The O'Malleys of Texas

by Dusty Richards

  “I guess after this we do. No one ever dreamed you could take cattle to Missouri and sell them. Emory, the man who hired us, believed we could do it, and we started north before Lee signed the surrender.”

  “It was a wonder you didn’t get killed. Where’s he now?”

  “He died after we got there. He’s got a family back in Texas.”

  She waved for him to turn. “Take this side road up the creek. There are places to be alone up there.”

  “You come over here often?”

  “When Jimmy was with me . . . yes.”

  “It bring bad memories to you coming back?”

  “Honest no. I told you, he’s as good as dead. He can’t ever come back here. I need a new life. I saw you today, carrying that sack like it was a pillow, and I told myself I needed to meet you. I want to turn a new corner in my life, and I hoped you might want to be the man to help me do it.”

  “I simply wondered why you stopped me.”

  “You ain’t married are you?”

  “ No.”

  “Some men would lie about it. You ain’t a liar, either, are you?”

  “No. I don’t lie to anyone.”

  She hugged him tightly from behind in the saddle. “I am not obligating you to anything.”

  “Okay, I am listening.”

  “What I mean . . . whoa, turn in here. Ain’t a soul around here.”

  Kate slipped off the horse. He dismounted and led the animal into the glen she pointed him to, and then she showed the way onto the short grassy beach above the stream surrounded by bamboo.

  “You ready for peaches?”

  “I guess. I can open them with my big knife.”

  “Good. Open yours, then mine.”

  “Why not yours first.”

  “Because I am beholden to you for buying them and bringing me up here today.”

  He opened her can and gave her a fork. Then he opened his and bent the lid back. She was already smiling and licking her lips when he looked up.

  “What would you have done today if you hadn’t invited me down here?”

  “Harper, I have to admit I was concerned. But I don’t know—I’d done something. Might not been what I liked. I am a survivor. My step-people been dead since I was fourteen. I’ll be eighteen this winter. I don’t look back much. I try to steer ahead, but I must say with him in jail my life has been rocky. Today is much better and I have you to thank.”

  He savored the first bite. That sweet peachy taste filled his mouth and he felt wonderful eating it. What a good treat. She set her can down and came over to him.

  “You want to kiss a sweet mouth?”

  Hell, yes. Words were not necessary. He kissed her, and he liked it so well he kissed her some more. Heady business in a hot afternoon. He never noticed the heat before now, and now here he was sprawled over this wisp of a girl and kissing the fire out of her.

  “Should we finish the peaches?” she asked, looking dreamy-eyed up at him.

  “I guess we better.”

  They ate and looked what he called moon-eyed at each other the whole time. He didn’t want to lose her. Peaches and loving her—they all went together.

  By the time the peaches were eaten, the sun was setting. She suggested they unsaddle his horse and then go take a bath in the river. Then, if they wanted to, they could dry off sitting on his horse blanket rather than on the grass.

  “I have soap and a towel in my saddlebags.” As he unsaddled Comanche she laid out the saddle blanket.

  That done she began to undress. He did the same. Then, hand in hand, they ran off into the creek and splashed—kissed—splashed some more. The moon was rising in the east hours later when the two weary lovers finally rode into the cow camp.

  He threw his leg over the horn to dismount and caught her in his arms to set her down.

  “Long, I want you to meet someone I met today.”

  “Howdy,” Long said, realizing it was a girl and taking off his hat.

  “Long O’Malley, this is Kate Martin, and she’s going to Texas with us.”

  “Well, come over here. We have some fresh real coffee and your beans made it to camp, too,” he said to Harp.

  “Good. She and I got detoured. We ate a couple of cans of peaches and took a bath in Lee’s Creek.”

  Harp would’ve sworn she blushed at his tale. But he hugged her and that made her smile. “I guess we can go by and get her few things tomorrow before we ride out of here.”

  “I don’t know how he found you, little lady, but welcome. Just so you know, Harp and I are brothers, nine months apart, and I’m the elder one. I will tell the crew you are here. This has been a boys’ camp up until now. But they all have manners and will treat you nicely. They don’t, I’ll teach them better.”

  “Thank you, Long. How’d you both get those names?”

  “Dad said that when I came in the world, Mom said, ‘He’s Long.’”

  “I came along and Dad said we can’t have two Longs, so I’m Harper.”

  They had her laughing. “I can see,” she said behind tears of laughter. “This is going to be a great ride to your home.”

  Harp learned one thing that night—two lovers could both sleep on a single cot.

  At breakfast the crew met her, and they all told her that she chose the wrong one. Every one of them wanted her. She enjoyed the attention and told them sorry, she picked him and was tickled to have him.

  Harp and Kate went with a packhorse to get her things. Told the crew they’d catch up with them.

  The shack she took him to had a low roof. Obviously the man she lived with before was not as tall as he was. She brought him the blankets and bedding she wanted to keep. She had a few dresses. It wasn’t much. An older man came around saying she owed rent and was she going to pay it.

  She told him to get it from the man in jail. He got red faced and before he started in on her, Harp spun him around. “How much?”

  “Five dollars.”

  “Here.” He stuck it in the man’s shirt pocket, spun him back around, and told him to get his ass out of there.

  A short while later she closed the door, mounted her own horse, and they went to the free ferry, loaded up on it, and went over to Fort Smith. They kept moving cross-country to the brick army barracks and then took the pay-for-paddlewheel ferry to the west bank. It cost a quarter an animal.

  “I am going to break you from paying ferry fees,” she said on the far side, mounting up again.

  “No, it beats swimming across the river with steers.”

  She laughed. That girl laughed a whole lot. He was getting prouder and prouder by the day, having her along. They caught up with the crew in camp south of the Canadian River.

  It was suppertime and his belly button was gnawing at his backbone by then. Ira found a man that sold him beef for five bucks, and he had cooked a loin. It was damn good and there was lots of it.

  The drive home went faster than going up, and they crossed the Red River on a ferry into Texas in five days. In Fort Worth, Harp took Kate to a hotel. She put on a dress to eat out in and they slept in a bed that night. The men camped and some came into town while they took a day to reassemble things before forging on. He bought her two good dresses that really made her feel like a lady, and two new pairs of boy’s pants to wear when she rode.

  She told him she felt like a queen, never had that many clothes in all her life. In San Antonio, he went by the Texas National Bank and showed them his receipt. They showed him his deposit and took him back to the number two man in the large bank, Fred Newman. Fred told Harp how proud he was to meet him and asked how could he help him.

  He got checks to pay everyone, and Newman showed him how to make out the checks and sign them. Next he and Kate rode onto Kerrville and stayed at the Grand Hotel.

  If there was one thing he dreaded, it was taking Kate to the ranch to meet his mom. He’d faced some mean men in fistfights but never before faced his mother with a woman he lived with who was not his wife. H
e’d never even had a wife.

  He rented a buckboard. Kate wore a good dress and had clothes to change into so she could see the family ranch. If, of course, he was still alive to show it to her.

  When they came up the quarter-mile drive to the ranch house, he warned her. “If this turns into hell raising we will leave, Katy darling.”

  “Your folks will be that bad after you’ve been gone for six months?”

  “No. But Mom may be so upset that you and I aren’t married that we can’t stay here.”

  “Harper O’Malley, I never asked for you to marry me.”

  “Don’t be upset. That is her way.”

  “Well if it gets bad we can leave, but I will cry.”

  “Darling, I hope it won’t happen, but you’ve been warned.”

  He reined up, got down, then tied the horses to the hitch rail and went back to take her off the buckboard. Besides the stock dogs barking, he heard his mother say, “You must be Kate Martin. Welcome to the O’Malley Ranch. I am so glad to meet you.” Then she hugged her like a daughter-in-law should be hugged.

  That damn Long had informed her all about Katy. Bless his soul. He never expected that from his half-Cherokee brother—but he owed him one that was for sure.

  Those two women were so engaged in talking, he waited patiently for them to go into the house. Then his father came around the corner, hugged her, then whirled her around in a circle like he did his wife many times and told her how happy he was Harp had found her.

  What a helluva welcome home.

  Thank you, Lord, one more time for helping this sinner out.

  CHAPTER 8

  Harp, Long, and his family set up a party for everyone that was owed money from the cattle drive. It was a celebration to come to the ranch, eat, and get paid. Other neighbors were invited as well. It was planned for Saturday starting at three in the afternoon. A nearby German had plenty of homemade beer capped to sell to Long, and, submerged in the springhouse tank, it would be cool enough to drink.

  They’d planned to barbecue goats and one hog. Everyone lent a hand. Harp saw how his Katy and mom made a powerful team, cooking and baking for three days. The cook, Ira, was still around and he did the meat, at which he was a mesquite marvel at cooking.

  Harp had Long bring Emory’s widow, Anna, and kids over early, since the celebration was in her honor. By midday, lots of others were coming up the driveway. They had plenty to snack on, meat, and every kind of pie ever made in Texas, plus cakes and something sweet the Czechs made called Danish.

  Emory’s widow looked very nice in the black dress, and big brother had her arm. She was a nice lady and he wondered what Long was feeling about her since he was staying close.

  He pulled Katy aside, and out of sight, kissed her.

  She was breathless. “You were so worried huh? You devil. This is wild and your mom is wonderful. I have learned so damn much my head is about to crack open. Buddy, I sure made a good grab getting you.”

  “Maybe.”

  “No maybe about it. Kissing is over. I have to fix some more things. They’re drinking more lemonade than beer.”

  He let her go. The envelopes were all ready to pay each person with a check inside. She’d helped him fix each one. To say the amounts had amazed her was an understatement.

  “You two are tycoons,” she’d mentioned the night before. “And you plan to go back?”

  “Yes, but not through Missouri.”

  “Oh, Harp, this is unbelievable.”

  “The trip was that way to me six months ago.”

  They had the Baptist preacher give the grace. Harper welcomed them all to the party.

  “We want you to know, for you people missed it, and who’s selling any cattle this year, Long and I are going north, destination unknown at this time, but we plan to have a market next year and are taking consignments of big steers for delivery north in 1866.

  “From this trip just finished, the first check is for a great lady. I am so sad that her husband, Emory, who advised Long and I and made the plans for the trip, is not here to do this. Here is your check, Anna.”

  Long had her elbow. Harper decided if he had not held her up, her knees would have caved.

  “This—ah—is my share, and everyone else has been paid?” she asked him.

  Harp looked her in the eye. “Your husband told us we should share the proceeds with you. All the money he owed at the bank is paid and any bills I know of are paid. That amount is yours.”

  “But it is way too much money, Harper O’Malley.”

  “How much did you pay her?” someone asked.

  “No one need know amounts.”

  A hush fell over the crowd.

  “She has her share after everyone will be paid.”

  Long escorted her to the side. His mother and Katy were there to calm her.

  “John Haycox. Here is your amount for a hundred steers.”

  “Oh, my God, John. We are out of debt,” his wife screamed, hugging his neck.

  “Walter Scott, a hundred steers, same amount.”

  “I’m coming, Harp. My get-along isn’t that fast anymore. You boys need hugging and kissed, but I ain’t doing no part of that.” The crowd laughed. “You sure you got all your expenses out of here.”

  “Yes, sir. Mike Howard, a hundred head.”

  Long said, “His daughter, Emily, is coming. Mike is under the weather.”

  A big, buxom, red-faced gal about thirty came grinning. “That’ll make Pappy well I bet you.”

  The list went on and on. Harp knew the check for forty head went to Baldy Sorenson was as big to him as any handed out that evening. He came crying. “I’d never believed you boys could have done that for me.”

  The last check was for a widow woman for eight head. Natty Coins was in her forties, gray headed, and sharp talking. When Harp told her the amount she stopped and blinked her eyes. “I only drove eight head to you boys’ house. How could this be my check?”

  “I recall you started out with ten, Natty. You told me that two got away from you on foot.”

  “That’s right. I couldn’t catch them two rascals. Oh, mercy, I called them lots worse than that.”

  “Long and I paid you for the two that got away.”

  The crowd gave them more applause.

  “Now you see we do what we say. Could have been worse or maybe better. But our first drive turned out all right. Thank you all for believing and trusting us.”

  That night, he and Katy went to bed in the attic where they’d slept each evening since coming home. Lying on his back he was still feeling high from the payoffs.

  She was, too. “Your mother told me a story, since I have been here, that I think kind of explains things. About how you were so worried she wouldn’t accept me and why she acted like she did when I got here. I bet she never told you this story.”

  “What did she tell you?”

  “She loved a Cherokee and he lied to her before he went off hunting in the Cherokee Outlet. He got killed out there and she had Long in her when your father, whose wife who had drowned, came by and took her away and married her.”

  “I heard a shorter version. But you don’t have a baby in you do you?”

  “Oh, damn you, Harp O’Malley—she understood me and my way since she had been there. No I swear I have no baby in me that I know about.”

  “Good, let’s try for one.”

  She sighed, exasperated. “You are the neatest guy I ever knew. Why, those people talked all night about sending cattle north with you two next year.”

  Uh-huh.

  CHAPTER 9

  Harp and Long talked all the next morning about buying a ranch of their own. They discussed all the places they knew might be for sale or they knew were for sale.

  Then the brothers and Kate jumped on a two-seat buckboard and drove it to town.

  They split up and Harp and Katy went to see the local banker, Jim Yale. Long went to find the lawyer, Tommy Snyder, who sold places. The three were
to meet at Kelly’s Diner for more talk later when they were through.

  Jim Yale had five places for sale. Three were repossessions and Harp knew them all—they were dumps. The place on Lavender Mountain was not much of a ranch, but the one in Grass Valley might be.

  “Two sections, nice house. Has sixty acres hay meadow, forty cropland. More could be developed in the creek bottom. Some windmills and several watering tanks. Run a hundred and twenty mother cows.”

  “How much?”

  “Ten thousand with the cows on it.”

  “How many cow calf pairs?”

  “They say a hundred. I expect eighty.”

  “Less than eighty you’d replace them?”

  “No, I can’t do that. This place has not been run right.”

  “I still have a crew of guys. Let me count the cows and I’ll look at the place and be back in five days. You hold it for me until then. We will see what it has and doesn’t by then.”

  “Word is out you guys killed the golden calf in Missouri?”

  “We did all right. Just don’t finance anyone going up there. They don’t like Texas cattle and have a law against bringing them into the state. We barely got in and out alive.”

  “Folks say you sold sixty thousand dollars’ worth of cattle up there.”

  “I am not lying to you if I say that if they weren’t so starved for meat we’d never have made it.”

  “More will try now they have the word.”

  “Well, I am not ever going back to Missouri. If you loan money to anyone going up there you are a damn fool, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Katy wanted him to sit down. He did.

  “Back to the RXB Ranch. Will you hold it that long?”

  “For you, ten days.”

  “Good.

  Long had two places the lawyer found, but he agreed he wanted to look over the RXB place first. They hurried home and gathered the crew. Ira was going to get supplies in town on his way out there with the big supply wagon. The hands were riding over there in the morning to start counting cattle and recording them. Two hands were bringing half the remuda over and helping the cook set up.

  Hiram said the boys helping him had his place working fine so he wanted to go along and see it, too. That made Harp feel good. His dad knew lots about cattle ranches. His mother sent a wall tent over in the wagon for Katy to sleep in if the house wasn’t fit.