Chase the Wind

by Cindy Holby - Wind 01 - Chase the Wind

“Chase, thank you,” she said softly.

  “For what?”

  “Being there for Jamie.”

  Jamie grinned at his friend.

  “It wasn’t easy, believe me.” Chase grinned back and left.

  “Oh, Jamie, you look just like Dad,” Jenny cried when they were alone.

  Jamie smoothed back the wild hairs that had escaped her braid. “And you are so beautiful.”

  “I am?”

  “Jenny where did you go? We followed your trail up into the mountains. We found a burned-out wagon and the bodies of the folks that took you, but there was no sign of you. I was so afraid you were dead, too.”

  “The Millers—they’re dead?”

  “Yes, we found them in Indian territory. Looked like they’d been attacked. I didn’t know where to look after that.”

  “I was in Texas.”

  “Texas! How in the world did you get to Texas?”

  “I was picked up by a fellow who thought I’d make a nice addition to his whorehouse,” Jenny explained with a hard look in her eye. “I didn’t hang around there too long, I can tell you. Once I escaped, I started making my way back to St. Jo.”

  “If only I had gone back to St. Jo,” Jamie said. “But when the trail turned cold, we kept looking further west.”

  “There is no way you could have known, and you still might have missed me. I don’t know how long I was wandering before Storm found me.”

  “Storm?”

  “Yes, Storm found me, out on the plains. I’d been shot—it’s a long story—and I’d lost a lot of blood. I got on his back, and he took me to Gray Horse.”

  “Chase and I went to him, too, but that was at the beginning of our search.” He put his arm around her. “God, I hate to think what you’ve been through just to survive. It isn’t easy, being on your own, and I know it had to be harder for you than for Chase and me because you’re a woman.”

  “That’s why I cut my hair, so I could pass as a boy. It seems every man I came across wanted to make me into a whore.”

  “But they didn’t.”

  “No, I managed to survive intact, if that’s what you mean.”

  “That’s not what I mean, and you know it. I knew you would find a way to get away from the Millers, but I never dreamed that someone else would be waiting there to snatch you up.”

  “You and Chase have been together the entire time?”

  Jamie showed her the faint scar across his palm. “We’re blood brothers. He is the one who kept me going; he knew we were going to see you again when I thought you were dead. He never gave up on you, and he was always there for me. I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

  “I’m glad he was there for you.”

  “You should tell him that.”

  “I will.” The sound of Jamie’s stomach growling brought them back to the present.

  “I am starving,” he said as he rubbed the sound away.

  “I’m glad to see that hasn’t changed any.”

  He grinned at her and shoved his hair back off his forehead.

  “Let’s go get something to eat, if there’s anything left over there.” He stood up and held out his hand. Jenny stood, and looked up, grinning. She had always been a few inches shorter than he, but now the difference was greater.

  “I don’t think I can wear your hand-me-downs anymore.”

  “I gave them all to Chase anyway. By the way, what happened to Storm?”

  “Go out to the stable and see for yourself.”

  “He’s here?”

  “Yep, and Jason already wants to use him for stud.” Jamie’s face nearly split as he grinned at that prospect, and the two of them made their way to Grace’s cabin.

  Several sets of curious, smiling faces greeted them, and Chase moved down so Jamie could take his customary place next to him on the bench. Jamie made room for Jenny to slide between them, and she suddenly felt very safe with the two sets of broad shoulders on either side of her. She gave Chase a quick glance, then looked back when she saw that his hair was the same length as hers.

  “You’ve changed a bit since the last time I saw you,” she said as his dark eyes caught her look.

  “You have become more beautiful.”

  Jenny blushed at the softly spoken words.

  Grace hastily set a heaping plate before Jamie, who dug in with his usual gusto, and Jenny joined him, until the questions from the others became more than they could handle while eating.

  “Will you guys let me eat in peace!” Jamie finally exclaimed.

  “Yeah, we know better than to get between you and food,” Zane said.

  “Everyone run along and leave these two alone,” Grace commanded, and chairs began to scrape the floor as the gang dispersed to their favorite Sunday afternoon pursuits. The rain had finally stopped, and a glimmer of sun was breaking through the clouds as they went outside. Jenny got up to follow Chase out to the porch.

  Chase was standing with his arm wrapped around the comer post, leaning out to see what the skies had in store for the rest of the day. He had wanted to take a long nap, but the excitement of Jenny’s return had put an end to that. He knew he could use a bath, and had decided to walk to the shed they used for a bathhouse when he heard Jenny call his name.

  “I never forgot what you did for me the day the Millers took me away.”

  Chase leaned back against the post as Jenny sat down in the nearby swing. She had changed since he had last seen her. The girl she had been was gone, replaced by a woman who held all the grace that the girl had promised. She was long and lean, her limbs straight and strong, but her eyes held a hint of sadness that was buried deeper now than when she was fifteen. Chase remembered the morning when she had danced around the room with joy, until she was so dizzy that she had fallen against the bed, drunk with happiness. He had tried to save her, had come after the two men who were taking her away from the brother she loved, but his broken leg and youthful inexperience had failed him.

  “I should have killed them,” he said, his dark eyes flashing as he remember her anguished cries and struggles.

  Jenny shivered when she saw the look in his eyes, and did not doubt that if it happened again, he would. “You did all you could,” she said simply, her deep blue eyes looking up at him, assuring him that she did not blame him.

  “It wasn’t enough.” He shrugged, as if dismissing his efforts as feeble at best, then turned to look once more at the sky. “Look, there’s a rainbow.” He pointed towards the east.

  Jenny walked over to stand next to him and saw the arc of color coming down into the hills beyond. “They say there’s a pot of gold at the end.”

  “There’s treasure there, but no gold.”

  “Then what is it?’

  “Land—the most beautiful land you’ve ever seen. Crystal lakes set in green valleys, with mountains rising up around them. It almost takes your breath away.” Chase spoke passionately, and his passion made Jenny want to go there.

  “I can show it to you.” It was almost as if he read her mind, and she gazed up into his dark eyes, seeing a longing there that she had never seen before.

  “Hey, Jenny, want to see the new foal?” Zane called from the barn, waving to get her attention. Chase stepped off the porch when she turned to wave back.

  “Let me tell Jamie where I’m going,” she called back as she watched Chase walk away. Jenny opened the door to Grace’s cabin and stopped dead in her tracks. She backed out, softly closing the door as her cheeks flushed a dark pink.

  There was no mistaking the kiss that Jamie was giving Grace, and the older woman was sitting in his lap as if he had pulled her off her feet. They were lovers—they had to be; there was nothing casual about what she had just seen. Jenny felt her stomach heave as she walked towards Zane, who was waiting for her with a cocky grin on his face.

  “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” he said as she came into the barn.

  “Just too much excitement,” she answered. Zane
led her to a stall where a newborn foal stood on wobbly legs as his mother nuzzled him. By the time Jamie caught up with her, Jenny was in the stall with her arms around the foal.

  “I wondered where you ran off to.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about Jenny.” Zane grinned. “We’ll take care of her.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  Zane threw up his arms as if to ward off a blow, but Jamie ignored him and went down the row of stalls until he came to Storm. Jamie stood at the stall door, tears welling in his eyes as he looked at the magnificent animal that had belonged to his father. Jenny walked up behind him as he began to whistle “Good King Wenceslas.” Storm came to him, sucking in air as he drank in the scent of Jamie, who was so like his father. Jamie rubbed the noble forehead and gazed into the dark eyes of the horse, whispering long-forgotten secrets into ears that stood at attention, catching his every word.

  “I can’t believe you found him.”

  “Like I said, he found me. It was as if he was done with his wild ways and wanted to come back home, but he didn’t know where home was.”

  “I know how you felt, believe me,” Jamie murmured into the pricked ear. “Now I need to show you something,” he said to his sister.

  Jenny looked up at the wide blue eyes that held many secrets now, the price they had paid for growing up apart from each other. She was still reeling from her discovery of the relationship between Jamie and Grace, and wasn’t sure how to act, but he was her brother, so she let him take her hand and lead her back to the bunkhouse.

  Jake was napping again while Caleb and Ty were sitting at the table, drawing and reading, each pursing his favorite pastime. Jamie made a production of sitting Jenny down on the lower bunk while he reached beneath and pulled out a small trunk. He opened the lid and took out a cloth-wrapped package. Jenny’s eyes opened wide when he laid their mother’s angel box in her lap.

  “Oh, Jamie, I thought it was gone forever!” Jenny exclaimed as she reverently ran her fingers over the carving of the angel. She slowly opened the lid, afraid to look, sure the contents would be gone, but they were all there as she remembered, with one addition, a drawing of Jenny, with the offer of a cash reward for anyone knowing her whereabouts.

  “I took care of the box for you. Now you need to take it back.” Jamie was on his knees beside her, a soft smile on his usually animated face. Jenny hugged the box to her breast, the memories of her mother strong as she felt the smooth surface of the wood.

  “Do you remember Momma’s quilt?” Jenny asked as the image of her parents’ bed came into her mind.

  “Yes, I remember. I wish we had it.”

  “So do I.”

  Their reminiscing was interrupted when Chase came in, dressed in a clean pair of pants, his hair dripping from the bath he had just had. Jenny jumped up from his bunk as he reached underneath to pull a clean shirt from his box of clothing. It happened to be the one Jenny had mended, and he looked at it in surprise as he pulled it on.

  “I see Grace finally got to the mending,” Chase commented as he buttoned it up over the wide expanse of his smooth chest.

  “Actually, Jenny has been doing the mending,” Ty said, looking up from his book. Jenny gave him a dazzling smile, and he read the same line three times before he was able to move on.

  “You must be tired, too,” Jenny said to her brother as Chase stretched out on his bunk and closed his eyes.

  “I could use a bath.” Jamie ran his hand through his hair, and instead of flopping over, the mass stuck straight up. Jenny laughed, a light sound in the room that drew everyone’s attention; she reached up to pat the stray hairs down. “I’ll let you get cleaned up.”

  “I’ll catch up with you in a bit.”

  They walked out together, Jenny still holding on to the box. She hesitated when she walked by Grace’s cabin after Jamie went off to the bathhouse. She wasn’t ready to deal with the affair between the two of them, so she went on up to the house. She knew that Jason and Cat had missed the reunion and expected them to be pleased to hear about it.

  Jamie joined them after he had cleaned up, and the four of them sat on the wide front porch, rocking and talking into the evening hours. Jason and Jamie talked of the ranch, and Jenny marveled at the weight Jason gave to Jamie’s opinion. She felt pride in her brother growing inside her as the gray head leaned close to the russet one while they talked about Storm and the potential for breeding him. Cat eventually wandered off, feeling that she had punished Ty enough for one day, and went down to see what was brewing in the bunkhouse. Soon enough the three on the porch were yawning, and since the next morning was the start of a work week, they said their good nights.

  Jenny went straight up to her room and to the window, where she could watch her brother walk down the gentle slope to the bunkhouse in the moonlight. He passed Cat, who was on her way up, and said something to her, causing her to swing at him playfully. Jenny smiled to herself, remembering the easy way Jamie always had with people. When he got to the bottom of the hill, he stepped up on the porch to Grace’s cabin, which was dark except for a light in the side window. Jenny waited, and never saw him come out the other side. Eventually the light went out, and she realized that he was not coming out, that he had sought the company of Grace, no doubt sharing with her the secrets he used to share with her when they were children.

  “He’s twenty years old, Jenny. What did you expect, that he was a monk?” Jenny grumbled to herself as she stripped off the only clothes she owned and slid beneath the smooth sheets of the big bed. “Just because you’ve avoided men doesn’t mean that he feels the same about women,” she went on. A mental picture filled her mind, of her brother’s long body entwined with Grace’s generous curves, of her hair spread in wild abandon, of Jamie’s hair falling over his face as they made love. “Stop it!” She spat the words out to get control of her imagination. “You’re acting jealous, and it’s ridiculous.” Jenny sat up in bed and turned the lamp up. The earlier rain had brought a warm westerly breeze that gently caressed the curtains at the window. Jenny flung the covers back and went to the wardrobe, opening the door so she could look in the mirror.

  She stood before the mirror, taking time to study her body in the dim light of the lamp. The darkness softened her figure until she appeared luminous in the wavy glass. She could find no fault with what she saw. She had seen the way the boys in the bunk-house looked at her, had seen the sketches that Caleb had made, and realized that perhaps she was beautiful, as they said. She lifted the waves of golden hair up, turned her neck gracefully to examine the angles, and then dropped the mass with a sigh. “Oh, Momma, am I pretty? Will a man ever love me, instead of wanting to use me for profit, or beat me because I remind him of someone else?” She looked in the mirror again and summoned Cat’s image to mind, her petite frame, her slanted eyes with the golden glow, the glorious curls that tumbled around her heart-shaped face. Then there was Grace, who seemed to be the image of her name, refined and elegant even with her arms buried in bread dough, her brown eyes wise and serene, her curves generous enough to make any man want her, even with her scars.

  “The scars,” Jenny said in surprise. “That’s what brought them together.” That realization brought sudden peace to the turmoil that Jenny had experienced since that afternoon. She hadn’t even thought about Jamie’s scars—they were so much a part of him— but they must be a burden to him, always obvious to those who saw him for the first time, and it was probably the same for Grace. Jenny crawled back into the big bed again, feeling relaxed for the first time in years. She had found her brother, he was well and happy, and whatever happened next, they would be together. Maybe she could even find someone to love her. Her mind settled on Ty, whose glances she had noticed since she had arrived. She closed her eyes and summoned up an image of sandy hair and blue eyes set in a serious, handsome face. “Maybe Cat should be worried, after all,” she said to herself as she fell asleep.

  The warm breeze that danced through the o
pen window gently caressed the golden wisps of hair that curled around a perfectly oval face. Like the touch of a lover’s hand, the air moved over the long expanse of well-toned leg that had found its way out from under the sheets. It brought forth a sigh from full lips that longed for more, just one more kiss, but the wind teased and was gone. In the dream, however, the lover remained, running sure, strong hands over a body brimming with desire, surrounding the two of them with dark hair that tickled and teased at the bare breasts below, mingling with the golden strands until the two bodies were joined together in a dance that had been going on since the beginning of time.

  Jenny woke with a start, kicking the clinging sheets away from her tingling skin. She felt an ache inside, every nerve was on fire from the dream which had stopped just short of consummation. She had not been able to see the face of her lover, but she could still feel his presence in every part of her. The bed felt suffocating, so she walked to the window to let the breeze dry her sweaty skin and calm her frazzled nerves. The valley below was quiet; there was nothing to be heard but the creatures of the night singing their songs in full chorus, secure in the darkness. Jenny knelt before the window and laid her head on the sill, not anxious to return to the comfort of the big bed and the demons in her dreams.

  A slight movement caught her eye and in the shadows below she could see someone standing on the porch of the bunkhouse, leaning against the comer column, facing up towards the main house. A hand went up and smoothed back hair that was lost in the shadows, and the way the hand trailed down over the shoulder, she knew it had to be Chase, even though Jake wore his hair long also. She briefly wondered what was keeping him up late, knowing he must be exhausted from his time on the trail, and she attributed his sleeplessness to the heat. Something caught his attention, and Jamie appeared in the opening between Grace’s cabin and the bunkhouse. She could see Jamie talking to Chase, then watched as Jamie went inside the bunkhouse. The next thing she knew, there was the sound of a huge crash, followed by Jamie’s angry voice.

  “Damn it, Caleb, that’s my sister you’re drawing pictures of!” There was another crash, as if a mad scramble was taking place, and Zane and Caleb came flying out into the yard, followed by the irate Jamie. Jenny saw Chase hanging on to the column to keep from falling down laughing.