Bittner, Rosanne (60 page)

He grinned and shook his head. "You're determined that's going to happen, aren't you?"

She faced him, her hands on her hips. "There is no better man in this territory for the job, nor one more deserving. And when you become governor, I will be the most envied woman in Montana, just because I'm the handsome Luke Fontaine's wife." She felt her blood warm at the way his blue eyes raked over her.

"You'll be envied because you'll be the most beautiful governor's wife Montana will ever have. You'll make up for all my lack of class. If I ever do become territorial delegate, or even governor, it will be because of you." He got up from the chair and put an arm around her shoulders. "Walk me outside. I want to visit Tex's grave."

"I'll order a stone as soon as you decide what should be engraved on it."

Luke stopped and took a piece of paper from his shirt pocket. "I've already been thinking about it. I wrote this upstairs in the bedroom. What do you think?"

Lettie took the paper and opened it. "'Here lies Tex,'" she read aloud, "'who gave his life for another. Died September fifteenth, 1881. About fifty. Good friend and devoted ranch hand. May God take him to his fold.'" The words caught in her throat and she refolded the paper. So many good friends lost... Tex, Hank Kline, Jim Woodward, Will and Henny. She looked up at Luke, saw the tears in his own eyes. "It's perfect," she told him.

They walked outside together, and from his back bedroom upstairs, Robbie was looking out the window. He watched his parents walk to the grave, watched his father kneel beside it. It seemed only fitting that at that very moment Pearl was playing a hymn on the grand piano downstairs, the music floating out across the lawn on a gentle wind.

Robbie's lips puckered and his eyes teared anew. He realized the only reason he was alive was because of Tex, that if it hadn't been Tex who had died in that fire, his own mother or father would have died in an effort to save him. His tender heart ached for the rugged, mysterious ranch hand who used to frighten him a little when he was smaller. "'Bye, Tex," he whispered. "I love you."

CHAPTER 30

May 1883

LUKE FONTAINE FOR TERRITORIAL DELEGATE! Luke's supporters had strung up a banner that hung across the main street of Billings, but farther up the street attorney Sydney Greene and his wife Helen had also draped a banner reading NIAL BENTLEY FOR DELEGATE! The Greenes had managed to rally some support for their son-in-law, who had declared that because of cattle ranches he owned in Wisconsin and Nebraska, his higher education and world travels, he was the better man to represent cattlemen in the territorial legislature.

Montana Territory had far surpassed the required population of sixty thousand to apply for admission to the United States. Officially the territory had a population of close to ninety thousand, something that amazed Luke and Lettie, considering how desolate it had been when they came there twenty years ago. Billings had just been a little log village. Now it burst with new settlers, who had come because of the completion of the Northern Pacific. New gold finds in the western part of the territory had brought in more settlers, and the huge copper find around Butte was the talk of the whole country. Newspapers were declaring

Butte Hill "the richest hill on earth," and the areas around the mines and around Helena were also growing rapidly.

People gathered around the Fontaine buggy as Sven drove it through the main street of town, now lined with more new businesses and yet another hotel. Luke had added two more floors to the Hotel Fontaine, and the Stowe's boardinghouse had also been enlarged. More lawyers had come to town, another doctor, two more teachers, and a dentist. One of those teachers was needed to replace Yolanda Brown, who had decided to go back to Chicago to teach. The timing was perfect, as Pearl was also going to Chicago, to study under a Professor John Bansen, a German pianist of great renown, who ran a private school for only the very best. Bansen had responded to a letter from Lettie, offering to listen to Pearl play and decide if she had the talent for advanced music lessons. All they had to do was get their daughter to Chicago. Miss Brown had agreed to be Pearl's chaperon.

Luke was not pleased with sending his sixteen-year-old innocent off to a big city to study under a stranger, but Lettie had corresponded with the parents of other students of Bansen for over a year, and had taken every precaution to ensure that the man and his school were reputable.

Pearl was not the least bit afraid to leave home for a big city, but Lettie worried that the change might be more of a shock than Pearl realized. All she had ever known was the remote life of living on a Montana ranch. The biggest and only town she knew was Billings, but at least Pearl was traveling with a reputable woman who knew the city well and could escort Pearl to the school. Once she was there, she would be among other young people who shared her love of music.

This was a day of both celebration and sadness. They would see Pearl off to Chicago, and her joyful, charming presence and piano playing would be sorely missed. Later, Luke and Nial would make speeches about why they would make the best delegates for Montana's legislature. Two more men from the Butte and Helena area were also running for delegate, and in a few days Luke and Lettie would leave the ranch to spend two months traveling the territory to win votes and talk about statehood. The new legislature would draft the proper papers for Montana's request to be allowed into the United States.

So many changes. Children growing up and going away. Katie, now nineteen, had given birth to her second child, a daughter, Rachael Ann, in February. Her son, Paul, was twenty months old and a wild little thing. Katie and Brad had built a roomy but simple log home on their new ranch, and surrounding cattlemen had accepted the fact that sheep would graze nearby. The price of wool had risen, and with the completion of the Northern Pacific, Brad could ship his wool east much cheaper now. Another railroad, the Utah and Northern, connected them to places farther south, and cattle drives were no longer necessary. Cattle were now shipped to stockyards and slaughterhouses by rail.

In two years Robbie would be going off to college. A young man now, Ty was built almost as tall and broad as his father. He was dashingly handsome, and all the young, available girls in town had an eye for him. He was the most popular young man at the spring dances, but he seemed most interested in Alice Richards. They had known each other for many years now, and Lettie felt in her heart that the two of them would end up married someday.

Luke waved at people who cheered him on as Sven drove the buggy to the railroad depot. The whole family had come to see Pearl off, and all were dressed their best because of the political rally planned for that afternoon. Lettie wore a yellow day dress that Gino Galardo had tailored just for her. It sported white, double lace cuffs, with water-fan trim of the same lace down the front of the bodice. The dress was perfectly fitted over a waist still slender enough that she was proud of it. The color was well suited for a bright, warm May day, as was her straw hat, decorated with yellow silk ribbon and flowers. Her shawl was made of the same white lace that decorated her dress, and she carried a yellow parasol and handbag and wore white lace gloves.

Luke loved her in yellow, thought it set off the deep red of her hair and her green eyes. Lately she had noticed a little gray in that hair, but at thirty-eight, and after some of the things they had been through in their twenty years in Montana, it was to be expected. She glanced at Luke, whose thick, dark hair also was showing some gray at the temples. He looked wonderful today. He was strong again, more confident than ever, strikingly handsome for a man of forty-eight. Hard work outdoors had only made him healthier and more robust than most men his age. Not a man to put on airs with his clothing like Nial Bentley was, he had chosen to wear denim pants with a white shirt over which he wore a black waistcoat. Because it would be a warm day, he wore no jacket, but his waistcoat sported a gold watch chain she had given him for his birthday in March. The only things he wore that were brand-new were his Western-style, wide-brimmed felt hat and new black leather boots. He had declared that if he was going to represent Montana, he would dress like any man from Montana would dress, rich or not; not like some fancy eastern businessman or like an English prince.

They reached the depot, and Lettie was relieved to see Miss Brown was already there with her bags. Luke shook hands with people while Brad and Tyler helped unload Pearl's luggage, which took up most of the room at the back of the fancy new four-seater buggy Luke had had the local wagonmaker build for him a year ago so they would have something big enough to haul the whole family. A Northern Pacific steam engine sat hissing on the tracks, and a conductor was parading on the platform announcing that engine number eighteen would be leaving in fifteen minutes for Bismark, St. Paul, Omaha, and Chicago.

Lettie's heart tightened at the words. Pearl! Her beautiful, sweet, gentle Pearl was leaving them today. It would be a long time before they heard her lovely music, saw her bright smile, held her close. She almost wished her daughter did not have such natural talent, that she did not love music so much. Maybe Professor Bansen would say she was not ready or talented enough to go on with her schooling, but she knew that was not only a false hope, but a sinful one. She wished only the best for Pearl, and she was proud of her daughter's abilities; but it hurt to know that those abilities would take her away from them. Her longtime tutor, Elsie, and Elsie's husband, Peter Yost, followed behind in a buggy of their own, bringing along their three young children and also longtime housemaid, Mae, and her husband, Bob Franks, who all wanted to see Pearl off.

The conductor put Pearl's and Miss Brown's luggage on board, and Miss Brown stood aside while Pearl went through a round of hugs from her siblings and niece and nephew, as well as from Elsie and Mae. Then came Lettie and Luke. Lettie clung to Pearl, unable to keep from crying; and when the girl turned to Luke, silent tears showed in his eyes as he held his youngest daughter for a very long time. The fifteen minutes before departure seemed to fly, and suddenly the conductor was announcing that it was time for all passengers to board the train.

But it's too soon!
Lettie thought. She gave Pearl another hug, as did Luke, and then they clung to each other while Pearl climbed into a passenger car with Yolanda Brown. The engineer pulled a cord and let off one long whistle, followed by two short blasts, and steam billowed out of the side of the engine. Pearl hung out a window, waving, crying, but also smiling with excitement. "I'll make you proud of me!" she promised.

Yes,
Lettie thought,
perhaps she will.
For some reason little Paul flashed into her mind. Was he here with them? He would be thirteen years old if he were still alive.

Too much too fast. The town was alive with the excitement of politics, but at this moment it didn't matter. Pearl was leaving them, going to a strange, big city. Maybe she would make her mark there. Maybe she would forget about her mother and father and the Double L.

"I love you, Mother!" she shouted. "I love you, Father!" The train started moving, and Lettie watched that beautiful face and kept her eyes on that bright red hair until she could see them no more. She felt Luke's strong arm around her then. He leaned down from behind and kissed her tearstained cheek. "We'll find a way to go and see her," he promised.

For the moment, for the two of them, there was no one else around. The noise of the crowd disappeared, and it was as though they were standing there alone. "Oh, Luke, it hurts so much."

"There could be worse reasons for having to say goodbye."

She knew he was thinking about Paul. Suddenly a reporter for the
Billings Gazette
was barging in to ask Luke about Pearl. Katie put her arms around her mother, while Tyler stood beside his father helping answer questions. Lettie turned around and wept on Katie's shoulder.

"You did the right thing, Mama. It's what Pearl has always wanted."

Lettie nodded, taking a handkerchief from her handbag and wiping at her nose and eyes. "Oh, I must look terrible, and I have to stand with Luke today during his speeches."

"You look beautiful, Mama. You always do. And you'd better hurry. That crowd is taking Pa away."

Lettie turned to see Luke laughing with local businessmen, still answering questions from the newspaper reporter. He was taking to politics more naturally than she had thought he would, and she smiled through tears, realizing that he was a man highly respected and well liked. Luke Fontaine
was
Montana.

Lettie studied the newspaper article dated October 8, 1883, anger boiling in her soul at the words.
"What do we know about Luke Fontaine's background?"
it read.

The man has never made mention of where he is from, who his father is. Not only are his origins a mystery, but his choices since settling in Montana must also be examined. Should we bring a man into the territorial legislature who was once a vigilante? Has anyone asked Luke Fontaine how many men he has killed, what he thinks of true law and order? Does he believe in a system of justice, or is he too quick to throw a rope over a tree? He professes to be a family man, yet his adopted son chose to live among the Sioux rather than with his father. Does the man rule like a vigilante at home? Or could this mean something else? Perhaps Luke Fontaine has a soft spot for the Indians because his son lives among them. With someone like Fontaine in our legislature, will Montana end up granting favors to the very Indians who have caused our citizens so much heartache over the years? Is Luke Fontaine really fit to help run our now-civilized territory, a representative we can be proud of? Is this a man we truly want people in Washington to look at as an example of Montana's best? Luke Fontaine knows ranching, but that is all he knows. He is not qualified, either in knowledge of government, in background, education, or in honorable personality, to represent our great territory, or to lead us to statehood. His wife, on the other hand, is the picture of poise, elegance, intelligence and refinement. How sad that it is not Mrs. Fontaine who is running for office, but a woman's place is at home... and so is Luke Fontaine's.