The Lady and the Cowboy (17 page)

With that over, they returned Angel to his stall and took their seats to watch the first race. This was a race for novice horses and for some, it was their first race.

Everything was going well, until the final furlong when Puck the second placed horse, stumbled and fell. The crowd gasped as the fourth placed horse, Hades, fell over him!

For the moment it was just a tragic accident, until the second and fifth placed horses stumbled at almost the same moment,
although they were some distance from each other. The fifth placed horse managed to stay on his feet but was clearly lame and his jockey pulled up.

The sixth and eighth placed horses were far enough back that their jockeys pulled
up too and scratched the race, realising that something was very wrong up ahead. Perhaps the seventh placed jockey saw an opportunity to take third place, because he continued on, stumbling not far from Hades.

The track was in pandemonium
as race officials and the public rushed out onto the course, trying to help the horses and the jockeys.

When
she got to the course, Ruth could see with a quick glance that at least two of the horses would have to be shot as their legs were broken, but Ruth wasn’t a vet; all she could do was offer comfort, so she stopped by Hades, one of the two with a broken leg and knelt by his neck, trying to soothe him and make sure he didn’t try to get up, and hurt himself even further. Something dug painfully into her knee but she ignored it, focusing on the horse.

His offside rear leg was crushed below the hock, probably stood on by another horse, so she knew it was hopeless for him.
All she could do was try to soothe him in his final moments. She had some sugar cubes in her pocket, which she fed to him a little at a time as she stroked his long neck.

She could see Sam helping another horse nearby but she didn’t look at him. If she did, she would burst into tears and horses were intelligent enough to sense distress. Instead she began to sing him the lullaby she had sung to Angel when he was spooked and when Hades had calmed a little, she scratched his forehead.

By the time the vet reached them, Hades was almost hypnotised, his eyes looking heavy and his head resting on the ground, despite the pandemonium around them. The vet looked at the leg and shook his head at Ruth. Using hand signals, she realised that he was going to put the horse down and nodded her understanding as she continued singing. The vet slowly approached the head, pulled out his gun and placing it out of Hades eye line, took aim. Ruth moved her hand from Hades’ forehead as was in the firing line, then the vet pulled the trigger.

Ruth collapsed against the horse, sobbing and stroking his lifeless neck as if he could still feel it.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry!”

The vet patted her shoulder but he had another suffering horse to take care of. A few minutes later, Sam pulled her off the horse and into his arms, cradling and
consoling her much like she had tried to soothe the horse.

Finally
as she got her grief under control she slowed her breathing, inhaling his familiar scent, using it to calm her frayed nerves. Finally she pulled away and he handed her a kerchief to wipe her eyes.

She looked
around at the remains of the carnage.

Most of the fallen jockeys were on their feet,
although a few were being carried or helped inside. Another gunshot sounded and Ruth flinched. She was pleased that neither horse was suffering any longer, but their deaths were just so senseless.

Of the
surviving horses, some were being led away, limping over wooden planks that had been placed over the ground. She wondered where the wood had come from and what its purpose was.

Other horses
, although on their feet, were being examined for soundness. Officials were standing in a group, heads together and looking grave as they discussed something

Sam knelt down to the grass and felt around, finally digging something out of the dirt and handing it to her.

“It’s a nail,” she said, examining the two inch long piece of metal.

“And screws and scrap metal. Someone littered the course.” The security guards were here to protect the horses and the money. Seemingly
, no one had thought that anyone would booby-trap the race course.

“That
’s why they stumbled,” she realised, thinking how awful something like this would be, digging into the fleshy centre of a hoof. Pebbles and stones could hurt a horse enough, this must have been like walking on glass.

“They don’t know how much of the course is affected,” he told her. “They can guess from where the horses began to stumble but they’re going to have to dig up and relay the whole course before they can run another race.

Ruth nodded absently; of course they would, no one would risk their horses here until they had.

“Did any of them escape?”

“Three horses, two were able to pull up, the other one miraculously missed all the scrap metal. Mostly the jockeys are fine, a few bumps, bruises and twists. One has suspected broken ribs but they should all be fine in time.”

Ruth nodded. “Who would do something like this?”

She thought of protests and riots that they sometimes had in England but protests for things such as workers’ rights were usually peaceful, or they started out that way, whilst riots were mindless, driven by anger. She could envisage nothing as cold and calculated as this.

Sam had his suspicions about the culprit but nothing he could prove. He would tell the
officials though, because this wasn’t just one horse with colic now, it was prizewinning (or potentially so) horses being mangled. Rich men tended to get justice far more frequently than poor men did.

“Go check on Angel,” he said, kissing her forehead. “He’s bound to know something’s up and he might be upset. I’ll come find you after I’ve spoken to the
racecourse officials.”

“Angel is not racing!” she almost yelled.

“I doubt there’ll be any racing here for quite a while,” he reminded her.

He was right, so she headed to the stables as Sam headed over to
where the cluster officials were talking.

***

Ruth was quiet on the way back to the hotel, hardly speaking two words and seeming not to hear his few questions.

They had o
pted to leave Angel at the racecourse stables overnight, as their security was better than the hotel’s. The guards would be even more watchful tonight, so she was happy that Angel would be safe.

The receptionist looked taken aback by them as they came in but Ruth was too wrung out to consider why. It wasn’t until they got to her room and she saw her reflection, that she realised she had blood on her face and
silks. It must have come from the gunshot that killed Hades, she realised.

Thankfully only two horses had needed to be put down immediately,
although there were concerns about some of the others. If a serious infection set in, for example, they might never recover enough to race again and might even have to be put down.

Ruth took the kerchief Sam had given her earlier and, licking it a few times, wiped her face off. Sam watched from near the door, wondering if she was going to break down again. He couldn't blame
her; the needless carnage had caused his eyes to water whilst out there, not just from the waste but the sheer cruelty of the act.

When Ruth was finished
she stripped off her silks as if he wasn’t in the room, then put her regular breeches and shirt on. Finally she sat down on the bed and looked over at him.

“Was this Tobias?” she asked.

Sam shrugged as he came to sit beside her. “I can’t say for sure but someone really didn’t want us entering this race and if it is the same reason you were shot at, my money would be Tobias.”

“Did you tell a
nyone?”

“I did, I spoke with the s
heriff of these parts. The security guards knew I had been sleeping there because I was worried about Angel, so they took me seriously.”

“Will it do any good?”

“Hard to say,” he admitted, letting out a long sigh. “They’re calling the Rangers in as the horses and owners came from all over the state. We’ve been asked to stay until they can talk to us. Hopefully if the Rangers turn up in Midridge, they’ll do a better job of investigating than Sheriff Hays.”

Ruth held out her splinted hand, looking at it as if only now noticing it for the first time.

“How can one man cause so much destruction?” she wondered aloud.

“Try not to think about it.” He said. “Are y
ou hungry?”

Ruth shook her head.

“I think you need to eat something,” he told her. “And maybe a shot of something to help you relax.”

Ruth was in no mood to argue and allowed him to take her for a walk,
although nothing he tried really helped to take her mind off today’s events. They walked all the way to the racecourse and checked on Angel, who seemed happier now that the hubbub had died down.

One of the Pinkerton security guards gave them an updat
e as they left; one jockey had a broken leg, another had broken ribs, the others had thankfully escaped without serious injury.

All of the surviving horses were receiving treatment and the course vet was optimistic that as long as the wounds to the sole
s of the feet were kept clean and infection free, they would all recover. Two also had pulled muscles but again, the vet was satisfied that these were just strains and not career-ending injuries.

They thanked the guard for the update and headed back to the hotel.

“Angel can’t race again until this is sorted,” Ruth said as they walked.

Sam had been thinking about that himself. He felt that Angel would probably be safe at smaller races, as Tobias seemed  to want to stop them winning prize money, which was obviously a lot less at smaller races.

Tobias also wanted the ranch though, so although he had stopped Sam and Ruth from winning money that could help them today, he would probably step up his attempts to ruin them so that he could buy the ranch.

“I agree. I don’t think any of us can afford to be away from the ranch at the moment. Not even overnight.”

They walked in silence for a while, until they came to Main Street and Sam finally could no longer avoid the thought that had been plaguing him all afternoon.

“So, uh, do you, uh, want to go back and pay for that dress now?”

Ruth looked at him, confused for a moment and he saw the recognition dawn and she smiled, although she looked weary.

“Well, I suppose we did win one race. And it’s not as if we lost the last race, it was cancelled.”

“A situation beyond our control?”

“Exactly. I think we should focus on the positives and we did win
Thursday’s race.”

Sam took her hand and they headed towards the dress shop.

***

The next morn
ing the Rangers came to see them at their hotel and the manager directed them to the restaurant, which was empty at the moment. They introduced themselves as First Lieutenant Ira Hall and Second Lieutenant Tom Milton and once they were seated, began the interrogation.

“The Dallas s
heriff tells us you think one Tobias Middleton is behind this act of sabotage, is that right?” Ira Hall began.

“That’s correct,” Sam nodded. “I think I should give you some brief background on our history for this grudge to make sense.”

Ira nodded for him to continue.

“Just over a year ago now, my brother lost his share in the ranch during a poker game, to a man named Ivor Adams.”

Ruth blanched as she heard this, not only was she wrong in assuming that Ivor had bought his share, Ivor was quite possibly the reason that his brother had run off! She couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Ivor wasn’t a very upstanding character and when the ranch didn’t pay the profits he wanted, he tried to sell his share.
Rumours around town say that when drunk, Ivor bragged a couple of times that there was silver there and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’d led Tobias to believe that too. Ever since Ivor died, Tobias has been hell bent on getting his hands on my ranch. I had to give up my dreams of breeding racehorses, until Ruth came on the scene.”

“And where do you come into this?” Ira asked Ruth.

“I’m Ivor’s widow,” she admitted in a small voice.

“And my new partner,” Sam added. “She came over from England when she heard about his death, bringi
ng her horse with her. Angel has the potential to turn things around for us, and we’ve been racing him at local meets. This meet was to be our biggest to date.”

“You’re R ‘Lucky’ Adams?” Tom Miller asked her. “The lady jockey?”

Ruth nodded. Tom looked impressed but Ira remained cool. Sam continued to explain about his horses developing colic, killing two of them, the barn fire and finally, the shots that were fired at Ruth and Angel during training. Tom noticed the splint on her wrist.

“You really rode those two races with a broken wrist?” Tom asked her.

Again Ruth nodded and even Ira looked a little impressed. Sam reached out and put his hand over her good hand.

“She’s one in a million,” Sam smiled at her.

Ruth smiled but it was hollow.

“Well, it does sound
as though you might be on to something,” Ira told them, turning to Tom. “Take Brian and Robby with you and head back to Midridge with these folks to see what you can find out.”

Tom nodded. “You folks ready to get going today?” he asked Sam and Ruth.

“Ready when you are,” Sam assured him.

***

Although they seemed to dress similarly in a hat, shirt, tie and waistcoat, the Rangers didn’t have a uniform as such. Only the silver ‘star in a wheel’ badges they wore marked them out as Rangers, and even they all looked slightly different.

The other R
angers introduced themselves as Ranger Brian Brooks and Ranger Robert ‘Robby’ Miller.