Golden Ghost

by Terri Farley

  “So, your family called her Rose. Not Rosa de…” Sam began.

  “Rose was her stable name, but I wonder if she’d remember it.” Jen paused and tapped her index finger against lips that were becoming chapped from the high desert wind. “Mom and Dad used to joke that they’d owned Rose for such a short time, she still spoke Spanish.”

  When Jen mentioned her parents, her face turned from thoughtful to worried.

  Jed and Lila Kenworthy were quarreling. According to Jen, their fights had been going on for close to a year. Most were about staying on the ranch or moving to town.

  Jen feared they were on the brink of a divorce.

  “At least they had good memories of her,” Sam put in, though she knew it was a lame thing to say.

  Jen shook her head. “Not really. Dad says Rose was his last hope, and when he woke up one morning to find her gone, he just lost heart. A week later he started looking for a buyer for the Diamond K.”

  What could she say to help Jen? Sam bit her lower lip.

  “While you and your mom were gone, these last few days, didn’t your dad have a chance to rethink moving?”

  “We thought it would help, having the house to himself,” Jen said. “But all these things that are worrying him—” Jen threw up her hands in frustration. “They’re real problems, but they’re not our problems, you know what I mean? He’s worried about money. Okay, I get that, but do you know why? Because he thinks I want cooler clothes.”

  Sam knew her astonishment must have shown, because Jen was nodding in agreement with her expression.

  “Yeah, clothes for me, when I love getting my stuff from thrift stores.” Jen parted her jacket to look down at her outfit. “Where else could I find a hot-pink blouse to go with these cranberry-colored cords? And he thinks Mom wants a new computer. Mom doesn’t care anything about computers. She’d rather have a new mop, and I’m not joking. But once, just once, she mentioned something about it being slow logging on, when she was ordering a library book to be brought out on the bookmobile.”

  “Haven’t you told him—”

  “Oh, we’ve told him,” Jen said. “And now his latest thing, last night, when we got home, isn’t for me and Mom. He’s been reading that weird little newspaper they hand out at the feed store, and he says everyone’s trying to take advantage of the West anyway, so he might as well go to the city. The article that got him going was about European horse meat dealers coming to Nevada secretly, to buy wild horses.”

  “What?” Sam felt chills like icy rain down her spine. “It’s not true, is it?”

  “Of course not,” Jen said.

  Sam realized she’d closed her eyes against the nightmare images rushing into her mind. She opened her eyes wide. She could think about that later. Right now, she had to act like a best friend and help Jen.

  “But Golden Rose could change everything, right?” Sam wanted to bite her tongue. False hope wasn’t the kind of help Jen needed. But it was too late to take her words back.

  “It could help! It really could!” Jen leaped up and hugged Sam’s neck.

  Jen jumped with joy, as far as her heavy coat allowed.

  Sam smiled. She really hoped everything worked out. But what if Jen pinned all her hopes on this horse and it wasn’t Golden Rose?

  “You promise you won’t tell anyone,” Jen said, as they remounted and left the canyon.

  “If you didn’t believe me when I swore the first time, why should you believe me the tenth?” Sam asked, but Jen was too lost in daydreams to answer.

  While Sam took notes on the ghost town of Nugget, Jen kept staring at the ravine.

  “I don’t want anyone to know, except you, until I can catch her,” Jen blurted.

  “Hope you can rope better than I can, because—”

  “Rope her? And traumatize her completely?” Jen gasped. “I’m not taking a chance on that. She’ll just get used to me, and when she does, I’ll show her to my dad.”

  And we’ll all live happily every after, Jen’s voice implied.

  “You sound pretty sure that will end his plan to move,” Sam said.

  “I am sure,” Jen snapped. “And I don’t know why you’re calling it a plan. It’s more of a crazy idea. Don’t you want me to stay?”

  “Jen, you’re my best friend in the world,” Sam said. She swallowed hard and tried to keep her voice relaxed, but each time she thought of Jen moving, tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. “I hated it when you were gone for a few days. What do you think would happen to me if you actually moved?”

  Jen gave a lopsided smile. “I think you’d be hanging around with Rachel and Daisy inside a week.”

  Rachel was Linc Slocum’s beautiful, stuck-up daughter and Daisy was her pretty but airheaded friend.

  “Oh, right. There’s as much chance of that as—” Sam broke off. She’d just seen something almost as unlikely. “Tell me that’s another mirage and I’ll believe you.”

  Jen followed Sam’s gaze across the range.

  A sleek brown Thoroughbred came toward them at a gentle trot.

  His rider rose in short stirrups. Posting.

  “Who, around here, rides English?” Jen asked.

  “Don’t you recognize the horse?” Sam asked.

  The animal’s chocolate-colored neck and front legs gleamed in the winter sun. His body lined out like that of a greyhound.

  “Oh my gosh,” Jen murmured. “It’s Sky and Ryan.”

  Ryan Slocum was Rachel’s brother. He’d lived with their mother in Nottingham, England, until about two months ago. Sky Ranger was a Thoroughbred that Linc Slocum used for endurance work. Like chasing mustangs.

  The first time Sam had seen the gelding, Linc had been using him to pursue the Phantom.

  “You both live on the same ranch and you didn’t know he rode English?” Sam asked. She looked over at Jen in time to see her friend push her glasses firmly up on her nose.

  “Since he’s been home, I’ve seen him around the horses,” Jen said, lifting one shoulder. “But I haven’t seen him ride.”

  “He’s coming this way,” Sam said.

  Ryan didn’t wear fancy jodhpurs, and Sam was glad. Her first impressions of the guy had been positive, and she wouldn’t like it if people made fun of him. Around here, English riding gear would guarantee it.

  Not that Jen looked like she’d mock him. She took in Ryan’s jeans, glossy brown boots, and the open-necked white shirt that showed above his burgundy sweater as if she were memorizing them.

  Ryan lifted a hand. They returned his wave, but he was still too far off for conversation.

  “Don’t—” Jen began.

  “I won’t tell him you saw Golden Rose.” Sam sighed in frustration.

  “Well, good,” Jen said as Silly and Ace neighed a greeting. “But I was going to say, don’t give him a hard time about riding Sky.”

  Sam mulled that over. Why should she? Unless he was getting Sky in shape for something she wouldn’t approve of.

  “Hallo,” Ryan said.

  His British accent made Sam smile. She just couldn’t help it.

  He didn’t look like the guys from Darton High and he didn’t act like them. He wore his coffee-brown hair a little long and didn’t try to hide his intelligence.

  “Hi,” Sam said. “Why are you riding Sky way out here? Training for something?”

  Jen groaned and shot Sam a scolding look, but Ryan didn’t seem to take offense.

  “Not really,” he said. “The horse is rarely ridden and needed some work. Why? Is there an event coming up?”

  Sam shrugged.

  “In any case, I’ve taken him on as a project. Him and that lovely little Appaloosa, Hotspot. I must say, I don’t understand why my father isn’t keen on keeping the foal. What could he possibly have against that beautiful mare?”

  “I think it’s more what he has against the stallion. The father,” Jen said.

  “Yes?” Ryan looked intrigued and his tone coaxed them to go on.
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  “Didn’t he tell you?” Sam asked.

  “Actually, no.” Ryan looked embarrassed. Because his father wouldn’t talk with him? Or maybe because he was altogether ashamed of having Linc Slocum for a father.

  “Was it one of your wild mustangs?” Ryan guessed.

  “Probably not,” Sam said. “She was stolen right out of a Gold Dust Ranch pasture by a stallion who turned out to be an endurance champion named Diablo.”

  Ryan rubbed Sky’s neck as if assuring him Diablo would be a weak opponent. He mulled over the information for so long, Jen shifted in her saddle and Sam studied Sky.

  The gelding hadn’t broken a sweat and wasn’t breathing hard. If Ryan was training for something, his horse appeared to be in top form.

  “My father can be rather eccentric,” Ryan said, finally.

  Although the urge to applaud Ryan’s conclusion was strong, Sam didn’t. Saying something critical about your father was one thing. Listening to someone else say he was a nutcase was something else again.

  Sam stuck to a safe topic. “How far are you taking him?”

  For the first time, Ryan looked uncomfortable, and Sam felt instantly suspicious. Slocums were not to be trusted, even cute ones with accents.

  “Not far,” he said. “Actually, I often let him go where he likes.”

  A flush colored Ryan’s skin and Sam glanced at Jen to see if she’d noticed. Probably so. Jen wouldn’t meet Sam’s eyes, but she was blushing, too.

  Once more, Ryan held up his hand, this time in farewell.

  “What’s he’s hiding?” Sam asked as soon as he’d ridden out of earshot.

  “Nothing,” Jen said. “He’s embarrassed that he lets the horse be the boss.”

  “Think so?” Sam asked. “That really didn’t seem like a very good explanation.”

  Jen continued to stare after Ryan. Her lips wore a slight smile as if she were confused by her own thoughts.

  “The way his hair sort of falls on his forehead, doesn’t it just make you want to brush it back for him?”

  If Jen had asked, Don’t you just have a craving to eat bugs? it would have surprised her less.

  Could you suffer mental whiplash? Sam wondered.

  “You have a crush on him,” she said in disbelief.

  “Of course I don’t. I just think it’s cool he’s taking an interest in Sky and Hotspot.” Silence crept in between each of Jen’s words. “Especially Hotspot.” The harder she tried to sound sensible, the less she did. “She’s a beautiful mare….”

  “Yeah,” Sam teased. “So beautiful, she makes you want to brush her forelock back out of her eyes.”

  “Shut up,” Jen said, in a level tone that sounded like a request.

  Sam laughed, glad that Jen was finally acting like herself again.

  “Whatever,” Jen said, dismissing Ryan with a word.

  The wind had stopped. The orange morning sun had turned into a flat white disk and cold clamped down.

  Sam pulled her gloves out of her pocket and worked them on. Ace felt the cold, too, or he’d take advantage of her distraction to act up.

  “Good boy,” Sam praised him, but the gelding only swished his tail in annoyance. If she could read his mind, Sam was pretty sure she’d see him thinking about the warm barn corral he shared with Sweetheart, Gram’s old paint mare.

  Keeping her reins in her left hand, she tugged the leather collar of her sheepskin-lined coat up to her chin. “I need to get home and strategize,” Jen said.

  Sam glanced at her friend. “Aren’t you cold?”

  Jen’s nose was red. Her lips were a white that could turn blue any second, and yet her jacket hung open over her sweater.

  “Not really. I’m thinking.”

  Sam knew she’d felt relieved too soon. Jen was so fixated on Golden Rose, she didn’t even know she was cold.

  But here came help. Or at least another distraction.

  Crested head held high, a black horse surged toward them. She looked primitive and just barely under control, like a horse daubed in paint on an elk-skin tent. Her rider lacked a spear and shield, but his hair was ink black like the horse and he rode as if the two were one.

  Yep, from a distance Jake Ely looked great, but Sam could tell from the set of his jaw that he was irritated.

  Add Jen’s presence to his irritation, and it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. The two never got along.

  “Oh, make him disappear,” Jen moaned as Jake rode closer. “I’ve got to meditate. If I can only go home, stretch out on my bed with a notebook, and lay out a plan, I can keep Dad from quitting his job and moving to the city. I’m just not up for a fight with Jake Ely right now.”

  Chapter Four

  Witch, Jake’s black Quarter horse, liked to bully other horses. Ace had learned to stay out of reach, but Silly stretched her muzzle out in welcome, trying to be friends.

  Witch was still five or six horse lengths away when her hindquarters tensed. Her trot turned jerky and her ears flattened to her skull. Her eyes flashed rivalry and her hooves jabbed the dirt as she approached.

  A stranger to horses might not have noticed Witch’s foul attitude, but Sam and Jen did. Only Jake’s skillful riding kept Witch from wheeling to kick Silly.

  With a whinny high-pitched as a foal’s, Silly extended her head toward Ace, asking for help, but Jen acted first.

  “What’s that brainless beast you ride got against other horses?” she shouted.

  Sam sighed. This whole day was going to be an emotional roller-coaster, apparently.

  Jake kept his mare in check and ignored Jen’s question.

  “Morning.” His greeting sounded like a reprimand. Sam and Jen knew Jake wasn’t just stopping to shoot the breeze when he lifted his chin slightly and asked, “What’s he doing out here?”

  He had to be talking about Ryan Slocum. Even though he’d ridden out of sight, his tracks remained. Jake had probably picked up Sky’s hoofprints at the Gold Dust Ranch, but how could he know who was riding him?

  Jake stared toward Lost Canyon. His coat was open over a faded blue shirt and his Shoshone hair was pulled back under his black Stetson. Sam couldn’t see Jake’s eyes, but his casual posture said he was indifferent to the answer. Still, the fact that he didn’t ride on after saying hi proved he was faking.

  “He who?” Jen taunted. Then, when Jake didn’t take the bait, she added, “Last time I looked, this was open range. I suppose just about anyone can ride out here.”

  Jake’s hat brim dipped a fraction of an inch. “Rustlers, butchers, con men,” he muttered in agreement.

  “Your jealousy is showing,” Jen said.

  “Oh, yeah. I like the sissy look of a man who can’t sit down on his horse for fear it’s not tough enough to carry him.”

  “Stop it,” Sam said. “I’ve heard you admit that some of the best riders in the world use English saddles.”

  Jake kept quiet, but she could feel his irritation. So now he thought she’d betrayed him. Too bad. Jake and Jen always put her in the middle. At least she didn’t mention the black-and-white poster of Mexican cavalrymen riding down hillsides that Jake had shown her once. It was from some 1950s movie and the saddles were smaller and lighter than Western saddles. They’d looked a lot like English saddles. And, if she remembered right, Jake had said something like, “That’s ridin’.”

  “If you’re referring to Ryan Slocum,” Jen said, “he’s giving Sky, their endurance horse, some exercise.”

  Again, Jake gave a small nod.

  Seeing that she couldn’t bait him into further argument, Jen gathered her reins and backed Silly away from the other two.

  “Fun as this has been, I’d better be on my way,” Jen said to Sam. She backhanded one white-blond braid over her shoulder. “Mom was still in her bathrobe when I left and she was already asking if I’d unpacked my suitcase. And I have a few other plans to get in order before it’s time to start thinking about school.”

  Jen widened her eyes meaningful
ly toward Sam.

  Sam tried to cover for Jen’s not-so-subtle hint.

  “I think this project is going to be fun. I’ll go over our field notes and start typing them up. I don’t have anything to do for the rest of vacation. Unless you want to come back tomorrow?”

  “Oh, yeah!” Jen raised her hand in a fist and pumped it skyward, then sent Silly loping for home.

  Oh, nice, Jen. Sam stirred her legs against the saddle leathers and let Ace start for home. Good thing Jen was aiming at a career in veterinary medicine and not espionage.

  “What’s she up to?” Jake said, as Witch fell into step beside Ace.

  “As if I’d tell you.”

  “Something to do with Slocum or with that ghost town?”

  “Hey, I need to ask you something,” Sam said suddenly.

  “Nice diversion. Real pro, but answer me first.”

  “I can’t. I promised I wouldn’t.”

  Jake sighed, then gave a shrug that said he took promises seriously, but couldn’t see how anything Jen said warranted such a vow.

  “The Kenworthys sold their ranch to Slocum not long after I had to go to San Francisco, right?”

  Jake’s shoulders tensed. He’d finally tried to duck guilt when it came at him, but he still felt responsible for the riding accident that had sent Sam to the hospital, and then to San Francisco for two years.

  “Around then,” he said.

  “So why don’t they have a lot of money?”

  Hundreds of acres of ranchland, complete with water rights and outbuildings, had to be worth a lot. Maybe Jed had made a bad decision and wasted the money quickly. Maybe that’s why he felt guilty that Jen and her mother didn’t have nice things.

  “Back taxes,” Jake said. “Plus other debt. In that drought he lost cattle. Like everyone else, he sold some for less than he’d paid for them, but that didn’t take into account raising ’em, feeding ’em, trucking them to market.”

  Sam felt a surge of thankfulness. Her family had been so lucky not to lose River Bend.

  “Not that it’s any of your business, Brat.”

  “It is if Jen’s dad makes them move,” Sam said.