Page 53 of Runaway Hucow

She had barely spoken the whole trip.

Spike was a little surprised she’d even come along with him at all—glad, but surprised. Ever since yesterday afternoon, Tess had been acting strangely distant. She’d not been her usual, cheerful self at dinner, and this morning when Spike had invited her to accompany him to the Walkers’ house, she’d initially declined, saying she needed to keep an eye on the telegraph machine.

“Expecting a message from somebody?” he had asked her. He’d meant it only as a meaningless joke, but the little hucow hadn’t found it the least bit funny. “Of course not,” she had answered curtly. “I have a job to do, that’s all.”

But then, about an hour later, just as Spike had been setting out on his journey, Tess had come running out of the barn after him, asking to tag along. Spike wasn’t sure what had caused her sudden change of mind, but he hadn’t questioned it either. He assumed it was simply one of those feminine caprices Roscoe had so often warned him about.

Come to think of it, Roscoe was likely the reason for the hucow’s strange moods of late.

She’d been in higher spirits during the brief hour they’d spent at the Walkers’ homestead. She had spent most of the time talking with the three Walker women, thanking them profusely for the garments they’d provided her a few days before. When it had come time to leave, Tess had hugged each of the women so tightly they’d joked that she was acting like it was their final farewell.

She hadn’t found that funny either.

As they’d begun their return trip home, the hucow’s mood had shifted once again. She’d become… not cold exactly, but withdrawn, as if troubling thoughts were weighing upon her mind. For most of the trip, Spike had avoided asking her about it, in the hopes that she might broach the topic on her own. When it had become apparent that wasn’t going to happen, Spike decided to take matters into his own hands. He ran through about a dozen different questions in his mind, before settling on the direct approach. Roscoe had always taught him it was best to be direct in one’s dealings, and sometimes that grumpy old bastard was actually right.

“Tess?” Spike said without looking back at the wagon. “What’s the matter?”

Based on the tone of her voice when she answered, he got the distinct impression he had just startled her out of some deep thoughts.

“The matter? Oh, nothing’s the matter, Spike. I… I’m just a little tired today, that’s all.”

Spike could tell there was more to it than that—a great deal more—but he held his tongue. Sometimes it was best to be direct. Other times, it was better to give a woman her space. That was something old Roscoe had never been very good at.

If Tess wanted to tell him what was on her mind, then she would get around to it eventually. And if not, so be it. Her thoughts were her own. Spike wasn’t going to force her to divulge anything she didn’t feel like divulging.

It didn’t take long for the strategy to pay off. After another minute of silence, the little hucow spoke again.

“Spike… why were you in Crooked Valley that day?”

It was not necessary to ask what day she was referring to. It had been, perhaps, the most important day of Spike’s entire life, for it had been the first time he had seen her, seen Tess. She had been standing up there on the auction block without any clothes on, and he’d been standing below in the town square, wishing he had a million dollars in his pockets.

He pulled the wagon into the shade of a large cottonwood and removed the yoke from his shoulders. They were about a mile from home.

“Let’s rest here for a little while,” he said.

“Okay,” Tess answered.

Spike walked around to the side of the wagon. He folded his arms atop the wooden boards, and rested his chin atop his arms. Tess had been sitting on the front part of the wagon, but now she came and sat down right in front of him, her legs criss-crossed.

Well then, Spike thought, where to start…

“I guess I’d better start by telling you something about my brother. It’s not that I blame Roscoe for my own behavior, but perhaps it will help you understand why I’ve done some of the things I’ve done.”

The little hucow frowned. “Okay.”

“Roscoe doesn’t have the most positive view of hucows, ma’am. But he wasn’t always like that. A long time ago, he had a mate. A hucow mate whom he loved dearly.”

“What happened?”

“I’d rather not delve into that too much, ma’am, seeing as how it’s Roscoe’s personal business. Suffice it to say, she broke his heart. But that was a long time ago, and I was still pretty young. Too young to fully understand such things. Still, I could see the change in him. After that, he always used to warn me about hucows. He told me I’d be wise to stay well away from ’em, and he forbade me from ever bringing a hucow here from the outside.

“As I got older, though, I got urges. And the older I got, the stronger those urges became, until one day I could hardly stand it anymore. So I lit out for Crooked Valley. It’s hard to explain exactly what I was thinking. I guess I thought I could get myself shed of my urges by looking at some hucows. I thought, once I finally saw some hucows up close, I would realize Roscoe had been right all along, hucows were nothing but trouble.”

Spike looked at Tess. She was watching him intensely, drinking in every word.

“To tell you the truth, ma’am, I didn’t feel that way at all. When I finally saw the first several hucows up there on that stage, it just made me feel sad and angry. It didn’t seem right that women could just be bought and sold like that. I had my 4 gauge with me, tucked up under my cloak, and more than once, I thought about blowing that ugly little auctioneer away and setting all them hucows free. But I would have had the whole town to contend with then, and I had my duty to the herd to think about too. Besides, even if I had set them hucows free, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. There’s probably tens of thousands of hucows getting bought and sold all across the west every day.”

Spike shook his head. He still felt guilty about not freeing the other hucows, even though he knew he never would have succeeded at it all by himself.