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Eliza couldn’t help it. Her feelings were hurt. Garret advanced at a snail’s pace, but going backward was unacceptable to her at this point. “I could learn to drive cattle.”
“Eliza, it isn’t that I think you can’t drive. I just don’t know how dangerous this is going to get, and after what happened the other night, surely you can see how I wouldn’t want you out in the open again.”
“She is safest with you,” Cookie argued on her behalf. “The Jenningses won’t know what you are doing or where you are. If you stay here or with the cattle, they know exactly where you are. Where Eliza is. She is a target, and until she isn’t anymore, your woman is safest with you and on the move.”
Garret was quiet for a few minutes. “All right,” he said finally. He angled his head toward her, and he looked so handsome in the orange glow of the firelight. “But you don’t leave my sight.”
Eliza nodded. “Fine with me. I still have cactus needles from the last go-round.” She tried to smile at him, but he looked troubled as he stared at her healing arms.
“You and Lenny pack what you think we’ll need, and be ready first thing,” he said. “Cookie and Wells and I will watch the cattle tonight. Lenny, you’re in the big house with Eliza again. Burke, you haven’t slept in awhile. I need you rested, so get some sleep. I’d feel safer with you in the big house too. You can take the loft. I’ll come back at dawn, and we’ll head out. Everybody know what they need to do?”
Eliza looked around, and then raised her hand like she was a schoolchild.
“Yes?” Garret asked.
“You said to pack provisions, but I don’t exactly know what provisions you need.”
“Lenny can help you with that. You aren’t the same as when you came out here, Eliza. You learn quick, and I believe you can be a help to Lenny, not a hindrance.”
She was so shocked at the subtle compliment, it took her a few moments to respond. “I won’t let you down.”
Garret’s eyes still carried worry, but the slight smile on his lips said he’d meant what he’d said.
He believed in her.
She really wasn’t going to let the Pack down.
Chapter Thirty-One
Dawn couldn’t come soon enough.
Eliza tossed and turned all night in her worry for the men watching the cattle. Especially Garret. Or maybe, after just one night, the absence of his warm body laying beside her had spoiled her.
Well before dawn, Eliza rose and readied, dressing in a pair of men’s trousers Lenny had let her borrow. They were around the same size, so the trousers were only a little tight. They weren’t supposed to see anyone from town, so the only ones who would witness her dressed in such a mannish fashion would be Garret, Burke, and Lenny, who would also be wearing matching trousers. She tucked a cedar-brown shirt that clung tightly to her curves into her trousers and pulled on her work boots. Lenny braided her hair tightly into two braids to match her own, and Lenny said those braids should last for a while.
She was dressed and ready, packing the last of the provisions they had organized last night into the saddlebags of the horses Lenny had brought from the barn.
“I smell Garret,” Lenny said low on the dark front porch as Eliza was securing her bedroll to the back of Buck’s saddle. Her old-man horse seemed especially sleepy this morning, and she completely understood. It would be a miracle if she didn’t fall asleep in the saddle today after the long, sleepless night.
Garret appeared in the halo of lantern light and the first streaks of gray light that stretched across the eastern horizon.
He didn’t look tired at all. His eyes were glowing and trained on her as he approached on Rooney. “Come here,” he murmured.
Eliza finished the last tie on her bedroll and approached Rooney’s side. She slipped her hand around Garret’s calf as he reached for her, gripped the back of her neck. “Sleep okay?” he asked.
Her body was buzzing with whatever he was doing with that gentle massage at the back of her neck, and it took a couple moments to find the words to answer. “No.”
“Why not? Are you unwell?”
“Just nervous. I don’t want to do anything wrong.”
He made a clicking sound. “Part of that is my fault. You’ll be fine. Just listen. If I say do something, I mean do it right then. If I say stick close to me, I mean like a fly on shit, okay?”
She nodded.
“You’ve got me and Lenny and Burke. It should be smooth. What do you need packed still? I have room in my saddlebags.”
It was a one-day journey to get to the Whitfield ranch, and two to drive the cattle to the Lazy S. Since Cookie, the resident trail cook, wasn’t going, it was up to Lenny and Eliza to pack what they would need in the way of sustenance. Eliza only knew of Cookie’s beans and ham concoction, so after packing for that, she was lost. Thankfully Lenny had watched Cookie long enough, she knew what else they would need.
