Victoria Thompson: Texas Blonde

"Are you sure it was a real girl, Cody? It's been a while since you've seen one, and you might've got it wrong," one of the cowboys said with a snicker.

"Did you see her out on the range or did she come to the line shack?"

"Do you see her in the daytime or just at night?"

"Is she pretty?"

"Hell, if I'd knowed you'd get a girl, I'd of volunteered to ride the line, too!"

Up on the ranch house porch, Josh Logan paused in the process of rolling himself a cigarette, distracted by the commotion down in the yard. His men had preceded him out of the house after the noon meal, and he could see them all clustered around someone. Someone who looked a lot like Cody Wells.

Josh frowned. Cody was one of the cowboys assigned to ride the line during the long winter months and protect the far reaches of the ranch. His being here at the house meant something was wrong, and that could only mean Ortega.

Josh felt a surge of excitement at the thought of once again encountering his old enemy. The bandit must have come north early this year to be causing trouble already. Josh hurried down the stairs toward the group of men, but as he got closer and heard the things the men were saying to Cody, his enthusiasm quickly changed to perplexity.

"What's going on here?" Josh demanded, all thoughts of his nemesis Ortega wiped completely from his mind. As he worked his way through the crowd to where Cody stood, the other men stepped back to allow him room. He was the boss, and that was one reason they did so, but they probably would have anyway. Something about Josh Logan gave him an air of authority that other people just naturally respected. He wasn't especially tall, not more than an inch or so taller than any of the other men, so it had to have been his manner that commanded attention. Or perhaps it was the way he looked, the calm steadfastness of his gray eyes or the venerable mane of silver hair. Like all the men in his family, Josh had begun to grow gray at the age of eighteen. Now, ten years later, his hair was completely white, lending him an air of dignity far exceeding what he had earned by living twenty-eight years. "What's all this about a girl?"

Cody looked up at him with relief,, happy to be rescued from the taunting. "I found a girl out on the range, Mr. Logan, about five miles east of the line shack. She's all alone with her wagon. She said her pa was out hunting, but I didn't see no sign of him, so I think she was lying about that, and I tried to get her to come back to the ranch with me, but she wouldn't do it, and-"

"Hold up there, son," another voice admonished. Cody turned impatiently to Bill Grady, Mr. Logan's foreman, who was chuckling good-naturedly. "Are you sure you really saw a girl? Maybe you just wanted to. You've been out on the line a long time, you know," he allowed, referring to the custom of having men posted at various outlying cabins during the winter months. Their job in this era of open range was to ride the boundaries of the ranch on a daily basis and drive back any cattle they found drifting onto a neighbor's property. The men would be stationed out there months at a time, alone, and Cody would not have been the first to start imagining outlandish things.

Cody scowled, first at Mr. Grady and then at Mr. Logan and the ring of grinning faces that surrounded him. "She was real, all right. I talked to her," he said defiantly. Seeing only skepticism, he appealed to Mr. Logan again. "We can't just leave her out there. Something might happen to her. We've got to do something."

The rancher studied the boy's flushed face. Josh knew he might be wasting his time, but he'd never seen Cody so upset before. What would it hurt to check out his story? "All right, Cody. I'll go and see your girl. I haven't seen one in a long time," he added with a grin, drawing an understanding laugh from the rest of the men. "You go and grab a bite to eat first. Grady and I will wait for you, and then you can take us out."

Bill Grady rolled his eyes in silent protest at accompanying Josh on this wild-goose chase and scrunched his homely, sun-browned face into a disapproving frown. Josh ignored him.

"I ain't hungry, Mr. Logan," Cody insisted. "We can go right away."

Josh shook his head at Cody's impatience. "Go eat. She'll wait for you," he promised.

Defeated, Cody stamped into the ranch house to bolt down his dinner.

"Josh, that's a two-hour ride," Grady began in disapproval.

"I was going to ride out that way anyhow in the next day or so," Josh explained. "And besides, what if there really is a girl?"

Felicity squinted anxiously into the distance for the tenth time in as many minutes. Still no sign of that cowboy and his friend, she noted with relief. But her relief was short-lived. A hasty glance at the position of the sun informed her that several hours had passed since he had ridden away, promising to return with his boss, Mr. Logan. They would surely be here any time now, and what would she do then?

Frantically, she hurried over to where her father's rifle was propped against the wagon. Picking up the weapon carefully, she tested its weight. If only she knew whether it was loaded or not. If only Papa hadn't insisted that ladies did not need to know anything about guns. And if only Papa hadn't died and left her all alone…

No! She would not think about that. Felicity lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders and gingerly set the rifle back down again. There was no use wishing for things that could not be. And there was no use in working herself up for a case of the vapors either.

"'Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day…" she quoted doggedly. Quoting Scripture always used to calm her down. Until recently, that is. Since her father's death several weeks ago, she had quoted it almost constantly, but she was still afraid. Mortally afraid. And so lonely that sometimes she thought she might even die herself.

For just a moment this morning, she had been thrilled to see the cowboy riding toward her camp. He was the first person she had seen in such a very long time, and his presence proved that she must be getting close to civilization after all of her wanderings.

He had been nice, too, concerned about her being alone out in the middle of nowhere. She had known better than to confess to being alone, of course, but her lies about her father being out hunting hadn't fooled him.

"Look, miss," he had said, "it isn't safe for you to be out here all by yourself. The Rocking L Ranch is just over there a ways. Why don't you let me take you there? Mr. Logan-he's the boss-he'll see that you get to town or wherever you want to go."

Felicity had been tempted, very tempted. The chance to see other people, the chance to get to a town, was compelling, but she knew better than to go off with a stranger, especially a man. Her father had warned her about men. Even the ones who acted nice were only after one thing. She could not trust this boy, no matter how young and harmless-looking he was. "I'm not going anywhere with you. Now you go on and git. I've got a gun in the wagon and I know how to use it," she had lied.

He had argued with her, reminding her of the wolves and the other wild creatures that posed a threat to her safety-a threat of which she was only too aware already-but he had not been able to convince her. At last he had ridden away, promising to return with his Mr. Logan.