Gabriel awakened just before sunup the next morning. The pain in his lower back was less excruciating and he knew now he could tolerate it. Pulling on his boots, he gently stretched the stiffness from his muscles then left the barn and walked slowly to the water trough.
The sun was still below the eastern horizon, while overhead a sliver of moon still lingered in the cloudy, lavender-gray sky. A cool, dry breeze off the desert washed over his face, tugging at his unruly black hair. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the fragrance of candlewood and desert lilies, and expelled it in a long deep sigh of satisfaction.
For the first time in three days he felt truly alive. Ever since he had ridden away from Cally’s sister, Ellen, who had begged him to let her take him to a doctor, he’d expected to die. He had hung on for as long as he could, all sense of time and reality suspended in his mind. But as his life-blood slowly drained from him, saturating his shirt and reddening the flanks of the Morgan, he’d gradually lost consciousness.
But every man has a time to die and this hadn’t been Gabriel’s. And now, thanks to strangers, here he was, alive and on the mend.
As he bent over the trough he saw the moon floating on the surface of the water. He playfully poked it with his finger and the reflection dissolved into shimmering ripples. Splashing cold water on his face, he straightened up and patted himself dry with his kerchief.
High overhead, a hawk screeched. He looked up and saw it, wings outspread, drifting on a thermal as it searched the desert for breakfast.
Off to his left the circular vane of the old, patched windmill creaked in the wind above the well. It reminded him of yesterday, of how the woman’s quick thinking had saved his life a second time, and he looked at the cabin, hoping to see Ingrid standing in the door beckoning him in for breakfast. But the door was closed and no light showed inside. Glumly, he realized he’d have to wait a little longer for his coffee.
As he walked to the barn he heard a familiar snorting behind him, followed by pounding hoofs. Whirling, he looked at the corral – in time to see the Morgan charging toward the fence. A collision seemed inevitable. But at the last instant the stallion leaped, effortlessly clearing the fence. It landed and without breaking stride charged toward him. Its teeth were bared and there was red fire in its eyes and Gabriel knew the horse intended to run him down.
There was nowhere to hide and in his condition it was useless to try and run; so Gabriel stood there, wishing he hadn’t left his Colt in the barn, watching the stallion rushing at him.
‘C’mon, you black devil,’ he yelled at it. ‘Do your goddamn worst!’
The stallion was almost on him now. Gabriel felt the ground trembling underfoot. He tensed himself for the blow. But it never came. At the last instant the charging Morgan swerved, narrowly missing Gabriel, its body so close that its flowing tail whipped him across the chest.
Relieved, and at the same time angered by the stallion’s erratic behavior, Gabriel watched it stop a short distance past him. He expected it to charge him again. Instead it reared up, front legs pawing at the air and whinnied triumphantly – as if, Gabriel thought, to remind him who was really the boss.
‘I knew he was foolin’ with you,’ a small voice said.
Gabriel turned and saw Raven approaching from the desert, slingshot in one hand and two dead rabbits in the other.
‘That so? Know all about horses, do you?’
‘Not all,’ she said, unfazed by his sarcasm. ‘But enough to know a bluff when I see one.’
‘Maybe you’d feel a mite different if you were standin’ right in front him.’
‘I doubt it,’ she said brashly. ‘Brandy tried to ramrod me for a spell yesterday while we were hiding in Furnace Canyon. But once he saw I wasn’t gonna get riled up like you do, he soon got his manners back. Did you know he likes piñon nuts?’ she added. ‘Well, he does. Lots. In fact if I was you, mister, I’d fill my pockets with ’em and then maybe you’d be able to win him over like I did.’
Gabriel was tempted to hold her over his knee and spank the daylights out of her.
Raven, sensing she’d gone too far, got ready to take off. ‘Had a dog like him once,’ she said. ‘A Mescalero named Two Bears gave him to me. Well, that ain’t entirely true. Apaches were gonna eat him so I stole him ’fore they could. But you think that mutt was grateful? Heck, no. Used to growl and snap at me whenever I got too close. I took a switch to him a few times but it only made him worse. Got so I almost quit taking him hunting with me—’
‘If you’re tryin’ to make a point,’ Gabriel broke in irritably, ‘now’d be the time to get to it.’
‘He saved my life, that’s the point, mister. Got himself all tore up by a mountain lion just to give me time to run away.’
‘Brave dog, all right. But with Brandy you’re mistaking courage for meanness. He wouldn’t fight a mountain lion for me. He’d sooner watch me get all chewed up.’
‘That so?’ Raven said in the same tone he’d used earlier. ‘Well, if that’s how you figure it, mister, reckon there’s no use in me telling you ’bout how many miles he carried you without water when you was all shot up … or how many buzzards he kept from pecking your guts out till Momma an’ me got back with the wagon. No sirree. I mean I’m just a runt of a girl. Wouldn’t be right for me to tell a growed man how wrong he was, now would it?’ Whistling insolently, she walked off to the cabin.
‘Hold up, missy.’
Raven turned and saw respect had replaced the anger in Gabriel’s pale blue eyes.
‘I’m obliged to you for bringin’ that to my attention. Some times even a “growed man” gets to thinking so much ’bout himself he forgets how much he owes others around him.’ With a tip of his hat, he headed back to the barn.
‘Wait….’ Raven, impressed by his response, held the dead rabbits up by their ears. ‘Wanna help me skin these?’
‘Only if I get to help you eat ’em.’
‘Deal.’
That night they ate rabbit stew for supper. Ingrid flavored it with onions or ‘skunk eggs’ as Gabriel called them, carrots, potatoes and herbs, all from her garden, and as an extra treat whipped up flour dumplings. She also intended to bake a pie. But Raven surprised her by offering to make one for her – ‘You got so much else to do, Momma.’
‘Well, thank you, lamb. That would be most helpful.’ Ingrid, not fooled by her daughter’s unusual eagerness to help, got an even bigger surprise when just before Gabriel arrived Raven walked out of the bedroom with her hair brushed and wearing her one and only Sunday dress. It had been so long since Ingrid had seen her in anything but frayed jeans and a soiled boy’s shirt that her mouth fell open.
‘Why you gaping at me like that?’ Raven demanded. ‘It’s nothing but a silly old gingham dress.’
‘And very pretty you look in it, too. I’m sure Mr Moonlight will be delighted—’
‘I’m not wearing it for him, Momma. I just felt like putting it on is all. So don’t go making a big fuss out of it.’
There was a knock on the half-open door and Gabriel poked his head in. ‘Hope I’m not too early,’ he said when Ingrid beckoned him in. ‘But the smell of that pie baking got my mouth to waterin’—’ He stopped, surprised, as he saw Raven in her primrose dress and then turned to Ingrid. ‘You didn’t tell me you were invitin’ a lady to supper.’
‘That’s because I wasn’t aware of it myself,’ she said, smiling. ‘Puts us all to shame, doesn’t she?’
‘All right,’ Raven scowled. ‘Dang it, that’s enough. You two can quit your teasing now or I’m gonna take this dumb thing off.’
‘Why, bless me, it’s Raven,’ Gabriel deadpanned. ‘I never would’ve guessed.’
‘I’m warning you, mister.’
‘Now, now,’ Ingrid soothed. ‘That’s enough. Let’s all be nice and polite and sit down to supper. But I feel obliged to tell you,’ she added to Gabriel. ‘The berry pie you mentioned – I didn’t bake it. Raven did.’
Gabriel arched his brows, impressed. ‘Well, ain’t you a daisy. Territory’s full of pretty women but a pretty woman who can bake a pie smells like that – now that’s a rare commodity an’ somethin’ a fella would find hard to resist.’
Raven blushed, murmured ‘good-God-almighty’ under her breath and ran into the bedroom.
Amused, Ingrid whispered to Gabriel. ‘I fear she has a crush on you.’
‘I’m flattered. But I don’t want her missin’ supper over it.’
Ingrid motioned for him to remain seated and entered the bedroom. Shortly she reappeared, pushing Raven ahead of her.
‘Now,’ she said when they were all seated. ‘Perhaps you’d be kind enough to lead us in prayer, Mr Moonlight.’
‘My pleasure, ma’am. And please, call me Gabe.’