“It has to be where it will stand out and be seen as soon as someone turns into the drive,” Callie insisted.
“There is a rise beyond the barn,” Connor pointed out.
“Yes. It would stand above everything else if we built it there,” Callie agreed. “It would be closer to the spring, as well. Let’s walk out and see how it feels up on the rise,” she suggested.
The group trooped up the rise together, swishing through the grass and wildflowers. There was a lone tree near the top, which looked aged and gnarled, making Callie believe it had stood there for eternity. She decided it would fit in well beside the house.
Callie stood beneath the tree, looking down at her adopted family. She had made all the girls dresses, and Connor a nice looking shirt. They appeared so different now, from the first time she had entered Chet’s depressing cabin, and he had introduced them to her. She vowed she would make them proud in a way she believed Chet never could. She was wearing one of her original dresses, from her trunks, having brought the other into the house and putting her gowns in her clothes press, pushing all of Rolletta’s clothes, which weren’t many, to one side. Afterwards, she threw out everything that Chet owned and burned it.
She and the children had all stood around the fire-pit, on the other side of the barn, where Cooper had helped Chet brand the cattle, as she let the children throw each item into the flames. She was determined to erase him from her life and memory. It was one more thing to keep her thoughts off of Chayton. Callie had to fill her days, to keep from thinking of Chayton. It had been over a week since he rode away on his horse, and she wondered how long it would be before he ever returned.
The children made a ring, around Callie, holding hands, and dancing in a circle, when they all agreed, it would be the perfect place to build their house. Earlier, she had allowed the children to choose, from the plans, which bedroom they preferred, and she wrote their names in the rooms which they had decided on.
As the children danced and sang around Callie, she looked up and saw several riders coming towards the house. She knew it wasn’t any of Mr. Pritchard’s men, because they always came alone, every other day.
When Mr. Pritchard’s men first started coming, Callie made the children promise not to mention anything about Chayton being there. Now she didn’t have to worry about it, as long as they never mentioned he had been there at one time.
“I think Cooper and the drovers are returning,” Callie said, as she put her hand over her eyes. “If that is the case, we can hire them to start building on our house.”
The children all started clapping and followed Callie back down the rise to greet Cooper, along with the drovers, who were just entering the drive.
When Cooper saw Callie dressed in her finery, he let out a low whistle.
“Well, look at you!” he exclaimed. “Where did you get the dress?”
“I have always had it, and many others. Chet just never allowed me to wear any of them.
“Well, I must say, you and the girls, look like pretty flowers, in the middle of the weeds out here, in those dresses.”
“How did the cattle drive go?” she asked.
“Better than expected. We didn’t lose many steers, and we got a good price for them. I did as you asked, and ordered the supplies, you requested, and sent one of the boys ahead, to buy new calves.
“I want to start raising our own calves, and building up our herds,” Callie told him. “Chet made pretty good money with small herds because he didn’t want to hire more help, but we could do so much better since we have plenty of land.”
“More cattle, means more hands to work them and to take care of them, like you say. Chet said he couldn’t afford that.”
“I don’t think Chet knew that much about making a good profit on cattle. He was saving money to build a house, and that is why he didn’t want to pay more hands to work the cattle. Once that house is built, I want to expand our herd, even if I have to hire more workers.”
“Then I suppose you should double think how big of a bunkhouse you want to build,” Cooper stated.
“Yes,” Callie agreed, “and I am going to give you the plans Chet got for his house, so you can order material for that too. If the drovers want to stay and help build the bunkhouse, and then start on my house, I will gladly pay them. Otherwise, you need to find some builders for me.”
“You seem to be a rather ambitious young woman, in all your finery,” Cooper laughed.
“I was raised in finery, and I don’t plan to change now. Chet wanted to make me into a dirt farmer, but now that he is gone, we are going to do things my way,” Callie boasted.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Cooper grinned.
He hadn’t realized what an aggressive or unusually beautiful woman Chet’s wife was. Every time he had ever seen her, she had kept pretty much to herself. Her sister had been the same way, and he started to wonder if it was Chet that had kept his women subdued?”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to be working for a woman, but there was always a chance he could sweet talk her into considering him to be her next husband. He couldn’t deny his attraction to her, but before, he knew better than to hold out any hope for someone else’s wife. Especially the wife of the man he worked for. He grinned to himself. He wouldn’t mind having a ranch of his own, considering she seemed to have big plans for it.
“If you don’t mind us camping in the yard, we can get started on the bunkhouse tomorrow, when the supplies show up, and I’ll send Randy out to tell Buster to get some breeding cows, along with those calves. When they deliver the lumber, we can order more for both the bunkhouse and your new house.”
“I have no objection to that,” Callie smiled proudly, feeling like things were coming together well. “In the meantime, you can come inside and go over the account with me, so I can pay you and the boys, and decide how much I can offer you for your future labor, when you start building the bunkhouse and later, my house.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll just give Randy enough money out of the earnings for the cattle, to cover paying for the breeders, first,” Cooper agreed. “All of your plans are going to take time, depending on how large you decide to make the house.”
“Didn’t Chet ever show you the blueprints he purchased when he was married to my sister?”
“Actually, he didn’t. The only time he talked about you or your sister was when we were on a drive together, and he mentioned how much he missed you, or her. He was lucky to have both of you.”
Callie smiled and nodded, although the smile did not reach her eyes.
“Yes, I suppose he was the lucky one. Connor tells me that just before Rolletta died, she told him she hated him and hoped he would rot in hell. I would have told him the same, but I didn’t get the chance to. There was no love lost between us and Chet for either of us. Now I don’t have to put up with him any longer.”
Cooper looked shocked. That was something he hadn’t expected. This woman was certainly coming out of her shell, and apparently, being honest with him.
“Don’t look so upset,” Callie half-laughed, “even though Rolletta loved Chet, at one point, I never wanted to become his wife. My parents pushed me into it, so now that you understand how I feel, we shall put it all behind us. You seem to be a halfway decent man, so I will have to trust you, but don’t go thinking you can put something over on me, because if I discover it, you will be on your way. Do you understand?”
Cooper nodded, wondering if he wanted this feisty woman for a wife after all, but then again, he doubted if there would be a dull moment if he hitched up to someone like her. He would just have to wait and see.
“Good,” Callie smiled. “When we are finished going over things, I’ll even fix dinner for you, Ted and Sam, if you like,” she promised.
“We will look forward to that, Mrs. Callahan,” he replied.
The very name made her cringe.
“Call me Callie,” she mumbled.
Cooper raised his eyebrows. This was going t
o be simpler than he thought, considering she wanted him to call her by her given name, he told himself, as he planned to himself how he was going to go about wooing her. Only there was the problem of her being a new widow, even if she wasn’t dressing in black, and hadn’t liked Chet. He wondered how long would be the appropriate time to wait before he approached her about it? He would just have to play it by ear, he decided.
Callie led Cooper into the house.
“Go ahead and sit down at the table, while I tend to the babies and put them in their crib for a nap,” she offered.
Connor followed her into her room, where she relieved him of the cradleboard. After she fed the babies and settled them down, she returned to the other room and sat at the table, where she had Chet’s ledger book waiting.
Chet had never let her see any of the figures in the book, telling her to pay attention to her motherly, and wifely duties, and not worry about the business side of their marriage. However, after Chayton left, she had gone through everything, discovering how much it cost to run the ranch, and how much she could spend on building a house. When she built that house, she told herself, she would make sure there was an office where she could do business properly, since she planned to expand the ranch, and start raising more cattle.
The cattle business had been stagnant during the civil war, as Rolletta had mentioned in her letter, because Texas was for the south, and the union army would not allow cattle to cross the border from Texas. Had they been able to drive their steers beyond the border, and on to Missouri, to be shipped to slaughter houses, the meat would have gone to the military to feed the troops and would have become a booming enterprise.
Texas had not been involved much with the war, though, except for smuggling guns down the river, for the confederate troops, and having a single skirmish, after the war had officially ended.
Now that the war was over, business was picking up fast, and people were migrating to Texas, and surrounding areas, to start their own ranches. Because of that, there were more cows in Texas than people, and the price of each head was competitive. The only way to make the best money was to drive the steers farther out where the market was better. However, it resulted in the cattle losing weight on the way to the marketplace, which meant more expense to fatten them up after they arrived at the stockyards.
This was a difficult balance to maintain, as to how far to drive a herd before losing money on the steers, because the stockyards sold the cattle by weight, at 8 cents a pound. Luckily, the railways had been moving in closer, which helped to transport the cattle, once they reached the best marketplace, so the buyers would not face losing money, once they transported them to the slaughter houses.
A steer, which weighed around 850 pounds, which they bought for $20 to $34 a head, could easily go for almost $60, and even more if it was a larger steer. Three-year-old cattle usually weighed over a thousand pounds, while younger, one to two-year-old cattle, averaged between 600 to 900 pounds.
The slaughterhouses not only made money from the meat but from the hides and tallow used for making candles. Cow fat was used to light the street lamps; bones were used to make knife handles, buttons, and combs. Even so, there was always a surplus of meat, which was thrown out on a meat pile, where poor people could come and scavenge for meat. The income from the hides alone, which was used for leather goods, paid for the cattle. The smell around the slaughterhouses, however, had something to be desired, Callie had heard, from what Chet told her, as he not only described how they killed and prepared the cattle but laughed at her when she paled at the whole description.
Now, Callie was all business. She wanted that house, and the prestige that would come, when she built up the ranch and made it not only profitable but highly successful. She had heard of a couple of other women Cattle-barons, and she was determined to join in their ranks.
Cooper sat next to Callie at the table, handing her the money made from the cattle sales, and telling her how much had been held out for the supplies and new cattle. After Callie counted it, recorded it in her ledger, and placed it with the rest of Chet’s earnings over the years, she explained what she intended to do with the ranch, if he was willing to help her accomplish it.
She promised him the position of foreman if he agreed to stay. The ranch hands would earn two dollars a day, working six days a week, changing off with each other on Saturday and Sundays. Cooper was offered three dollars a day and ten percent of the profits from the drive, each year. After they agreed on the wages, Callie had Connor bring the house plans to show Cooper.
“This looks like some house,” he murmured, “six bedrooms, with bath facilities inside. That would mean digging a well and putting up a windmill. Some of the other ranchers have been talking about putting up windmills, but you would have to hire a well driller to come in to do it. I hear the only place to get one is in Arkansas, which would cost a pretty penny to have them come out and drill a well, not to mention the cost of the windmill.
“I am thinking, though, since you have a spring, that furnishes enough water for the cattle, which you use for your house water now, we could make a makeshift windmill using a wagon wheel, and attaching slats to the spokes. Then we wouldn’t have to dig a reservoir pit very deep to catch the water from the spring that we pump to the house and let the runoff water the cattle. Only we would have to purchase pipe to transfer water to the house, and I don’t know how much that would run you. In addition, we would have to get mortar to line the holding pit with, in order to keep the water clean.”
“Look into it for me, then,” she requested. “If you need help with the fine woodwork of the house, hire someone who knows how to do the work.”
“You sure you can afford all of that?” Chet asked, scratching his head.
“Chet saved up several years-worth of profit. We will just have to see how much everything is going to cost. A house like this, shouldn’t cost more than a thousand dollars to build. In the meantime, I will be earning more money, and the more money I make, the more money you will make as well.”
Cooper gave a satisfied laugh.
“Guess we are gonna be kinda like partners,” he smiled.
“Not partners,” Callie corrected. “You work for me, but the better you help me grow my ranch, the more money you will end up making in the end.”
“Sounds fair enough,” he said with a shrug.
Nonetheless, he was hoping to eventually become her partner, in other ways.
“I see you are still caring for that heathen child,” Cooper stated.
“His name is Joey, and I would appreciate it if you did not call him a heathen. If I end up raising him as my own child, I don’t want him thinking he is any less than we are.”
“But he is,” Cooper insisted. “He’s full-blooded Injun, and the way those Redskins have been treating the ranchers here about, you aren’t going to find anyone who is going to love you for keeping one of them alive.”
“Then I will have to remain unloved,” Callie said evenly. “As long as you are working for me, though, you will treat all of my children with respect. Otherwise, you can leave right now, and I’ll find someone to take your place.”
“No offense intended,” Cooper said hastily. “After those savages took you like they did; I am surprised you were willing to care for their kin.”
“He is a baby. I was not going to let him die because of his heritage.”
“What if the Indians want him back?” Cooper asked.
“I will have to face that situation if it ever comes up, but until them, I consider him my son as much as I consider my sister’s children my own. None of them have a mother, and I am the only mother they are ever going to know.”
Callie rose from the table.
“I am going to start dinner, and I will call you and the others in when it is ready. I appreciate you taking the cattle to market for me. When the others come back from purchasing the calves and breeding stock, I will pay all of you.”
Cooper nodded, and left t
he house, while Callie busied herself making a meal for them and her children. It was going to be a big undertaking, she thought to herself, in order to build up the ranch, but she was certain it would be worth it. Her main concern was Chayton.
He was bound to return to retrieve Joey, once the child didn’t need her to nurse him any longer, or possibly bring someone with him who could nurse his son, so he could transport the child back to his village. She wasn’t sure how she was going to feel when that happened. Joey was starting to feel like her own child. She knew she would hate it if Chayton took him from her. Furthermore, her strong feelings for Chayton were pulling at her. He had told her he loved her, yet there was no way he could live on the ranch with her, or she could go with him to his village. There didn’t seem to be any future in loving Chayton. If anyone discovered she had helped him survive, she would be considered aiding and abetting a criminal.
When the meal was finished, the men went out to build a fire in the branding pit, and camp around it, while Callie put the children to bed. The faint sound of harmonica music and singing, filtered through the air. It sounded haunting to Callie. Callie couldn’t wait until morning when the building supplies would arrive, and Randy and Buster would show up with the cattle, so she could move on to the next project, and put everything else out of her mind. A whole new life was promised for Callie’s future, but she knew that it would mean a lot of work before she witnessed any of its fruits.
She lay in her bed, thinking of the last time she was in that bed with Chayton. She wondered if she would ever feel his arms around her like that again.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Chayton encouraged Khoon-gyah forward. It took all his willpower not to turn around so he could join Callie in her bed once again, putting off his departure for one more day. Only he knew, every time he tried to leave, it would be the same. He had to forge forward, and go back to his regular life once again. While he carried the thought of On-thoe-gyah in his heart, he would have to try to forget her, and his son, since it would be dangerous for him to try to return to her ranch.
Beyond the Heart Page 15