Ten

Trey was in his office later that evening when Nell tapped lightly on the door and walked in.

“It’s late,” she said. “You should get some rest.”

He glanced at his father’s pocket watch lying open on the desk. It showed after midnight. He’d lost all track of time. Running both hands through his hair, he leaned the swivel chair back and let out a long breath of exhaustion. “So much to do that time gets away from me, Nellie.” He stood and indicated the sofa that ran the length of one wall in the small space. “Come sit with me, and tell me about your day.”

At supper, she had told him that her visit with Lottie had been far better than she had hoped, but because Joshua was there, she had not elaborated.

“So exactly what does ‘better than you’d hoped for’ entail when it comes to Lottie?”

“Oh, Trey, I think she has forgiven me. Maybe the boys have as well.”

“That’s nice, especially since you’ve done nothing to require forgiveness.”

“I married you,” she reminded him.

He grinned and pulled her close so that she was snuggled into the curve of his body. “Well, yeah, there is that. So what makes you think you’re back in Lottie’s good graces after all this time?”

He listened as she poured out the details of her day. She told him how Ernest was pushing for marriage with Lottie and how she had urged her sister-in-law to think carefully. And he saw how her features softened as she spoke of when the two of them had realized that Henry and Calvin must have drawn up similar wills to protect their wives and sons. “Lottie says the two of us should show up at the next herders’ co-op meeting and speak our minds, since between us, we hold more land than the others put together.”

“Lottie said that?” Henry Galway’s wife had always struck Trey as the mousy sort.

“She’s stronger than you might think,” Nell replied.

“I guess so.” He kissed her hair, and she twisted to run her fingertips over the creases lining his forehead.

“What are you working on?”

“I’ve been thinking on it, Nellie. The key to this whole thing is Pete Collins, so I went to see him today. Sorry to say my meeting didn’t go half as well as yours with Lottie.”

“What happened?”

He hesitated. He shouldn’t say anything until he had proof of his suspicions, but he was more and more convinced Pete and his men were behind all the trouble that had plagued the area for these last months.

She sat up and faced him. “Trey, I am your wife. Please don’t try to shield me from whatever is going on. I assure you my imagination is far more frightening than reality could ever be.”

“Don’t be too sure.”

She frowned, and he knew she wouldn’t rest until she had drawn out the whole truth. So he told her. He told her how Collins’s cowhand had as good as admitted taking shots at him. “And I have little doubt that it was him and his men who slaughtered not only your stock and Henry’s, but his own as well to make it look like there was vengeance on both sides.”

“What about my house? Did he set it on fire?”

“Pretty sure that was either him or his men. He sure was all riled up that day after I told him what happened at Deadman’s Point. Trouble is, there’s no real evidence for a trial. Ashwood didn’t have enough to hold him, and right now, I can’t come up with anything either.” He stifled a yawn. “Got to get back to these ledgers, Nellie.”

“Come to bed, Trey. You can’t keep driving yourself this way.” She stood and held out her hands to him.

He chuckled as he took hold of her hands and let her pull him to his feet. “Now that’s an invitation I wouldn’t turn down under any circumstances.”

“To sleep,” she said, the color on her cheeks turning a most becoming pink.

“Ah, Nellie, you know I always sleep better after.” He made sure she didn’t have to ask “after what?” as he pulled her close and kissed her full on the mouth. When she wrapped her arms around his neck, urging him closer, he knew he’d won. He prepared to lead her from the outbuilding that served as his office across the courtyard to the house, to their bed, but Nell stayed where she was.

“Juanita is still up,” she said. “Something about needing to make tortillas for the men to take on the roundup tomorrow.”

Trey groaned. He loved having his surrogate family so close, but there were times… “What about Joshua?”

“Nita said she would look in on him.” She stepped closer and ran her palms over his shirtfront, tracing the muscles of his chest and edging nearer and nearer to the waistband of his trousers. “We could make love right here,” she whispered as she started to unfasten his belt.

Trey started opening the row of tiny buttons on her shirtwaist. “Here?” he whispered as he kissed her with a passion that left them both staggering toward the sofa. He collapsed onto the soft cushions, taking her with him.

“Why not?” She straddled him, raising her skirt above her knees so that she felt his fullness pressing against her.

He pushed the opening of her dress aside, revealing her chemise. She fumbled to open his shirt. He cupped her breasts, feeling the roundness of them, the heat of their tips. She massaged his bare skin, pushing the shirt over his shoulders as she leaned in to kiss his throat, his jaw, and finally his mouth.

And then she eased away. He opened his eyes, ready to protest, but when he saw her intent was to undress, he relaxed and prepared to enjoy the moment. After she had stripped down to her chemise and pantaloons, she knelt and pulled off his boots, then unbuttoned his fly, and removed his trousers. He made sure she took his long johns with them.

In the flickering light of the single lamp on his desk, he saw her hesitate. They had only made love in the dark before, feeling their way to find ways of pleasuring the other.

“Nellie, blow out the light if you want to. It’s all right.”

She shook her head as she reached up and removed the pins holding her hair and bent forward. Her warm wet lips on him sent him spiraling, and he reached for her to pull her onto him before he lost all control. She pushed him away, and as her hair fanned over his lower body, she kissed him there again.

“You like that,” she said, her voice filled with delight at her discovery.

“I love that, Nellie, but darlin’, you are playing with fire. Now come here.” He sat up enough to lift her to a standing position and then slipped her pantaloons over her slim hips, letting them pool around her bare feet. “You have to be the most beautiful woman God ever thought of making.”

She laughed and tossed her hair back as she straddled him again and leaned in to kiss his mouth. “Liar,” she whispered just before her lips met his.

And that was all it took. He moved only slightly and found the exact place where they fit so perfectly together. He slid into her and filled her. She settled into the rhythm they had perfected night after night as they lay together in that big double bed. Man and wife, Trey thought. My wife. My love.

Afterward, they lay side by side, nestled together on the sofa. “Trey?” she whispered just before he dosed off.

“Hmmm?”

“I sort of promised Ira and Spud and Joshua you would work with them all on their baseball skills.”

He groaned but then chuckled. “And just where do you see this happening?”

“I think they might come here if you asked them.”

Trey was wide awake now. “Lottie as well?”

“I think so.”

Trey and Colonel Ashwood had been working on an idea, a way they might give Pete Collins a false sense of confidence. If Pete thought he and his men could make a move, then they might try again, and the militia could make sure they were caught red-handed. Colonel Ashwood’s concern was that the plan could put others in danger. But if Collins thought Lottie and her boys were away from their ranch, might he not use that opportunity to strike?

“Well, any time next week should be fine,” he said. “But only if Lottie agrees to come. I don’t want this to be just about finding common ground among the boys.”

“I’ll ask her at church on Sunday.” Nell curled her hand so that it rested at the base of his throat. Her hair was spread over his bare chest, and he was stroking it with his fingers. “Trey? Maybe we ought to go back to the house?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” He rolled over her and stood. He hopped on one foot to pull on his trousers without bothering with his undergarments, while she tied the ribbons on her chemise and pulled on her pantaloons. As they dressed, he studied her—the fullness of her breasts and the roundness of her tummy that he’d failed to notice before.

“Nellie, is there any chance… I mean, could you be with child?”

She hesitated before facing him. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up. After all the times I—” She shook her head, banishing the past. “If I have things figured out right, I’m already in the fifth month. Trey, this morning, I felt the baby move.” She cradled her stomach. “In the past, if something went wrong, it was earlier on, but still—”

He lifted her off her feet and swung her around as he kissed her repeatedly on her nose, her cheeks, her lips. “Finally, some good news,” he crowed so loud, the dogs barked.

“Shhh,” she whispered, covering his mouth with her fingers. “You’ll wake everyone.” But she was grinning the same way he was, though worry still lingered.

What if?

He scooped her fully into his arms and carried her to the door.

“Trey Porterfield, put me down,” she demanded, but she was laughing.

“I may never let you walk a step again until this baby gets born,” he told her, and while he was smiling, he was only half kidding.

* * *

They made love again once they reached their bedroom, and afterward, Nell lay curled against her sleeping husband. She stayed there, her eyes open, and savored the pure joy of being loved by this remarkable man. It had been such a wonderful day, and if she carried this child to term, that would make it just about perfect. She cradled her stomach with her hands and recalled the wonder of being pregnant with Joshua. But then she remembered the three times she had been so certain there would be more children, and none of those had come to pass.

“Oh please,” she whispered. “Please let me have this child.”

Trey tightened his hold on her, almost as if to reassure her, but she could tell by his breathing that he was still sleeping. She eased herself out of bed and walked barefoot down the hall to Joshua’s room.

Her son had kicked off the covers and slept on his stomach, his face turned to one side. She paused in the doorway and realized she was listening for his ragged breathing, the catch that so often came as if he could not quite get enough air in or out. But tonight, there was no such sound. He slept peacefully, and it occurred to her he had made steady improvement ever since Addie had begun giving him regular steam treatments. Those had continued here on Trey’s ranch; Addie’s father had done something similar for Trey when he was younger, at least according to Juanita.

In some ways, my son, you are more like Trey than you were your own father, she thought. She pulled the covers over his thin body and kissed his forehead, smoothing his hair back from his eyes. “Sleep well,” she whispered.

When she climbed back into bed, Trey stirred. “Is Josh all right?” he asked sleepily. He had taken to calling the boy Josh—a name her son seemed to favor.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Go back to sleep.”

He pulled her close, his lips close to her ear as he whispered, “We’re going to be fine, Nellie. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you or Josh or this baby,” he promised, his hand flat on her stomach.

“I know.” But she also knew it was a promise he might not always be able to keep. With men like Pete Collins in the world—men who placed their own wants ahead of the greater good—staying safe wasn’t always an option.

* * *

The following morning, Trey could not seem to stop grinning. They sat at breakfast, with Juanita bustling around as usual. Joshua had bolted down his meal, eager to get outside where one of the cowboys had promised to give him a lesson in throwing a lasso.

“Don’t you look like the cat that swallowed the canary,” Juanita said as she poured Trey a second cup of coffee. She turned her attention to Nell. “The two of you were out there in the office for some time last night. Is everything all right?”

Nell felt a telltale blush rise up her neck and stain her cheeks.

“Fine and dandy,” Trey replied. He reached across the table and held her hand.

“You told him then?” Juanita asked, her attention still on Nell.

“About Lottie? Yes, I—”

“About the baby,” Juanita interrupted. “No other reason I can think of why this man here is grinning like he just struck gold. I was wondering when he might get around to noticing.”

Nell was incredulous. “How did you know? I mean, it’s early yet, and I haven’t even—”

Juanita rolled her eyes. “It’s claro—plain as the nose on your face, Nell.” She ticked off the signs on the fingers of one hand. “You pick at whatever is set before you at breakfast, then push it away. You claim no appetite, but I bet the truth is, just looking at the food makes your stomach turn over. Then there’s the way your clothes have started to be just a little too tight. And that doesn’t even begin to include how many times a day I’ve seen you pat your belly and smile.”

“So you knew?” Trey asked.

“The way I see things, come winter, there will be something besides not being able to keep your hands off each other keeping the two of you up at night.”

“Nita!” Nell knew the woman was direct, but really, this was too much.

But then Juanita touched Trey’s face and said softly, “You are going to be a wonderful father, Trey. Your mama and me always used to talk about that.” She looked at Nell, studying her for a long moment as if trying to come to a decision. And then she smiled. “But it takes two, and you’ve found yourself a good woman here.”

And in that moment, Nell realized Juanita might just be ready to embrace her as a member of this family she had helped raise. She would still struggle with the knowledge that Nell’s kin had killed Javier, but hopefully, she no longer held Nell responsible. “Thank you, Nita,” Nell said softly and felt tears well.

“Ha!” Juanita shouted triumphantly. “There’s another sign—getting all teary-eyed when there’s no cause.”

They laughed until tears of happiness rolled down their cheeks and Juanita had to sit down to catch her breath. They were still laughing when they heard shouts from outside and the thud of horses’ hooves coming right up to the kitchen door.

“What the—” Trey grabbed his hat and headed for the yard. “Stay here,” he said when Nell and Juanita followed him.

“Joshua’s out there,” Nell reminded him, her heart hammering for, from the sounds of things, whoever was outside had not come on a casual visit.

“I know. Just wait here.”

She and Juanita stood side by side in the doorway, their arms around each other’s waists.

“Josh, go inside,” Nell heard Trey call out as he strode across the courtyard toward the cluster of riders—one of them Pete Collins—but Nell realized Juanita was more concerned about others riding with the firebrand rancher.

“This is not good,” she murmured. “Those men are other ranchers, neighbors Trey was counting on to stand with him. If they are riding with Pete Collins, then…”

When Joshua reached the doorway and Nell pulled him inside, Juanita edged past her and reached behind the door. When she emerged, she was holding a rifle. “Just in case,” she muttered and took up her vigil at the open window, resting the barrel of the rifle on the broad sill.

“Ma?” Joshua’s voice shook a little as he stared first at the rifle and then at her.

“It’s all right, Son.” She turned him away from Juanita so that he was once again facing the scene outside. “See? Trey is talking to those men. They’re our neighbors, and I’m sure—”

Suddenly, Pete Collins leaped from his horse straight onto Trey, and both men fell to the ground, raising a cloud of dust as they wrestled. Nell knew Trey was unarmed, but she doubted Collins would go anywhere without his gun. Instead of dismounting to help, the other men backed their horses away from the fracas. Pete landed a punch on Trey’s face.

“Joshua, go stay in your room until this is over,” she said, giving her son a push toward the bedrooms. Then she turned to Juanita. “Give me that,” she said, motioning toward the rifle.

Neither Joshua nor Juanita argued.

Carefully, she took hold of the rifle and stepped into the courtyard. She aimed it away from everyone and everything and pulled the trigger. The recoil almost made her lose her balance, but she got the attention she sought—even Collins looked up. Steadying her grip on the weapon once again, she walked slowly toward the men. Trey pushed Pete away and got to his feet.

“Mr. Collins, whatever your grievance with my husband, it will not be resolved rolling around in the dirt like schoolboys. As for the rest of you, for shame that you would sit idly by.”

A couple of men dismounted. One picked up Trey’s hat and dusted it off.

Pete Collins got to his feet and moved a step toward her. “Now, ma’am, what say you put down that gun. This is—”

“Do not say this is not my business. Lottie Galway and I own property in this territory, and that gives us a stake in this so-called war you seem determined to perpetuate. If you’ve come to make demands or discuss terms, then herders have every right to be a part of that discussion. I intend to have my say both as a landowner and as Mr. Porterfield’s wife.”

She realized the men still on horseback were murmuring among themselves. A couple of others dismounted and went to stand with Trey. Her husband moved toward her, ignoring the bruise forming over one eye and the blood leaking down his chin from a cut on his lip.

Nell resisted the urge to attend to his injuries. This was her fight as much as it was his, and she would make them hear her, even if she had to do it by holding a loaded rifle on them. “My home, my son’s legacy from his murdered father, was burned to the ground in broad daylight. That was months ago. Have any one of you tried to find out who did that? Or do you already know? Perhaps it was some of you? How would you have reacted had it been one of your homes destroyed? One of your fellow ranchers murdered?”

All of the rage she had kept at bay for months now seemed to roil to the surface and demand release. Perhaps it was seeing Trey attacked. Perhaps it was having these horrid men spoil something so innocent as the joy and laughter she and Trey and Juanita had been sharing when they rode up. Whatever the cause, she had had her fill of their need to be in control, to always believe they knew what was best.

She turned back to Collins and leveled the gun at him, even as Trey took a step closer. She expected her husband to ease the rifle from her hands, but instead, he stood next to her, tall and solid, his hand resting protectively on her back.

Pete held up his hands and tried to smile. “Now, come on, ma’am. Trey. We just wanted to—”

“Talking doesn’t seem to be something you’re too good at, Pete,” Trey said. He looked past Collins to the others. “Gentlemen, if you’ve come to sit down and discuss things calmly, you’re welcome to stay. But if it’s a fight you want, I won’t join you. It’s your choice—a truce with both sides negotiating, or surrender to all-out war.”

Nell lowered the rifle as Collins returned to his horse, held for him by one of the other ranchers. He mounted and grumbled, “Let’s go, boys.”

But when he spurred his horse and rode away, no one followed.

“Maybe I could take that now?” Trey said as he relieved Nell of the rifle.

Was he smiling? She was in no mood to be taken lightly. “I mean what I say, Trey. I will not bring another child into a world where grown men act like children. What kind of example is that setting?”

“I’m doing my best, Nellie. Folks are afraid of what they don’t fully understand.”

She saw the weariness in his eyes, and her heart melted. “Pay no attention to my ranting,” she said, smoothing a lock of his hair back from his forehead. “I guess I’ve said my piece, so go on and meet with the others.”

“Come with me,” he said, lowering his voice so that he was speaking only to her. “Maybe with you there telling them what you and Lottie have been through, they’ll come to a better understanding of just how out of hand things have gotten.”

“I don’t know. It might just make things worse.” While most of the men waiting to meet with Trey had attended Javier’s funeral and been civil—if not exactly cordial—to her, Pete Collins seemed to have brought them around to his way of thinking far too easily.

“Like you said, you’ve got as much stake in this as any one of them.”

Trey handed the rifle back to Juanita, and when Nell walked with him to his office, the other ranchers followed, a few snatching off their hats in deference to her presence among them. Some sat on the sofa and a couple of straight-backed, carved wooden chairs, while others stood. The murmur of conversation she had heard as she and Trey passed them ceased the minute Trey stood at his desk and cleared his throat.

“Gentlemen, I’ve asked my wife to speak to you as a representative of the other side of this disagreement.”

Nell scanned the room and saw a mix of rolled eyes, men muttering to each other, and a general uncomfortable shifting of feet. But one by one, the men gave her their attention—grudgingly, in some cases.

Trey sat down in his desk chair and nodded encouragingly.

She steadied her shaking knees by gripping the edge of the desk. “I can’t think what else I might add to what I said outside there,” she began.

“What’d she say?” bellowed old Jasper Perkins, a rancher who was notoriously hard of hearing.

Nell cleared her throat and raised her voice. “Like many of you, my first husband, Calvin Stokes, and I moved to this territory seeking a better life for ourselves and our son. We had also been told the drier climate here might be better for Joshua’s health. Thankfully, that seems to be the case.”

She paused, searching for words.

“For as far back as either Calvin or I knew, our families had raised sheep—first in Scotland, and then a generation ago, our parents came here. Like many others, they came for a better life and settled in Kansas and Nebraska. That’s where Calvin and I grew up, met, married, and started our family. I expect many of you have a similar history, of parents or grandparents who emigrated here from other shores.”

A couple of nods gave her the courage to continue in spite of a few of the men continuing to scowl at her, their arms folded firmly over their chests.

“Your neighbor, Mrs. Johnson, agreed to sell us her property. Sadly, we were only here for a short time before Calvin was killed along with our two shepherds. And as we all know, the troubles did not stop there.”

A rumble of muttered comments spread across the room.

“Hear her out,” Trey said.

“Also, as many of you are aware, raising sheep is a good deal different from raising cattle. An entire flock of sheep can be tended by two or three men—men on foot mostly. With cattle, you need many men—men on horseback. Of course, one thing we share in common is that we both depend on our herding dogs to help.”

A man standing near the door actually smiled at that.

“There has been harm on both sides, I do not dispute that. But I would ask you to consider what it took to deliver some of that harm. Your fences were cut—in some cases, miles from the nearest sheep ranch. How did a herder get there to do such damage? When your cattle were raided and stampeded, if we don’t own horses, who were those riders?”

“Next you’ll be excusing your own nephew from killing Javier Mendez in cold blood,” a man shouted, and others around him hardened their gaze at her.

“My nephew will stand trial for that,” she said, raising her voice again to speak over the general rumble of dissent. “He will face a judge and jury, as should anyone who has broken the law in this territory. I am not denying all blame. Certainly some acts were the work of my fellow herders. But I would remind you that the murder of my first husband, the rimrocking of the majority of my brother’s flock and my own, the burning of my home, and the raids my son and I endured were all the work of men who had no respect for the law. Perhaps that kind of vigilante justice was acceptable years ago when this part of the country was first being settled, but we are coming to a new century, gentlemen. Our children will inherit the ways we teach them.”

“I didn’t come here to hear a lecture from no woman,” one man said and stormed out.

“Yeah, he gets enough of that from his wife at home,” Jasper bellowed, and several men laughed. “Go on, Miz Porterfield. You’re making more sense than I’ve heard in a good while.”

Nell’s heart swelled at this sign of support. “All I want to say is that everything Trey and I do is for the good of my son and the baby we are expecting come fall.”

That news brought a chorus of hoots and whistles that left Trey blushing and grinning. He stood and placed his hand around Nell’s waist. “Gentlemen, thank you for your kind consideration.” He guided Nell to the office door, and as the men parted to let them pass, at least some of them nodded or tipped their hats to her.

Once they were outside, Trey kissed her. “Thank you, Nellie. I know that wasn’t easy.”

“Do you think I made things worse? I mean, that man who left—”

“Ralph Sutter is another hothead like Pete. The point is the others stayed. Now go inside out of this hot sun and get off your feet.”

“You are going to be impossible about spoiling me and this baby, aren’t you?”

He grinned. “That’s the plan.”

She touched the dried blood on the cut where Pete Collins had hit him. “We should get some ointment on that.”

“It’s nothin’. Worth every drop of blood if it made those men in there start to distance themselves from Collins. Now scoot.” He gave her a gentle push in the direction of the house. “I’ll be in directly.”

* * *

When Trey returned to his office, the others were deep in conversation.

“She had a point,” one man said. “That business about who rides and who doesn’t makes me start thinkin’ on just how some of this business might have been carried out.”

“The herders aren’t completely without blame,” another man argued.

“She never said they were, but it wasn’t herders that killed Calvin Stokes or burned down her place. What would be the point?”

“The house burning could have been revenge by herders because she married Trey,” another rancher said.

“That makes no sense. It’d just drive her closer to our side, so Trey ends up with her property.”

“Maybe that’s why he married her in the first place.”

Trey cleared his throat, and the men turned their attention to him. “Let’s make one thing crystal clear, gentlemen,” he said, his throat tight with the fury he refused to put on display. “That woman and her family have had to endure the senseless loss of the men they depended upon. Nell’s house has been destroyed, her flock stampeded. She and her son have nothing left of the life they came here to build. Take a walk in her shoes, my friends, and then tell me you want to keep fighting.”

“She ain’t lost everything yet, Trey. She has her boy, and the two of you are having a baby, aren’t you?” Jasper might be close to deaf, but the man had a way of hearing what he needed to hear. “That’s a pretty good sign things are going your way.”

Everyone laughed, and Trey realized—not for the first time—that these were good men who only wanted the best for their families. There would always be men like Collins who could sway their thinking, but Trey trusted that in the end, reason would win out. Still, Pete and his cowboys would continue to cause trouble, and the angrier he got, the more vicious his attacks were likely to become. Trey wondered if he dared share the plan to set a trap for Pete, one that would unmask him as the brains behind much of the trouble.

He looked around the room. There were men he knew he could trust, but there were others who would side with whoever they thought stood the best chance of preserving their financial security. No, he would rely on the militia and his family—Jess, Seth, Rico. For now, he would simply elicit an agreement from those in the room that neither they nor any of their cow hands would be a party to any attack on herders or their property.

The others were barely aware of him as they debated the best way to move forward. Trey realized Nell had gotten to them. They were actually talking about the sheepherders as if they might share some of the same challenges. For the first time since the whole conflict had begun, Trey realized there was no talk of “those people.” For the first time, his neighbors were thinking of both sides.

“I have a suggestion.” He shouted to be heard above the fray. “What if we all sign a pact?” He pulled out a piece of paper from the desk drawer and wrote out the pledge. He put his own signature to the page first and then handed the pen to Jasper.

One by one, the other men took their turn and signed the paper, then shook hands to further seal the contract.

As he watched them ride off back to their ranches, Trey felt for the first time in weeks as if progress had been made. And it was at least in part because of Nell.