Chapter 22Charlotte Lane
Chapter 22
Riding in the New Year
January
Charlotte Lane
C harlotte loved her riding lessons at the Double K. She showed up at the ranch every Sunday, rain or shine. Staten wasn’t always there to meet her, but if he wasn’t there then one of his cowboys was, and he always had a horse saddled and ready for her.
She decided riding a horse on the Kirkland ranch was only the second wildest thing she’d done last year. The first had to be coaching high school football. And she was glad that was over.
At the Double K, Staten’s men treated her like she was made of glass. Every one of them had a map with Staten’s instructions written on the corners. Staten had her trained to ride on flat land at first and as the days grew colder the land became rough.
No doubt she loved every minute at the ranch, imagining she was traveling along an old wagon trail or preparing to round up cattle. Charlotte even convinced herself that she was born to ride, following in the footsteps of her ancestors and having been trained by her favorite books.
Most of the time the cowboys looked a little bored with her slower pace, but everyone was polite. Her favorite teacher was Jake Longbow, the Kirklands’ foreman. His lessons always went over the time set aside for her, and he liked to talk about the history of the Kirklands’ land. In great detail he told her about the first Kirklands and how they settled the Double K Ranch. The legend was that after James Randall Kirkland married Millie, the first Mrs. Kirkland ran away to her brother in East Texas.
Raised by the Natives, her brother asked if her husband had ever hurt her. Millie and her brother had both been captured by the Plains tribes as kids, and he would always protect his sister.
But when she told him that Kirkland had given up food to keep her fed and made their home in a cave to keep her warm through the winter, her brother thought it best that she go back home to her husband.
According to Jake, the story was that her brother had walked a few feet away from his sister and lit a fire. He wrapped arrows with cloth, lit them and kept sending them into the sky until her husband found them.
Kirkland was new to this wild land, but he didn’t say a word; he just held his wife gently and comforted her as best he could. Finally, he lifted her on his horse and they rode home.
She never ran away again, but her brother always came armed when he visited his sister’s house. Just in case Kirkland got out of line.
Charlotte wondered if the cave in Jake’s story was the one Wade had been looking for. But the foreman’s stories were so interesting that she always forgot to ask.
Jake told her another legend about how the first Mrs. Kirkland loved the ranch and eventually learned to love her man. The first James Kirkland built their house with his own two hands, and folks said Millie always smiled when she opened the door. They called her a lady and a beauty and said there was never a mark on her from his hand even though she was a spitfire. When she got mad she would fly at her husband in anger.
Legend goes that James would just walk around with her beating on him until they finally found a bedroom. Then no one saw either one until dawn. She’d come out smiling and he’d come out bruised but happy.
Charlotte loved the stories. For generations, the Kirklands had lived and loved on this land, and she hoped to do the same one day in Crossroads.
“The founding Kirklands have such an interesting story. Why has no one written it?” she asked one day as their horses trotted back to the barn. She knew James’s and Millie’s love affair would make a great Western novel.
Jake shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe you should. The old papers and Kirkland’s journal are in the safe at the school.”
“I might do that.” She’d always wanted to become a writer but had never found the time or motivation to make it happen.
She thought about the papers Jake had said were in the school safe. She wondered what she’d find in there. Had Wade looked in the journals for the cave’s location? Did he even know about them at all?
She looked over the land. It seemed the love of the two Kirkland founders still whispered in the wind. She swore she heard the first Kirkland’s laughter whistle in the breeze.
Charlotte and Jake rode for a while in silence before she said, “I’d like to keep taking lessons with you this spring. I feel like I’m living in your stories. And maybe writing my own.”
The foreman pulled up his horse and stared at her. “Sure thing. You have met Staten, haven’t you?”
“Yes.” Obviously.
“Then you know he doesn’t do something halfway and he won’t want you to either. I don’t know why, but he wants a degree and he’ll get one if he has to do the classes one at a time. So, you might as well come out every week. We’re going to be waiting for you. We won’t stop until you’re ready for barrel racing in the rodeo.”
She laughed, swinging off the roan and grabbing a brush to rub her down. Charlotte wondered if the old cowboy would let her bring Wade out here sometime so he could hear the legends of the original Kirklands too. She thought about calling him when she got home to tell him about the journals at the school. Maybe they could spend the rest of winter break helping each other research the founding family.