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for sale. There seemed to be a never-ending number of things to buy. His
pockets kept getting lighter.
The wagon was needed to carry the items for their new home in Montana as well
as personal possessions. Also it would afford Lorna some privacy and the
luxury of a bed. He didn't expect her to rough it like the rest of them.
After the wagon, Benteen still needed to buy another twenty head or so of
horses. He wasn't comfortable with less than eighty horses in the remuda.
Yates was wrangling for him and claimed to have found a fairlooking group to
finish out the string. More money spent, not to mention the wages to the boys
on the cowhunt. When he had started putting his plans in motion, eleven
hundred dollars had looked like an ample amount of money to fund the drive.
Now Benteen wished he'd taken the extra time last spring to catch another
twenty head of wild cattle to throw in with the Ten Bar herd he'd trailed to
Wyoming for Boston, instead of settling for just thirty steers of his own.
He'd have two or three hundred dollars more to play with now.
It was a good thing he planned to sell some of the steers from the herd when
they reached Dodge City, provided the beef prices were respectable. He'd need
the money to pay off the drovers when they reached Montana Territory. He
wondered briefly about Barnie and how the winter had been. The knowledge
Barnie gained with one Montana winter behind him would be invaluable, come the
next.
Benteen weaved his way across the street, dodging horse-drawn wagons and
galloping riders. The dust constantly swirled about him, kicked up by hooves
and wheels. The livery stable was just ahead. Benteen could see it through the
haze of mixing dust and people.
The clang of a blacksmith's hammer banging a horseshoe into shape added to the
din of the streets. As Benteen neared the stable, he saw the gimpy-legged man
holding a bald-faced roan for the shoer. He angled toward the blacksmith's
lean-to.
"Hey, Stoney," he greeted the man.
"Hey, Benteen." Stoney raised a hand to him. "Sad thing about your pa. Heard
yore gonna be pullin' out soon."
"Three days." That was his plan.
"Right after the weddin', huh?" Stoney grinned, a ribald twinkle lighting his
eyes. "Think you'll be in condition to fork a horse?"
Benteen smiled and let the comment pass without reply. "I heard a man named
Davies had a wagon for sale."
"Yep." Stoney nodded and yanked on the horse's head when it started to fuss at
the smithy's approach. "Another one of them farmers," he said, and spit into
the dust. "They're getting thick up north. Heard they was fencin' in the
water."
"Is that a fact?" He filed the information away, part of the storehouse of
knowledge about trail conditions. Trail drives went from one watering hole to
the next. "What about the wagon?"
"It's over behind the barn," Stoney replied, gesturing toward the stable with
his head. "Davies left it here. He's hopin' to sell it to get seed money. I
told him he should pack his things and move on. They're a stubborn bunch,
those farmers."
"What kind of condition is it in?" Benteen was going to look for himself, but
it never hurt to ask.
"Hell, it's like new. He brought it from Kansas. Swears he'll never go back."
Stoney chuckled. "Can't blame him."
"I'm gonna take a look at his wagon," Benteen stated.
"It'll go cheap. Like I said, the fool needs money for seed."
Benteen could use a bargain. Crossing to the corral, he started to hop the
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rail and cut through to the rear of the stable. He thought he heard someone
call his name, but there was so much racket in the streets it was hard to be
sure. He glanced around.
"Hey! Calder!" A wagon rattled toward the stables, a man and woman perched on
its seat.
Benteen stepped back on the hard-packed ground as he recognized Ely Stanton.
Ely whoaed the pair of horses to a stop in front of the stable and set the
brake.
"Howdy, Ely." Benteen greeted the man and touched his hat, nodding
respectfully to the woman sitting beside him.
"I was just coming into town to look for you." Ely was smiling, a rare
occurrence in Benteen's memory. "This is my wife, Mary. I don't think you've
met her. This is Mr. Calder, honey."
"I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Stanton," Benteen responded to the
introduction.
"It's an honor, Mr. Calder," she replied. She was a plain-looking woman,
strong with a no-nonsense air about her. She was the kind who could wind up
henpeckin' a man if he wasn't careful. But there was a solidness about her,
too, that Benteen liked. "Mr. Stanton has told me a great deal about you. If
only half of it was true, you must be quite a man."
Ely sent her an impatient look to shush up, but Benteen chuckled at the
bluntness of the woman-after all, he wasn't married to her. Mary Stanton
wasn't about to be intimidated by a man's superiority.
"Ely has mentioned you several times, too," Benteen replied, and the woman
looked a little uneasy, as if her outspoken nature was a trait that her
husband found objectionable, but she concealed her feelings well.
"I came to tell you that I have decided to take you up on the offer for Mary
and me to travel with you on the drive," Ely stated, putting a little bit of
emphasis on his role in the decision-making process, asserting his position as
head of the house.
"But only as far as Dodge City," Mary inserted. "From there, we're going to
Iowa, where I have relatives."
"Ely mentioned that before," Benteen assured her, but suspected Ely wasn't in
favor of that journey. Benteen hated to see a man with Ely's cow sense turn to
dirt farming, but it wasn't his life.
"I just wanted to be sure you understood." But her reply was directed more to
her husband than to Benteen.
"I do." He pretended to be unaware of the interchange between husband and
wife. "We're planning to pull out in three days. You and your wife are welcome
to join up with the herd whenever you get loaded up."
"We'll be there the day after tomorrow," Ely stated, and his wife didn't
dispute it.
"Benteen!"
He recognized Lorna's voice and pivoted. A smile broke over his features when
he saw her wave to him from the middle of the street where she waited with her
mother for a buckboard to pass. He had a tantalizing glimpse of a well-turned
ankle as she lifted her skirts to hurry a few steps out of the way of another
horsedrawn vehicle. There was a silent groan inside him at the thought of
waiting two more days before she belonged to him, and there would be no more
"glimpses" of things.
"Hello." For all her ladylike demeanor, there was a vivid sparkle in her brown
eyes. "We stopped by the store on our way to the millinery shop. Daddy said
you were coming over here."
"I came to see about a wagon to haul all of your `precious cargo,"' he said
mockingly, referring to all the embroidered linens and household articles she
had accumulated for their new home.
"It had better be a big one." Lorna smiled.
He tucked a hand under her elbow and turned her to face the Stanton wagon.
"Lorna, I'd like you to meet Ely Stanton and his wife, Mary. They'll be
traveling with us part of the way." Then he reversed the introductions. "This
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is my fiane6e, Lorna Pearce, and her mother, Mrs. Clara Pearce."
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