Chapter Eight #2
"Now, wait a minute!" Helene protested. "I don't know if I want to learn to ride!" She saw the shocked looks on their faces and relented. The chance of more time alone with Whitey was worth doing her best to conquer her fear.
Amanda was very proud of herself for finding a clever way to throw Whitey and Helene together, and wanted to kick her Papa under the table when he said he'd be happy to help Helene.
"Papa, I am sure you are much too busy to give riding lessons. It is already arranged, and Whitey is happy to spend the time with Helene, teaching her." Her green eyes glittered as she tried to warn her parent to shut up.
Helene was quick to add her own voice. "Really, Mr. Chambers, I think Whitey understands me and how afraid I am of horses, and I think I would be more comfortable with someone my own age teaching me. I won't feel so inept if I act like a big baby in front of Whitey."
Matt wasn't stupid, and he hid a smile with his coffee cup. "I was just trying to be polite, Helene. If you are comfortable with Whitey, then I am sure he will teach you just fine. He's a good man."
"He is," Helene promptly added. "Mr. Chambers, why didn't you go ahead and send out those wires about him? Don't you think he deserves to know who he is?"
"It ain't my place to decide that for him, Helene. Any time he wants me to help him with this, I'll be glad to," he added.
"Losing your memory is a hard thing to face. Think about how you'd feel if you woke up in a strange bed somewhere and didn't know how you got there, who shot you and why, and most of all, you didn't know your own name! He was pretty much in shock for a while. Doc patched him up physically,
but he couldn't fix his brain."
"Whitey was shot?" Helene was horrified.
"Three times. Someone wanted him dead."
"How terrible!" Helene whispered, tears filling her eyes. "Oh, I just want to find who it is and put him in jail!" she declared.
"It might have been that he was simply robbed, or it could have been someone wanted him dead. He might have attempted a crime of some sort and got shot up in the process. Whatever happened before he come here doesn't matter none to me;
Whitey is a good man and I'm proud to have him working here for me," Matt said.
"Oh, he wasn't committing a crime, Mr. Chambers," Helene defended the man. "He's a good person inside, and that wouldn't change."
"I reckon you are right, young lady," Matt's green eyes crinkled with good humor. "Now you best eat up so you don't keep Whitey waiting."
"Oh, I've got so many butterflies in my tummy I'm not sure I can do this!" she wailed dramatically, and both Matt and Amanda laughed heartily.
"We need to pick out something for you to wear, too, and you'll want to take your hair down and simply braid it. Otherwise you'll have such tangled hair you'll have trouble getting a brush through it."
Matt chuckled when Helene excused herself and went flying up the stairs. Amanda got to her feet, too, having finished her meal, and she surprised Matt by giving him a kiss on the cheek. "What was that for?" he asked gruffly.
"Because you are so smart," she said with a wink and then hurried after Helene.
"Looks like I'm goin' to have to pick up a dish towel this meal, Goldie," he said as forlornly as possible when she started clearing the table. "The girls abandoned me."
"Won't kill you none," was the housekeeper's tart reply and she hid a smile when he chuckled.
* * *
"You have to get on the horse before you can ride, Miss Helene," Whitey said patiently several minutes after she met him in front of the corral. He'd saddled a mare called Molasses for her. She was as slow as her name implied.
"I don't think I can, Whitey," Helene protested.
"Sure you can," he insisted. When she stubbornly shook her head 'no' for at least the hundredth time since coming outside, he decided it was time for action.
He put his right arm around her waist and before she could guess what he was about, she was seated on the saddle, looking down at him in horror.
"Nooooo!" she whispered frantically. "Get me down!"
"Calm down, honey. You're just fine," Whitey talked to her as if she were a frisky colt.
"I won't let you fall. Put your feet in the stirrups and that will make you feel safer, and hold on to the saddle horn. She grabbed as if for dear life and her knuckles turned white. "
Relax now. See, Molasses isn't even moving.
She knows you are afraid, and she is being still to give you time to know she won't hurt you none."
"She's a horse! She can't think!"
"Now, you are wrong about that, little lady. Molasses is very smart. I talked to her when I was putting a saddle on her and I told her she would need to be gentle, and she nodded and agreed."
"Really?" Helene asked.
"Really. Are you feeling some better yet?" he asked hopefully.
"I'm not as terrified as I was," she acknowledged.
"Good, we'll walk a bit now. Your job is just to sit there in the saddle and relax. I'll hold Molasses' reins and we'll go slow."
After a couple minutes Helene felt herself enjoying the ride. "This is actually fun, Whitey," she admitted. "Can I try it by myself?"
"Sure. Just keep going slow, and if you want to stop, pull back gently on the reins. She'll know to stop without you causing her pain."
"Pulling back too hard would hurt her?"
"Yes, Miss Helene, it would. Molasses is a good mare and she wouldn't deserve that."
"I won't hurt her, Whitey, I promise."
"Good. I'd have to smack your bottom for you if you did," he said lightly.
"Oh! You wouldn't do that, would you?"
"Well, I reckon I would if I thought you earned it."
Helene was shocked. Amanda had confided in her that Rob spanked her a few times, and she'd found herself wondering if Whitey would do that to her if she crossed a line.
Suddenly, she wanted to know for sure, and without giving it a thought, she gave the mare a little nudge with her boot and Molasses took off running, straight out of the corral!
Helene held on for dear life, but she allowed Molasses to keep right on going.
Whitey was shocked when he saw Helene use her boot to make Molasses run!
She was too inexperienced to be riding that fast, and he could only pray she wouldn't fall off the saddle before he caught up to her.
It only took seconds for him to run from the corral and mount his stallion and start to give chase, but she already had a pretty good head start.
Of course, since it was Molasses, it didn't take long for Hero to catch up.