Place to Belong, a Page 3

  After checking to make sure nothing was rubbing or loose, Ransom climbed up onto the wagon seat, gathered the long lines, and flicked his wrists to send the go message to his team. They trotted smartly out of the yard and through the gate to the long pasture. He’d have several more gates to open and close before reaching the hunters. If they had come down a different way, Lucas would let him know. A quick bark behind him and he stopped the team to let Benny ride up on top with him. It was a shame he didn’t let Arnett come along; company was always nice. And he knew the old man liked to be useful.

  “Sorry, I just didn’t think. So used to doing it all myself.”

  The dog whined beside him and wriggled all over when Ransom thumped him on the ribs and rubbed his ears.

  Instead of two elk, they had an elk and a deer.

  “Micah’s first deer,” Lucas bragged. “Those shooting lessons are paying off, for sure.”

  Ransom nodded. “Looks good and heavy. How’d you see those little prongs in the dim light?”

  “Lucas said shoot when it breaks through the brush, and I did.”

  “Right through heart,” Chief added. “Like he’s been shooting for years. He run the rabbit snares now too.”

  “Thanks to all of you, I have good teachers,” Micah said.

  Ransom stopped his eyebrows from rising in surprise. Micah didn’t usually say a whole lot. In fact, Micah had been talking more lately, up at the sawmill, asking questions. This was a good thing. He was certainly one fine worker. You only had to show him something once. Just the other day Micah offered a suggestion that was a better way to do something. He might have been just an animal handler at that Wild West Show, but there was far more to be discovered in that young man.

  Arnett had commented on Micah too. Maybe between the three of them, they could get a lot more done on the ranch this winter and into the spring than Ransom had ever dreamed. And with Arnett’s experience and machinery, maybe they’d even bring in some cash money.

  After hanging and gutting the two carcasses, Ransom invited them all to eat at the house, but Micah and Chief said Runs Like a Deer would be expecting them. They took the heart, liver, and tongue from the deer and rode up the hill.

  “I was thinking you’d not found any, late as it was,” Ransom told his brother as Lucas pulled the tall doors together and dropped the hasp in the lock.

  “Micah got his deer way up on the hill at the aspen grove, and I thought sure the rifle shot would spook the elk herd, but they must have been way up back. We slung that buck up across behind Micah and headed on down. We settled in under the trees, and they finally made their way down. Good thing we had a bit of moon so I could see enough to shoot. Almost shot a cow and then this young buck stepped in front of her. That was close.” One did not shoot the cows if they wanted the herd to continue. “You’d think by now they’d not come down that same trail all the time.”

  They scraped their boots and, once in the kitchen, set the bucket with the innards up on the counter. They hung their coats on the tree. A kerosene lamp on the table spread enough light to welcome them, so Lucas paused to turn it up.

  “Your plates are in the warming oven,” Mavis called from the big room. “Let me finish this and I’ll be right there.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Cassie said over her shoulder as she wandered into the kitchen. “How’d it go?”

  “Micah shot his first deer.” Lucas turned from washing his hands at the sink.

  “Good, then maybe I won’t have to go hunting anymore.” She opened the flue, then set the stove lids back to the side and added a couple of chunks to the coals already flaring from the draft. “Coffee will be hot in a jiffy.” Fetching the loaf of bread from the bread box, she sliced off several thick hunks and set those on a plate on the table. Mor and Cassie had left the hunters’ place settings on the table after they ate and cleaned up, so all was ready for the men. As soon as they sat down, she set their plates in front of them. “Would you like beet pickles?”

  “Always,” Lucas replied with that special smile he reserved for her.

  Ransom kept an eye on his brother without seeming to make the effort. Perhaps what he’d thought was infatuation really wasn’t. Had he misjudged his brother’s feelings for Cassie? Based on Lucas’s quick declarations of undying love in the past which, unsurprisingly, died after all, this was something new. As Ransom thought about it, the only woman Lucas had ever continued a relationship with was Betsy Hudson. What to do about that mess plagued them all. So when Lucas arrived back at the ranch a couple of months ago and said he’d found the woman of his dreams but he’d not met her yet, what was a brother supposed to think? Common sense had never been one of Lucas’s strong suits.

  When he’d learned that the woman of my dreams was a trick rider and shooter in Wild West shows and held a paper that said she owned half of their ranch, well, Ransom had never claimed to be anything but a common ordinary rancher—with a slow-fused temper.

  Snatches of the conversation between the two tickled his consciousness, but he had learned he was better off if he tuned them out. He could go easier on the judgmental side that way. No need for him and Lucas to get into another so-called discussion, which was really a polite name for brotherly fighting.

  Ransom finished his meal, cut himself a large slab of the leftover gingerbread, buried it in applesauce, and with a refill on the coffee, took cup and plate to his desk in a corner of the big room. He settled into his cushioned chair with a sigh. Of all his many favorite places on the ranch, this was tops. Unless he included being stretched out on the leather-cushioned couch a few steps away. His father sure did know how to make comfortable and substantial furniture.

  Ransom pulled out the drawings he’d made of a possible furniture line, based on some of the things his father had made and others he’d thought of himself. He studied the schematics. He planned on using the lumber long dried out in the barn for a couple of end tables, incorporating cottonwood branches for the legs, like his father had. That was a distinctive touch. All the pieces proclaimed western ranch design. Where would they find a market?

  Mavis stopped beside his desk. “Dreaming?”

  “I am. Think I’ll start with these.” He pointed at the pair of tables. “I can work on them here in the evenings.”

  “True, once you get all the pieces cut.” She glanced around the room with a smile. “Ah, the stories these walls could tell.”

  “What are you working on?”

  “I’ll never tell. Christmas is coming, and you know better than to ask questions.”

  He made a face. “Right, sorry.” Christmas and, as always, there was no money to buy gifts and he’d not started making anything. At the moment, he didn’t even have any ideas of what to make. He needed some time with his mother without all the others around. Lucas and Cassie laughed their way into the room, and Lucas settled into working on the buttons he made from antlers and bones to send to his buyer in Chicago. Cassie picked up the knitting needles Mavis had given her, along with the yarn, and resumed her painful progress. She seemed to be ripping out more stitches than she was putting in.

  Good thing she was a better shooter than a knitter. The thought made him smile. One had to give her credit for sheer determination and stick-to-itiveness.

  After chores the next morning, they gathered on the front porch as Lucas brought up the wagon. Usually by now they’d changed out the wheels for the sledge runners, but no snow, so no runners. Ransom helped the women into the back of the wagon, along with Dan Arnett up on the seat with him, and got everyone bundled warm with elk robes and quilts.

  “Why don’t you join us?” he asked Lucas, who was mounting his saddle horse.

  “I have some errands to run after church, so I’ll ride.”

  “As you wish.” What kind of errands could he be referring to? But Ransom put a guard on his tongue. After all, Christmas was coming and no questions allowed. If only his curiosity could be stilled as easily.

  “I nee
d to talk with Reverend Brandenburg after church, if that is all right,” Cassie said as Ransom helped her to the ground in the churchyard. “I need to see if he can come out to the ranch to marry Micah and Runs Like a Deer.”

  “We’re not in any rush.”

  “Thank you.”

  Gretchen met them inside the church, and thanks to some unseen machinations, Lucas ended up on the end of the pew, obviously not next to Cassie, where he wanted to be. He glared at Ransom, but Ransom made a slight motion to the Hudson family four pews behind theirs. Betsy had returned from her trip, and the family could see no sense in throwing fuel on the fire. Mavis sat on one side of Cassie and Gretchen on the other. Ransom made sure the grin of pride he was feeling did not show on his face. What a family he had.

  But then, the Hudsons had just as interesting a family. For years, Lucas had considered Betsy his girl, and everyone assumed that one day, when he was financially stable, he’d propose. Now here he was courting Miss Lockwood. Betsy had disappeared suddenly, mysteriously, and now she had reappeared. Where had she gone? What did she do while she was away? Ransom really ought to ask, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. Frankly, he didn’t care enough to ask. That was Lucas’s job. He’s the one who had courted her, sort of.

  The glow lasted through the service as he and Gretchen shared a hymnal and Mavis looked out for Cassie. Arnett sat next to Mavis, leaving Lucas on the wall side. Afterwards, Mavis made a point to greet the Hudson family as if no hard feelings had ever transpired. Ransom admired that in her, especially because he knew that her openness was no act.

  Betsy’s little sister, Sarah, scowled smoldering coals at Lucas, but Mrs. Hudson took her cue from Mavis and returned a cheerful greeting.

  “Have you heard anything more on the rustlers?” Ransom asked Mr. Hudson.

  The rancher shook his head. “Strangest thing, no one has. Like they fell off the face of the earth. Took two head from us. Two from Jay Slatfield, and Arnett said he wasn’t sure but maybe several. He don’t run his herd as carefully as he used to, you know.”

  “Not surprising, I doubt he can see far enough to count heads. He does all right reading, however, so don’t count him out yet.”

  “Oh no, I’m not, just trying to figure out what is happening.”

  “Nothing. Looks like the sheriff got the right men in jail after all.”

  “Well, if that don’t beat all. From what I heard, that was some fracas at your place.”

  “That would surely be one way to describe it.” Ransom glanced over and realized Cassie was back beside the wagon with his mother and Gretchen, so he excused himself and stopped at the tailgate to help them into the wagon. Lucas was nowhere to be seen and his horse was gone, so he must have left immediately after church. Perhaps he’d told their mother where he was going.

  “Lucas said he’d meet you all at the ranch,” Arnett informed him when he picked up the lines.

  “Did he say where he was going?”

  “Nope. And I didn’t ask. Sure was good to be back in church like that. Thanks to you, Mavis. You folks are real friends.” His voice cracked on the last word.

  Ransom backed the team and swung the wagon around to head for home. “Thanks, Arnett. We’ve been neighbors for a long time. Glad we can help each other out. Kinda fits in with his sermon today, didn’t it?”

  “Ya ever get the feeling like Reverend Brandenburg’s been listening over your shoulder at times, or can see into your mind? I mean, it’s uncanny.”

  “Mor would say that is the Holy Ghost at work.”

  “She sure would” came from the wagon bed.

  Ransom and Arnett swapped a glance. Maybe taking this time to be with his family was more important than setting posts and supports in the collapsed part of the mine after all. Somehow it would all get done. At least he sure hoped so.

  4

  Mavis listened with one ear to Gretchen and Cassie and with the other to the conversation between the two men. While Ransom was usually the silent one, he was obviously making an effort to talk with Dan Arnett. And Dan, who once had thrived on conversation, was just as obviously realizing he’d missed too much and wanted to get back into living again. He’d always been a storyteller, but she wondered at times if he remembered the early days of ranching in the Black Hills area, since he didn’t bring that up much. He and his wife had come to their ranch maybe three or four years after she and Ivar moved into the cabin.

  That cabin. Who would have guessed that that “temporary” structure would still be finding good use? The first year Ivar and Adam Lockwood had lived in it. And then after Adam left for the Wild West show circuit, taking John Birdwing with him, Ivar lived there alone until they were married. Then it was home to the newlyweds until Ivar could complete the main ranch house. And now, Cassie’s dear friends lived there, and it was still in good shape. Who would live there next?

  As did all the ranchers in this area, Arnett and Ivar had traded off work. House raisings and barn raisings, fencing and haying. I’ll help you and you help me. As more cattle arrived, there were roundups and brandings and a great deal of sorting during those years when the range was open and livestock roamed, before barbed-wire fences started crisscrossing the valleys. When Arnett bought the sawmill, life became easier for all of them.

  Maybe this afternoon they could get the old man telling stories in front of the fireplace. She’d suggest it to Ransom. The two of them got along real well. Arnett did not need to spend the afternoon alone in the bunkhouse, though he kept saying he didn’t want to impose on their hospitality. Mavis didn’t mention to him that this was far easier than one of them going to his ranch every day to check on him. When they moved the dog and chickens over, Arnett came to live in their bunkhouse—for the rest of his life, as far as she was concerned, if he’d only listen to her.

  Ransom drew the team to a halt beside the house. Their off gelding shook his head impatiently. He knew where his feed was, and it wasn’t here. Ransom stayed in the box. “How about taking charge of keeping that front fireplace going today, Arnett? Most likely that’ll be where we all end up.”

  “If’n you want, a’course I will. Besides, I got something I want to talk over with all of you. Any idea when Lucas will be home?”

  Mavis smiled. “He said in time for dinner, and you know Lucas, he doesn’t like to miss out on apple pie.”

  Arnett cackled as he stepped to the ground and came around the wagon to help the womenfolk out.

  “I don’t suppose you’d like to give me a hint?” Mavis shuffled her skirts back into order as she waited for Cassie and Gretchen. She loved to hear the old man laugh; one could never stay too somber with Dan Arnett around. That was one of the things she’d missed after his wife died, because she used to egg him on until they were all panting from laughter.

  “You did remember to tell Micah and the others that we expect them to join us for dinner?” she asked Ransom when he came into the kitchen from unhitching the team.

  “I did. They said they’d watch for the wagon to come back.” He hung his long jacket on the coat-tree by the back door. He automatically checked the woodbox to see if it needed filling.

  “Lucas took care of that this morning.”

  Ransom nodded.

  Mavis loved seeing all the faces around her table as they bowed their heads for Ransom to ask the blessing. This room, this whole house, was designed for lots of people to share meals and the work of ranch living. She paused long enough in the serving to catch a comment from Micah. A grin split her face. He’d actually said something funny and set Arnett into a laughing spell. Even Runs Like a Deer smiled and nodded. Cassie and Mavis exchanged a look of pure delight. From the looks and sounds of it, they were all starting to become a family. Lucas tossed his coat aside and slid into his chair just as the meat platter got to him.

  While Mavis kept all her thanking and praising inside, she felt like her feet didn’t touch the floor and she might burst into song at any moment. Now, that woul
d be a shocker.

  “Hey, Chief, you remember the time that bear chased us all up on top of the cabin?” Arnett slapped his thigh. “Never laughed so hard in my life, seeing that old sow start up the ladder. She was one determined mama.”

  Chief nodded. “You could laugh—you were already on the roof.”

  “What happened?” Cassie’s eyes were as big as the rim of the cup in front of her.

  “We was roofing that cabin. Ivar and Chief was splittin’ shakes, and Adam came running out of the woods like a bear was on his tail.”

  “Only because one was.” Mavis tried to keep a straight face and let Arnett get them all laughing.

  “Mor?”

  “He’s telling the truth, Lucas. I wasn’t there, thank the good Lord. I might have keeled right over.”

  Arnett continued, “Well, Adam was a-hollerin’ to get on the roof. Doors wasn’t in place yet. And we scampered up that ladder without touchin’ a rung.”

  Ransom chuckled. Micah chuckled and then snorted. That made Cassie laugh outright. Runs Like a Deer near to choked. Lucas belly-laughed and Arnett could hardly continue. He shook his head and wheezed. “Adam hit the roof and that mad mama started up the ladder. She was a-huffin’ and a-gruntin’. I thought sure we was done for.”

  “Was the tree there to climb?”

  “Not near as big as now. But Ivar and Chief, there, grabbed that ladder and gave it a mighty heave out and away. That old bear went down with the ladder, head over teakettle. She done quit rollin’ and shook her head like she had a mighty goose egg on it. She staggered around some and then headed back up to the woods. Adam said he’d made a big mistake and got between her and her cubs.”