Page 44 of Conveniently Wed
Or let someone mess up his pa’s deal with the cattle, either.
8
“Isn’t there somewhere else we can go?”
Emma’s frightened plea tugged at Fran’s heart. The girl had huddled in the wagon all morning, clutching the white dog. Fran knew Edgar didn’t want the animal inside with their food staples, but she didn’t have the heart to deny her sister the small comfort.
Emma wouldn’t even get out of the wagon and walk, like she had the day before.
Fran shot a glare at the cowboy who’d put that fear in Emma’s voice.
As if he sensed her ire, Edgar turned around, muscled legs flexing as he stood in the saddle.
He tipped his hat. She turned her face slightly, looking away from him.
He’d ridden his horse all morning, but had stayed close, riding beside the wagon when the cattle had moved out front, then drawing closer to the herd when it was nearer the wagon. The morning was cooler than the day before had been, the sun partially obscured by gray clouds.
She could swat the man for making her tell Emma about the men possibly following them. Her sister didn’t need to spend her time worrying about a threat that might not even exist.
Things were under control. Weren’t they?
Emma sighed. “Fran?”
She realized she’d been lost in thoughts of the cowboy. “Sorry.” She took one hand from the reins and motioned to the landscape around them. Empty except for cows and cowboys.
“Edgar promised to get us to Tuck’s Station and then set us up in Calvin. He says it is another small town between Tuck’s Station and Bear Creek.”
She told Emma of her husband’s plans. “By the time we’re settled, we’ll be free of Underhill.” She hoped.
Emma’s brows crinkled. “But what about your marriage?”
Fran strove to keep her face from showing any emotion other than smooth serenity. “Edgar thinks we should live separately.”
Her sister gave a disbelieving huff. “What’s his reasoning? It’s obvious there are sparks between you two.”
Fran didn’t want to talk about it. But she also didn’t want her sister`s focus to return to their desperate circumstances.
How did she explain to her sister, when she couldn’t fully understand it herself? She knew he was attracted to her. But…somehow he found her lacking. Just like Tim, the man who’d come calling when she was still at the Girls’ Academy. “Neither of us intended to be married back in Bear Creek. It happened quickly. It was a solution that fit. But he doesn’t want a wife,” she reminded her sister.
“Then he shouldn’t have said vows!”
Emma’s perturbed scowl pinched Fran’s heart.
“What of your happiness?” Emma asked.
“I’ll be happy knowing you’re safe.”
Her emphatic statement brought the shadows back to her sister’s eyes.
“I wish….” Emma sighed, letting the words fade away. “I’d started to like it out here—it’s so open.”
Pounding hoofbeats brought her gaze up. Emma curled back into a ball.
Edgar rode up to them. “Looks like there might be a storm brewing. We’re going to stop for a while.”
Relief at being allowed an extra stop was tempered by immediate concern. They were going to pass a storm…in the wagon?
The stream they’d camped near for the past two nights had disappeared. Now the only thing breaking up the smooth, slightly hilled landscape was a nearby copse of scrub trees.
