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Though the cow wasn’t generally aggressive, Kent never knew how they would react to his presence just after calving, even hours later. He’d made the mistake in his youth of ignoring the cow when going for the calf due to youthful excitement. He wouldn’t do that again.
She ducked her head slightly, and Kent tensed, waiting to see if she’d charge. He held his hands wide, trying to both appear larger than he was and giving himself a good stance for running, should the need arise. He paused, biding his time.
A rustling at his six let Kent know he was no longer alone. “Looks like a mighty fine calf. Good color.” Armstrong landed a rope around the cow’s neck and tapped a bucket of what was probably some of the new hay Pa had just purchased, with his boot.
The cow left her calf, not giving it a second glance as she headed for the appealing bucket. “There, now you can be quicker about your check. I think you’d do better with watching Pa in the house than spending your time out here. Ma has hinted she can’t manage him alone anymore. He’s the main reason I asked you to come back. You never wanted anything to do with ranching. You left to become a doctor. Why aren’t you in the house, doctoring, while you have the opportunity?” He kept his voice moderate and low so he didn’t scare the cow into looking for her calf, which Kent appreciated. But laced underneath Armstrong’s voice was his usual cynicism. All he had to do was listen for it.
“The simple reason is that I only took one class to become a doctor before they switched my specialty to animals.” Against his will, but the classes were paid for and done now.
“Which is another subject you’ve gotten good at avoiding over the last month.”
Kent ignored Armstrong while he checked the calf over from head to hoof. The black hair covering its hide was soft and almost curly. It nuzzled Kent, looking for a snack, and he scratched its cheek as he pushed harder into Kent’s leg. He laughed as he slowly led it back to its mother.
Armstrong gently loosened the loop around the cow’s neck. He’d only used it to guide her, anyway. She didn’t move once the rope was removed. Her calf found just what it was looking for while Kent and Armstrong stood by in silence.
Rays of sun hit the morning grass, and glistening balls of light lit up, flashing in the slight morning breeze. The university campus hadn’t been near as beautiful as home, but he still didn’t want to be there.
“You’ve been back an entire month and you have yet to go talk to her. If you’re not going to help me by being here, at least help yourself.” Armstrong rested his arms over the top rail of the fence and glanced out over the rolling hills. A slight fog rose above the low areas, quickly fading.
“Help myself or Pa, those are my choices? I thought this was my family home too?” Not that he’d wanted the land or the house. He’d done his best to run off the moment Armstrong had taken the lead. Unfortunately, when Kent left, the friendship between the brothers had dried up like last year’s wheat.
“You knew why I asked you home. You as good as told me that when you left, you didn’t want to return. Alice or no, this place was not your home.” Armstrong flexed his hand in subtle warning.
“Alice…” Her name escaped before he could stop it.
“If you care about her, why are you hiding out in the barn here? I couldn’t stay away from Dosha if I was in your place. Maybe you’re stronger than me.”
He didn’t like the direction of the conversation. Too much talk about Alice would lead to admitting he still felt a whole lot more for her than he ever should. “Look at me, Armstrong,” he mumbled, still ashamed of the deeply colored scar down the side of his face. A scar that would never heal. He’d asked the doctors at the university, just to be certain.
“The nurses called me Mr. Monster.” He swallowed hard. “They complained to the dean that I would be too frightening for anyone but military patients to handle. He tended to agree with them. I was told to either enlist and plan to use my education to help in the army . . . or I could switch to animal medicine.”
Kent gritted his teeth. “I was too weak in the stomach to think about facing the kinds of trauma I would see as a military doctor, so despite my own desire to get as far away from ranching as I possibly could, here I am.” He flung his arm wide, indicating the pasture at their feet.
Armstrong gripped his shoulder, gave it a tight squeeze, then freed him. “I’m glad to have you back. But I’m no doctor and neither is Ma, nor Dosha. I need your help in the house too, doing what we do every day.”
He’d hoped to avoid reminding Dosha he was there. The more he stayed in the bunkhouse and in the barn, the less likely she would be to hitch up her wagon and head on over to Johlman Ranch to tell Alice he’d returned. Maybe she already had.
“I’ll go in and check on him.”
“Word of warning,” Armstrong said, stopping him cold. “Pa says many things, most of which we’re pretty sure he doesn’t mean. He’ll say things that seem intelligent, then follow them with stories we’d rather not hear. It’s like he can’t decipher what should and shouldn’t be said aloud anymore.”
Kent gave a quick nod of understanding. “I’ll help watch Pa, but you need to keep your wife in order. She is not to tell Alice that I’ve returned. It would only hurt her.”
Armstrong threw back his head in a laugh that sent birds flying from nearby trees. “Keep my wife in order? Dosha does what is kind and what is right. I’m not going to tell her to lie. If you’re so concerned with what Alice knows, perhaps you should tell her yourself that she should give up on you. Or would you really rather she not?” The side of Armstrong’s mouth tipped in a sardonic smile.
Blast his brother, Armstrong knew him too well. “My feelings have nothing to do with this.” He pointed to his cheek and the burning in his gut intensified. He dug in his trousers for the Nyal antacid tablets he carried with him at all times and popped the chalky pill in his mouth, then another for good measure.
“I’m sorry, brother.”
Kent’s heart quickened, and he felt sick to his stomach. “What do you mean?”
“Dosha was headed over to Johlman Ranch early this morning. I helped her sneak away because Pa had already been awake for the day.”
“And?” Kent could barely speak. He’d known there was little chance Alice could be kept in the dark forever, but he’d hoped for a little longer until he’d decided if he was going to stay in Belle Fourche or move on.
“In lieu of the promise you made to Alice, and the way you’ve been hiding, she felt it was time to tell Alice the truth. And I agreed with her.”
His knees locked under him and within a few breaths, his vision went black around the edges.Slow, calm breaths… relax your stance.He could hear the one genuinely kind professor say in his mind as he’d gripped Kent’s shoulder.You don’t have to listen to them, you know. Prove them all wrong and be the best blamed doctor they’ve ever seen. Your cheek has nothing to do with your kindness or intelligence.
