Chapter 14
Bliss looked over the land around her, gazing anywhere but at the man beside her. Prairie dogs ran here and there and ducked down into their holes. Tufts of grass sprung up out of the orange-brown dirt in scattered places and the ground lay bare in other places. A tall butte rose abruptly out of the ground ahead of them where the trail that the wagon was running beside it.
She let her eyes wander to her left where Clint sat, one hand holding the reins and the other he had propped up on his knee and rested his chin on his knuckles. His attitude had improved some, but she still didn’t feel like testing that. She had remained silent for most of their time beside him in spite of wanting to run him out of her life. She mostly didn’t want to suffer the wrath of his anger should he get mad at her. He would be proud to know that if she decided that she would show her feelings on the matter, which she had not.
Clint pulled the wagon to a stop under the butte where it cast a shadow over the land in a large area. It was a few degrees cooler in the shade and Bliss breathed deep of the cooler air.
“Why are we stopping?” Damian asked.
“The horses need to rest,” Clint replied stiffly.
He hopped down, walked around the horses to the other side of the wagon, and held his hand out to her.
Bliss stared at him strangely. Back in Plateau, he had seemed annoyed by the chore of helping her down, but now he was doing it willingly?
Strange.
Setting her thoughts aside, she allowed him to help her down and set her on the ground. Her legs were stiff from the hours of riding in the wagon, and her knees threatened to buckle. Clint caught her by the arms.
“You okay?” he asked.
Bliss nodded and felt her knees return to normal. She stood straight and shrugged his hands off her arms.
Damian and Colt climbed out of the back of the wagon, Colt more quickly than Damian did as he sent a glare to Clint.
Bliss felt her defenses rise. What was Clint supposed to do? Let her fall?
It wouldn’t do for Colt to start getting jumpy while she was around Clint, especially when he knew that she was trying to get rid of him.
She felt the tension between the three of them rise and grow stronger at that moment as they all exchanged glances.
It was going to be a long ride home.
*****
Grace snatched the letter from Sherman’s shaking hands and read aloud.
“You think you can scare me away with a fancy gun? You have no idea what I am capable of. Soon you will see that I always get what I want in the end. Watch your back and you will see.
-S.R.”
Grace felt her own hands begin to shake.
“Seth? How does he know about Clint? How can he see us?” she asked with a quivering voice.
“I-I don’t know. That’s what angers me. I don’t know much of anything about this. Bliss never told me all of the details about her and Seth. Now she’s out there unaware of the danger that she’s in,” Sherman leaned against the railing of the porch to hold himself up.
“She has Clint Slade. Surely he is on his guard at all times and will know what to do if any trouble arises,” Grace offered.
“Maybe, but I can’t rely on that. I’d be a lousy father if I did. I just wish she was here.” Sherman sighed deeply.
“All we can do is pray for her and hope for the best,” Grace whispered.
“You can pray all you want, but I’m going after her.”
Grace looked at him. “No you are not. You are needed here. If you go, you’ll be asking for trouble that wouldn’t be there in the first place. You’ll stay right here and let your daughter take care of herself.”
“You want me to stand by and let her get killed?” Sherman pushed off the railing.
“Seth was a coward. He doesn’t have to guts to shoot anyone, let alone a woman. Bliss can take care of herself, especially when there are three men with her,” Grace told him.
Sherman let out a heavy, agitated sigh.
A moment of awkward silence passed between them. The whole situation was making Grace lose sleep at night. She went between worrying about what could happen and what was happening right under her nose that she didn’t know about.
Suddenly, Sherman snatched the note from her.
“We can’t let her see this.”
Grace felt her heart sink. More secrets?
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I don’t want her worrying. You’re right. Seth is a coward and is most likely just trying to scare us. I think the best thing to do is to keep this between us.”
“What if he has a sudden burst of courage?”
Sherman sighed. “Then we counter it.”
*****
The campfire crackled and popped as the night air lured Clint to sleep. His eyes were heavy and all he wanted to do was to lay down on his bedroll and sleep until the next day, but Miss Cooper made sure that he didn’t get to sleep until she was good and ready.
She had even gone so far as to make him grease the wheels on the wagon, a chore that he had done yesterday when they reached Plateau. Yet she was going to have to do a whole lot more than keep him busy if she was going to get rid of him.
“Hurry up with that wheel, Mr. Slade. You have two more to do, you know,” Miss Cooper reminded him.
Clint rolled his eyes, his back to her. “I’m well aware of that.”
“Well, then hurry up. I need you to come stand guard while I wash my hair in that watering hole we saw nearby,” she said.
“That can’t wait until we get back to the ranch?” he asked
“You try having hair as greasy as mine. I can’t go three days without it being unbearable,” she whined.
Clint heaved a sigh. He sure didn’t like the idea of standing around while she primped. Now the blasted woman was really getting to him.
“Oh, and you might as well brush down the horses sometime tonight, too,” Miss Cooper flung a towel over her shoulder.
“That can’t wait until we get back to the ranch?” Clint asked again, stirring the grease in its tin can with the brush he had.
“I want it done today.” She stuck her nose up in the air and turned on her heel.
He could plainly see that this was out of her comfort zone. She wasn’t acting herself and the person she was trying to be in front of him was not her personality. Clint found that amusing.
“As the lady commands,” he muttered.
“What was that?” Miss Cooper stopped.
“Nothin’,” Clint replied.
“Mmm-hmm.”
“Are you gonna take all night?” Clint grumbled as he leaned against a tree with his back to Miss Cooper.
The sun had just set, giving the air a grey and depressing mood. The temperature was bearable, unlike the present company he found himself in.
“This takes time, Mr. Slade,” Miss Cooper said in a high-pitched, reminding voice.
Everything with a woman took time.
Time and effort on a man’s part.
This was exactly why he hadn’t bothered with women much, aside from the fact that he was a natural repellant to the opposite sex.
“Are the others already asleep?” Miss Cooper asked.
“Yep.”
He heard her footsteps and turned around to see her wringing out her sopping wet hair and rubbing it with the towel she had brought. So much trouble for a mop of hair.
“Did you comb out the horses yet?” she asked.
“Nope.”
Clint had decided that her constant nagging at him ended tonight. He wasn’t being paid to cater to her every whim, nor was he paid to listen to her gripe at him. His job was to protect her and that was the long and short of it.
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because that’s not my job. If you want something petty like that done, you’ll have to talk to one of the other two gophers you dragged along on this trip,” Clint stated honestly.
“I don’t see that you have the right to speak to me that way. While I’m a few years younger than you, you still work for me and I have the privilege of sending you on your way if I so choose.” Her tone didn’t match her words in the least, only confirming Clint’s suspicions that she was trying to get him to run off.
“No ma’am, I work for your father. That’s it.”
“Then all I have to do is come up with any tale I can think up and he will believe it. He’ll send you away and you won’t see a dime of your pay,” she flung a section of hair behind her right shoulder and began working on the other side.
She was completely transparent. She wanted to annoy him so bad that he quit and she wouldn’t have to throw a fit to her father like a child. That must be her only reason for wanting him to leave. He had gathered that Sherman didn’t treat his daughter like the young adult lady that she was, and that clearly annoyed her. Well, he would have to set her mind at ease.
“You’re not hiding a single thing from me; you know that, don’t you?” Clint asked her.
Miss Cooper looked up. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“You’re trying to get rid of me.”
She fell silent, not even trying to deny his accusation. She twirled a few strands of wet hair around her finger and bit her lip, the very picture of innocence.
Why did that nag at him?
“Aren’t you?” Clint asked in an effort for her expression to change.
Miss Cooper pushed her lips into a hard line. “Yes.”
“Why?” Clint asked. “I could keep you from getting killed.”
He was used to people not wanting him around, but it was usually the ones on the wrong side of the law.
“I’m not worried about my life,” Miss Cooper stated. “My father and his controlling ways are the only reason that you’re standing here.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“Fine,” Miss Cooper huffed. “I want you out of here because the longer you stay the more my father will depend on you to keep me safe. I’ll never have a lick of independence ever again. You have no idea how suffocating it is!”
Clint nodded. It was just as he thought.
“You know, I don’t want to be here as much as you don’t want me here. So in order for us both to get out of this we’re going to have to work together,” he said.
Miss Cooper looked up at him. “I’m listening.”
“We’re going to have to put our heads together to find out who keeps sending you those notes. We have to take every scrap of any evidence we find and trace it to pin it to one person. Anything suspicious you find you’ll have to keep, understood?” Clint asked.
She nodded.
“No more secrets. I’ll have to know all about this Seth Ryder fellow and any others who might want to be out to get you or your father,” Clint added.
He saw determination flash behind her coffee-brown eyes as her lips formed a hard line again.
She wasn’t planning on telling him a single thing about Seth Ryder.
Hey guys! So... I feel like a flat tire that got ran over by a convoy of semi trucks... Yes, I have a cold. We have my brother to thank for that!!! Anyways, I'd appreciate some honest feedback on this! Absolutely no sugarcoating! :D Thanks so much guys and I hope you enjoyed it! :D