“I already told you, lady. I don’t stop this stage for nobody.”
“Then you’re about to meet somebody who’s going to make you change your mind.”
Cord had set his horses into a gallop when the stage came into view, but when he saw Eliza leaning out the window, unmistakably beckoning to him, he whipped them into a hard drive. The stage driver didn’t seem to have any intention of slowing down, but when Cord pulled his buggy in front of him and then slowed his own horses until they came to a standstill, he had no choice.
“You can’t interfere with stage business,” he said, considerably offended, but Cord paid him no attention. He jumped down and ran around to the side of the stage just in time for Eliza to leap into his arms.
“I don’t want to run away ever again,” she said, emerging from his embrace.
“You don’t mind being the wife of a half-civilized cowboy?”
“I wouldn’t consider marrying you if you weren’t,” she said, laughing. “And I want to form committees, hold charity balls, and tell everybody what to do.”
“Lord, that child never does anything, but what she goes overboard,” moaned Lucy.
“You know you don’t have to do anything like that,” Cord said, making her look at him quite seriously. “You can stay on the ranch and never go into town if you don’t want to.”
“I think I would prefer living on the ranch instead of in town, but I don’t want to bury myself. I’m not afraid anymore.”
“Are you sure? There’s bound to be a lot of pressure on you.”
“Then I’ll stay at the Matador until it goes away.” She smiled at his slight pucker. “I’m teasing. With Lucy and Ella telling me what to do, and Susan making me do it, I’m going to have to depend on you for protection. You do want to take care of me, don’t you?”
“Forever, but you must obey me implicitly.”
“How?” Eliza asked suspiciously.
“You can keep on with your teaching—I don’t think you’d be happy if you gave that up—but I want you to turn the saloon and boarding house over to Lucy and marry me the minute I find the preacher.”
“Any more orders?” she asked meekly.
“Just one. Kiss me.”
Eliza threw her arms around Cord’s neck and he buried her in his embrace. Then Cord swept her up into his arms and carried her to his buggy.
“You can stop staring like a bare-bottomed sharecropper’s brat, and throw those bags down,” Lucy ordered the driver, who had listened open-mouthed to the whole exchange. “Then you can head on to Douglas if you’re so hot to get there. We ain’t got no use for you anymore.”
Cord and Eliza seemed to have no use for anyone except each other. She nestled within the circle of his arms as he took up the reins and turned the buggy toward home. The driver, watching as though mesmerized, stared after the retreating buggy until their silhouettes merged into one inseparable whole.
Author’s Note
Note The Johnson County War is the name usually given to the confrontation that took place in northern Wyoming in April 1892. Tension had been growing for some time between the large absentee owners who controlled the cattle industry through the Wyoming Stock Growers Association in Cheyenne and the small ranchers whom they saw as competitors, the homesteaders who fenced off grazing land and water, and rustlers. Originally the issue was control of the mavericks and the open range, but it turned into one of survival after the rustlers became very active. Nearly two hundred cases of rustling were brought to court, with only one conviction. On the other hand, at least five “little” people were killed before the invasion; in one instance the killers were known by name, but no one was ever convicted. An army of seventy paid gunmen did arrive in Casper on April 6th, did kill two suspected rustlers at the KC Ranch on April 9th, and were surrounded at the TA Ranch on the 11th, where they were rescued by the Army on the 13th. They were later transferred to Cheyenne, and all were allowed to go free without a trial.
To this day there is a great deal that is not known about what happened or who was involved, and much of what is known is disputed. There are many firsthand accounts of the early days of the cattle industry in Wyoming, and most give their side of the Johnson County War, but perhaps the most objective presentation of the facts is Helena Huntington Smith’s The War on Powder River, published by McGraw-Hill in 1969.
I have tried to fit my story into the historical framework and have my characters reflect the sentiments of the time as I imagined them to be, but my characters are fictional and their actions are from my own imagination. When I have referred to actual events, such as the killings before Christmas of 1891, I have used fictional names.
About the Author
Leigh Greenwood is the award-winning author of over fifty books, many of which have appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Leigh lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Please visit his website at http://www.leigh-greenwood.com/.
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