by Nancy Radke
“Are there any other wild animals around?”
“Skunks. Badgers. Coyotes and wolves. Bobcats. Porcupines. Most of them run when you get close. They’ve already learned to avoid people. So tell me, how do you like it here?”
“I like it here just fine. It’s beautiful. I hate to leave, but I did come out to see Lizzie, so I do need to get back to Walla Walla.”
“I’ll take you in. I was hoping you could stay longer.”
“I checked on Sir Galahad first thing this morning. He seemed happy.”
“So am I. Could be because you’re still here.”
“You put some cows in with him, and I doubt he’ll ever think of me again.”
“He trusts you. I bet you could lead him through fire.”
“Speaking of fire, are those firebreaks I see, those strips of brown between the fields?”
“Yes. Fire is one of our biggest enemies. Lightening causes some. Some are caused by careless people. And some by the trains. If a fire comes, we go to the firebreak and start small fires along it to burn toward the larger fire. When the larger fire gets to the burned area, there’s no more fuel for it. Hopefully it stops there. If it jumps the break in a few places, we can still put it out, just by beating it with gunnysacks and throwing dirt on it. If not, we retreat to the next firebreak. A lot depends upon wind strength and direction. The whole neighborhood will turn out to fight a large fire.”
I looked around. Some of the men were lying with their eyes open, although most appeared to be sleeping. “Am I keeping you awake?” I asked, thinking about how late we were last night.
“It’s all right. They’re going to keep working. I’ll go back with you and Gil, get cleaned up, then take you in to Lizzie’s. Hopefully, your trunk will have arrived.”
All my dresses and shoes. Even the hats. They seemed excessive here. The simple dress I wore was cool and comfortable. I could not imagine wearing that corset ever again. At least not in this heat.
Baltimore seemed long ago and far away. I had almost forgotten my desire to come visit Lizzie.
“Thank you. Lizzie will be looking for me.”
“And you can see Sir Galahad once more before you leave.”
“Yes.”
“My dad wanted to know if he knew what to do with a cow, so we put a few in with him. He knew. Didn’t waste any time.”
“Then he’ll be happy here.”
“Yes. You can finally wean him.”
I laughed at that. “I thought I did, years ago. I didn’t realize our bond was so strong.”
“He’s a smart bull. Knows who cares about him.”
“He’s also clever in acting like he’s not been fed yet. He used to trick the stable boys into giving him extra grain.”
The lunch hour was over. The resting men got up, then nudged the ones still asleep. “We’ll take the wagon and go back now,” James said to Gilbert and me.
We climbed aboard, and James let Gilbert drive back. The horses were harder to handle, knowing they were headed back for the barn, and kept wanting to run.
“They’re going to have a surprise when I don’t unharness them, then drive them to town,” James said watching Gil struggle to keep the team in check. “They think they’re all done.”
“Shouldn’t you help him?”
“No, Gil’s big enough. He knows he has to keep their speed down, so they don’t run away. This is the first year he’s driven them. I think he does very well.”
“Yes. He does.”
Gil grinned, looking very important holding the reins. It was not an easy thing to control a team, and I was impressed that he could do it.
“I rode with him the first three times and he’s done it himself the rest of the summer.”
Just before we entered the ranch gate, we passed a little house and a small barn, sitting in a cluster of trees, all by themselves.
“Who lives there?” I asked.
“No one right now. That’s the weaning house.”
“The what?”
“The weaning house. Whoever gets married lives there until they get their own land and a house up on it. Then they move out.”
“I see. Do you plan to live in the weaning house?”
“No.”
I thought that was a shame, that he’d not get married, when he added, “I’ll live in the ranch house we have. Dad and Mom plan to move to town after I marry. They’ve got a lot there and a house they plan to build. So, yes, I probably will move into it, until they have their house built. Want to see it?”
“Why...yes. I guess so.”
Gil drove us over and stopped in the shade of the locust trees. There were apple trees planted in the back, with a small outhouse tucked into the grove. We got down and went inside.
It was big and comfortable inside, with a fireplace and stove, a large main room and two smaller ones. One had a bedstead in it, the other had the kitchen and pantry shelves. The larger room was unfurnished except for a table and four chairs. All the furniture was handmade.
“This was where my Uncle Luke and Aunt Mahala lived when they first came here. They acquired some land near Dayton and moved there as soon as they had made enough of a down payment. Uncle Luke had to work some of the cost off, so they were here about a year.”
“Do they raise cattle too?”
“Some. And wheat. They’ve planted fruit trees and vegetable crops that do very well. A special train carries fresh produce back east. It only takes six days. It takes items from this whole region.”
“My train out took longer.”
“You had a mixed local train. It stopped all along the way, and carried both freight and passengers. Not like the passenger express, which runs between New York and California. It’s the stops that take a long time.”
I looked around the log house. It was clean and neat and just waiting for someone to come live in it.
“Do you like it?” James asked.
“Yes. I do. I can imagine living here. I bet they hated to leave.”
“I think Aunt Mahala’s son, Hayden, was a month old when they left here. Luke built their house with several bedrooms to handle all their kids.”
“They had many?”
“Eighteen.”
I thought about the fact that my mother had called it quits after she had me. My father had wanted a boy, but had decided that he would have to accept whomever I married. That accounted for the way he had vetted my early suitors. Now I was doing the vetting on my own, and using his standards.
Someone who was already mature. Well, so far, the only young men I had run into on the trip that met that standard was Shorty and James.
Someone who was established and well to do. That narrowed the list to James.
Someone who would love me and care for me. That was my own requirement, and for that one I was still searching.
I looked at James and shocked myself by wondering what kind of lover he would be.
“Thank you for showing me this,” I said, swiftly changing the subject in my mind. “I should be heading in to Lizzie’s soon. She’ll be wondering what became of me.”
“Poor Lizzie. Greg said she figured you were coming in on a different train, and wasn’t looking for you.”
“Really? I sent her a telegram giving my arrival date.”
“Evidently she figured you’d find her when you got here.”
“And here I had imagined her frantic with worry.”
“No such thing. She thanked Greg and sent him home. Didn’t think to offer him a drink of water, so he stopped at a saloon on the way home. Took him a long time to get that drink.”
“Was he here in time for work this morning?”
“Oh, yes. His horse brought him home. He woke up long enough to unsaddle and fall into his bunk. He was out there haying. Probably the hardest to wake up from the noon siesta.”
“Poor Greg.”
“The men thought he was lucky to make the trip. They all had to stay and work in the fields while he go
t a trip to town.”
“And now you get the trip.”
“Yes. I get to meet Lizzie.”
We climbed back into the buckboard, and Gil drove us to the main house.
He was as proficient as Jeremy in handling the team, and I decided that in a year, he’d be able to drive through Baltimore. Farm kids seemed to have to learn their skills early, but as far as I could see, it didn’t hurt them any. Gil had a sense of pride, a quiet maturity well beyond his years. When we got back, he watered the team, while James and I went inside.
I went on out back, to where my clothes were hanging. Everything was dry, and I took them down and brought them inside. My dress didn’t look too much worse for having been worn so long. I took it up to the girls’ bedroom and changed.
Mally met me as I came out.
“Do you want a bonnet for your ride back?” she asked.
“Yes, please. That way James can keep his hat.”
“He thought you quite the trooper, you know, ready to lead that bull out to the ranch though the hot sun.”
“I didn’t know how far it was when I started. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been so eager to go.”
“You won’t find it so long, going back. You aren’t leading a bull.”
“He does walk kind of slow.”
“Slower than molasses in January. We thought something had happened to James when it took so long. He usually doesn’t dally.”
“Thank you for the use of the dress while my things were drying. And your hospitality.”
“I’d like you to stay longer, but I guess you have a friend in town. She is probably eager to see you.”
“I haven’t quite figured Lizzie out.”
“How so?”
“She begged me to come. Sounded desperate. Yet Greg said she didn’t bother to meet the train.”
“She might have realized you would want to deliver Sir Galahad first.”
I nodded, but I had never told Lizzie I was bringing a bull out.
I had never seen Lizzie in any but the best of situations. What would she have done if she were on the train instead of me?
We went downstairs and found James in the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Ready to go?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Have you gotten yourself a good drink of water?”
“No.”
“Always get water in you before riding out. You won’t get as thirsty.”
“Could save your life,” Mally added. “Do you need to eat before you go?”
“I had a late breakfast. I’ll eat at Lizzie’s,” I said, getting a drink. I was thirsty.
“We’re off,” James said.
Mally gave me a hug and I left, feeling very welcome.
James handed me up into the buckboard and we drove off. I looked back to see Catherine waving at me from the upstairs window.
She would be nice as a sister.
But so would Lizzie. We had done lots of things together, Lizzie and me, feeling very brave and adventuresome as we did so. But nothing compared to my trip out west. I couldn’t wait to ask her how her trip had been.
Compared to Mally’s trip in a wagon train, the train I had come out on seemed tame and uneventful. Just another trip out west.
People here didn’t make a big thing out of losing your luggage, or having to wear the same clothes for a week. I wondered why I had ever felt upset.
We drove out of the ranch gate and down the road. I could see the workers off in the distance, still gathering the hay that had been cut and laid out to cure.
James pointed out the places we could see on the horizon. Horse Heaven Hills, the Columbia River area, Wallula. Walla Walla nestled in the valley with the Blue Mountains all around. The dominant blue haze that colored anything in the distance.
“I’m amazed at how many people there are.”
“Filling up fast. The good land is getting taken.”
The road took a ninety degree turn to the right for what seemed no reason at all.
“Why do the roads turn so sharply out in the middle of a flat place?” I asked James.
“It’s following the property edges. The grid is square. When the boundaries don’t quite line up with each other, the road turns and follows the edge sideways until it can go forward again. See, it will turn the other way at the end of this field. A few of our roads in town do the same thing.”
I pictured our roads in New England, winding all over the place. Ours did so mainly because of the hills and valleys.
I couldn’t help comparing James to the men I had met back east. Except for Lizzie’s handsome brother, they seemed dull in comparison. I might settle on Victor. I think I would have already, except for his wandering hands and his domineering mother.
She had told me one day that she expected to run the house until she was too old, at which time Victor’s wife would take care of her. It hadn’t sounded too bad, since I couldn’t cook and could barely sew, so if I found a mother-in-law who insisted on doing all those things, it seemed a good trade-off to me. Having watched Catherine, it no longer seemed such a great deal. She was entirely capable of running a house, so was not dependent upon anyone, especially a bossy mother-in-law.
Mally wouldn’t do that to James or his wife. I pictured Lizzie’s mother and suddenly knew that Mrs. Morrison wouldn’t be able to boss James around either. James would never be bossed around by anyone.
I wondered if Mrs. Morrison was the reason Lizzie’s husband had rushed Lizzie clear across the country as soon as they were married. I know Mrs. Morrison hadn’t expected it. She came to my mother bemoaning the fact that her Lizzie was gone, without hardly any warning.
She had picked me out for Victor. I don’t think my father agreed. When she visited us, she tried to boss everyone around, including him. I don’t think he wanted her as part of the family.
Was that why he had decided to sell Sir Galahad, and then sent me to deliver him? He had talked about keeping him in Baltimore, which was why it was such a big shock to me when he sold him. Victor was due home from college the day I left.
“That’s quite a conversation you’re having with yourself,” said James.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“That’s all right.”
“Things have been happening to me lately, and I’m just beginning to piece them together.”
“There’s nothing like a long ride to set things in order.”
James, being James, did not ask for more.
We came down the last hill into the flat area where the town had been located. There were already so many trees, it looked like a town of treetops rather than houses. Much like a small New England town.
“Do you really think your folks are going to want to move in here, after the view they get at your ranch?” I asked James. “I couldn’t part with it, if I were them.”
“I never thought about it. Both of them grew up in the mountains. I wonder if they thought about it. I know whenever I get back home after having gone to town, I get a feeling of open spaces. Open sky.”
“I had that, too.” Especially when I got out of the boxcar.
We continued down the tree-covered street, cool and comfortable.
“I would think you’d like it better, in the shade,” he said.
I didn’t. I liked the sun. It was a trifle melting, but felt wonderfully dry.
If mother could see me now, traveling along without a chaperone, in a buckboard without a top to keep the sun off, she would faint.
We drove along in what felt like mutual contentment. I enjoyed being with James and did not want the trip to end. Too soon, we arrived at Lizzie’s. Too soon, I said “Good Bye” to James. Too soon, the feeling of contentment was broken.
*5*
Lizzie’s home was a large, two story house that looked like it had been transplanted directly from Baltimore. A small picket fence, painted white, enclosed it. A yard, with flowers around the edges, completed the picture.
James stopped
the wagon. “Here we are.”
“Thank you.”
Lizzie threw open the door and sauntered down the walkway. It was the same old Lizzie. Dark brown hair, carefully done in ringlets, face untouched by the sun, red lips, and beautiful blue eyes. Lizzie had had many admirers when she had formally come out.
“Brynn. It’s so good to see you. Come inside. You must be broiled.” She smiled broadly at me, then turned to James. “Bring her luggage inside, please.”
“Lizzie.” I stopped. I didn’t know whether to protest her speaking to James as she would a servant, or to tell her he was the son of the man who bought father’s bull. I realized she didn’t know anything about the past week. James was dressed in his working clothes, clean, but not fancy, and seemed to be amused rather than insulted.
“Lizzie. It’s good to see you, too. This is James Trahern. His family has a ranch outside of town.” And he could buy your father several times over.
“That’s nice. Is that where you were?”
“Yes.”
“That nice young cowboy brought me word, you know. He said you were walking to the ranch.”
“Not all the way.”
“Why did you go there? Did you know these people?”
“No. Father sold a bull to them. Sir Galahad.”
“Your favorite bull! How could your father do that?”
“He just did.” I turned to James. “Why don’t you come inside and have something cool to drink before you head home? And Lizzie, where can we water the horses?”
“In the ally. Thomas always comes in that way with the team. Where did you put your luggage?”
“It got lost on the train.”
“Oh, how dreadful. You poor thing.” Lizzie sounded like I did a week ago.
“I lost my comb, too,” I said with a grin, remembering how great a loss that was at the time, and how insignificant it had become.
“Come in. This sun is way too hot. It ruins your complexion.” She turned to go in and I spoke to James again.