Dude Ranch Bride by Madeline Baker

Author:Madeline Baker [Baker, Madeline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Butterfly Kisses Press
Published: 2017-05-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Ethan paced the floor most of that night, trying to convince himself that he didn’t need Cynthia Wagner. He had survived the last five years without her; he could get through the next five just as well.

Going to the window, he stared out into the night. Who was he trying to kid? He had been trying to get over her for five years, three months and six days, and he hadn’t managed it yet. In all that time, not a day had gone by without him thinking about her, wondering where she was, what she was doing. Why the hell hadn’t she married Mr. Moneybags? Even though she would still be in Ethan’s thoughts, still a temptation, at least she would be untouchable. And even though it would hurt like the devil knowing she belonged to someone else, at least he would know she was out of reach. Maybe then he’d be able to move on. And maybe he’d win the lottery. And maybe the government would return the Black Hills to the Lakota.

Knowing he was never going to be able to get any sleep, he left the cabin. Wolf crawled out from under the porch and padded at Ethan’s heels as he walked to the corral. The stallion snorted softly at their approach.

“Wolf, down,” Ethan said quietly.

Whining softly, the dog dropped to his belly, his head resting on his paws.

Ethan draped his arms over the top rail. Sometimes, like now, he thought about just giving up and going back to the reservation, living from allotment check to allotment check. He had a lot of old friends there. They could go hunting and fishing, spend their evenings sitting outside chewing the fat. He could move in with his cousins. They’d be happy to see him, happy to put him up for as long as he wanted to stay. . . . Yet even as he considered it, he knew he wouldn’t go. Dorothea needed his help here, and he liked working on the ranch. He was his own boss, more or less. He had a place of his own, plenty of time off, the opportunity to dance as often or as little as he liked.

But that wasn’t the only reason. Visiting at Pine Ridge Reservation always filled him with a sense of despair. Jobs were scarce. A high percentage of kids were high school dropouts. The suicide rate was high, as was the rate of infant mortality and diabetes. There were few paved roads, few businesses; there were still conflicts between the mixed bloods and the full-bloods, between progressive Indians who wanted to embrace the ways of the white man, and traditional Indians who wanted to preserve and emphasize the old ways. Back in the mid-seventies, those tensions had erupted in a bloody battle at Wounded Knee, where another bloody battle had taken place over a hundred years ago.

His cousin, Joseph Little Eagle, likened living on the reservation to living in a concentration camp.

With a sigh of exasperation, Ethan grabbed the hackamore off the post where he had left it the day before.

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.