“A bunch of what?” Jake asked.
Asa rubbed his chin and looked into the glaring faces of the other hands.
“Nothing,” Asa said. “I’m going.”
“Yeah, you do that. And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out,” Crack said.
Chapter Twenty-five
Awakening fairly early this morning, Matt got out of bed and went downstairs, then stepped out onto porch even as a rooster began crowing. To the east, the rising sun was an orange-red ball just clearing the rounded domes of the Bruneau Dunes and touching the Snake River to turn it into a flowing stream of molten gold. He watched as the hands hitched a team to a wagon, then began loading it with hay. It took about ten minutes to load the wagon, then he watched as Jake and Crack started driving down to the field where the saddle horses were gathered for shipment to the army.
He could smell the aroma of bacon and biscuits coming from the cook house, and recalling the season he had worked as a cowboy in Wyoming, he almost wished that he was staying in the bunkhouse with the other men, rather than in the too elegant and too soft bedroom upstairs.
From behind him, he heard Maria, the house cook at work, preparing breakfast. The aroma of brewing coffee drifted out onto the porch, and that caused him to go back inside and step into the kitchen.
“The coffee smells good,” Matt said.
“Senor, if you go into the dining room, I will bring you a cup of coffee,” the cook offered.
Matt chuckled. “Maria, you have a very good way of getting unwanted people out of your kitchen,” he said. “I will get out of your way and, thank you, yes, I would love a cup of coffee.”
“Oh, Senor, now you make me feel bad,” Maria said.
“Do you mean I make you feel bad because you actually do want me to stay in your kitchen?”
“No, Senor. I do want you out of my kitchen,” Maria answered. “But you make me feel bad because you know that I want you out.”
Matt laughed, then went into the dining room to wait for his cup of coffee.
Upstairs, the cock’s crow had awakened Kitty, but she had not yet gotten out of bed. She stretched, then looked at the patterns formed by the shadows cast on the wall by the morning sun as it peeped through the aspen tree that grew just outside her bedroom window. The tree limbs were moving gently in compliance with a soft early morning breeze, and she could track their movement across the wall.
Through the open window, she could hear the men talking, and even though it had been very late when she was finally able to go to sleep last night, she felt a sense of guilt knowing that she was still in bed while the men who worked for her were already at work.
It had now been a little over a month since the last rustlers had hit Coventry, and ten days since Poke Terrell was killed. Clearly, with that evil man gone, and with all shipment horses safely confined in one field, the worst was over. It had been a peaceful ten days, and now, for the first time, Kitty was beginning to feel confident that she was going to get her horses to market in Chicago. Nevertheless she wanted to keep Matt around until the horses had been safely delivered.
The question she had asked Matt last night had been interrupted, and the opportunity to ask it had never repeated itself. This morning, upon reflection, she was glad that she had not been able to ask it again. Deep down inside she knew what the answer would be, she knew that he would tell her that he was going to be moving on, and she didn’t want to actually hear it expressed. She knew inherently that no deeper relationship between them was ever going to happen. Matt Jensen was not the kind of man who could settle down, and it would be like caging a wild bird and if she tried. Besides, if he did settle down, it might very well kill that which she loved most about him.
On the other hand, only two days remained until she could load the horses onto the train. Then she and Matt would share a private car all the way to Chicago. If that was all of Matt Jensen she could get, she would take it with gratitude for the opportunity.
Smiling at that pleasant thought, she got out of bed and dressed to go down to breakfast.
“Well, good morning,” Matt said, lifting his cup of coffee in greeting.
“Good morning yourself,” Kitty answered. “Did you get up with the chickens?”
“What do you mean get up with the chickens?” Matt replied. “Who do you think woke the rooster up this morning?”
Frederica came into the dining room with a cup of coffee which she handed to Kitty.
“Uhmm, thanks, Frederica,” she added. “Does Maria know I am up?”
“Si, Senora.”
“Did you sleep well?” Matt asked, as Kitty took her first swallow of coffee.
“Yes, I slept like a log,” Kitty lied.
“Senora, Maria has breakfast ready. I can serve you and Senor Yensen now if you want,” Frederica said, returning to the dining room.
“Yes, thank you, Frederica,” Kitty replied.
“Are you ready for Chicago?” Matt asked.
“Oh, yes,” Kitty answered. “Not just because I will be able to sell the horses, but because I’ve never been to a city that big. Actually, I’ve never been to any big city. Oh, Matt, can we stay for a few days to just visit?”
“When do you have to pay off the loan?”
