Page 77 of Stockman's Showdown

Sliding on the plastic gloves, she took a steady breath as if bracing herself. Death wasn’t new to her—come on, she’d grown up on a cattle station and had seen her fair share of it in the harsh outback. Still, this was different. ‘You aren’t afraid of dead bodies, are you?’

‘Nope. You?’ Ryder rolled out the large tray holding a long black bag.

‘I’ve seen way more than I care to. But these were my first human skeletons. I’ve seen plenty of cattle bones in my times.’ And the body on the tray was just that, bones. ‘Which one is this?’

‘Harry.’ Ryder opened the next refrigerated locker and pulled out the other tray to read the tag on the black bag. ‘This is Penelope.’

‘At least they kept them side by side in the same freezer.’ She unzipped Harry’s black bag. ‘You know, this should feel wrong.’

‘It doesn’t?’ His tone was sarcastic as he unzipped Penelope’s bag.

‘No. It feels right.’ Over time they’d just been left with a series of bones, allowing her to grab the bones of Harry’s fourth finger. She then turned to Penelope. Her bones were smaller. Without clothing, or jewellery, it looked like a skeleton you’d see in any school science lab.

‘For the record…’

‘Hmmm…’ Penelope’s bone was so frail and light.

‘I think this is a good idea.’

She gazed up at the stern stockman. ‘I had to do something. They’ve been together for so long, it’s not fair to separate them now.’

‘But why the wedding finger?’

‘Legend says there’s a vein that runs from the heart to the fourth finger of the left hand.’ She held up her gloved hand to trace along the finger. ‘The Romans called itvena amoris—the vein of love. That’s why most people wear their wedding rings there: to show their hearts have been claimed.’

‘I don’t see any rings on your fingers.’

She spread her fingers in the glove. ‘I can’t wear them. Working with hot metals means rings heat up and burn me. Pop’s the same. He’ll wear his wedding band if he went out, to show he belonged to someone.’ Her voice softened as she glanced at the couple. ‘I bet you don’t believe in soulmates.’

He leaned closer, tucking one of her curls aside. ‘I can see you do.’

‘As much as I hate to admit it, I am a romantic.’ She smiled faintly, thinking of her pile of romance books and all the times she’d helped Cap and Ash plan romantic gestures for their partners. ‘I know this might not be the most romantic thing, but at least they’ll have a part of each other, no matter where they end up.’

She placed the finger bones in their new spots. ‘What do you think?’

Ryder stood beside her with his head tilted, his masculine aroma divine against the sterile room. ‘No one will be able to tell what you’ve done. There’s only a slight difference in the colour and bone length. Other than that, they look undisturbed.’

‘But we’ll know, and Charlie will know. Harry was family, and if Harry had married Penelope, she would be family too.’ And it stopped part of that guilt for having ever thought wrong of Harry. Even if Harry may be accused of murder, his letter and his love for Penelope suggested otherwise.

‘Harry and Penelope were going to elope. They were planning their happily-ever-after, it just got taken from them too soon—it’s not fair.’ Bree might not believe in love, but this coupledid. And by doing this, maybe she would begin to believe in the beauty and power of love, too.

She went to zip up their bags and paused. ‘I feel like we should say something.’

‘What?’

‘I don’t know. It’s not like I moonlight as a bone collector.’

‘What’s that prayer you say when you’re about to eat cupcakes? That sounds like a wedding vow.’

‘Hmm…’ But was it right? ‘Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join these two people in the act of matrimony…’ Her voice bounced off the walls. ‘It sounds lame.’

‘Keep going.’ Ryder nodded at her in encouragement.

‘Fine.’

She took a deep breath, searching for some sort of inspiration for a couple who deserved so much better.

‘Penelope, I may not have known you, but I learned about you in Harry’s letter, and I could hear the love he had for you in his words. When I first saw you in that cave, after my initial surprise, I saw a man and a woman. I saw a man sheltering his loved one, where you held on to each other, to comfort each other through the darkness, the way all those love stories say it should be. That even in death, you still never parted.’

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