Angus' Trust (Grooms With Honor Book 1), Page 5

  Men had courted her? It gave his heart a jolt, but of course men would be interested in Daisy.

  “Stiff-lipped?” He was curious to see what Daisy meant by that.

  “Didn’t smile, didn’t smirk, didn’t kiss.” Daisy grinned at her answer.

  Okay, so one man who hadn’t kissed Daisy...but in eight years there had to have been others.

  “Has there ever been a man you thought about settling down with, having a family?” Angus stared straight ahead while asking the question. He glanced sideways when she didn’t answer right away. In fact, she turned away from him, staring at the rolling hills instead.

  “Daisy?” Angus asked again after the horses had covered some distance. He knew she had heard his question. He watched her body tension as she decided how to answer. Why? Had someone hurt her and she wasn’t over the loss?

  Daisy turned in the saddle to face him before she spoke, looking directly in his eyes.

  “Yes, but he decided not to settle down. Followed the tracks out of Clear Creek so to speak.”

  The Straight Arrow ranch yard was in sight now. Daisy lifted her chin the same time she nudged the gelding to speed up while Angus automatically reined in his horse to decipher her answer.

  Wait, what? Followed the tracks out of Clear Creek...

  Him? Daisy hadn’t married anyone else because of him? Angus didn’t know whether to be happy she wanted him, or sick because…he didn’t know if he could stay in Clear Creek for the kind of life she wanted.

  Oh... Chronicles. Why didn’t he see that coming?

  By the time Angus reined in by the corral, Daisy was already off her horse and being hugged by Tully, his always jovial little brother. Seth was running after Daisy’s horse who was making a beeline to the barn in search of oats.

  “Hey, Angus!”

  Tully waved enthusiastically with one arm while the other was wrapped around Daisy. Angus couldn’t help feel a tinge of jealously although it was only his sixteen-year-old brother giving Daisy a hug.

  Angus waved at his brothers as he slowly came to a halt by the couple. Seth was tying the gelding’s reins to the fence to keep him temporarily there. Angus looked around, seeing the ranch yard with different eyes this time. What would it be like to live in a place like this permanently instead of seeing new scenery whiz by daily like he had on the train?

  Angus barely hit the ground when Tully had him in a quick bear hug. Gosh the boy had grown another six inches since he last saw him.

  “Hey, Tully! Good to see you! You’ve changed since I last saw you!” Angus rubbed Tully’s chin, pretending there was more than peach fuzz on his face.

  “That’s because it’s been months since you were home.” Tully straightened his shoulders, and by gosh he was closing in his own height, but still skinny and growing.

  Angus looked over Tully’s shoulder to see Seth’s back as he held Daisy, saying something Angus couldn’t hear.

  “Hello, Seth,” Angus lightly slapped Seth’s back to make Seth turn from Daisy to himself.

  “How you doing out in the middle of nowhere?”

  Angus felt relief when his brother’s arms encircled his shoulders and gave a tight squeeze.

  “I’m much better knowing you’re home safe and sound. That was a close call, Angus.”

  Seth squeezed his shoulders before letting his hands drop to his side. They stared at each other a few long seconds before nodding and accepting the fact that Daisy and Tully were with them.

  Although all six Reagan sons considered themselves brothers, only he and Seth had the same parents. It was times like this when they’d been apart for a while, that the luck the two of them had growing up surfaced in Angus’ thoughts.

  Angus was eight and Seth six when their mother, Shona, died. Their father managed on but knew he needed a mother for the boys and a mate for his life’s work. He wrote back to family in Ireland, asking them to find a woman willing to travel to America to become a preacher’s wife and a mother of two young boys.

  Life was never the same again when Kaitlyn O’Brien sailed into the port at New Orleans to become their father’s new wife and their mother, especially when she arrived with two boys in tow.

  Kaitlyn had befriended a young widowed mother of two boys, Fergus and Mack, on the ship. When their mother died while out at sea, Kaitlyn claimed the two as her sons and brought them with her when she met and married their father. They were an instant family of six, mixed together with Kaitlyn’s determination and love.

  Cullen, the son of a soiled dove, came to live with them five years later after his mother died. He was pulled into their tight family, but there had been some tough times. It took a while for the young boy to realize his brothers would always be there for him.

  Tully was his father’s and Kaitlyn’s only child together. The happy-go-lucky boy had five older brothers to watch his back. He was the most mischievous one of the pack, and always bordering on the edge of right and wrong, trying Marshal Wilerson’s patience more than once, in addition to their father’s. And that was probably why he was living and working out on the range with Seth now.

  “So, news of why we’re home already traveled to the Straight Arrow?” Angus asked as he eyed his brothers.

  “Uh yeah, or we’d be wondering why Daisy’s face looked like she ran full speed into a barn door.”

  “Tully...” Angus and Seth said in exasperation at the same time Daisy laughed.

  “Well, golly, she looks terrible,” Tully mumbled while grinding his boot heel in the ground.

  “But never point it out to a lady, little brother,” Angus insisted.

  “Yep, big brother Angus is home. But I get enough lessons on manners and horses from Seth without you needing to add to them.” Tully’s words were gruff but he said them through a half smile.

  Oh, how Angus had missed his family, now that he was home again to realize it. Maybe Daisy had the right idea to settle down at home this time.

  “Got time to unsaddle the horses and let them graze a while? We can go up to the house and have some coffee,” Seth offered.

  “We planned on it. Ma sent cookies,” Angus proclaimed as he pulled a small tin from his saddle bag and handed it to Tully, who promptly popped the lid to see what was inside.

  “Snickerdoodles! But there’s only enough for me. Bring any for the rest of you?”

  “Yes, Tully, my saddle bags have treats in them too. You know your mother spoils you.”

  “Yep, because I’ll always be her baby boy,” Tully sang in a high-pitched voice until he stuffed a cookie in his mouth.

  Daisy pinched Tully’s cheek. “Yes you are, and so lucky, unless your ma’s mad at you.”

  Everyone laughed because it was so true. Kaitlyn dearly loved her boys, but gave them heck if they didn’t fall in line or did something wrong.

  “I’ll get the coffee ready.” Daisy turned toward the house, but then turned back to speak as she walked backwards. “Come in when the horses are taken care of... and you’re done talking about anything you don’t want me to hear.” Then she twirled to walk forward again.

  The three men didn’t say anything until Daisy was out of sight.

  “So, what’s going on between you and Daisy?” Seth got right to the point.

  “Not sure we’re on the same tracks, so to speak,” Angus sighed. “She’s setting up her pharmacy in Clear Creek and I’m...not sure what I’m going to do.”

  “Harvey Daniels would appreciate you taking over the depot’s duties. He’s finally ready to retire.”

  “That’s been mentioned more than once—an hour it seems—by somebody in town.” Angus watched as his brothers worked to take the saddles and blankets off the horses. They had moved into the barn so they could place the gear across a stall wall. Angus grabbed a couple of brushes out of a nearby bucket and tossed one to each brother. The men rubbed the horses down to clean their hair where the saddles had sat and the horses made appreciative noises.

  “Tully, put thes
e two in the small pen with the water trough. Throw in a little prairie hay for them after you take off their bridles.” Seth told Tully and the younger boy nodded without a retort.

  Seems like the two brothers worked well together. Should Angus ask if Seth needed more help on the Straight Arrow?

  “Talk,” was all Seth said, but Angus knew what he meant. Angus rode out to the ranch because he needed to bounce words out loud in Seth’s presence. Tully knew it too and bypassed them to walk on to the house.

  “I failed protecting people and payroll. Lost some of both while under my watch.”

  Seth’s mouth was in a grim line as he nodded his condolences. He knew how much it hurt to let someone down, even if he was the second oldest of the Reagan brothers. They’d been taught responsibility to take care of others at a very young age.

  “Then on top of that, instead of letting me solve the case, they fired me.” It still hurt to think it, let alone say the words.

  “Sounds like it’s one of those cases where the problem was out of your hands the moment it happened.”

  “Yeah, and Daisy was there to be a part of it, which makes it worse.”

  “Why? She’d understand better than most and wouldn’t hold you accountable for it.”

  “I know but...she’ll always have a scar on her forehead because of it.”

  “Does it mar her beauty, inside or out?”

  Angus couldn’t help but laugh. “She’s been using her black eyes and broken nose to her favor. You should have heard her take on the railroad representative after the robbery. Besides charging new clothes to the railroad account, we rode in a first-class rail car to Kansas. I love her spunk.” Angus shook his head thinking back to that encounter.

  “You just plain love Daisy. Always have, always will. I assume that’s the problem as much as being fired?”

  Angus rubbed his face, knowing not answering would answer the question for Seth.

  “Am I ready to settle in Clear Creek, or will I resent being stuck here while the world rolls by? I lost my job. Can I provide for a family without it happening again?”

  “Jobs can come and go. And the next job might be better, or worse. You don’t have to stick to one job for your whole life anyway.”

  “But I’ve always traveled with railroad jobs, be it building track in western Kansas or guarding shipments. Daisy has decided to settle here, open her own store. I can’t ask her to give up her new dream and take off for who knows where I might land a new job.”

  Seth slowly spoke as if he wanted Angus to concentrate on his words. “Is Daisy opening the store because she’s fascinated with selling drugs to people, or is it because she doesn’t have a husband and children?”

  Angus thought back to Daisy’s remark to his question along that line before they arrived at the ranch.

  Yes, but he decided not to settle down. Followed the tracks out of Clear Creek so to speak.

  “She’s making the most of her life and giving back to the community,” Angus hedged, hating to tell Seth the truth.

  “So she’s given up on you, in other words?”

  “Yeah, and right now I think she’d be better off without me.”

  “So what if someone else asks for her hand in marriage, and she accepts?”

  “Then I just as well follow the tracks out of town and never come back.”

  Chapter 6

  It felt like old times sake, hiding from Iva Mae’s sisters just so the three of them could talk. But instead of sneaking into the storage room of her grandparent’s café like they used to do, Daisy and Iva Mae met Mary in the upstairs apartment of her dress shop early this Saturday morning.

  Daisy stopped by the café first to pick up a half dozen of Holly’s cinnamon rolls and Iva Mae brought a lunch pail of sausage links and bacon from the hotel’s kitchen, so they were good for breakfast and gossip. At least until Mary’s children, six year old, Burdette and three year old, Nolan, woke up.

  “Your face is looking better, Daisy. Does your nose still hurt much?” Iva Mae asked as she studied her face.

  “Only when I wrinkle it up, or bump it by mistake.” Daisy gingerly touched the tip of her nose. “I can imagine the comments I’ll get in church tomorrow.”

  “Do you have any face powder to minimize it?” Mary asked Daisy from the side board where she was pouring coffee into delicate china cups.

  “It would take a heavy hat veil to hide my face damage at this point, so why bother? Everyone in the county heard about the train robbery Angus and I were in last week.”

  “True. Well, you’re much braver than I would be. I’d hide in the house until my face was clear again.” Daisy didn’t take that as a rude remark, because that’s just the way Mary was. Mary had always been very particular about her dress and looks, probably because her mother dressed her in the latest finery as a young child, until she abandoned Mary in Clear Creek with her brother and his father when she was twelve years old.

  Even though it was only seven o’clock in the morning, Mary was dressed in a blush peach gown that perfectly complimented her already styled light ash brown hair. Daisy, in contrast had her oldest dress on, a faded blue calico, because she planned to sweep the sawdust from her new store later this morning.

  “I hate to say it, but I didn’t even think about your bruises this morning, Daisy.” Iva Mae was Clear Creek’s school teacher now, still single and still living with her parents.

  “By the time a shiner heals on a student’s face, someone else is sporting a new one. I’m used to getting a few bruises now and then myself when I’m breaking up boys’ fighting on the playground.”

  “Any girls get into fights?” As a tomboy, Daisy had gotten in a few fights when a boy said she couldn’t do something, or she was defending someone, like Cullen Reagan.

  “Oh yes...pig-tail pulling just goes along with the flying fists,” Iva Mae rolled her eyes before taking a dainty sip of coffee. Being the oldest of eight girls gave her plenty of experience to deal with a classroom of students. But growing up in a hotel also meant she had manners ingrained in her that she tried hard to pass on to her students.

  Iva Mae was a spitting image of her mother, Helen Paulson. Her red auburn hair was contained in a huge chignon at the nape of her neck. Her ivory shirtwaist and emerald green skirt complimented her flawless pale skin and bright green eyes.

  “So tell me how your dress shop is doing? I’m both anxious and excited to open my own shop,” Daisy asked Mary as soon as she sat down at the kitchen table beside them.

  “Most times I really love it, although I don’t have as much free time to devote to my children.”

  “Um, didn’t Abram leave you enough money to survive without working?” Daisy assumed her banker husband had been well off, but maybe not.

  “Yes, he left me a nice sum, but I needed something to do. There were so many social events in Chicago I was always turning things down—until I became a widow and had to take time off for my mourning period. So I decided to come home instead of being shut up in that big house by myself. Actually being back with the Shepards has been a blessing. I realized I wanted my children to grow up with family in a small community setting.”

  “Any chance you’ll remarry?” Mary had always had a crush on Daisy’s brother Nolan.

  “Your grandfather was determined I should marry your brother when he retired from the army and moved home last December. I felt so sorry for Holly.

  “I thought there might have been a chance because Nolan and I were close, well, before I married Abram...but the spark was not there when we were thrown together again.”

  Daisy had gotten Nolan’s version of Gramps pushing him and Mary together at church, at meals, at the annual Community Christmas party...and how it had almost ruined Nolan’s chance with Holly. Luckily things worked out and Nolan married the right woman for his wife.

  “Actually, Mary has her eye on Kiowa Jones now,” Iva Mae loudly whispered, then raised her eyebrows to look between her and Mary.r />
  “The new blacksmith? Oh my...I saw him at work the other day.” Daisy wiggled her eyebrows, hinting she approved of the man’s looks. “Will you introduce me to Kiowa tomorrow after church?” Daisy loved being with her friends gossiping about good-looking boys again.

  “Maybe, if he’s still around the building when we leave. Kiowa never goes inside and sits down for the service, he stands outside in good weather, or stands in the back hallway if the weather’s bad.” Daisy hated to see Mary’s shoulders slump at her disheartened words.

  “Why doesn’t he attend church?” And why hadn’t Kaitlyn Reagan pulled him up to the front row to sit with her?

  “Because he’s an Indian, Daisy. You know certain ‘Christians’ in town would frown on him sitting beside them.”

  “Oh good gravy! This is the 1880s for heaven’s sake!” Then it dawned on Daisy that her sister-in-law may be looked down upon by others too.

  “Has Holly had problems because of her heritage?” Holly’s father was a white man, but her mother had been a Cheyenne. Daisy glanced between Iva Mae and Mary.

  “She did at first, although part of the problem was she didn’t stand up for herself. But Kaitlyn took over and built up her self-esteem.” Mary conceded.

  “I hope she plays her violin tomorrow. She accompanies the men’s quartet. I just love watching Gabe sing.”

  “Ho, ho, ho...and how does Gabriel Shepard’s singing have anything to do with Holly?” Daisy teased Iva Mae.

  Iva Mae’s face turned bright pink, revealing her feelings for the saddle maker. Guess that was one crush which hadn’t stopped since the three of them were school girls.

  “All right! Yes, I still love the man and he still ignores me!”

  They laughed like young girls again, happy to be together like old times.

  “So, what’s your plan to get him to the altar before you’re a wrinkled old maid?” Daisy teased again.

  “I’m not sure,” Iva Mae said, suddenly somber. “If he doesn’t show any interest by a certain time frame...I just might move away. I can teach anywhere, or work in a hotel for that matter.” Her face had turned pale again as she stared into her coffee cup.