Chapter 7

"I supposed it would be best just to say what I need to Zach," Kathleen said. "You saved me from the Comancheros and I've become very fond of you since you came to live at Astor Manor and you were always a gentleman. But I..."

"Nigel?" Zach asked. Kathleen's surprise showed on her face but she nodded yes. "Figured as much when you wrote to say you were stopping off in St. Louis for a week or so on your way home, he continued."

Kathleen hesitantly looked over at Zach. "I'm sorry Zach. I'm going back to St. Louis and spend some time with him to see if my feelings are real. It just happened, I mean we spent a lot of time together when he was here at the ranch and on father's trip east and I couldn't get him off my mind while I was in Berkshire." She paused and added, "If he doesn't feel the same I'll come home to Astor Manor."

"No apologies needed Kathleen," Zach replied. He grinned and reached over to take her hand. "Guess I was always a gentleman cause I never thought of you that way." Kathleen's head came up and Zach laughed.

"Oh, I care for you, maybe even love you but it's like very good friends that have shared a dangerous time together; One that bonded us to each other as much as blood kin."

Kathleen relaxed a little and nodded again. "You will always be my Knight Protector and I your Lady, Zach."

"Nigel's a lucky man Lady Kathleen." Zach leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "I hope y'all will be happy."

Zach was sitting on top of a rise about three hundred yards from the ranch house and out buildings. Hearing the laughter of his two sons, William and Frank, as they chased each other around the yard, he watched them play for a few minutes. It's been a good ten years, Zach thought. He reached down and stroked his horse's neck. "Hasn't it Gris old fellar?"

Long ago Zach had gotten into the habit of talking to his horse while working for several different cattle ranches in Texas and New Mexico. On the long cattle drives to the rail heads, the drovers would take turns riding night guard on the herd. The riders would watch for predators and sometimes have to quiet the cattle. All kinds and manner of things could and would make a herd jumpy.

A spooked herd could break away in a stampede at sound of a strange noise, they could run because of lightening, a quick summer storm or because the wind was blowing hard; stampedes were dangerous and feared on the trail. The night guards would ride around and around the cattle singing or talking lowly and softly to calm the animals.

All they needed was a calm voice to help ease their nervousness. Zach thought his singing sounded as bad as a cat having its tail stepped on and that he'd spook the cattle instead of calming them so he talked to them and to his horse. It was a habit he'd never gotten over or broken.

Zach had first hand and personal knowledge of how deadly a stampede could be. He was working for a large ranch outside of Dewitt, Texas when he was introduced to the dangers of a runaway longhorn herd. They had been on the trail for eight days when a late summer storm rolled across the flat lands. The wind had been gusting all day and the rain squalls blowing through kept the longhorns riled up. The cattle were hard to quiet when they stopped that night.

Riding night guard, Zach talked in a low soft voice trying to calm the over excited cattle. The wind had seemed to quiet a little, although it was still blowing the bunched clouds across the sky. A bolt of lightning struck the only tree for miles around, emitting a loud crack and setting the tree on fire. That's all it took; the cattle were off on a dead run.

Zach yelled "Stampede" to alert the camp and he and the other two men riding night guard took off after the now fast moving Longhorns most weighing over 1000 pounds. The idea was to get to the front of the herd and 'head' or turn them so they ran in a circle. The lead edge of the herd would end up bunched up against the tail end of the following cattle and eventually slow and stop. It was either that tactic or let the herd run until they tired; hoping you didn't lose too many head.

Another drover, Tim Jones, joined with Zach in trying to head the cattle. Tim's horse stepped in a hole, stumbled and Tom was thrown. At least sixty head of cattle ran over Tim and his horse; Zach could hear his screams for a few seconds as the cattle stepped on him. The trail boss and men buried him the next morning.

"People just didn't understand Kathleen and me Gris," Zach said to his horse. "Everyone thought she and I would get hitched after that run from the Comancheros and surviving that Tucson desert. Guess there's no telling how your feelings are gonna set up."

Zach hitched his right leg over his saddle horn and continued to look down at the ranch house. "Kathleen stayed for two weeks Gris," he said. "Had to pack up all her clothes and such for her move to St. Louis. I was sorta sad to see her off on the train the day she left. With both Kathleen and Sir Gerald gone it got a bit lonely in that big ranch house."

He turned his head to the other side of the rise and watched as Josh, Paco, and some of the other men rounded up the cattle from the south range. It was late spring and time for branding the new calves and yearlings. Looks like it's gonna be a good year, he thought.