CHAPTER 10

	“Ethan!!”  Joey hammered on the door, yelling at the top of her lungs. “Harvey!” 
Her heart was pounding and she could hardly breath, and she was soaking wet when
Harvey finally opened the front door of his house.
	“My God, Miss Joey, what on earth are you doing out in weather like this?” 
Harvey led her inside while she sputtered out words that didn’t make any sense.  “Calm
down girl, tell me what this is all about?”
	She took a deep breath and sputtered again. “It’s Reggie!  He’s gone!”   She
slumped against the wall and began to try to reconstruct the details.
	The day had gone well enough, and all the kids had enjoyed themselves,
spending their last day on the ranch getting in some more riding time with the horses. In
fact, it had been the end of a week that had turned out immensely well!  Earlier in the
evening Blake had got a call from Draper and had had to leave the ranch for a few
hours. No problem, Joey had assured him, she would be fine with the kids.  
	Much of the time, in fact, had been spent packing and reminiscing over their time
at Silver Star. The next morning Blake would fly them back to Billings.  By ten, they had
all been in bed, and after wishing them all good night, Joey had retired to her own room
to work on her book. An hour later, when Blake was still not home, she had gone to
check on the kids before going to bed herself. 
	Reggie’s bed had been empty.
	She’d looked all over the house, to no avail.  As a last resort, she had  shaken
Griffin awake to ask if he knew anything.  Reggie had wanted to see the horses one last
time, the boy had said, in a groggy voice as he had rolled over to go back to sleep. 
	The horses, Joey had thought, glancing out the window.  When the kids had
gone to bed the sky had been grey and there had been a slight mist falling from the sky. 
Now it was a complete downpour.  Thinking Reggie had gone to see the horses and
then got caught there in the storm and decided to stay where it was dry, she had
grabbed a couple of rain coats from the front closet and headed out to the stables. But
when she had pushed through the stable doors moments later, all was in darkness.
Even after she had turned on the lights, there had been no sign of Reggie anywhere. 
Immediately panic had settled in.
	“Ethan,” she sputtered, as the boy appeared behind his father.  “Ethan, Pepper
was in his stall tonight when you bedded down the horses, wasn’t he?”
	“Sure was, Miss Joey.” Ethan nodded, looking from the girl to his father. 
Harvey’s expression was becoming more and more gloomy.  “What’s up?”
	“I can’t find Reggie, and Pepper is missing.”  Joey looked from father to son
helplessly.
	“Damn!” Harvey hissed, as he reached for his hat and grabbed a rain coat as he
flew out the door.  Ethan was hot on his heels, and Joey ran back out into the rain after
them. 	
	“Check the house again,” Harvey called to her as he ran across the courtyard. 
“I’ll check all the out buildings.”
	Joey ran to the house and looked through every room again. She didn’t want to
wake the other kids, but Mable and Tilly were soon awakened by her search.  
	“I have to tell Harvey I didn’t find him,” Joey told them. “Oh I wish Blake would
come home!”
	“Don’t you worry, Miss Joey, we’ll keep watch here at the house. You go see
what Harvey and Ethan have found. The boy is probably holed up asleep in one of them
buildings out there.”
	Though the women tried to reassure her, Joey was certain they were wrong. 
Griffin had said Reggie had wanted to see the horses, and Pepper was not in his stall.  It
could only mean one thing, and Joey was terrified at the thought as she ran back across
the courtyard in the pelting rain.
	“He’s not there!” Joey called to the men as she shut the stable door behind her. 
Her eyes searched their faces, hoping they had good news, but Harvey shook his head. 
	“He’s not anywhere out here either.”  Harvey told her through his frown.  Then
she noticed the man was saddling up a horse, and shot a glance to Ethan, who was
doing the same.
	“Oh God, this means he’s out there somewhere!” she gasped.
	“Stay calm, Miss Joey.  We’ll find him.  The boy can’t have gotten too far since
you last saw him, especially in this downpour,”  Harvey assured her as he double
checked his saddle and swung up onto his horse.  He looked down at her with a stern
look.  “Stay here.”
	“But...” she started.
	“No but’s.  Ethan and I will look, and if we can’t find him, we’ll come back and
wake up the men,”  Harvey insisted, as Joey swung open the stable door and he rode
through into the rain with Ethan right behind.
	Joey glanced at her watch. It was fifteen minutes to midnight. Why wasn’t Blake
home yet?  She watched the men ride across the courtyard and disappear in the
white-out of rain, and shivered.  A gust of wind swirled around the building and slammed
the door shut just as she tried to pull it closed, and she lost her balance and fell against
the wall. Shaken for a moment, she stood there, breathless, before she started to pace. 
	It seemed like hours later, but according to her watch it was less than fifteen
minutes, when the door swung open again.  “Harvey?” she called out as she spun
around, hoping to see the ranch hand with the missing boy. Instead, it was Blake,
standing framed in the storm in the doorway for a moment before he pulled the door
closed behind him. The rain was so heavy she hadn’t even heard his truck pull up
outside.
	“Joey!” he gasped, rushing towards her.  “Mable told me what happened. Have
you had any luck?”
	Looking up into Blake’s face, the concern burrowed in his brow, she was
suddenly glad that his strong hands were gripping her shoulders for she felt almost
unable to stand.  She shook her head, fighting back the tears that she had been holding
in until that moment.  “No.  Harvey and Ethan have gone out on their horses, but they’re
not back yet.”
	“Damn!” Blake swore under his breath as he scooped her into his arms and held
her close while at the same time staring off into the rafters.  “It’s alright, Joey, I’ll find
him.”   He held her at arms length and looked into her eyes, gently brushing the tears
from her face with his thumb.  “I’ve never lost a child yet and I’m not about to start now.” 
	With that he sprung into action, striding towards Clipper’s stall, gathering up the
blanket and saddle on his way. “Go back to the house and stay put, I’ll  take Clipper and
see what I can find.”  He was saddling the horse as he spoke, and Joey only watched for
a few seconds as he deftly tightened the buckles.
	“I’m going with you!” she insisted, rushing over to the storage cupboard and
pulling out Candita’s blanket and tossing it over her shoulder, then grabbing hold of the
saddle.
	“Joey, stay here, there’s no point in both of us going out there.”  Reaching for a
flashlight as he spoke, and glanced up to see Joey walking past him to Candita’s stall,
unwavering.
	“I’m going with you,” she repeated.
	He opened his mouth to object again, then stopped and watched her saddle her
horse.  Without another word he walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a second
flashlight. 
	“You’ll need this,” he said, handing her the light.
	She looked up at him with a worried yet thankful expression.  “Thank you,”  she
said, then she took the light and stuffed it in her rain coat pocket, finished buckling the
saddle, and led Candita towards the door. 
	“Keep close, you don’t know the ranch as well as I do yet,” he said, as he pushed
the stable door open and the wind howled in, bombarding them with rain.  Joey nodded
and climbed onto her horse and eased the reluctant animal out into the rain.  Behind her,
Blake fastened the door again, then mounted Clipper and headed into  the wind.
	They rode in the blinding rain, in the direction they had taken the day of their
camp-out.  Their lights were of little use, only accentuating the slanting water in front of
them, but Blake shone the beam back and forth in front of him none the less.   They
called out to the boy regularly, but their voices were drowned out in the rain. 
	Joey’s voice was becoming husky by the time they directed the horses onto the
narrow path under the trees.  They were provided with some protection from the storm
but still the wind ripped through the branches and Joey felt the stinging of the rain on her
face. Despite the rain coat, she was drenched, and cold, her fingers almost numb as
she gripped at Candita’s reigns.   And when they emerged from the trees into the
clearing where they had camped at the beginning of the week, her heart dropped. There
was no sign of Reggie, or Pepper.
	Blake shone his flashlight all around the clearing and into the trees.  Joey did the
same, and called out the boy’s name.  They still neither saw nor heard a thing. Blake
gave her a worried look, but said nothing.  He motioned back towards the trail and
turned Clipper around. 
	They had just stepped under the branched once again when Joey pulled up on
Candita’s reigns and listened. 
	“Blake!” she called out, but he didn’t hear her.  Desperately she shone her
flashlight towards Clipper’s head and hit the switch, on and off.  Immediately she had his
attention.
	“What is it?” he asked, when he reached her side. 
	“I heard a horse.  It was faint, but I heard it.  Do you think Harvey or Ethan are
close enough for us to hear them?” she looked at him, her eyes clearly showing that she
hoped his answer was no.  If it wasn’t Harvey or his son’s horses, then it had to be
Pepper. Blake held Clipper perfectly still and listened through the rain. All was silent,
then suddenly he heard it too.	
	“That’s not Harvey, their horses wouldn’t neigh like that if they were riding.”  He
shot his light beam into the trees. “That’s a horse at a stand still, and it’s coming from
over that way.”  He moved back into the clearing and followed the tree line until he came
across another small opening in the vegetation.  Shining his light to the ground, he
clearly saw hoof marks in the mud and motioned to Joey.  Carefully he eased Clipper in
under the trees and picked his way through the low hanging branches. 
	Just as Joey caught up with him she spotted the glint of a horses eye reflecting
the flashlight beam. “Blake!” she called out.
	“I see it,” he answered, then he put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. In front
of them, a horse snorted loudly and lifted his head up and down, and Blake slid off of
Clipper and went to inspect the animal.  Pepper greeted him with a nudge and a whiny
as Blake stroked the horse’s face.
	“Where is he? Where’s the boy, huh?”  Blake asked, shining the light around the
ground looking for any sign of the missing boy.
	“There!” Joey called out, her heart in her throat as the beam of her light caught
the small figure laying on the ground about ten feet away from the horse.   Immediately
Blake ran over to the boy and checked him out.  Joey held her breath until she saw
Blake glance back at her and nod, giving her a thumb’s up signal.
	
	Half an hour later the three horses rounded the corner of the coral in the rain, just
as Harvey and Ethan galloped in from the other direction. Blake had hoisted the
shivering boy onto Clipper in front of him and wrapped him in a thick blanket he had
pulled from his saddle bag.  Pepper had followed the other horses home, and as soon
as he had caught sight of the stable he had trotted on ahead and was waiting at the door
when the other two arrived. 
	“Saw your lights,” Harvey announced, as the entire search party entered the
stables.  He slid off his horse and reached up to help the boy down off Clipper, and
carried him to sit on a pile of hay bales .  By the time they got there, Joey was off
Candita and at the boy’s side. 
	“Oh, Reggie!” she fussed, her relief showing in her voice, as she wiped the boy’s
wet face and drew him in close to her side.   He lifted his eyes to hers and pouted. 
	“Aww hell, Joey, I can’t never do nothin’ right,” Reggie grunted. 
	“What were you thinking, boy?” Blake demanded, as he approached, towering
above them.  “You had the lady worried sick!”
	Reggie’s eye registered surprise. “Worried about me?”
	“Of course worried about you!” Joey insisted.
	Reggie slumped under the dry blanket Harvey had replaced the wet one with and
shook from the cold.  “I’m sorry Mr. Blake,” he said.  “What ya gonna do to me for
screwin up?”
	“Do to you?” Blake stared down at the boy. “Do to you? I’m going to get you up to
the house and thaw you out and get you in a warm dry bed so you don’t catch your
death!”
	Reggie stared up at him wide eyed. “But I stole your horse and ran away. 	You
must be awful mad at me?”
	Blake sat down on the hay beside the boy and tugged the blanket up tight
around his chin.  “Boy, I’m thinking you made a pretty bad decision when you decided to
do that, and that you’re going to have to tell me why you did it, but I’m just glad we found
you and you’re OK.  That’s the most important thing.”  He lifted a teasing glance to Joey
and winked at her. “The lady would never have forgiven me if I had lost you.”
	Reggie glanced from one to the other in awe. “But...but...”  he stuttered, then his
shoulders slumped again and he hung his head and sighed. “I didn’t want to go back.”
	“What do you mean, Reggie?” Joey asked.
	He turned a teary expression towards her. “The city. I didn’t want to go back
there.  When I came here, I didn’t want to like it, but I did.  I’ve never done anything like
what we did this week, never had anybody talk to me the way you did, Joey,” he glanced
over her shoulder at the stalls where Ethan and Harvey were settling the horses in.
“Bout horses and motorcycles, and all that stuff.” Then he looked at Blake. “And those
stories around the fire. I didn’t want to like it here, but I did, and I didn’t want to go back
home.”
	Joey hugged the boy close and looked at Blake over the little wet head. “But
Reggie, what about your family? You must miss them?”
	Reggie grunted. “Jus’ me an my brother, and he’s not home much.”
	“No parents?” Joey asked.
	Reggie shook his head and Joey shot Blake a concerned glance.  Blake rested
his finger against his lips and turned to the boy.
	“Listen, son.  Let’s get you warm and dry before you get sick, and tomorrow
when we go back to Billings, we’ll make plans for the next time you can come back for a
visit.”
	The boy perked up. “You mean it? You mean I can come back?”
	“Any time you want.”  Blake grinned at him. “You’re always welcome here!”
	Reggie smiled from one to the other, and allowed Joey to lift him onto his feet
and guide him towards the door.  Once inside the ranch house, they were met by Tilly
and Mable who fussed over them profusely.  Reggie did his best to turn up his nose at
all the attention, but as Mable ushered him into the bathroom and started running a hot
bath to take the chill out of him, he looked back over his shoulder and gave Joey a
thankful smile. 
	As Joey listened to the bath running she suddenly shivered, as she realized just
how cold she felt.  Blake had gone to get out of his own wet clothes, and with one last 
glance over her shoulder at his door, she headed to her room.  Quietly she peeked into
the girls’ bedroom on her way, and smiled to see the two little heads sound asleep.  She
knew just how Reggie felt.  She was going to miss the girls, especially Jill, who had
become her shadow while at the ranch.  
	Gently she closed the door and crossed the hall to her own room, just as Tilly
appeared in her doorway with a bright smile. 
	“Bath’s all ready for you, Miss Joey.  Just what you need to warm up after bein’
out in that storm, don’t want to catch yer death of a cold!”  The older woman announced.
	“Tilly, you shouldn’t have! But thank you, you’re exactly right.” Joey smiled at her
and slipped into her room.
	Tilly smiled brightly back. “You just leave them wet clothes in that there basket
and I’ll take ‘em down and wash ‘em up for you.”  She pointed to a basket that waited
outside the bathroom door, and Joey started peeling off the sticky, cold, wet clothing. 
The bath felt warm and soothing on her cold skin as she stepped in and sunk into the
water.  She dunked her head as well, to feel the warmth head to toe, then rested in the
heat up to her neck for a few minutes with her eyes closed. Pictures started running
through her head, first of the storm, and the search for Reggie; and Blake carrying the
boy to his horse in the pelting rain.  She could see his face reflected in the beam of her
flashlight, the mixture of concern and relief etched into his brow, and she wanted to
reach out and gently smooth his face with her fingers.
	The realization startled her, and she opened her eyes and looked around her. 
She was alone in her bath, and she took a deep breath and sighed.  Why was she
disappointed that he wasn’t there for her fingers to touch? Why did she have a sinking
feeling in her gut at the thought of one day being driven to Draper to catch a plane
home, just like Reggie and the other kids were doing in the morning?  The thought of
never seeing Blake Winters again.  There was a time, not all that long ago, when that
prospect would have been very welcome, but now....
	She sighed and stepped out of the bath, wrapping a huge thick bath towel
around her, and towelling her hair with a smaller one as she stepped out of the
bathroom.  In her room the basket of wet clothes was gone and there was an extra
blanket on her bed, and a cup of hot tea on the bedside table.  Tilly thought of
everything!
	At the sound of a gentle tap on her door, she smiled. Probably the maid coming
to check up on her, she thought, as she went to open the door.  But the smile froze on
her face when the door opened to reveal Blake standing in the hall on the other side.