{Chapter 3}

“I’ll have your list filled within half an hour, Mrs. Langley” Aubrey smiled. “Our candles are half-priced if you’d like to take a look at them.”

“Oh, thank you dear.”

Brooke came running into the mercantile, her smile so broad it was a wonder her face could contain it.

“Aubbie! It’s the best thing of my life! It’s the best thing of my life!” She squealed.

“Brooke, keep it down. I have customers,” Aubrey said quickly.

“He asked me, Aubbie. He actually asked me!” Brooke lowered her voice but hopped up and down.

“Ryne? He asked you to marry him?” Aubrey asked.

Brooke nodded, her copper hair bouncing.

Aubrey squealed under her breath. “I knew he would! Congratulations, Brooke.”

“I haven’t said yes yet” Brook said.

“Whyever not?” Aubrey asked, her mouth gaping.

“I don’t know. I just didn’t think a girl was supposed to say yes right away. She’s supposed to say ’I’ll think on it’ then give him her answer.”

Aubrey snorted. Several of the customers looked at her cock-eyed. She paid them no mind.

“You go right back out there and tell him you said yes. Silly girl. You’d torture a man to death!” Aubrey pushed her friend out of the door then went on about filling Mrs. Langley’s order.

**********

Wade got off the train in Lovelace, Tennessee with Jay right beside him. The town looked pleasurable enough, as if it didn’t have a crook in it’s midst.

“Why’s it so quiet around here?” Jay asked.

Wade smiled. “Because people are sober in this town, Jay. Come on; let’s get that horse back to where it belongs, okay?” Wade led Jay by the shoulder down to the livestock car.

After they had retrieved the horse, they walked down the street to the livery stable where he had bought the horse. Normally he wouldn’t buy a horse so far away, but the “mare’s” bloodline seemed to be perfect for his white stallion, Abe. They would have made a beautiful foal, had the mare even existed in the first place.

“Wait out here, Jay. Don’t run off, ya hear?” Wade asked.

“Yup” Jay nodded and clutched the sack of apples he had refused to let go of, even if there were only two apples left in it.

Wade entered the office of the livery stable with a deep, calming breath.

Don’t lose your temper, Dylan. Take deep breaths.

He walked in and a young man with slicked-back hair looked up from where he was studying a book of some sort.

“Mr. Carpenter?” Wade asked.

“That’s me. Can I help you?” Carpenter replied.

“I bought a horse from you a few weeks ago. A man picked it up by the name of Tiny Morgan. I bought an Appaloosa mare and you gave me a…” Wade looked out of the window. “I don’t really know what he is, but he looks like a Tennessee Walker. He’s also a gelding. I think it’s safe to say that there was a mistake?”

“Gotta receipt?” Carpenter asked him.

Wade reached inside his pocket and handed the man the article in question.

Carpenter looked it over and fixed Wade with a confused look. “I don’t understand how the mix up happened here. Do you have the horse with you?”

Wade nodded. “I came to return him.”

“By all means” Carpenter stood and handed Wade the receipt. “I’ll get the horse you were supposed to have if you’ll just being that other one around to the back.”

“Thank ya” Wade nodded and stepped outside.

He took the reins from Jay. “He’ll trade me for the Appaloosa.”

Jay nodded and shifted his apple sack. “Good.”

Wade shook his head after harboring such ill feelings toward the man. All the more proof that he should get to know the whole situation before he got angry.

He took the horse around to the back of the livery and saw Carpenter frantically looking through stalls.

“She’s gone,” he said.

“G-Gone?”

“She was right here this morning. I haven’t even seen anyone around here, so she couldn’t have been bought. Someone must have stolen her.”

Wade felt his pulse quicken in anger again and he reminded himself to take deep breaths.

“Are ya gonna tell the law?” Wade asked when Carpenter seemed to just stand there.

“Oh, yes. Just put him in the stall there” Carpenter motioned to the first stall. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Wade tended to the horse as Jay stood nearby, munching on one of his last apples.

“You gonna hang him?” the boy asked.

“Not sure. Reckon I’ll let the law deal with that,” Wade said as he poured a pail of oats for the horse.

“I can make a noose for ya,” Jay offered.

Wade turned toward him. “Why? How do you know that?”

Jay shrugged. “Made ‘em all the time back in town. Ever’ time there was a hangin; I usually fixed the rope for ‘em. They’s too drunk to do it themselves.”

Wade shook his head. “You shouldn’t have had to do that.”

“I don’t like seein’ dead people that way” Jay admitted.

“I don’t blame you one bit, Jay. Not one bit” Wade sighed and finished tending to the horse as Carpenter came back with the Marshall.

***********

Aubrey closed up the mercantile and started walking toward the post office where she would mail out orders from a catalog in the store. The clear, blue sky boasted a beautiful sun that warded off some of the chill of the November day. People walked past and smiled at her, and she politely smiled back, though a smile was far from her mind. She was now the only female in her circle of acquaintances that was unattached. The thought had hit her shortly after sharing in Brooke’s joy of her impending engagement. As if her younger sister and best friend wasn’t enough, she had also calculated that she was the only single female on Pierce street. The thought was depressing. She walked passed a little, scrawny boy on the way to the post office, with a flour sack thrown over his shoulder and a half-eaten apple in his hand. Aubrey’s stomach twisted with pity. Where was the boy’s parents?

She looked back after the boy when she passed him and didn’t watch where she was going until she bumped into the side of a building. She moved to sidestep it.

“I’m sorry.”

Did the building just talk?

She looked up to find a man. A tall, very wall-like man. Her gaze traveled from his dusty boots to his roguishly scruffy, unshaven face to his eyes.

Those eyes.

Like deep, sapphire pools that held so much intensity it was kind of scary.

“Didn’t mean to bump into you, I’m sorry,” she said quickly, ignoring his apology.

She sidestepped him and walked quickly on. There was something hypnotizing about those eyes. Something strange and wonderful at the same time.

She shook her head to clear it and resisted the urge to look back at the beautiful, dusty cowboy.

She mailed the letters and headed toward her home, wondering about the stranger. She hadn’t seen him in Lovelace before. Maybe he was new.

“Aubrey!” Momma came running out of the house as she neared. “Hurry!”

She had tears coursing down her cheeks and her eyes were frantic. Aubrey knew something was wrong.

Terribly wrong.

************

“Okay, so the first thing to remember when in a hand-to-hand fight with someone is to never show fear. Got it?” Erik paced in a circle around Toni.

Toni tilted up her chin determinedly. “Got it.”

Erik drew back his fist as if her were about to hit her, and she backed away.

“Showing fear, Toni” Erik smiled.

Toni fisted her hands and propped them on her hips. “That’s gotta be cheating, Erik.”

“Cheating? I’m the teacher, there’s no such thing as cheating when you’re the teacher” Erik grinned.

Toni huffed. “Fine. No fear, I’ve got it now.”

“Uh huh” Erik continued to pace around her. “Lesson number two, never let your enemy distract you… Oh, flip! Tiny’s being flogged by the chicken again.”

Toni jerked toward the open door of the barn and looked around.

Erik sighed. “Never let the enemy distract you.”

Toni huffed again. “You should really stop that, Erik.”

Erik smiled at her. “Okay, I’ll stop testing you. Only because you’re failing miserably.”

Truthfully, he was enjoying teaching Toni something for a change. He liked the feeling of her listening to him for once in her life.

“You can’t expect me to be perfect, Erik,” Toni said.

“That’s exactly what I expect, honey bunch. Now show me how you would punch,” Erik said.

Toni socked him on the shoulder.

“No, no, no” Erik shook his head. “You’re not putting all your power into it. Hold your fist like this” Erik positioned her fist to where he wanted it. “This way you can use more of your shoulder so you can put more into a hit. Now try it again.”

Toni punched him again. He resisted the urge to rub the pain from his shoulder.

“Better” he said.

“Mommy!” A little voice carried from outside.

Sandy entered the barn and looked up at her mother. “Where’s Aunt Katie? Wanna see Aunt Katie.”

“Did you check her house?” Erik asked.

“I told her not to go over there without one of us,” Toni explained.

She bent and picked up their daughter. “Let’s go find her, shall we? I’ll be back in a little while, Erik.”

Erik watched his little women walk away with pride in his chest. He was sure proud of his little family and all that God had given him.

It wasn’t long before Erik decided that he had to work on breaking a new saddle horse and thoughts of his wonderful family were put aside.

So there is Chapter 3! Sorry it took me so long to update:( Usually I'm speedy about updates on a weekend, but my brain went on strike! :(

Throughout this book, I will be dedicating chapters to the reader who leaves the best comment on the chapter before, savvy? When I say "good comments" , I mean ones that tell me the good, bad, and the ugly:) Have no fear of hurting my feelings, because anything that can be typed isn't too good for the "backspace" key:) (if I'm offended, that's my fault, not yourn) *insert Southern Drawl here* :)

Thank you guys so much!!