Dark Journey Home (57 page)

There was one more telegram, this one also from
Ricardo, though addressed to Logan.  Claude pocketed the wires, then turned to
Amelia, his blue eyes twinkling, and said, “Perhaps, my dear, we should go to
meet Logan Wakefield’s father now, the wires can wait until we are settled at
the ranch, then we’ll all be needing to sit down with a hot drink before
finishing the reading of them.” 

Amelia looked up into her husband’s twinkling blue
eyes, and laughingly winked a brown eye at him, before saying, “You old fool,
you know something now, don’t you?” 

Claude grinned, saying, “Hush, my love, it can wait.” 
As the snow continued to fall, he led her outside, and across the snow-packed
road, noting their luggage had been loaded into a wagon, then quickly covered
with a tarp.  Logan stood happily hugging Olivia, while Seth Wakefield,
grinning from ear to ear, many years of anguish suddenly wiped from his memory,
felt ten years younger.  His son’s long journey home was ended.

Seth and Cassandra Wakefield welcomed their future
daughter-in-law with open arms.  She would be the daughter they’d never had. 
Olivia’s uncle Claude and Amelia took to Logan’s parents immediately. 

The blizzard, that had been threatening, hit the
valley and mountains, with a vengeance, the day after their arrival, coating
the whole countryside with a wonderland of sparkling white, as far as the eye
could see.  All passes were closed, allowing for travel to the town of Freeman, on horseback, or by horse-drawn sleigh only.  Supplies had been laid in for the
winter months, and firewood was plentiful.

Logan
worked hard
around the ranch, and was glad to see his three former shipmates working for
his pa.  Claude enjoyed tending the horses, thinking of his thoroughbreds back at
Beckford Manor.  He and Amelia would travel back to England the next year to
see more than a few raised eyebrows and disappointed old maids due to his
marriage to Amelia.  He would also visit Garth and his wife, Bridgett, and
their new baby son, then return to Texas. 

The winter in Wyoming was long and cold, but with the
weekly sleigh rides, and the enjoyable evenings spent in front of the gigantic
fireplace in the parlor of the large rambling ranch house, the months flew by. 
Claude proved to be an entertaining guest, with his charming British accent and
the exciting seafaring tales of his youth, which he told to a captive audience
each evening before a roaring fire in the fireplace.  Even Olivia said she’d
never heard such tales from her uncle. 

Before they knew it, spring had come, the snow was
melting, birds were singing, and the valley was in bloom.  It was time to plan
for the wedding ceremony of Olivia and Logan before returning to the Triple-B
ranch in Texas.  After much thought, and coaxing from their guests, Logan’s parents would follow later in the summer, after leasing out their ranch and
packing their belongings.  They would not be separated from their son again,
and would make their home in Texas, leasing land from the ‘Triple-B’.

It was a beautiful ceremony.  Olivia wore Cassandra’s
white gown, with just a few alterations, and Logan and Olivia were wed in the
ranch house parlor, by the parson from Freeman.  Many residents and neighbors
attended the reception which followed, some bringing homemade gifts, which the
couple would treasure forever.  Claude gave away the bride, Amelia was matron
of honor.  Logan’s three shipmates were his ‘best’ men, all three standing up
with him throughout the ceremony.  Logan couldn’t take his eyes off his bride
throughout the afternoon, and Olivia thought Logan had never looked so handsome,
in his gray tailored western suit with his green eyes shining like emeralds.

Theirs would be a long, and happy marriage; with Logan
proving to be a hard-working, loving and devoted, husband, with even hardships bringing
them closer together.  Olivia was happier than she’d ever been in her life. 

The trip back to the ‘Triple-B’ ranch in Texas went smoothly, and they were back before they knew it, just in time to welcome the
new son of Maria and Ricardo, little Ricardo.  An only child, the handsome olive-skinned
youngster quickly became the pride and joy of the whole population of the
ranch.  If one person wasn’t spoiling him, ten others were.

The years flew by, and as Logan’s parents had leased a
few acres of land from the ranch, they were nearby when Olivia gave birth to
her and Logan’s first child, a girl.  Dark haired, like her father, they
immediately named her Maria, after her dear friend.

Olivia loved the ‘Triple-B’, and although she and
Logan had planned, one day, to travel back to England, and visit Beckford
Manor, they never made the trip, so caught up with running the ranch, and
loving every minute of raising their children. 

Born a year after little Maria, Olivia had another
daughter, a blonde, with blue eyes, like herself, and naming the child after
Amelia, made her aunt a happy woman.  The third daughter, a year after that,
was named after Logan’s mother, Cassandra. 

Finally, five years after their last daughter was
born, they had a son, a duplicate of Logan, with the tiny baby’s bright green
eyes, thick dark hair, and charming ways, he could only grow up to be a
heart-breaker.  This one, they would have to watch.  It was not only Logan, who
passed out cigars this time, but every man on the ranch was passing them out
too.  Claude and Seth, had ridden to town, the day after the birth, and handed
out bags full of the long Cuban cigars.  

Through the years, the tall youngster of Maria and
Ricardo, little Ricardo, grew like a weed, and he and Logan and Olivia’s
daughters, and their one son, whom they had named after Logan’s father, Seth,
were inseparable.  They played with the other children on the ranch, but their
closeness to each other, could not be denied.  Little Ricardo grew to be a six-foot,
four inches tall, handsome vaquero.  After attending college back east, for
only two years, he returned to the ‘Triple-B’ to marry the Wakefield’s oldest
daughter, Maria. 

Through the years, two more wings were added to the ranch
house.  Also the ranch itself grew in size, making it more of a small town than
a working ranch.  More and more buildings went up, some of the ranch hands also
raising families.  Even a general store was opened, and then a schoolhouse
built, soon after, a church.   Claude and Amelia each lived a long life, and in
later years, sat on the front patio enjoying the sunsets, and the activity
around the courtyard, watching, as they put it, “their grandchildren grow”.

The ‘Triple-B’ had been such a success that
eventually, being more of a town now, than a ranch, it was re-named
‘Loganville’, after Logan, who had put many hours a day into the planning and
running of the place.  Olivia had insisted that it be named such, and Logan, secretly pleased, had also learned not to argue with his determined wife.       

Olivia’s brother Garth, and his wife, Bridgett,
visited the ranch, about once every five years, with their growing family. 
They had quit their side-line, working for the British government, though Garth
still ran the Beckford shipping industry.     

Maria and Ricardo were so close to the Wakefields that
they were considered family, and they built their home on an acre near the main
hacienda, though they spent most of their time with Olivia and Logan, and their
children.  Maria still enjoyed the preparation of her spicy Mexican dishes. 
She and Ricardo never did get to Mexico.

End

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cherie Shaw is a
writer/artist and was born and raised in the Midwest.  Her mother was also an
author and her father, a cowboy/deputy sheriff.  Cherie has been writing short
stories, poems, and children’s verses since she was a child.  She currently
resides in southern Arizona.