Journey of the Heart (23 page)

Night Sky was such a beautiful animal that it would be a shame if Gabe were not successful, thought Sadie as she watched her brother put the horse through his paces on the lunge line. She had seen many a piebald and paint in her time but none of them could compare with Sky’s spotted coat. He moved fluidly, too, she thought as she admired his canter. The only thing about him that might be considered less than beautiful was his tail and mane, for all the Appaloosas had this same feature. But then, she realized, as she continued to watch, you kind of got used to the look. It
fit,
somehow, though she couldn’t say why.

Gave had brought out the old saddle blanket and brought Sky over to him. The horse would now allow Gabe to rub him down all over, but whenever Gabe lingered near his back or tried to leave his arm there, Sky would give a few little crow-hops away from him.

“You know, Gabe,” Sadie said after he’d released the horse into the pasture and came over to the fence, “I can almost understand Cait’s impatience. He is such a beautiful animal and his gaits are just about perfect. I was itching to ride him myself, just watching you.”

“Don’t think I don’t know how you felt, Sadie,” her brother said with a rueful grin. “Sometimes I have to work real hard to keep myself from leading him over to the fence and slipping on. I’ve come to love that horse, you know,” he added softly. “That’s what patience and holding yourself back leads to, most times: love. But if I’m successful, I lose him when Miss Burke goes back east,” he added with a sigh.

“And if you are not successful?”

“Wal, like most ranchers, Mr. Burke can’t have a useless animal around,” Gabe drawled. “But if it comes to that, I’ll offer to buy him.”

“A horse you can’t ride!”

“He’s too fine an animal to destroy, Sadie. And it would give me more time to work with him.”

“Then I don’t know whether to wish you luck or not, Gabe,” said Sadie with a wry grin.

* * * *

Michael Burke had not returned by dinnertime, although that did not seem to worry his wife too much, thought Gabe as they all sat down for a roast chicken and fresh vegetables from the garden. “Michael told me we should go ahead if he wasn’t back,” Elizabeth explained as she served them. “He was planning to ride up to Eduardo’s camp after mass, just to check on things. Your meeting Chavez up there made him a little nervous,” she added, looking over at Sadie. Sadie blushed and felt somehow responsible, though she couldn’t have explained why, had anyone asked her. She certainly wasn’t responsible for meeting Juan Chavez. Nor for his following her down. She had agreed to dance with him, but one waltz was hardly something to feel guilty about, she told herself.

Two hours after dinner, when Michael still hadn’t returned, Elizabeth went over to the bunkhouse to find Gabe. He was sitting on the steps, braiding the reins of a bridle.

“Gabe, I hate to disturb you, for this is usually your time off, but I’m beginning to get worried about Mr. Burke. He said he might miss dinner, but I didn’t expect him to take this long.”

Gabe looked up at the sun. “I reckon it is almost three o’clock, Mrs. Burke. He might just be having a cup of coffee with Eduardo. And you know how Eduardo loves to talk,” he added with a smile. “He’s up there by himself for days and whenever I go up with supplies he talks my ear off.”

“I suppose you could be right,” admitted Elizabeth. “I guess I wouldn’t be worried if it weren’t for Chavez being seen around.”

“No need to apologize for worrying, ma’am. I tell you what,” said Gabe, putting the bridle down, “why don’t I just saddle up Buck and ride out toward the mountains. I’m sure I’ll meet Mr. Burke before I get to the foothills,” he added reassuringly.

“Thank you, Gabe. I hate to be so fidgety, but I don’t like thinking of Michael out there alone.”

Gabe was actually a little worried himself the farther he rode. He’d expected to see Michael before the foothills, as he’d told Elizabeth, but it wasn’t until he started climbing that he saw his employer coming down the trail toward him. He was going slowly and at first Gabe wondered if another horse had gone lame. But Patch wasn’t limping and then Gabe noticed what was tied behind Michael’s saddle.

He spurred his paint and pulled up in front of Michael.

“Who is it?” he asked, gesturing at the oilcloth-wrapped body slung over Patch.

“Eduardo,” Michael replied, pain and anger in his voice.

“An accident?” Gabe asked, not very hopefully.

“Only if a man can collect two bullets in the chest and one in the leg by accident,” Michael said bitterly.

Gabe rested his hand on Eduardo’s body and cursed eloquently and fluently.

“Yes, boyo, that’s exactly what I’ve been thinkin’.”

“Goddamn Mackie and his hired killers! His ‘wolf.’ It must have been Chavez. He was up here skulking around, maybe even intending to kill Eduardo last week when Sadie appeared.” Gabe’s voice was shaking with fury and fear. His sister had probably just missed being a victim herself and the man had the balls to waltz with her on Saturday!

“We don’t know that for certain, Gabe,” said Michael. “That it was one of Mackie’s men, I am sure, but we have no way of knowing which one,” he added with real regret. “For if we did, by God, I’d kill him with my own bare hands. Eduardo has worked for me for sixteen years.
Dia,
and I’ll have to tell his wife and children.”

They rode on in silence and Gabe remembered his first meeting with Eduardo when he’d ridden into the sheepherder’s camp.

“Did he get a chance to defend himself, Mr. Burke?”

“His shotgun was lying next to him, but it hadn’t been fired. I’d guess they came up on him suddenly and it was over quickly, thank Christ.”

They parted at the road and Gabe watched Michael for a few minutes before he turned his horse toward the ranch. He met Elizabeth halfway down the drive.

“I couldn’t stand the waiting,” she explained. “You didn’t find him then?” she added, an agonized look on her face. Without thinking, Gabe laid his hand on her shoulder to reassure her. “I found him, Mrs. Burke, and he is all right.”

He could feel the tension drain out of her. “But where is he then?”

“Mr. Burke is all right, but I have bad news. Eduardo has been killed.”

“Oh, no,” cried Elizabeth. “He has been with us for years. Who could have wanted to hurt him?”

Gabe just looked at her.

“Mackie, of course,” she said with heavy irony. “Mr. Burke and I are sure of it.”

“Well, this time he has gone too far. He’s finally hurt someone and revealed himself as the criminal he is,” said Elizabeth passionately.

“I don’t know as there is any proof, ma’am,” Gabe cautioned her.

“Proof! His hired animal was out there just last week. It was Chavez,” she said with a shudder. “I knew I was right to fear him.”

Michael didn’t get back until after dark and they all gathered around the table while he attacked the supper Elizabeth had saved for him. “ ‘Twas a long day without anything in my belly,
a ghra,”
he said. “Thank you for saving something for me.”

“What
happened,
Da?” Caitlin asked anxiously.

“The dog came running to meet me, barking like crazy, so I knew something was wrong right away. I thought maybe Eduardo had had an accident. I hoped it was only that.”

“But why didn’t Chino warn Eduardo? He might have escaped them.”

“My guess is that he was up with the sheep, Cait. And even if he had warned him, I doubt Eduardo would have left the flock. He would have stood his ground. No, I think they came on him so quickly that he didn’t even have time to fire his gun.” Michael took a sip of coffee and was silent for a minute. “ ‘Twas one of the hardest things I’ve done, bringing Eduardo to Elena’s house. He was a good man and a good friend to me.” Cait could see tears in her father’s eyes. “Damn Mackie and his men to hell,” he cursed softly. “
Dia,
but maybe I should have just given in months ago,” he added. “Eduardo would still be alive.”

“You made the right choice, Michael,” said Elizabeth, reaching across the table and taking his hand in hers. “Eduardo made a choice, too. He knew it was dangerous, but he stayed with us.”

“At least you can end it now, Da,” said Cait. “You have proof you can take to the sheriff.”

“What proof, Cait?” responded Michael wearily.

“Why, Eduardo was murdered, Da! You
know
who did it.”

“And who would that be?”

“Why, Juan Chavez, Da. He was up there, probably to kill Eduardo the day Sadie came along.”

“The sheriff will have to do something, Michael,” Elizabeth added in agreement with her daughter.

“I will go to town first thing in the morning, Elizabeth. I will tell him Eduardo was murdered. I’ll even tell him that Chavez was up there last week. But if he asks me, and he will, I’ll have to tell him that half my sheep were run off too. And he’ll most likely conclude that it was common rustling and that Eduardo died defending the flock.”

“But, Da, it is so clear,” Cait protested.

“I am sure as my name is Michael Joseph Burke that Mackie is responsible for this, Caitlin,” said Michael grimly. “But what
proof
do I have, even for an honest sheriff? Chavez, or whoever it was, was hardly going to leave a polite note, admitting it. No, whoever did it was very smart to run off the sheep.”

“I can’t believe we can’t do anything,” Cait protested.

“We can try to push the sheriff to investigate. And we can decide, right here and now, if we want to give in,” added Michael, looking at his wife and daughter and then over at Gabe.

“Sell the ranch, Da!”

“It was a good man they murdered, Cait. I’d sell if you wanted me to, Elizabeth, to prevent more bloodshed.” He looked over at his wife and Cait could see the pain in his eyes. They had worked so hard for what they had. She couldn’t bear the thought of them losing it.

“We’d have the horses and the sheep,
a ghra
,” added Michael.

“But no land, Michael. Where would we go? No, this is our home and I will not have a bully like Mackie drive us off it,” Elizabeth replied in a voice shaking with grief and anger.

“This could be his last attempt to scare us off,” Michael speculated hopefully. “Even Mackie would have a hard time explaining an injury to me or my family.” He hesitated. “Cait, what do you say?”

“I say we stay, Da,” she answered fiercely.

“Gabe? I could well understand if ye wanted to change your mind and leave and I’d not blame you one bit. If he pushes me any further it will come to fighting, for I am not going to take any more from him and his hired dogs,” Michael added.

“I’m in, Mr. Burke,” said Gabe quietly. “I’m tired of wandering. I want to settle down here. As long as you need a wrangler, I’m yours.”

“As long as I’ve got horses, I’ll need you, Gabe,” Michael answered with a grateful smile. “Well, Miss Sarah Ellen, we’d better put you on the next stage back to Texas.”

“Oh, no, Mr. Burke. Unless I am a burden as a guest, I want to stay till this is all settled. I can’t leave now, not knowing what might happen to Gabe,” she added.

“You are welcome here as long as you like,” said Elizabeth. “We just don’t want you to be in any danger.”

“I’m not afraid, Mrs. Burke.”

“Well, then, that’s settled,” said Michael. “And a good thing it is and a relief to me, to know that you’ll be safe back east, Cait, in just a few weeks.”

“Yes,” said Elizabeth, giving her daughter a quick hug. “I have been dreading your leaving, but now I am relieved you will be away from all of this.”

Cait had been so caught up in her determination that her family not give in to Mackie, she had actually forgotten that she herself was leaving anyway. That in less than three weeks she’d be on a train to Philadelphia with Henry. As she helped her mother with the dishes, she realized that Sadie and Gabe, two strangers, would be here with her parents, taking on a fight that did not really belong to them while she was teaching young women the finer points of English literature. All at once it seemed so unimportant what interpretation one placed on Jane’s decision to return to Mr. Rochester, compared to the life and death reality that she would be leaving behind.

Later, as she got herself ready for bed, she felt almost torn in half. The East was where she had decided to build a new home with Henry. A home where her horizons would be expanded, where she would have access to theater and music. A home that would not be threatened by the harsh realities of life in New Mexico: the constant struggle for survival, the harshness of the desert, brutal men like Mackie.

But to leave it all behind
now,
when the two people she loved most were threatened? How could she do that? This was the home of her childhood: the ranch, the desert, the mountains. She loved it all, even every grain of the red dust that got into everything.

She sat by her window awhile, watching the stars come out, one by one and then in clusters. It was a moonless night, so she could not see the mountains, but she knew they were there. How could she leave them? Yet how could she stay? She was promised to Henry. She loved Henry too, didn’t she? Surely a grown-up woman would be able to leave her parents behind, no matter how difficult the situation, if she loved her fiancé?

She closed her eyes and pictured Henry’s face. She was sure she could imagine his response to Eduardo’s death. He’d want first to protect her, to get her out of there and back east where it was safe, where disputes were settled in court, not with threats and violence. What if she told him she wanted to stay until things were settled one way or the other? That she needed to be with her parents. That this was her
home
and she couldn’t leave while it was being threatened. Could he understand? If she loved him, wouldn’t she want to be with him, no matter how hard it was to leave? Even her parents wanted her out of it. “Home is where the heart is.” The old adage came to her mind. Where was her heart?

She couldn’t sleep, not in this state. She threw on her old blue flannel wrapper and tiptoed quietly down the stairs. The nights were growing a little cooler now as fall approached and the stars burned bright and clear above her as she made her way to the near pasture where she perched on the fence. She could hear the horses stirring and without thinking, gave a low-pitched whistle. It was Gabe’s whistle, not hers.