Page 11 of Short-Straw Bride

She reached for her skirts again, and heaven help him, all he did was lower his rifle barrel so he could watch her better. He remembered that girl and those abominable traps. How brave she’d been. How trusting. But this couldn’t be her, could it? Surely time hadn’t passed so quickly. She’d been just a child. This woman couldn’t be the same person.

Travis fought his reaction to her and regained his stance. “This is some kind of trick—some way for you to worm into my good graces so your fiancé can step in and steal my land.”

Her eyes narrowed. “This is no trick, and that man will never be my fiancé.” She tugged on her skirts again. “I can prove who I am, Travis, if you’ll just give me the chance.” She lowered her gaze to somewhere near the ground. “Look at my leg.”

He might be a recluse, but even he knew what she asked wasn’t proper. But apparently Neill was too young to have any qualms.

“Ah, that little scar ain’t nothin’. Jim’s is better.”

A quiet growl rumbled out of Jim, but Crockett actually laughed. Travis turned a glare on the man to his left. Crockett swallowed his mirth.

Fed up with this girl’s shenanigans, Travis finally glanced down at her ankle, at the small amount of skin exposed above the top of her shoe and below her hem. Sure enough, a thin scar marred the pale flesh there.

In a flash, he was seventeen again, tending her wound, and carrying the little girl in his arms all the way to her home. He’d thought of her often—wondering what became of her. Travis examined her face again. Her hair was a little darker now, but a few golden streaks remained, evidence of the tow-headed girl he’d met so long ago. Her vivid blue eyes cut through him just as they had back then, when they’d been full of tears. The curves she sported now were definitely new, but the determination and bravery he remembered clung to her bearing like a grass burr to a pant leg.

That scrawny little kid had grown into a right handsome woman.

Travis lowered his weapon. “Good to see you again, Meredith.”

4

He did remember. Even her name. Meredith couldn’t hold back the grin that begged for release.

“So, brother . . . how come you never told us about your little friend, here?” The teasing drawl from the man at Travis’s left drew Meredith’s attention. He deliberately looked from her to Travis and back again. Then he winked. She couldn’t believe it. Biting her lip to keep her embarrassment in check as well as to keep from smiling too wide, she dropped her gaze to the ground.

“Shut up, Crockett,” Travis grumbled as he stalked forward to take her arm. “It was a long time ago.” His grip was gentle but exerted enough force to propel her toward the clearing. “She wandered off the road and stepped into one of those traps we used to have set up. I freed her, splinted up her leg, and took her home. End of story.”

As they rounded the last stand of trees, the house came into view off to the right. The snug cabin with its trail of smoke curling up from the stone chimney beckoned Meredith with an earnest welcome completely at odds with the rifle-wielding foursome who had met her on the path.

“Wait a minute.” Crockett jogged around them and planted himself in front of her.

Travis tried to maneuver around his brother, but the quick change of direction gave Meredith no time to compensate for her weaker leg. She stumbled a bit, her limp becoming more pronounced. Travis frowned down at her leg as he drew her to a halt.

“Did you say you took her home? You actually left our land?”

“Her leg was broken. What did you expect me to do?” Travis demanded. “Leave her for the coyotes?”

“Of course not. It’s just . . .” Crockett stood there staring at him, the incredulous look on his face almost comical. “I never thought you’d cross that line.”

“It was one time. Don’t make more of it than it is.”

Good advice for her, too, Meredith realized as Travis shouldered past Crockett and continued escorting her across the clearing. The fact that Travis had kept their meeting a secret from his brothers didn’t mean something private and personal existed between them. Most likely, all it meant was that he didn’t want to give them an excuse to follow his example and venture too far from home. Allowing the warmth expanding all too rapidly inside her to cloud her judgment would indeed be foolish.

Too bad his hand felt so good on her arm and his solid presence at her side confirmed all those heroic imaginings she’d indulged in as a young girl. It made sensibility far less attractive.

A horse whinnied somewhere behind the house, though, and reason returned as she recalled Ginger tied up at the gate. Coupling that with Travis’s comment about the coyotes, Meredith knew her errand had taken too long already.

Before he could haul her up to the covered porch that stretched the length of the log house, Meredith tugged her elbow free and stepped a couple of paces away from the steps. “Thank you for offering the hospitality of your home, but I really should be on my way. I left my horse tied at your gate, and she tends to get restless if left alone too long.”

Travis’s gaze bore into her. Gone was the compassion she’d experienced as a child. And the gratitude she’d expected to see was nowhere in evidence, either. The only thing glimmering in those greenish-brown eyes of his was steely determination.

“I’m not bringing you to the house to offer you hospitality, Meredith.” Travis closed the distance between them with one long stride. “I’m bringing you here so that you can tell us everything you know about this former fiancé of yours and his plans for our ranch.”

“But . . .” Meredith looked from brother to brother. Even the teasing Crockett looked implacable. “I’ve already told you all I know,” she insisted.

The Archers surrounded her once again and started herding her like a stray cow. Before she knew it, she was up the porch steps and through the front door.

This was not how things were supposed to go. The heroic Travis of her dreams would never dictate to her in such a way.