Read Cowboy Heart (Historical Western Romance) (Longren Family series #3, Kitty and Lukes story) for Free Online

were outside working with the horses when the call came up from one of the ranch hands. 
                  "Riders!"
                  Sarah instantly abandoned the horse she'd been currying, picked up the front of her skirt in both hands, and began to run.  "That'll be William!"
                  I followed her out of the stall.  Against the setting sun of the early August day, clouds of dust rose in the dry air, tinted salmon and gold like the sunset.  I could hear the riders before I could see anything more of them than the dust.  Maybe I didn't know any of the team, except my brother by marriage, but excitement swept me, anticipation like something new was about to happen.  I ran after Sarah, my own traveling skirt held aside.
                  They rode into the yard, trail weary and dusty, a clutch of cowboys wearing sweat-stained denim and dust-covered hats.  They were laughing, tired, but talking about the trip, about the sale, about a rattlesnake one of them had killed with one shot at 10 yards.
                  "Could've done it better, had you not been in the way," one of them said.
                  "See you try," said the shooter.
                  Good natured laughter and someone said, "We leave Tiny behind?"
                  "Yeah, we tried," William said, pushing through the throng of horses and men.  "There's my beautiful wife."  He caught sight of me as he started to dismount and stared.  "Kathryn?  What are you doing here?"  He looked half pleased, half worried.
                  "She came to visit, my love," Sarah said more smoothly than I'd ever seen her move into a situation.  "Come down from there and greet your wife."
                  Which he did, grabbing her tighter than I would have expected given the company of men still standing in the stable yard.  When he let her go, he walked over to give me a cautious and polite kiss on the cheek, then turned back to Sarah, checking.
                  "Everything alright with your kin?"
                  "Mother's probably apoplectic," she said.  "We're sheltering young Kathryn here.  When she returns to family bosom, no doubt—" And she cut off the grand speech with a gesture that clearly meant "The End."
                  William, smiling but confused, said, "I don’t understand."
                  "I left—precipitously," I said.
                  "She left without telling Mother," Sarah translated.
                  "She's insane," William interpreted.  "What happened?"  He was brushing down his horse, taking the saddle off, ignoring the hands trying to help him.  From the looks of things, he needed someone to do for him much of what he was doing for the horse.
                  "More than can be explained here and now," Sarah said.  "We've let Mother know and, for now, Kitty is staying with us."
                  William clearly had more questions and just as clearly needed food and, eventually, a bath and to talk to his wife.  It seemed like a very good time for me to make myself scarce. I could weed the garden, which, despite it having been done that earlier in the day, undoubtedly had a new crop of weeds starting up.  Or I could take a walk along the very low flowing stream that edged the property where homestead became grazing land.  Or…
                  Anything.  But let Sarah explain to William, who I still didn't much know.  Adventure, yes, trees and animals and foothills that needed climbing; but people still fretted me, made me uncomfortable, out of place and out of sorts.  I'd met so many new people since leaving Nevada.  I was due a break.
                  I'd come back when it was time to start supper preparations and help Sarah.  The trail team would be occupied taking care of horses and themselves until