Blake shook his head. “Darcy isn’t coming. She says she’s tired.”
Blake’s uncle grinned again, in understanding. “This bunch would probably be a lot for her to take in anyway.” Will, the foreman for the cattle operation smoothed his salt and pepper hair back with both hands. “We can be a little over whelming.”
Other men at the table laughed, each remembering when they had first arrived on the ranch to take a job. Back then the whole family, including the hands, ate together each day.
“Speak for yourself Will,” Taylor the uncle who ran the sawmill spoke up as his youngest daughter climbed into his lap. “I wasn’t overwhelmed until baby number five came along.”
The others chuckled and Blake felt a special kind of joy fill his heart.
“Taylor, you were hopeless the minute you rode into the yard here. You took one look at Isabella and were lost.”
Taylor picked up a roll, tossing it at his older brother who caught in deftly in one hand.
Reginald Ogden had been slower to embrace his life on the ranch, hoping to eventually return to his mother in Pennsylvania, but when Alexis’ little experiment had succeeded in stealing his heart he had succumbed.
Meg walked to the old triangle hanging from the eaves on the far side of the porch and rang it loudly with the steel rod attached to it on a string. As the last echoes of the contraptions’ tones faded, replaced by the peels of children’s laughter and the rough scrape of chairs, Blake smiled at his kin. It was good to be home.
A sudden shuffle of seats, and clatter of feet batted at the porch roof for a moment only to be drowned out by silence as Will Robertson took Katie’s hand, starting a chain around the table before he bowed his head and asked God’s blessing on the food and family.
Blake bowed his head but glanced along the table as a deep peace washed through his heart. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends filled the table with love, acceptance and good will. He wished again that Darcy would have joined them, that she would have accepted the gift that he knew his family would offer. The young woman, would have found welcome at this table, as well as food, fellowship, and fun.
Perhaps, if they survived the challenge before them, he would bring Darcy back to the Broken J once more. Maybe by then she would be willing to hear the words she needed and find a place where she belonged.
The odd thoughts raced through Blake’s mind in a heartbeat, and he focused on the couples seated around the table, heads bowed in reverent grace. He had heard the stories before. He had always known how each of the cattleman’s daughters had found their own true love, but he had never considered it himself.
His life was the law. His goal was to bring security, safety, and prosperity back to his home state. There was no room for love in a lawman’s life.
***
Darcy stared out the window at the prairie. She’d gazed upon the vast expanse of Wyoming’s wasteland for far too many years, but there was something different here. Blake and his family had built something worth having and still found joy in the heart of the land.
It was easy to believe, when you always had a full belly, and troubles were far away. The young man who had brought her to his ancestral home was full of hope, promise, faith. He was naive if he believed that the good always prospered or that the wicked would be brought low.
A soft breeze ruffled the white curtains at the window where she stood, and the smell of spring filled the room with the promise of new life.
Darcy’s hand strayed to the tightly bound bandages that still pressed against the ragged wound in her side and a low burn started in her soul. She would get her revenge on the man who had done this to her. The man who had promised her the brightest of worlds but had only led her into darkness.
Pierce would pay. She would take Blake to where she thought the man was hiding. Take him to the hideout she knew he had been looking for far too long. Together they would bring the house of ill gotten gains down.
Closing her eyes, the moments in the bank flashed through Darcy’s mind again, staggering her body, but steeling her soul. She had to do this. She had to see justice done. Perhaps then she could think about exorcizing her own demons. Perhaps good works and humble living would give her a chance at something better in the next life.
The sound of a horse galloping by made Darcy open her eyes again and she smiled as the bright red horse raced by. The animal was beautiful, strong, and magnificent in its stellar freedom of movement and grace.
Darcy’s heart lunged in her chest, longing for the abandon she saw in the horse’s flight. What would it be like to break free of the cage around her heart and mind? What would it be like to race into the wind with no fear, sorrow, or doubt?
She had thought that moving to a big city would bring that freedom. Then she had believed that Pierce and his promise of wealth would provide it, but now she realized that she had been living in a prison of her own making.
As the horse disappeared over a low rise, Darcy turned, leaning her back against the window sill and listening to the silent house.
Wasn’t she repeating the same mistakes she had made before by staying here while Blake and his family ate together? She had refused to go with the man who had saved her life, effectively shutting herself off from everyone around her.
Pushing off the sill, Darcy paced the room, the low heeled shoes making soft sounds on the solid floor. Chewing at a rough finger nail, she looked down at the borrowed dress she wore. The
