Where the Heart Leads

  Where the Heart Leads

  By Jillian Hart

  Copyright 2015 by Jill Strickler

  http://jillianhart.net

  Cover Design by The Killion Group

  http://hotdamndesigns.com

  E-book Formatted by Jessica Lewis, Authors’ Life Saver

  http://authorslifesaver.com

  Editing by Jena O’Connor, Practical Proofing

  http://practicalproofing.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to your online retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Bluebell, Montana Territory, Spring 1877

  “Have you told Aumaleigh?” Verbena asked the minute their aunt left the room.

  “Told Aumaleigh what?” Magnolia hefted her end of the curtain rod as she balanced precariously on a chair.

  “About Gabriel coming to my wedding.” Rose went up on tiptoe, feeling the chair beneath her toes wobble unsteadily. They should have waited until Oscar came with the ladder, but she didn’t want him climbing with his leg still healing. “Honestly, I haven’t known how to tell her.”

  “I’ll do it.” Daisy shook out the freshly made curtains. Ruffles fluttered as she worked them onto the curtain rod. “I’ll just pull her aside and tell her.”

  “As gently as possible.” Iris fussed with a set of newly hung curtains, trying to get them to gather just right. “Maybe I should be the one.”

  “Are you saying I can’t be gentle?” Daisy’s mouth twitched in the corners.

  “I’m saying I could be gentler.” Iris teased. She smiled so easily these days now that she wore the sheriff’s engagement ring. He’d surprised her with it a few days after his proposal.

  “Maybe we should all tell Aumaleigh,” Rose suggested, setting the curtain rod into its wooden bracket.

  “Tell me what?” Their aunt’s voice echoed across the charming parlor of her new two-story log house. She arched a slender eyebrow. “What is with you girls! You’ve all gone pale. What is going on?”

  “Nothing.” Rose eased down from the chair. She really didn’t want to upset her dear aunt, not today, her moving in day. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Yes, no worrying, that’s right.” Magnolia leaped down from the chair. “We need to be talking about exciting things. Like where to put the sofa. Look, there’s Oscar with a wagonload right now.”

  “Aumaleigh.” Daisy accidentally dropped the curtain rod and stooped to pick it up. “Where do you want the furniture? This is such a spacious room, you could do so much with it.”

  They didn’t give her much time to answer. Not at all. Iris rushed in with an opinion. “I’d want to look out these windows at this view.”

  She seemed eager to direct the conversation away from whatever the five of them had been talking about.

  Those girls. Aumaleigh shook her head. They were up to something, and you never knew what. “Fine, I won’t ask what you’re keeping from me, but I have a long memory. I won’t forget. I will get it out of you eventually.”

  “Why are you looking at me?” Magnolia asked innocently.

  “Because you’re the weakest link in the chain.” Verbena finished dusting the window sill. “Our aunt knows you’re the one who will buckle under pressure.”

  “I’d like to deny it, but I can’t. It’s true.” Magnolia shrugged. “How do the curtains look? Are they straight? Oh, Oscar and Beckett are carrying something heavy. Open the door, Iris!”

  “You’re closer to the door, Magnolia.”

  “Yes, but I’m fixing the curtains. Are you sure you measured right, Rose?”

  “Me? Maybe it’s you that did the measuring.”

  Life was never dull when they were around. Aumaleigh laughed, shaking her head at her nieces. “I’ll get the door. Goodness, Beckett. You men are doing too much. That must be heavy.”

  “Not for us.” Her capable ranch foreman lumbered through the door, hauling her heavy carved oak headboard. “Where do you want this?”

  “Upstairs, first door on your right.”

  “Your wish is my command.” Beckett winked as he headed toward Daisy instead of the staircase. The two took a moment, leaning toward each other. Their voices dipped low, keeping their words just between the two of them.

  Oh, it was good to see them so happy. Aumaleigh turned her attention to the other man hauling her furniture around. She held open the door for him and breathed in the fresh spring air. “Oscar, you are doing too much.”

  “My leg’s better, Ma’am. I’m fine.” Polite as always, Oscar Holloway crossed the threshold, balancing the bed rails and slats on his shoulder. “Whew, this is sure a nice place. Bet it’ll feel like home in no time.”

  “It already does.” She shared a smile with the young man and closed the door.

  As he ambled away, she realized she was proud of how her nieces had hired him on to help both at home and in the bakery. Nor had she regretted for a moment asking Oscar to move into the ranch’s bunkhouse. He insisted on doing work around the ranch to earn his room and board.

  When his leg was fully healed, she was going to miss him. He was a logger in the forests up north. Surely he would be returning to that well-paying work.

  “Verbena, guess what I see.” Magnolia waggled her brows as she adjusted her chair in front of the last curtain-less window. “Your handsome husband is here.”

  “Already?” Verbena glanced at the little mantel clock ticking away above the fireplace. “Well, I guess the afternoon is nearly gone. Aumaleigh, I’m sorry I didn’t help more.”

  “What are you talking about? You’ve been wonderful.” She wrapped an arm around her youngest niece, so full of happiness for her that she could burst. Verbena was still battling morning sickness, but in the afternoons she had a rosy glow. “You need to head home and take it easy. I won’t let you do too much. You have your growing baby to think about.”

  “I know.” Verbena beamed with joy. Her hand landed on her still flat stomach. “But it’s hard to leave. We’re having such fun.”

  “Here, put on your coat.” Taking charge, Aumaleigh grabbed the garment from the hook by the door and helped her niece into it. “You need a nap.”

  “A nap would be good. I get so tired these days.” Verbena hid a yawn behind her hand.

  Zane open
ed the door, an impressive, brawny man who looked tough enough to bend steel with his bare hands. But when he gazed at his beloved wife, he went soft inside. You could just see it. His Verbena meant everything to him.

  “Looks like you’re settling in.” Zane slipped an arm around his pregnant wife. “Are you sure I can’t help out around here?”

  “No, we have it under control,” she assured him. “Keeping track of the five McPhee sisters is a full time job. I don’t want to add any husbands to the task.”

  “Understood. I just wanted to offer one more time.” Zane tipped his hat, glancing around the room in a brief farewell before leading his wife away.

  “They are so sweet together,” Magnolia said, spying on them through the window.

  “Yes, he’s as tough as nails,” Iris agreed, “but achingly tender with our Verbena.”

  “Well, he better be,” Daisy went to the window to spy on the couple too. “Or he’ll answer to me.”

  “To the five of us,” Rose agreed.

  Aumaleigh couldn’t help stealing a peek out the window. Call her nosy. Verbena and Zane stood by their wagon, kissing. How sweet.

  “They make me miss my Tyler. It’s all that kissing. I wish he was here,” Magnolia sighed from atop the chair. “Rose, is the curtain rod in the bracket on your side?”

  “Yes. But yours isn’t. Will you stop watching the kissing?”

  “I can’t. That’s my favorite kind of kissing. True love kissing.”

  Aumaleigh opened the front door, sure her nieces could handle finish hanging the curtains. Their cheerful banter followed her onto the porch and into the fading sunshine. Clouds were moving it, swift and sure. She loved spring. The air was still a little crisp because of the snow on the nearby peaks. She savored the moment, this moving-in day. The start of her new life.

  The rattling of another wagon caught her attention. There, passing Verbena and Zane’s departing vehicle was a supply wagon heading her way. Funny, she didn’t remember ordering anything from town.

  “Hey, Aumaleigh!” Adam waved, drawing his draft horses to a stop in the road. “Looks like it’s moving day. How are you liking your house?”

  “I love it. I need to have you, Annie and Bea over to supper sometime soon.”

  “We would love that.” Adam, her nephew by marriage, touched the brim of his Stetson. “How about sometime after Rose’s wedding? It’s coming up fast.”

  “It is.” Aumaleigh wrapped her arms around her waist, shivering a bit in the house’s shadow. “Where are you headed with that delivery?”

  “The place just up the road. Your new neighbor. He got into town this morning and ordered a wagon full of furniture from over in Deer Springs. Nice stuff, too.” Adam slapped the reins, sending his horses forward. “I’ve got a second load to deliver for him after I get this one unpacked.”

  “It’s good for your business.”

  “That it is. See you, Aumaleigh.” His wagon rattled and rolled away, following the rutted road and rounding the corner.

  Cottonwoods rustled their green leaves, keeping her company as she stared down the empty road. Interesting about her neighbor. According to the latest rumors, he was some well-to-do gentleman from Ohio.

  Ohio. She winced. Did it have to be Ohio? She didn’t like to think about the years she’d lived in the southern part of that state. Well, that was water under the bridge. She shrugged, meaning to turn around when another wagon loaded down with furniture and men rolled in her direction.

  “Got your deliveries,” Burton called out from the front seat. He was the number one wrangler at the Rocking M ranch, which she owned and loved.

  “We couldn’t stop ourselves,” Kellan explained, hopping from the wagon seat the instant the horses stopped. “You can’t keep us cowboys from lending a hand. You’re good to us, Aumaleigh.”

  “You’re the best cowboys around.” She went out to meet them.

  “We can’t deny it.” Kellan joined the other cowboys climbing out of the wagon box. Shep, John, Pax and Tiernan all got busy opening the tailgate and uncovering the new furniture.

  Gratitude filled her right up. It was hard to believe she was standing in her own front yard, on the land she’d bought in the shadow of her adorable new home. She was surrounded by loved ones and friends, starting a new chapter in her life.

  “What are you doing outside?” Kellan hauled the end of an overstuffed chair from the wagon bed. “You aren’t thinking of trying to help move any of this stuff, are you?”

  “What if I am?”

  “Then I’m going to chase you back into that house, young lady.” Burton hopped to the ground, his eyes flashing with humor. “I’m not going to take any guff about this.”

  “Really? I’m the boss around here. You do what I say.”

  “You’re not the boss of everything.” Kellan winked on his way by, hefting the heavy chair as if it was as light as could be. “I mean it, Aumaleigh, back in the house.”

  “Yeah, let us do this for you.” Burton tossed a rolled up area rug over his shoulder. “If you don’t, we might hogtie you and do it anyway.”

  “Yeah, we’re cowboys on a mission,” Shep added, carting a crate toward the door. “You know us.”

  “We don’t stop until our job is done, come heck or high water.” Tiernan grabbed another crate and followed the other cowboys in.

  “C’mon, Aumaleigh.” Pax wrapped his arms around the matching, overstuffed ottoman. “You need to tell those knuckleheads where to put everything. You can’t leave them to their own devices.”

  “You’re wise, Pax.” A gust of wind blew over her, and she shivered. The sun was edging downward toward the craggy peaks of the Rockies. The afternoon was nearing an end. “I’m coming, and don’t worry, I won’t touch a thing.”

  “Okay, but I’m trusting you. The boys will never let me live it down if you start carrying this heavy stuff.” Pax clomped up the stairs and crossed the porch. The girls inside called out to him, and he answered, stepping into the house.

  She didn’t know what made her stay in the cool air alone in the yard. Maybe it was simply nice to catch a breath of fresh air, or to stop moving after a day of constant demands. Moving day was fun, but it was also a lot of work. Or maybe it just gave her a warm-in-the-heart feeling watching her nieces through the lamp-lit window talking and laughing and fussing over the last curtain.

  They were so amusing, the five of them. Iris, the oldest, shook her head, apparently deciding the curtain ties were all wrong. Her strawberry blond hair, sweet oval face and gentle beauty made her stunning as she nudged fun-loving Magnolia out of the way to retie the sash.

  Magnolia pushed a lock of gold hair out of her eyes and slipped an arm around Rose. The two sisters leaned into each other as sensible Daisy moved in to apparently give her opinion on the best way to tie back a curtain.

  Adorable. Her heart filled up with love. The rattle of an approaching vehicle echoed through the yard. Probably Adam on his return trip from delivering the furniture. But it wasn’t his big draft horses that rounded the corner.

  She didn’t recognize the matched, jet-black team as they moved through the shadows of the cottonwoods. With their finely carved faces and heads held high, they moved like poetry down the country road. The instant they pranced into the light, the sun glossed their coats and they shone with rare beauty.

  She breathed out a sigh of admiration, even as her chest constricted. There was something that troubled her, that reached in and grabbed deep.

  The driver in the buckboard remained in the shadows—nothing but a vague impression—and yet she couldn’t fight the feeling that she knew him. How strange was that?

  Then her breath caught, because the buckboard and driver emerged into the sunlight.

  She blinked, sure it was a hallucination. But no, she wasn’t that lucky. There he was, there, real flesh and blood and not make believe, tipping his wide-brimmed hat to her.

  Gabriel. Gabriel Daniels. Her knees buckled and she gr
abbed the side of the cowboys’ wagon for support. Maybe if she was lucky, her old flame would keep going, just drive on by and leave her be. What was Gabriel doing here in Bluebell?

  And worse, why was he pulling his horses to a stop?

  “‘Afternoon.” The familiar notes of his voice washed over her, stirring up dreams best left buried. “How are you, Aumaleigh?”

  “F-fine.” Which was a complete and total lie, a fabrication she would cling to with her last breath. The sun slipped behind a cloud. It felt like the whole world went to shadows. “How are you?”

  “Passable.” His gray gaze met hers without a wince of guilt. “You must be as happy as I am about tomorrow’s wedding.”

  “Overjoyed.” Of course. He must be in town for the wedding. She rolled her eyes. “My lovely niece didn’t mention you would be attending.”

  “It was the least I could do, since I was invited.” He sat there with his wide shoulders and mature handsomeness and just the right amount of amazing.

  It was infuriating! The very least he could do was to stay away. He’d smashed her young heart to smithereens, which obviously was a fact he’d conveniently forgotten over the decades. She squinted at him. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting out of my buckboard so I can lend a hand. You appear to be moving in.”

  “I don’t want your help.” There, she’d said it. Perhaps she sounded rude, but she didn’t care. Seeing him, talking to him—it hurt. “Get in your buckboard and head back the way you came. You took a wrong turn at the fork in the road. Josslyn’s place is to the left.”

  “Is that right?” Ignoring her orders, he ambled over in his self-assured way, more handsome than a man in middle age had the right to be. He brushed by her, and his nearness rippled through her like rings in a pond, radiating straight to her soul.

  There was a time when he’d been her other half. Her perfect match. The man she would have given her life for.