Chapter 6: Beyond Strength

~It requires less character to discover the faults of others than it does to tolerate them.~ —J. Petit-Senn

“We’ll settle here for the night,” Jake stated, pulling the horses to a stop.

“Out here?” Dannie looked around at the barren landscape, dotted here and there with bushes and cacti. “Dare I ask why you are so intent on sleeping out in the wilderness? With all the rogues and outlaws roaming about, wouldn’t it be safer in a hotel?

“Hotels are the first place them outlaws are going to go looking for you. Crowded areas are really the most dangerous. I warned ya, Miss Preston, it ain’t no easy road, and the conditions are tough.”

“Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to get used to it,” Dannie said primly, and hopped down from the wagon.

“Right, you settle down at that end of the wagon, and I’ll settle down at this end, and we’ll put the fire between us.”

“Is there anything you want me to do?”

Jake frowned at her. “Stay out of my way, and stay out of trouble.”

Dannie rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “I meant, is there any way I can help you set up camp?”

“You can set up your half of the camp. Don’t come near me, and don’t come near the horses.”

“I don’t think the horses think me a great evil,” Dannie retorted. “There’s no need to impose your hatred of women on them.”

Jake didn’t answer. He simply tossed her a bedroll. Dannie took it and marched off. Jake shook his fist at her back.

While she set up her sleeping area, Jake got busy rubbing the horses down, after which he unloaded a kettle and some tin dishes from the wagon and got a fire going.

“So, what was it that Mrs. Callaway gave to you?” he called to Dannie, who was sitting and staring into the fire.

In response, Dannie got up and fetched the basket. Jake motioned for her to set it on the ground, but Dannie shook her head.

“I don’t got nothing clean to put it on,” Jake said.

Dannie rolled her eyes and went to the wagon. She returned with a shawl, spread it on the ground, and set the basket down on it.

While she explored the food, Jake put the coffee pot over the fire and proceeded to brew some coffee. Once it was ready, he poured a cup and handed it to Dannie. She took it with a nod of thanks.

Pouring some for himself, Jake settled down opposite Dannie and was about to take a sip when Dannie’s voice arrested him.

“Haven’t you forgotten to thank the Lord for the food?”

Jake lifted his head and looked at her. “Well fine, but you do the prayin’ since it was your idea.”

Dannie frowned at him then closed her eyes. “We thank Thee, oh Lord, for the food Thou hast provided, and for Thy never-ending grace. Amen.”

“Amen,” Jake grunted, then dove into his food.

Dannie took a sip of her coffee and spat it out in disgust.

“What is this?” she asked, sputtering at the horrible taste in her mouth.

“Coffee, duh.”

“This is not coffee,” Dannie argued, looking at the dark contents of her cup with suspicion.

“Not like you would know. All you folks in England drink tea.”

“That is entirely untrue. My father was a great lover of coffee and drank it regularly. I know what real coffee is supposed to taste like.”

“Well, this is prairie coffee an’ if you don’t like it then don’t drink it!” Two more days, he would be stuck with her for two more days!

“Thank you very much, I won’t,” Dannie retorted and, to Jake’s horror, poured the contents of her cup onto the ground. “Do you have any tea?”

“Can’t stand that stuff, so the answer is no.”

“No tea?” Dannie couldn’t believe it.

“If you wanted tea, Miss Preston,” Jake shot at her, his patience reaching its limit, “then you really should have remained in England, where you belong.”

With those words, Jake turned away a little, focusing his full attention on his meal. Dannie let out a sigh and slowly began picking at her food. The sun had almost set by now, and the wind had become cool. Dannie shivered a little as it blew around her.

“Who would have thought that it could get so cold,” she said softly. “It was searing heat just a few hours ago.”

“Yeah, well,” Jake let out a low chuckle, “welcome to Arizona.”

Dannie glanced up from her food to look him square in the face. “Oh, so you do know how to say pleasant things, after all.”

“I can’t say you’ve been a piece of cake either,” Jake retorted in his defense.

“I’m sure I haven’t, but you seem to have this determination to be as unpleasant and rude as possible. I’ve hardly had a civil word out of you. Is it really so hard for you to be nice? I mean, I don’t even know your full name.”

“Why do you need to know it?”

“It just seems improper to be calling you by your first name. I don’t know if I am comfortable being informal with a man who is quite a stranger to me.”

Jake shrugged indifferently. “I’m sorry, but I’m a private man. Don’t like givin’ my name around, especially to yer kind.”

“My kind?” Dannie raised her right eyebrow. “Am I to assume you mean women in general?”

“Just so.”

“What is it, Jake, that makes you hate women so?”

“A great many things. I’ve known a good many women in my life. I’m not just speaking off the top of my head; this is the voice of experience. I know enough to keep me as far away from you and yours as possible.”

“Do you, now?” Dannie cocked her head to one side and narrowed her eyes a little.

“An’ don’t you go givin’ me that look, Miss Preston. I know what I’m talking about. Yers is a dangerous and a deceiving race. Fine, I’ll admit that I am human, and I’ve fallen for a pretty girl in my time. A man can’t help himself, after all. But any lover I ever had turned around and near crucified me, every single one of them! Now, what does that tell you?”

“That you, my poor Jake, have very bad taste in women!”

“~That’s~ what it tells you?”

“What else is it supposed to tell me? It seems you have a weakness for the wrong kind of women.

“My advice to you, unlucky Jake, is to learn to tell the difference between a good woman and a bad one before falling head over heels. Why let your poor judgment in sweethearts ruin your good opinion of women in general?

“As the proverb says, one can’t judge an entire crop just because one happens to find a few rotten apples. For example, I could assume all you cowboys were arrogant, rude, and absolute beasts of men. Fortunately for all the rest of you kind, I am open-minded enough to not let one obnoxious cowboy spoil my good opinion of all them.”

Dannie’s rebuke was almost more than Jake could stand. She seemed to enjoy scolding him as though he were a school boy. He fought to keep his cool so as not to give her any satisfaction. “Miss Preston, you’re tryin’ my patience. I know what I am talkin’ about, trust me on that fact.”

“I don’t think I want to trust a man whose only ability around a woman is to get himself crucified by her,” Dannie smugly answered.

“Now, that is just being plain rude!”

“Oh, he’s finally getting a taste of his own medicine,” Dannie said with a laugh. “If you can’t take it, then don’t hand it out.”

Jake growled under his breath and finished the last bits of his food. “You seem to be doing a fine job so far in trustin’ me,” he pointed out. “You came out into the middle of nowhere with a man you didn’t know, and you didn’t even seem worried that I might hurt you.”

“I was worried,” Dannie answered back, “I was just good at hiding it. Besides, you came well-recommended.”

“By another man you just met.” Jake laughed. “Ever think that Abner might have been pullin’ your leg as well?”

The color rose to Dannie’s cheeks. “I had my doubts, but this morning I was watching you with the horses. You were so gentle with them that something told me you weren’t the kind of man who would hurt a woman.”

Jake shook his head. “I’ve seen many a bad man handle a horse with care, and then turn round and beat the hell out of his woman. You’re an ignorant woman, Miss Preston; poetic, but ignorant.”

Dannie no longer had the strength to argue with him. “If you say so,” she mumbled. After putting her plate next to the fire, she walked off to her little bedroll.

Jake pretended to be busy cleaning up after the meal, but out of the corner of his eye he watched as she let her long black hair loose. She brushed out the dusty locks, then wove them into a single braid.

On impulse, Jake got up and poured some water in a pot. He carried it to her and set it on the ground beside her. This gesture caused her to look up at him in surprise.

“Thank you,” she mumbled.

Jake seemed to be allergic to gratitude. The heat rushed to his face, and in reply he just grunted and hurried off. He got busy putting things away, and didn’t dare give Dannie so much as another glance.

He was just settling down for the night when he thought he heard muffled noises coming from the other side of the fire.

“No,” he thought to himself, “she’s cryin’!”

Of course she would cry, all women cried, but it still struck Jake as strange. Dannie had been so headstrong, determined, and sassy, it hadn’t occurred to him that she even knew how to cry.

“Are you cryin’, Miss?” he called over.

“Maybe I am,” Dannie retorted in a voice thick with tears.

“What on earth are you cryin’ about?”

Dannie lifted her head a little. Jake expected her to glare at him, the same way she had been doing just about the entire trip, but now her soft brown eyes were sad and afraid, and her voice was subdued.

“I should think it quite obvious. I’m out here, all alone, without any friends or family. I don’t know exactly where I’m going or what I’m getting myself into. Isn’t it natural that I should cry? Since you claim to know so much about women, you shouldn’t be surprised.” So saying, she rolled over and snuggled under her blanket.

“Maybe,” Jake replied with a shrug, “but I guess you never once struck me as a weak woman who would sob over stuff.”

“You know, Jake,” Dannie’s voice had gotten even softer, “some people don’t cry because they are weak. They cry because they have been strong for far too long.”

Silence ensued, and Jake went to sleep pondering her words.