Only 05 - Autumn Lover

Hunter.
    “That’s what Mac called the bull,” Elyssa explained. “Bedamned. He would have shot the bull more than once, but it was Father’s favorite. He loved contrary, dangerous creatures.”
    “Sounds like Bedamned might be a good one to ship off to the army.”
    “The critter is just too much trouble. If you put Bedamned in a herd, you get a stampede. Leave him alone and he leaves you alone. In fact—”
    Abruptly Elyssa stopped talking, silenced by a sharp gesture from Hunter. He had pulled Bugle Boy to a halt. She started to ask what was wrong, thought better of it, and waited.
    Hunter was listening with the intense stillness Elyssa had noticed when she first saw him looming out of the darkness beyond her front porch. Then he turned his head slowly, cocking it slightly from one side to the other.
    After a few minutes he shifted in the saddle and urged Bugle Boy ahead once more.
    “What was it?” Elyssa asked.
    Hunter shrugged.
    “Thought I heard something,” he said. “Must have been the wind in one of those narrow ravines off up there.”
    His gloved hand waved in the direction of the Rubies looming up to the left of the riders.
    “Do you cut meadow hay for the winter?” Hunter asked.
    “Usually. The Scots and English cows Mac favored aren’t nearly as good at digging their food out of snow as the longhorns.”
    Elyssa flapped the divided skirt of her habit in the hope of getting some air against her legs. The cloth clung like a hot compress.
    “But the tame cows carry much more meat,” she continued. “The longhorns are skinny as deer and twice as wild.”
    Hunter smiled slightly and made an encouraging noise that said he was listening. While she talked, his eyes searched the surrounding land.
    Elyssa described the merits of the few Herefords theLadder S owned. Then she talked about the more common holsteins, the edgy, aggressive longhorns, and the bulky oxen.
    All of them were part of the Ladder S herd. The ragtag assortment of livestock had come west along immigrant trails until the places where grass or water or both ran out. There the livestock was abandoned. Some were eaten by Indians, some by vultures, some survived to go feral, and some were rounded up by the Ladder S.
    The extent of Elyssa’s knowledge about the good and bad points of each type of cattle surprised Hunter.
    Even more surprising to him was her careful plan to upgrade the quality of the Ladder S herd. She wanted to introduce more of the meaty white-faced cattle while gradually culling the milk cows, oxen, and unruly longhorns from the herds. She even talked of fencing some of the land to keep out mustangs and feral cows.
    Bemused and intrigued by turns, Hunter listened to Elyssa’s dreams. At a time when few westerners even bothered to cut wild hay for winter feed, Elyssa wanted to introduce and raise a European hay known as alfalfa, which was much more nutritious than meadow grass. She also had ideas for irrigating more than the kitchen garden and small orchard that the Ladder S already had.
    Horses were high on Elyssa’s list of dreams for the future. She wanted to raise spotted cow horses that had the savvy, strength, and speed of Leopard. When the mustangs were rounded up to deliver to the army, she was going to look over the mares very carefully. The best she would keep and breed to Leopard.
    “What about a stud like Bugle Boy?” Hunter asked.
    “He has Thoroughbred in him, doesn’t he? And Irish hunter?”
    Hunter nodded.
    “Clean limbs, deep chest, powerful, yet elegant in his movements,” Elyssa said, looking at Hunter’s horse.
    And at Hunter himself.
    “Steady eyes and enough room between them for a brain, if he ever uses it,” Elyssa continued. “Gentle, too, underneath all that muscle and stubborn—”
    Her teasing words ended in a cry of surprise. A huge longhorn was bursting like a brindle avalanche from a ravine a hundred feet away.
    Horns lowered, hooves digging out chunks of dirt and grass with every running step, the longhorn charged at Leopard.
    “Run!” Hunter shouted.
    Elyssa reined Leopard hard to the left and dug her heels into his barrel even as she grabbed for the shotgun that lay in its saddle scabbard. The longhorn was so close that she could see the whites of its wildly rolling eyes and hear its sawing breath.
    Too close , she thought in terror. No time to lift the shotgun. God, that bull is quick !
    Frantically Elyssa spun Leopard on his hocks and yanked the shotgun free