Chapter Nine
A
certain young cowboy had put a twinkle in Lynn's eyes that had Danielle covertly questioning her daughter the following morning about the details of her first date.
The girl punctuated her exasperation with a drawn-out sigh. “Mother!”
Beyond revealing that a “cute” boy by the name of Shane had asked her to watch him in the Pioneer Days Rodeo in Lander, Lynn remained tight-lipped. Danielle didn't press her. In her estimation, part of being a good parent was allowing children room for their own feelings. Clearly, Lynn was growing up. The silly adolescent who had so recently giggled over the nice fit of their wagon master's jeans had mysteriously been replaced by a thoughtful young girl who was just beginning to know her own mind.
Danielle wished there was some way of easing the inevitable pain that was sure to accompany one's first crush. She settled instead for an overwhelming sense of relief that young Shane was far more acceptable boyfriend material than the greasy-haired, baggy-pants gangster wanna-be who had so recently attracted Lynn's attention.
Danielle was actually sorry that they would be heading back to the city so soon. They had both discovered harmony in the open spaces of Wyoming, and she could only hope that their renewed sense of friendship would be lasting.
The excitement of the upcoming rodeo crackled in the air. For the better part of the morning, Danielle watched Cody patiently working with the girls, perfecting their newly acquired skills atop bales of straw, barrels suspended between cottonwoods, and docile, old nags that offered no threat of bodily injury. It was, in Danielle's opinion, his most enduring role to date.
“That's it, darlin',” Cody encouraged from atop a corral fence. “Now snap your wrist like this and let go of the rope.”
Danielle's heart swelled to see the look of triumph upon her daughter's face when her lariat sailed through the air to capture a set of horns attached to an old sawhorse. Scott had never taken much interest in any of Lynn's activities. That Cody so freely gave of his time, talent and energy made Danielle admire him all the more. It was no wonder the girls were so enamored of him. He was the element missing in so many of their pampered livesâa father who really cared about them.
It was obvious that Cody Walker was no novice to the rodeo scene. He had the proud bearing of a man who could put a lifetime into an eight-second ride, and on occasion pick himself out of the dirt and dust himself off with equal portions of dignity and chagrin. It was all too easy to imagine him taming some wild creature as surely as a woman's heart.
Had Rachael somehow been thrilled by the false glory of such harrowing moments? Danielle knew only that she could never stand idly by and watch someone she cared so deeply about being ground into the dirt by the trampling of angry hooves just for the distinction of sporting matching championship belt buckles. Personally, she'd take a hardworking father and husband over some macho rodeo hero any day of the week.
Not in the least interested in learning how to trundle up some poor steer like a Christmas package, Danielle meandered off to enjoy a portion of Matty O'Shaw's diary in a moment of rare solitude. Despite her objections to the wagon master's businesslike proposal, the indefatigable Matty was nonetheless finding herself drawn to the rogue. To say that Danielle's curiosity was piqued was an understatement.
July 21, 1846
Though I find Levi's ruse to get to me through my children abhorrent, I do admit to being grateful that he has taken Johnny under his wing. Yesterday he showed the boy how to handle a rifle. I'm afraid I have been too absorbed in my own grief to take anything but bitter solace in the fact that the young so quickly get on with the business of living. When Johnny came home after a session with our wagon master toting a jackrabbit for the stew pot, he was just as proud as he could be. He assures me, as only an eight-year-old could without insulting, that Papa wouldn't want me to end up an old spinster in Oregon.
How can I explain to him that there was but one love for me? And that if not for his sake I would have long ago thrown myself down in the path of the wagon train and joined his father in eternity?
Matty's words swept over Danielle like a cold wind. It was eerie how closely the pioneer's diary echoed Cody's sentiments toward his deceased wife. Surprised to find herself taking the arrogant Levi Bennet's side in history, she hoped Matty had somehow managed to overcome her great loss and opened her heart up to love once again.
Like a naughty schoolgirl skipping ahead to the last chapter in an assigned novel, Danielle skimmed the next several pages. Completely engrossed in a passage describing the effects of an uninvited, devastating kiss by which Levi swore his undying love, Danielle found herself rudely yanked back to the present.
Resenting the intrusion, Danielle reluctantly closed the diary and looked up to see what all the commotion was about. Just over the hill and out of sight of the corral where her father was working on the other girls' rudimentary skills, Mollie paced off the distance between three long poles that she had impaled into the ground. Then she mounted her horse, a fine nut-brown mare by the name of Sugar Foot, and charged toward the first pole as if her very life depended on it.
Hidden in the shade of one of the wagons, Danielle held her breath as Mollie directed the horse around each of the poles at breakneck speed. The girl rode as if she had been born in the saddle. As Mollie raced across the line she had drawn in the dirt with the heel of her boot, Danielle broke out into enthusiastic clapping. Never in her life had she seen anything like the visual poetry of this girl and her horse.
Looking as if she had just been caught in the act of shoplifting a carton of cigarettes from the local drugstore, Mollie turned a deep shade of red.
“For heaven's sake, what's the matter?” Danielle called.
The girl dismissed Danielle's concern like a dog shaking the water from its coat. “Nothing.”
“You're not acting like it's nothing,” Danielle said, closing the distance between them.
It was part of her nature that Mollie was as unable to hide her feelings as the meadowlark in the background could have stopped trilling its cheerful song. In a sudden explosion of angry words, Mollie recapped the dispute she'd had earlier in the day with her father. Apparently the girl had her heart set on entering the barrel racing competition at the rodeo to be held that evening, and her father simply wouldn't hear of it.
“He doesn't understand that I'm not
her
.”
Danielle immediately understood what Mollie meant. She, too, had felt the heavy weight of Rachael's ever-near propinquity. Living in her mother's sainted shadow must be difficult for a child. As a grown woman, Danielle found herself at a loss at how to fight a ghost.
“Surely you can understand how your father feels. To have lost a wifeâ”
“I do, really I do.” Mollie stuck her chin out in that defiant way that so perfectly mimicked her father. “But I'm good,” she insisted. “Really good. You saw me. Don't you think so?” When Danielle did not attempt to deny the obvious, Mollie continued passionately. “I'm as ready for competition as I'm ever going to be. Grandma lets me practice when Daddy's on the road. She says I've got the potential to be even better than Mom was.”
The words were uttered with such wistfulness that Danielle had little doubt that all her childhood dreams were summed up in their declaration.
Mollie confided to her in a sad whisper, “You know I can't even
remember
her.”
Oh, the shame in that admission! Draping an arm around the girl she had come to care for so deeply, Danielle dropped a kiss on the top of her head. Just thinking about a terrific kid like Mollie carrying around such a horrendous load of guilt made her heart throb. Though she didn't doubt for a minute that Cody's pain was real, neither could she condone letting his daughter shoulder a lifetime of grief. She couldn't help but wonder if Cody was protecting her from reasonable danger or just trying to keep her from ever growing up.
Mollie was inclined to think the latter was the case. “You think I deserve a chance to prove myself, don't you Danielle?”
She did not underestimate the earnestness of the question. “I suppose you do, dear, but having lost your mother in a rodeo accident, I can't say as I blame your father for being hesitant in risking his only childâ”
Mollie interrupted in a burst of petulance. “But that was a freak accident! A gust of wind caught mother's horse full in the face on the second turn and blinded him with dirt.
That's
what made the horse rear up and throw her into the barrel. It wasn't the horse's fault. Really. Daddy shouldn't have shot him.”
To a child enamored of horses, such a crime was unforgivable. Grabbing Danielle by the hand, Mollie enlisted her support.
“I promise if there's even the least bit of wind, I won't ride.”
Danielle shifted uncomfortably. How exactly had she become involved in such a terrible conspiracy? She checked the ground beneath her to ascertain just how thin the ice was upon which she was skating. Personally she was inclined to let Mollie have the chance that she so desperately desired, but she was not the girl's mother. Ultimately she had no say in the matter.
“Have you tried talking to your father?”
“Only about a million times, but he's not like you, Danielle. You actually listen to me. You don't treat me like a baby...like some doll in a glass case.”
It was like the valve had been removed from an overheated engine as years of pent-up frustrations came pouring out of the girl at once. “I love the ranch, but sometimes it gets lonely out there. It's so far away from town that we almost never get company. I'm going to miss you and Lynn and the other girls something fierce once this trip is over.”
The lump stuck in Danielle's throat swelled to the size of a softball. Mollie was like a daughter to her, and the truth of the matter was that she couldn't bear the thought of life without either Mollie or Cody. In this short time both had become so completely entrenched in her heart that the thought of losing them caused her physical pain.
“I was just little when Mama died.”
Most of Mollie's life had been spent without a mother. Maybe Cody was unwilling to let go of the past, but it was downright sinful to keep his daughter chained to his grief.
Tears spilled down Mollie's cheeks as she relayed her deepest secrets to the woman who had shown her such kindness and affection. “Sometimes I think God is deaf. I'm so tired of asking Him to find Daddy a new wife. Someone who could love me a little, too.”
“Who couldn't?” Danielle asked with a voice tight with emotion. How could such a small girl get such a big hold on her heart?
It came as a bit of a shock to Danielle that all was not as perfect between Mollie and her father as appeared on the surface. Clearly they loved one another, but like in her own relationship with Lynn, Mollie, too, was feeling the need to test the limits of her budding independence. Though she was glad that the girl had chosen to confide in her rather than carry the heavy burden around inside herself, she was hesitant about giving any advice.
“Mollie, I don't know what I can do to help you.”
“Just don't tell Daddy that I'm already entered in today's competition,” she blurted in a rush of words the Hoover Dam could not have stopped. “Grandma signed my permission slip before we left, and since we have the same last name, they'll figure she's myâ”
“Mother,” Danielle finished for her in a groan that indicated all too clearly that she wished the girl had kept that particular secret to herself. The last thing on earth she wanted was to end up smack-dab in the middle of two people she loved.
After having watched her on horseback, Danielle was inclined to believe that Mollie already had first place in her back pocket, and it did seem a shame to deny her a shot at something she had obviously worked so hard to attain. No one could execute those hairpin turns astride a horse with such perfect timing without investing a great deal of time practicing. But Cody was sure to feel betrayed if he discovered Danielle was involved in an act of duplicity against him. Hadn't she stressed to him over and over again how very important honesty was to her?
“You have to tell your father about this,” Danielle said with conviction.
“I told you, he won't listen! The only way he'll ever see reason is to watch how well Sugar Foot and I can handle the barrels.”
“Do you know how deeply it would hurt your father if you went behind his back to prove your point?”
“I know, but...” Mollie's eyes remained unconvinced.
“How about if I go with you, and the two of us plead your case? Maybe together we can make your father listen.”
Mollie shook her ponytail vehemently at the suggestion. “I'll tell him myself.”
How naive does she think I am?
Clearly this chance meant more to the girl than her father could possibly imagine. How likely was it she would keep her word on this?