Page 55 of A Steadfast Heart
“Why did this ride go so badly, do you think?”
Jo glanced down but didn’t answer.
Drew stepped into the room. “I can answer that.”
Jo turned swiftly, then grimaced and pressed a hand to her head. Drew pulled another chair into the kitchen and sat next to Kaitlyn so he could see every expression on Jo’s face. “When you saddled Phantom, did you leave him in the big stall? Untied? Did you leave the barn?”
Jo nodded. “I, um, had to get some food. And I, well, I forgot my jacket.”
“I think he rolled while he was tacked up. The saddle core splintered under his weight. When you got on, it pinched his back.”
Jo crossed her arms over her chest and smirked. Her eyes cut to Kaitlyn. “See, I told you it wasn’t my fault.”
Determination solidified inside his chest. She had endangered herself, and Kaitlyn too. She had to be made to see that. Kaitlyn squeezed his knee, drawing his attention to her. She shook her head slightly. He bit back the angry words that swirled through his mind and nodded to her. She was probably right. Yelling at Jo wouldn’t accomplish much.
Kaitlyn wiped at more dried blood on Jo’s forehead. “You put yourself and several other people at risk. You need to think through what might go wrong before you act.”
Drew leaned forward. “While you were out cold, Kaitlyn risked her life, lying over you so the cow would hit her first.”
Jo’s jaw dropped, and she glanced at Kaitlyn, then back to him. Her cheeks flushed.
Drew nodded. He had her attention now. “Your chores are doubled for the next month, and that includes inside chores. You could have both been killed.”
Jo paled, and her eyes widened for a moment. Then she speared him with an angry glare. “I might have known. You wouldn’t care if I broke my neck and died, but we can’t endanger Kaitlyn!”
Broken neck. Bile rose in his throat. When he’d identified Amanda’s body after the train wreck, her neck had been twisted at an odd angle. And he’d brought her to Wyoming. If only he’d understood his wife’s desperation, her hatred of the ranch, which had put her on that train. Old grief rose inside him. If only he’d worked less, paid more attention…
“See, he don’t even deny it.” Jo’s tone was angry, but her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Words. He needed words. If only he knew the right ones. Jo jumped up from her chair to leave the room.
“Stop!” Kaitlyn’s shaking voice froze Jo in her tracks. “How could you say such a thing?”
Jo pointed at Drew. “Ask him! He didn’t even want me. He only kept David.”
His throat constricted, blocking any attempt at the words he couldn’t find anyway. Didn’t Jo know that Amanda had left while he was away from the house?
He glanced at Kaitlyn, seated beside him, hoping she would see his need for help.
She took his hand, her hold comforting, but she focused her attention on the child in front of her. “Your father’s love for you shows in every action he takes. Ask him why he let your mother take you. I bet he has a reason.”
“Pa?”
Jo’s uncertain voice tore through his chest. He reached for her and drew her to his lap. “I should have told you about this a long time ago. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
Where to start? Images raced through his mind. Amanda unhappy. Refusing to allow the girls to leave the house and learn about the ranch—“this heathen land” as she’d called it. The girls clinging to her skirts whenever she allowed them near her.
Kaitlyn’s grip tightened on his hand and brought him back to the present. Start at the beginning, with as much of the truth as an eleven-year-old could handle. “I didn’t really understand just how much your ma hated it here.” Was that hoarse voice his? He cleared his throat. “She didn’t tell me she was leaving. I came back for lunch and she was gone.” He’d run through the house trying to find her. Then the barn, where he’d found the wagon missing.
Drew wrapped his arms around Jo. “You were so young, sweetheart. Younger than Tillie is now. And Tillie was just a baby.” His voice was still husky, almost choked. “I didn’t go after you immediately, but it wasn’t because I didn’t want you.”
“Then why?” Hope warred with suspicion in his little girl’s eyes.
“You were so young. I thought two little girls needed their ma.”
A tear ran down Jo’s face. He wiped it away with the tip of his finger. Kaitlyn squeezed his other hand. Kaitlyn. Her father had punished her for Michael’s misdeeds. Knowingly. No one had stood beside her since her mother had died, and the pain of that still showed today. That wasn’t going to happen to Jo. Not on his watch. “Jo, you and Tillie and David mean everything to me. I love this ranch and this home my parents built, but I’d walk away from it in an instant if any one of the three of you needed me to. Nothing matters more than you three kids. Nothing.”
Jo burst into tears and threw her arms around him, buried her face in his chest.
Wait a minute. Shouldn’t she be happy now? He glanced at Kaitlyn. She had tears on her cheeks as well, but her radiant smile squeezed his heart. If she could look at him that way…He looked away.
