A Love Behind The Broken Mask (Western Historical Romance) Read online

  “Yes... but... they...” she stammered. “It’s just – the one with the little white heart on his head just fit the name ‘Precious,’ and I couldn’t just name one and not the others. That wouldn’t be fair.”

  “They’re animals, sweetheart,” Dillion reminded her gently. “They don’t know any better.”

  “I know,” she admitted, “but we still have to get them out of here.”

  “’Course we do! But why aren’t John and Henry doing it?” Dillion said. “They’re the best on horseback.”

  “The calves never run the right way when we use the horses – and their mamas aren’t about to let their babies run away all alone! It’s been a nightmare herding them lately,” Eloise explained. “I’m afraid if we use the horses now, the calves will run right into the fire... I know you have your reasons for never using him, but I think it would be smarter to push ‘em back with the dog.”

  “But the dog...” Dillion began, then trailed off. “I can’t risk it.”

  “Mama told me about it, you know,” Eloise said. “She told me a Scotsman sold him to ya as a trick... but Daddy, the calves respond to him just like any sheep would. And I’m sure he can at least get them around the bend right there behind ‘em. The fire won’t make it around that bend, even if we can’t contain it right away. It’s our best chance.”

  “How is it that I’ve been doing this ten years longer than you’ve been alive, yet, you understand these creatures better than I ever could?” Dillion mused, smiling.

  “I was born here,” Eloise pointed out, shrugging and backing toward the herd. “And so were they.”

  “Kindred spirits, eh?” Dillion chuckled. “I’ll go find the dog.”

  Dillion ran to a small enclosure around back from the worker’s house, where he had been keeping the dog in a pen that he’d intended to use for pigs before he’d learned that the real money was in cattle. Several months before, Dillion had bought the dog from a man in town, only to learn that the name ‘cattle-dog’ was deceiving, and this animal was really trained for herding sheep.

  It only took the tiny creature getting kicked in the face once for Dillion to realize the dog wasn’t meant for cattle, but he couldn’t bear to part with it. Instead, he kept it and fed it his table scraps.

  “How are you doing today, my boy?” Dillion said, scratching the dog behind the ear.

  The pup leaned his head into Dillion’s hand and looked up at him, almost like he was smiling. Dillion opened the pen and pointed at the ground in front of him. The dog obediently followed the gesture, sitting in the exact spot where Dillion pointed.

  “Good,” Dillion praised him. “I have a job for you to do, today – and I can’t promise you one of the cows won’t kick your poor head again. Are you prepared to take that risk?”

  The dog wagged his tail and smiled up at him.

  “That’s what I thought,” Dillion said, smiling. “All right, my boy, away!”

  The dog sprinted off to the right, just as Dillion commanded. It took Dillion quite some time to catch up, but as with all the animals, the dog was quick to respond to Eloise’s commands. When Dillion arrived, Eloise and the dog had already led four calves around the bend, causing their mothers to follow, just as Eloise had predicted.

  “It never ceases to amaze me how well you work with them,” Dillion said admiringly.

  “Well, if I’m gonna be doing it for the rest of my life, I might as well be good at it, right?” she said.

  “You don’t have to do this for the rest of your life,” her father said. “What about getting married? Raising children? You want to be a mother one day, don’t you?”

  “No reason a mother can’t care for the cattle, too,” Eloise retorted, placing her hands on her hips.

  “I suppose, but you may be surprised to learn just how much work it is, raising a child,” he said. “You never expect it to be so hard.”

  “Nonsense,” she said, winking. “I’m gonna have four kids, and they’re all gonna be just like me. Can’t go wrong with a herd of little ones that do everything exactly as you would do. They can never pull a fast one on ya, because you’re always ten steps ahead of ‘em!”

  “Those children are actually the hardest to raise,” he corrected. “I would know – I happen to have a daughter who takes after me.”

  Eloise smiled, and Dillion put his hand on her shoulder and laughed before taking over command of the dog.

  After all the calves had been urged around the bend, one of the men on horseback joined them to lead the remaining herd to safety. The fire was half the size it was before, mostly due to Edgar’s aggressive use of the metal rake to fling large amounts of dirt across the fire.

  “He’s gonna be sore tomorrow,” Eloise pointed out.

  “I’m sure we all will be,” Dillion agreed. “It looks like the men have gotten another trench dug on the south side of the flames, which means we have it completely contained on two sides. It shouldn’t take long to smother the last of the fire.”

  “That was smart of them to use the already-burned-out land to smother the live flames,” Eloise said. “It was probably Mark’s idea, if I had to guess – he's always coming up with clever schemes.”

  “How is it that you get along with all the men so well?” Dillion said. “Most of their experience talking to a lady is limited to the Whiskey Girls down at Maude’s Saloon!”

  “Probably because I dress like this around them,” Eloise guessed, gesturing at her clothes.

  “But when you marry, that may change, right?” he said.

  “Change?” she scoffed. “Why would I stop wearing work clothes just because I have a husband? Do husbands make the cows less dirty, or the field friendlier toward dresses?”

  “I suppose not, but when you have your hair down like that, you look like quite the lady – just like your mother did,” he said fondly.

  “This isn’t a town for ladies,” she replied. “And I don’t think I would want to be one, even if it was!”

  “A marriage may change all that,” her father ventured.

  Dillion and Eloise picked up whatever tools were left strewn across the field and piled more and more dirt over the raging flames. After several hours of fighting the ever-changing fire, the last of the blaze finally went out.

  Exhausted, Dillion and Eloise returned to their home and plopped down on the armchairs in the parlor. The smell of smoke radiated off of their clothing, filling the room with a scent similar to the smoked fish Dillion sometimes bought from the Natives in town.

  “I can’t decide if I’m more tired or more hungry,” Eloise grumbled.

  “I hate to say it, but I think I might finally be getting too old for this,” Dillion said, rubbing his back.

  “Don’t say that, Daddy; you’re hardly past your prime! You’ve got another thirty years in you, at least! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

  “Sixty is a bit beyond my prime, sweetheart,” he chuckled. “Though, I appreciate the encouragement. Gotta keep myself going somehow, especially with our current affairs.”

  “Bandits, lawyers, and now a fire...?” Eloise complained. “We worked for the land we live on. Why can’t we just be left to live in peace?”

  Her father nodded. “Yes, and your mother and brother died for it – don't forget that!”

  “Right, and they want us to leave the graves of our family just because we don’t have a piece of paper? Why are they doing this to us, Daddy?”

  “Because the townsfolk know about our wealth, and now, it seems, the word has spread beyond Cayenne,” he said. “It was a mistake to hire so many non-locals over the years... now, every town in the territory hates us for what we have, and some of them will do anything to try to take it from us. If they have to hire bandits, lawyers, or Natives – they’ll find a way.”

  “The Natives haven’t been nearly as aggressive as the lawyers, in my opinion,” Eloise admitted. “But don’t worry, Daddy; they can’t take this land from us – I won’t let t
hem!”

  “I claimed this land, same as anyone else who come out west,” he said. “They only want it back because I made something of it... and, unfortunately, it’s not just the lawyers. You notice how we were using nothing but dirt to put out that wildfire?”

  “I thought that was because of how dry it’s been.”

  “Yes, but it seems there was more to it than we first knew...” her father said. “See, I spoke with Henry about that strange dust storm he and John created to try to stop the flames – asked him why he was wasting the horses’ ability to carry water back and forth to the flames, just to turn up dust like a couple of chickens with their heads cut off.

  “He told me they were kicking dirt onto the fire because it was their only option. They tried bringing water to the flames, but when they got to the irrigation line, they found that someone diverted our water – again. As if it’s not enough to steal our cows, now they are trying to kill them by taking away their drinking water. When will the nonsense end? I’m much too old for this.”

  “If that’s so, then it’s a good thing we caught wind of the fire early enough, or else we might have died in it! How would they feel then, huh?” Eloise said, shaking her fist in the air. “Killing not only the cattle, but an innocent family with their greed!?”

  “Some men don’t have the heart you do,” Dillion told her, brushing the hair away from Eloise’s eyes. “I know you present yourself as a tough ranch worker, but deep down, you’re still my sweet little Ellie.”

  “I’m not little anymore, Daddy,” she argued, rolling her eyes.

  “Oh, I know that,” he said. “It was quite smart of you to think of using the dog to herd the calves – very adult, indeed.”

  “Daddy... If you dislike him so much, why do you keep him?” Eloise asked.

  “Well...” Dillion stood to gaze at a picture off the mantle. “If I had to give a reason, I’d say it’s because the dog reminds me of your brother.”

  “He reminds you of Edison?” Eloise said.

  “That dog came to this ranch after a lifetime of searching for somewhere to call home, and Edison loved him instantly... in a way, the dog claimed us the same way we claimed this land. I suppose the dog reminds me of what I’m fighting for – and what my dear Edison and beloved wife died for. Not to mention, he was the last living thing to see my son alive.”

  Dillion stared at the image of his wife, holding a tiny baby boy in her arms. This was the only image he had of his wife and son, and he thanked the Lord every day that he had decided to have it taken those fifteen years ago, when an aspiring photographer passed through their town.

  “Daddy,” Eloise ventured after a long pause. “I’ve been thinking about that photo, and I wondered... would you consider having one taken of yourself? It’s just – we have one of them, and I don’t need one of myself. But after I lose you – in thirty or more years, of course – well, I’ll be alone, and I’d like to have my family with me on this ranch, for as long as I shall live.”

  Dillion sighed and walked over to Eloise, as if preparing to embrace her. However, before he could reply, they heard the door to the house slam and the echo of boots against the wooden floor as someone ran toward the parlor.

  “Mr. Harding!” Henry yelled, appearing in the doorway. “Sorry to enter your home like this, but I been cleaning up after the fire, and I found something you should know about.”

  “Well...?” Dillion said, raising an eyebrow. “What is it, my boy?”

  “Mr. Harding,” he went on. “Somebody started the fire... intentionally.”

  Chapter Two

  Dillion and Eloise sat in the parlor in silence. Henry had returned to the stables to care for his horse, and the noise of the cows settling in for the night was dying down. Neither father nor daughter stood to light the gas lanterns as the sun set. They were too deep in thought to realize how dark the parlor had become.

  Suddenly, the sound of pots crashing together startled them out of their thoughts. Heart racing, Eloise looked around for the source of the sound, but it was too dark to see.

  The wood creaked in the hallway, but the footsteps were not loud enough to tell precisely where they were coming from. After a moment of anticipation, the door creaked open and a dim light spilled through the doorway, filling the room with light from the corridor. It seemed the hallway lights, at least, were lit.

  The silhouette of Jay Dale, the family’s cook, appeared in the doorway, poised and postured as ever. Jay had been the family’s cook for as long as Eloise could remember.

  When she was little, she remembered thinking he was such a large fellow, but now he stood just taller than she. However, he made up for his lack of height with his great belly. Jay glided elegantly into the room and stopped before them, holding a pot under his arm.

  He cleared his throat. “The grub... is on...” he said, blankly.

  “Oh, uh... thank you, Mr. Dale...?” Dillion replied.

  “Chef Dale,” he corrected, his voice void of emotion. “Will you be dining in the dining room or the mess hall today, sir?”

  “Oh, the mess hall, certainly,” Dillion said. “We had quite a day today, all of us. I think we all deserve a bit of merriment and entertainment; wouldn’t you say, Ellie?”

  “I don’t see why not,” she said.

  “Very well – I'll prepare the hall,” Jay said, turning to leave.

  “Oh, and, Chef Dale...?” Dillion said. “Would you like for us to get you a bell?”

  “A bell, sir...?” Jay enquired, raising and eyebrow.

  “You know, so you can ring a bell when the meal’s done, rather than using pots?” Dillion said.

  “I can’t say that I know what you mean, sir,” Jay said.

  “You know, the pots? The thing you do with the pots?” Dillion tried to explain.

  “I see,” the cook said. “An interesting question, to say the least, but I suppose that I should give it some thought before providing an answer. Thank you, sir.”

  Dillion watched Jay leave with a look of confusion on his face. Eloise, on the other hand, struggled to contain her laughter until Jay left the room. If it wasn’t for his gifted culinary skills, Eloise couldn’t imagine where ‘Chef’ Dale would be today.

  “He’s a strange one, isn’t he?” Eloise said, giggling.

  “I only hoped not to offend him,” Dillion confessed, showing concern in his face. “If banging the pots together to signal mealtime is really an important part of his process, I wouldn’t want him to think he had to stop doing it. Though, it is rather loud.”

  “Oh, Daddy,” Eloise said, smiling. “It’s no wonder everyone loves working for you.”

  “If only that were so,” he said.

  “Oh, but it is,” she said, furrowing her brow. “I hear the men talking about you sometimes, and they are all so grateful to work for you.”

  “Is that so? And what else do they say, may I ask?” Dillion pressed.

  “Well, they most often tease about you getting old,” she teased, nudging his shoulder. “But they also say that although you’re a strict employer, you’re a fair one – they’re just as worried about this place as we are.”

  “I understand that,” he said, getting to his feet. “Most of these men have already been put out of jobs by that railroad. The last thing they need is to lose another living.”

  “That’s a good thing, though - because at least we know they aren’t the ones hurting our cattle,” she said, taking her father by the arm and helping him into the hallway.