by Holby Cindy
Right now she looked a bit paler than normal as she perused the tax bill. It had to be high, with the property being two years in arrears. Maybe she didn’t have enough, even with what was in the bank.
“Can’t a body be neighborly?” Ward said in reply to Jake’s question. He gave Jake a look that would have shamed a lesser man. But a lesser man didn’t have to worry about having sheep on his range. Still, Jake was an honest man, even if he was feeling a bit stubborn at the moment. He dipped in his coat and pulled out the bank book.
“After your grandfather died I took his stock to market with mine. I sold them and deposited the proceeds in an account in Denver at the Curry and Hayes bank. It turns out they just opened up a branch in Angel’s End when they took over the stage line. All we have to do is go to the bank and I’ll add your signature to the account and take mine off and the money is yours.”
There. He felt better about telling her, especially when he saw the relief on her face when she realized how much money was in the account. Still, he couldn’t help but think maybe it wasn’t a good thing that she had the money. Without it she’d have to go. There were a whole lot of people who weren’t going to be happy about her sheep and Jake knew good and well that Raymond Watkins would be one of them. Eventually the word would get out. It was impossible to keep this many sheep hidden, especially now that spring was here and the hands would be out, searching all the ridges and valleys for strays.
“It’s so much,” she said. Her blue eyes were full of gratitude when she finally tore them from the bank book and looked up at him. “Thank you.” Her words were genuine but guarded and her eyes quickly changed when she realized that perhaps she’d given too much away. Jake took it as a challenge. She could let her guard down, when she wanted to. What could he do to bring back that look? But more important, what was it that she was hiding? Cassie Parker was a mystery, a tiny woman with secrets and a herd, no, they didn’t call them herds, it was a flock. A dang flock of sheep.
“If you two don’t mind working out a time to go to the bank I’ll let the mayor know when he can expect the money,” Cade said. He tipped his hat as if in apology. “Just doing my job, ma’am.”
“Whenever it’s convenient for you,” Cassie said to Jake.
“How about tomorrow morning,” Jake said. “Say nine?”
“I’ll be ready,” she said.
“I’ll let Gus know,” Cade said and in one graceful motion stepped off the porch and onto his mount. Ward, always one to take his time, walked to the edge and looked out across the valley. Jake had to admit it was a pretty sight, even with the sheep. The land rolled a lot more than his. The house sat snug against a line of pines that served as a windbreak. The barn and corral and a few outbuildings lay down a small rise to the left, while the road out curved up and to the right. A stream ran behind the house and barn and split the valley. A flat bridge, wide enough for a wagon, went over it, and the overgrown trail led to the ridge that separated their property. The stream meandered on down and ran parallel to the road they came in on. Eventually it crossed Watkins’s land. Even though it wasn’t his only source of water, Watkins would have plenty to say about the sheep fouling up his water when he found out. And eventually he would.
“You live out here by yourself?” Ward asked.
“No,” Cassie said. “I have Manuel.” She waved at the Mexican who walked toward the house with the dog at his side. “And his wife, Rosa.”
“I thought I saw two women on the porch when we rode in,” Ward continued.
“My mother.” Cassie, with her will-o’-the-wisp hair sticking out in all directions, looked directly at Ward and spoke in a tone that would put a momma grizzly to shame. “She’s not well, and she doesn’t take to strangers. They upset her.”
“I’d be the last one to do that.” Ward put his hands up in surrender. “Just wanted to make sure you were well taken care of.” He stepped off the porch and mounted up beside Cade. “Ranching is a hard life for a woman on her own.”
Cassie shaded her eyes against the sun that poured onto the porch as she looked at the two men. “As you can see, Mr. Phillips, I’m quite capable of taking care of myself and all of those in my care.”
“Some might think it’s too big of a burden for such narrow shoulders.” Ward’s tone teased.
“Those who think so can keep their opinions to themselves.” She might be tiny but there was no fear in her. She reminded Jake of a honey badger he’d seen in a traveling zoo. The critter came all the way from India and was as feisty as they came. He’d felt sorry for the creature when he saw it, at the way its keeper kept poking into its cage with a stick. But it never gave up; in spite of all the odds being against it, it kept on fighting. Still, Cassie Parker needed to know what she was up against if she was determined to stay.
“That’s because no one realizes you’ve got these sheep up here,” Jake said.
“Why, Mr. Reece, if I didn’t know any better I’d think that was a threat.”
Yup, she was definitely a honey badger. “Confound it,” Jake sputtered, “you’ve really got no idea what kind of trouble will be coming your way once everyone finds out there are sheep up here.”
She turned to face him. “As the sheriff said, what I do on my property is my business.”
“You see that stream?” Jake pointed. “It comes down from those mountains. Before it gets here it runs underground and then out again, right before it hits your boundary. The water in it is as pure and sweet as water can be. It goes clear across your property, and then it crosses the road, running onto a property owned by a man named Raymond Watkins. And I know for certain that Raymond Watkins will have something to say about your sheep fouling up his water.”
It took Jake a moment to realize that he was practically shouting at her. There was something about Cassie Parker that agitated him to no end. Especially when she stood before him, no bigger than a minute, with her arms crossed as if she were daring him to cross some invisible line. It also didn’t escape his attention that Ward and Cade were both sitting on their horses watching the two of them as if they were putting on a show. He felt like the keeper in the zoo, poking the stick at the honey badger. Poke. Poke. Poke.
If she was aware of the two men watching them, she didn’t show it; instead, she drew herself up as if she could sprout a couple of inches and came right back at him. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Cassie said. “Are you telling me that there is no other water on Watkins’s property? There’s water all over the place here. That’s one of the reasons we came here, plenty of water, plenty of land and plenty of room for everyone and everything.”
“Oh he’s got water, and plenty of it,” Jake came right back at her. “He’s also got the most land and the most hands and the most cattle and the most money, which means if he don’t like something he’s got the power to make sure it’s gone, and I guaran-damn-tee you that he’s not going to be happy about your sheep.”
“Language, Mr. Reece,” she said in a voice that was suddenly silky smooth. “You seem like an educated man. Can’t you come up with a better way to express what you’re feeling?”
Jake opened his mouth and shut it again. She had to be the most frustrating woman ever put on this earth. Why was she here of all places?
“I don’t know, I thought that was pretty creative.” Ward grinned. “How about you, Sheriff?”
“Definitely creative,” Cade agreed. “But after my brief time as a minister, I also have to agree with Miss Parker. Cursing is just a lazy way of saying what you’re thinking.”
Jake had to resist the urge to shoot both of them on the spot. “Neither one of you is helping,” he said.
“And you consider this to be constructive?” Ward asked. “It’s like watching the rams butt heads up in the high country.”
Ward was right. There was no talking to th
is woman. There’d been no talking to her the night he met her on the trail and there was no talking to her now. She’d figure it out soon enough and with luck she’d pack up her sheep and her people and hightail it back to wherever it was she came from. Maybe he’d even offer to buy her out, to make it easier on her. Why would I even care?
Jake took a deep breath, took off his hat and ran his gloved fingers through his hair. In a much softer and polite tone he offered, “If you can spare the time right now, I’ll show you where your grandfather is buried.”
He caught her off guard. Cassie blinked and nodded. There it was. The unguarded look that showed there was another side to her. “I would greatly appreciate it,” she said in a tone that matched his.
“You can go now,” Jake said to Ward and the sheriff. “I’m not likely to kill her today.”
“Make sure that you don’t,” Cade said, and the two men rode off, Ward wearing a big grin. Jake was certain he’d be the subject of much conversation, but it wasn’t the first time Ward had a good laugh at his expense, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
They stood on the porch for a moment with an uncomfortable silence growing between them until finally Cassie spoke. “Just give me a moment to check on my mother.”
“No problem,” Jake said while she slipped through the door as if she were afraid he’d follow her. “Well don’t that beat all,” he mumbled to himself when the door shut firmly behind her. Jake walked to the end of the porch that offered the view of the mountains.
Cassie and the sheriff were right. It shouldn’t be anyone’s business what she did on her own property. He knew good and well that he’d resent it if someone tried to tell him what he could and couldn’t do, but still . . . sheep . . . it was like she was asking for trouble, yet it was also like she was hiding. Was she so skittish because of the sheep? Or was there more to it? Dang it all, he was the one who was going to have to deal with all of the backlash since he was the head of the Cattlemen’s Association. Jake huffed out a breath of air.
Manuel and the dog arrived at the house. The Mexican seemed as cautious and standoffish as his employer. “Hello,” Jake said as the man stepped onto the porch. “I’m your neighbor, Jake Reece.” He crouched down and motioned for the dog. The dog looked at its master for a moment. Manuel made a slight motion with his hand and the dog went to Jake slowly and cautiously. Jake removed his gloves and let the dog sniff his hand. The dog’s tail wagged a few times as the animal allowed Jake to pet him. “I love a good dog,” he said. “And you are a fine one indeed.” He looked up at Manuel. “What’s his name?”
“Max,” Manuel responded. He lifted a finger and Max returned to his side.
“Well trained too,” Jake said. If he could get Manuel to talk, maybe he’d reveal some things about Cassie. Obviously it wasn’t going to be easy. “I just got a pup a few weeks ago. Right now she’s more interested in eating my house than learning anything.”
That got a smile from the man. “Like everything else, it takes time.” He spoke English well, in a soft-spoken way, with just a slight accent. The man was educated. So what was he doing so far away from home with a herd, no, dang it, flock of sheep?
“Something to remember with animals and people,” Manuel added. Jake nodded in agreement, wondering if the older man was offering advice about Cassie.
The door opened and Cassie came out and Manuel and the dog went in. The revolver was no longer in her coat pocket and she left her rifle on the porch as they silently stepped off the porch and walked around the house.
“Looks like you’ve got some varmints sharing your quarters,” Jake said as he saw a bushy tail disappear between the stones that served as the foundation of the house.
“Yes, it’s a family of coons,” she said. “We left them there to scare off the snakes.”
“Practical,” Jake said. “They probably moved in when the house sat empty for so long. You’re lucky you didn’t find them inside, although I locked it up real well, or so I thought.” A sudden realization came to him. “Just exactly how did you get in? I still have the key at my place.”
“I broke out a window. It was easy to repair, as there was some glass in the shed.”
“Why didn’t you just come get the key? I’m pretty sure I mentioned in the letter that I would hold it.” He wished he could see her eyes, but as they were walking side by side and she was so much shorter, he couldn’t. “Was it because you didn’t want anyone to know you were here?”
She stumbled over a rock and Jake quickly grabbed her arm to keep her upright. It took Cassie a moment to regain her balance and when she had, she shook off Jake’s hand like he was a leper and kept on walking.
“Does that mean I was right about you not wanting anyone to know you were here?” Dang it, he should have ignored it but there was something about her that made him want to pick and prod like he was poking at a hornets’ nest with a stick. Poke. Poke.
He knew he’d probably get stung, or thrown on his back in the snow, but still he did it.
“What difference does it make?” she snapped.
“It doesn’t, if you’ve got nothing to hide. But it seems to me like you knew people would be unhappy about the sheep so you were trying to keep them secret for as long as possible.”
“It’s not news to me that people would be unhappy about the sheep. It’s one of the reasons why we came here in the first place.”
“Because the people in—where is it you came from?— were unhappy about the sheep?”
“Texas. We came from Texas.” Talk about a vague answer. Jake shook his head.
“Texas is a big place. You want to narrow it down some?”
“West Texas.”
“That narrows it down some.” Jake couldn’t help but laugh. Getting answers out of Cassie Parker was next to impossible.
“What difference does it make?” she asked again. “We’re here now. Where were you before you came to Colorado?”
“Many different places,” Jake admitted. “But originally Boston.”
“Boston?” She almost stumbled again and she turned to look at him when she’d regained her footing. “Really?”
“I have nothing to hide,” Jake said. There he went again. Poke. Poke. “Why not Boston?” They’d come to the row of pines that sat along the back of the house. Snow still lay beneath them, as the ground beneath was sheltered from the sun. Jake walked to one that had lost its lowest branches. The bark was scraped from elk and deer rubbing their horns against it, and the ground beneath littered with pinecones and sticks. There was a rock beneath the snow that marked the head of the grave.
“It just doesn’t seem to suit you,” she admitted.
“As West Texas doesn’t seem to suit you,” Jake replied. He nudged a pile of snow beneath the tree with his boot. “This is the place.”
“Oh,” she said. Cassie stared at the ground as if she could see what lay beneath it, and then she knelt in the cold snow. She picked off the leaves and pinecones, and with her bare hand smoothed over some rabbit tracks that crossed over it.
She looked vulnerable kneeling there, with the pale skin of her neck exposed as she bent her head and said a silent prayer. She sighed as if she held the weight of the world on her narrow shoulders. Maybe she did. Jake didn’t know enough about her to know what burdens she bore, but it seemed like a lot.
A lot of things that she hid from the world.
“Tell me about it,” she said. “Tell me how he died.”
Jake closed his eyes against the gruesome scene that he’d found. There was no need for her to know her grandfather had sat there for a few days. “Near as I can tell, his heart just gave out. He just sat down in his rocking chair, closed his eyes and died. It seemed like it was peaceful.”
“The chair by the fireplace?”
“Yes.” Jake toed a pinecon
e off to the side. “It was springtime and the ground was soft so I brought him out here.”
“You buried him?” She turned and looked up at him. Her eyes seemed bluer in the dim light beneath the trees. “By yourself?”
“I did.” He dragged his boot around the snow, curving it as if to make the edge of the grave. “I didn’t see any need to get anyone else.”
“Did you know him well?”
Jake shrugged. “As well as anyone around here I guess. He wasn’t . . .” Jake scratched his chin as he searched for the right words. He didn’t want to say anything bad about Sam Parker. The man had been in this valley before he arrived and as far as Jake knew he always kept to himself. “He didn’t seem to want to get close to anyone.”
Cassie nodded her head in agreement. “It makes sense. My mother said it was like the light went out in him when my father was killed and then my grandmother died soon after. It couldn’t have been easy for him. He seemed to shut out the world after that.”
“Were you close before?” he asked.
Cassie looked off into the distance, out of her valley and past the mountains, to the east, as if she could see all the way to Illinois. “We were,” she said. “Before the war came.”
“Illinois seems a bit far from the battlefields. What made your father go?”
“He was a doctor. He had friends he went to school with who enlisted. He felt like that was where he was most needed.”
“Your grandfather kept a letter he wrote in his Bible. That’s how I knew where to send it.”
“Bible? There’s no Bible in the house.”
“It’s at my house. I didn’t want to leave it. I wanted to make sure it was safe in case someone showed up. I didn’t even think about it until now.”
Cassie turned her pale blue eyes upon him. “It’s a good thing you did,” she said. “Keeping the money for me and writing the letter. Most people wouldn’t have bothered.”
Jake was surprised to feel a blush creep up his cheeks. “You must have run across some bad people,” he said. “I find most are honest, or at least I like to think so.” Jake always wanted to see the best in people. He needed to see the best in people, but he knew better than to expect them to behave that way. There were plenty of selfish ones, and more than a fair share of bad ones out there. “In my experience what goes around comes around so I like to keep the odds in my favor by trying to do the right thing.”