his face. Her fingers touched his unshaven cheek. She tied the bandanna around it. “And you can’t tell me what to do.”
Leather snapped, metal jingled and Matt Suede pulled her and the rented team into the dugout.
He yanked the bandanna off his face. If she stared hard, she could make out his features in the dark. He didn’t look pleased.
“Didn’t you vow before God and Mrs. Sizeloff to obey your husband?”
“You are not my husband, not really.”
“Do I have to frame that marriage license and hang it on the wall?”
The wind slapped Matt Suede’s shirtsleeves against his arms. It whirled the dirt on the floor, making it dance about his boots.
“Did you bring any tools or lamps in the wagon?”
“Yes, of course. I’m not a half-wit.”
He gave her a long stare through the gloom.
“If you tell me where they are I’ll tack the canvas over the doorway. We’ll be able to light a lamp.”
“You won’t be able to get to them. They’re in the bottom crate toward the front.”
He yanked the bandanna over his nose and turned to go out. She caught his arm.
“Please stay inside—we’ll get by until the wind lets up.”
“It could turn bitter cold.”
“I’ve been cold before. It never lasts.”
Emma felt her way to a corner of the room. The wind was quiet here, but he had been right about the cold. The temperature seemed to be dropping by the second. She sat down in the dirt and drew her knees up to her chest.
This ought to finish off her hard-earned gown. She had hoped to sell it after today, but there was no chance for that now. Still, the fabric might be salvaged for curtains when the day came that she had windows to put them in.
She heard Matt settle into the corner across from her.
Thank glory for the darkness. She couldn’t bear it if he saw the way her shoulders shook with cold and disappointment. How would she ever make her dream come true now? Had she saved ever so long to end up in a cave? Oh, the tales she’d spun for herself and Pearl.
She did have land, though. Some of it turned to mud on her face while quiet tears slipped down her cheeks.
Boot steps thumped on the packed floor. Her husband settled down beside her with one lean thigh brushed up beside hers. He tucked the canvas that had covered the wagon over them both and laid his arm around her shoulder.
“I believe that since we’re wed, I’ll start to call you Emma.”
The chill that had made her tremble faded under his hand rubbing briskly up and down her arm.
“Since that’s the case, I’ll call you Matt.”
“Darlin’, what made you want to come to this wild place all on your own?” His hand slowed until the rub softened to a caress. The caress tugged her up tight against his chest. “It’s a bold thing for a little lady to do.”
Warmth flooded her until she felt liquid rather than jittery. “I thought you were going to call me Emma.”
“That’s exactly what I’m calling you. Emma, darlin’, why’d you do it?”
“I needed something of my own.” She shrugged her shoulders. It was a simple dream, really, a common one that came true hundreds of times a day for other folks.
“All my life I’ve been doing for others,” she said. “This was going to be my place in the world where I could stay and stay. No one to tell me ‘Emma, we no longer need your services. Time to find a new home and a new family.’ I vow, I’ll never keep another person’s home or raise another person’s child again.”
Emma nodded her head to emphasize the point. She felt the air hitch in Matt’s lungs.
“Don’t you like younglings?”
“Oh, I like them just fine.” Emma enjoyed the brush of Matt’s strong shoulder shifting up and down under her cheek with each of his deep, slow breaths. She snuggled in closer to it. “I’m much too fond of them, in fact. About the time I think of them as my own, I’m off to another position. I don’t believe my heart could take losing another one.”
A horse stomped and snorted. The wind whistled and moaned inside, but it roared like a fury outside.
“Why do you rob banks?”
“Not for any love of thievery. I’m not a natural criminal. Though I do admit that I leaned that way when I was a kid, but I learned quick enough that I wanted to live past fifteen.”