Rhonda Gibson - Taming the Texas Rancher

But as for loving her...

Daniel didn’t think he could lose another person he loved to ranch life. His sister, Gracie Joy, had been ten when she’d been killed. He tried not to relive that night, but the memories started flooding his mind and he couldn’t stop them.

Gracie Joy had loved the ranch and wanted a horse of her own. Because she’d had one leg shorter than the other since birth, their mother had insisted they get her a Shetland pony instead of a full-size mare. He’d tried to explain that Shetland ponies were often mean-spirited and had no sense of personal space, but his mother hadn’t listened.

The morning they’d gone to get the little Shetland, Gracie Joy had been thrilled, and rode with Daniel over to the Carlsons’ ranch to get him. She’d listened carefully how to care for the little horse, and had named him Lightning because of a white blaze that ran down his nose in a zigzag pattern. Mr. Carlson had laughed, and then explained that Lightning was afraid of storms.

After a week, Daniel began to doubt his own judgment of the pony. Lightning and Gracie Joy took to each other like kittens take to fresh milk.

And then it happened.

A storm blew in from the west. In his rush to get the newborn calves in out of the wet weather, Daniel and Levi had hurried to the pastures to gather them. Gracie Joy remembered that Mr. Carlson said Lightening was afraid of storms, and she’d sneaked out to the barn.

When Daniel and Levi returned, they’d found their little sister’s broken body inside Lightning’s stall. The doctor said it looked as if the little horse had kicked her in the head and then run over her chest in his hurry to get out of the barn. He said Gracie Joy probably never even felt the impact.

Daniel sighed. If he had been there, then Gracie Joy wouldn’t have gone to the stables. If he’d refused to get the Shetland as he’d first planned, she would still be alive.

A soft voice pulled him from the nightmare of memories. “Daniel, are you all right?”

He looked into Hannah Young’s heart-shaped face. Soft blue eyes studied him with concern. Daniel cleared his throat. “I’m fine.”

He released her hands and focused on guiding the horse to the house. If he lost his heart to Hannah, and she died, too, Daniel was sure he’d not survive. In desperation, he turned to the Lord. Father, I don’t know why You have allowed this woman to enter my life, but I will do my best to make her happy and keep her safe. But please don’t ask me to love her.

Chapter Four

Gravel crunched under the wagon’s wheels as Daniel pulled it up to the front porch. The sweet fragrance of roses drifted from the rosebushes beside the house. It teased Hannah’s nose as he set the break and hopped down.

She watched as a woman opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. She wore a peach-colored blouse and a tan riding skirt, and brown boots peeked out from under the hem. Her blond hair was pulled back in a braid that hung over her left shoulder. Hannah wondered if this was one of Daniel’s sisters. She had the same green eyes, the same nose.

Daniel jumped from the wagon and then turned to offer Hannah his hand. She studied his stormy eyes. No longer did they look pain filled and haunted.

She laid her hand in his. He helped her down and then turned her toward the woman. “Hannah Young, this is my mother, Bonnie Westland. Ma, Hannah is my mail-order bride.”

His mother?

The same shock that Hannah felt at discovering this was his mother filled Bonnie Westland’s voice. “Your mail-order bride?”

“Yes, ma’am. You said to get a wife. Here she is.” Daniel pulled Hannah’s bags from the wagon.

Hannah stepped forward and extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Westland.”

Bonnie took her hand and gave it a hard shake, then released it. “Same here.”

Hannah felt like a cow at auction as Daniel’s mother walked around her, studying her as if she were sizing her up before making an offer.

“What was wrong with JoAnna Crawford?” Bonnie asked Daniel, placing both hands on her hips and standing in a manner that indicated she expected an answer from her son, and fast.

Daniel stomped past them up onto the porch, his neck and cheeks bright red. “Ma, that girl doesn’t have the sense that God gave a goose.” With that he used his booted foot to push the door open, and then slipped inside.

Mrs. Westland took off after him. “I was talking to you, Daniel Westland. You get yourself back here.” She slammed the door behind her.

Hannah crossed her arms. She didn’t know whether to be insulted, annoyed or happy that they seemed to have forgotten all about her. Obviously, Bonnie Westland didn’t like the way her son had chosen a bride. Had Daniel realized his mother would be displeased?

“I see you’ve met Ma.”

She turned to find Levi approaching. His steps were long and even, as if he was never in a hurry to get anywhere. “I did.”

Levi laughed. “Ma doesn’t make a good first impression, but she’s as good as gold.”

A smile touched Hannah’s lips. “I’m sure she is. But she doesn’t seem too happy that Daniel sent for me when JoAnna Crawford is available.”

“I reckon she isn’t. Ma’s wanted him to take up with JoAnna ever since we were kids.” Levi walked to the horse and gave its harness a little tug. “Why don’t you come with me to the barn? We’ll let them hash that out before we go inside.”

That sounded fine by Hannah. She nodded and fell into step beside him. “Why didn’t Daniel want to marry JoAnna? It seems to me that would be easier than sending off for a mail-order bride.”

Levi looked over at her. “Probably for the same reason I won’t marry Lucille Lawson.” He kicked a stone and watched it skip across the ground.

When they got to the barn, Hannah knew he wasn’t going to elaborate without a little prodding. “And that would be because...”

“The girls around here are simpleminded and most of them are too young for us, anyway.” Levi’s face flushed the same shade of red that Daniel’s had a few minutes earlier. He hid his embarrassment by unhitching the wagon.

Hannah leaned against a stall door and inhaled the sweet fragrance of hay. A mama cat looked up from the corner of the barn, where three kittens nuzzled at her. Contentment could be found here on the Westland Ranch, if things were different.

The mama cat licked her babies’ faces.

When Hannah was a child she’d been content. Until the horse stepped on her ankle and shattered that contentment, along with the bones. She’d been saddling her horse to go for an afternoon ride when a snake spooked it and sent it sidestepping. Unfortunately for her, the animal had stepped on her ankle, shattering the bone. Hannah remembered the doctor and her parents whispering in the next room when she’d come to and the doctor telling her father that he should probably put her away. She wasn’t ranch life material anymore. Her world had changed that day. People’s behavior toward her changed.

Her father had no longer wanted his favorite child working beside him on the family farm. He’d swiftly made the decision she was a cripple and not good for farming. Horses were to be kept far away from her, and as soon as she was old enough, Hannah had been sent off to school, where she was trained to be a teacher. Feelings of hurt and anxiety filled her as she recalled being put on a stagecoach and sent as far away from home as one could go. After all these years, resentment and pain still lingered in her heart. Then she’d met Thomas, and he’d promised to marry her and create a home she could be proud of. Only that, too, had shattered with no more than a moment’s notice. She’d pretended like neither mattered, but as soon as she’d completed her education, Hannah had run to New Mexico, as far from Missouri as her money would take her. She’d found working for the school in Cottonwood Springs rewarding, but not having her own place had left her far from content.