Love's Rescue by Tammy Barley Page A

break out the seeds. The children like to do this because they sneak bites when they think nobody sees them, but they do not know that we also did this when we were children.”
    Jess shared a laugh with Red Deer and began to slice the chilies.
    Red Deer poured the dried beans into the cooking pot. Briefly, she considered the broth, then used tongs to lift a large rock out of the fire. With great care, she lowered the rock into the stew, the liquid around it sizzling as bubbles burst on the surface. When she had released it, she withdrew the tongs and added more logs to the fire.
    At Jess’s look of wonder, Red Deer explained, “It is stone boiling. In this way my people often cook food, by heating the stew from the inside. We often cook in vessels made only of animal skins, and those we cannot cook over a fire like iron pots.”
    “I suppose not,” Jess agreed, watching Red Deer stir the fragrant dinner.
    “When I cook for the men, I must prepare much food. By stone boiling, it does not take so long. Would you like to taste a pine nut?”
    Gamely, Jess selected one of the seed-like nuts. It had a soft crunch and a mild flavor. “It’s wonderful. Do you eat these by themselves?”
    “The nuts we eat in many ways. If there is a good hunt, we mix them whole with flavorful leaves and berries and cook them with rabbit or antelope. We also grind them into flour and boil them in soups like white man’s porridge. In winter, we sometimes let the porridge get very cold, adding sugar if we have it. I once tasted ice cream—it is much like this, but nutty. The children love to eat it this way.”
    An hour or more passed amiably. The stew would simmer until that night’s supper, Red Deer explained, and they needed to make dinner now, for the men would be coming in soon. Together, they prepared ham steaks and beans, which they arranged on the sideboard, along with pans heaped with corn bread that Red Deer had made that morning. Added to the meal were pots of hot coffee and crocks of fresh, sweet butter for the bread. Jess had just finished setting plates and flatware on the sideboard for serving when the ranchmen started pouring in the door.
    The men said little, which surprised Jess. They helped themselves from the serving platters, and as they filled their plates, many of them nodded to Jess, treating her as respectfully as they treated Red Deer. At least Bennett’s order to watch me hasn’t caused them to treat me like a detestable miscreant, she mused. They were frugal with their words, but they seemed to accept her presence easily enough. A woman looking to escape couldn’t hope for better.
    Jess glanced out a window at the empty compound. Nearly all the men came to eat at once. Yet, she realized, meals were too short to provide sufficient time for her to slip away.
    Bennett didn’t come in for dinner, she noticed; neither did Doyle nor Diaz, two of the men she was familiar with and had expected to see. She began to hear the distant tink-tink of Doyle’s hammer, the sound wending through the cookhouse wall, dull but continuous. After the ranch hands had finished and returned to work, Jess fixed three plates of food to take over to the smithy. Working men needed to eat.
    The sharp banging became considerably louder as she entered, and the heat in the small building was intense. Jess pushed several tools aside and set the plates on a dusty table, then waited for Doyle to pause so she could tell him she’d brought dinner. Apparently, Jake and Diaz were elsewhere. After a long moment, Doyle glanced up, seeing her and then noticing the steaming plates.
    “For you and Bennett and Diaz,” she explained.
    He gave her a brief, appraising look, then nodded his thanks and continued his work.
    After Jess and Red Deer had eaten, they washed all the dishes and wiped down the tables. With dinner complete, they turned again to their preparations for supper. Red Deer set Jess to grinding coffee for the men’s supper while she