Jacob had taken charge of the original land when his father died three years ago. His mother Cate and sister Sarah still lived with him. He was marrying age, twenty-four, but hadn’t met the right woman yet to take on ranch life.
Jacob didn’t mind being close to towns and supplies. It made life easier, and hopefully would bring more women and families this way. Even though the extra cattle that the drives brought up each spring brought good income to town, it also brought noise, smell and ruckus when herds—and cowboys—got riled.
The herds grazed south of town and used the river as their water source, until it was time to load them onto the trains heading to the Eastern states. Groups were brought across the river and down the street to the pens and chutes that would load the animals onto railroad cars.
Right now the noise—and dust level—rose as a new herd trotted right down South Main Street. Everyone scattered out of the street when they heard the rhythm of the hooves hitting the packed dirt heading for the rail yards. It was beginning to be an everyday occurrence as thirty thousand head of cattle were expected to arrive and ship out of Ellsworth over the next few months. That’s a lot of dust, mud and manure.
Abilene was once the main cowtown, but drovers switched to Ellsworth this year as the train tracks went farther west now, and the Abilene businessmen and area ranchers were tired of the giant herds and Texas Fever cattle disease that encompassed Dickinson County spring through fall. There were around forty thousand cattle shipped out of Abilene last year, and Jacob couldn’t fathom that many longhorns roaming around Ellsworth County this summer—but they were starting to arrive.
The cattle streamed past Jacob’s view in a river of dust and color, kept in line by the front leader and side riders. A group of ten cowboys could handle a twenty-five hundred head herd, and so far Jacob had counted six riders. Foot and wagon traffic was put on hold for several minutes, and horses tied to the hitching posts along the edges of the boardwalks crowded up against the posts, warily watching the horns as they passed.
As the last of the herd went alongside, Jacob noticed the cowboy riding drag. As the dust thinned, Jacob saw a split skirt on the rider instead of trousers. It was unusual to see a woman riding drag, but she appeared confident and capable in the job.
Actually, all he saw of the woman on the side facing him was a thick layer of dried mud coating her body and the horse’s. It looked as though she and her palomino paint took a wild slide down the river bank while herding the livestock across the river. Between her wide-brimmed hat pushed low on her forehead, and a bandana covering her face, Jacob couldn’t even see her eyes. When the woman passed, he saw a waist–length blonde braid down her back—and even it was muddy.
Jacob snapped his head down the walk as a woman screamed and yelled to someone who was between the two of them. A longhorn bull had done a quick right turn, heading straight to the boardwalk, and toward a frightened child, who was stock still and staring at the giant animal.
Before Jacob could run down the twenty feet to the little boy, the horsewoman trailing the herd, snapped a lasso through the air which landed around the six-foot spread of the bull’s horns. She yanked the rope back hard with her right, gloved hand at the same time her horse jumped backwards, snapping the animal’s head back from its disastrous route. Both bull and boy were bawling at once, but the horse and rider just pulled the animal back onto the route of the herd, like it was an everyday occurrence. The woman was attuned to the livestock, but she also saw the child in danger in an instant, and took care of both.
Now that’s the kind of wife he needed, someone who could ride, rope, handle livestock and children—a woman with grit—and Jacob wondered if this particular one was married or single.
Chapter 1
April 26, 1873, near Clear Creek, Ellsworth County, Kansas
Jacob Wilerson whipped his head to the west when he heard the shrill call from a horse somewhere in the distance. He touched his knees against the sides of Duncan to halt the buckskin gelding. After the horse’s snort of acknowledgement, Jacob cocked his head to listen again for the other horse.
The light breeze and warm sunshine made a perfect spring day for the leisurely ride home the two of them were having on their return from the Cross C Ranch. Jacob was lost in thought about the string of horses he just delivered to the neighboring rancher six miles east of them. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings while they roamed along the small canyon above the banks of the Smoky Hill River.
His eyes, shaded by the wide–brimmed hat, scanned the fresh, green, waving grass of the Kansas prairie, trying to locate the distressed horse. The prairie birds’ trills, which had blended in with the whispering movement of the grass, stopped abruptly like they were listening too.
The other horse neighed loudly again, enabling Jacob’s ears to pin the direction it came from. Jacob’s right hand touched the reins on Duncan’s neck to turn the horse toward the danger while the other pulled his rifle out of the saddle’s scabbard. He’d been caught daydreaming, which was never a smart thing for a lone rider to do out on the open prairie.
He nudged Duncan slowly forward until he could see the other horse’s head over the top of the sloping edge of the canyon. Easing forward in the saddle, he could see a palomino paint prancing in place; its reins seemed to be held firmly down to the ground.
The Hamner family from Texas came to mind because they bred and sold this crossbreed of horses. Jacob had heard the Hamners were back in the area with their latest cattle drive, but he hadn’t seen them yet. He was also excited to hear they bought the nearby Larson ranch to live here permanently.
Jacob scanned the area again, looking for another horse, person, or movement in the rocky cropping above the scene. But all seemed quiet except for the agitated horse.
Just then the horse moved, and Jacob spied a light–colored sleeve hanging mid–air clinging to the rein that was keeping the horse from trotting off. Lying on the ground, dangerously close to the prancing hoofs, lay a still body, half hidden in the new growth of grass.
“Ha,” Jacob hoarsely whispered to push Duncan forward, while still scanning the area for unseen trouble. Duncan perked up his ears as he smelled the mare and eagerly closed the distance between them. The tall mare released a shudder of relief that they had been found, but moved warily between him and her rider. Jacob knew the mare wanted to raise her head higher and be ready to attack as they got closer, but yet she respected the reins hold of her unconscious rider.
Jacob stopped Duncan twenty feet away and slowly swung his right leg over the saddle, quietly dropping his feet to the ground. He dropped his horse’s reins, thus silently telling Duncan to stay where he stood. Jacob cocked his rifle and slowly walked around Duncan who had been shielding Jacob, in case the person on the ground swung a loaded revolver toward them.
Jacob took one slow step at a time, glancing between the mare and the person on the ground. “Whoa there, horse. It’s okay. I just want to help your rider.”
The horse pranced around and Jacob was scared the horse’s hooves would step on…the woman.
A thick blonde braid lay sprawled across the grass, probably exactly where it landed after flying through the air when the woman was unseated from the saddle. She was lying on her right side, toward Jacob, with her head resting on her right arm. Her elevated left hand was wrapped around a single rein, keeping the mare close behind her body. Jacob studied her chest, whispering a prayer of thanks when he saw it was still moving with her breaths. Her wide–brimmed hat lay a few feet away where it fell when she took the tumble from her horse.
The woman wore a light brown spilt skirt, cream–colored shirtwaist and an unbuttoned men’s style, brown wool vest with lots of front pockets. A trickle of blood crossed her forehead, slowly seeping onto her shirt sleeve below her head.
Did she get shot, or hit her head when she fell? As the horse flitted around, light caught the glint of fresh blood on the seat of the saddle. Maybe she was hurt before she
slid out of the saddle?
Jacob’s eyes widened with recognition. He’d first seen that distinctive swatch of blonde hair a year ago when a trail drive came into Ellsworth. He remembered this horse and rider, both covered with mud, were riding in drag behind the herd of Texas longhorns.
End of sample from Rania Ropes a Rancher. Please look for this ebook on your favorite vender.
Millie Marries a Marshal
A Historical Western Romance
Brides with Grit Series, Book 2
Mail-order bride Millie Donovan was looking forward to meeting Sam Larson, a Kansas homesteader, who she is sure, from reading his heartfelt letters, will provide her with the love and safety she wants and needs. Millie arrives on the train, not realizing that her husband-to-be was killed in an accident, until Clear Creek’s town marshal informs her of the situation.
Town Marshal Adam Wilerson never plans to marry due to his dangerous job. After reading letters found at his friend’s home following his untimely death which were sent from his friend’s mail-order bride, he can’t help thinking of the woman, and believes he may be in love with her himself. But instead of sending Millie on the train back to her former home, he finds himself welcoming her—and her two-year-old charge—into his house, and into his heart.
When danger threatens, Millie faces it head–on to protect the people she loves, including the town marshal.
Can Adam keep the peace in town—and his house—or will the man following Millie cause an uproar that will endanger them both, and ruin their chance of a life together?
Hilda Hogties a Horseman
A Historical Western Romance
Brides with Grit Series, Book 3
Ranch woman Hilda Hamner spent her youth traveling with her Swedish immigrant family as they drove cattle from Texas up to Kansas cow towns in the 1870s. Hilda decided to get off the cattle trail and bought an abandoned homestead in Kansas with her horse race winnings. She plans on raising horses—and finding a husband that doesn’t mind her tall, lanky body that’s usually dressed in men’s clothing.
Noah Wilerson planned to bring his intended bride from Illinois back to the Kansas homestead he started for them, but found out his fiancée had already married someone else when arriving at her father’s doorstep. After traveling back home, Noah finds a woman has taken over his claim, leaving him homeless and jobless.
Hilda realizes she needs help to make her horse ranch successful, and decides that Noah is the right man—to promote from horseman to husband on her ranch—if he’ll treat her as a special woman, and not just a ranching partner.
Noah wants his homestead back, and the woman who has transformed the simple soddie into a family home. Between family dramas, outlaw danger, and butting heads, which one will hogtie the other to get to the church altar first?
Cora Captures a Cowboy
A Historical Western Romance
Brides with Grit Series: Book 4
Bostonian Cora Elison arrives unannounced at her family’s ranch in Kansas, after her fiancé changed her status from bride to bridesmaid—at her own wedding. But after a few months, Cora thanks her lucky stars that he did because she has found a set of loyal friends, a way of life she relishes, and a cowboy she has become to love.
Dagmar Hamner and his family emigrated from Sweden to work on a Texas ranch, working cattle and herding them north over the Chisholm Trail. After his family decides to settle permanently in Kansas in 1873, he is hired for the foreman’s job at the six thousand acre Bar E Ranch.
All goes well for the Swedish cowboy until the absentee owner’s daughter arrives, wanting to learn how to become a rancher. Time makes them best friends, until a telegram arrives saying Cora’s parents are bringing an unknown groom to Kansas for her, insisting she be married when they arrive.
Cora asks Dagmar to marry her, but he balks at her proposal. Between confusion and interference, will Cora be able to capture her cowboy in time to haul him to the altar?
Historical Fiction Books by Linda K. Hubalek
Author’s Website
Butter in the Well Series
Butter in the Well
Prairie Bloomin’
Egg Gravy
Looking Back
Trail of Thread Series
Trail of Thread
Thimble of Soil
Stitch of Courage
Planting Dreams Series
Planting Dreams
Cultivating Hope
Harvesting Faith
Kansas Quilter Series
Tying the Knot
Patching Home (future release)
Piecing Memories (future release)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Linda Hubalek grew up on the Kansas prairie, always wanting to be a farmer like her parents and ancestors. After earning a college degree in Agriculture, marriage took Linda away from Kansas as her husband worked in engineering jobs in several states.
Meanwhile, Linda wrote historical fiction books about pioneer women who homesteaded in Kansas between 1854 to the early 1900s, especially her Swedish immigrant ancestors.
Linda Hubalek and her husband eventually moved back home to Kansas, where they raised American buffalo (bison) for a dozen years.
Linda is currently writing clean, sweet historical romances set in the 1800s.
Linda loves to connect with her readers, so please contact her through one of these social media sites.
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Cora Captures a Cowboy Page 12
