Alexis: Book Five:The Cattleman's Daughters Read online

  Alexis

  Book Five: The Cattleman’s Daughters

  Contents

  Epilogue

  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

  Epilogue

  Epilogue

  Wyoming, August 1890

  Alexis James, reined her bay gelding, Gabe, to the left of the trail keeping the sights of her shotgun trained on the three men tied to their mounts on her right. Flicking her eyes forward, she noted that Reginald Ogden still had a firm grip on the reins of their captives as he followed the trail toward Casper, Wyoming.

  “You alright back there, Miss Lexi?” the lanky man with garishly red hair called over his shoulder.

  “I’m doing fine,” the young woman replied, blowing a strand of dark brown hair off her face. Her coffee-colored eyes roved over the three surly men who glared back at her with murder in their eyes.

  “How long till we catch up with the herd, do you suppose?” Reginald asked, casting a smoky gray-green glance in her direction.

  “The others have been on the trail for two days, so it might be tomorrow before we catch up to them.”

  “I don’t think I like the idea of being out here on our own through the night with these characters,” the young man commented, running a suspicious eye over the three men bound wrist and ankle to their mounts.

  “There’s nothing for it,” Alexis called back. “We’ll just have to make do.”

  “Why don’t you jist let us go,” A skinny man with black teeth piped up. “We’ll just ride on out an’ won’t bother ya’ none a ’tall if ya’s let us go.” His wheedling voice drew a disgusted grunt from the burly man on the sleek chestnut horse.

  “You coward, Botts shut up, or I’ll shut you up for good. This little bit of fluff here ain’t got enough sense to let us go. Thinks she’s all high and mighty,” the leader of the gang spat, his gimlet eyes shining with malice.

  Reg Ogden reined his lanky mare to a halt with one hand while his other hovered over his pistol. “You keep your mouths shut, the lot of you, or I’ll be shutting you up.” His face reddened as his anger rose.

  “What are you gonna do you mud grubber?” The big man growled, challenging Reg to lose his temper.

  Calmly the tall, lean-hipped redhead stopped all of the horses with a steady “whoa,” then swung down from his mount, still holding the reins of the three captives. Grinning widely, he pulled a wad of something from his saddlebags, then stepped to the big man’s side.

  The young man was lanky, but his shoulders were thick with muscles and he had no problem grasping the outlaw's collar and jerking him low in the saddle with one hand while stuffing the old bandana into his gaping mouth.

  “I believe I told you to stop your talking,” he said, never letting the smile leave his face as he returned to his horse and climbed aboard.

  Lexi couldn’t help but smile at the calm, practical way that her companion dealt with a very nasty situation. She admired the way Reg remained unruffled even while escorting the outlaws who had tried to take over the Broken J only a few hours ago.

  Over the past few months as she’d begun to get to know the young man who had arrived from Pennsylvania to work the wheat fields her father had planted to supplement the income of cattle on the ranch, she had noted his thoughtful and purposeful manner.

  For just a moment she let her mind wonder back to the day Reginald Ogden and his brother had arrived at the ranch.

  Chapter 1

  Alexis closed her eyes, letting the warm air generated by the swoop of the board and rope swing cool her face. She could feel her twin, Isabella, giver her another push and reveled in the sensation of flying. Her face, flushed from working in the large kitchen garden, tingled in the breeze as light and shadow passed over her eyelids with each arc of the swing.

  “We should go in and help with dinner,” Alexis said to her sister, feeling slightly guilty over their short break.

  “Let’s stay a little longer,” Issy replied.

  It did feel wonderful to have a few minutes of freedom from the constant chores of the large household, and especially the extra work that came with summer. Perhaps it would be all right to stay out for just a little longer.

  The distant sound of hoof beats reached Alexis’ ears and snapping her eyes open, she leaned forward on the seat, letting the fabric of her deep blue work dress slow its motion. “Do you see that?” she asked, pointing off toward the track that led to their home, the Broken J Ranch.

  “It looks like riders,” Issy replied, stepping away from the trunk of the big cotton wood tree and gazing off into the distance. “Did Pa say anything about new hands?”

  Alexis turned, giving her twin a significant look. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  Isabella turned a knowing glance toward her sister as they watched the two young men slowly cross the ranch yard. One was tall and sat a lean bay horse easily, while the other, a good deal shorter, rode a pretty sorrel, but what most captured their attention was the dog perched on the saddlebows in front of the smaller rider. She was a mutt of medium height, her soft pink tongue lolling as her ponderous belly swayed to the movement of the horse.

  Issy smiled, turning her eyes back to Lexi. “So how are we going to handle this?” she asked slyly.

  Lexi shook her head. “We know why they’re here; it was only a matter of time,” she said with a mischievous twinkle. “I say we get to know them together to find out if we like them, and then we’ll see where it leads.”

  Issy nodded. “So far things have worked out for our sisters. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” Her optimism was encouraging.

  “Who would have thought our own father could be so devious?” Lexi added with a grin as she slid off the swing.

  “Miss Lexi?” Reg’s voice interrupted her thoughts, causing her to bring their current surroundings back into sharp focus.

  “Hm?” she mused, turning her eyes toward the other member of the ranch crew.

  “I thought we could press on until about sunset, and if we don’t catch the herd then we’ll make camp.”

  Alexis could tell that he had been studying on the problem for a while before he’d brought the subject up again. She couldn’t help but catch the glint of worry in his eyes. A young farmer from Pennsylvania and a cattleman’s daughter trying to get three bad men all the way to Casper, nearly four days away, would be cause for worry to anyone.

  “I hope we catch them, but if not that sounds like a good plan.” The young woman called, shifting her eyes back to the men on her right and checking her shotgun’s position. They were in for some long nights and tiring days if they didn’t catch the herd before Casper.

  For the past two hours, they’d been letting their mounts trot at an easy ground-covering gate, but the pace was grueling and they would soon need to stop and rest the horses.

  “There’s a stream further along the trail about an hour or so from here. We can stop there for a rest,” she called, letting her words reflect her thoughts.

  Twisting in his saddle, Reg looked back at her to insure she wasn’t too tired. His eyes, a pale grayish green with a hint of blue, were clear and direct as he looked at her carefully. He smiled, noting how she sat straight in the saddle, with the shotgun still trained on the three mis
creants who had so recently threatened her family and her safety.

  Despite the danger, she seemed calm and willing to ensure that the outlaws gave them no more trouble. The smile the dark-haired girl gave him made her seem like the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. She was no longer just the cattleman’s daughter to him; somewhere along the past two months she had somehow become a friend. He’d never realized that a woman could be a friend, but thinking on it he saw that there was no reason a woman couldn’t be just about anything.

  Instead of replying, Reginald Ogden ducked his head and pushed Babe, his trim lined mare into a pacing trot. The other horses stretched out their necks and fell into a slow lope behind him to keep up. A little more than an hour later, he pulled to a halt under a scraggily cotton wood tree along a small trickle of water and began carefully helping each of the silent, glaring outlaws off their horses.

  As soon as the large leader of the gang had the gag removed from his mouth, he let out-a line of expletives and threats that would make a man’s hair stand on end. “I’ll break every bone in your body when I get free,” the bulky miscreant declared. He opened his mouth again only to have Reg wave the bandana at him. With a deadly growl, the man snapped his mouth shut again.

  Once each of the three men were seated with their hands tied securely behind their backs, Alexis handed her shotgun to Reg and swung down, thankful to feel the ground beneath her feet, for even a little while. As her companion kept an eye on their captives, she gathered up the reins of the horses and led them to the stream where they drank greedily, then tethering her gelding and Reg’s mare, she let them graze on the late summer grass.

  “Why don’t you see if you can get some rest?” Reg called as she made her way back toward the tree. “I’ll give these fellas a drink and keep an eye on them for an hour or so before we set off again.”

  “That sounds good.” Alexis’ voice sounded tired even to her own ears. It had been a long day and it wasn’t over yet. Pulling her bedroll from her horse she laid it out in the far reaches of the shade from the tree and settled down to rest, but despite her weariness her mind traveled back to her home and the things that had happened since the Ogden boys had arrived.

  It seemed like nothing ever stayed the same in this world and most especially at the ranch that had been her lifelong home. Life was a series of events creating a never-ending progression toward eternity.

  She thought of her father, Joshua James and the blow that had so recently befallen him, pulling a strong independent man to his knees, and yet even with his diminished physical capacity he had somehow kept his spirit strong. She reflected on the faith that he seemed to turn to, drawing on what seemed a bottomless supply of strength.

  She wondered how her twin Isabella was getting along with her husband now that the storm seemed to have passed. Alexis smiled to herself. Although her sister was identical in appearance to her, they were very different in temperament. Issy was more impulsive and optimistic, always thinking that anything could be overcome with determination.

  Sometimes Lexi wished she were more like Issy. She often found herself over thinking things and trying to force life into some form of a logical and practical classification. It was something she also recognized in Reg and was one of the first things that had helped to create their budding friendship.

  As the afternoon sun crept toward her small shaded space, Alexis James' eyes grew weary and she drifted off to sleep.

  The dark burly outlaw known as Mayhew settled back against the rough bark of the scrub tree and watched his captor adjust the shotgun across his knees. It was obvious that the boy of no more than twenty-two was not as comfortable with the firearm as his female companion had been, and he was sure that it was just a matter of time before the whelp made a mistake, then Mayhew would take him out. The longtime criminal squinted his beady eyes to suppress a smile and pretended to sleep.

  Reg settled his long form into the grass and draped the shotgun across his lap. He’d never even pointed a gun at another man before today and the thought of having to pull the trigger was unsettling, but he knew he’d do it if pressed. His eyes wandered to where Lexi lay stretched out at the edge of the small patch of shade as he hoped the whole ordeal hadn’t been too much for her. She was an intelligent woman, sensible and hard working. He didn’t want to see her over-do it.

  In the brief second that Reg let his guard down, the man called Mayhew sprang to his feet and charged like a mad bull, head down, legs churning.

  The big outlaw slammed into Reg before he could get the gun up, forcing the younger man to the ground. The shotgun blared as Reg rolled away from his attacker. The big man grasped the barrel of the gun in his outstretched hands and tried to force it down onto the young man’s head.

  Reg struggled, holding to the shotgun with all of his strength, knowing that it would all be over if the bigger man wrested the weapon from him. From the corner of his eye, Reg saw Alexis dashing up behind the outlaw, and a moment later the big man fell with a heavy thump, face first into the grass.

  Reg looked up from where he lay on his back, the shotgun still firmly in his grasp, at the wide-eyed face of the pretty girl who still held a large piece of a fallen limb in her hands.

  Scrabbling to his feet, Reg leveled the gun at the other men who had half risen to their feet and watched as they eased themselves back down.

  Still keeping his eye on the outlaws, Reg took the small log from Lexi’s numb fingers. “Thank you,” he said simply. “I guess I let my guard down for a minute.” He could feel his ears getting hot as he realized that thinking about her had been what had made him lose focus. Thrusting the shotgun toward her, he ducked his head. “I’ll get the horses,” he said quietly and turned away.

  Reg and Lexi made the other two men, now more subdued than ever, hoist their still unconscious boss over his horse, then mount up.

  Two hours later, with the sun sliding behind the distant mountains, the exhausted party spotted a cook fire. “Thank heavens,” Lexi called as she watched the flames reflected off the white canvas of the old chuck wagon, the hearty cook fire’s light bouncing from the sheet like a candle shade.

  “Riders, Ho!” a familiar voice rang out as one of the nightriders called into the camp. In the darkness, Lexi knew the men keeping the herd calm through the night couldn’t tell who they were, but that they’d be watched as they approached the fire.

  They had almost reached the blaze when a small ridge-backed mule trotted out to greet them. The blue roan animal looked at them curiously, as he nibbled the lead line that until just moments ago tied him to a line near a big red freight wagon. Lexi laughed at the sight of her young nephew’s escape artist mule coming to greet them.

  “Lexi? Is that you darlin’?” Benjamin Smith lifted his tall frame from his seat beside the fire as the small party pulled up and swung down. “What in thunder are you doing here?” His eyes took in the three strangers and he furrowed his brows.

  “Uncle Benji, do I have a story for you,” the young woman spoke up, “but first help us get these men secure.” Giving the tall white haired man a kiss on the cheek, she turned back to the task at hand.

  One by one the other members of the cattle drive began to wander over, greeting the new arrivals and giving the three bound men suspicious looks.

  “I’ll get ya some vittles,” Billy the wiry chuck wagon cook said, smoothing his white beard with one hand while squinting at the others who were helping the outlaws from their mounts. “That big fella don’t look so good,” he remarked as he watched Reg and Benji settle the still woozy man on the ground.

  “That’s because I hit him over the head with a branch, Billy,” Lexi offered.

  “Boy howdy, I think you two youngin’s should start from the beginnin’ while you eat.”

  Moments later, a well-rounded woman with white-streaked brown hair and a friendly smile hustled over. “Alexis, you look tired. You let the men sort those rough customers out and come over to the fire.” Lexi smiled at B
enji’s wife Cathleen, but didn’t argue, letting herself be ushered over to the fire.

  When big, heavily muscled Hank Ballard stepped out of the darkness and into the light of the fire, he jerked in surprise to see his sister-in-law there. “Lexi? Is everything alright?”

  “Just go see if Reg needs any help,” Billy jumped in before Lexi could reply. “She’s gonna explain everything in a minute.”

  Once the others were gathered around and all of the newcomers had a plate of biscuits and beans, even the ornery looking men with their wrists bound before them, Lexi began to explain.

  “It looks like these men have been waiting for you to all take off on the cattle drive so they could swoop in and take what they wanted at the Broken J,” she began. “We were finishing up lunch when we heard horses and thought something had happened on the drive that had forced someone to come for help.”

  Reg picked up the tale. “They had the drop on us when we came out of the house, but then Ray came around the corner and,” he paused running his hand through his deep red locks, “well, I’m not exactly sure why or even how, but she clobbered the leader and saved us.”

  “My Ray?” asked Davrum Deeks, the ranch blacksmith's. Surprise was evident, but he was proud to hear that his wife had taken a stand with the ranch. She'd changed so much since he'd brought her home, maybe now she'd truly be a part of the Broken J.

  “Was anyone hurt?” Cathleen asked, her eyes wide.

  “How’s Pa?” Fiona, Lexi’s older sister asked, her hands protectively wrapped around her protruding tummy. Hank, Fiona’s husband, pulled her closer to his side, his gray eyes darting toward the three men who were busy shoveling food into their mouths.

  “No one was hurt and Pa’s the same,” Lexi finally spoke. “He had been out in the cart that morning so was resting when everything happened. He agreed that the best thing to do was to catch up with the herd and get these no-goods into Casper.”

  “How’s about Isabella and yer brother?” Billy asked, unceremoniously looking to Reg.