Promising Hearts

by Radclyffe

  “I know. Kate’s been right there with you most of the time.”

  Vance searched for any hint of dissatisfaction in Jessie’s voice, but found none. “It’s demanding work.”

  “Kate’s strong and smart.”

  Smiling, Vance nodded. “She is. I meant that it can be difficult when your…” She frowned and glanced at Jessie. “Well I don’t quite know what word to use. How do you think of Kate, as she is to you?”

  “I think of her as my heart,” Jessie said quietly.

  “Yes,” Vance replied, feeling the rightness of that as she thought of Mae. “When your…beloved…makes a habit of leaving in the middle of the night for hours at a time, it can be disrupting.”

  “I’m gone a lot, seeing to the stock and the men out on the line, and Kate never complains.” Jessie chuckled. “Well, not much. More like worries.”

  “I imagine you worry a bit about her, too.”

  “If she weren’t with you most of the time, I’d fret a lot more. But we’ve managed to get in some good practice the last few weeks, and she’s getting to be handy with a revolver and a rifle.”

  “Doing the work she’s doing will endear her to everyone in the territory. People will watch out for her. She’ll be fine,” Vance said gently, hearing the concern beneath the pride.

  “It’s what she wants to do.” Jessie studied Vance. She didn’t often speak to anyone other than Kate about her feelings. She and Vance were alike, she knew that without being able to put all the words to her knowledge. It wasn’t just the way they dressed or the way they loved. It was something about how they worked inside, what was important to them. And what they feared. It made it easier to say what was in her heart knowing that she wouldn’t have to explain or defend her feelings. “I figure that’s part of loving, not getting in the way of what she needs to do.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  “It can be a hard thing to do sometimes, just the same.”

  Solemnly, Vance nodded. Harder than hard sometimes. The breeze carried the scent of new grass and rich earth as golden shadows slanted across the dusty yard. “Summer’s about here. It’s beautiful country.”

  “It is.” Jessie felt the calm in the center of her being that came from being on her land, being satisfied in her work, and being loved better than she had ever dreamed. “I’ve never been all the way back East, but I’ve been to the big cities a time or two. Enough to know there is no place for me there.”

  “I had to leave to understand that,” Vance said, recognizing the absence of the restless unease that had always been part of her consciousness, even when Victor had been alive and she had been happy. Or what she had taken to be happiness. “It seems that we’ve come from different directions to the same place.”

  “I reckon that says something about us.” Jessie grinned at Vance. “Good thing we’re not of a mind to fit in.”

  Vance glanced behind her at the sound of the door opening. Mae stood in a shaft of lamplight, her face partially in shadows, her hair a golden halo framing the pale oval of her face. She wore a dress that resembled the blue of the Union uniforms when the troops had been young and fresh, before months of deprivation and death had changed them all. It was deceptively simple in design, the bodice and waist subtly accentuating her curvaceous body. It wasn’t what she had been wearing when Vance had last seen her that morning. It occurred to Vance that she still wore the dusty, rumpled clothes she’d been in all day, and she wished for a bath.

  “You two,” Mae said, “don’t need to worry about fitting in, because you’re just where you belong. Vance, there’s a bit of supper left, and if you don’t have some soon, Kate’s likely to take after you with a knife.”

  “I just need to get washed up,” Vance said, wishing she could kiss her, but wanting to be fresher before she did.

  Mae solved her dilemma by crossing the porch, curling an arm around Vance’s neck, and kissing her soundly on the mouth.

  Jessie looked hastily away and sidled toward the door. “I’ll just…ah…be going. Help Kate…do something.”

  “Jed’s been fussing about getting back to work,” Mae called after Jessie, her arms still around Vance’s neck. “If you tell him to stay in bed, he might just mind.”

  “How is he doing?” Vance decided that if Mae didn’t mind the way she smelled, she might as well enjoy herself, so she leaned back against the post rail and snugged Mae into the curve of her body.

  “We couldn’t get even the smallest bit of cloth into that hole in his back today,” Mae said with satisfaction. “I think he’s healed.”

  “You’ve both done an excellent job with him.” Vance sighed with contentment and rested her chin lightly on Mae’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I’m so late.”

  “You make it hard for me to fuss at you when I’m so glad to see you,” Mae murmured. She kissed Vance’s neck. “And when you feel so good.”

  “With any luck, there won’t be any calls waiting for me and I can stay the night with you.”

  “I don’t care if there’re a dozen calls, you’re going to bed tonight.” Mae frowned. “You’ll not do anyone any good if you run yourself into the ground.”

  Vance laughed. “I’m fine. I’ve been known to take a nap beneath a tree while waiting for a baby to be born.”

  Mae smiled. “I bet that’s a sight. But I still want you in bed with me tonight. Come by around one.”

  “Mae,” Vance said carefully. “You told me once that you don’t need to entertain very often because there are only a few customers you still see. How did that come about?”

  “I think it would be better if we didn’t speak of these things,” Mae said quietly, her cheek against Vance’s shoulder. “If it doesn’t touch us, it can’t drive us apar—”

  “Nothing is going to come between us, my dearest Mae,” Vance said. “Certainly not this.”

  Mae sighed. “Is it important?”

  “I think so, yes.”

  “After I’d been here a few months, a gentleman from town told me one evening that he’d made an arrangement so that I would be available to him whenever he wanted.”

  “And you agreed?”

  Mae laughed. “It’s not a question of agreeing or not. He was polite, didn’t come around very often, and made it clear that he would be generous with his money. He also made it clear that I was not to speak of our arrangement. He always uses the back entrance.”

  Vance remained perfectly still while Mae explained the arrangements, allowing none of her growing jealousy to show. “So he’s the only one?”

  “On occasion there are others, friends of his. Not very often.”

  “Who is he?”

  “Oh, Vance, if you have a face, a name, to think about, I’m afraid that it will work on you. I don’t want you to look at me and see him touching me, when he’s nothin—”

  “I love you,” Vance said firmly. “I love to look at you, I love to touch you. I love it when you touch me. Nothing will ever change that.” Tenderly, Vance skimmed her fingers over Mae’s face and down her neck. She cupped her chin and kissed her softly. “When I look at you, I see my greatest fortune. I see my deepest hopes. All my dreams rest in your eyes.” She pressed her cheek to Mae’s and held her tightly. Against her ear she murmured, “I don’t want to spend a day of my life without you. Please let me help you be safe.”

  “You make it hard to say no,” Mae whispered. “Promise me you won’t do anything foolish.”

  “You have my word,” Vance said immediately.

  “Wallace Fitzpatrick.”

  “The lumberman?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you think he owns the Nugget?”

  Mae shook her head. “I don’t think so. But I think one of the others does. One of his friends.”

  “Who are they?”

  Vance wasn’t surprised when Mae named two of the men whom Jessie had suggested had the means to own the establishment. At least now she could concentrate her efforts on them. If she
couldn’t track Hanrahan, she could watch them. She kissed Mae again. “Thank you.”

  “I can’t seem to say no to you.” Mae shook her head. “I’m not sure yet if that’s a good thing.”

  Vance laughed. “I should get inside before Kate comes searching for me. I can’t have the two of you after me at once.”

  “You needn’t worry,” Mae said, linking her arm through Vance’s. “If anyone’s going to be taking after you, it will be me.”

  “Then I shall consider myself lucky.”

  *

  “Mary Willows asked me to bring my camera with me the next time I visit,” Kate said. She sat at the table finishing her tea while Vance ate the supper she had saved for her. “To photograph the baby.”

  Vance smiled. “I have a feeling that’s going to be a very frequent request.”

  “You’re going to need a bigger buggy,” Jessie teased.

  “I love taking family pictures, but there are so many beautiful things about our life out here. I was wondering,” Kate said shyly, watching Vance carefully, “if you would sit for me.”

  “Me?” Vance colored and cast about for some excuse. “Why, I hardly think there’s anything about me—”

  “I think that’s a fine idea,” Mae said firmly. “I’d like one of her, Kate.”

  “Actually,” Kate said, “I’ve seen sketches in newspapers done from photographs. I’d like to try that for my father’s paper. You’re a new doctor in the territory, and a woman, and that seems like something people would be interested in knowing about.”

  Vance groaned. “I can’t think why, and even if they did, I—”

  “You might as well just agree, Vance,” Jessie said. “Because you’re going to sooner or later.”

  Kate cast her lover a stern glance, but her laughing eyes betrayed her amusement.

  “I suppose it’s the least I can do after all the nights you’ve fed me.” Vance smiled at Kate. “Just tell me when you—”

  The clatter of hoofbeats and the sound of someone riding hard interrupted her, and everyone glanced toward the kitchen door. Vance rose quickly as both she and Jessie automatically gripped their revolvers, and then she stepped between Mae and the window. When Jessie edged open the door to look outside, Vance started toward her, saying to Mae, “Stay inside.”

  Mae turned to Kate. “Where’s the rifle?”

  “By the fireplace.” Kate opened a drawer, withdrew a revolver, and cocked it. “It’s probably nothing, but ever since Jed—”

  “I know,” Mae said grimly, opening the door, the rifle resting in the crook of her arm. She could see shapes in the yard but not much else. She lifted the rifle as a figure approached, then lowered it again when she recognized Jessie’s distinctive form. “What is it?”

  Jessie strode inside, followed a few seconds later by Vance. “Charlie’s outside. He said there are strangers following one of the herds. He thinks they’re getting ready to cut the young horses out.” She glanced at Kate. “I have to go.”

  “I want to come.”

  Jessie shook her head. “You can’t, Kate. We’re going to be riding hard. Charlie thinks we can reach their location before dawn.”

  “I’ll need a horse and saddlebags for my equipment,” Vance said. “I’ll also need extra ammunition. I don’t carry much when I’m out on calls.”

  “I appreciate it,” Jessie said to Vance, “but there’s no need for you to come.”

  “With Jed still down, you’re short a gun.” Vance grinned. “And I’m a good one.”

  Jessie studied Vance’s face, saw the steady sureness in her eyes. “Okay, then.”

  Kate turned to Mae as Jessie and Vance hurried back outside. “Isn’t there something we can do?”

  “If I could think of a reason that made sense for them not to go, I’d say so.” Mae frowned and set the rifle on the table. “But they’re doing what needs to be done, and though I hate to admit it, they’re the ones to do it.”

  As much as Kate didn’t like the idea of staying behind, she knew that Mae and Jessie were right. She just had to believe that Jessie would come home unharmed.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Just before dawn, Vance pulled her horse even with Jessie’s. She, Jessie, and the ranch hands had been climbing steadily into the foothills through the night, and the air was noticeably thinner and colder than on the ranch. The terrain was rocky and the scattering of junipers and sagebrush fairly sparse, so there wasn’t much in the way of cover. The openness made Vance more than a little uneasy. She was used to fighting in the woods and fields of Pennsylvania and Virginia, where trees and thickets provided plentiful shields. The sound of horses’ hooves clattering on rock split the air like gunshots, and each time she heard it, her stomach tightened painfully. She knew where she was, and she knew that Lee’s army did not wait over the crest of the next ridge. Still, the anticipation of battle was as familiar as the beat of her own heart. “How much farther, do you think?”

  “We’re pretty close to the line shack where Charlie and Johnny were staying when they saw the strangers following the herd,” Jessie said.

  “It might be better to leave most of the men back a ways, because fifteen riders are going to make a racket going up that last slope,” Vance said, nodding toward the rocky ridge in front of them. “It will also prevent us from being flanked to have your guns at our back.”

  Jessie nodded. “I would never have brought this many men if Jed and Kate hadn’t ganged up on me and threatened to follow us.” She shook her head. “A few good hands are all we really need.”

  “It’s a lot like trying to move an army without anyone noticing,” Vance said. “It’s far more effective to send advance skirmishers to secure an area and then bring up the main body.”

  “I guess you’ve been in situations like this before,” Jessie said, slowing Star to a walk. The sun would be up within minutes, and any advantage of surprise they might have would be lost.

  “A few times. Usually I stayed with the battalion, but when heavy forward skirmishes were anticipated, I went with the men.”

  Jessie turned in the saddle and motioned for Charlie to join them. “Tell four or five of the boys to wait here. The rest should work their way down into the valley, staying below the ridge line, so they can cut off any escape if the bastards decide to run. You, Vance, and I will go on up ahead so we can get a look over the rim of the valley. You can show us where you last saw them, and if we’re lucky, they’ll still be there.”

  “The boys won’t take lightly to being left behind,” Charlie observed conversationally.

  “Maybe not. But I don’t want to spook this bunch before we get a fix on their position.”

  Charlie nodded. “Makes sense, I guess. I’ll tell them.”

  As he rode back to the group, Vance and Jessie trotted ahead. Just before they reached the top of the trail that bordered the valley below, Jessie slowed again. “You might want to think about staying back, too. We’ll be visible on this ridge now that the sun is up, and if it’s the same bunch as before, they won’t waste any time shooting at us.”

  “I didn’t come all this way to miss the action.” Vance shrugged and grimaced as pain shot through her left shoulder and chest. The gray morning air hung thick with mist, and her leather duster kept the moisture but not the cold from settling into the damaged tissues. “Is it your plan to kill these men?”

  “Might have to.” Jessie regarded her pensively. “Is that going to be a problem for you?”

  Vance held Jessie’s steady gaze. “It wouldn’t be if I knew they were the men who ambushed you and Jed. Attempted murder and horse thievery are hanging offenses.”

  “But we don’t know for sure,” Jessie said, spurring Star up a small rise off to one side of the trail.

  Vance guided her horse up beside her, and together, they surveyed the valley below. “I’m not suggesting a friendly parlay. But once we find them, we might want to wait a bit to see if they’re actually stealing—”


  The small puff of smoke appearing from a clump of rocks two hundred feet away, the sound of the shot, and Jessie’s horse rearing seemed to happen all at once. Then Jessie was falling and Vance was diving after her, her saddlebag clutched in her hand. Vance tucked her chin and rolled over her right shoulder, tossing the bag in front of her and pulling her revolver as she came to a teeth-jarring halt in the loose stones next to Jessie. A boulder blocked her view of the spot from which the shot had come, which also meant they couldn’t be seen. Even if the shooters climbed up to their location, it would take them a few minutes.

  “Jessie,” Vance said urgently, a sick feeling clamping down on her throat. There was blood spatter on the ground, and Jessie had not moved since she’d landed. “Where are you hit?”

  “Leg,” Jessie said through gritted teeth, slowly turning onto her back and pushing upright against the largest rock with her right leg. “Just winged my thigh, but I think Star might have been hit. Bastards. I’ll kill every one of them if they hurt my horse.”

  “I saw her bolt away. If she’s hurt, it’s not bad. Now let me see your leg.” Vance jerked open the flap on her saddlebag and pulled out a trail knife. She slit Jessie’s chaps and denim pants in the area of the bloody tear on the outside of her left thigh. Jessie winced but made no complaint. “It looks like it’s skimmed you, but didn’t lodge in the muscle or bone.” Carefully, Vance palpated Jessie’s thigh, pressing along the length of her femur and eliciting no increased pain or movement. “It’s not broken.”

  “Just bind it up so we can climb up there and get a shot at these rustlers,” Jessie said. “And don’t tear my pants up too much while you’re doing that, because Kate is going to be mad enough as it is.”

  “Just make sure you don’t get any more holes in your clothes, and Kate will probably only take a few swats at you,” Vance said as she withdrew a length of cotton from her bag. She folded the end and applied it to the slowly oozing wound. “Here. Hold this end so I can wrap it around and stop the bleeding.”