by Sarah Banks
“You don’t have to do it alone Gabriel.”
He felt her words as if she had spoken them against the back of his neck instead of from a few feet away. He ignored her and started walking toward the barn.
“Let me put a bridle on Bandit and I’ll take you. I won’t get any sleep worrying about you getting lost in the woods or eaten by a bear.”
She hurried after him. “There are bears?” Her panicked voice followed him into the barn and he felt bad teasing her. But only a little.
“What do you think happened to my last mail order bride?” He teased.
She caught on to his teasing as she watched him take Bandit from his stall. “If anything, I think you scared her away. Not bears.” She chewed on her lip adorably before finally asking, “But really Gabriel, are there bears out here?”
“They can forage at night.” He pulled himself onto Bandit’s back and held out his hand to her. She took a step back.
“I think I changed my mind,” she said, holding the rolled-up towel tightly against her chest.
“Scared of bears? Or just me?” He asked, still holding out his hand.
Jane narrowed her eyes but didn’t take his hand or his challenge.
Bandit moved restlessly, bringing Gabriel’s hand a little closer to her. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never seen one at night near the hot springs. But it’s probably best if you don’t go off in the middle of the night by yourself. I won’t let anything happen to you Jane,” he promised.
She finally took his hand and he easily lifted her onto the horse in front of him. She was tall for a woman but she was slight. He waited for her to settle herself before he urged Bandit into a trot. It was faster than he had gone with her the previous night but she didn’t complain, instead she lightly gripped his thighs and he found he like the way she held onto him. When he reached the path leading into the trees, he slowed his horse and she eased her grip but she didn’t move her hands.
She turned her head to look up at him. “You said that there was a story behind Bandit’s name.”
He nodded. “So I did.”
“Got time to tell it to me tonight?”
“I guess. He used to rob banks.”
She laughed. “A horse?”
“A fast horse. He was most definitely an accessory. A bank was robbed some seventy miles east of here. He was riding a dark brown quarter horse, just like this one. Robber was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the shoulder. But he still got away.”
Gabriel sensed her rapt attention and tightened his arms around her as they started up a small incline.
“Go on.”
“Well, I break mustangs for a living and one day I came across Bandit. He’s obviously no mustang nor was he with the herd I was tracking at the time. He wouldn’t let me get closer than to see there was no identifiable markings on him. For days when I passed through I’d see him in the same area. Took nearly a month before I could even get close. I figured he’d been out in the wild all on his own for about two years by then.”
“So it was the bank robber’s horse?”
“Pretty sure.”
“How sure?”
“Well, I found bones picked clean not far from the area Bandit stayed so close to. He’s a good, loyal horse.”
Jane shuddered in his arms.
Gabriel reached forward and gave a quick, hard rub to Bandit’s neck. Bandit nickered happily in response.
“I guess I could have left that first part out,” he admitted.
“I guess so,” she replied tartly.
Gabriel laughed.
“Sorry. But it’s an important part of the story although I guess I could have been less gruesome. The point was the bones had a nick in one shoulder blade so that’s how I figured it was the missing bank robber and his trusted steed.”
“Did you ever find the money he stole?”
“No.”
“If I lived here, I’d be out looking every day. How wonderful it would be to have a quarter of the money the Tumbury’s have.”
“You could be looking forever. Nope I figure one day someone will stumble across it and that’ll be their treasure. Me, my future is more predictable and hard won. I break horses and sell them for a living. One day my name will be known seventy miles away and it won’t be for robbing banks or finding buried treasure.” He stopped just around the bend from the hot springs and lowered her to the ground.
“Five minutes?” He teased.
“An hour,” she countered.
“Thirty minutes,” they said simultaneously. She laughed, like she did a lot since he had met her and then disappeared around the bend. For a woman who basically grew up without parents, recently lost her only living relative, her clearly beloved grandmother, had a limp due to a terrible injustice done to her as a child and spent her life working as a maid, she still seemed happier than most people he knew. Including himself.
Not that he was precisely unhappy. He was doing exactly what he wanted to do for a living, breaking horses. It was his father’s dream and now it was his. Although he could use more money, he knew that would come in time as his business and reputation grew. And he had other responsibilities, mainly his brother and sister. That was his life. Breaking horses and taking care of his siblings.
He listened to the sounds of Jane getting into the water, making sure he didn’t hear any sounds of distress like when she had slipped on the wet rocks the previous night. Gabriel realized he had barely noticed her limp at all today compared to the day before.
There was no point in returning home just to turn back again so Gabriel settled down on the ground, leaning back against the rough bark of a tree. He was tired, but then again he was always tired. There was more work than people. He had just hired one employee and wouldn’t be able to hire anymore for awhile. Maybe next year if his business continued its slow, steady growth. Brandon and Thea helped out as much as they could, but they had school too. Gabriel had to admit, it was nice coming home to a meal tonight. But that didn’t change anything. He had a plan. His course was set. It didn’t include anything else in his life, or anyone.
∞∞∞
Gabriel stirred and opened his eyes, wondering why he was sleeping in the woods against an unforgivably hard tree when he had a perfectly good bed at home. And why he could smell flowers when there wasn’t a bud anywhere to be seen.
“Have a nice nap?”
He shifted his eyes and saw Jane sitting next to him illuminated by a nearby low-burning lamp. She was watching him with a small smile on her face. She was wearing the same dingy white robe she had been wearing the previous night but dry. It was embroidered with little faded pink flowers and green leaves and matched the neckline of her nightgown peeping out from underneath her robe. He wondered if her grandmother had made it for her. He forced his eyes up, away from the delicate lines of her neck.
Her hair was wet and she was brushing it as she watched him wordlessly. He silently watched her back, realizing he’d never seen a woman fix her hair before. Not even his mother, who had died many years before. He continued to watch as she parted the heavy length into three sections, pulling it over her shoulder and began braiding it down her front.
He was mesmerized by the deft movements of her delicate fingers. Gabriel finally made himself look away and asked, “How long have I been sleeping?” His voice was deep with sleep. He ran his hands down his face and shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs.
“No longer than thirty minutes. I kept to my bargain.”
She finished braiding her hair and stood up, holding out her hand to him. He didn’t need help up but he took her hand anyway, just as an excuse to touch her. Her hand was small in his own but not delicate. They were softer than his but she had calluses just as he did and he wondered what her daily life was like back east. She was a maid so he knew it wasn’t easy. She probably worked from sunup to sundown just as he did. But what about after that? Did she ever have a day off? What did she do in her sp
are time? He knew she didn’t have any family left, but what about friends? Did she have anyone to smile at or laugh with? Anyone to share stories, burdens and confidences?
He realized he was staring into her eyes without a word and that she was staring back. He should be walking to his horse. Instead his eyes dropped to her lips and he heard her quick inhale of breath and one of his own. He took a step back and whistled for his horse.
The shrill whistle broke the silence and Bandit obediently left off grazing and came forward. Gabriel hopped onto his back and reached down for Jane quickly pulling her up in front of him and turned Bandit toward home.
He held Jane tighter than he had the previous times she had ridden in front of him. And darned if he didn’t tilt forward and smell her hair catching the scent of her soap. Worst of all, he had almost kissed her back there. Almost further mucked up an already mucked up situation. She was leaving the day after tomorrow. He wasn’t looking for a bride. So he had no business even thinking about kissing her.
Gabriel left her in front of the house with a gruff goodnight and rode on to the barn. After returning Bandit to his stall, he climbed up to the hayloft and his makeshift bed. He usually fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but he didn’t last night, and he probably wouldn’t tonight either. He didn’t even have a pillow for that matter. It was on his bed where Jane slept, where the scent of flowers would probably linger even after she returned east. He stared into the darkened rafters of the barn. He fell asleep last night thinking of her and she had followed him into his dreams. He closed his eyes. He was exhausted. He knew he would eventually sleep just as he knew that he would dream of her again.
Chapter Eight
Gabriel was waiting for her the next night when she stepped out onto the front porch. He was sitting on Bandit’s back and without a word held his hand out to her. Jane silently took it and soon they were flying toward the woods. He was taking her a different route this time, she soon realized. A longer, more scenic route. Even though the moon was a sliver smaller than the full moon two nights back, it still lit up the wide-open areas. He took her past a small herd of fenced in mustangs, a meadow filled with flowers although she couldn’t quite determine the color at nighttime, and a babbling brook. How she wished she had gotten to see this in the daytime but today was her last day here. Tomorrow Gabriel would be taking her into town as promised and she would be on the noon stage returning east.
Jane had spent the day mostly alone. Gabriel made breakfast again, porridge. There hadn’t been anymore dried fruit or butter, so they settled on blueberries, cream and plain white sugar. Gabriel disappeared to wherever he spent his day and the kids to their chores before heading to school.
She spent the day much as she had the day before, doing dishes, making the beds, finishing Gabriel’s mending and folding them all neatly and returning them to his drawers. She made the promised double-batch of blueberry cobbler along with a venison stew for supper.
Jane was in the barn playing with the kittens when the children returned home from school. She followed Brandon and Thea while they completed their afternoon chores and learned how to milk a cow, collect eggs without getting pecked and how protective sows were over their piglets when she reached in to pet one.
After supper and dishes, she had brushed Thea’s hair and taught her how to braid it herself before watching Gabriel and Brandon play a game of cribbage. They dealt her into the next hand where she soundly trounced them. Brandon insisted on a rematch and she won that game too.
Before she knew it, it was time for the children to go to bed. And sometime between putting the cards away and saying goodnight to Brandon and Thea, Gabriel had disappeared.
Jane couldn’t resist one last visit to the hot springs nor could she contain the burst of joy seeing him outside waiting for her with his hand held out. Now she was sitting in front of him on horseback, held in his arms, the wind whipping through her hair and a smile on her face. She wished this day would never end.
Soon enough they were at the hot springs for the agreed upon thirty minutes and she went for a final bath and soak. When she returned to where Gabriel waited, he was again dozing against a large tree as he had been the night before. His eyes opened when she sat down next to him and began to run the brush through her hair.
“I bet you’ll be happy to get your bed back,” she said.
He tilted his head toward hers and said, “That’s not why I’m not sleeping.”
Jane swallowed and waited for him to elaborate but he didn’t and she wasn’t brave enough to inquire further. She finished braiding her hair but he made no move to leave and neither did she. She leaned back against the bark and tilted her head to look at him. His eyes were closed but she knew he wasn’t sleeping. There was too much tension in the air. She couldn’t be the only one feeling it.
“You still owe me a story,” she said softly.
He smiled but didn’t open his eyes. Her eyes were drawn to his lips as he spoke. “I already told you about Bandit.”
“Yes, and the rotting corpse, I remember. I’m surprised it didn’t give me nightmares. But I did dream that I was searching for the missing treasure.”
“It was just the bleached bones, not a rotting corpse,” he corrected her. “And did you find it, the treasure I mean?”
“I thought I did, but no, in the end I didn’t find it.”
“Well you can stop wondering about it. I never found a saddle or saddlebags anywhere around so more than likely someone else came across it at some point and never said anything. Maybe a bounty hunter.”
“Maybe. But you’re not distracting me. You do still owe me a story. You told me about Bandit but two nights ago you asked me all sorts of questions about myself and I answered all of them. Now it’s your turn.”
He sighed, opened his eyes to look at her and then closed them again. “So ask.”
“Where are your parents? Did you grow up in Dalton? Have you ever been married? What made you want to break mustangs for a living?”
She paused to take a breath and he started laughing.
His mirth transformed his entire face making him even more handsome. His eyes brightened and crinkled at the corners. When he smiled, it drew her attention to his full mouth, straight white teeth and his working throat. He had shaved this morning but already had the beginnings of a beard. She had the urge to touch his face but instead she knotted her hands in her lap. “What?” She asked.
“Nothing. You could barely contain yourself that’s all. Let’s see. I didn’t grow up in Dalton, I was born back east.”
“You were?” She asked, straightening with surprise.
He nodded. “Near New York although we moved when I was five, after my mother died so I don’t remember much about it, or her for that matter. We did go back once, when I was eleven. To visit relatives. That’s when my father found himself a new wife.”
“Oh. Was he looking? For a wife I mean?”
“I think so. He married Eleanor and we returned west.”
“Eleanor was Brandon and Thea’s mother?”
Gabriel nodded.
“How did she die?”
“Oh, she’s not dead.”
“She’s not!”
“No.”
“Then where is she?”
He scratched his bristly chin. “Last I heard, she had moved to California and remarried.”
“But her children are here!” Jane pointed out, infuriated on the children’s behalf.
Gabriel sighed. “There’s something you should know about Eleanor. My father courted her back east and somehow convinced her to marry him. He told her that he was to be a rich horse rancher and she believed she was going to be a rich horse rancher’s wife. I don’t believe my father intentionally lied. He was a dreamer but his dreams never quite came to fruition. When he brought her here, Eleanor was not happy. There wasn’t money, nor an easy life but before she could fully come to her senses and return east she got pregnant with Brandon, then Thea
shortly followed. I mostly remember her crying or complaining or throwing fits. Eleanor, not Thea,” Gabriel added with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “My father loved her, and the truth is I think she grew to love him too, in her own way, she just wasn’t meant for the life here. My father died when Brandon was six and I was eighteen. It was only a few months before she got the idea in her head to travel further west, to California, to visit distant relatives. She promised to send for the kids when she was settled but she never did. We got all of two letters. She had married a prominent banker in the first and gave him a son in the second.”
Jane was horrified. “She abandoned her children!” She felt a tear trickle down her cheek.
Gabriel wiped it away. “Hey now, stop that, or I won’t answer the rest of your questions.”
Jane sniffed and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robe. “I just feel so bad for them. To know that they were willingly abandoned by their own mother. It’s difficult for me to comprehend.”
“Eleanor was never cruel or mean by design, but she was selfish. In my opinion, Brandon and Thea are better off without her. I’m doing my best to give them a good life.”
Jane wanted to throw herself into Gabriel’s arms and hug this wonderful man who had taken his siblings under his wing and raised them himself. It couldn’t have been the easiest choice and for just one person, he was doing an admirable job in her opinion.
“And how did you come to break mustangs for a living?”
“That was my father’s dream. It came to be mine too. My father was good at it but I was even better because unlike my father, I have a better head for business. My name will be so well-known someday for the quality of my work, I’ll be able to name my price.”
Jane smiled at his passion for breaking wild horses, confidence in his abilities and the certainty in his future. She fully believed he would indeed be as successful as he predicted.
“I look forward to waking up every morning and picking up where I left off whether it be stalking a herd, culling a mare or two, getting them to trust me, taming them, training them, turning them into the best riding horses and driving horses that can be bought for miles around.”
