Read Online Emma's Blaze (Fires of Cricket Bend Book 2) by Marie Piper - Free Book Online Page A

let it happen. But they were alone, and he was trying to be a gentleman for as long as he could. Rushing her could scare her, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. “We should ride ahead a bit more. The creek joins up with a river not too far ahead, and we’ll need to figure out a place to cross.”
    “How do you take two thousand cows, a pack of horses, and a wagon across a river?”
    “Delicately.” He ducked to kiss her again. “Though staying right here is tempting.”
    Emma wrapped her arms around his shoulders and returned his kiss, deep and long. Only when Maggie huffed did they part. “Then let’s ride ahead.”
    So they did. A few miles farther, a big river cut across the plains. Bill knew it was coming, but he’d somewhat hoped the terrible weather conditions of the past winter and summer would have minimized the size. The river was wide, and fast-moving. It was the treacherous kind that whisked people and cows downstream. Still, it had to be crossed.
    When they got back to the drive, Josiah was riding beside Jess in the front.
    “River’s wide,” Bill said in greeting to his father. “’Bout three miles ahead looks as good a place as any to cross. Plenty of room for the herd, and as shallow a place as we’re like to find for the wagon.”
    Josiah scowled when Emma rode up by his side.
    “Should we make camp here, or go a bit more?” Jess asked, noticing the tension.
    Josiah kept looking at Emma. “Push on up. Leave about a quarter-mile before the river, and get to making camp. We’ll cross the river tomorrow first thing after sunup. Appie’ll drive the wagon. She can take Maggie across.”
    Emma exclaimed, “Me?” Her voice was sharp, and louder than normal.
    “Pa, there’s no reason—”
    “I am not talking to you, boy.” His hard eyes studied Emma. “Don’t think you can do it?”
    Her expression became steely. “I didn’t say that.”
    “Good.” Josiah rode off.
    “He’s being a stubborn fool.” Jess shook his head.
    “You don’t have to ride Maggie across,” Bill assured her.
    Emma sat up tall. “I am aware of that. But I’m still going to. Now, if you boys will excuse me, I’ll get back to Appie and start readying supper. He mentioned bison steaks tonight, and he’s going to teach me how to prepare them.”
    Bill watched her ride around the drive, back to where Appie was bringing up the wagon.
    Jess whistled. “She’s trouble, that one.” When Bill turned to yell at him, Jess continued. “The good kind of trouble, though. Nothing keeps a man on his toes like a hellcat.”
    “She won’t tell me a thing about herself.”
    “Does she need to?”
    Jess had a point. Who was Bill to demand any answers from Emma?
    Emma. She’d told him her name.
    It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    Emma
     
    Josiah McKenzie had some nerve. Who was he to act like he was better than her, like she hadn’t been working herself to the bone to prove to him she wasn’t going to be a bother and that she wouldn’t slow them down? After she caught up to Appie when the drive stopped for the evening, Emma set to work starting the fire to make biscuits and coffee. All the while, she leaned on her crutch.
    She yanked items from the chuckwagon, and slammed a cast iron pan down on a stool.
    “Looks like you’re ready to kill something,” Appie noted. “Or someone, maybe.”
    “Your boss,” Emma replied. “If he’s not careful, I swear. He hates me. I have no idea why. I didn’t ask to be pulled out of the woods and brought here. It wasn’t part of my grand plan.”
    “Plans are well and good. Life don’t always heed them.”
    “Truer words have never been spoken.”
    Appie handed her his spatula and pointed to the biscuits. “Flip those. You got to learn how to ignore Josiah. He growls loud, but he’s no coyote.”
    “Why does he hate me?”
    “He doesn’t hate you. He thinks you’re bad luck—a woman on the