by R. W. Stone
As Lucas glanced down at his dog, Dr. Ellis observed: “Remarkable healing powers, that one. Wasn’t sure, at first, he’d make it.”
“Quitting just ain’t in him, Doc,” Lucas replied. “No back up or give.”
“I might say the same about his owner. But I noticed you keep checking Red’s fur. I promise, it will soon grow back. A couple of months from now, and you’ll never notice a thing. Dogs don’t seem to scar as easily as humans do.”
“Sure hope you’re right,” Lucas replied.
“Have I been wrong about anything so far?” Ellis asked.
Lucas chuckled. “No, not yet. And you were right about this dinner, too. Best chicken dinner I’ve had in … I can’t remember how long.”
“Yeah, my wife’s a great cook.” The doctor patted his stomach. “A couple more years of this and I expect I will have the big round belly of Saint Nicholas.”
The veterinarian’s wife entered the room. “I heard that, Robert. You do, and I’ll run off with a slender man.” She laughed and looked fondly over at Lucas. The three had become good friends over the past weeks. “Maybe I can find a nice young Mountie.”
Lucas choked on the water he was trying to swallow, followed by an uncomfortable blush.
Robert Ellis laughed and reached over and patted his friend on the back. “Careful there.”
The vet turned to his wife. “Besides, Lucy, from what Lucas has been telling me, I suspect he’s already spoken for.”
“Really? And who might the lucky girl be?” she asked. “Tell me about her?”
Lucas cleared his throat and hesitated. He was obviously embarrassed. “Well, I’m not so sure you’d describe it as truly being spoken for. We met only briefly, so I can’t tell you that much about her. But I did get the feeling she was interested …” He let his words trail away.
“And are you … interested, Corporal Donovan?” Lucy asked. She looked over at her husband and winked.
Lucas thought a moment and replied with a smile. “Yes, ma’am, I surely am.”
“This girl got a name?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am. It’s Vicki. Victoria Marston.”
“So, is she attractive?” Lucy asked.
“She must be quite a looker. Our young constable here has done nothing but mumble to himself about her for the last week,” Dr. Ellis replied.
“Looks aren’t everything, Robert,” Lucy remarked sharply.
“Why do you think I married you? Besides the cooking that is,” Robert teased her playfully.
“Well, I never!” Lucy exclaimed, feigning outrage as she stood up. “Will you never grow up and stop behaving like such a clod? And in front of guests.” She turned toward the kitchen in a huff, but just before leaving the dining room, she paused at the door, and looked back lovingly at her husband. “I’m getting the pie. It’s for Lucas here. At least he behaves like a gentleman.”
“That’s just because he’s Canadian. They’re all like that,” her husband joked.
“Well, maybe you should spend some time up there yourself.”
“I would, but then who’d be here to listen to all your criticisms?”
“Well, I never,” Lucy said, and left the room.
“You two seem very much in love,” Lucas observed, once Lucy disappeared in the kitchen.
“Yep, five years and still as great as at the beginning.”
“Must be nice,” Lucas said, smiling.
“Yes, it is. Marriage is kinda like being tickled.”
“How so?” the Mountie asked.
“Well, you still feel like laughing, even when it begins to hurt.”
“I heard that!” Lucy yelled out from the kitchen. “No pie for you!”
Both men laughed. “She doesn’t really mean it. I suspect she’s trying to fatten me up, so I won’t be attractive to the ladies anymore,” Ellis said loud enough for his wife to overhear.
Lucy entered the dining room with a tray of plates and the pie. “I don’t have to,” she said, continuing the banter. “You weren’t all that attractive to begin with.”
“Won you over, didn’t I?” the vet said, and winked.
“He does have a point there,” Lucas said.
“He just tired me out. I got tired of fighting him off, and finally just surrendered,” Lucy explained.
“Right,” her husband replied. “I chased her until she finally caught me.” He punched Lucas softly in the arm as if pleased with his own joke.
“So, changing the subject back to where it belongs, just where is this lovely lady now?” Lucy asked.
“She’s in Helena. Or so I understand. We only met the one time, on the train on the trip down from Alberta,” Lucas explained.
Lucy Ellis put down the pie and looked at her guest with her hands firmly on her hips as if sizing him up. “An attractive single young girl, who you are crazy about, is alone in Helena, Montana, and you’re still here? What kind of men are they letting into the Mounties these days, anyway?”
“Well …,” Lucas stammered.
“She’s right about that and you know it,” Robert Ellis said, nodding in agreement.
“Well, it’s not like I haven’t had things to do. And then of, course, there’s Red.”
At the sound of his name the big dog barked.
“No problem there anymore, as far as I can see,” the veterinarian said.
“Lucas, you know we love you to death and should you ever decide to abandon policing that horrid Canadian wilderness, you will always be welcome here. But for now, I think you should get your arse out of that chair and go look for her.”
“Arse? Really, Lucy?” Robert laughed.
“I am a western woman, and I will speak as I see fit … when the occasion calls for it,” Lucy replied stridently. She turned back to Lucas. “So, Corporal Donovan, constable of the Canadian North-West Mounted Police, what are you waiting for?”
Her husband chipped in. “Yeah, I thought you Mounties always got their woman. So, what are you waiting for?” the vet added.
“Nothing I guess.” Lucas looked back and forth between the two of them and shrugged. “It appears I will be heading out first thing tomorrow.”
“But not before you finish the pie I baked,” Lucy ordered, slapping aside her husband’s finger as it inched toward the pie crust. “You’ll be lucky if I let you have the crumbs after how you’ve behaved tonight.” It took a moment, but then they all broke out laughing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The journey to Helena felt long to Donovan as he worried how Victoria Marston would react when she saw him. The first day of the trip, Lucas had taken it slow so as not to overexert his dog, but Red quickly regained his former strength and once again seemed happy to run alongside his new friend, Handsome Harry.
After arriving in Helena, he stabled his horses. Then he checked into the hotel, got a good night’s sleep, and visited the local barber. By the end of the second day, he knew where Victoria Marston lived.
Arriving at the doorstep of a large old two-story home early in the evening, Lucas dusted off his scarlet jacket.
“Well, boy, here goes nothing,” he said to Red, who sat down at Donovan’s feet. The Mountie hesitantly used the door knocker to announce his presence.
Unsure of the reaction he would get from the lady after so long an absence, Lucas fidgeted nervously while he waited for someone to answer his knock. Donovan would be the first to admit he feared no man. He was never timid or unsure of what course of action to take while pursuing a suspect, but pursuing a beautiful woman was new and unknown territory to him. Although the Mountie was filled with anticipation, there was always that uncertain feeling in the back of his mind that it had all been an illusion, or that she had somehow changed her mind. After all, they had only known each other a short time.
After what se
emed an eternity, he heard footsteps approaching on the other side of the door. He cleared his throat and wiped his brow just before the knob turned and the door opened.
“Ahem. Ah, hello, Miss Marston. I don’t know if you remember me, but—”
“Lucas!” Vicki exclaimed as she flung herself at him and planted a kiss on his lips.
“I guess that answers that question,” Lucas said, smiling.
She bent down and gave Red a big hug, and the dog wagged his tail as happily as ever. When she finally ushered them both into her home, he had one more question to ask.
“So, I was wondering, Vicki, how would you feel about living in Canada?”
THE END
About the Author
R. W. Stone inherited his love for western adventure from his father, a former Army Air Corps armaments officer and horse enthusiast. He taught his son both to ride and shoot at a very early age. Many of those who grew up in the late 1950s and early 1960s remember it as a time before urban sprawl, when Westerns dominated both television and the cinema, and Stone began writing later in life in an attempt to recapture some of that past spirit he had enjoyed as a youth. In 1974 Stone graduated from the University of Illinois with honors in Animal Science. After living in Mexico for five years, he later graduated from the National Autonomous University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and moved to Florida. Over the years he has served as President of the South Florida Veterinary Medical Association, the Lake County Veterinary Medical Association, and as executive secretary for three national veterinary organizations. Dr. Stone is currently the Chief of Staff of the Veterinary Trauma Center of Groveland, an advanced level care facility. In addition to lecturing internationally, he is the author of over seventy scientific articles and a number of Westerns, including Trail Hand (2006), Badman’s Pass (2016), and Across the Río Bravo (2017). Still a firearms collector, horse enthusiast, and now a black belt–ranked martial artist, R. W. Stone presently lives in Central Florida with his wife, two daughters, one horse, and three dogs.
