Into The Storm

CHAPTER EIGHT

SHELBY CLENCHED HER teeth and wrapped her arms tighter around her pack. If she could just stop shivering... Heat blasting from the vents didn’t seem to reach her, as if she still felt the icy wind.

She should have kept riding and taken her chances; now she was trapped in Jake’s truck. She fought down panic. The whole sequence had lasted only minutes but looped endlessly in her brain: Stranger’s roar, footsteps approaching, Gary’s smug leer... Or another man’s face, hands touching her as she lay helpless. She choked back a whimper and reached for the door handle.

“Ain’t that the way!” Jake said. “No more than a dusting here in the canyon, but the high country will get another foot. Take a peek over your shoulder, Shelby—looks like the gates of hell where you were headed.”

His soft drawl steadied her, and she glanced at the mountains behind them. Blue-black clouds hid the peaks, and swaying curtains of snow grayed the lower slopes.

“Warming up?” He reached to adjust the vents in front of her, and she shrank back reflexively.

“Is there...” She cleared her throat and tried again. “Is there a used car lot in town?”

He glanced at her with a puzzled frown. “Sure, Bert Dawson sells pretty decent vehicles.”

She looked down at the roll of bills she still clutched. Another couple hundred in her pack... “Let me off there, okay?”

Jake steered his rig into a small roadside picnic area and then turned to face her. “Shelby, Bert’s brother is a La Plata County deputy. Bert would take one look at you and be on the phone before you could get two words out. For your protection, mind you. You sure you don’t want to file a complaint?”

She shook her head mutely. It would be her word against Gary’s, and his injury was probably worse than hers. Ross Norquist had said he would support charges, but sending his own son to jail... The police might seize Stranger as a vicious dog; for sure they’d put her name through their computer.

“I can’t,” she said. “I just can’t.”

Jake sat silent for a long moment and then sighed. “If you’re bound to leave, I’ll take you wherever you want to go, but how about we get the colt settled first? I want to get off to a good start with him.”

Because of her, he now had a horse he didn’t want. Her sense of fairness overcame the urge to bolt. “I guess I can do that much.”

“Anyway,” he said, “I’ve got a proposition for you.” He groaned. “That came out wrong! What I mean—I’m offering you a job. You know anything about cattle?”

A job? “Not much,” she said. She had watched branding and castration from the safe vantage point of corral fences. “I can’t rope or anything like that.”

“Can you ride?” he asked with a straight face.

A smile started against her will. He was playing her, teasing her back off the ledge. “Yes, I can ride.”

“Ever used a rifle or a shotgun?”

“Grandpa used to take me duck hunting in the fall. I didn’t much care for it, but I can handle a shotgun. What would I have to shoot?”

“Nothing, I hope. My boys come home between weekend events, but I can’t count on them for much work. One or the other is generally banged up. I need someone at a line camp at the far edge of the ranch. It’s isolated and pretty rough, but there’s a good corral for the colt. You’d have to ride the fence line and keep it up. I’ll have cow and calf pairs up there pretty soon—calving is almost done—so you’d need to keep an eye on them and chase off any varmints you see.”

Reluctantly, she considered his offer. She realized with surprise that she trusted him, as much as she trusted anyone, but the thought of owing him or any man made her shy away like a beaten animal.

“Could we go straight out there? Today, I mean?”

He sat in silence—she liked the way he thought things out before speaking.

“I figured you could stay overnight at the home ranch and we’d head out in the morning,” he said. “Plenty of room—Tom and Luke are on the road, so there’s just me and Lucy home.”

“No! I mean...” She didn’t want to meet his daughter, didn’t want anyone to see her face like this. Gary’s attack shamed her. She should have been smarter or quicker—something.

He glanced at his watch. “Another five, six hours of daylight. We’ll pick up supplies and have you settled in before nightfall—that suit you?”

She nodded, not trusting her voice.

He pulled back onto the road, and they drove in silence. Now with her course set, Shelby relaxed a little. The scratches burned, and her jaw ached, but she’d been scraped and bruised before; it went with the job. She would deal with the ugliness later as she had in the past, alone.

She watched the changing landscape flow by. West of Durango, silver mountain peaks loomed north of gentle valleys. Cottonwoods studded with early lime-green foliage marked the meandering courses of streams.

Just past the little town of Hesperus, Jake turned south again until he drove under a ranch sign with Cameron’s Pride burned into a weathered plank. The house sat half a mile from the road, and she saw with approval that all the buildings stood tight and square, with no machinery left out in the weather. In a short while, they had the colt, who didn’t seem much stressed by the second trailer ride of his life, confined in a small corral by the barn.

“Lucy won’t be home till late,” Jake said, grabbing Shelby’s pack from the backseat. “You can get cleaned up, and we’ll find some ointment for those scratches and ice for your lip.”

Shelby followed him into the ranch house. For a moment her skin crawled at finding herself alone with a man in a confined area, but she made herself step into the kitchen. Stranger followed and flopped in front of the big fireplace.

The cascade of crimson flowers on a huge Christmas cactus drew her, and she caressed a blossom with one finger.

“You like flowers?” Jake asked.

“I love making things grow,” she said. “That’s what I miss most, I guess, always on the road. I helped my mama in her garden—things grow like crazy in Louisiana.”

Jake stood beside her but left a little distance between them. “It’s tougher here, but my wife had the touch. Flowers, vegetables...” He cleared his throat and poked a finger into the pot. “Needs a little water, you think?”

She touched the soil. “No, it’s good—you’re doing fine.”

He turned to the big fridge and handed her an ice pack from the freezer. “How about you sit with that while I get some lunch together?” He peered back into the fridge. “We’ve got chili, or roast beef for sandwiches.”

She unzipped her jacket and remembered her ruined shirt. “Could I change somewhere?”

“Sorry, I should have said... Bathroom’s just down the hall, and there’s a first aid box—”

“That’s okay—I have stuff.”

In the bathroom, she dug through her pack for a cotton turtleneck and another flannel shirt before looking in the mirror. Her lower lip had ballooned to twice normal size, and blood traced a thin line from the left corner of her mouth. She moved her jaw experimentally—nothing broken and no loose teeth—but chewing would hurt for a few days.

She pulled off both shirts and threw them in the wastebasket. She could sew new buttons on the flannel shirt, but she knew she would never wear it again. Gary had ripped the tank top beyond repair.

The scratches would probably scar, no help for it. She found a clean washcloth, worked soap into it and took a deep breath. The sting of the soap on the raw wounds made her suck in her breath audibly and add a colorful description of Gary Norquist.

“You okay in there?” Jake’s voice came from just outside the door. The irony of the situation struck her—she had asked him the same question the morning after he’d run his truck into the ditch.

“Fine,” she said. “Just got a look at my face.” She heard him chuckle.

“I’m heating up the chili,” he said. “Easier for you to eat than a sandwich.”

By the time she came out, Jake had set two places and filled a cardboard box with food.

“We keep the cabin stocked with canned and dried food,” he said as they sat to eat, “but we can haul a few extras with us.” He picked up his spoon. “Hope the chili isn’t too spicy for you. Tom made this batch, and he gets a little crazy with Hatch peppers.”

The thick chili stung her lip, but the glass of milk beside her bowl eased the burn. Jake talked while she ate, an easy flow of words requiring minimal response. He pointed with his spoon at a framed document above the mantel.

“House ever catches fire, that’s the one thing we’d save.” He rose and took it down, dusting the glass with his sleeve before handing it to Shelby.

She tilted it to the light to read the faded script while Jake translated the Spanish: “Joined in holy matrimony Jacob Thomas Cameron and Rosa Monte at the mission church of San Geronimo, this second day of December in the year of our Lord 1867.” A flowing signature followed, with those of two witnesses below it.

She handed it back. “Jacob the grizzly-killer?”

“Yup. Rosa Monte was the best translation they could come up with for my great-great grandmother’s Ute name. They rode all the way down to Taos in winter to find a priest. Old Jacob was bound he’d marry her—his sons weren’t going to get booted off this land because he didn’t claim them all proper. His grandfather lost his holdings in Scotland for backing the wrong cause, and carpetbaggers grabbed Jacob’s land in Virginia. He named this ranch Cameron’s Pride after the plantation he lost. We’ve hung on to it through droughts and wildfires and range wars and renegade Indian raids.”

He laughed self-consciously and hung the certificate back in its place of honor. “Didn’t mean to get started—this ranch is kind of a religion with us. We’d best get moving if you want to sleep at the cabin tonight.” He paused while putting the milk back in the fridge. “You sure you don’t want to talk to the police? Now’s the time if you’re going to.”

“No!” Her throat constricted. “Ross and Liz are good people. They’ve got enough trouble.”

“Might be doing everyone a favor, but it’s your call.” He picked up the box of food. “Let’s saddle up.”

Jake led the way to the barn, stopping to pull her saddle from his truck. “I don’t know how far you’ve gotten with the colt, but I doubt you can work off him yet.” He disappeared into the barn and returned leading a stout chestnut mare easily sixteen hands tall.

“Meet Sadie. She’s got some years on her, but she’s sound and steady, and she won’t take any nonsense from the colt. I use her for hunting, so you can shoot over her if you have to. Which reminds me...”

He handed Sadie’s lead rope to Shelby and jogged back to the house, returning with a shotgun and a box of shells. “You’re sure you won’t blow your foot off?”

She took the shotgun from him, broke it to check that it wasn’t loaded, and handed it back. “I’m sure,” she said.

“Good enough.” He stepped into the tack room and came out with a stock saddle, two bridles and a coiled rope. “Be right back,” he said, and strode through the metal gate beside the barn.

A few minutes later he returned leading a dun gelding. Shelby had already brushed Sadie and cinched her own saddle on the mare.

He stood back to study her rig. “I didn’t take a good look before—what is that, a Buena Vista?”

She nodded. “My granddaddy called it a plantation saddle. It’s lighter than a Western saddle, and I can take the stirrups off when I first put it on a horse.” She stroked the leather, smooth and dark as antique walnut. “I learned to ride on this saddle.”

Jake saddled the gelding and filled his saddlebags with food. He lashed the sack containing Stranger’s food behind his saddle and cocked an eye at the sun. “Get the colt,” he said. “Let’s move out.”

Shelby followed him, leading the colt with Stranger trotting alongside. The attack and her blind flight into the snowstorm faded like a bad dream with the steady clip-clop of the horses’ hooves. Jake hadn’t urged her to talk and hadn’t pushed her to report the attack. The tension that had strung her nerves taut at the Norquist ranch, waking and sleeping, eased. She slouched into the mare’s long stride and lifted her face to the sunlight.

CHAPTER NINE

GOOD THING SHELBY couldn’t see his face. Jake ground his teeth and mouthed savage curses. He wanted to pound Gary into the corral dirt. He should have dragged Shelby straight to the sheriff’s office, but the terror in her eyes had made him back off. What made her fear the police more than her attacker? It didn’t seem likely she was running from the law if she kept an ad in Western Horseman.

His mount caught his mood and shied at nothing. “Sorry, Butch,” he said and patted the horse’s neck. He slapped a grin on his face and looked over his shoulder. “You doing okay back there?”

Shelby nodded, answering with a lopsided smile. “Doing fine—everything looks better from on top of a horse.”

He dropped back to ride beside her on the wagon track, no more than two deep ruts in the red soil. Even in his black mood, he automatically checked out range conditions as he rode. They’d had a good winter, with enough snow to soak deep against drought but not so much they’d had to chop ice or haul hay through head-high drifts. Already new green showed though the brown grass. He’d be able to move his cow-calf pairs out here soon, with Shelby to keep an eye on them.

If she stayed. The possibility she might leave brought him up short; he reined in without thinking atop the long slope they’d just climbed.

Shelby halted her mount. “Something wrong?”

“Just thought we’d breathe the horses while I show you some landmarks.” He pointed westward. “See that long ridge shaped like a ship’s prow? That’s Mesa Verde, where the mustangs were rounded up. The colt wouldn’t have to run far to his old stomping ground. From up there you can see clear down to the Navajo Reservation.”

“Do we have much farther to ride?”

He gave her a sharp glance; she was drooping a little in the saddle. He hated leaving her alone a good hour’s ride from the home ranch, but he was pretty sure she would resist coming back with him.

“Another fifteen minutes at this pace,” he said. “Across the creek below this ridge, around that next bluff, then back across the creek. We can’t drive across yet because the banks are soft and the water’s high, but I brought up a full propane tank last fall and there’s enough hay to last you a while.”

A small log house came into view as they splashed across the creek. “There it is,” he said. “The Cameron’s sacred shrine, Jacob’s first homestead. The old boy picked a good spot—plenty of water, the bluff at his back, and level ground to put in a garden.”

He spurred his horse to a trot, and Sadie followed with no urging. Shelby rode into the corral with the colt while Jake tied his horse outside and closed the gate. A roomy lean-to formed one side of the pen with hay bales stacked under cover; a stock tank with a rusty pump brimmed with water. Shelby dismounted stiffly and unsnapped the lead line from the colt’s halter before unsaddling her horse.

Stranger sniffed ecstatically around the cabin’s foundation and then lifted his leg against a corral post. He continued his personal survey of the clearing, disappearing behind the lean-to.

Jake unsaddled his horse, as well. “You’re going to need this saddle for Sadie,” he said. “The scabbard for the shotgun won’t fit on yours. I’ll ride home bareback.” He carried both saddles to the shed and broke open a bale of hay. “Let me show you around before it gets dark.”

Shotgun in hand, he opened the cabin door and ushered her inside. “I’ll turn on the propane for the stove and light the pilot before I leave. The fireplace draws good, and there’s more wood just out the back door. No fridge, but we have a Coleman chest in the back room.” He carried apples, frozen hamburger, half-and-half, a carton of eggs and a couple freezer packs to a small back room and put them into the big cooler.

“Sorry, no bathroom,” he said, “but the outhouse is clean and limed.” He pointed to a row of empty plastic jugs. “Grab a couple of those, and I’ll show you where to get water.”

He led her to a well-trodden path skirting the bluff behind the cabin. Hidden behind a bold sandstone outcropping lay an almost perfectly circular pool. Tendrils of vapor hung above it in the cooling air. A miniature waterfall leaped from a fissure in the rocks above the pool.

“The water from the rock face is safe to drink, and the pool is great for bathing—it stays an even one hundred degrees year-round.” He climbed up the rocks and began filling the jugs.

Shelby followed, and they each carried two gallons back to the cabin. The sun sat nearly on the western horizon and shadows filled the interior. Jake lit two oil lamps and showed Shelby where to find more oil before lighting the range and kindling a fire on the hearth.

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