Wildest Dreams

by Rosanne Bittner

  She looked at the ledger. "Well, about fifteen hundred cattle were lost, as far as the men can tell. Brad lost about six hundred sheep. He wants to go to Utah next spring and see if he can buy some from the Mormons, but we'll have to loan him the money to do it. He has already made sure to tell me that he'll pay the loan off when he makes his first shipment of lambs to the slaughterhouses in Omaha, was very adamant that I know he intends to pay it back with interest."

  Luke grinned and shook his head. "What about the buildings and all?"

  Lettie looked up at him. "We saved the big barn and two smaller horse sheds. The wind shifted just in time. We fared a lot better than some others, Luke. We lost thousands of acres of grassland, but the rain brought what's left back to life, and already new grass is growing in the burned areas. Doc Manning says Hank Kline lost everything, all his outbuildings, his home, at least half of his stock."

  She sighed, and Luke saw the sudden sadness in her eyes. "What aren't you telling me, Lettie?" He sat down in the leather chair he liked best, where he always sat to read and smoke. "Is Hank dead?"

  She looked down. "Yes, but not from the fires. He... shot himself."

  Luke closed his eyes. "Jesus," he whispered.

  "His wife is going back East to live with one of her sons. She's only staying around long enough to sell the Lazy K. I thought... maybe we could buy it. It would help her out, and Brad and Katie could build a house there and use it for a sheep ranch. I like the idea of having them right here on the Double L, but I think deep down Brad would rather be more on his own. He's a proud, independent young man. We can't keep Katie right under our wing forever, Luke. She's a wife and mother now, and the Lazy K isn't that far away. It's closer than Billings, so we'd still be close enough to see each other often and to help them when it's needed."

  Luke watched blue cigar smoke curl into the air. The thought of Hank killing himself pained him deeply. Another friend gone. He wondered what he would have done himself if he had lost absolutely everything, but then he had Ty and Robbie, Pearl and Katie, and a new grandson. Hank's sons were grown and had never even bothered to come out and see their father's ranch. It was all Hank had ever really wanted to do, and he had lost it all. "All right. Buy it. Have you talked to Katie and Brad about this?"

  "Not yet, but I know they'll like the idea. They've never said anything straight out, but I know they'd rather have a place they can truly call their own."

  Luke nodded, listening quietly for a few minutes to his daughter's piano playing, ever amazed at her talent. Her playing had soothed him these past two weeks, the moving music somehow giving him strength. He set the cigar in an ashtray and folded his hands over his lap. "Tell Lucy Kline that we'll also see that a nice headstone is put up on Hank's grave. Was he buried in the Billings Cemetery?"

  "Yes." She laid down a pen. "That's good of you, Luke. I get the impression they did not have a lot of extra money. I think a good deal of what she gets for the ranch will have to go to pay off debts."

  Luke ran a hand through his hair. "Is there anything else you aren't telling me?"

  "Well, from what I hear, the other ranchers didn't fare so badly. They all suffered some losses, just like we did, except that it's harder on them because they don't have as much to fall back on, but they'll be okay. I told Sven to tell all of them they can use some of the grazing land we have left if necessary. It will mean us buying more feed, but we can get it wholesale from the granary we own in Cheyenne. Is that all right?"

  He studied her lovingly. "I'd have done the same. They've all helped us at different times, and some of them literally taught me a few things about ranching. We've ridden together after outlaws and rustlers, and they all contributed to the ransom money for Katie. We'll manage."

  Lettie stood up and came to sit in a chair across from him. "There's one more thing."

  He leaned his head against the back of the chair. "Go ahead."

  "Nial Bentley. He lost a lot of grassland and cattle, but that's not the worst of it."

  Luke frowned. "Did that stone mansion of his burn?"

  "No. You know Chloris was with child."

  "I know. Don't tell me she lost the baby."

  Lettie folded her hands and studied them as she spoke. "About a week ago. She went into early labor, and she nearly bled to death."

  Luke let out a groan, rubbed at his eyes. "Good God."

  "I'm told through the grapevine that it was not a normal pregnancy to begin with. According to Dr. Manning, it's unlikely she'll have any more children. I guess Sydney and Helen Greene are in a terrible grief. Chloris was their only child, and now there will never be any grandchildren." She reached out and took hold of his hand. "The whole thing made me grateful for all my normal births, and the fact that God gave us several children. We've been through so much, Luke, but we're also very blessed."

  He sighed deeply. "Well, Nial Bentley is not my favorite person, but every man wants children to carry on the name, to give everything to some day." He reached out and touched her cheek with the back of his hand. "You're right. We sometimes have to just stop and count our blessings. Maybe we should do something for them, maybe send a letter of sympathy or something." He leaned back in the chair again. "God knows he doesn't need money. His backers in merry old England will help replace his losses. But there are some things money can't buy." He thought how beautiful his wife looked this morning. "Like the love of a woman who belongs to someone else."

  She smiled sadly. "Luke, that is in the past."

  "Not for Nial. He doesn't love Chloris the same way he loved you, probably still loves you."

  She walked back to the desk. "Well, that's all beside the point now."

  Is it? Luke wondered. He had no worries about Lettie, but he could not quite get over the fact that another man had tried to steal his wife, and that man probably still loved her. In spite of what Nial had suffered, Luke could not totally sympathize with the man. He would never be able to forgive him for thinking his money and title gave him the right to take what belonged to another, nor the fact that the man had used their son's death as an opening to take advantage of Lettie. He had no doubt that Nial never loved Chloris the way a man should love his wife. She was just a replacement for Lettie, and now that she could not give Nial children, she would be even less important to him.

  Lettie looked over at her husband, knew by his eyes what he was thinking. Nial still loved her. She knew it in her own heart, but it was something they never talked about anymore. She hated Luke's father for instilling in him a feeling of worthlessness and insecurity that continued to make him worry about men like Nial, and that had caused him to work himself nearly into the grave just to prove himself. And she hated the man for never answering any of Luke's letters and for never coming to see the magnificent ranch his son had built. "I love you, Luke. A couple of weeks ago I thought I had lost you. Please do what the doctor says and take it easy this winter. I need you."

  He grinned. "Come here, woman."

  She walked back over to him, and he put out his arms. She sat on his lap and rested her head against his shoulder. He embraced her, moving one hand over her breasts lightly.

  "This is all your fault, you know."

  "Oh? Why is that?"

  He kissed her hair. "You remember what we were doing the day of the fire. You had me all worn out before I even went to dig that trench. You've got to quit being so man hungry, Lettie Fontaine."

  She laughed lightly. "We both know whose idea it was to go playing in the bushes like a couple of children." She turned her face up, and their lips met in a gentle kiss. Lettie felt the possessiveness as the kiss lingered and grew deeper. He was reminding her that she belonged to Luke Fontaine, trying to assure her that in no time he would be strong as ever. His collapse had devastated his pride. Didn't he know that in her eyes there was no one stronger or more manly than he? She had had her own taste of possessiveness, had seen how other women looked at her husband, and not just the single ones.

  "
Maybe we should go upstairs and see if I can—"

  Lettie got up off his lap. "Luke Fontaine! It's almost lunchtime. I will not have everyone in this house looking for us and knowing what's going on. Besides, you're supposed to rest."

  "Might make me heal faster."

  She cast him a chastising glance. "Don't try playing on my sympathy. For the next few months you are under my command. Someday you will be spending part of your time in Helena, maybe even as governor of the new state of Montana, fighting for whatever Montana needs. You've got to prepare yourself. Use the winter to do some reading up on how our government works. Katie can probably help you find the right books."

  He grinned and shook his head. "You're determined that's going to happen, aren't you?"

  She faced him, her hands on her hips. "There is no better man in this territory for the job, nor one more deserving. And when you become governor, I will be the most envied woman in Montana, just because I'm the handsome Luke Fontaine's wife." She felt her blood warm at the way his blue eyes raked over her.

  "You'll be envied because you'll be the most beautiful governor's wife Montana will ever have. You'll make up for all my lack of class. If I ever do become territorial delegate, or even governor, it will be because of you." He got up from the chair and put an arm around her shoulders. "Walk me outside. I want to visit Tex's grave."

  "I'll order a stone as soon as you decide what should be engraved on it."

  Luke stopped and took a piece of paper from his shirt pocket. "I've already been thinking about it. I wrote this upstairs in the bedroom. What do you think?"

  Lettie took the paper and opened it. "'Here lies Tex,'" she read aloud, "'who gave his life for another. Died September fifteenth, 1881. About fifty. Good friend and devoted ranch hand. May God take him to his fold.'" The words caught in her throat and she refolded the paper. So many good friends lost... Tex, Hank Kline, Jim Woodward, Will and Henny. She looked up at Luke, saw the tears in his own eyes. "It's perfect," she told him.

  They walked outside together, and from his back bedroom upstairs, Robbie was looking out the window. He watched his parents walk to the grave, watched his father kneel beside it. It seemed only fitting that at that very moment Pearl was playing a hymn on the grand piano downstairs, the music floating out across the lawn on a gentle wind.

  Robbie's lips puckered and his eyes teared anew. He realized the only reason he was alive was because of Tex, that if it hadn't been Tex who had died in that fire, his own mother or father would have died in an effort to save him. His tender heart ached for the rugged, mysterious ranch hand who used to frighten him a little when he was smaller. "'Bye, Tex," he whispered. "I love you."

  CHAPTER 30

  May 1883

  LUKE FONTAINE FOR TERRITORIAL DELEGATE! Luke's supporters had strung up a banner that hung across the main street of Billings, but farther up the street attorney Sydney Greene and his wife Helen had also draped a banner reading NIAL BENTLEY FOR DELEGATE! The Greenes had managed to rally some support for their son-in-law, who had declared that because of cattle ranches he owned in Wisconsin and Nebraska, his higher education and world travels, he was the better man to represent cattlemen in the territorial legislature.

  Montana Territory had far surpassed the required population of sixty thousand to apply for admission to the United States. Officially the territory had a population of close to ninety thousand, something that amazed Luke and Lettie, considering how desolate it had been when they came there twenty years ago. Billings had just been a little log village. Now it burst with new settlers, who had come because of the completion of the Northern Pacific. New gold finds in the western part of the territory had brought in more settlers, and the huge copper find around Butte was the talk of the whole country. Newspapers were declaring

  Butte Hill "the richest hill on earth," and the areas around the mines and around Helena were also growing rapidly.

  People gathered around the Fontaine buggy as Sven drove it through the main street of town, now lined with more new businesses and yet another hotel. Luke had added two more floors to the Hotel Fontaine, and the Stowe's boardinghouse had also been enlarged. More lawyers had come to town, another doctor, two more teachers, and a dentist. One of those teachers was needed to replace Yolanda Brown, who had decided to go back to Chicago to teach. The timing was perfect, as Pearl was also going to Chicago, to study under a Professor John Bansen, a German pianist of great renown, who ran a private school for only the very best. Bansen had responded to a letter from Lettie, offering to listen to Pearl play and decide if she had the talent for advanced music lessons. All they had to do was get their daughter to Chicago. Miss Brown had agreed to be Pearl's chaperon.

  Luke was not pleased with sending his sixteen-year-old innocent off to a big city to study under a stranger, but Lettie had corresponded with the parents of other students of Bansen for over a year, and had taken every precaution to ensure that the man and his school were reputable.

  Pearl was not the least bit afraid to leave home for a big city, but Lettie worried that the change might be more of a shock than Pearl realized. All she had ever known was the remote life of living on a Montana ranch. The biggest and only town she knew was Billings, but at least Pearl was traveling with a reputable woman who knew the city well and could escort Pearl to the school. Once she was there, she would be among other young people who shared her love of music.

  This was a day of both celebration and sadness. They would see Pearl off to Chicago, and her joyful, charming presence and piano playing would be sorely missed. Later, Luke and Nial would make speeches about why they would make the best delegates for Montana's legislature. Two more men from the Butte and Helena area were also running for delegate, and in a few days Luke and Lettie would leave the ranch to spend two months traveling the territory to win votes and talk about statehood. The new legislature would draft the proper papers for Montana's request to be allowed into the United States.

  So many changes. Children growing up and going away. Katie, now nineteen, had given birth to her second child, a daughter, Rachael Ann, in February. Her son, Paul, was twenty months old and a wild little thing. Katie and Brad had built a roomy but simple log home on their new ranch, and surrounding cattlemen had accepted the fact that sheep would graze nearby. The price of wool had risen, and with the completion of the Northern Pacific, Brad could ship his wool east much cheaper now. Another railroad, the Utah and Northern, connected them to places farther south, and cattle drives were no longer necessary. Cattle were now shipped to stockyards and slaughterhouses by rail.

  In two years Robbie would be going off to college. A young man now, Ty was built almost as tall and broad as his father. He was dashingly handsome, and all the young, available girls in town had an eye for him. He was the most popular young man at the spring dances, but he seemed most interested in Alice Richards. They had known each other for many years now, and Lettie felt in her heart that the two of them would end up married someday.

  Luke waved at people who cheered him on as Sven drove the buggy to the railroad depot. The whole family had come to see Pearl off, and all were dressed their best because of the political rally planned for that afternoon. Lettie wore a yellow day dress that Gino Galardo had tailored just for her. It sported white, double lace cuffs, with water-fan trim of the same lace down the front of the bodice. The dress was perfectly fitted over a waist still slender enough that she was proud of it. The color was well suited for a bright, warm May day, as was her straw hat, decorated with yellow silk ribbon and flowers. Her shawl was made of the same white lace that decorated her dress, and she carried a yellow parasol and handbag and wore white lace gloves.

  Luke loved her in yellow, thought it set off the deep red of her hair and her green eyes. Lately she had noticed a little gray in that hair, but at thirty-eight, and after some of the things they had been through in their twenty years in Montana, it was to be expected. She glanced at Luke, whose thick, dark hair also was showing some gray at
the temples. He looked wonderful today. He was strong again, more confident than ever, strikingly handsome for a man of forty-eight. Hard work outdoors had only made him healthier and more robust than most men his age. Not a man to put on airs with his clothing like Nial Bentley was, he had chosen to wear denim pants with a white shirt over which he wore a black waistcoat. Because it would be a warm day, he wore no jacket, but his waistcoat sported a gold watch chain she had given him for his birthday in March. The only things he wore that were brand-new were his Western-style, wide-brimmed felt hat and new black leather boots. He had declared that if he was going to represent Montana, he would dress like any man from Montana would dress, rich or not; not like some fancy eastern businessman or like an English prince.

  They reached the depot, and Lettie was relieved to see Miss Brown was already there with her bags. Luke shook hands with people while Brad and Tyler helped unload Pearl's luggage, which took up most of the room at the back of the fancy new four-seater buggy Luke had had the local wagonmaker build for him a year ago so they would have something big enough to haul the whole family. A Northern Pacific steam engine sat hissing on the tracks, and a conductor was parading on the platform announcing that engine number eighteen would be leaving in fifteen minutes for Bismark, St. Paul, Omaha, and Chicago.

  Lettie's heart tightened at the words. Pearl! Her beautiful, sweet, gentle Pearl was leaving them today. It would be a long time before they heard her lovely music, saw her bright smile, held her close. She almost wished her daughter did not have such natural talent, that she did not love music so much. Maybe Professor Bansen would say she was not ready or talented enough to go on with her schooling, but she knew that was not only a false hope, but a sinful one. She wished only the best for Pearl, and she was proud of her daughter's abilities; but it hurt to know that those abilities would take her away from them. Her longtime tutor, Elsie, and Elsie's husband, Peter Yost, followed behind in a buggy of their own, bringing along their three young children and also longtime housemaid, Mae, and her husband, Bob Franks, who all wanted to see Pearl off.