Chapter Six

Millie felt better and more in control after she had straddled the horse and got it into motion. She had always felt comfortable on the back of a horse, but living in town rarely presented the opportunity to ride.

Trey, too, was a very accomplished rider, sitting tall and perfectly erect in the saddle. His horse knew who was boss and moved at the slightest tug or a gentle motion of his body.

“Have you ridden much?” he asked her.

“Not much” Millie admitted.

“Could’ve fooled me. You ride very well” He smiled.

Whoa…was that a compliment?

“Thanks” Millie smiled awkwardly. She had never been completely comfortable with responding to compliments.

Noting hank’s shiny coat, Millie tried to make conversation. “I met Price yesterday,” she said.

“Price?”

“The stable boy?”

“Oh” Trey nodded. “I wouldn’t get too comfortable with him if I were you”.

Millie stared at him. Why would he warn her against Price? He seemed civil enough.

“I don’t trust him,” Trey said as if reading her thoughts.

Millie pursed her lips. Price sure seemed to have a grudge against Trey, and it was looking like the feeling was mutual.

“Then why does he work for you?” Millie regretted asking the question the moment it came out. It was none of her business as to why Trey hired someone he didn’t trust.

“I don’t know really. Clayton hired him while I was gone once. Haven’t had the heart to send him on his way yet” Trey answered.

Maybe Millie could get Price’s side of the story sometime. If there was anything she had learned in life, it was to get both sides of a story before judging someone.

“So tell me about you,” Trey said, resting one hand on his thigh and looking at her. “What brought you here?”

“I needed a job,” Millie answered shortly.

“Obviously. Do you have any family?” Trey pressed.

Millie sighed. It was obvious that he wanted the whole story. “No. My Pa was killed about a little over a month ago. I don’t know of any other living kin”.

“Killed?”

“Bank robbery in Casden. A man shot him in cold blood” Millie shut her eyes to ward off the memory, and when she opened them, she looked over at Trey. A strange expression crossed his features, one that she couldn’t recognize.

“Y-You’re from Casden?” he asked.

“Yes. I’ve lived there my whole life,” Millie said.

Trey nodded. He didn’t look so good. Millie decided to change the subject.

“I have a question, Trey,” she announced.

“Uh, huh?”

“How long has it been since Quinn has spoken?” Millie asked.

“Huh? Is he supposed to talk yet?” Trey twisted to face her.

“Um, yes. He’s two years old. Have you even tried to get him to say something?” Millie asked.

“It’s…never occurred to me” Trey said. “I’m gone a lot and he’s usually up in the nursery” Trey turned his horse down a beaten path to the right.

Millie followed him. She was beginning to be angry. “Never occurred to you? Don’t you think that hearing your son call you ‘Daddy’ might a momentous occasion? How could it never have occurred to you?”

Trey didn’t reply. They rode in silence for a time, until the topped a rise and stopped.

“Need a breather?” Trey asked.

Millie nodded. She swung down and found that the ground wasn’t as close as she thought. For the second time, she fell, flat on her back. This time she just lay there beside the gigantic horse and laughed. Trey appeared from behind the horse and bent over her, his smile widening as he laughed with her.

“You okay?” he asked.

Millie nodded, laughing so hard she feared it came out in a snort. Trey held out his hand to her. She took it and allowed him to pull her up. Brushing herself off, she finally finished laughing at her clumsiness.

“You’re gonna break something one of these days” Trey said, reaching out to remove a blade of grass from her hair.

 Millie grinned. “I’m flexible” she said.

“Clearly. Wanna sit down?” Trey asked.

“Might as well. Ain’t got far to fall then” Millie smiled.

Trey sat beside her under a large oak tree on top of the hill, a few feet away from the horses.

“Look, it’s not that I don’t like being with Quinn. I just…I’m scared of messing up with him. One bad move and you’ve ruined your kid’s life forever,” he said, bringing his knees up close to his chest and resting his arms on them.

“So you plan to stay as far away from him a possible?” Millie asked.

“It’s not that” Trey squinted his eyes.

“He wants to be with you. When he’s older, he’ll want you to be around him. The worst thing a father can do is not be there for his child,” Millie said.

“Was your father there for you?” Trey asked.

“Always. There was never a time I felt that I couldn’t come to him with what was on my mind. I’d tell him all about my day and all the silly girl problems I had, and he never got impatient with me. Granted, he didn’t understand most of my problems at the time, but he would still listen. We were all the other had. There was no else but us” Millie smiled at the remembrance.

Trey grinned at her. “Need a moment to breathe? That’s the longest I’ve heard you speak,” he teased.

She socked him on the arm. “I’m serious”.

“So you and your father were close?” Trey asked.

“We were. So many times, I’d tell him my world was falling apart. He used to ask me, ‘Millie, what’s your thread today’?” Millie told him.

“Thread?”

“Yeah. He’d say ‘Millie, whenever your world is falling apart, it always seems to hold on by a thread doesn’t it?’ I’d agree with him. Whenever he asked me what my thread was, I’d tell him so many things. Sometimes I’d tell him he was, or someone else. He’d always answer ‘that’s great, Millie’ or ’that’s fine, Millie‘. Then after I had went through a nasty ordeal with someone I loved and, who I thought, loved me, he asked again. I looked him in the eye and I said ‘Jesus is my thread, daddy’. He smiled big and said ‘that’s my girl’” Millie explained.

Trey smiled.

*****

Trey sat beside Millie underneath that tree, looking at her and not having the heart to tell her she had grass all in her hair. Yet the presence of the greenery did nothing to hinder her beautiful features.

Hearing her talk about her father cut him deep. He still couldn’t believe that she was from Casden. Why hadn’t Clayton told him? And her father dying in a bank robbery? A little over a month ago? Things were adding up, and not in his favor. Having her with him could be dangerous now.

He needed to get together with the men. He was supposed to meet them this morning, anyway.

“We need to be getting back” he announced, standing up.

Millie accepted his outstretched hand and he pulled her up. She was so tiny and fragile. He then noticed how light brown her eyes were. Framed by thick lashes, he had never seen anyone with such light eyes. Such beautiful eyes. Eyes that a man could look into and lose himself if he wasn’t careful. Eyes that gave him a glimpse into her soul. Not being able to contain himself, he reached down and removed a blade of grass from the side of her head, brushing his hand along the length of her curls. Momentarily, her eyes closed and she inhaled sharply. As her eyes fluttered open again, Trey felt a piece of his heart being taken. He leaned down, his face so close to hers he could feel her short and ragged breaths against his cheek. So close, he could kiss her if he wanted to. And he wanted to.

Then, he snapped back into his senses.

“We need to be getting back,” he repeated.

Millie nodded. She removed herself from his arms that he hadn’t noticed had encircled her and walked back to her horse.

“Want me to take Hank this time?” He asked after her.

"I’ll be fine”. She was back to her normal, non-talkative self.

He walked over to where she had her foot in the stirrup, bouncing up and down getting ready to jump up. He laced his hands together and held them low for her. She eyed him.

"I’ll be gentle” he assured her, smiling in spite of himself.

She smiled and put her boot in his hands. He slightly boosted her up and she straddled the horse. Clayton was right. She was unbelievably light.

He rounded her horse and mounted his own.

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded. He spurred Graceful and moved her forward. A strange feeling swept over him as he watched Millie lean down and rub Hanks neck and play with his mane. She apparently hadn’t seen a Shire before Hank, given her awed expression that morning.

The ride back to the plantation was anything but comfortable. The awkward silence made Trey feel like he had done something wrong, somehow. Something deep within him made him want to be honest with her and come clean about his line of work, about the stolen money, about his gang.

He feared he was falling for her. And she didn’t even know it.

*****

Millie watched out of the nursery window as Trey rode west, in the opposite direction they had just come, on a new horse. She had an unfamiliar aching in her heart to see him leave. The sensations she had felt in the woods when he’d held her were the strangest she had ever felt, yet the most wonderful. She remembered the fire behind his eyes, the feeling of his face ever so close to hers. It felt like a dream now.

Deciding she needed a new book to read to take her mind off of him, she picked up Quinn and headed toward Trey’s office down the hall.

*****

Trey dismounted at the cabin where the guys usually hung out. None of them had a family, so most of their time was spent there or in a town somewhere terrorizing a saloon.

“’Bout time you got here. Where have you been?” Adam asked once Trey got inside. “We’ve been waiting all morning”.

“I got caught up” Trey answered simply.

He went inside and motioned for Adam to sit down. Jed and Wes were already seated at the table playing cards.

“We have a problem,” Trey announced as she sat at the head of the table.

“Duh, the money’s gone” Wes mumbled.

“This one is a mite bigger, Wes” Trey said. Wes put his cards down. “You know that girl I hired?”

“You mean the perty little filly?” Wes grinned.

“No, the young lady who has a name, Wes. Millie Williams” Trey corrected.

“What about her?” Jed asked.

“She’s the daughter of the man Wes murdered” Trey said, eyeing each of the men to catch their reactions.

“Wh-What?” Wes’s eyes grew wide.

“Does she know about us?” Jed asked.

“No. I didn’t tell her. But you never know when she’ll suspect something. She’s smart” Trey said.

“What should we do?” Adam asked.

“I tell you what we do” Wes piped up. “We have our fun with her then dispose of her”.

Trey’s heartbeat quickened as he felt his face grow hot. “Don’t you dare…” he growled out severely.

Wes and Adam stared at him, but Jed just leaned back in his chair, running his hand through his blonde hair.

“You goin’ soft on this girl, Boss?” Adam asked.

“No, but she’s a good, decent girl. Any of you touch her in any way and I will put a hurtin’ on you,” Trey threatened.

Wes studied him. “We can’t afford personal connections, Trey. You need to get rid of this girl” he said.

“I don’t want any of you near the house. If you need anything, signal the stable boy to come get me, understand?” Trey said.

The three men nodded in unison.

It was later on in the evening when Trey finally headed home. He rode up to the barn and dismounted his horse.

“Price, get my horse will you?” He called.

Price came out, without a word, took the reins, and led the horse inside. Trey shook his head. He still did not trust that boy’s looks.

He climbed the steps and entered the house. All was quiet, which was strange. Jess was silently sweeping the floor, in the foyer, but no one else was in site. Walking toward the parlor, he tried to step lightly so that his boots wouldn’t make a loud noise. What he saw in the parlor caught him off guard. Clayton and Mariah sat on the sofa in the corner of the room, both fast asleep. Clayton’s arm was draped over Mariah’s shoulders as she leaned against him. Trey turned and got Jess’ attention. She walked over to him and he pointed at the couple.

She smiled and gave him a grin. “It’s been comin’ on for a while” she whispered.

“Them two?” Trey asked, his voice low.

Jess nodded. “It’s been quite eventful while you’ve been gone”.

Trey walked out of earshot of the parlor and Jess followed him.

“What’s been goin’ on?” he asked her.

“Go upstairs and see for yourself”. Jess went back to sweeping.

Trey narrowed his eyes up her, kind of nervous about what was upstairs.

He walked up the staircase and walked down the hall toward his study. Where was Millie, anyway? Surely, nothing happened to her. He neared the doorway to his office and saw her on her hands and knees by his desk, scrubbing the floor.

His heart hitched. Her hair was about half a foot shorter.

*****

Millie sighed as she continued to scrub at the stain in the floor. Ink stains never came out. The fact that her hair was in the way didn’t help either. She was fast losing patience with the bluish-black stain. She scrubbed harder in her frustration.

“Stupid stain” she muttered. Like that was going to help. She had tried everything she could to get the stain out, yet it was still as plain as day on the only carpeted floor in the house.

“What happened to you?” She jerked her head up at the sound of Trey’s manly voice.

He looked overly concerned as he walked over to her, reaching down to pull her up off the ground. She sighed and wiped her hands on her skirt.

“I, uh…there was an accident” she said.

“How did this accident involve your hair?” he asked, gently touching the short strands.

“Well, after you left I decided I needed a new book to read. Remember how you told me I could borrow one? I brought Quinn in here and sat him in that chair over there,” Millie pointed to the chair in the corner. “I turned by back for a second and he’s walking around by your desk. I picked him up. I didn’t notice he had a bottle of ink in his hand. He poured it all down my shirt, my split skirt--”Millie lifted a strand of hair, “And my hair. There's no removing ink from hair”.

Trey shook his head. “I’m sorry. Quinn can be a little troublemaker”.

“It wasn’t his fault. Now it’s all over this carpet. I tried scrubbing it” Millie looked down at her hands, wrinkled from so much time in water.

Trey covered her little hands with his big ones, his calluses contrasting against her moist fingers. “Why don’t you go downstairs for a bit? I’ll try scrubbing this for a while”.

Millie could have hugged him. “Thank you” she smiled.

No one had ever given her a sweeter smile than what he gave her just then. For the first time, Trey wasn’t scary at all to her. The smile reached his eyes momentarily, and it made her heart skip a beat.