The Heart's Frontier (26 page)

Maummi
paused in the act of stepping to the ground, her hand on Emma’s shoulder. She spoke calmly to Lester.
“Die Ruchlosen verachten Weisheit und Zucht.”

“Did you hear that?” Lester’s shout toward McCann held a touch of desperation. “She never dries up! I don’t even know what that means.”

Rebecca arrived, reining her horse to a stop and swinging to the ground with ease. “I can tell you. I hear it all the time. It means only fools hate wisdom and instruction. It’s from
Die Bibel
.”

“She’s calling me a fool?”

Jesse growled. “You
are
a fool. Now have some respect and shut your piehole before I shut it for you.”

Vic rode up then and took charge of Emma’s and Rebecca’s horses. He would switch their saddles to fresh mounts before the afternoon march began. McCann put out the fresh water barrel, and the girls quenched their parched throats with a lukewarm drink. At least it was wet.

When Emma finished wiping her hot face with a dampened edge of her apron—which was in a shocking state but better than nothing—Luke approached from the direction of the remuda
, Papa by his side
. He walked up to Emma, his smile as refreshing as a cooling rain.

“Ready?”

Rebecca lowered her cup from wet lips. “Ready for what?”

The answer fluttered in Emma’s throat, and she found she couldn’t look Luke in the face without giving in to a flush that hovered in the vicinity of her collarbone. “Luke has agreed to teach me how to throw a rope.” She glanced at Papa. “If it’s okay.”

Rebecca rose up on her toes and bounced. “I want to learn too. Papa, can I?”

The scrutiny of Papa’s gaze made Emma want to look away. Instead, she straightened her shoulders and stared calmly back at him, careful to keep her gaze clear of guile.

He gave the barest of nods. “Perhaps I may learn as well.”

Luke cast a quick glance at her, and she saw understanding in his gaze. He’d reached the same conclusion as she. They both had hoped for time alone. Papa didn’t care a thing about learning to lasso a cow. He merely wanted to stay close while his daughter was in the company of an oh-so-appealing
Englisch
cowboy.

Feeling a tiny bit thwarted, Emma managed a small smile. This was the very reason Amish youth kept their romantic intentions to themselves.

“All right, then.” If Luke’s smile looked a little insincere, at least he covered it with an enthusiastic tone. “Let’s go to the other side of the wagon, where there’s a couple of good-sized stumps we can practice on.” He turned his head and raised his voice to be heard by those in the vicinity. “Anybody have a lariat we can borrow? We’re going to do a little practicing.”

“This I gotta see.” Jesse’s voice from the back of the wagon hinted skepticism.

Griff approached Emma with a grin and a coiled length of rope. “Show ’em what you can do, gal.”

He crossed over to the wagon, sat, and pushed his hat back off his forehead, looking as though he was waiting for a show to start. Others did the same, and before long everyone in the vicinity was scattered around the area, their gazes trained on the roping lesson. The flutter in Emma’s stomach erupted into full-blown nerves. This was not how she’d envisioned her personal lesson with Luke progressing.

When Papa and Rebecca both held borrowed ropes as well, Luke walked them a little ways off. The area was free of trees, though several dead stumps rose out of the sagebrush-covered ground, as though a storm had sheared a thicket in years past. Luke took up the end of his coiled rope and held it up. The end formed a ring.

“This is called the honda,” he explained. “Uncoil a few feet of rope and slip it through the honda to form a loop, like this.”

Emma mimicked his actions and adjusted her loop until it was the same size as Luke’s. It looked like a giant noose. Beside her, Rebecca and Papa did likewise.

Luke eyed all three and nodded. “Good. Now, leave yourself a few feet of free rope. You’ll need it when you start swinging. What you’re going to do is swing the lariat over your head a few times until you get a good feel for the rope and where it’s going.”

He demonstrated as he spoke. He raised the loop above his head and swung it around from right to left, the other hand holding several feet of loose rope and the coils looped over his arm. “Keep your wrist loose and let it do the work. It should swing like a wheel going around and around above your head.”

The loop grew larger as he swung, and it opened up, like a wide, yawning mouth.

“It’s taking a long time,” said Rebecca. “If you were doing this for real, hasn’t the cow already run away by now?”

Someone behind them snorted, and Luke grinned. “Once you get the feel for your rope, you won’t have to swing it so much. But for now we’re taking our time, making sure we have control.” The lariat continued to circle above his head as he spoke. “Don’t forget to keep an eye on your target. I’m looking at the stump on your right. When you’re ready—”

He took a quick step forward and released the rope. The loop sailed through the air without losing its circular form, pulling a couple of coils of rope off his arm like a tail, and landed neatly around the gnarly stump. He stepped back and pulled the rope. The noose tightened around the stump with a snap.

Applause and cheers broke out from their audience.

“Not bad, Luke,” Jesse called. “Maybe you could get a job as a cattle wrangler someday.”

The jab was met with good-natured laughter. Emma tried to ignore their audience, which had grown to include almost the entire outfit. Was she about to make a fool of herself again? Well, if she did, at least she’d have Rebecca and Papa as fellow buffoons this time.

“All right, who wants to go first?” Luke looked directly at her, but Papa stepped forward.

“I will.”

“Fine.” Luke gestured for Emma and Rebecca to step back. “Give him some room, ladies. Okay, Jonas, now grab the loop about a foot or so away from the honda. Give yourself plenty of loose rope in the other hand. Looks good.” Luke backed away. “Start swinging.”

Papa raised his hand, and the noose began to circle in the air above his head. Within a few swings it opened up like Luke’s.

“Good job, Jonas.” A note of surprise filled Luke’s voice. “Now get the feel of the rope and let it swing until you’re—”

Before he finished speaking, Papa let loose his rope. The loop sailed through the air and landed half-on and half-off the stump. He gave the excess a jerk, and the noose tightened and held.

“Papa, you lassoed a stump!” Rebecca’s squeal joined the applause of the group behind them while Luke stared.

He recovered himself. “You’ve done this before, haven’t you, Jonas?”

Recoiling the rope carefully around his arm, Papa lifted a shoulder. “Once or twice.”

“Uh-huh.” After a slap on the back, Luke pointed. “You can go over there and pick another stump to practice on. This one is for beginners.”

Papa stepped back but didn’t move away. Apparently he wasn’t about to let the lesson continue without his watchful eye.

“Who’s next?”

Luke glanced at Emma, but before she could speak Rebecca ran forward to take the spot Papa had vacated.

“I am. Show me one more time.”

Under the guise of watching the lesson, Emma was free to stare at Luke all she wanted. He’d taken off his hat, and the breeze ruffled through the waves of his hair. The sun had tanned his skin to a warm shade that made his dark eyes stand out. When he raised his arm above his head to demonstrate, the fabric of his shirt stretched across muscles strengthened from years of hard work on the trail. And his hands, the very ones that had circled her waist—

With a start, Emma jerked her mind away from that trail. Perhaps there was nothing wrong in looking, but the Lord surely wouldn’t approve of thoughts that lingered on touching.

“Good, Rebecca.” He took a step backward to give her room. “Now swing the loop above your head, right to left.”

Rebecca raised her arm and swung, with little effect. Instead of rising into the air, the limp rope circled her body. Frustrated, she dropped her arm to her side with a slap against her leg. “I think this one is broken.”

A guffaw sounded from the direction of their wagon. Jesse.

Luke ignored him. “It’s fine. You just need to put a little more energy into it. Swing harder.”

A sigh came from her lips as she reset her stance and tried again. At first the loop behaved the same, but at Luke’s urging Rebecca increased the speed of her arm. Slowly, the loop opened. Not a perfect circle, as Papa’s had been, but it was at least recognizable as a lariat.

“You’re doing great.” Luke’s approval brought a quick smile to Rebecca’s face, which immediately returned to an expression of fierce concentration as the lariat swung round and round above her head.

His words kindled a fierce desire in Emma to hear the same encouragement. She watched her sister, noting the placement of her feet and the speed of her swing.

“Move your arm a tiny bit and feel the rope react.”

“I feel it.” Rebecca’s head faced toward the stump, but her eyes turned upward and circled with the rope.

“Focus on your target,” Luke said. “When you’re ready, release the noose as it swings forward. Drop your wrist down and then let your palm swing open.”

She did so, and the noose went flying through the air. It hit the ground at least ten feet short of the stump.

Rebecca’s lower lip protruded. “I missed.”

“But that was a good try!” No one could doubt the sincere enthusiasm of Luke’s praise. “That’s one of the best first throws I’ve ever seen. It took Jesse a week to get that close to the target when he was learning.”

“Hey!” Jesse yelled, protesting from his chair. “I was six years old.”

“Yeah?” Charlie’s shout was tinged with laughter. “So what’s your excuse for missing that calf last week?”

Several others joined in the teasing.

Jesse took the ribbing with good humor. “You wait till this leg of mine heals. Then we’ll see who can out-rope any man in this outfit.”

Nerves skipped across Emma’s muscles, leaving them tense and her stomach uneasy. She watched closely as Rebecca threw four more times, each time her aim improving and her rope coming closer to her target. Her sister had always been the more active of the two, even besting boys in games and races. What if Emma couldn’t manage to do as well? Her little sister would show her up in front of Luke and everyone else.

After a few tries, Luke said, “You’re trained, Rebecca. All you need is practice. Go on over there and pick out a stump of your own.”

When she ran off with the coiled rope draped over her arm, he raised his eyes to Emma. “Your turn.”

She couldn’t manage to force a sound out of her tight throat, so she nodded. Feet dragging in the dust, she made her way to stand in the place her sister and father had taken. This was supposed to be fun, wasn’t it? Why did her stomach churn as though she might be sick?

Luke’s smile calmed her nerves a bit. She managed to return it as she positioned herself the way the others had.

He examined her stance. “Place your feet a little farther apart, about the width of your shoulders, and one slightly in front of the other.” His hands on her arms as he positioned her sent her nerves dancing again. She ignored them and tried to concentrate on following directions.

“You have your noose, right?”

Swallowing, she nodded and held it up for inspection.

“Hold it right about here.”

He slid her right hand into position. The shock of the skin-on-skin contact almost made her drop the rope, and she found she couldn’t quite look him in the eye. Did he feel that too?

“Good. Now, let out about six feet of rope off the coil. For a reference, that’s about how tall I am.”

Though he no doubt meant to be helpful, her thoughts were momentarily pulled off task as she took in his height. Standing next to him like this, the top of her head came at nose level to him.

Focus, Emma!

“That’s right. You’re ready to start swinging.”

When he’d stepped back, she raised her arm and swung the rope. “Like this?”