Chapter Fourteen
The day started off with a nice crispness to the air, with temperatures a little below normal for the time of year. Vaughn was enjoying it, not sweating nearly as much as she usually would have doing her morning chores. She’d already mucked the stalls and laid down new straw, and now she was inspecting the horses’ feet for infection or other issues.
She inhaled the cool air and wondered whether or not they were going to get that rain that was promised later as she placed her hand on Holly, one of her broodmare’s shoulders, and ran it down her leg to her foot. She gently lifted it to examine the hoof. She checked the frog, made sure it was intact and no foul odors were coming from the hoof itself, and ran the hoof pick along the sides of the frog to scrape along the edge of the shoe. When she was satisfied that the hoof looked good, she gently lowered the foot, ran her hand along Holly’s body to her back leg and lifted the back foot, careful to keep the hoof along the inside of her body so she wouldn’t get kicked. She was busy examining the hoof when Gram walked up, clearing her throat loudly to let Vaughn know she was present.
Just when the morning was going so well.
“Yeah?” Vaughn said, cleaning Holly’s hoof with the pick.
“You tell me. You’re the one who’s been avoiding me.”
“I’ve been busy, Gram.”
“Bullarkey. You tell me we need to talk and you do nothing of the sort for the next week. So, what is it? Have you let it go, or do you have something to say to me?”
Vaughn lowered Holly’s foot and straightened to walk to her other side, heading back up to her head, careful to avoid Gram’s gaze. She wasn’t in the mood to talk and hadn’t been since she’d nearly lost her temper over Gram’s telling Natalie about Jeanie. She’d calmed since then, her temper tamed, but she was still right mad and she didn’t want to get into with her at the moment.
“Well?” Gram said.
Vaughn trailed her hand down Holly’s shoulder and leg to her foot and lifted it carefully. “You know why I’m upset.”
“I’ve got a good suspicion.”
“Then what have you got to say?”
“I don’t rightly know, Vaughn. Do you want an apology? Fine. I’m sorry. But you know, Natalie knew something was wrong. The way you were acting. She worried she might say something wrong. So what was I supposed to tell her?”
“I don’t know. Tell her it’s none of her business.”
“After all the help she’s given us?”
“Well, it isn’t. It isn’t any of her business, regardless of what she’s done or hasn’t done.” She scraped Holly’s hoof, set her foot down, and moved on to the back leg. She trailed her hand down her hip to her leg and lifted her foot. She heard Gram sigh.
“Child, you’re unbelievable.”
“I’m right though.”
“No, you’re not. Not in your behavior over the whole thing or your behavior now. And why is it exactly that you didn’t want Natalie to know? You don’t seem to mind if anyone else knows, the boys and the folks in town included. Is it because you have feelings for her?”
Vaughn nearly dropped Holly’s foot. But she refocused and noticed a smell. She examined her frog and set her foot down.
“Well?” Gram said again.
Vaughn stood. She slid the hoof pick into her back pocket. “Holly’s got thrush.”
Gram crossed her arms. “I’ll call the farrier.”
“I can do it.”
“Are you going to answer me?”
Vaughn stroked Holly’s neck. “I’m not going to respond to such a ludicrous question.”
“Ludicrous?” She laughed. “You’re going to be the death of me, do you know it, Vaughn Marie?”
“Just don’t tell her anything else, alright? She doesn’t need to know our business.”
“No, she’s only running the website and learning all the ins and outs of the ranch.”
“Exactly my point. It could be dangerous.”
“If you’re worried then you need to step up and do it yourself. Get over this whole thing with Jeanie. You know we have to have a presence on that inter web or whatever you call it.”
Vaughn narrowed her eyes. “Don’t tell me to get over it or anything else.”
Gram threw up her arms. “Fine. Don’t. But don’t come crying to me when people question your behavior and I have to tell them something so they don’t take it personal and run off when we need them the most.”
Vaughn wanted to argue with her, to tell her she was being ridiculous, but she couldn’t. Gram was making sense and it made her all the more upset. So she chose not to speak, clenching her jaw instead. Movement from down the stable caught her attention and she looked past Gram as Benny walked up, a look of tight concern on his young face.
Now what?
“We got a problem,” he said. “The east fence is down.”
“What?” Impossible, she’d just checked it yesterday evening.
“And it’s not just down. It’s been cut.”
Vaughn bunched her fists, left the stall and Gram behind, and followed Benny out to the Gator. She climbed aboard and he slid in next to her. They took off across the ranch, kicking up dust along the way. They rode in silence until they got to the east fence line where Vaughn slowed at the gaping hole. She climbed out of the Gator and stood looking at the hanging wires with her hat resting against her thigh. She looked up, beyond the fence, and decided to look for tracks. She stepped through the hole and examined the ground. Tire tracks ran back into the desert from the fence line. Big tracks. Like those of a pickup truck. There were also hoofprints.
She turned back to Benny. “How many horses got out?”
“I count four. Maybe more.”
“Shit.” She crawled back into the Gator and Benny followed. They sped back to the stables.
Greer and Gram were waiting for them. Vaughn started barking orders at the boys as she climbed from the Gator. “You two get on some horses and go track down the ones that got away. I’m going to work on repairing the fence.”
“Yes, ma’am,” they said in unison.
“What’s going on?” Gram asked as Vaughn walked up to her.
“Someone’s cut the fence. Left a big hole. Some of the mares got out.”
“Someone really cut it?”
“Looks that way.”
“You think Ricky and Pedro did it?”
“I don’t know who else would’ve.”
“But why?”
“Probably because I threatened to fire them if they didn’t take a drug test.”
“Well, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Gram said. “If they was doing drugs. Serves ’em right.”
“Yeah, but those two.” Vaughn shook her head. “They’re bad news. My threats pissed them off. And now they’re acting out.”
“I should call the police.”
“You do what you feel is necessary,” Vaughn said, hurrying away. But Gram lightly gripped her arm.
“Take Natalie.”
“Gram—”
“She can help. And she needs to know what’s going on. She’s already asking.” She motioned toward the corral where Natalie was standing beside Oliver, lightly petting him.
“She’ll slow me down,” Vaughn whispered.
“She can help.”
Vaughn gritted her teeth and stalked into the corral. She controlled her feelings however, and spoke to Natalie with a calm voice. “You want to come help me repair the east fence?”
Her face lit up and Vaughn was glad she’d asked her politely. What was happening wasn’t Natalie’s fault and Vaughn knew she had to remember that. “Sure.”
“Go ahead and wait in the Gator then.”
Vaughn left her to retrieve her supplies. She grabbed an extra set of gloves along with some wire and the stretcher and cutter, and climbed back into the Gator. She slammed on the gas and they took off, tearing through the ranch. Natalie held onto the side rail and ran her hands through her hair as the wind toyed with it. She didn’t ask questions and Vaughn was grateful, just wanting to get the job done.
When they reached the hole in the fence, Vaughn killed the engine and hopped out. She tossed Natalie the extra pair of gloves and grabbed her spool of wire and cutters. She walked to the fence with Natalie on her heels.
“Oh my God,” she said. “Someone did this on purpose, didn’t they?”
“Looks that way,” Vaughn said. The surrounding desert was quiet, save for the whisper of the breeze. None of the horses remained out to pasture, so she tried to relax a little and just do the job at hand, when what she really wanted to do was kick those idiots’ asses.
“You have to call the police,” Natalie said, somewhat worked up herself.
“Gram’s going to take care of it.”
“Well, don’t you think you should wait for them to come out, before you fix the fence?”
Vaughn paused briefly. “I don’t want to wait.” She was concerned about getting the fence fixed before the predicted storm came through. She didn’t have time to wait.
Natalie held out her hand. “Hand me your phone then.”
“What for?”
“So I can take pictures for the police.”
Vaughn slid out her phone and handed it over, thinking it wasn’t such a bad idea for her to take some photos after all. Natalie took the phone and began taking photos of the cut fence, zooming in on the cut wires and then taking broader shots. She walked through the gaping hole and took photos of the ground, kneeling to get closer to the tracks in the dirt.
“You a forensic specialist too?” Vaughn asked.
“I know a thing or two,” Natalie said, without breaking her focus. “Like the fact that these tracks won’t be here for much longer if the wind picks up or if we get that storm that’s expected to roll through later.”
“Is there anything you don’t know?” Vaughn meant it as a compliment, but Natalie straightened and walked back to her, looking at her like she was offended.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She returned her phone.
“I didn’t mean anything bad by it,” Vaughn said, sliding her phone back into her pocket. “You just seem to know a little about a lot of things. Like you’re well read.”
“I do love to read. It’s about all I do when I’m not working.”
“It shows.”
Natalie brushed her bangs away from her eyes and smiled. She seemed pleased at Vaughn’s assessment of her. It made Vaughn curious as to just how many times she had heard something nice about herself. She reckoned she hadn’t heard too many compliments. It was a shame because she deserved them. She was a bright and beautiful woman and she should be treated accordingly.
Vaughn pulled on her gloves, determined to move on with her thoughts, and encouraged Natalie to put her gloves on too. She grabbed her fence cutter and her fence stretcher and got to work with Natalie by her side. She showed her how to first wrap the wire ends around the fence cutter and then wind the ends back onto the same line. They moved on and Natalie did everything she was instructed to do. She caught on very quickly as she knelt next to Vaughn and helped her work.
“Thank you,” she eventually said.
Vaughn glanced up at her. “For what?”
“For the compliment. If it was meant as such.”
She’s still thinking about that compliment. I really ought to make sure she hears more of them. “It was.”
Natalie smiled again as the wind carried her long bangs across her eyes. She tucked the strands behind her ears but they refused to stay. So she tugged her glove off with her teeth and ran her hand straight back over her head, finger combing her hair away from her face.
Vaughn caught herself staring for a moment, moved by her beauty and graceful actions. She refocused on the task at hand, tightening the wires.
“Are you still upset with Gram about the things she told me?” Natalie asked softly, grabbing hold of the wire for Vaughn after slipping back on her glove.
Vaughn continued to tighten. She didn’t respond. Wasn’t sure how to. The question was personal, one she didn’t appreciate, but she thought back to what Gram had said, about her behavior leading to assumptions and more questions.
“It’s been settled,” she said, hoping to drop the matter.
“It wasn’t her fault, you know,” Natalie said. “I pressed her for an answer. I don’t think she wanted to tell me. She seems to respect your privacy.”
Vaughn said nothing, taking the statements in. Maybe she’d been too hard on Gram. Maybe she was the one who owed her an apology.
“Thank you for telling me,” Vaughn said.
They finished working on the fence in silence and Vaughn was grateful. She enjoyed just sitting in the cool breeze across from Natalie as they worked to repair the fence. It was nice and it brought a peace to her she hadn’t experienced in some time. Had it been one of the boys she’d been working with, she knew that she wouldn’t have been able to work in such peace. They would’ve talked up a storm. But Natalie, thankfully, respected her need for quiet.
Vaughn had Natalie join her on her side of the fence as they finished. “That should do it,” she said, testing the tautness of the wires. It was a good repair and she appreciated the help. “Thank you.”
Natalie pulled off her gloves. “Don’t mention it.”
They picked up the supplies and headed back to the Gator. Vaughn drove them along the fence line to double-check for more damage. Natalie made small talk, asking a few questions here and there, but overall, it was a nice ride. And thankfully, they hadn’t found any more holes or cuts in the fence.
Vaughn steered them back to the stables, thankful, for not only Natalie’s help, but for small favors.