Scotsman's Siren (Culpepper Cowboys Book 6) Read online

  “What?”

  “Javelin. He likes you.”

  Honor twisted to see her chestnut friend. Javelin. He’d wandered away a few steps to sniff at the ground in the paddock, looking for anything that he might be able to eat. She broke into a smile and followed after him.

  “He’s a sweetheart.”

  Javelin lifted his head, nickering as Honor stroked his neck.

  Angus strode over to join them. “He’s a bit of a skittish beastie. Doesn’t usually let strangers near him. But he likes you just fine.”

  “I love horses,” Honor sighed.

  “Do you ride?”

  Honor shook her head, an ache as old as she was filling her heart. “My parents wouldn’t let me. They said that riding and horses were for boys, and that girls shouldn’t dirty themselves with brute animals.”

  Angus snorted as if that was the most ridiculous thing in the world. That made Honor grin from ear-to-ear. Yep, if that’s the way he thought about things, the two of them would get along just fine.

  “I begged and begged my parents to let me take riding lessons. They almost let me once too,” she went on. “Until Mama found out that part of the lessons was learning how to care for horses. She said there was no way a daughter of hers would muck out stalls or touch big, dirty animals.”

  “Horses aren’t big, dirty animals.” Angus crossed his arms as if arguing the point with her mother right then.

  “Yeah, well, they wanted me to stay home all day, wearing dresses and doing some sort of craft, like my sisters.”

  “Do you have a craft? I know your sisters do.”

  Honor grinned wickedly. “Yep. Mom and Daddy demanded I do a craft, so I took up woodworking. I’m brilliant with a jigsaw.” She winked, hoping Angus would get the image of her and power tools, and understand how she’d turned her parents’ demands against them time and time again.

  “Wait, I think I’ve seen some of the cradles you made for your sister’s dolls.”

  “Yep.” Honor nodded. She turned back to Javelin. “But what I’ve really wanted to do all these years is ride. That time I almost won the argument for riding lessons?”

  “Yes?” Angus prompted.

  “Well, my father was almost willing to give in…if I wore a skirt and rode sidesaddle.” She snorted. “Can you imagine? Riding sidesaddle in the twenty-first century. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. And Mama ended up vetoing him because of the taking care of horses thing anyhow, so I didn’t even get that.”

  Angus shrugged. “I can teach you to ride.”

  Honor’s whole world screeched to a halt. She loved him. Hot diggity, she loved the heck out of him. Any man who would offer to teach her to ride was exactly the kind of man she wanted to marry. Fate had scored a homerun with this one, and Joy should be knighted for giving Angus her email address. He could drool in his sleep, have a sweating problem and athlete’s foot combined, and she’d still marry him. She’d—

  Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. With a frown, she pulled it out to see who was calling. Unsurprisingly, the screen flashed “Daddy.” A world of frustration welled up in her. There was no way she was going to answer, not now. She shoved her phone back in her pocket.

  “Teach me to ride right now.” She didn’t even bother wincing over the fact that her request came out more like a demand. It was her father’s fault for upsetting her by calling at a bad time.

  “What, now?” Angus’s accent turned thicker, drawing out the word into a rich, juicy, delicious, naouw sound.

  “Yes.” That was it. That was all she had to say. No time like the present. She’d come all this way, picked up her life—such as it was—and moved to Wyoming so she could ride horses. Or, uh, so she could marry the man who’d swooped down from heaven like the answer to a prayer, ready to save her. But really, for the horses.

  He liked her. Honor Quinlan was a spitfire. And he liked her. Demands and all.

  “You want to learn to ride right now?” He asked his question again, delight mixing with bafflement.

  “Yeah, why not?” She faced him, hip cocked to the side, one hand resting on Javelin’s neck. “You got something better to do?”

  Angus opened his mouth, but only sputtering came out. He recovered to say, “We’re supposed to have lunch at the big house.”

  “So?” Honor shrugged. “It’ll keep, right?” Without waiting for an answer from him, she turned to Javelin. “Does this handsome guy have a saddle?”

  It was a legitimate enough question that Angus’s brain clicked over from overwhelmed-by-female mode to business mode. “He does, but he’s not the right mount for you.”

  “What?” She glared as if she would fight him.

  He laughed, stepping forward to take her hand. Crivens, but she was a tiny thing. Tiny but mighty. “Javelin’s a little too big around the middle for a first-time rider with short legs like yours.”

  “Hey, my legs are proportional to my frame,” Honor argued.

  “Aye, but not to his. Let’s take you inside, introduce you to the rest of the family, and find you a proper mount.”

  Honor huffed, but went with him. Her huffing turned into a gasp as soon as they crossed the threshold and into the stable itself. The Culpeppers kept their stables well-stocked with bona fide working horses—enough for every member of the family and the ranch hands to ride out at the same time, if they needed to. Two rows of stalls faced each other across a wide central room. Honor’s expression was so transported with delight at the dozen horses peeking curiously out of their stalls at her that she froze on the spot.

  “You’ve got a way with horses,” Angus chuckled. “I noticed it out there with Javelin. Just look how eager this lot is to meet you.”

  “There are so many of them.” Her voice was distant and dreamy. “Where do I start?”

  “You want to ride right now, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then let’s meet the lassies first.” He gave her hand a tug, leading her over to a trio of mares in the far corner, near Cooper’s office. “First up, we have Lady Jane. She’s called that ’cuz she’s a gray.”

  “Lady Jane Gray, nice.” Without missing a beat, Honor walked right up to the edge of the stall and rubbed the mare’s nose. “Aren’t you pretty.”

  Angus could have said the same thing about Honor. “Next to her is Heather. She’s a sweetheart.”

  “She certainly is.” Honor moved on to stroke and pat the tall, dark bay.

  Angus’s lips, and other things, twitched. When Honor was his wife, would she fawn over him like that?

  He cleared his throat. Those things were still a long way off. “And this proud lady here is Strawberry, Strawby for short.”

  Honor moved on to the last horse in the row, but paused with a gasp. “Wow, her coloring is amazing.”

  “And you haven’t seen her in daylight yet,” Angus laughed. “She’s a strawberry roan. Highly uncommon.”

  It didn’t take a genius to see that, for Honor, it was love at first sight. Her eyes lit up, and not only did she stroke Strawby’s nose, she flat-out kissed it. For Strawby’s part, she nickered and blinked. The insta-love was mutual. Angus was stabbed by a moment of purely irrational jealousy.

  “This one,” Honor all but burst. “I want to ride this one.”

  “Good choice.” Angus moved to open the stable door so Honor could draw Strawby out. “She’s young, but she’s got a smooth temperament, and she’s not too big around the middle for you.”

  The second Strawby was out of her stall, Honor threw her arms around the girl’s neck and let out a long hum of contentment. “I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you.”

  Angus didn’t know whether to laugh or point out that he was her fiancé and he was standing right there. “See if you still feel the same way when you’re mucking out her stall.”

  “I don’t care, I’ll still love her for the rest of my life,” Honor said, eyes closed, still hugging Strawby within an inch of her
life.

  Well, at least it showed that she was a woman capable of lifelong love. That was a good quality for a wife to have.

  “Right. We keep the tack over here. Bring Strawby over and I’ll show you how to saddle a horse.”

  Honor reacted with the same burst of joy and enthusiasm that Angus suspected many women would over an all-expense-paid shopping trip. In spite of her nice jeans and crisp t-shirt, she dove into the work of selecting the right blanket and saddle, positioning them correctly on Strawby’s back, and fastening every buckle the way he showed her to. Then, on a whim, Angus got her to help him saddle Brick, the big chestnut he’d bought after saving up for two years.

  “Brick is a funny name for a horse,” she commented as she fastened the girth around Brick’s middle.

  Angus leaned down to check Honor’s work, breathing in the fresh scent of her. No fancy perfumes for Honor, although he thought he recognized the scent of the same detergent Linda used on her clothes.

  “Karlan and Cooper joked that any horse big enough to hold me would have to be built like a brick,” he explained. “The name stuck, especially since he’s got that slightly reddish tint.”

  “Makes sense.” Honor straightened, flicking her ponytail back over her shoulder. “Let’s go.” She marched back to Strawby—who was ready for action—and grabbed the saddle.

  “Hold on there,” Angus cautioned her. “I haven’t even showed you how to—”

  Ignoring him, she fit her foot in the stirrup and pulled herself up. Angus’s brow rose. Her motions were jerky, unpracticed, and without form, but she managed to heave herself up and into the saddle with an excited squeak.

  “You’re sure you’ve never ridden before?” he laughed as he mounted Brick with one swift, graceful movement.

  “Nope, never.” Honor beamed all the same. She fit her other foot in the stirrup on Strawby’s other side, and set about gathering the reins in her hands. “How do I get her to run?”

  Genuine alarm flashed through Angus. She’d do it. Honor would shoot off into a run without learning to walk first. A blind man could see that she was that impetuous. The wee lassie would hurt herself if given a chance.

  Knowing that, he nudged Brick up alongside Strawby and gently took the reins from Honor’s hands.

  “Hey, no fair! Give those back.” She glared at him with fury that was just as sudden as her eagerness to learn to ride.

  Maybe it wasn’t smart, but Angus laughed. “Look, I’d rather not be a widower before we’ve even had the wedding.”

  Yep, bad idea. She glowered even harder at him.

  “Ever heard the phrase ‘you’ve got to learn to walk before you can run?’” He arched a brow at her.

  Honor tensed up, her lips forming a flat line. Angus was just about ready to start a countdown to some sort of verbal explosion when she blew out a breath and loosened her shoulders.

  “Okay, I guess you’re right. I’ll learn how to walk first.” Her expression was the last thing to soften, but she did finally smile again. “Let’s go.”

  She tapped Strawby with her heels, but not exactly in the right place. Her actions were more like someone who had seen people riding on TV and thought they could duplicate everything with ease. Lucky for her, Strawby already knew where she wanted to go and walked placidly out into the paddock. Angus followed behind, admiring the view. She might not have known what she was doing, but Honor had a naturally good seat. He tilted his head to the side to study it. A very good seat. Two generous handfuls, he’d say.

  He shook himself out of his thoughts when she repeated her awkward heel-taps on Strawby’s side.

  When Strawby hesitated and stomped her way to a halt, Honor frowned. “Why isn’t she going anywhere?”

  “Because you’re doing it wrong, lass.” Angus shook his head and nudged Brick forward.

  He spent the next fifteen minutes explaining the basics of riding from the bottom up. Lucky for him, a lot of that involved hopping down from Brick and walking around Strawby, physically adjusting Honor’s stance. He felt the feminine muscles of her calves as he gripped them and showed her how to give Strawby commands, felt the softness of her thighs as he shifted her to use them most effectively. He even managed a brushing pass at her backside as he made sure her seat was secure. It was all he could do not to think about what rights he might have to that backside once they went through with the whole marriage thing.

  “So now that you’ve met me in person, you’re really willing to marry an eejit like me, just like that?” he asked after they finished their second go around the paddock.

  “Yeah, sure.” Honor shrugged.

  “Really?” And why was his fool heart beating so hard and fast in the hope that she would suddenly declare her true and undying love for him? They’d just met, after all. He was being a romantic git.

  Honor shrugged again. “Beats the alternative.”

  That brought him down a rung. “Glad to be of service.”

  She must have realized her mistake. “Sorry, not like that,” she said with a wince. She did a fair job of steering Strawby to walk beside him. “It’s just that our parents are super-duper strict and religious. They disapproved big time of the quads’ decision to find husbands up here, which meant that they came down extra hard on me and Grace. It was like they were desperate to stick us in dresses and fit us for chastity belts and marry us off to the first old, “upright” man Daddy could find. And frankly, no sir!”

  “So you said yes to my email just to get away from them.” Angus still wasn’t sure if he should be hurt by what she said or just shrug it off.

  “Crap, I don’t mean that either.” She clenched her jaw—which was a cute gesture, all things considered—and let out a breath. “I’m very happy to meet you and probably marry you, Angus MacFarlane. You struck me as a great guy from your first email, and you’re proving that’s true now.”

  Angus smiled, hoping to put her at ease. “Same goes for you, Honor Quinlan-soon-to-be-MacFarlane.”

  Thank the good Lord above, she smiled in return. “I wouldn’t have come out here if I wasn’t legitimately interested in marrying you.”

  “But the horses help.” He finished her thought, then winked.

  “Okay, I’ll admit it, they do.” She laughed.

  They laughed together. It was nice. Better yet, if things went smoothly between him and Honor, he’d be married into the Culpepper clan for good and proper in just a short time. Really, that’s all he’d ever wanted from life.

  So in a way, they both had ulterior motives for marrying each other. Fair was fair.

  They rode around the paddock a few more times, Angus sharing tips every time he saw Honor making a mistake. She didn’t seem to mind his corrections. They’d been walking the horses for a good twenty minutes when he spotted Marcus walking across the property with another tiny, wee slip of a woman…who looked exactly like Honor, but in a dress. That had to be the twin, Grace. Looked like she and Marcus Wells were getting on with things already. If they were, he should too.

  “Right, I’ll tell you what. Let’s head back to the stables and I’ll show you how to put away the tack and curry Strawby there.”

  “We can’t ride a little longer?”

  She looked so genuinely disappointed that Angus reached out to pat her shoulder. “We’ve got tons of time for that. I’ll even meet you out here first thing tomorrow morning to continue the lessons.”

  “You mean it?” She was back to being lit up and hopeful in no time, which meant Angus’s heart was once more running riot.

  “Absolutely. I’ll even introduce you to the sheep.”

  “Sheep?” She laughed. “Of course if there’s a Scotsman, there will be sheep.”

  “Watch it there, lassie.” He played along. “Those sheep are like my wee ones. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I’m related to half of them.”

  She laughed so hard she snorted. The sound was instantly followed by her slapping a hand to her mouth in embarrass
ment, but as far as Angus was concerned, it was the sexiest thing ever.

  Yep, he was going to enjoy being married to this firecracker of a woman.

  3

  Honor was up before the sun the next morning. She’d been given her own room in Linda Culpepper’s house, which was something she’d never had in her whole life. Linda was a fantastic woman—so fantastic that Honor almost felt guilty for skipping out on first introductions to go meet the horses. Almost. Fortunately for her, Linda had been more than willing to give her the run-down and histories on each of the horses the Culpeppers owned when they’d finally met last night.

  Honor was aching to get out to the horses as soon as possible. She shuffled around, getting dressed in a pair of jeans, a fresh t-shirt, and the same button-down shirt she’d worn the day before. In the process, she found her cell phone. Knowing what she’d see, she pressed the button to turn it on. Five missed calls while she’d slept. All from Daddy. She sighed and shoved the phone in her back pocket, stomach twisting. No doubt he’d have an earful for her about how wicked she was to lead her sister into sin by stealing away from home, how it was her place to obey him as her father, how disobedience was unforgivable, and how a good daughter would submit herself to her father’s guidance. No way, no how.

  She finished getting dressed, but something was missing. She’d gone and left her boots in the room Grace had been given the night before. Her twin might have been her polar opposite, but that had never stopped them from staying up all hours chatting, and last night there had been a lot to chat about. She slipped silently across the hall and into Grace’s room.

  Her boots were right where she left them, next to the plush chair in the corner. Trying not to wake her sister, Honor sat and started to pull them on.

  “Gross. What is that smell?” Grace moaned, half awake. She rolled over in bed and pushed up the pink silk and lace eye mask she wore to sleep so that she could blink blearily at Honor.

  “What smell?” Honor stomped her boot all the way on and reached for the other.

  Grace growled. “Are you always going to smell like horse poo? Because if you are, I don’t want to share a room with you.”