Montana Dreaming

“It’s the storm,” Bernie said, refilling his coffee cup then those of the others sitting at the counter. Eight locals waited there for the warden, the state police and Park County Search and Rescue to arrive.

The phone rang and Bernie picked it up, listened for a few moments, said, “All right,” and hung up. She looked at the questioning faces. “That was the warden. Comstock says the state police are tied up with accidents. Search and rescue are mobilizing, but they won’t be here till dawn. He’s arranged for Joe Nash to take him up in his chopper at first light. He suggested that someone go out to the Weaver ranch, just in case Jessie makes it back on her own.”

“First light? They’re going to wait until morning? But that’s ridiculous! She could be hurt! Freezing to death!” McCutcheon said.

“What can they do in the middle of a blizzard in pitch-darkness?” Badger reasoned. “No tracks, no scent for the dogs, no direction to start in or head for. Sometimes it’s better to set your horse and do nothin’ than wear him out chasin’ shadows.”

“You can set your horse if you like. I’m driving out to the ranch,” McCutcheon said, reaching for his coat.

“Snow’s gettin’ pretty deep,” Badger said. “Your fancy car won’t make it. Might even be too deep for my truck, though I doubt it. She’ll go through just about anything.” He stroked his mustache, considering for a moment, then levered his arthritic body off the stool and reached for his Stetson. “Let’s get goin’. This waitin’ ain’t easy on me, either.”

Badger was right about the snow. Where the wind had piled it up, the drifts pushed up against the undercarriage of the truck as they crept down the unplowed ranch road. But they made it.

No one else was there. They entered the dark ranch house and Badger lit an oil lamp in the kitchen after reaching it down from an open shelf with easy familiarity. “I used to work here,” he explained, setting the lamp on the kitchen table. “Back when Drew and Ramalda lived in the old cabin that stood behind the corrals. Gone now. Fire took it after they left. Lord, that woman could cook! I’m going to get the woodstove going, put on a pot of coffee. This place is colder’n a dead lamb’s tongue.”

McCutcheon prowled restlessly, stepping out onto the porch periodically to listen and holler Jessie’s name into the stormy darkness before retreating into the warmth and light of the kitchen. The two men shared few words. Badger seemed content to feed chunks of split wood into the firebox and poke at the coffeepot from time to time, waiting for the water to boil. McCutcheon, on the other hand, paced like a caged lion. He couldn’t understand how the people of Katy Junction could be so calm. That girl was out there all by herself, certainly very cold, probably hurt, maybe even dead, yet they all acted as though it was just another sleepy Sunday.

“It’s got to be nearly zero with that windchill!” he burst out to Badger, as if it were the old man’s fault.

“Yessir, I expect it is,” Badger replied calmly.

“We have to do something! We can’t just sit around and wait! She’ll freeze to death!”

“Well now, mister, I highly doubt it. Knowing Jessie, she’s holed up somewhere’s safe, waiting the storm. And right now there ain’t a whole lot we can do, except go out into it and get ourselves good and lost. That don’t sound like a very good plan to me. Haul on up to a cup of coffee and cool your jets. We’ll head out at first light.”

GUTHRIE WAS SURPRISED to see all the trucks parked in front of the Longhorn so late of an evening. Bernie usually closed the café up at 8:00 p.m. sharp to go home and kiss her babies good-night. He parked at the end of the line, relieved that his long drive was over and pleased as all get out at the thought of a cup of hot coffee and the prospect of seeing his sister.

He climbed out of the truck into over a foot of heavy snow and clumped up the boardwalk, knocking the snow off his boots as he pushed open the Longhorn’s door. The place was crowded with familiar faces. They all turned toward him and half raised up out of their seats as if they’d been expecting him for hours.

“Guthrie!” Bernie came out of the kitchen holding a platter stacked high with sandwiches. She dropped the platter on the counter and ran across the room to hug him fiercely. “Oh, Guthrie, how on earth did you know? Thank God you’re here!”

Guthrie felt a peculiar tightening in his stomach as he gently pried himself out of her desperate embrace and held her at arm’s length. “How did I know what? What’s the matter, Bernie? What’s wrong?”

IN SPITE OF THE COLD she slept, and in her dream the snow-laden moan of the wind became the somber voice of her father. He was sitting at his desk, working on the books the way he often did in the evening, his pen scratching spidery figures in the columns, his eyebrows drawn together in a perpetual frown of concentration. He laid his pen down and glanced up at her with a weary sigh.

“Looks like we took another big loss this year, Jessie. Maybe Harlan Toombs was right. Maybe we should’ve held the prime steers over another year rather than sell them at that ridiculously low price. I don’t know.” He sighed again and ran his fingers through his thin, close-cropped hair. “I don’t know much of anything anymore. Times are changing so fast I can’t keep up. Cattle prices keep dropping. taxes keep climbing. You should’ve stayed in school, Jessie. By now you’d be well on your way to being a veterinarian. You’d be a good one. Hell, you were almost there. There’s still time. Go back to school and finish up your degree!”

And then Guthrie was in the room with them, his face lean and handsome, his expression intense in the glow of the lamplight. “Marry me, Jess! We could have a good life together. You don’t have to be a veterinarian to have a good career. You have one now, raising those fine Spanish horses of yours. And the most important career you could ever have would be raising our babies.”

Another figure moved out of the shadows, a man nearly as tall and lithe as Guthrie in spite of being a good twenty years older. Caleb McCutcheon held out the bank check. “Take it. It’s your money now, Jessie. It’ll buy you a fresh stake someplace else if you feel you have to leave, but give some thought to my job offer. It still stands. This place needs you, and you’ll always need this place.”

Steven Brown was a silent presence in the background, his dark eyes somber. He was watching her, but he said nothing. He gave no opinions, made no requests or demands. He was simply there, the way the rocks and the trees and the mountains were there. She felt herself being drawn to his quiet solid strength.

Fox was running at a dead gallop along the creek where the west fork fed into it. Ears pinned back, nostrils flaring, her mane and tail streaming behind her, she looked as if she were flying just above the earth. The other mares followed at her heels. They were heading for the old Indian trace that led up Montana Mountain. Jessie knew Billy could never catch them up. She reined him in as they raced past, running hard for a place where the wind blew free and the land stretched out as far as the eye could see, a place with no fence lines, no roads, no boundaries. A place that no longer existed except in their memories.

The grizzly was huge and angry. It rose up on its hind legs and stared in her direction, swinging its massive head as it tasted the air for some scent of her. She felt herself cowering, paralyzed with fear. Mouth dry, heart pounding, she was unable to move when it suddenly dropped back onto all fours and began to charge toward her. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came forth. Her legs felt mired in quicksand. The bear lunged and grabbed her arm in its powerful jaws, and pain shot through her—

“No!” She came awake in midcry, gasping for breath in blind panic, until reality reasserted itself and chased the nightmare away. Blue was tense and whining in her arms. Oh, her arm hurt! It ached unbearably. She shifted her position and sat in the inky darkness until her heartbeat steadied.

Where was the bear? What time was it? Surely morning was near. It was so dark. And cold… It was so very, very cold….

STEVEN SET ASIDE the paperwork he’d been reading, or at least pretending to read, and glanced up at the clock. Midnight. He’d called the Longhorn ten minutes ago. Would it be rude to call again so soon? He pushed out of his easy chair, carried his cup of coffee with him to the door and opened it. The windblown snow whirled past. Jessie Weaver was out in the brunt of it tonight. Alone. Perhaps hurt. Maybe dead. And he was here, his back to the warm room, a cup of hot coffee in his hand.

He slammed the door and stood in the foyer of his little cedar-clad post-and-beam house in Gallatin Gateway, hating the fact that he was safe while she was in trouble. Hating the helplessness that had overwhelmed him since he’d gotten McCutcheon’s message on his answering machine earlier that evening. He’d spoken with Bernie four times since, and each time had brought the same information.

No news.

He walked into the kitchen, slatted the remains of his coffee into the sink and rinsed the mug. Without even thinking of what he would do when he got there, he dressed himself for a winter storm, and less than ten minutes later he was in his Jeep Wagoneer, heading for Katy Junction.

CHAPTER FOUR

GUTHRIE WAS TAKEN ABACK by the stranger who opened the door of the Weaver ranch when he banged on it just past midnight. “Who the hell are you?” he said.

“Caleb McCutcheon. Are you the warden?”

“No! I’m here to look for—” He spotted someone else in the lamp-lit room. “Badger! Where’s Jess!” Guthrie pushed past the stranger and into the kitchen, relieved to see the bewhiskered and familiar face.

“Oh, I expect she’s up on the mountain somewheres, hunkered down and waiting for dawn. Same as we are. Only, I don’t doubt as we’re a whole lot more comfortable. Good to see you, Guthrie. You been gone awhile. Too long. A lot’s happened since you left. This here gent’s bought the whole Weaver ranch, lock, stock and barrel.”

Guthrie rounded on the stranger as if drawing a sword. “You’re a developer?”

“No. Like I said, I’m Caleb McCutcheon. And if you have any ideas on how to find Jessica Weaver, I’m listening. We’ve been sitting around doing nothing for way too long.”

The two men measured each other for a brief moment, and then Guthrie nodded curtly. “I brought snowshoes from my place. You’re welcome to a pair. She’s up on Montana Mountain—like Badger says. Probably went looking for Fox. That mare always heads up there this time of year, trying for North Dakota. Damn mustang thinks they don’t have such things as fences there, though that gray stallion of Jessie’s usually manages to convince Fox to stick around.”

“Old Gray’s dead,” Badger said bluntly. “Got struck by lightning this summer.”

Guthrie was taken aback for the second time in as many minutes. “She thought highly of that horse.” He could hardly conceive of what Jessie had been through in the past year, but if he had thought himself to be suffering this past summer, it was nothing compared with the hell that she had endured. “C’mon, let’s go. I have a backpack full of emergency supplies and spare headlamp batteries. I don’t guess I’m waiting for daylight. And by the way,” he said to McCutcheon, thrusting out his hand, “I’m Guthrie Sloane. From what Badger says, we’re neighbors.”

IT WAS DARK YET, but nearing the dawn. The snow had stopped. Her muscles were stiff and sore and she was cold and hungry, but both the night and the storm had lost their grip, and with the coming of daylight she would be able to walk down out of this high place. It would be slow going, carrying Blue. She could keep to the trail, or cut off it just below the big lightning-struck pine, climb over the ridge and head down for the main road. That would be quicker, and there was bound to be some traffic—a rancher heading for Katy Junction for his morning coffee, newspaper and goodly dose of gossip at the Longhorn; a plow truck sweeping back the drifts.

She could catch a ride, and maybe even get hauled over to Doc Cooper so’s she could have Blue seen to. Some of the dog’s wounds needed stitching up. Jessie could have done it herself if she’d had two good hands—and made a better job of it, too. Half the women in the county could lay in a neater row of stitches than Doc Cooper. Still and all, he knew his stuff and had helped the Weavers through many a livestock crisis. Never nagged about payment, either—eventually he always got his due and then some. Folks out here just naturally stood by one another in tough times, and lately it seemed that the times had always been tough.

In the gloaming Jessie struggled to her feet, stomping them to restore circulation. She had thought to let Blue free for a bit, but as she started to unzip her coat the zipper had stuck and she gave up. When she moved out from beneath the sheltering overhang of the blowdown, the depth of the snow surprised her. She made up her mind without really thinking about it. She would take the shortcut out to the main road. It would shave five miles off her journey, though still leave her with another ten to cover if no traffic happened by. Ten miles in nearly a foot of wet October snow, carrying an injured dog, ought to be a good workout. And to think that some folks paid good money to join a health club to exercise!

Jessie pointed her feet in the right direction and started walking.

GUTHRIE SLOANE DIDN’T give much thought to the man struggling along behind him, except to note that he was doing all right for a person his age. Jess was in trouble, and he had no intention of holding back. Nossir. If McCutcheon signed up for the trip, he was in for the long haul, and it was proving up to be a long rough haul. The trail up into the pass was steep, and there were a lot of places that a man could run afoul on a dark and stormy night like this.

He was going on pure hunch, figuring what route she’d have taken, where the mares might’ve been headed until this unexpected storm had caught them out. Of course he could be wrong. Maybe Jess had started up into the pass while at the same time the mares had angled down out of it, sensing the storm. Maybe she’d caught their sign and trailed after them. Maybe she was already out of the high country, encamped in some sheltered draw, with a cheerful fire keeping the darkness at bay, Blue tucked beside her and a billy can of hot coffee boiling.

Such thoughts did little to ease his torment. If anything happened to Jessie he’d blame himself for ever leaving her. He should’ve stuck it out and helped her through this awful time. True, she’d told him it was over between them and she’d meant it, but could they erase all those years of friendship just because as lovers they had failed?

No! She was his best friend and nothing would ever change that. It was suddenly the most important thing on earth to him that she realize he would be there for her, no matter what. Always.

Guthrie was unaware that the snow had stopped until McCutcheon mentioned it the first time they paused to take a breather. The older man had pulled up beside him and slumped over himself. Hands braced on his knees, he’d drawn deep gasping breaths until his lungs had caught up with the rest of him, at which point he’d raised his head and said, “It’s stopped.”

“What?”