Her hands tightened around the bucket handle.
“Where you think you’re goin’, girl?” Kane said.
Rachel froze halfway between the stalls, a bucket of water sloshing in her hands. The air smelled of hay and horses, the afternoon sun cutting golden stripes through the gaps in the barn wall.
“I was just feeding the mare,” Rachel replied.
Kane stepped out from the shadows by the tack room door. His fine coat looked too nice for the dust, and his boots were polished like he’d just come from church.
“You always take this long feedin’ a horse?”
Rachel set the bucket down carefully. “I was just thinking about Blaze.”
The man smiled, but there wasn’t an ounce of kindness in it. “Blaze. Always talkin’ about that boy like he’s comin’ back through that gate tomorrow.”
“He will,” Rachel said. “Soon as he finds Wilder.”
Kane chuckled low. “That so? You got a lotta faith for a girl who’s livin’ off favors.”
Rachel’s stomach knotted. “Blaze said you’d look after us. That’s what you promised.”
“I did,” Kane said. “And I been keepin’ that promise. Roof over your head, food in the pantry, horse feed in the stalls. But promises, sweetheart, they cost money. Money’s runnin’ thin.”
Rachel straightened. “I’ve been helping as best I can.”
“Helpin’ don’t fill ledgers,” Kane said. “Now, I been thinkin’ of a way to ease both our troubles.”
“What kind of way?” she asked.
It felt like an eternity since Blaze left her under Kane’s care. Since then, everything had turned sour. Kane was not the same man as before. It was like something inside him had switched.
Kane stepped closer, his boots crunching the straw.
“There’s a rancher over in Carson Bluffs,” he said. “Man’s got more acres than he knows what to do with. Lonely sort, no wife, no children. Been sayin’ he could use company. He’s lookin’ for someone young, pretty, and polite.”
Rachel’s heart stuttered. “You mean...you want me to go work there?”
“Workain’t the word I’d use,” Kane replied, his yellow teeth showing through his smile. “He wants a girl to take care of him. Keep the house warm. Keep him warm.”
Rachel backed up until her shoulder hit the stall post. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m dead serious,” Kane said. “He’s willin’ to pay handsomely for a bride. And with your brother runnin’ wild and your mama gone, ain’t nobody left to speak for you. I figure I’ll take my cut for arrangin’ it.”
“You can’t sell me,” Rachel replied.
“I can do whatever needs doin’ to keep this place runnin’,” Kane said. “And don’t fool yourself, girl. Your daddy would have done the same if it meant keepin’ food on the table.”
“That’s a lie,” Rachel said. “My father wasn’t like you.”
Kane’s eyes glinted. “Wasn’t he, now?”
“He was a good man,” she insisted.
“Good?” Kane stepped closer still, the smell of whiskey heavy on his breath. “You think a good man leaves his family broke? You think a good man dies with blood on his hands and stolen gold to his name?”
“What did you just say?”
Kane smirked. “Oh, he didn’t tell you? Course not. Your ma probably tried to wash it away...pretend he was some hero. But I was there, Rachel. I rode with him. Your pa stole that gold.”
