Mail Order Josephine - A Historical Mail Order Bride Novel (Western Mail Order Brides) (8 page)

“How does that feel?” Andrew inquired, observing her.

She shifted again, adjusting and feeling the new sensation of her legs wrapped around the horse. Billy also seemed to sense the greater affinity between them and tossed his head, letting out a murmur of interest at the strange disposition of his rider. “It feels pretty good,” she confessed.

Andrew nodded approvingly. “I never understood all that nonsense about women riding side-saddle.
Bloody foolish, if you ask me. If you’re gonna ride a horse, then
ride
it. Don’t hang off the side like a fish hook from the end of a fishing pole, ready to drop off at any minute. It looks downright ridiculous.”

“This certainly feels a lot more secure,” she admitted. “I never thought about it before, since side-saddle was the only way I ever rode, but now that I’ve experienced this, I can definitely understand the reason for it. It feels like the most obvious way to sit on a horse. I almost feel like I’m a part of him and he’s a part of me. It feels like we could almost be a single animal.”

“You
are
a single animal,” he asserted. “You’ll feel it even more strongly when you start moving faster, when he really starts running. Then you’ll understand what it really means to ride a horse.”

“Well, let’s go, then,” she suggested.

“What about the hat?” he asked.

She glanced around. Sitting on Billy’s back, the harsh midday sun glared down onto her face from the cloudless sky, and she felt the first sting of its burning heat on her forehead. “You’re right. I’ll put it on.” She twisted her hair into a tight rope and folded it up onto the top of her head before she stuck the hat on over it, securing it out of sight.

“Good!” he approved. “Now we can go.” He spurred his horse away from the trees, out onto the ridge above the valley, and into the wide open space of the countryside.

They started out at an easy trot down a dusty trail to the river. The farther they went, the more comfortable Josephine felt in her disguise. She instinctively distributed her weight in her stirrups on either side of Billy’s body. When she flexed her knees and thighs, her muscles effectively cushioned the jarring bounce of the trot. Unaccustomed to this activity, her legs rapidly tired from the effort, but they still accomplished their mission, and the fatigue receded from the forefront of her attention before the exquisite delight of riding a horse the way nature intended. Before long, she noticed only the astounding beauty of the country around her with the sun twinkling on the river and the towering clouds reaching high into the atmosphere of the boundless sky. Each time Andrew cast a glance back over his shoulder to check her progress and noticed her shining face, he beamed in approval.

At the bottom of the valley, they snaked along a dusty trail to a ledge overhanging the river. They dismounted, left their horses to graze in the shade, and dangled their feet over the ledge while they ate some beef jerky from Andrew’s saddle bag. The sun flashed over the rippled water. Every now and then a fish broke the surface and dove back again with a hollow splash. Only the gentle gurgle of the water over the stones in the gravel bed on the other side of the river broke the immense silence. Josephine squinted, blocking the piercing light from her eyes. “This is absolutely magnificent,” she marveled.

“It’s pretty nice,” he concurred.

“I could almost imagine staying here forever,” she mused. “I can imagine I would be happy to stay here forever, listening to that sound. And the sunshine makes me so relaxed, I could go to sleep here.”

“You could have stayed here forever, if you had married Paul,” he pointed out. “Now, who knows what will happen? You’ll leave here, and then who knows?”

“It all seems so far away,” she sighed. “It doesn’t seem real, sitting here. When I sit here looking at this river, it seems as if I will never leave.”

“I thought you might like it,” he admitted.

“Is that why you invited me?” she asked, “to show me this river?”

He nodded. “I thought you might like to see it before you go. There’s a lot more to this place than that
scrabbly little town.”

“I like the town,” she protested.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he hastened to respond. “It’s a perfectly good little town, for what it is. I’m just saying there’s a lot more to see outside the town than in it. The most attractive things about it are outside it.”

“It’s too bad you won’t be able to show me them, too,” she lamented.

He peered at her sidelong. “Well, at least we had today.”

She met his gaze, and her nostrils flared at the aromatic scent coming from him. It intoxicated her. “I’m glad you brought me. I’m glad we had this time together.”

He reached over and enclosed her hand in his calloused iron paw. “It doesn’t seem possible that you will leave here so soon. For some reason, I can’t get it into my head that you will leave.”

“I had the same feeling the other night,” Josephine confessed. “I was looking down at the town from the balcony of my hotel room. It was after your parents told me and Aunt Agatha that Paul was dead, and Aunt Agatha said we would have to go back to New York,  and you said the soonest train was in six days. When we got back to the room, I went to get some air on the balcony. For some reason, I just couldn’t accept the fact that I would leave. It seemed impossible. All my planning and dreaming about staying here hadn’t changed, just because Paul was dead. I felt absolutely certain that something would happen to allow me to stay. But now, I don’t feel so certain about it. I don’t know what could happen to allow it to happen. Aunt Agatha is dead set on leaving.”

“Well, you never know,” he repeated. “It would be nice if you could stay.”

“I’d like to,” she breathed.

He leaned over to her, and brushed her lips with his. “I’d like you to.” The tips of his bristly moustache tickled the tip of her nose and she giggled.

“I’m not too ugly in these clothes and hat, am I?” she grimaced.

“You’re beautiful,” he asserted.

“I never should have let you talk me into wearing these clothes,” she accused.

“Why not?” he demanded. “You wanted to try it. Now you have.”

“It’s unsightly,” she insisted. “Not ladylike, as you might say.”

He chuckled. “Well, then, that’s all the more reason for you to do it, isn’t it? Anyway, it’s not unsightly.”

“I just feel hideous,” she explained. “I just can’t get used to it. I’m dressed like a man. I could almost be glad you won’t see me again after this. I wouldn’t want to look you in the eye, after you’ve seen me like this.”

“Don’t say that,” he argued. “I would never have suggested it if I thought you wouldn’t want to see me again as a result. Besides, you look just as beautiful now as when you’re wearing a dress. Your beauty is in your eyes and your smile and your skin. You can’t get rid of it by changing your clothes. You don’t look like a man, even with your hair hidden under that hat, which I agree is pretty hideous. You look like a beautiful woman dressed in horse-riding clothes. So you’re not riding side-saddle with that silly, jaunty little hat of yours, but you still look like a beautiful woman to me. You’re the most beautiful woman
I’ve
ever seen.”

“Well, that’s not saying much, is it?” she teased.

“Now, there’s no call to be unkind,” he shot back, “especially not when I’m trying to pay you a compliment.”

“I’m sorry,” she smiled. “I very much appreciate the compliment. It’s just that I’m supposed to be some kind of wild harpy, if you believe the reports from Aunt Agatha and my father and their cronies. I’m not fit to associate with their strata of society on account of my unseemly behavior. This incident just caps it all. If they ever found out, I’d be shut up in an attic somewhere.”

“Well, fortunately for you, you’re not in New York anymore,” he concluded. “You’re in the Wild West, and women have been known to do things a lot more outrageous than this. Look at Annie Oakley.”

“Who’s she?” Josephine inquired.

“Don’t tell me you never heard of her!” he gasped.

“No, I never heard of her,” Josephine assured him.

“She’s famous,” he asserted.

“Well, I never heard of her,” she repeated. “Tell me who she is.”

“She’s a sharp shooter and a trick rider in the circus,” he informed her. “She’s about the most famous female sharp shooter anywhere in the country. She has her own performing show. She travels around the country showing off her skills with guns and horses. She’s a real sight to see.”

“And does she wear trousers?” Josephine wanted to know.

“As a matter of fact,” Andrew replied, “she wears trousers under her skirt. But she rides the horses astride, the same way you’re doing now. It’s the only way to ride if you want to do anything more than stay on. If you have any real work to do, like lassoing or branding or fast turns, you better be astride. That business about women riding side-saddle—it’s for the birds, if you ask me. If you really want to know what I think, it’s intended to deliberately disadvantage the women riders so they
can’t
do anything other than stay on.”

“You don’t really think it’s as malicious as that, do you?” she examined him. “Why would anyone want to disadvantage women like that?”

“Think about it,” he maintained. “What other reason can there be for it? It surely can’t be anything to do with appearing ladylike or any other nonsense like that. The only reason for it can be to prevent the women from doing a man’s work which, if you think about it, is about the stupidest reason in the world. What happens when there’s no man available to do the work, and a woman has to do it, and she can’t because she’s under some insane social pressure to ride side-saddle? In a way, it makes a big problem for men that could be easily solved by letting a woman do the work.”

“My goodness, but you’ve given this a lot more thought than I ever have!” Josephine needled him.

“That’s because you’ve never been responsible for running a cattle ranch,” he contended. “Take me, for example. I’ve had to think seriously about how to run this ranch with the men available, when there’s my father and mother, who could easily be enlisted to help out, except that one of them—my mother—wouldn’t come out riding to do the most basic work of herding cattle because she can’t ride a horse astride. She would be more than willing to come out working with us, except that she can’t get the idea out of her head that riding astride is not ladylike.”

“What about your father?” she prompted.

“My father won’t leave my mother alone in the house,” he responded. “Not with so many rustlers and bandits around, especially now that Paul’s dead. Even though bandits didn’t kill Paul, my father’s afraid of losing anybody else. He probably wouldn’t let me go out if he had any other choice. But getting back to the subject of women riding horses, not being able to use a woman who is available means I’ll have to hire another man to do it. Most of the other ranchers in the area are in similar situations. Their wives, who are perfectly capable of helping out with the spring and summer cattle drives don’t do it because they either can’t ride a horse or their so deathly afraid of someone finding out that they did that they won’t leave their houses. That means their husbands have to hire someone, and there aren’t enough men to go around, so the ranch owners are left short-handed.”Andrew tilted his head to one side and looked closely at Josephine. “A woman who could ride well and was willing to do so would be a very valuable asset to a ranch like this.”

“Is that why you suggested I try it out?” she asked again.

“I wanted to see how you’d handle it,” he admitted it. “I thought you might take to it like a fish to water, and I was right.”

“I don’t know if I like it very much,” she sniffed.

“That’s because you’re not used to it,” he decided. “Once you’ve had a little more practice, you’ll be excellent.”

“I probably won’t get any more practice after today,” she mourned.

“Well, that just means you won’t forget me,” he declared, leaning towards her once more. “When you think back on your experience here, you’ll remember me, hopefully fondly.”

She kissed him slowly and deliciously, tasting the sweet salty flavor of his mouth. “I definitely will not forget you.”

They dallied by the river, kissing and chatting, and when Andrew glanced up at the sun and remarked that the time was getting onward toward afternoon, they made their way back to their horses, holding hands. He untied their horses and gave Billy into Josephine’s custody, but before they remounted, he took her in his arms and kissed her more passionately than ever.

“I’ll have to take you home soon,” he observed. “Promise me that you’ll keep me in your heart. I don’t know if we’ll ever see each other again, but tell me you feel the same way about me that I feel about you. Tell me I’d have some hope for your affections if you were to stay here.”

“You would,” she whispered. “I’ll keep you in my heart always. I only wish it weren’t this way. There must be something we can do.”

He shook his head sadly and turned away toward his horse. He stepped up into the stirrup without answering her.

When they remounted and began the climb back toward the ranch house, Andrew suddenly called out to her over his shoulder, “Come on, let’s race to the top!” and without waiting for her, he kicked his horse and charged up the slope, leaving her no choice but to follow suit. Billy understood the signals of his fellow perfectly, and she barely touched his flanks with her heels before he shot away at a breath-taking speed. Josephine gasped in surprise and almost toppled over backwards out of the saddle, but her legs caught her just in time. The next moment, she wrapped her legs around Billy’s round belly and stabilized herself by squeezing him in a tight embrace. Sensing her great stability, he stretched out his long neck and streaked away at his fastest pace. The wind whipping at her face brought tears to her eyes and forced her to squint to see where they were going.