Brides of the West by Michèle Ann Young Read Free Book Online

shifted in the
saddle. Another sign of her delicate constitution. Shit. He had to
stop thinking about her bottom.
    “Couple miles more, I reckon.” He squinted
against the sun. “See that outcrop of rock there in the distance.
That’s where we’re headed.”
    They rode the rest of the way in silence.
    ***
    The unexpected slash of rocky gorge, took
Tess’ breath away. After all the flat land, who would have imagined
this beautiful wild and rocky place that seemed to appear from
nowhere? Water rushed not far below them. Either side of the steep
drop-off, fence posts leaned at crazy angles. Between them,
protruding from ground churned by the hoofprints of many animals,
other posts stuck up like broken teeth.
    “Something must have spooked ‘em and they
busted through,” Jake said, circling his horse around the broken
ground. “C’mon. Uncle Raven and the boys must have gone down to the
river.”
    Behind him, Tess leaned back to check her
mount’s awkward progress down the shale that sloped away at an
alarming angle. The noise of the water drowned out the noise of
their hooves.
    Rounding a giant boulder, she saw Raven and
the two lads facing a head of about twenty-five steer, brown, white
and beige with wicked looking horns. The three riders had them
penned against a sand-colored up-thrust of rock that looked as if
it might have been sliced by a giant knife.
    Two other animals struggled in the rapid
flowing water, their cries pathetic.
    Jake, his face grim, twisted around in his
saddle to yell at her over the noise of the water. “Take over for
Uncle Raven. We’ll see if we can get those two onto the bank.”
    Tess nodded and eased the gelding around him.
The little horse stumbled on the loose footing. Tess’ heart leaped
to her mouth, but she held firm in the saddle.
    “Steady, boy,” Tess murmured. “Easy now.” The
horse’s ears flicked back at the sound of her voice and stepped
forward as daintily as you please. “Good, boy,” Tess crooned.
    Jake shot her a glance that looked like
surprise edged with a glint of admiration.
    The moment she took up position beside Raven,
he took off for Jake at the water’s edge.
    The two boys appeared anxious as they
whistled and yelled each time a steer tried to make a break from
the group. It was enough to keep the steers at bay. Tess grinned at
the boys and picked up the rhythm, the horses pacing and circling,
ever vigilant for the snorting, seething mass to surge. Up close,
these beasts were huge, terrifying, brown eyes circled in white,
saliva dripping from flared nostrils, and horns like bayonets. If
they stampeded, she and the boys would be speared, or worse yet
trampled, and the whole lot might drown.
    Out of the corner of her eye, she watched
Raven and Jake get a rope around the necks of the animals in the
water. The way they looped the ropes in circles then tossed them
was a work of art, not to mention an entrancing display of the
power in Jake’s muscular shoulders as he wrestled the roped animal
to the bank.
    Finally, both were out of the river and Jake
and Raven joined her and the boys in the slow painful process of
herding them up and out of the gorge.
    Sweat poured down her back, despite the shade
in the depths of the ravine. Her shirt stuck to her skin, her
bottom burned, but when she got to the top, she whooped and yelled
along with the men. Elation filled her with a physical excitement
the like of which she’d never encountered.
    Once the beasts got sight of open range, they
took off in a race for the horizon. Tess looked to Jake for
instructions.
    “Let ‘em go. They’ll stop to graze in a while
as if nothing happened and we’ll check that none are injured.”
    Tess nodded, weariness grinding right down to
her bones.
    The sun was already casting long shadows. She
had no idea they had taken so long with the cattle. The day had
disappeared in a flash. “It will be dark before we get home,” she
said.
    Jake shook his head. “Can’t leave yet.