The Historians
Chapter 11
Next morning Matt started the Defender and pulled it around to the front of the house. He watched Kitty as she came towards him along the driveway. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a light jacket and a pair of brown boots. He smiled to himself. She looked perfect in whatever she wore, but he liked the clothes she had bought on her shopping trip. They suited her.
The drive out to the Bar D was short and fairly easy.
"Kitty, there are a couple of things I need to look at while we are out there, I need to see inside one of those horse boxes they have for transporting the animals, maybe you could keep Bardee interested in a conversation while I have a look around."
"I'll do my best Matt, but I wish you wouldn't, I was looking forward to a ride on the Moor."
"Oh I plan for us to do that as well."
He drove in through the entrance to the Bar D and continued along the road until he reached a large barn.
He pulled the Defender over to park it beside some other vehicles, bgot out and walked around to help Kitty out. He had noticed that other men did not do this – but ingrained habits died hard for him.
They walked across to a door marked office. Ben Bardee was sitting at his desk talking on the phone. He terminated his conversation quickly and looked up.
"Well I see you decided to come. I'll show you what horses I have."
They started to walk towards the barn and Matt began to tap his pockets.
"You go ahead Kitty, I left my phone in the car." He turns to Bardee, "I'm expecting a call so I need to keep it with me. Go ahead, I'll catch up with you in a minute."
He watched as Kitty started a conversation with Bardee. If anyone could keep a man's interest, she could. He took off to the Defender and opened the door, then backtracked a little to where he could see the two horseboxes. No one around that he could see, so he circled around to come up behind them. The back of one was open and he looked inside. He had seen the inside of many train cars where horses have ridden, this one had neither the smell nor the looks. No stray pieces of hay or grain. It was spotlessly clean except for a couple of smudges on the floor. He jumped inside and drug his fingers through one of the patches – grease – not what you would expect to find. He looked through one of the windows, still no one in sight, he left the inside of the vehicle and looked at the pattern of the tires. Remembering the camera on the phone in his pocket, he took a picture. Next he looked in through the driver's side window of the second Box. This looked more like what he would expect, with the mats on the floor scuffed up, pieces of hay and even shavings on the floor.
He heard footsteps coming towards the far side of the Horse Box. He ducked down hoping whoever it was would pass by. They rounded the back of the box and opened the doors. It seemed like two people talking a language he did not understand. They both climbed inside and began to sweep. He made his way back towards the Defender, hoping he was not seen. As he walked by the vehicle he slammed the door, hoping anyone hearing would think he had been sitting inside. He made his way along to the barn and saw Kitty still entertaining Bardee.
"I'm sorry, that call came through just as I got there, so I went ahead and took it. I hope I didn't keep you waiting."
"Is everything okay at home Matt?"
"Yes just fine, no problems."
Bardee looked at him but said nothing as the trio walked through the barn.
"I see you have a good number of burro's," Matt commented pleasantly, as he petted the neck of one with its head poking out of the stall door.
"We call them Donkeys here." The man had already noticed the American accent and although curious he had had a number of visitors from that country visit his ranch. "And yes I keep a fair number – the children, you know, down on the beach, they like donkey rides. Its kind of a summer tradition around here."
The man smiles, but Kitty notices that it is with his lips only. His eyes remain cold.
They continue on through the barn. There are a couple of mules and then four or five horses.
"You can pick any of these, that chestnut mare at the end might suit the lady, and the big grey gelding over there," he points might work out for you. I imagine you'll want western tack, fortunately I keep a whole selection for my cowboy weekends. I'll show you the tack room."
He leads them off back towards his office. "You'll have to sign release forms, and it will be £50 each for the whole day, or £30 for half a day."
Matt notices a large scale map of the Moor on the man's office wall and stands looking at it. He wants to see where the main roads are in relation to the trails.
"Do you have a copy of that?" he asks.
The man reaches in a drawer in his desk, and pulls out a sheet of paper.
"You can take this, its not as detailed but I keep a few copies for visitors like yourself."
It took them half an hour to get the horses tacked and on the way. They had a small bag with snacks and water that matt hung on the saddle horn of the grey, and they took off to enjoy the sights of Bodmin Moor. To begin with Matt led them on a northeasterly track. The ride was very pleasant, the slight chill in the air seemed to give the horses energy so they needed no encouragement to stride out briskly.
They came across a stack of boulders and dismounted to look around. Matt got the map Bardee had given him and opened it up trying to orientate himself. The landscape was strange. In some parts quite flat and grassy, other parts were strewn with rocks and boulders. Some of the bigger boulders seemed to have been arranged standing in the earth in formations. He had read on the internet that people from a much earlier time had brought them here and stood them upright to form massive structures.
"I want to head towards that road, looks like it is called the A 30. According to this map it is about 5 or 6 miles from here and just cuts through the edge of the Moor." They follow a well-worn path probably created by wild animals, they had heard that there were wild horses and ponies living on the Moor, these were probably the tracks they followed. They rode for a long time, just at the walk, enjoying the countryside and the quiet stillness that surrounded them. At times they talked and at others they just rode in an easy silence. They found another rock formation and stopped to eat their lunch. The horses seemed quite happy to eat the local grasses so Matt loosened their girths and then relaxed for a while in the unfamiliar landscape. Soon there was movement in the grass to their right. Matt was instantly alert, and to start with disturbed by the fact he had not brought a gun, but then he saw the cause – a small group of wild ponies. He smiled and looked at Kitty.
"This is a wonderful place," she agreed. Kitty was basically a city girl and had enjoyed the stores and the energy that London had to offer, but the peace and even the strangeness of this place appealed to her. She knew for a fact that Matt felt much more at home here than in the city. Here he could relax and let all his thoughts turn inward. He did not have to talk just to make conversation, or express his ideas and concerns if he did not want to. She understood him well enough to allow him some time in his own mind, and would not try to draw him into a conversation when it was obvious that he was buried in his own thoughts. She also knew he was busily figuring out a solution to this job he had to do. He had told her repeatedly that it should not be a problem, he had it all worked out and they just had to wait for the right tides to finish up. Once that was done they would all go home. That is what Thomas had told him anyway.
They rode on and eventually came to where the animal track they had been following came close to the highway. The land was flat here, not much cover, but there was a stand of trees over to their right. He veered his horse off that way and Kitty followed. He dismounted and looked around at the ground. The weather here was obviously much wetter than in Kansas, and several rainfalls had washed out any clear tracks, but there were signs that that burro's had been here. Some low bushes had been torn – like they had been nibbled on, and there was one area where the ground was compacted, like a heavy vehicle had been parked there for several hours on multiple occasions. He found what he thought could be tire tracks and compared them with the tires of the horse box that he had taken pictures of, it could be a match, but too much weather made it impossible to be certain. Even so he felt satisfied that he knew what was going on and planned to call Cranbourne and arrange to meet with him.
The ride back was equally pleasant they even had the pleasure of seeing a few other animals that lived wild out on the Moor before they made it back to the Bar D.
Returning the horses to the owner, they thanked him and told him they had a pleasant day. Matt even volunteered to brush the animals down before putting them up, he was hoping to get the opportunity to look around the barn a little more, but the man declined their offer saying he had staff to do that and so they returned to the Defender to drive back to the cottage. Matt opened the door for Kitty and then went around to the drivers side. As he sat in the seat he looked around the interior. "Someone's been in here," he said.
"Yes I thought that too, look my purse was on the seat and now its back there."
"That's alright, there was nothing in here to tell them anything. I made sure of that. Come on, let's go home, Mrs. Phipps said she would leave us some supper and I'm sure hungry."
Later that evening Matt managed to leave a message for Cranbourne and told him he needed to talk with him. Meanwhile Kitty called Jennifer to check on Doc.
Doc meantime had had an interesting day. He had spent the morning enjoying the niceties of indoor plumbing and the shower that Kitty and Matt had found so enticing. All that effort wore him out and he sat on the couch, putting his feet up and played with this thing called internet that Matt had shown him. He was surprised when he found he could access some of the old Kansas newspapers from his time, even found references to Dodge City – but by all accounts most people thought of it as being a wild and lawless place, he smiled to himself. He must have dozed for a while because the sound of a buzzer awakened him. They had explained about the contraption on the wall to see who was at the door and how to let them in. He recognized the young lady physician who had been taking care of him in the hospital. Much as he cajoled and teased her, he admired her for her poise, her knowledge and her professionalism. A fine young lady he thought – although of course he would tell her no such thing. He let her in the main door and a few minutes later she was knocking on the door to the apartment.
"Hello Doctor Adams, I just came to check on you and bring you some lunch." She placed a small white box on the table. "I hope you like shepherd's pie – it's all they had left in the cafeteria."
"I'm sure I will enjoy every bite," he told her, "but please call me Doc, everyone else does."
"I just wanted to make sure you had taken your antibiotics and had no fever or headache."
"Thank you, young lady, I appreciate your concern but I am doing fine."
She insisted he sit down, then took his wrist to check his pulse.
"I told you I'm fine now, and yes I took those horse pills you gave me."
She smiled to herself, Matt and Kitty had warned her about the rough, crusty persona he liked to portray.
"Thomas told me to tell you that if he gets through his surgery schedule before too late, he will come over and take you round the hospital to show you how we do things in the big city."
"That'll be good, I'm not used to sitting looking at the inside of four walls all day."
Thomas really hadn't explained much to her about where these people came from, just told her he met them once a long time ago. She wanted to ask Doc what he was used to doing, but her phone rang and after she talked for a minute or two she instead told him she had to return to the hospital.
"I'll let myself out Doctor …er Doc. Just behave and eat that lunch now. One of us will be over later."
TBC