CHAPTER II
The moon was shining in a clear sky when Jim Colter, the former manager and one of the owners of the Rainbow Ranch, and his new wife returned home.
They had been married quietly about six weeks before in the presence of the family. Immediately after, they had left the ranch to spend their honeymoon camping in the Canadian Rockies.
To-night they were riding slowly along the familiar road which led from the railroad station to the front gate. This opened into the avenue, thickly bordered with cottonwood trees, forming the approach to the house.
On horseback, the riders were close beside each other, although rarely speaking.
Finally the woman gave a faint sigh,
"How many times we have taken this selfsame journey to the old place, Jim! Now once again I come back home, after a fashion a new person and to a new life. First, the headstrong, self-willed Jacqueline Ralston whose childhood and girlhood were spent here! After my marriage to Frank Kent, a bride returning to visit her former home! Then my widowhood with my small son, Jimmie, at the Rainbow Lodge. Now, the crowning honor of my varied career, I return as Mrs. James Colter!"
Jack, who never would be known by any other name to her family and intimate friends, laughed in the half teasing, half serious fashion with which her companion was familiar.
Characteristically she put up her hand to her head to remove her small traveling hat, hanging it on the pommel of her saddle.
"This is much more comfortable and I feel more like myself! Surely we shall see no one to-night except the four new Ranch Girls! I wonder how much they are going to dislike me, Jim, in my new character? I don't fancy I shall be a great success."
In the moonlight the woman who was speaking looked far younger than the middle-aged man who was her husband.
As a matter of fact, Jim Colter had been a grown man when Jacqueline Ralston was a young girl.
In those early days when out of nowhere he appeared to assist her father in the management of the Rainbow Ranch, nothing could have been farther from his imagination, or from her own, than a marriage between them.
Jack's golden-brown hair held the same lovely shades and was arranged in a close coil about her small head. Her skin was more tanned than usual from the six weeks in the mountains, following endless trails by day and sleeping at night under the stars.
Her figure was as slim as ever and she sat her horse with her accustomed ease and grace.
"Oh, I presume the girls will have some welcome arranged for our arrival! As our train was several hours late, I telegraphed ahead. But, child, do spend less time in worrying over your success or failure as a stepmother. We have given too much attention to the question for the past six weeks. The new Ranch Girls are wise enough to know in what luck they are playing! They may not be as grateful to you as I am; that is asking more than one should expect. What troubles me is not your rôle as a stepmother, but as the wife of a man as old as I am. Looking back now, I often wonder how I had the courage for our marriage!"[1]
"Courage! Jim, what a word to use! Yet of course I realize that it must have required courage to marry me! Jean and Olive and Frieda, your three other Ranch Girls of long ago, often have told you how much courage it would require. But on this night of our home-coming I did not expect to be reminded of it by you. By the way, will you please be kind enough not to call me 'child' in public? You did the other day. I can bear the title now and then in private, but in public it reflects on the dignity I'm afraid I never have been able to acquire. Now with four new daughters I really must learn to become a different individual!"
Jack rode nearer. Her horse leaned its head as if to confide in the other horse cantering quietly beside it.
"Jim, I was thinking of something just now, something real," she whispered. "I don't know whether I ought to say it. Remember the marriage ceremony says 'for better, for worse, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health.' You and I have been through these experiences together as friends. Remember how poor we were in those old days before gold was discovered in Rainbow Creek? There was my long illness and the trouble we had in trying to keep the old ranch from being stolen from us!"[2]
"Never mind all these reminiscences, Jack; it is the future I am interested in at present, not the past," Mr. Colter remonstrated.
"One more promise you must make me. Promise never to interfere in my effort. The girls must either like or dislike me. I must win them myself, or never win at all."
Jack half arose in her saddle, pointing ahead. "See the lights of Rainbow Castle there in the distance!" She was as excited as if the house to which she was returning had not been her home in girlhood.
It was true that she was coming back in a new character, wife of her former guardian and stepmother to his four young daughters.
Her companion obeyed her suggestion.
Across the fields they beheld lights glimmering from a number of windows. They were still half a mile away.
Unconscious of what she was doing, the reins slackened in Jack's hands. Aware of this and with the knowledge that his stable was not far off, unexpectedly her horse broke into a swift canter.
As she felt the swing of his feet under her, the wind from the prairies sweeping across her cheeks and the fragrance of the purple clover in her nostrils, the new Mrs. Colter laughed aloud.
Instead of drawing her reins and pulling up, she touched her horse lightly with her whip and sped more swiftly ahead.
At the same instant there was a rushing and a patter of many hoofs across a nearby field.
Their manes flying, graceful and beautiful in the moonlight, their slender noses sniffing with curiosity and pleasure, half a dozen mares followed by their young colts raced close beside the rider.
Her companion followed, half amused and half protesting.
He had no fear. No one was more at home on horseback than the girl he had taught to ride so many years before. She was now his wife.
At the door of their home, Rainbow Castle, Jim lifted Jack down from her horse.
Ordinarily she would not wait for his or any one else's assistance.
To-night as her horse stopped she had a sudden feeling of oppression. She did not desire to go indoors. Often she had felt this after a long ride. All her life she had loved the outdoor world more than the four sides of a house.
To-night she had another reason. She was dreading to meet the young girls who were her stepdaughters.
She had known them before in the year she had spent with her son, Jimmie, at the Rainbow Lodge. Yet there had been no intimacy between them. She was not particularly sympathetic with young girls and had been busy with her own affairs. They had been friendly, but she never had tried to understand their different dispositions.
At the time her own sister, Frieda, who was now Mrs. Henry Tilford Russell, had been living at the big house with her husband and little girl. Jean, her cousin and a former Ranch Girl, had kept house at Rainbow Castle for Jim Colter and his motherless daughters.
Frieda and Jean not only understood the new Ranch Girls better than she did, but were more admired and loved by them.
Even then Jack realized that they did not enjoy her friendship with their father, which had ended with their marriage.
If the sound of their arrival was heard inside the big house, no one came to the front door to open it for the home-comers.
Jim Colter unlocked the door and he and Jack entered.
The drawing-room was lighted and the door partly open.
Stepping forward, Jack pushed it farther apart.
Inside the room four girls were seated.
One of them was curled up on a long sofa, a book in her hand. The leaves had fallen together, as if she were asleep.
Another figure, the smallest of all, was almost lost in an immense upholstered blue chair. Her black hair made a contrasting spot of color against the blue; her eyes were closed and the little figure was drooping with weariness. Her cheeks were a deep rose.
Seated beside each other on low stools close together were two other girls, who slowly arose at Jack's entrance.
They were Jeanette and Olivia Colter.
Jeanette's face was pale and her lips closed firmly together. Her gray-blue eyes looked darker, her uplifted nose more mutinous.
The fairer, gentler girl beside her appeared equally grave, if less unfriendly.
Crossing the room, Jeanette held out her hand stiffly to the newcomer.
Her father had delayed his entrance, thinking it might be easier for them all if his welcome came later.
"I am sorry we did not hear you arrive. You must have come on horseback. We thought the car was to be sent for you. We have been riding ourselves all day and got in very late. Lina and Eda, as you see, are asleep."
At this moment the oldest of the four new Ranch Girls opened her eyes and rose.
Plainly she was endeavoring to appear more enthusiastic than she felt.
She too shook hands. The new stepmother dared not ask that any one of the three girls welcome her more warmly.
She was leaning over to kiss the youngest of the four girls, when Eda slipped from her. With a swift movement of intense affection she flung her arms about her father.
At this moment he had entered the room.
The next the new stepmother found herself standing alone while the four new Ranch Girls were rejoicing over him.