Page 19 of At Love’s Command

“I can be ready sooner, Captain. I—”

Matt raised a brow and toughened his tone. “A week, Wallace.” He’d not budge on this point. “Longer, if the doc thinks you need it.”

Wallace slumped a tad at the pronouncement but acquiesced with a nod.

“Now,” Matt said, reaching into his pocket for the scrap of paper he’d written his notes on during the wee hours of the morning, “I got a few job possibilities for us to vote on. We’ll be down one gun for a bit, but there’s one item in particular that seems geared to Wallace’s other talents.”

“You mean women.” Preach smirked.

Matt grinned. “Among other things.”

“What you got, boss?” Jonah leaned forward in his seat, neatly getting them back on topic and sparing Wallace from further ribbing.

Matt examined the three items on his list. “Kendall forwarded me a letter from a widow who can’t seem to hire any men to work her ranch. Ain’t a lot of cowpokes willing to take orders from a woman to start with, but after one of her men was threatened and bloodied by a group of masked thugs, no one’s even applied. She’s pretty sure the thugs work for her late husband’s rival, but with no proof, local law enforcement refuses to step in.”

Jonah let out a soft whistle. “None of her hired men stayed on after her man kicked the bucket? Don’t sound like there’s much respect for the widow, if’n that’s the case.”

Matt thought back to the letter he’d read that morning. “I think she’s still got her husband’s foreman sticking around, but the rest have scattered.”

“Hmm.” Preach leaned back in his chair and rubbed his jaw. “This foreman single?”

Matt shrugged. “Don’t know. Why?”

Instead of answering, Preach asked another question. “You know how the husband died, or how long ago?”

“Fella’s been gone three months, but her letter said nothing about how he died. What’re you thinking?”

“Just seems odd for men to abandon the brand they’d been riding for so easily. Jonah’s right. Something’s wrong there.”

Wallace sat up straighter, interest flaring in his eyes. “You don’t think the threat of violence explains the defection?”

“Maybe.” Luke crossed his ankle over his knee. “But most cowmen I know are tough. If one of their own got singled out for a beating, they’d retaliate in a group themselves, not pick up and leave. But if they didn’t respect the man or woman giving the orders . . .”

“But they’d been working for this foreman already,” Wallace insisted. “Wouldn’t that indicate trust and respect?”

Jonah tapped his thumb against the chair arm. “He coulda done something to break their trust.”

Wallace frowned. “Like what?”

Luke scratched at a spot behind his right ear. “Like murder their boss.”

“Whoa.” Matt shook his head. “That’s a big leap, Preach.”

Luke held out a hand. “Hear me out. What if this foreman’s been sweet on the cattleman’s wife and decided to rid himself of the competition? He takes out the owner, the wife inherits, he gets to run the ranch however he sees fit, and if he convinces her to marry him, he gets everything. Any hands who don’t like it can leave. Men loyal to the original owner and not the foreman would leave.”

Matt shook his head. “But why scare off new hands? And why ask for help from the Horsemen?” Preach’s story might be plausible, but it was too convoluted to be probable. Yet this was exactly why they discussed the jobs they took. Four different men with varied life experiences saw things from four different angles. Kept them out of trouble more often than not.

“What if scaring off the new hands was an accident?” Preach insisted, warming to his tale even more. It wouldn’t surprise Matt if his corporal took up writing dime novels someday. “Maybe one of the old hands threatened to take his suspicions to the sheriff. Foreman gets wind of it and hires a gang of masked bullies to rough him up and feed him a story about how anyone choosing to work for the widow would pay the price. It works too well. Word spreads, and no one wants to ride for the brand. As for her asking for our help, maybe the widow doesn’t see the foreman for the fiend he is. She’s seeking help because she believes the lies he’s been feeding her.”

“Well, if that’s the case,” Wallace said, “she needs our help more than ever! If this cad killed her husband, there’s no telling what he’ll do to her if she spurns his advances after all the trouble he went through to get her all to himself. I say we take the job.”

Matt grinned. Always the gallant gentleman riding in on the white horse to save the damsel. Though the kid did have a point. If Preach’s story held water. Matt wasn’t convinced it did.

“Or this could be exactly the situation she describes.” Matt injected some common sense into the conversation. “A cattleman is taking advantage of the widow of his rival and trying to run her into the ground financially so he can corner the local market.”

Jonah’s thumb ceased tapping. “I think we should scout it out before deciding one way or the other. Too many variables in play.”

Preach uncrossed his leg, his boot heel thumping against the floor. “Agreed.”