A Path Worth Taking

by Mariella Starr

  James Sumner had kept his word. When Garret and Jasper had entered the office of Mr. Leon Barker, he had been fully aware of their situation and cooperative. Mr. Barker of the First National Bank of Cheyenne had welcomed them. He had wired the Treasury Department and three days later the telegram arrived clearing the check. Two accounts were opened, and $12,500 was transferred into each one. One account was in Garret and Beth’s name, and the other was in Jasper’s name.

  Although the Colorado Central & Pacific Railroad was operational and now connected Denver with Cheyenne and the Transcontinental Railroad, the city itself was still what Garret considered corrupt. Thankfully, Sheriff Wilson had been fired and replaced with a former Texas Ranger, who was gradually bringing law and order to the town. However, Denver still needed a few more years of growth and civilizing before it could be considered anything beyond a frontier town.

  Beth was pleased the Trinity United Methodist Church was holding services in Denver. There was no church yet. Services were held at whatever home or venue the minister could use or rent. Beth had faith a real church would be built sometime in the near future.

  Several things had delayed their trip to Cheyenne. Spring had arrived late after a winter of record-breaking low temperatures. Winter had tightened its grip on the area and held on long past regular planting time. Getting the late crops and gardens in had taken the full efforts of everyone on the ranch.

  Lettie and Abram had moved to their homestead cabin in the spring, although they still spent a lot of time at the ranch. Getting the work done on the Wakefield ranch, as well as both Abram and Jasper’s homesteads, was a team effort. Jeb was the only male of their group who seemed unconcerned with owning property. He said he was too old to bother with the hassles.

  By working together, they were able to accomplish as a team what would have taken one man an entire summer to do. Garret had hired another cowman to work the cattle alongside Jeb. Abram was unable to work full-time on Garret’s expanded ranch, but who worked where was not a big concern since they all worked together for the good of the individual and the couples.

  Garret had not forgotten the reward money by any means, but it became a lower priority as they put in the spring crops, rounded up the cattle, and did the branding. Many jobs needed to be done before they could go away. When Garret finally decided he could leave the ranch, he had asked Jeb and Abram to cover for him and his family.

  It was necessary for Jasper to go with them to Cheyenne because one of the bank accounts would be in his name. It was unnecessary for Beth to come and, in fact, she had wanted to stay at home with seven-month-old Georgia. Nonetheless, Garret thought she needed a break from her constant work. He wanted to treat his wife to a few luxuries. His idea of taking Beth and leaving the baby behind had caused a major ruckus. It was Lettie who convinced Beth leaving Georgia Corrine with her was better than taking the child into the unknown.

  Garret and Beth had shared the profits from the scavenged goods with Jasper from the beginning. The boy had worked with John Ames, and it was his due. After long and heavily debated discussions between Garret, Beth, and Jasper, they had decided the reward for the currency plates should be split the same way as the profits from the scavenged goods. The way Garret reasoned, the currency plates were the same as they had been discarded along with everything else.

  At barely sixteen, Jasper had a golden goose egg waiting for him in the Cheyenne bank. Garret made the young man promise he would not touch his share of the reward money without first talking to his surrogate parents. The boy also had a sizeable bank account in Denver and a homestead in his own name. Before fall, he would have a cabin and a small barn. By the next spring, he would have calves to start a herd. Still, Jasper had five years to prove-up his homestead, so there was no reason to rush. Neither Garret nor Beth was willing to let him venture off on his own completely.

  With the treasury voucher money safely deposited in the bank, it was time for celebrating. Cheyenne, like Denver, was a little shy on family-oriented entertainment, though.

  They took rooms in one of the finest hotels in Cheyenne where Beth claimed enjoying the indoor plumbing was pure luxury. She also discovered shopping could be more than a necessity. It could be fun. Shopping for gifts to take home for everyone kept her busy for several days as each gift had to be weighed and considered carefully. Without their daughter to keep her occupied, Garret realized his wife could really spend money! They were in a good financial place, and he could afford it, so he indulged her.

  While Beth was in the shops, Garret spent time discussing his growing herd of cattle with the ranchers who hung around the stockyards. Mostly, though, he spent time with his wife making sure she also bought some new things for herself. They walked around town eating at different cafés and the hotel dining room, and they attended church services on Sunday.

  Garret enjoyed nothing better than lying in bed with his wife late into the morning hours and appreciating her charms. The men at the stockyards, married or not, boasted about frequenting the local red-light district. They crowed over which women were the best at satisfying a man’s appetites, but Garret had no interest in such talk or such women. He had his Beth, and she was all the woman he ever needed in his life. He loved her, and he was proud of her.

  On the other hand, Garret had to rein in Jasper’s appetites a little bit. The young man had not joined them for dinner one evening, and Beth had been worried. Garret went searching for him and found Jasper had made another leap into manhood. He had been with a seasoned girl who appeared barely older than sixteen herself. After giving Jasper stern warnings, Garret let him be. It was an age-old ritual every young man experienced at some time. It took place with a good girl in the backseat of a buggy or a hayloft, or a bad girl in a brothel. By the end of the week, Jasper had a knowing look in his eye and empty pockets. Garret was glad he had Jasper’s promise not to touch his Denver bank account until he really was eighteen.

  Their week in Cheyenne was an awakening experience for some, expensive for others.

  By the end of the week, Beth was feeling homesick. She wanted to go home to her daughter, her friends and her home. Surprising, she even missed the work. She felt idle, and it was a strange feeling. Beth realized she was not cut out for a life of luxury. She wanted her real life.

  The day before they were to leave, Garret made a special request of his wife.

  “I want a birthday present.”

  Beth seemed confused for a moment before she remembered. “You do?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Garret said kissing her deeply. “I want my wife. I want your full attention as my lover with no distractions.”

  “What about Jasper?”

  “I’ll tell him you are under the weather or give him an extra five dollars. He’ll stay busy for the day.”

  “Garret! I disapprove of his activities!”

  “He’s a grown man in size and, apparently, with the needs of a man. He’ll have a long, dry spell after we return to the ranch. Jasper’s needs are his problem. What about mine?”

  “I gave you a daughter as a gift for your birthday.”

  “So, you did. I love Georgia, but I also love my wife. My mind has been clouded lately with other thoughts of you.”

  Beth got a sly look in her eye as she loosened the ties on her nightgown and pulled it over her head. “We don’t need to wait until tomorrow.”

  ***

  Garret collapsed on the bed, grabbed his Stetson from the bedside table, and fanned his private parts while trying to catch his breath. “Woman, you are going to kill me, but I’ll die a happy man!”

  Beth only laughed as she collapsed beside him. This time, she had been on her hands and knees while he had pounded into her with the speed and power of a stallion. It was not an unusual position for them. They did it all the time at home, except there was something to be said for being in the privacy of a hotel room. She had been naked all night and all day, and they still had another night before they were to leave. Her
husband was providing her as much sexual satisfaction as she gave him. She believed it should always be that way between a man and wife.

  When Beth had found out Jasper was spending his time in a brothel, she had asked Garret what those women did that a wife did not. He had been shocked by her question and hushed her. Still, she wanted to know and badgered him until he told her. She discovered those women did nothing different from what a wife should do for her husband. Their services were needed because a lot of wives would not or could not please their men in the marriage bed.

  Garret had assured Beth he loved her and had no intention of straying. Beth’s answer to her husband’s promise was to straddle him and hold him hostage within her body until she took what she wanted. With needs that should have shocked her, but didn’t, Beth became the fulfillment of all her husband’s sexual fantasies.

  Beth might have been catering to Garret’s birthday wish, but she was benefiting from it herself. She never even bothered putting on a robe when their dinners were delivered to their room. She found it decadent and delightful when Garret poured a line of cherry dessert sauce from her breasts to her belly button and proceeded to lap at it with his tongue. He kept lapping even after he came to the end of the sauce. Whatever was making Garret need, had the same effect on her. Each time they made love, it only whetted their appetites for more.

  By the second morning, they were both exhausted, and reality crashed down on them. With tired and sore bodies, they dressed and packed while their thoughts were wrested from sex to the day-to-day necessities of returning home.

  The train ride to Denver was fast, loud, and sooty, pretty much as it had been on the trip to Cheyenne. Still, there was a rising excitement about going home. Where train travel had shortened the time and effort it took to go from city to city or even across the entire country, their ranch was still forty miles from Denver on a rough and almost impassable trail. It was a three-day trip by wagon from Denver to the ranch, and they could not waste an opportunity to replenish their supplies.

  With a loaded wagon and Jasper riding a new horse he had purchased, they made their way across the plains as they had so many times before.

  “I can’t wait to see Georgia,” Beth gushed, becoming teary-eyed. “She will have forgotten what her momma looks like!”

  “We’ve only been gone two weeks,” Garret chided her. “She knows her momma and daddy.”

  Beth squeezed her husband’s arm and smiled. “After our last few days in Cheyenne, I hope she will have a new brother or sister soon.”

  Garret leaned in and kissed her. “Me too. I want a houseful.”

  “What is that ahead?” Jasper called out. He rode forward past the wagon. Beth and Garret squinted in the distance and as they got closer to the boundary of their land they saw the surprise. Garret reined in the horses to a slower walk.

  “Oh, look!” Beth exclaimed. “It’s so fitting!”

  Garret put his arm around his wife as they gazed at the sign. In their absence, a high crossbeam gate had been erected. They knew it was the work of Abram. The wide board across the top had been carved with a name and not the one on the slate over which they had all argued. They both looked above their heads with pride as they passed under the gate. The carving was deep in the wood and would last for generations.

  “The New Beginnings Ranch,” Beth whispered hugging her husband’s arm.

  He gave her a long kiss and glanced up again as they drove under the new gate. He gave the reins a slap.

  “We’re home!”

  The End

  Mariella Starr

  Sometimes it’s hard to pick what I love most beyond my family; I write, paint, renovate and am a voracious reader. The joke in our house about vices is that mine is books. My idea of the perfect house is the public library, just add a kitchen to make my husband happy, and I would be good with it. I live in Nevada with my husband, and two dogs that I adore, and lot of scorpions and lizards that still make me scream and act girly. I love to travel, and I get to travel to visit my grown children who have both chosen to live abroad, one in Ireland and one in England—what could be better.

  I love writing; creating the characters and making them come alive. For a short time, while they are directing me through their stories, they are alive for me and I hope they are to my readers. My favorite genres for reading are history, romances, and mystery. Sometimes I think I spend as much time in research as I do in writing, but it is important to me that the time-periods be correct. It also makes me one heck of a good trivial pursuit player.

  I’m a casual person, enjoying a laid back lifestyle where dressing up means putting on real shoes and not flip-flops, cowboy boots or running shoes. (The running shoes are not my idea of fun but my husband says if I’m spending all my time on a computer writing, I also have to move—10 miles a day!) Oh, what I put up with because I love that man. I also love receiving e-mail from my readers and can be contacted at MariStarr@outlook.com

  Don’t miss these other exciting titles by Mariella Starr and Blushing Books!

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  Full Circle

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  The Awakening of Alexandria

  Charlotte's Comeuppance

  Teaching Miss Maisie Jane

  Posey’s Assets

  Maybe, With Conditions

  A Path Worth Taking

  The Overton Saga

  Isabel's Independence - Overton Saga Book 1

  Britannia's Blaggard - Overton Saga Book 2

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