Midnight Lady (2 page)

The young man studied Skeeter, then shrugged. “Roping, I guess. He’s got plenty of muscle in his hindquarters to brace himself and take the weight of a twelve-hundred-pound cow on the end of a rope.”

“And how about Moonpie?” Lisa urged as Hadley returned to the trailer and led the more timid gelding down the ramp. He was good as gold, looking out for Skeeter and going meekly where Hadley led him.

“Cutting,” came the short reply.

“That means TJ can ride the paint and we give Moonpie to Jesse,” Donna decided with a nod of satisfaction. “Which leaves the third bronc for you to train up and ride yourself, Leon!”

They waited eagerly as Hadley tethered Moonpie next to Skeeter inside a rough stockade formed from thick, upright pine poles, then returned to the trailer for the last horse. Eagerly, that is, except for Leon, the moody young man, who scowled behind Donna’s back.

“She’s my favorite of the three!” Kirstie told Donna. “Hadley picked her out because she’s a grade horse, which means she’s part mustang, part quarter horse …” Trotting out Hadley’s earlier description, she caught a glimpse of Lisa’s rolling eyes and exaggerated, bored yawn. Kirstie got her revenge back by giving her friend a quick, sly dig in the ribs.

“Sounds like she has quite a temper.” Donna’s dazzling smile faded slightly as the trailer thundered, rattled, and rocked. Hadley was having a tough time getting Midnight Lady down the ramp.

“I told you to let me drive into San Luis and buy my own horse,” the man called Leon grumbled.

“You may be manager here, Leon, but I’d trust Hadley to make the right choice every time.” Donna put him in his place, then smiled once more in her old friend’s direction. Now all eyes were on the back of the trailer and tension was mounting. “Ever since my husband, Don, passed on three winters back, Hadley’s been an absolute angel to me!”

Hadley, an angel? Kirstie noticed that this time Lisa’s eyes rolled almost out of sight. She noticed, too, that Leon’s scowl had deepened after Donna’s latest tactless remark. But there was no time to dwell on it, as the drama of getting the reluctant bronc out of the trailer developed.

“Kirstie, see if you can grab a bunch of hay and stand where she can see it!” Hadley yelled from inside.

Thinking fast, she pointed to the barn, and when Donna nodded back at her, she sped off to get the hay. Grabbing a bunch from a net hanging in the doorway, she returned as fast as she could and positioned herself with outstretched arms at the base of the ramp.

Inside the trailer, Midnight Lady was still kicking up a mighty fuss. She was snorting and stamping, eyeing the ramp as if it was a treacherous trap ready to collapse the moment she set foot on it. Hadley was the main enemy, trying to snare her; Kirstie was laying temptation in her way; and the sky itself looked like it might fall on her if she so much as ventured outside.

“Easy!” Hadley cooed and cajoled with his deep, growling voice. “Easy, girl. Ain’t no one gonna harm you!” He’d deliberately eased off the tension on the lead rope and waited patiently for the mare to calm down. “You take your time, come out when you want to. Kirstie down there’s got a mighty tasty bunch of alfalfa for you to chew on soon as you’re good and ready.”

Kirstie smiled and nodded. “Sure. This here’s a great ranch: your new home. Ain’t nothing bad gonna happen out here.”

Midnight Lady stopped snorting and kicking and started to listen. Her pricked ears picked up the sound of the wind rustling through long grass, the miles of silence.

“Easy,” Kirstie murmured. She saw the young mare give one last shake of her head and a final swish of her silky white tail. Her nostrils caught the scent of the sweet alfalfa. Dipping her head and stretching out her neck, she inched forward.

Kirstie held her hand steady. One step at a time, Midnight Lady eased out of the trailer, her hooves clomping slowly down the ramp, Hadley at her side. Low shafts of golden sunlight hit her dappled coat as she emerged, emphasizing her sleek flanks and rounded rump, her fine, athletic form.

Then, at last, she was nibbling hay from Kirstie’s hand, her soft mouth nipping at the golden strands, her teeth chomping and grinding quietly. Kirstie backed slowly away, enticing the horse clear of the trailer. She gave a sideways glance at Donna, Lisa, and Leon and a short smile.
See! Everything’s gonna be fine. All you need is a little patience.

“Pretty!” Donna stepped forward to inspect her latest buy. “That’s a classy little mare you picked out, Hadley!”

But before she had a chance to examine Midnight Lady in detail, Leon, her scowling manager, cut in. “Jesse, TJ, get out here quick!” he yelled toward the barn. “Bring tarps and extra ropes!”

The harsh sound of his voice made the gray mare raise her head and tug at the halter rope.

Two men came running. One was medium height and build with slicked back fair hair. The other was chubby-faced and unshaven. His black hair was cut short. Both were around twenty years old, carrying coils of rope and small squares of heavy canvas cloth.

Alarmed at the sudden change of mood, Kirstie shot a question at Hadley, who was having to hang on for all he was worth to a spooked Midnight Lady. “What are the tarpaulins for?”

“Later!” Hadley said through gritted teeth. “I got my hands full right now!”

Midnight Lady skittered sideways, away from the new men, pulling Hadley after her. Her eyes rolled as she barged against the nearby fence, then she shot forward.

“Watch out, this one’s a snorter!” Leon yelled. “A real jug-head!”

“Now hold on just a second!” Hadley protested, as Midnight Lady reared up on him. Her hooves flashed down dangerously close to his head. Still he held on tight to the lead rope.

Leon ignored him. “TJ, throw another rope around her neck!” he ordered the round-faced ranch hand.

Roughly TJ obeyed, waiting for the horse to barge herself into a corner before he succeeded in slipping a noose over her head and jerking the rope hard to tighten it.

Midnight Lady squealed and tried to rear.

“There’s no need for that!” Kirstie appealed to Donna Rose. “We’d already gotten her to cooperate!”

But it was too late now. The mare was kicking out in panic while TJ pulled on the rope with all his weight.

“Get her into the stockade with the other two!” Leon cried. He strode to the gate, ordering Jesse to flap the square of tarpaulin against the horse’s hindquarters. The second ranch hand brought the tarp down on Midnight Lady’s back, making her plunge forward in fright. Hadley lost his grip on the lead rope and watched grim faced as the two young hands took over the job of getting the horse into the stockade. Slowly, with much kicking and squealing, they succeeded in steering her through the gate.

“Good job!” Leon cried as he slammed the gate behind the horse.

Sweating and out of breath, TJ and Jesse congratulated each other with a slap of palms.

Kirstie frowned. She heard Lisa give a small, relieved sigh. Donna Rose, meanwhile, was left with no trace of the earlier smile on her carefully made-up face.

“We seem to have got ourselves a problem breaking that bronc,” she commented quietly as Hadley strode across the yard toward her.

“Slow and easy,” he advised. “You get her to a point where she wants to work for you, and after that you’ve got no problem.”

Nodding hard, Kirstie ran to check that Midnight Lady wasn’t harming herself against the rough poles of the stockade fence. She stood on the bottom bar of the gate and peered in to see the gray horse trotting nervously around the small compound, ears laid flat, nostrils flared. She was looking for a way out, switching direction, wheeling and arching her back in fear.

“C’mon, Kirstie!” Lisa called. “Time to go!”

Kirstie glanced over her shoulder to see Hadley climb into the cab of the trailer. She heard him start up the engine, obviously in a hurry to leave. “Gee, I’m sorry!” she whispered as Midnight Lady veered toward her, then slid to a halt and plunged off in another direction. “We never meant for that to happen.”

The horse reared and dipped, kicked out at the solid fence, ran on.

“Kirstie!” Lisa yelled a second time.

“It’ll be OK, you’ll see,” she promised the frightened mare. “Give yourself a day or two to settle in. We’ll try and get back to see you during the weekend!”

“We’re leaving without you!” Lisa warned, following Hadley into the cab.

One last glance. Midnight Lady stopped short, flung back her head and whinnied. Her white mane whipped across her neck as she swung around…trotting again, sliding to a halt in the dust, swerving …running in vain from the loud voices and tight, harsh ropes of her impatient new owners.

Early July was high season at Half Moon Ranch, and Kirstie’s worries about Midnight Lady were soon pushed to one side by the busy routine of leading dude riders out on the trails, helping to make sure that none of the visitors fell off or got lost on the pine-covered slopes of the Meltwater Range.

“You won’t believe what happened today!” she told Lisa over the phone. It was three days after the visit to Circle R and the two friends hadn’t had a chance to meet up since. “Today’s Sunday, right? Our first day on Five Mile Creek trail with a bunch of beginners. There’s this guy on Crazy Horse, and you know how sweet and easy that horse is. Well, the guy’s never been in a saddle in his life. First time, right? Charlie’s leading the group, and he tells them to walk nice and slow along the side of the creek. But this tough guy at the end of the line wants to act like a cowboy in front of two other guys from his office back in New Jersey.

“So he ignores Charlie and works Crazy Horse straight into a lope. Crazy Horse takes off like a rocket. The guy bounces all over the place and has to hang on to the saddle horn just to stay put. Crazy Horse thinks, ‘I’ll show this jug-head,’ gallops wide of the bunch, and right into the creek. The water sprays up and smacks the guy right in the face. He yells out, tips backward out of the saddle, and rolls into the creek!”

“Hey!” Lisa laughed and appreciated the scene. “What did Crazy Horse do then?”

“He stopped and stood as if butter wouldn’t melt, head to one side like he was asking, ‘Hey, what happened? Was it something I did?’ The guy stood up waist-deep, with water pouring off the brim of his hat, down his face, everywhere. It was squelching out of his boots every step he took as he climbed up the bank! His office pals were doubled over laughing. Charlie said nothing, but the guy had to go back to the ranch to get a change of clothes while the rest of us rode on.”

“And Crazy Horse got the morning off.” Lisa giggled. “Smart horse. Speaking of time off, Kirstie, why don’t you drive into town this afternoon and drop in at the diner? It’s been ages since you came over to my place.”

“Sounds good. I heard Matt say he was planning to drive in, so I could get a ride.” Kirstie’s older brother, Matt, was heading back to Denver to see his girlfriend later that day and could easily drop Kirstie off in San Luis, where Lisa’s mom, Bonnie, ran the End of Trail Diner. “Maybe we could even get him to drive us out as far as Renegade, to take a look at the three broncs we bought for the Circle R.”

“What’s that, a guilty conscience?” Lisa joked.

“No, I kinda had it in mind it’d be nice to see how they’re doing …” Kirstie tailed off. “Yeah, guilty conscience,” she admitted. “I got this sneaking feeling we let Midnight Lady down the day we dropped her off at Donna’s place. I want her to know we care what happens to her.”

“Me, too,” Lisa agreed. She told Kirstie to fix things up with Matt for a lift out to the ranch, while she made arrangements at her end for her mom to pick them up and drive them back. “See you at two thirty!” she ended, bright and breezy. “And, Kirstie, try not to get too stressed out. Midnight Lady’s gonna be just fine, you’ll see!”

“Why not bring Lisa back to Half Moon with you?” Sandy Scott called from the ranch house porch. “Tell her she can stay over for a few days if she’d like.”

“Thanks, Mom!” Kirstie gave her a smile and a wave as she sank into the passenger seat of Matt’s beaten-up, pale blue Chevy. The invitation meant that she and Lisa would be able to ride out together, away from the trails worn smooth by the guests. They would take her own palomino horse, Lucky, use Matt’s horse, Cadillac, for Lisa, and head for remote spots like Eden Lake or Bear Hunt Overlook, maybe bushwhacking cross-country through shadowy glades, above the snow line to Eagle’s Peak.