CHAPTER 5

	The men headed out at dawn.  Much to Joey’s surprise, she was awake early,
and standing with the small group of on-lookers as the caravan of horses rode away
from the main house.  Each had a duffel bag and bed roll strapped to the back of their
horse, and one of them led a pack horse laden with food and supplies.
	Blake led the procession.  He had seen her standing beside Mable and Ethan as
he had ridden by and Joey was certain he had been surprised to see her there.  Next to
him, Harvey waved a happy farewell to his wife, and Mable called out what sounded like
a requisite  “be careful” as he rode past.  Joey got the impression the woman didn’t think
he would ever be anything but careful, but the wish was most likely always uttered.
	Next to Harvey was his son, Clayton, Ethan’s father.  Joey recognized him by his
hat, as the man who had been helping Blake  in the stall out in the field the day before. 
Clayton was the ranch foreman, Mable had told her, and his wife, Suzannah was
standing next to Ethan to see the men off.
	Behind the leaders, a group of six men followed, plus the seventh leading the
pack horse.  They passed in a chorus of goodbyes, met by a sea of waves, and then the
little group left behind was left to watch the tails of the horses in the dust as they
marched off.
	Joey looked around her. Instead of dispersing, the small group was standing
there chatting.  Apparently most of the ranch hands were single, and lived in the bunk
house, but Clayton and Suzannah, with Ethan, lived in one of the houses Joey had seen
next to the main house.  The man bringing up the rear, Joey was told, was Maria’s
father.  He lived in Draper now, but had worked for Samuel Winters many years earlier. 
He came to help out on cattle drives when they needed him, and Joey guessed the
woman huddled close to Maria was probably his wife.
	“Has it always been like this?” Joey asked, as she looked around the small
group.
	“Like what, Miss Joey?” Mable asked her.
	Joey smiled. “Like family,” she explained.
	Mable smiled. “Aye, Mr. Blake treats us all like kin.   I done help raise that boy to
the man he is, me’n Harvey.  He’n Clayton grew up riding the ranch together as boys
and there weren’t nobody else Mr. Blake wanted workin right beside him’n Harvey when
Jock there left the ranch foreman’s job to retire in Draper.”
	“Maria’s father?” Joey said, sounding surprised.  She had heard he had worked
for the ranch years before, but hadn’t realized he had been the foreman.
	Mable nodded. “That’d be ‘im.  And see the one in the red plaid there?” She
pointed to the group of horses now quite small in the distance. Joey nodded.  “That’n is
Maria’s brother, Tom.  And that’n there aside ‘im...” Joey squinted to see the man riding
next to Tom.  “That’n is Martin.  He’s sweet on Maria.”
	Mable grinned at her and looked past her to the young maid who was now
seeing her mother to the car. “She hasn’t tol’ her mama yet, but I think ol’ Jock knows.”
	Joey smiled and shook her head in disbelief. “It really is like family.”
	“It sho’ is.” Mable smiled. “Since Mr. Blake came back home ‘specially.”
	Joey looked at her questioningly.  “Wasn’t Blake’s father a good man to work
for?”
	“Oh aye!” Mable nodded emphatically  “Best man my Harvey ever called boss.
‘Til Mr. Blake, of course, but Mrs. Winters — now there was a woman you didn’t want to
cross.”
	Joey looked around for any sign of Tilly. The older housekeeper was nowhere to
be seen. “I remember you sayin something like that before.  You didn’t like Blake’s
mother much?”
	Mable sighed and shook her head. “Don’ know many who did.”
	“What about Tilly?” Joey asked.
	Mable chuckled.  “Tilly didn’t like her any more’n the rest of us.  She just has a
loyal streak in her, that woman.  Don’ like bad things bein’ said ‘bout nobody, even
Cordelia Winters.”
	Joey smiled. “Tilly and her husband must have meant a lot to the boss and his
wife, I guess,” she said thoughtfully.  “George is buried in the family plot.”
	Mable eyed her with marrow eyes.  “So Mr. Blake took you out to the graves did
he?”
	“Yes,” Joey nodded, and Mable turned back toward the house.  “There were
ranch people there, but Blake said his mother would never be buried there.”
	“Noooo.”  Mable shook her head.  “Cordelia won’t be wantin’ to make no
permanent residence on Silver Star Ranch ever again.”
	Joey frowned. “Blake and Cordelia didn’t seem to get along very well, from the
way he talked.”
	Mable shook her head again as the two women climbed the steps onto the
veranda. “That be true. Even as a boy, she never seemed satisfied with anything he did. 
Tilly done raised that baby up to a boy, an’ once me’n Harvey came here, he spent as
much time over at our place with Clayton as he could.”  Mable pointed across the yard to
the house where Clayton, Suzannah and Ethan lived. “We lived there when we first
came here. We moved over here to the main house when Clayton got married. He was
workin as a ranch hand then, Ol’ Jock was still here at that time.  Our girl, Clara, had
married and moved into Draper by then, so t’was jus me’n Harvey, and there was room
here with Tilly and George.”
	Mable beamed as she spoke, while Joey followed her into the staff quarters.  She
pulled up a chair at the kitchen table as Mable put the kettle on the stove.
	“I’m having tea, would you like a cup, or would you prefer coffee?” the woman
asked.
	“Tea will be just fine,” Joey said, and Mable took two cups out of the cupboard.
	“So Clayton and Blake are pretty close in age then?” Joey asked, and Mable
nodded.
	“Our Clayton’s just a couple years older but them two boys were inseparable
since the day we moved here.” Mable paused and looked at Joey thoughtfully. “I ate with
my Harvey earlier, would you like some breakfast, child?”
	Joey chewed her lip. “I hate to be a bother.”
	Mable straightened her back. “No bother at all! I’ll cook y’up somethin’, don’ you
worry.” She started pulling food out of cupboards and fridge, and continued her earlier
conversation as if she had never interrupted herself.  “Mr. Blake was best man at out
Clayton and Suzannah’s weddin’.   Eighteen years ago past, and I remember it like
yesterday.”
	“They married young,” Joey said.
	“And they been happy ever since.” Mable said, nodding. “Some people never
have such luck.  Suzannah was the daughter of a ranch hand over Draper way.  She
knew what ranch life was like and never minded it none.”
	“Not like Cordelia.” Joey thought, then gasped when she realized she had
spoken out loud. Mable paused in her work and frowned at her, but nodded.
	“Aye, Cordelia Winters weren’t never cut out to be a rancher’s wife. I always said
the only thing that kept that woman here was her husband’s money.  In the end, she
didn’t’ get what she expected.”
	“No?” Joey looked at the cook in surprise. “Blake talked as if she got a share of
the estate when his father died.”
	“Oh, aye, she done good, but she didn’t get no part of the ranch and that were
where the real money was.”
	“The ranch.” Joey nodded. “I remember.  Blake said she wanted to sell it and he
wouldn’t let her.”
	“Mr. Winters named Mr. Blake partner on the ranch before the lad went off to
university.  When Mr. Winters died, Mr. Blake paid her off but t’weren’t nothin’ what she’d
expected. An’ then there was the trust fund Mr. Winters promised old William.”
	“William Whitefeather?” Joey looked confused.  “I thought William died long
before Mr. Winters.”
	“Aye.” Mable confirmed. “But Mr. Winters promised the old man when he died
that he’d look after William’s daughter. They say he wrote it into his will as a fund to
support her as long as she lived.”
	“Blake said William’s daughter lives in Draper?”
	“That’s right.” Mable placed a plate of breakfast on the table in front of Joey and
turned to pour their tea.  “Now you tell me how you want your meals and when, Miss
Joey. With Mr. Blake gone, I’ll be cookin’ for just you, so whatever you say goes.”
	“Oh Mable, I don’t need any special treatment.” Joey shook her head. “I could
even cook for myself.”
	“Nonsense, child!  You can come’n eat with Maria an’ me.  With Mr. Blake away,
Tilly goes to visit her sister down near Billings.  Harvey drove her over to Draper to catch
the bus last night.  There’ll be just me’n Maria here ‘til the boss gets back, so you might
as well join us.”
	“I guess the house feels pretty empty when the men go on their cattle drives?”
Joey asked, as she cut into the breakfast Mable had placed in front of her.
	The other woman shrugged. “When there’s no one here I usually spend my time
over with Suzannah, and Maria goes  home for a visit with her mother.”
	Joey winced. “So you’re just here because of me,” she said, sounding guilty.
	“And there’s nothin’ wrong with that!” Mable insisted.  “When Mrs. Winters was
here, we stayed.”
	Joey pondered the idea.  “Blake never got married? Seeing Clayton and
Suzannah together never made him want to find a wife of his own?”
	Mable shook her head. “They say there was once a girl Mr. Blake would have
married, back in his University days.  Heard they were pretty serious until Mr. Blake
came home to be with his Dad and look after the ranch.  Apparently she didn’t want to
live way out here on the ranch and Mr. Blake wasn’t willing to give it up for her.  He
wouldn’t bring her out here if she didn’t like it — he’d seen what that did to people with
Cordelia — and he wouldn’t’ leave the ranch, so he made his choice.  Never heard tell of
any woman he was serious about since that time.”
	“Married to the ranch.” Joey said thoughtfully.  All he needed was a hoard of gold
digging women reading his biography and deciding life on a back country Montana ranch
wasn’t half bad, considering the fringe benefits, she thought. But almost immediately she
remembered the distaste with which Blake had referred to Cordelia’s socializing, and
decided Blake wouldn’t’ let anyone, not even a woman, put him in the same position his
father had been in.
	“So what happens to the ranch when Blake’s too old to run it?” Joey said,
thinking out loud.
	Mable slicked her tongue and shook her head. “I don’t want to see that day
come, and with any luck, I won’t.  A few more years and Ethan will be old enough to start
a family of his own, and my daughter Clara’s oldest girl, Rosie, is plannin’ a weddin’ this
summer.  I’m not a young woman no more. By the time Mr. Blake can’t take care of this
place I’ll be no longer here.”	The conversation trailed off in the direction of Rosie’s
upcoming wedding, and Joey decided Mable had talked as much about Blake and his
family as she was going to.  
	After breakfast  Joey walked through the main part of the house. It seemed eerily
quiet now that Blake and the men had ridden off on the cattle drive.  Silly, she told
herself, for he wasn’t in the house during the day anyway, but the building seemed to
sense that he wouldn’t be back for a few days and seemed to echo in its silence.  She
walked upstairs and down the hall, past his bedroom door, and wondered at the strange
sense of loneliness she felt knowing she would be completely alone on the upper floor
the next few nights.
	“You’re being ridiculous of course,” she told herself. “You don’t even like the man,
and be most definitely does not like you either!  He’s only tolerating you because he has
to”
	Joey sighed. At least tolerance was better than the blatant anger that had
punctuated their initial meeting, she reminded herself.  Sometimes she wished she was
back home writing boring articles for the Elmdale Times and trying to meddle in her best
friend’s love life, instead of there in Montana trying to uncover enough about the very
private Blake Winters to write an entire book about.
	The thought of her friends made her laugh. If Blake had been surprised to find
out Joey Webber was a woman, he’d be absolutely floored at Mikki and Max, she
thought.  Maxine McGreggor was a fiery redhead who was as feminine as could be,
despite her sporty clothes and Phys.. ed. teacher’s job.  And the two of them had been
having a hey day directing their friend Mikki Johnson’s love life with a personal ad in the
Elmdale Times.  They’d even found her the perfect man, they were certain of it, despite
Mikki’s objections. Regardless of their differences, the three were best of friends, and
the one thing they shared in common that would throw Blake for a loop was their
masculine nick names.
	“I wonder if Mikki and her man have hit it off?” she pondered, and smiled as she
spotted the telephone. She’d call her and find out, she decided.  That would cheer her
up, it always did.
	But when the answering machine picked up instead of her friend, Joey hung up
and sighed.  There was no point leaving a message, she had far too much to explain for
the two minutes after the beep that the machine allowed.  
	When a call to Max was no more productive, Joey frowned at the phone and
turned her back on it. She would just have to find something else to take her mind off of
the emptiness she was feeling.  As she wondered what to do with her time, she spotted
the fawn cowboy hat hanging on the hat rack in the entry hall.  With a sudden purpose in
her stride she picked up the hat and placed it on her head and stepped out the door.
Candita would be glad to see her.

	Blake rode along side Harvey as they guided the herd eastward across the low
grazing land toward Chapman’s Crossing.  On the other side of the herd, Clayton and
Tom kept the cattle from veering too far to the east.  Martin, Clyde, Simon, Henry and
Pete were spread across the rear guard, brining up the stragglers and keeping the herd
together.  Old Jock was coming up behind at his own pace and would meet up with them
where they planned to make camp.  He had god men, Blake told himself.  The best
ranch men in Montana, he was inclined to think.  They knew not to rush the herd, to let it
set its own pace and follow along, rather than risk a stampede that would be completely
uncontrollable.  They read each others moves with the skill of a crew that had worked
long together and they all got along.  They could also read the herd, a skill Blake knew
was invaluable. 
	But as Blake rode easily along the west bank of the herd, his thoughts weren’t on
his crew.  He couldn’t seem to keep his mind off the black haired girl that had been
standing there with Mable and Ethan that morning as the crew had headed off to round
up the herd.  The last thing  he had expected was to see her standing there with the rest
of the ranchers’ wives at the break of dawn.  It had thrown him completely off balance.
	The image he had of her standing in his study in her fancy blouse and skirt just
exuded ‘city’.  Hardly the type of woman who would wake up at the crack of dawn to see
a bunch of cowpokes ride off for a round-up.  Yet there she was, standing there smiling
and waving like all the rest of the women.  In all his life living on the ranch, not once had
his mother ever done that. As a boy he had climbed out of bed before the sun to see his
dad and William and Harvey and the men ride off like he just had this morning.  As a
teen, he had joined them, with Clayton.  Never had Cordelia Winters roused herself for
the send off.
	But today, Joey Webber had.
	He might have thought it was just her research, if he hadn’t seen her on the
hilltop the day before, sitting on Candita, the cowboy hat on her head, looking like she
was born riding a horse.  Ethan said she rode every day, and that she even groomed
the horse, and had learned to saddle up for herself.
	It just didn’t’ fit. Never in his life had he known a woman who wasn’t born on a
ranch who fit so well on one — and looked like she liked it!  He had never been so
confused either. 
	“What’s got you broodin’, boy?” Harvey broke into his thoughts.
	“I’m not brooding.” Blake insisted.
	“Sure thing.” Harvey nodded. “That’s why I spoke to you three times and you
were off on some other planet instead.” 
	Blake grunted. “Got a lot on my mind, that’s all.”
	“Wouldn’t happen to be one little filly with jet black hair now would it?” Harvey
asked, a playful glint in his eyes.
	“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 
	“You know damn well what I’m talking about, Blake..  I saw her there this morning
seeing us off.  That girl’s got under your skin and you know it.”
	“She has not!” Blake glared at Harvey, then his look softened and he sighed.  “I
just don’t get it.  City girls just don’t like ranches, and horses, and — and getting up
before the sun for cattle running.”
	Harvey laughed. “There’s more than one variety of the species, boy.  Gord
Whitaker from over on the Bar Nine was tellin me just the other day over in Draper that
the boss’s youngest daughter, Mandy, can’t wait to head off to New York City and live
under them city lights.  And she’s as ranch raised as they come. Even roped her share
of calves, that one.  See, it ain’t where they’re raised that decides it, boy, it’s who they
are in here.” Harvey pounded his chest with his fist, and nodded.  “Mark my words, that
little filly back at the ranch, she’s got cowgirl  inside.”
	“Harvey, shut up and watch the herd,” Blake said, with a scowl, and Harvey
laughed at him once again, but he didn’t say anything more about it.  They rode on in
silence and Blake managed to concentrate on the task at hand pretty well, though for
some reason he kept looking back over his shoulder.  He half expected to see her,
perched atop Candita, watching them riding the round-up.