Dr. Colton laughed. “I see you still have your sense of humor about you. That’s a good sign. That’s a very good sign.” He helped Sally into the carriage, then sat across from her.
Smoke tied Seven on behind the carriage, then climbed into it to sit beside Sally. As Pearlie drove down the main street, people stared in amazement at the fine coach, wondering what it was doing there. Smoke waved at them with the back of his hand.
“Smoke, what on earth are you doing?” Sally asked.
“I am waving at the little people from this fine carriage.”
She laughed hard, then winced with pain and put her hand over her wound.
“Sally, are you all right?” Smoke asked in concern.
“I’m fine,” Sally replied. “Just quit making me laugh out loud like that. It hurts.” She paused and tilted her head. “On the other hand, make me laugh out loud all you want. I need the laughter, and I don’t care whether it hurts or not.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sally was sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of the house. Smoke, Pearlie, and Cal were hovering around her, offering to bring coffee or tea, whichever she might want, a shawl, a footstool, something to read, something to eat.
“For crying out loud,” Sally finally said with a laugh. “Don’t any of you have something else to do? What about the spring roundup? We do have a ranch to run, you know.”
“Yes ma’am. Right now seems like most of the work is findin’ cows and calves that’s got themselves bogged down in mud holes here and there,” Cal said.
“But we’ve brung in some hands for that,” Pearlie said.
“And we’ve got calves to brand,” Cal added.
“You’re turning all that over to temporary help?” Sally asked.
“No ma’am, we’re goin’ to be out there. Someone needs to be ram roddin’ it.”
“By someone, you mean you?”
“Yes, ma’am, I reckon so,” Pearlie answered. “That is, me and Cal.”
“Let me ask you this. Do you plan to actually participate in the roundup? Or is it your intention to spend all the time here, on the porch?”
“Oh, no ma’am, we ain’t goin’ to be spendin’ all our time here on the porch. Fact is, we’re goin’ right now,” Pearlie said. “We was just wantin’ to make sure that if there was some thin’ we could do for you, why we would be here to do it, is all.”
“Going to work would be doing something for me,” Sally said.
“Yes, ma’am.” Pearlie glanced over at Cal. “What are you standin’ around for? We got work to do. We can’t spend the whole day up here, just hangin’ around on the porch.”
“I’m goin’, I’m goin’,” Cal said, hurrying down the porch steps. “What I’m wonderin’ is when you are goin’ to get to work.”
The two young cowboys continued their arguing all the way out to the barn.
“You were a little hard on them, weren’t you, Sally?” Smoke asked with a chuckle, after Pearlie and Cal left.
“Well come on, Smoke, you saw them. Tiptoeing around me, trying to wait on me, like I was an invalid or something.”
“You are an invalid.”
“I’m not an invalid. I’m recovering from a gunshot wound,” Sally said. “You’ve had to recover from a few, I recall.”
“Yes, I have.”
“That’s a temporary thing. Besides, they need to keep themselves busy doing something on the ranch, so they won’t be worrying so much about me. Especially Cal, bless his heart. He feels personally responsible for what happened.”
“Cal feels responsible?”
“Yes.”
“Now what could possibly make him feel responsible ?”
“You know how he is, Smoke. He thinks he let me down because he wasn’t in the bank with me when it happened.”
“That’s foolish. No one expected him to spend every moment with you.”
“Of course it is foolish. But try telling him that.”
Smoke walked over to the edge of the porch and stood, looking out. It was still early morning and the rising sun had painted the clouds in brilliant crimson, sending its rays to turn to gold the sheer walls of the cliffs that protected Sugarloaf from the most severe winter blasts. The creek that watered his stock was glistening silver, the trees, vividly green, and in the clefts, rays of sunlight burned away the blue shadows.
“Are you enjoying the view?” Sally asked. “It is a beautiful view, I admit. But I have a feeling you are trying to
