The Ballad of Zachery Carson Ch. 07

Please read the previous chapters before wading into this one.

I welcome and appreciate all comments, critiques and/or emails; but especially constructive ones.

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Chapter Seven

"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."

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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 he 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.

"Sure glad we switched over to white face cattle. Longhorns are as mean as hell; if a longhorn sees a man on foot it'll turn aside just to stomp a hole in him. These white face Herefords will almost break a leg to keep from running over a rider. Ain't anything much prettier than one of our herds on the trail; with their red coats and the white faces their a sight to see."

Gris bobbed his head up and down, impatient to be off helping to work the cattle. "Easy fellar, the men know what their doin and don't need our help," Zach said as he settled the horse.

"Reckon I'm gettin old Gris. That last winter was bothersome to me and I can't jump back after two or three days on the trail as good as I used to." Zach took a deep breath and smiled. "Spring is my favorite time of the year. It's cool at night, don't get too hot during the day, and you can smell the wild flowers and trees blooming."

He continued telling Gris what had happened ten years previously. Gris had no choice but to listen. "Course when Mrs. Kraft and Joe decided to move to California to be closer to their grandchildren it got real lonely real quick. I wasn't lookin forward to doin my own cookin." Zach laughed out loud,

"Paco saved my bacon when came up with the idea to have his wife, Juanita, and his daughter, Pilar, take over for the Krafts." He laughed again remembering how he'd asked Paco if he wanted his son, Ernesto, to become a butler.

"No Patron," Paco answered with a grin. "Neto is going to be a top hand one day. No, Juanita and Pilar can cook, clean and manage the house; you and I will do any repairs and chores that need to be done."

"Let's give it a try," Zach agreed. "Sure beats wrangling my own grub."

Juanita cooked his favorites but she began to spice them a little differently; she also made things that he remembered from his days in Texas and New Mexico. She and Pilar took over the management of the house too, making out lists for supplies and telling Paco or Zach about things that needed fixing or repairing. Zach never really missed Mrs. Kraft's cooking or Joe's managing of the house.

Pilar would serve him in the dining room but Zach wasn't comfortable eating all by himself at the big table. He started to take his meals in the kitchen with Paco, Juanita and Pilar. "We saw each other at least twice a day and sometimes most of the evening. Fore long Pilar got her hooks in me," he said and smiled. "I'm as thick as molasses in winter so it took me a while to see that she was shining up to me." Zach chuckled and shook his head.

"When Paco moved his family to Astor Manor, Pilar was a young girl of 16. But she sure had grown up in the two years since she came to live at the ranch. You've seen her Gris; she's got this long black hair down to the middle of her back, and those dark eyes could just melt a man. She's a fine figure of a woman too. "I had a hard time with the difference in our ages but Paco told me that in Mexico, most girls were married with children by her age."

Zach heard a commotion down where the men were working and looked over. One of the new hands, a boy fresh off a farm in Kansas, had somehow managed to put a red hot branding iron to his foot. He hopped around yelling in pain as the rest of the crew laughed. He'll learn, Zach thought. He smiled at the boy's antics.

"I finally got it though my head that she had feelings for me," he continued. "It came as a bigger surprise that I wanted her too. It was the best thing that ever happened to me." Zach pointed to the breezeway of the house. "Got hitched right there," he told Gris.

"Had the hardest time gettin Paco to stop calling me Patron after Pilar and I got married," Zach said. "Guess old habits are hard to break ain't they." He laughed at himself and added, "Like talkin to your horse."

He sat up straighter in the saddle, pulling his right leg down and put his boot back into the stirrup. "You'll get to see my folks again later this year. They really liked Prescott Valley when they came out last fall to meet Pilar and our boys. They liked it so much they went back to Missouri and gave the farm to Caleb and Becky and their brood. Caleb's got four little ones of his own now."

Zach thought about his brother for several seconds; lost in memories of the past. "Anyway Pa and Ma sold off most of their furniture and such and are comin to live at Astor Manor. Pa said he didn't want to face another winter in Missouri. Said he wanted a chance to sit in the sun for awhile. Sides Ma said she wanted a chance to spoil some other grandbabies."

Zach had seen Pilar come out of the house to corral their sons but she wasn't having much luck. "Reckon we ought to get down there and save her," he said. "With the new baby comin soon, Pilar don't need to have to rope and hog tie those two boys of ours."

Zach gently put his spurs into Gris and started down the rise. Gris was happy to be moving at last and when they hit the flat he went into a high lope toward the ranch house.

The End