Valerie hugged him and kissed his cheek. “Liz, you're so damn lucky. He is such a good man to all of us.”
“Oh, I know. I know.”
Chet was back with his bride-to-be, all bundled up in a winter coat, but she wore her earrings under a red woolen shawl tied over her head.
“You can tell me how it went on the way home. You can drive,” she said.
They shouted good-bye to the others and left for the ranch.
He explained how they arrested the rustlers and got them to sign a confession. He also told her how Easter had given up after her husband died.
“I did that, too. Such a bad thing to happen to anyone. But you know that. Oh yes, this week they brought me two of his colts from the Verde. Jimenez and I are working them.”
“So you have your horses that you stopped by for, at last?”
“Oh, they belong to everyone in the family.”
“I am teasing you.”
She hugged him. “Ah, yes, now this Mexican tramp is stealing his horses.”
“Does not being married worry you?”
“No, I just say that to be silly.
Hombre
, I am very proud to share your life with you.”
“Let's meet the priest and ask him if he can marry us.”
“He better. I am not moving out of the ranch house to please him.”
“I'm glad. Everywhere I go I smell hay. I can't believe how you did that to me.”
“I admit I did it. That was where a boy would have taken me that night. See, I knew you were still a boy at heart.”
“I am curious about your childhood. Somewhere, such things must have filtered through.”
“Oh, my parents were very rich. I was raised in a strict Catholic girls' school. I learned about boys from myclassmates. I never had a chance to stray. Chaperones were always on hand. I learned to dance at arm's length. At such an event, I might have two dances in an evening.
“When my husband discovered me, I had never even kissed anyone. He swept into my life, kissed me, and we went off and danced in a
cantina
all night. My parents searched for me, and they even put a price on his head. A priest married us the next day, and by a fast private coach he took us from Mexico City to his Sonora
hacienda
. They disowned me. I have not contacted them since. That was their choice. My husband was an empire builder like you. There is a big
hacienda
in Sonora. His brother is not him, but he is capable enough to run it.
“I never wanted another husband. After his death they came from silly boys to gray-headed old men, even one with a cane. They came like peacocks, and they thought I was some weak sister who needed their skills on how to run a
hacienda
and to spend my money.”
“You have no contact with your parents?”
She shook her head. “My father is a dictator. I won't put up with that.”
“What does he do?”
“He is a big lawyer. He has been a
federale
judge.”
“Your mother?”
“She does what he says.”
“No brothers or sisters?”
“None.”
“Your husband treated you well?”
“Oh, we had fun. So much, I never thought it would end. I don't think he spoiled me. Much like you did, taking me to the Verde Ranch to see the horses. I knew you wanted to be ready to go help that woman, but first you took me to see the stallion and his offspring, and before I could ask you if I could have one of them to train, you told Tom to bring me two.”
Chet nodded grim-like. “I felt bad, fixing to leave you when you gave up so much to join me.”
“You told me something I have thought much about. What is a person's life worth, compared to anything financial? I could be a rich woman, entertaining myself, or else I could share another person's life, and it be as exciting as being a wife to him had been. It was not hard, after that long day we shared, for me to see being alone was not how I wanted to live the rest of my life.”
“All those suitors missed the point?”
“Oh, they were embarrassing.”
He shook his head. “You didn't know me, climbing out of that coach in a black dress and your earrings flashing.”
“I immediately knew that man with his hat in his hand was no clown. You have a real aura about you. You know what I mean? You could hold people off without using your hands. It encircles you. What did your wife do to meet you?”
“We rode together from Tucson on that same stage to Preskitt. At the time, I was obligated to a woman in Texas. I guess Marge thought I was a stranded cowboy and she started paying my bills. I had to gather them and repay her. She simply wanted to be sure I could survive. Headed home south of Preskitt, road agents killed my nephew, Heck. She came to my aid. The lady in Texas had to stay there and care for her family, so I returned and Marge fell in my tracks. I owed her for helping me so much when Heck's murder shattered me. My entire family was moved here, and I was to go look at the rim country for a ranchâbut Susie, my sister, said Marge wouldn't go on a camping trip with meâshe has been to finishing school. But when I asked her, Marge said she'd love to go. I told her no, that I'd marry her first.”
“That is what I expected, if you wanted me. But I am doing fine, fitting into your life. Are you still suited with me?”
“Yes. Perfectly.” He reined up in the yard. “We must always keep talking, not simply as lovers, but partners.”
“Oh, we will.”
Monica had waited up and spoke up, “Are all his fingers and feet still on him?”
“Oh, yes. I think he is fine.”
“What was the result?”
“One of the troublemakers is dead, the other three will serve five years for murder and rustling. The lady has a suitor who I think will see to her.”
“Was she pretty?”
He shook his head. “Just a woman.”
Monica nodded and served them cake.
“This is wonderful, thank you. Monica has been telling me about things in the past.” Liz cut a bite off with a fork.
“She could fill a book.”
“Not me. You would be the one,” Monica said to him.
They both laughed. “We love you.”
“I am going to bed. He will be up early, I have warned you.”
“Good night.”
He was home. Time to straighten out things.
“Tomorrow, we can find the priest, and you can meet my associates in town.”
“Sounds great. I hope I am fitting in.”
“You can't please everyone. You do me.”
They went hand in hand upstairs.
“When you set our wedding date, I want time to invite your people to come here, so I can meet them,” he told her.
“They won't come.”
“If they don't, then they will lose.”
“You have thought about that, haven't you? You are such a family leader and I have forgotten them. I was raised so strict, I have always resented that.”
“I bet you did.”
She laughed. “We will have fun.”
They met Bo Evans, the land man, who had bought three more homesteads near the Windmill Ranch. Chet introduced her to Tanner at the bank. At the mercantile, she met Kathrin, the lady he brought back from Utah, and her husband, Ben Ivor. They had lunch at Jenn's Café, and she met Jenn, along with Valerie and another girl who took Bonnie's place. Then they went to the Catholic church. She put a shawl on her head, touched the holy water at the entrance, and crossed herself with a curtsy. She went to pray at the altar while he took a seat in the back.
“You are Chet Byrnes?” the priest asked quietly.
He started to stand and the man waved his effort aside.
“I am here with Elizabeth.” He nodded toward her kneeling at the altar, praying.
“She is new here?”
“Yes, she comes from Sonora.”
“One of your men brought her lady here. Morales?”
“Anita.”
“Yes. And Jesus rides with you?”
“Yes, sir. But Elizabeth and I came to speak to you. We plan to marry.”
“I am honored. You are not Catholic?”
“No, sir.”
“I can marry you out in front of that rail.”
“I heard that we could not be married in the church.”
“Some strict members of my order might deny you. I won't.”
“The lady who cares for my son wanted him christened.”
“Oh, yes, Rhea told me. She has not set a time, since you were gone.”
“I will have her set that date. The wedding date is what she says.” He nodded to the returning Liz.
“I understand.”
“Thank you.”
They had an interesting exchange with Father O'Brian in his office.
When the marriage matters were about over, she spoke up to Chet. “I have thought about this. Would you let me hold Adam in my arms, when we get married?”
“That's fine with me, if you want that.”
“I really want that. It is his infant son, Father.”
“I have no problem with that,” O'Brian said.
Chet shook his hand and they left his office. She held his arm on the way to the buckboard. “I think this has been another great day in my new life.”
“I partner a saddle shop, so I want you to meet them, too.” They went by and met Martin McCully and his daughter, Petal. Then he took her by the livery and they met Frey and his wife, Gloria.
Driving home later, he told her about Gloria's problems when her husband died and how Frey rescued her from the house of ill repute.
“She is a fine lady. He's a real man, isn't he?”
“Yes, and a friend who's helped my operation a lot.”
“What next?”
“Get married.”
“You are right. Let's plan it.”
“You pick the date.”
“Yes, that is my job. What will you do meanwhile?”
“On the open days, check on our ranches. You can go along.”
“Would you be shocked if I wore britches when I ride with you to look at the ranches?”
“No.”
“Good. I would not offend you or embarrass you. Marrying a
Latina
may be a bad enough scar on you.”
“Oh, don't worry about that. You are my choice. You have so little accent, who would say that?”
“Oh, some woman who wanted you.”
“Too bad.”
“I went back to my
hacienda
, scolding myself for acting so desperate for you not to forget me. I was very upset, then your lovely letters came. I about squeezed them to death. And I gritted my teeth so tight, they hurt.”
“You're a mess. I thought I was just a page in your book of life and you would turn that over and go on.”
She pounded his arm with her flat hand. “Did you not believe me when I said I never knew another man beside my husband?”
“I knew that. We were both shaking that night like teenagers.”
“Yes.”
“Don't worry. I knew I had a winner, but I feared I had no good hold until you answered me in those letters. Then it was a two-way road to me.”
She quickly agreed. “You had lots of good memories behind you.”
He nodded. “More are in front of us.”
“I am glad we can talk, Chet. I am not insecure with you, but we have so much more to learn about each other. I want you to know I am here to be yourâmate?”
“Mate is the right word.”
“Do you feel alright to be married in the Church?”
“I have no problem with that. Father O'Brian is a kind man.”
“Yes, very kind.”
Things were moving forward. That pleased him.
C
HAPTER
8
He planned to start his first evaluation of operations on the Verde River Ranch. Tom was a watchful manager and he did a good job, but this ranch was his largest investment and had the most acres in the north. However, the Quarter Circle Z Ranch was his lowest source of income and it had been expensive to build its operation. That was because the past foreman sold the calves at weaning time, along with other bad management practices. The market for cattle was the larger two- to three-year-old steer. They would only start to reach that goal this year. A tough cow culling had helped, but that only called for more replacements. The sale of three hundred head of steers this year would help. The next year looked even better when near all of them would be Hereford or Shorthorn crosses.
Replacement of the traditional longhorn cattle was the direction ranching was headed. The beef quality of the British breeding was a necessary move.
Liz set the first Monday in March as their wedding day. He wrote a letter to her parents in Mexico City, inviting them to the event, but he didn't tell her.
“Will the snow be gone?”
“No,” he teased her. “It might snow that day.”
She turned up her hands and shook her head. “You are no help.”
He hugged her. They were making plans to go to the big house at the Verde. It had been some time since Susie moved to the Windmill, so Monica sent two of the
vaqueros
' wives and one of their husbands to clean the empty house. Supplies were sent along for the kitchen and to stock the place.
He had no idea how long they'd be down there. Liz said as long as they were together, she and Anita didn't care. Monica said Lea would make them a good cook, and her husband, Polo, would help her.
Jesus drove Liz and Anita down there in a buckboard. Chet wanted two of his roan horses down there for them to ride. Cole and he left early. When the sun was up enough to warm them some, the others came along. Mid-morning, Tom met the two men at the big house.
Polo had the fireplaces going. Raphael had sent a lot of firewood, just in case Tom's bunch was too busy to cut any. Chet thanked the two wives for their hard work cleaning the house.
Most of the morning, the men sat at the table and talked about the blacksmith shop. John was making a lot of barbwire with a small crew. Their building of windmills had picked up, and they were buying the gears because the shop didn't have the milling facilities. Three were set at Reg's on homestead wells on places they'd acquired. Tom's operation set up two and Hampt got one for the East Verde Ranch.
“Can we buy them cheaper than building them?” Chet asked.
Tom sat back. “Give us another year on that?”
“Fine. We didn't come here to shut you down.”
“Tom, you know of any artesian wells in the valley?” Cole asked.
Chet had been about to ask the same thing. “JD has a driller. He found two substantial ones. The water pours out from behind a shut-off valve, and in about two years, they'll irrigate several acres of alfalfa.”
Tom agreed. “We could use a driller, if he didn't cost an arm and a leg.”
Chet explained again, “Tom, we aren't here to tear up your plans. Things are going good. When I bought this ranch, we knew it would take three years to get a set of saleable steers.”
Tom nodded. “We're building a great set of cows. By next year, we'll have over a thousand great cows. We'll also have over two hundred Hereford cows by then, too.”
“We'll need some purebred bulls for that operation next,” Chet said. “If the weather isn't too cold tomorrow, I want to show Liz the Perkins Hereford operation. She's never seen that many white-faced cattle in her life.”
They laughed and agreed she needed to see them.
They discussed farming, and Tom spoke up. “We have a good hay program, and we're learning how to grow a seed corn I got from Mexico. Any corn we plant must tassel in June, before the real summer heat sets in and burns up the tassels. That'll ruin having a good ear corn crop in Arizona.”
“Too much or not enough?” Chet sat back in his chair to listen.
“If we get much more to oversee, I would hire a farm foreman.”
Chet shot a look at him. “Maybe we should look for one?”
Tom was not in favor. “I want us making money first.”
“Cole, what do you think?”
“I think they're doing a real good job. The men tell me they'll have lots of hay to carry over. So, in case of a long drought, that will be a big gain for the future.”
Tom agreed. “I think we're building a solid ranch operation.”
“Will it take two thousand cows to have a real ranch?” Chet asked.
“Maybe fifteen hundred. That and the steer carry-over would be a helluva lot of cattle.”
“Probably right. I see that Jesus has delivered the ladies. Let's break for lunch,” Chet said.
He went to welcome them and kissed his bride-to-be on her cold cheek.
“What a wide world it is up here.” She used her arms to show the expanse of the Verde Valley.
“You alright, Anita?”
“Oh,
si, señor
. This is a very different country.” She shook her head as if she might be taken back by it all.
Arm on Liz's shoulder, he said, “Part of our world. Jesus, tie up the team, lunch is ready.”
“I am coming.”
“Ladies, this is the original house on the ranch. After we rooted out the crooked foreman, I lived here with my sister before I married my first wife. The big house has so many more conveniences than we have here, but it's warm inside.”
“It is a very nice house,” Liz said.
“Someone needs to live in it,” he said.
Liz chuckled. “You have to choose between on top or down here.”
“I guess. I fear an empty house will fall down with neglect.”
“I have no answer. Was your house in Texas like this one?”
“No, the one in Texas was a walled fort against the Comanche. It even had big wooden gates. We hadn't closed them in years, but we could have. All we lacked was a damn cannon.”
“The Comanche kidnapped two of your brothers and sisters?”
“No, three. A boy and twins, a boy and girl. We never found any trace of them.”
“Oh, that was sad.”
Liz left him to go speak to Lea. “Anita and I are here to help you. What can we do?”
She smiled at them. “We are fine. Millie was here and she offered to help me, too. I handled this meal.
Manana
, maybe I will need three to cook.”
Liz thanked her and told her the house looked very nice.
“
Gracias, señora
. It's a very nice
casa
.”
Chet seated her and Anita at the table. They ate with the men, and the conversation covered their trip.
Anita commented, “It is a narrow mountain road. I am glad we did not meet anyone.”
They laughed.
“Did you cross yourself?” Chet asked her.
“Yes, several times.”
Jesus smiled and shook his head. “I told her I had never ran off that road in my life.”
She frowned at him hard enough that Chet chuckled.
“Tomorrow, if it warms up, we can go look at the Herefords.”
“We have a south wind. It should be warm enough,” Tom said.
Liz squeezed his leg beside her. “I want to go.”
“Sure. I think we can get back before dark.”
Liz frowned. “If you can't, I can camp with you.”
“We'll take our bedrolls.”
The men all nodded they'd heard him.
“After lunch, we'll look at the ranch horses.”
“May I go?” she asked.
He shook his head. “How could we go without you?”
“Get up at midnight,” she teased him in a soft voice.
He shook his head at Liz while she complimented Lea on their good lunch. Monica had chosen Lea well. Her husband, Polo, liked his job and Tom told him when they got busy he could help work stock.
When they went to look over the ranch's working horses, Tom suggested they buy a few replacements for the
remuda
and break them before the spring roundup. Chet agreed and they checked out the Barbarossa colts, besides the two she had at the upper house.
“Will you eventually ride them as ranch horses, or sell some?” she asked him.
“Awful high priced to herd cattle on. We probably will geld most of them and sell them to folks who want high-priced horses to ride. I sold enough in Texas to take everyone and the wagons up to the panhandle by the new railroad going to Denver. But we're accumulating more now.”
“Someday, I want a stallion for my
hacienda
.”
“You pick him. They're yours, too.”
She hugged his arm and in a whisper said, “I suppose you will make me pay you for him.”
He grinned and whispered back, “I hadn't even thought about that.”
She laughed, shaking her head beside him. “Yes, you had. You had.”
He found the ranch and corrals in good repair. Tom had forty-five weaned Hereford bull calves he was feeding corn and hay to grow them out.
She admired them. “You will use them this next year or the one after?”
“Tom likes to get them to a long two years, and that is only half as many as I need. We thought we'd be selling some bulls by now, but our own expansion keeps us buying more besides the ones we raise.”
“A big place takes lots of things. Tell me about that. I am anxious to see all those white-faced cows tomorrow.”
“Fine. The place is being well kept, isn't it?” he asked her privately, surveying the curious young bulls over the rail fence.
She quickly agreed. “Tom does not miss details.”
They were on horseback out in the river bottoms where the range herd of cows had been hayed earlier. She was amazed at all the haystacks, but being an observer, she commented how good the longhorns and half-Hereford cows looked.
“They are licking their sides and, to me, that says they are doing good.”
“I think it's worthwhile, feeding them up here.”
“Oh, with the snow cover you get up here, I think you would have to. Reg has to feed more?”
“He has lots more winter up there, and he also has to keep the elk out of his hay.”
“I have never seen an elk.”
“You will, in time.”
“I know, but I wanted you to point some out for me. Oh, and I like this roan horse. I see why you ride them.”
“Wait till you ride in the mountains on one. You'll really like them.”
“I bet they are sure footed. What do they call them?”
“Bulldog mountain horses.”
“I can see why. But you're a horseman. You knew that yellow horse would make money and bought him to fill your needs, like the train ride and getting Bonnie back.”
“And he also got you to stop and have an affair with me.”
“Oh, yes.” Her eyes sparkled. “I had not counted on that, but I never would have stopped to meet a man who would treat me so badly if he had not owned a great yellow horse. I can't even believe that day really happened.” She was laughing by the time she finished.
“I am truly grateful you did. But you said you ran off with your first husband to a dance and married him the next day.”
She laughed. “I guess when I find a man I amâwhat you say in Englishâwhat is that word?”
“Impulsive.”
She looked at him like that was a new thing.
“It means no holds barred.”
She snickered. “Eye gouging and biting allowed, huh?”
They both laughed.
“I have tried to speak good English, since I learned it. But there are words I simply don't know.”
“You do a great job. I won't get mad about you asking me anything.”
“Wait till I am your wife, then I will be like a bulldog biting you.”
“No, you won't. I know you better than that.”
“Oh, we will see.” She gave a toss of her head under the scarf and remounted.
They rode back to the big house with Tom, Cole, and Jesus.
“Tomorrow, we will see the Hereford cattle?” Liz asked.
He checked the sky for clouds. “Yes, if the weather stays open like this.”
“Good, I appreciate seeing all the things that you do. Someday, I will transfer some of your ranching practices to my
hacienda
.”
She had not mentioned much about her ranch down there, but she knew the ranching business. Running cows in a place where it never snowed would be a lot different from in the Verde Valley.
He looked forward to the night and holding her in his arms. At times, even as intimate as they had been, he learned new things about his mate. He hadn't thought much at first about Liz telling him she ran off and married her first husband. She ran off with his heart, too. Obviously, the
hacienda
had been her late husband's. For his part, he felt damn lucky she'd been available to become his wife.
A teenage boy came and knocked on the front door during supper. Polo went to see who it was and invited him into the dining room.
“Mr. Byrnes?”
“Yes, come join us. What can I do for you, young man?” He stood over his chair to talk to him.
“I hate to bother you, sirâmy name is Brant Bates. Some outlaws hit our place yesterday. They stole several of our horses and shot my dad. My mom said you were the only man in this territory who could get them horses back for us. She said for me to start looking for you here, then go to Preskitt.”