Journey of the Heart (35 page)

“Not really, Mr. Burke. He’s a
good
horse,” replied Gabe, his love for Sky apparent in his voice. “He should be ready for Miss Cait to ride in a day or two. But she’ll have to stay in the corral for a while before taking him out,” he added.

Cait gave her congratulations and as she walked back to the house wondered where the eagerness and reckless desire to ride her horse had disappeared. Earlier in the summer, she’d not been able to wait. And now she knew she’d be astride him in a few days and that knowledge meant nothing. Well, not nothing, but she didn’t feel the way she’d expected: impatient and excited. But maybe all that would come back.

But two days later, although she’d experienced anticipation and fear, wondering whether he would tolerate a different rider, and a great deal of satisfaction as she walked Sky around the corral, and even got him doing figure eights at a trot, she knew that the bond she had formed with him two years ago wasn’t the same. It didn’t feel that different riding Sky than to ride any one of their horses and she felt a pang of sadness. And when she dismounted and watched Gabe ride him, taking him from a walk to an easy lope around the corral, she understood. Sky responded to Gabe’s subtle signals almost before they were given, as though he and Gabe were in constant communication. The understanding between Gabe and Sky was like that between her father and Finn, and from the stories he’d told, what he had with Frost. In every way except technical ownership, Sky was Gabe’s horse.

It hurt for a few moments as she realized it, for Sky had been hers before she went off to school. But time and terror had intervened and it was Gabe who had brought back the horse’s trust, not she.

Later that night, she sought out her father. He was sitting on the porch, his chin tilted back, enjoying one of the cigars he’d brought back from town. He didn’t smoke often, but when he did, it had to be outside, for Elizabeth would not have the smell in the house.

Cait sat down on the steps and watched the moon rise. It was a three-quarter moon, and its bright light blacked out the stars.

“ ‘Tis beautiful, isn’t it, Cait?” Michael murmured.

“Yes, Da.”

“I am very glad you decided to stay.”

“So am I, Da.” Cait hesitated. “Da, I have something to ask you.”

Michael heard something in his daughter’s voice and realized she’d sought him out for a purpose. He let the chair’s legs down and putting out his cigar, came to sit down on the step next to her.

“Ask away,” he said lightly.

“Before I went away to school, there was a way in which Sky was mine, beyond the fact that you gave him to me.”

“I remember the day the little bugger walked up the porch and tried to push his way into the house after you,” said Michael with a low chuckle.

Cait smiled. “Yes, I’d forgotten to close the corral gate properly.” She hesitated and then went on in a shaky voice. “Da, that feeling isn’t there anymore.”

“He hasn’t given you any trouble riding him, has he?”

“Oh, no, he is well-behaved and well-trained. But it feels not so different from riding Snowflake. It’s Gabe who Sky would follow into the house now, Da.” She was silent for a moment and then said: “Sky is Gabe’s horse in every way except one.”

“ ‘Tis true that you can see something special between them,” Michael answered slowly, realizing what his daughter was going to say next.

“I want Gabe to have Night Sky, Da.”

“Are you sure, Cait?” he asked, putting his arm around her.

“I am, Da. He’s worked so long and patiently. And he’s been so loyal to you, Da. Oh, I wish Sky still felt the same about me,” she added with a little catch in her voice. “But I want Gabe to know that if he should ever decide to leave, he can take Sky with him.”

Michael pulled his daughter close to him in a hug. “Ye’ve a generous heart, Cait.”

“But
you
have to be the one to tell him, Da. I don’t think he would take Sky from me. And it would be more proper if it were from both of us.”

Michael smiled. “I agree. I’ll tell him tomorrow.”

* * * *

That night, Michael watched Elizabeth get ready for bed and pulled her close when she crawled under the covers. “Cait came and talked to me tonight,
a ghra.
She wants me to give Night Sky to Gabe.”

Elizabeth pulled away and looked up at her husband. “But Sky is
her
horse, Michael. Why, she couldn’t wait to ride him….”

“I know, but she recognized what there is between the two of them. You saw it too, Elizabeth. Gabe has given so much of himself to that horse. Cait wants him to know that if he should leave someday, he can take Sky with him.”

“Is she going to tell him?”

“Now that is the interesting thing, Elizabeth,” said Michael with a grin. “She thinks it would be better for me to do it. ‘Proper’ was the word she used. What I’m wondering is how proper they have been together!”

“That may be the very reason she wants you to do it, Michael. She wouldn’t want him to feel an overwhelming sense of obligation to her, would she?”

* * * *

The next morning, Michael caught Gabe just before he was going to bring in the colts.

“Can I talk to you a minute, Gabe?”

Gabe closed the pasture gate and walked back to the corral fence. “What is it, Mr. Burke?”

“It is a wonder, what you’ve done with Sky,” began Michael.

“He’s been worth every minute of it, Mr. Burke. Miss Cait has herself a great horse.”

“Em, well, that is the tiling, Gabe. Cait and I have been talking and we both agree that Night Sky should be yours. After all, he already is in every way that counts.”

Gabe was stopped dead in his tracks. “You can’t do that, Mr. Burke. Why, Miss Cait loves that horse.”

“It was her idea, boyo. She wanted you to know that should you ever leave, Sky will go with you.”

“I never would have expected…” Gabe stammered. “I don’t know what to say, or how I can ever thank you.”

“You don’t need to. Ye’ve saved a good horse and ye’ve stayed on during a hard time. Of course, we all hope ye’ll be staying for a long time.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Mr. Burke, not until we see what Mackie has up his sleeve.”

“Well, Sky goes with you, Gabe, if ever you feel you have to leave.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Burke. I, uh, I do love that horse,” Gabe admitted.

“Sure and anyone could see that, boyo.”

Gabe went through the motions of training the colts and then it was time to saddle Sky for Caitlin’s ride. As he brushed the horse, he marveled again at the beauty of his markings and the intelligence in those white-rimmed eyes. “You look like a wild one, Sky, but I’ve never met a horse more willing to work with me,” he told the horse who flicked his ears back and forth as he listened to Gabe’s murmur.

* * * *

Cait was waiting by the fence when Gabe brought the horse out and he led Sky over and held him while she mounted. He was too embarrassed even to look at her, so he just said: “Today I think you can try him at a canter, Miss Cait.” He watched as she walked and trotted for fifteen minutes and then signaled her to bring him back to a walk.

“When you give him the signal to lope, go around the corral a few times and then we’ll try some figure eights.”

Riding Sky at a lope was like riding a rocking horse, thought Cait as they cantered around the corral. His gait was so smooth that her bottom never moved from the saddle. After a few circles, she neck-reined him through the figure eights, giving him the subtle signals to change leads that Gabe had taught her. It was as wonderful as she had dreamed it would be, riding her horse. Except he wasn’t her horse, she reminded herself.

“Good work, Miss Cait,” called Gabe when she brought him down to a walk. “Cool him down and then bring him into the barn.” Gabe turned his back and walked into the cool darkness of the barn. She had looked so natural on the horse. How could he take Sky from her? No matter how hard it was to refuse, he could not accept such a gift.

When Cait led Sky in, she saw Gabe sitting on a bale of hay, chewing a piece of straw. He got up and helped her with the saddle, saying gruffly, “After you’ve wiped him off, I’d like to talk to you about something, Miss Cait. I’ll be in the tack room.”

By the time Cait had finished with Sky, Gabe had soaped her saddle and moved on to the bridles. When she came in, he gestured for her to sit down and said: “Your father talked to me this morning, Miss Cait. About Sky.”

“Oh….” Cait felt foolishly tongue-tied.

“He told me you want to give me your horse.”

“Sky has really become your horse, Gabe,” she said quietly.

“I can’t take him from you, Miss Cait. For one thing, there is a connection between the two of you that will only get stronger once you’re the only one riding him. For another, he’s a valuable animal.” Gabe hesitated, “But I am touched by your sweet, generous heart,” he added softly. He moved closer and reaching his hand out, smoothed back her hair. Cait could feel a lovely liquid warmth radiate through her, but when she lifted her face for a kiss, Gabe only traced her lips with his finger.

“You see, I can’t take such a gift after stealing your kisses,” he told her.

“I want you to have Sky, Gabe,” Cait said, her voice trembling. “Please let me give him to you.”

“All right,” Gabe replied slowly and reluctantly. “But I want you to be riding him too. And if you ever change your mind….”

“I won’t.”

“Then I will just say thank you, Miss Cait. Now I’d best finish off my work here,” he said, turning away.

Cait whispered a good-bye and left, wanting only to go back and admit to him that she feared he hadn’t only taken her kisses but her heart.

“Chavez?”

“
Si
, Señor Mackie.” Juan was sitting outside the bunkhouse after supper when Mackie approached.

“Walk down to the west pasture with me.”

The moon lit the path in front of them.

“How is Miss Sadie Hart, Chavez?”

“She is well,
señor
,” replied Juan, deliberately misinterpreting Mackie’s question.

“I mean, how is your ‘courting’ going? Have you had her yet?”

Juan was surprised at the sudden fierce anger that arose with Mackie’s crudeness. “I do not like to talk of the
señorita
in that way,” he said softly but firmly.

“You’re not going soft on me, are you, Chavez?”

“Let us just say that the
señorita
and I have become very friendly. Friendly enough so that her brother is furious, which is what you want, no?”

“I want Gabriel Hart dead, is what I want, so he can’t protect Michael Burke when he rides in here to protest your involvement with Miss Sadie.”

Juan wasn’t really surprised. After all, he had known the whole purpose of his visits to Sadie were to work up her brother. And Mackie wasn’t suggesting something he hadn’t done before: pushing someone to his limit so that killing him became self-defense. But he hadn’t wanted to think about it, he realized a distaste for the task and the man who ordered him filled his mouth.

“You
can
take him, can’t you, Chavez?” asked Mackie.

“
Si, señor
. I have no doubts about that.”

“Good.” They had reached the barbed wire fence that demarcated the west pasture from the corrals. “See that, Chavez,” said Mackie, waving his arm at the cows and calves gathered by the water trough. “I have only five hundred head on the Bar M. I will never be a force in this territory until I can run more. I need Burke’s land and I am going to get it,” he added fiercely. “If you do your job well, you will be highly rewarded, Juan, you know that.”

“So you’ve always said, Señor Mackie.”

“You’ve got to push Gabriel Hart into a fight. Burke won’t get any help from the sheriff, of course, so he’ll come after me directly. And when he does, I’ll be ready for him. I think Michael Burke will be shot down as he threatens the safety of my wife and home. Once he’s dead, Mrs. Burke will sell, I’m sure of that. And the important thing is it will have been them who break the peace we’ve all worked so hard for in this valley, won’t it? You will be the innocent suitor of Hart’s sister, forced to defend himself. And when Burke comes after you here, well, I can’t let him threaten me or my wife, can I?”

“Of course not,
señor
. But are you so sure Burke will take you on without Hart to back him up? Surely he wouldn’t be so reckless?”

“Oh, I think if you do your job right, Juan, we’ll see him here within hours of Hart’s death.”

* * * *

He’d carried out orders like this before, so why was he all of a sudden questioning himself, thought Chavez as he lay on his bunk unable to sleep. Mackie was no worse than others he’d worked for. He wouldn’t really have Hart’s death on his conscience, because he would make sure it was self-defense. And he’d never had much of a conscience to begin with. So why all of a sudden was he worried about burdening it? He could make sure he was out of the way when Burke rode in. Mackie had plenty of men to take him down. Let Mackie shoot Michael Burke himself, damn it. Let him do his own dirty work for a change. It was Sadie, of course. It hadn’t been hard to follow those orders, She was an attractive woman and an unusual one, willing to trust her own judgment of him and look at him through her own eyes, not those of others. She had seen
him
not the hired gun, not
El Lobo
. And now he was going to betray that trust and she would realize that who she thought she saw wasn’t really there. For who was Juan Chavez anyway but the creation of all the men who had ruled his life since the day he was sold to the Romeros. Juan Chavez had no mind of his own and certainly no heart.

Whoever he had been before, that seven-year-old boy who came back in flashes of memory, might have grown up differently had he somehow been rescued from his fate. But then, he wouldn’t have survived more than a year had Juan Chavez not taken his place.

It was too late to change now. He’d go calling on Sadie Hart. He’d make sure her brother fought him. He’d kill Gabe and turn his back on Sadie. But he wouldn’t take any of Mackie’s damn reward. He’d just ride the hell out of this damned valley when it was all over.