Page 10 of Short-Straw Bride

The smell of woodsmoke tickled her nose, and Meredith’s heart skittered. The house must be close. An odd-sounding birdcall echoed somewhere in the distance off to her left. Her head swiveled in that direction. Then another bird answered from up ahead of her to the right. A chill passed over her. In all her years in Anderson County, she’d never heard a bird that sounded quite like those surrounding her. Then again, she’d been in town for quite some time. Perhaps she’d forgotten.

The trees began to thin, and Meredith spotted a clearing ahead. She picked up her pace, anxious to have her errand over and done. But before she took more than a dozen steps, four men emerged from the woods and surrounded her, each pointing a rifle directly at her chest.

What in blue blazes was a woman doing waltzing onto Archer land at the brink of dark?

From his vantage point behind her, Travis couldn’t see much of her face, so he had no way of judging her intelligence. But anyone crazy enough to come onto Archer land without an invitation was sure to be unpredictable, and he wasn’t taking any chances.

The woman kept her hands a healthy distance from her sides, and he could see her fingers quivering. Yet despite her obvious nervousness, she stared at each of his brothers in turn and even twisted around to examine Neill and finally . . .

Travis raised his head from sighting down the rifle as shock radiated through him. Those eyes. Such a vivid blue. It was as if he’d seen them before. But that was impossible. Females didn’t exactly pay them calls on a regular basis.

Clearing his throat, he readjusted his rifle. “We don’t cotton to trespassers around here, lady. You best skedaddle back the way you came.”

“I will. But not until I say my piece.” She pivoted to face him fully, her lashes lowering for just a moment before she aimed her gaze directly at him again.

Even knowing what was coming didn’t stop the jolt from ricocheting through his chest when those piercing eyes latched onto him.

“I came to warn you, Travis.”

Travis? She knew who he was? Most folks meeting the Archers all at once had no way of knowing him from Crockett or Jim. Yet she said his name with the confidence of recognition.

He squinted at her. “Look, lady. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but I want no part of it.”

“This is no game. Please, Travis. Just listen.”

“You know this gal, Trav?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his youngest brother start to lower his rifle. “Hush up, Neill, and hold your line.” The kid obeyed without question, firming up his grip.

“The man who wants to buy your land is sending men out here tonight to persuade you to change your mind. They plan to set fire to the place while you sleep and force you to accept the next offer in order to recoup your losses.”

Her announcement closed around Travis’s heart like a vise that slowly began to tighten. Why wouldn’t people just let them alone? Whether it was the do-gooders fourteen years ago who thought they knew best and attempted to take his brothers off to some orphanage, or the string of men who came after, trying to take advantage of a green kid with prime land, he was sick to death of people interfering in his affairs.

There was plenty of other land to be had, after all—although none of the available acreage had a house and outbuildings already built or a creek that didn’t run dry in the summer. The more honorable vultures had sought to buy him out at a price far below market value, assuming he was too inexperienced to know the difference. The less honorable ones tried to take the land by force.

He still shuddered every time he thought of that bullet in Jim’s shoulder—the one Crockett dug out, holed up in the cellar, while Travis drove the rest of the attackers from their land. Jim had been a pup at fifteen. Crockett, seventeen. And nine-year-old Neill had been the only one left to stand guard. They’d almost lost Jim to the fever afterward, but in the end, God had spared his life.

And now, according to this woman, another round was about to begin.

Travis glanced at each of his brothers. Being well trained, none had dropped his guard, but he could sense their wariness, hear the questions hanging unspoken in the air.

“Please, Travis. You have to believe me,” the woman pled. “You and your brothers are in danger.”

“Look, lady,” Travis ground out between clenched teeth, “I don’t know what you’re up to, but I do know that if someone was planning to attack us, they sure as shootin’ wouldn’t go around announcing that fact to the general public. That tells me that if what you’re saying is true, you’re a part of it somehow, and I can’t trust you.”

Pain flashed in the woman’s eyes, but she quickly blinked it away before jutting out her chin. “The man my aunt and uncle want me to marry is the one who wants to buy your land. While in his company earlier today, I chanced to overhear a private conversation between him and one of his subordinates. I was horrified by what I heard and knew I had to warn you. After your kindness to me, I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.”

Travis drew back. “What kindness? I’ve never even seen you before.” Yet the familiarity that continued to stir at the edge of his consciousness made him question the accuracy of that statement.

“But you have.” The crazy woman actually took a step closer to him, completely ignoring the rifle he was still pointing at her chest. “I was a trespasser then, too, only a much younger one.”

She reached for something in her skirts, and he cocked his weapon. “Don’t move, lady. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I know.”

Instead of shrinking away from him, her eyes held his, filled to the brim with . . . trust? That made no sense. Maybe the woman was crazy.

“You told me it was all an act on the day you helped me. Do you remember? After you freed me from that trap and splinted my leg, you made me promise not to tell anyone about how you were helping me. Said it would be safer for your brothers if everyone continued to believe you a mean-hearted, trigger-happy fiend. I kept that promise. And now I’m back to return the kindness you extended to me twelve years ago.”