“Mischief maker,” Clay translated for her.
“Don’t worry about it,” Clay said. “Tom will look out for him.”
“Tell me,” Dusty asked. “How is it that you fellas managed to avoid the great freeze and die-out?”
“I didn’t avoid it,” Smoke said. “Like all the other ranchers around me, I lost a lot of cows. That’s why I’m running Angus now. I had to replace my herd anyway, so I figured, why not? I knew that Duff was running Black Angus and had avoided the freeze out, so I got in contact with him and I did the same thing that Big Ben is doing now. I got some cows from Duff.”
“What kept you from freezing out?” Clay asked.
“My ranch, Sky Meadow, is in the Chugwater Valley,” Duff explained. “I am surrounded by mountain ranges that protect me from the worst of winter’s blows. I was very fortunate. While everyone else was losing cattle, my herd was increasing.”
“Why did Big Ben decide to get into Angus?” Smoke asked. “I know there was no big freeze-out down in Texas.”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know how he got interested in Angus. After the price on Longhorns crashed, I thought for sure he would switch over to Herefords as all the ranchers are. But he’s been reading a lot about them lately,” Clay said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose Angus because he would be the only one in Tarrant County raising them. Big Ben is nothing if he is not a trailblazer.”
All the time they had been talking, Falcon had been studying Dusty McNally.
“Dusty McNally,” Falcon finally said. “Haven’t you and I met before?”
“You’ve got a good memory,” Dusty said. “Easy enough for me to remember you, you’re a famous man and you don’t forget meeting famous men. But I’m not famous, so I don’t know how it is that you remember me.”
“It was in Tombstone, wasn’t it?”
Dusty smiled. “Yes, sir, it was.”
“It was outside the Bird Cage Theater. As I recall, you put a load of buckshot into the belly of a man by the name of Otis Jefferson, as Jefferson was about to shoot me in the back.”
Dusty smiled. “Yes, sir, I did do that,” he said.
“It’s not hard to remember someone who once saved your life,” Falcon said. “I’m glad that you will be with us.”
The men continued their discussion over cigars, and in order to avoid the cigar smoke, Sally and Maria excused themselves. They walked out into the lobby, then found two large overstuffed chairs in front of the fireplace.
“Oh, I’m glad you suggested we leave,” Maria said. “The cigar smoke was beginning to make me nauseous.”
“Is that the only thing that was making you nauseous?” Sally asked.
“What do you mean?”
Sally smiled, and leaned a bit closer to Maria. “Maria, are you pregnant?”
“Why do you ask that?” Maria asked, anxiously.
“Let’s just say that it is something I suspect, woman to woman. No, let me adjust that. It isn’t something I suspect, it is something I know. You are pregnant, aren’t you?”
Maria blushed, then looked around. “Yes,” she said. “But Clay and I have told no one.”
“When are you due?”
“In January, I think.”
“You are due in January, and you came on this drive? Maria, have you ever been on a cattle drive before? They are not easy. I find it hard to believe that Clay would let you come along, this close to delivery.”
“I begged him to bring me,” Maria said. “I did not want to take the chance of having this baby at home without him there. He thinks the baby is not due until February. Please do not tell him otherwise.”
“Maria, I know you are young and this is all very frightening to you,” Sally said. “But it was a very foolish thing for you to do. You have no business being here.”
“Perhaps you are right,” Maria replied. “Yes, I am sure you are right. So, I will go back home now. I will leave tomorrow.”
Sally laughed. “You’ve got it all worked out, haven’t you?”
“Si, Senora,” Maria said.
“I believe Clay said you had come along to cook,” Sally said.
“Si. I cook and I drive the chuck wagon.”
“Then this is what we will do. On the way down to Texas I will drive the chuck wagon and I will cook,” Sally offered.
“Please, I do want to pull my own weight,” Maria said.
“As long as the weight you pull does no harm to you or the baby,” Sally promised.
“You are a good woman, Senora Jensen.”
“My name is Sally.”
“You are a good woman, Sally,” Maria corrected with a broad smile.
“And we won’t tell anyone else that you are pregnant,” Sally said. “But Maria, you must promise me, at the first pain, at the very first sign of trouble of any kind, you will tell me immediately.”
“I will.”
“Is that a promise?”
“Si, Sally, it is a promise.”
Rebecca had intended to return to Fort Worth right after Janie died, but when she came to tell Oscar, he was so inconsolable with grief that she decided she would stay just a little longer. And because she was still in Dodge, she was still working at the Lucky Chance Saloon.
Tonight, she was walking through the saloon, stopping at the various tables to chat with the customers.
“Becca, I want you to know how sorry all of us are about your Mama dying,” one of the customers said. “She was a good woman.”
Rebecca put her hand on the customer’s shoulder. “Thank you, Lonnie,” she said. “I appreciate that.”
Other customers were expressing their own condolences from time to time, but Rebecca, knowing that she had to change the mood—for Oscar if for no other reason—began smiling and joking with the customers until soon the mood had lifted.
Frank Lovejoy was at one of the tables, and as Rebecca stepped up to that table, smiling at the men there, Lovejoy unexpectedly stuck his hand up under her skirt then reached all the way up to grab her by the backside.
“You’re right, Doyle,” Lovejoy said. “It does feel just like Asa’s bald head.”
Doyle and the other men at the table laughed.
“Stop that!” Rebecca said loudly, stepping away from the table as quickly as she could.
“Look who is getting all huffy now,” Lovejoy said.
“Mr. Lovejoy, you got no right grabbing her like that,” Candy said. “She’s not like the rest of us.”
“The hell she ain’t. Ever’ body knows it’s only going to be a matter of time until she starts whorin’ just like her mama did,” Lovejoy said. He looked back at Rebecca. “Honey, if you’d let ole’ Frank be first, I could show you what it’s supposed to be like.”
“Hell, Frank,” Doyle said. “What makes you think you would be first?”
Again the men at the table laughed.
With her cheeks burning, Rebecca retreated to the bar and she stood there with her back to the bar, looking at the table where Lovejoy and the others were engaged in animated conversation interspersed with ribald laughter.
“Are you all right?” Stan asked. Stan was the bartender.
“I can’t believe he would do something like that and not one person at that table would say a thing to him,” Rebecca said.
