Little Jonathan was with Bree and Aunt Ginny, and Bree hoisted him up on her shoulder so he could see his mother.
“Mama,” he called out, and the crowd laughed.
Pa gave Dusty a warm grip with his hand on Dusty’s shoulder, saying it all with a gaze—he loved his son, and regretted that he hadn’t been there when Dusty was growing up. And Dusty said it all with his gaze—none of that mattered, because he was here now.
Pa stepped back and Haley took her place at Dusty’s side.
There was an old joke about frontier weddings. The preacher says, “Take her?” The groom says, “Yes.” The preacher says, “Take him?” The girl says, “Sure.” Then the preacher says, “Done. One dollar.”
Dusty told Haley he had actually seen a couple weddings done that way. Once in a saloon and once outside the bunkhouse at the Cantrell ranch, down in Arizona.
Tom McCabe didn’t do this, though. He conducted an actual wedding ceremony. He spoke of the bond that forms between a man and a woman. He spoke about the love of a man and a woman being the manifestation of God in this world. He spoke about how a man and a woman come together as two parts to create a whole.
Tom then recited the vows, with first Dusty repeating after him, and then Haley doing the same. They promised to love one another, and to have and to hold. Haley hadn’t wanted till death do us part, because she believed the spirit was eternal. So they used the term, forever and ever unto eternity.
Tom then asked what symbol was going to be used.
“A ring,” Dusty said.
Dusty looked to Josh. Josh hesitated, and had to suppress a grin.
Part of Josh’s job was to hold onto the ring until the right time.
A few days earlier in the kitchen, Josh had said to Dusty, “I hope I don’t lose it.”
That had led to a round of horseplay, which ended up with Josh’s coffee spilling to the floor.
Aunt Ginny reprimanded them. “If you’re going to cause this kind of ruckus, can take it outside.”
But she had to repress a grin, herself.
So now, as Josh was being asked for the ring, he hesitated. He felt at one pocket like he was searching for it, and tried not to grin. But then he dug into his jacket pocket and pulled the ring out and handed it to Dusty.
Despite himself, Dusty found himself wanting to grin, too.
“With this ring, I do thee wed,” Dusty said, and slipped the ring onto her finger.
Tom said, “I now pronounce you man and wife.”
Dusty didn’t have to be told to kiss his bride. And then the crowd erupted with cheers and hollers.
Then it was back to the house for a party. Hunter provided a keg of beer and some bottles of whiskey.
The men from both ranches, even Old Ches, were whooping it up and pouring down the beer or gulping whiskey.
“Honestly, Hunter,” Aunt Ginny said. “Did you really need to bring all that whiskey and beer?”
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t complain about that, anymore. You own half of it.”
She gave him a look. “Then maybe this gives me another reason to complain. That’s money we’re losing.”
He chuckled. She couldn’t hold back a grin.
The following day, Dusty and Haley departed to the mountains for a week-long honeymoon of camping and roaming about the wilderness. Bree had been coaching Haley on riding a horse for the past month. With Haley sitting in the saddle and knowing at least a little about what she was doing, and Dusty beside her on his horse Buckskin and a pack horse with them, they waved goodbye to everyone and headed away.
Little Jonathan had never been away from his mother, but he would be all right. A tent had been set up beside the house, and he, Cora and Mercy were going to go camping with Bree.
One thing about Bree, Haley had noted, she knew how to make a day fun for little kids.
This all ran through Haley’s mind as she sat at the table with Temperance and sipped tea.
Temperance had asked if she wished she and Dusty had a big wedding.
“You know,” Haley said. “I wouldn’t have changed any of it for the world.”
12
The men from the ranch were at Hunter’s. It was evening, and the following morning, Josh and Temperance were to be married. Zack and Ramon and Coyote were there, too. So was Tom McCabe. Even though he was a preacher, he showed up in jeans, with a gun strapped to his leg.
“If a preacher can wear a gun,” he said, “he can have a mug of beer once in a while.”
Danny McCabe was there. He had worked for the McCabes for a while, but now lived in town and a deputy marshal’s badge was pinned to his shirt.
Chen had a mug of beer and was laughing along with Old Ches. Johnny wasn’t sure which of these two was older.
Johnny stood with Hunter by the bar. Johnny had a glass of whiskey in his hand.
Hunter was gulping beer from a mug and talking about the election for town marshal, which had been held in town the day before.
He said, “If you had asked me six months ago what the chances were of Vic Falcone winning, I would have said next to nothing. But danged if he didn’t pull it off.”
Johnny was chuckling. “Wait till I get home and tell Bree the news.”
“I wouldn’t want to be in the room when she hears it.”
Johnny took down a mouthful of whiskey and allowed himself a moment to savor it.
He said, “It helped that you gave him your public endorsement.”
Hunter shrugged. “It helped that his opponent was that wild man Ned Pruitt. A drunken slob most of the time, but he has murder in his eyes. I don’t know how he possibly thought he could win that election.”
Josh drifted over to them.
“Pa,” he said, “I’ve been thinking. Once Temperance and I are back from our honeymoon, we’ll have to start doing some serious talk about that trail drive. But one thing I wanted to say before that.”
Johnny was listening.
Josh said, “I’d like you to be the trail boss. I’ve been along on a couple of cattle drives, but I’ve never been a trail boss.”
Johnny nodded. “All right. But you’ll be my segundo.”
Josh blinked with surprise. “I figured that job would go to Zack. It always did, years ago.”
“It did. But I think I’m going to want to use him as scout.”
Josh nodded. “Makes sense. Dan Bodine used to be our scout.”
“You’d be a good scout, and so would Dusty, but I want you both with the herd for the sake of leadership.”
Matt walked on over. He had a cup of coffee in his hand.
Hunter said, “Remember our first trail drive? We hadn’t even been here two years.”
Johnny said to Matt, “The nearest railhead back then was Sedalia, Missouri.”
Matt shook his head. “That must have been quite a haul.”
“Josh was too young to come along on that one. It was me, Zack, Hunter and some men I hired.”
Hunter nodded. “It was when Reno first started working with us. Josh had some trouble with him a couple of years ago. Haven’t heard anything from him since then. And Dan Bodine. A good man. Haven’t seen him in years, either. Wonder what ever became of him?”
Josh had noticed Charles coming up to the bar to refill a mug of beer.
Josh said, “Chuck, can I have a word with you?”
Johnny took another pull of whiskey and listened to Hunter telling Matt about the old trail drives, but he had an ear tuned toward Josh and Charles.
“Listen,” Josh said. “I’ve got to ask you something, and you might not like it.”
“Go ahead, Boss.”
“I know you’re an experienced drover, but I need to leave one man back at headquarters. Aside from Dusty, and Pa himself, there’s no hand on the ranch I would trust more than you. I don’t want to leave the women alone that whole time. And there’ll still be a sizable part of the herd to keep an eye on. You’ll be in charge while we’re gone.”
> Charles nodded. Johnny could see in his eyes that he was disappointed. No man with a good work ethic wants to be left out of a major project, and for a ranch, a trail drive was about as major as it got.
But Charles said, “I won’t let you down, Boss.”
Josh grinned. “You never do, Chuck.”
Bertram Reed walked in. Johnny looked over at Josh to see that Josh had seen him, too.
Reed saw Johnny at the bar and came on over.
“Reed,” Johnny said.
“McCabe. I got word you were in town. I made you an offer a few days ago, and was hoping to get a reply.”
“We couldn’t get to town sooner. Running a ranch is often a daylong proposition.”
“Could we talk about the offer now?”
Josh had come over, so Johnny said, “My son Josh is running the place, now. You need to talk with him.”
Josh said, “We would like to thank you kindly for your offer, but we’re just not interested in selling.”
Reed waited a moment, then said, “Well? No counter-offer?”
Josh shook his head. “None at all. We’re just not selling.”
“All right. You drive a hard bargain. Then let me increase my offer. A dollar seventy-five per acre.”
Josh said, “It’s not for sale at any price, Mister Reed.”
Reed said, with a little chuckle the way a person has when dealing with someone who is painfully young and just doesn’t understand something that should be obvious, “Mister McCabe, everything is for sale, if the price is right.”
All right. Time for Johnny to speak up. He had dealt with men like Reed before.
Johnny said, “Reed, you’re from Chicago, is that correct?”
“I don’t see what bearing that has on this matter.”
“You’re a businessman and you’re accustomed to conducting business in a certain way. But the business world you live in is much different than the world out here. When you look at our ranch, you see dollar potential. You look at the pine standing tall on the ridges and see it in terms of board feet. You look at the valley floor and maybe see potential farmland. But to us, it’s our home.”
Reed smiled. “Mister McCabe, I’ll go two dollars an acre, but not a penny more. Why, with that money, you could move your family anywhere you wanted. St. Louis. Chicago. New York, even. You could set up a comfortable life for your wife, your daughter. Even one day, your grandchildren.”
Johnny was about to correct him and say daughters, because he fully considered Cora to be his own. But he decided not to get side-tracked from the issue at hand.
He said, “We are where we want to be, right now. You see, Reed, I brought the family here years ago because this is where I wanted to raise my children. We built our home here out of choice. This is where we choose to be.”
Hunter said, “You can offer this man three dollars an acre. Four. Won’t make no difference.”
Reed looked at Johnny and shook his head. “An offer like this doesn’t come along every day.”
“Doesn’t need to,” Johnny said. “My son Josh is speaking for the entire family when he says the offer is refused. And so will all offers be.”
Josh said, “Nothing personal, Mister Reed. It’s just this is our home.”
“With all due respect, Mister McCabe,” Reed said to Josh, “With the money I’m offering, you could build a home anywhere you wanted.”
It struck Johnny that not everyone understands what the word home means. To some it is a place where you lay your head at night, and nothing more. But to others, people like Johnny and Josh and the rest of the family, it was so much more.
Josh said, “Thanks, Mister Reed, but we’re happy where we are. It’s not that your offer’s not high enough. It’s really more than generous. It’s just that we’re not interested in selling.”
Reed said, “Well, if that’s the way it’s going to be...”
Josh said, “It is.”
It struck Johnny again, as Josh stood and watched Reed walk across the barroom floor toward the door, what a man Josh had become. A man to ride the river with.
Reed paused at the door and gave Johnny and Josh a final glance before he disappeared into the night. Josh had turned back to Charles so he didn’t see it. But Johnny did. A certain look in Reed’s eye. A look of not quite anger, but hard determination.
Matt and Hunter were still standing there. Matt said, “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of him, yet.”
13
Fred Mitchum sat at a table with a beer in front of him. He was in a white shirt and suspenders, and an old, beaten-up hat was pushed back on his head. He had a mug of cold beer in front of him. But he wasn’t really working on it. He was working on telling Johnny something that would be hard to say.
He saw Josh talking with Dusty and Chuck, and realized he probably should tell Josh. After all, Josh was now the ramrod.
No time like right now, Fred supposed, and got to his feet and strolled on over. He didn’t walk with a hurry, after all, he was not in a hurry to say what he had to say.
He listened to the boys talk for a few minutes. Josh was thinking he might ask Aunt Ginny to cut his hair in the morning. Maybe cut it short as Jack’s, so he would look civilized at his wedding. Dusty told him he would look like a chicken. Fred had heard them have this conversation before, but Chuck hadn’t and was laughing hard. Chuck also maybe had a little too much whiskey in him, so things sounded funnier than they were.
Finally, Fred said, “Hey, Josh, can I have a word with you?”
“Sure,” Josh said.
They walked over to a deserted side of the bar.
“I been thinkin’ about this trail drive,” Fred said.
As the wrangler, Fred’s job on the trail would be to manage the remuda.
Fred said, “I hate to ask out of a job, Josh. I really do hate to. I’ve worked for your family for a lot of years. Been on every trail drive your pa and Zack made. But, it’s just that I’m fifty-one years old, now. My joints, they crick in the morning. I hate to ask this, but I’d like to stay behind on this one.”
Josh looked at him. This was catching him by surprise and he didn’t know what to say at first.
Then he said, “Fred, don’t feel bad. You’ve given a lot of years to this ranch. There’s work that’ll need to be done here even while we’re gone. I’m leaving Chuck behind, but it would be nice to have a second man around, too.”
Josh paused a second while the words came to him. “Fred, you’ll be doing me a favor if you stay behind and help Chuck out.”
Fred said, “I hate to think I might be leaving you in a lurch.”
Josh shook his head. “Not at all. You’re doing me a favor. We’ve got to cover a lot of miles. Not quite as far as the old days, when we went all the way to Dodge or Ogallala. But I’ll need your help in picking out a man who can manage the remuda for us. I’ll need your expertise with men and horses. Someone you would trust with the remuda.”
“Absolutely.”
Johnny had drifted over and heard most of it. When Fred went to get Hunter’s attention and ask for a refill, Johnny slapped his son on the shoulder.
Johnny said, “You’re a good man, son.”
14
Ginny couldn’t sleep. She never could before a wedding. A man would never understand just what a wedding meant to a woman. How it was the manifestation of her childhood dreams. A fairytale come to life.
Moonlight gave her bedroom a pale bluish illumination, and from her bed she could see the clock on the wall. Twenty past twelve. The men had come home from the Second Chance, and the household was asleep. Every aspect of it, except for Ginny.
Maybe a cup of tea was what she needed. Though to do so, she would have to fire up the stove in the kitchen and she didn’t want to go to all that trouble.
Maybe a glass of wine, she thought.
She slid out of bed and pulled on her house coat. It was made of silk, with ruffled trim. Kind of elaborate for life on the fronti
er, but she had bought it back in San Francisco and wanted some of the luxuries of home.
She stepped out into the parlor and could see a pale lamplight glowing from the kitchen doorway. Apparently she wasn’t the only one awake, after all.
She found Temperence sitting at the kitchen table.
“Temperence?” she said.
Temperence was also in a robe, though hers was a plaid flannel.
“Oh, Aunt Ginny,” she said. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
Ginny laid a hand on her shoulder. “Is everything all right? I would have thought you were sound asleep by now.”
“I can’t sleep. I tried. I was in bed until I heard Josh step into his room. The groom can’t see the bride until the church.”
“Are you having jitters?”
Temperence shook her head with a big smile. “Nothing of the sort. I’m just so excited. I want to do cartwheels. Though I haven’t been able to do them since I was a child and would probably break my fool neck.”
“I know what you need.”
Ginny went to a little rack of wine on the counter. She preferred white wine and usually took a bottle out to a small duck pond at the far edge of the woods to let it chill before dinner. She wasn’t going to go walking out to the duck pond at this time of night, so she would have to tolerate a warm Riesling.
She got out a cork screw, and once the cork was out, she filled two glasses and set one down on the table in front of Temperence.
“This will help you sleep,” Ginny said.
Ginny slid out a chair and sat.
“So,” Ginny said. “Tomorrow you’ll be officially in the family. Though I hope you know, we already consider you family.”
Temperence nodded with a smile. “You can’t imagine how grateful I am for that.”
She took a sip of wine. Ginny did, too.
Temperence said, “It’s like a dream, you know. All of this. All of you. And especially Josh. My life had become such a living hell. And then he came along, like some sort of knight out of a fairy tale, and pulled me out of it.”
Ginny said, “That’s what the men of this family are like. Knights. Johnny uses the term gunhawk, but essentially they are knights. Crusaders. Except I don’t think they fully realize it. It’s just what they are.”
Trail Drive (The McCabes Book 5) Page 6