FAMOUS FRIENDS - A friends saga - third in the series
This story has some referrences to my previously published friends stories. I hope you enjoy.
I want to thank the writers and producers of Laramie for such a wonderful series. I write only for fun and not for profit.
Thank you Laramie Station for your unending patience and help in getting this story ready to publish. All errors are my own.
I love writing the Laramie fanfiction stories.
Thank you for reading.
CHAPTER 1 JESS
It was one of those crisp fall days with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky reminding Jess when he'd ridden these trails alone in the big open with no place to call home. Funny he rarely thought about the big open since he'd started working at the Sherman ranch. Jess was on his way to the Duvalin spread, the Double-D, located just South of the ranch in Colorado Territory. Dave Duvalin, owner of the Double-D, had hired him to train three quarter horses, two of the horses for his wife and daughter's use and the third as his own personal cutting horse.
Jess pulled Trav up and twisted around to admire the three horses he was leading. They were prime horseflesh. He was particularly proud of the stunning little paint he'd taken special care to train for Susan, Duvalin's daughter.
Lifting his hat and peering up at the sky Jess figured it would be dark shortly and began looking for a likely campsite. Finding one, he dismounted and set up camp for the night. After turning Trav loose and staking out the quarter horses to graze, Jess lit a small fire to prepare his supper. Shortly after eating the sandwich Jonesy had made for him and washing it down with a cup of coffee, the Texan settled down for the night.
Jess woke shivering in the pre-dawn darkness. The warm Fall weather, hadn't held. Overnight, a cold blustering north wind had come up. Jess warmed his coffee from the night before and washed down a semi-warm biscuit for breakfast. He was in a hurry to get on the road. Still shivering he dug out the warm sheepskin coat and extra long johns the old foreman had insisted on packing. Thank goodness for Jonesy, he thought. The old man had insisted Jess pack his sheepskin jacket, extra long johns and a rain slicker. Jess pulled on the warm coat smiling to himself when his arm encountered a warm scarf tucked into one sleeve of his jacket, warm gloves and extra socks tucked in the other sleeve. It had been a long time since anyone had cared if he was warm or not, he thought, as he threw a few more logs on the fire. As the fire flared, Jess quickly undressed and tugged on the warm long johns. Redressing, the cowboy shrugged into his warm coat, wrapped the scarf about his neck and buttoned his jacket. He pulled the collar up about his neck. Even dressed for the weather, the Texan was cold clear down to his bones. Jess doubted his thin Texas blood would ever get use to the warm days and cold nights of Wyoming.
He reached up and ran a hand over his sore and swollen cheek bones. His face ached from where he'd been thrown into a fence rail by a mustang he'd been breaking for their neighbor Mr. Harrison a few days earlier. The ornery mustang had thrown him into the fence rail. His face was scratched and his left eye was swollen shut. He'd made their deadline and, as Andy would say, that's what counted.
Money was tight at the ranch right now, especially with the bank note due at the end of December. Slim was delivering four green-broke mustangs, as promised, to Mr. Harrison and Jess was on his way to the Double-D ranch to meet yet another deadline. Jess lifted his bandanna to cover his nose to protect his injured face from the biting wind. He kneed Trav to pick up their pace.