Page 36 of Wellspring
“Yeah,” Cade said grimly. “After a night shift, Mac’s ugly mug is usually first in line.” He gulped the last of his coffee. “Are you riding Zephyr or the paint today? I’ll get the horses ready while you finish eating.”
Erick stuffed the last piece of bread on his plate into his mouth and swallowed it quickly.
“Zephyr, but I will saddle him. He has not been handled as much since I started working with the mustangs, and I would not want him to kick or bite you.” He had hopes of getting his hands on Cade’s body again later, and letting his horse injure him would hardly be conducive to those plans.
“Let’s go, then. It’s probably nothing, but I won’t sit easy until I see them safe with my own eyes.”
They headed to the barn and readied their horses with an economy of movement that spoke of their agitation and then they were on their way, retracing their route from the night before at almost the same speed.
They found Logan and MacRae in the same place they had left them. “You weren’t at breakfast,” Cade said, half observation, half question.
“Sorry to worry everyone, but we saw riders on the fence line just before dawn and didn’t want to leave the herd unattended,” Logan said.
“Now that you’re here, we’ll head back in and let everyone know we’re safe and what happened.
I know you always do, but keep a sharp eye out today. I’ve got a bad feeling.”
So did Erick, but he kept it to himself, nodding at MacRae and Logan as they mounted and rode away.
He turned his attention to Cade, who sat at seeming ease on his horse, but Erick had come to know him well enough to sense the coiled tension beneath his calm mien.
“You must instruct me in what to do.” He brought Zephyr to a walk beside the smaller buckskin.
“Depends on whether Kit’s bad feeling is right,” Cade replied.
“If it isn’t, we keep each other in sight and keep an eye on the herd.
If it is, we deal with whatever happens the best we can.
And we hope like hell Kit’s wrong because even if his bad feeling is a stampede instead of JR hands causing trouble, two of us against several hundred head of cattle is pretty bad odds. ”
Erick regretfully set aside his hope of sharing any intimacy with Cade. Perhaps another day they might steal some time together, but he would not put Cade or the herd at risk by contributing anything but his full attention to their surroundings.
Fortunately the morning was quiet. They spotted a section of downed fence tie, but it did not appear that any of the cattle had jumped the sagging rails, and Cade was able to repair it with a few nails and a small mallet from his saddlebag.
They dismounted long enough for a quick lunch of sandwiches Javier had provided to Cade.
Instead of sitting across from Erick as he’d done during their trip to Wellspring, Cade sat down close enough that their thighs touched, bringing back thoughts of the day before.
Erick leaned into Cade’s side as they ate, relishing the opportunity to be close to Cade with no one around.
The eager way Cade lifted his face for a kiss only reinforced Erick’s delight at the chance.
Sooner than he would have liked, Cade sighed and rose.
Erick followed, duty reasserting itself, and they were riding again.
The dry, flat land all looked the same to Erick, but Cade pointed out features like the line of scrubby trees that marked the creek’s path and described a remote waterfall on the south side of the ranch where he promised to take Erick one day.
He also showed Erick the mounds of dirt thrown out from the burrows of prairie dogs.
To Erick’s delight, one of the creatures popped out of its hole to chitter at them, and Cade laughed at his excitement.
“Not enough meat to make ’em worth shooting,” he said. “Just be careful your horse don’t step in one of their holes. It could bust a leg.”
Erick wouldn’t wish that on any horse, and especially not on a horse like Zephyr, so he kept an eye out for the holes as they continued their ride. While Cade still had so much to teach him, he delighted in being able to ride with him as a near-equal.
He couldn’t have said, later, what set off the knot of cattle grazing a little way off from the rest of the herd, but one minute all was quiet and the next, half a dozen cows and calves had bolted.
Before Erick could react, Cade spurred Nahnia forward, unspooling a long whip from a hook on his saddle.
Its crack rang out across the whole valley as he snapped it over the heads of the runaway animals.
Nahnia raced toward them, Cade moving in concert with him, and then to the side.
The whip cracked again, and the cows veered away from it, beginning to turn back toward the rest of the herd.
Cade’s “hyah” could be heard even over the pounding hooves as he leaned closer over Nahnia’s neck.
If anything, the cow pony seemed to pick up speed as he passed the cattle.
Cade spun Nahnia almost on his heels to face the oncoming rush and cracked the whip again.
The cows shied away from it, and Cade drove forward, sending them back toward Erick and the rest of the herd.
Erick didn’t have a whip, and couldn’t wield it with Cade’s expertise if he did, but he didn’t need to watch helplessly either.
He dug his legs into Zephyr’s side, urging him forward to circle the runaway cattle on the opposite side from Cade.
For a moment he thought the stampeding cows would overrun him, but he stood his ground and echoed the “hyah” Cade had shouted as loudly as he could.
The cows veered away and, bracketed by Cade on one side and Erick on the other, began to trot back toward the rest of the cattle.
The herd mooed and shifted as the runaways rejoined them.
“Thanks for catching them,” Cade said, panting slightly from the exertion of the hard, fast ride.
“You slowed ’em enough they didn’t set off the whole herd.
That woulda been a mess, with just two of us out here trying to stop them.
Let’s hope that’s the worst of Kit’s bad feeling. ”
“I could not let you face them alone,” Erick answered, “though I do not doubt you could have managed them without my help. You were magnificent. Are all cowboys as proficient with a whip as you are, or is that another skill you learned from your adoptive family?”
“No, that’s a skill I learned after I left home,” Cade replied. “The Comanche stampede bison, but they don’t use whips. They’ll shout and wave hides and things to scare them, and then ride alongside to herd them, but that’s all.”
“There is so much I must still learn.” If he could hope to attain half the abilities Cade seemed to embody innately, he would deserve to consider himself a true cowboy.
Still, Cade said he’d had to learn to use a whip, no matter how effortless—and arousing, if Erick were honest with himself—he made it appear now.
With effort, Erick could aspire to become nearly as adept.
“You will.” Cade’s utter confidence resonated in his voice. “Nobody was born knowing all this shit. We all learned it, and you will too.”
Cade drew Nahnia alongside Zephyr, so close his leg brushed against Erick’s, and leaned across the remaining distance. “Anything you need,” Cade said before pulling Erick into a soft kiss.
Erick leaned into the kiss, grateful for the solitude that allowed them this intimacy. “With that incentive,” he asserted, “I will be sure to do so.”
Late in the afternoon, Cade tensed and reached for his bow. Erick unhooked his rifle and set it across his lap as he scanned the horizon to see what had set Cade off. It took several moments of searching before he finally found the black specks on the horizon that resolved into riders.
“I’m tired of them watching us,” Cade said. “Let’s go see what they want.”
“Is that a good idea?” Erick asked.
“Probably not, but as long as we stay on our side of the fence and don’t draw first, they can’t say we started it.” Cade spurred Nahnia into a ground-eating canter. Erick sighed and urged Zephyr to follow.
They rode within a cautious distance before the four riders on the other side of the fence drew their pistols.
Cade reined Nahnia in, and Erick halted Zephyr beside him.
He recognized one of the riders as Adam Carter, and another as the man who had accompanied Reichardt the day he’d appeared at Wellspring to try to coerce Grace into accepting his suit.
He’d been too on edge at the time to remember the man’s name.
Cade had his bow in hand but no arrows, although Erick knew how fast he could put one to the string and shoot. He would bet the JR riders didn’t, but that wasn’t particularly reassuring at the moment. He kept his hands on the reins, taking his cues from Cade for now.
“Did you fellas need something?” Cade asked. “We been seeing you on our fences for a few days now.”
“Just checking the lay of the land,” Carter replied. “Gotta make sure nobody’s going where they don’t belong.”
“Does that go both ways?” Erick asked. “Or does that only apply to Wellspring riders crossing onto JR land?”
Cade shot him a surprised look, but Wellspring was Erick’s home now, and he was as protective of it as he’d ever been of his estate in Prussia.
“Buncha mutts and bitches got no right squatting on land that oughta be part of the JR.” The rider Erick had seen at Wellspring spat a stream of tobacco juice over the fence, barely missing Cade. Erick’s hand dropped to the rifle in his lap, but Cade shook his head.
“We don’t want to be the ones starting anything,” he said quietly, then raised his voice to address the JR riders. “Miz Roarke is the lawful owner of Wellspring, and if we catch any of you trespassing on her land, we’ll have the law on you.”
“You do that,” the man called out, laughing. The whole group of them seemed to find Cade’s threat funny. “I’d like to see Lutz and our crew bash a few of your heads in. Nobody’d miss a few injuns and colored and furriners, would they, boys?”
“Clean the place up for people with the right to run it,” another agreed.
“I’d take any one of those ‘bitches’ and ‘mutts’ and free black men and proud immigrants over any ten of you in a fight any day,” Cade said. “As for Lutz, he ain’t the only law in Texas, just the closest. You’d do well to remember that.”
“You’re one of the first I’d take out, squaw,” the first man retorted.
Erick really needed to learn the lout’s name, because he was going to have a reckoning with him one day. “You are so sure of what you mean to do. Have you taken over from Reichardt, then?”
“Who the fuck are you?” he blustered. “Just off the boat, aintcha? Oughta know better than to take up with trash like this redskin.”
“My name is Erick Heller,” he answered, knowing his accent marked him as an immigrant, as worthless as Cade or the others he had denigrated in the JR hand’s view. “What is yours, my friend?”
“Frank Sanders, and I’m no friend of anyone working for Wellspring.”
“Be assured that your sentiments are wholly reciprocated.” Sanders seemed to be working on whether that was an insult or not.
Erick glanced at Cade. “We should check the rest of the herd, perhaps?” He knew he had no right to give Cade orders, but if he had to listen to Sanders’s ignorant ranting any longer, he was likely to do something he’d regret later.
Cade tugged on Nahnia’s reins, making the horse take a step backward without turning from the fence. Erick would have to teach Zephyr that trick, as it let Cade continue to keep watch while moving away.
The JR outfit jeered, but Erick did his best to ignore them.
Then Sanders pulled his pistol and fired a shot into the ground inches from Nahnia’s hooves.
The horse twitched but didn’t rear. Cade looked over at Erick with a subtle shake of his head as he angled his bow.
“Get ready to run like hell,” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
Erick tensed in the saddle, waiting for Cade’s signal. Almost faster than his eye could follow, Cade grabbed an arrow, drew, and fired, the shot knocking the pistol from Sanders’s hand.
“Go!” he shouted to Erick, wheeling Nahnia and spurring him into a full gallop. Erick leaned low over Zephyr’s neck and did the same.
Shock at Cade’s shot kept the JR outfit from returning fire immediately, but it didn’t take long before shots rang out behind them. Erick ducked even lower, bracing for the possibility of the burn of a bullet in his back, but their adversaries seemed not to have Cade’s aim, fortunately.
Once the gunfire ceased, Erick slowed Zephyr to a walk and glanced over his shoulder.
None of the JR hands had jumped the fence line, though they hadn’t moved off either, continuing to shout taunts and laugh raucously.
Erick’s instincts insisted he do something to drive them away, but unless they crossed onto Wellspring land, he could take no action.
Swallowing his frustration, he resecured his rifle and turned his attention to a much more agreeable sight, his gaze raking Cade’s body for any sign he’d been injured and breathing in relief when he confirmed he was unharmed.
“A most impressive shot. I could not have made it even with a rifle. I assume you meant to hit his gun, of course,” he added, holding back a smile.
“Oh, if I’d meant to hit Sanders, he’d be dead,” Cade said with a tight grin, “but then we’d have a range war on our hands, and Miz Roarke would fire my ass.
As it is, all I did was disarm someone who shot at me first. And I even left him all his fingers.
Which, maybe I shouldna done. Maybe I shoulda shot a couple of ’em off, just to teach him a lesson. ”
“That would make you no better than they are, and you are a finer person than that.” Erick respected how well Cade had reined in his temper when he’d come so close to losing his own. He bit back a sigh. “I like this not. They will not be satisfied with insults and close shots much longer, I think.”
“Kit and Mac will tell Payne about the riders, and we can let him know things have escalated when Chel and Jesse come to take the next watch.” Cade ran a hand through his hair and settled his hat lower on his head. “But you’re right. Things are going to get ugly soon.”
Erick was afraid Cade was right, but there was nothing either of them could do to defuse the situation. They would simply have to stay vigilant and do their best not to inflame matters.