Love's Rescue (27 page)

Meg jerked violently against the reins. The ground beneath them trembled with the force of the hoofbeats. Jess hurried toward Meg, knowing they were in danger before Jake could voice it.

“Mustangs!”

Instantly, Jake was beside her. Without another word, he helped hoist her into her saddle. Jess whipped the reins over Meg’s head. The terrified horse shot out at a run.

In moments, Jake and the black overtook them, and Jake used the ends of his own reins to whip Meg to her maximum speed.

Jess wanted to look over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of the herd of mustangs, but she didn’t dare. They were close enough now to sound like thunder.

As they neared the ranch, an army of mounted cattlemen sped toward them, loaded down with extra ropes and lassos tied to every available strap on the saddle and slung over their shoulders.

Seeing Doyle approaching on Cielos, Jake pulled his mount to a rapid halt. Jess fought Meg to do the same.

“Get into the house, Jess!” Jake ordered, trading horses with Doyle in a blink. “Warn the others to bolt the doors on the barn and the stable! I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

“You’re going after them while they’re stampeding?” she shouted, incredulous, as men shot past, their exhilarated eyes fixed on the hunt.

“They’re only horses, Jess,” he shouted back. “Don’t worry, I promise I’ll let you feed them!”

She couldn’t help grinning at that. “I’ll hold you to it!” she answered. When he held Cielos back for her sake, she yelled, “You’d better go get my herd, Bennett!”

“Yes, ma’am!” He flashed her a valiant smile, then spun the stallion about. In a churn of hooves, he was gone.

Jess ran Meg in the opposite direction. She rode into the yard beside Doyle but found no one left to secure the buildings. Everyone had gone after the mustangs.

At the barn, Jess leapt down. She shut the big doors and dropped the bar in place to keep them from being forced open by the frightened cattle within. Her foot barely touched the stirrup before she whirled Meg to secure the stable.

Across the compound, Doyle called out to Ho Chen, who hurried into the cookhouse.

Suddenly, Jess remembered the Paiute women…Red Deer. “No!” Jess ignored Jake’s order to take shelter in the ranch house. She ran Meg all the way to the Indian village.

“Red Deer!” she called. “Two Hands!”

Red Deer hurried out of her dwelling. “What is it, Jessica?”

“Mustangs!” Jess gasped. “Wild horses,” she said to Red Deer’s look of confusion.

“Yes, our men went to help catch them.”

“You don’t understand! They’re coming this way!”

Red Deer wailed something in Paiute, and the women and children hurried over in alarm. “There is a mining cave we can go to for safety!”

Red Deer instructed the others and shouted for Two Hands. He appeared, leading an old gray-haired man.

Jess prayed the cave was close, knowing they might not make it in time.

The older boys came at a run with the remaining horses and helped the old man and Red Deer to mount. Jess pulled Two Hands up behind her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.

Red Deer led the way. Jess kept her gaze locked on the growing dust cloud until they reached the partially boarded-up mining tunnel. After helping everyone dismount, Jess and the older boys raced back for the young mothers and children who were farther behind.

Jess arrived at the mine with the last young woman and gave her an arm and a stirrup to help her dismount. The mustangs were coming on fast, flanked by rows of cattlemen.

They were less than a mile off, by her calculation, and galloping headlong for the ranch buildings despite the men’s efforts to make them turn.

Jess spun Meg toward the compound, blocking out the warnings of the others to take shelter in the cave.

The first of the mustangs entered the yard just as Jess stopped in front of the house. Tearing her hat from her head, she leapt down and smacked Meg with it, having no choice but to send the mare running, hoping she could find her
again later.

Jess bolted onto the porch. The front door flew open, and with a powerful arm, Doyle yanked her in and shut the door.

Her breath came in pants as she collapsed against the wall. “Thank you,” she breathed.

Doyle stared down at her. “I thought you done lost your mind, riding off like that.”

“I had to get back here. I had…to see the mustangs.”

“Well, I suppose there’s no sense scolding you. You weren’t harmed none.”

Together, they went to the front window and watched those bold, beautiful creatures of the wild thunder past, their glossy coats bright with morning sun. Their necks were stretched out, and their thick tails were streaming behind them.

“They hardly seem real,” Jess whispered. “They’re like a dream come to life.” She pressed her hands to the window as the last few galloped by. They turned toward the creek, directed by dusty men with lassos raised.

As soon as they had passed, Jess rushed to the door, but a word from Doyle stopped her. “You best wait, Jess.” For words so calmly spoken, they held sufficient warning to halt her. He hadn’t moved from the window. “It’ll be safer after a while.”

Jess returned to his side and watched as the cattlemen whistled and waved the kicking, thrashing mustangs through the open gate of the largest corral. When Jess saw them nearly contained, she danced impatiently, bringing a grin to Doyle’s face. “Like a child waitin’ for Christmas,” he murmured.

The instant the corral gate was closed, Jess was out the door and crossing the yard at a run, her hat flying out behind her on its strings. She leapt up onto the lowest rail of the fence, her eyes taking in the buckskins, duns, sorrels, paints…and Meg. She lifted her gaze to search out Jake.

He looked over at her from amid the boisterous backslapping of his men, and when she waved to him, he returned the greeting. In the next instant, she was drumming the top rail with her hands, giggling with unbounded pleasure. Jake separated himself from the merriment of his men, guided Cielos around the corral, and stopped beside her.

Jess smiled at his unshaven, sun-bronzed face. He gestured with a casual tip of his hat. “Your horses, ma’am.”

“I wanted to come out and see them so badly, I thought Doyle was going to have to sit on me to keep me from doing it,” she laughed.

“I wanted you to ride with us. You’re good with horses, but I have more to teach you about the wild ones first.” He surveyed the spirited herd. “Now the boys and I will have twice as much work to do with all these ponies to break to the saddle.” The dark eyes met with hers. “Your plans for this place have just gotten a big nudge forward.”

All at once, Jess remembered their Indian friends in the cave. “Jake, I moved Red Deer and the others to an abandoned mine until the horses passed.”

“Then let’s get them.” He turned Cielos for her, lending her his hand and the stirrup as Jess swung up behind him. As soon as she secured her arms around him, they rode out.

“You did right,” he said over his shoulder. “The ponies were headed for the village, but we were able to turn them before they overran the camp.”

“They sure have minds of their own.”

“Yes, indeed. This whole territory is their backyard. They probably know the terrain better than I do, and when they stretch out in open places, they go like a whirlwind, running for the thrill of it. The ranch horses, now—they do as much standing as running. They can get close to the wild horses because most of them are descended from mustangs, but they can’t keep up for very long.”

Jess knew the mustangs that Jake and the others had caught were less than half of the thundercloud that had rumbled toward them.

“You cut only thirty or forty from the herd.”

“We’ll keep only the four- and five-year-olds. Anything younger isn’t ready to train. Anything older is too stubborn, and we don’t take mothers with young. But the four- and five-year-olds will do well. The Indians are especially cunning at trapping them, then lifting them out like prairie chickens.”

Jess smiled behind him. “I’ve learned a lot from the Paiutes,” he added.

As Jake and Jess approached the mine tunnel, they found the Indian women and children already on their way home. Their husbands had come to assist them.

Spotting Red Deer, Jess quickly slid down from the saddle and hurried over to tell her and the others about the magnificent horses she had seen. Red Deer related her story to Two Hands and to those who couldn’t understand English well enough. Many of the women gathered excitedly around her, thanking her for coming to warn them and begging her to tell them more about the mustangs.

***

When Jake saw the old man, Standing Bear, he dismounted and walked beside him toward the village, leading Cielos. Standing Bear’s wrinkled, leathered face observed Jess laughing with the Paiutes.

He spoke in English, his voice having the tired quality of a man who has lived long and seen much. “So this is your falcon-woman. She is like a warm wind that pushes away the clouds.”

Jake nodded. “That she is.”

“She has no fear in her heart, this green-eyed falcon.”

“She has one fear, Standing Bear, but she hides it.”

Standing Bear said nothing but waited.

Jake felt a tug at his heart as Jess and the women entered the village of wigwams. Jess stood among the children and fussed over the simple toys and grass dolls they showed her. She was wearing the yellow dress she’d made, along with the cattleman’s hat and bandana. The leather gun belt surrounded her slim waist, its holster lost in her skirts. “She’s afraid to feel love for me.” Walking Bear stopped, and Jake remained beside him. “She has love for Red Deer and Two Hands and the others, and I can see she cares for me, but she deeply cherished her family, and then she lost them. She’s afraid to love like that again.” He met the old eyes and spoke in Paiute. “But I am patient.”

Standing Bear looked again toward the village, where a small boy was showing Jess his bow and arrow. “The fear will not win,” he agreed. “It is in her to love.”

When Jess lifted her gaze in their direction, Standing Bear left Jake, continuing alone into his village. Jake walked on, leading Cielos at a slow pace so Jess could catch up. She said her good-byes and ran to join him.

“Those children are remarkable,” she said, breathless. “Did you know they can shape mud into animals that look real?” She held out her hand, happily displaying the perfect little song sparrow that he’d seen a young girl give to her.

Jake smiled at her delight as they strolled toward the ranch. “I wonder if the children can make tame mustangs.”

“That’s your job, Bennett.” She grinned.

“Miss Hale, I believe that’s the first time you’ve called me Bennett without a scowl.”

“And it may be the last time,” she joked. At ease, she pulled off her hat and let it swing in her hand.

Jake recalled how her hair looked the last night of the roundup—silky and unbound, shimmering in the campfire light. The sun glinted off it now in the same enchanting way. “I like it better when you say my first name,” he said.

“I never say your first name,” she breezed.

“No?”

She shook her head. “Uh-uh.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to point it out the next time you do.”

“You do that, Bennett. Are you going to build a new stable for the mustangs?”

“The corral will do for now. We’ll keep them in the one they’re in and train them in the empty one, maybe build two more to break several at once.”

“How will you be able to train them all?”

Jake looked at her to see genuine interest in her eyes. “Diaz is a fair hand at breaking. So are Lone Wolf and the Paiutes. We’ll get it done. Shall we ride the rest of the way?”

Jess plunked her hand on her hip when he mounted up ahead of her, her eyes sparkling. “You’re not going to let me up first?”

Jake offered a hand down. “Not a chance. If I let you up first, I’d never see you or my horse again.”

She accepted his hand but looked irked at the old reminder. Once she’d settled her arms around him, Jake nudged Cielos into an easy lope.

“I said I wouldn’t run again, and I haven’t,” Jess reminded him.

Jake glanced at her. “I was only teasing, Jess. I didn’t intend any harm.”

Jess’s expression softened, and she smiled.

***

Jake took her past the stable, through the ranch, and all the way to the garden. She gasped in surprise when he pulled up. “How did you know I’d want to be here?”

“You spent most of yesterday on the books. I figured since you enjoyed the garden, you’d want to be here today.”

“You were right.”

Touched that he’d been so attentive to her interests, Jess grasped his arm and slid to the ground. Instead of releasing his arm, she continued to hold it, her eyes lifting to where his large, gloved hand still held firmly to hers.

He hadn’t let go, either.

She felt as if she couldn’t stop holding on to him, and for the briefest of moments, she didn’t want to.

A movement beyond the creek caught her attention, and she pulled her arm away.

Jake sat upright in the saddle. Two men on horseback were passing no more than a quarter of a mile to the north. They appeared to be ordinary travelers, except that they crossed the desert instead of taking the Susanville road to the south, and they slowed as they looked in the direction of the ranch yard.

Jess watched them as they began to pick up speed, heading away. “Who are they, Bennett?”

“I don’t know. They were too far away to tell. They weren’t cowhands—at least not mine.”

“Neighbors?”

“Maybe.” He didn’t sound sure.

In the days following, the ranchmen busted their britches. After they built the additional corrals for training, they woke each morning a full hour before dawn, needing every available moment to break the mustangs so that as many as possible would be ready to sell come autumn. A man needed nearly a week to break just one to the saddle, and when Jess woke each morning to feed the stable horses, Jake was always out in one of the corrals, already beginning his day.

Though Jess saw him little, Jake continued to look after her with subtle, thoughtful gestures—filling the woodpile near the fireplace each morning so she wouldn’t have to, leaving her a pot of tea steeping on the hearth, coming and going without a whisper of sound when she was asleep so as not to waken her. The things he did for her tugged at her heart, leaving her feeling contented and cared for.