Rebellion in the Valley Page 7

  Glancing out the window, he couldn’t help but notice that Tobias was the reason she was having such a good time out there. Shaking his head, a smirk found its way to his face; he ran a finger over his eyelid to care for an itch and chuckled at the way those two got along so well.

  “And what’s so comical,” Bruce wanted to know as he came in for an old rag to clean his rifle with.

  Richard finished the chuckling and nodded his head toward the window. “Those two,” he indicated with a tug of his thumb. “They’re at it again.”

  Hailee raced around the laundry-drying line, threatening to toss her handmade wicker basket at Tobias, who was threatening in equal measure to yank her wet dress off the line.

  Of course, he never would have done such a thing to Hailee, and she knew that. Once she allowed him to catch her, she let out a squeal for his reward.

  “C’mon,” Tobias told her over the top of her thick blonde curls. “I’ll help you finish this up.”

  Bruce watched the pair work together, tugging on Hailee’s dress as they straightened all the ruffles and gathers so it would dry tight. She did like her ruffles tight, he grinned before the words that Gus told him came full circle back into his mind.

  Could Tobias really be sweet on his Hailee?

  Before wrapping his mind around that question much more, the dust trail of hooves caught his sight just over the other side of the hill and diverted Bruce’s attention; it was Duffy, he finally figured out.

  Bruce motioned for Richard to come closer. “Get some oil lamps out, just in case we hit a snag on fixing your water pump. I want it done by the time anyone hits the pillow tonight,” Bruce assured his old friend with a hearty pat on the back.

  Disguising the way he felt about how long Duffy had been gone, Bruce made his way outside, waved at the man on horseback and smiled.

  Chapter 8

  Her father’s favorite wing back chair cradled her lower back and eased the tension she felt at the base of her neck. Even after a bath in the creek, the general disgruntled atmosphere around the ranch caused everyone to be on higher than usual alert. What was wrong with Duffy these days, anyhow?

  With eyes fixed straight ahead into the fireplace, Hailee’s intention had been to focus on the new book she bought in Canon City, but found no concentration for anything except the man who stood outside. The man she found herself staring at through the window. The man leaning up against the loaded down wagon and discussing the best route to take in the morning.

  The man who found himself glancing back inside the window at the pretty blonde sitting in front of the fireplace…the girl with the glow of soft flames against her face…the girl he would rather be talking with right now, than a bunch of foul-smelling men who best be bathing tonight before they all head out together in the early morning hours.

  Hailee slid a lavender-scented bookmark into the book, flipped the cover and set it down on the round table on top of the snow-white doily her grandmother had tatted a lifetime ago, then lifted herself from the chair and made her way to large picture window overlooking the majority of the ranch.

  Her eyes fell right into focus on the group of men as they ironed out the last details for their departure, and she wondered what Tobias found so comical as he flashed his teeth a couple of times in response to what she assumed was men-talk; he held out a hand and motioned toward Puma Canyon before the crowd of ranch hands shook hands and dispersed, each one moving toward his respective bunk house.

  The girl allowed her eyes to narrow as she watched Tobias linger at the wagon and tend to tightening down one of the ropes. As the last man fell into shadows, Hailee saw Tobias shove a hand into his leather coat pocket and pull out a piece of paper that he unfolded, read, and placed inside an envelope. Glancing over his shoulder, Tobias made his way to the front porch and her pulse quickened; would he come inside the house so late at night?

  When he paused at the porch railing and slipped the envelope under a flower pot before turning and whistling all the way back to his bunk house, she tilted her head out of curiosity. He was grinning ear to ear.

  She had only been inside his bunkhouse one time. Her father explained to her later that it was probably not appropriate for her to have been in there, but Bruce couldn’t be angry with either of them; Tobias had simply shown her a winter blanket in need of mending and wanted her opinion about the matter. Hailee had to make a full confession to the man, which was the fact that couldn’t sew a lick.

  “I can crochet a mile a minute and have even begun to knit some, but you sit a mending basket in front of me and you’re likely to be running naked before I’d even think about looking into it!,” she laughed.

  That's when the books caught her attention.

  “You’re a reader!” she accused in an excited tone.

  Tobias ran a hand through his hair and nodded before he had time to think about it.

  “Yeah, I like to read right before I blow the candle out at night; read most of these a few times each, but that’s alright, I guess.”

  Hailee’s eyes ran over the titles. Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, followed by a copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and next to that book, stood one that she never even heard of before.

  She ran a finger over the spine.

  “John Rollin Ridge? Who is that?”

  He grinned. It was one of his favorites.

  “He’s actually an Indian. Cherokee. The man wrote about his own life, told his own story the way he wanted it told, before anyone else had the jump on it. Pretty clever, wouldn’t ya say? I read somewhere that he was born and raised in the heart of the Cherokee Land in Georgia, right in New Echota itself.”

  Hailee nodded. She’d remembered something or another about the place when she was still in school, but the teacher hadn’t spent much time on the subject.

  “He walked a hard life, saw things a man shouldn’t have to see,” Tobias told her with a twist in his eye. “I like books that tell a story the everyday man can understand and take to heart; the other books over there,” he told her with a jerk of the thumb to the side where Hawthorne and Dickens were housed, “don’t get to me like these over here,” referencing a few of his more tattered books, such as The Last of the Mohicans.

  Hailee nodded; she knew what he meant.

  “I just don’t get those fancy pants boys who live in Paris and whatnot. They’ve never done a decent day’s worth of work, I bet. Shoot,” he told her as his hand ran back through his wavy mop, “it’s not their fault they weren’t born in the Valley, so it’s not really like I got something’ against ‘em, ya see. I just don’t understand them.”

  Allowing herself to take in his abode a bit closer, she noticed how tidy he kept his home. When did he have the time to clean it? It was something she had never given any thought to until that day – the man her heart ached for stooped over a bedchamber pot or a messy floor, food crumbles underfoot.

  The two of them talked about books and story lines until her father found them together in the bunk house.

  The minute Bruce heard their voices from inside the bunk house, he stood frozen to the ground, leaning over to get a listen at their conversation. He’d stood outside just long enough to become comfortable before knocking on Tobias’ door.

  The girl’s father was even more pleased when he poked his head in, finding Tobias keeping his distance from Hailee at a respectful pace.

  With her thoughts wandering off, so did Tobias. Before she knew it, the man disappeared into the evening air. She squinted out the window to see if she could catch one last glimpse of the man, but only caught her own breath fogging over the image of the flower pot on the porch railing; all she could see in the near distance was the occasional flicker of a lightening bug.

  He was gone.

  “How far are you?”

  Startled, she turned her face to the sound of the familiar voice.

  “Daddy! You scared me! What did you say?”

  He pointed to the book.

  “How far a
re you? Isn’t that one of those new story books you bought?”

  Nodding, she answered. “Yes, it is…but Daddy, I can’t read the night before you leave the ranch; do you even how long you’ll be away?”

  Bruce shook his head and grimaced.

  “No way of knowing, not really. I guess we’ll be gone til we get us a cat; could be a few days, but it’s possible it’ll be more than that.”

  He grabbed the cast iron poker Gus made the family as a gift a couple of years back and budged a smaller log on top of the burning mass, reached over and pulled another log into his arms from the iron ring next to the fireplace.

  Rolling it into the burning center of the fireplace, Bruce added, “I bet you won’t even miss me, I’ll be back so fast!”

  “Not true! And not funny, either,” Hailee pouted. “I know that thing has to be found, but I guess I was hoping he’d come and give himself up or something, “ she teased.

  For a fact, that girl hated it whenever her father had to leave on any kind of ranch business. He hadn’t had to leave without her very many times, but she disliked it every time that he did.

  Not that she wanted to go with him this time. She rather enjoyed her soft bed with the blankets. And a pillow.

  Glancing at the book still on the catalog table, Hailee knew she wouldn’t be able to read any more of it tonight.

  “I just wish I knew how long you were going to be gone, Daddy,” she told him, standing up and wrapping her arms around him. “I miss you when you’re not here.”

  “So let’s make the most of the time we have before I have to go,” he suggested.

  Opting to sit down at the chess table in the corner, she vowed to win this time.

  Chapter 9

  Rubbing the sunlight from her eyes, Hailee dressed in such a rush, she discovered crooked buttons running down the front of herself; unbuttoning her dress and smock in order to dress properly, she opted to skip over her morning routine of face washing and ran down the staircase, fearing she had missed the men already and would not even have the chance to say goodbye.

  Most of the men had either already eaten and were strapping their horses down or were going about the daily chores of ranch life; her eyes darted around for her father or Tobias, the only two she cared about at the moment.

  A smile emerged and Hailee felt relief trickle through her veins when she caught sight of her father making his way toward the barn.

  “Daddy!” she called out to him.

  He turned and held out his arms for the hug he knew was coming his way.

  “I was afraid you had already gone,” she informed him when his strong arms wrapped around her untied hair.

  “I would have woken you up, Darlin',” he replied. “Want to help me get ready to go?”

  “No. If not helping you means you’ll stay.”

  He cocked his head to one side and looked down at her with father’s eyes. He understood.

  Resigned to do whatever he asked of her, the girl sighed.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  Before the man could even begin to think of an early-morning chore to assign his daughter, he spied Tobias in his regular morning routine of toting firewood into the kitchen.

  “I guess you could hold the door open for Tobias,” he chuckled.

  Hailee smiled. Sure, she could do that!

  She yanked up on her dress and scooted on back toward the main house, landing at the kitchen door just an instant before Tobias reached out for the door handle.

  “I got it!”

  The log-laden man peered around the firewood and thanked her, but before either of them could even give a good morning greeting, they overheard Bruce cussing in the barn.

  “Ah, dang burned it!” he hollered out.

  They heard the sound of a milk bucket being kicked across the barn and made a face at each other.

  Duffy had just rounded the side of the barn and dropped his load to find out what the commotion was all about.

  When the three reached the barn entrance, it didnt take long to figure out what the commotion was all about; black and white fur tainted with blood. Lots of blood. The goat’s neck had been ripped wide open and from the look of the rest of the body, the meal had been a grand one.

  “It wasn’t a cat, Boss,” Tobias told him, full aware that every person standing there knew the habits of the predators that sneaked their ways into the Red Bone Ranch. “We know cats take the meal off and eat it; this had to be a dog. Wolf, maybe?”

  He shook his head at the sick look on Hailee's face, but the girl had seen her fair share of blood living on a ranch. She could get through the next few minutes well enough.

  “Dang burned it,” Bruce repeated. “We can’t keep losing animals this way! Gonna have to kill off that cat and whatever else gets in here,” he told whoever was listening. “Well, boys, good thing we decided to head off this morning; this mess isn’t going to just up and go away all by itself.”

  Hailee hated to see the dead animal, but she also realized it meant the loss of more of her father’s sanity; he had been up the past four nights pacing in front of the window facing the barn. She knew he wanted to see the cat with his own two eyes, but the animal had somehow evaded Bruce’s attention.

  From a rancher's standpoint, she knew this had to be unacceptable.

  Bruce stared at the dead goat for a few more seconds before heavy steps trudged him over to the wall where several larger tools on hooks and heavy nails hung up neatly. He yanked an old shovel off the nail, turned around without saying another word and stabbed the shovel into the ground next to the edge of the darkened pool of blood.

  “Let’s get this carcass buried and get on with the chores at hand, everyone,” Bruce mumbled to nobody in particular.

  Duffy waited until the tail of Bruce’s shadow left the barn and snapped the shovel up with an angry glare in his eyes.

  “I don’t intend to keep on losin’ animals! Here,” he almost commanded Tobias. “Take care of this, and I mean right now!”

  Duffy stormed out of the barn, leaving both Hailee and Tobias stunned. He behaved as if the ranch belonged to his own person!

  Tobias raised one eyebrow in Hailee’s general direction.

  “I wonder what that was all about?” he snickered with a shake of his head. “Well, I reckon I got me some chores to take care of before we take off this morning. Wouldn’t wanna see old Duffman get all riled up, now would we?” he asked with a scowl on his face.

  Hailee patted him on the shoulder and grinned.

  “Ah, don’t pay him any mind; he just takes his duties too far sometimes because he’s known Daddy for so long.” She looked over her shoulder and took a couple of steps to make sure that Duffy was out of ear shot. “Daddy doesn’t know it, but I don’t like him as much as the other ranch hands.”

  Hailee batted her eyes and stepped real close to Tobias, tilted her face up toward his.

  The man felt her warmth breathing across his chin and lower lip; he swallowed hard, failing to hide his nervousness from her.

  “And I don’t like him near as much as I like you,” she cooed in whispered tones.

  Tobias’ jaw fell.

  Hailee giggled.

  “Girl, that is exactly what I was talkin’ about! You gotta cut that out!” he told her, although it was only his head saying the words, and not his heart.

  He ran a nervous hand through his dark mop of hair, swallowed half a dozen words he would have given his left leg to have spoken, and allowed himself to draw ever so closer to Hailee. He could smell the lavender in her hair when the breeze caught in between strands of the blonde curls, and he felt his gut tighten for the want to reach out and run his fingers through it.

  “Girl just what are we gonna do about this mess we’re in? I’d like to take you up in my arms right now, but I can’t do that. And that ain’t right. If a man wants to give his girl a kiss, he oughtta be able to do it, dag nab it!”

  He shook his head. He wasn’t sorry h
e’d said it, either.

  “You want to kiss me!”

  Stepping back before the girl had a chance to persuade him into anything he probably wouldn’t regret later, Tobias scooped up the goat and marched out to bury the carcass, rolling his eyes.

  “That girl is gonna be the death of me one way or another, I just know it!” he mumbled.

  From the corner of his eye, Tobias spied Duffy standing next to the hen house; almost as if he’d perched himself just far enough away to catch the two of them in some precarious situation. That, or he was waiting for the barn to become vacant that or for some unknown reason.

  “Hmm, I wonder what he’s up to?” he wondered aloud, proceeding with the duty of burying the goat’s carcass.

  P

  Duffy stood at his work bench inside the tack room, ran a finger along the edge of the meat saw.

  The small leather pouch of assorted blades stared up at him, mocking his indecisiveness when all of a sudden the flickering from the oil lantern drew his attention back to the blades and a slow, evil grin spread across his lips as an idea jumped into that brain of his.

  If outward appearances told a story well, the bitter man approved of the idea he entertained in that head of his.

  P

  Bruce gulped down the last of his coffee, making certain the men had eaten and were ready; they would probably not stop until they were ready to bed down for the night.

  Tobias had finished his business and was about to climb up on Epoenah; Hailee insisted he take her prize mare on the hunt with him.

  He’d already laid the felt pad and blue Navajo blanket over the horse’s back and chose the saddle with the darker colored leather accents to match the blanket.

  With the leather cinch straps in his hands, Tobias brought them over the front and back of the saddle with the natural confidence of a seasoned cowboy, positioning the saddle with perfection, giving another quick tug to double check the snug fit before he offered one last unintentional nod of satisfaction.