Maggie charged toward her, ignoring the escaping steer. As she pulled her horse up, Nancy sat up and blinked at her.
“Are you all right?” Maggie jumped down and knelt beside her.
Nancy pulled in several deep breaths.
“Nancy?” Maggie looked toward the small herd. The other women kept the cattle moving, but one horsewoman had spotted them and was riding back to check on them.
“Yes, I’ll be fine.” Nancy smiled, still gasping. “It’s been a long time since I did that.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
Nancy put out her hand, and Maggie grasped it and pulled her to her feet.
Bitty rode up. “What happened?” Nancy gave a halfhearted wave.
“She took a spill,” Maggie said. “Can you get her horse?”
The dun gelding Nancy had been riding stood switching its tail about twenty yards away. Bitty trotted off to catch it.
“Does anything hurt?” Maggie asked.
Nancy shook her head. “My pride. But no. I only needed to catch my breath.”
“Maybe you should rest,” Maggie said.
“No, there is plenty of time for that after we get the cut in. But I tell you this: I am going to ride astride. My husband wouldn’t let me leave home unless I rode the sidesaddle, but he does not understand.”
“Maybe you can use Hannah’s saddle. I doubt she’ll be riding tomorrow.”
Bitty brought Nancy’s horse over.
Maggie eyed her keenly. “Are you sure—”
“Hush now.” Nancy seized the reins. “Give me a boost, will you?”
Soon the three caught up to the herd and continued on to the roundup camp. The women kept them moving much better than they had yesterday. Maggie wondered if she would have to take the cattle to Fort Worth herself. It seemed less likely every day that she would be able to hire a male crew to do it. How many of her generous cowgirls could she conscript?
At least the railroad would pick up the cattle in Fort Worth now. The ranchers no longer had to drive them all the way to Kansas or Colorado or some other distant place to sell them. But with her inexperienced drovers, she figured the journey of two hundred fifty miles could take up to a month. Would these women be willing to leave home for that long? And how safe would they be on the trail, away from the comparatively secure Rocking P range?
Lottie held the gate while they herded the cattle into the pen. The steers protested and tried to dodge the enclosure. It took the women a good twenty minutes to turn back all the rebellious animals and force them inside.
“My husband and some of his men came from the Key ranch with thirty of your cattle,” Lottie said. “There were half a dozen calves in there, so we branded them and let the cows and their babies loose.”
“Great.” Maggie looked toward the animals inside the fence. “Did they collect their strays from the other pen?”
“They sure did.”
“Good—we won’t have to drift them back to your ranch. Thank John for me when you see him, won’t you?”
Maggie’s back ached. She wished she could have a bath and sink into bed—her bed at home, with the warm quilts, fresh-smelling sheets, and plump featherbed. She rode to the remuda corral, handed her horse off to Sarah, and staggered to the chuck wagon, where she downed a dipperful of cool water.
“How’s Hannah?” she asked Dolores.
“That girl’s not doing too well.” Dolores wiped her hands on her apron and picked up a pot holder. “Just my opinion, but I think she should see Doc Vargas.”
“Oh?” Maggie looked around and spotted Hannah, lying on her bedroll in the shade beneath the wagon. She knelt and peered under. “Hi.”
“Hello.” Hannah sounded groggy.
“Does it hurt a lot now?” Maggie asked.
“Pretty bad.”
“I’m sorry. I’m going to see about getting you back to town.”
“I don’t think I can ride that far,” Hannah said.
“You’d have to go in the wagon.”
Hannah clenched her teeth but didn’t protest.
Maggie went back to Dolores. “Has Rhonda looked at her ankle again?”
“I don’t think she’s come in yet.”
Maggie went to the branding fire, where Carlotta and Bitty were putting the Rocking P mark on the two mavericks they’d brought in their cut from the canyon. Nancy sat nearby, watching and rubbing her left wrist.
“You are hurt,” Maggie said.
Nancy shrugged. “It’s not bad. I didn’t notice it at first, I was so angry that I’d fallen off.”
“Do we need to wrap it?”
“I don’t think so.”
“All right.” Maggie turned to Carlotta. “Can you go over the tally with me when you’re done here? I think we need to get Hannah to the doctor, and I’m considering all of us going and taking in what cattle we have.”
“You mean, end the roundup?”
“Yes. We’re still short a couple hundred head of what we hoped for, but any cattle that are left are way up in the hills. We could wander around all week and only come up with a few more.”
“That’s true.”
Maggie took out her notepad and they walked over to the large holding pen. “All right, the cuts we brought in yesterday and today, minus any strays, breeding cows, and young stock, will give us the marketable animals.” Starting with the count Alex had given in his final report, she totaled up the numbers for the herd now in the north pasture and their day herd.
She and Carlotta went over the figures and decided their figures were as precise as they could manage.
“Well, Papa hoped for a few more,” Maggie said, “but sixteen hundred head isn’t bad.”
“That will be a good drive,” Carlotta assured her. “You need to get them to the stockyards while prices are still high.”
Maggie knew theirs would be one of the last herds to arrive this spring. More ranchers would make their drives in the fall, but the Rocking P couldn’t wait that long. They needed an infusion of cash as quickly as possible.
“I say we drive these beeves in tonight.”
“You’re in a big hurry. Why not wait until morning?”
Maggie looked at the sky. “I’m afraid we’re in for a storm later. The wind’s picked up. It could be miserable out here tonight. And we don’t want the cattle to panic.”
“At least they would be in the pen.” Carlotta squinted toward the lowering sun. “It would be dark by the time we got there, and if the lightning started, we might lose control of the herd.”
“That’s why I think we should start now.”
Carlotta shook her head. “The ladies have worked all day. They’ll want to eat supper at least.”
Maggie sighed. “I guess you’re right.”
“As usual.” Carlotta’s dazzling smile flashed.
“I’ll remind you of that tonight, when it’s pouring rain and we’re trying to keep the cattle calm.”
Maggie took the dark-to-midnight watch with Sarah, Bitty, and Consuela. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and toward the end of their watch, the sky clouded over. Lightning split and stabbed on the horizon.
Maggie and the three others rode slowly around the perimeter of the large pens, speaking in steady, low tones to the cattle. As long as the storm stayed several miles away, the longhorns kept fairly quiet, though they shifted about a lot.
Across the herd, Consuela’s lovely soprano voice wafted to Maggie in a haunting Spanish ballad. After that, Bitty sang one of her favorite hymns. From off to her right, Sarah’s alto joined in, and Maggie couldn’t resist adding harmony of her own.
When Poppy and three more women came to relieve them, Maggie gave instructions to wake her if things got rowdy.
“Don’t worry,” Poppy told her. “If they start stampeding, you’ll wake up in a hurry.”
Maggie rolled into her blankets near the chuck wagon. What would they all do if they had a downpour? A few of them could squeeze into the chuc
k wagon, she supposed, but the truth was, they’d be needed to control the cattle. She was grateful for the holding pens. In the old days, when the roundup was done on the open range without benefit of fences, keeping the herd together in a storm was nigh impossible. And they might face that exact challenge on the cattle drive.
She realized that she’d accepted the idea of making the cattle drive with her female supporters—as many as would undertake the adventure with her. Maybe she’d broach that to them in the morning at breakfast, before they left for the ranch. They should be thinking about it. She’d need to leave on the drive soon, to avoid the heat of midsummer. She wanted the cattle to arrive at the stockyards in good condition.
She awoke when raindrops splattered in her face. She wouldn’t sleep anymore, so she might as well get up. Quickly she stowed her bedroll and pulled on a coat. Rhonda joined her as she hurried to tack up a horse. Before long, most of the other women came to help with the herd.
For the rest of the night, they circulated around the pens. An exceptionally loud thunderclap set the herd to running across the large pen. At one point a huge steer challenged the fence. The sound of wood splintering reached Maggie over the drumming of the rain and the lowing of the unhappy cattle. She and six other women converged on the spot. The angry steer bellowed and prepared to charge the weakened fence again.
“We’ve got to hold them,” Maggie yelled to the others.
They spread out along the fence line and kept their horses moving back and forth, so that the cattle would be well aware of their presence. While the rain drummed down, the women sang hymns and lullabies and protected the fractured section of the fence.
At last the rain let up and the thunder drifted away to become only an infrequent growl in the distance. All the cattle remained in the pens, but the cowgirls were drenched.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The following morning they started out cold, wet, and hungry. When at last the cattle were in the north pasture only half a mile from the ranch house, Maggie turned her cowgirl crew toward home with a smaller herd of maverick calves and their mothers. These they drove into a pen nearer the home ranch as rain began to fall once more. The bedraggled women reached the ranch house near noon and ran the remuda into the corral beside the barn.
Maggie turned to address the other women. “Well done, ladies! We’ll all go in the house and get warmed up and have something to eat.”
“We’re a mess,” Sarah said. “We ought to just go to your bunkhouse to dry out and change our clothes.”
“Nonsense!” Maggie turned to Dolores. “You can rassle up something for lunch, can’t you?”
“You bet I can,” Dolores said.
When they rode up to the front of the house, Maggie was so tired she wasn’t sure she could walk inside. The door opened, and Shep hurried out and across the porch.
“Ladies! Welcome back. I wondered how you were making it, out there in the storm last night.”
Maggie grabbed his arm for support. “We did all right, Shep, but we’re worn out. We want to come in and get changed and have a bite to eat.”
“Well, you’re in luck. I’ve got a big kettle of hot soup on the stove. I had it in mind to ride out to the camp in the buckboard this afternoon if I could get someone to stay with your pa.”
“How is he?”
Shep shook his head. “It ain’t good, Miss Maggie. I’m sorry to say it, but that’s one reason I thought to go out to camp. I wanted to tell you to come see him if you could.”
The other women had gathered around, and Shep seemed to suddenly take notice of them. He put on a smile and called, “You all come right in. We’ve got a couple of rooms you can change in, and I’ll get you some hot water. And then we’ll sit you down for some food.”
“Yippee!” Bitty’s screech made them all laugh.
“Let’s put our horses in the barn, girls,” Maggie said. “There should be plenty of feed in there for them.”
They all took the horses they’d been riding across the barnyard and led them inside.
“They can go out again after we feed and water them,” Sarah said.
“No, there are plenty of empty stalls.” Maggie took a quick survey. The only horse in the barn was the palomino filly. Its stall was clean, and the golden filly whickered and came over to the half-door to nuzzle Maggie’s hand.
“She’s gorgeous,” Carlotta said, coming up behind Maggie.
“Yes. I never found out who she belongs to. I’ll have to ask Shep. He must have been taking care of her since the hands left.”
“You go in and see your papa. I’ll take care of your horse.”
Maggie shook her head. “I’ll do it.”
“No, go on.” Carlotta pushed her toward the door. “You need to see him. I heard what Shep said.”
“Thanks.” Maggie flitted between the horses and the women carrying saddles and brushes. She jogged across the yard in the drizzle and went in the kitchen door. As Shep had said, a huge pot of soup simmered on the wood stove, and the pleasant fragrance made her stomach clench. Chicken, unless she was mistaken. Good old Shep! Several kettles of water were also heating.
She met him in the hallway on her way to her room.
“I put a pitcher of warm water on your washstand,” Shep said. “You get cleaned up and go to your pa.”
“Thank you. Is he so much worse, Shep?”
He grimaced. “The doctor came out last night and told me to increase his medication, but that makes him groggy all the time.”
“He is worse, then,” Maggie said.
“I think it’s as much the news as it is his health.”
“What news?”
“He got a letter yesterday. It gave him a setback, I’m afraid.”
Maggie’s chest tightened. “Who was it from?”
“That hospital place your mother went to.” Shep clenched his teeth. “I don’t usually go snoopin’, Maggie, but after your pa read that letter he slumped down in his chair and dropped it on the floor. I got him to bed, and afterward … well, it was lying there, and I went to pick it up, and I saw what it said.”
“It’s all right, Shep.” She patted his arm. “You’re looking out for us, and I don’t blame you for seeing that.”
He nodded. “Thanks.”
“So tell me—was it another bill?”
“Kind of. It was a letter that sounded all legal like. I put it in on his desk. You want me to fetch it for you?”
“I’ll go in there and read it after I see Papa. Just tell me the gist of it.”
“Well …” Shep inhaled deeply. “It sounded to me like they’re sayin’ if your pa don’t pay what’s owed, they’ll start proceedings to take his property.”
She caught her breath. “This ranch means everything to Papa.”
“No, you mean everything to him. More than anything, he can’t stand the thought of dying and leaving you penniless, with no home. He’s counting on the cattle drive, Maggie. If you can’t get those cattle sold and make the people he owes back off, I think that would do him in. He needs to know you’ll be all right when he’s gone.”
As she washed up and changed out of her trail clothes, Maggie thought about her situation. She was grateful that she had faithful employees like Shep and Dolores to see her through this difficult time. If the men had stayed loyal to the Rocking P, she wouldn’t have half the worries she now faced. Alex and the cowpunchers would take care of the herd for her, and she could stay with her father.
Seeing Alex again yesterday had only confirmed what she’d known since she came home from San Francisco—she loved him. Now it seemed to be futile. Those men, especially Alex, could never come back to the ranch. Her father wouldn’t let Alex through the front door if he returned. Papa certainly wouldn’t trust him with his financial future.
She opened her armoire and gazed at her choice of dresses. Side by side were the black mourning dresses she’d worn after Mama died and the gay ball gowns Iris had coaxed her into wearing in San F
rancisco. She hated the sight of the expensive attire she’d bought to wear in the city.
She touched the sleeve of one of the black dresses. Would she be in mourning again soon?
Today was not the day to grieve. She shoved the mourning gowns to one side and took out a less somber dress. She loved the blue polished cotton, though the full skirt was a bit impractical for the ranch. Papa liked to see her in blue, and today she would do anything she could to please him.
She pulled it on and struggled to fasten the buttons in the back. In San Francisco, Iris or her maid had buttoned Maggie’s dresses. She’d forgotten about that. On the ranch, she always wore ones that buttoned or hooked in the front, so she could dress herself. At last it felt right, and she used her hand mirror and the large looking glass over her dresser to make sure. She picked up a fan and her tally notebook and went out into the hall.
From the parlor, she heard the sound of the women’s voices.
“Miss Hannah and Miss Celine, you come with me and I’ll show you where you can change,” Dolores was saying. Maggie thought ruefully that someone should be taking care of Dolores.
She went to her father’s door, confident that Dolores and Shep would make the other women comfortable.
Papa drowsed in his bed, and she took the chair beside it. He looked thin and pale. Perhaps she imagined it, but his breathing seemed shallow, too.
A few minutes later a tap sounded on the door, and Dolores opened it a few inches.
“Can I get you anything?”
“No, I’m fine.” Maggie stood and went to the door. “He’s sleeping, and I don’t want to wake him.”
“Maybe you should come eat with us,” Dolores said. “Rhonda and I have put Hannah to bed in the guest room.”
“Good. I don’t want to make her ride all the way to town in this rain.”
“Yes, we’ll hope it’s cleared off by morning, and then we can get her to Dr. Vargas. Shall we put the rest of the ladies in the bunkhouse? I hate to, but we don’t have enough beds anywhere else.”
Dolores smiled. “It’s a little rough out there, but I’m sure they’ll find it a lot nicer than sleeping on the ground.”
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