The Horseman (10 page)

And with that, Briney nodded, and her mood
brightened. Bethanne was right, and Briney knew that she’d resolved
the matter two or three times already. It was time to move on and,
as Bethanne said, quit beating a dead horse (although Briney
thought the term rather morbid).

“You’re right, Bethanne. You’re right. And
yes! You should come with me when I return to purchase Sassafras.
That would be wonderful!” she exclaimed. “And if seeing Mr. Cole
again wasn’t already motivation enough for me to heal quickly—which
it is—seeing you with Charlie will be!”

Both young women laughed together a moment or
two before Bethanne took her leave of Briney’s room. Once she’d
gone, Briney sighed and finished her peach pie. Oh, it was good—in
that moment, better than anything Briney had ever tasted!

And when she’d dared to actually lick the
last of the cream from her plate (thinking how abhorred Mrs.
Fletcher would be at such an action), Briney laid back down on her
bed and waited—waited in hopes that when Gunner Cole left the
Kelleys’ restaurant downstairs, he would pause to say
something—anything—so that she could drift to sleep with the sound
of his deep, comforting voice humming in her ears.

Briney’s heart leapt when, only a few minutes
later, she heard him; she heard Gunner speaking to someone below
her bedroom window. She sat up in her bed so that she could hear
more clearly.

“Yep,” Gunner said to someone, “I never
thought I’d see the day either, but you shoulda seen that horse
take to Briney Thress. A body woulda thought they’d known each
other all their lives.”

“But ain’t you gonna miss that horse,
Gunner?” Briney heard Mr. Kelley’s familiar voice ask.

“Well, Miss Thress has agreed to stable Sassy
with me, so I’ll still have her right there,” Gunner replied.

“It sounds like a good deal then, Gunner,”
Mr. Kelley said. “And I think your mama would be happy to know ol’
Sassy’s got a new friend. I’ll tell you what, Sylvia and me, and
Bethanne too of course, we really like Briney. There’s
somethin’…well, somethin’ kind of unique and special about her.
She’s a fine young woman. Pretty too.”

Gunner chuckled. “Yes, she is,” he
agreed.

Briney bit her lip with delight at hearing
Gunner agree to her being either a
fine young woman
or
pretty too
. Her heart was hammering inside her bosom so hard
she was sure the whole world could hear it.

“I hear you brought in a whole bunch of new
stock,” Mr. Kelley began. “Wild horses?”

“Yep,” Gunner affirmed. “Mustangs. We rounded
up last week, drove to my corrals, and we’ve been breaking horses
every day since. My hind end is gonna be numb by the time we’re
finished. But I got the US Cavalry comin’ through expecting to buy
horses next month, so we’ve gotta get ‘em ready to sell.”

“Ooo wee!” Mr. Kelley exclaimed in
admiration. “You sure don’t let the grass grow under your feet,
Gunner.”

“I try not to, Walter. I try not to,” Gunner
responded.

“And I’m guessin’ that pie is for your boys?”
Walter chuckled.

Gunner chuckled too. “I figure it’s the least
I can do after a hard day’s work—treat them to a piece of Mrs.
Kelley’s peach pie.”

Briney listened as Gunner and Mr. Kelley
conversed about simple things for the next few minutes. As ever it
was, the sound of Gunner’s voice was intoxicating to her senses,
and soon she felt herself begin to drift off to sleep.

The last thing she remembered that night was
the sound of Gunner telling Mr. Kelley to “have a nice
evenin’.”

*

Gunner exhaled a heavy sigh as he drove back
toward the ranch. No doubt Charlie would be waiting with his tongue
hanging out like a hungry dog in anticipation of Mrs. Kelley’s
peach pie Gunner had promised to bring him.

Gunner sighed again, thinking how much nicer
the drive into town had been than the drive home. He’d been
surprised to find himself driving the horse a bit slower than
necessary when he and Briney were heading into town after her ride.
In fact, it had taken him a moment to consciously understand that
he was intentionally stretching the ride out so that he could
linger in Briney’s company for as long as possible.

After all, Mr. Kelley had been right: Briney
Thress was pretty—very, very pretty. Furthermore, Gunner admired
the way she’d just hopped on Sassy and ridden off for three hours
without a care to anything else. It spoke of an adventurous
spirit—of a strength and independence he immediately admired.

Laughing out loud, he thought of the
expression on her face he’d managed to witness when she’d first
seen her reflection in the mirror hung on the outer wall of the
outhouse. Poor little thing had been mortified! But to Gunner’s way
of thinking, she’d looked all the more beautiful when she’d arrived
back at the ranch with her hair a mane-tangle, her face as pink as
watermelon meat, and her skirt pushed up clean above her knees.

Yep. Gunner figured Briney Thress was the
kind of woman who could enjoy life, really enjoy it—ride out on a
horse and not worry about whether her hair were perfectly coifed
when she returned. As he continued thinking of Briney, an airy,
breathless feeling rose in his chest for a moment—a feeling of
admiration and intrigue—a feeling of wanting to turn his horse and
buggy around, march into the boardinghouse, and demand to see
Briney Thress again so that he could merely linger in her presence,
gaze into her pretty sunburned face, and memorize every inch of
it.

Of course, he couldn’t return to the
boardinghouse and demand to see Briney. Still, at the thought of
the way she looked when she returned from her ride, his smile
broadened again as he mumbled, “Poor little thing.”

“Thank you so much for coming with me,
Bethanne,” Briney said as the buggy ambled along its way out of
town.

“Oh, believe me, it’s my pleasure,” Bethanne
assured her friend with a wink. “I’ll take any chance offered me to
set my eyes on that cute Charlie Plummer.”

Briney laughed, glad that her friend was
gleeful with anticipation.

It had seemed a very long three days since
Briney had ventured out to the Horseman’s ranch in search of a
mount and found not only the perfect horse for herself in Gunner
Cole’s Sassafras but also, and most infectiously, Gunner Cole
himself—the manifestation of any woman’s imaginings of the
archetypal man.

For the past three days, as Briney had
focused on tending to her sunburn and working out the stiffness of
her sore muscles, all she could seem to think about was Gunner
Cole—how entirely gorgeous he was, how strong and how wonderfully
enthralling his voice was as she listened to him the past three
nights consecutively as he conversed with different townsfolk
beneath her window.

In fact, the more Briney thought about
Gunner, the more rather desperate she grew to see him again—and not
just to finalize the sale of Sassafras but also to simply gaze at
him in awed admiration.

“You brought along your payment for the horse
this time, didn’t you?” Bethanne asked, startling Briney from her
daydreams of the Horseman.

“Oh, indeed yes!” she assured her friend
adamantly. “I’d have been a nitwit twice had I forgotten it this
time.”

And there was more to that way of thinking
where Briney was concerned, as well. She’d thought of something
during her three days of convalescing and daydreaming; she’d
decided just where to hide the bulk of the money Mrs. Fletcher had
left to Briney on her deathbed. After all, who would think to look
in the corner of a horse’s stall? Who would think to dig down deep
enough to find a quart-sized canning jar or two filled with
money?

Thus, Briney had decided that, once the sale
of Sassafras was final, she would find a way to bury her money in
Sassafras’s stall. That way, no one would suspect she was about
collecting coins or notes when she was rummaging around in her
horse’s stall—even if the Horseman did own the stall itself.
Furthermore, she surmised that the stable hands, or even Gunner
Cole himself, would never stumble upon money buried fairly deep in
a stall that had housed the same horse for who knew how many years!
Sassafras’s stall was the safest place Briney could think of, as
well as the one place no one would ever think to look for
treasure.

“I like that ridin’ skirt on you, Briney,”
Bethanne complimented as she studied her friend. “It fits you
perfectly.”

“Thank you,” Briney said, smoothing the brown
riding skirt Bethanne had gifted her. “Believe me, I got the better
deal of the two of us. When I warned you that my blue frock is
overly warm, I meant it.”

“Well, winter here can get pretty cold,”
Bethanne offered. “And I plan on saving it for the holiday dance
anyway…Christmastime, when I’m usually freezin’.”

“It looks much better on you than it ever did
me, and I’d much rather ride a horse than have an extra gown
hanging in my wardrobe that might never be worn again,” Briney
said. “It worked out so well for us both.” She glanced down at her
brown riding boots she’d purchased at the general store. “And I do
so love these new boots! My toes feel positively free in them!”

Bethanne giggled. “Yes, I’ve noticed those
toe-pinchers you’ve been wearin’. I don’t know how you tolerated
them for so long.”

Briney shrugged. “I never knew there were
shoes or boots that were comfortable, so I never knew to resent
them.”

“Makes sense,” Bethanne remarked. “Sad
sense…but sense all the same.”

Both young ladies laughed, and Bethanne
hurried the horse pulling the buggy to a quicker pace.

The closer they drew to the Horseman’s ranch,
the faster Briney’s heart began to beat. She’d been such a frazzled
mess of sunburns and knotted hair the last time she’d seen him that
she hadn’t been able to truly savor the wonder of the man. Yet as
she’d been resting up and preparing to travel out to meet him once
more, the marvel that he was had seeped deeper and deeper into her
very soul.

And when, at long last, Bethanne pulled the
horse and buggy to a halt just outside the Horseman’s largest
stable, Briney was breathless with anticipation.

Much to Bethanne’s obvious delight, it was
Charlie who hurried over to greet them.

“Well, good mornin’, ladies!” Charlie
greeted. Briney bit her lip to stifle a giggle as Bethanne’s eyes
widened to the size of dinner plates, sparkling like they’d somehow
sucked up every star in the heavens into them to shine for Charlie
Plummer alone.

“Good mornin’, Mr. Plummer,” Bethanne
greeted.

Charlie nodded to Bethanne and then to
Briney. “I suppose you ladies have come to see to the finalizin’ of
Sassafras’s ownership, hmm?”

“Yes, we have,” Briney answered. “Is her
owner around close perhaps?”

She was afraid her heart would leap right out
of her chest somehow, as Gunner Cole stepped out of the stable,
dusting off the weathered pair of chaps he was wearing.

“Good mornin’, ladies,” he greeted as
well.

Briney felt goose pimples breaking over her
arms and legs in unison with the rhythmic ching-ching of the spurs
he wore at the heels of his boots.

“You ready to buy a horse, Miss Thress?” he
asked as he leaned on the front of the buggy, looking up at her
with a broad, dazzling smile spread across his handsome, oh, so
handsome face.

“Yes, I certainly am, Mr. Cole,” she
answered.

“Well, come on down and let’s get it done,
shall we?”

He offered her his hand, and she grasped it
as she stood up from the buggy seat. The warmth of his firm grip
caused her to tremble a bit, and she hoped he hadn’t noticed.

Briney stepped down and couldn’t keep herself
from pausing in staring up at him a moment. He was far more
attractive even than she remembered!

“Why don’t you let me take care of your rig
for you, Miss Kelley?” she heard Charlie say to Bethanne. “Would
you like a glass of water while Mr. Cole and Miss Briney take care
of their business?”

“Why yes! Thank you, Mr. Plummer,” Bethanne
warmly answered.

“Looks like that sunburn you took on the
other day is just about gone already,” Gunner said, smiling down at
Briney with such an alluring twinkle in his eye, it made her
stomach flutter.

“Yes. Yes, it did—thanks in great part to
Mrs. Kelley’s aloe vera plant,” Briney managed.

“Mmm hmm,” Gunner agreed.

Briney nearly fainted when next the alluring
Horsemen reached out, softly caressing her cheek with the back of
one hand.

“Good as new and at least as soft,” he said,
winking at her.

Briney had to stiffen her legs—silently
command her knees not to buckle under the euphoric sensation
washing over her because of his touch. She was speechless, of
course—entirely struck mute by the thrill racing through her.

“Well, let’s get to horse business then,”
Gunner said. “We ain’t gonna get you set up with Sassy by just
standin’ around, now are we?”

“No…no, I suppose not,” Briney stammered.

Gunner stepped aside, motioning that Briney
should precede him into the stables. “After you,” he said.

Briney managed a glance at Bethanne as she
walked past her—Bethanne, who stood mouth somewhat agape, obviously
having been as astonished as Briney had been by Gunner’s rather
flirtatious gesture.

As Briney stepped into the stables,
comforting aromas—of straw and leather, horsehair and feed—filled
her lungs. It was wonderful—all of it—the sunlight beaming through
the stable windows, the rows of stables filled with magnificent
horses. And then when Briney heard a neighing that was at once
familiar, her heart leapt with even more joy.

“You see that?” Gunner chuckled, nodding
toward Sassafras’s stall. “I think she’s been wonderin’ where
you’ve been. Look how happy she is to see you.”