He reached the ranch house mid-morning. As he hitched his horse, she came out on the porch in a starched dress—not a black one. This dress flattered her figure.
“Good morning, Harper. I feel I am imposing on you. I have some fresh coffee made. Have a seat on the couch and I will serve you some. Cream or sugar?”
“Black is fine.”
He hung his hat and jumper in the hall. “Nice house.”
“Oh,” she said back over her shoulder. “I forgot you have never been inside before.”
Back with a china cup and saucer, she set it before him on the coffee table. Then she took a seat beside him. “How is everyone at your ranch?”
“Fine. Busy baking and cooking for the wedding of one of my foremen named Chaw. He went with us to Sedalia.”
“I recall that name. A local girl?”
“She lived over at Mason. A nice young lady. Calamity is her real name.”
Anna laughed. “We are here alone. My children are at my folks today for a reason. I want to be very frank with you. I know you have a wife and you are very happy with her. But I thought, well, that when you came back from Sedalia and with Emory dead, well, I thought I could turn your head toward me.”
“Oh.”
She scooted closer. “Long was very kind, but he was not you. When I received your kind letter about Emory’s demise I cried, and I remembered the broad-shouldered young man who told me, in my front yard, that he had fired the cook of the drive. That man was coming back home to Texas, and my hope for an alliance with you was very strong. But you found Kate. I have been heartbroken ever since.”
“I never—”
“You never did a thing. I simply had a notion maybe you would part with her. Now you have a son and any relationship would probably not work. But would you consider having an affair with me?”
“No. Not because you’re unattractive, not because I don’t care for you, but because I have my wife and don’t need anyone else in my life.”
She slumped her shoulders. “I am sorry, but I had to do this today. I know I am shameless, but sometimes your heart overruns your better senses. I will be here. If she ever leaves you, you have my invitation.”
From her dress pocket she took out a piece of paper. Written on it: Two hundred good steers. I can have them ready.
“Anna—”
She rose shaking her head, tears streaming down her face. “I am so sorry but, Harp, I had to tell you my true feelings—please forgive me. I know I am a fool, but I can’t help myself.”
“Anna, we will take your cattle to Kansas. I can’t even think about another woman. If I did, I’d think of you but—”
She was at the kitchen door. “I won’t ever trouble you again. Please leave me to cry alone.”
He rose and put on his hat and jumper. This was why his belly hurt coming over. He knew something was not right. The roan horse unhitched, he swung into the saddle. She was standing before the curtains in the bay window, handkerchief in her hand and waving good-bye.
He’d get lunch in Kerrville. Another thing that he needed to bury. Long was not him and he wasn’t Long. Where was his big brother? Older maybe but not any bigger.
Long, come home.
CHAPTER 37
Katy asked him when he dismounted. “How is she?”
“Fine. She has some cattle she wants us to sell. I promised her we would handle it.”
“No man in her life?”
“I don’t think she is looking for one.”
She encircled his waist. “She can’t have mine.”
He laughed when she hugged him. “She wouldn’t want him.”
“I am not sure of that. You are fast becoming a large landowner. There are lots of women looking for men who have money and land.”
“Well, don’t worry. I don’t need any of them.”
“Good. You have to be in Austin next Thursday to sign the papers. He sent you a telegram today. I answered you’d be there.”
“Can you come? We will need to go to San Antonio by stage after the wedding and get down there by Wednesday.”
“Yes. I want to.”
“Great. Let’s go buy half of Texas.”
“You know what?”
“What?”
“People are going to hate you even more for buying this land than for stealing their cattle.”
“Because it will land-lock them into our land eventually.”
“Will they sell to you?”
“Some will, some won’t. I can care less. They made no attempt to buy it. I did.”
Kate shrugged. “None of them have the money to buy anything.”
“My dear, I see in the next decade private land will have bob wire strung around it.”
“Yours, too?”
“It will be the way to keep your grass for your own stock, to have grass like the sisters do, in case of drought.”
“Just be more careful. I want you to rock your grandbabies.”
“I plan to do that.”
“I will have some white shirts and clean pants packed for you and I can be ready to go when we need to leave.”
“Good.”
“I want you to buy a new business suit when we are down there. You’re going to have to go to important places, and I don’t want anyone saying that you’re some hick from Camp Verde.”
“All right, fine.”
“There are going to be more opportunities coming down the road for you.”
“Like what?”
“Appointments to government boards. These Yankee carpetbaggers won’t be here forever. Eventually Texans will run Texas again. You will be in that circle. Trust me you will be. A man with forty sections will be looked up to for those jobs.”
“Anything else in my crystal ball.”
She slugged his arm on the porch. “I am not a gypsy.”
“But you know things like one.”
“I am only thinking about you and preparing you for things to come.”
“And for that I am grateful.”
“Wait; don’t go in just yet. Did anything happen to you today?”
He shook his head.
“No? I fretted all day that you were being challenged by someone today. I was not sure who but maybe your enemies thought badly about you.”
“Maybe. I’m fine.”
She shook her head. “It was nearly as bad a day for me as the one that made me wait longer at the store for you to arrive at Lee’s Creek.”
“Nothing happened to me.”
“Good.”
He followed her in. There was never any intention on his part to even consider Anna’s offer. But Kate knew he had been challenged. She had some powers few individuals possessed. At times they were vague to her. Thank God she didn’t know.
He wanted no one else but her.
But he had been challenged.
* * *
The Chaw-Calamity wedding was a hoot. Cowboys danced their boot soles off on the straw-floored barn. Many ladies liked to dance and their husbands didn’t, so the ranch hands filled the dance cards of the young, old, fat, and skinny ones until the band about died from exhaustion.
He and Katy slipped off before midnight. No reason to tell her about the Greg woman and his encounter with her. He had Katy. That was enough. That Anna wanted him and not his brother, Long, was a shame, but too bad. He was taken.
The crew hauled benches back to churches past dawn.
Next they rode the stage to San Antonio, spent the night, and the next day went on to Austin. Tommy Snyder met them and by taxi they went to the Alhambra Hotel. They had supper in the restaurant and learned the signing was to be held over at the Texas State Land Office at 10 a.m.
Tommy was excited. “So far I have sold ten ranchers land adjoining their own. Most bought much less than you did. But I think it is just the start. More will come back next fall from Abilene and want more land.”
“Tommy, what about the people land-locked inside our future ranch?” she asked.
“That will be up to them. Most, for lack of access to free range, will be forced to sell out.”
“Will it cause a range war?”
“They won’t have a leg to stand on.”
“That won’t stop hotheads from rising up.”
“I agree. But in time they will be forced to move on.”
“You have seen the maps. How many have places in that purchase?”
“A dozen, maybe less. Some are just squatters. Others will claim they filed a homestead on it but never sent in papers and will now say the records were lost. Just living on land will not give them a claim or right to be there.”
“I will pay you to challenge everyone inside our borders. If they are legitimate I will observe their rights. If not I want them moved off.”
“That’s what I do for my money; I am a land lawyer. I expect them to protest in court even, but if they have a legal claim we will talk about them selling if they want to.”
“That sounds right to me,” Harp said, and Kate agreed.
The signing and transfer of money by check went smoothly. The land officer gave them a rolled-up map of the purchase and the land commissioner shook his hand to thank him.
“I understand you sold Texas cattle in Sedalia, Missouri, two years ago?”
“My brother, Long O’Malley, and myself sold eight hundred head of steers there in late summer. I guess we were the first cattle sale after the war. In fact Lee signed the peace about the time we got the drive to Fort Worth.”
“Was it difficult?”
“I can tell you I got some gray hairs from it.”
“How did two young men do that? You had no experience at driving cattle long distances did you?”
“We had experience. We’d fought the Comanche. My dad recovered many white children they stole. We were along with him. Herding a bunch of dumb cattle wasn’t much worse than those times.”
“Thomas said you even had the law on you up there.”
“Yes, we did. They passed a law that no Texas cattle were allowed in Missouri, but the Saint Louis meatpackers said to let us come in because they had to have beef.”
“They do now, don’t they?”
“They still need them. I understood they ate every hawg and chicken up during the war. It will take years to get back enough to bother our cattle shipments.”
“Mr. O’Malley, you should be right in the Texas history books with Crockett, Bowie, and the rest.”
“Thanks, and thanks for letting us buy this adjoining land. We will raise more Texas beef on it.”
Tommy, Kate, and Harp hurried away so as to not have to talk to any reporters. The news would spread fast, and there would be many angry people saying they never heard of this sale. A scandal was brewing, but they already had the state seal on their deed. They bribed no one and merely used the advantage of a law set down by the presiding Texas state officers.
They celebrated in a private dining room with Tommy and two associates who had sent him notice of this new law. They all three toasted Kate and Harp. Neither drank anything but tea. Still it was fun.
The next morning, the Austin newspaper headlines read:
Nineteen-Year-Old Cattle Baron Buys Thirty Sections of Texas Rangeland In Bexar County—for Cash
HE SAYS HE WILL BUY MORE !
Inside the coach rocking for home, she flicked the newspaper with the back of her fingers. “Nineteen years old huh? Wait until he’s twenty-five. He may own the northeast quarter of the state.”
“Easy, easy, we have to crawl to walk, sweetheart.”
He held her in his arms. “You know all those women back there in Austin we saw?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t see one I’d trade you for.”
“You know why?”
“ No.”
“Because I would not let you go that’s why. Dang you are such a neat kid, I am never letting you go.”
“I don’t feel that young.”
“Life has been a drag on us both, I guess. I lived for four years not having anything at all, and now here I am with you and we have a great son. I thank God every morning for delivering me from that hell I was in.”
“Amen. Long and I took a job that was supposed to pay fifteen dollars a month if we got to Missouri with the cattle. Sounded good. There was nothing we could do to make that much money at home, and what would be hard about driving cattle? We’d done that before.”
Kate smiled. “When we get to San Antonio lets buy two big cans of peaches and eat them in our room.”
“And get drunk on them like we did at Lee’s Creek.”
“Cowboy, you think of the neatest things to do in the whole world.”
And they did.
* * *
Word got out by morning that they were at the Crockett Hotel. They came downstairs for breakfast and asked the clerk what all the noise was outside.
“They have a police line out there holding people back. They want to lynch some guy named Harbor who underhandedly bought a huge ranch from the carpetbagger government in western Bexar County.”
“Send our bags that are up in our room to the H Bar H ranch in Camp Verde, Texas. Here is a twenty-dollar gold piece. Ship them and keep the change.”
“What is your name?”
“H. O’Malley, but don’t use it. Use the brand. Come on, darling, we are going out the back way.”
At the livery he rented a buckboard and team, hitched quickly, and he paid them to go to the livery at Bernie and get it back. They’d take a stage from there to Kerrville.
Things worked smoothly. They made Bernie and left the team. He tipped the man two dollars to hold them for the livery coming after them. On the regular stage to Kerrville, he picked up a few newspapers to read about the riots. There, he hired a boy he casually knew to quickly take them home to the ranch.
The boy spared no whip, sliding corners and making his ponies run. He got them there so fast that Harp paid him five dollars and the boy about swallowed his Adam’s apple.
Harp told him to cool them good before he went back to town. He agreed and unhitched them to walk out their heated condition.
His mom came rushing out. “Whatever is wrong?”
“Let’s go in the house and we can explain it. Where is Dad?”
“He’s coming from the barn on the run.”
“How is my boy?” Katy asked.
“Lordy me, he’s fine. Is that why you rushed home so fast?”
“No. We can talk better inside.”
When Harp finished their escape story everyone laughed.
“I guess even real cattle barons can get into big trouble,” Hiram said.
“They damn sure can.” He’d never seen the likes of people that mad because someone bought some rangeland.
Finally he asked, “Long still hasn’t come home yet?”
Hiram shook his head and pointed at the calendar on the wall. “We are fast running out of the days left in November. And people will quiet down about the deal. It won’t be anything at all by New Year’s Day I bet.”
“I didn’t do one illegal thing. They sent out word to people they could find, with adjoining land, and they all had the option to buy it.”
Hiram almost choked on his words, he was so upset. “None of them had the damned money.”
“Now that is possible, too. But they won’t offer this for long I bet. I think they had a short fall, and a quick deal like this is going to cover it. Tommy thought so, too.”
“What next?” Hiram asked.
“Start hiring men. We are going to have four herds going north.”
Hiram explained what he had heard. “Some ex-ranger named Charlie Goodnight is revamping supply wagons with a kitchen cabinet in the back gate of the wagon. He has a fly out back for shade and to cut off the rain. Oh, and he uses the back gate for the cook’s table. It has folding adjustable legs with pins to level them. They call them chuck wagons.”
“Sounds neat. Who does that in town?”
“Two or three guys,” Hiram said.
“Talk to Ira and then get them set up and I’ll look for another one good as they are.”
“I can do that. Mom and I talked while you two were gone. We are concerned that Long hasn’t come back yet. He knows how much work you have to do to get ready for another drive, and he’s never left it all on you to do before. There is no way to track him down. We have no idea where he went. But he should have sent a two-sentence letter anyhow. We are worried.”
“I’ve been concerned for a month now, but I don’t know where to start looking.”
“There isn’t a place I can think to look. You keep working. You have lots of cattle to move. We can only hope and pray.”
He thanked his dad and went to talk to his bookkeeper. There were lots more things to do. If a lynch mob didn’t string him up first.
CHAPTER 38
November skipped into December. They even saw some snowflakes floating around one cold day that far south. Ten days into the month he had the second consignment herd full. The Clark brothers were building the first chuck wagon for the O’Malley brothers. Harp stayed close to the fireplace making more plans for the crews he still had to hire.
His foremen assured him there were lots of hands willing to ride for him since he paid for the trip back and they might get put on permanently at the ranches. He put an ad in the local paper, for applications, and he got a hat full.
Some he knew, some he’d never heard of before. He answered that some come in on a trial basis and most turned out to be good workers. He began to build a team and hoped his brother would be home by Christmas. He’d wait to see if he made it before hiring any more.
He rode into town to see the progress on the chuck wagon. Ira went along pleased he would have the first updated one in town. They were standing in the shop admiring the work the brothers had done so far when all hell broke loose.
The shots struck Harp’s horse, which had turned around at the time the shot was fired. The animal reared in pain. Harp had his gun out and shot the man who was standing in sight with a smoking gun in his hand. The horse went over backward and Harp knew he’d been shot badly. He lay on his side pawing up hay and dust. Damn that. Now shooting his next best horse.
The O'Malleys of Texas Page 30
