Damaged Hearts (11 page)

Taking the bottle, Angel proceeded to pour the whiskey liberally over the needle and horsehair suture.  “You have a piece of leather strap or something he can bite down on?  This is going to hurt a lot.”

Not finding a leather strap, Matt handed Rick a stick, which he lay down hoping he wouldn’t need.  Angel sat down close to Rick, attempting to match up pieces of shredded skin she went to work; carefully mending him little by little. 

Rick gasped a couple times but never once cried out.  Finally, Angel finished and sat back looking at her handiwork before dressing it.  “Well, it’s not beautiful but it shouldn’t scar too terribly bad.”  She told him. 

“Ok Matt, now that Angel’s done let’s get Frank and Marie mounted up and let’s get going.  We really need to make it back to Kaitlyn’s ranch before dark.”  Rick ordered before pulling Kat as close as he dared and allowing himself to attempt to relax.

“What do you mean I have to ride a horse?”  Marie stomped her foot moments later.  I drove the wagon all the way here so why can’t I drive it back.  I don’t ride horses that I’m not used to all that well.  I tend to get nervous and I really don’t like to fall off.”  She continued her tirade as Angel brought Nugget up and continued on, not realizing that Matt had picked her up and put her on the horse until after Angel had gotten into the wagon and taken up the reins.

“Get up there Dab.”  Angel said flicking the reins over the Belgian’s back.  “Let’s go home big boy.”

After about thirty minutes, Marie rode up alongside the wagon.  “I’d really like to apologize for my actions back there.  I don’t normally go into hysterics like that but I never ride any horse but Flower.  Boy horses knock me off of them.”  She stated matter-of-factly.

“Um, Marie.”  Angel started.  “Let me give you a little hint about farm life.  Number one, horses hate hysterics as much as people do.  Number two, normally horses do not knock people off of them; the people just don’t ride very well and tend to fall off.  Number three, horses are not normally referred to as “boy horses or girl horses,” they are stallions, geldings, colts, mares or fillies.  And of course number four, as a general rule most people have a favorite mount but there are times of extenuating circumstance where you have to ride whatever mount that’s available, even if it’s a mule.”  She added with a laugh

“Oh my.  I never realized there were so many rules to living on a ranch.”  Marie replied.

“Believe me Marie, Kat knows more about living a hard life, then either you or I will ever hear tell of.  When she chooses to say something to you or shows you something, make sure you listen and listen good.  She has a lot of knowledge and most all of it was learned though the school of hard knocks, not through finishing school.”  Angel instructed.

“Were your lives so rough then?”  Marie asked, seeming truly interested.

“Well, let’s see.  Where should I start?”  Angel began their story as Matt and Frank listened in silence, and Rick, who dozed in and out of consciousness, eavesdropped.

~XVII~

“Our story together began when Kat was almost ten.”  Angel started before noticing she had an audience.  “We have two step brothers that are both older than us, Mark and Charley.  While Mother did not want Kat, she was very happy that I came along or so I had been told.”

“Kat was a “daddy’s girl” and my father loved her as if she were truly his.  My mother on the other hand would not even acknowledge that Kat existed.  Kat learned to ride, rope, work stock and decipher bloodlines all from my father.  I think she absorbed so much at a young age solely because my father talked to her constantly and told her everything he knew or had learned about ranching.”

“We moved here when I was about three I guess and mother was killed two months later.  Kat was kidnapped at the same time mother was killed and the boys took care of me until Kat was found and brought home.  Once she was brought home, the boys took off on a cattle drive and never came back.”

“We didn’t have a lot of money by this time, the bank had already foreclosed on the ranch, and all the stock had been sold off by the boys, trying to make the tax payment.  We moved around quite a bit; Kat doing odd jobs here and there.  At one point in time, Kat even received help from the Ute Indian Chief Ignacio.  We still to this day sell or share beef with the Ute’s and they come to buy or trade horses with us periodically.”

“By the time I was school age, Kat was working for a real devil of a man that for some reason or another let us use a small shack on the back of his property.  Kat would go to school from time to time if her work load allowed for it but she made sure I went every day.”

“Kat had been putting what money she could to the side and when the time came that her employer had drank up all his money and was being forced to sell out, she convinced him to sign over the two year old GoldDust that she had delivered and trained, in exchange for the money he owed her.  We lived in the shack for a week after that, giving Kat time to find a place for us to live, before the new owners took over. 

“In that week, Kat found the place we have now.  The people that had settled it had long ago moved on and abandoned it and the only thing due on it was taxes.  It was a wreck; the shack that was there was in no condition to sleep in and the ranch had all gone back to wild.  It was just warm enough that we slept outside in an old broken down wagon while Kat proceeded to tear apart the shack and use what lumber she could salvage to put together a small shelter for the two of us, making sure to have a roof for the horse too.”

“She still did odd jobs at neighboring ranches and traded anything she could think of for stock, tack, or even help with heaving lifting and building.  We had an old down-on-his luck hobo that got off the train and wandered as far as our ranch stay with us for a couple years.  He was none too clean and had an aversion to water, but he helped Kat and me tremendously.  He stayed on in exchange for hot meals, and a dry place in the lean-to to drink his booze.”

“Finally, we had a small but warm home, a fence around part of the property and a small fenced barn area.  One of the Ute men that we traded with took a liking to Kat and tried to get us to move to the reservation with him; after Kat explained that she would not share her man, he instead brought her a beautiful Palomino mare as a token of friendship.”

“Was that mare StarDust?”  Marie asked her first question since the story had begun.  “She is a very pretty horse.”

“No, but Star is one of Sunrise’s offspring though.  Sunrise unfortunately was one of the horses that was shot a while back when someone was trying to get us to leave the area.”  Angel replied.

Picking up the story where she had left off, “Kat began breeding Palominos; some of the most beautiful, most sought after horses in the region.  First, she traded meat, apples, berries, anything that she could think of, until she had six good-looking mares.  From there, she would breed them to Dust twice and then talk to the Ute’s and trade them one colt for the use of a particularly nice stallion on all her mares.”

“She always sold anything that was not the perfect palomino “type” or color that she wanted; keeping her bloodlines pure.  One day a man having heard about her stock in town, came to the ranch asking to see what she had available for sale.  She took him over and showed him a paddock of two years olds that she had separated and was training to sell.”

“The man asked if she would be willing to trade with him.  Having gotten everything she had by trading, she asked him what he had.  Three days later, he exchanged one small two year old bull and eight pregnant black angus cows for four matched geldings.”

“We were officially in the cattle business.  Kat was really excited since she knew now we would never go hungry, and we now had another means to build our ranch.  Kat taught me to ride early in my life and by the time I could walk and talk, I had my own horse; the first being an old plodding mare named Buttercup that could do no more then walk around at a snail’s pace.”

“By the time I was twelve years old I didn’t remember much about all of the hard times.  Kat always tried to make birthdays and Christmas special for me and as long as I was warm and had food in my belly, all of our moving didn’t really bother me; it’s all I knew.”

“The ranch was growing and our home had increased in size through Kat trading stock or food for labor.  We now had a kitchen type area, a front room, and our two bedrooms.  It was comfortable and just big enough for the two of us.  Kat taught me how to take care of the stock and daily the two of us checked fences and water holes.  She had just started teaching me how to train horses when our problems started.”

“The previous day, we did not go ride the property lines like we usually did.  Kat had decided that we would start working some of the horses that she planned to sell so we stayed pretty close to the house.  The third day, we rode out and noticed buzzards circling.  We took off towards that area and I thought Kat was going to cry at what we found.”

“There were twelve dead calves in and around the waterhole.  She was off of Dusty before the horse even stopped, checking all the stock.  Turning, she looked questioningly at the waterhole before walking over to it.  The calves were all bloated but she was unsure whether it was due to what they drank or just from being dead.”

“Between the two of us and our two horses, we managed to drag all the carcasses away from the water hole and piled them all together so we could burn them.  Kat checked the water hole and knew immediately that it was bad.”

“After checking the waterholes in the adjacent pasture, we rounded up all the cattle that were left and moved them closer to the house where we had a better opportunity to watch them.  Once we got that accomplished, Kat went about the unpleasant duty of disposing of the dead livestock.  She got a huge fire going and the smell of scorched hair and flesh filled the air.  I swear it was fifty times worse than branding time.”

“Oh my goodness.”  Marie broke in.  “How in the world did the two of you handle everything alone for so long without any men?  I mean, not that I’m at all discriminatory but between the heavy lifting and the grueling tasks, the two of you must have been dead on your feet every night.”

“We did what we had to do to survive Marie.”  Angel replied.  “Neither of us really knows any different.  We are used to the hard work and we have earned everything we have to our names.  All of the hardship bonded us closer together and made us both stronger.”

“Didn’t you ever wish for help or money to get things done quicker?”  Marie asked.  “I mean, it sounds like the two of you lived on next to nothing.”

“We practically did Marie; but what good would it have done to wish for something we couldn’t have?”  Angel growled.  “If we didn’t have money, we did without it; unless of course Kat traded something for it.  She got really good at finding weaknesses and making them work for her.  We made due and got by with what we had and were happy to be alive.”

“I guess I could learn a lot from both of you.”  Marie sighed.  “I’ve always had my father to take care of me and to see to everything I’ve ever needed or wanted; even a lot of things that I didn’t
need
but I just
had to have
.
 
I guess I was pretty spoiled and even a bit selfish wishing for a mother when I at least had someone to take care of my needs.”

“It’s ok Marie, I’m not telling you all of this to make you feel bad.  I just figured that if you were going to be staying with us for a while, you might want to know.  Plus, it may explain some of Kat’s or my actions before we accidentally offend you.”

“Oh I don’t think that will happen.”  Marie argued good-naturedly.  “I’m pretty sure now that if there is any one getting accidentally offended, it won’t be me.  But please, continue with the history lesson.”  She grinned.

Not being able to resist, Angel returned the smile.  “Well, after we got the carcasses taken care of, Kat took a shovel and went to the water hole every day for a solid week.  She spent every available minute of sunlight during that time throwing dirt back into the hole that we had spent months digging out, making sure that there was not even a drop of that tainted liquid available.  She didn’t want any game or loose stock to get some of it or to possibly poison some unsuspecting person.”

“The next couple of months went pretty well.  We had finally fallen back into some semblance of a normal routine.  Twice a week we worked with the horses together, the rest of the week we worked separate hours at training and breaking them.  We also alternated riding fence and checking the remaining water holes.”

“While all of this was going on, Kat noticed that the same section of fence by the river was down every time she checked it.  Finally, Kat decided that we needed to take a rare trip into town so she could do some checking at the land office and we could get some needed supplies while we were at it.  We spent two days gathering up furs, cowhides, and meat from the smokehouse to trade at the general store.”

“When we got to town, I saw an old acquaintance from school and stopped to talk to him for a minute or two while Kat went to the land office.  While we talked, I found out that he was working out at the Jamison ranch.  He wanted to know what I was doing and if I’d gotten married yet.  Well, Matt walked up about the time I was telling him that No, I wasn’t married.”

“Adam introduced us and the three of us talked for a while.  Matt found out that Kat was the one that raised the palominos he had heard about and asked to come take a look.  I gave him directions and we parted ways as I went to go find Kat.  She was just coming back from the land office and looked mad enough to spit.  She was not near as happy as I was about Matt coming out to the place.” 

“We went into the general store together and after informing Mr. Johnson that she wanted to work a few trades, they went outside to the wagon.  Twenty minutes later after going through all the items in the wagon, they had come to an agreement.  Kat and I looked around the store, picking up odds and ends off of our list.”

“After gathering up what we needed of the smaller items, Kat then handed Mr. Johnson the list of bulk items like coffee, sugar, salt pork, and etc.  After tallying up the list, Mr. Johnson wrote out a receipt showing the items we purchased, the items we traded and the difference and handed Kat the remaining cash.”

“Heading back to the ranch, Kat told me what she had found out at the land office.  There had been some kind of mix-up in the paperwork and one acre of land; the acre near the river did not show up on the copy of the deed that was filed.  In addition, they had no record of the prior year’s tax payment.”

“Kat was furious.  She was determined to look over all of her papers at home and find her copy of the deed that showed the river acreage with water rights.  She was also going to find her receipt for the tax payment can cram it down someone’s throat.”

“We rode quite a long time in silence.  I knew better than to try to get her to talk when she was mad like that.  Finally, when we were three quarters of the way home, she asked about Adam and Matt.  I told her again about Matt’s interest in the Palominos and explained to her that I had gone to school with Adam and he now worked for Matt and his brother Rick.”

“She decided that as long as too many people didn’t start showing up on our doorstep, it was probably ok for Matt to take a look at the stock.  We got back to the ranch and after unloading the wagon, and rubbing down and putting away the horse, we went into the house.  Like she had threatened, Kat went right to work going through all of her documents that she kept in a box under her bed.”