Cal said with unconcealed excitement. “Means we’ll be havin’ some of Miz Sally’s good cookin’ afore too long.”
Pearlie made a face. “I see your appetite has done returned to its usual.”
“I’m sick of beans an’ fatback. A big bearclaw drippin’ with melted brown sugar sure would be nice. Maybe two or three of ’em.”
Smoke was hoping all had remained quiet at the ranch while they were away. “Before she cooks up a bunch of bearclaws, I’m afraid she’s gonna fix me a dish of my own words, when I tell about all the troubles we had.”
“You hadn’t oughta promised her nothin’,” Pearlie said. “I reckon she knows you well enough to know such a thing just wasn’t possible.”
“She’ll have her say-so about it,” Smoke said, with all the assurance of experience.
“It’ll soften her some when she sees them good bulls,” Cal remarked. “That little one with the hole in his chest is doin’just fine. He don’t hardly notice it now.”
Pearlie spoke again. “Me, I’m lookin’ forward to sleepin’ in my own bed, ’stead of this hard ground. It’s damn sure gonna be good to be back home fer a change.”
Smoke looked back at the herd. Some of the Hereford bulls had already mounted heifers coming in season during rest stops. “Next spring we’ll have pastures full of white-faced crossbred calves. And I’m gonna wire that feller Chisum told me about down in Saint Louis, and have him ship me a good Morgan stud by rail this summer.”
“Sounds like you’ve got things all planned out,” Pearlie said. “Maybe things will settle down now. We’ve burned a hell of a lot of gunpowder lately.”
“For a fact,” Cal added quietly. “I still dream about them two fellers I killed, the Indian an’ that
“It’ll pass, young ’un,” Pearlie assured him. “Besides that, if you didn’t spend so damn much time sleepin’, you wouldn’t have time to do all that dreamin’.”
Bob Williams and Duke Smith rode up when they came to a fork in the valley leading to Smoke’s ranch. “If it’s all the same to you, Mr. Jensen, me an’ Duke will take a couple of those bulls, an’ head for home. I’ll bring the purchase money over in a few days, if that’s okay.”
“You’re a neighbor and a friend, Bob. Pay for ’em whenever you get ready.”
Bob extended a handshake offering. “Thanks again for takin’ us along.”
Smoke nodded. “As it turned out, we might not have made it if it hadn’t been for the two of you helpin’ out with your guns once in a while.”
Bob grinned. “Always glad to help a neighbor,” he said as he swung off to pick out two bulls.
As soon as Bob was out of earshot, Pearlie said, “Hell-fire, I never saw Bob or Duke hit nothin’ whilst we was shootin’. Bob couldn’t hardly hit the side of a barn with a rifle.”
“They did the best they could,” Smoke replied, not really caring either way. Marksmanship was a low priority when it came to picking good neighbors.
He saw Sally waiting on the front porch as they drove the herd up to the corrals. She smiled a beautiful smile and waved to him.
“Best you put yer lyin’ britches on afore you tell her about this trip,” Pearlie said, stifling a chuckle.
“I won’t lie to her,” Smoke replied. “She’d know right off I wasn’t telling the truth anyway.”
“You can tell her part of the truth. Say we ran into a bit of trouble but it didn’t amount to nothin’.”
“She’d know,” Smoke told him.
Now Pearlie laughed out loud. “Miz Jensen is the only two-legged thing on earth Mr. Smoke Jensen is afraid of.”
“That’s about the size of it, Pearlie. I wouldn’t do anything that might cause me to lose her.”
He kicked the Palouse colt toward the house while the others pushed the cattle toward the corrals. When he got to the front porch, he swung down and took her in his arms.
“I’ve missed you,” he said, kissing her lips. “Have things gone smoothly here?”
“No problems,” she told him, smiling. Then her face changed to a serious look, “But I can tell you had a few problems. I can see it in your eyes, and the fact that Johnny’s wearing that bandage around his leg.”
“There was some shooting,” he told her. “I had to discourage some hard cases who didn’t want us to get these cows to Sugarloaf.”
“You can tell me about it later,” she said. “Right now I want to see those Herefords up close.”
“I’d rather see you up close for a while,” he replied.
She gave him a taunting turn of her head. “That will come later, Smoke, if you behave yourself until the sun goes down.”
“I may not be able to wait that long.”
“Then find yourself another woman. I’m not that easy, to just take my clothes off when a man comes riding up to ask.”
“Even if he’s your husband?”
“I’d forgotten I had a husband, you’ve been away so long.”
“I got back as quick as I could.”
