Whispers of the Heart (10 page)

“Can’t say as I blame you,” Jason grinned, and then laughed when Kat muttered something unintelligible beneath her breath. She turned in a huff and started working on her supplies again.

“Sorry, Kat,” Dalian said, taking the rope from her hand, “but it’s time to head out, so I’m
going to have to make these adjustments for you. Watch what I do, and before long you’ll be a real pro.” Within minutes, Dalian had all of her gear tied down, much to Kat’s chagrin. He turned and held out a hand, but Kat merely stood staring at it.

“I’ll help you mount, and before you object,” he said quickly, “we really need to get going.”

“You’re enjoying the hell out of this, aren’t you?” Kat snapped.

“Yes, ma’am,” Dalian said, tenting his fingers for her to use as a stepladder. He hefted her into the saddle and then stood until she glanced down at him. “I’m enjoying
this a whole hell of a lot.” He laughed, and then turned and quickly mounted his own horse. “The cattle we’re going to be herding are waiting for us in the north pasture, so everyone just follow me and we’ll get this show on the road.”

They were into their second evening on the range, when Dalian approached the campsite on horseback. “We have a calf that’s gotten separated from its momma. Anyone up to trying to rope it and bring it back into the fold?” What he didn’t say was that he had ranch hands following nearby that deliberately removed the calf from its momma and separated it from the herd, specifically as a way of giving the guests the opportunity to test their skills. It was something that they would do many times over the next couple of days until every person had participated in roping. He didn’t mention any of that to them though, because he didn’t want to ruin the fun, which it would if they knew it was all staged, so to the group he said, “Don’t worry if you don’t get a chance right now. There will
be plenty of cattle that go wandering during this week, so everyone will have at least one chance of bringing home a stray.”

Four of the men stood, ready to tackle the challenge, but as soon as Kat stood too they started to sit back down.

“Ladies should have first crack at it,” one of them said at her look of confusion. She blushed and murmured a quick thank you, and then headed over to where she’d tied down her horse. She saddled the docile mare, collected her rope, and then used a nearby stump to help her mount. She gave her gear a once-over, and as soon as she was certain she was prepared, she rode over to where Dalian was patiently waiting.

“This will be good for you, since it’s just a calf, but if you get into trouble I’ll be nearby, okay?” Dalian’s tone was professional, which put Kat at ease. She nodded, and then pulled on her
reins, turning the horse to follow Dalian out of camp.

It wasn’t until after they topped a small rise that she realized that she and Dalian were away from camp, and very much alone. She glanced over at him, half-expecting that he would wriggle his eyebrows absurdly like the villains used to do in 1920’s silent movies, but he seemed extremely focused. She realized then that he took his job at protecting the herd very seriously.

“There it is,” he said after a moment, pointing to an opening between some bushes. He looked at Kat, but there was none of the desire or teasing that usually filled his gaze. “Think you got this?”

“We’ll find out
.” Kat slid from the saddle, collected her lasso, and slowly walked toward the calf, careful not to startle it into running. She started spinning the rope out in front of her, and as before, felt confident when it didn’t droop. She lifted it over her head and almost stopped the momentum when memories flooded of the last time she’d been doing this so close to Dalian. She ended up lassoing herself. She forced herself to concentrate only on the calf. When she was certain she was close enough and her aim was true, she let the lasso go. She held her breath and waited as it soared through the air the short distance to the calf, then let out a whoop and a holler when it landed over his head. With a quick tug, the lasso tightened.

Her shout of victory and the sudden tug on the lasso, startled the calf, and it bolted, nearly yanking Kat from her feet. She took off at a run after it, wrapping the end of the rope around her hand and elbow as she’d been shown, to provide needed leverage. When she was certain she wouldn’t lose her grip, she stopped dead and dug in her heels, leaned back, and pulled with all of her might.

She would have toppled onto her face if Dalian hadn’t suddenly appeared behind her, leaned around her, and grabbed hold of the rope. “We’ve got this,” he encouraged. “Now lean back with me and pull.” Together, they tugged. Dalian slowly wrapped the rope around his arm, as slack permitted, until the calf appeared around a bush. Its struggle lessened, but it still objected to them pulling it in a direction opposite to its will. Kat was leaning so far back, that when the calf started moving toward them, instead of fighting against them, she fell completely against Dalian.

“Whoa, I’ve got ya,” he laughed, releasing one hand from the rope, and wrapping it about her abdomen. He pulled until she was standing upright again – and flush up against him. “There you go. Steady footing again,” he said, then returned his hand to the rope; his focus again on the calf. When the baby was standing next to them, Dalian lifted his arm, raised the rope above Kat’s head, and stepped around her. He knelt down next to the calf and stroked its neck, “Let’s see about getting you back to your momma, shall we, little one?” He murmured soothingly. Kat felt her heart melt over his gentle caring tone.

He stood suddenly, startling her, “Let’s get this baby back. Sun’s going down and we want to get back to camp before nightfall. It tends to get dark fast around these parts.”

Kat nodded and turned to follow him to the horses. He attached the lead rope to his horse’s pommel and then mounted. As soon as he was certain that Kat was saddled and ready to go, he tugged on his reins and headed back to camp.

Kat kept her gaze pinned on his back, suddenly intrigued with Dalian Rivers. During the whole episode with the calf, even when she found herself so close in proximity to his body, he hadn’t once flirted or pursued. His attention had remained focused on the safety of the calf. Even his tone when assisting her, while playful, was professional. She looked down at the calf, following faithfully alongside Dalian’s horse, a feeling sweeping over her that she’d be willing to follow him anywhere, just like this baby. It was a feeling that startled her and angered her slightly, because she’d never once felt that loyal to Robert.

Although she’d enjoyed being married to him – her best friend – he didn’t elicit feelings of ardor and devotion. Because of that, she often ruminated, as she was doing now, about their relationship; however, right now her reflections were questioning why this near stranger stirred feeling within her that Robert never did?

By the time they entered camp fifteen minutes later, she was no closer to solving the riddle of Dalian Rivers’s magnetism, but the sound of applause distracted her and she felt relieved to be back among the other guests.

Dalian raised his hands to silent the noise. When all was quiet, he addressed his guests, “Remember, we need to keep our noise down, or we’ll be chasing after cattle all night.” The guests laughed softly, and then Dalian continued, “Kat did herself proud. Wrangled the calf all by herself – well, for the most part.”

“If it weren’t for Dalian’s timely assistance,” Kat interjected, “I would have come back needing a bath. That calf was a mighty strong opponent considering how young it was.”

“You still did a fine job for being a petite miss,” Dalian said, tipping his hat. “I’ll just take this baby over to the herd. You get yourself settled by the fire.”

Kat nodded, and then led her horse back to where she’d tied it down earlier. She removed her saddle, gave the animal a quick brush down, and then made her way back to camp. The sun had set rapidly, and everyone was already preparing to bed down for the night. She didn’t blame them. Although their task each day was simply to ride alongside the cattle to keep them from straying, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Keeping constant vigil was exhausting. If any one person let their guard down, one of the cows could get away from the herd and end up injured, or a predator could attack it. Moreover, there was the risk of one of the horses stepping in a prairie dog hole or other rut in the ground if the rider didn’t remain alert, which could lame the mount. That was why one of the ranch hands followed nearby, a supply of horses at the ready.

Having to remain hyper-alert was more exhausting than Kat ever imagined it could be, so when she finally settled onto her bedroll next to the fire, she was more than ready to go to sleep with the sun.

She lie down and gazed up at the stars, enthralled at the beauty. It was something she rarely witnessed back East, where the pollution generated tended to obliterate sight of the night sky. She hadn’t seen the stars in so long that she’d forgotten how beautiful the night sky could be. She recalled her mother telling her that ancient astronomers divided the stars into named groups, like the Big Dipper, but she’d only seen samples of these groupings in her encyclopedia. Now, try as she might, she couldn’t distinguish any of the groupings she’d studied long ago, so she rolled over onto her side and thought about her earlier roping experience with the calf.

She was so proud of herself, that she hadn’t even minded being the center of Dalian’s attention for that short time. The look of pride in his eyes when he recounted her efforts, brought unfamiliar warmth to her body; warmth that didn’t occur when the other guests and cowhands commended her quick and efficient work.

“That was good work today,” Dalian said, settling down next to her.

Think of the devil,
Kat thought, smiling slightly. “Thanks. It felt good to rope something that actually
needed
roping.”

“I’ll bet.” Dalian laughed softly. “If it will help boost your confidence any, there was a time I couldn’t tell one end of a rope from the other.”

“Yeah, right,” Kat snorted, “You probably left your mother’s womb with a lasso clasped firmly in an iron grip.”

Dalian laughed. “Nope, and I’m serious.” He lifted two fingers in a boy scout’s pledge. “Harvey taught me.”

Kat laughed. “How did you ever become a rancher then?”

“Well, I could say it runs through my veins, but that wouldn’t be the truth…”

“And you cannot tell a lie,” Kat quipped.

“Actually I can, but I’d feel real bad about doing it,” Dalian smiled, and Kat’s heart started thudding in her ears.

“Well, if it wasn’t so late, and I wasn’t so tired, I’d let you regale me with how you managed to rope your first cow…”

“Regale? And ‘lasso clasped firmly in an iron grip’,” Dalian smiled. “You
are
a writer.”

Kat smiled in return, nodding. “A very tired writer. It’s been a long day.” She didn’t have the courage to say what she was really feeling – that his nearness unnerved her.

“I can catch a clue, Kat,” Dalian said rising. “We have one more partial day of driving the cattle, and then we’ll turn and start driving them back toward the ranch. Think you’ll be able to stay seated in the saddle for two and a half more days?”

“Yep, and I can then say I lived to tell about it,” Kat said, stifling a yawn.

“Goodnight, Kat,” Dalian whispered.

“Goodnight, Dalian,” Kat murmured, and then her eyes drifted closed. Within a minute, she was fast asleep.

“Bless your heart, you
were
tired,” Dalian whispered, and then he went to retrieve his own bedroll. He spread it out next to hers. If this were the closest he ever came to holding this woman in his arms, he’d take it.

At two o’clock the next afternoon, Dalian tugged Swift to a stop, and pulled his
Midland GZV5000 long-range two-way radio from its holster to call a halt to the ride. He waited to see that everyone heard and had stopped moving before issuing his next directive, “I need everyone to ride over and meet up with me. We’re going to go over the instructions for turning the cattle around.”

Without hesitation, all twelve of the guests spurred their horses into a trot and headed in his direction. He searched and quickly located Kat, a grin spreading across his mouth at how easily she’d taken to horseback riding. The grin slipped as he imagined her sitting astride him in much the same manner. “Whew!” He exclaimed, shifting in the saddle. “Watch what you’re thinking, Dalian.” He reprimanded himself lightly.

“This is going to be the tricky part of our ride,” Dalian started, the moment everyone came to a stop next to him. “These cattle have a current mindset, a heading that they are content to stay traveling. Getting them to change that mindset can be interesting. Here’s why. Remember when I asked that you not make any loud noises in camp because it could startle the cattle and cause a stampede?” Everyone nodded, and Dalian continued, “Well, in order to get the cattle to turn and change direction, we’re going to have to startle them into doing so. That means deliberately causing a stampede – unless these brutes prove amiable and shift their direction with little fuss. Of course, that hasn’t always been my experience.”

“Won’t that be dangerous?” Jason asked.

“Very,” Dalian admitted. “And while you folks signed on to act as cowhands, you didn’t sign up to place yourself deliberately in harm’s way. With that being said, this is what’s going to happen next. I radioed ahead to the chuck wagon about a half hour ago, which means that Shaun will have lunch about ready, so we’re going to take a break and eat. I also placed a second radio transmission that called for fifteen of my cowboys to meet up with us, which they should do before lunch ends.”