"Come on now, I ain't got all day. I got to get them vegetables picked and get on back home. I told Sammy it'd be easier doing them here, but she says—are you coming?—she says she doesn't want to impose."
Sally snorted at the idea, leading the way into the house. "Impose? Now how can it be that? You ain't here during the day no how, so how could I be in the way?" She talked while rummaging through the cupboards for something she seemed sure was there, pumping water into a basin and mixing up what she'd found.
Gabe followed her, drawn by a smell in the room. He located the source of it in a pot on the stove.
"Beans, my own special recipe. You sit right here." She pulled Gabe away from the stove, propelled him toward a chair, and lifted Danny away from him at the same time. Danny whined a little but quieted down as soon as she plopped him in his highchair.
Gabe figured he could have fought her off, but it would have been a fight, so he let her have her way. She unwrapped his hands, clucking her tongue again at what she saw. That was all right, but when she pushed his hands down into that basin of water she'd moved to the table, Gabe came right up off the chair.
The water wasn't hot, but the salt and whatever else she'd put in it burnt the raw flesh like fire.
Sally dunked his hands back in the basin. "Don't be a baby. It'll quit stinging in a few minutes."
"If I live that long."
"Nothing better for hardening up tender skin," Sally said with a chuckle. "You just stay still. I'll rustle you up some grub."
"Thought you had vegetables to pick," he said, wishing she'd go back outside so he could jerk his hands out of that water.
"What I don't get today, I can get tomorrow. Got enough picked to make that baby's dinner. Cain't be feeding him beans. What do you use for meat?"
"Nothing right now," Gabe said, wiping the sweat that had popped out on his forehead against his forearm.
"Baby needs meat for growing. You better get some quick. Plenty of deer in them mountains behind you. No reason you cain't get meat for that child."
"I don't have a rifle, and I cain't leave him alone to go hunting. Say, what did you put in here? It doesn't sting anymore."
"Secret ingredient," she said with a broad wink. "You better take them out now before they go numb. I'll bring a rifle over tomorrow. You can leave the boy here while you hunt, and I can get them vegetables put up here instead of hauling them home to do. That baby will warm up to me before I leave tonight."
Sally, it turned out, was very much like Hedges: pushy and interfering, but usually right. Danny warmed up to her rapidly as she plied him with thick slabs of bread and butter from a basket she'd brought. He was more than willing to allow her to pick him up and hold him before she left, all of which made Gabe wonder if he'd been manipulated yet again.
Chapter Six
Sally took over Gabe's kitchen and pretty well ran his life while she was there. She ordered him around, never seeming to think for a minute he wouldn't do what she said, and the way she did it, Gabe never thought of disobeying.
If he left the house before she got there, she tramped out into the woods to find him and carried Danny back with her, leaving him to work freely. He came back in the afternoon to find a full meal waiting on the table for him.
He started gaining weight, and so did Danny. Danny lost his frail look, and Gabe lost the gauntness in his face. His body toughened up so the aches and pains stopped, and his strength grew with each day. His hands built up calluses enough to tackle any ax, especially with the split rawhide gloves Hedges brought out for him.
By that time he had meat hanging to go with the vegetables, enough to keep him and Danny until well past the time the cash Miss Mentrol was waiting on from the cattle drive. The last couple of weeks had been good. Hedges was collecting orders from the townspeople, he'd found a man to do the hauling, and money was coming in. Gabe stretched back in the chair, his belly full and the good feeling of a body tired from honest work.
"Don't see many jars sitting around tonight, Sally," he said, his hands locked behind his head. "Looks like you've just about run out."
"Slowing down fer a spell. Be a whole lot easier if I was here on a steady basis. Then I could go out each day to take in what's ready."
"How come you didn't just plant a garden where you're at?"
"Ground's too poor. I got no need to be coming back every day now, not for a week maybe till there'd be enough to can a full batch, and some will be lost, going to spoil without me here to get them each day."
"That's a shame," he said, dropping the chair down and leaning forward again. "Danny and I will miss you, too."
"You don't mind me bossing you?" she queried skeptically.
"Reckon there was some things I needed bossing on. You remind me a lot of my own ma. She did a powerful lot of bossing. Suppose she still does."
"You don't mind me coming?"
"No, come over any time you want."
"Well, that's settled," she said in satisfaction.
"What is?" Gabe asked, feeling like he'd missed something.
"My coming over here. I'll have things settled real nice in no time for you and the boy."
"Wait a minute. Weren't you talking about visiting?"
"Visiting? Now what could I get done just coming for visits?" she asked, heaving herself up out of the chair as if she weighed twice what she did. "I'll come every day, just like I have been. Want to go back at night though."
Gabe was confused as to what Sally's role was at the Rocking M. Surely she didn't think she could quit one job, take another, and still keep a residence at the old place. "What'll Miss Mentrol think about that?"
"Reckon she'll be glad to have me out of her hair," she said with a shrug. "Always fighting with me over doing in the house."
"Have you worked for her long?" he asked.
"Was there when she was born."
"You the one that tied her to the clothesline?" he asked with a grin.
"Only way to keep track of her when I was too busy to watch her every second. Fastest moving babe I ever did see. Mrs. Mentrol didn't care for it none. She said it was cruel, but she couldn't care for Little Sammy proper, being as sick as she was. She'd take that child from one tangle, exhausted from it, and before she could sit down to rest, Sammy'd be off in another. It was the time she decided to help Morey paint the fence that I decided on that rope."
Sally chuckled and lowered herself back in the chair. Leaning on the table with both arms she reminisced contentedly. "Morey was hollering, near ready to pull his hair out. That child had hold of the bucket, and when he grabbed to keep it from going over, she latched onto the brush in his hand, wanting it. Hands quicker than lightning, that child. Morey let go of the bucket to get the brush out of reach, pushing one hand down, just to find another in the way and over went the bucket." She chuckled over the memory, and Gabe grinned, well able to picture it. "Paint all over both of them. I scrubbed an hour getting it off of her."
"Seems like a bucket full of worms. Danny ain't much like that, though."
"No," she said, sobering suddenly. "Boy's scared. He don't want to go off exploring for fear there won't be no one here when he comes back."
"I hadn't thought of that, Sally. Sounds right, though. When I had him with me out cutting, I had to tie him to keep him from holding onto my legs. He sent up a howl if I got out of sight, too."
"Uh-huh, does the same thing here. You ain't seen it 'cause you hold him soon as you come in until he falls asleep. But if I go out, leaving him alone, he cries. That's why I'll be coming every day. Wouldn't worry none about you, if you was alone, but you need help with that young'un."
"I can take him with me, Sally. I appreciate your offer, but I wouldn't feel right taking you away from Miss Mentrol."
"Wouldn't be. If she wants me while she's out working during the day, she can ride out here just as easy as the main house, and I'll be over there at night."
"But you cain't do the work at both places."
"Wait a minute, Sally." He snatched Danny out of his chair and hurried out to catch up to her. "I'd like to ride over with you."
"What fer?"
"Miss Mentrol said she had some horses for sale. I need one, and I cain't agree to letting you come over here every day 'till I know it's all right with her."
"As long as you need a horse, come ahead, but for the other reason you're wasting your time," she agreed crisply.
Gabe's reluctance in accepting her offer right away, offended Sally in some manner. She allowed him to take over driving the wagon, taking Danny on her ample lap, but she let Gabe know she was miffed by not talking to him.
The quiet gave Gabe time to think about where he was going and to wish fervently that he wasn't. He was going to have to talk to Miss Mentrol again no matter the reasons and could feel his throat tightening up at the thought of it.
As for Sally, he'd be grateful to have her. Paying her would cut into his finances, but he figured the time he lost worrying and watching out for Danny while he worked would balance that part of it out. It was just the thought of stealing her away from Sammy–Miss Mentrol—that bothered him.
* * *
The ranch house was not at all what Gabe expected after the sparkling white homestead he and Danny were living in. Peeled logs formed the walls and porch supports of a sprawling one-story house covered by a rusting tin roof. The size told of the wealth of the ranch but not of any loving care in design. Functional was the description that came to mind. The place didn't even have flowers or trees in the cleared space that served for a yard.
Sally told him to drive straight up to the front door. He suggested the back would be better for unloading the canning, and she curtly told him she knew which door she wanted to use. She refused to let him help her down and took Danny away from him the second her feet hit the ground. She waddled off to the door and didn't realize he wasn't following her until she reached it. With the door standing open behind her, she asked, "You coming in or not?"
"I'll wait out here," he said, remembering his place even if she didn't.
"You figure I ain't got the right to invite you in?" she demanded.
He started to answer, shaking his head when Sammy appeared in the doorway.
"Who are you chewing out now?" Sammy asked, and then she saw Danny. "Oh, he let you bring him home," she cried in delight, holding her hands out to Danny.
"I'm going to work for him," she declared, making Gabe groan inwardly.
"Really?" Sammy asked, cuddling Danny closer to her. "And do you think I didn't see that coming after the first day? I know how you are about babies. Isn't he precious?"
Sally didn't answer her. She turned back to Gabe. "That sound like she cares?" she demanded, then told Sammy, "Dang fool said he wouldn't let me work for him lessen you said it was okay."
Sammy shifted enough to see past Sally. Gabe stood next to the wagon, acutely embarrassed. Sammy stiffened up at the sight of him while Sally waddled off to the end of the porch, leaving them staring at each other. They both jumped when Sally bellowed a name.
Waddling back to them, Sally demanded, "You gonna come in now or not?"
Gabe didn't know what to do. The invitation hadn't come from the owner of the house, just from a servant. Well, more than a servant, but not the owner, and the owner wasn't saying anything.
"What's wrong with you?" Sally demanded of both of them, and Danny started to whine.
"Don't yell. You frighten him," Sammy said curtly.
"I'll take him," Gabe offered, moving toward Sammy to do it.
"You go look at horses," Sally ordered, turning Sammy roughly by the shoulder to go into the house.
"I got to talk to her about it," Gabe said tersely.
"About what?" Sammy asked of him. "And stop shoving me," she snapped at Sally.
"I need a horse. You said you had some for sale."
"Morey's the one to talk to," Sally said, shoving Sammy again. "He's the ramrod."
Sammy was ready to revolt and probably would have if Morey hadn't arrived then. In his fifties, tall and lanky with plenty of grey hair down to his collar, he chewed a length of straw. "That's me. What can I do for you?" he asked pleasantly.
"Mr. Taylor would like a horse, Morey," Sammy told him. "Would you show him the ones I had you gather for the auction?"
"Sure, come right this way, young fella."
Gabe figured he could do that much without stepping on anyone's toes. He nodded to the women and willingly hurried off while Sally succeeded in shoving Sammy through the door.
* * *
"Stop that," Sammy shouted at her then dropped her voice to soothe Danny who was squirming and whining to get away from her. "Hush now, darling, Sammy isn't mad at you."
"That won't do no good. He does that the whole time Gabe's out of his sight," Sally said matter-of-factly. "Rubs the nerves raw after a time."
"I'll take him out to him then."
"No, you won't. That child has to learn Gabe's coming back and that he cain't be holding him all the time."
"But he sounds so pitiful, Sally. Maybe he'll be all right if he can see him." She went through the house until she reached the kitchen where a back window looked out on the corral where Morey had taken Gabe. Danny reached out his arms in Gabe's direction, letting everyone know what he wanted even if the only sound he made was a grunt.
"He don't talk none," Sally said behind her.
"He's young yet for that."
"Not too young to be making words, and he don't smile, never laughs. He'll be a long time getting over what that woman did to him."
"Sally, you don't think he's…"
"No," she said quickly. "He's bright enough. Feeds himself, walks good for his age, too. Things he had to know to get by, but he don't talk. Probably no one wanted him to. Like as not the most he ever heard from that poor excuse of a mother was shut up."
"It's so sad," Sammy moaned, cuddling the baby close again.
"Yeah, but you just stop that kind of thing right now," Sally said, taking Danny away from her to stand him on his feet. "What he needs is to be treated normal. There now, young man. You can see your papa's right there, so there's no need for whining and molly-coddling."
"But he needs to have that meanness made up for," Sammy cried, reaching for him.
"Cain't be done, Sammy. What he needs to have is normal loving now. He'll learn to trust in it. You keep it up, and he'll figure he ought to be held and fussed over every minute, and that ain't right either."
"Oh," she pouted, knowing Sally was right. "Cain't I hold him? I don't get to see him very often."
"You did. Now come on and I'll fix you something to eat."
"I already ate," Sammy said, glancing out the window to avoid the pleading in Danny's eyes. "Oh no."
Sally, seeing what had caused the sudden distress, began to chuckle.
Sammy didn't think it was funny. Morey had saddled the orneriest horse in the corral, guaranteed to give any rider the bucking of his life, and it was in no way an accident. A cowboy's favorite joke on anyone they considered a tenderfoot was to give them the ride of their life. Gabe's town clothes and shoes said he was a city man, but not the way he stepped into the stirrup and swung aboard. He had the second foot well braced in the second stirrup and one hand pressing down tight on the horn to give him leverage to keep the horse's head up with a tight hold on the reins. The move restricted the horse's ability to go into a full bucking run, but not from dancing sideways, twisting, and rearing up. The way Gabe rode that horse down to a quiet walk, said he wasn't any greenhorn, something none of the three watching missed.
* * *
"Looks like you ain't no pilgrim to a saddle," Morey commented dryly.
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"No," Gabe said, stepping down from the winded horse, "but it's been long enough that I can feel it." He pressed his hands to the flat of his back to emphasize the jolting he had taken.
Morey gave Gabe a lopsided grin. "Done better than most that's tried him. Reckon you ought to try that buckskin next. He's more for riding."
Gabe didn't hide his suspicion. "Safe enough I wouldn't be afraid to take the boy up with me on him?" he asked.
"You want a rocking horse?"
"No, just one that don't try to throw me on my head every time I fork him. How about the bay?"
"Frisky most times, but not mean, only I been kinda hoping…" Morey hesitated, looking back at the house. "Well, I figured I'd hold him back. He's kinda a pet of Sammy's. She raised him up on a bottle when his mama went bad during the foaling and we lost her. Figured maybe if I got enough money from the others, I wouldn't have to sell him."
Gabe looked back at the nine animals in the corral. Of them all, the bay horse was the best looking, and had a gentle look in the eyes as it looked back.
"Why's she willing to sell him?" Gabe asked bluntly.
"'Cause he ain't really necessary. He's only green-broke, fine enough for just riding, but not much use on the ranch yet."
Gabe turned back around and faced Morey while leaning against the fence. "Figure you can get enough without selling him?"
"Nope, but I can hope. Hell, won't any of them bring more than twenty dollars at that sale. Horseflesh goes cheap when you're in a hurry for cash." It was a pointed remark and hit the target.
"I'm not in that much of a hurry anymore. You can tell her that."
"Thought you was anxious to get shed of this place?"
"I was, but with Sally helping me with the boy, I can spend the time getting ahead some. It'll give me and Danny time to settle to each other before we have to move on, too."
"Uh-huh," Morey said approvingly. "That buckskin is the best of the bunch, but you might want to ride him around the yard to get his kicks out before you take the boy on."
"All right. How much?"
Little Sam's Angel Page 7
