Chapter 2

When she opened them, she was sitting up in bed in a sunny bedroom, a dawn chorus of a proud cock cheerfully crowing through the open window, through which she could clearly see from her high bed, the rolling hills of the prairie ranch set against a dramatic backdrop of snow-capped grey mountains on the horizon.

“Ah, ye’re awake, ma’am, tat’s guud,” said the housekeeper, Mrs Duggan from the doorway, “I brung ye yer coffee. Shall I send Alice up to attend ta ye?”

She put the steaming enamel mug on the washstand. Caroline noted it was black coffee.

“Good morning, Mrs Duggan. Do you have any cream, by any chance?”

“Aye, we’ve not all beef cows here, ye knows, we do have a few milch cows, I’ll send Alice up wi’ a jug.”

Caroline was up and part dressed by the time Alice bounced in with the jug of cream.

“What are you so chipper about?” Caroline asked, amused by the girl’s excitement. She took the cream and poured some in her coffee, it was delicious.

“Well, Ma, am, Ah’s never been to the Injun Reservation afore!” she exclaimed, “Ah’m both a feared an’ excited, all at the same time!”

Alice was breathless, bouncing around the room collecting together the clothes her mistress would need, which included a pair of comfortable suede riding britches. Looking in the mirror, even without the hat Caroline felt she looked rather like Annie Oakley. Caroline wondered if she could still remember how to shoot, either a handgun or a rifle, she hadn’t tried either since she last went to the Wild West Enthusiasts’ summer camp when she was about 18 or 19. Mind you, looking in the mirror she looked to be in her mid-twenties, rather than her true fifties, and she felt young, energetic and eager for today’s adventure.

“How far is the ride to the Reservation?” she asked Alice.

“Oh, it would be half a day if’n we used the gig, ‘cause the road goes around the hills, but on horseback over the mountain trails I reckon it’ll be ‘bout half the morning.”

Her new brother Samuel was quite cheerful during the huge breakfast that Mrs Duggan had set out for the pair of them, insisting her new mistress eat more than she put on her plate, as she said Caroline looked as though she normally ate like a bird.

“Them ‘ills can be cold this early in the spring Ma’am, so ye need to fill up on vittles an’ I packed ye some beef pie to eat on te way there, an’ plen’y for te way back, so you don’t ‘ave to eat none o’ tere Injun stuff. Lord knows what tey eats!”

When Caroline got to the stables, the little piebald mare that Sam had picked out for her was already saddled with a much lighter saddle compared with the big Western ones with all the ropes hanging off that the others used.

“Pa had this English saddle made for you years ago, ma- Caroline, hoping you’d come by at some stage. He said when you was little you rode a man’s horse like a rodeo princess an’ could outshoot any deputy lawman!”

“I think your Pa was inclined to exaggerate my talents, it’s been years since I’ve been on a horse or done any shooting. If I don’t fall off three times in the first half hour I’ll be surprised!” She saw Samuel smile at that, “And if I stay on all morning, I probably won’t be able to walk for a week!”

Sam laughed, “You’ll be alright, I guess, we’re gonna ride real slow an’ easy like, anyways. On’y a fool rides off half-cocked into Injun Territory. You needs to let ‘em see you comin’ peaceful an’ quiet from a long ways off.” He wore a mischievous grin as he added, “An’ if you do fall off, they’d be laughin’ so much that if they starts shootin’ they wouldn’t be able to hit the bunkhouse wall!”

Caroline was pleased that Samuel seemed to be more relaxed around her this morning, and felt that they’d get along fine now the ice was broken. She introduced herself to her horse, that Sam had called Bonny, with a cube of hard sugar furnished by Mrs Duggan, before she stood on an upturned bucket left for the purpose and climbed up into the saddle. She soon felt comfortable and was able to check out Alice, who had insisted on getting Sam to help her up into the enormous sidesaddle that her pony had been fitted with.

They set out then, with three outriders, Billy, Tex and Pat, who cheerfully introduced themselves to their new second Boss. They were all older men, with ruddy suntanned faces, the colour of oak. From their conversation, they appeared glad of this little excursion, to have an easy day of it, compared to roping and branding cows, or whatever they normally did on the ranch.

“We ain’t afraid o’ no injuns, Ma’am,” they’d assured her.

Caroline felt comfortable on horseback, even as she climbed the rocky hills en route, as the sure-footed pony ploughed steadily upward. With her growing confidence on the ride, Caroline began taking more interest in her surroundings, looking down on the spread behind her and seeing the huge number of cattle feeding on the lush grass by the broad river. Despite the continuous sunshine, it did get cold in the hills so she was glad of the warm coats, gloves and broad-brimmed hats that Mrs Duggan had insisted she and Alice wore.

On the other side of the mountain, there was a wood ahead of them, the trees so thick that there was little undergrowth except in the patches where odd trees had fallen. Sam called the group to a halt before the wood and they got off the horses and stretched their legs while one of the men started a fire and put the coffee pot on to boil. Sam explained why they had stopped.

“Them Injun patrols already know we’s comin’, they’d have seen us come down the path from the hills. Stoppin’ here gives ‘em time to check with an elder to decide on whether to leave us alone or attack us.”

Caroline felt compelled to ask, “What is the likelihood of attack?”

“None, Caroline,” Samuel grinned, “it’d be different if we just rode straight into camp, as they might jus’ shoot before they ask questions. Our Pa was always fair with the Injuns. Hell, he even married one of ‘em, and we give ‘em a few cows each winter, and even more cows in the bad winters, so they know us, an’ know that we ain’t enemies. We’ll be alright.”

Once refreshed by the coffee and the stretching of their limbs, they remounted and road on down through the trees in single file and out onto the flat prairie again. Samuel and Caroline rode next to each other for a while.

“So, Sam, did you grow up on the Reservation or the ranch?”

He grinned, “The ranch, where I was born and raised. I only goes back to the Reservation every few weeks to visit Gramps, he’s the medicine man there.”

“So tell me about your mother.”

“Oh, not much to say, she’s pretty quiet most of the time. She, well she sees things, so the Injuns reckon she is a Holy Woman, I guess she gets that from Gramps.”

“Well, you don’t really look half Indian at all, what’s your mother look like?”

“Oh, Ma don’t look much Injun either, so I guess there’d bin some white blood there in the past on my Grandma’s side. I never knew my Grandma, she’d passed when Ma was young. You’ll find that Gramps ain’t easy to git along with, mind, he’s one cantankerous old Injun!”