The Cattleman's Unsuitable Wife (Wells Cattle Company Book 1) by Pam Crooks

Author:Pam Crooks [Crooks, Pam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance, Women's Fiction, Victorian Era, 19th Century, Forever Love, Bachelor, Single Woman, Love Possibility, Frontier-Pioneer Era, Cowboy & Western Romance, Hearts Desire, American West, Clean & Wholesome, Christian Stories, Faith Based, Inspirational Reads, Love Inspired, Life-Changes, Second Chance Reunion, Honesty & Trust, Home & Family, Lifetime Love, Romantic Schemes, Love-Family & Forever, Action & Adventure, Small Town & Rural Area, Beautiful & Feisty, Wells Cattle Company Series, Animals-Horses & Cattle, Montana Territory
Publisher: Pam Crooks
Published: 2019-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Watching him, knowing how much it cost him, something went soft inside Zurina’s heart.

Trey showed some of the fairness Papa had always associated with him. As a cattleman, Trey had met her family halfway. He’d been willing to step through the door into the sheepman’s world.

But not too far.

She hid her amusement. It hadn’t been easy for him to eat the cheese. To drink the wine. Doing so had forced him to commit an act most cattlemen considered unspeakable.

But he’d done it. With only a slight bruising to his pride.

“My son is a good man, Mr. Wells.” Papa’s voice sounded strong in his conviction, and all eyes swung toward him, including Zurina’s. “Why he puts his name on the ransom note is a mystery to me.”

“To all of us,” Uncle Benat added.

“He claims to have the woman, Allethaire. If it is true, and we must believe it is so, I know in my heart he has good reason to have her,” Papa finished, looking somber.

“Can’t think of any reason that might be good, Gabirel.” Trey speared him with a hard glance. “Holding a defenseless woman against her will is wrong. Demanding money for her makes it worse. He’s paired up with Woodrow Baldwin, who’s rustling WCC cattle. And we can’t forget what Woodrow has done to your sheep.” Trey leaned back in his chair with the grimness of a judge who’d just pronounced a death sentence. “Both of them must be stopped.”

Zurina had never known her brother to act like this. Devious and calculated and greedy. Hearing Trey talk about him, as if he were a criminal of the worst kind, was like hearing about a complete stranger.

Mikolas was hurting and angry. She suspected he was feeling lost, too, his identity taken after he’d learned what Sutton Wells had done. If she had to make excuses for her brother, it would be those.

Yet they didn’t make what he’d done acceptable and right. For once, she had to agree with Trey. Mikolas had to be stopped.

“I’m here because I want him found.” Trey spoke each word in a clipped, tight voice, but Zurina heard the veiled plea in the words as well. “I’m hoping you can help.”

“We have been talking about that.” Deunoro nodded gravely.

“Helping you,” Uncle Benat clarified.

“We think we know how.”

Zurina’s glance swung to her father in surprise. “You do?”

“How?” Trey demanded.

“We have thought of one place he might be.” Looking grim, Papa rubbed his chin, as if even now he considered it a long shot.

“Where?” Zurina asked.

For days, weeks, she had wracked her brain thinking. She’d imagined herself in Mikolas’s body, feeling his feelings, what he might do, where he might go.

No one had seen him. No one had heard from him. She’d failed at every turn, and so had her father.

“Rogers Pass,” he said.

Slowly she straightened.

She’d not been there in years, not since she was a young girl. The last time had been terrible, so frightening, she shouldn’t have forgotten.

Rogers Pass. Rogers Pass.

Why hadn’t she thought of it before?

Why hadn’t anyone?

“It is a bad place for the Vascos,” Deunoro said sadly.

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