(no subject)

[snowy_river_man]

Spur's place is a second home to Jim in many ways. It's as entangled with his history as his own homestead, and with his father dead, there is no one Jim trusts more.

Even now, knowing he's a Harrison.

Riding up the hill along the rail fence, Jim smiles as he catches sight of the ramshackle house, built between thin trees with nothing at its back but blue sky. Jessica's arms are looped loosely around his waist as they have been for hours, and Kate is close behind on her Beaut. The sun is shining, the air crisp. He finds he's looking forward to seeing Spur's face when he realizes Jessica has come for a visit.

"Spur!"

He slows his horse.

"Spur!" A brief Pause. "Spur!"

Still no answer.

"Damn," Jim mutters, coming to a stop.

Comments

[con_amore]

Jessica has never seen anything like this homestead with its broken rail fence and stray wagon wheels. It should worry her, perhaps, but it looks lived in. Worn. Comfortable. It would disgust her father, a thought that makes her sniff in amusement and smile.

"What a strange place," she says curiously, eyes lingering on a rusted axe buried in a tree stump. Her arms tighten on Jim's waist as she looks over his shoulder. "Who is this Spur?"

[snowy_river_man]

Surprised, Jim does a double take back at Jessica.

"I thought you knew him!"

[con_amore]

"Why should I?" Jessica asks, eyes wide.

Perhaps he used to work for her father.

[ikissdhimbck]

Well, Kate most certainly doesn't know him, save for by reputation. She looks over the estate with curiosity similar to Jessica's, unbothered by the state of things.

"Y'think he's out on his property somewhere?"

[snowy_river_man]

How strange.

Jim looks from Jessica to Kate, setting his confusion aside, and nods. "Most likely."

He takes Jessica's arm and starts to swing her down.

"You wait here. We'll check down by the creek."

[con_amore]

Jessica swings down with Jim's help and tugs her jacket back into place. She nods, not that Jim is watching anymore, and starts picking her way toward the house.

It doesn't occur to her to wait outside.

[snowy_river_man]

"Spur!" Jim calls again, giving his horse a series of small taps with his heels. He doesn't want to go any faster than an easy canter and even slows further when Kate is closer.

"Thank you," he tells her, "for going along with all this."

[ikissdhimbck]

"What's there t'thank me for?"

She keeps alongside Jim apace with little difficulty. The terrain is certainly different from Texas, but nothing a girl who's been riding since she was in swaddling cloths can't handle.

She smirks, soft and sympathetic, but not without her usual spark.

"Things may not be goin' the way y'planned, but I'm here for the long haul. She's dear t'you. I don't mind the detour."

Expression softening further still, she looks away.

"You ain't worried he's got himself in trouble too, are you?"

[snowy_river_man]

"Spur?" This time, it's not meant to be heard by anyone else. Jim smiles at Kate and shakes his head no. "If he hasn't, I'll be surprised."

A quiet word and soft touch on the reins brings his horse to a stop. Jim looks ahead, at the creek just coming visible, and shakes his head again.

"He's probably in his mine," he guesses. "We'll check there next." Then, "She is. I care about her, of course."

Silence.

"But I don't think she knows what she wants, and I do." His eyes flick to Kate's face, bright and solemn under his hat brim.

It's probably clear this ride to the creek is as much about stealing a word as it is finding Spur.

[ikissdhimbck]

She's got a joke ready about him putting her to work  —  we prospectin' now, Jim Craig?

But the laughter dies before it can even breach the air.

I don't think she knows what she wants, and I do.

She doesn't turn to catch his eye. She lets the words hang there, without answer, for a moment.

"Well. You're both young."

Her words curl at the end, almost as if she means it like a question. It's not exactly what she wanted to say, but when she thinks on it she doesn't know where to begin.

[snowy_river_man]

Jim shifts in his saddle.

Well, that's it lad. You can't stay up here.

"I reckon some days that's true."

Go down to the low country and earn the right to live here. Just like your father did.

He purses his lips, caught up in thoughts of being able to hold his own, proving that he's man enough to make a go of it. Such thoughts bring him around to Jess again, and he looks back the way they came, pensive.

"It's not..." He pauses, using his horse's brief restlessness to think as he turns him in a circle. "You heard what she said about her father. He expects her to be one way and she chomps at the bit in the other direction. I think Jessica sees me as her escape."

He exhales slowly, not quite willing to say he suspects Jess sees him as something new and exciting, and that feeling would fade once she knew the realities of his life, his goals, his heart.

"She's impulsive. Angry. I don't blame her."

Harrison blood.

"When she figures out what she really wants, what's sustainable," he says, wishing he had a handful of dirt to let slip through his fingers, "I won't be it."

And that's okay, he realizes. It's fine.

[ikissdhimbck]

She's only now gleaning that he meant to pull her aside to talk, and her gaze slowly drifts from the lookout she's had on the horizon, coming to rest in their intimate circle. Beaut sees the creek ahead and makes a stubborn move forward, but Kate pulls her back.

Some days that's true.

But most days it's not, living the way we do, frontier children already turned to weathered mainstays.

"I see."

She catches his eyes at last, not sure whether she has the right to this information. It isn't her business, is it? But he's entrusting it to her, so she ponders over what he means.

"No — no, I wouldn't blame her myself. The lure of escape is hard t'resist, if that's the way it is. And you — "

She shakes her head. He's a good man, certainly a desirable one. Jess would be foolish not to see that. However, Kate knows it wouldn't be proper to speak those feelings so plainly.

"I'm sorry, Jim. Really, I am."

[snowy_river_man]

Jim smiles, less ill at ease than he'd been all day. He'd wanted her to know where he stood. Perhaps it's silly; he hardly has any claim to her, but he didn't want Kate to think he'd been planning a future with Jess all along and had kept that to himself.

Even friends would think that a lie of omission, surely.

"No need," he says. "It'll work out."

Given time. In any case, none of this is going to help him capture the brumbies, and that is where his heart and head truly lie.

"We should be getting back."

His eyes linger on her face before he turns again and starts up the trail to the house.

[con_amore]

The inside of the cabin is dark and dusty, like no one has been here for years. The air smells sharp and strange, but not unpleasant; a little like the barn after the hands had changed all the bedding and freshened the hay.

Jessica pushes the door all the way open and peers around, blinking until her eyes adjust to the haze.

Being a Harrison, she doesn't think anything of snooping around. Who is this Spur person? Why does Jim think she should recognize the name?

She bends down to look at... something on a bench. Some bit of rusted iron. Sniffing, she straightens once more and tugs her dress down, turning away to look at the tin cups stacked haphazardly on a shelf.

[snowy_river_man]

Jim doesn't hesitate at the open door, either. This is practically his second home.

"He's not down there," he announces. He hits the side of his leg with his hat, heaves a sigh of frustration, and sinks down on the bench while Jess continues to look around.

[con_amore]

Jim's words have little impact on Jessica. She looks at him and away again, still exploring this strange, sad little place.

Aunt Rosemary would be appalled at the lack of housekeeping, and her father would have several things to say about the lives of mountain men, of that she has little doubt.

But her father isn't here. Nor is this 'Spur.'

Just Jim.

And Kate.

She keeps searching so as to avoid Jim's eyes a little longer.

More shelves, more dusty items of either personal relevance or functional use. Nothing decorative at all. Nothing except... a portrait?

She scoops up the frame, opened like a book, and stares at the woman's picture inside.

It's as if she is looking in a mirror.

Jessica's breath catches.

[ikissdhimbck]

Meanwhile, Kate sees to the horses. It's something she's good at, and one of the only things she can do for Jim right now. It's been a strange morning.

She follows his direction to get them squared away, making sure there's good water in the trough. Occasionally she glances at the cabin Jim moved off towards, where Jessica no doubt already is. She'll join them momentarily.

[lookedforgold]

Behind Kate, a wizened, rumpled old man with dust caking his beard comes hobbling up the path on one good leg and one made of wood.

He's beaming, his yellowed teeth still bright enough to shine through the dirt.

"Hello there!" he calls out. "Do I know you?"

He wouldn't mind making her acquaintance again or for the very first time. He wouldn't mind much of anything, today.

[ikissdhimbck]

She startles at the voice.

Turning quickly over her shoulder, hand brushing her hip, she takes in the old man. He certainly looks like a weathered prospector; he could even get away with the kind of hard-living oilmen she sometimes comes across in Texas. One thing's for certain, though.

"No, but I know you."

There's a distinct twang in her soft voice, though it risks getting muted by the brilliant smile she flashes at him next.

"Spur, I hope? I'm one'a Jim's friends."

[lookedforgold]

"I'm happy to be known!" Spur exclaims, taking quick if uneven steps to reach Kate, arms going wide in a welcoming gesture. He studies her face for a moment before his gaze finds Jim's horse. Recognition lights his eyes. "You're prettier than the company Jim usually keeps."

A grin. The joke, of course, being that Jim doesn't spend much time with anyone at all. Last he'd heard, Jim was off to round up Harrison's strays. If Spur is curious, he hides it well. A lifetime of solitude means he'll take news as it comes and savor the change; he's never been the pushy one.

"And a Yank. Texan?"

His accent has mellowed in all the years spent digging in these mountains, but it's far closer to Kate's own than Jim's.

[ikissdhimbck]

"Thank you."

A little color dusts her cheeks at the joke, regardless of his intent. He has a presence Jim didn't do justice describing, and not for lack of trying. Kate feels instantly comfortable.

"You've got a good ear. Then again, I s'pose I stick out like a sore thumb 'round here. Yes, are y'from America?"

[lookedforgold]

Spur chuckles.

"I'd be the sore thumb on the other hand. Do you have a name, Jim's friend, or don't they believe in them in Texas anymore?" he teases.

[ikissdhimbck]

"Oh!"

She flushes.

"I'm terribly sorry, where are my manners? Yes, I'm Kate Barlow."

She steps forward immediately, holding out her hand.

[lookedforgold]

His hands are filthy. He tries wiping them on his thighs, to no avail. Grinning, he offers a shrug of apology before giving her hand a firm shake anyway.

"A pleasure, Miss Barlow. I'm Spur."

Beat.

"You can call me Spur."

Harrison is right out, after all.

"Jim's inside? Well come on! Might as well tell ya both at once." He makes a gesture at the cabin as he calls out, "Jim! Jim, my boy!"

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate's never minded a little dirt. Her grip is sure and calloused, and she returns the shake warmly.

"Spur it is, then."

She laughs brightly, and checks the horse's leads one last time before following in his wake. It doesn't even occur to her to mention Miss Harrison being here with them until they're almost to the door.

"Oh, there's one other thing—"