bring back Duck. Papa’s got his hands full taking Jamie around to the doctors. He doesn’t need to worry about what’s happening at home right now. We’ll have Duck back and recovered before he and Mama get home.”
All three women agreed. They silently stood and hugged one another.
“I’ve never remembered a time when there were only two McMurrays on Whispering Mountain,” Beth whispered. “It’s frightening.”
They held hands as they used to do as children, forming a circle. “We’ll get through this.” Em clung tightly to her sisters. “Remember when Rose and I had to go off to finishing school. We used to stand this way and say, ‘Though apart, I’m in your heart.’”
Beth and Rose smiled. “Come back with Duck,” Rose whispered. “We’ll be waiting.”
Em turned and walked out of the house without another word. She knew if she’d said any more, all three of them would have cried, and they were far too old to start sobbing.
At the train station, she saw Sumner loading the horses. He must have stopped by Elmo’s Mercantile and given orders to have supplies delivered, because a kid stood beside him with what looked like enough supplies for a week packed in twill bags that would stand both the trip and the weather.
When Sumner saw Em, he said, “I figure we can pick up whatever I forgot when we leave the train.”
Em nodded, thinking the old guy couldn’t have forgotten much, because both packs looked full.
Without another word, they loaded the horses and packs and climbed on. Lewt was the last one on, and he looked around for a moment at their quarters. He smiled, then jumped back down for a moment before tossing up a broom.
While Wyatt and Sumner tied a line for the horses, Lewt swept out a corner of the car. When the train whistle blew, they tossed their gear in the clean corner and settled in for a long ride.
Em stood and watched the land passing by, as cold and dead with winter as she felt inside. She’d known from the first that what she had with Lewt was no more than a flirtation, but she hadn’t expected it to end so fast. He hadn’t said a word to her for an hour, or even acted like he’d noticed she was standing five feet away from him.
She was the one who had a right to be mad. He’d tried to order her around. If she felt like it, she might laugh at how he’d reacted when she’d told the ranger that she was Emily McMurray. He’d stared at her as if he knew she was lying. It seemed not to occur to him that she might have been lying for the past four days.
To him, she was still a woman hired to work with the horses. He couldn’t see her as a lady. She couldn’t help but wonder if he would have kissed her like he did if he’d thought her a McMurray.
The air coming through the slits in the car walls was bitter cold, but she barely noticed. She had to forget about Lewt and what he thought of her. She had to think about Duck. Part of her had always known he’d get himself in over his head one day. They’d even talked about it once when he’d come home for a few days. As they always did when he came back to Whispering Mountain, just the two of them went riding. That day they’d gone up on the hill where their grandparents were buried along with Sage’s first love and a child Em’s mother had miscarried.
Duncan had climbed off his horse and lain down on the grass beside the headstones. “Promise me, Em,” he’d said, “that when I die you’ll go get my body and lay me to rest here.”
She’d laughed. “If you’d stay home, you’d save me a trip by dying of old age right here on the ranch.”
“Not me. I want to take life at a full run. I’ve had this hunger to do everything there is to do since I can remember, but I want to be put to rest here so I can see Whispering Mountain and know I’m home.”
“Why don’t you go up to the summit and spend a night? Maybe you’ll do like the legend says and dream your future.”
“I don’t want to know. I want to be like a bird, just shot out of the sky in midflight.”
Em had sat down beside him. “Not me. I want to die of