Chase the Wind (46 page)

“I never forgot what you did for me the day the Millers took me
away.”

Chase leaned back against the post as Jenny sat down in the
nearby swing. She had changed since he had last seen her. The girl
she had been was gone, replaced by a woman who held all the
grace that the girl had promised. She was long and lean, her limbs straight and strong, but her eyes held a hint of sadness that was
buried deeper now than when she was fifteen. Chase remembered
the morning when she had danced around the room with joy, until she was so dizzy that she had fallen against the bed, drunk with happiness. He had tried to save her, had come after the two men
who were taking her away from the brother she loved, but his
broken leg and youthful inexperience had failed him.

“I should have killed them,” he said, his dark eyes flashing as he
remember her anguished cries and struggles.

Jenny shivered when she saw the look in his eyes, and did not
doubt that if it happened again, he would. “You did all you could,”
she said simply, her deep blue eyes looking up at him, assuring
him that she did not blame him.

“It wasn’t enough.” He shrugged, as if dismissing his efforts as feeble at best, then turned to look once more at the sky. “Look, there’s a rainbow.” He pointed towards the east.

Jenny walked over to stand next to him and saw the arc of color
coming down into the hills beyond. “They say there’s a pot of gold
at the end.”

“There’s treasure there, but no gold.”

“Then what is it?’

“Land—the most beautiful land you’ve ever seen. Crystal lakes
set in green valleys, with mountains rising up around them. It
almost takes your breath away.” Chase spoke passionately, and his
passion made Jenny want to go there.

“I can show it to you.” It was almost as if he read her mind, and
she gazed up into his dark eyes, seeing a longing there that she
had never seen before.

“Hey, Jenny, want to see the new foal?” Zane called from the
barn, waving to get her attention. Chase stepped off the porch
when she turned to wave back.

“Let me tell Jamie where I’m going,” she called back as she
watched Chase walk away. Jenny opened the door to Grace’s cabin
and stopped dead in her tracks. She backed out, softly closing the
door as her cheeks flushed a dark pink.

There was no mistaking the kiss that Jamie was giving Grace, and the older woman was sitting in his lap as if he had pulled her off her feet. They were lovers—they had to be; there was nothing casual about what she had just seen. Jenny felt her stomach heave
as she walked towards Zane, who was waiting for her with a cocky
grin on his face.

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” he said as she came into
the barn.

“Just too much excitement,” she answered. Zane led her to a stall
where a newborn foal stood on wobbly legs as his mother nuzzled him. By the time Jamie caught up with her, Jenny was in the stall
with her arms around the foal.

“I wondered where you ran off to.”

“Oh, don’t worry about Jenny.” Zane grinned. “We’ll take care
of her.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Zane threw up his arms as if to ward off a blow, but Jamie ignored him and went down the row of stalls until he came to
Storm. Jamie stood at the stall door, tears welling in his eyes as he looked at the magnificent animal that had belonged to his father. Jenny walked up behind him as he began to whistle “Good King Wenceslas.” Storm came to him, sucking in air as he drank in the
scent of Jamie, who was so like his father. Jamie rubbed the noble forehead and gazed into the dark eyes of the horse, whispering long-forgotten secrets into ears that stood at attention, catching his every word.

“I can’t believe you found him.”

“Like I said, he found me. It was as if he was done with his wild ways and wanted to come back home, but he didn’t know where home was.”

“I know how you felt, believe me,” Jamie murmured into the pricked ear. “Now I need to show you something,” he said to his sister.

Jenny looked up at the wide blue eyes that held many secrets now, the price they had paid for growing up apart from each other. She was still reeling from her discovery of the relationship between Jamie and Grace, and wasn’t sure how to act, but he was her brother, so she let him take her hand and lead her back to the bunkhouse.

Jake was napping again while Caleb and Ty were sitting at the table, drawing and reading, each pursing his favorite pastime. Jamie made a production of sitting Jenny down on the lower bunk while he reached beneath and pulled out a small trunk. He opened the lid and took out a cloth-wrapped package. Jenny’s eyes opened wide when he laid their mother’s angel box in her lap.

“Oh, Jamie, I thought it was gone forever!” Jenny exclaimed as she reverently ran her fingers over the carving of the angel. She slowly opened the lid, afraid to look, sure the contents would be gone, but they were all there as she remembered, with one addition, a drawing of Jenny, with the offer of a cash reward for anyone knowing her whereabouts.

“I took care of the box for you. Now you need to take it back.” Jamie was on his knees beside her, a soft smile on his usually animated face. Jenny hugged the box to her breast, the memories of her mother strong as she felt the smooth surface of the wood.

“Do you remember Momma’s quilt?” Jenny asked as the image of her parents’ bed came into her mind.

“Yes, I remember. I wish we had it.”

“So do I.”

Their reminiscing was interrupted when Chase came in, dressed in a clean pair of pants, his hair dripping from the bath he had just had. Jenny jumped up from his bunk as he reached underneath to
pull a clean shirt from his box of clothing. It happened to be the
one Jenny had mended, and he looked at it in surprise as he pulled
it on.

“I see Grace finally got to the mending,” Chase commented as
he buttoned it up over the wide expanse of his smooth chest.

“Actually, Jenny has been doing the mending,” Ty said, looking
up from his book. Jenny gave him a dazzling smile, and he read
the same line three times before he was able to move on.

“You must be tired, too,” Jenny said to her brother as Chase
stretched out on his bunk and closed his eyes.

“I could use a bath.” Jamie ran his hand through his hair, and
instead of flopping over, the mass stuck straight up. Jenny laughed,
a light sound in the room that drew everyone’s attention; she reached up to pat the stray hairs down. “I’ll let you get cleaned
up.”

“I’ll catch up with you in a bit.”

They walked out together, Jenny still holding on to the box. She hesitated when she walked by Grace’s cabin after Jamie went off to the bathhouse. She wasn’t ready to deal with the affair between the
two of them, so she went on up to the house. She knew that Jason
and Cat had missed the reunion and expected them to be pleased
to hear about it.

Jamie joined them after he had cleaned up, and the four of them
sat on the wide front porch, rocking and talking into the evening hours. Jason and Jamie talked of the ranch, and Jenny marveled at
the weight Jason gave to Jamie’s opinion. She felt pride in her brother growing inside her as the gray head leaned close to the
russet one while they talked about Storm and the potential for breeding him. Cat eventually wandered off, feeling that she had punished Ty enough for one day, and went down to see what was
brewing in the bunkhouse. Soon enough the three on the porch
were yawning, and since the next morning was the start of a work
week, they said their good nights.

Jenny went straight up to her room and to the window, where
she could watch her brother walk down the gentle slope to the bunkhouse in the moonlight. He passed Cat, who was on her way
up, and said something to her, causing her to swing at him play
fully. Jenny smiled to herself, remembering the easy way Jamie always had with people. When he got to the bottom of the hill, he
stepped up on the porch to Grace’s cabin, which was dark except
for a light in the side window. Jenny waited, and never saw him come out the other side. Eventually the light went out, and she realized that he was not coming out, that he had sought the company of Grace, no doubt sharing with her the secrets he used to share with her when they were children.

“He’s twenty years old, Jenny. What did you expect, that he was a monk?” Jenny grumbled to herself as she stripped off the only clothes she owned and slid beneath the smooth sheets of the big bed. “Just because you’ve avoided men doesn’t mean that he feels the same about women,” she went on. A mental picture filled her mind, of her brother’s long body entwined with Grace’s generous curves, of her hair spread in wild abandon, of Jamie’s hair falling over his face as they made love. “Stop it!” She spat the words out to get control of her imagination. “You’re acting jealous, and it’s ridiculous.” Jenny sat up in bed and turned the lamp up. The earlier rain had brought a warm westerly breeze that gently caressed the curtains at the window. Jenny flung the covers back and went to the wardrobe, opening the door so she could look in the mirror.

She stood before the mirror, taking time to study her body in the dim light of the lamp. The darkness softened her figure until she appeared luminous in the wavy glass. She could find no fault with what she saw. She had seen the way the boys in the bunk-house looked at her, had seen the sketches that Caleb had made, and realized that perhaps she was beautiful, as they said. She lifted the waves of golden hair up, turned her neck gracefully to examine the angles, and then dropped the mass with a sigh. “Oh, Momma, am I pretty? Will a man ever love me, instead of wanting to use me for profit, or beat me because I remind him of someone else?” She looked in the mirror again and summoned Cat’s image to mind, her petite frame, her slanted eyes with the golden glow, the glorious curls that tumbled around her heart-shaped face. Then there was Grace, who seemed to be the image of her name, refined and elegant even with her arms buried in bread dough, her brown eyes wise and serene, her curves generous enough to make any man want her, even with her scars.

“The scars,” Jenny said in surprise. “That’s what brought them together.” That realization brought sudden peace to the turmoil that Jenny had experienced since that afternoon. She hadn’t even thought about Jamie’s scars—they were so much a part of him— but they must be a burden to him, always obvious to those who saw him for the first time, and it was probably the same for Grace. Jenny crawled back into the big bed again, feeling relaxed for the first time in years. She had found her brother, he was well and happy, and whatever happened next, they would be together. Maybe she could even find someone to love her. Her mind settled on Ty, whose glances she had noticed since she had arrived. She closed her eyes and summoned up an image of sandy hair and blue eyes set in a serious, handsome face. “Maybe Cat should be worried, after all,” she said to herself as she fell asleep.

The warm breeze that danced through the open window gently caressed the golden wisps of hair that curled around a perfectly oval face. Like the touch of a lover’s hand, the air moved over the long expanse of well-toned leg that had found its way out from under the sheets. It brought forth a sigh from full lips that longed for more, just one more kiss, but the wind teased and was gone. In the dream, however, the lover remained, running sure, strong hands over a body brimming with desire, surrounding the two of them with dark hair that tickled and teased at the bare breasts below, mingling with the golden strands until the two bodies were joined together in a dance that had been going on since the beginning of time.

Jenny woke with a start, kicking the clinging sheets away from her tingling skin. She felt an ache inside, every nerve was on fire from the dream which had stopped just short of consummation. She had not been able to see the face of her lover, but she could still feel his presence in every part of her. The bed felt suffocating, so she walked to the window to let the breeze dry her sweaty skin and calm her frazzled nerves. The valley below was quiet; there was nothing to be heard but the creatures of the night singing their songs in full chorus, secure in the darkness. Jenny knelt before the window and laid her head on the sill, not anxious to return to the comfort of the big bed and the demons in her dreams.

A slight movement caught her eye and in the shadows below she could see someone standing on the porch of the bunkhouse, leaning against the comer column, facing up towards the main house. A hand went up and smoothed back hair that was lost in the shadows, and the way the hand trailed down over the shoulder, she knew it had to be Chase, even though Jake wore his hair long also. She briefly wondered what was keeping him up late, knowing
he must be exhausted from his time on the trail, and she attributed his sleeplessness to the heat. Something caught his attention, and Jamie appeared in the opening between Grace’s cabin and the
bunkhouse. She could see Jamie talking to Chase, then watched as
Jamie went inside the bunkhouse. The next thing she knew, there was the sound of a huge crash, followed by Jamie’s angry voice.