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As the horses climbed, the ground grew rougher. Several times her mare slipped, but managed to gather herself before she went to her knees. Thankfully Maggie was an experienced rider. Otherwise she might have fallen into the gorge far below to their left.
“The timberline is just ahead.” Daniel tossed the announcement over his shoulder. “We’ll stop there and let the horses blow. Once we get in the open, we might be able to catch a glimpse of Aaron or, at least, his horse.”
Nodding, she followed Daniel to a spot on the mountain where the fir trees ended and huge, magnificent boulders protruded from the bald, grassy slopes.
Pulling the mare to a stop next to Daniel’s mount, Maggie scoured the mountainside for any sign of her son. “I don’t see anything. Not even any goats.”
“His horse has been here. And not long ago.”
Her heart leaping with hope, her gaze darted to Daniel’s face to see his attention was focused on horse tracks surrounding one of the nearby boulders.
“What about Aaron?” she rushed the question at him. “Do you see his tracks?”
Frowning faintly, he said, “I’m not sure. Let’s get down for a few minutes. The horses need to rest. They’ve had a hard, fast climb.”
Maggie didn’t protest. Even though she knew the waning daylight was precious, she was exhausted. Once she slid from the saddle and stood on the ground, her legs would barely hold her upright. Along with her misbehaving legs, her head was whirling at a nauseating speed.
Gripping the stirrup, she prayed for the rushing sound in her ears to stop and for the power to stand upright.
“Maggie?” Daniel asked softly. “Are you ill?”
She was drawing in slow, deep breaths in an effort to clear her head when his hand came against her back. His touch jolted her like an electrical current and the fire zapped her with a spurt of strength.
“No,” she murmured. Then glancing up at him, she added, “I…I’m just really, really tired, that’s all.”
As he studied her weary face, his dark features remained stoic. Maggie wondered if he wanted to say, I told you to stay behind. But he didn’t say anything of the sort. Instead he slid his arm around the back of her waist and clamped a steadying hand around her upper arm.
“Come over here and sit down,” he instructed.
He helped her over to one of the boulders, and after she was sitting comfortably, he went over to his horse and slipped a canteen of water from the saddle horn.
Back at her side, he took off the lid and silently handed the insulated container to her. After she’d taken several long sips, he took the canteen and poured some of the cool water onto his handkerchief.
With one hand he reached up and pushed the straw hat from her head. With the other, he used the moist handkerchief to wipe her heated face.
“You’re hot and dehydrated,” he said grimly. “Why didn’t you tell me you were feeling weak?”
His hands were big, yet extremely gentle as they touched her cheeks and chin, her neck and then her forehead. Maggie tried not to breathe in the scent of him. Tried not to think about the way his lips had felt against hers or the way he had tasted. Yet she couldn’t stop her senses from registering everything about him.
“Because I knew we couldn’t stop,” she said in a hoarse whisper. ‘We shouldn’t be stopping now.”
Her copper-colored hair was shoulder length and naturally curly. He pushed the wayward strands away from her cheeks and off her forehead as though she were his lover and the sweat on her face had come from their passion.
The notion caused her to shiver inwardly, and she closed her eyes and waited for him to pull back and put a few inches of space between them.
“Do you want Aaron to be raised an orphan?” he asked crossly.
Her eyes drifted open to see he’d taken a seat next to her and, though he was close, his gaze was not on her. His squinted eyes were scanning the bald, jagged crags of the mountain peaks.
“I’m not that weak,” she protested.
Turning his gaze back to her, he silently studied her face until she felt the urge to squirm.
“What? What are you thinking?” she dared to ask him.
The corners of his mouth tilted up ever so slightly, and Maggie realized it was the first time he’d shown any sort of humor in her presence.
“That you are not exactly the woman I thought you were.”
Maggie wasn’t sure she should ask, but she did anyway. “What does that mean?”
One of his shoulders moved with a faint shrug. “The Ketchums are a tough crew. But you’re not a Ketchum by blood.”
She stared at him for a moment as she digested his words. “Oh. You thought—you think I’m just a rich, pampered woman.”
“Not exactly pampered. But maybe a little soft.”
His admission disappointed her, and that was frightening. Not since Hugh had Maggie cared whether a man regarded her highly. And it shouldn’t matter how Deputy Daniel Redwing viewed her, either.
She swallowed as a knot of unsettled feelings gathered in her throat. “And what are you thinking now?”
“That you have grit.”
Her eyes met his and she felt her heart thump with unexpected gladness. “Thank you, Daniel.”
“You’re welcome.”
They were still staring at each other when Aaron’s voice echoed through the mountaintops.
“Mom! Mom!”
Both Maggie and Daniel jumped to their feet and scanned the edge of the timberline where Aaron’s voice seemed to have originated.
“That was him, Daniel! That was Aaron!” she exclaimed with excited joy.
“Yes. Here he comes now,” Daniel said with a quiet smile. “To your right. See?”
A tiny whimper of relief passed her lips as she spotted her young son walking slowly out of the woods. He was leading Rusty, and from the looks of the flopping latigo he was fortunate to still have the saddle on the horse’s back.
“Oh, thank God! Thank God!” she whispered hoarsely.
She started to run in her son’s direction, but the ground was too rough and her legs too spongy to carry her safely. She stumbled several times before she finally managed to reach him, then, going down on her knees, she gathered the boy up in her arms.
For long moments she held her son in a crushing embrace as tears of relief streamed down her face. In turn, Aaron clung tightly to his mother until the excitement of being found eventually caused him to stir and talk in rapid, broken phases.
“Mom, I didn’t mean to come this far! Something happened to the girth—I fell off Rusty. And he ran away. I’ve been chasing him…for a long time. I didn’t think he’d ever stop!”
Taking him firmly by the shoulders, Maggie held her son out in front of her. He’d managed to hang on to his straw cowboy hat, but sweat and dirt streaked his freckled face and there was a long rip down the sleeve of his shirt exposing an equally long scratch on his arm.
“You weren’t supposed to be on Rusty,” she admonished. “You told me you were going down to the ranch yard to see Skinny!”
Aaron ducked his head with guilt just as Daniel walked up to mother and son.
“I know,” Aaron mumbled. “But I…I wanted to go camping. You know I did! So I filled up my saddlebags with food and tied on a bedroll. I was gonna come back tomorrow, Mom!” he reasoned, as though that made everything all right.
Maggie groaned and rolled her eyes up to Daniel who was desperately wanting to smile but was carefully hiding it in front of the boy.
“Oh, yeah,” Maggie pointed out wryly. “After the bears ate you and spit out your bones. Aaron—”
“Gosh,” the child interrupted as he suddenly noticed the man standing near his mother’s shoulder. The shiny badge pinned to Daniel’s chest and the pistol strapped to his hips were enough to make Aaron’s eyes pop wide. “Am I in trouble?”
Daniel felt inclined to answer the child’s question before Maggie had the chance. “Well, it appears as though you’re in trouble with your mother. But not with the law,” Daniel assured him.
The boy pushed the hat back off his head, then, using the back of his hand, he wiped his brow with an exaggerated gesture. “Whew!” he exclaimed with great relief. “I thought I was gonna be arrested for running off!”
Now that Maggie could see for herself that her son was well and truly safe, anger began to simmer where fear had once gripped her. “You’d better be glad your uncle Jess and Sheriff Perez are out of town,” Maggie told him. “Or you would be in big trouble. Deputy Redwing has been tracking you for hours! He has other deputies looking for you, too. You’ve caused all sorts of trouble for a lot of people.”
If possible, Aaron’s blue eyes grew even wider as his gaze traveled from his mother’s stern face up to Daniel. “Gee, I didn’t know the law would come looking for me.”
“Your mother has been very worried. Maybe you should apologize to her,” Daniel suggested.
Aaron looked guiltily back at his mother and, with his chin sinking to his chest, he mumbled, “I’m sorry, Mom.”
Releasing a heavy sigh, Maggie patted his back. Now was not the time for angry lectures. She was too relieved and overjoyed to have her son back safe and sound. Besides that, daylight was fading fast. They were going to have to hurry to make it back down the mountain before darkness settled in.
“All right, son,” she said gently. “We’ll talk about it later. But right now you should thank Deputy Redwing. If it weren’t for him, you’d still be wandering around up here. Lost. You were lost, weren’t you?”
Aaron nodded remorsefully. “Yeah. I didn’t know where the heck I was,” he admitted, then to Daniel he said, “Thank you, Deputy Redwing. I’m sorry I caused you so much trouble.”
Even though Daniel was twenty-nine years old, he hadn’t forgotten what it was like to be a little boy full of hurt and angry defiance and then later having all that pain turn into fear.
He patted the boy’s slender shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re all right, Aaron.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
Squatting, Daniel took hold of the boy’s hand. “No. But I think you need to understand that a man’s word is a very special thing. A good man doesn’t break his word. So when you tell your mother where you’re going, you need to make sure that you keep your word and do exactly what you told her. Understand?”
“Yes, sir. I will. I promise.”
“Good.” Daniel squeezed the boy’s hand, then rising back to his full height, he glanced at Maggie to see a watery sheen in her eyes. “We’d better be going,” he told her. “Dark is going to catch us.”
Nodding, she said, “I’ll go get mounted up. Can Aaron ride behind you? It looks like his cinch has just about had it.”
“I’ll be glad to have Aaron ride behind me,” Daniel said.
The ride back down the mountain wasn’t nearly as hurried as the trek upward had been. Aaron sat on the skirt of Daniel’s saddle and kept his small arms wrapped tightly around the deputy’s waist. At first the child was quiet and seemingly content just to be out of immediate trouble. But after a while the adventure of the moment caught up with him and he began to chatter with his rescuer.
Behind the two of them, Maggie carefully guided her mare down the rough trail and listened to the mostly one-sided conversation. Aaron had never been a bashful child, but she had to admit that she was surprised by her son’s openness with Daniel Redwing. As far as she knew, Aaron had only met the man those two times he’d come to the house to interview her during the probe into Noah Rider’s murder. Apparently there was something about the deputy that had gained her son’s trust. Or maybe the fact that Daniel was a deputy explained Aaron’s friendliness, she thought suddenly. Aaron was simply dazzled to be carried down the mountain by an honest-to-goodness lawman.
Just as she’d been dazzled to be kissed by one? Don’t even think about it, she quickly scolded herself. That had been just a momentary lapse of her senses because she’d been so upset over Aaron. She didn’t go around impulsively kissing men she hardly knew! Since Hugh’s death, she hadn’t kissed any man. Period. She hadn’t wanted to.
On the way down the mountain, Daniel was able to pick up one of the deputies on his walkie-talkie and inform him that Aaron had been found and to spread the word among the other deputies and the ranch hands who were out searching.
Darkness had settled in by the time the three of them rode up to the little barn. While Daniel and Maggie worked to unsaddle the horses, Aaron’s eyes darted from one long shadow to the next.
“Gosh, I guess I am glad I wasn’t up there on the mountain in the dark. I thought I wanted to camp out by myself. But there might be mountain lions up there. Do you think they’re up there, Daniel?” Aaron asked him as Daniel carried one of the three saddles into the tack room.
“Probably. I’ve heard several men talk about sighting them. And my grandfather used to hunt the big cats up in the southern mountains of Colorado. That’s not that far away from us.”
Standing close to Daniel’s hip, Aaron looked up at him with childlike fascination. “Is your grandfather an Indian, too?”
“Yes, he’s Ute. He lives on the Ute Mountain Reservation in Colorado. His name is Joe SilverBear.”
“Does he hunt with a bow and arrow like the Indians used to a long time ago?”
Daniel’s lips curved with amusement. “Sometimes. But he’s getting older now. He doesn’t hunt as much as he used to.”
Aaron turned toward his mother. “Wow! Did you hear that, Mom? Daniel says there’s big cats on the T Bar K!”
“Yes, I heard.” Maggie stepped into the tack room carrying a handful of bridles. “That’s one reason you’d better not ever try this camping thing again, young man,” she added sternly.
Daniel fastened the saddle to the swinging loop of rope, then reached for the breast collar Aaron was holding. As he hung the piece of leather and mohair roping on a nearby peg, he said, “Aaron, if you really want to go camping that badly, maybe your mother will let me take you some time. Do you like to fish?”
At first, Aaron was so surprised by the deputy’s suggestion he could only stare at him with wide, wonder-filled eyes. Then he looked at his mother and the words began to burst excitedly past his lips. “Mom! Did you hear that? Daniel said he’d take me camping! And fishing!” His eyes sparkled as he looked back at Daniel. “I love to fish and I’m good at it, too! Once I caught two trout at one time!”
Daniel actually chuckled. “Sounds like you’ve already learned how to tell fishing stories.”
“That’s not a story! That’s the truth,” Aaron insisted, then turned pleading eyes on his mother. “Mom, can I go? Can I?”
Maggie thoughtfully began to hang the bridles in their usual places along the wall. She didn’t know what to make of this new development. A few minutes ago she’d been feeling a little guilty because she’d refused to allow Aaron to go on the camping trip with the boys’ club in town. She hadn’t realized just how upset she’d made him. But that didn’t mean she wanted her son to go on such a personal outing with Daniel Redwing. She hardly knew the man. And she didn’t even want to try to imagine what his motive in this might be. Still, she was reluctant to upset Aaron all over again. And she certainly didn’t want to offend Daniel after he’d gone to such lengths to find her son.
“I’m sure Deputy Redwing has very little time away from his job. It might be a while before he could take you camping,” she gently warned.
“That doesn’t matter. Just, can I go?”
“We’ll see,” she said, using the vague promise to pacify him for the moment. “Right now I want you to run ahead and get in the shower. I’ll be along shortly to fix supper.”
Aaron looked anxiously over at Daniel. “Are you leaving soon?”
Daniel reached out and patted the boy’s shoulder. “I’ll stop by the house to say goodbye.”
The child’s eyes suddenly lit with anticipation. “Okay!”
He leaped through the doorway of the building and took off at a dead run up the trail to the house. Turning toward Daniel, Maggie shook her head in a hopeless gesture.
“I’m so sorry about all this, Daniel. I’ve caused you and the department so much trouble. Thank God you didn’t have helicopters out looking.”
“I’m just glad we found him safe and sound. You were very lucky. I guess you know that.”
