A Widow’s Hope on the Cattle Trail – Extended Epilogue

Three years later

Before coming north and settling in Montana, Eliza Mae thought of Texas Longhorn cattle as belonging solely to… Texas. She’d assumed they were a breed meant only for warm weather. She should have known better. The cattle were a hardy bunch, as many lived off very little grass and lean pickings all year round. They survived the brutality of Texas, and if they could thrive down there, they could survive anywhere.

After reaching Kansas, Caleb had taken Eliza Mae and Henry aside. He’d asked them both if they could see themselves returning to Texas and doing one more drive again the following spring. He’d told them if they said yes to one more gruelling adventure, he would use every cent he’d earned on the drive they’d just finished to purchase their own cattle.

They’d bring them up with the herd, and when they separated in Kansas, they could branch out anywhere. More land was opening up, green and lush and perfect for ranching. It would be cold, and the land could be hard. Life wasn’t without risk and struggle, but if Eliza Mae could envision it, Caleb would work as hard as he could to make it a reality for her and Henry.

It was no surprise that Henry was eager to go on another drive. Other than the bad men they’d encountered, his falling into the river, and the snake in the grass, he’d enjoyed every single moment of the drive.

Eliza Mae gave Caleb the only answer that she could imagine giving. If he was at her side, she could dream anything. Wherever he wanted to go, she would follow.

Caleb had an aura about him, and the only person who didn’t seem to be aware of it was Caleb himself. He drew people to him with his steadfast ways, his honesty, and his loyalty. When he asked Doc and Horace if they might sign on for another drive, they enthusiastically told him they would.

Reverend Porter didn’t want to be left behind. He’d been hoping to find a small town to settle, where he could convince Doc to set up a practice. Reverend Porter begged Caleb to take him back to Texas and teach him how to work with cattle, so that he could be of use on the next drive. After heading all the way to Kansas, Bridget found that maybe she didn’t want to start over on her own after all.

They’d all returned to Texas. Caleb was worried about doing things right and proper, and he’d asked Eliza Mae what she thought about Reverend Porter marrying them. She’d kissed him, good and long and hard, so he had no doubt about her thoughts on the matter.

Their wedding was small, but they were surrounded by friends who had become family. They’d all spent the months busily preparing for what Caleb hoped was his last drive. Many of the men signed on again, including Tage Jackson, Rafael Delgado, and John Will.

They’d moved twenty-five hundred head of cattle, five hundred of them belonging to Caleb and Eliza Mae, up to Kansas. After Abilene, Horace, Doc, Reverend Porter, and Bridget also made the journey further north to Montana.

It was Caleb’s dream to grow the ranch, and on that ranch, they’d need a cook. Horace was thrilled to be needed. More than that, he adored Henry, and there was no separating him from his boy. Horace didn’t have any children or grandchildren of his own, and so Henry was very special. Henry also adored his Cookie and would have been disconsolate had Horace chosen to return to Texas.

Revered Porter and Bridget shocked everyone by falling in love. They were married at the end of the second drive. They settled in Helena, where Reverend Porter took charge of one of the churches. Doc set up a practice there in town, where there were never enough doctors to be had.

While most of the men returned south to Texas, Eliza Mae would always be thankful for their budding ranch, and for people she loved as family. She was thankful for her memories, counting them like blessings.

She sat on the porch swing, doing just that. Inside, the house was warm, though not Texas warm, but she found she needed a breath of fresh air after being on her feet all morning. Her swollen feet and aching back were bearable if she took a few minutes to rest here and there.

She adored the small house. The timber mostly came from their own land. Eliza Mae was amazed at how their neighbors had pulled together to come help raise their barn, and help Caleb build their home before winter settled in. Caleb built the swing himself, though.

“Ma?”

Eliza Mae looked up to find Henry racing across the grass. He’d been at the barn with Caleb, mucking out stalls and choring. In the distance, five hundred Texas Longhorns grazed on the lush summer grass. They’d all come through the winter just fine. Amazingly, the cattle grew long, thick coats for the cold.

In the far paddock, Bad Twisted swished his tail and grazed placidly. Caleb had found the bull a beautiful ranch in Kansas. The owners were happy to have a bull of such fine stock. They hadn’t asked payment for his keep. Bad Twisted supplied that for himself, and that ranch probably had a few spirited calves running around that season.

After their second drive was over, Caleb collected Bad Twisted from that ranch and drove him on up to Minnesota with the rest of the cattle. Naturally, Bad Twisted was proud to take the lead again.

Caleb’s plan was to slowly sell the steers off and use the profits to replace them with other cattle. They had two milk cows, pigs, and chickens. To grow the ranch, though, they’d need more females than steers.

With the profits from selling a good portion of their steers, Caleb bought a few horses to keep Thunder company. They had a team too, to pull their wagon and break the land they wanted to plant. Caleb’s passion wasn’t entirely in horses, but one day, he wanted to have Thunder’s foals.

Henry’s passion was most definitely in horses. One day, Henry would be grown up and the ranch would be his. Caleb made sure that Henry was included in not only the lessons on running and caring for the ranch, but in all matters. Caleb taught Henry everything he knew, including about the business end of running things. If Henry wanted to one day breed horses, they’d start acquiring some fine ones to ensure that legacy for him.

Eliza Mae raised her hand and stood up from the swing. Her swollen belly was so big that her feet literally disappeared when she did.

Henry charged up the stairs and took Eliza Mae’s hand excitedly. “Ma!”

“Yes, Henry?” Eliza Mae asked, laughing. “What do you have to tell me?”

Henry blinked. “I—I forget! Nothing, I guess. It’s just a nice day, and everything is wonderful out here.”

Eliza Mae’s heart turned over. She pulled Henry into her side and hugged him the best she could. “I think I know what has you so excited. Pa told you that Aunt Bridget and Doc are coming this afternoon.”

“That’s right! They are coming! Why didn’t anyone tell me sooner?” Henry was too excited to be angry or hurt.

“We didn’t want you to be so excited that you couldn’t sleep for days. Uncle Elias has the church to look after, and Doc has his clients in Helena, but he’s going to bring Aunt Bridget out and stay for a few days. If the babies are born in that time, then he’ll help Ma Sarah deliver them. If not, she’s just down the way.”

Nothing was really just down the way in Montana, but Sarah Myers wasn’t all that far. Caleb would be able to fetch her in time, whereas if they’d gone for Doc all the way to Helena, they very likely wouldn’t.

“I like Ma Sarah,” Henry said, grinning. “She makes the best pies.”

“Hush now. Don’t let Horace hear you say that.”

“You really think the baby will come soon?”

To a little boy, nine months was a very long time to wait to meet his new eagerly awaited playmate. He couldn’t wait to have a little brother, though if the baby was a girl, Eliza Mae knew Henry would love her just as much. He just didn’t know that yet.

“I think so.” Eliza Mae’s lower back had begun to ache differently the night before. She’d been plagued by small pains for weeks, but there was something sharper in the new ache that set her teeth on edge and warned her that her time was close.

Henry hadn’t been an easy birth, but it had been her first time, and she was among strangers. She had been frightened and had to endure most of it by herself before Sam found a woman who was none too experienced, but was willing to help all the same.

Ma Sarah had birthed thousand of babies by her count. She was a soft-spoken, gnarled older woman who lived with her son and his family. Ma Sarah was kindness itself, and, as Henry said, she did make very good pies.

Eliza Mae smiled broadly as Caleb climbed up the porch stairs. The first thing he did was take her by the shoulder with his big, callused hands, and brush a kiss over her lips. There was no one about to see them, and Henry was already opening the front door, eager to get inside for lunch.

Eliza Mae leaned into the kiss, bringing her hand to cup Caleb’s jaw, relishing the feel of his lips moving against hers, the taste of him, the sun warmed, leather and straw scent of him.

Caleb kissed Eliza Mae until she was almost breathless, then his hand slipped around to her back to steady her while his other discreetly rested on the swell of her stomach between them.

“How are you both?”

“Exhausted,” Eliza Mae admitted.

Caleb tsked. “You shouldn’t be working so hard. Let Horace cook for the hands.”

“I was only helping a little,” Eliza Mae protested. “You know I can’t sit idle. Tired or not, I’m well. As Henry said, it’s a lovely day.”

Caleb’s smile grew and he kissed her cheek.

“I might have told Henry that Bridget and Doc will be here soon. I’m sorry. He’s not going to be more restless than I am.”

“A ride on Thunder should fix that right up.”

“He’d love that.”

“He would,” Caleb agreed. “And then we’ll start on that new section of fencing. Nothing calms a body like pounding in fence poles for hours.”

Eliza Mae laughed. “Have mercy, Caleb. On yourself, too.”

“Maybe just a little while, then,” he ceded.

He draped an arm around Eliza Mae’s waist and pulled her in close to his side. They looked out on their land together, their cattle, and in the distance, the dotted figures of the few hands they’d been able to hire.

The men both had families a few miles away, and didn’t board with them. In the future, they planned on building some bunkhouses, and Horace would no doubt complain good-naturedly about more mouths to feed, harder work, and longer hours. He’d start threatening to put another rattler in the pot for sure.

Eliza Mae found herself smiling. The sun shone down on her face from a near cloudless sky, striking everything so green and bright that her eyes smarted with a sheen of happy tears.

“Ma!” Henry threw open the door behind them. “Pa! Are you coming? Horace says lunch is getting cold, and he ain’t worked all morning to let it go to waste.”

Eliza Mae caught her son up, taking his hand just inside the house. Caleb shut the door behind them, but then he scooped up Henry and turned him upside down. He hung onto him by one ankle while Henry squealed and roared with laughter.

“What’s this about lunch? How can we eat lunch if we’re upside down?” Caleb’s voice boomed through the house, bouncing off the timber walls and wide floorboards.

“I can do it!” Henry, as always, was eager to give anything a try. “Lower me down to the table and I can do it!”

“Nonsense,” Caleb teased. “We’ll have to figure out a way to feed the soles of your feet. Food travels down, not up.”

Henry’s laughter grew louder, until Caleb finally set him down and helped him right himself. Caleb and Eliza Mae shared a look that brimmed over with love. Love for their land, for the life they’d created, for Henry, for all their friends, and for each other.

Their life would change soon, as their family grew. The years would come, rolling on and on. Life would change them, and age them, but that passage of time was a gift—one that Eliza Mae certainly planned to make the most of.

***

Laughter filled the air as a pair of little girls, more wild than they were human, chased each other under the shade of the massive Eastern Cottonwood. They’d set the house not far from that tree, and Caleb had dreams, all those years ago, of his children one day playing underneath it.

“What’s this?” Caleb teased as he approached his twin daughters. “It seems that my girls have been replaced with wild racoons.”

Annabelle was more dirt all over than she was clean, and Paulina had stripes across her cheek and jaw. Her dress was tattered, the hem hanging askew and dragging behind her.

The girls froze and looked at Caleb with wide, dark eyes. Their dark brown hair had been neatly braided at the start of the day, but now, approaching dinner, they both sported wild manes.

Annabelle blinked at him sheepishly. “Sorry, Pa. We got… we forgot to—that is…”

“We played hard,” Paulina finished for her sister, as she often did.

Both girls glanced behind Caleb. Henry was still down at the barn with Thunder. She would foal soon.

At twelve, Henry had grown into a serious, responsible young man. He was still full of light and life and laughed easily. He was especially protective of his nearly six-year-old twin sisters.

Henry dreamed of raising horses. While Caleb also urged Henry to learn all he could about growing the herd, running the ranch, building bunkhouses, and hiring hands, the horses would always be Henry’s first love.

“Is Henry coming for dinner?” Annabelle asked, trying to smooth down her wild hair and wipe the dirt off her face.

“Not sure, sweetheart. He says yes, but he might pop in and out fast. Your ma might take him something in the barn.”

“He’s going to sleep with Thunder again in her stall, isn’t he?” Paulina watched her sister.

“He might,” Caleb admitted.

“He’s worried about her, but this isn’t her first foal. She knows what to do.”

“Thunder and Henry have a special bond. He’s not worried about her. He just wants to make sure things go exactly right. He’ll let her do all the work, but he wants to be there if she needs help. It’s the right thing to do.”

“The foal is worth a lot of money,” Annabelle pointed out.

Caleb bent down and gathered both girls in his arms. “That might be true, but that’s not the reason. If the foal was just an ordinary horse, Henry would still be there all the same.”

“Her foal is going to be an Arabian,” Annabelle insisted, proud of herself for managing the big word.

“That’s right.”

Sampson was Henry’s other joy. He’d saved his money for years and years, and when Caleb started bringing other types of cattle to the ranch, different breeds from overseas, Henry had had the idea that they should do the same with horses.

Arabians cost thousands of dollars, and bringing one over on a boat and across the country was a massive undertaking. It just so happened that when word got around that Caleb was going to do just that, they’d found out about a ranch down south raising racehorses.

He had several Arabians. He’d been raising horses for a long time and had a few that he thought were past the prime of their racing days. He was willing to sell them, still at an astronomical cost, but for part of the fee, he’d ensure them delivered.

It was a risk, buying the stallion and the Arabian mare, considering the massive cost, but Henry sat down with Caleb and they talked numbers and the future of the ranch. Caleb always intended it as a place to be left to his children.

Even at twelve years old, Henry knew what he wanted. He wanted to raise the best horses in the country. He had horses of every kind already, some for working, some for ranching. But he dreamed of being older, becoming a man, and having his horses win races. He still talked about that race that Tage Jackson won that day on the trail.

“When Thunder had her last foal, it was by that mustang horse. The one that won’t let anyone ride him. Henry loves that foal,” Paulina told her sister.

“Henry loves all his horses. Athena is lovely, and spirited like her mother. She’s half a wild thing, and maybe that’s what Henry loves most about her. There are horses meant for riding, for racing, for working, for pulling as a team, but that horse? She’s Henry’s soulmate. They’ll be together for the rest of their lives.”

“Like he loves Thunder,” Annabelle said.

“Yes.”

“Like you love Ma?” Paulina asked.

Caleb laughed and hugged both girls tight. “Like I love your Ma. Like she loves me. It’s a darned good thing, too, because when she sees the state of you both, I’m going to have to distract her with lots of big hugs while you both wash up.”

They were halfway back to the house when Henry caught up with them. He grabbed Paulina around the waist and swung her up and around. She screamed in delight and Annabelle immediately extended her arms when her sister was set down. Henry swung her around, too.

“What’s this?” Henry teased, exchanging  a look with Caleb. “Wild animals?”

Caleb barked out a laugh. “That’s what I thought.”

“We’d best go around back and sneak in through the kitchen. Horace won’t tattle. I’ll scrub you both down and when you’ve changed, I’ll take your dresses straight down and hide them under the other wash so Ma doesn’t see. At least not for a while, and by then, she’ll do nothing more than shake her head and chuckle.”

“She’d do nothing more than that anyway,” Caleb said.

To prove him correct, Eliza Mae stepped out onto the porch. She took in the sight of them, Henry and Caleb dirty and sweaty from a day of hard work, the girls tattered and knotted and filthy from head to foot. All she did was bite her lip to keep from smiling and at least pretended to look stern.

“You’ve managed all this in an hour?” Eliza Mae gaped at her daughters. “Goodness! Well… let’s all wash up or dinner. You know if we’re late to the table, Horace will start going on about rattlers on the plate.”

“I want to try a rattler one day,” Paulina said.

Annabelle could never be outdone by her sister. She put her hands on her hips. “Me too.”

Caleb’s laughter rang out through the yard, and soon Eliza Mae’s lighter, musical sound joined in. Henry laughed too, and though the girls didn’t know exactly what they were laughing about, they couldn’t be left out either.

Caleb had never heard a more beautiful sound.

The past was still the past, and the future was still a ways off, but his present was full of glorious laughter. And of everything he’d ever done and ever achieved and worked for, it was the best part of it all.

THE END