An Uninvited Bride on his Doorstep by Ava Winters
Chapter Ten
Logan steered the last of the herd over the small hill that separated the east field from the southeast pasture. The straggling cattle lowed indignantly as he prodded them but moved readily enough.
He crested the ridge in time to see Jay riding through the herd, stopping every few seconds to peer over the cattle and ensure everything was as it should be. Logan sighed and shook his head. Jay wanted so much to appear grown up and mature but every time he tried, he just seemed more like the child he was.
One of the cattle bumped Logan’s horse, causing the animal to sidestep. The horse whinnied in frustration and the cow lowed with equal annoyance before ambling off to join a few of its friends in a patch of thicker grass.
Logan patted his horse’s neck. “It’s okay, boy. Just a while longer and we’ll get these blasted cows off our ranch.” The horse snorted its agreement.
Logan looked below to see Gregory sitting atop his own horse, watching the herd disperse through the pasture. Logan trotted up to him. “Hi, Gregory.”
“Mornin’, Logan,” Gregory responded. “Corral’s busted.”
“Beautiful day, ain’t—what?”
“The corral’s busted. The herd tore down almost an entire side of fencing on its way out.”
Logan stared at his brother, dumbfounded. “Consarn it, Gregory. Who was running the herd?”
Gregory glanced at him. “Consarn it? What are you, a prospector?”
“Blast it, Gregory, I’m not in the mood.”
“You never are.”
Logan looked sharply at him, but Gregory’s expression remained calm. He glanced back at Logan again then looked out toward the herd. “Jay and I ran it.”
“Why didn’t you wait for Darrell? Or call me for heaven’s sake.”
Gregory shrugged. “Jay wanted to run them himself.”
Logan sighed angrily and glared toward Jay’s distant figure. “Well, that worked out just wonderful, didn’t it? Gregory, why didn’t you call me?”
“He wanted to run them himself.”
“So what? You know he’s not ready for that kind of responsibility.”
“None of us are, Logan. Yet here we are.”
Logan’s blood began to boil. “Gregory, blast it, this isn’t a game. This isn’t a lark. This isn’t a joke. This is our home. Our father’s home and now ours and we can’t afford to make mistakes with it. If Jay wanted to run the blasted herd, he could’ve run it with Darrell or me watching him. Now we have to spend the rest of the day fixing that fence instead of working on selling horses.”
“You could just use the other pens for now and fix the fence later.”
“Is that what I should do?” Logan snapped. “Wait until later? No time like the future, right? Why get done today what you can get done tomorrow? Am I the only one who takes this ranch seriously?”
“Jay takes it seriously,” Gregory retorted. “I’ll let him know you’d like him to stop.”
“I can’t deal with you right now,” Logan spat out.
He wheeled his horse around and galloped away, seething. How could Gregory and Jay be so careless? If they’d waited fifteen minutes, he or Darrell could have helped with the herd and gotten them out of the pens without destroying them. Why did they never think things through?
He reached the corral a few minutes later. The damage was as Gregory described. A hundred yards of fence along one side of the corral was knocked down. In some places, the fence posts were torn from the ground. Most of the wood was splintered and torn, leaving very little usable material. Logan sighed.
They would have to rebuild the fence from scratch. That would take the rest of the week at least, since they would have to work around their other chores.
Well, they could clear the debris today, at least. He rode toward the stables and brought three hands back to help him. He also took an ax to help cut the splintered planks away.
The work was agonizingly slow. Logan used the axe to chop the wood into six-foot sections while two of the hands gathered it and tied the sections in bundles they could drag to the barn later. The other hand tied the fence posts that still stood to his horse and pulled them out, adding them to the piles. The wood was too damaged to be of any use for repair or construction, but it would make good firewood.
As Logan worked, his thoughts drifted to Winona. He spent his morning and evening meals with her now. Every night he would sleep anticipating the morning and every day he would eagerly await the night when they could talk again. She was engaging and cheerful when they talked and proved to be very intelligent. Logan, like his brothers, was taught to read by their mother but had little in the way of formal education. Winona had a tutor throughout her childhood and her knowledge in a multitude of subjects fascinated Logan.
He chuckled as he recalled their conversation earlier that morning. She’d shown him a drawing she’d done of a pond with a bird that looked like a large, white goose in the middle. “I’ve named this one, Le Cygne.”
“The what?”
“Le Cygne,” she said. “It’s French. It means the Swan.”
He’d stared wide-eyed at her. “You speak French?”
She’d smiled and blushed a little at his admiration. He recalled the warm feeling he felt and smiled as he swung the axe down, separating another section of fence. He’d spent the rest of breakfast asking her to name things in French. She’d obliged, chuckling every so often at his enthusiasm. He couldn’t wait to see her for dinner.
His smile faded a little. He wasn’t supposed to have these feelings. Yes, she was his wife, but their arrangement was explicitly not romantic. He’d offered her a marriage of convenience and she’d accepted it. He was fine with that arrangement at first. He wasn’t fine with it now.
That was a problem. Neither of them could afford to entertain thoughts of romance, what with the ranch falling apart around them and Winona’s father no doubt scheming harder than ever to ruin them. How could he prevent feeling romantic thoughts for her, though? Every time he saw her, he was more and more enamored with her.
That was the answer. He would have to stop seeing her. She was more mobile now. She’d had her crutches for two weeks and needed them less as time passed. She was not quite able to resume chores, but she was able to take care of herself more easily when Logan wasn’t there. So, he’d have to be there less. He hated it but that’s the way it was.
Without a dinner with Winona to look forward to, Logan’s mood soured considerably. He called for a break and the hands rode toward the barn for lunch. Logan had a bread roll and some smoked meat in his bag, so he stayed by the corral and leaned against a fence post, content to ruminate alone with his thoughts.
“Dollar for your thoughts?” Darrell’s voice called.
Logan turned to see the older man walking up. He chuckled. “You’re overspending,” he replied.
Darrell smiled. “Well, then how about an even trade? You tell me your thoughts and I’ll tell you mine.”
Logan sighed. “We’re hurting bad, Darrell. The ranch, I mean. I guess I just didn’t want to see it, but that Audrey woman was right. Everything’s falling apart.”
“You mean the corral? Near five hundred head of Longhorn stampeded the fence, Logan. I think that’s a reasonable excuse.”
“Not the corral. Everything. The house, the barn, the pastures—everything’s coming to pieces. There are cracks in the walls of the house, the furniture’s chipped and worn, we haven’t cleaned in heaven knows how long—what?”
Darrell smiled knowingly at Logan. Logan colored and repeated somewhat defensively, “What? Did I sprout a pair of antlers or something?”
Darrell laughed. “This is because of your wife, ain’t it? I ain’t never seen you so concerned about tidying up before. Now you want to make everything nice and pretty for the missus.”
Logan glared, sending Darrell into another laughing fit. Logan reddened, more from embarrassment than anger. There was some truth to what Darrell said. Having Winona around definitely made him more self-conscious about the state of things. That wasn’t everything, though.
“It’s not just Winona,” Logan said. Darrell stopped laughing and listened intently as Logan continued. “This is my father’s ranch, Darrell. He built it with his own hands. Our family didn’t have anything before Pa started this ranch. This is all that’s left of his legacy and it’s falling into disrepair.”
“Now, you stop it,” Darrell chided. His tone was gentle but firm. “This ranch is not just your father’s legacy. It belongs to you boys, too. You and your brothers. And speaking as a man who knew your father for twenty-five years and was proud to call him friend, he would be proud of you for what you’ve done.
A lot of ranches would have folded after everything that’s happened, but you’ve stayed in business, and you’ve managed to keep everyone on. We might not be a fancy outfit like the Rosses, but every man here is proud to work for the Foley brand.”
Logan smiled gratefully at Darrell. “Thank you, Darrell. That means a lot.” His smile faded. “It still hurts to see the place so rundown.”
Darrell sighed. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve done the best you can in very difficult circumstances. Things will look up. You’ll see.” He smiled slyly at Logan. “They’re already looking up for you, at least.”
Logan colored. “It’s not that kind of marriage.”
“Sure, it isn’t,” Darrell said with just the slightest touch of sarcasm. Before Logan could retort, Darrell clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, I’d best get back to work. Got some yearlings to break for the saddle. You take care, Logan.”
“Take care, Darrell.”
Logan waited a while after Darrell left, reflecting on the older man’s words. He knew Darrell was right. The ranch had seen better days, certainly, but it still managed to support itself and support Logan and his brothers.
That wasn’t enough, though. Not while Heath Ross was sitting in the lap of luxury on the back of Dale Foley’s hard work. His heart ached. If his father were here, he never would have let Heath ride roughshod over them like that.
The little voice in the back of his head reminded him viciously that that was exactly what had happened. Heath Ross had run roughshod over Logan’s father and Logan’s father hadn’t done a blasted thing about it.
Logan stood quickly and began walking. He slapped his horse on the rump and the animal trotted in the direction of the barn. Logan would often choose to walk back from a ride when he wanted to be alone with his thoughts, so his horse arriving riderless at the barn wouldn’t cause alarm.
As he walked, he grew angrier. He alone seemed to care that their ranch was falling apart. Jay had gotten it into his head that the best way to prove he was a man was to fight Logan at every turn. Meanwhile, Gregory seemed to think life was a joke and he could just ignore everything except to laugh every now and then. This was their family name! This was their home! Did they expect Logan to do everything?
Well, if that’s what they wanted, that’s what they would get. Logan had been too lenient for too long, spread thin trying to manage so many moving parts at once that he lacked the energy to rein Jay in or motivate Gregory. That was going to change.
Winona would soon be well enough to handle the chores and Logan could focus on the business. Then things would run the way they were supposed to run, whether his brothers liked it or not. Beginning with selling these blasted cattle.
That thought sparked an idea in Logan’s head. That spark quickly grew and strengthened until it became a fully formed plan. Logan’s anger fled, replaced by excitement and by the time he reached the house, he was happily humming a tune.
***
“Over my dead body!”
Jay’s hands were balled into fists and his face was twisted in anger. He leaned forward, glaring at Logan.
Logan offered a deadly smile in response. “Be careful what you ask for, Jay.”
“Logan!” Winona cried in shock. Gregory watched with a bemused expression but said nothing. Logan called a meeting to announce his intention to sell some of the cattle to pay for repairs to the ranch. Jay, as expected, was less than pleased.
Logan glared at her but when she didn’t turn away from his gaze, he looked down, then back at Jay. “We need to repair that corral, Jay. Not to mention the stables, the barn and the house itself.”
“You’re not selling my cattle!”
“Your cattle? As I recall, we bought those cattle with the ranch’s money. It’s our cattle. Besides, I’m not talking about selling all of them. Just two hundred head to cover the cost of the repairs. That still leaves three hundred.”
“You don’t need to sell two hundred cattle to pay for the repairs, Logan.”
Logan sighed and admitted reluctantly, “I want to buy some horses to—”
“I knew it!” Jay shouted. He stuck his finger at Logan’s face. “You never believed in the cattle business!”
“What cattle business, Jay?” Logan shouted back. “This is horse ranch, not a cattle ranch!”
“Boys! There’s no need to shout!” Winona interrupted.
The boys ignored her, and Jay fired back at Logan, “We shouldn’t be a horse ranch. This pastureland is perfect for cattle and there’s always a market for beef. Sure, we get less per head, but we wouldn’t have to struggle to compete with the larger ranches anymore. We’d be the only ranch in the area selling cattle and we have the best land for it. Horse-breeding is just too much risk.”
“It’s a risk worth taking! I’m tired of eking out a living. I don’t want to just make do anymore. This ranch has the potential to be successful if only we could all work together!”
“Why does that always mean doing what you say?” Jay retorted. “Why can’t we all have a say and all work together for what we all decide on?”
“Blast it, Jay, we’re selling the cattle.” He looked to Gregory for support, but Gregory avoided eye contact, pretending to be intently focused on a loose thread in his shirt.
“Logan, we lost,” Jay said.
Logan turned back to his younger brother. “Excuse me?”
“We lost, Logan. Heath Ross won. I’m sorry but he did. He won the horse market. We can’t compete with him, we’ll never succeed. He’s got more land and better land for horses. He’s got connections with the railroads and the government. It’s a fool’s errand to go head-to-head with him. But we can win with cattle! No other ranch can support enough grass to sustain a herd of cattle! We still have the rights to the water from five hundred yards of Elm Creek. If we rotate—”
“Get out,” Logan said.
“Logan, just listen to me—”
“Get out!”
“Logan—”
Logan started toward Jay, jaw thrust forward. Gregory suddenly moved until he was in between the two of them. “Easy, Logan.”
“Oh, now the silent monk wants to speak!” Logan shouted. “Why don’t you follow him outside. I don’t want to see either of you.”
The two brothers left, and Logan turned to Winona. The look on her face filled Logan with shame but his pride wouldn’t let him show it. He glared silently at her until she took a breath and said in an even voice. “I’m going to bed.”
Logan moved to help her, but she lifted a hand in refusal. “I can make it all right, thank you.”
He lowered his head and avoided eye contact as she walked slowly to her room. When he heard the door close behind her, he swore and kicked the small wooden table next to the couch. It flew across the room and hit the opposite wall, splintering into several pieces.
Logan sighed heavily and sat on the couch. He was ashamed of his outburst, but his anger still outweighed his guilt. Why was everyone against him? Couldn’t they see he had the ranch’s best interests at heart?
Well, fine. If they didn’t want to help, he’d just do it himself. He was used to that by now.