Rebellion in the Valley Read Online Free

you?” he wanted to know.
    Tobias shrugged again. “It ain’t any trouble,
Boss. I didn’t want to take the other men from their duties,
‘specially with us being gone for a few days on this trip. Besides,
I can handle it myself. Not like I ain’t never tracked a cat
before.”
    Hailee shook her head.
    “No! You can’t go out there by yourself!
Daddy - you’ll go with him, won’t you?” Hailee begged.
    Heart pounding in her chest, the look on her
face indicated she didn’t much care whether her words had been
spoken out of turn or not.
    Bruce waved a hand and gave her knee a gentle
pat.
    “Hailee’s right, Tobias; you shouldn’t be
going out there alone. Anything could happen. Why don’t all of us
get together and see who wants to go with you? We’ll talk it over
at dinner tonight. It needs to be done and it’s my responsibility
to make sure it gets done; let’s plan on maybe three or four of us
going together, ” Bruce said with a nod of his head.
    It suited Hailee just fine; if anything
happened to Tobias, her heart would be crushed!
    Both passengers knew when Bruce gave that one
certain nod of his, the final word and decision had already been
made; there would be no sense in speaking about the matter after
his final word.
    For the remainder of their ride into town,
rounds of joke telling and ranch talk kept the conversation
rolling, and a few times the group pulled over near some trees to
relieve themselves.
    Richard thought ahead and brought along
plenty of snacks and barrels of water to drink from. And he was
certain to pack one of Hailee’s favorite treats - his famous
pickles. The man was well-known throughout Rosita for those dill
pickles; he canned them with a couple cloves of garlic and a few of
those tiny little red peppers Hailee adored. Hot, crunchy, and oh,
so tasty on a warm day!
    She gulped down three of them by the time
they reached the town of Canon City.
    Even before leaving home, she'd set on taking
in as much of the town as she could before dinner; she saw three
new businesses since the last trip into town, and one of them
looked like a rather well-stocked general store. Maybe that
burgundy yarn would be in their supplies!
    “Where do you want me to leave you, Hailee? I
might as well drop you off so you don’t have to walk the whole
street,” Bruce told her when he noticed the look on his daughter’s
face.
    Her eyes hadn’t moved from that new
storefront.
    She pointed to it and looked back at her
father.
    “I’d really like to go in there, Daddy,” she
told him with an excited raise to her voice. “Is there anything I
can look at for you while I’m there?”
    Bruce thought for a moment, rubbed his chin
while in the thinking process.
    “Tell ya what, Darlin’. How about I stable
these horses and I’ll just come back to join you?”
    The wagon pulled to an abrupt stop in front
of the storefront, kicking up some dirt and dust from under the
wheels as it did. Tobias jumped down and held his hand up to
Hailee.
    Those cocoa-toned eyes of his nearly begged
her to stay with him instead of heading into the store when he
smiled up at her.
    For just a brief second, Hailee noticed that
Tobias’ eyelashes seemed darker than she usually noticed them to
be; was that a fleck of gold in his left eye?
    Their hands touched and Hailee felt her knees
go limp just a bit; did he notice that when she fell against
him?
    She gathered her skirt in her hands and
reached up for the handbag her father was holding down to her.
    “Thanks, Daddy,” she smiled. “See you in a
few minutes.”
    She turned to Tobias.
    “Thanks.”
    He nodded and watched her walk into the store
before turning his attention to climbing back into the wagon.
    “I noticed a new horse-boarding stall down
the street, Boss. Which one we gonna use?”
    Bruce let Tobias choose, and with the money
paid for services, Bruce clapped a hand on Tobias’ shoulder.
    “So what are we eatin’ tonight? Do you want
to try something new,