The next few days passed uneventfully. His muscles were getting used to the physical work. Thankfully Tyler had left, picked up by the police the day after the stampede incident. The rest of the guests seemed okay. They weren’t super friendly, but that was all right. He wasn’t there to make friends.

“Adam, you want to do a bit of sightseeing tomorrow? I’m sending Bill, Henry and some of the other guests to search for stragglers. Want to go with them? It will be a long ride,” Mack asked.

“Sure.”

“Great. It will be an early start in the morning. Now, are you coming with us to church?” Mack gestured toward his truck.

Adam shook his head. Almost anything was better than spending Sunday moping around, but he wasn’t ready for church. He wasn’t on good terms with God at the moment. He’d spent the time cleaning his room, changing his bed and performing other random tasks around his living quarters. Loretta had been surprised when she returned to find the kitchen table laid for lunch and some food on the stove.

“I didn’t know you cooked.”

“Mam made sure all of us were self-sufficient. She didn’t want any of us being a burden, as she called it, on our wives.”

“I would like to meet your mom. She sounds like a very sensible lady.”

Adam didn’t respond. They’d argued about Camilla. When Mam suggested Camilla might just be using him for his wallet, he’d told her Camilla had her own money. That wasn’t strictly true. She had a trust fund, but it was tightly controlled by her father. At least that’s what she had said, but who knew if that was the truth.

“Adam, those eggs will burn if you just stare at them. Want me to take over?”

“Oh yeah, sorry. I was miles away.”

“Why don’t you go round everyone up? Ring the triangle. They’ll come soon enough.”

“Why do you use the triangle?”

“That’s what the women used in the old days to call in the workers. Worked as well back then as it does today. Why change?”

Lunch passed quickly with the ranch hands teasing him over the food.

“Could have used you in the chuck wagon back in the day,” Mack commented despite his mouth being full.

“What’s a chuck wagon?” Adam asked.

“Never watched a western? The cook went with the wranglers on a cattle drive. His wagon was the chuck wagon. Doubt they ever got anything like this to eat. Certainly, don’t remember good food from the few times I went out with my pa.”

“You lived around here all your life?” Adam asked.

“Yeah, my pa had a place fairly close to here. It went to my older brother. He sold out to one of those fancy dude ranches where the ladies go looking for a spa. Think they want to meet a real cowboy or something.”

“Wouldn’t mind being a ranch hand on one of those ranches.” Henry’s expression was enough to put Adam off his food.

“Put your mind back on the food, Henry.”

Everyone laughed at the reprimand from Loretta, including Adam.

“It’s a shame the kids couldn’t come yesterday,” Loretta added.

“Why weren’t they allowed?” Bill asked, bits of food falling out of his overfull mouth.

“Some bug going around the school or something. Anyway, they’ll be here next week,” Loretta confirmed. Children on the ranch? Adam wasn’t sure what he had missed.

Before he could ask, Charlie asked, “How’s your wife feeling today, Mack? It’s not like you to eat with us on a Sunday.”

Mack’s stiffened shoulders suggested she wasn’t doing too well but he didn’t seem to want to talk about it.

“Do you guys ever get ghosts up here?” Adam asked. It was the first thing that hit his mind as he tried to change the subject.

“Ghosts? You’ll be asking about leprechauns next,” Henry sneered.

“Don’t be nasty, Henry. Actually, yes. Some say the old mining towns up in the hills are haunted,” Loretta answered.

“That’s a load of baloney. Who’d believe that?” Henry’s tone suggested anyone who believed in ghosts were a bunch of idiots.

“The tourists who shell out all those dollars to come see. You believe in ghosts, Malone?” Bill commented.

“No. Not at all.”

“Not even banshees?” Loretta asked.

“Mam believes in them, but not me. A cousin said she heard one the night my granddad died. She lives out in the middle of the country so insisted it couldn’t have been a neighbor. I reckon it was a cow making noises or maybe the wind.”

“What’s a banshee?” Bill asked.

“It’s supposed to be a spirit of a wailing woman who calls to you to tell you a member of your family is about to die,” Adam answered.

“All right, ladies.” Henry’s glare at Adam told everyone who he was talking about. “Enough of this talk. We have some chores to do and then I want to catch the game.” Henry stood up.

Adam didn’t respond. Who cared what Henry thought of him? He was more concerned about his family and friends than a ranch hand with an attitude problem.

Adam stayed behind to help Loretta. He liked talking to her; she reminded him in lots of ways of his ma.

“Poor Mack, his wife isn’t doing so well today. Thanks for changing the subject. He only really talks about it with me or Ashley.”

“Where is Ashley today?” Adam busied himself with the dishes, his curiosity overcoming his wish not to seem interested.

“She stays home with her parents some Sundays but she usually turns up here sometime during the day. She’s a saint, that girl, putting up with her mother. I’d have run away long ago.”

Adam stayed silent, hoping Loretta would continue talking about Ashley but she didn’t. She chatted about this and that, asking him a little about Ireland.

“Always wanted to go there and check up on the family tree. Guess you get sick of that, don’t you?” she asked.

“What?” He wasn’t sure what she had asked as his thoughts had been on Ashley.

“Everyone in America thinking they came from Ireland?”

“Not really. It’s important people know their roots. But the Ireland those emigrants left is a far cry from the one we have today.”

“I read lots of books set in Ireland. It would be wonderful to do a sightseeing trip to all the tourist centers. Wouldn’t mind a drink of Guinness, either.” Loretta chatted as her hands scrubbed the pots before putting them in the dishwasher.

“Yuck.”

“You don’t like Guinness? I thought every man liked that stuff,” she said.

“Not when your granny used to feed it to you as a kid,” Adam said.

“Your grandmother gave you alcohol?”

“Yeah. It was a known cure for anemia. I was super skinny as a lad. Mam was always worried about me as I got sick a lot. Granny gave me Guinness with milk to boost my iron levels.”

“Did it work?”

“No idea, but the doctor told her to stop so I guess not. But I can’t stand the smell of the stuff since.”

“Is your grandmother still alive?”

Adam shook his head. Thankfully she wasn’t there to see what a mess he had gotten into. Granny Malone would have boxed his ears, no doubt.

“Sorry, Adam, I should mind my own business. Mack always tells me off for gossiping,” Loretta said.

“Don’t worry about it. We were just chatting. I best get outside and see if they need help.”

“You go put your feet up. Read a book or listen to some music. You’ve done enough for today. Work starts again tomorrow with that drive Mack mentioned earlier. That won’t be any picnic.”

“Thanks, Loretta.”

“For what?”

“For talking to me like a real person rather than some dirt bag.”

“I don’t agree with what you’ve done but I am a great believer in not being the one to throw stones. You had your reasons, I guess. Just don’t go making the same mistake again.”

“No chance of that happening.” He would sooner walk the length and breadth of the ranch barefoot before falling for another woman again.