your cook on this drive, Carson?”
“I am.” McCann came around the chuck wagon at that moment, water sloshing from a full bucket at his side.
Ramsey’s face broke out into a grin. “I knew by the smell it would be somebody good. How you doing, McC—”
The name was cut off in a gulp as Mrs. Switzer rounded the wagon behind him carrying a stack of tin plates. How she’d managed to keep her kapp and her apron as white as the day she started, Luke didn’t know. Or maybe she had a store of clean ones tucked away in that hutch of hers. The kapp bobbed up and down as she dipped a silent nod to greet the newcomers and bypassed McCann on her way to the campfire.
Two horses approached from behind, and Luke turned to see Emma and Rebecca rein their mounts to a stop near the remuda. They both slid out of the saddles and took a moment to settle their bulky skirts around the black trousers they had lashed close at the ankles. Jonas chose that moment to approach from the opposite direction, leading two of his four oxen by rope halters. As he neared, he drew the watchers’ attention to the hulking hutch in the back of the ox wagon.
Both deputies gawked, their jaws slack and their eyes bugging.
Hamilton found his tongue first. “Carson, your outfit is crawling with Amish.”
Luke hid a grin. “They have been lending a hand since we were attacked by rustlers. We were lucky they came across us when they did.”
“Speaking of rustlers, I hope you fellows are here to take charge of these two.” Jesse’s voice cut across the distance. His chair had been lowered to the ground behind the wagon, where he kept watch on his prisoners. “I’ve looked at their ugly faces so long I’ll probably have nightmares for months.”
The deputies went to take a closer look at the captives, and Luke with them. He was aware of Emma’s gaze fixed on him, and also of Jonas’s sharp-eyed stare from the other side of the wagon. By mustering an enormous amount of strength, he managed to keep his step straight and his eyes forward. He knew that if he even glanced her way, his resolve would crumble.
“Well, look who we have here.” Ramsey bent over at the waist and made a show of examining the rustlers. “If it ain’t Lester Aims and Earl Bishop. Boys, Sheriff Howard is gonna be mighty glad to see you two. He has a list of complaints against you twice the size of a Texas steer’s horn.”
“We’ll take them from here,” Hamilton told Jesse. Then he cast a hungry look toward the fire. “But there’s no hurry, is there? We have time for some grub if someone was to invite us.”
McCann poured a dipperful of water into the big pot suspended over the low flame. Mrs. Switzer stirred the contents, brought the spoon up to her lips for a taste, and then gave a satisfied nod. With ceremony, McCann bent over, picked up a metal triangle, and held it aloft to run the striker around the inside.
“Come and get it.” His familiar bellow rolled over the prairie. He lowered his gaze to the deputies and grinned. “Guests are always welcome at the McCann-Switzer chuck wagon.”
If the two thought that anything was odd in the addition of an Amish woman’s name to the reputable trail cook’s, they didn’t waste time saying so. Soon they were tucking away stew and biscuits as though they hadn’t eaten in a week.
McCann sidled up to Luke. “You’d barely ridden out of sight when Jonas spied a couple of jackrabbits and set about laying snares. Before I knew it, he had a half dozen of the scrawny things. Ordinarily I would have spitted ’em and roasted ’em, but Miz Switzer insisted on stewing them. You won’t believe how good stew can be until it hits your tongue.” He lowered his voice and spoke out of the side of his mouth. “I watched how she did it. Can’t wait to try it myself. And the peach cobbler she cooked up. Mm-mmm.” He stepped away to oversee dishing up generous portions of rabbit stew.
Luke turned his back to the activity around the fire and gazed out over his cattle. The job was almost done. Nothing left but the counting and weighing and collecting his pay. The stockyard agent had assured him that the extra cattle would be counted as part of the Triple