaron might have a black eye developing.

“It’s too late to go out tonight,” Aaron said in a reasonable tone, completely wasted over Bailey’s furious threats. Then he raised his voice until the roof shook. “And you should both thank me.”

That shut Bailey up, probably because she couldn’t imagine such a stupid statement. Kylie was wondering what Aaron could possibly mean by it.

“I don’t know what kind of half-wits you two served with in the war, but I promise you, Bailey Wilde, Gage
Coulter will figure out you’re a woman ten seconds after you start talking.”