Much Ado About Mavericks (15 page)

“Old Harley is honest as the day is long, Jake.  He and my father had their run-ins, but I daresay most of those problems
were
of Ezra’s making, not Harley’s.”

“You forget who’s fixin’ to own the Bar EL if you don’t learn how to rope.  Blacker.  What man wouldn’t want a profitable ranch to fall in his lap?”

Ben knew one man
—
himself
—
but Jake would never understand that.  He sat down beside her and rubbed her back.  For once, the she didn’t shy away or slug him.  Maybe she wasn’t made of stone, after all. 

“None of this will matter, Jake.  We’ll get this rock out of the creek and we’ll go on.  The roundup will start on schedule, and you’ll get clear title to the Circle J.”

Grimacing, she said, “Them hoof prints?  They’re Fred’s sorrel gelding.”

“You sure?”

“Dead sure.”  She looked at him, the shadows on her face emphasizing her worry.  “The morning will bring answers.  It always does.”

Answers.  Ben had been collecting questions ever since he’d arrived at Henderson Flats.  Would he be happy married to Patience?  He’d never thought of it before.  Patience was the perfect match for him, would give him credibility in society, and her daddy would make Ben a f
ull partner.  He’d thought that wa
s all he wanted.  But he wished Patience could have the intelligence and determination of Jake. 

None of the women he’d met did. 

Only Jake.

*   *   *   *   *

An hour later, after
Jake
downed
a satisfying supper of beef stew and biscuits,
she gave orders for all the men to get to bed.  “The
morning
sun don’t wait for sleepyheads and shirkers.”

Whip doused the fire, but left the coffee in the pot for the night watch.  The others cleared the rocks so they could spread their bedrolls.  Jake
placed
hers as far away from Ben’s as she could, but he
found
reasons to move closer
—
a rock in the wrong place, or the moon shining in his eyes. 

She knew it was all bullshit.  He just wanted to be near her in order to keep on bothering her like he had since the first moment she’d laid eyes on him.  Her back still tingled with warmth where he’d caressed her while they were sitting on the rock.

Of all the men she’d known
—
and men had been her only friends since she was a toddler--only Ben had chased her like a man would chase a normal woman.  Well, he had a big disappointment on the way, because she’d never drop her drawers for him or any other man. 

Nor would she ever be a prissy woman chained to the stove with squalling brats to feed.  That was for women like Suzanne who didn’t know the freedom of the range, who hadn’t felt a breeze cool her neck on a scorching summer day, who hadn’t gone skinny-dipping in a pond no one else knew about.

No, she liked her life jim-dandy just the way it was, and she wouldn’t change for a fancy-mouthed
Boston
lawyer.  Especially for a
Boston
lawyer. 

He’d never understand her.  He’d never understand the satisfaction of herding cattle in the hot sun with
alkali
dirt sticking to his lips and sweat running down his back.  And she’d never understand how a man with a ranch as fine as the Bar EL could even think about sitting behind a desk in some obnoxious, smelly big city.

As she drifted off to sleep, she could feel Ben’s nearness.  Instead of moving away, she let herself enjoy the soft tingles that settled where only a saddle had ever touched.  He wouldn’t be in Henderson Flats for long, and after that, her life would be the same as always.

At the clank of the pans, Jake bolted upright cursing herself for sleeping in.  But the only light came from the moon, and in the next moment she realized there was someone in the camp.  With slow, quiet movement, she eased her Colt out of its holster and pulled her feet under her in a squat, ready for action and watching for movement.

A dog yipped and Jake heard someone shush it.  She suspected the culprit was hiding behind the clump of sagebrush on the other side of Ben.  She tapped him with the barrel of her pistol, then put her hand over his mouth to hush him.  “We got a camp robber,” she whispered when he opened his eyes.  “Cover me.”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against him, nuzzling her neck.

“Wake up,
Boston
!”

“Hmm?’ he grunted, then nibbled her earlobe.

“Quit that or I’ll whap you up along side your head.  There’s robbers.  Now come on.”

Finally awake, he pulled his boots on.  “Where?”

She pointed to the sagebrush.  “Over there.”

Satisfied that he’d follow, she crept behind a pile of boulders and waited for him to catch up.  “You flush the rapscallion out--I’ll nick him once I get a clean shot.”

“You can’t just shoot people without finding out why they’re here,” he whispered.

“Watch me.”

Ben sighed, but crept toward to the clump of sagebrush with the hope that she wasn’t too fast on the trigger.  A flash of white caught his attention and he froze, keeping his gaze locked on the very spot he first saw it, then quietly inched nearer.  When he was only a few feet away, he leapt and grabbed the culprit.  “What the hell are you doing here?” he yelled.

Ben could hear the air escaping from the weasel’s lungs, then realized he was wrestling with an extremely tiny ferocious body, kicking, clawing, and scratching.  The dog growled, then Ben was nearly deafened by a
WOOF
not three inches from his ear.

“Get.  Off,” a shrill young voice pleaded.

He eased up, but kept a strong hold on her arms so that those sharp elbows wouldn’t make contact again.  “Hold your fire, Jake, and bring a lantern.”  The dog chomped down on Ben’s pantleg, tugging and growling.

While he waited for Jake, Ben had all he could do to keep the child’s feet from impaling themselves on his shins.  “Calm down, kid.  I’m not going to hurt you.”

Woof!  His other ear was deafened.  Nothing like a matched set.

“You’re a
man
,” the wiggling child cried, and proceeded to kick the hell out of him all over again.

He wondered how such a small creature could have a dozen arms and legs as he held both wrists in one hand and flailed around trying to catch the flying feet.   “Stop it, or I’ll hog-tie you,” he grumbled.  The dog ripped a chunk from his shirt.

Just then, Jake brought the lantern, illuminated a squirmy, dirty little girl and her equally mangy dog.  “Quiet!”

The girl stilled.  The dog looked at Jake and wagged its tail.  Ben could have sworn the shaggy black mutt smiled.

“Will you get off me now?” the girl said, pushing away from him.

“Will you stop kicking me?”

“All right,” Jake said sternly, “behave yourselves.  The both of you.”

Ben let go of the girl and she walloped him too close to his jewels for comfort, then ran.  Jake grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.  While he got his air back, Jake sat the girl on a rock and squatted beside her.  “What’s your name?”

“Ain’t saying.”

Jake shrugged.  “Well, it don’t make no mind to me.  I guess I’ll just call you . . . Ruth.”

“That ain’t my name.”

“You best get used to it, ‘cause until you tell me your real name, I’m calling you Ruth.”

“Let me go.  Me’n Pokie gots somewhere to go.”

“Not until you eat.  You’re skin and bones,
Ruth
.”

“I told you, I ain’t Ruth.”

“And I told you, that’s what I’m calling you.”  She led the girl over to the dying campfire.  “Want some coffee?”

“Kids don’t drink coffee.”

“Now, there you go.  Did I ever say you was a kid?  No, I did not.  Now do you want some coffee or not.”  Jake saw her eyeing the biscuits and handed her one.  She grabbed it and stuffed it in her mouth like a wild animal.  “Been a while since you ate last?”

The girl’s mouth was completely full, but she grabbed another biscuit and made ready to stuff it in.

“Slow down there, Ruth.” 

“Ahm nah
ruuuph
!”

Jake tossed a biscuit to the dog, who swallowed it in one gulp.  “Well, tell me your name, then.”  She offered the coffee again.  “You’d better get a little liquid in you, or your guts’ll tie up in knots.”

Ben stood back, marveling at Jake’s ability to tame the little hellion.  Her dress was ragged and so dirty that he couldn’t even tell what color it was.  Every square inch of her skin was covered with dirt, and her dark hair was tangled in clumps.  She needed a lot of cleaning up--and so did her attitude.  He wondered what could make a young child so bitter.

Teddy crawled out of his bedroll.  “Who’s that, Jake?  Want me to shoot her?”

“This here’s a stray.  Her name’s Ruth and she don’t need shooting just yet.  I’m about ask her if she wants to hire on with the Bar EL.”

“Hell, no!  We don’t need no more hands.  You already got me and Homer.”

“I ain’t Ruth!”
The little girl’s gaze cast darts at Jake, then the boys.

“No cussing till you’re twelve, young man.”  Jake waggled her finger at
Teddy
.  “You know the rule.”  She turned to the girl.  “Now Ruth, we don’t cotton to stinking cowhands.  If you hire on with us, you’ve got to take a bath and comb that mop of yours.”

Teddy eyed the girl up and down.  “She’s too scrawny.  ‘Sides, she ain’t got no name.”

The girl glowered at him and held out her arm, bending it at the elbow.  “I gots muscles.  Lots of ‘em.  And my name’s Henrietta, dumbshit, and if you don’t call me that, I’ll punch you in the nose.”

Ben thought it wise to step in before Teddy and Henrietta came to blows.  “Where are your parents?”

“Don’t know.”

Jake stepped between Ben and Henrietta.  “She don’t need no parents.  She can live with me and the strays at the Circle J.”

“You can’t just take her, not knowing if her parents are looking for her.”

Henrietta ran around Jake and stuck her lip out at Ben.  “She ain’t.”

“She?”  He squatted beside her.  “Do you only have a mama?”

“Oh, I got a daddy, all right.  Lots of ‘em.”

“So where’s your mama?  I bet she’s worried sick about you.”

“Nope.  She said Pokie couldn’t live there, so I said I didn’t want to live there, neither, and she said she couldn’t feed our hungry yaps and that I talk too damned much and that I bothered her menfolk when they came for a poke.”  Folding her arms over her chest, Henrietta glowered at Ben.  “So my doggie and me left and that’s that, and I ain’t going back.  So there.”

“No cussing till you’re twelve,
Ruth
,” Teddy said.  “That’s Jake’s rule.”

Henrietta flew at him, tackling him midair, punching and kicking.  “I said my name’s Henrietta, and you better call me that, pipsqueak.”  She bent his arm behind his back and Teddy howled.  “Say it.  Say ‘Henrietta’.”

“Henry!” he croaked.

The girl gave him one last kick and stood.  “That’ll do.”

Teddy got up and dusted himself off.  “We don’t need her, Jake.”

Jake brushed the dirt out of his hair.  “There’s always something to do.  You got more chores than you know what to do with.  And she don’t have nowhere else to go.  You can show her what to do.”

She kneeled beside the girl.  “Henry, you gotta tell me who your mama is or I can’t take you.  I don’t want no mad mamas kicking my ass.”

“Busty Birdie.  But she won’t mind me going with you.  She don’t want me’n Pokie.”

Ben motioned for Jake to step out of hearing range of the children.  “You can’t just take a child from her mother.  It’s not legal.”

“Maybe not legal, but it’s right.”

“You can’t know that.  She might have a nice home.”

“She does.  The Circle J.”  Jake rolled her eyes.  “Listen,
Boston
, if she had a ‘nice home,’ she wouldn’t be starved half to death out here in the middle of nowhere with her mangy dog
.
  It don't make no sense a’tall that she’d run off if she was happy.  And anyone can tell that she ain’t been fed or clothed right for a long time.”

Ben couldn’t remember when he’d ever come across a more contrary woman.  Or stubborn.  “All right.  You take her, but I’m going to visit her mother to see if she wants her back.”

“Wanting and having are two different things.  Henry’s staying with me.”  She spun on her heel and headed back toward the kids.  “Teddy, get back to bed--we got a big day tomorrow.  Henry, come with me.  You can sleep in my bedroll.”

“My horse is up the hill.  She’ll mope if I don’t sleep with her.”

“I’ll go get her and hobble her with the rest of the horses.”

“Oh, Trick don’t know she’s a horse.  I’ll stay with her.”