The Heart's Frontier (24 page)

In light of her recent realization, Emma couldn’t bring herself to look directly at Luke, but she tensed, waiting for his response.

“Dirt is a poor seasoning,”
Maummi
commented mildly as she layered a stack of hotcakes onto a plate.

Every eye was fixed on Luke. He opened his mouth, but his response was preempted by Jesse, who had shoveled in a forkful of hotcakes. “Mm-mmm! You gotta try these, Luke. You never tasted hotcakes like these.” Cheeks bulging, he chewed with happy abandon.

Emma held a loaded plate in her hands. She shoved it toward Rebecca with a whispered, “Take this to Luke, quick.”

Rebecca did, delivering the plate with a curtsey. Looking a little sheepish, Luke sliced off a bite and shoved it in his mouth. His expression transformed to one of bliss.

“Have you tried this?” he demanded of McCann when he had relished the bite and swallowed.

McCann drew himself stiffly upright, sputtering. “Don’t make no difference what—”

“Hey, give me some.” Charlie approached Emma, his expression eager. “The front of my stomach’s gnawing on the back, it’s so empty.”

Emma ladled a heaping portion of sweet, thick apples over a stack of cakes and handed it to him. He shoved a steaming bite into his mouth and then went into ecstasies of delight.

“Them’s the best hotcakes I ever ate, ma’am.” He ducked his head toward
Maummi
before taking his plate to a spot near the wagon and sinking to the ground to enjoy his breakfast.

“I’m up for more.” Jesse half turned in his chair to hold his empty plate out in an appeal. “I need my strength to rebuild this bone, you know.”

McCann glowered all around as the rest of the crew settled into their breakfast. Emma speared a few chunks of bacon out of the pan to finish off a cake-filled plate and took it to him. She offered it with a quick smile.

“Humph.” He grumbled as he took it and turned away from the fire to try the first bite.

Maummi
flipped another hotcake on the griddle and pretended not to watch for his reaction. Emma couldn’t be so nonchalant. She saw his expression change from angry to skeptical, and then relax into amazement as he chewed. By the time he swallowed, she knew he’d been won over. And no wonder.
Maummi
wasn’t known as the best cook in Apple Grove for nothing.

“Hey, what about us?” The shout came from one of the rustlers tied up in the middle of the clearing. “You gonna let us starve while you stand there shoveling food in your faces?”

“Shut up,” Jesse said. “You’re lucky I don’t blow your Adam’s apple out of your throat.”

Papa, who had been standing quietly off to the side, took a step toward Luke. “An Amish proverb teaches ‘Be kind to unkind people. They probably need kindness the most
.’”

Spouting proverbs was
Maummi
’s exclusive domain. Papa rarely weighed in with a wise saying from the deep store that had instructed him his whole life. That he did so now spoke to the strength of his convictions in this situation. Though Emma knew full well he condemned the rustlers’ actions, his compassion for them overrode his condemnation. The Lord would have them feed the hungry, regardless of their sins. Love for her father washed over her like a strong, refreshing breeze on a hot summer day. She caught her breath, waiting for Luke’s response.

His gaze sought hers. “What do you think, Emma?”

He was deferring to her opinion? These were the men who had kidnapped her, and before that they had stolen her family’s belongings. But she could only spare thoughts for Luke. He sought her opinion. Warmth spread through her stomach, and looking away felt like ripping her eyes out of their sockets. But she managed to nod and focus on the task at hand, filling two plates with food.

“Untie one hand each,” Luke told Charlie. “We’re not the barbarians they are.” Then he pointed a fork at Jesse. “But watch them while they eat. If they make a move, you know what to do.”

Jesse grinned and patted the pistol that rested in his lap. “Oh, yeah.”

When Emma had handed two full plates to Charlie for delivery to their prisoners, McCann sidled up to the fire where
Maummi
stood, an empty plate in his hand. He shuffled his feet and blustered for a moment before he managed to speak.

“I don’t like people going through my things.” His voice growled. “But those
were
the best hotcakes I ever ate. And I don’t know what you did to those apples on top, but I could eat a whole pot of ’em by themselves.”

Maummi
busied her hands with pulling the hot griddle off the coals and setting it aside to cool. “That’s a nice griddle,” she admitted, nodding toward it. “A good cook arms himself with good tools.”

Emma nearly choked. That was as close to a compliment as
Maummi
was likely to give.

McCann cleared his throat. “We’re going to be pushing hard today. By the time we stop tonight, the men are liable to have a roaring appetite. I’d appreciate a hand rustling up the evening meal, if you’ve a mind.”

She cast a narrow-eyed sideways look up at him. “Too many cooks in a kitchen step on each other’s toes.”

For a moment, Emma thought she’d pushed him too far. He drew himself upright, glanced down at the steaming pot of stewed apples, and then let out a breath. “Then it’s a good thing we have the whole outdoors to cook in. Plenty of space for both of us.”

A smile twitched
Maummi
’s lips as she scraped the scraps from the skillet. She gave a curt nod. “A good thing indeed.”

Emma released her breath. A compromise reached, and a hesitant partnership formed. She found herself looking forward to whatever concoction the two of them paired up to create this evening.

As the men scraped their plates clean, Luke sidled up to the fire to stand beside her. “Are you and your sister planning to lend a hand with the herd today?”

She concentrated on her empty plate. Better to avoid eye contact than to turn an embarrassingly adoring gaze on him. “Do you need us?”

“It’s going to be a hard day.” His answer was vague, as though he didn’t want to impose.

Charlie approached to hand her his empty plate, and she smiled her thanks to him. When she turned from setting it in the dishpan near her feet, Luke grabbed her hand, forcing her to look up at him.

“I need you,” he said, his voice low and insistent.

A storm erupted inside her rib cage. From the delving gaze that bore into hers, she knew he referred to more than his need for another cowhand for his expanded herd. Somewhere behind her, she was aware that Papa watched, his stare a weight that dragged her soaring heart back to the ground.

She snatched her hand away and busied herself with the dishes. “If you need us, Luke, then of course we will help.”

He didn’t move but stood silently beside her, watching her work. Maybe he was listening to the thudding of her heart, which pounded in her ears like Indian war drums. He stood so close she could smell the earthy scent that clung to him, and the memory of his hands at her waist as he lifted her onto Papa’s horse snatched at her breath.

After an eternity he moved away, leaving the air around her somehow colder.

When he spoke again, his voice projected to everyone in the area. “We’ve expanded our herd by almost a third, and we’re behind schedule. I figure if we push them hard until midday and then stop for a rest, we’ll be able to go on tonight until after sundown. What do you think, Griff?”

Emma glanced toward the old cowhand, who had seated himself against a wagon wheel and was taking his time polishing off his breakfast. “If we call a stop near a good watering hole, they’ll do fine.”

“That ought to put us in Hays tomorrow afternoon. If all goes well we won’t miss the train.”

If all goes well
. Buried in those words Emma heard a lot of doubt, a lot of worry. Luke’s reputation as a trail boss rested on their ability to get this herd there on time. In fact, if he showed up with seven hundred more cows than he started with, and a couple of rustlers in the bargain, surely that would look good. He would have no problems getting more jobs as a trail boss.
If he misses that train, though...
Emma refused to let herself complete the thought, but it danced a tantalizing jig in her mind.

Surely life as an Amish farmer was better than life as an unemployed cowboy.

“All right, then,” Luke said. “Vic will wrangle the remuda
. Morris and Rebecca will ride flank on that side”—he pointed east—“with Griff and Emma opposite.” He speared Charlie and Papa with a sympathetic grimace. “That makes you two the drag riders.”

“What about me? A day and a night is plenty of time to rest this leg.” Jesse made as though to get up from the chair, his face a mask of ill-concealed pain. “Bring my horse alongside the wagon so’s I can get on him.”

Maummi
stiffened, her eyes throwing darts across the camp. Before she could speak, though, Luke answered.

“You’re not riding anything but that wagon until the doctor in Hays checks you out. But you have an important job making sure those two don’t cause any trouble today.” He jerked his head toward their prisoners. “If they try anything, you don’t need a good leg to fire a gun.”

Appeased, Jesse fixed his charges with a cold smile and patted the pistol in his lap.

Luke took a final look around. “Let’s break camp and get at it.”

His words spurred everyone into action. The men began readying the wagons to leave. Griff, empty plate in hand, swung wide so his path would take him by the fire, where
Maummi
crouched beside the long iron griddle, scraping it clean.

“Ma’am, that was the best meal I’ve had in years. Maybe ever.”

Maummi
inclined her head like a queen accepting her due. “
Danki
.”

Griff didn’t move on. Instead, he shuffled his weight from one foot to the next and glanced around the area. His gaze settled on Emma for a moment, the only person close enough to hear his words.

He cleared his throat and watched the coals in the cook fire as he spoke. “Ma’am, I’ve spent almost twenty years in the saddle. I figure I’ve got a few good ones left in me, but a man can’t run cattle forever. Someday he has to hang up his spurs.”

Emma couldn’t agree more. She hoped Luke didn’t want to stretch his trail driving days out for twenty years.

Stooping on the ground beside the fire,
Maummi
turned her head to look up at him sideways, the creases between her eyes clearly urging him to get to the point and let her get on with her work.

Griff cleared his throat again. “And when he does, it sure does help if he has a good woman waiting for him at home. Now, I never had time for a wife, but if I quit the trail, I’d want to find me a woman with some spunk in her. One who speaks her piece.” He toed a good-sized rock into the fire, his gaze fixed on his boot. “One who can cook.”

His meaning stole across Emma, leaving her numb. No, surely she was mistaken. Was Griff asking to
court
her grandmother? But,
Maummi
was sixty years old! Of course, Griff was probably close to the same age.

“Anyway, I do have a few good years left in me,” he repeated. “Something for you to think about.”

With an awkward movement, he thrust his fork and empty plate toward Emma and then strode away quickly, like a man bent on escape. Still crouching on the ground,
Maummi
’s mouth gaped open as she stared after him.

It was the first time in her life Emma could remember seeing her grandmother rendered speechless.