Montana Rhapsody Pt. 01

Paris finished up reiterating her first impressions of her patch in Montana and how she already was eager to see the first robin of spring and hear the first song of a blackbird and see her first wildflower. "The mountains around where I am living seem so spiritual, quite unlike the skyscrapers of New York although they are impressive in their own way."

"Well, that's it, except for this call, Would Highway Patrol Trooper Julian Olsen please stand."

"Thank you. When I arrived in this territory I was rather naughty and committed a minor offence by proceeding to drive several miles down a road closed due to heavy snow. I realize now it could have had serious consequences if anything had gone wrong. I was in a vehicle made to traverse such conditions and I ventured up to Harrop Ranch in even more hazardous conditions with some skill but mostly good fortune getting me through. When I saw Trooper Olsen a couple of days later I stopped and apologized. He knew I was the culprit who'd gone through because my host had a message put through to him. Apparently Trooper Olsen saw I was contrite and let me off with a warning."

I then asked if there was a charity I could lodge a conscious payment to and Trooper Olsen pulled out a receipt book and that's when I learned about the Highway Patrol-sponsored Montana Hope Project. Most of you will know it's a charity to grant a few wishes to terminally ill children. Well Trooper Olsen, I have some good news for you. I have negotiated with the executive of the Women's Auxiliary for 10% of the proceeds from this function that the Women's Auxiliary will give to charities to be handed to you as a check payable to the Montana Hope Project. Thank you everybody and remember Annie's storm warning."

After the applause died President Elsie Hunger thanked Paris for her very colorful, lively and informative address and she was sure Paris would make the most of her stay to imbue her with the spirit of Montana that would seep through the pages of her next novel.

"Now, some of you may have questions. I...Excuse me, apparently I have an urgent phone call." She took the cell phone from the Events Center official.

"Well now," Elsie said. "Please don't panic and please allow those people who arrived here in light aircraft to exit first. I have been advised that a full storm warning for this area was issued fifteen minutes ago. Two separate fronts will converge overnight in this area bringing quite heavy snow that will sweep in from the southwest by wind reaching storm level around 4:00 in the morning. Thank you everyone for attending but I'm closing this function now as so many of you will need to get back to check on your stock and that includes our guest speaker and her crew."

A few people were already hurrying away and everyone stood and clapped Elsie and her guest speaker.

Elsie handed the speaker a gift. "Don't open it now dear, get back to the ranch. It's a special cosmetic pack for high countrywomen for skin care for all seasons and all weathers. It's a year's supply specially formulated for Montana."

"Thank you," Paris said, kissing her. "Hal and I will see you next Saturday night."

* * *

The crew piled into Paris's SUV with Hal at the wheel.

"You didn't say the snow would come at 4:00 in the morning," Alan teased.

"No one asked," Annie smiled. "Anyway it will begin snowing where we are on the higher slopes around midnight and will be down by us a little later."

"Four o'clock?"

"I said a little later. I'm not a clock Alan."

Everyone laughed and Hal said the even earlier suggestion planted into people at the meeting would have begun a useful conditioning. "People prefer to know when bad weather is coming. Why did you mention it Paris?"

"Because I felt compelled to and it suited my purpose."

"That could have been an irresponsible comment to make to ranchers and farmers.

"Perhaps, but I believed what I was saying."

"Annie's not often wrong boss."

"Agreed Alan.

Hal said he wanted to say something while everyone was listening. "Paris, you have a lovely face and a great body."

Suddenly it was all very quite behind the front seats.

"I've had second thoughts about your engagement as a cowhand."

"Oh no," Paris said.

"Hear me out. You will be confined to light duties and everyone will be asked to keep you away from dangerous work and from the bulls when we turn them out to the cows and the heifers. I'm really serious about this. You have a career..."

"That's fine boss."

"What?"

"I agree. Being a not-particularly strong nor athletic person as well as a greenhorn, I could be putting the guys in danger by sub-performing."

"I hadn't thought of that," Hal said, pulling the big lumbering vehicle out of the emptying car lot at last. "That's a good point."

Alan chipped in, "But it's a risk I'm prepared to take."

"I'll still be working with you guys, driving vehicles, riding fence lines, laughing at you when you're talking to your horses."

"I don't talk to my horses."

Paris turned to Larry. "You wouldn't fib about that would you Larry?"

"Well, not all the time."

Everyone laughed.

"I'll cut your pay to $300 a month."

"No, I think..."

"What about $350? That includes your food and accommodations, your horse and saddle and all other necessities."

"Are our rates negotiable boss?" Alan enquired.

"No and you know it Alan. Paris has a special position in my home."

"Ooooh," chorused the boys.

Annie laughed and Hal thumped the wheel and his face turned very dark.

"Pay me $30 a month. It's about what I'm worth. I have plenty of money. You need to have me on the payroll to have me covered for accident insurance."

"If that's what you want."

"Yes it is so boys if I go off shopping you'll know I've been paid such a crap rate that I'm virtually entitled to be away whenever I wish. But if I'm needed just sing out at the Monday morning planning meeting and slot me in the times and places I'll be of some use to you. Mostly when I will be away it will be to research for my novel."

"Fair enough," Alan said. "We want to see you get your hands dirty but to come to no harm Paris and you'll have places to visit, people to interview. We understand right boys."

"Right."

"Agreed."

"Thanks boys. As soon as this weather calms down my first trip out will be to Bozeman to buy a saddle that's suitable for a woman with smaller thighs and smaller ass."

There was silence until Annie said, "Hal the saddle in the loft you oil every couple of months."

Hal scratched the back of his neck. "Paris, mom's saddle is up in the loft above the stables. Want to try it?"

"Only if you want me to."

"I want you to try it."

Annie said it would be a perfect platform for her and laughingly said to Hal that it was not as if she'd want to take it back to New York with her because she wasn't going back."

"What?" Hal said, almost driving off the road.

Paris looked aghast. "Annie, don't say things like that. I'm not going to forsake New York."

"Of course you won't," Annie said vaguely. "Just forget that I said it."

Alan chipped in and told Annie to behave herself.

"Paris believes everything you say, poor girl so pull your horns in. Paris, how did you get your name?"

"Pardon me oh, my name. My father wanted to name me Ivy and mom hated the name, saying her great-grandmother was called Ivy and that's the generation where the name belonged. There the matter died until my birth was being registered. Mom told me she said to dad he better not write down Ivy as they had agreed on Sally but being a stubborn man he wrote Ivy. "She screamed the roof down so he called for another form and he wrote down Paris and she accepted that, saying what a sweet name. I used to hate it but when I realized I was not bumping into girls named Paris I began accepting it; there are a few Ivies around of course as I've since found."

"I like it," Alan said. "Paris on Marissa has a great ring to it."

"Yeah," said Tom. "Sally on Marissa just doesn't have the same exotic ring to it."

"Exotic?" Alan said. "Since when did you learn that word?"

"Just now, from Larry," Tom said smugly. "Larry had a proper education through senior high school."

Paris picked up her ears. "Is that true Larry?"

"Yeah but I fell out with one of my teachers when I was seventeen and he beat me up proper late one afternoon so I took off, never to return. We lived in Kansas so I said goodbye to my parents and hit the road, ending up here in Montana. "I hit Hal's dad up for a couple of bucks at a cattle sale. He was there with his dad and told his dad to bring me home because I was starving. I've been here ever since. That was forty-five years ago."

The vehicle continued on, everyone quiet, thinking about a young kid called Larry who'd been in a hopeless position and then purely by chance found himself a new home.

Paris turned around to him, misty eyed.

"Come on Paris, don't fret," he grinned, thought the gap of two missing teeth. "So far these have been the best years of my life."

Paris was left wondering what happened to old cowboys or cowboys of any age who sustained serious permanent injury or simply lost mobility. Their pay was not great and on-job conditions were poor. She decided that required researching.

As they turned into Harrop Ranch Hal said the boys should change, grab a drink and a bite to eat and load six round bales on to each of the two flatbed trailers.

"Alan and Tom, you take that hay down to this side of Southern Butte and dump the bales amongst the trees as close as you can get to the rock face. Make sure you dump them on flat stretches so they don't roll away.

Larry you drive down in the tractor with the rear spike and space the bales out. Alan you go back for four more bales. That should do the cows for two days, perhaps a bit more. Tom you go out and bring back four feeders at a time so that's three trips and then go back and position two feeders in shelter for the bulls in the trees beyond their pasture and then take out two bales for them. Load them into the feeders with your front bucket but take care, lift no higher than just above the feeder. We don't want you crushing yourself. Just take your time. The young bulls down in the river valley will be okay without help from us, I hope."

Paris listened carefully to all of that. It was fodder for her book. She grinned at the use of the word fodder.

* * *

At the house Annie said she'd help out although it would mean very late dinner. "Let the boys eat over here tonight Hal. You saddle the horses for Paris and me and meanwhile she can help me get a big roast dinner into the oven."

Forty minutes later they were riding out after Hal who was racing out ahead with his bridle and saddle and blanket on the tray of the four-wheeler as his mount was with the horses a fair distance out. Annie opened the top gate to the South Butte pasture of 2000 acres on the access road and fastened it across the road to divert the cattle into the pasture. They met cattle already coming down the road and their friskiness pleased Annie.

"The barometer is dropping and they know it. They want to go somewhere, anywhere rather than stay put."

Paris had never seen so many cattle. "There's a couple of thousand of them," she said excitedly.

"Probably three hundred," Annie yelled against the increasing wind.

Later Hal came cantered out from the rear of the bunched up cattle waiting for their turn to pass through the gate.

"Well, look at my two cowgirls," he grinned. "Did you remember the gate Annie?"

She nodded and he blew her a kiss.

"You girls go on to the second pasture up and send those 300 on to follow this lot. When I've finished here I'll go farther out and fetch the heifers. I'll then go out for the yearlings so you guys go back home when you're finished. I'll bring the yearlings right in and put them in the pasture behind the mothering barn and open the back gates giving them access to the forests. The boys will put hay out for them on the way in. Fortunately there's a feeding rack along the north side of that barn.

Alan returned ahead of Annie and Paris after delivering the hay to the bulls. Larry arrived just as the girls were approaching the barn and said he would stable their horses.

It was almost 8:00 and dinner was ready, so Annie turned it down and went off to shower.

She said to Paris, "Have a shower and if you're out first and the boys have arrived get them to check on the wood stack outside the backdoor. It should be okay and to bring in the lamps for me from the bottom cupboards in the laundry."

"Lamps?"

"It will be our biggest snowstorm of the year and will continue until just on dark tomorrow. The electricity supply may not be disrupted but I see it happening. You may like to light a fire in the boiler in the laundry. That boiler heats hot water and it's a godsend if the power goes off."

Paris showered quickly and asked Tom to check the woodpile. Without being asked Alan went with him and returned with a armful of split logs and stacked them on the far end of the hearth.

"What next boss?"

Paris said, "Grab Tom and you beers and pour juice for Annie and white wine for me. I'm out to light the secondary boiler."

"I'll do that."

"No, it's fine."

"You are enjoying this, aren't you?" Alan asked shrewdly.

"It's been a long time since I've felt I'm doing something useful," she said. "I absolutely loved playing cowgirl. Wow, is Marissa good. One old girl lowered her head defiantly; before I could decide to bellow or make a run for it she bowled up to the cow and it capitulated."

"Well have to give you a stock whip and train you on how to use it; you'll have little trouble then unless the animal is seeing red. Incidentally, if one ever charges you and you're on the ground don't run from it as it has four legs to your two. Feel fear by all means but try to judge its pace and when it's two or three lengths away leap just clear of it and run off at an angle behind it; usually they are satisfied with one charge, but don't count on it. At close quarters your only chance is to dive sideways and lie still. Although they have no horns they butt hard and a good condition cow weighs perhaps 1300 lbs so she could do some damage to you but perhaps not as much as she would catching you on your feet."

"Perhaps?"

"Er, stay on your horse or on the other side of the fence or corral. If you're charged in the barn try to get something between it and you, even a calf."

Paris sighed and said she no longer felt like dinner.

Alan smiled and told her to light her fire and then after one wine she'd be fine. "A horse can kill you with just one kick."

"I know, but I am aware of that and take precautions."

"Do the same with cattle, even calves pack a bit of a kick."

They heard the four-wheeler and soon after the tractor. Paris, on her second wine, poured two whiskies for the men. The temperature had dropped considerably since she came in.

The wind was beginning to gust, sometimes howling around the house, when she and Hal decided to head for bed. The men had long gone to their bunkhouse and Annie went to her bed not long after they left. It was 11:45.

"Quick," Hal said, grabbing Paris's hand, "let's have a quick dash outside into the first of the snow."

"Annie said midnight."

"Annie also said she wasn't a clock."

They dash outside but there was no snow. Something hit Paris on the cheek.

"A snowflake!"

"Probably; it's not raining and the temperature is about right for snow. One's hit me, there's another. Come on, inside. Did you turn the electric blanket on?"

"Sorry, no."

"I wonder how we'll warm up?"

* * *

Yes, I wonder, Paris thought vaguely as she realized she was now looking for more than sex from Hal and hospitality to allow her to perform foundation research for her new book. She had not anticipated the sex but had no complaint about being in the receiving line, far from it.

Paris was aware she wrote as she felt and thought and knew if she ingrained something of Montana ranch life into her she'd write the novel to achieve the standard in writing and content required for a best seller. That is, provided women readers would accept a romance set on a ranch rather than in the fashion boardwalks of Europe, a cruise ship in the Caribbean or based at world's most exclusive boating marina.

Yes the awareness of this change in what she sought from Hal rather shook her. She now wanted his companionship and that had made her think where would that take her. She wanted to possess him and be possessed. Well, one does have rather a lot of time to think about things when riding a horse. The cattle had been so eager to move they'd required very little persuasion to be headed along the right direction, although she was sensible enough to know it wouldn't always be like that. In recent days Annie had been riding the Paint a couple of times a day and already they were pals so Annie had looked after her greenhorn companion, telling her what to do and how to do it. Paris had loved the experience but wasn't sure she'd love doing it day it, day out or riding herd on a long cattle trail.

Whether they had seen Hal approaching she'd made sure she was riding relaxed with a straight back and had waved nonchalantly at him and twice had attempted to read the look on his face as his teeth flashed into a grin. She hoped the expression indicated he was pleased or perhaps even proud of her.

The first time she'd ridden on by with warmth firing her belly and had the crazy thought would Hal even seduce her on a mound of hay. Then thinking about standing in front of the mirror next morning turned and looking in dismay as the angry red dots covering her back, lily white ass and thighs from being spiked by ends of dried grass sent her into a giggling fit. Fortunately Annie was too far away to hear her above the wind, as explaining the reason for her mirth would have been a mite embarrassing.

Hal had come in looking a bit tired but pleased, obviously knowing his 640 cows, the heifers, bulls and yearlings were as safe as he could leave them.

He'd kissed her and told her, "You did good out there." His grammar required attention but no way was she about to break the magic of the moment: when he gazed at him she read in his steady eyes, 'I'm very proud of you baby'. So what if he were simply thinking 'I need a drink." She was a romantic.

Paris watched Hal put out the light and heard the rustle of his t-shirt and briefs coming off and he slipped in bed and draped an arm over her hip and across her belly. She pulled his hand up over her squashed left breast. Good boy; he interpreted that as a green light and swung the hand up over the completely floating right breast and soon had her sensory system tingling as fingers began circling the inflating nipple. She pulled her left leg away to give her right hand access and she smiled: she could feel she was ready. Paris slipped from his grasp.

"You okay?" he asked.

Without answering she burrowed under the blankets and slid down to her target.

"Want a condom rolled on?" he croaked.

"Not unless you do I've decided you're such a nice guy you wouldn't give me a nastie. I no longer require condoms."

He croaked again, "Does this mean we're going steady?"

"Yes, so while I'm around if you pop some other woman please without fail wear a condom."

He laughed. "Then if you find a used condom in my pocket you'll know I've been playing around."

"Yes, makes you think, doesn't it?"

"I best ask you to apply the same rule. If you play around you insist he wears rubber."

"What, who on earth would I find to play around with in all of Montana?"

"You have no idea really, do you? You are making quite a name for yourself in these parts. But males of your female friends for a start but Larry in particular."