“Well, Jonas, it’s almost over. We’ll be in Hays by tomorrow evening.”
Jonas’s serious expression did not lighten. “And then?”
“Then you can go home. You said your farm isn’t too far from there, but if it’s late you’ll want to stay the night. My treat,” he added. “I’ll buy your supper too.”
The man did not turn his head but kept his stare fixed ahead. “What happens then for my Emma?”
Jonas’s meaning slammed into Luke. If he’d been walking, he would have stumbled. This wasn’t a friendly conversation between men. This was a father determined to discover Luke’s intentions for his daughter. And judging by the look on Jonas’s face, he wasn’t too happy to be having it.
“What are you talking about?”
A stupid answer that made him look dimwitted, but it gave Luke a few seconds to gather his thoughts.
“I see the way she watches you, the way she smiles when you smile.”
Emma’s image rose in Luke’s mind, that engaging smile on her lips and reflected in her eyes.
Jonas turned his head and caught Luke in a direct glance. “You watch her the same.”
He couldn’t deny the words. From the moment he opened his eyes back in Gorham and found himself looking up into her face, he couldn’t stop watching her, trying to figure out what went on behind that impassive expression that she obviously learned from her father. But when she let an emotion peek through, he felt it all the way to his core.
“I suppose I do,” he admitted.
Saying the words gave them extra weight. Jesse had sensed it from the very first, and though Luke denied any attraction between them, he’d known. He’d chosen to ignore it until his responsibility for the Triple Bar herd, and the men of his outfit, were met.
“My Emma, she is a Plain girl. Do you know what this means?”
“I know she’s Amish, Jonas. Anybody can tell that by looking at her.”
He shook his head. “Being Plain is more than our dress. It is more than the kapp our women wear, or the beard our men grow when we marry. It is more, even, than the church we attend. Being Plain is our life. We dedicate every action, every thought, to the Lord who saved us. We agree to live by the Ordnung under the direction of our church leaders.” The gaze he fixed on Luke became compassionate, almost pitying. “Being Plain is something you will never understand, and Plain is what my Emma is.”
A protest rose in his mind. No. Emma is so much more than that. But he found he couldn’t form the words, not in the face of Jonas’s stare. So he merely nodded and said nothing.
“You are a good man, Luke Carson.” Jonas’s voice dropped low. “But you are not a good man for my Emma.”
The words hit him like hailstones pounding the prairie during a storm. He’d barely become aware that the feelings he had for Emma might be something deep, something lasting, and already he’d been rejected by her father. A man Luke respected enormously.
Jonas urged his mount forward to take his place in the drag position at the rear of the herd. Luke allowed his horse to slow to a creep. The sun overhead did nothing to pierce the misty gloom that muddled his thoughts.
As the distance between him and the herd lengthened, he couldn’t help seeking out the form of the black-clad flank rider who had somehow managed to capture his heart.
TWENTY-SIX
Though she was too stubborn to admit it, Emma knew she’d made the wrong decision the moment she climbed into the saddle. Even picking up the reins with her sore hands made her suck in a hissing breath. But pride won out over pain, so she clamped her teeth together and took her place at the herd’s western flank. Thankfully, the cows under her charge behaved themselves, so she spent the long afternoon and evening hours in the saddle trying to move as little as possible and letting the horse have her way. When Luke finally called a halt for the night, she rallied enough to help put the cattle to ground, and then she fell onto her bedroll without even a thought of supper.
The next morning was worse. The first thing she became aware of, even before the last tendrils of sleep had unwound themselves from her conscious mind, was her stiff, aching muscles. The skin on her face felt tight and raw. Lifting an arm to peel away the bedroll brought so much