‘The twins hurt my dog,’ he explained. ‘So I told them last night that they need to accept responsibility for what they’d done. Sadie needs to rest for a week, and therefore the twins need to take over Sadie’s workload.’ He reached the bed the boys were still sharing and touched two small shoulders. ‘Okay, guys. Wake up. It’s six a.m. You know what we need to do.’
And, amazingly, they did. They opened their eyes, they smiled shyly up at Matt as if this had been expected, and to Erin’s astonishment, they moved straight into dress mode.
‘What on earth are you doing?’
‘Tell her, boys.’ Matt smiled at her-and then he carefully diverted his attention elsewhere.
Hell! What was happening here?
Following orders, Erin was wearing one of the welfare shirts as sleepwear. It was buttoned to the neck and it was a man’s shirt to boot, but the sight of Erin fresh from sleep, tousled and rumpled, with her curls flying free and her gorgeous blue eyes wide with enquiry somehow had the power to make something inside him kick.
Hard.
Luckily a twin spoke, giving him time to gather his wits.
‘We’re rounding up the cows,’ Henry told Erin solemnly, hauling on the ill-fitting trousers he’d worn the day before. ‘You have new clothes to wear now,’ Erin told him, and then took on board what Henry had said. ‘Rounding up cows?’
‘The boys don’t need new clothes to do what they need to do,’ Matt told her, still carefully concentrating on the twins. ‘In fact, new clothes would be completely wasted. We’re cutting Cecil out from where he’s been serving the cows. He’s due at the Lassendale Cattle Show tomorrow.’
‘The Lassendale Show…’
‘You’re still half asleep,’ Matt told her kindly. ‘William, that windcheater’s inside out. Surely you know the Lassendale show, Erin? And you a farmer’s daughter and all.’
Right. Of course she did. The whole farming world knew the show he was talking about, but she’d never been there. Well, why would she? Lassendale was a show-case of the cream of the country’s pedigree cattle, and a prize from the Lassendale judges meant the making or breaking of a stud farmer. Of course Matt would be showing.
‘You’re putting Cecil in the show?’
‘I surely am.’
And then Erin started feeling strange, too. Matt was adjusting William’s windcheater and the sight of him dressing the little boy-a job she should be doing herself-did strange things to her insides. Things she didn’t understand in the least. She hauled her bedclothes up to her neck in an instinctive act of defence, but for the life of her she couldn’t think what she was defending.
‘And the boys?’ she managed.
‘I can’t cut a bull out of that herd without a good dog,’ he told her, his eyes twinkling. He’d overcome his unease in the face of her discomfort-or maybe it was because she’d hauled the sheet up so far. ‘Or, failing a dog, then two obedient twins. Which I have here, don’t I, boys?’
‘Yes.’ William said the word solemnly and Henry nodded his agreement.
‘Now there’s no need for you to get up,’ Matt told her. ‘I’ll give the boys some milk and a piece of toast each and we’ll have a proper breakfast when we’re finished. You go back to sleep.’
Back to sleep? Such a thing was unheard of. Go back to sleep when the twins were awake…
‘No!’
‘You’re not wanted,’ Matt told her, making his voice severe. ‘Is she, boys? Cutting out bulls is man’s work.’
‘But Matt,’ She was bewildered by the plan. ‘A bull-’
‘Cecil is a pussy cat,’ he told her, seeing what her major worry was. ‘Don’t fret yourself. You know I wouldn’t let the boys near anything I considered dangerous. With these two to help me, we’ll have him back to the yard in no time. Then we’ll scrub him down, make him beautiful and then we can introduce him to you personally.’
‘But-’
‘Stop arguing and go back to sleep.’
‘Matt-’
‘Sleep!’
Sleep? Ha!
Go back to sleep, he’d said, but it was just plain impossible. Erin lay in bed and listened to the sounds of the boys in the kitchen. She heard Matt talking, and she heard the boys giggling in response.
Giggling?
They sounded just like they did when they were plotting trouble, Erin thought, but the difference here was that Matt was plotting trouble for them. Excellent trouble. Cutting a bull from the herd was just the sort of adventure they craved, and to do it with such a wondrous person as Matt…
He was wondrous, Erin thought sleepily. He knew instinctively how to act with the boys.
Take responsibility for your actions…
She’d tried and tried to drum that into them, and here was Matt doing exactly that. Yesterday they’d hurt Sadie, so today they were doing Sadie’s job.
She desperately wanted to join them, but she knew that to do so would spoil it for them. This was men’s work, Matt had decreed, and for Erin to interfere… To have their House Mother hovering over them, fussing and bossing while they did it, would spoil it in a way she instinctively understood. So somehow she forced herself to lie still.
Then the bedroom door opened again and it was William, carefully balancing a cup of tea.
‘Matt said you’d like this.’
Behind him was Henry, carrying a plate of toast with marmalade. Erin blinked and blinked again. Breakfast in bed! Good grief!
And Matt was in the doorway behind them, watching his charges with pride as they wobbled their responsibilities to her bedside table-without a single spill.
‘Well done, boys,’ he told them. He looked at Erin and he winked. ‘Okay, lady. Wrap yourself around your breakfast, then put your head on the pillow and sleep-while we men go off and organise the world. Okay, men. Let’s go round us up some beef cattle.’
She couldn’t do it.
She physically couldn’t lie in bed and do nothing. It nearly killed her. She drank her tea and ate her toast, then lay and stared at the ceiling for all of half an hour. Then Sadie sidled in and put her nose on the bedcover, and Erin fondled the old dog’s ears and smiled in sympathy. She knew exactly what the dog was thinking.
‘We’ve been made redundant, girl,’ she said softly and Sadie waved her silky tail in agreement. ‘How does that make you feel?’
Sadie flopped down on the mat beside the bed, put her head on her forelegs and sighed.
‘It makes you feel funny, too?’
Another sigh.
‘I suppose I could just go see what they’re doing,’ she told the dog. ‘From a distance.’
Sadie looked up at her with hope, and Erin shook her head.
‘Not you, girl. You have a sore leg to look after.’ Then, at the look on Sadie’s face, she burst into laughter. ‘Oh, you fraud. You pulled a con and now you’re feeling like you’d like to change your mind.’ She leaned down and lightly touched Sadie’s bandaged leg. ‘I’m sorry, girl, but you’re going to have to put up with it. I have a feeling your leg might be more important than you know.’
There was another sigh at that, and Erin was starting to feel like the dog understood every word she said. Which was good, because Erin surely needed someone to talk to.
‘I know how you feel,’ she told her. ‘But for more reasons than one, you need to keep your nose out of it.’
But Erin wasn’t keeping her nose out.
If she stayed in that bed any longer she’d bust something.
If there was one thing being brought up on a farm with seven siblings had taught her, it was how to hide. Years of hide and seek had made her a master of the art. Erin washed and dressed with speed, and then made her way
