She’d been angry since she’d gotten his letter saying he was sending unmarried men to meet them. Her sisters Rose and Beth might be in a twitter of excitement, but Em was furious. How many times did she have to tell everyone that she never planned to marry? All she’d ever wanted was to stay on the ranch and help her papa raise the finest horses in Texas.
The thought of marriage frightened her, something she had never told anyone. If her mother knew the scars Em bore, it would break her heart. But Em had learned her lesson early, before they came to Whispering Mountain.
No man would ever touch her. She’d make sure of it.
She stared at the three men on the porch, glad that she’d talked her friend into pretending to be her for the week. Em had her hands full running the ranch. She didn’t need to play hostess. She and Tamela looked alike. Teachers in school had often gotten them mixed up. Now, for one week, Tamela had agreed to play her.
The big front doors of the main house opened and women rushed out, all carrying lanterns. With Rose in the lead, lanterns circled the guests and welcomed them in. The two girls from town helping out took some of the luggage. All the men except the peacock, who’d reached the porch first, carried bags as they headed inside.
When all the guests were in, Em McMurray stood alone in the loft, staring at the house with its brightly lit windows closed tight against the wind. She wanted to be inside. She wanted to feel safe. She wanted that wonderful feeling of being home, but tonight she was an outsider. Her papa, if he were standing beside her, would probably say she picked the game, so she had no right to complain.
Only Em wasn’t used to playing games, and she hated the idea that she had to lie and pretend to be someone else . . . or more precisely, have someone else pretend to be her. She hated lies and manipulation almost as much as she hated her cousin trying to marry her off. Why couldn’t everyone be happy with the fact that she liked spending her days alone?
She’d been seven when her real father died and her mother ran from Chicago, fearing that her three daughters would be taken from her. They’d headed to Texas and a rancher who’d written her mother for years. Teagen McMurray started as only a customer at their family bookstore, but her mother and Teagen had ended up friends. When she showed up on his doorstep with three little ones, he’d taken them into his life and heart. For Em, she’d only had one man she thought of as her father, and that was her papa, Teagen McMurray. He’d taught her to ride and handle a gun. He’d also taught her to love the ranch. More than any of the children raised here, Em belonged to this place. She planned to live her life here and, when she died, she would be buried on Whispering Mountain.
Slowly, she collected her lantern and moved down the stairs. Sumner was unhitching the buggy when she reached the ground. As always, he simply nodded to her. He’d been on the ranch for ten years, and the last few, when she’d taken over more for her papa so he and her mother could travel to doctors up north with her little brother, Sumner had followed orders from her, but he’d never been very friendly. He might do his job, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. She had a feeling that if she asked, he’d tell her a woman’s place was in the kitchen, not trying to run a ranch.
She’d once thought of asking her papa to fire him, but in truth she preferred Sumner and his cold polite manner to the cowhands who tried to be overly friendly, paying her compliments she knew they didn’t believe, or worse, acting like they would court her if she gave them half a chance. Em knew they wanted the ranch, not her, even if not one of them would ever admit such a thing.
“Miss?” Sumner stopped her before she reached the door.
“Yes?” She turned to face him.
“There’s a man who came in with the gentleman’s horses. He says he’s to be the only one who touches or feeds the animals and he’s to sleep near them. Is that the way it’s going to be, miss? I’m