Colter's Wife by Joan Johnston

Author:Joan Johnston [Johnston, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2003-08-24T16:00:00+00:00

12

“I’d like to send a telegram.”

“Yessir,” the youthful telegrapher said, so intent on transcribing an incoming message that he handed Colter a piece of paper and a pencil without looking up. “Just write your message down how you want it sent.”

Colter took pencil in hand and wrote:

Have grassland. Ship cattle and winter feed to Cheyenne next available train. Send word to Triple Fork when you arrive.

Colter

“Send that to Boley Snow at the Broadwell House in Denver.”

Colter turned to Kinyan, who waited patiently by the door of the Cheyenne telegraph office.

“Pardon me, sir,” the telegrapher called out to stop the scarred man dressed entirely in black. “This says send word to the Triple Fork.”

“Yes?”

“That’s the Holloway ranch.”

Then the telegrapher saw Kinyan standing behind Colter.

“Oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Holloway. I didn’t see you. I didn’t know you had a guest at the ranch.”

“Andy, I’d like you to meet my husband, Benjamin Colter. This is Andy MacDougall. His father runs the Bar Seven, which borders the Triple Fork on the south. Will your mother be at the Association meeting this afternoon?”

The redheaded youth’s eyes had widened in his astonished, ginger-freckled face.

“Yes, she will…but, holy smokes! Last meeting Ritter Gordon said you and he were…holy smokes!…engaged!”

“I’m pleased to meet you,” Colter said, to rescue the floundering youth. He extended his hand to Andy with a smile. “I’m looking forward to having you as a neighbor.”

Andy jumped up to shake hands. “Yessir. Well, I better get this telegraph off so I’m not late to the meeting.” Andy plopped down and set the key to clacking.

Walking arm in arm, Colter and Kinyan headed for Hoot Beaumont’s house at the very end of Main Street, where the Association was holding its meeting.

Kinyan smiled inwardly, remembering Andy’s reaction to her announcement. There were going to be a lot more surprised faces before the afternoon was over. She only hoped the rest of the responses she received to the news of her marriage to Benjamin Colter were as innocuous as Andy’s “holy smokes!” Actually, there was only one person she was really worried about.

“Ritter’s liable to be spitting mad when he finds out we’re married. Are you sure I’m not going to need my Colt this afternoon?” Kinyan said, only half teasing.

Colter’s lips quirked, but he bit down on the smile that threatened. It was liable to make her impossible to live with if he acknowledged again how well she’d cornered him on that point this morning.

“Don’t worry,” he replied. “I’ll take care of Ritter.”

After her initial gibe, Kinyan didn’t speak again during the walk, allowing Colter’s gentle massage of her blistered palm to speak for him.

They arrived just a few minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin. Colter ushered Kinyan inside the elegant foyer of the Beaumont house, with its polished oak floors overlaid with muted Aubusson rugs. A collection of Matthew Brady photographs of the Civil War hung in the hallway, and Colter experienced a surge of renewed sorrow at the wounded his inadequate surgery had

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.