A Headstrong Woman(5)

“I see,” the man nodded and Elijah had a feeling he saw too much. He felt a kinship to this stranger that he had seldom found in lifelong friends. Perhaps it was the all too familiar haunted look that filled the man’s eyes when he was unguarded as he was now.

“Her pa and I have been friends for more’n a decade.”

They rode in silence a moment. In the distance the Bitterroot Range, today cold hard silver against an azure sky, jutted into the horizon. More immediately the land around them rose and fell in sloping well watered valleys ideal for the herds of cattle that grazed there.

“Congratulations on your marriage,” the younger man finally ventured.

“I hurt her,” Elijah blurted. “I hurt her and likely one of my closest friends in the process.”

Elijah could hear the weariness in his own voice. It felt good to lay troubling thoughts out in the open and to finally confront them aloud.

“Sorry,” Elijah realized that this man had his own problems without Elijah adding his own to them.

“Don’t be, our problems somehow seem more bearable when we give them voice,” the man seemed to speak aloud Elijah’s own thoughts.

“Yeah,” Elijah grunted.

They topped a rise and the herd appeared below them, several hundred head of cattle being watched over by a half a dozen cowboys. The sight always lifted Elijah’s heart, even on his worst day and today was no exception; the change of topic was welcome too. He urged his horse forward to join the men below; the younger man fell in beside him.



***





The rider sat atop his mount, his spy glass firmly trained on Elijah and the unfamiliar cowboy beside him. He sneered as he watched the man who seemed to thwart his plans at every turn. First Elijah kept snapping up parcels of land he had wanted for himself and then to add insult to injury he had married Alexandria before he, himself had ever made a formal attempt at courting her. Elijah had become the bane of his existence. Every night he couldn’t lay down to rest without torturing himself with thoughts of Elijah and Alexandria together; it ate at his peace of mind until he felt certain he would go mad. Perhaps he already had, he mused as he considered scenarios that would gain him the lovely Alexandria and with her would come the land; the land he had always wanted and then some. He smiled, the spy glass lowering as an idea began to take shape. He had made some connections over the past few years and they would serve him well now. He intended to make Alexandria and the Bison Creek Ranch his own and God help any man who got in his way.

***



Alexandria entered the church and her gaze quickly singled out her sister. It was a relief to be off the ranch and among friends again, even if it did mean pretending she was happily enjoying wedded bliss. Anna spotted her and moved her direction with a wide smile. Alexandria felt some of the tension leave her shoulders and a real smile grace her lips.

“I have missed you, where were you the last two Sundays?” Anna demanded.

“Elijah is shorthanded and having to pick up the slack and he doesn’t want me traveling alone,” she explained the only answer she had gotten to the same question. Elijah seemed to avoid the house much of the day and spent his evenings primarily wrapped up in his daughter.

“I’ll convince Daddy to send Michael for you.”

“Thanks, Anna, but it’s okay; we come as often as we can. How’ve you been?”

“Bored without you at home,” Anna’s pretty face settled into a pout. As the youngest of the family Anna had rarely been denied anything she wanted. Not because their parents were lax, more because when their parents said no, one of her older siblings usually gave into her anyway.

“I’ve missed you too,” Alexandria admitted. “Haven’t you been overrun with suitors?” she teased; she knew her sister was seldom without admirers.

Anna made a disgusted face. “Only the boys I knew in school. I want excitement and to be swept off my feet.”

“Have you been reading dime novels again?” Alexandria teased.

“So what if I have?” Anna demanded haughtily.

Alexandria laughed and shook her head at her sister.

She watched her sister’s eyes widen. “Who is that?”

“Who’s who?” Alexandria turned her gaze in the direction her sister was staring. The new hand from the ranch stood hesitantly in the doorway, his expression uncertain before he snatched his hat off his head as though just remembering it was there. He moved into the room and smoothed his thick hair out as he did. Alexandria noted that all of her unmarried friends seemed to be tracking his progress into the room.