Melinda and the Wild West (6 page)

As she walked away, Gilbert found it hard
not to smile when he saw her face turn a rosy glow and quickly
avert her eyes from his. He was amused and enjoyed the effect he
had on her.

He said, with a slight upturn of his lips,
“You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help.”

Without another thought, Melinda walked to
the head of the class and told the children, “Class, follow
me.”

The roaring sound of the water pouring out
of the mountain was exhilarating to listen to, not to mention
freezing cold. Melinda encouraged the children to take their cups
and hold them at the opening where the water was pouring out of the
cliff so they could have a drink. She told them this water was
unpolluted and fresh from the mountain. It was delicious and
remarkably refreshing.

As they stood in this small cove between the
mountains, a new world opened up around them. It was like a
fairyland of greenery that one could only imagine in storybooks and
tales. The tall magnificent cliff above them was white with brown
and green moss covering the jagged surface. In the river were large
moss-covered rocks that were protruding above the water, and dark
green shrubs surrounded them on every side.

There was a stream of water pouring out of
the mountain and amidst all this was a nest of white butterflies.
Dozens of them flitted about merrily. Gilbert noticed Jenny’s
immediate interest in God’s most beautiful creations, as if a
reverent feeling had come over her. She said nothing as she slowly
walked toward them and sat down to watch. He continued to watch his
daughter’s expressions and noticed the effect the butterflies were
having on her. How was it that nature could bring such joy to a
person?

He watched as Jenny slowly extended a finger
towards them and kept very still. Soon a butterfly landed on her
finger and her eyes brightened. He saw her look up at him with a
smile, as if hoping he had seen the butterfly on her finger, and he
chuckled softly. Gilbert had told her that certain varieties of
butterflies would land on a person’s finger if one stood still
enough, but she had disbelieved it at the time. And now, she was
testing his knowledge. This made him chuckle even more.

He noticed how still Jenny was sitting and
as soon as one butterfly flew off her finger, another one landed.
How incredible! This was one of the most peaceful places Gilbert
had ever been.

As Melinda looked around, she noticed that it was a
sort of wonderland to these children and they were in awe of the
beauty that nature had created here. She watched their eager faces
and enjoyed seeing their curiosity as they walked around. The
children laughed in delight and that made the effort of coming here
all the more worthwhile.

This was the first time Melinda had ever
spent time in this kind of atmosphere and she could not take her
eyes off the magnificence of this view. After all of them had
dipped a toe into the freezing river and drank their fill of fresh
cool water, they took out their lunch and began eating.

Gilbert sat down beside Melinda and said
humbly, “Thank you for asking me to come along. I can see that
Jenny needed this little excursion.”

Melinda smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“I’m sorry I was so stubborn at the ranch
and gave you such a bad time.”

“I understand. Being an only parent can be
hard.”

He nodded. “I worry about Jenny a lot and I
have to make decisions that I think are right.”

“I understand. I don’t know how you do it —
being a single parent. But I do admire your independence in taking
care of Jenny. She’s an intelligent young girl, but her former
teacher made her feel otherwise. I’ve noticed that she has great
qualities. She has a lot of love to share and I believe you have
taught her that.”

Gilbert steadily gazed into her eyes as she
spoke. He liked what she was saying about Jenny and he enjoyed the
pleasant sound of her voice. He noticed how her green eyes seemed
to sparkle as she talked. She was a very positive person and he
liked that about her.

“I’ll let you finish eating,” he said as he
rose to his feet. He turned and went back to the rock where he was
sitting and watched his daughter as she conversed with Peggy. It
was not long until Gilbert was joking around with them and making
them giggle.

“If you don’t watch out, these butterflies
might follow you home like a lost puppy and then what would you do?
What would you feed them?”

This made the girls giggle as they tried to
search for an answer, but they knew he was teasing them and that
made it even more fun. When Melinda saw that the children were done
eating, she rounded them up to leave.

Gilbert stood on the ground below the large
flat boulder and helped the children down by lifting each of them
from the boulder to the ground where he stood. The older boys did
not want help, though. They jumped down from the boulder with
excitement and laughter.

After the last child was down, he looked up
into Melinda’s eyes and asked, “May I help you?”

Melinda nodded and held her hand out for
help. But instead, he took her by the waist and lifted her into the
air with ease, without exertion, as if she did not weigh any more
than the children did. His biceps pressed against the sleeves of
his shirt as he lifted her to the ground.

Melinda did not expect this and she gasped
as he lifted her from the boulder.

After he placed her on the ground, he said
with a twinkle in his eyes, “I wouldn’t have dropped you.”

Melinda had no comment to make as she tried to get
her breath back. Her heart beat rapidly and her face flushed a rosy
color. Trying not to let him see her reaction, she quickly turned
and strode down the mountain at a fast pace. She did not understand
why she was responding this way to the touch of this rugged
rancher. Why had he taken her breath away in more ways than one?
She didn’t even know him.

After getting the children situated in the
back of the buckboards, Melinda thanked Gilbert for coming. She
whipped the reins and down the mountain they went.

Gilbert stood beside his horse and watched
her leave. He had definitely noticed the effect he’d had on her,
and it made him grin. It had been a long time since he had made a
woman blush. Perhaps he still had what it took after all these
years!

He shook his head and puffed out a breath of
air and muttered, “Darn that woman. She can get under a man’s
skin.”

Then he climbed onto his horse and headed
home.

The following day, the students were all
abuzz with the adventure they’d had at the mountains. Melinda wrote
a thank-you note to Gilbert for helping with the children. Then she
passed it around to let the class sign it.

After class was over, she freshened up and borrowed
the carriage so she could take the note to Gilbert. Melinda could
have given it to Jenny, but for some reason she preferred to take
it herself. Perhaps, she thought, it was because she had been so
stubborn about having Jenny come on the excursion and she wanted to
personally thank him for letting her go. Or there could have been
another reason.

It could have been because she was simply attracted
to him. However, the idea of being attracted to this rugged rancher
was nonsense. He simply was not her type. Quickly she shook the
notion out of her mind.

Melinda knocked on Gilbert’s door and Jenny
answered with a broom in her hand. She was surprised to see her
teacher and her eyes lit up.

“Hello, Jenny. May I see your father? I
wanted to give him this thank-you note from the class.”

Jenny smiled. “Pa’s down yonder fixin’ the
fence. The cattle started gettin’ loose yesterday but he found the
place they got out and he’s fixin’ it.” Jenny pointed in the
direction for her to go.

Gilbert had one of the choicest pieces of
land for cattle to graze and it was a beautiful sight with groves
of trees and a stream flowing gently through his pasture. He had
worked hard and had saved enough money to buy this property and the
cattle. It took hard work and a lot of time to make this ranch what
it was. He had bought it six years earlier and had put up every
inch of fence around it for his cattle to graze.

When the house was sufficiently cleaned, Gilbert
would allow Jenny to join him on the ranch. He had taught his
daughter to ride a horse and shoot a rifle. Gilbert and Jenny were
very close and had a bond that most fathers did not have with their
daughters. The only thing he was guilty of was being overprotective
of her. But, he was an only parent and he did the best he
could.

As Melinda walked down the pasture, she came
upon the stream that she had waded in before school had started.
When she stopped to admire the view, she heard a deep warm voice
ask, “Are you lost or are you looking for me?”

Melinda quickly turned around and saw
Gilbert standing next to a maple tree, looking at her with his
thumbs tucked behind his belt. When their eyes met, Melinda felt
nervous and tried to search for the right words to say.

“Did you need to talk?” he asked.

“Uhm…no.” Melinda took a deep breath and
continued. “I just came to give you this.” She showed him the note
in her hand. “It’s from the class. It’s a thank-you note for
helping us yesterday.”

Gilbert took the note from her hand and
looked at it. Then he folded it and put it in his pocket.

“You could’ve given it to Jenny to deliver
to me,” Gilbert said soberly as he gazed into her green eyes.

“But I wanted to thank you personally.”

“Personally, eh?” A restrained smile
flickered across Gilbert’s face.

Melinda blushed and averted her eyes. She
looked at the ground, a little flustered because she felt so
clumsy. “Well, you took time off work just to come with Jenny so
she could go on the outing with the class and that meant a lot to
me…” She hesitated. “That is, it meant a lot to Jenny. I had never
heard her laugh until yesterday and it was like music to my ears.
Thank you for putting Jenny before your work this time.”

Gilbert became sober once again. “I always put my
Jenny first. All I do here on this ranch is for her and for her
comfort.” As he spoke, his tone was a little defensive and she
noticed it.

Feeling embarrassed, she tried to apologize
for her insinuation. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that you neglect
her, sir. I just meant that sometimes you put your work before
Jenny. That’s all. Work should always come second to a child.”

“You don’t know the sacrifice I make for my
daughter.” Gilbert said with exasperation. “How can you judge
me?”

Gilbert had an edge in his voice and sounded
a little irritated, which flustered Melinda even more.

“I’m sure you sacrifice, but many times we
can forget the little things that really matter to a young girl.
And at Jenny’s age, her needs are very important.”

“For example?” Gilbert said curtly.

Melinda felt nervous. This was not going
well at all. She had stuck her foot in her mouth and she did not
know how to get it out. How could she avoid the answer to this
question? She had no idea, so she decided to just say what was on
her mind.

“Such as having a pet.”

Gilbert frowned and crossed his arms over
his chest. With an indignant tone, he said, “So, you’re referring
to the kitten she wanted, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am,” she said firmly.

Melinda did not like his tone at all. She
probably should not have mentioned the kitten, but he had asked and
she did not know how to answer without offending him. She was
getting into this discussion further than she wanted and could not
seem to get out.

Gilbert’s jaw became firm as he raised his
voice. “The day Jenny wanted to go look at the kittens, a cow was
having a calf. I couldn’t leave. The cow was having complications
and I needed to be here to help. I would have lost both of them if
I’d left.” Looking down at his feet and back up at Melinda, he
said, “And why is any of this your concern, anyway?”

Melinda felt embarrassed. She had prejudged
him without even thinking. She lowered her eyes to the ground and
replied in a soft tone. “I’m sorry, Mr. Roberts. My tongue is too
quick. I shouldn’t have said anything. It wasn’t my place…or my
business.” She looked up into his eyes with dismay. “But why are
you so ornery with me? Why didn’t you just explain? You know I
really love Jenny. That’s why I tell you how I feel and that’s why
I’m concerned about her.”

Frustrated, Gilbert shook his head. “You
wouldn’t understand.”

“Give me a chance.”

Gilbert took a deep breath and said, “I do my
best for Jenny. I take care of her and don’t neglect her for work.
I take her along with me wherever I go. She rides her own horse
alongside me. But when I decided to take work off yesterday to go
to the mountains because you insisted, I came home to find half my
cattle loose. It took the rest of the day and most of the evening
to round them up. If I’d been here, I could have stopped them
before too many escaped. As it was, I had to hunt all over for the
weak spot in the fence after rounding up my cattle.”

As Melinda listened, her heart sank and she
felt terrible. She should have been more understanding. She had
drawn a conclusion without any facts.

“I…I didn’t know. I’m sorry, Mr. Roberts.
Please forgive me for being so bold. But you seem to think it’s my
fault.”

Gilbert’s frustration gradually left and his
eyes softened when he heard the humility in her voice. Shaking his
head, he answered, “No, I don’t. I don’t blame you. I just took it
out on you and I didn’t mean to. You seemed to be the perfect
scapegoat for my frustrations.”

Melinda grinned. “It seems every time we
meet, we argue about something.”