CHAPTER 38
Big Rock
Clouds of dust hung in the air along the siding where Sugarloaf cowboys were loading the horses into livestock cars. When the train bound for Cheyenne arrived later that morning, it would pick up those cars and start the horses on their long, roundabout trip to their new home in Montana.
Denny and Cal sat on horseback, watching the loading. The mounts Bob Coburn was buying were well-behaved, but if any of them got spooked and tried to break away, Denny and Cal were there to head them off.
The operation went smoothly, though, which came as no surprise to Denny. She knew that Cal hired top hands for the Sugarloaf crew.
That included Steve Markham, who was doing a good job getting horses up a ramp into one of the cars. Denny found herself keeping an eye on him more than she should. She knew she ought to be supervising the entire crew.
“Can I speak plainly, Miss Denny?”
“Of course you can, Cal. You’re my pa’s foreman, and besides, like Smoke said, you’re practically a member of the family. One thing, though . . . You’re going to have to stop calling me Miss Denny. Might be times out on the trail when you’ll need to get my attention or tell me something in a hurry, and there’s no point in wasting time with that ‘miss’ business.”
He nodded and said, “All right, Denny. What I’ve got to say is about Steve Markham.”
She felt her face growing a little warm. Cal must have noticed the way she was watching him. She vowed not to let herself get distracted like that in the future. This trip was for business, not pleasure.
Cal went on. “Once Miss Sally got better and Smoke decided you could go along with those horses to Montana, I expected him to tell me that Markham wasn’t going. But he didn’t say a thing about it.”
“He didn’t say anything to me, either, and I was a little surprised by that,” Denny admitted. “But Steve’s a good hand, and Pa knows it. It makes sense that he’d want good hands to deliver the horses.”
“I reckon,” Cal said with a shrug. “But that was up to him, and I’m not in the habit of second-guessing Smoke’s decisions.” His voice got a little harder and flatter. “I’m also not in the habit of being a chaperone. Whatever happens between you and Markham, I’m not getting mixed up in it. My job’s to get those horses safely to the Circle C, and that’s all I’m concerned about.”
Denny gave him a curt nod. “Good. Like you said, that’s your job. And mine, too, and Steve Markham’s, and everybody else’s who’s going along on the trip. That’s all that’s going to happen, Cal.”
He shrugged again. “Like I said, none of my business.”
Denny could tell that both of them felt uncomfortable, but in a way, she was glad that Cal had brought up the subject. Now they had cleared the air, and they could put the whole thing behind them.
Gene Cunningham, the cowboy Cal had picked for the position of segundo on the journey, rode over to them and reported, “We’ve just about got ’em all loaded and should be ready to close up the cars in just a few minutes, Cal.”
“Thanks, Gene. You boys have done a good job.” Cal took his turnip watch from his pocket and opened it to check the time. “Still an hour or so until the train gets here. Pick a couple of men to keep an eye on these cars and tell the others they can get a beer. One beer. Anybody who comes back here pie-eyed not only won’t go to Montana, he’ll be out of a job, period. We’ll go a little shorthanded if we have to.”
“I don’t reckon you have to worry about that. Everybody likes working for Smoke too much to risk it.”
Cunningham turned his mount and loped back toward the railroad cars and the rest of the crew.
Cal thumbed back his hat and said to Denny, “I reckon I know what you’ll be doing before we pull out.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
He nodded toward the main part of town. Denny turned her head to look in that direction and saw Smoke riding leisurely toward them.
Denny frowned. She had already said her good-byes to her parents and Brad. She’d sat next to her mother’s bed that morning and assured her that she wouldn’t go to Montana if Sally thought it was a bad idea. Denny remembered the quick conversation.
* * *
Sally’s cheeks were still a little pink from the temperature she was running, but her eyes were bright and alert and she had her appetite back. Earlier, she had eaten the breakfast Inez had brought up to her on a tray, and part of a cup of coffee sat on the night table that she picked up and sipped from now and then.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” she assured Denny. “However . . .”
“I sort of figured there might be a however,” Denny said with a smile.
“I’m not sure how proper it is for a young girl to travel all that way, alone with a bunch of cowboys.”
“I’m not that young,” Denny insisted. “I’m a grown woman. And I lived with a gang of outlaws for a while last summer, remember.”
“I certainly haven’t forgotten. I probably never will.”
“But I won’t really be alone,” Denny went on. “Cal is going along, and he’ll look out for me, I’m sure.”
“I trust Cal with my life. But I’m your mother, Denise. I’m going to worry.”
Denny reached out and clasped one of Sally’s hands in both of hers.
“It’s going to be all right. And if it’s Steve Markham you’re concerned about, you don’t need to be. As far as I’m concerned, while we’re gone, he’s just another of the hands.”
* * *
That had been her intention, but she wasn’t sure she could stick to it completely. And Cal, while he would protect her life with his own if it came to that, had just made it clear he wasn’t going to interfere in her love life, no matter what Denny had told her mother.
All of that might be moot, she thought as she nudged her horse into motion and rode toward Smoke. She hoped that him showing up unexpectedly in town didn’t mean that her mother had taken a turn for the worse.
“What’s wrong, Pa?” she asked as she came up to him and reined in. “Is it Ma?”
Smoke shook his head. “No, she’s fine, or as fine as she’s going to be until she’s completely over that sickness. She’s doing so well, in fact, that she told me to come on into town to see you off. I reckon she knew I wanted to.”
“Oh,” Denny said, relieved. “Well, I’m glad to hear it.”
“Brad insisted on coming along, too. He stopped at Goldstein’s, but he’ll be along in a minute.” Smoke shrugged. “I gave him a couple of pennies for candy.”
Denny grinned. “He made you feel guilty about not letting him go to Montana with me, didn’t he?”
“He really wants to go.” Smoke shook his head. “I told him his mother wouldn’t allow it, though. If she and Louis got back and found out that he’d gone traipsing off to Montana, she wouldn’t be happy, I’ll bet.”
“You’re right.” Brad had complained plenty to Denny during the past twenty-four hours about her being allowed to go when he wasn’t. He resented that enough that the good-bye hug he’d given her that morning had been a grudging one. She leaned her head toward the siding and went on. “The horses are loaded. We’re just waiting for the train. Cal let the men go get a beer before they leave.”
“Where’s Markham?”
Denny’s shrug was casual. “Don’t know. With the rest of the boys, I reckon.”
Smoke nodded slowly. “You keep that attitude, this trip ought to work out fine.”
“It will work out fine. Cal and I will see to that.”
Brad rode up then on the blaze-faced horse. He said excitedly, “Look, Denny. Rafael said I could ride him today.”
“He’ll make a good saddle mount for you, Brad. The two of you will sort of grow up together.”
“How about you and Rocket? Did you bring him along?”
Denny laughed and shook her head. “I’m not sure that loco horse will ever grow up. But maybe I’ll work with him some more when I get back from Montana.”
“I still wish I was goin’ with you,” the boy said with a sigh. “The next time you drive horses or cattle somewhere, I get to come along. I’m callin’ that now.”
That would be up to Melanie and Louis, thought Denny, but she didn’t point that out to Brad. Nor did she mention that this might be the last time a crew from the Sugarloaf set off on an old-fashioned drive. The world was moving fast. Pretty soon the railroads would be everywhere, and Denny had heard that there were automobiles on the streets of Denver and Cheyenne.
She and Smoke and Brad chatted for a while longer, then the shrill whistle of a locomotive sounded in the distance. The Sugarloaf hands began drifting back toward the railroad station on foot. They had already loaded their saddle mounts in one of the cars on the siding.
Denny needed to do the same with her horse. “Time to get busy. So long, Pa. Be good, Brad.” She leaned over in the saddle to exchange hugs with both of them, then turned her mount toward the siding. As she rode up to the one car where the doors were still open and the loading ramp still in place, she saw Steve Markham standing nearby.
“You didn’t go get a beer with the others?” she asked as she swung down from the saddle.
“Nope. I volunteered to stay here with Gene and keep an eye on things. I’ll load that horse for you and unsaddle him.”
“I can do that,” Denny said sharply. “I carry my weight when it comes to work.”
“Oh, I never doubted that,” Markham replied with a smile.
“Cal’s the boss, and as far as this trip is concerned, I’m just one of the hands.”
Markham continued smiling, but he looked like he didn’t really believe what Denny had just said.
She felt a brief surge of irritation. “Until we get back, the two of us are just cowboys, Steve. Understand?”
“Sure,” he said, then added in a drawl, “pard.”
Denny growled a curse under her breath and put the horse up the ramp. Steve Markham had better not get any fancy ideas during this trip, she told herself, or he would find himself with all kinds of trouble on his hands.