“Your Grandma Emily was a pretty thing,” he said. “We just didn’t know what love was, either of us. We hardly knew each other, and the bug just hit us both when we were susceptible. I never struck her—or any woman, for that matter. I didn’t quarrel with her. I just went quiet. But I never did try to understand her and never figured out what would make her happy. So, instead of facing up to our differences, I ran, found every reason to take jobs away from home and left her a lonely woman.”
Sierra said, “Don’t blame yourself. I loved Grandma, but she was a person who saw my father and me as possessions as much as family. She wasn’t somebody you ever got close to. She had opinions, and life was easier if you didn’t challenge them.”
“I’m just saying,” Jack said, “that for respectability’s sake, she had to acknowledge she had a husband. She could not really admit to J. T. that she had never told her husband they shared a child. If she had, she knew that would have brought me back into her life in some fashion. And that was the last thing she wanted. That’s why she concocted the story. Don’t be hard on her. I likely deserved what I got.”
Sierra added, “I don’t think so, but regardless, Papa did not deserve what he missed out on.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Near high noon, they paused to rest the mules and horses near a limestone ridge that erupted from the coarse dirt and sand some distance off the trail. There was a spring flowing from the rock that left a pool of clear water before racing away and disappearing underground. Canteens and water barrels were filled before mules were unhitched and all the animals were led to drink. It was time consuming, but the riders and muleskinners worked in shifts, and everyone got bacon sandwiches from the leftover breakfast meat and ginger cookies Rudy had stashed away before departure.
The country was getting rougher now, rockier and hillier away from the trail. Sierra sat on a stone beside Jack as they ate, Thor sitting with his head propped on Jack’s knee, begging for half of his master’s lunch.
“We were going to higher ground as we moved west,” Sierra said.
“Yeah, we are on a plateau that extends for miles in all directions. Castle Gap is kind of a passageway where the plateau splits and opens for a mile or more to let us down to the Pecos and Horsehead Crossing. The gap runs four hundred or more feet below the top of the walls above it. The south wall is called King Mountain and the north wall is called Castle Mountain. Of course, they don’t have peaks and height like usual mountains, but you will see the that the two sides have different characteristics.”
“I feel like I’m on a vacation excursion, but I know I am not.”
His face did not change its expression. “Nope, you are not.”
Jordy rode up and dismounted. She had restrained herself from asking about his whereabouts. He led his mount toward them. He appeared calm enough but businesslike. Jack said nothing, just nodded at him.
“I did like you suggested,” Jordy said. “I rode back and made a half circle around our back trail. Nobody following us, but I went to the top of a knoll and saw a cloud of dust—had to be riders—to the northwest. It didn’t look like they were coming our direction, but we are on sort of a parallel course.”
Jack said, “Could mean nothing.”
“Or it could mean something.”
“Yep. Rudy’s got a sandwich or two saved back for you, and some cookies.”
Sierra got up and stepped toward Jordy and grabbed the reins of his horse. “Let me water Buster while you get something to eat.”
“Thanks. I’ll take you up on that.” He surrendered the reins and headed for the chuckwagon.
Buster was a large buckskin stallion, and Sierra had been admiring the magnificent animal since their first encounter. She rubbed the horse’s neck and shoulders. “Oh, so muscled and strong. You are meant to be a stud.”
“Already picking his mares, aren’t you?” Jack said.
She turned to Jack. “Do you think there is any chance Jordy would sell him?”
“Nope. Might rent him. Service would have to be at the Lucky Five, though. Jordy won’t let the horse out of his sight.”
“How old is he?”
“Five-year-old, as I recollect.”
“I’ll think on this.” She led Buster away to the pool near the spring. The stallion would be a perfect stud for Dancer, she thought. Her roan mare would turn three soon, and it was time for breeding. If Sierra could get Dancer bred within the next month or two, the mare could foal late spring or early summer. When she recovered the herd, she would approach Jordy about mating their horses. She had some other mares that had been unbred at the time they were run off, but one of the herd stallions may have since done his duty.
When she led the buckskin back to where she had left Jack, she found that Jordy had returned with a sandwich and cookies wrapped in his kerchief and that both men were now standing and appeared to be engaged in serious discussion. She heard Jack say, “I don’t like the coincidence,” when she walked up.
“I’ll hold your horse while you finish eating,” she told Jordy.
He nodded appreciatively while he took a big bite of the sandwich.
Jack said, “I’m going to ride with Tige a spell. I’ll talk to you two later.”
When Jack walked away with Thor at his heels, Sierra saw that he was walking stiffly with something of a tilt. “Grandpa Jack looks like he’s hurting,” she remarked.
“Yeah, his back gives him trouble these days. He does okay
