Blue paid for the candy and left. As he stepped from the store, he searched left and right. Seemed the man had passed through, indeed. He wasn’t a threat to Clara and the girls.
Exhaling the breath he didn’t know he held, he returned to the church.
That same sense of relief lingered over the next two days. Still, as he worked beside her, he constantly considered what options he could present to her. Going to the ranch still seemed ideal. Following her came in second. He wanted Clara to never have to run in fear again, but he could think of no way to ensure that.
Midafternoon of the second day, Clara passed a window and ground to a halt. Her face blanched. “Blue.”
At the quiet desperation in her voice, he hurried to her side.
“It’s him.”
The same rider who had sent her into a panic a few days ago rode down the street, his hat hiding most of his face yet giving Blue a good view of the hard set of his mouth.
The muscles along Blue’s spine tightened, and he drew Clara away from the window.
“Who is he, and what does he want?” she whispered, clinging to his arm.
“I don’t know.” But he intended to find out. He watched the man saunter by and again leave town by the other direction. Blue knew the trails that led from town. One would take the rider to the Eden Valley Ranch. One would take him to the northwest toward a number of other ranches, including the big OK Ranch and several smaller ones. If the rider angled toward the south, he would enter a reservation. If any of them had been the rider’s destination, he would have continued in that direction earlier in the week.
“He doesn’t seem to be interested in people in town.” He hoped the words would give Clara some reassurance.
She shuddered, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held her to his side.
“If only you’d let me help,” he whispered.
“Seems to me I am and have been for the better part of two weeks. What I should have done was find a way to continue my journey.”
They both knew there was no way to get to Fort Calgary unless someone took her. Something he wasn’t about to do. He pressed his cheek to her head and held her until she relaxed. Still, neither of them seemed inclined to end the moment.
He breathed in the lemony scent of her soap, the aroma of wood and smoke. His arms must have tightened for she turned to look into his face, her eyes full of contentment.
“I suppose I am worrying about nothing,” she said with a sigh. “He’s likely just some wandering cowboy.”
Blue didn’t believe it and suspected she didn’t, either.
He didn’t want to alarm Clara, so he said nothing of his plans and waited until after supper to ride west, following the direction the rider had taken. At the fork of the trails, he paused. Should he go north, south or west? He chose north and rode on for another twenty minutes or so in the growing dusk, always watching for any sign of the man he sought.
He caught the glow of a campfire by the river and turned aside from the trail. “Hello?” he called and waited for acknowledgment. He didn’t think this was the sort of man he wanted to ride in on without announcing his presence.
A man emerged from the shadows. The stranger he sought. He still wore his hat, pulled low over his eyes, his mouth drawn into an unfriendly frown.
Blue rode in even though the man had not offered an invitation. He dismounted. “Coffee sure smells good.”
The man handed him a tin cup and filled it from the pot.
Blue hunkered down. “You a stranger hereabouts?”
The man sat nearby, his legs crossed, both hands cradling his cup. “Yeah.”
“Got a destination in mind?”
“Maybe.”
“Bad time of year to be looking for work on one of the ranches.”
“Guess so.”
“’Course a man could run a trapline.”
“I suppose.”
The man sure wasn’t about to share any personal information, and Blue wasn’t used to making conversation. He had run out of questions he could ask without the man taking offense.
Blue downed the rest of his coffee and handed the cup back. “Thanks. I best be getting on my way.”
“Safe travels.”
Blue added, “I work at the Eden Valley Ranch to the west.” Let the man think that was his destination. Though he might wonder why Blue had come this way.