Chapter 1

The burning sun beat down on Jessie and heated the earth beneath her. She groaned as her eyes began to focus and she became fully conscious. The clear blue sky stretched out above her and the sun scorched her face relentlessly. Her head pounded and pain seared her left leg. She tried to move into a sitting position, but her head throbbed too intensely for her to sit up completely. With no shade in sight, she didn’t know how much longer she could survive out in the heat. Putting her forearm on her forehead to block some of the sun’s light, she tried to think hard on how she ended up out here. She didn’t even know what state she was in. Her last memory was of her family, consisting of a mother, father, and an older brother, all sitting on the wide front porch of their home in South Carolina. The cold night breeze swept over them and her father’s arm had tightened around her mother. Jake, her brother, had told her something about his day when a man walked up to the porch. He was tall, charmingly handsome, and muscularly built. He had a wide smile on his face and had directed it right at her.

She knew this man, she could feel it.

Who was he?

He had sat down on the porch with the familiarity of another family member, but he didn’t look like any of them.

Jessie wished her mind would recall more, as this memory gave her no clue as to why she was even in the place. She didn’t recognize the scenery around her, but it appeared to be somewhere out West.

What was she doing out West?

Attempting to sit up one more time, dizziness overcame her and she lay back down, the throbbing in her head growing even worse.

God, please help me. I have no idea where I am. I’m scared, and confused right now. Please send someone to help. Surely there is someone out here in the middle of nowhere.

She opened her eyes and tried to focus once more one the land around her. Tall, straight mountain-like hills rose from the ground far in the distance, colored hues of orange and brown. They were quite tall, almost disappearing in the clouds that saw fit to scatter everywhere but over her head.

She sighed, the air coming out as a whimper. She was terrified as the world around her began to turn dark again.

Help me, Lord. Please, you hold my only hope…

She slipped into unconsciousness with an unfinished prayer sent heavenward.

*****

“Granny, this is ridiculous!” Colt Kidd sat atop his horse and stared down at his grandmother.

Carby Kidd was on an adventure kick again, and it would take him a number of weeks to get her straight again.

“You’ll be saying that when I come back filthy rich!” the youthful anticipation in Granny’s voice was just about enough for him to let her go off to California like she was planning.

“Granny, the Gold Rush was back in ‘54. That was twenty years ago. There’s no more gold,” Colt tried to convince her.

“You think they got all of it?” Granny asked, tucking a stray strand of her silvery white hair behind her ear.

Colt resisted rolling his eyes. “How is a lady your age going to gold mine?”

“I’m a lot spryer than you think I am. I can mine just as good as you could,” Granny raised her nose a notch.

Colt looked down at his grandmother’s worn shoes. “You planning on walking all the way to Plateau?”

Granny’s head bobbed up and down.

“That’s three days of hard riding on a horse. Do you know how long it will take you to get there on foot?”

“I’ll be just fine. You take care of yourself and I’ll be back when I strike gold,” Granny turned and started walking down the trail she had been taking earlier.

Colt dismounted his horse and walked beside his grandmother. “Granny, I have work to do. I’m already late at the ranch, and I’m not about to let you go traipsing off to California alone. If you’re bent on going, then at least wait until I’m done sorting out the workers for Sherman.”

Colt had no intention of letting his granny go off to California, but he needed to buy himself some time with her.

Granny stopped working and thought a moment. “You really think you’re made of the right stuff to go gold mining?”

Colt smiled. That question was coming from a seventy-six year old woman. “I think I could take a swing at it with you.”

Forgive me, Lord.

Granny tapped her chin with her forefinger and pressed her lips into a thin line. Ever since she had moved in with him a week ago, she had been talking about going off to California and mining for gold, but he never expected her to do it. Now Colt realized why Ma and Pop couldn’t stop her from moving out West to seek a life of adventure with her favorite grandson. She had figured out real quick that her grandson’s job as foreman at a ranch wasn’t as glamorous and adventurous as she had thought. Now she was dead-set on mining for gold.

“Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll wait until your boss man lets you come with me. After all, what’s a woman like me without a strapping young man to help her? I could use a little muscle, anyway.”

With that, she turned and started walking back toward the little line shack tucked out in a secluded area about a mile away from the main part of the Dottie Belle Ranch. His boss, Sherman Cooper, had allowed him to borrow the line shack until he could save up enough money to but a spread of his own for him and his grandmother to live on. He had saved up a good chunk of money before his grandmother had come to live with him, but then he’d had to dip into those funds to make the line shack suitable for her to live in. Now he had to replenish the depletion in his stash in order to start tucking away money again.

It was homey enough, but it lacked the warm feel he had wanted for the longest time when he looked at the place he was calling home. It was much more comfortable than the loft he had stayed in for years back at the main ranch’s barn, but he found it needing something more - something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“I’m gonna go ahead and rush off to the ranch. You take care, Granny. I’ll see you tonight,” Colt turned his horse toward the main ranch and waved at his grandmother.

Granny waved back at him and entered the house, setting her small sack of essentials that she had planned on taking to Plateau on the porch. The dog she had grown fond of, fondly named Worthless, circled at her feet until she let him inside. He went into a barking fit and Colt was glad to ride fast and far away from the animal.

Lord, I don’t know how I’m gonna deal with Granny. There’s only so much I’ve got in me. She’s got enough willpower for the both of us. What am I going to do if she gets really determined to head off to some exotic place or other? She’d kill herself.

Clint shook his head and rubbed his horse’s neck. Hidalgo was a good horse. He held his head high and kept his gait fairly well. Colt could move him left or right with a gentle nudge of his knee, which was good when he had a calf to carry or some such burden. It wasn’t enough for him to be Sherman’s foreman, but he had to run errands and fill in for a cowboy every now and then. At least he was paid for the extra labor.

He had used to love working at the ranch. Over the past few months - ever since the arrival of a certain Clint Slade - it had become a burden to him. He couldn’t stand seeing the very man who had stolen his joy every day, let alone seeing the joy herself. Bliss and Clint were away for a week of solitude after their wedding last week, so he wouldn’t have that displeasure this morning.

He hadn’t even been able to go to the wedding. He and Bliss were best friends since they were children, and yet he couldn’t even force himself to her wedding. He regretted the decision now, but deep down he knew that he couldn’t have done it if he wanted to. He couldn’t have forced himself to watch her exchange vows with another man, not when he loved her so much.

Feeling the familiar stab of pain in his chest, he groaned and tried to bid away the annoying thoughts. Today was warmer than it had been for the past few days, so he shrugged off his coat and laid it over the front of his saddle. What he really needed was a distraction. One that didn’t involve the ranch.

Father, would it be carnal to ask for a break? Just a diversion from the ranch and Bliss? It doesn’t even have to be a long one, just a few days of focusing on something else that doesn’t involve the Dottie Belle.

He arrived at the ranch and gave his horse to the stable boy, Mason.

“You a little late, ain’t ya, Colt?” Mason said, accepting the reins to Hidalgo.

Colt nodded. “Yeah. Where’s Sherman?”

“He’s in the house. I’d watch my step. You know how he hates you being tardy,” Mason warned.

Colt nodded. Didn’t he just.

Walking toward the house, he opened the back door and was greeted by the smell of bacon cooking. Colt smiled. He had missed Grace’s cooking. Since his grandmother moved, he had taken his breakfast at the line shack with her. The smell of Grace’s cooking made him feel warm inside and brought back a lot of happy memories.

It was good that breakfast was cooking a little late. Sherman was always in a better mood when he was full of Grace’s food.

“Morning, Colt,” the ranch cook smiled at him as he entered the kitchen.

Colt nodded. “Morning.”

“You’re late,” Sherman’s gruff voice said at the head of the table that had once boasted a great many people. Now Sherman was the only occupant.

“I know, and I apologize. Granny was causing a little trouble this morning,” Colt explained, not going into details.

“This is unacceptable. I’ve got a ranch to run and you’ve got twenty-three cowboys to get down to fifteen. All of this before spring. Now if you can’t show up on time, then I can find someone who can,” Sherman looked at him with his steely gaze.

The man had changed some since Bliss got her life right, but he was still just as cold to Colt and the rest of the cowboys as he had been before. At least his relationship with his daughter was better.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Cooper. It won’t happen again,” Colt said, immediately regretting his words.

How could he promise that Granny wouldn’t pull something like this again?

“Will you stay and eat with us, Colt?” Grace asked, placing a plate piled high with pancakes.

“Wish I could, Grace, but I’ve got to get to work,” Colt twisted his hat in his hands.

Grace’s eyes clouded over with sympathy.

Colt turned toward the hall and walked back to the front door. He heard Grace scolding Sherman back in the kitchen, and it coaxed a smile from him. The cook always knew how to make Sherman behave.

“It’s a fine morning, ain’t it, Colt?” Colt turned to see one of the old cowboys, Mose, walking beside him.

Colt nodded. “Sure is. Glad it’s warmed up some.”

Mose nodded toward the direction of the corral where a few cowboys had gathered to watch the horse trainer, Hawk Kennedy, try to ride one of the new horses they were planning to train as a cutting horse.

“Ole’ Kennedy’s at it bright at early this morning,” Mose told him.

Colt glanced in that direction. “That’s good. Those other ones need to get to work, though.”

Mose smiled. “I’ll tell ‘em.”

Mose walked off, and Colt made his way to the bunkhouse nearest to the barn. The building had a little back room that he used as an office when he needed it. He had books to go over and needed to figure out which cowboys they needed to keep and which ones to get rid of. He hated firing the men, but the ranch had had a worse year than usual. It wasn’t so bad that they couldn’t get along, but they couldn’t afford to keep more than fifteen men on.

He took a seat behind the desk on the small room and took a book from one of the drawers. In it were the names of every cowboy they had and how much he was paid.

Heaving a sigh, he set to work on the books.