Jordan didn’t remember really being lonely since she’d stopped seeing the psychiatrist about four years ago. She had learned to accept that David’s death was not her fault. That Frank Lambert alone had caused that tragedy. She knew she had learned that in her brain, but wasn’t sure that her heart had ever been able to accept it. She lay there for some time, thinking about the brother and sister who so obviously enjoyed each other’s company. They must be very close. She wondered what her life would have been like if she had been blessed with siblings. Finally she drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, when she let Bhrandii out for his morning duties, he made a bee line for the barn and as she watched, she could see Daniel Cetan moving around outside. He must be an early riser. Her traitorous dog jumped around him playfully as if greeting a long lost friend.
She wondered if there really was anything to Daniel having a special way with animals. He certainly had a way with her dog. She closed the door and went to do her few minutes of Bible reading and then to take her morning shower.
When she emerged from the house, Bhrandii came running up to greet her.
“I guess you were having so much fun at the tepee that you forgot all about having breakfast.” Her scolding was just words to the dog and when they were directed at him, there was always affection in her voice.
She could smell delightful smells coming from the grill suspended over the campfire and as she approached, Daniel Cetan stood up from squatting near the fire, his eyes watching her approach. “Good morning,” he spoke softly.
Jordan felt her insides curl as she looked back at him. Why did he have to be such a physically attractive man? Why couldn’t his nose be big or crooked instead of straight and perfect? Why couldn’t he have been short and squatty instead of tall and so handsome? Why couldn’t his eyes be close together and squinty instead of setting in the most ideal place in his face and being the most startling thing about him? Why did he have to look so darn good in worn Wranglers and a tee shirt? She returned his greeting and made as if to walk on down to the barn.
“Feather and I would be honored if you would have breakfast with us.” He invited.
As he spoke, his sister emerged from the tepee smiling broadly.
“Please eat with us, Jordan. Wolf has cooked the last of the buffalo meat this morning. Have you ever eaten buffalo?”
Jordan’s steps hesitated. “No,” she admitted. “I’ve never eaten buffalo. In fact, I thought they were endangered. I didn’t know that anyone ate buffalo meat anymore.”
Feather smiled and dropping her eyes, chuckled softly. “It’s meat that came from the herd that our people have on the reservation. Every year a few of the bulls are slaughtered for the people. There are always more bulls born than are needed to sustain the breeding program, so some of our people get to make use of them, just like in the old days. Our grandfather was one of those honored by the last hunt. Wolf sat in his place at the powwow because Grandfather was already gone. We got the pelt and his share of the meat and cured it, just like in the old days. Grandfather would have been proud.”
She stretched her arm toward the big tepee. “The skins for the tepee were from previous years.”
Jordan looked, then, at the leather covering of the lodge and realized it was real leather hides stitched together, not tarpaulin as she had imagined.
The smell of the cooking food wafted in her direction, causing her mouth to salivate. She didn’t usually eat breakfast until after she had fed the horses and moved them out into paddocks. Then she usually had a bowl of cereal or a frozen pastry that she popped into the toaster.
“It smells very good, but I don’t want to intrude. I’m just going down to feed up.” She took a step toward the barn.
While she spoke to Feather, Wolf had moved around the fire and was standing between her and the barn. When she stepped away from the fire, she was brought up short by his wide chest, blocking the way.
“This is your home. How could you be an intruder? Besides, you fed us steak, remember?” He said softly, a smile tilting the corners of his lips upward.
She pulled up short and wondered how a man she didn’t even know could have such a powerful pull on her. No wonder her dog liked him. She swallowed and looked back at Feather to avoid looking up at him. Then she nodded. “How can I argue with that?”
She crossed to the side of the fire where Feather was settling on a short campstool. Another stool was now sitting beside her and Jordan sat down on it. Wolf handed both of them a plate and filled one for himself, then he sat on a stool across from them.
Jordan ate eagerly after the first tentative taste. It was delicious!
They had scrambled eggs, and the buffalo was cooked in a white sauce that was served over home-made flat bread. When she finished she looked up to see them watching her. She smiled and felt her face glow red. “Okay,” she confessed. “It smelled so good I was hoping you’d invite me. I’m always in a hurry, so I eat fast too.”
They both chuckled and continued with their breakfasts. After a moment, Daniel said something in what must have been the Lakota language.
Then Feather scolded quickly. “Speak English. It’s rude to talk in a way that our guest can’t understand.”
Her brother looked at the fire for a moment, then up at Jordan, his pale eyes capturing hers again, a glint of mischief sparking briefly. “I asked my sister if she thought you made up your mind about people as fast as you do about food?”
Jordan didn’t look away as she answered him. “Yes, I think I must. I knew Feather and I would be friends when I spoke to her on the phone the first time.”
Feather laughed deeply at Jordan’s answer. She knew that in his way, Wolf had asked Jordan how she felt about him and like any wise Indian woman accustomed to dealing with men, Jordan had answered the question without giving the answer he sought.
Knowing he had been bested, Wolf chuckled too. This woman might be worth several good ponies as her bride price. She was beautiful, strong, brave and bright. How often did a woman meet all those objectives?
“Now, my contribution to breakfast is that I will wash the dishes,” Jordan said as they finished and began to stack the dishes.
“No.” Feather spoke firmly. “When we camp, Wolf cooks, I wash dishes. It’s a law of our camp,” she added with a smile. “We have a sink with running water in the camper part of the trailer. It’s taken us a few years, but Wolf has installed most modern conveniences except air conditioning, and a shower.”
Jordan looked from the girl to her brother. “Well, this is just March. It’s none of my business, but if y’all plan to use it for camping very much, you’ll definitely want that air conditioner. Summers here are very hot and the humidity is just as bad.”
“It gets hot in the northwest, too.” Feather said.
Jordan shook her head, her braids bobbing across her shoulders. “Not like here, and as hot as it gets, the humidity is much worse. Sometimes you feel like you’re trying to breathe through a thick, wet sponge. I don’t take in colts to ride during June, July and August. The only time I ride my own is early in the mornings. We spend a lot of time trying to stay cool. Usually by noon time, it’ll be so hot the horses just stand in the shade and even then they’ll be wet with sweat.”
Feather looked at her brother. “And it was my idea to move down here? What was I thinking?”
He shrugged, taking his eyes off Jordan for a minute and looking at his sister. “We’ll get used to it. Remember how we hated the cold when we moved to the ranch with Grandfather?” He looked back at Jordan. “We were born in Texas.”
She nodded. “That explains the southern drawl. But Feather doesn’t have the same accent.”
“I was so little. I hardly remember our parents at all. Wolf was older so his accent stuck with him. You have a real drawl too.”
Jordan nodded and laughed softly. “My husband used to tease me about it. It’s funny how people in the same country, speaking the same language can sound s
o different.”
Again she smiled, more to herself than anyone else. “That’s the most pleasant memory I’ve had of David, since he died. Usually all I remember is the night he got killed.”
She pushed up from the stool. “Well, since you won’t let me wash dishes, let me make the dishwasher available. Just put your things in a pan and take them to the house. That dishwasher doesn’t get much use. It’s a shame for it to just sit there.
Feather smiled. She really liked Jordan Lanier. “Maybe when there’s more to wash. There isn’t much this morning.”
Jordan thanked them for breakfast and went on to the barn, Bhrandii trotting along beside her.
She began scooping feed into buckets and when she finished, she turned to find Daniel lifting the buckets and stacking them in one another in a wheelbarrow. “What a good idea!” She exclaimed. “I’ve been doing it the same way for so long, it never occurred to me that there was a better way.”
“When I watched you make so many trips deliverin’ all the feed last night, I thought you might like usin’ the wheelbarrow.” He carefully backed the loaded wheelbarrow out of the feed room into the isle of the barn. He pushed it along while she removed the buckets and hung them in the stalls as they came to each one.
When they finished that, he loaded two bales of hay and helped her take it out and distribute it into the different paddocks that the horses would be moved to for the day.
Once that was done, Feather joined them and the three of them moved the horses to the different paddocks as they finished eating, then they made short work of cleaning the stalls and putting down fresh wood shavings. Jordan looked around and smiled at them. “Wow that went fast! It’s not even noon yet and the hard part is finished.”
Feather shook her head negatively. “Do you usually do this by yourself?”
Nodding, Jordan led them toward the office and opened the door. “Come on in and let’s have a soft drink. I keep some in here in this old fridge that my mom used to have at the house. When she had the kitchen remodeled, she let dad bring it down here. It’s almost as old as I am, but it still works.”
“What’s your day usually like, Jordan?” Daniel Cetan leaned back in the chair he occupied. “I would like to know as much as I can about how you do things so I can make sure I’m…looking out for intruders.” He hated to put a damper on the pleasant day that they had been enjoying, but he needed to be informed.
She shrugged. “You’ve pretty much seen it. I still have two colts that I need to ride sometime today. I’ve just sent two home and I don’t think I’ll be accepting any more until fall. I just feed, clean and ride. That’s most of my time.”
“What’s your social life like? We need to work around that too.”
Her face flushed warmly. “I don’t have a social life. Well, I do go to church regularly, but I don’t exactly fit in well socially. I think people are uncomfortable around me.”
His black brows arched and he lifted the soft drink bottle to his lips and sipped from it. “I can’t imagine you not havin’ half the men in town followin’ you around.”
She was a little uncomfortable talking to him like this and was glad that his sister was there with them. “I was an emotional wreck for some time after I came home. And when I started living again, I wasn’t exactly looking for a relationship. I guess I’ve discouraged any who might have been interested.”
One corner of his mouth lifted in an almost smile. He could feel her discomfort and regretted having made her feel that way, but he certainly liked knowing that there was no special man in her life.
“I guess the best way to explain me bein’ with you all the time is to let people believe that I am at least puttin’ the make on you. That will account for me bein’ attentive about who approaches you.”
Jordan shrugged. “I guess you know best, but I truly feel I can take care of myself.”
“Trust me, Jordan. I will make sure you’re safe.” He assured her.
She smiled. “I could have shot you a dozen times already, this morning, if you were Lambert, and stabbed you at least twice. Really, I think this is all unnecessary.”
“You haven’t been close enough to stab me, even with that knife hidden in the rafter of the feed room and if I were goin’ to do you harm, I would have unloaded the pistol in the pocket of the raincoat at the entrance of the first stall and the 38 in the drawer in front of you, as well as the one in the cabinet behind you, and I’ve only looked around briefly. If a man was plannin’ to attack you, the first thin’ he’d do is case this barn and disable all of your weapons.”
Surprised that he had located the two guns and the knife, she felt somewhat shaken. She thought she was being clever, hiding the three pistols and the long bladed knife.
“That’s not all of them.” She stated firmly.
“No. I’m sure you must have a gun near your bed and probably another one in a desk or someplace where you spend a lot of time in the house. Am I right?”
She felt her face pale as she nodded.
“I’m good at what I do, Jordan, and for the time bein’, that is to make sure you’re safe.”
Feather stood up, wanting to put some time in on her horse. “I’m going to go ride Music, but Jordan, listen to my brother. I haven’t known you long, but I don’t want anything happening to you. I want us to be friends for a long time.”
Realizing that she truly wasn’t as safe as she thought she was, she nodded. “Okay. I guess I’m not as smart as I thought I was.”
“It’s not that you aren’t smart,” Daniel was explaining as Feather left the office. “You just aren’t used to thinkin’ the way Lambert thinks.”
She felt defeated and defenseless. “Alright. Tell me what I need to do to help you.”
He sat forward in the chair and tried to make himself seem more comforting. “I know this is hard for you, but we’ll get through it together.”
She nodded.
“To start with, I don’t want you goin’ anywhere without me. Not to the store, not from here to the house, no place at all, unless I’m with you. Okay?”
Again she nodded.
“When we go places, we want people to think we’re a couple, so there should be some casual touchin’, an appearance of affection.” He hoped he could manage to keep it professional, at least until this was all over with.
He saw her eyes stretch wide. “How affectionate?”
He chuckled. “Just touchin’ hands, maybe my hand on your back as we walk, holding hands. Nothin’ drastic. No heavy neckin’ or kissin’.” He watched her eyes spark with yellow fire and wondered what she was thinking.
Jordan hoped his special way with animals didn’t extend to the human animal. She couldn’t help thinking of the warmth of his hand around hers when they first met, or the way she felt captivated by the intensity of his eyes. She hadn’t ever been so physically attracted to a man before. Even David.
They had become friends and then fell in love, but the man across the desk from her had such magnetism that she hoped she didn’t just fall apart at his touch. This was not going to be easy.
Chapter Twenty
Lambert pulled his car to a stop in front of the restaurant closest to Interstate 75. He had driven Interstate 10 from the west until it intersected with I75 then followed that south to the exit onto US 90. He was excited to have arrived in Lake City and wanted a little time to calm himself. He needed to take his time and not attract any attention.
He knew he had changed since Jordan had seen him last, and even since his prison escape. He had never worn facial hair, but found that he was very comfortable with the mustache and the short, tidy beard he’d grown. Since his escape, he’d lost a little weight too and felt secure thinking that any pictures of him then wouldn’t look much like him now.
He put change in the box and took a local newspaper, realizing that seeing anything there that would lead him to Jordan was not likely, but it would give him a reason to linger over his coffee and study the
area.
Two hours later he emerged again, having read most of the paper. He got in his car and drove east along US 90 through the town. It was still a town, not quite a city yet, but he could see that it was growing quickly.
After he had traversed the east, then the west sides of town to his satisfaction, he returned to the main street and drove north. When he found the town thinning, he turned around and drove south.
Finally he returned to the area where Interstate 75 and US 90 crossed and took a hotel room for a week. He backed his car into the parking space, not wanting the out of state tag to tip anyone off, but realized quickly that an out of state tag was the norm after noticing the tags of the other cars in the parking area.
Looking through the local phone book inside his comfortable room, he read what he could about Lake City, the gateway to Florida. He learned that the cluster of hotel/motels along the interstate where he was staying was a busy resting place for visitors arriving from any direction. That was good for him.
He looked up feed stores and found three, then made a list of addresses of all three. Starting tomorrow, he would stake out each one for several days, hoping that Jordan was a regular customer like she had been at the store in Poplar Bluff. He hoped to spot her like that, but if that didn’t work, he would come up with another plan.
She was here! If he closed his eyes, he could almost see her. He lay back in the bed and closed his eyes. It was easy to remember the way she walked, those strong confident strides, those snug jeans hugging her hips, the way she kept her hair in long braids, the soft look of her face that just about cried out to be touched. Oh, he would touch it alright. His fists would break those delicate cheek bones and turn the skin around her almond shaped eyes to deep blue. He would break those strong legs so they would never sit astride a horse again and her arms would never hold any man close. He went to sleep imagining the terrible things he would do to her for spurning the love he had offered.
Another Chance Page 11