The Ranger's Daughter

Vance

"I was big for my britches, I suppose you'd say. I was the eldest and thought I knew it all. My folks didn't appreciate my attitude, naturally." Vance shook his head as he gazed ahead. He was driving with Grace, but his mind was in the past.

"What happened?" Grace prompted when he remained silent.

"Oh, I got into a fight with some hot-headed youths. It was pretty bad actually. We were all banged up." Vance tossed Grace a rare smile, she was temporarily stunned by he brilliance of it. He had a dimple! 

"You should have see my ma's face when she and pa came to bail me out of jail."

"Jail!" Grace gasped, the dimple forgotten.

Vance chuckled. "You sound like my ma when she found out." he shook his head. "Yup, so what do my folks do? They come down, tell me how disappointed they are in me. Shake their heads in my general direction and then they leave."

"They didn't bail you out?" 

"Nope. Pa thought it would teach me a lesson that I sorely needed. He couldn't do anything with me so he figured a few days spent in jail might drive his lectures home."

"Did it work?"

"Eventually." Vance shook his head again, "I was very stubborn. I spent a week in jail. The food was horrible. They had this blind widow lady cook for us. More often then not, we either ended up with undercooked food or overcooked. There was no middle for it. I think the sheriff paid her to do  serve us terrible food. When I finally got out, I was burning mad at my folks. Decided I was man enough to make my own way, so I packed my saddlebag and took off."

"So you took up rangering?"

Vance glanced at her in surprise. "Who told you that?"

"The sheriff mentioned that you'd done some rangering and cowboying. He said you used to write letters to your ma."

Vance shrugged. "That's true enough. Spent several years rangering. Gave it up after my wife...passed."

"I'm sorry." Grace murmured.

"Took up cowboying after that. It made for a nice change." Vance continued ignoring her sympathy.

"Are you still cowboying?" Grace asked realizing that he skipped completely over the story of his wife. She passed away, that was the only reference he made to her. Grace wondered why, but she kept such thoughts to herself. She didn't want to bring up sad memories for him. 

"Nope."

"What will you do?"

"I'm tired of moving around. Figured I'd buy up some land and put down roots."

"Here?"

Vance turned and studied Grace. She was a tricky one, he belatedly realized. Here he had lowered his defenses and found himself willingly telling her his story. Well, most of his story. The only person who knew the entire tale of his wife was his mother, and Vance planned to keep it that way. No one needed to know of his failure as a husband. No one. Most days, Vance wished he didn't even know about it. 

"If I can find any land worth buying."

"I'm sure you'll find something." Grace assured him with a soft smile as she smoothed wrinkles from her skirt. "Pa always said this area had prime land."

"What happened to your pa? He die or something?"

Grace closed her eyes for several seconds. Her heart nearly stopped from the pain his question caused. Her pa was dead... She wasn't enough of a reason for him to live. He left her... after all those years, her only known parent- "Yeah." She finally choked out.

Something in her silence and then her tone when she answered caused Vance to turn his head. She sat straight on the wagon. Her eyes were closed, her black lashes fluttering softly against her skin. She was biting that bottom lip again and Vance immediately regretted asking. She didn't volunteer any more information and Vance didn't ask. They rode in silence for the next several miles, each one lost in sadness of their own thoughts.

When they finally pulled up in front of a little cabin house, Vance was in awe as he stared at the fine barn and the fields completely golden with fine healthy wheat.Climbing down from the wagon, Vance walked towards  the closest field. Kneeling down he gathered a fist full of dirt and watched as it sifted through his fingers. He studied the color, the texture, the small bits that made up a healthy base for this fine wheat.

Grace had climbed down from the wagon and followed silently to the field. She said nothing while he inspected the soil. He stood finally and turned. He seemed somewhat surprised to see her standing behind him.

"It's good land." He finally said.

"The claim's been worked. It's ours, officially." Grace said.  "I mean, if you want it, I'll sell it to you for a  good price."

"This is your father's land. You don't want to keep it?" He watched as Grace's eyes swept the landscape, before they finally landed on the barn. Her jaw clenched three times before she answered.

"No. It's yours if you want it."

Vance didn't ask, he simply nodded and gestured toward the small cabin. "Let's get your belongings." He suggested. Placing a hand at her elbow, Vance nearly jerked away from the jolt that ran through his hand when he touched her. He looked toward her dress sleeve expecting to see it on fire or something. It looked perfectly normal, however, and Grace was moving toward the cabin as if she had felt nothing unusual. Vance shook his head in an attempt to clear it. He had to get himself together. He was going soft. 

It didn't take Grace long to gather her possessions. Vance was rather impressed how little she decided to take with her. She was a woman who obviously knew what was important and what wasn't. She left the brick a brack and rugs. She simply took two dresses, four books, and a photograph a man and a woman. Her father and mother, Vance assumed. In less than twenty minutes, they were back in the wagon returning to town. Vance didn't know what to think about this trip. To be honest, his feelings were mixed. He'd never seen a woman that seemed so honest with her emotions. After his wife, Vance had become a rather good judge of character. He was always watching people- analyzing. Grace didn't seem to have anything to hide. Either she was very good at playing this game, or else she really was as sweet and in pain as she seemed.

Grace barely made it away from that barn without a break down. The only way she did was to keep reminding herself that she could not cry in front of Mr. Mcvone. She could not. She would not! Grace hurried in grabbing the few things she that meant a lot to her. She needed to get away from that barn she just kept seeing... seeing... turning her face upward toward the sky, she took a deep breath and slowly breathed it out through her mouth. She had her possessions now she just needed to start a life for herself in town.