Measure of Grace (34 page)

“All right,” said Mattie, penning it down. “And how long will she be staying?”

Pulling out his wallet, Jordan said, “Knight gave me enough money to pay for a month. So put her down for a month.”

Jordan figured he and Diana would be married at least by December 28, but hopefully a week or two ahead of that.

“That will be twenty dollars even, Mr. Shaw,” said Mattie, “which covers two meals a day.”

As Jordan handed Mattie a twenty-dollar bill, he saw a sly grin curve her thick lips. Lowering her voice, she said, “Is this—well, some new lady friend of Mr. Colburn’s? I mean … he is past the age that most men get married.”

Leaning close to her, Jordan matched her voice level. “Now, Mattie, you have got to stay mum about this. You mustn’t tell anybody that Miss Morrow is here as Knight’s guest. As far as you’re concerned, she paid you for the room, herself. Understand?”

“Oh, of course. I won’t breathe a word.”

“Good. Thank you.”

As he turned away to leave, Mattie said, “Ah … Mr. Shaw …”

Jordan stopped. “Yes?”

“You’re past the age that most men get married, too. When are you and Belinda Ashworth getting married?”

“What makes you think we are ever going to get married?”

Mattie ducked her head, grinning sheepishly. “Oh, there are rumors going around.”

Once again moving toward the door, he said over his shoulder, “Can’t believe all the rumors you hear, Mattie.”

A tiny thrill of anticipation ran through Jordan. “Just three days!” he said aloud. “Just three days!”

Knight Colburn was in conversation with Dan and Erline Tyler at Dan’s desk when Jordan stepped through the door. All three looked at him as he smiled and moved toward them.

“He looks happy,” said Erline.

“Couldn’t be happier,” said Jordan. “It’s just been a good day. Knight, ol’ pal, I need to talk to you.”

“Sure,” said Knight. “Come on into my office.”

“Nice to see you,” Jordan said as he followed his friend into his private office.

Knight held the door open till Jordan had moved past him. “Have a seat.”

Jordan waved the envelope at him. “Guess what this is!”

Knight chuckled. “It must be from Diana, saying she’s coming.”

“Sure is! It’s a little too personal for me to let you read it, but she’s coming, all right. She’ll arrive on the three o’clock stage on Thursday.”

Knight shook his head, grinning. “Well, ol’ pal, it looks like your bachelor days are about over.”

“Yeah! Isn’t it wonderful? I stopped by Mattie’s Boardinghouse just before coming here, Knight. I reserved a room for Diana and paid Mattie a month in advance. I figure we’ll be married well inside of that, but she’s covered for a month, anyhow.”

Knight wrapped his arms around his friend and pounded him on the back. “I’m happy for you.”

As they parted, Jordan said, “I’m going hunting in the mountains tomorrow. Want to go with me?”

“I’d like to,” said Knight, “but the workload won’t allow it. Got too much going on right now.”

“Oh,” said Jordan, a slight touch of disappointment in his voice. “I’d sure love to have you with me, but I understand.”

Knight chuckled. “Of course once your little gal gets here, you’ll probably give up hunting and fishing altogether.”

“Oh no, I won’t. I’m taking Diana with me. But you can come along, too.”

“All right.”

“If you’d get busy and find yourself a wife, Knight, we could go as a foursome.”

“In God’s time,” Knight said softly. “So, are you going to try to track down that big black bear tomorrow?”

Jordan laughed. “You mean Ol’ Halfpaw?”

“Ol’ Halfpaw? When did you give him that name?”

Jordan laughed again. “Just now. And to answer your question,
I most certainly am. I want Ol’ Halfpaw stuffed so I can put him in the foyer of the new log house my father is going to have built for Diana and me after we get married.”

“You told your parents about Diana?”

“Of course not. But my father said whenever I get married, he will buy my wife and me the ranch property he and I have agreed on, and build us a log house on it. He just doesn’t know how very, very soon he’s gonna have to put wheels to his promise.”

Knight ran fingers through his dark, wavy hair. “And William Shaw figures when it does happen, it’ll be you and Belinda.”

“Yeah. It’ll be a shock for him all right, as well as for my mother and the rest of the family. And for Belinda and her family, too. But it can’t be helped, Knight. It’s Diana I want, not Belinda.”

“I understand.”

Rising to his feet, Jordan said, “Well, I’ve got to head for home. I’m looking forward to introducing you to Diana.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting her,” said Knight, leaving his chair to walk his friend to the front door of the building.

That evening during supper, Jordan Shaw looked at his father across the table and said, “I’ve got my work all caught up, so I’m going to take tomorrow off and go hunting in the mountains.”

“Fine,” William said, nodding. “Bring us home a big elk this time, okay?”

“Whatever you say,” Jordan said with a smile.

“Is Knight going with you, dear?” Sylvia asked.

“Not this time, Mother. I asked him, but he can’t get away from the paper right now.”

“Isn’t there someone else who could go with you? I feel better when I know you’re not out there alone.”

“I’ll be fine, Mother. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’ll try, but you know how mothers are.”

“Sure, and I love you for it.”

There were a few minutes of silence as they continued eating, then William said, “Son, I haven’t seen you with Belinda for a while. You two haven’t broken up, have you?”

Jordan had to bite his tongue to keep from saying there was nothing to break up, but he silently shook his head, then said, “Would you pass the gravy, Father?”

William and Sylvia looked at each other questioningly. William handed his son the gravy bowl.

“Thanks,” said Jordan. He wanted to tell his father they should go ahead and purchase the ranch property they had agreed on, for him and Diana, but he knew it was best to wait until his parents had met her and knew she was his bride-to-be.

Excitement coursed through Jordan as he anticipated bringing Diana to the house to meet them. The event was only three days away!

The next morning there were two inches of fresh snow on the ground, but the sky was clearing as Jordan mounted his horse at sunrise and rode north with his rifle in the saddleboot.

Soon he was winding his way among the leafless willows and blue spruce of the foothills, squinting into the sun glare that came off the towering peaks above him. He had one goal in mind. Find Ol’ Halfpaw and kill him. If he did, he would have to ride back to the ranch and get a few men to bring a wagon and help him load the bear so he could take him to the taxidermist in Ketcham.

As the horse carried him higher, Jordan’s thoughts were on Diana Morrow. He tried to picture in his mind what she looked like. He told himself that as sweet as she was, she just had to be pretty. Was she blond? Brunette? Redhead? He could hardly wait to find out.

“Just two days,” he said with a sigh, then tried to imagine the look that would be on the faces of his parents when he introduced Diana to them Thursday afternoon as his prospective mail order bride.

He grinned to himself as he pictured the look that would be on Belinda’s face when she found out he was getting married to someone else.

Soon Jordan hauled up in front of the old abandoned cabin where he had spent so much time in the past several years.
Dismounting, he took the rifle from the saddleboot and looked around for pawprints in the snow, knowing that the big black bear often moved through the area.

He had seen Ol’ Halfpaw’s prints in the snow around the cabin twice since he had shot off the two claws. But this time, there were only the small, deep prints which gave evidence that deer had passed by the cabin since the last snowfall. Since the snow was calf deep, Jordan decided to ride his horse rather than wear himself out plodding higher on foot.

“Okay, boy,” he said, swinging into the saddle. “Let’s go see if we can find that big black beast.”

The sun was almost to its apex in the cobalt blue sky when Jordan was slowly making his way through a snowbank a few hundred yards below timberline.

Suddenly, movement among the shadows of the trees just ahead caught Jordan’s eye. He stiffened in the saddle, focusing on the spot as he jacked a cartridge into the chamber of his rifle. There was more movement, and his heart leaped in his chest as he saw a black bear in the deep shadows.

He quickly slid from the saddle and tied the reins to a birch tree. Looking back toward the area where he had seen the bear, he began plodding up the steep slope as quietly as possible, moving stealthily among the trees.

The bear had vanished from view, but Jordan’s determination to find and kill Ol’ Halfpaw was a living thing in his heart. His back stiffened when the black bear moved from the shadows into the sunlight, sniffing the air. He quickly shouldered the rifle, but as he took aim, he saw that the bear was much smaller than Ol’ Halfpaw. It took only a few seconds to tell that it was a female.

Disappointment flooded through him.

He had hoped that the day had finally come when he could bag his most desired trophy.

Then he jumped as he heard his horse eject a shrill whinny, and wheeled around to see what had frightened him. His heart leaped in his chest when he saw a huge male black bear no more than thirty yards away. The beast was looking straight at Jordan, and when he rose up on his hind legs and released a threatening roar,
Jordan clearly saw that half of the right paw was missing.

It’s him!
he thought, as his whole body began to shake from the sheer excitement he was feeling.

His moment had come!

Ol’ Halfpaw released a loud, angry roar, tossing his head with nostrils flaring and eyes bulging, and lurched directly toward the man he had chosen as his prey.

Jordan lifted the rifle to his shoulder with trembling hands—not from fear, but from eager anticipation of fulfilling his dream of killing and stuffing the huge beast so he could display him as his prize trophy.

Ol’ Halfpaw was propelling his massive body through the snow with shocking speed.

Jordan tried to steady his hands as he squeezed the trigger. The rifle bucked against his shoulder as it spit fire, but the bullet missed its mark, whizzing past the bear’s big, wide head. This infuriated him, and he ejected a bloodcurdling roar as he bore down on his prey.

Hurriedly, Jordan jacked another cartridge into the chamber and raised the weapon to his shoulder.

When suppertime came at the Bar-S ranch, Sylvia stood at the kitchen window, looking toward the barn, hoping to see her son come riding in.

William stood behind her and said, “Now honey, don’t let it worry you. Jordan is an experienced hunter. He’s fine. He’ll show up any minute.”

Sylvia turned to face her husband. “I just wish he wouldn’t go hunting alone.”

“But he’s been hunting by himself since he was sixteen. He knows what he’s doing.”

“I know, but I just like it better when he has someone with him. Especially Knight.”

“Come on,” said William. “Supper’s getting cold.”

By the time the meal was over and Sylvia was carrying plates, bowls, and cups to the cupboard, she was almost in tears.

William slipped up behind her, put an arm around her waist, and said, “Honey, maybe Jordan bagged that elk I told him to get, or even a deer, late in the afternoon. And rather than drag it all the way home behind his horse in the dark, he’s probably staying at the old cabin for the night and will come home in the morning.”

Looking up at him with tears in her eyes, Sylvia said, “You really think that’s it?”

“Could very well be. Like I said, he’s an experienced hunter.”

At noon the next day, when William came into the house for lunch, he found his wife pale and quite upset.

Taking hold of her husband’s upper arms, Sylvia said, “I can’t stand this any longer, William. I want you to send a couple of ranch hands up to the cabin to see if Jordan is there.”

“Honey,” said William, patting her cheek, “we mustn’t panic, here. Our son can handle himself. Maybe he didn’t get anything yesterday, so he’s going after his game today. Let’s give it a little time. He’ll probably be home before sundown.”

After lunch, William drove a wagon into Elkton to buy supplies, and as he was pulling the wagon up in front of Crum’s Feed and Grain, he saw Knight Colburn coming his way on the boardwalk.

Hopping out of the wagon, he lifted a hand to Knight. Knight said, “Howdy, William. Did Jordan bag anything yesterday?”

“Well, I don’t know. He hasn’t come home yet, so I figure he must not have. He’s probably trying again today.”

Knight chuckled. “Good ol’ Jordan. He’s got determination, I’ll say that for him.”

The two men chatted for a few minutes, then Knight moved on down the street, and William entered the feed store.

When William returned home and entered the house, he found Sylvia in their bedroom weeping.

Sitting down beside her, he said, “Honey, you mustn’t let Jordan’s tardiness upset you so.”

“I can’t help it,” she sobbed, looking up at him with red-rimmed,
tear-filled eyes. “I’m just worried sick. I’m afraid something has happened to him. It just isn’t like him to be this long getting home.”

“Hey, wait a minute, Mother Shaw,” William said, playfully clipping her jaw lightly with his fist. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

“How many times in the last six or seven years has Jordan gone hunting alone for what was supposed to be a day, and the day turned into anywhere from two to four days?”

Sylvia sighed and shook her head. “You know, I must have pushed those times somewhere into the back of my mind. Of course. You’re right. I shouldn’t be getting so upset. He’s done this before, actually more times than I can say.”

William leaned down, kissed her cheek, and said, “That’s my girl. You just keep a grip on that. Jordan will probably come riding in here tomorrow sometime, dragging an elk carcass behind him.”