with powerful hind legs, propel the cougar off his body and over the edge of the bluff. She heard the cat slide down the loose rocks and then, she thought, find its footing and run away down into the valley.
She couldn’t see this happen because the wolf was sitting between her and the view, and its eyes commanded her to look at him.
It was the second time she’d seen the wolf in daylight, the first being that day when the antelope straddled life at the stream. She was struck again by its size, so much larger than a domesticated dog’s, and yet it was half the mass of that mountain lion.
“Hi, Mercy,” she whispered. “Hope you don’t mind a girl’s name, seeing that you’re male. But it’s time I called you something, don’t you think?”
The wolf yawned. Hastings reacted as if the wolf were a butterfly. He flicked his tail once.
“Maybe it would have been better if you’d knocked me off my feet the way you did that mountain lion before I even got out of the barn,” she said. The wolf walked away from the lip of the earth, passed under Hastings’ nose, and then began to pick up its pace as it ambled into the shelter of the trees. Soon it was trotting away.
“Is this how it’s going to be? With you constantly showing up and not explaining anything?”
As if in answer, Beth’s mind was filled with a vivid image from her dream: the antelope with stethoscope horns climbed the mountain of her mind’s eye, a mountain that was actually the back of a wolf.
She could hear the canine’s movements through the brush. In the distant valley, a different dog barked.
Beth turned her head and looked down the slope. A large herd of cattle was moving out from under the shelter of shade trees onto the green plain. The cows were a variety of colors, black and tan, mahogany and yellow. And a significant cluster of them shared a brilliant copper-red that reflected the same tones of the sun. It was the red of Beth’s hair, the same red she had shared with her late father. These were Gelbvieh cows, and she knew they would have the Blazing B’s brand on their hindquarters: a capital B with a tongue of fire touching the uppermost curve.
A cowboy on a large black horse followed them, close to the river. Though Beth couldn’t say for sure from this distance, the white hat made her pretty certain this was Ash Martin, the pool rider. A black-and-white dog bounded next to his horse, its head turned toward the meandering cows. Its bark reached Beth’s ears.
Herriot.
Beth scanned the hills for the safest route to the valley floor and wasn’t surprised to see that the wolf seemed to have taken it.
Hastings turned to follow Mercy before Beth gave the command.
24
Cat was treating Randy Mason, the Burnt Rock stable owner, for an infected cut in his knee when Garner stumbled through the front door of her offices. He was doubled over, gripping his stomach and squinting from a headache that couldn’t tolerate the light. He had heartburn like never before, he said, and stomach cramps took him to the floor within minutes of his arrival.
Cat had been prepared for this event. She lived for those who needed her. In serving others and having her services accepted, Catherine Ransom had learned to finally capture happiness. She quickly assessed Garner, knowing exactly what was wrong with him. He was developing a fever. It was low-grade now but would probably rise soon enough. She slid a pillow under his head right there in the center of the waiting room floor, draped a light blanket over him, drew the blinds, and told him to hang in there until she could send Randy on his way.
This was her chance to shine.
She had already finished cleaning the stableman’s wound. Now she applied antibiotic ointments and clean dressings, and gave him a prescription for oral antibiotics.
“When was your last tetanus shot?” she asked.
“No idea.”
“Then let’s get you one, and let me know Tuesday how this is doing.”
“It’s a good thing we have you, doc.”
“I’m glad to have all of you too. Help me with something before you go?”
“Just tell me what to do.”
“Help me lift him?” she asked. “I don’t have a gurney to make this easy, I’m afraid.”
“I can handle it,” Randy said. In simple, controlled moves, Randy scooped Garner off the floor like a child and slung him over his shoulder.