8
Luke found the drive to the Circle B, besides bitingly cold, to be an awkward one. The cowhand who’d driven Judith out to the Lucky L had pulled far ahead. If Junior hadn’t been driving the sleigh, Luke and Judith would have been alone. She shivered beside him.
“Are you warm enough?” Luke put his arm around her.
“I am now.” She lifted her scarf-shrouded face to him. “New York winters can be bitter, and Marshall warned me Wyoming could be worse. I didn’t realize your winters came so early. It’s still technically the fall.”
“If it continues on this way, it could be the worst one we’ve had yet.”
For a second, Luke wished he could steal a kiss but pushed the thought aside. He recalled how recently he’d interrogated first Charles and then Marshal about courting his sisters. Well, Marshall had bypassed the courting bit and shown up at the Lucky L engaged. The sly dog.
“What is on your mind?” Judith asked. “You growled.”
Luke chuckled. “I’ve never been in a position to ask a man to court his sister before. I’m suddenly sympathizing with Charles’ position last summer.”
“Are you wishing you’d been kinder to him?” She snuggled a little closer.
“I wasn’t unkind, but at the time I was worried about Maude’s happiness. After all these years being out here alone with just myself and my ranch to worry about, suddenly having three sisters of marriageable age seemed a huge burden.”
“But you’re not sorry.”
“Never. From the day Maude was born, I wanted to be her protector. Her father didn’t take it well, as you can imagine. It was almost like he thought we were in competition for her love. I wonder now if that added to his resentment of me.”
“Had he shown signs of jealousy about your mother’s affection for you?”
“Yes. I was almost ten when Maude was born. Mother worried her new husband would send me off to boarding school, and she wasn’t ready to let me go. If he hadn’t loved her as much as he did, I’m sure he’d have sent me anyway. That was one thing I was sure of, his love for her.” Luke rubbed his chin. “Frances looks so much like her.”
“From what Doris has told me, he loved the three of them a great deal too. She and Maude have both remarked on how strange it is their father didn’t make better provisions for them upon his death. It was sudden, but it sounds as though he was a man who made plans for far into the future. As their only remaining parent, why would he not have anticipated the possibility he could die?”
“There’s a lot of truth in what you say. I admit I’ve let my own resentment of the man keep me from considering that too closely. Perhaps it’s been a mistake.”
They sat in silence for a while. It looked like Luke should have been paying more attention to many things, like the beautiful woman in his arms. How could love sneak up on a man like this? If someone had told him six months ago he’d come to have such strong emotions for her, he’d have called them a liar.
Luke’s mind drifted back to the first time he’d seen Judith. Marshall had just collected her from the train station, and she’d barely glanced around her. Dressed in her fancy gown with her coppery curls perfectly coifed, she’d been a sight to cause every man on the street to pause and take a look.
Then she’d taken her brother’s arm and walked stiffly with him to his surrey. At the time, Luke had thought her attitude showed her disdain of the little town and the people in it. She’d come across to him as one of those high-and-mighty ladies from back home, sure they were too good for people in the lowly working class.
But there was so much more to the woman. Doris had been the first one to see past the public mask Judith wore. Now that he’d gotten to understand her better, he saw her rigid posture on that first day for what it had been: protection. She’d expected the people of Lilac City to look down onher.
“You’re very different from how you first appeared,” Luke said.
“What do you mean?”
He described his first impressions, and she winced.
“How could you have any regard for me if that’s what you thought?” Judith tried to pull away.
“Because I’ve learned you’re not like that,” he said, keeping her close.
“But, in many ways, Iwaslike that,” Judith admitted.
“Then you’ve changed.”
“Some, but it’s still a struggle. The people back home had already pulled me from my high horse, as Frances is fond of saying.” A gust of wind blew the corner of her scarf. She grabbed it and settled it around her face again. “But I’m afraid I still find myself looking down on many of the people here.”
“Well, changing our beliefs can be hard.”
“Until a few months ago, I didn’t believe I needed it.”
