Read Online Black Hills Bride by Deb Kastner - Free Book Online Page B

scowl of annoyance creased Ellis’s face. “What’d she do, go crying to you, boss?” He barked a laugh and chucked Erik on the arm. “Just like a woman to go all to pieces, ain’t it?”
    The other boys snickered, until Erik stopped them short with a single look. They sobered immediately, looking contrite and uncomfortable, except for Ellis, who looked as if he were ready for a fight.
    “Let’s get one thing straight,” Erik ground out, eyeing each man in turn, and at last resting and holding his gaze on Ellis. “Miss Sullivan is your employer. And she’s also a lady. You’ll treat her with due respect as both —your boss lady.”
    The boys nodded, wide-eyed with apprehension.
    All except Ellis, who grunted skeptically. “I don’t take no orders from—”
    “That means,” Erik interrupted, not allowing the younger man to finish, “you will remove your hat in her presence, speak to her quietly and with respect, and you will do exactly what she tells you to do. Without complaining. Is that clear?”
    Again, four of the boys nodded.
    “Ellis?” he challenged, his pulse pounding in his ears. If the young man was itching for a fight, he was going to get more than he bargained for.
    The young man shrugged and glared over Erik’s shoulder, murmuring something incomprehensible under his breath.
    “And if I ever hear foul language coming from any of you—at any time, on- or off-duty—you’ll be history. This is a Christian retreat. Respect that fact or pack your bags and git.”
    He met each man’s eyes one last time, then turned away. The urge to hit something still pulsed through him, barely restrained by the strength of his will.
    He’d scarcely gone two steps when Ellis began complaining loudly to the other cowboys about the unfair working conditions they were under.
    Erik bristled but walked away, allowing the young man to vent to his own satisfaction. The battle wasn’t over, not by a long shot.
    Ellis was a troublemaker, and he knew beyond a doubt there would be a one-on-one confrontation between him and the boy before long.
    If Ellis didn’t force it, Erik would.
    But however it happened, he wanted to keep Dixie out of the middle of it. She wouldn’t stand down from today’s challenge, and she’d be furious if she knew Erik had reinforced her battlements without her knowledge.
    He still wasn’t sure why, but he already knew Dixie’s pet peeves. Funny. He hadn’t known her that long, but he already felt he knew her better than anyone he’d known in a good, long time. Maybe ever.
    And maybe one day he would learn why she was so desperate to prove her independence.
    She’d step right up to the plate if she had the opportunity, and fight back with all she was worth.
    Which meant he had to make sure she didn’t get that opportunity.
    He’d have to be extra watchful and on his guard, to make sure nothing happened between Dixie and Ellis before he got to the belligerent young man first.
    He didn’t want to examine the fierce need to protect Dixie. She was an obligation and nothing more. Ellis was his responsibility, since he’d brought the loud-mouthed boy on board as a stable hand.
    Ellis was his responsibility and his problem.
    He probably ought to have fired him right off, but he was afraid the other boys would walk, as well, out of loyalty to Ellis, which would leave him in the lurch.
    There wasn’t time to find another crew and get the needed work done before the first guests arrived in a little over two months. He needed every second, and every man, to finish this project on time.
    But Ellis was going to be a detriment to the work by staying on, and there was no getting around it. The boy was an uncouth, loudmouthed brat. With his childish attitude, he ought to be in the nursery, not running horses.
    He’d come with references, but obviously from people who didn’t care what the young man said or did as long as he got his work done.
    And until Dixie entered the picture, Ellis had