Kitabı oku: «Made For The Rancher»

Chapter One

“Mr. Clayton? I’m Ross Lee from KUSM-TV. Would you mind answering a few questions?”

Surprised to hear his name called out, Wymon glanced to his left. He’d just come from a committee meeting and had walked out onto the steps of the Montana State capitol building in Helena with his close friend Jim Whitefeather, only to have a microphone shoved in his face.

“Good news travels fast,” Jim muttered. The two of them were disappointed that a final decision wouldn’t be reached for another month when they would meet with the governor again. The eager-beaver reporter already suspected the worst outcome would happen in thirty days. No doubt he considered this delay good news.

Wymon and the members of the committee had been in the public eye for the last six months raising awareness of a controversial issue close to his heart. They’d welcomed the publicity to get their message across and had held debates across the state, some of which had been in the news.

On this day, however, he would have liked to ignore the negative attention. He and Jim needed to be diplomatic because their fight wasn’t over. They had another month to convince the public that this issue was worth fighting for.

“Naturally I’d hoped for a positive decision today,” Wymon told the reporter. “But I’m feeling confident that next month we will be successful.”

He felt the reporter bristle. “With you being the head of the Sapphire Ranch, it’s well known that you’re one of the biggest proponents for the reintroduction of the grizzly bear to the Sapphire and Bitterroot wilderness in western Montana.”

“That’s right. My colleague here, Mr. James Whitefeather of the Nez Perce tribe, is another big proponent. We’re part of a much larger group dedicated to fulfilling our initial mission statement.”

“If you would, highlight it again for our television audience.”

Taking the opportunity to speak on one of his favorite subjects, Wymon said, “Our vision is that one day the grizzly will once again have a population in northwest Montana. We want to see them interact with the greater Yellowstone area population to the south as they did hundreds of years ago when thousands of them lived here before being killed off.”

“But, Mr. Clayton—as I understand it, today’s lack of a decision means most voters in Montana believe the issue is on a downward spiral.”

“All great ideas face setbacks,” Wymon countered. “We’re continually working to get the necessary votes. In a month’s time we hope to win by a landslide.”

The reporter squinted at him. “You think that’s possible?”

“Anything’s possible, and the decisions made by our committee will serve to guide the federal and state agencies involved in grizzly bear management. It’s our belief that a new grizzly population will contribute to the balance and harmony of nature. It will also contribute significantly to long-term conservation and recovery of the species.”

“What do you have to say in response to State Representative Farnsworth’s attacks on your coalition? He claims that the majority of people are against reintroducing the Ursus horribilis to the area. This hot issue has had tempers flaring on both sides of the state border.”

“A slender majority are currently against it.” Wymon’s jaw hardened in reaction. “I’d say the man who gave the species its scientific name had never encountered a grizzly outside of the Lewis and Clark reports. A damn shame considering it was rightly recognized as Ursus arctos, but the ‘horrible’ stuck, and the grizzly was forever mislabeled in the cruelest of ways.”

“You question history?”

“Not history, just one man’s uninformed opinion. I wonder how many people in your viewing audience realize that in the entire 142-year history of Yellowstone National Park, there have only been eight reported human deaths by bears, and not all of them have been proven to be by grizzlies. That’s one in every seventeen years. The chances of being killed in a car accident or in a plane accident are so much greater—there’s no contest.

“But to answer your question, I’ll give you a quote from John Muir, the Scottish naturalist, who was an early advocate for preserving America’s wilderness. He spent three nights in the forest with Teddy Roosevelt who had the foresight to establish our national parks. You know the story about how the teddy bear was named after him?”

“I can’t say I do.”

That didn’t surprise Wymon. “His hunting party treed a small black bear and waited for Teddy to take the shot, but he decided that killing the young trapped bear wasn’t sporting.

“To paraphrase a quote of Muir’s on the grizzly, he said, ‘He’s neither an enemy nor a means to our spiritual development, neither something to conquer nor something to experience. He’s simply an equal.’”

“An equal?”

“Yes. Muir said, ‘Nature’s object in making animals and plants might possibly be first of all the happiness of each one of them.’” Wymon emphasized the specific word.

The reporter frowned. “You mean they were created for their own happiness? Even the grizzly?”

“That’s right.” Jim took over to finish the quote. “‘And not the creation of all plants and animals for the happiness of one who wants things his own way.’ That is man’s arrogance. A better title for him should be Homo sapien horribilis.”

At the reporter’s stunned expression, Wymon almost laughed out loud. He’d bought horses from his good friend Jim for several years. The man had a great sense of humor, which was very much in evidence at the moment.

Jim kept talking. “Consider that Montana has fifteen mountain ranges above six thousand feet in seventeen counties that include, among others, the Bitterroot, Garnet, Big Belt and Sapphire. All were the natural habitat for the now-dead grizzlies who have every right to be here today.”

Wymon muttered “Amen” under his breath. “Now you’ll have to excuse us. We’ve got to get to the airport.” He and Jim left the confused-looking reporter to grill the others coming out of the meeting and hurried down the steps in the June heat to a waiting limo.

During the short ride they talked business. Next week they would meet again and figure out a ground game to reach every voter in Montana and Idaho. Wymon also planned to go up in the mountains with a couple of the wildlife experts and rangers to discuss a new conflict management program to put in place.

One of their biggest priorities was to discuss the uncertainty of the survival outlook for translocated grizzlies. There was also the problem of capturing enough sub-adult females to meet the shortened time frame when they were in heat.

Once they reached the airport, Jim got on a plane to fly back to his family in Missoula. Wymon took a flight to Stevensville, a small town in Ravalli County in the western part of Montana. From there he’d drive his truck to the ranch five miles away.

It was a good thing Wymon’s brother Eli had married recently and was running the ranch on a full-time basis. It allowed Wymon to focus on finding the funding necessary to revitalize the program he and his friends had instituted the year before.

No doubt it would take a hundred years at least to see his vision realized. Wymon would be dead before then, but he and Jim were in lockstep to help secure a recovered population of grizzly bears that would one day include a core of five hundred or more in the northern Continental Divide area.

They both envisioned grizzly bear management similar to the management of other resident species that maintained effective biological connections all the way from Canada in the north to the Bitterroot Sapphire area.

He’d been excited about the idea of bringing grizzlies back since his youth when he’d spent time in the mountains with his father and they’d talked about their demise. His dad had lamented their loss, and his concerns had served to ignite a fire in Wymon who vowed that when he got old enough, he’d try to make a difference.

If time had permitted before leaving the steps of the capitol, Wymon would have liked to relate another of Muir’s many journal entries that had always stood out in his mind.

The night before I left Yellowstone, I found myself in a small crowd squinting at a distant hillside. A grizzly was eating an elk carcass, while a wolf lay in wait just a few meters away. When the bear was sated, she simply rambled off, leaving the carcass behind. The coast now clear, the wolf jaunted over to dig in.

The crowd there urged the bear to react: “Fight!” at least two people cried, craving some carnal satisfaction in sharp teeth and bloody jaws. The bear, thank goodness, paid us no mind, leaving the wolf free to keep tugging at the meat.

According to a park ranger, the wolf would bring some back to feed his pups. And the grizzly, with the wolf gone, would return. And so it would continue, two apex predators accepting the other’s presence, engaged in an ongoing dance of wary respect.

That was the kind of respect Wymon hoped those dissenters of the plan—like Representative Farnsworth’s constituency—would develop in time. What it would take was more information at their disposal and the money to pay helpers for their ground game of dissemination of pamphlets and video clips produced for the public.

As he drove under the antler arch of the Clayton cattle ranch entrance, he looked up at the majestic Sapphire Mountains behind it, mountains filled with sapphires created at the dawn of time, sapphires his family had mined for years.

His eyes burned with hot tears. Wymon missed his father like hell. Maybe it was better he wasn’t alive to hear that today’s bill had been postponed. But Wymon had no intention of giving up.

* * *

AFTER GETTING OFF the phone with Rob, Jasmine Telford sank down on the side of her bed, wishing she hadn’t told him she’d go with him. But he said he’d be there at 8:30 a.m., so she couldn’t back out now.

Her gaze strayed to the small suitcase she’d just packed. She’d never gone away with him overnight, but he’d been hinting that this was something important for his career. He’d sounded so serious that she’d agreed to take the day off from her job at the university. But she’d told him they would have to have separate bedrooms. She’d never been to bed with a man and didn’t have those feelings for him.

Rob Farnsworth, an energy engineer from Helena, was running for a second term as a state representative. She’d met him three months ago in her father’s office, and he’d instantly won over her parents with his charm and intelligence. As for her, she wasn’t so sure, but from that time on he’d pursued her with a vengeance. At first she was flattered, but after a while little things about him started to bother her. He’d been indulged by his wealthy family—and she discovered that his ambition, like theirs, went beyond Montana politics, which made her nervous.

She’d come from a ranching family. Though her dad had been involved in local politics, he planned to get back to the family feed business once he was out of office. Her hardworking father was serving his last term as a state public service commissioner.

Jasmine’s mother was always right at his side supporting him and often stayed with him in Helena when he had business there, only coming home to Philipsburg on the odd weekend. That left Jasmine, who still lived at home, on her own.

Heaving a sigh, she phoned her mother and got her voice mail. Jasmine left a message saying that she was going out of town with Rob and would be back the next day, but that she’d stay in touch.

Before Rob arrived, she went in the bathroom to refresh her coral lipstick and run a brush through her wavy dark blond hair that was naturally streaked by the sun. She kept it medium-short so it didn’t need a lot of work.

He’d said to dress casually, so she’d put on designer jeans and a short-sleeved khaki blouse. After slipping on her leather sandals, she put on some lemon-scented lotion and decided she was ready.

Within seconds she heard him honk and left the house with her suitcase. Rob got out to hug her and take her bag. “I hope you’re up for an airplane ride.”

No-o. Her head lifted. “You’re kidding.”

“Why would I do that? I’ve been asking you to fly with me for a long time, and you’ve always turned me down. But I’m not going to let you get away with it today. By the way, you look beautiful.” He planted a firm kiss on her mouth, but his plans had caught her off guard.

“Hey—” His brown eyes swept over her. “What’s wrong? I thought you told me you’re not afraid of flying.”

“I’m not.”

“So, it’s just me you don’t trust. Honey, I logged two thousand flying hours in the military.”

“Trust has nothing to do with it. I’ve said no because you fly for your job. I haven’t wanted to interfere with that.”

He frowned. “Interfere? I want you with me whenever possible. Remember that huge rally scheduled in Helena in three weeks? You promised you’d come with me and my parents.”

“I know.” She had promised him. But since then she’d become less sure about their relationship. “I’ll fly with you this one time, Rob, but that’s it.” While they were on this trip, she’d tell him she would rather not be at his political rally.

Rob stowed her case in the rental car, and they took off for Riddick Field Airport in Philipsburg where he’d flown in from Helena. She saw a plane she didn’t recognize sitting out on the runway.

“That’s yours?”

“It’s a Cessna 177B single-engine plane.”

“You got a new one?”

“That’s my surprise!” He grinned at her, reminding her of a kid on Christmas. “Nothing but the best when you buy a Cessna Cardinal. She’s a four-seater and a real honey of a serious cross-country machine. She’s got 180 horse power. You’re going to love it.”

Before long they reached the parking area. He walked her to the shiny blue-and-white plane and introduced her to his mechanic. They shook hands. “You’re going up on a beautiful day, Ms. Telford.”

“It is gorgeous out.”

Rob helped her onboard. “As you can see, there’s a lot of room in a Cardinal. Take out the back seat and you can fit camping gear for three weeks. It’s really amazing. We can get two folding bikes, kid seats and a cooler behind the back seat for a full-family day trip, or fit a family of four in here with all the ski gear, no problem.”

Whoa. His mind was taking their relationship to a whole new level. When he’d said this outing was important for his career, she hadn’t realized she was a part of it. Whatever he was leading up to, she wasn’t ready for anything that serious. Jasmine still didn’t know him well enough yet, not after three months. And what she did know raised certain concerns in her mind.

Pretty soon they were settled and both put on their headgear. He turned to her with a smile. “We’re flying to Seattle and won’t be back until Sunday.”

“The whole weekend?”

“I have a little business to do there. How does that sound?”

“You’ve surprised me. I haven’t been there in years,” she said to cover what she’d really wanted to say, that she’d rather not go.

“Good. I have it all planned out.”

Rob was a planner with enough drive for three people. That was why he’d been so successful in business and politics. Besides his good looks, he had many admirable qualities, but that drive he’d inherited from his parents made her nervous.

Did he ever slow down? Have a quiet moment? Maybe spending the weekend with him would help her figure out if he could just be still and enjoy life. So far she suspected he was a workaholic. Jasmine wondered if she could live with a person like that, never mind that he might take exception to her more laid-back personality.

After starting the engine, he was cleared for takeoff. Soon the land receded, and they headed into a picture-perfect blue sky. Philipsburg lay below between two mountain ranges filled with mining ghost towns and lakes that made the scenery a never-ending tapestry of beauty.

“We’re flying over a portion of the Sapphires on our way,” he explained after they’d reached cruising altitude. “Did I tell you we’re finally showing some real progress on getting rid of the pollution from the old mines?”

“Yes.” She chuckled. He couldn’t help talking about his ideas for cleaning up the rivers to help the fish population thrive.

“I’m happy about the decline in the wolf population, too. Wolves are on a downward trend in the area. It means the tools we’re using to manage them are effective. The impact we’re making there is positive, and there’s more good news. The bill to reintroduce grizzlies into the area was postponed for a month due to pressure from our side. That particular ranching coalition is a tough group, but we’ve prevailed so far.”

“I know you were strongly against it.” Jasmine looked down at the green canopy below.

When she was young and on a hike with her parents, she remembered seeing a grizzly with her two cubs up in the Coffin Lakes area. Her father had whispered, “Isn’t she a magnificent animal?”

Her mother had replied, “And she’s a good mother, too.”

“They have no place in today’s world.” Rob kept talking while she was still thinking about that campout with her folks. “There’s enough trauma without inviting more. Fortunately, enough of my constituents agree with me.”

She felt like changing the subject. “When was the last time you took a real vacation?”

“It’s been a while, but there never seems to be enough time.”

“That’s because you thrive on work.”

“Don’t you?”

“Not in the same way.” It wasn’t a career that consumed her day and night.

“Why do I get the feeling you resent me for it, and that’s why you haven’t flown with me until now.”

“That’s not true at all,” she said. “Please, don’t think that. To love your work makes you who you are. I’m so impressed by your energy and excitement.”

“Impressed enough to want to be my wife?”

There it was! The question she’d been dreading. She hadn’t expected it right this second and clasped her hands in her lap.

“Rob—”

After a silence he said, “That wasn’t the one-word answer I wanted to hear. I knew you were the one for me when we first met. Surely you’ve realized I’m in love with you, Jasmine.”

She wished she could say the same, but she couldn’t. “I care for you a lot, Rob. Otherwise I wouldn’t be with you now, but—”

“But your feelings aren’t strong enough to say you’ll marry me,” he broke in on her.

“I need more time to commit to a decision that will change my whole life.”

“How much more? I’d hoped we’d return from our trip with the engagement ring I bought for you on your finger. I want it there when we attend the rally in three weeks. It’s a good thing I know your feelings now instead of at dinner when I’d planned to propose to you.”

Her heart sank. “I’m so sorry, Rob. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. I’ve always been slower to make any important decision. It’s my nature. You know I think you’re wonderful, or I wouldn’t have come with you.”

She felt horrible and wished she hadn’t agreed to come with him. Now she’d ruined the weekend. In the silence she suddenly heard a thump and then there was a burst of feathers in the cockpit. A bird had crashed through the windshield. The propeller fluttered before the engine died.

Jasmine cried out Rob’s name, but his focus was on the controls, pushing in knobs, pulling out others. He turned to her. “We’ve hit a hawk, and now we’re going to have to put her down in the mountains.”

“We’re going to crash, aren’t we?”

“Afraid so, but we have about ninety seconds before we reach the treetops. After impact, we have to get out as quickly as we can. If I’m unconscious, remember to pull these latches to get out of your seat belt and get me out of mine. You need to get away from the plane as fast as possible. Now I want you to cover your head with your arms.”

She turned straight forward in a state of shock while she heard him call, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.” Jasmine couldn’t believe this was happening to them.

“Look—right over there. A logging road that might open into a small meadow. I’m going to head for that. Let’s pray she glides to the opening, and we don’t hit the trees.”

While Jasmine was praying with all her might, she heard him repeat, “Come on, come on. I don’t know if we’re going to make it, but we’re going to try.”

The next thing she was aware of was the crush of branches, and she realized the tail was raking through the trees. All of a sudden she was thrown forward in her seat, and the plane hit the ground. In that horrific moment it slid up a slope to a stop.

Amazed she was still alive, she turned to Jim. His head lay against the side window. She cried his name, but he didn’t respond. He’d been knocked out, but she didn’t see any blood except some cuts on his hands and arms. It took her a minute to think.

If I’m unconscious, remember to pull the latches to get out of your seat belt.

She followed his instructions and reached for the latch to extricate herself. Then she pulled his latch. He still wasn’t moving. She felt for a pulse. He was still alive, thank God.

She had to get them out of there, but when she tried to open her door, it wouldn’t budge. She tried again before realizing it had been dented on impact and would need force in order to pry it open.

The only thing to do was climb out the shattered windshield and jump down so she could pull him out of the plane on his side. First she had to push out the broken glass so she wouldn’t cut herself exiting the cockpit.

With her adrenaline gushing, she cleared it enough to get through, then climbed up on the seat. After gripping part of the dented frame, she swung herself through and took a leap. The ground came up hard, almost knocking the wind out of her. Nausea swept through her. When she could find the strength to stand, she hurried around to the pilot’s side of the plane.

She reached for the door handle and opened it. Jim was six feet and a dead weight in her arms. She tried to work him out of his seat belt. If he had internal injuries or a broken neck or bones, she had no way of knowing. All that mattered was to get them as far away from the plane as possible before something exploded.