Montana Mountain Valley Bride (Western Romance)

by Maya Stirling

  “They come up the canyon and spend time in the valley,” Brodie said. “Is that it? Is that what you didn’t want to tell me?”

  “I didn’t think you’d believe me.”

  In the semi-darkness she saw Brodie grin. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have believed this. You have your very own hidden valley of wild horses.”

  The hooves of the herd rumbled on the earth, the sound reverberating off the cliff walls. Bethany’s heartbeat quickened as she watched the herd move slowly toward the waterfall.

  “How often do they come?” Brodie asked.

  “Every few days or so. I think the water brings them.”

  “How long do they stay for?”

  “Not long,” Bethany replied. “Once they take some water, they rest a while. They’ll probably still be here tomorrow morning.”

  Brodie watched the herd silently for a few minutes. “That lead horse is a fine looking one. At least as far as I can tell in this light. Maybe tomorrow I can get a closer look.”

  Something hard twisted in Bethany’s middle. “I don’t think that’ll be possible.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They scare easily. If you try getting too close to them, next thing you know they’ll be heading for that canyon.”

  “I know horses, Bethany,” Brodie explained.

  She peered intently at Brodie. “I’m sure you do. You told me trading horses is your speciality.”

  He detected the ice in her voice and turned to face her. “I don’t trade horses.”

  “You told me you sold some at the market, didn’t you?”

  Brodie scoffed. “That was different. We had some extra stock I had to get rid of. It was just part of running the ranch.”

  Bethany didn’t respond to his words. She was too busy trying to control her emotions.

  Abruptly, Brodie reached out and gently took her arm. She gasped at his touch and met his penetrating gaze. “I’m not Shadley. Horse trading isn’t my business.” He frowned. “But I thought you understood that.”

  “I thought so, too.”

  He moved even closer. A chill ran up her spine. Combining with her pounding heartbeat, it made her feel a bewildering mixture of emotions. “I have no bad intentions toward you or those horses. You must believe me,” Brodie said urgently.

  Unable to speak, she gazed at him, trying to gauge whether he was telling her the truth. Perhaps his reaction to seeing the horses had been natural, after all. Maybe he’d felt the same wonder she’d felt. There was something primal about the presence of the horses.

  A movement caught her eyes and she glanced toward the cabin. Nate was standing there, looking straight at her and Brodie. Upon seeing Nate, Brodie quickly moved his hand from her arm. Noah appeared beside Nate, peering over the older man’s shoulder.

  “Stay in the cabin,” Bethany said to Noah, trying to keep her voice low in order not to startle the horses which were gathering near the waterfall. Some of the horses lowered their heads and started to drink. The thundering of hooves had ceased. Now, an ethereal silence had settled upon the valley, broken only by the gentle tumbling of the thin stream of the waterfall. The waterfall was a quiet, gentle stream, less powerful than it would be when the springtime came and the snows in the mountains melted. When that happened the creek which wound its way across the valley would become a fast-flowing river. Then flowers would bloom and the branches of the trees become thick with foliage. The valley would come to life, renewed again.

  “We mustn’t go near the horses,” Bethany whispered to Brodie. “They’ll bolt if we startle them.”

  “I know that, Bethany,” Brodie said, sounding slightly annoyed that she’d spoken to him as if he was a novice when it came to horses. She was sure he knew plenty about how to manage horses. Those years on the ranch would have given him ample opportunity to know how to handle a herd like this.

  As he continued to watch the herd gather by the waterfall, Brodie was silent. For a few minutes she stood alongside Brodie, simply savoring one of her favorite sights in the whole world. She loved these horses. Sometimes the herd was larger than today. In the past it had reached to almost one hundred head. She wondered where the others were. Maybe they’d been caught or herded up by men. These animals were highly prized. Some of the breeds fetched good prices.

  Glancing up at Brodie, she recalled standing, just like this, alongside Richard the first time she’d seen the horses, the day after she and Noah had arrived at the valley. Sharing that sight with her husband was a treasured memory. Richard had kept the surprise for her. Noah had screamed so loudly with excitement that the horses had been startled and had retreated to the far end of the valley. The delight she felt was tempered by the sadness of Richard’s absence. The love she felt for Richard was reflected in her deepest feelings for the herd of horses.

  Warring within her breast was the desire to let the animals roam free; to never have to catch them. In recent months she’d been troubled by a sense of guilt that she was depriving the horses of their natural freedom. However, economic necessity dictated that at least one horse be taken from the herd in order to maintain her life with Noah. Every time she captured a horse she felt like she was betraying her deepest values.

  Freedom was important to her. It had been one of her husband’s greatest wishes that she and Noah remain free as long as possible. Free of the restraints of town life. That was one reason why she was willing to make the most of this natural resource. But it wasn’t easy. Each time she took a horse to town she felt as if something died inside her.

  She and Nate had a rule they’d established. They only captured a horse as and when it was needed. She’d befriended the owner of the livery in Inspiration. He seemed like a good man. Every time she’d sold a horse to him he had promised he would find a kindly buyer who had a genuine need for a horse.

  Bethany gazed at the horses near the waterfall. They were at peace, drinking their fill from the pool. Every once in a while, one of the horses would look up, as if to check that their observers were keeping a safe distance.

  Right now, there was no need to seize a horse and take it into town to trade for goods. They had everything they needed. Nate had suggested taking some of the proceeds of his trapping activities into town, but there was little demand for those now. Life had changed since Nate had come to the mountains all those years ago.

  “Maybe we should leave them alone for a while,” Bethany suggested to Brodie.

  As if snapping himself out of dream, Brodie shook his head once. “Sure. If that’s what you want, Bethany.”

  “I’m not promising, but maybe they’ll still be somewhere in the valley tomorrow morning. They usually stay here a while. They like to roam free.”

  Brodie nodded slowly. “Freedom is good.” He smiled warmly. “I might try and take a closer look at them tomorrow.”

  “You’ll be lucky to get within a hundred yards of them. They’re smart.”

  “I know how smart horses can be. They ain’t easily fooled. Not like people.”

  Bethany wondered who he was referring to. Tyrell and Rufus came to mind. “I don’t understand how somebody like Shadley can mistreat horses like these.”

  As if he could read her mind, Brodie said: “When you see the kind of men he employs, it’s hardly surprising he treats horses badly.”

  “You think he’s cruel?” Bethany asked abruptly.

  Brodie lifted a skeptical brow. “I’d be willing to bet good money that he is. If he wasn’t trading horses he’d be doing something else underhand. Like claim jumping gold miners or robbing banks. “ He sighed. “I’ve met traders like Shadley. They can be cold-hearted when it comes to the welfare of horses.”

  Brodie’s words affected Bethany deeply. Was that what she was doing? Using the horses as a means to a selfish end? Was she no better than Shadley?

  Brodie turned to face her. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “How do you catch them?”

 
; Bethany thought for a long moment and then answered. “I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.”

  Brodie’s brows furrowed. He looked like he was about to object when she added: “Is that a deal?”

  He sighed. “I guess so,” he said with just a hint of impatience in his voice.

  As they made their way back to the cabin, Bethany saw Brodie take one last look at the horses and shake his head.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Nate arrived at first light the next morning. He suggested that he and Brodie take a look and see if the ice had cleared from the entrance to the crevasse. After a breakfast during which all the talk was of the newly arrived herd of horses, Brodie and Nate left the cabin and rode across to the blocked crevasse. Arriving there, it was immediately obvious that, although much of the snow had cleared, there was still a mass of hard-packed ice and rock blocking the entrance.

  Nate stood next to his mule and shook his head. “Looks like we’ll need to wait a day or two. Then we’ll just have to do some heavy lifting.” He eyed Brodie. “You ready for that, Brodie?”

  Brodie sighed. “Sure. I’m used to hard work.”

  “You’re talking ranch work,” Nate said and frowned. “I reckon you folks have got it easy compared to mountain living.”

  Brodie wondered if Nate had decided to rile him up again. The elderly mountain man had a mercurial temperament. One moment he could be nice and polite, the next he’d be doing his best to pick a fight. “You ever worked on a ranch, Nate?”

  Nate shook his head. “Never!” he snapped. “Seems like all you you do is ride around on horseback all day whooping and hollering at cows.” He grunted. “Don’t see how any man can call that work.”

  Brodie wanted to respond, but he was facing a long day, and there were other matters weighing on his mind. Dealing with Nate’s bad temper was the least of Brodie’s concerns. He decided to keep his peace.

  Turning, Brodie peered out across the valley. The low sun cast shadows on the far side. In those shadows he saw slight movements. The herd of horses was still in the valley. For whatever reason, they’d taken refuge beneath a rocky escarpment near a broad grove of trees. Maybe they felt safer there, Brodie speculated.

  Noticing that Brodie was peering at the horses, Nate commented: “They’re still here.”

  “How long do they stay for?”

  “Depends. Mostly a day or two.”

  “And then what happens?”

  “They go back down the way they came,” Nate said. “Down that canyon.”

  “I want to take a closer look at them,” Brodie declared.

  “I wouldn’t if I was you.”

  “Why not?”

  “They’ll bolt. If you scare them too much we might not get any more horses here for a while.”

  Brodie knew that the horses were smart. It wouldn’t take much for them to associate danger with a place like the valley.

  “Are these always from the same group of horses?”

  Nate squinted thoughtfully across the valley. “Hard to say. I reckon there are hundreds of wild horses in these mountains. Maybe these haven’t been here before. Could be they just followed the creek all the way up the canyon.”

  “Last night I asked Bethany how you catch the horses,” Brodie said. “She wouldn’t tell me.”

  Nate grinned. “That don’t surprise me one bit. Bethany has a mind of her own.” He gave Brodie a curious look. One that took Brodie by surprise. “But then, I suppose you already know that, seeing as how you’re getting to know Bethany real well, ain’t you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Brodie exclaimed.

  “Nothing,” Nate said and chuckled. Nate went to his mule and mounted into the saddle. “You want to see how we catch the horses?”

  Brodie was taken aback by the directness of Nate’s question. “Sure.”

  “Follow me,” Nate said, and dug his heels into the sides of his mule. Leaping into his saddle, Brodie mounted his horse and followed Nate back down the trail leading to the cabin. They rode past the cabin and continued all the way down the valley. As he rode, Brodie glanced every once in a while toward the horses. They were still gathered beneath the cliff overhang.

  The sun rose above the overhanging peak to the south. The valley was bathed in bright winter sunshine. Most of the ground snow had melted revealing grassland which carpeted most of the valley floor. The creek wound its way amongst the many groves of trees clustered from one side of the valley to the other. Following the trail, riding behind Nate, Brodie took in the view of the valley, seeing it now from another angle. The cliff walls around the valley were precipitous, rising to a uniform height all around the natural oval-shaped enclosure. Brodie had heard of places like this before. But this was the first time he’d seen anything like it. It truly was a secluded, self-enclosed refuge amongst the mountains.

  Nate glanced back at Brodie. “Pretty, ain’t it?”

  Brodie nodded. “Never seen anything like it.”

  Nate laughed. “Home from home.” He pointed to a small cabin a few hundred yards ahead. “Speaking of which. That’s my place there.”

  Arriving at Nate’s cabin, Brodie saw that it was smaller than Bethany’s place, but it had been built in the same solid manner. It was a wood log cabin. Out front there was a small porch. Piles of items, including a small bench and chair, were strewn around the porch. There was an air of untidiness about the place. Nate and Brodie halted in front of the cabin and dismounted.

  Brodie ran his gaze around this far end of the valley. The cabin was situated near the slash in the cliff, about fifty yards wide, which was the entrance to the canyon. Through that gash in the cliff ran the creek. The creek ran along a deep gully with steep sides. On the cabin side of the gully a makeshift wooden fence had been constructed. Brodie couldn’t figure out why the fence had been laid out along the side of the creek. When he walked a few yards and peered along the length of the fence the saw the reason for its construction.

  Nate came to Brodie’s side and chuckled. “What does that look like?”

  Brodie peered into the shadows beneath the tall cliff immediately adjacent to the canyon entrance. There, at the end of the fencing, was a corral with an open gate. It looked ramshackle and basic. The logs of wood were crudely tied with rope.

  “You understand what you’re looking at yet?” Nate asked with a mischievous tone in his voice.

  Brodie walked along the length of the fence until he reached the open corral. Peering back up the length of the creek, with one side of the deep gully angled parallel with the fence, Brodie suddenly comprehended what Nate had built.

  “This is a trap to catch horses, ain’t it?” he asked Nate who was smiling at Brodie.

  Nate’s chest swelled. “That’s exactly what it is.”

  “Let me get this straight,” Brodie said and pointed up the length of the gully. “You drive the horses down this gully, straight toward the canyon entrance. At some point, with all the horses bunched together, running along the creek, you get one or two horses who stray to one side of the herd. They get stuck on this side of the fence and separated from the herd. Then you get them in the corral and shut the gate.”

  “You got it figured out,” Nate declared triumphantly.

  Brodie was stunned. “Does this work?”

  “It sure does,” Nate replied and then shrugged. “Most of the time.”

  Brodie examined the corral fencing which had been built high enough to stop a horse from leaping over it.

  “You built this all by yourself?”

  “Me and Bethany’s husband built it before she and Noah came here.”

  Brodie slapped his hand against the fence. “It’s quite an achievement.”

  “Ain’t no other way we could have captured those horses.”

  From his own personal experience, Brodie knew how hard it was to capture a wild horse. It took expertise or fortunate circumstances. He reckoned he was looking at a very clever solution which Nate and Bethany’s
husband had devised.

  “Who drives the horses to the corral?”

  “Bethany and Noah.”

  Brodie frowned, imagining the many things which could go wrong if Bethany and Noah were riding close to a panicked herd of wild horses.

  “I work the corral,” Nate stated. “Horse riding ain’t exactly my greatest strength these days.”

  Brodie could see how well this contrivance could work. With it, a steady supply of horses could be obtained. Now he understood where Bethany had gotten the horses for her regular trips into town.

  “Won’t the horses get wise to this?” Brodie objected.

  Nate gestured toward the canyon entrance and creek. “There ain’t nowhere else they can go if they want to escape the valley. Richard called this a pinch point, but I ain’t used to fancy words like that.”

  Brodie could see what Richard had been getting at. The gully, creek and canyon entrance were the perfect places to create a trap in which to gather stampeding horses. It was well-designed, but still he was troubled by the dangers in such an activity.

  “You saying Noah gets involved in this?”

  Nate grinned. “What kind of young boy ain’t going to want to capture wild horses? You’ve seen how much he loves adventure.”

  “I suppose you’re right. Did Bethany’s husband figure this could last years? Seems to me that wild horses would soon cotton on to this and stop coming up the canyon,” Brodie speculated.

  “All I know is they keep coming,” Nate replied.

  “You ever had anyone else come to the valley?”

  Nate’s features darkened. “Nope. We’re well-hidden.”

  “Someday that might change,” Brodie said. “Ever think what you’ll have to do if that happens?”

  Nate sighed. “I haven’t reached my advanced years by spending all my time worrying about tomorrow. The Bible tells us to deal with what the day brings and leave the rest to another time.”

  “It sure does,” Brodie agreed. He wondered just how much Nate knew about what Bethany went through every time she took a horse into town. “Did Bethany tell you what happened the day I came here?”