Arizona Territory (26 page)

“I bet you do. Now tell me, are you really happy here?”

JD wet his lower lip. “I have to be somewhere to raise this baby that's coming. I need work. This place, I think, is the most challenging operation you have. And we've made progress. I want to go back and find more two-year-old Mexican steers. If you could have seen those cattle, the day Ortega brought them home. And, now, of course, you would not believe the difference. I think we need more of that, if you can find us a market for them. You can do that better than any man I know, finding markets for them.”

“Six hundred head is only a one-month supply for the trip Sarge and Victor make each month to take to the Navajos.”

“Why didn't I consider that?”

Chet clapped him on the shoulder. “What else?”

“You make things so damn easy at times. I have only heard bits and pieces about the payroll robbery. How did it go?”

“Not great, but we can talk about it later. That has me down more than anything else. But I'm excited about all your ranch improvements and hard work.”

“Well, tell me about Liz and you. She rides all over the world with you?”

“Yes, she came down from Preskitt this week to be with me.”

“You look so natural—the two of you. I heard at Christmas how you found her, or visa-versa.”

“That was it. We found each other. She is the easiest going woman I've ever known. She never complains. You know, she was very wealthy and gave it all up to be my wife. Oh, well, it is too long a story. I'm blessed to have her.”

JD nodded, tight-lipped. “I know now that a good woman is invaluable. I offered to send Bonnie to Preskitt and she refused. We've both grown up a lot down here, being together. We seldom argue and we push each other on to better things and ties.”

“Ties?”

“Yeah, we both wanted each other when we got married, but we had our own things that separated us. I thought I could think better alone. Wrong. Now we work together on things and that makes us more supportive and closer.”

“Elizabeth and I think a lot alike, and she can soothe me down in no time. When I get upset, she can wink or smile and I know it isn't worth it.”

They both laughed. The prodigal one had come home to do his part and Chet felt much better.

The evening was filled with a lot of great food, music, and leisure time to heal some of the gaps he'd felt working on the case. Hay cutting must be going on in the north. From Hampt's alfalfa to the prairie grass that Reg would cut, they had a lot of hay to harvest. Sarge was no small hay producer, nor was Tom at the big spread on the Verde. In another year, JD would need hay equipment for the fields of alfalfa he planned to plant that fall and irrigate with his artesian wells. Always more expenses.

Later, Chet danced with his wife under the Chinese lanterns.

“Are you relaxing some down here?” she asked.

“Oh, yes. I think I've accepted that whatever happens will happen, and I can't change it.”

“Good. It is early, and I don't want your hopes too high but we may have a baby coming.”

“Will that fulfill your life?”

She closed her eyes as he whirled her around. “Oh, yes. It is too soon to really know, but I could not hold it from you.”

He squeezed her against him. “Either way, I'll be pleased.”

Standing a little taller in his arms as they danced away, she spoke quietly, “If not, we can try again.”

“Oh, we shall, my dear.”

Amused, she hugged him tight for an instant. “I am counting on that.”

The next morning, early, they left the main ranch on horseback. A
vaquero
took them to see several of the cows and calves at a water hole dug out by the crew with slips and horse teams. The cattle looked very content and filled out, but suspicious of all the intruders sitting on horses.

Next, they came to a windmill, and with the early morning wind it was pumping water out into a large rock tank. Obviously, JD had spent some time locating the mills at a distance a range cow could walk to and graze on the way. His nephew had bowed out of the tour since Bonnie was so close, and he didn't want to miss the event.

Ortega was in Mexico buying more steers, and the night before his wife, Maria, hugged Chet and bragged on her new house.

They rode on and by mid-day had seen lots of development before they swung back to the ranch. They arrived, and men took their horses to put up.

Maria and the ranch ladies had a late lunch ready for his bunch. Many of them acted excited to meet Elizabeth, who talked graciously to all of them. She hugged babies and knelt down to speak to little dark-eyed girls.

Cole asked where the big gray horse was, and Chet thought he was over at Tubac. He had a little dread in his heart for the big gelding, unless Shawn had rode him some since he had ridden him over there. Roamer was not a bronc rider, and he didn't mess with them, but rode the well broke ones. Maybe someday he'd manage to get the big gray up north to use for long trips.

JD and Bonnie joined them. No baby.

Chet gave them his impression. “We saw a lot of good things, and I'm impressed. This desert ranch is a good operation, and I saw some of those steers you've bought. They're full and fattening.”

“Oh, that is Ortega's business. He finds them and really buys them cheap.”

Bonnie spoke up, “And he is gone a lot, too.”

“But we are building a ranch here, aren't we?” JD asked Chet.

“I can see the progress. This will be a great ranch someday.”

“How is Adam?” Bonnie asked.

“He talks and walks. So much more even than when you saw him last at Christmas,” Liz said.

“What are your plans next?” JD asked.

“The new man, Thomas, and his boss, Arnold, who has been up at Tucson, want the Force to remain. Roamer says he's fine with that, and so is Shawn. Things have simmered down a whole lot on the border.”

“Bonnie said all of your work and arrests on the latest case may not get any convictions?”

“I fear that is the case. But the prosecutor is going to try. The new marshal, John Thomas, said we've done all we can in the case. His boss says Washington doesn't want to spend all the money needed to move the trial to El Paso.”

“What does that mean?”

“I suspect hung juries that will free them, despite the evidence we gathered from this man, Elliot's, house.”

“That make you mad?”

“JD, you know we've tried to bring these criminals in, to try them and get prison sentences or hangings. If they get off, folks will go back to the rope law. I think that had the men killed not been soldiers and Army payroll personnel, and folks had known them—they would have been hung already. But, see, there is no ground-swelling effort for that to happen. Protect your own.”

JD shook his head. “Those folks can be clannish.”

“I'm going home in a few days and try to forget it.”

JD looked hard across the table. “You ever think about Brigham Young's Angels trying to kill you for what you did up there?”

Chet shook his head. “No, I never worry about it.”

“Both of you guys better think about it, along with him,” Chet said to Cole and Jesus seated across the table. “They say he has a powerful bunch of enforcers that he can unleash on any enemy of the church.”

“Who are they?” Liz asked.

“No one knows. There's a rumor that the head of the church in Salt Lake has hired guns that will clear out anyone who threatens their members in any way.”

“You come under that?” she asked Chet with a frown.

“I may, but don't worry. They won't try anything on us.”

“If they do that sort of thing, how can they be prevented from attacking you?” she asked.

He hugged her. “'Cause I won't let them.”

She rolled her dark eyes and looked to heaven for help. “More I have to pray for.”

“Elizabeth, do you ever, I mean ever, regret leaving your large ranch and marrying him and then being drug all over this dusty land?” Bonnie was smiling and waiting for her answer.

“I tell you what happened when I stopped to buy a wonderful golden horse and I met this tall man who stood so politely at my coach step, inside this great aura that surrounded him.” She used her hands to make a round shape. “My mind snapped. He was the thing I did not have in my life to be complete. I had played a widow's role for a long time—almost three years. When I saw him, I wished I had on real clothes, not a black dress of mourning. He would think I still cried for my past one. I didn't. But I had no time to become someone to invite him into my life—our time together would be too short. Would I shock him? Maybe I did, but I never looked back from that first second.

“Then I knew I needed him, not another man—him. That was what my life lacked. My place was to be beside him, and others could run the
hacienda
. Others could make appearances. When I was on that trip to find that lost herd, I saw the sea of grass that Coronado saw. I read that diary, and I rode with the love of my life. The lack of amenities was nothing, not when I could be with him. Does that answer your question?”

Bonnie wiped tears from her eyes with the kerchief her husband handed her. “When Chet told me that you said you would kiss him, but not for the horse, I knew you were the woman he needed and I told him so.”

“Thank you, Bonnie, you must have been God's messenger for me. That very night was the time I was going home in a mad hurry when I stopped and realized—no. If he would have me, I would be his wife, and I about cried since we had no bonds but our verbal ones.”

“I am sorry, Liz, I don't have your education, but your description of the sea of grass the two of you sailed over is poetry.”

“Maybe someday, I can paint it for you.”

“I can't wait. Thanks to you, I shall never again feel sorry for you in your role as his wife at his side in some cow camp.”

Liz threw her head back and laughed. “This spoiled girl from Sonora is never in any discomfort when I ride with him.”

Cole spoke up. “We'd drag our backside into making camp and there she was happy as a bird in springtime helping us get ready and cook. Halfway across New Mexico, going for the lost herd, I thought that she'd get tired of the routine. Way up to Ogallala, Nebraska, she was still the same, Liz making camp, but he shocked her when he took her to the opera in Denver.”

“How did you think of that?” Bonnie asked him.

“Luck. Pure D Luck. I saw some posters and thought she enjoyed the plains so much, why not try music on her?”

Liz, all smiles, shook her head. “He asked me one morning, how dressed up did he have to get to take me to the Denver opera that night. I about fainted. I had been wearing pants for several months. I had no clothes with me. I didn't have Anita to help me fix my hair. But we found clothing, and a hair dresser. If I ever was swept away with this great guy, then he did it that night to me.”

“I know we've eaten already, but I recall Susie a couple of times asking you to give a blessing, Chet. This new Brynes is coming, and this ranch never has been blessed. Would you do us the honor of blessing the whole thing?” JD asked him.

Chet agreed.

JD rose and held up his arms to quiet the crew as the sun set off in the west. “My uncle has done miracles for all of us. But he has a side to him many of you don't know about—he's the blessing giver, and he is going to pray for all of us and bless this ranch.”

“Thank you, JD. My wife and crew, Cole, and Jesus have seen the wonderful work you all have toiled so hard at on this ranch. It will be a super ranch and only because of all of you. Let us pray.”

Vaqueros
shed their
sombreros
and dropped to their knees. Women and children did the same, hands clasped tight.

“Father, we come to you this evening as we wait for a new child in our family. Help Bonnie and JD through this wonderful process as your son did when he came here. Lord, we are thankful for our health, the food you provide, and the wonderful desert that these hardworking people are turning into a Garden of Eden.

“Lord, let these people's efforts feed and provide for many. Thanks for the precious water being pumped up to serve us. Thanks for the sun and rain, but most of all, bless and keep all these fine children whose voices and playing make this our home.

“On this day, Lord, we ask you to bless this ranch, the livestock, the horses, and the palm trees they've planted, along with the citrus and grapes. May the harvests be bountiful.

“Lord, be with the rest of our family. Please hold and protect them in your hand.

“Thank you, God, the Father, for we may be far from a church, but this is our altar and the place we cherish. May it grow and be a better place to work and live on. Amen.”

“Thanks, we all appreciate that blessing,” JD said, and the entire bunch nodded.

Liz told him later, “You don't know how heartfelt those people were over that prayer.”

“No, but I saw and felt it, too.”

“Good. We're going home?”

“Shortly. I'm ready for Preskitt. Cool nights and away from this mess in Tucson. I may have to come back and testify, but Roamer and Shawn can handle the rest, unless they need us. We can start home day after tomorrow.”

“Good. I love the mountains. And your son. But there is not one inside me.” She fled into his arms, and Chet felt her sobs and tears soak into his shirt. Damn, she'd had high hopes. Nothing to do but go on. He squeezed her tight.