A Cowboy at Heart Read Online Free

She’d crossed the length of Kansas to search for him, and she had found nothing but a wasted hull of a man.
    He pushed the thought aside. What she’d found on that journey was Colin Maddox, her true mate. The Lord had worked that out for the best. Never was a couple more suited for each other than Colin and Rebecca.
    She hurried toward the little group standing before the church. “Papa, what is wrong? Is Maummi unwell?”
    The fact that Jonas did not answer his daughter with a welcoming smile spoke to the depth of his emotions. He nodded in her direction, “ Ja, ja . She is well. But my land is overrun by Englischers .”
    Jesse remembered his instructions. “Emma’s waiting for news.”
    Rebecca glanced across the distance, where Emma could be seen standing in front of her house, staring that way. Though she was too far away for her features to be discerned, her stance was as tense as a bird dog fixed on a bevy of quail.
    Rebecca turned to one of the boys who hovered in the doorway of the house. “Butch, would you please ring the bell twice?”
    Butch, whose face never lost its slightly worried expression, took off for the church at a run. A moment later the toll of a bell filled the air. Emma waved and then turned to disappear into her house.
    “All right now, let’s get to the bottom of this.” Colin assumed the role of questioner. “Jonas, you say you got up this morning and found out that these men had strung up a fence across your property. What did they have to say for themselves?”
    “That my land is not mine but belongs to an Englischer named Mr. Littlefield.” He wrung his hands. “It is almost twenty years since we came from Ohio, my Caroline and I, with the Amish to establish Apple Grove. John Miller, Eli Schrock, Melvin Byler, Jacob Helmuth, and others. We rode the land together and picked out our farms.” His chest swelled. “I chose the one farthest west, the most western Amish farm in the whole country. A good land, with plenteous water and rich soil for farming.” His shoulders drooped. “How can this Littlefield say it is no longer mine?”
    Luke’s jaw became rocklike. “He can’t. I’ve heard about this sort of thing. A rich man comes along and decides he wants to lay claim to a particular piece of land, no matter if it’s already been claimed.”
    Outrage stiffened Jesse’s spine. “They can’t get away with that! There’s a law against that sort of thing.”
    They all looked at Colin, who had been a sheriff for several years before he hung up his badge and hung out his shingle as a preacher. His hesitant expression did little to quell the sense of unease growing in Jesse. “I’m not sure what the law says about this. We all know land is plentiful in the West. All a man has to do is claim his hundred and sixty acres. That’s what we’ve done here.” His gaze swept the land around them and shifted toward Luke’s spread as well. “I’ve heard about folks putting up fences to mark off their claims, but I never heard of someone fencing someone else’s claim.”
    “Amish do not know about laws and such. We hold ourselves separate from the Englisch world.” Jonas appeared to remember something. “He has cows from Texas he will bring to Kansas.”
    “Littlefield?” Luke’s gaze strayed to the sky. “I heard tell of a Littlefield over near Coleman who had a good-sized herd. Can’t say I remember anything about him, though.” He exchanged a look with Jesse and then Colin. “This could be a real problem, gentlemen.”
    Jesse nodded as understanding dawned. The days of the open trail were drawing to a close. As men laid claim to Western lands, the fences they erected served as barriers, closing off access for the great cattle drives that had provided occupation for Jesse and Luke and hundreds of roving cowboys like them. It was nearly impossible these days to move a decent-sized herd any distance. Men such as this Littlefield had effectively put Jesse out of business