Chapter 3
"Pink?!" Mick exclaimed in disgust.
The bandages were some kind of sticky stuff, wrapped around his leg over the gauze pads she'd applied, and worse the stuff was day-glo pink.
Looking up at him and grinning, she pulled his jeans leg back over the bandage, making a show of covering it up.
She stood up, "it's vet wrap, very useful stuff for patching up stock and that was just the colour I had in my pack, so quit whining and get on the horse."
"At least animals are colour blind" Rawson grumbled.
Pulling him up from the railing she helped him face side on to the saddled horse, "this is Buck,"
"Not liking that name so much," Mick stated as he put his weight on the bad leg and used his good one to stand in the stirrup and lever himself into the saddle, with Lee pushing him up from behind.
"It's short for Starbuck, he'll look after you, we put all the dudes up on him"
"Let me guess, Battlestar Galactica again?" he frowned "and I'm guessing 'dude' doesn't mean cool bloke either?"
"Uh-huh" she nodded grinning.
"Where are you off to?" Mick asked as she moved away.
"To get on Harley of course, Buck can't carry both our weights"
"But there's no saddle"
His only answer was a raised eyebrow and another eye roll from the lady as she untied Buck and used the spare lead rope to make a pair of rope reins attached to the head collar Harley wore. Then she led him over to a gate which she clambered up to get enough height to shimmy up onto his rugged back.
"Right, let's get out of here"
Now mounted she nudged Harley forwards, whistling to the dogs, she led the way into the line of trees, Buck just followed on with little input from Mick, which he found reassuring, and a little offensive.
The further they got from the farm and into the cover the trees provided, the better Mick felt, though his senses were still on high alert, he had to admit that the gentle movement of the horse and the fact they were going somewhere was good, even if it did slightly irritate his leg wounds. She'd done a good job of bandaging it, the heavy padding she'd applied to stop the bleeding helped to soften any aggravation from the movement, so it wasn't a problem. And Buck, true to her word seemed a pretty placid fella, happy to plod after the other horse along the narrow trail.
"So what made you ride out here? Our records didn't indicate any family?" so it wasn't likely that she was leading him back to the subject, and Mick hated that the FBI part of him couldn't just accept that she'd happened to turn up at the right moment. But he had to check that she wasn't somehow working with their suspect, they had profiled the guy as a loner, but they could have been wrong.
"Harley here needs a shoe put on," she indicated the rugged horse, now mick looked he could see why the horse had sounded odd, one foot had a kind of boot thing on. "Temporary replacement for a shoe, Todd's always been a bit odd, but he's gentle with the horses and he's almost as good a farrier as his father was. I was hoping he'd be there to put it back on for me and I thought I'd check up on him, he seemed a bit lost since his dad died," she shook her head, "guess he was more lost than we ever imagined."
"Yeah, well, it's not always easy to spot a psychopath, that's where we usually come in." they rode for a moment in silence.
"Hey, I just realised I never caught your name?" Mick called forward to her, mentally kicking himself for making such a rookie mistake, in his haste to leave the farm and probably also due to a touch of concussion he'd forgotten the most basic of questions!
"My friends call me Lee."
Mick picked up on the slight pause before the name
"Well, pleased to meet you Lee."
Hmm, was she lying about her name? But she'd seemed more embarrassed than untruthful, plus there was the whole 'my friends call me' bit, so probably her real name was something awful. Mick was tempted to rise to the challenge, but seeing as how she'd gotten him out of the fix he'd been in, he decided to cut her some slack.
Plus he was sitting on her horse, which had the only saddle and she was the only one who knew the way to safety.
"Yeah, probably better to be a gentleman right now." He muttered to himself
"You ok back there?" she turned to look back at him.
"Doing just fine thanks, Buck here seems to know exactly where he's going. How far is it to your place?"
"Bet that's not the first time you've asked a lady that?" She looked back with a cheeky grin.
He couldn't help but return the grin with one of his own.
"Thankfully for me they weren't all ladies" he said suggestively.
He'd played it just right, that one got a full on laugh from her. "Well don't you go getting any ideas Agent Rawson!"
He took the opportunity of the trail widening out just then to nudge Buck into a jog and ride up beside her.
"Why, is your husband the jealous type?" he asked, deciding to test out his theory. A beat too long of silence and he felt bad for having asked, he'd been too close to the mark.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, I kind of wondered back there, the way you spoke about him…" he trailed off.
"He died almost two years ago now," her smile was wistful, but not tearful. "He was a marine, stationed in Afghanistan, his team was ambushed, he didn't make it out."
"I'm sorry" he replied sincerely, he'd had too many friends himself go out like that.
She nodded her thanks "He died doing what he believed in and I'm very proud of him." She fell silent.
Yeah, so that had rather killed the mood, not wanting to spend the rest of the ride in an uncomfortable silence Mick cast around for a change of subject.
"So what's with that hat, it doesn't quite go with the rest of the cowgirl outfit, and you seem proficient enough not to need one?" he offered.
"I never ride without one," she shrugged, "the hands all used to laugh at me, but I don't care, I learnt my lesson the hard way." She looked across at him "I was 17, we were just jumping at a local competition, nothing challenging, my friends told me later that my horse had taken off too early for the jump and we ended up crashing through it. I woke up in hospital 5 days later with a broken collar bone, fractured ribs and no memory of the day of the accident at all, I remember cleaning my tack the night before and then nothing."
"Head injuries can be like that sometimes" well, he had plenty of experience with those.
"Yeah, when I was awake enough the docs showed me my hat, it had a huge crack in it, but they told me it saved my life. I've never ridden without one since, the jokes don't bother me."
"But you let me ride without one, so obviously you don't value my life much then" Mick teased her.
"Hmm, I haven't quite decided yet. And would you rather I'd made you walk?"
Mick shook his head, glancing down at the blood soaked and tattered leg of his jeans, walking definitely wasn't a good idea right now.
"No ma'am" he said contritely and emphatically.
A moment later they emerged from the trees, Mick checked his watch, they'd been in the trees about 30 minutes he reckoned and then he looked up and couldn't help but be impressed by the sight, Buck stopped as he felt the man's balance shift.
Lee reined in beside him. "Breath taking isn't it."
"It sure is." He replied, taking in the huge blue sky above an ocean of green grass rippling lightly in the breeze, between the two, far off in the distance was another line of trees and rising above them a row of jagged snow-capped peaks.
"This fence is the start of my father-in-law's land."
She moved forwards again, holding open a nearby gate in the fence that had obviously been designed for ridden access to the forest trail. Mick followed her through, she closed it and rejoiced him.
"I live at the old homestead, down there in the basin and behind those trees" she pointed across the grass towards a fold in the land which led down and became hidden behind the curve of the forest which bent around a couple of miles to their left. "We can move faster out here on the pasture, if your leg can stand up to it?"
"I'll give it a go"
Lee moved her rein hand forward slightly and Harley moved up into a jog, Mick tried to match her effortless aid, but in the end had to resort to nudging Buck with his legs rather less elegantly, Lee matched her pace with his clearly watching him for any signs of discomfort.
"Lighten your feet in the stirrups, Newton's law of opposites, if you push down with your feet, your bum will come out of the saddle."
He looked at her incredulously, but Lee was looking ahead again and so he simply tried to follow her instruction and was surprised at how right she's been, this was far more comfortable.
"That's it. Now loosen your rib cage and absorb the movement through your back,"
This time he was a little more ready to comply.
"Oops, a bit too much, that's right."
He pulled a face at her, but in truth he really did feel more secure in the saddle now.
"Ready to go up a gear? We'll keep it steady, no racing"
As if he would, even without the bum leg Mick wasn't practised enough to go bombing around on horseback, but the hell he was going to tell her that! So instead he just smiled "Right behind you."
Harley's acceleration looked effortless and the agent barely had to do anything as Buck moved forward to match his friend's pace, Mick felt relieved that the so far placid horse seemed to feel no need to compete with Lee's mount. Instead they settled into a smooth lope, keeping alongside Lee and Harley. Mick was pleased to find that it was comfortable, like being in a rocking chair, not hugely fast, but they still moved rapidly over the grass. Risking a look back Mick couldn't see the gate they'd passed through. Looking forward again he noticed Lee glancing at him, concerned, he genuinely grinned at her, realising he hadn't felt this free in a long time. Her own face lightened in response to his obvious pleasure and, light hearted, forgetting for a moment what had led them to this point, they simply enjoyed the journey.