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“It would seem so; most of the hands were takin’ his orders and lookin’ for me. Dead or alive, it didn’t matter to Harry.”
“Did they chase after you?” Sam asked.
“For a while, then they just sorta gave up. They figured I’d be dead before I got anywhere. Sometimes I think because I’m not that big, they thought I couldn’t hold up to things, like ranchin’,” she explained. “Harry never thought much of women anyway, except for his own purpose if you know what I mean.”
“Well, they can’t just take over your land, like that. I mean, it’s yours. So what you gonna do now?” Sam asked as he stood up once more and began digging again.
“I don’t rightly know. I was figurin’ to catch the stage,” she answered. “Get as far away as I could and then figure it out.”
“That’s a good idea, but if I was you, I’d get to a town, where someone can help you.” Sam added, “You can tell the Sheriff. You livin’ around here, people are bound to know you. With a spread that big, everyone would be familiar with you runnin’ the place, seems like.”
“No…I can’t do that.” She pet Nodog behind the ears and Nodog waged his tail. “Everybody knows me, but don’t many care about me. You see out here, men don’t think women can do things like runnin’ a ranch, and that’s pretty common thinkin’. Besides, there isn’t a Sheriff around these parts. No real law unless you go to Ft. Worth, Dallas or Waco. No towns either. Just ranches mostly.”
Sam sent her a scowl. “You tellin’ me you’re the daughter of one of the richest men in the state and no one cares about you? That’s a little hard to swallow.”
“Well…when I wouldn’t go back east like my pa wanted, some of the folks, mostly ladies thought kinda ill of me. And the men too because I put britches on and worked my ranch along with my pa, like a man. So everyone sorta marked me as Morgan’s wayward child. It didn’t matter to me at first, but as time goes on…it sorta does. So today, when they started shooting at me, I was just gonna keep on going. You see, Harry and most the ranchers around here are pretty good friends. And now that I put it all together, I reckon they been plannin’ this take-over for some time. It’s kinda easy to figure lookin’ back at it all. Especially the way Harry was talkin’. Because of the way most the ranchers treat me, I don’t socialize much with them, knowin’ their attitude. Oh, I try to be friendly, but they think I’m what’s the word…”
“Eccentric?”
“Yeah, that’s it. Oh maybe they seen me a time or two, but as for socializing, I just don’t have the time. My pa, he never put too many hands on, just enough to take care of the place so there has always been a lot of work to do. Everyone knows me, but not many paid me no mind. ‘Cause I’m a woman, doin’ a man’s job. It’s an unspoken law around here that women don’t have no business runnin’ a place as big as mine. They don’t think I have enough sense. But they are wrong, I’m a good rancher.”
Sam stopped again. “And you plannin’ on just leavin’ the place to this Harry fella? Just up and leave it?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head and stared at Sam, and Sam saw the forlorn look on her face. “I mean I didn’t plan all this. I have to have some time to sit down and think about what I need to do. I haven’t had time to even think on it, much, this just happened today. I’ve been more concerned with gettin’ away with my life.” She paused now and stared at the dirt he’d shoveled. “I been too busy runnin’. I figured once I was safe I could figure it out.”
“So for now, you’re just gonna walk off and leave them to it?” Sam questioned, his eyes going to her hand on his dog. “Let them go ahead and figure out how to get that land deed changed. Then you won’t have anything to come back to.”
Riley seemed to bow up at his accusation. “For now, they want to kill me. I am not ready to die, sir. I wanted to get away. Once I’m safe I can figure out something,” she insisted. “Maybe hire me a gun hand to take care of them or somethin’. You interested in that kind of job, by any chance?”
“I’m no gunman.”
She fell silent for a few minutes, eyeing his gun with curiosity.
“How far you figure you gotta go to be safe?” Sam asked, finding the situation almost funny.
“I don’t know…this has never happened before, I don’t have any idea. I haven’t had time to think of the situation enough to know what to do.”
Sam shook his head, his disgust clearly written for her to see on his face. “You don’t just walk off a piece of land and let someone have it.”
“I know…” Tears were not far from falling, he heard it in her voice. “I know…that’s true. But I haven’t had enough time to decide what to do yet. I been a little busy stayin’ alive…”
“Don’t you have anyone back there that can help you?” Sam asked, not daring to look at her as his heart began to respond to her.
“Not anyone I can trust, no. You see it’s the biggest spread in the area, and everyone wants it. I’ve even been offered money by several since my Pa died. But I refused to sell, of course. That didn’t set well with most the other ranchers. They figured on me sellin’. They killed my oldest hand, he was the only one I trusted for sure,” she explained, as one tear floated down her dirty cheek. “They put a snake in his bed, so it looked natural. No one will know what really happened but me.”
“A snake…how do you know this?” Sam expression changed now, as though he were finally taking her serious.
“I heard them talkin’ this morning as I was hidin’ out.”
“You must have hid out close, to hear everything,” Sam acknowledged.
“Oh I did, right under their noses, in fact. But I know the place backwards and forward. I knew where to go. They didn’t.”
Sam took her in, his glance going over her now. She was small and dirty and it was hard to tell if she was pretty or not. Sweat and dirt had mixed all over her face. Her hair was pulled back by some kind of ribbon, dark. Her clothes were more practical than flattering, it was hard to tell just how much of a woman she was, but Sam wasn’t looking at that. He needed to size her up, but sizing a white woman up wasn’t that easy. He’d never tangled with a white woman before. And this one was different somehow, innocent-like.
“This spread you got, you say everyone wants it?” Sam figured quickly.
“One of the biggest in the state,” she wailed. “But I don’t have it right now and if Harry has anything to do with it, it won’t be mine long. He fully intends seein’ the lawyer.”
