Background
After Luke found an Indian girl wandering in the wilderness near his cabin, he leaves goes to claim a mail order bride who never told him she had a little girl and was a fugitive from the law.
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There was a heavy air of silence on the buckboard of the wagon home. Anna, the little girl, was tucked between her mother and Luke. He had hard questions for Ruth, but every time words filled his thoughts, he held his tongue over her daughter's wide-eyed wonder on the open range.
The sky was a sea of blue with a morning sun on their backs. A flurry of yellow daises dotted the rustic landscape of rocks and rolling hills. If not for the riveting ride of the jutted trail, it would seem like a magical journey for the young daughter. Luke figured he'd wait until they made a bed beneath the stars before he'd quiz Ruth more. He could only imagine how little Anna must have harbored a Jaded view of the world after her mother fled the law when her husband died.
After several hours, Anna pointed to the snow-capped mountains like God's cathedrals spiraling into the heavens. She stood and pointed, "I see mountains, Momma! Look."
Ruth made her sit before she fell off the wagon. "Yes, and that is where Mr. Cole lives."
Luke grinned with his hands on the reins. "It's a might farther than it looks, but somewhere in there is the cabin."
Anna turned to Luke. "Momma said we would be safe in the mountains. She said no one can find us there."
Luke nodded, but he knew the town below his cabin, Silver Creek, and how they wag their tongues more than the telegraph wires sing. It seemed his simple life was getting more complicated by the hour. And then there was Aiyana the Indian maiden. Soon there will be more fugitives hiding from the world on his homestead.
As Luke plodded along on the trail, Anna nodded off and leaned her head into his ribs. One thing rested on his heart for sure. He didn't want to let this innocent child down, no matter what happened between him and Ruth. He didn't know if it was possible to work at loving someone. Somehow it didn't sit right with Luke anymore, having sent for a mail order bride.
By the time the sun splashed the mountains, he'd managed to get where a small creek trickled through the foothills. Jumping from the wagon, he spied a spring fed section of water near a grove of trees. It would be a good place to spend the night.
Luke stepped over to the wagon where Anna slept on her side from the long ordeal of a train ride and then the wagon trail. Ruth dutifully handed Luke some bladder skin pouches he had made himself. "It's getting dark. We'll settle in here for the night." Luke helped Ruth down from the wagon. "I've got some salted meat and beans to make a meal. Oats for breakfast too."
Ruth nodded. Together the pair made some pallets, and she hadn't bothered to wake Anna. They worked together to make a place for Anna to lay down near where you could hear the clear mountain water splash over rocks. The sky dimmed and revealed a clear sky marked by silvery stars.
Ruth excused herself and parted down near some gravel edge where she could freshen herself and sponged off with her hair pinned and a shirt tied to her mid drift. There in the twilight, she became a shadowy figure, a shapely one. Luke had to pry his eyes off her and turned his focus to Anna asleep in the buckboard.
Luke took and cradled Anna in his arms. Kneeling, he placed her on a soft pallet. Then he found some kindling and started a fire. As he looked for dead wood by the trees, Ruth appeared in the moonlight. "I made Anna a place by the fire and fixed her with a blanket to keep warm."
"Thanks so much." Ruth teased her hair. Luke figured her mind teased with thoughts on what to say. She had some serious explaining to do. Luke didn't like the idea of having to look over his shoulder on the way home.
After Luke gathered some broke branches for a robust fire, Ruth had already found some buffalo jerky. She handed a piece to Luke where he sat beside her while Anna slept.
Ruth's face glowed in the fire. She looked too soft and supple, not a woman prepared for a lawless homesteader's life. She turned her gaze from the fire. "I suppose I have some explaining to do."
Luke stirred the fire with a stick. "I reckon so. Try me."
"I want you to know, I'm thankful you didn't leave us stranded. I don't know what I would do if they took my child and put me behind bars. It makes my stomach churn with a foul taste."
Luke took a bite of his jerky. "Did you mean anything you said in those letters or was it all just a sack of lies."
"My correspondence with you, a chance at a new life for myself and my daughter was what gave me hope. I...I dreamed of being out here, a brand-new life. I...I fell in love with your eyes. Kind eyes. I knew I could trust you, a man of compassion. And now...now that I see your amber eyes, I have no doubt."
"This was more than I bargained for...not to mention looking over my shoulder. If they believe you murdered your husband back east, they won't just write you off."
Luke watched the lines of her forehead deepen in the firelight. "You believe they will come this far west?"
"Pinkerton detectives have been known to travel by horse or rail. They take pride to find someone all the way to hell if need be."
A heavy silence filled the air between them save for the snap and pop of the fire.
"Best we get some rest, Ma'am. We need to leave at the crack of dawn. Like I say, I make better time when I don't have to look over my shoulder. I'm not turning you in, but I'm not sure about our arrangement."
"I understand, Mr. Cole."
"Call me Luke. I think we can dispense with any formalities out here beneath this mighty big sky."
"I don't blame you, if you don't want this marriage. I don't blame you, if you don't trust me. You're a good man Luke Cole."
Luke pillared his head on a sack of oats and tipped his hat. "I wished people would stop thinking of me as some kind of angel. I didn't set out to fetch you because I needed a pair of wings. I do fine without them."
