Page 98 of Conveniently Wed
Seb grunted and shifted, his horse shifting with him.
Emma sniffed. “And Fran got this idea to ride out to you. She said since we couldn’t sleep anyway, we could be awake with the cowboys.”
Edgar found the corner of his mouth turning up, even with the fear and desperation filling him. That sounded like Fran.
“We still had the trousers and shirt, so she made me put them on, just in case.”
He squeezed her shoulder when she started to break down.
“And we sneaked out, got to the horses… and there was noise behind us and voices…not you…”
She could barely get words out now, sobbing into her hands.
“Calm down,” he said, rubbing her back. “We’re going to get her back.”
“She got me up on the horse and slapped it. I can’t ride! I was so scared?—”
“That’s about when I came to,” Seb said tightly. “Somehow I hung on to the horse, didn’t go down. Then her horse must’ve run past me. The rush of air about knocked me out of the saddle. I took off after it, not knowing who it was.”
“I couldn’t make it stop. It just kept running.”
“But you did a good job of staying on,” Seb told her.
She just shook her head, dissolving into sobs.
“I lost them in the dark, had to wait until it lightened up a little to follow the tracks. The horse was tucked up next to the creek, winded and worn out. And she was still clinging to him like a burr on a dog’s butt.”
“Good job.” He hugged Emma again from the side, the same way he would’ve hugged Breanna if it had been her.
“But…but they’ve got Fran,” Emma gasped. You’ve got to get her back?—”
“We will.”
He had no other option. Fran belonged to him.
And she would expect him to comfort Emma. “But she wanted you safe. That was important to her. And it’s important to me.”
She quieted, staring into his eyes. He did everything he could to return her gaze levelly. He’d promised her sister his protection from the beginning. He wouldn’t shirk that duty now.
“I want you to stay with her,” he told Seb. “Until you get back to Tuck’s Station, ride as fast as you can. Bring the town marshal and any men you can round up to help us. And settle Emma with the preacher.”
“What about the cattle?”
Yes, what about them? They’d come this far, pushing the men past their endurance, endangering his wife, all so he could make the buyer’s deadline.
“There’s a box canyon about a quarter mile west of here. I remember passing it on a drive with Pa several years ago. Have John and Chester drive them into it, then come after us.”
He went to his horse and mounted up. “We’re going after her.”
He looked to Ricky. “I need you. Everything else between us can wait. Are you with me?”
By the time Matty and Ricky rounded up the other cowboys, Edgar realized they had a major problem.
The cattle had scattered in all directions before they’d gotten them under control, and the hoofprints of that many stampeding cattle had obliterated any tracks from Underhill’s men.
Smart.
It forced them to waste time ranging out to find the real tracks.
