she’d do something else for me, only I haven’t quite figured out what it is.”
Emma nodded enthusiastically. “And it was my fault anyway. Like I told Auntie, I was the one in the wrong. It wouldn’t be fair to punish a poor old rooster for something I did.”
Owen sighed. “I can’t have you pleading for the life of every farm animal on the ranch. You girls know that we have to eat, and this is where our food comes from. So, unfortunately...”
“No!” The girls cried together.
“You wouldn’t kill me if I was mean to my sister, would you?”
“And she’s mean to me all the time.” Emma lifted up the hem of her skirt to show a bruised leg. “See here? This is where she kicked me yesterday.”
Owen’s groan was definitely one of exasperation. But he wrapped his arms around his daughters and hugged them tight against him.
“All right. We’ll give the rooster another chance. I’ll go cut off the spurs on his legs, and we’ll see what that does to keep him from attacking you. But if I hear any more grousing about the mean old rooster, he’s going in the stew pot.”
“Thank you, Papa,” the girls said in unison.
Laura had never been around twins before, so it was interesting to her to see how they not only looked alike, but they seemed to sound alike.
As she watched Owen continue to embrace his daughters, something stirred in her heart. Back when he was protecting her the first time, she’d wondered what kind of man he’d be with a family. He’d seemed like the type who belonged with one. How little had she known. Watching him with the girls now, she knew she’d underestimated him, and that was saying a lot, considering that at the time she would have thought he’d hung the moon.
Maybe that was why things were so different this time around. Back then, she’d put Owen on a pedestal. She thought him everything heroic and wonderful a man could be. But when she realized that he was just doing his job, it had stung. All the feelings he’d stirred up in her were hers alone. So now, even as her heart fluttered at the sight of this man tenderly embracing his daughters, she knew that anything she might think he felt for her wasn’t real.
Owen stood, then held his hands out to the girls. “All right, let’s go see about that rooster. Lena, you can put away the ax. For now.”
As soon as Owen was out of earshot, Lena shook her head and muttered, “The man has no sense when it comes to those girls. He would do just about anything for them. It’s a shame their mother didn’t feel that way, too.”
Owen had said talking about the girls’ mother was strictly off-limits. Hadn’t Lena just opened the door?
“Owen doesn’t speak of her. Just that she is dead.”
Lena nodded. “There is not much about her worth telling. I didn’t like her the first time we met, and I never started. I don’t know what Owen ever saw in her, except that she needed rescuing. In case you haven’t noticed, Owen likes to do the rescuing. Today the rooster, tomorrow it will be some other creature the girls have picked up. He might be a tough lawman, but his heart is as soft as they come.”
It was as if Lena’s words were confirming what Laura had just told herself. Owen liked to rescue. And once more, he was rescuing Laura.
“He does seem to have a tender heart,” Laura said, smiling at Lena. “I suppose that’s why they picked him for this job.”
Lena grinned. “That, and he’s the best shot this side of the Mississippi. The other side, too, since most of them can’t shoot worth the lead in their bullets.”
Laura couldn’t help but laugh at Lena’s idealized description of her brother. It was clear that Lena adored him, and just as Owen had vowed to protect Laura, Laura was certain that Lena would do just about anything to protect Owen.
No, there was no hope for them romantically. Except in the few and far between daydreams she allowed herself to indulge in.
Laura and Lena returned to the house, where Lena finished breakfast preparations.
“I suppose if you want to help by setting the table, that would be fine. Usually, the girls do it, but since they’re out there with their father, tending the rooster, you might as well do it.”
On one hand, Laura was slightly offended at being given a child’s job. But at least she was allowed to do something.
They took the dishes out of the cupboard, and Laura set the table. When she finished, Lena was still busy in the kitchen, flipping pancakes. It wouldn’t do to bother her again. Laura remembered that just outside the front door, there was a field sprinkled with wildflowers. She’d spied an empty vase in the dining room. Perhaps a little color at the table wouldn’t go amiss.
When Laura went outside, she was once again captivated by the beauty of the ranch. She could see Leadville in the distance, so far away, yet standing strong against the backdrop of the mountains towering above it. Though she didn’t have the same aversion to the city that Lena did, Laura had to admit that here the air was fresher and cleaner.
A quaint white picket fence surrounded the ranch house. Laura let herself out the gates and made the short trek to the field she’d spied from her bedroom window. Here wildflowers abounded, making Laura’s own attempts at growing a few flowers around her house seem pathetic. As she picked flowers, she hummed one of the new tunes they learned in church.
In the vastness of the open range, Laura felt a sense of the bigness of God. He’d made all this beautiful land, and here she was, enjoying it.
She gathered flowers, continuing to hum the refrain. The only reason she stopped was the loud grumble her stomach gave. Satisfied at the variety of beautiful flowers she’d collected, Laura turned to go back to the ranch house. She hadn’t realized she’d wandered so far. But just as she began to make her way toward the house, she noticed Owen storming toward her.
“Just what do you think you were doing, wandering off like that?”
His harsh tone made Laura want to cringe. Once again, he was speaking to her in a way she was no longer used to. Though she supposed she should start getting used to it. The old Owen never spoke to her like this, and it reminded her so much of James. Angry and accusing, without concern for her feelings.
“I was just gathering some flowers,” she said firmly. When James would treat her like that, she would cower and apologize for herself.
But that was the old Laura. The new Laura had nothing to apologize for. She was her own woman, and she would not cower just because a man raised his voice at her.
One more reason to tamp down any affectionate feelings she might have for Owen.
“You can’t just wander around here, especially without telling anyone where you’re going. James and his men could be out there. Didn’t Lena tell you to stay inside the fence?”
Laura tried to remember if Lena had said something, but she honestly wasn’t sure. It seemed like there was so much new information she’d been given over the past day, that she didn’t know.
“I...”
“I don’t
