a couple of hours of daylight, so ride out for thirty minutes, then swing around to the west. Vic, Emma, and I will ride the other way and swing up to meet you, and then we’ll head back in.”
“That means I’m going east?” Rebecca asked, her gaze straying in that direction behind Luke’s shoulder.
“No, we’ve already covered the east. You’re staying here to guard the main herd.”
Rebecca’s mouth pursed, her displeasure apparent in the angry eyes she fixed on him.
“It’s the most important job we have,” Luke explained to the girl in a patient voice. “We have seventeen hundred head of beef left, and we can’t afford to lose a single one. You, Morris, and McCann will watch over them.”
Morris nodded.
A voice behind him joined the conversation. “I’ll stand guard too.”
Surprised, Luke whirled around to find that Jesse had awoken and was struggling to lift himself up on one elbow, pain etched on every inch of his puckered brow.
Mrs. Switzer sprang out of her rocking chair and sprinted to his side to stand towering over him, her hands on her hips. “Stand you will not!”
Either he didn’t have the will to oppose his formidable nurse, or the pain of struggling to a sitting position convinced him. “Yeah, so I’ll sit guard.” With much wincing, he leaned sideways, grabbed his rifle out of his pack, and laid it across his lap. “Somebody help get me up in that wagon so I can see, and I’ll help keep watch.”
Relieved to have an extra pair of eyes, Luke nodded toward Morris and Charlie to help Jesse. These cattle were his responsibility. He’d contracted with Mr. Hancock to deliver them to Hays, and he didn’t intend to sit idly by and watch those rustlers take a single one.
When Jesse had been seated as comfortably as possible in the Switzers’ wagon, his back resting against the hutch and his rifle in his lap, Luke gave the order to mount up. He was walking toward Bo when Jonas caught up with him.
“A word, please.”
It didn’t take a genius to know what was on the man’s mind. Though he addressed Luke, he focused across the camp toward the place where Emma and Rebecca were being helped onto their mounts. Worried crevices were carved into Jonas’s brow, and his clean-shaven lips were tight.
“You will watch after my girls.” Though he voiced a statement, Luke detected a tacit plea for reassurance in the man’s voice.
Luke matched his quiet volume so they couldn’t be overheard. “Jonas, the rustlers won’t return, not this soon. And besides, with Morris and McCann and Jesse, Rebecca and Mrs. Switzer are safer here than they have been since the day you left home.”
“And my Emma?”
Luke turned to look toward Emma. She sat atop Sugarfoot, her legs swathed in her father’s black trousers, and the bunched fabric of her wide skirt was settled into a modest yet comfortable position around her thighs. As though she felt his regard, she lifted her head. A smile lit her features when she saw him watching her, and a fierce protectiveness overtook him in response.
“I will protect her with my life.” He looked Jonas in the eye. “You have my word.”
Jonas held his gaze for a long moment, as if weighing the value of the word of an Englisch cowboy. Then he nodded and walked toward the horse he’d been assigned.
Luke continued on to the corralled remuda, where Bo stood already saddled and ready to ride. His promise to Jonas resonated in his soul, the words somehow more real and weightier for having been spoken.
He would protect Emma with his life, without a moment’s hesitation.
Of course, that didn’t mean she was anything special. He’d do the same for any woman, or man, even, especially one who was helping out at a time when he needed all the help he could get. Right?
He placed his foot in the stirrup and swung his other leg over Bo’s back. As soon as he was secure in the saddle, Emma nudged Sugarfoot alongside him.
“I’m glad I am assigned to ride south.” Her head dropped demurely, but after a moment her eyes cut up sideways to lock with his. “With you.”
Luke had seen a rodeo show once. He had watched, fascinated, while a man did tricks and flips on the back of a charging stallion. As a boy he’d been amazed, exhilarated, and inspired to do those and even greater feats of daring and courage.
That was exactly the way he felt right now.
SEVENTEEN
Emma squeezed her