Letter to a Lonesome Cowboy

by Jackie Merritt

  She knew, without the slightest doubt, that he wouldn’t stay.

  J.D. had called Rand over to the main storage shed. “Take a look at this,” J.D. said, leading Rand inside. Freeway went in, too.

  Rand gaped at the pile of twisted, broken, melted metal that had once been six brand-new rolls of barbed wire.

  “Looks like someone used a welding torch on it,” J.D. said.

  Rand glanced around; the portable welder was nowhere in sight. “And I’ll bet the portable is clean and back in the toolshed where we keep it.” He slammed a fist into his other palm. “Damn, will he never stop!”

  J.D. was studying the heap of ruined wire. “What point do you suppose he was trying to make with this trick?”

  “It’s just another scare tactic. He’s probably hoping the men will think a lightning bolt appeared out of a clear sky, maybe thrown by a flying saucer, and honed in on this barbed wire. The sad thing is that some of them might.” Rand shook his head disgustedly. “I’m glad you’re the one who found this. I’d appreciate your not mentioning it to the other men.”

  “They’re in and out of this shed all the time, Rand. Tell you what. I’ll stay behind today and get this mess loaded on a truck and hauled to the dump.”

  “Can you handle it alone? It’s not six rolls anymore, it’s one big lump of heavy metal.”

  “I’ll get it out of here if I have to cut it up in little pieces.”

  Rand was thinking. “Did you happen to hear anything in the night? Someone moving around?”

  “You know, Freeway woke me up around two.” Freeway’s head came up at his name. “I petted him for a minute and told him to go back to sleep, which I did myself. Maybe he was trying to tell me something.”

  “Bet he was.”

  “Doesn’t Daisy ever bark when someone’s wandering around at night?”

  “The only times I’ve heard Daisy bark is when Freeway tries to go into the barn. No, she’s not a watchdog.”

  J.D. snorted out a laugh. “Two dogs on the place and each of them would hold a flashlight for a burglar. Fine pair of mutts they are.”

  “Lovable but useless,” Rand agreed. “Well, I’d better get going. I’m taking the crew to check the water level in the creeks and ponds. The snow is melting so fast in this warm wind, we could have some flooding.”

  “Doesn’t look to me like this ranch has had any problems with flooding in the past,” J.D. said casually.

  “It hasn’t that I know of, but I’d rather play it safe than sorry. See you later.” He stopped at the door of the shed. “J.D., I’m going to have Suzanne make some sandwiches and pack a lunch to take with us. That way, we’ll be gone most of the day. Should give you all the time you need to haul that wire away.”

  J.D. nodded. “Good plan.”

  Gritting his teeth during the walk to the bunkhouse, Rand paused to alter his expression before going in. He still didn’t want Suzanne knowing about the maniac running wild on the ranch. All it would do was scare her, and he didn’t want her scared. She had enough on her mind without worrying about that, too.

  He walked into the kitchen just as she was sliding a huge sheet cake into one of the ovens. “Chocolate, I hope?” he said.

  She shut the oven door, set the timer and smiled. “Is there any other kind?”

  “Your favorite, too?”

  “I’m a nut for chocolate cake.”

  He looked at her pretty face. There was a joy within him just from seeing her, from being with her. “I’m a nut for you, Suz.”

  She laughed. “Maybe you’re just a nut, period.” It was said fondly but lightly, as she didn’t want this evolving into a conversation about marriage. There were moments when she felt she could marry Rand—for Mack’s sake, for instance—but most of the time she couldn’t see herself settling for second best. In all honesty she wasn’t sure she wanted to ever get married again, even under the best of circumstances, which certainly wasn’t the case with her and Rand.

  Rand loved kidding around with Suzanne, and he would like to forget work today and spend it with her. But the men were saddling their horses and waiting for his direction. Actually, he needed to get a move on, before one or more of them came looking for him and wandered into the storage shed.

  “I’d like to take lunch with us today,” he told Suzanne. “Will you help me make some sandwiches?”

  “Of course.” Suzanne immediately went to the immense bread box. “Any particular kinds of sandwiches?” she asked.

  “Anything will do.”

  Suzanne pulled out leftover roast beef, chicken, a brick of cheese, some lettuce and an array of condiments from the refrigerator. Rand helped, and in about ten minutes they had made close to three dozen sandwiches.

  “What will you all drink?” Suzanne inquired. “How about a couple of thermos jugs of lemonade? There’s a huge can of mix in the pantry, and it would take only a minute to make.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll bag these sandwiches while you do that.”

  “You’re pretty good in a kitchen,” Suzanne told him while stirring the lemonade with an eye on how deftly he was bagging the sandwiches.

  Rand grinned. “Comes from being a bachelor all my life, I guess.”

  Suzanne smiled weakly. He would grasp the seriousness of marriage so much better if he had experienced it, she felt, and his quip about bachelorhood reminded her of that simple but crucial fact.

  “Guess so,” she murmured.

  Rand gathered everything up. “We’ll be back in time for supper. Don’t work too hard.” He started out, then stopped. “There should be a mail delivery today. Normally it arrives before noon. If you feel like it, drive down to the mailbox and pick it up. The driveway is muddy, so take my rig. The keys are in it.”

  Suzanne nodded. “Okay.”

  After Rand left she started worrying about the daily charge on her rental car. It wasn’t a large sum, but every dollar counted. Thinking about how tired she was of scrimping and watching every penny, she felt her good mood being overcome by a surge of despondency. Fearing it was going to get worse because of being alone all day, she hurriedly put away the perishables still on the counter and then ran to her bedroom for those old boots and her coat. A breath of fresh air just might jolt her out of the doldrums.

  Then, remembering the cake in the oven, she took off her coat and dawdled in the kitchen, impatiently, until the timer buzzed.

  Rand passed the canvas bags of food to some of the men. “We’re taking lunch with us today,” he announced, automatically making a head count of the crew. “Where’s Dale?”

  Someone spoke up. “He went looking for J.D.”

  Rand groaned inwardly. If Dale had gone looking for J.D., he’d probably found him. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and started away. Sure enough, when he entered the storage shed, there was Dale with J.D.

  “Holy smokes, Rand,” Dale exclaimed. “What d’ya think happened to that wire?”

  “Someone torched it,” Rand said sharply. “Dale, I told the crew to saddle the horses and wait for me. Why aren’t you with them?”

  “My horse is ready. I was just wondering where J.D. was.”

  Rand swallowed his temper. The way Dale had been shadowing J.D., he should have foreseen this happening.

  But Dale had stayed throughout the many incidents on the ranch, he reminded himself. And he had never, to Rand’s knowledge, laid the blame on little green men. He might not be overly bright about some things, but he was smart enough to recognize the work of a demented human.

  “All right,” Rand said. “Since you’re here, you might as well stay and help J.D. haul that wire to the dump. And, Dale, I don’t want the other men hearing one word about it, understand? Not one word. If it gets around I’ll know where it came from.”

  “They won’t hear it from me, Rand, I swear it.”

  Behind Dale’s back, J.D. shook his head and looked disgusted. Rand caught the grimace on J.D.’s face and understood what was going through his m
ind. He didn’t like Dale Carson, he avoided him whenever he could, and now he had to work with him all day.

  “J.D.,” Rand said. “This okay with you?” Losing J.D. over something like this would be the height of stupidity. He’d rather lose Dale than J.D. Hell, he’d rather lose any two men in his crew. J.D. had an instinct about this ranch. He seemed to know what was over every hill and behind every bush. He was the best cowhand Rand had ever worked with, and he would do just about anything to keep J.D. happy.

  J.D. raised his hat, brushed down his silvery hair with a gloved hand and set the hat back on his head. “Yes,” he said brusquely. “It’s okay.” He looked at Dale. “But we’re going to do this my way, understand?”

  Rand backed out of the shed. It was in J.D.’s hands now, and he would deal with Dale in his own way. Rand always tried to stay away from clashing personalities among the men, but he couldn’t blame J.D. for his attitude toward Dale. If Dale was a little brighter, he would know that asking too many questions and all but gluing himself to the back of someone would make that person dislike him.

  In all honesty, Rand didn’t know if Dale trailed after J.D. because he admired or resented him. In any case, he had made a pest of himself since the day J.D. came to the ranch. Maybe working alone together today would better the two men’s relationship, Rand hoped as he approached the rest of his crew.

  “Okay, mount up,” he said. “We’re going to inspect every creek and pond on the place today.”

  Suzanne walked along in the bright sunshine. In spite of the mud, the day was gorgeous. She looked at the Kincaid house, but only from a distance, and she went inside the barn to take a look at Daisy’s puppies. They were fat little balls of fur and adorable, and since Daisy seemed friendly enough, Suzanne sat down in the straw and played with the pups.

  Going outside again, she began another meandering stroll. The sound of voices coming from one of the sheds startled her so much, she nearly ran for the bunkhouse.

  “You flaming coward,” she muttered to herself, and forced herself to walk to the shed and peer into it. “J.D.!” she exclaimed. “And Dale. I thought everyone went with Rand.”

  J.D. straightened up. “Hello, Suzanne. Dale and I stayed behind to clean out this shed.”

  Suzanne’s gaze fell on the twisted mass of wire. “What’s that?”

  “Just some old barbed wire,” J.D. said quickly, before Dale could put in his two cents. “We’re going to be hauling a load of junk to the dump.”

  “You’ll be here for lunch, then.”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “Of course I don’t mind. I’m just surprised, that’s all. Will you be in at the usual time?”

  “Yes,” J.D. said.

  “Well, fine. I’ll let you get back to work now. It’s such a great day I’ve been doing some walking. See you at noon.” She left the shed feeling better because she wasn’t alone in the compound. Some pioneer she was, she thought with a laugh, afraid to be alone in the country.

  But it was so different here than anyplace she’d been. Different but very beautiful. The chinook was still blowing, but without the force of last night. The air felt warm on her face and hands, and the scenery was breathtaking. In one direction was a tall stand of evergreens—either pines or firs, she wasn’t sure. In another, the fields seemed to go on forever. There were still patches of snow, especially against the buildings where the drifts had piled up six and seven feet deep, and rivulets of water ran wherever there was a slope.

  Her oversize boots were getting heavy with mud, but she wasn’t ready to go back inside and so she set off down the driveway. She’d only gone a short distance when she spotted a huge animal in the brush alongside the driveway, a cow.

  Or was it a bull? Much of the animal’s bulk was concealed by leafless underbrush and she could only speculate on its gender.

  She stopped in her tracks and watched the cow or bull or whatever it was watching her. Its hide was an unusual color, a pinkish tan, and it had an enormous head. After a few moments of primal terror, she told herself to stop being so damned cowardly. That animal would not be loose if he was dangerous. She set out again, sending the animal cautious glances until she rounded a curve and he was out of sight.

  In the very next heartbeat she heard a car. Someone was coming! The thought of company was rather exciting and she waited at the side of the roadway with an expectant smile.

  A mud-spattered black pickup truck appeared. It slowed down and stopped next to her, and a young woman with long blond hair rolled down the window. “Hi, you must be Suzanne. I’m Janie Carson.”

  “Janie! You said you might drive out here. I’m glad you did.” Suzanne hadn’t realized how lonesome she was for female companionship until now. “Come to the bunkhouse and we’ll have a cup of coffee or something. It will be great talking to a woman for a change.”

  “Sounds great,” Janie replied. She opened the passenger side door and invited Suzanne inside.

  “Thanks.” Suzanne hurried around the front of the truck and climbed into the passenger seat. “Isn’t this a fabulous day?”

  “One of our better ones, that’s for sure.” She sent Suzanne a glance. “You must be half-crazy from that storm. No one expected it to be nearly as bad as it was, you know. It took everyone by surprise.” Janie pulled up next to Suzanne’s rental car and turned off the engine.

  “It was bad, but it’s over,” Suzanne said. “The men seem very glad it is. Come on, let’s go in. It will take me only a minute to frost a chocolate cake I baked this morning. We’ll have a piece of cake with our coffee. Oh, I hope you like chocolate.”

  “Love it,” Janie said with a laugh.

  They got out and went into the bunkhouse.

  Fourteen

  “You’re twenty-four? I’m twenty-four,” Janie exclaimed with a delighted clap of her hands. “Imagine that!”

  Suzanne liked Janie Carson. While the coffee brewed and she made icing for the cake, Janie chatted on as though they were old friends.

  “I’m a waitress. I went to college for two years, hoping to become a teacher,” Janie said with a sigh. “But I finally had to admit that I couldn’t handle working and going to school at the same time. I quit college, came back to Whitehorn and found my present job.”

  For a moment she was silent, then her countenance brightened. She was really very pretty, Suzanne thought, fresh and wholesome looking with her bright blue eyes and pale hair. “Dale and I were raised on a ranch, you know. Our folks had a real nice little ranch not too far from town. I don’t know the details of what took place—I was just fourteen at the time—but Dad got into some kind of financial bind and we lost our home.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” Suzanne said sympathetically.

  “Thank you. I won’t say it didn’t bother me, ‘cause it did. I was even embarrassed to face my friends at school. I got over that, of course, but being forced off our ranch is still a bad memory.”

  “I’m sure it is. Janie, do you still want to be a teacher?”

  “Yes, but there’s just no way to do it.”

  “What about a student loan?” Suzanne began spreading icing over the large sheet cake.

  “I will never go into debt for any reason,” Janie declared adamantly. “Debt is what caused us to lose our ranch. Suzanne, why are you doing the baking? Where’s Handy?”

  “Handy is in Seattle. His sister fell ill.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad. I didn’t know he had a sister.”

  “Apparently he does.” Suzanne looked up and smiled. “The cake and coffee are ready. I’ll—”

  A roaring bellow from outside had both women jumping and running to a window.

  “Oh, my God, it’s Pinky!” Janie cried.

  Suzanne got a sickly feeling in her stomach. It was the huge animal she’d seen in the brush and walked right past, and he was standing very close to her and Rand’s vehicles.

  “Uh, I take it he shouldn’t be out there?” she said to Janie.

>   “No way! Jeremiah Kincaid raised the meanest, orneriest bulls in the county, and Pinky was the worst. Dale told me that Pinky was kept locked in a specially built steel corral, ‘cause there wasn’t a wooden one ever made that could hold him. I wonder how he got out. Oh, look, he’s pawing the ground and snorting. That means he’s going to charge something. Can you see what it is?”

  “Not from this window.” Suzanne had an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach. Dale and J.D. were working in that shed, and one of them might have come outside. She had to warn them! Dashing to the dining room door with Janie hot on her heels, she yanked it open and saw Dale loading a chunk of metal onto the back of a truck. “Dale!” she shouted.

  “Is Dale out there?” Janie wormed her way past Suzanne and shrieked, “Dale, get out of sight!”

  The wonderful warm wind playfully took her words in the opposite direction, and Dale couldn’t make out what she was saying. Recognizing his sister and grinning because she was here, he started walking toward the bunkhouse.

  “No, no!” Janie screeched. “Go back! Go back!”

  “What?” Dale continued to plod to the bunkhouse. J.D. heard the commotion and stepped out of the shed. He saw Pinky coming around the corner of the bunkhouse, and he started yelling. “Dale, get under cover!”

  Dale turned his head to see what J.D. was hollering about, and in the next instant heard the pounding of Pinky’s hooves. Instead of running, Dale froze.

  J.D. sized up the situation real fast. Dale had left his saddled horse in the corral, Pinky was racing toward the stunned young man, and Suzanne and another woman were watching with horrified expressions from the door of the bunkhouse. It was up to him to do something! Freeway apparently thought it was up to him, because he took off after the bull, barking, snarling and snapping.

  Racing for the corral, J.D. hopped the fence and leapt into the saddle on the horse. Backing the startled animal up as far as it could go in the corral, J.D. kicked him in the ribs. The horse leapt forward in a dead run and J.D. took him over the corral fence. It wasn’t a good trick to teach a horse, J.D. knew, but a man’s life was at stake.