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“Ah, so that was your plan all along?” She should’ve known. Hannah had wanted her to be with Kent from the moment she heard how hard Alice had fallen for him. Though, her only concern was that Alice was too young to making such permanent choices. She wasn’t young now. “Unfortunately, he is not as keen on being with me as I am with him.”
Hannah took a deep breath and when the puppy whined, she stretched the toe of her boot to the cradle and set it slowly rocking as if the little dog were a babe. “Then we need more ideas. You’ve loved him the entire time he was absent. I didn’t think you would. I thought your pining for him would wane, but mentioning him in passing would bring that starry look to your eyes and I knew . . .”
She wouldn’t deny it, though she hadn’t thought so at the time. She’d thought every ounce of love for him had been wrung from her when he’d deserted her for his education. “All the starry gazes in the world won’t change his mind. I’ve been trying all week to make him warm up to me. He’ll look at me warmly.” She held in a shiver, recalling the heat of his gaze. “But he will not start anything.”
And now time was up. He’d held her tenderly that morning, or had she only been imagining his arms around her? No, it had been real. Josie had interrupted him. She was never going to forget him and put these feelings in the past if she continued bringing them to the front of her mind. Even his heated looks could be shrugged off as possible mistakes. Maybe he’d been angry with her?
“He lives directly next door. I know you said you made a promise to Pa not to go over there, but there might be needs that you must fill. What if one of the lambs becomes ill? Dr. Spight will not come out unless an animal is dying now. He told me so. He wants people to go to Kent wherever possible to encourage Kent to stay.”
She didn’t want anything to happen to the sheep, but if they got worse, she would have to do just that. Pa might even suggest Leo or Gideon go and get him. But he wouldn’t tell her.
An hour later, a hearty stew bubbled on the stove and the puppy slept at Hannah’s feet. He already looked better than he had for the last week. Perhaps Kent was right, and he’d simply missed the person he’d equated with being his mother. They’d consumed their lunch and had begun cleaning up when a horse rode into the yard.
Hannah headed to the window and pulled back the curtain, peering outside. “It’s Gideon. He looks worried.”
Alice grabbed her coat and headed for the door. He hadn’t even dismounted before she rushed outside. “Gideon, what’s wrong?”
His horse was lathered from the ride and he dismounted, leading it right to the barn as he called orders at her. “Mount your horse and get on home. Tell Pa that Dr. Spight doesn’t have time to tend to a dead animal. We’re supposed to go ask Kent for help.” He stopped for a moment to look her in the eye. “Got it?”
She nodded. “I understand. What happened so I can tell him?”
Gideon took his horse by the halter and slowly walked him around the yard as he spoke. “One of the ewes that had been the weakest from that sickness went into a panic today and raced around the pen. She looked exhausted with every round, but we couldn’t get her to stop. After a few minutes, she up and dropped to her knees. Her eyes went wide, and she fell over.”
Alice committed the scene to memory, though she didn’t want to. The ill sheep had been lethargic and drooling oddly the last few days but didn’t seem to be getting any better or worse. They had very little appetite and would seem to improve. But as soon as they’d pull around and start eating again, they’d get sick.
After the horse walked for a few minutes with Gideon until his breathing was back to normal, he grabbed a towel to wipe him down and pumped water to give to his horse. “I’ve got to rub him down and blanket him. I’ll be here for a while. You need to go and get Kent. Hopefully, he has some idea of what this is because we can’t lose any more sheep.”
She bit the inside of her cheek, hating to break her promise to Pa, but Hannah was right. If she didn’t go, there would be no one to assess what was wrong. “Does Pa know you’re sending me over there?”
Gideon shook his head. “He sent me for Spight. Leo is trying to keep the other sheep in that pen calm. If one goes wild, it might send all of them into a state. I can’t even speculate what will happen if we lose all those sheep.” He finished cleaning the remaining white lather off his horse’s chest where the breast strap had rubbed.
She nodded and tugged on her riding gloves. If she had to go talk to the man who’d been on her mind for weeks, then she would. “I’ll go.”
“I knew I could count on you. I could’ve pushed my horse to race all the way back, but it would’ve been an abuse of the thing.” He patted his horse’s neck. “I’ll be busy here making sure he doesn’t get bloat from this, but you need to go. I don’t know how long Leo is going to be able to keep them calm.”
She drew Blaze out of the barn and led him over to the fence so she could mount bareback. There had been no reason to ride that way since she was a child, but she’d wasted time listening to Gideon and helping him with his horse. She pressed her heels to Blaze’s sides and held on tight. She hated to think about the fact that she’d desperately wanted a way to see Kent again, and one had been given.
A terrible reason, but a reason.
Chapter9
Kent watched the last calf get branded before they set it free. The work he’d been doing wasn’t his chosen work, but there was some joy in it. Armstrong had asked him to be present as a caution. They’d never had an issue with branding in the past and he doubted anything would happen now, but it was his way of including Kent when there would otherwise be no reason to do so. He wasn’t sure if he was thankful for being included or wishing he could return to being forgotten.
Armstrong tugged his leather gloves from his fingers and stretched. “I’m too young to feel this stiff.” He rolled his shoulders.
“Might have that wife of yours rub some ointment on it, not that I’m a doctor.” Kent rolled his eyes.
Armstrong punched his shoulder with a little more steam than necessary. “You could have a wife to take the salt off that tongue of yours, too.”
Maybe he had been salty, but his pique was justified. Everything he’d ever desired in life had been yanked out from under him. Even the meager desire for his father’s fickle respect. He’d realized by the time he was twelve he’d never have that. Then he set his sights on an education.
When he’d reached seventeen, just one year shy of his primary diploma, Pa had stepped in and said schooling wasn’t important for boys who would only need to run a ranch. Since his brother wasn’t going to school anymore, Kent didn’t need to go either. Without his certificate, he couldn’t go on to greater education. He’d tried to change Pa’s mind, but that only made him dig in his heels more.
When Armstrong had fallen in love with Dosha, a distant relation to the Johlman’s, and she had reintroduced him to Alice, he started feeling again. Desiring to make something of his life. He had dreams of running off and finishing school so he could return and make Alice proud. She deserved a house and all the trappings.
He’d driven himself hard to finish his primary education quickly, then headed off to school with the money he’d saved working. Unfortunately, that too would be yanked away when the dean felt he wasn’t a good fit for the medical program and instead was switched to animal medicine. He wiped the rough skin of his scar, wishing he could take back control of his life.
“There won’t be any of that.” He scrubbed his clammy hands down the front of his trousers, then reached for a Nyal tablet. They’d become less effective in taking care of his stomach upset. “I can’t go through another change of plans. I’ve had that happen to me too often, so I refuse to plan.”
