“Where is your mind?” Beth asked as the wagon dipped into a hole in the road he ordinarily would have missed.
Garret grimaced. “Sorry, my mind is on what I have to do this trip.”
“What are you planning to do about the money and the jewels we found?”
“I’ve been thinking about the problem now and again, but not a lot. I don’t think there’s much we can do,” Garret said. “Unless there’s been a change in sheriffs, turning it over to Wilson would be giving it to him. We have more rights to it than he does.”
“Jasper has more right to it than we do,” Beth said. “I know they were using your property without permission. Still, it seems wrong. Money and jewels are different from tables and chests and clocks. The money was probably someone’s life savings and the jewelry is probably family heirlooms.”
“They were using our property,” Garret corrected her mildly. “We’ve been upfront with Jasper from the beginning and have given him half of everything we have been paid for the furniture. We can’t post a notice about found money and jewels. We would be overrun with scoundrels laying claim to it. From what I’ve heard, larceny and thievery are the main pursuits of a good portion of the bummers in Denver. I think we should bury it like we did the rest of our money. This past year has been more than good to us, yet we’re still a fair way off from making a profit. It takes time to build a ranch and a decent herd. We had nothing to do with the coins and jewelry being tossed aside, so it’s not as if we’re trying to cheat anyone. How about hanging onto to it for a while longer?”
“I like the idea, and maybe someone will post a notice about losing some heirlooms,” Beth said hopefully. “I hope Denver has a future of becoming a town of decent people who will outnumber the schemers and the dishonest. Until then, the box will be safe in the rafters.”
The trip was uneventful, and they never ran across another person along the road. The road was dry and their wagon not so full that it was a burden on the horses. They made good time, pulling into Denver early on the fourth morning.
Garret sold off most of the remaining scavenged goods and told Mr. Tolliver not much more was left. His barn was nearly empty of all the things they had decided not to keep. He took the cash and paid for a room for him and Beth at the hotel. He delivered their provisions lists to the feed store, hardware store, and the emporium posting a job notice at all three places for cowhands. He hoped he would receive responses from men available for meetings the following day.
Beth wanted to stay in the hotel room and take advantage of the indoor facilities for a long hot bath, but Garret had a hidden agenda. He insisted she go with him for lunch at a café. He walked her down the street, and then stopped in front of a doctor’s office and opened the door.
Beth whirled around with concern on her face. “Are you sick?”
Garret shook his head. “No, you need to see a doctor.”
“I do not! I’m going back to the hotel.”
“No, you aren’t! Not until you’ve seen the doctor,” Garret said stopping her flight by putting his arm around her waist.
“I don’t need to see a doctor!”
“You will go in here,” Garret said firmly. “I want him to check you over!”
“You lied to me! You were supposed to be treating me to lunch at the café!”
“I will after you see the doctor,” Garret said keeping a firm hold on her.
“You’re making a scene!”
“Then stop fighting me,” Garret growled. “If I have to carry you in, I will!”
Beth was furious, but she entered the doctor’s office on her own. When the doctor came out of his examination room, he asked if she was all right. Beth said yes while Garret said no. He told the doctor about the miscarriage and that he wanted his wife checked over.
The doctor escorted Beth into the examination room where he poked and pried into her private business. What business was it of his when she had her last monthly? When he handed her a sheet and asked her to remove her clothing, she bolted.
Garret went into the doctor’s examination room with her the second time. He stood by the examining table watching the doctor like a hawk and making sure Beth did exactly as the physician asked.
From the moment she entered the examination room with Garret beside her, the doctor never spoke to Beth. He addressed all his questions to her husband, who in turn looked to her for the answers. The entire examination was embarrassing. A man who was not her husband had seen her in places she had not seen herself. She was mortified and in tears when they left the doctor’s office.
Beth walked away from Garret and kept walking until she reached the hotel. She refused to speak to her husband although he was practically stepping on her heels. She asked for the room key and walked away from him.
“Beth, it had to be done,” Garret explained, trying to reason with her.
“There was nothing wrong with me, he said so himself,” Beth whispered furiously. “Oh, go away! I don’t want to see you. Go away!” She went inside and closed the door in his face.
Garret had known she would be angry with him, but he had thought he could talk sense into her. When she refused to open the door, he sighed and decided to let her settle down before trying later. He had several men waiting at the feed store to be interviewed.
He had wanted to hire two cowmen, but the pickings were slim. Of the five men he met with, three of them already smelled of liquor this early in the day. A fourth had an arm in a sling and when pressed, admitted it had been broken in a brawl over a girl in a saloon. Garret had no need of troublemakers at his place. He began to worry he’d go away without the help he needed until he talked to the fifth man, hiring him on the spot. Jeb Sheldon was a seasoned older man tired of city living. He had spent most of his life working ranches in Texas. Recently, he had been working as a bricklayer in Denver, but he was ready to return to the range. When he heard the job included construction of outbuildings, it didn’t change his mind. Garret told him to get his horse and gear together since they would be leaving by mid-morning the following day as soon as the wagon was loaded with their supplies.
Garret took Beth to the café for dinner. She was giving him the silent treatment and was not ready to give up her mad. Once they were back in their hotel room, he tried to reason with her again.
“What he did to me was shameful!” Beth cried. “How could you have let him touch me?”
“He’s a doctor, Beth. He knew what he was doing. Honey, you haven’t been yourself for a while. You needed to see a doctor.”
“No, I did not! You embarrassed me for nothing! He said there was nothing wrong with me!”
“We know it now,” Garret said. “We didn’t know it before. He said he was using the latest equipment to make sure you were all right inside. I was there. I wouldn’t let him do anything improper!”
“What would you know about being proper or improper?” Beth snapped.
“There’s no call for you to be insulting,” Garret replied firmly. “I’m your husband, and if I say you need to see a doctor, then by God, you will see one.”
“Oh!” She gave him a shove pushing him out into the hallway and slammed the door shut.
Garret was stunned when he heard the sound of the lock clicking into place. Something about her locking him out fired his temper. “Open this door!” he yelled banging on it with his fist.
“Go away!”
“Bethany Wakefield, open this door,” he repeated. “If I have to go downstairs and get a key, you won’t be sitting for a week!”
The lock clicked and opened, and she shut the door behind him quickly. “Why don’t you shout it out the window,” she hissed. “You have already embarrassed me to death once today!”
“I’ve had enough sass, Beth,” Garret said firmly. “You needed to go to the doctor, and you went, so it’s over and done. If you don’t settle yourself down, you’ll have a bigger problem figuring how to sit on a wagon seat for the next several days with a sore bottom
!”
Suddenly there was a hard slam against the wall, and they heard a man swearing loudly. They distinctly overheard every vulgar word he shouted. The walls were so thin, they reverberated when something solid hit them, and Beth jumped. Garret instinctively pulled her into the shelter of his arms before letting go of her to stomp down the hall, where he banged on the door of the next room. A man answered the door with a bloody handkerchief at his nose.
“I have my wife next door and would appreciate you watching your language!”
“Sorry,” the man said growled and slammed the door in Garret’s face.
Returning to their room, Garret closed and locked the door as they heard another thump against the wall.
“I’ll be glad to get out of this town. It’s getting rougher, not more civilized. Let’s tuck into bed early. We’ll need a good night’s sleep.”
“Fine!” Beth snapped, turning to the bed. She yelped when her husband smacked her hard across the bottom.
“I’ve had all the attitude and sass I’m taking from you. You had better settle down and behave yourself. Remember what I told you. If you act like a child, I will treat you like one.”
Garret woke to soft skin and a faint scent of lilac or lavender, he was unsure which, but it sure smelled good on his wife. She had never gotten over her mad the evening before, and he had spent most of the night aching for her, knowing she would not appreciate his advances.
“Honey?”
“Humm…”
“The sun’s up.”
Beth snuggled into her husband before remembering she was angry with him. She shifted to move away, but he held her anchored into place.
“Are you still mad?”
She gave him no answer, but she didn’t struggle to get out of his embrace. “What he did to me was horrible.”
“It was embarrassing,” Garret agreed. “The doctor only did what he had to do, and there was no harm done. He needed to see if everything was all right inside. A doctor can’t fix what he can’t see.”
“He was seeing me!” Beth wailed her voice breaking. “I never wanted to share that part of myself with anyone except you.”
“I know, honey.” He leaned close and kissed her forehead. “I believe a doctor is an exception. I had to know if you were all right.”
“What if I can’t have children?” Beth asked, her voice shaking. “I won’t hold you to this marriage if I can’t. A man deserves children.”
Garret pulled her to him tighter. “Sweetheart, I married you because you were an incredible girl who gave me comfort one night in the middle of an ongoing hell. You gave me the gift of yourself, and I didn’t want any other man to have you, but I couldn’t claim you then. When I got a second chance to make you mine, I had no intention of losing it. I didn’t marry you for babies, although I wouldn’t mind if we had a few or a dozen. However, if we don’t have our own babies, there are plenty of young’uns out there who need parents.”
“Would it be the same?”
“I don’t know, but I expect it wouldn’t matter. After a while, you start caring for a kid whether it’s yours or not. Look how much we care about Jasper.”
They didn’t leave right away as Garret took a few minutes to show his wife how much he loved her. She reciprocated his desires, although they were both remarkably quiet as they were still aware of male voices coming through the thin walls. They were unable to make out the words this time, but the voices were still angry.
Beth was sitting in a chair bending over and hooking her shoe loops when a gunshot went off and a lamp not a foot from her head shattered.
Garret tackled Beth to the floor and lay on top of her for a few seconds. He raised his head, rolled off, and shoved her behind the large chifferobe.
“Stay put!”
Beth heard loud voices and shouting. This time, her husband’s voice was the loudest.
A small man poked his head through the door of their hotel room. “Is everyone all right in here?”
“The altercation is next door,” Beth said peering out from around the solid piece of furniture.
The man ducked out, and his voice joined the other angry voices. There were noises of a scuffle, and she peeked around the corner to see Garret slamming his fist into a man’s face and knocking him to the hallway floor.
“You damn near killed my wife, you idiot,” he raged.
“Sir,” the hotel clerk exclaimed, “I’m sure it was an accident!”
“Well, this isn’t,” replied Garret as he punched the clerk in the nose. “You need a better class of clients, and you need to make them check their guns at the front desk!” He stormed back to their room and without a word, tossed the rest of their belongings into their valise. He took Beth’s hand and dragged her down the hallway and stairs.
“Wait! Wait,” Beth exclaimed, still holding her buttonhook. She sat down in a hallway chair and hooked the last three buttons on her shoes, straightened her dress collar, and tied her hat ribbons under her chin.
While she was pulling herself together, Garret was seething. He glared at the hotel clerk coming down the stairs holding a handkerchief to his nose.
“I’m ready,” Beth said, glaring at the hotel clerk. She took Garret’s arm and proudly walked out with her husband.
The Johnson Emporium had their supplies assembled as did the hardware and feed stores. Garret was still raging inside at how close he had come to losing Beth. It had been a matter of inches.
“Did you get everything on Lettie’s list?” Garret asked her.
“Everything and more,” Beth said. “I bought extra fabric since we’ll need to make clothes for the baby.”
“Fine,” Garret agreed and then frowned as a Buffalo Soldier stopped on his way inside the emporium and stared at his wife.
“Miss Beth?”
Beth spun around and smiled. “Abram, is it really you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the man said, grinning widely.
“My goodness, I haven’t seen you in years. Garret, this is Abram Parker. He used to work on my father’s farm. Abram, this is my husband, Garret Wakefield.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Wakefield. Miss Beth, I sure didn’t expect to see you out in this part of the country,” Abram said. “How’s your poppa and Nate?”
“I am sorry to say they’re both gone. My father died in late ’61, and Nate died almost a year ago,” Beth said. “He sold the farm, and we were migrating west, but he didn’t make it.”
“I’m real sorry to hear it,” Abram said. “The last time I talked to Lettie, she told me Jacob was killed. She was out here married to a soldier. I heard he was killed, and I searched for her to make sure she was doing all right, ‘cept no one knows where she went.”
“She’s with us,” Beth told him. “If you are ever out our way, stop by.”
“I surely appreciate the invite, Miss Beth,” Abram said. “I’d like to see more of Lettie. It would be like old times, ‘cept a lot of our folks and friends are gone.”
Garret gave the soldier general directions to the ranch, and Abram Parker shook his hand and went to join his friends in the emporium.
“It would be nice for Lettie to meet with Abram again,” Beth said. “They used to be really good friends, and I thought he was sweet on her.”
“Matchmaking?” Garret teased.
“No,” Beth said, smiling, “I’m only nudging them in the right direction.”
***
Returning to the ranch, it was work as usual. The garden was growing well, keeping Beth and Lettie busy.
Jeb Sheldon turned out to be a good hire. He knew a lot about ranching and would lend a hand to any job from wrangling to plowing. If something needed to be done, he was willing.
Garret was worried, though, and had warned Jeb and Jasper to be on guard. While he had been in town, he had heard about several renegade Indian bands stealing and thieving. There had been no attacks, lately, but he and his men were constantly on the outlook.
Beth found li
ving out on the high plains a lot easier with Lettie there every day. She was not nearly as lonesome with another woman around.
Evenings were the best. Jasper was beginning to play his concertina well enough so they could make out what tune he was playing and they sang along with the music. Lettie usually spent her evenings sewing something for her baby as he was growing fast. Little Virgie was a chubby baby with an infectious giggle. When the baby got to giggling, all the adults were smiling.
Beth was trying to solve a mystery. She had taken one of the heavy silver boxes from the trunk in the loft to figure out how to open it. She had seen a Chinese puzzle box while visiting a museum and thought this box was similar. There were obviously two parts to the box and multiple holes concealed some kind of internal locking mechanism. The box required the person opening them to insert several thin rods into the holes in the correct order. When the right combination was achieved, the box would open. The challenge was to find the right combination. The problem was there were twelve holes in the box, indicating hundreds, if not thousands of possible combinations.
She spent many a frustrating evening not figuring it out. Garret offered to pry it open for her, but she wanted to outwit it, not break it.
As spring evolved into summer, the days got longer, and the men began work on the outbuildings. Even after putting in long hours on the ranch work, Garret, Jeb, and Jasper turned their skills to cutting down trees and preparing logs for building. They worked long after the evening meal, not stopping until it was almost dark.
The first small cabin they built was a bunkhouse. It was barely larger than the two horse stalls in the barn where Jasper and Jeb had set up their living spaces. A bunkhouse didn’t need to be very big as it was only intended for sleeping. They still needed to build the four bunks inside before Jeb could move in.
A Path Worth Taking Page 20
