She snuggled against him. “I can help you. This is our last night living together as sinful people. Tomorrow we will be man and wife. Let’s enjoy it.”
Hmmm—they did that very thing, and in his book that was okay.
CHAPTER 6
Christmas morning, they opened gifts. Jan cried when she opened an envelope from his mother.
“What does it say?” Long asked her.
“She said she’d help me fix up the house we choose.” She dabbed at her wet eyes with the kerchief he handed her. “And I thought I’d be pushed aside for marrying her son.”
Both women in the room ran to her aid.
“Why would you think that?” his mother asked.
“I didn’t know you—”
“That is not the case, Jan. We’re so glad he found you. You are one of us,” Katy said.
“I know. But I have lived among spiteful people who resented anyone intruding in their world. I can’t believe everyone’s acceptance. I could not believe all the concern you have shown me. My deceased husband’s own cousin came and told me, at his funeral, that he and his family would be taking over my ranch. He demanded I give them the ranch.”
“Oh, Jan, you never told me about that,” Long said.
“I was so ashamed of them demanding it that I didn’t share it with anyone, but a lawyer told me they couldn’t do that. I knew they’d try something before it was over. Long did enough for me, insuring I wasn’t taken as a slave. He didn’t need to know my sack of problems with Rory’s family. I worried they’d do something when I sold the ranch. But we sold it so fast they had no time to stop it. I think they planned to take my ranch by claiming in court that I was mentally unfit to run it.”
His mother began hugging and rocking her. “Jan, we will all stand with you. You are one of us now and always will be.”
“Hey. This is no time to be sad,” Hiram said. “This is your wedding day, me girl. That worthless lot up there will never realize what a treasure they’ve lost.”
“See? You are in a safe place,” Long said.
She agreed with a nod.
Hiram asked her if she knew where her parents were.
“My father is dead. I lived with an aunt from my tenth year on. She died last year.”
“You don’t know where your mother is at?” Katy asked her.
“I don’t think about her. When she left me with my father she never even said good-bye.”
“Who did she leave with?”
“I never knew his name. I never tried to find her.” She shook her head, and the nice hairdo that they’d fixed for her event later that day swung loose.
“I heard once she worked in a house of ill repute, but I never looked into it. My aunt, my father’s sister, was a ship for me to survive with. I attended school. I never had any nice clothes, but she tried her best. I attended school in overalls most of the time. Between my height that I hated and my sorry wardrobe I struck back to survive. My husband, God bless him, Long has heard my story about my life with him. He lifted me up from being the poor too tall girl who wore hand-me-down clothes and very used shoes.”
Hiram said, “Don’t shrink. The O’Malley men appreciate your height, me lassie.”
They all laughed.
* * *
The noon meal at the ranch had been like old reunion days as Long met all the men who made the first run north with Harp and him to Sedalia. He laughed at the sight of Chaw, recalling the guy in a tattered confederate uniform, who on this day wore a big Boss of the Plains Stetson, white shirt, tan pants, and a businesslike jacket. The rest looked nice, but that Johnny Rebel sure turned respectable looking in Long’s book that day.
Hiram had told her earlier he’d be real proud to give her away. The three women drove one buckboard. Baby boy Lee was left home with a nanny. Hiram drove Long in another one. Their ranch foreman, Red, rode to town with Harp. All the crew plus their families were either on horseback, in buggies, or in rigs headed for the ceremony in town.
On the way into town Long asked his dad, “Mom said you rented a fancy coach and team to take her to the dance where you two got married?”
Hiram flicked the horses to pick up their pace. “I did for a fact. Your mother was so upset about being pregnant with you and your father dead she almost wouldn’t go with me. I insisted. When I proposed she told me to look at her body—that she was ugly.”
“She never was, was she?”
“Hell, no, she was a regal princess. M’wife had drowned six weeks earlier. I never thought I’d find a lovelier woman in this world. I didn’t care about her being pregnant. You would be my son when you came into this world. Period.”
“I never doubted that you were my dad, either.”
“Good. I planned it that way. Your mom was a great educator. You boys have shown it well. Why, I’d have gone to see those Rockies just like you did, but I had her and you, and then Harp to support. When Harp told me where you’d gone I said to myself—I’d have done the very same thing. Good luck to you and Jan. You know she cried when I said I’d give her away?”
“She has a big heart. But she’s willing and strong.”
“You two will have a great life.”
“Thanks, Dad, I sure missed you all out there fighting Indians and no one to talk to.”
“Oh, you even missed talking? How did that happen? You don’t say two words sometimes.”
“Well I missed Harp talking for me instead.”
They both laughed. It turned into a grand warm Christmas day.
The newlyweds, after the wedding, went off on the night stagecoach to honeymoon in San Antonio, Janet smiling and talking all the way about how she never figured anything like this would ever happen to her, especially after burying a husband and how proud she was to be an O’Malley.
He felt the same. Immersed in their love.
He took her to an opera in San Antonio. Though it brought back his memory of Rose and her impression of the show, Jan warmed his heart singing a verse or two in the taxi going back to the hotel.
“Only you would think to take me to an opera. My first husband was kind, but he’d never done that. Thanks, Long.”
He kissed her and deep in his mind he realized how fortunate he was to have her. In his search for a mate he could have done a lot worse, possibly finding an ungrateful one, a dumb one, or a nagger.
She was none of the above.
CHAPTER 7
When they returned from San Antonio Long learned Harp had chosen Johnny Brooks and Anthony Morales as the two men to ride with him and Jan on the ranch business for the land lock removal or settlements. Johnny was near thirty, but Harp said he was educated and a very steady person. Tough if he needed to be and smiling if things were level. Anthony spoke English and a good Spanish as well. He dressed nicely, spoke well, and yet was tough enough to back Long and Jan with Johnny.
Harp spent some time with Long going over all the notes he had on the owners. Fresh from their honeymoon, the two wore work clothing and began to get acquainted with the two men who would work with them on the ride across the land.
Harp had what folks, by then, called a chuck wagon setup to go along with them. Jimmy Quarles, a great cook, and two young boys who needed a job as camp helpers also rode along. That way they could stay out on the range and not have to come clear in each night.
Long set up for them to go to the crossroads at the site of the Union church on the east side of their new ranch land because there were some landowners around that point. The chuck wagon crew left a day before to find and set up their base. They took some extra saddle horses along, too.
That first morning Long and Jan left at dawn. Cold air iced things and he wore a sweater under his canvas coat. Johnny’s horse bogged his head and tried to throw him, but the man rode it out of him laughing. She, of course, wore his great coat and smiled smugly, warm all day in the saddle on the way to their camp setup.
Long didn’t mind. With no idea how long this job would take,
he set in to handle it. Besides he still felt mellow over their sweet honeymoon in San Antonio.
When they reached the camp setup, Jimmy, the cook, swept his dusty black felt hat off and bowed to her. “Mrs. O’Malley, welcome to my humble kitchen.”
She stepped off her horse, handed the reins to Anthony, and laughed. “My name, my friend, is Janet. Jan to you. No need to be so formal with me.”
“Then, Janet, good to have you here. What you don’t like, complain and I will change it.”
She stepped in and kissed him on the forehead. “All I know is the guys say you are a helluva good cook and I need to find a new word for that.”
“Not for me, ma’am—I mean Jan.”
“I do for my husband. But there is no helping me on the matter of cussing.”
They laughed and the way was set to have some fun in camp. Horses put up, they had some tender beef roast and frijoles for supper. With fresh bread and peach cobbler for dessert.
“You trying to fatten me?” she asked Jimmy over her dinner plate.
“I figure you’ll work off enough riding with them three.” He tossed his head at the others seated at the table.
She shook her head. “This business we are doing is not work. It is called hurry up and wait I think.”
Jimmy laughed.
Long was about to agree but he just chuckled instead.
In the morning they rode to the Craddick spread.
A bald-headed man came out and spat tobacco aside, then wiped his mouth on the back of his hand at the sight of her. “Morning, what kin I do fur you?”
“We come to talk with you, Mr. Craddick, about your ranch.”
“What fur?”
“You have one hundred sixty acres here deeded to you. I can see some is farmland and some is woods and pasture. I would make you an offer of sixteen hundred dollars cash.”
A thin woman came to the door and asked under her breath, “What’n the hell do they want anyway?”
“To buy the ranch.”
She made a sour face at him. “We selling?”
“I’ve got cattle branded,” he said to Long.
“I’d buy them, too.”
The man took out a flat small book. “Forty cows, thirty calves, and two bulls. Plus twenty-five yearlings.”
Long added in his head, the cows at twenty bucks and the rest at ten bucks a head. “I’d pay you twelve hundred dollars for them. Round it off three thousand dollars lock, stock, and barrel.”
“Write me a check.”
“You will have to come to the bank in Kerrville next Monday. I will meet you there and you can sign the papers.”
“You ain’t sold my cow?” She frowned at him.
“Hell, no, woman. Go get packed . . . he just bought this place.”
Long, in disbelief at how fast the deal went through, stepped off his horse and shook Craddick’s hand. “Thanks. That’s my wife, Janet, and that’s Johnny and Anthony. I’m Long O’Malley.”
“I knew who you was when you rode up. Nice to meet you. I’ll have all my belongings along with me in Kerrville Monday. She’s nagged me for years to sell this place and move up on the Canadian River in the Injun Territory. Well thanks to you I’ve heard the last of it.”
“I’m taking your word on that number of stock.”
“They’re here. I don’t lie about anything.”
“Could you show them to Johnny tomorrow?”
“No problem.”
“Good. I’ve got a mean bookkeeper I have to please.”
“I understand that.”
“Thanks.”
When they rode to number two on the list, she asked him, “How deep are your brother’s pockets in this game?”
“He says deep.”
“We buy many of these places they better be.”
They reached the R T Bar Ranch near noontime. The owner, RT, was not there but his wife Harriet said she’d ring the schoolhouse bell and he’d come in.
They dismounted and hitched their horses at the rack. Long introduced them and told her they were there to discuss buying their ranch land.
The woman with gray streaks in her hair shook her head. “Might as well ride on. He ain’t budging an inch.”
“Thanks, ma’am, but I needed to make him an offer.”
RT rode in carrying a shovel, and it was obvious from his clothes and gumboots he’d been working in the mud. He dismounted, hitched his horse, and set his shovel aside.
“Ma’am,” he said to Janet. “Excuse my mud. I had to unstop a spring today.”
“No problem. I know all about ranching,” Jan said.
His wife interrupted, “Well that’s Long O’Malley and they come to buy the ranch and I done told them no.”
He quickly agreed. “We don’t want to sell like she says.”
“We’d offer you ten dollars an acre today and that offer is only good for thirty days,” Long said. “You realize the H Bar H owns the land all around your holdings, and when fencing comes you will be left with a partial section of land here.”
RT nodded. “We like this place. We’ve worked hard to develop water and farmland. I’m forty and not in mind to start over on another one. I know I may lose the rangeland, but we want to stay right here.”
“That is your choice. But the offer is only good for thirty days. Nice to meet you.” He offered to shake the man’s hand, but RT shook his head and folded his arms.
“RT, we aren’t out to destroy you. But we felt an offer needed to be made, giving an opportunity for folks to move to more advantageous places.”
The man shook his head. “I don’t know what’cher talking about. I’m staying here.”
“Thanks.” He turned to his people. “Let’s mount up. He does not want to sell.”
Out of hearing, Jan began laughing. “He thought that ten-dollar word you gave him was a disease.”
He frowned at her. “It means a better place to ranch.”
Johnny and Anthony laughed.
She rode in and pulled on his arm. “Darling, we know the meaning and we won’t catch it.”
He shook his head at her. “I can see this is going to be lots more work than I thought it would be.”
His wife agreed. They headed back for camp.
For the next day he picked two more ranchers’ names with deeded land close by to check out.
Jimmy at supper asked how it went.
“One owner agreed to sell, the other wouldn’t shake my hand after he said no.”
In the morning Johnny and Anthony rode over to count cattle. The two of them went to see Merle Barton on the Five Cross. He owned one hundred sixty acres.
The air held a nippy morning, and the oak wood smoke coming out the chimney smelled inviting. Their property sat on a flowing creek. The house was made from hewed logs and the large winter-bare shade trees made the place look settled. A milk cow bawled for her calf, and a whiskered man came out on the porch and invited them in.
“Don’t tell me. You’re Hiram O’Malley’s son. I met you, your brother, and Hiram at Oak Crossing, I bet five years ago when we tried to get my boy back from them damn Comanche. I’m Merle Barton and this is Hattie, my wife. You must be his wife?”
“Yes. This is Jan. We’ve been married two weeks. I am Long O’Malley.”
“You two have a chair. Hattie is making coffee. Tell me what is the big cattleman and rancher doing down here?”
“You know we bought up a large amount of land over here?”
“I heard about it.”
“Well we are offering to buy folks like you out if you want to sell. Ten bucks an acre. Cash.”
“Hattie, you wanting to move?”
“No.”
“Well that’s my answer. I’ve got to live with her.”
“That’s right. But some day we may need to fence you off the open range.”
“Good. Her milk cow won’t get so damn far away.”
They laughed.
“Listen we may some day rot u
p here, but until then we aren’t moving. We had two boys. One died of mumps. The other you know the Comanche stole and we never found a hair from his head of him. Your dad really tried to find him, too. So we’ll stay here. This old house is tight and dry. Fireplace heats us. The land provides us deer to eat, and we sell some yearlings enough to cover our bill at the store. So we ain’t selling. We ain’t got any kin we know about. What say I give you my will? When her and I are gone it will be yours and your brother’s?”
“I won’t refuse you. But when you get to where you can’t get those cattle up and work them anymore, me and some of the boys will handle it.”
“That day may come. Thanks.”
“Harp has a lawyer. Next time you go to Kerrville stop and see Mr. Lacey. He will draw up the will and you can sign it.”
She made them stay for lunch, and after that they rode on south to the 34K and found no one. No sign and by his estimation not a soul had been there in a while. His thoughts were reinforced after entering the cobwebbed house.
“It has been ages since they left,” Jan said to him after their inspection.
“Maybe longer,” he said when they mounted up and rode back to camp.
“Kind of strange, too. There was someone here when the assessor was here last year.”
She shoved him friendly-like, walking back to their hitched horses. “He must have left the next day.”
He grabbed her up in his arms and kissed her. “This is long hard work.”
“Kiss me again, you big lug. I love you so much—What’s wrong now?”
“Stay here. I noticed something.”
“No, I am going with you. What is it you see?”
“There is a noose tied in that oak tree over there.”
“Oh, do you think—”
“Stay here.”
“Hell, no. I am going along.”
“Come ahead then, but I suspect someone back then was hung.”
“Oh, how can we tell—”
“The damn coyotes scattered his bones in this tall grass, I suspect.”
She stopped and shuddered, covering her face at what she saw. “Oh, Long, there is a skull over there.”
Dead Aim Page 7
