gaze clear of guile.
He gave the barest of nods. “Perhaps I may learn as well.”
Luke cast a quick glance at her, and she saw understanding in his gaze. He’d reached the same conclusion as she. They both had hoped for time alone. Papa didn’t care a thing about learning to lasso a cow. He merely wanted to stay close while his daughter was in the company of an oh-so-appealing Englisch cowboy.
Feeling a tiny bit thwarted, Emma managed a small smile. This was the very reason Amish youth kept their romantic intentions to themselves.
“All right, then.” If Luke’s smile looked a little insincere, at least he covered it with an enthusiastic tone. “Let’s go to the other side of the wagon, where there’s a couple of good-sized stumps we can practice on.” He turned his head and raised his voice to be heard by those in the vicinity. “Anybody have a lariat we can borrow? We’re going to do a little practicing.”
“This I gotta see.” Jesse’s voice from the back of the wagon hinted skepticism.
Griff approached Emma with a grin and a coiled length of rope. “Show ’em what you can do, gal.”
He crossed over to the wagon, sat, and pushed his hat back off his forehead, looking as though he was waiting for a show to start. Others did the same, and before long everyone in the vicinity was scattered around the area, their gazes trained on the roping lesson. The flutter in Emma’s stomach erupted into full-blown nerves. This was not how she’d envisioned her personal lesson with Luke progressing.
When Papa and Rebecca both held borrowed ropes as well, Luke walked them a little ways off. The area was free of trees, though several dead stumps rose out of the sagebrush-covered ground, as though a storm had sheared a thicket in years past. Luke took up the end of his coiled rope and held it up. The end formed a ring.
“This is called the honda,” he explained. “Uncoil a few feet of rope and slip it through the honda to form a loop, like this.”
Emma mimicked his actions and adjusted her loop until it was the same size as Luke’s. It looked like a giant noose. Beside her, Rebecca and Papa did likewise.
Luke eyed all three and nodded. “Good. Now, leave yourself a few feet of free rope. You’ll need it when you start swinging. What you’re going to do is swing the lariat over your head a few times until you get a good feel for the rope and where it’s going.”
He demonstrated as he spoke. He raised the loop above his head and swung it around from right to left, the other hand holding several feet of loose rope and the coils looped over his arm. “Keep your wrist loose and let it do the work. It should swing like a wheel going around and around above your head.”
The loop grew larger as he swung, and it opened up, like a wide, yawning mouth.
“It’s taking a long time,” said Rebecca. “If you were doing this for real, hasn’t the cow already run away by now?”
Someone behind them snorted, and Luke grinned. “Once you get the feel for your rope, you won’t have to swing it so much. But for now we’re taking our time, making sure we have control.” The lariat continued to circle above his head as he spoke. “Don’t forget to keep an eye on your target. I’m looking at the stump on your right. When you’re ready—”
He took a quick step forward and released the rope. The loop sailed through the air without losing its circular form, pulling a couple of coils of rope off his arm like a tail, and landed neatly around the gnarly stump. He stepped back and pulled the rope. The noose tightened around the stump with a snap.
Applause and cheers broke out from their audience.
“Not bad, Luke,” Jesse called. “Maybe you could get a job as a cattle wrangler someday.”
The jab was met with good-natured laughter. Emma tried to ignore their audience, which had grown to include almost the entire outfit. Was she about to make a fool of herself again? Well, if she did, at least she’d have Rebecca and Papa as fellow buffoons this time.
“All right, who wants to go first?” Luke looked directly at her, but Papa stepped forward.
“I will.”
“Fine.” Luke gestured for Emma and Rebecca to step back. “Give him some room, ladies. Okay, Jonas, now grab the loop about a foot or so away