Give My Love to Rose(1st in Outlaw Series)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Two days later found Marston in the barn attempting to clean the stalls but bumping elbows with Jeremiah who was filling the water troughs. "Why are you still here?!" Marston demanded, tossing down his rake.

Duke looked up from the ground as he lounged against the doorframe. "Are you eager to get rid of us?"

Marston was quiet a moment as he listened to the sound of Rose scrubbing clothes and Langley whistling tunes as he gathered eggs. "It's not that..."

"Then what?" Jeremiah asked, setting his empty water bucket down.

Marston swiped his sleeve across his sweaty brow. "I just can't figure out what the hell you're still doing there. I appreciate you riding in to save my family but I know damn well you only stayed for Christmas because Rose demanded it and I sure as hell can't understand what's got you sticking around and getting domesticated."

Duke took a long draw off the cigarette in his hand and blew out the smoke slowly. "I'm not sure why I'm still here," he admitted. He kicked at a piece of hay on the ground. "I guess somewhere inside this ruthless, old outlaw there's still a little boy that wants a place to call home."

"Damn Duke.." Jeremiah batted his lashes and feigned a sniffle. "That was beautiful."

Marston shoved his brother, who stumbled sideways and nearly fell in the newly filled water trough. "Duke, there was a day I would have told you that you were brain addled for even thinking something like that but now... Hell, I never thought I wanted any of this but now I couldn't see my life without it. It's nice to have a home and it's even nicer to have folks who care to come home to."

"Well that's just about the nicest thing I've ever heard you say," Jeremiah mused. "Why it sounded almost soft."

Marston growled as his hand inched toward his revolver and Duke quickly stepped in. "Hell, Jeremiah, even soft Marston could still wipe the floor with just about any other man alive. That's what happens when you're seven foot tall and about as dainty as a hundred year old oak."

Marston snatched up his rake and went back to work. "Are the two of you leaving soon?"

"Yeah, tonight," Duke replied, tossing his cigarette out of the barn.

Marston finished up spreading a bit of saw dust in the stall and leaned his rake against the wall as he nodded. "Good," he grumbled, glaring at his brother.

Marston stepped out of the barn and headed straight for Rose where she stood at a rickety table scrubbing clothes on a washboard. A bright smile lit up her face when she saw him but Marston frowned. "If you're not going to let me do it for you then you at least need to be inside with all this," he grumbled. "You spend the day in this cold air with your hands in water and you'll turn bad sick again."

Rose's eye swept upward dramatically. "Yes sir," she quipped.

Marston hefted up the wash basin full of soapy water and strode to the door. "Care to open the door, love?" he called over his shoulder at Rose. "My back ain't as young as it used to be."

Marston sat the tub of water in front of the fire and pulled Rose against his chest. "Now get that list of supplies written up and I'll head to town and pick them up after I finish carrying the clothes in."

Rose bit her lip and looked up at him. "I feel guilty ordering such things," she admitted. "We don't need them... I just said I wanted them one day."

Marston smoothed her hair from her face and kissed her cold nose. "And from now on you'll have what you want as well as what you need. Now write that list and I'll bring the other things in."