The Proposition. Kate Bridges

days seen anything so magnificent. Look how they spin their wings together.”

      “Marvelous,” said Travis, jumping to his feet. Jessica detected sarcasm. “The blue plumes sparkle in the moonlight and the beaks, various shades of yellow and orange, capture the shimmering glow of the stars.”

      “Oh, you understand,” whispered Mr. Merriweather in glee.

      “Don’t move,” murmured Travis, coming closer with the butt end of his log. He hammered it into the bare ground three feet away from Mr. Merriweather. “Prairie rattler. The only poisonous snake in Alberta. Average length, three and a half feet.”

      Mr. Merriweather jumped up and shrieked as the mottled serpent slid to safety in the grass. With a yelp of her own, Jessica flew to her feet.

      “He’s gone,” said Travis, peering into the brush.

      “But we didn’t hear him rattle,” said Jessica.

      “They don’t unless they feel threatened. He wasn’t about to bite.”

      The butler clutched at his chest. “My poor beating heart.”

      Jessica smiled through her trembling. “Are you all right?”

      The old man nodded. “Is this what we’re to expect for the rest of the trip?”

      “No.” Travis’s face was illuminated by the golden fire. He stood a head above the both of them. “They’re prairie rattlers, most likely after your hummingbirds. There aren’t any in the mountains. It’s too cold. But there are just enough here to keep life interesting. Same like the bugs, remember?”

      Mr. Merriweather slapped a mosquito on his neck. “Quite right, quite right.” He shook his head and sat back on his log. “Jolly good, I’ve witnessed a live rattler.”

      “And you didn’t need binoculars to see it.” Travis cleared the tin plates.

      Jessica eyed her log but no longer felt like sitting down. She shooed away the flying insects.

      “Are you still going down to the river to wash these plates?” Travis asked her.

      She wished she hadn’t volunteered.

      He grabbed a tin bucket. He was a commanding force of bulky shadows and straining muscles. Permeating the pine-scented air, his laughter was the first she’d heard in two days. “If your chaperon approves, I’ll go with you.”

      Damn, the woman was distracting.

      Wondering why he allowed her to bother him, Travis led them to a clear spot by the river. He scoured the area for more rattlers, found none, then slid their tin cups onto a granite boulder.

      She’d been distracting him all day—her ineptness at handling the horses, her eagerness to help with chores as if the offer would erase that she’d gone above his head to order him here and even how she spent her time mostly with her butler, taking little regard of him.

      Travis, on the other hand, couldn’t turn a corner without being alerted to her presence. When she stood beside him grooming Independence, he found the air stifling. When she asked a question, his normally quiet composure chafed in self-defense, and if, God forbid, their eyes met accidentally, his pulse began a rhythmic tap. His reactions annoyed him.

      And made him miss his wife more.

      Grumbling, he lifted his Stetson and allowed the cool breeze to curl beneath his pressed hair. It felt good. Jessica kneeled on the boulder.

      In the stables this morning, the other men had been eager to replace him when they’d heard he was leaving for seven days with the mayor’s daughter.

      “I’ll deliver your broodmares,” the farrier had said, winking while making a final check of the horseshoes. “A man could always use pretty female company.”

      She was pretty and she was female, but Travis could pass on her company. Standing back in the brightness of the moon, he watched her.

      Although he fought it, a glimpse of the smooth side of her cheek played with his thoughts. Jessica lowered herself to the rushing river. Her braids dipped below her shoulders. Beneath her fresh, white blouse and trousers, her youthful body contrasted against the century-old, twisted trees behind her. Glowing skin in its prime versus rough, mossy bark. Yet both images brought a strange comfort to him. Did all women use lotions on their face as Caroline had, mint powders on their teeth and vinegar to rinse their hair?

      It was a silly thought, he acknowledged, so he turned away to concentrate on his task. He dipped the bucket into the moving mass of water.

      Victor’s death had surprised him. He had no idea she’d had such turmoil in her life. Maybe it was one of the reasons she’d left for finishing school—to get her mind off Victor.

      He cleared his throat. “Is Dr. Finch expecting you?”

      The question seemed to rattle her. Fumbling, she laid one clean tin plate upon a boulder, the clanging echoing over the river. Dipping a dirty plate into the water, she scrubbed a sliver of soap against it.

      “No,” she said softly.

      “Then how do you know he’ll have the time to be interviewed?”

      Her lips drew together. “He’ll listen to my request.”

      “You may not find him. He’s needed in several towns and travels quite a bit, from what I hear. Doctors are hard to come by in this part of the country.”

      “I suppose that’s why people are so ready to trust him. Because they need to. They want to.”

      “Why don’t you like him?”

      She started at the observation. The fabric of her blouse billowed, accentuating jutting breasts, narrow waist and full hips.

      He turned away, his gaze settling on the flowing river and trees lining the distance. “It’s obvious you don’t. Every time his name is mentioned, you stiffen like a fishing rod that’s snagged an unwanted catch.”

      Even in the golden light, he saw defiance in her eyes.

      “He charges a lot of money for his cures,” she countered.

      “There’s no law against a man turning a profit.”

      “Some of his cures don’t work.”

      He watched her long fingers sweep the inside of a cup. “Some of them do. I imagine when you’re dealing with the health of a patient, unfortunately, there’s no answer for everyone.” He scrutinized her. “Why did you want to pay me so much to get you to Devil’s Gorge? Two hundred dollars, if I recall.”

      The lines of her shoulders hardened. “The money’s still open, if you like.”

      He scoffed. “That’s not why I brought it up. Why is it so important that you speak to Dr. Finch?”

      “I need him for my article, to give it authenticity.”

      There was something more to her position; Travis sensed it.

      “Why do you like him so much?” she asked.

      He anchored one boot between two rocks and rebalanced his weight. “He helps a lot of folks. He helped me get a conviction in the trial against Pete Warrick.”

      “What trial?”

      “The huge one that just finished.” He noticed her pause. “I forgot—you were out of town.”

      Her gold necklace shimmered around her slender throat. “Was it a medical case?”

      “No.”

      “Then how did he help you?”

      “He was the sole eyewitness in a string of unsolved robberies that happened across southern Alberta and B.C. over the course of the past two years. He placed Pete at the scene of a store crime one hundred miles due south of here, the only person ever