by J. R. WRIGHT
After Adrian Cooper had left the table, Luke reseated himself and looked around at the puzzled faces there.
“What was that all about?” Truman Rainford asked.
“Now I forgot what we were talking about,” Luke said, ignoring the question.
“You were saying your daughter Tana Star was going east to college in the fall,” Wiggens reminded him.
“She’ll study to be a doctor.” Luke added.
“A lady doctor,” Thomas Kent said. “Now there’s one you don’t see often. Forbidden in England, last I heard.”
“She’s got her heart set on returning to provide medical care to reservation Indians. Her brother Chaska and Aunt Cola both had a hand in steering her in that direction. There will be a new hospital waiting for her at Fort Robinson when she returns in two years.”
“Oh, yeah! So who will pay for that?” Rainford asked.
“The Lakhota gave up a thousand pounds of gold to fund it. They gathered that from streams over the years before being tossed out of the Black Hills illegally,” Luke said. “They have finally put it to good use, after storing it at the Tea Cup for many years.”
“I see your son Chaska has added McKinney to his name. Those last bulls I bought from him, that’s the name he used to sign the bill of sale,” Rainford said. “What’s that all about?”
“Well, he was raised by Indians, as you know. He needed a last name when I signed the ranch over to him and his family last year. I suppose he figured McKinney was as good as any other, for the lot of them. It is a white man’s world for them all to deal with now.”
“Didn’t that Cooper fellow just mention that name as well?” Kent asked.
“Gentlemen, I’m sure the day will come when all your questions will be answered. But for now, I have a pretty woman waiting.” Luke finished his drink and stood from the table.
“You’re a bloody mysterious man, Tom Hill,” Wiggens said. “Now that you’ve given up the ranch and chasing after Indians, what will you do for excitement?”
“Well, since the government is shutting down Fort Laramie, James Bordeaux and I have a plan to build a hotel.”
“But you have two of those already,” Wiggens said, almost as if protesting.
“Oh, but this one will be bigger and better, Oliver. As long as Kenny Hardy can build’em, and Willie Wilder can fill’em up every night, why not?” Luke headed for the door.
They all watched as he walked away. Even with the abundance of silver hair touching the broad shoulders, he moved straight and tall, just as he had when first they caught sight of the man, near two decades ago.
“Why do I have a feeling that bloke will out-live us all?” Rainford droned.
Entering the second floor suite at the Prairie Princess, Luke put his hat on a peg by the door and went to the window across the room. Even with all the people milling about the square, he had no trouble spotting Adrian Cooper weaving his way up the street toward the hotel. The zeal of the man unnerved him a bit now. He had seen him lurking by the door at the Cattleman’s Club when he left. The man should have come forward if he was so anxious to get started. He could have shared his carriage.
“You’re back so soon.” An elegantly dressed, attractive woman came from another room.
“You’re not going to believe who I saw there today,” he went to her with a kiss.
She slipped her loving arms around him and looked up into his steel blue eyes. “Who?”
“You remember Bill Cooper?”
“I think you’re confusing me with one of your other wives,” she said casually and pulled him down for another kiss, something she could not get enough of, even this long after finding him again.
“Bill Cooper, Captain of the Missouri Bell? You must remember him?”
“Oh, yes. He was at our wedding. He gave me pearls. How could I forget? I’m sorry, what were you saying about him? He must be dead.”
“He is. But I bumped into his grandson. He’s interested in our story. He says he just wants to hear it so he can relay it to his children. But he’s a reporter. I don’t know as I trust him to keep a lid on it. What if he serializes it in the paper? Or worse yet, writes a book.”
“You ought to let him do that, if he wants. It would make our beautiful son proud. And it would be such great reading for our grand and great-grandkids someday, Luke.”
“I don’t know as I want them to know I ambushed a lawman and his deputies on a dusty street in St. Louis, fifty years ago.”
“Why not? It was justified. After what they did to Tom and Effie Nelson, and God knows who else, they deserved it.”
“I guess Captain Bill Cooper thought so, or he wouldn’t have helped me out the way he did.” Luke went to an easy chair and sat.
“Do it, Luke.” She went to him. “Please tell me you will. The good you have done throughout your life needs to be told. I’ll help where I can, if you want.”
“Something like that could get me hanged,” Luke said, with a sly smile, and pulled her down on his lap.
“Oh, Luke, stop!” Breanne laughed. It was the laugh of the sixteen-year-old girl he had fallen in love with so many long years ago.
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OTHER BOOKS BY J. R. WRIGHT
TWIG
LEGEND OF THE DAWN
AFTER THE DAWN
BEFORE SUNDOWN
SPIDER BITES
SPIDER BITES II
SPIDER BITES III
Table of Contents
Copyright
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE On the banks of the Little Blue River, Nebraska Territory, 1854.
CHAPTER TWO St. Louis, Missouri, 1839
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
AFTER THE DAWN
Copyright
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
/> CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
BEFORE SUNDOWN
CHAPTER ONE Wyoming Territory, 1868
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Five Years Later Paha Sapa –July, 1874
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE EIGHT MONTHS LATER June 1875
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE EIGHT MONTHS LATER April 1876
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE FOURTEEN YEARS LATER July 4th, 1890
OTHER BOOKS BY J. R. WRIGHT
