Rachel's Cowboy (4 page)

“Good. Clean your plate,” Madge ordered with a smile.

“Did J.D. get off all right?”

Madge looked surprised. “Lands, yes, child. He was out of here by six-thirty.”

“Oh, yes, I remember. He’s an early riser.”

“A rancher has to be. I’ll be back in a few minutes to get your tray.”

Rachel snuggled down under the covers and sipped the chocolate drink, feeling guilty that she had such warmth and comfort while J.D. was outside in the raw wind that buffeted the house.

When she finished her breakfast, she slipped out of bed again and carried her tray to the kitchen.

“Land’s sake, Rachel. I would have come to get it. That’s too much for you to do.”

She shook her head at the housekeeper. With
graying-brown hair, Madge looked to be about sixty, but she was fit and strong and had boundless energy.

“Oh, Madge, I’ve done so little, and you’ve cared for me. And I am getting stronger. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, no, child, you get back in bed where you’ll be warm. Maybe you should do a crossword puzzle out of that book I bought you. It will keep your brain working.”

Rachel agreed and went back to her room. But she felt locked out, like a child looking through the window of a candy shop. Everyone here on the ranch was so busy, so…involved. Even when she was working, she was still uninvolved, just standing there in a certain pose, not doing something productive.

But she supposed she’d cause more trouble than she would help if she insisted now. She was still weak. Instead, she started working on the crossword puzzles, with the television playing in the background.

When the words “snow, possibly heavy” caught her attention, she looked up at the TV. Raptly she listened as the meteorologist predicted that due to temperatures much lower than originally forecast, there was the possibility of at least six inches of snow.

Rachel scrambled from her bed and went into the kitchen. “Madge, the weather report has changed. It’s going to be colder and there will be snow!”

“What?” Madge asked. She immediately turned on the small television she kept in the kitchen. As soon as she confirmed the forecast, she picked up the walkie-talkie. “J.D., this is base, come in.”

“Yeah, Madge, what is it?”

“The weather report has changed. Now they’re saying temps in the twenties and six inches of snow.”

“Damn! I should’ve known. Get the nursery ready, Madge, just in case. When is it supposed to hit?”

Madge told him it was predicted sometime in the afternoon, around three to four. Then she signed off.

“The nursery? What’s he talking about?” Rachel asked.

“It’s that small pen on the outside porch. We keep the babies in that pen sometimes, so they won’t freeze to death.”

“But wouldn’t their mothers keep them warm?” Rachel asked. “I don’t know much about cows, but—”

“The calves we keep in the pen don’t have mamas. Some cows don’t make it through birth.”

“Oh, poor babies.”

“I’ve got to get the bottles ready after I fix up the porch.”

“Can I do something to help?”

“The bottles are in that last cabinet on the top shelf. Why don’t you get them down for me?”

Rachel was pleased to have something to do, but it didn’t take long. Then she went to the inner porch, a place for J.D. to clean up before coming into the kitchen. She peeked through the door to the outer porch and discovered Madge trying to tie down a canvas cover on the north end.

“Can I help you, Madge?” she called.

“Don’t come out without a coat,” the housekeeper warned.

Rachel hurried back to her bedroom and pulled on
jeans, a flannel shirt and a sweater. Then she grabbed her coat and stuck her feet in boots. She hurried back to the porch.

“I’m all bundled up, Madge,” she announced.

“I’m struggling because the wind is so strong. We have to tie down the sides so this tarp won’t blow away,” Madge explained.

After tying the north end, they fastened the east side, the longer one.

“Do we leave the south side uncovered?” Rachel asked.

“Yes, so they can bring the babies in. Now I’ve got to spread the hay out.”

There was a bale of hay on the porch, and Madge began to tear off handfuls and toss them into the small pen nearby. Rachel copied her.

When they’d finished that chore, Madge got out a heater and plugged it in not far from the pen. “That will start making the place warmer in a few minutes. Now we’ve got to go fix the bottles.”

Rachel was delighted to be included.

“Boss, you want me to take the calf up to Madge?” Bluey asked when J.D. dismounted in the barnyard.

“No, I’ll take it up. Can you give my horse some oats while I’m gone? How are things here?”

“Just fine. We’ve got a barnful of mamas and babies.” The old cowboy eyed the small red-and-white animal in J.D.’s arms. “That one’s kind’a tiny, ain’t it?”

“Yeah, Bluey, it is. I’m not sure it will make it. But maybe Madge can pull it through. I’ll be back in a minute.”

J.D. spared a hand to settle his hat more firmly on his head before he braved the cold north wind. Mixed in were tiny bullets of ice that dug into his skin. He hurried for the back porch of the house, but it was awkward to run with both his arms wrapped around the calf.

As he approached the porch he saw Madge’s old hat and grinned. He’d threatened to buy her a new hat and she’d refused, saying her hat was special. He hoped having it made her calm because he’d need all her skills to pull this calf through.

“I brought you a new patient, Madge,” he called as he lowered the tiny calf into the pen. The head wearing Madge’s hat turned and he almost fell off the porch. “Rachel!”

“Oh, J.D., that one is so little. Did its mother die, too?”

“Uh, yeah. What are you doing out here?”

“I’m helping Madge with the babies. She showed me what to do. Hand me the new baby. I’ll hold him while I feed him. He’s so tiny.”

“Madge!” J.D. roared. His summons brought results; Madge came running.

“What’s wrong? What is it, J.D.?”

“Have you lost your mind? What’s Rachel doing out in this storm?”

Rachel and Madge exchanged a look. Then Rachel said, “I’m not out in the storm. I’m on a sheltered porch with a heater two feet away from me.”

“But you shouldn’t be out here!” J.D. exclaimed, glaring at her for daring to be reasonable.

“J.D., I’m not that useless. I can help,” Rachel said stiffly.

J.D. noticed Madge waving him away. He couldn’t believe she was telling him to leave. He gave it another shot. “This has nothing to do with your usefulness, Rachel. I’m trying to do what’s best for you.”

“We know, J.D.,” Madge said gently. “Now be on your way and find us more babies to care for.”

Rachel reached for the latest arrival, already cooing to it, as if it were a real baby. J.D. stood a moment longer, watching her rub the baby calf and coax it to suck the milk bottle.

Madge awakened him from his trance. “J.D.”

“Right.” He walked away from the porch, returning to the wild weather outside to look for more stranded calves.

“I
THINK YOU SAVED
that baby’s life, Rachel. I didn’t think he’d learn to take the bottle.”

“Do you think he’ll make it, Madge?” Rachel asked, her gaze on her favorite calf.

“Yes, I do. I wouldn’t have had the time to cuddle him like you did. I’m so glad you’re here.”

A smile broke across her face as she sat back on her heels. They’d been on the porch with the calves for hours, but Rachel felt nothing but elated. “That’s such a nice thing to say. I’ve enjoyed it so much. For the first time in a long time, I’ve done something useful.”

“Surely your modeling is useful.”

“Not very. How desperate would you be without seeing a picture of some woman posing in clothing they want you to buy?”

Madge helped her up from the porch floor, and together they went into the kitchen. “But you make lots of money. I’ve read about models making millions.”

Rachel gave a bitter laugh. “In my dreams. I’m not a high fashion model, Madge. I’m a print model. I’m in the catalogs, or the flyers that come with your monthly bill, trying to get you to buy more. I’ve made decent money, but not all that much. After my mother stole my savings, I was flat broke. But Jeff, Rebecca’s husband, recovered about twenty-five thousand for me and I’ve been working hard ever since
to put some money away. I have no retirement funds except for my savings. And models don’t have long careers.”

“But you’re so pretty. I’m sure you can model for many more years.”

“I’m not pretty now. I was under such pressure I lost too much weight and got run-down. That’s why I caught pneumonia.” She took off her coat and sat at the table Madge had set for lunch. When had she had the time? “You should see my twin. She’s expecting a baby and she just glows.”

“Was it strange, finding out you had a twin?” Madge asked as she brought Rachel a cup of her tomato soup.

Rachel took a sip before she answered. “In some ways. But I always had a feeling something was missing. I tried to ignore it, but I finally understood it when Rebecca and I were reunited. Even Vanessa, my youngest sister…we’re all so much alike.”

“How did they find you?” Madge asked.

“It was more like how did
I
find
them,
” Rachel said. “I was reading a local newspaper one day last fall when I saw a picture of myself. Actually, it was my twin.” She went on to explain how Rebecca had been photographed at a basketball game with her son and Jeff Jacobs, a local lawyer. Once she laid eyes on the woman in the picture, all the suspicions she’d had growing up had been confirmed. Whenever she’d questioned her mother about why there’d been no pictures of her before the age of three, she’d never believed her mother’s lame excuses. For Rachel, there was always a part of her that felt incomplete. After seeing the
picture, she contacted the law firm, and the rest was history.

Madge had tears in her eyes. “It must be wonderful finding your family.”

“Yes. It’s like a promise from God that I’ll never be alone again. You know, Will has found one of our brothers, too. Our oldest brother, Jim, is in the army. He’s in the Middle East right now, but he’s supposed to come home soon.”

“I only have one sister, but we’re very close. I don’t have to explain things to her,” the housekeeper stated.

Rachel grinned. “Exactly what I mean. They understand what I’m doing even if I’d rather they didn’t.”

“You’re so right. Once when I was sixteen I tried to sneak out of the house to meet my boyfriend. My sister told my mother because she was worried about me. I got caught.”

They both laughed at that story.

“What happened to the boyfriend?” Rachel asked.

“Oh, I married him a year later.”

“You did? What happened to him?”

“He was drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam. He didn’t come back. I’ve got his Purple Heart.”

Rachel blinked back her own tears at Madge’s calm recital. “Oh, Madge, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right, child,” she said, taking Rachel’s hand in hers. “It was a long time ago.”

“And you never remarried?”

“No.” Madge got up and went to the oven, checking on the cake she’d put in earlier.

Rachel watched her, sure she’d detected some color
in Madge’s cheeks. Was she interested in someone? Rachel hadn’t seen any sign of it. Until now.

“How many cowboys work on the ranch?”

Madge looked surprised at Rachel’s question. “About ten, plus J.D. Some days they need twice that many, like today. Other days, like in winter, there’s some downtime. Unless they have to start feeding the herd.”

“Don’t they always feed the herd?” Rachel asked, her eyes widening.

“As long as there’s plenty of grass, they don’t. But if it gets covered with snow, or maybe even sleet, they feed them hay. That means loading a couple of trucks with those heavy bales, then driving out in the pasture. The cows gather and they toss out the bales after they cut the wires binding them.”

“I think I’d rather drive the truck than be in the back feeding the cows.” Rachel shuddered at the thought. Then she grabbed Madge’s old hat and slipped on her coat. “I think it’s time to feed the babies again.”

“You’re right. But this time we can put the bottles in the holders. I think most of them will know what to do.”

“Holders?”

“Didn’t you see those metal things on the top rail of the pen?”

“Yes, but I didn’t know what they were for.”

“Come help me fill the bottles and I’ll show you.”

Rachel loved helping Madge, who made her feel good about whatever she was doing. When they had the bottles full and the big nipples affixed to them, they car
ried them out to the porch. Madge slipped one of the bottles in a metal holder. It held the bottle at an angle, pointing downward. Almost immediately the calves rushed for the bottle. Madge quickly slipped three more bottles into holders on the other side. The last one she told Rachel she could hand-feed to her favorite calf.

Rachel sat on the porch, laid a towel over her lap and picked up the baby calf. She helped it drink the milk that would give it strength and hopefully make it grow. A runt, it wasn’t quite big enough to reach the bottles Madge had put in the metal holders. Besides, the other calves would push it aside.

Rachel sang a lullaby while she fed the calf. She couldn’t ever remember enjoying a moment as much.

J.D.
DIDN’T RETURN
to the house until long after dark. As soon as Madge heard him come in, she heated up the supper she’d cooked earlier. He always had a shower on the enclosed porch and slipped on clean jeans and a shirt that he would wear again the next day.

When he stepped into the kitchen, wearing only socks on his feet, he stopped by the fire to warm up.

“Getting cold out there?” Madge asked.

“Oh, yeah. We’ll have to break the ice on the stock tanks in the morning and feed the cows. We only got a couple inches of sleet and snow mixture, but I want to reward them for getting through the day.”

“Good idea. Come eat your dinner.”

“Have you and Rachel already eaten?”

“Yes. I sent her to bed early. She stayed up all day, so she needed the extra rest.” Madge had brought to the
table a hearty casserole of goulash, a mixture of pasta, cheese and ground beef that he loved. She added some hot rolls and black-eyed peas.

“You made my favorites tonight, Madge. Thank you.”

“I thought after your long hours out in the storm you might enjoy them. And I have a carrot cake for dessert.”

“Rachel didn’t eat it all?”

Madge chuckled. “No, but she did eat a piece of it. She loved it.”

The self-satisfaction in Madge’s voice brought a smile to J.D.’s face. “You know everyone loves your cooking, Madge.”

“I know,” she replied with a grin.

“I didn’t mean to yell at you today. But I was worried about Rachel being out in the cold.” He stopped shoveling in his food to stare at Madge.

“She was warm enough. And I think letting her help around here will be good for her. She doesn’t think she can do much that’s useful.”

“That’s ridiculous!” J.D. said, frowning.

“That’s what I said. Did you know she’s been working since she was fifteen?”

“She told you that?”

“No. Vivian was filling me in last week.” As she cut J.D. a piece of cake, she went on. “You know, I thought models made outrageous money. Not Rachel. She says she makes regular money. And works hard, too.”

“Yeah. Apparently she’s been working herself to death trying to replace her savings, which her mother stole.” He went back to eating.

Madge didn’t interrupt his meal again.

After the table was cleared, J.D. went through the mail that had come in that day, but he was too tired to worry about it tonight. He’d deal with it when the sun was shining.

T
HE
M
ARCH WEATHER
changed quickly. Two days later the sun was shining and no one who hadn’t lived through it would believe the storm they’d had. The pastures were greening nicely, making feeding the cattle no longer necessary. All the baby calves were moved to the barn and given to cows with calves of their own.

“You mean the mother cow doesn’t mind?” Rachel asked when Madge told her the calves were gone.

“Apparently not. It’s a system that’s been working for ages.”

“Even Boomer?”

“Boomer?”

“I named the smallest one.”

“That’s not a good idea,” Madge said softly.

“Why not?”

She shook her head. “Rachel, think about it. What do you think will happen to those calves?”

“I hadn’t thought— You mean they’ll be killed?” Rachel shrieked.

“Of course they will, honey. That’s why you don’t get too friendly. I learned that the hard way.” Madge got down a big bowl and carried it to the table. “Today we’re going to make oatmeal cookies.”

“We?”

“Well, actually, you. This will be your first cooking
lesson. At least, I think it will be. You said your mother never cooked?”

“No. She was too busy managing my career.” Rachel’s voice was devoid of expression.

“It’s never too late to learn to cook.” Madge continued to move about the kitchen, gathering the necessary supplies and utensils. Then she sat down beside Rachel.

“Usually, I mix them up at the cabinet, but it will be less tiring for you if we sit down. Look at this,” she began, showing Rachel the recipe she followed. For the next half hour Rachel was fascinated with the process of making cookies.

When J.D. came in unexpectedly for lunch, Madge leaped to her feet, flustered.

“J.D., I didn’t know you were coming in! I’ll fix you a sandwich. It won’t take a minute.”

“No hurry, Madge. I’ll stave off starvation with some of your great cookies.” He picked up one that was cooling on waxed paper on the kitchen cabinet.

Rachel’s eyes widened and she watched for his reaction. So did Madge. J.D. looked up and noticed he was the center of attention. “What’s wrong? What did I do?”

“Nothing, J.D. How are the cookies?” Madge asked, keeping her voice casual.

“Excellent as always, Madge.” He bent over to kiss her cheek and steal two more.

Rachel let out a sigh of relief.

Madge took great pride in announcing, “
I
didn’t make them.”

J.D. looked at Madge and discovered she was beaming at Rachel. “Rachel made them? I didn’t know you could cook,” he said.

“I can’t,” she admitted with a shaky laugh. “Madge is teaching me.”

“Well, someone did a good job,” he said with a smile.

“We’re going to pack a boxful and take them over to Mrs. Smith’s house. Her grandchildren are visiting for spring break. They’ll disappear quickly,” Madge informed him.