Redemption

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Both the darkness and the cold that came with it had settled in when Colt finally lay down beside the fire wind down after the day. They had finished supper and taken care of the dishes and everything else that it left in its wake, and had all gathered up two blankets each and donned their coats in preparation for the cold night ahead of them.

Doc lay to his left, sprawled out like an urchin who had no raising, but was not asleep. The man was the strangest sleeper of anyone Colt had ever known.

Colt glanced across the campfire at Jessie, who sat leaned against the bottom of a tall cactus with a spare blanket behind her back to protect her from an uncomfortable prick or two. She looked content, sitting there bundled up so much that she looked three times her size. A hint of a smile lingered over her lips and her cheeks grew rosy from the heat of the fire.

“Tell us about your home back east, Miss Jessie,” Doc said, moving from his sprawled out state to rest up on his elbow.

Jessie’s eyes lit up as she focused them between the two men. “Oh, it’s the most gorgeous place on earth. What would the world be without South Carolina, that’s what I want to know. There’s no other place that I could rather have been brought up. I live in a two-story plantation home; most of the workers had deserted it to fight in the War years ago and died, so the land lies untouched. The house is white with dark blue shutters. It has a wide front porch with plenty of room for entertaining on cool summer evenings. There’s a lake out behind the house where the prettiest lily pads grow. Some nights I just sit at my window and watch the moon’s reflection ripple in the water. It’s a beautiful sight. I guess you can say that I’m quite proud of where I was raised. It’s like a piece of heaven on earth.”

“Do you have much family?” Doc asked.

Jessie smiled. “I have a brother besides my parents. Jake. He’s a bit protective, but he’s the best brother I could ask for.”

“So I guess he’s probably looking for you,” Colt mentioned.

Jessie nodded. “There’s no doubt of that. He and Daddy won’t rest until they find me… unless they know where I was going when I came out here and won’t expect me back. My fiancé is the Sheriff back in my home town, so he will be looking for me too.”

Some strange feeling came from the deepest part of Colt’s gut, piercing his heart clean through with an emotion he didn’t want to quite label as disappointment, but it was definitely akin to sentiment. Perhaps it was the mention of a fiancé. That word had been making him cringe lately.

“Well, we can wire them when we get to town to let them know where you are,” Doc said.

Colt nodded in agreement. She needed to get back to her family.

“Oh, that would be just splendid. I can’t imagine the tizzy Momma’s got herself worked up into,” Jessie shook her head as she spoke.

After a moment of silence, Jessie looked up at Colt. “So tell me how you got to work at a ranch. Have you lived here all your life?” She asked.

Colt sighed and nodded. “Mostly. My family moved here when I was about three years old. We owned a little spread adjacent to the Dottie Belle, so I grew up with the people around there. When I was twelve, I started working at the ranch as the stable boy. At around fifteen, I convinced Sherman to sign me on as a cowhand. At the same time, my parents had to move up North to take care of my granny. I wasn’t about to leave, so after a few months of constant arguments and a few tears from my mother, I convinced them to let me stay behind. At seventeen, I had impressed Sherman so much that he signed me on as a foreman. I knew pretty much everything there was to know about cattle and how a ranch was run, which was why I was signed on so young. I’ve been doing pretty much the same thing since then,” Colt told her.