Savage Land

by Janet Dailey

  'I'm certainly glad I did,’ she replied, slightly angered by his laughter as well as confused. ‘Oh, Uncle Ben, how could you have dangled the ranch as a present to Jase for marrying me? Didn't you think I have any pride?'

  He tried desperately to keep the smile from his face with only slight success. ‘I would say you have as much pride as any Savage on this ranch. As for dangling you as bait for Jase, I guess that was my final test of him.’ His expression was sombre as he gazed abstractedly out the window before turning back to her. ‘You should have stayed for the entire conversation. Then you would have heard him refuse the ranch under that condition, just as I would have done had it been me in his place. No, Coley, I signed the ranch over to him with no strings attached.' The last words were spoken clearly and concisely so that there was no misinterpretation.

  She stood in horrified silence as the full meaning of the words sank in, before she collapsed into an arm chair.

  'What have I done?’ Her eyes filled with tears as she turned to Ben. ‘The horrible things I said to him last night! Oh, Uncle Ben, what am I going to do? I love him so much!'

  'The same thing I did yesterday, Coley’ he replied with a tender smile. ‘Apologize and tell him what an old fool you've been. Except in your case, when you've been a young fool.'

  A glimmer of hope rose in her as she remembered Jason's words the night before that she would be looking for him to apologize. ‘Where is he?’ she demanded hoarsely, swallowing the pride that had announced last night that she would never beg his forgiveness.

  The old man blinked quickly at the tears in his own eyes and glanced out the window.

  'Knowing Jase, in this kind of rain, I'd be out checking the washes for stray cattle in case of a flash flood.'

  Coley leaped from her chair, her cheeks wet with tears, but her face glowing from an inner sunshine. As she dashed from the room, Ben wheeled as rapidly as he could after her shouting instructions.

  'He'll probably be over in the eastern section near Blue Rock Mountain. Cut across the lower pasture,’ he called as the screen door slammed behind the running girl. ‘You should be wearing a raincoat!'

  As he came to a stop in front of the screen, he chuckled to himself. She was in love. She wouldn't even notice it was raining. He pushed the door open and wheeled on to the porch. A few minutes later she came scurrying out of the barn leading a reluctant roan. Mounting quickly, she waved a hasty hand in Ben's direction before galloping off into the rain.

  She raced across the flat pasture land, the tall grass giving her horse footing despite the torrential rain. The wind whipped her face, the raindrops stung her cheeks, but still she didn't check her pace. Then the land began to rise and dip as she reached the undulating foothills. Coley slowed Misty down, not wanting to risk laming her favourite mount as they began to climb the hills. Little rivulets of water were racing down and the sparse growth could not hold them back. In places, the ground was a sea of slippery, oozing mud just as it had been that first night she had met Jase.

  She pulled Misty to a stop on the top of a ridge and searched the surrounding slopes and bottom land for a sign of him. A jagged bolt of lightning flashed brilliantly in front of them as Misty tossed her head and neighed her misgivings while the earth trembled beneath them from the accompanying roll of thunder. Coley patted the roan's neck reassuringly. She shivered slightly, her clothes soaked to her skin. For a minute she wondered how she would find him, then her eyes lit up with an idea. The lineshack! It was somewhere near here. Jase would stop there sometime during the day. He was bound to.

  She touched the roan's side with her heel urging the horse down the sloping ridge. The dry washes at the bottom of the slopes were filling with the run-off water. Even now Coley could visualize the water rising at the highway crossings. Farther and farther she and her mount rode, crossing hills, riding down canyons, until the highway loomed its shiny grey ribbon in front of them. She cantered Misty along the flatland until she reached the plateau that she had climbed on foot so long ago. Giving the horse free rein, she clutched the saddle born tightly while the roan bounded up the steep slope, muscles straining with each slippery step, until they reached the top. Minutes later the lineshack loomed darkly against the morning's rolling thunder clouds. A thread of grey smoke mingled with the clouds and rain. With a shout of joy, Coley slapped her horse on the flank with her reins.

  Huddled against the building under the overhanging roof stood the big red horse that Jase always rode. Coley dismounted quickly as she and Misty reached the building. Impatiently she tugged her horse under the roof with Jase's. Then she was off, racing around the building to the door, bursting inside with a shower of raindrops. Inside she stopped short, her happy eyes taking in the still form of Jase in the act of pouring himself a cup of coffee. Suddenly she was shy, frightened. What was she going to say? Where did she begin?

  'What are you doing here?’ Jase finally spoke, sitting the pot down and walking around the table towards her.

  'I'm sorry. I was wrong. I was a fool.’ Her words were rushing out of her mouth like an unloosed torrent of water. ‘You've got to forgive me. I didn't mean all those horrible things I said. Forgive me, please forgive me.'

  'You rode all the way up here to tell me that ... in this weather?’ He gazed at her through half-closed eyes, his tone mocking.

  'Of course! Don't you understand, Jase? Uncle Ben explained everything to me. You see, I only heard part of your conversation with him. I thought you'd made a bargain with him to marry me.’ She struggled for the words that would make him understand. Her happiness evaporated with each passing second that he stood there so indifferently.

  'And now that you know differently,’ he said blandly, ‘what am I supposed to do? Forgive you?'

  'Yes,’ Coley answered breathlessly. Her eyes looked beseechingly into his. ‘I thought you wanted to marry me just to get the ranch, not because you cared for me.'

  'You don't think that's the reason now?'

  'No, I mean ... I don't know.’ She felt so awkward as she blinked at the tears that were forming in her eyes.

  'I don't even remember proposing last night.'

  'Well, I'm not asking you to now.’ Her pride reasserted itself as the tears threatened to fan. ‘I just wanted you to know I was sorry, that's all. You can go back to your Tanya.’ She turned and fumbled with the door latch, the hurt, anger and humiliation frustrating her attempt to open it.

  'Coley, I don't want Tanya.’ Jase laughed, grabbing her arm and twisting her around to him.

  'Let me go!’ she shouted, twisting and turning as he took her in his arms.

  Finally she was pinned against his chest with no more strength to resist. He determinedly lifted her chin with his hand until she was gazing sullenly into his face.

  'Don't you see, Coley,’ he said with a tender smile, ‘you were unbearably cruel last night and stubborn, too. You never even gave me a chance to explain. But, darling, I love you so much I'd forgive you anything. I've never wanted Tanya, only you.'

  Then he was bending his head, his lips touching hers gently, almost reverently, until Coley threw her arms around his neck to give his kiss back to him.

  'Oh, Jase,’ she sighed, minutes later as she pressed her head against his chest, ‘tell me again that you love me.'

  'I love you. That first night I had a feeling that you were going to change my life. I tried to stay away from you, to keep you from finding out how I felt, but you wouldn't let me,’ he answered, pushing the wet curls away from her face with a trembling hand.

  'I hated Uncle Ben so much when he offered you the ranch if you married me. I knew how much you wanted this land. I didn't see how you could resist such a temptation.’ Her face raised in glowing wonderment to his.

  He touched her lips lightly before replying, ‘I realized I loved you more. I loved you so much more that accepting his offer meant putting a price on that love, which would have only cheapened it.'

  'Oh, Jase, what have I ever done
to deserve you? I can't cook, I can't sew, I can't grow roses. I'm not even pretty.'

  'Coley, you've brightened the days of an old man and filled a childless woman's heart with love. You give yourself, and I'll cherish you all the rest of my life.’ The warmest light was shining out of Jason's eyes that Coley had ever seen.

  'I hope all our children have blue eyes like yours,’ she said before he covered her lips with a short but burning kiss. He hugged her closer to him as if afraid she would run away. ‘Why did Uncle Ben change his mind?’ she asked suddenly, pushing away from him to raise questioning eyes to his face.

  'Because of you and that argument you had with him. You must have said something to him that made him think. At least, between that and a private conversation with Tony,’ he answered, locking his hands behind her back to gaze down lovingly at her.

  'I saw him packing this morning,’ Coley remarked. ‘But what has he got to do with it?'

  'I didn't probe too deeply into the reasons, but I got the feeling that Ben has decided that Tony was there the night Rick died. The only thing that Ben would say was that he had judged too harshly and too suddenly once before and he wasn't going to do it again.'

  'Do you mean that Tony was...’ Coley began, only to be silenced by a hand covering her mouth. With surprising clarity, Tony's exclamation that day in the canyon came rushing back to her with new meaning. ‘I was afraid something would happen to you, too.'

  'Hush. Too many ill feelings have been nurtured by the past. I agree with Ben, there'll be no judging,’ Jase said sternly. Then he smiled. ‘Do you know you're drenched? And I am, too, now.’ Coley shivered in affirmation of his statement. ‘You'd better come over here and get some hot coffee in you. I'll get a blanket to put around you.'

  Coley followed him to the table and accepted a cup from him, before succumbing to a giggle.

  'What's so funny?’ he asked, walking over to remove the blanket from the cot and put it around her shoulders.

  She hugged it around her for a second before glancing up at him mischievously.

  'I really don't know what good this blanket is going to do with all of these wet clothes on underneath,’ she said innocently. ‘The last time I was caught in the rain, there was a stranger who ordered me to take off all of my clothes.'

  'Not this time, Coley,’ Jase said, sweeping her, blanket and all, into his arms. His arms trembled about her as he gazed ardently down into her love-starred eyes. ‘That would be demanding too much control even from a Savage.'

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 1974 by Janet Dailey

  Cover design by Open Road Integrated Media

  ISBN 978-1-4976-1555-7

  This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

  345 Hudson Street

  New York, NY 10014

  www.openroadmedia.com

  Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.

  Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases

  Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.

  Sign up now at

  www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters

  FIND OUT MORE AT

  WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM

  FOLLOW US:

  @openroadmedia and

  Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia