by Debra Samms
But Raymond said little and barely looked her way. It was almost as if she wasn't there at all.
At last they came to the town of Salmon Jump. The road widened and Catherine sat up a little straighter, looking left and right at the rough wooden buildings on either side of the dirt road. There were perhaps two dozen people walking in the road or on the wooden walkways in front of some of the buildings.
And every one of them stopped to stare at Catherine as the wagon rolled by.
"Is this – the whole town?" she managed to say.
Raymond finally looked at her, but only for a moment. "It is," he said. "Place is gettin' bigger all the time. They're even talking about putting in a second street back behind this one." He shrugged. "I can't imagine they'll ever need that much room."
"A second street," she said faintly, realizing she could count the buildings on each side with no more than two hands.
"It must seem pretty small after a place like Boston," said Henry, from the back of the wagon.
Catherine turned to look back at him, and smiled. "It does," she admitted. "But I lived all my life there, so I don't know anything else."
"I guess it's like Portland, only bigger," Henry went on. "Right?"
"Oh, not exactly, Henry," Catherine said, with a laugh. "Boston is much older. It's mostly made of stone and brick. It's heavy. Solid. And dark. While this place – "
She looked around again. The tiny town seemed so lightweight and rough and unfinished compared to Boston, and strangely vulnerable sitting out here alone with the huge forest all around it.
"It's much more open here," she said at last. "And really much more beautiful. There are trees and flowers and grass everywhere you look. And the air!" Catherine breathed deep. "So sweet and pure. Nothing like it in the big city!"
At the far end of the street, Raymond steered the team over to the side and stopped them at a hitching rail. "Well, we're here," he said, and stepped down to the ground.
Catherine realized that they were sitting in front of the blacksmith's shop. Raymond reached up his hand for hers.
"Go on, dear," said Aunt Millie gently. "I'll help you get ready."
Puzzled, Catherine allowed Raymond to help her down. She held out her hand to him, but to her surprise he placed his hands beneath her arms and swung her down to the ground.
She felt light as a feather in his strong grasp and looked up at him, smiling, as he stepped back. "Thank you," she whispered.
But he only reached up to help Aunt Millie step down on the hub of the wagon wheel and then onto the ground. "Catherine," asked Millie, "you did bring a wedding dress – didn't you?"
"Oh! Of course I did. I hope it isn't too crushed after the trip."
"Good! Now, I've arranged for you to go into the Mercantile and change into the dress. I also arranged with the owner for you to take a bath so that you will be fresh for your wedding. I'll help you with the laces and with your hair. Then we'll all walk down to the church. All right?"
"Yes, Yes, of course." She was a bit relieved to know she wasn't going to be getting married at the blacksmith's shop after all. "Let's go!"
As they walked across the street towards the Mercantile, which Catherine saw was a store with dry goods and hardware and food, she saw two children sitting on the ground in front of the wooden walkway – a boy of thirteen or fourteen, and a younger girl.
Both children had long, straight black hair and bronzed skin. The boy wore rough work clothes that seemed too big for him, while the little girl wore a faded, oversized dress and was barefoot.
Indian children, Catherine suddenly realized. A brother and sister. It must be.
With them were three young dogs on lengths of frayed rope – not much more than puppies, Catherine guessed, for they were small and very playful.
"Hello," she said to the children. "I'm Catherine. What are your names?"
"I'm Joseph. This is my sister Ruth," the boy said politely.
"Those are pretty dogs," Catherine said. "I've never seen dogs like that. Big feet and floppy ears! And the color – they look almost blue, with all those flecks and spots."
"Coonhounds, ma'am," said Joseph. "Four months old. One dollar each."
"You're selling them?" Catherine asked, not understanding. "Don't you want to keep your puppies?"
Joseph shrugged. "Good for hunting," he said. "One dollar each. And good as watchdogs. They always bark."
"And they howl!" said Ruth. "They're loud."
Catherine grinned. "I'll bet they are. Now – "
"Come along," said Aunt Millie, taking a firm hold of Catherine's arm and leading her up the step into the Mercantile. "The preacher's waiting for you at the church."
Once inside the store, Catherine found that a curtain of sorts had been rigged up in a small storage room. An older woman was preparing the tub. After bathing, Millie helped her get into her wedding dress.
The fatigue she felt from her trip was quickly overshadowed by her nervous excitement. In a short while, she would be the new Mrs. Cowan. She took in a deep breath to still her quaking insides. It was too late to question the wisdom of her decision. Her decision had been made and now everything that she had known was about to change.
The dress had survived the trip fairly well, and the light cotton fabric was only a little wrinkled. "Very nice dress, dear, said Millie. "Nice and simple with a little lace at the neckline. And look," she said, as she drew up the crossed strings in the back. "It's a perfect fit!"
When Catherine walked outside again, she found at least fifteen to twenty townspeople – most of them women – gathered together in the street. She could hear them whispering ohh and ahh as they stared at her, but no one actually spoke.
Catherine tried to smile at them. Gathering her courage, she asked, "Would you all do me the honor of attending my wedding?"
With that, the women all smiled and looked at each other. "Why, yes, we will! We will!"
Then Raymond appeared at the bottom of the step with his hat off and his arm out. Catherine paused, noting how handsome his face was without the hat, and then placed her fingers on his arm and walked down the step. She sensed a spark of electricity race through her body as they walked forward together. Aunt Millie followed them down the street and carried the trailing hem of Catherine's white gown to keep it out of the dust of the street, and the whole party walked together to the little church.
CHAPTER FIVE
Catherine waited outside the door of the church while the crowd of self-invited guests took their places. Raymond walked inside to stand with the preacher at the small altar.
His posture was erect as he stood with his shoulders back and chest forward. He appeared more confident than he felt. She was pretty all right, and they would have beautiful children together. He knew he was lucky to have found a bride. But would they learn to love one another? It was a question he harbored. A fleeting thought for his mind only.
Last of all, Aunt Millie hurried inside and came back with a bouquet of long purple-blue flowers bundled with little pale-pink blossoms. "Riverbank lupine and starflowers," she whispered, handing the bouquet to Catherine. "They grow wild here. Good luck, dear!" Then she hurried back inside.
Finally, Catherine walked alone down the aisle of the church. It was silent, for there was no piano or anything else to provide music; but she could not help but smile at the sight of the lovely sprays of lupine and starflowers on the altar, matching her bouquet.
In a moment she stood beside her tall and silent groom. He seemed stronger than any man she had ever known. Perhaps that was because of the hardworking life he had led for so long, or perhaps it was another kind of strength that she was feeling . . . a strength of spirit, of character.
She closed her eyes as he took her hand in his, feeling the warmth and strength in him just through that simple touch. She shivered at this thought.
It only took a few minutes for the preacher to marry Catherine Eileen Black to Raymond Travis Cowan. As soon as it was ov
er, her husband simply turned and led her back outside.
Henry was waiting out in the street with the wagon and team, and after she climbed up on the front seat Catherine waved politely at the little group of well-wishers . . . none of whose names she knew.
It was not the wedding that she had dreamed of all her life. Catherine had grown up seeing brides entering the magnificent stone churches and cathedrals of Boston, with trailing satin gowns and crowds of family and friends and beautiful music echoing throughout.
But she told herself that none of that mattered, for she had, at long last, come home, and that was what she really wanted. She waved goodbye to the little crowd as the wagon left for Clear Springs Ranch.
***
After a fine supper of roast beef and gravy and potatoes that Aunt Millie prepared for them, Catherine and Raymond sat on wooden chairs a few feet apart out on the front porch of the ranch house .
"My first Oregon sunset," Catherine said, watching the glow over the trees. She still wore her white cotton wedding dress, though she'd placed her blue woolen shawl around her shoulders. "So beautiful . . . so different from the city."
"Yes. Very different from the city out here."
He kept silent, simply staring out at the sunset. "Raymond," Catherine ventured, "I wasn't supposed to talk to those Indian children today, was I?"
Slowly he turned his head to look at her. "Best not to," he said. "I'm not sure how it is in Boston, but out here folks mind their own business and take care of their own."
"But those children – "
"Those are Indian children. They should be living on the reservation."
Catherine frowned. "I don't understand. Why aren't they?"
But he abruptly got up and started to go inside. "Time to turn in. We get up before dawn out here. Plenty of work to do."
She raised her chin a little. "I was always up before dawn even in the city. I've never known a day without plenty of work."
"Good. You take the first bedroom. I'll take the other. Good night." With that, he walked inside, leaving Catherine to follow him and close the front door . . . and sleep alone on her wedding night. Silent tears slipped from her lashes as she took to waiting bed.
***
Catherine awoke the next morning in the log-walled cabin bedroom, warm and comfortable in the soft bed beneath a handmade quilt. As she sat up, the first thing she saw in the soft dawnlight was her wedding bouquet lying on the little table beside the bed.
She sighed, wondering how embarrassed she should feel about spending her wedding night alone – but surely it was all right to get to know her husband firs. No one had to know that she'd been alone the whole night.
The main cabin was larger than she'd expected. There was a big central room with a kitchen across the far end, and two bedrooms on either side of the main room. Henry and George each had one of the far rooms while Raymond had the one adjoining hers.
She was pleased to see that there was a big stone hearth in each room in the cabin, remembering well the tiny coal stoves in the rooms at the orphanage in Boston.
Before long, sitting at the breakfast table with Raymond, Henry, George, Uncle Andrew, and Aunt Millie, Catherine forgot her shyness as she sat surrounded by the warmth of people who really were her family now. They ate and laughed and made plans for the day, and even though Raymond still kept his silence Catherine felt her spirits lifting more all the time.
"All right," Raymond said at last, standing up from the table, "I think it's time to show Catherine the ranch. She's got to know what life is really like out here."
"I would love to see the ranch," she said, and followed him outside.
There was a second smaller cabin beside the main one, where Uncle Andrew and Aunt Millie lived. But straight out of the back door, across a wide yard with a well, was a large barn surrounded by wire-fenced pastures and paddocks as far as she could see.
"We run about 200 head here," Raymond said, standing beside the well. "There's enough grass on the ranch that we almost never need to buy hay for the cows. Spring water feeds the ponds and the well. The land takes care of the cattle. The cattle take care of us."
"But – " Catherine looked all around. "Where are they?"
"Grazing," he said. "We have two different pastures fenced off for them. The boys and I move them from field to field. Right now the cows are in the north field, and in a few weeks we'll move them to the south. Keeps the place from being grazed bare."
She nodded. "Of course."
He walked inside the very large, high-ceilinged barn. Across the back half, up high, was the floor of the hayloft with some loose hay hanging over the front edge. There were stalls and pens on either side of the aisle, and Catherine could see the outlines of a couple of horses standing quietly in the stalls.
"I guess the pens are for the cows?" she asked.
"Yes. Come here and I'll show you why."
CHAPTER SIX
They walked down the barn aisle in the cool dimness of the huge structure. In each of the first two pens was a frosty red-roan cow and calf. "That's Daisy, in the first pen. Other one is Blossom. Once they calve, we bring in a couple and keep them here for a few weeks to provide some milk for butter and cheese and cooking. Then they go back out to their pastures with Hercules."
"With – what?"
"Hercules. The herd bull."
"Oh. Of course," she said with wide eyes. She had a lot to learn about this country living.
Near the back, in a large pen along the wall, was a cow with a very young calf. Both of them were a pretty red roan in color, with red hairs mixed with white and with solid white patches here and there.
"Oh! How lovely!" Catherine exclaimed. "They look like they're red but covered with snow, or frost!"
Raymond smiled a little, which delighted Catherine. "I guess they do. Never thought of it before."
She turned back to the cow and calf. "How old is the baby? And does she have a name?"
"Just two days old. You can name her if you like. We use flowers and plants as names here on this ranch."
"Well, then, that's easy! Starflower, just like the little pink blossoms in my bride's bouquet."
"That's fine." Raymond looked back at the cow. "Rosie, there, is a good producer, but had some trouble calving the last time. So this time I had the boys bring her in where we could watch her."
He shrugged, seeming almost embarrassed. "Some think you should just leave them out on the range to take their chances. Don't see why we can't help them when we can. I need this cow, too. We take care of her and she takes care of us."
Catherine smiled up at him. "Makes perfect sense to me."
"No sense having an orphan calf. They don't – they hardly ever – " He glanced at her and then abruptly opened the gate to the pen. "Come inside. You can handle the calf and start to gentle it."
"Oh! I'd love to." The calf was small and long-legged and a still a little wobbly, though its eyes were large and beautiful. "Now, I don't think I ever saw cows like these around Boston."
"You didn't. These are Oregon cattle. Descendants of tame English breeds and half-wild American Longhorns. They're tough but not bad to handle. Good for both milk and beef."
As they walked inside the pen, the calf darted around to the other side of its mother and hid there. Catherine hesitated. "Go around the front of the cow. Can't let the calf run from you. I'll catch it on the other side."
Catherine took a deep breath and walked towards the cow's head. The animal had horns maybe ten inches long that curved towards the front. "All right, Rosie," she murmured. "I just want to – "
And she leaped back as the Rosie swung those horns threateningly in her direction and took several steps towards her. Catherine got herself out of the gate and slammed it shut, shaking the whole time.
"What happened?" said Raymond, with both hands on the calf. To Catherine's horror, the cow swung around towards him and shook her head, but Raymond just grabbed her by one horn and twisted her head up
, forcing her to step back.
"She's just protecting a new calf," he said. "She'll calm down in a day or so. Come on in and we'll get hold of this calf."
But Catherine felt frozen to the spot. She could not make herself open that gate. "I can't," she whispered. "Maybe next time. Please."
He stared at her for a moment. Catherine could see the disapproval and disappointment in his eyes. He shoved the cow's head away and stalked out of the pen. "All right. Shut the gate and I'll show you the rest."
Her hands shook as she closed the gate and worked to force the heavy wooden bolt through the hole to keep it shut. Finally the bolt slid over and she hurried to catch up with Raymond.
"The well is right here, easy to get to from the house," he said. "The boys and I built up this stone wall around it so it'd be safe. Spring-fed. Best water in five states."
She smiled at him, still a little shaken. "I'm sure it is."
"Over here is the horse paddock. We have to keep them where we can catch them easy. They work most every day. There are five of them in all – this one is – "
Catherine heard hoofbeats behind her. She turned around and thought her heart would stop at the sight of Rosie trotting out of the barn and heading right towards her. The wobbly little calf followed right behind her.
"Raymond!" she squeaked, and tried to hide behind the stone wall surrounding the well.
Raymond stopped and turned around, and walked straight to the cow and grabbed her by the horns. She bawled loudly and threw her head from side to side, but Raymond held on and marched her and her calf into the barn and into their pen.
He walked back out. Catherine could hardly look at him and felt deeply ashamed. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I thought it was closed."
She knew that he was staring hard at her. "This is a cattle ranch," he finally said. "You knew that when you accepted my proposal."
Catherine hung her head. She was at once consumed by humiliation and shame. With remorse for her transgression, she vowed to herself to be more careful from here on out.
