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Their horses topped a rise, and below them lay the McIsaac ranch nestled among the foothills of the Rockies. Marshal Cameron pulled his mount up, and Meri followed suit as they gave their horses a breather from the hour-long, gradually climbing ride and surveyed the property below them.
A large log ranch house was surrounded by orderly, well-kept outbuildings that included a couple of barns, a bunkhouse, a summer kitchen, a smokehouse and sundry smaller buildings. White fencing encircled a pretty garden already showing the effects of early springtime planting, and corrals housed horses and a few cattle. Empty pastures and hay fields radiated out from the ranch buildings and disappeared into trees and over foothills.
“So, this is home.”
Meri nodded. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely.” Silence reigned a few moments as both riders drank in the scene below them. “I do have a question, though.” A puzzled look sat on his face.
Meri was becoming wary of his questions but was curious about the cause of the expression. “What?”
Marshal Cameron pointed toward the barn corrals. “What in the world is that...critter?”
A spontaneous laugh burst from Meri’s lips when she looked in the direction he indicated. “Those are Highland cattle from Scotland. Faither imported them several years ago. They come from the mountainous region, and their thick wooly coats make them quite hardy in our cold snowy winters. Several ranches around Colorado raise them. There’s even talk about starting a breed association. They’re very self-sufficient cattle and thrive on the grazing that we have here. They’re also easy to work with because they’re so friendly.”
“Well, it certainly is the hairiest beast I’ve ever seen, outside of a buffalo.” He was watching Meri closely, a peculiar, distracted look on his face.
“And what have you ever seen inside a buffalo?” Meri kept a straight face but couldn’t resist the question.
“What?”
A chuckle escaped her. “Never mind.”
The dreaded smirk reappeared, and his searching gaze never left her face. “Oh, I got it. You...just surprised me. I didn’t realize you were—”
He broke off abruptly. Meri wondered what he’d intended to say, but a distant shout prevented her from asking. Meri waved at a figure standing in front of the biggest barn.
“Come on. I’ll introduce you to our foreman. He can answer any questions you have about the men and our horses.”
* * *
Wyatt followed Miss McIsaac the rest of the way down to the ranch yard, enjoying his view of the spunky lady. So, this was the woman Mrs. Van Deusen wanted to introduce him to at the church picnic. Her full rich laugh and the way her face had lit up as she’d explained the cattle had nearly made him blurt the realization aloud. He had managed to catch himself, thankful for the distraction of the ranch hand’s shout that had prevented Miss McIsaac from asking the question he’d seen on her face.
When he’d arrived in town, his bachelor status instantly made him the most popular person for invitations to a meal to meet someone’s daughter, or niece, or sister or granddaughter. He’d quickly started turning a politely deaf ear when the conversation changed to, “Oh, I have someone you just have to meet...”
Mrs. Van Deusen had been somewhat more subtle but just as persistent. She never mentioned names or invited him to a meal to meet some female, but she’d mentioned her dear departed friend’s lovely daughter every time Wyatt happened to cross her path. He’d let the hints go in one ear and out the other, but as he’d looked down at the ranch a moment ago, Mrs. Van Deusen’s voice had echoed through his memory.
“If they can get in from their ranch,” Mrs. Van Deusen had said, “they raise those strange cattle from Ireland or Scotland or someplace foreign like that, you know—I’ll finally be able to introduce you to her at the church picnic.”
That tidbit had snagged his attention since his own family tree originated in Scotland, but that was the extent of the notice he’d taken of it at the time. With the disturbance of the holdup, he’d not had time to realize Mrs. Van Deusen’s hints added up to the spirited, rides-like-the-wind Meri McIsaac. After the onslaught of gushing, flirting females breathing down his neck the past few weeks, Miss McIsaac’s prickly reaction had been a fresh change and had actually snagged his attention. Not that he planned to do anything about it; he still had a dangerous job and no home to offer a woman.
Wyatt mentally scoffed at himself. Even if he were willing to think about going along with Mrs. Van Deusen’s schemes, he was quite sure her quarry had no intention of being caught. Besides, he had enough trouble on his hands trying to catch a bank robber and find the missing money.
“Howdy, miss, how’s the Boss man?” A familiar voice cut through Wyatt’s musings.
“Still unconscious. I came to pick up a few things and get an update on the ranch. Faither will want to know when he wakes up. Where’s Barnaby?” Miss McIsaac kept her voice brisk and businesslike, but Wyatt heard the underlying fear.
“He’s riding range with a couple of the boys, said he might be back for lunch.”
“This is the new marshal. He needs to ask Barnaby some questions. He seems to think the horse the bank robber rode was one of ours.” Miss McIsaac and Wyatt dismounted simultaneously. “Marshal Cameron, our top hand, Jonah Chacksfield.”
“There’s no need to introduce us, miss. I’ve known Captain Cameron since he was a lowly shavetail lieutenant fresh from the East.” Jonah snapped a sharp salute.
“At ease, Sergeant.” Wyatt put out his hand and grabbed the man’s burly paw in a hearty handshake. “It’s good to see you. What are you doing out of the army? You were one of the best sergeants I ever served with, figured you’d be in uniform until you got too old to climb into a saddle.”
The stocky barrel-chested ranch hand looked away momentarily. When he looked back, Wyatt thought he saw a sheen of wetness in the man’s eyes. “I just didn’t have the heart to reenlist after my Sally passed.”
Wyatt gripped the sergeant’s shoulder and cleared his throat against a sudden hoarseness. “I wondered why I quit getting letters from her. I assumed you’d been transferred, and they were getting lost.” He stopped and swallowed hard. “She was a quite a lady. I’ll miss her.”
Jonah was the first to break the silence that shrouded the little group, saying gruffly, “Now, sir, what’s this about one of our horses being used in the bank job?”
“Drop that ‘sir’ stuff, and call me Wyatt. When I questioned the banker this morning, he said the horse the thief used wore the McIsaac brand. None of the other witnesses I talked to mentioned that. Maybe they assumed Mr. McIsaac had ridden in on that horse and the thief stole it. However, since that wasn’t the case, I need to know if you’ve noticed any horses missing and where all the ranch hands were that day.”
“I told you before, none of our hands would be involved in anything criminal.” Miss McIsaac flared up again.
Jonah wrapped a beefy arm around Miss McIsaac’s shoulders and gently squeezed. “He’s just doing his job, Miss Meri. No need to get upset about it. You’ve got enough on your plate. Let me and Barnaby handle the captain and his questions. You go in and chat with Ms. Maggie. That housekeeper’s been frettin’ around here for days like a hen that’s lost her chicks.”
Wyatt waited for the inevitable argument, but her shoulders drooped as she exhaled noisily. “You’ll let me know if anything’s wrong, and send Barnaby to see me when he comes in.” It wasn’t a question.
“I will. Now go let Ms. Maggie fuss over you for a bit.” Jonah gently turned Miss McIsaac toward the house and gave her a gentle push. “Scat.”
Wyatt watched in amazement as Miss McIsaac meekly walked to the house and disappeared inside. “I’ve seen you wrangle raw, rowdy recruits and turn them into well-disciplined troops, but until today I never fully appreciated the extent of your skill.” Wyatt looked at Jonah with newfound respect. “How exactly did you manage that?”
Jonah’s hearty laugh thundered out. “She’s a handful, but I’ll take a strong, opinionated female over a silly, pampered flibbertigibbet any day of the week.”
“As will I, but that doesn’t explain how you managed to get her to go so quietly.”
“A good sergeant never reveals his secrets, Captain. Besides, I have a hunch you’ll figure out how to handle her. Half the fun of courting my Sally was figuring out how to deal with her strong temperament.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but a lawman’s life doesn’t leave room for courtin’.”
“Are you still stuck on the notion you have to have a ‘safe’ job before you can have a wife?”
“It’s not a notion. I saw more than one bride-to-be hightail it back East when she saw her future living quarters. I saw wives leave their husbands because they couldn’t handle the long absences, and I saw women devastated when their husband rode in draped over the back of a horse. I won’t do that to a woman.”
“You saw a couple of bad examples and focused on them instead of the good ones. What about my Sally?” Jonah sounded a bit offended.
Wyatt hurried to soften his remarks. “You were the exemption to the rule. Sally was special.”
Memories glistened in the tough old sergeant’s eyes. “That she was, that she was.”
Wyatt changed the subject. “Back to the reason I rode out here—what do you have to tell me that you didn’t want Miss McIsaac to hear?”
“You always were one of the sharper knives among that lot of army brass. We did have a horse go missing for several days before showing up among some of our cattle all covered in dried sweat. I don’t want Miss Meri to be worryin’ about it just now since there’s nothing she can do. I’ve questioned all our hands, but no one noticed anything unusual, and I trust our men. We’ve got a few who can be a little wild occasionally, but they’re all honest fellows. Mr. McIsaac has given all of us a hand up when we were down on our luck, and not a one of us would do anything to hurt him or Miss Meri.”
“Are any of the men available that I can talk with them?”
“Barnaby, our foreman, and most of the hands are out doing various chores. If you’re hungry, we can grab a sandwich from our cook, and I’ll introduce you to the ones in for lunch. Barnaby should be back in as well, and you can ask ’em any questions you have. Afterward, I’ll take you out and show you where we found that horse.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Over lunch Wyatt met the handful of cowboys that assembled for food. None of them knew anything more than what Jonah had already told him, and to a man, they had nothing but concern and well wishes for their wounded “Boss man.”
When everyone drifted back to their various tasks, Jonah brought up a couple of fresh, saddled horses. “Ready to ride, Captain? Barnaby hasn’t made it back, but I’ll wager we’ll run across him before we return to the ranch.”
Wyatt mounted the horse. “You’ve probably told me as much as he can, but I’d appreciate getting a chance to meet him. And I thought I told you to call me Wyatt?”
“Too many years in the army. Captain comes easier to the tongue.”
Jonah led the way across the ranch yard, and as they passed the main house Miss McIsaac stepped out on the porch. “Hold up! I’m going with you,” she called out.
“No. Stay put. Jonah’s going to show me around, let me get a feel for the land out this way and maybe catch up with your foreman. I’ll be back to escort you to town before it gets dark.” Wyatt lifted his hat and loped his horse away, ignoring the protests from the woman on the porch and Jonah’s sardonic snort.
Chapter Five
Jonah waved a hand toward the land in front of them. “This is where we found that horse day before yesterday. He’d been ridden hard and still had the dried sweat, saddle and spur marks to show for it. Made the boys livid. Not only had someone stolen one of our remuda from under our noses, they also used it badly in the process. Our hands pride themselves that when they do use their spurs they do it with such gentle finesse they never leave a mark or a sore spot on the horse.
“I backtracked the rider and found where he’d had a fresh mount waiting. After he’d swapped, he set ours loose. Both sets of tracks led into and out of that churned-up ground where the trail herd circled town a few days ago.”
Wyatt nodded. “That’s where we lost him when we were tracking him. We caught up with the drovers, but they said they hadn’t seen anybody, and we couldn’t find where he’d turned off before it started raining.”
“He was pretty slick about it. I might not have found it if he hadn’t used the same route coming and going from the cattle trail. He used an offshoot of Little Creek to hide his tracks, but he was a little less careful after he swapped horses. I was able spot the signs of his previous trip when I trailed the new horse back. I didn’t follow him any farther after he hit that trail—figured we had our horse back and that was the end of it. We let the surrounding ranchers know to keep an eye on their own remudas and left it at that. Never thought about it being connected with what had happened in town.”
“The tracks’ll be washed out, but show me where you trailed him so I can get an idea of where he was and where we lost him.”
“Sure ’nuff. We’ll go right through the area Barnaby was plannin’ on workin’ when he left this morning. If he’s still there, we’ll stop and chat.”
They did meet up with Barnaby and several other hands moving cattle to another area for fresh grazing. Wyatt was impressed with the graying, quiet-spoken man, but again didn’t learn anything new. Barnaby promised to keep his men alert to anything that might be of interest to the marshal. He also told Jonah to ride in with Wyatt and stay in town where he could keep an eye on the Boss man and Miss Meri.
The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, and Wyatt got a feel for the land. It was beautiful mountain-valley country, and he was impressed with the way the land was being utilized to its fullest potential. Every time he saw the strange-looking woolly red cattle, the memory of a laugh rang through his thoughts.
The McIsaac ranch lay west and slightly north of Little Creek and the bandit had ridden out of town heading east. The trail herd had bypassed the town on the west before veering northeast toward Denver.
“Do the trail herds always go this direction?” Wyatt asked. “Seems like it’d be shorter to go around the east side of town.”
“We don’t have as many now that the railroads are getting more accessible, but a few still come around the west side and across a portion of our range because McIsaac allows them access. There are more farmers on the east side now, and they don’t appreciate their crops getting torn up. Most of the trail bosses do their best to ensure they do the least amount of damage possible,” Jonah replied.
Wyatt studied the land. “When we first lost the tracks, we continued east in the direction he’d been traveling. We followed the trail herd until we caught up to the drovers, then we backtracked and had almost made it to where you’re showing me he cut out before it began to rain. If we’d come this direction first, we might have found his trail before it rained and been closer to catching him.” Wyatt was frustrated. “Why did he circle back around the town and stay in the area when he knew a posse was after him? Why didn’t he get as far away as he could, as fast as he could?”
“Maybe he did. By coming this way, he did the unexpected and bought himself more time,” Jonah mused.
“This is definitely not an auspicious beginning to my job as Little Creek’s marshal, and if I don’t catch him and get the bank’s money back, it’ll be a very short-lived job. The good citizens are understandably nervous about that money,” Wyatt groaned.
“Well, there is someone we can talk to who’ll be able to point us in the direction we need to go for you to catch him,” Jonah said, turning his horse to face Wyatt.
“Who?” Curiosity filled Wyatt’s voice.
“Him.” Jonah glanced up briefly before bowing his head, and Wyatt felt peace descend and frustration melt away as he listened to the former master sergeant bend his knee before the Master of Heaven, asking for God’s wisdom and guidance in the task before the marshal.
He echoed the prayer in his heart and uttered a hearty Amen when Jonah finished. “Thank you for realigning my perspective, Sergeant. You were always good at that, if I recall.”
“I did straighten out a few smart-mouthed lieutenants in my time. Although I must say, I had less polishing to do on you then some I ran across. Your mother’d done a pretty good job already.” Both men chuckled as they headed back.
Riding into the ranch yard, Wyatt cast a glance at the lowering sun. “Miss McIsaac is going to be champing at the bit to get back into town.”
“If she hasn’t already left.” Jonah grinned.
“I told her to wait—that I’d ride back with her. I don’t want her, any woman, out on these roads alone, at least until we catch this fella.”
Jonah snorted. “I’ll be much surprised if she waited around more than a few minutes after you threw that order at her.”
“Why didn’t you say something earlier? Stop her from going in alone?”
“Figured it was about time you learned you can’t bark orders at a woman as if she’s a soldier. It just don’t work. Besides, Boss man has a standing order. When someone sees her ride out, which is frequently, they are to let the bunkhouse cook or Ms. Maggie know and then follow Meri to make sure no one bothers her. Boss man couldn’t cure her of riding alone, something he loves to do himself, so he makes sure someone is always keeping an eye on her. I think she figured out his little scheme a long time ago, but as long as they stay out of her way, she tolerates it.”
The men stopped their horses in front of the main house and a sturdy, dusky-skinned woman, black braids wound in bands around her head, stepped onto the porch carrying a tray with a pitcher and several glasses. “Thirsty? I have fresh lemonade here,” she said in a lightly accented voice.
“Yes’m, Ms. Maggie! Sounds great! Captain Cameron, meet the real ramrod of the McIsaac ranch, Maggie Running Deer, the McIsaac’s housekeeper.” Jonah took the tray and set it on a table between several comfortable-looking rocking chairs. “Ms. Maggie, the new marshal of Little Creek.”
Wyatt doffed his hat and bowed slightly to the woman. “Nice to meet you, ma’am. Is Miss McIsaac ready to head back to town?” He took the glass of lemonade Jonah handed him and swallowed half of it in a single swallow, choking when he heard the woman’s answer.
“She left a couple of hours after you rode out. Barnaby rode in, and after talking with him, she tossed a bag on Abe and took him and Sandy back to town.”
A sly grin appeared on Jonah’s face, but he refrained from saying I told you so.
Wyatt hastily swallowed the last of the tangy drink before setting the glass down. “Thank you, Ms. Maggie. That hit the spot.”
“Sit down, Captain, and take a load off.” Jonah disposed of his own glass. “I’ve got to put a few things in my saddlebags before we head to town.” Thanking Ms. Maggie, he headed for the barn leading the two horses.
Wyatt quelled the urge to rush back to town and slowly sat down. Miss McIsaac had, by now, probably already arrived back in town, but his hands itched to give her a good shaking—the little scamp. Instead he controlled his impatience and accepted the refilled glass Ms. Maggie handed him before heading back to her baking.
One of the cowhands he had met earlier ambled up leading the horse he’d ridden from town, along with another saddled horse, and tied them to the rail in front of the house. “Jonah’ll be ’long direc’ly.” The man sauntered away.
The minutes dragged by as he gazed unseeingly at the tidy ranch yard, fingers drumming on the arm of the rocker. Flower beds sported a few early delicate blooms, a kitchen garden boasted rows of emerging greenery, and neat fences spread out and away, delineating pasturage. All lent a well-cared-for air to the place, yet they failed to register beyond a vague awareness as Wyatt turned the day over in his mind. He needed to separate the few pieces he’d found and examine them thoroughly; see if, and where, each piece fit into the puzzle of the bank robbery.
“You gonna sit staring into space all day, or do you want to ride in with me?” Jonah laughed at his blink of surprise when he looked up to see the sergeant already mounted.
Wyatt hurried off the porch and swung into the saddle. “Don’t get uppity, Sergeant, or I’ll put you on report!”
Jonah’s laugh rang as they turned their horses toward town.
* * *
Meri imagined the look on the marshal’s face when he realized she was gone, and grinned. She’d eaten lunch while Ms. Maggie fussed about the holdup and Boss man’s injury and had just finished packing a bag when she’d seen the marshal and Jonah riding out. Planning to ride with them and speak to Barnaby herself, she’d instead been ordered to stay put. She’d tried to argue they could get back to town quicker if they combined their tasks but had been completely ignored as the overbearing man had ridden away at a lope. She’d nearly gone back to town then and there but had curtailed the impulse. The job she’d left her wounded father’s side to do wouldn’t be completed to her satisfaction until she’d spoken with Barnaby.
Time had crawled as she’d prowled the barns and grounds, repeatedly answering the question, “How’s Boss man?” from worried ranch hands who wanted the information straight from her. Impatience had finally gotten the best of her, and she’d been saddling Sandy to go find the foreman herself when he’d ridden in. Having already heard the latest update on McIsaac from Jonah and the marshal, Barnaby had quickly filled her in on ranch happenings. He had things well in hand and had promised to send a rider in frequently with news of the ranch and to check on Boss man. Faither would be pleased, but not surprised, at Barnaby’s capable management in their absence.
Thanking him for his diligent care of the ranch, she’d tied her bag to Abe’s saddle, shoved her .44-40 Winchester carbine into the rifle boot, mounted Sandy and left the annoying marshal to fend for himself. The nerve-rattling tension was absent on this leg of the journey, and Meri smugly congratulated herself on getting back to town on her own terms. She shoved away the ridiculous notion that the trip seemed rather dull in comparison to the ride to the ranch.
