Within the Heart Page 4

  “Oh, my goodness, I live in Philadelphia. I came to Dodge to visit my aunt, while my mother and father went on a second honeymoon. Now I am returning. You must tell me all about yourself.”

  “You may think it rather boring. I was raised on a ranch. Joey and I help my three half-sisters and half-brother herd cattle. I think this is about the third time I have ever worn a dress,” she laughed.

  “How exciting that sounds,” Eleanor cooed. “And you live with Indians as well.”

  “If you want, I will introduce you to Joey, only he is rather rude. You may not like him.”

  “He is actually nice looking,” Eleanor admitted, lowering her eyes, self-consciously.

  “Looks are not everything,” Shanny laughed. “However, if you wish to get acquainted with him, you will have to make your own judgment.”

  “I would at least like to meet him,” Eleanor said.

  “Right now, he is in a bad mood, so I don’t think he will agree to come meet you. I will have to get him to warm up to the idea.”

  “Doesn’t he like white women?” she asked.

  “He has known nothing but white women his whole life. He is just a little temperamental, is all. I am sure, once he meets you, he will like you well enough,” Shanny promised.

  The two young women enjoyed visiting with each other as they shared stories of their lives. Shanny’s life in Texas and Eleanor’s life in Pennsylvania seemed worlds apart. Each was eager to learn the differences between the lives each other had experienced.

  In the middle of the conversation, Shanny looked up and noticed Joey sauntering towards her. She gave him a welcoming smile.

  “Did you get bored looking out the window?” she asked as he stood looking down at the two.

  “No. We were wondering what became of you? It is almost time for lunch so I was sent to fetch you,” Joey informed her.

  “This is my new friend, Eleanor,” Shanny said brightly. “She is very eager to get acquainted with you,” she told him.

  “Is she?” Joey drawled and then gave Eleanor a long appraising look.

  “Yes, she is!”

  “It is probably the novelty of my ancestry that peaks her interest,” he smiled.

  “What difference does it make? If you cut your hair a decent length and stopped wearing feathers in it, you wouldn’t be such a novelty,” Shanny insisted.

  “It wouldn’t change the color of my skin. Besides you know very well why I don’t cut my hair.”

  “Yes, you seem to be under the mistaken assumption that it is your soul. A rather far-fetched belief, if you ask me.”

  “It is part of my soul,” Joey muttered. “I can’t find a reason to remain in your company if you are merely going to ridicule me. You have become overly irritating, ever since we left Texas, P’ee-shan.”

  “And you have become too demanding, Tsahle-ee Jogul!”

  “Don’t worry. I shall never demand, or even ask anything of you in the future,” Joey said, stabbing her with an angry expression. “We will be waiting for you in the dining car if you wish to join us,” he said in parting.

  Joey started to turn and then stopped, bowing his head toward Eleanor. “Nice meeting you,” is all he said, and then turned and left.

  Eleanor raised her eyebrows.

  “He called you P’ee-shan. What does that mean?” she asked.

  “It is the Indian name Chayton gave me. It means Little Sister. He said I would be a little sister to Joey, whose real name is Tsahle-ee Jogul and means Little Man. Lately, it has been taxing being his sister, though.”

  “He is far from a little man,” Eleanor commented. “He appeared quite muscular.”

  “Yes, but you see how impossible he can be. Nonetheless, if you are still intent on getting to know him, why don’t you join us for lunch?” Shanny suggested.

  “I think I would like that,” Eleanor smile.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The rattle of the wagon as Connor pulled it up to the house, alerted Ina, Tommy, and Beth to come out on the porch to greet him. Connor waved at his three blond-headed sisters.

  “You are finally back!” Beth exclaimed, as she stepped down from the porch and came to where Connor had tethered the horses to the hitching post.

  He went to the back of the wagon so he could take Shanny and Joey’s horses to the barn before unloading the wagon.

  “You look tired,” Ina noted, coming up beside her brother, taking one of the horses and leading it alongside him.

  “It’s been a long trip, and coming back was fairly lonely. I’m glad to be home.”

  “Mother and the others must be in Philadelphia by now,” Ina guessed, as she helped Connor put the horses in their separate stalls.

  “We’ll have to take turns exercising Surefire and Tumbleweed for Shanny and Joey,” Connor mentioned.

  “I’m glad you have finally returned. I have some news to tell you.”

  “You do? And what would that be?”

  “Mr. Pritchard has died.”

  “He has? I guess he was getting up in years, but I didn’t expect him to die this soon.”

  “He fell off his horse and never recovered from his broken hip. Before he died, he sent word that he wanted us to attend his funeral, as though he thought we wouldn’t. I think he knew he was going to die. He has been a good neighbor to us.”

  “Mother told me that his grandfather was the one who gave our father this land. Mr. Pritchard tried to buy it back but mother told him she wanted the ranch for me to inherit.”

  “I heard he asked her to marry him, but she turned him down,” Ina put in.

  “She wasn’t in love with him. By that time, she loved Chayton too much to consider marrying anyone else, even if Chayton never came back, after he left to join his tribe.”

  “Well, the funeral is tomorrow, so you made it back just in time,” Ina informed him. “It is too bad Mother isn’t here. She will be disappointed to know she couldn’t attend his funeral. Cooper, his foreman, said he wouldn’t tell Mr. Pritchard that Mother wasn’t here, so the man would die more peacefully, expecting Mother to come see him. Mr. Pritchard had asked to see her before he died, and Cooper said he would fetch her, only Mr. Pritchard ended up dying before Cooper returned back to the ranch.”

  “It is just as well. Mother fired Cooper when he was working for her. I never discovered why, but because of it, he took all the hired hands with him, when he left. That is why we ended up helping with the cattle drive that year.”

  “Yes, I vaguely remember Cooper working here when we were young, and I’ll never forget that cattle drive.”

  “Anyway, a few years back Mr. Pritchard hired Cooper on, and Mother refused to visit at his ranch any longer. It made Mr. Pritchard unhappy, but he said Cooper was experienced and he needed someone that knew what they were doing. His ranch hasn’t been doing so well for the last few years. We have surpassed him with a larger herd, while his herd kept dwindling.

  “Now that he has died, I wonder what is going to happen to his ranch. I heard his wife died in childbirth, a year after they got married when he was a young man, and he never married again, after that. Since he doesn’t have any children, maybe Cooper will end up with his ranch.”

  “Who knows?” Ina shrugged. “I suppose we must wear dresses to the funeral. I don’t even know if we have any black dresses or not.”

  Connor gave a short laugh.

  “Which goes to show how often you girls ever put on a dress,” he teased. “Just find something dark, if you can’t find a black dress.”

  When Ina and Conner returned to the wagon, Tommy and Beth were already starting to unload it.

  “Let’s finish this up,” Ina encouraged. “Mr. Daniels is getting ready to put dinner on the table, and I bet Connor is starved.”

  “I knew you wouldn’t do any cooking,” Connor laughed. “Did you send for Chogan or Avonaco to come help us?”

  “I sent a message with the mail courier,” Ina told him. “It may be a while before t
hey show up, I’m thinking. If they don’t show up, you could ride out to the reservation and see if you can find them.”

  “It’ll be a while before we have to get ready for the cattle drive but it sure would be nice to have some extra help since half the family is gone now,” Connor grumbled.

  “Go get cleaned up and come down to dinner,” Ina told him. “I’ll put the horses and the wagon away for you.”

  “Thanks,” Connor smiled, heading into the house and taking the stairs that led to the bathroom two steps at a time.

  The next morning, Connor came down to discover all his sisters wearing dark dresses. He had been so used to seeing them clad in denim, with a hat crammed down over their heads, that he had forgotten how pretty his younger sisters really were. Now their long curls were neatly pinned beneath dark bonnets with netting covering their faces. However, their good features were still visible beneath the net. All three, including Shanny, had blue eyes, the same as Connor. It was not difficult to see they were all related.

  Mr. Daniels stood stiffly beside them dressed in his Sunday best, and apparently, one of the girls had hitched up the carriage before getting ready to attend Mr. Pritchard’s funeral.

  “We haven’t eaten,” Ina said. “However, we are bringing food to add to whatever else is offered the family.”

  “Then we might as well get going,” Conner said, and the group filed out to the carriage and climbed inside.

  They rode in silence for the short distance to the adjoining ranch. Connor wondered how many of the other ranchers would be in attendance. Mr. Pritchard had many friends in the area, even if he didn’t have any family, so there would probably be a large gathering at his ranch.

  As they pulled into the yard, Connor realized he was right when he saw all the horses and buggies gathered there. He helped his sisters down from the carriage and followed them into the ranch house. Ina carried the plate of chicken Mr. Daniels had prepared, and handed it to Cooper, standing at the door with a young man and woman, none of them had ever seen before.

  “I would like to introduce you to Mr. Prichard’s nephew and niece,” Cooper said, nodding toward the two. “This is Hudson and Carrabelle Pritchard. They are Mr. Pritchard’s brother’s children.”

  “I didn’t know Mr. Pritchard had a brother,” Connor mumbled.

  “He did, but they were not on speaking terms,” Cooper told them.

  Cooper departed, taking the plate to the kitchen, as the others remained talking.

  “The truth is, our father wanted to make something of himself, and went to New York. He didn’t like the rough ranch life. Because he left, our grandfather never allowed his name to be mentioned again. He never went back to the ranch. He was much younger than our uncle, anyway, so they were not very close growing up. We never met our uncle, but since we were his only living relatives, we were contacted, when he died.”

  “Oh,” Ina said. “It is too bad you never met your uncle. He was a very kind man, and was a good friend to our mother.”

  “It is a shame. Our father hit upon bad times, and even though he begged Uncle Hank to let him return to the ranch, our uncle refused.”

  “Is your father in attendance?” Connor asked.

  “I’m afraid both he and our mother took ill with Yellow fever, a few years back, while we were away at school. The one kind thing our uncle did for us was pay for our schooling,” Hudson informed them.

  “I’m sure he believed it was not your fault your father left the ranch, all those years back,” Tommy commented.

  “Actually, he offered it on the condition that our father never asked for anything else. He had been left to work the ranch on his own, once our father left. Uncle Hank never let Father forget the fact that he no longer owned an interest in the ranch since he left it behind years earlier. However, now that our uncle has died, and we are the only living relatives, it stands to reason we will inherit the place.”

  “Then we shall become neighbors,” Beth smiled, looking up into the dark eyes of Hudson.

  Both Hudson and his sister had dark hair and dark eyes, the same as Mr. Pritchard had before his hair went gray.

  “That is a pleasant thought,” Hudson smiled back.

  The group continued into the room where chairs sat positioned for the mourners. A casket sat at the front of the room with flowers laid over the top. Connor, Ina, Tommy, and Beth sat down to wait for the proceedings to begin. None of them had ever been to a funeral before. They hadn’t even been there when their own father was buried by the ranchers.

  When they returned, to their home, there was merely a grave to mark that Chet had ever been their father. Although Callie had gone to visit her sister’s grave many times, she never bothered to put flowers on Chet’s grave, the same way she did for her sister. Now it was overgrown with weeds, and they could barely tell it was there.

  Connor himself did not have too many happy memories of his father, and the way Chet had treated his mother, blocked out any that had occurred up to that point. Now he sat thoughtfully thinking about Mr. Pritchard and what a good neighbor he had been, even though Callie had turned down his offer of marriage.

  Eventually, everyone assembled and seated themselves. The minister spoke, and several of Hank’s friends talked about what a good person he was. They sang a hymn together, and then the pallbearers took the casket out to where Hank’s father, mother, grandfather and grandmother were buried alongside earlier owners of the ranch. The grave had already been dug and the casket was lowered into it. Connor and his sisters watched as dirt was shoveled over the pine box, which made a thudding sound before the wood was covered completely.

  Afterward, the mourners gathered to share a meal together, and talk about what a wonderful person Mr. Pritchard had been. Cooper talked about how Mr. Pritchard had organized the ranchers to go after the Comanche that had killed Connor’s father.

  Hudson and Carrabelle mingled politely among the group, thanking them for coming. Connor thought it a little strange since they had never met their uncle, while all the others there had. Eventually, the neighbors and friends began to depart, and Connor started to gather his sisters to leave as well.

  Cooper put his hand on Connor’s shoulder.

  “The lawyer, who is to read the will, had requested your mother be present at the reading. However, since she is not here, I suggested that you and your sisters attend in her stead.

  Connor raised his eyebrows.

  “Are you saying that Mr. Pritchard may have left something to our mother in his will?” he asked.

  “That must be the case since he requested she be here. Maybe that is why Hank wanted to see your mother before he died.”

  “Yes,” Connor mumbled. “They were pretty close friends over the years. He did ask her to marry him once.”

  “Yes, I heard about that,” Cooper said frowning, remembering at the time, he had wanted to make Callie his wife so he could take over Chet’s ranch. “We are to meet in the study,” he told Connor.

  Connor ushered his three sisters into the study, where they stood towards the back of the room, wondering what Mr. Prichard had left their mother. Hudson, Carrabelle, and Cooper sat in chairs, on the other side of Mr. Pritchard’s desk, where the lawyer sat with papers spread in front of him.

  When the will was read, they all were stunned. Mr. Prichard had left Callie his ranch. He left a small amount of money to his niece and nephew, and the stipulation that Cooper remain foreman to the ranch if he wished. He also gave Cooper a small amount of money, but everything else was left to Callie, whom he called the woman with more gumption than any woman he had ever met. It was his wish that the ranch be put back together the way it had originally been before his grandfather gave a part of the ranch to Chet. Since Callie would not marry him to bring the ranch back together, then he would leave it to her once he died. There was also a letter enclosed that was to be given to Callie, the lawyer said, handing Connor the letter.

  “This is outrageous!” Hudson bellowed when
the will was read. “These people aren’t even related to our uncle! He can’t leave the ranch to them. I will protest the will!”

  “There is nothing to protest,” Mr. Porter, the Lawyer stated. “It is all right here in black and white. There is no law that says you have to leave your own family your holdings when you die. After all, Mr. Pritchard’s grandfather gave part of the ranch to Mrs. Callahan’s husband when he died. Now your uncle has given the rest of it to Mrs. Callahan.”

  “He hasn’t even left us enough money to live on for a year,” Hudson complained.

  “I understand he paid for your schooling,” Connor reminded him. “Maybe you should use your education to find work you are suited to,” he suggested.

  “And what about my sister, is she expected to work as well?”

  “I’m sure someone will find her fetching enough to marry her,” Connor smiled, thinking how beautiful the girl actually was. “Then she will have someone to care for her welfare.”

  Hudson narrowed his eyes.

  “We have no place to go,” he stated. “We had assumed we would be staying here and had all our belongings sent here.”

  “Your father didn’t want to be a cowboy, but if you are willing to work on the ranch, I am sure your help could be put to good use. We will even pay you if you don’t feel too proud to work for a living. As for your sister, we could probably find something for her to do. Does she cook? When our ranch hands show up, Mr. Daniels will have his hands full cooking for them. We could probably use a cook at the house if she is willing unless she would rather remain here and possibly cook.”

  Connor gave them both a long, appraising look, hoping he wasn’t making a mistake by allowing them to remain there.