The Stranger in the Storm, page 1
The Stranger in the Storm
Shady Forks Brides
Blythe Carver
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Afterword
1
Richard Corcoran reached up and scratched his chin through his short dark beard, staring out over the McArthur pasture, watching Trevor chase after a bolting calf. He laughed when the ranch hand leaped off his horse and practically landed on the calf. Both man and animal rolled down a gentle slope and stopped just a few feet away. The calf was kicking his legs, but he was a gentle thing and just a little excitable, something Trevor certainly knew. He wouldn’t be rough with the young calf.
In fact, when Trevor stood up, he pointed the calf in the direction of its mother, and it took off for her like any baby would do.
Richard enjoyed the scene. He was grateful for the job he’d been given. The last man who had been second in command on the McArthur ranch got married to the woman who owned the place through inheritance. Richard’s friends and coworkers didn’t mind teasing him about that. As a single man longing for a wife and family, Richard should only be so lucky as to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps on that count.
“Feisty little thing, ain’t it?”
Richard turned to see the foreman, his boss, Henry Tomkinson, riding toward him. Henry’s head was turned in Trevor’s direction.
“Yeah, I won’t be surprised if she comes up missing someday. She’s gonna be the first one to knock down the fence and run out. Won’t be surprised if she gets a bunch of the other calves to help out. She’s a smart one.”
Henry laughed. “We’ll keep an eye out and make sure she’s not spending too much time organizing a jail break.”
Richard joined Henry in laughing. “She’s got a little bit of the devil inside her, I think.”
“What you doin’ tonight?” Henry asked. Richard looked at him curiously, and he shrugged. “Got a poker game I always go to, and one of the fellas is outta town for a month. Thought I might ask if you’re interested in being the fourth?”
Richard nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. I need a night out. I never do anything. I wish there was something for me to do.” He dragged his words out slightly, pretending to pout.
“You just need a good woman,” Henry replied enthusiastically. “To take care of all your needs while you take care of hers.”
Richard turned his eyes to his boss. “Like you do with your wife and kids?”
“That’s right,” Henry nodded. “I know how much you want to be just like me.”
Richard laughed. “I reckon I do, Henry, if I’m gonna be honest with you. I’ve met your wife, and she’s lovely. Your rowdy kids aren’t too bad either.”
Henry grinned wide. “I’ll take that as a compliment. So we can count on you for tonight?”
“Yep. Sounds like a fun time to me.”
“Great. I’ll let the others know later when I head into town. You never know. One of the boys might bring a sister or a female friend along, and you might find the love of your life.”
Richard felt an intense tightening in his chest that he felt every time one of the men teased him about wanting to settle down with a woman when there were no women to be found. At least, not in Henry’s Corner, where he lived. There weren’t a whole lot of women in Wyoming to begin with, and those that were there either weren’t interested in him, or he wasn’t interested in them.
“I doubt that very highly,” he quipped, “and if you say something about me following Donald’s footsteps, I might have to get off this horse and knock you around.”
There was no way Richard would or could do that to Henry, and his boss knew it. He brushed Richard’s sarcasm off with a wave of his hand. “I’m gonna say it anyway. Maybe you’ll be just like Donald and get married because you’re second in command. You know what I think?”
Richard thought Henry’s grin looked very mischievous and couldn’t help snorting with laughter.
“What do you think, boss?” he asked.
“I think you got plenty to offer a young lady and plenty of time to find her.”
“I won’t find her in Henry’s Corner unless she suddenly appears out of thin air. There’s no one here that’s interested in me, and I haven’t seen a woman yet that I felt was part of my future.”
“Then we’ll have to pray for a miracle for you.” Henry’s smile remained big and strong.
“You do that.”
Trevor joined them a few seconds later, apparently having heard what they were talking about. “Our boy find himself a lady friend?”
Henry shook his head. “Nope. Not yet. Apparently, he thinks it’s gonna take a miracle.”
Trevor gave Richard a smile. “It will if you don’t get out there and give it a try.”
Richard wondered why Trevor thought he hadn’t been doing that. “No one to give it a try on,” he responded.
“Maybe you have a secret admirer, and you didn’t even know it.”
Richard frowned at Trevor. No one had mentioned a secret admirer, and he wasn’t getting any anonymous gifts or notes. “No,” he said firmly. “There’s no one. I don’t know if there ever will be one. But I know this. You, Trevor, should always be the one to go fetch the runaway calf that goes astray. You jump on them like it’s life or death.”
The three men laughed. Trevor shook his head. “Those runaways are gonna be the death of me someday.”
“You handle them just fine,” Henry replied. “Come on, let’s get them rounded into the corral for the night.”
2
Seven men stood in a haphazard circle with Richard as they listened to Henry the next morning. The foreman was telling them what they would be working on for the day.
“We’ll be preparing for winter starting today, so we’ve got to get on the ball. We’ve only got three weeks to make sure everything is secure, the cattle are taken care of, and the buildings are protected against bad weather. Most of you were here last year and know what needs to be done. Trevor, you and Dan will be working with Luke and Perry, so they know what they’re doing.”
“Sounds good, boss,” Trevor said with a nod to the two men in question.
Henry turned to Richard. “You need to go see Mrs. Ferris. The prior Mrs. Cumberbaugh. She was going to keep ol’ Lionel’s surname but that turned out to be more of a hassle than they planned, so they’ll honor ol’ Lionel by naming their first boy after him. She wants to talk to you. Apparently, she’s got a special mission for you.”
Richard looked around as the men started to lightheartedly harass him about the special job. He rolled his eyes and laughed as he went toward the main house, waving one hand at them dismissively.
He went into the huge house and crossed the black and white marble-floored foyer, settling his eyes on the grand bouquet of flowers in the emerald glass vase on the table in the middle of the room.
He went back to the office down the hallway to the left of the stairs.
Richard lifted his hand to knock but hesitated when he heard the voices of his employers on the other side.
“You think we should really spare him right now, considering it’s time to start preparing the ranch for the winter,” Donald said. “He’s one of the best workers we have.”
“We can’t send one of the new boys,” Mrs. Ferris answered him. “They wouldn’t know what they’re doing. Richard knows what he’s doing. He’s invaluable, one of the smartest men I know.”
“Is that so?”
Richard grinned at the teasing tone in the man’s voice.
“He’s not smarter than you, my love,” Mrs. Ferris replied. He could hear the smile in her voice and picked up the distinctive sound of a kiss.
He knocked.
“Come in.”
Richard opened the door and stepped inside the office, smiling at his employers.
“Henry said you wanted to see me?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Ferris replied, holding her hand out to a chair next to the one her husband was sitting in across from her. It was she who was sitting in the big chair behind the massive mahogany wood desk. “Thank you for coming so quickly. We have something we want to discuss with you.”
“I’m all ears.”
Richard sat and settled into the chair, which was just a little too small for a man his size. He shared that physique with Donald, as both men were over six feet and husky.
“We need someone to do a sweep of the property and make sure we’re safe, and the land is secure. We want you to do that for us.” Aileen paused, shifting through some papers on her desk until she found what she was looking for. She separated a check from the rest and slid it across to him. “You’ll get this bonus now before you go because you might want to get some new supplies. I don’t know what the weather will be like in the next f
Richard was surprised and pleased by the offer. In the ten years he’d been working on the McArthur ranch, he’d never been asked to do that before. Then again, it had only been a year since old man McArthur died after marrying Aileen, and she had subsequently married Donald, which had been the plan of the old man all along. He’d married the young woman so that he could leave his fortune to her instead of his horrible stepsons.
He leaned forward and took the paper from the desk, turning it over and looking at it. He raised his eyebrows and looked up at the woman. “This is way more than I’ll need to get supplies, Mrs. Ferris.”
She shook her head. “It’s intentionally more so that you will have extra as the bonus. That’s not a check just for expenses. It’s so that you will be paid well for your extra work. This isn’t going to be an easy task, but I’m sure you know that.”
Richard nodded. “If you want me to patrol the entire property, that would include the mountain, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes,” Donald was the one who responded. “I’ve done this before myself, did it for Lionel back when he was alive. It’s something he liked to do every five years, and since I did it the last time and now I’m married to this beautiful woman and own the place, I’ll let you do it and just give you the benefit of my knowledge.” He grinned.
Richard nodded and smiled back, moving his eyes from Donald to Aileen when she spoke.
“I think you said it took you ten days to go over the entirety of the land, isn’t that what you said?”
Donald nodded. “Yeah, but I had no problems.” He looked back at Richard. “You should always plan ahead for problems. That way, if you don’t have any, you can be grateful, but if you do, you’ll still be grateful because you came prepared.”
“Makes sense,” Richard responded, nodding. “Sounds like a real adventure.”
“It’s not a bad time,” Donald admitted, “but it’s real lonely. Ten days or more without seeing anyone can be hard for some people. Will you be all right with that?”
Richard didn’t have to think about it. “Yeah, that won’t be a problem for me. I don’t mind being on my own. Never had a wife or children, so I don’t have anyone to miss.”
“Well, we will miss you,” Aileen said, sending a warm feeling through Richard. “You’re one of our best men, Richard. I want you to know that. I don’t want you to think of this as any kind of punishment because it’s not.”
Richard chuckled. “Why would I think it’s a punishment?” He wouldn’t have, even if he hadn’t heard their complimentary words before he entered the office. He waved the check in the air. “This right here makes it far from a punishment.”
“Good,” she replied in a satisfactory way. He liked the way she smiled. He felt blessed to be working for two people like them. He already considered Donald his friend, as they had worked together for many years before he married Aileen and became the boss.
“When do you want me to go?”
“You can leave today after you get your supplies or wait until tomorrow. That’s up to you.”
Richard grunted. “I’ll go today then. If I don’t, Henry will put me to work here. I’d like to get started on my adventure as soon as I can.”
Aileen and Donald both laughed.
“Glad you’re on board with us, Richard.” Aileen stood up and held out her hand for him. He also got to his feet and leaned to shake her hand. Then he shook Donald’s.
“I’m gonna head into town for these supplies.” He waved the check in the air again. “And thanks for thinking of me for this job. I like things to get shook up sometimes.”
“Take your time on this, Richard. There’s no need to rush. The only thing we ask is that you try to complete the patrol in two weeks or fourteen days. We need some kind of time frame in case…” His words trailed off, and he slowly lifted his eyebrows.
“In case I have an accident?” Richard asked, laughter in his voice.
“Yes,” Donald stated. “In case you have an accident. We need to know when to start searching for you. Just in case, you know.”
Richard nodded. “It’s a sound plan, Donald. It also makes me feel better knowing that if something does happen, I won’t be abandoned on my own up there.”
“Maybe take some carrier pigeons with you,” Aileen suggested with a smile.
“Hey, that’s not really a bad idea,” Richard replied. “I just don’t have a clue where to get something like that.”
All three laughed, and Richard took his leave, waving at them both and thanking them again.
His heart was jumpy, and his excitement only grew as he went down the hall, through the foyer, and out the front door. He could barely contain himself as he hurried to the stables to get his horse.
3
Richard walked down the aisle, looking at the offerings, trying to decide what he really needed. He had to take what he could on his horse because a wagon wouldn’t go where he needed to go once he went up the mountainside.
He had a list of supplies Donald had given him that he would definitely need. He was in the process of choosing a new lantern and picking out flints when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Tom Bates, a ranch hand from the Ellington Ranch. He looked overly curious, watching Richard pick through the flints as if he’d never seen anyone do that before.
“What you doin’, big man?” he asked.
Richard turned his eyes back to the flint box. “Gettin’ supplies. Donald and Mrs. Ferris are sending me up the mountain to make sure everything is secure for the winter.”
“That sounds like a pretty good job,” Tom replied. “Wish my boss would do something like that. Send me away from the ranch. Would be a nice vacation.”
“I’m happy with it. I was surprised by it. And they gave me a hundred dollars to get supplies with.”
Tom’s eyes widened, just like Richard thought they would. He chuckled.
“I know,” he said. “Told them it was too much, but she said she wanted me to keep the rest as a bonus for going. Might be dangerous.”
“I should quit and come out to the McArthur ranch to work,” Tom said, grumbling good-naturedly. “The Ellingtons are all right, I reckon, but your bosses are a lot better. Especially since Donald took over.”
Richard nodded, picking up a box of flints and adding them to his supplies. “Donald didn’t really take over, though. It’s Mrs. Ferris who makes the difference. It wasn’t bad working for Mr. McArthur before he died either. Paid well, treated us with respect. Even asked our advice on some things.”
Satisfied that he had everything he needed from the mercantile, Richard walked with Tom to the counter to pay.
“Gotta feel weird to work for a fella you used to be friends with.”
Richard set everything on the counter before turning his gaze to Tom. “We’re still friends. He doesn’t treat me any different than he used to. Like I said, it’s Mrs. Ferris who runs the show. And for the life of me, I can’t call her by her first name. I think she told everyone they were allowed to, but it feels strange to me.”
“Too personal for a boss?”
“And that boss is a woman married to a friend of mine? Yeah. It’s strange.”
Tom nodded. “I see where you’re coming from. Reckon I’d feel the same way if for some reason Mrs. Ellington wanted me to start calling her by her first name.” He laughed abruptly. “I don’t think I even know what it is. Madge? Maud? Something with an M, I think. Not really sure.”
Richard shrugged, handing the money to the girl behind the counter, who gave him a shy smile. “You don’t need to know her name. You’re never gonna call her by it. Just like I can’t call Mrs. Ferris Aileen.”
