Chapter Two

Being a bartender in any town required certain skills and discretion was often at the top of the list. In a town that saw more than its share of drifters and ne’er-do-wells, being able to size up a room full of people quickly was even more important. As Sam leaned forward onto the bar top and surveyed his usual mix of customers, he was actually keeping a close eye on the small group in the far, back corner. He knew a couple of them were Ponderosa hands, but the other two were unknown to him. It wasn’t that he knew everybody in Virginia City, but he had developed a certain sense over the years that had served him well. He could often anticipate trouble before it actually hit and he was able to divert a problem before it blew up into something more. A well placed glass of beer, or a timely comment that drew attention elsewhere could work wonders that often went unnoticed. It was that well tuned sense of trouble brewing that was chewing at his ear as he covertly observed the quartet, but he couldn’t give himself a reason why. After all, it wasn’t unusual for the men to make their way into town at the end of the working week. It also wasn’t unusual for strangers to show up. Before he could give it any further thought, somebody demanded a whiskey and his attention was directed elsewhere. It would be some time before he would notice that the two strangers had left, but the one they had called Nate was still sitting there, deep in conversation with another young cowboy whose name he couldn’t recall.

---

Hoss slowly ran a hand down the length of Cochise’s leg and nodded as he straightened up. “Looks like you’re all done there. Good as new.”

As the horse nickered in response, Hoss scratched up behind his ears with one hand as he stroked the horse’s muzzle with his other hand. “Course you need somebody to take you out for a good long ride and stretch out that leg.” As he continued to stroke the horse’s muzzle, he felt his thoughts wandering elsewhere. “Just to make sure.”

“So he’s gonna be okay then?”

The question came out of the twilight shadows and Hoss looked around for a moment before setting his sights on the young man who hesitantly moved towards him from the barn door.

‘Well his leg is.” Hoss scratched at the back of his neck as he considered the new hand he’d befriended in recent weeks. They shared a love of animals, were both more comfortable away from crowds and both men had found themselves unconsciously gravitating to the other.

“He’s hurt someplace else?” Glen moved into the light of the lantern, frowning at the idea he had missed something important.

“No place you can see.” Hoss went back to scratching behind Cochise’s ear as he turned his face away.

“You miss him don’t you?”

Hoss’s hand hesitated for a moment before he continued scratching at the horse who kept nudging him. When he didn’t answer, Glen coughed uncomfortably and looked at his feet.

“I’m sorry, it’s none’a my business. My papa always said I opened my mouth too easy.”

“Why don’t you ever go into the Silver Dollar with the other hands?” Hoss stared at the young man before him and for a brief moment he felt like he was grilling his younger brother over a misdemeanor.

The change in questioning caught Glen off guard and he chewed at his bottom lip.

“Don’t really fit in.”

Hoss moved across the dimly lit barn to put the bottle of linament back. “You’re doin’ just fine ‘sfar as I can tell. Hank ain’t got no complaints about your work.”

Once again, Glen scuffed at the floor with the toe of his boot and tried to cover his discomfort. For some reason he couldn’t define, he felt most at ease with the big man in front of him, but he would have traded his right arm to be able to escape his gaze at that moment.

“The work’s no problem. Fact is, I’m enjoyin’ it. Reminds me of …”

When the comment ran out of words, Hoss tried again. “Reminds you of what?”

“Workin’ with my pa. He was good with horses, you know, like Joe is. He could break the most cussed animal and gentle it like a lamb, my mama would say.”

When Hoss didn’t answer, but settled himself on a bale of hay instead, Glen slowly moved across a little closer. The shadows cast by the flickering lantern played across Hoss’s face and he wondered if he’d crossed the line.

“Joe had a way with horses from the day he first sat on one. Ain’t never seen nothin’ like it. He’s not real fussed on many other critters, but horses … that’s Joe’s thing.”

“I knew that when he stuck up for old Betsy. Said she was a faithful animal and worth her weight in gold.”

“Sounds like somethin’ he’d say about a horse he liked.”

“Then what about a horse he loved?”

Hoss looked up to see Glen shaking his head as if wishing he’d kept his thought to himself. He’d asked the same question himself. Every day.

“Joe and Cochise ain’t never been apart this long before. It’s gotta be killin’ him.”

“Hoss, how did … I mean … what happened to Cochise’s leg?”

“He got cut up on some old fencing wire. Don’t know when he did it and Joe didn’t notice it tangled around him, but he’s lucky it didn’t go deeper.”

Glen found himself once again chewing at his lip as he considered how far he could trust the man in front of him. Finally he decided that if nothing else, he needed to make sure no other horse would suffer as he’d seen Cochise do with a swollen and sore leg.

“What if it wasn’t an accident?”

“What?” Hoss was on his feet in a second and Glen involuntarily moved back a step as the big man seemed to lurch towards him.

“Sorry! It just seems real strange to me that … well that for someone as experienced as Joe … and with a horse he loves, not to have noticed something like that.”

Hoss scratched at the back of his neck as he considered the comment. “Joe said the same thing. Couldn’t see how he’d missed it and was mighty angry at himself.” He leaned forward onto the railing as he thought about his brother’s concerns for his injured horse. It seemed to have been the final straw that lit his brother’s short fuse that day as he wondered if something more sinister was playing out. “I wish he was here to see that Cochise ain’t suffered no permanent harm.”

In an effort to force himself out of the sour mood that seemed to be settling over him, Hoss turned down the lantern and nodded towards the house. “I think I’m done in for one day. If you ain’t doin’ anything tomorrow afternoon, I thought we could ride up and take a look at that herd we were talkin’ about. See if we can’t pick one out for you to have a go at breaking.”

Glen barely managed to hold his surprise inside and nodded enthusiastically as he followed Hoss towards the door. As he made his way to the almost empty bunkhouse, he reflected once again on the good fortune that had made him turn towards Virginia City and not towards Carson City. Having seen the state and age of his horse, the boss had agreed to letting him try catching a wild one and breaking it in his own time. Joe had promised to show him the ropes, but when that promise was clearly never going to be made good on, Hoss had stepped in.

“Are you sure you’d rather not do something else on your afternoon off?”

“Nope, we gotta do somethin’ before that old lady of yours needs a rockin’ chair!”

Glen laughed as he stepped up onto the porch. He missed the look that crossed Hoss’s face as he headed through the door. Sunday afternoons just weren’t much fun anymore without his brother around. The mood around his family was strained and he wondered if things would ever get back to normal.

Would the prodigal son ever come home again?

---

Stacey was busy cooking eggs and didn’t hear the footsteps behind her until he was almost beside her. As the stranger startled her, she dropped an egg onto the floor and it smashed against her foot.

“I’m sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you.”

The eyes that followed her as she leaned down to clean up the mess looked almost distressed.

“It’s alright. I was just daydreaming and didn’t hear you come out. I’ll have this cleaned up in no time.” As she wiped the last of the mess away, she motioned towards the table. “Why don’t you take a seat and breakfast will be ready soon.”

As he settled on the edge of a seat and propped his chin on one hand, Stacey found herself observing him from where she stood. The bruising and swelling was easing, but his face still wore a deep edge of fear that he was trying to mask.

“Did you sleep well?” It was a morning question that had become routine. Even though she had heard him cry out almost every night, the answer each morning was always the same. Polite. Non-committal. Guarded.

“Fine thanks. What about you?”

As Stacey moved over to drop two plates of eggs and biscuits onto the table, she slid into the empty seat and smiled. “Very well.”

She wondered why the two of them were still doing this wary dance around each other as it was clear both were lying to the other. When she had asked who Adam was and why he called out the name so frequently, the stranger had shut down. His eyes screwed shut and she couldn’t tell if he was trying to remember or trying to forget.

“I think I might have remembered something.”

Stacey almost held her breath as she waited.

“I think … I think my name is Joe.”

“Joe? I like it!” Stacey smiled as she watched the stranger before her. If something had come back to him, then it was a good sign that more would. So far, his recollection had only been snippets of things that made no sense to either of them.

Her comment elicited the first genuine smile she had seen on his face and despite the bruising, she decided it suited him.

“I dunno where it came from. I just woke up and it was like a piece of something fell into place.” The look of fear had returned as he stared at her across the table, as if evaluating how far to go next. “There’s more. I think … I think someone tried to kill me.”

As if on instinct, Stacey reached for his hand and squeezed it. “I think you might be right. But before we can do anything about it, you need to rest and see what more comes back. You can’t go off half-cocked.”

“I remember arguing with someone, but then it goes hazy again. It’s so frustrating!” Joe pulled back from her hand before shoving away from the table. “What if whoever it was comes looking for me? What if I’ve put you in danger by coming here?”

“Nonsense!”

Joe began to pace across the tiny kitchen as his agitation increased.

“I need to leave here before anything happens to you!” Before Stacey could respond, Joe suddenly clutched at his head and sagged back onto the chair. She rushed to the pump outside to bring in cold water and snagged a cloth on the way past.

“Easy now, you just need to breathe through it.” As had happened too many times already, she reached a cold cloth to wipe at Joe’s face as beads of sweat broke out across his forehead. Every time he strained to force a memory, it seemed his own body worked against him and shut him down. It was sabotage of the cruelest kind.

“Adam!” The word came out through gritted teeth and Stacey frowned at him.

“Hush now, there’s time for that later.”

“Adam was there. I know it! I just need to …”

“You just need to hush up and breathe. Your memories will come back, but for now, you need to rest.”

The ashen colour of the skin beneath her hand told her all she needed to know. If he tried to force things any further, she’d be cleaning up more than broken eggs.

“You have barely been out of that bed for five minutes. The harder you push yourself, the longer this will take.”

“I know. You’re right. I’m just so close I can taste it!”

As Stacey leaned in to grip his wrist and tug him to his feet, Joe stared at her. “Who is Adam? And why is that the only name I remember?”

“You remembered your name too. More will come. Trust me.” The smile she forced onto her face belied the fear coiled in her stomach. Maybe the Adam he kept shouting at every night really was the man who had tried to kill him.

---

“Well I’ll be doggone!”

Glen shifted in the saddle as he watched the expression on Hoss’s face. He wasn’t sure what had his attention as he stared at the herd of horses grazing in the valley below. They were still far enough away not to have spooked them yet and the scent of their own horses would mask any human scent, but he still could not see what the problem was.

“That bay towards the back. With white patches on her rump.” As Hoss lifted a hand to point, Glen suddenly saw what he was talking about when the horse sidled around a little more while grazing.

“That’s one of yours ain’t it?”

Hoss nodded as he slowly pulled at the rope across his saddle horn.

“Sure is. And I can’t figure what she’s doing out here.”

Before he could ask anything stupid, Glen watched as Hoss kicked his horse into motion and took off downhill after the mare. The herd startled and she began to run alongside them as Hoss circled to the right. It was relatively easy to cut her from the herd as she had been broken over a year earlier. The lasso slipped around her neck and she pulled up short, but barely fought him as a wild one would have. By the time Glen pulled up alongside him, there was no mistaking the Ponderosa brand on her flank.

“This is the horse Joe was using isn’t it?”

“Yeah! So if Joe ain’t got Cochise and he ain’t riding this little lady, what’s he doing?”

The ride back to the ranch was very quiet as Hoss kept his thoughts to himself. If Joe had quietly returned the horse he’d left on, did that mean he really had turned his back on them all?

Glen trailed alongside his friend and wondered how they were going to explain the afternoon’s events as they returned with Joe’s horse. He’d seen more than enough of the fallout of his departure on the family he had found himself working for. Once again, he felt his anger rising at the young man who had thrown aside the very thing he would have given anything to have back.