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Chapter 27
The sun felt excruciatingly intense to Pauline and her stomach was upset. Noticing her discomfort, Steven suggested they stop and rest in a small grove of trees for a break and a bite to eat. Amy packed roast beef sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, apples, and some hard cheese for them since she expected them to be gone most of the day.
Pauline settled herself beneath the shade of an ancient looking Burr Oak. She pressed her back against its rough bark as she used the trunk for support. She longed to shed some of the layers she wore, but couldn’t for propriety’s sake. Thoughts of the cool water they’d recently crossed taunted her.
“Is this an area you already checked?” she asked as she accepted half of a sandwich that was wrapped in a napkin.
“I was assigned to the north side of the ranch. I think Bart and Curtis checked here for a few days,” he replied.
“One has to question how thoroughly they
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Love at Wolf Creek Chapter 28
Parting was more amiable than he would have expected. The chief was pleased with the quality of horses and saddles that were traded for Aiden. Aiden did his best to hide his emotions as he said goodbye to his prize gelding. He knew they had no other option than to trade for him, but he would miss his old friend. A cowboy and his horse were a partnership. He knew he’d be lost without him for some time. As for the saddle, of course the chief was happy with it. It was crafted with the finest leather and custom made to fit his horse’s back; like a man would have a shoe made especially for his foot. The saddles on the other two horses were nothing to scoff at. Although they weren’t custom made for the horse, they were of quality.Pauline’s courageous entry into their village also impressed the chief. Not only did he praise her courage, but he expressed his pleasure that she felt she could walk into his village to trade; be it with horses or some
Love at Wolf Creek Chapter 29
It was dusk before Steven returned to fetch them. He had two of the ranch hands from the search party with him. They were eager to apologize to Aiden for not finding him sooner, as well as express their happiness in the fact that he was alive and returning to the ranch.Steven did a thorough job of describing the bullet wound in Aiden’s thigh, so Amy was able to pack first aid supplies accordingly. They took the time to wash off the wound and apply a healing salve that had numbing properties before bandaging it. Aiden sighed with relief as the pain and throbbing that he’d lived with for almost two weeks subsided.They’d brought him a well-trained, sure-footed mare to ride back to the ranch, while Pauline was given one of Aiden’s spirited back-up horses.“I think you have the horses mixed up,” Aiden said as he saw them hand the reins of his spirited gelding to Pauline.She chuckled before mounting with the ea
Love at Wolf Creek Chapter 30
It was well into the evening when Jake and Steven greeted Pauline and Aiden as they wandered onto the ranch.“I thought I asked you to turn in early,” Aiden growled as Jake took his horse’s reins from him and handed them to Randy, who oversaw the stable maintenance.“I wanted to make sure you got home okay,” Jake said. “Any longer and we were going to head out looking for you.”“We took some time to rest so Aiden’s leg could recover from the strain he put on it during the ambush,” Pauline offered as she accepted Steven’s help getting off her horse. “I’m bone tired.”Aiden firmly suggested that Pauline go directly to his room and take a hot bath while he discussed plans for rescuing Eliza from the renegades with Jake. He worried about his good friend. He was disappointed to find that Angus hadn’t returned from his search. From what he’d
Love at Wolf Creek Chapter 31
After hugging and greeting Eliza upon her return, Pauline twirled with delight upon seeing the pack horse and her luggage tied to the back of the wagon.Aiden pulled her bags from the pack horse himself and proudly set them down on the porch in front of her. “I’m still sending for the seamstress. You need a wedding dress,” he said softly.“I was sick all morning,” she admitted in a voice that was just above a whisper. “I’m beginning to think you’re right about what might be going on with me.”“I’m also sending for the doctor. We’ve got a good day’s work for him between us all,” Aiden chuckled.Aiden’s back was to the long drive leading to the ranch and everyone else was pre-occupied with settling the captive ladies in until the sheriff arrived. Only Pauline saw the slumped figure on the horse that was slowly wandering along as if it hadn
Love at Wolf Creek Prologue
April 1865Cannons roared and gunshots echoed off the distant hills. They blended with the cries of men as they were taken down in droves. He looked into the eyes of his neighbor. There was fear mixed with something else? Regret? It was probably regret. He knew he wasn’t the only one who wished he’d reconsidered joining up with his confederate brethren to fight for something he didn’t even believe in.Aiden Kennedy owned no slaves. Having immigrated from Ireland with his mother and two brothers, he was all too familiar with the concept of one person owning another. They called it indentured servitude in his homeland, but it was nothing more than slavery with a time stamp on it.He’d only been in Virginia for a week before war was declared. He’d started out in New York, but the reception for Irish immigrants was poor and they were forced to live in conditions they wouldn’t
Love at Wolf Creek Chapter 1
May 1875“Pauline, ma’s going to skin you alive if she sees you still haven’t gotten dressed for dinner.”“I plan on begging off with a headache,” Pauline O’Malley said as she clambered up the bank of the creek with her fishing pole in one hand and four good-sized trout in the other.Her brother, Jimmie, looked at the fish and smiled, “You always did know where to catch the biggin’s.”“I thought I could use the fishing as an excuse to beg out of dinner,” Pauline explained. “The sun was pretty hot today. I can say I’m suffering from heat exposure.”“While standing, mid-calf, in a creek of cool, running water?” Jimmie laughed. “Ma wasn’t born yesterday. Besides, she invited this fella especially to meet you.”“She and da still don’t intend to go ahead with their plans to marry me off to t
Love at Wolf Creek Chapter 2
Aiden was deep in thought as he rested his head on the pillow and stared at the hotel room ceiling. His plan was going well so far. Even though Dennis O’Malley claimed to have investigated him, he’d managed to keep his true identity from them.It was fortunate that he’d operated his business with Angus McCann as his front man. Sometime during their years of doing business together, Dennis got it into his head that Angus was the owner of the Bar J&K ranch. Neither Angus nor Aiden felt the need to set him straight. When the offer for a union of families -and businesses- through marriage to his daughter, Pauline, was extended to Angus, the cantankerous old cowboy took pleasure in joking about what kind of a husband he’d make for a pampered New Orleans society princess as he handed the proposal to the true owner of the ranch.Since Aiden was an unknown, he could travel to New Orleans and get to know the daughter of his bu
Love at Wolf Creek Chapter 3
Pauline fidgeted in her seat while Mary Anne struggled to tame her wild locks enough to braid her hair for bed. Her mother agitatedly paced the room behind her.“There’s something that man is not telling us,” Josephine said with knitted brows. “I can feel it.”“Then, call off the wedding,” Pauline said as she shrunk away from Mary Anne’s ministrations and placed her hand on her head where her hair had been pulled too hard.“Good try,” Josephine said as she unceremoniously yanked the brush from Mary Anne and tackled the tangled mop on Pauline’s head with gusto. “Have you been using the coconut rinse I purchased for your hair?”“I hate the smell of coconut,” Pauline whined.“I should think you’d prefer it to going through this every single night,” Josephine spat.“Ouch! Mother, please give the brush ba
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