“Dora, I didn’t mean—”
“You’re like Aunt Lily. You think I’m a liar…that I won’t amount to a hill of beans…and I’m not pretty. Ruby likes me! She said if she’da had a little girl, she’da wanted her to be like me!”
Nellie felt tears rising in her throat. She hadn’t realized the depth of Dora’s hurt, or the intense feeling of rejection the child had suffered at the hands of their father’s cold, unloving sister.
“I’m sorry I disputed your word, Dora. It was just that I thought you were too young to remember, because I can’t remember things that happened when I was two years old. And I’m not like Aunt Lily! I love you, and Mason and the boys love you. Didn’t he bring us here so he could take care of us?”
Dora wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her dress. “Well…yes, but that Victoria don’t want us here and Mason won’t make her go. I wish she would.”
“This has been Victoria’s home all her life,” Nellie said patiently. “She was born here. Think of how she feels, Dora. She didn’t know her brother had sold the ranch to Mason. All of a sudden her life was turned upside down like ours was when Mama and Papa died. Mason is giving her a little time to think about what she wants to do.”
“He likes her. He likes her more’n us.”
“No. He don’t like her more than us. He may like her, but in a different way. I like her too, but not in the way I love you.”
“Well, I like Ruby better’n her. Ruby’s funny and makes me laugh.” She smiled up at Nellie, an infectious, mischievous smile that shifted the lines of her little face upward.
“C’mon, you! Let’s circle the house, then we’ll walk down to Ruby’s.”
As they approached the cluster of buildings made up of the bunkhouse, the cookshack, and the small cottage that was almost a miniature of the big ranch house Dora dashed ahead of Nellie and collided with a shriveled little man coming out of the cookshack.
“Whoops, young missy.” The words came out of the bearded face; it was hard to tell from exactly where because only beard, button nose and watery blue eyes were visible. He glanced at Nellie and then away as if embarrassed and uneasy in her presence.
“I know you. You’re Gopher!” Dora yelled excitedly. “Ruby said you’re called Gopher cause you’ve always got one. Do you? Ruby said you was goin’ to name one Ruby and if you did she was gonna mop up the floor with you. What else do you got? Ruby said you could tame anything but a horse, ’cause a horse had more sense than you. She said you could do it ’cause—”
“Dora!” Nellie’s face was red with embarrassment and she couldn’t look at the man, but she heard him chuckle and risked a glance. She couldn’t see his mouth for the beard, but she thought he must be smiling.
“Wal, now. Ruby’s right ’bout part of hit.” He hunkered down beside Dora. “I got me the purtiest li’l gal ya ever did see. Her name’s Clara. Named ’er for a dance-hall gal I knew oncet. Would ya like to see ’er?”
“Oh, golly, could I? Now?” Dora was almost speechless.
Gopher pursed his lips and made a low, shrill sound. Almost instantly there was movement in the front of his worn jacket. A small, brown head popped up over the edge of his pocket. The bright little eyes looked directly at Dora and the gopher let out a low whistle.
“Oh, golly! Oh, golly!” Dora cried. “Ain’t he cute?”
“This un’s a her. Wanna feed ’er somethin’? Ya got ta feed ’er when she whistles, else she won’t whistle next time. Hits a kinda like ya was milkin’ a cow, ya keep on a milkin’ ’er so she don’t go dry.” The gopher was halfway out of the pocket working its paws up and down. “She’s a beggin’. Give ’er a taste of oats.” He reached into his pocket and placed a few grains in Dora’s hand.
“Will she bite?” Dora asked, blue eyes wide in wonder.
“Naw. Jist hold out yore hand, she’ll take it. I got another’n I call Granny on account of she’s kinda got gray in her hair. She likes to stay in my bedroll.”
“Can I see her sometime?”
“Shore ya can.” The watery eyes looked up at Nellie and she smiled into them. “Got pups in the barn. I like little critters,” he said to Nellie.
“Pups!” Dora’s voice was shrill. “Ruby didn’t say nothin’ ’bout pups!”
“Ruby don’t know ’bout ’em. They just come.” The little animal disappeared back into his pocket and Gopher stood up. Nellie could see he was pleased to be telling Dora something Ruby didn’t know. His eyes kept darting toward Nellie as if expecting her to put a stop to the conversation.
“May we see the puppies?” Nellie asked and was rewarded by a gleam of pure pleasure in the faded eyes. They narrowed as his cheeks raised and Nellie realized the whiskered little man was smiling broadly beneath the beard.
“Yes’m. Jist c’mon ’n’ you’ll see ’em. They’s the purtiest bunch a speckled pups ya ever did see.”
Gopher led the way around the side of the cookhouse. Dora danced along beside him. She was looking up at him, her smile showing her missing teeth. Nellie lifted her skirts and hurried after them.
The barn was dark and cool and smelled of horses and leather. They walked between the empty stalls to the rear. Nellie heard a low, warning growl before she saw the shaggy dog lying in a nest of hay.
“Hit’s all right, Belle. Ain’t nobody gonna do nothin’ to yore younguns.” Gopher got down on his knees. His stubby fingers were gentle on the shaggy head. “We’uns jist got visitors. The womenfolk want to see yore babes.” The old man’s voice was soft as he reassured the dog.
As her eyes became accustomed to the dim light in the barn, Nellie looked over Gopher’s shoulder and saw a mass of wiggling puppies vying for spots along their mother’s belly.
“How many did she have?”
“Eight. None of ’em’s died yet.” Gopher spoke as if it was a miracle that all the puppies had lived.
Dora got down on her knees beside Gopher, her eyes riveted on the wondrous sight before her. With one hand still fondling the dog’s head, Gopher picked up one of the puppies and put it in her hands, then handed another to Nellie.
Nellie accepted the small bundle of life reverently. It was hardly bigger than the palm of her hand. The small mouth opened seeking food and she held it to her cheek, exclaiming over its helplessness.
It was at that instant that she saw a man standing in one of the stalls watching her. He wasn’t smiling and he didn’t look away when he realized she was looking at him. He continued to gaze at her until she felt herself coloring and a small, fluttery feeling went through her. She knew at once it was the man who had lifted her down from the corral fence when he thought the wild horse was going to crash into it. Even without the hat that had hid the curly, dark hair, she knew it was he. She was so intensely aware of him she didn’t realize he was moving toward her until suddenly he was only a few feet way. He walked around behind her and she thought he was leaving the barn. She turned her head to look after him and found him standing beside her. His deep, serious eyes caught and held hers, making her so self-conscious she would have had difficulty recalling her own name.
“Ma’am, ah just got to tell ya that yore the prettiest thing I ever put my eyes on.” His voice was soft and so sincere there was no possible way she could be offended.
Nellie didn’t give a thought that Gopher and Dora might have overheard the words. She seemed to be lost in the warm admiration in his eyes and the only indication she gave that she heard him was the slight nod of her head.
Gopher reached for the pup and brought Nellie back to reality.
“Belle’s a gettin’ fidgety a thinkin’ one of her younguns is gone.”
Nellie handed the pup back to Gopher, but all she could think about was the tall man standing at her side and the words he had said to her. He was still there when she backed away and Gopher got to his feet.
“Howdy, Sage. Watcha think ’bout what ol’ Belle went and done?”
“I think Belle’s got her work cut out f
or her. But then you knew that when you brought her out from town.” His voice was low and gentle and had a teasing rather than rebuking tone.
Gopher laughed. “I had me a strong suspect.”
Nellie followed Gopher and Dora out of the barn, putting one foot ahead of the other automatically. Sage was behind her, his eyes on her profile. They walked out into the sunlight and he paused. Nellie turned to look shyly up at him through her thick lashes. His smile crinkled the lines around his eyes and deepened the indentations in his cheeks, making him suddenly look boyish. Nellie smiled back and felt a surprising, overwhelming burst of happiness.
Minutes later when she and Dora stood at Ruby’s door she was still smiling.
CHAPTER
* 9 *
“C’mon in,” Ruby yelled.
They opened the door and went in. Dora an to Ruby who was kneeling on the floor beside an open trunk. Nellie stood inside the door looking around at the small but homey room that smelled of roses. There was a kitchen at one end and living space at the other, but the furnishings were such a mishmash you couldn’t tell where one left off and the other began. The room held a cheerful conglomeration of pictures, pelts, vases, and wood carvings; even a rattlesnake skin hung on the wall.
“There you are. I told you I had ribbons, didn’t I, dumplin’? Wal, now jist look a thar!” Ruby held up a width of purple ribbon. “We’ll jist make us a great big ol’ bow and tie it in yore hair and let the streamers hang down. My, my, you’ll be a sight!” She got to her feet, and Dora, grinning from ear to ear, obediently turned around. “Ain’t she purty, Nellie? Why this un’s going’ to be so purty she’ll have to carry a stick to keep the fellers knocked away from ’er!”
“We’ll have to build a fence around her, is what we’ll do,” Nellie teased.
“She’s purty enough to dance on the stage.” Ruby grabbed Dora’s two hands and began to do a jig. She was light on her feet and her plump cheeks and ample bosom jiggled up and down.
In a loud, raspy voice Ruby sang:
“Rye whiskey, rye whiskey,
rye whiskey, I crave.
I’ll drink that rye whiskey
till I go to my grave.”
She whirled Dora around the floor until she collapsed in a chair and pulled Dora down beside her. They sat giggling like two children and Nellie realized why her little sister had fallen under Ruby’s spell.
“I ain’t bein’ very sociable to yore sister, dumplin’. You can jist sit here and get yore wind back. Nellie, you look like you think this ol’ woman had done lost her mind. I ain’t. I jist got to get my blood goin’ sometime. I got dancin’ feet. Course I wouldn’t trade my Stonewall fer no dance that ever was. That’s what I did, you know. I danced on the stage till he brung me here. This is home. This place here is the only home I ever knowed or wanted after I set eyes on my Stonewall.” She jumped up and took a feather plume from a hook on the wall. “Stonewall brung me this oncet when he went to Denver with old Mr. McKenna, ’n’ he brung me this another time.” She whipped a fringed shawl from the trunk and flung it around her shoulders.
“It’s pretty. Did Stonewall do the wood carvings?”
“Land sakes, no! He ain’t got no eye fer that. Sage done it. Sage made ’em all”—she waved her hand around the room—”and I got more in my trunk. Look at that owl aperched on that stick. Ain’t that the realest thin’ you ever saw? That boy can whittle out anythin’?” She dug into the trunk and came out with a small bundle wrapped in a cloth. “Now this here is ’bout the purtiest thing you ever did see.”
Ruby carefully unwrapped a carving of a bird in flight, its wings extended, its long neck stretched behind. It was no larger than the palm of her hand, and the detail was so explicit you could see the small downy feathers on its breast. The dark wood had been polished to a bright sheen and Ruby ran her fingers over it lovingly.
“Sage made this for me after I tol’ him how I loved to see the wild geese aflyin’ north in the spring.”
“It’s beautiful, and so delicate!” Nellie exclaimed.
“I ain’t got nowhere to put it so it won’t get broke so I keep it in the trunk ’n’ get it out oncet in a while ’n’ look at it.”
“If you hung it down from the ceiling on a string you could see it all the time,” Nellie suggested.
“Why, now, that’s an idee. But wait till you see what else Sage made me.” She rewrapped the bird, carefully put it back in the trunk, and brought out a larger bundle. She swept the cloth from around it and revealed the carved bust of a man. Although Nellie had seen Stonewall only briefly, the likeness was so perfect she recognized him immediately.
“It’s your husband!”
“Course it tis,” Ruby said and made room for Dora beside her. “I’ll tell you what we’ll do, dumplin’. We’ll get Sage to whittle us out a doll head ’n’ we’ll make ’er a body and stuff ’er with oats, ’n’ put a bonnet on ’er head.” She looked up at Nellie. “I always wanted me a little girl like this’n. I wish things wasn’t the way they was, with me ’n’ Stonewall maybe havin’ to move on with Victoria. I wish it was so we could all stay here,” she ended wistfully.
Nellie left Dora playing happily with Ruby. As she walked back to the ranch house she thought about what Ruby had said to her. The woman was lonely and Dora filled a vacant spot in her heart. Also in Nellie’s thoughts was the tall, serious-faced man who had told her she was pretty and whose face had changed so when he smiled. Was he an outlaw like Clay said? Did he ride with gangs and kill and steal? But would an outlaw have time to make such delicate, beautiful things from a block of wood? Anyway, if Ruby and Victoria liked him he couldn’t be an outlaw!
“Oh, I hope he isn’t,” she said softly to herself.
She leaned on the fence surrounding the house yard, still thinking about Sage. What had brought him to this place? She frowned thoughtfully. How could a man be satisfied living the life of a drifter? Didn’t he ever dream of having his own ranch? A wife? Family? Wasn’t that what everyone dreamed about, having someone of their own? He was so quiet, so sad. She wondered what had happened to make him so. She gazed toward the distant mountains and decided it would probably be better if she never knew.
Nellie glanced up at the sun. It was almost noon. What would she do to fill the rest of her day? Dora found Ruby too fascinating to leave and the twins had ridden off down the valley with Stonewall. Doonie had gone out with Gopher in the chuck wagon. I’ll wash all the chimney lamps, she decided suddenly. I’ll find the vinegar and make them all nice and shiny by the time Victoria gets home. She took the dishpan off the nail on the porch and went into the house.
Humming softly to herself Nellie shook down the ashes and rekindled the blaze in the cookstove. She picked up the copper teakettle and turned to go to the water bucket to fill it.
“Oh!” Her hand flew to her mouth to suppress a scream.
A man, a big man, stood in the doorway, silent and staring.
An eternity passed. Nellie’s hand left her mouth to press against her heart, which was beating as if it were about to leap from her breast.
“What do you want?”
There was complete silence.
The man just stood there, saying nothing, doing nothing. Fear erupted inside Nellie like a living thing. This was the man Mason had fought with the night before! He was the one who had been told to leave the ranch! His mouth and his nose were swollen and she could see cuts and bruises beneath the stubble of whiskers on his face. It was not his battered face that frightened her as much as the hate and anger in his eyes.
Forever, Victoria Page 15