“However, I would confess to being disappointed were we to be here and I didn’t see him,” Lijuan finally admitted with her eyes rising upward as she turned back to face Honor after having decided to throw a bone to her.
She was right to. As she lowered her eyes she saw her comment seemed to please Honor whose face lit up at her admission. Then without warning, the massive oak door swung open and there was Jamison himself, dressed in an immaculate white shirt and bolo tie while his boots shone with a luster. A tan Stetson rode his head a proper angle crowning his sandy blond hair
Lijuan could only shake her head feeling a tingle run through her. The previous year, when Jamison had purchased the shuttered Twin Fork Ranch which was one of many that abutted Half Breed Haven due to the sheer size of the Cedar Ledge, it had been a disaster from the get go. Jamison had lofty ideas of being a rancher, but the Easterner had neither the talent nor the understanding of proper ranching. No truer recipe for calamity existed. Lijuan had met him on the fence line one day and she, along with Catalina, had tried their level best to help him succeed, but six months into it, the renamed Double J was still a failure known far and wide throughout the county. However, Jamison had saved himself when he came up with an idea that Lijuan was loath to admit was fairly ingenious.
Now, the handsome man glided down to them and kissed Honor’s hand, who in turn did a little curtsy. He moved on to kiss Lijuan and lingered, looking at her. In his eyes, she could see the memory of her hot, sweaty petite body atop him, giving him commands that he obeyed without question.
“To what do I owe the honor?” he asked, winking at Honor before returning his gaze back to Lijuan, “of two of the four infamous Wilde sisters’ visiting me this afternoon? It’s been a long time.”
Lijuan shifted her eyes away when it was obvious he wouldn’t stop staring boldly into them. Lijuan, like her sisters, generally avoided entanglements much to the disappointment of men and women across the territory. Honor admittedly did have a prolonged relationship with a stage driver in a nearby town, but they had broken things off some time ago. That, however, never stopped the pair from falling into the nearest bed with each other whenever their orbits crossed.
As for Jamison, he was fun, and Lijuan had considered a rematch, but the ranch and Cassandra’s constant adventures that they always got roped into kept her busy and she didn’t also want to encourage him to think there was ever to be anything more between them other than the toe curling sex they had enjoyed.
“Mr. Jamison, we are here to collect our sister,” Lijuan finally mustered herself to answer.
Honor, as surprised as Jamison, plastered her hands to her hips and tilted her head at Lijuan’s use of a formal greeting with Jamison when all three of them knew fully well the pair was well beyond such formality.
“Cassandra?” Jamison asked.
“No, it seems our sister, Cattie, has made a new friend of one of your cooks by the name of Selena.” Lijuan explained.
“Oh, wonderful!” Jamison said delightedly.
Honor and Lijuan glanced at each other as not everyone knew of Catalina’s conquests of her fellow women. Lijuan almost felt like laughing at Jamison’s naiveté in believing his employee was truly just a friend to her sister. She stifled the urge, though because it wasn’t fair. Catalina didn’t try to hide her desires, but she didn’t exactly advertise them either, especially since she did also enjoy the company of men but she just happened to prefer her women more.
“And there she is!” Honor smiled, sighting her sister from afar.
The other two turned their heads to see Catalina ride around the corner of the ranch house. She quickly brought her Palomino to a stop by the group.
“I hope you had a nice visit with your friend. Selena is a first-rate cook. The head chef speaks highly of her,” Jamison said, nodding courteously at her.
Lijuan again found herself amused over the use of the word “chef.” One could take the Easterner out of the East, but you couldn’t take the East out of the Easterner.
“I sure as sugar did!” Catalina responded with a subtle grin. Since Jamison’s back was to her, she winked at Honor and hid a smile. “You girls are right on time! Hey, someone’s ridin’ up the driveway at full gallop!” she added, her eyes leaving the group to focus on the road ahead.
Indeed, a cowboy rode towards them, his hand reflexively flying to his hat as the soft wind almost blew it off. Despite his lanky figure, he had broad shoulders and his arms were a bit muscular. His brown eyes focused on the dirt road as he approached, his horse’s tail swishing back and forth as they rode.
“That’s Patrick Winston,” Jamison announced as he rode nearer. “He hired on as my … well … my foreman, a couple months back. Come to me by way of Texas, from what he told me.”
“Texas,” Lijuan sniggered. “The poor man’s Arizona!”
None of the Wildes were as proud, or loved the land of Arizona as much as she did. A small irony, considering that she had been conceived and born off the coast of China. But she had grown up in Arizona and the land was a part of her as her own heart was.
Winston finally rode up to them and tipped his hat. “Ladies, Mr. Jamison, I was just fixing to hitch up the carriage and get over to Alamieda. The stage should be arriving soon.”
“Where the devil have you been?” Jamison asked him. “I was looking for you before. You were supposed to take that keg of black powder and blow up that old stump behind the house. A guest told me that would be a good place to put up a gazebo, and I concur with the idea.”
“Sorry, sir,” Winston muttered, his gaze dropping to the earth. “I was down by the river, making one last search before the stage got here. I was hoping … well, we could, you know … make the find before she got here, so she could at least be able to take him home with her.”
“I understand. That was good of you. The stump can always wait. But go get cleaned up first. You need to look presentable when you pick up Miss Huang. We need to put our best face forward, given the circumstances.”
Lijuan, for her part had been drinking in the handsome features of Jamison and how he was always so neatly dressed. His boots, despite being in the west, always had an unnatural shine to them. Winston, by contrast, at least looked the role of a foreman right down to the neckerchief, the dusty trousers and his boots which were about as opposite from shiny as they could get. They were caked with a grayish mud.
For a moment, as Lijuan looked at the boots, something about them made her mind try to remember something from long ago, but suddenly, something Jamison said registered with her. He had spoken of someone with a Chinese surname. There were not many Chinese locally besides herself and the Chows nor did they get a lot of Asian visitors in Alamieda. She opened her mouth in inquiry about this Miss Huang when the thunder of hoof beats filled the air.
A group of about twenty men came charging up the driveway. A very youthful looking man, not likely a day over twenty, if Lijuan had to guess, sidled up to where they stood at the steps. He wore a badge and like Winston only a few moments ago, also tipped his hat.
Honor scanned the crowd as well; most seemed to be around the age of the young man with a badge, though a few older men were sprinkled in as well. However, what really caught her attention was the lone black man sitting astride his horse, which Honor easily identified due to her knowledge of the breeds to be a Missouri Fox Trotter, just like Cassandra’s horse, Lily.
The black man was a strikingly handsome man, dark and strong. He wore a well-trimmed beard without a mustache and he seemed to have a twinkle in his eye when he spotted Honor Elizabeth who nodded her head at him.
“Pardon our intrusion into your afternoon, folks,” the young man with the badge said. “But we seem to have the occasion to be in need of some directions.”
“By all means!” Jamison said warmly. “Not from around here, obviously.”
“No, sir. I’m acting sheriff Tim Newell of Cavendish Township, and this is my posse.”
“Cavendish Township!” Catalina whistled. “That’s clear over in the San Vicente Valley, isn’t it? You hombres are a long way from your stompin’ grounds.”
“That we are,” Newell said. “We are in pursuit of the Fenwick brothers and their leader, Ma Fenwick. They aren’t going to escape the gallows if I have anything to say about it.”
“Never heard of them,” Lijuan held out her palms. “Who are they that they warrant this many men to go after them?”
“Rustlers!” Newell spat. “Our valley has been plagued by them, but we didn’t know who was behind it until we captured one of them after a shootout yesterday. Unfortunately, my boss, Sheriff Underwood was killed in the shootout by one of the Fenwicks themselves, no less. Anyway, we got their man to talk before he stretched rope and we now know that the Fenwicks were being clever. Seems they live in the Twin Butte Valley but operated a long way from home in our valley.”
Lijuan nodded in understanding. Criminals were vile and rustlers especially rankled her and Catalina, but they weren’t always dumb. Rustling in your own back yard only increased your chances of getting caught, so this Ma Fenwick and her boys seemed a little more on the ball.
“Anyway, the problem is my boys and I aren’t familiar with your area and we’ve found the route we were instructed to take to the Twin Buttes not to be of any merit,” Newell concluded.
Catalina stifled a grin, knowing how serious the situation was, but her tone almost betrayed her. “So, what you are really sayin’ is you fellas are totally lost?” she asked.
“In a manner of speaking, I suppose so,” Newell said. “But we have to pick up the trail and avenge Sheriff Underwood and three other men that died in that there gun battle outside of the Crescent Hills Ranch where the gang was rustling before they fled.”
Catalina’s ears perked up at this and she made a snap decision she would come to regret before the day was through.
“Well, if those polecats killed a lawman,” she began, “then you can count me in! I’m comin’ along to help you out. What do you girls say?”
“I beg your pardon, ma’am. You want to join our posse?” Newell asked before her sisters responded.
“Sure as sugar!” Catalina twittered.
“But you all is women!” A member of the posse chirped in, certainly bemused.
“Now what gave that away? Our tits?” Catalina asked sarcastically.
A titter of laughter ran through the posse and one man slapped his knee. Even Jamison couldn’t resist a grin.
“Cattie!!” Honor chuckled, shaking her head. “Forgive my sister,” she told the men. “What she is trying to say is we are the Wildes.”
Blank stares greeted her statement.
“Nothin’ gives you away as not bein’ from around here if you ain’t heard of the Wildes,” Catalina grunted under her breath. “Trust me, we can help you!”
“I appreciate that. I really do, but …” Newell started.
“Catalina, don’t waste your time with this boy,” Lijuan interjected. “If he’s turning you down, that is to his misfortune. C’mon, let’s go get that dinner and then see Gabriella for those drinks.”
“If Cass were here, though, she’d want to volunteer. She’s a lawman herself.” Catalina set her jaw as she turned to Newell with a stare. “You wanna to get to the valley sooner rather than later, right?”
When he nodded, she nodded back and told him, “The quickest way is to cut through my family’s ranch. I can lead you on the trails that will shave twenty miles off your ride. It’s up to you!”
From the posse of men, there were instant calls to let them go with them.
Lijuan crossed her arms and thought the outcome was no surprise, given Cattie’s determination and red-blood men who would welcome along such alluring women.
“Welcome to the posse, ladies!” Newell announced a second later.
“Okay girls, let’s saddle up! You’re with me, aren’t you?” Catalina asked, turning to her sisters.
Honor tilted her head for a moment in consideration. It had been good to be home again after Beacon, but she always welcomed the distraction of a first-rate adventure. Unlike Lijuan and Cattie, the twenty-six-year-old had no official role at the ranch other than generally overseeing the small staff that ran the household. Chasing down bad guys she knew was infinitely more fun than tangling with the often-combative Mrs. Chow who seemingly only had a soft spot for Lijuan and Whip himself.
That was the reason she was going to enlist in this foray to the Twin Butte Valley that her mind was giving her … other parts of her that were getting a tingly feeling when she sized up the silent man of color on his Trotter. This also spurred her along for this sudden happenstance.
“Absolutely.” She told her sister, reaching for her horse to untie its rope.
“Lijuan?” Catalina asked her other sister.
Lijuan looked at her sisters as they mounted their horses, bemused at how quickly they had forgotten about the night out on the town they had been so enthusiastic for.
"If it was Cassie leading this charge, you know I’d be there in a minute,” she told her sisters. “Girls, this fella is no Cassie. Hell, he looks like he just got dismissed from the schoolhouse and got a shiny badge pinned on him. Plus, his judgment a minute ago didn’t impress me when he was turning down your help just based on us being women folk.”
“Now look here, Miss Leann…”
“Lijuan!” She interrupted, correcting him. “Besides … Cedar Ledge needs to be run. Who knows how long you will be gone this time and I’ve got business to take care of, like the whole barbed wire thing.”
Without paying mind to Newell, she walked over to her sisters and took their hands. “You just be careful with this greenhorn,” she said, pointing to the bewildered sheriff. She walked over to him, too, and pulled her hammer from her belt, pushing into his chest with it. “Any harm comes to them under your watch,” she warned, “you’ll be answering to me. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Newell said, nodding. He slowly looked over to Catalina and Honor on their horses and asked, “Shall we ride, ladies?”
“Hold up!” Jamison interjected.
“Yes, sir?” Newell sighed.
Jamison ignored the wary look he gave and pointed to his foreman. “If the Wildes are joining your posse, then I’m sending my man, Winston along with you too!”
A look of shock crossed Winston’s face immediately.
“Mr. Jamison, sir?!” he blurted.
“Think about it!” Jamison cheered. “Not only will the Double J be doing its civic duty by helping bring killers to justice, but we can include your adventure on the ads. Think of the stories that you can tell our guests!”
“I don’t follow what you folks are talking about,” Newell said, looking about confused.
“This here ain’t a real ranch!” Catalina said dismissively. “And this Mr. Winston here ain’t a real foreman, strictly speakin’ now, are you?”
The black man Honor had noticed earlier rode his horse closer and spoke for the first time.
“Not a real ranch? How do you mean?” he asked.
Honor, seizing the opportunity to speak with the man and find out who he was, quickly stepped forward. “I can answer that for you, Mister ….”
“Carver Jackson, ma’am.” He responded, tipping his hat.
“Honor Elizabeth Wilde. Pleased to meet you,” Honor introduced herself with a curtsy. “Now about this very ranch, Mr. Jamison has the most unique one in the Alamieda area. You see; he advertises in the big cities back east, Texas, and in California for …”
“It’s a place for city slickers to come and pretend to be ranchers,” Catalina hit the nail on the head, interrupting with a snort. “Mr. Jamison has it all, ridin’ and ropin’ lessons, an archery range where the guests can play Indian and shoot with a bow and arrow, got a nice gun range too, I’ll give him that! The highlight, of course, is a make-pretend cattle drive into Alamieda and back. That’s what you do here, righ
t, Mister Winston? Lead the dandies as they drive the cattle?”
Lijuan for her part loved her sister, but she felt she was trivializing the operation. She herself had to admit it was a brilliant move on Jamison’s part when he couldn’t make a go of it as a real working ranch.
“Those are real cattle. I am sure the city folk who come and patronize Mister Jamison leave here quite satisfied,” she stated with conviction in her voice.
“Now I could tell some tales about a real cattle drive!” Catalina’s jaw jutted out towards her sister.
“We all could. We’ve all done them,” Lijuan argued.
“But I lead them as trail boss!” Catalina bit back.
At this point, Newell stepped in, clearing his throat. “Listen, folks. We got some murderers to catch. We need to be on our way,” he said.
“It’s settled, then!” Jamison exclaimed cheerfully. “Winston, you are with them!”
“But what about, Miss Huang?” Winston asked glumly.
“Leave that worry to me! Now off with you!” Jamison said dismissively.
Winston frowned as he reluctantly moved his horse over to the rest of the posse.
“Follow me!” Catalina cheered afterwards, slapping Pretty Feet’s hindquarters. She effortlessly led the posse down the driveway, leaving Jamison and Lijuan standing alone.
“Forgive Cattie,” Lijuan said. “Ranching is in her blood more so than all the rest of us Wildes combined!”
“No offense taken,” Jamie said, “Haven’t forgotten how you both tried to help me make a go of it. It just wasn’t meant to be. But my Western Experience, as I’ve been calling it, has been a runaway success. It seemed too good to be true, and now I guess it was, Li.”
Lijuan smiled slightly. She liked it whenever he called her Li, or at least, she used to. She just didn’t know how much she missed hearing him call her by the name.
Wilde-Fire: Wonder Women 0f The Old West (Half Breed Haven Book 1) Page 11
