Bittner, Rosanne (55 page)

Luke took another sip of wine. "If I let you marry my daughter, and I ever get one hint that you've abused her in any way or that you forced her or frightened her, I'll break your neck. You understand that?"

Brad swallowed. "Yes, sir. I'd expect it. You wouldn't be asking any more of me than I would ask of myself."

Katie looked at her father. "Pa, I told Brad what a good man you are." A tear slipped down her cheek. "You're embarrassing me by being so rude."

Luke set his wineglass down. "I'll be as rude as necessary when it comes to giving my daughter over in marriage. Once a man is your husband, you're under his control and answer to his whims. I don't take something like that lightly, Katie, and I hardly know this young man."

"Can't you trust my judgment? It's
my
feelings that matter here," Katie argued. "I've seen Brad almost every day for three months now. We talk about everything. I felt comfortable with him from the very first day l met him. We enjoy each other's company, and he doesn't—" She looked up at Brad. "He doesn't frighten me. He makes me happy." She stood up and moved beside Brad, and he slipped an arm around her waist. "We love each other, Pa. I never thought I could be this happy. Can't you be happy
for
me?"

Luke leaned back in his chair, studying the two of them. He liked the way they looked together, liked Brad's boldness. He was nervous, and had every right to be, but he wasn't afraid. Luke could smell fear, and there was none in Brad Tillis. He met his daughter's eyes. "Of course I want to be happy for you; but you can understand my protectiveness, Katie. This is quite a surprise you've pulled on me and your mother, you know, coming home for Christmas with a man on your arm, a man you say you want to marry without our ever even meeting him."

"I only waited because I wanted to be sure myself, and because it was only a few days ago that Brad found out the truth about... about what happened. Before I gave my heart away, and before things got serious enough to tell you about him, I wanted to be sure Brad would still want me after he knew. I'm not afraid anymore, Pa. Since I've met Brad I don't have nightmares, and I feel safe and loved."

Luke nodded. "All right. You have my permission to marry, but not until next spring. And I don't like the idea of you going off with a new husband and living so far away we never get to see you and make sure you're all right. I'll break out a piece of land or maybe I can talk Henry Kline into selling the Lazy K. He's already been thinking about it. If you're going to go into ranching, it isn't necessary to do it clear on the other side of the mountains."

Katie felt Brad's hold on her tighten. "Well, sir, we might not have any choice."

Lettie felt her heart pound harder. Now it was coming. She had thought it best that Brad tell Luke himself. Luke liked honesty and courage in a man, and never did Brad need both things more than now.

"Why is that?" Luke asked with a scowl.

"Because, sir, I don't raise cattle. I, uh, I raise sheep."

Pearl and Robbie both gasped, and Tyler slowly rose. "What?" the boy asked.

After that there were just several long seconds of silence, during which Luke's face darkened with anger. He glanced at Lettie and was surprised that she did not look shocked. "Did you know about this?"

"Yes," she answered calmly.

Luke looked back at Brad. "Sheep?"

"Yes, sir. Sheep."

Luke closed his eyes and rose. "Sweet Jesus," he muttered. "I've got to get out of here before I do something I shouldn't."

"Pa." Katie stopped him and breathed deeply to keep from breaking into harder tears. "I'm going to marry Brad, with or without your approval. I would rather you were there to give me away willingly. I want my wedding to be happy. I want my father there."

He only studied her a moment longer before turning and leaving the room. Tyler sat shaking his head. "Pa's been chasing sheep men off his land for years," he told Brad.

Brad let go of Katie and folded his arms. "Yeah? Well maybe he doesn't know everything there is to know about sheep. I do. I know them just as good as you and your pa know cattle, and I know sheep and cattle can graze together with no problem. Cattlemen are just so worried about how much land it takes to graze a cow that they think nothing else should be allowed on the grasslands. Well, wild animals have been grazing together for years. Look how many buffalo there used to be, but the deer and elk and moose and antelope and all the other wild animals still had enough to eat. If your pa would give me a chance, I could prove to him that all the trouble over sheep isn't necessary."

Tyler studied the young man who wanted to marry his sister. For the most part he liked him, except that he was a sheep rancher. More than that, he loved Katie and wanted her to be happy. He would long remember that first day they brought her back home. He never thought she'd ever want to marry and lead a normal life, and he figured Brad Tillis must be something special to make her so happy.

"I'll go talk to your father," Lettie told a dejected Katie.

Tyler rubbed at his chin in a gesture common to Luke. Brad had only just met them both, but he could not help being astounded at the likeness between father and son, not just in looks, but in little movements and the way they walked. "I'll talk to him, too," Tyler told them.

Lettie looked at her son in surprise, sure he would side with Luke. "Ty, that's good of you."

The boy shrugged. "I know how Pa can be, but I've worked with him long enough that he sometimes listens to me now. C'mon. He's probably in the library having a cigar and a shot of whiskey."

"Thank you, Ty," Katie told her brother.

He glanced at Brad again. "You really love her, don't you? I mean, if you ever hurt her, I'd be next in line after Pa to give you what for."

Brad grinned. "I really love her. I'd like this to be a happy Christmas for everybody."

Ty looked at his mother. "You go first. I'll come in a few minutes. I want to talk to Brad about this thing of sheep and cattle being able to graze together."

"Pa says sheep smell bad," Robbie put in.

"That's not true," Brad answered. "They don't smell any worse than cattle. You ought to know what a whole mess of cattle smells like when they're shoved together into a corral on a hot, humid day. It's a smell you just get used to, just like you get used to sheep and horses and anything else."

Pearl giggled again, and Lettie left the room to find Luke. Just as Ty predicted, he was in the library, cigar in hand, a shot of whiskey in the other. He turned away from a window at the sound of the doors sliding open, turned back when he saw it was Lettie.

"If you've come here to stick up for Katie and that... that
sheep
man—"

"Of course I've come here to stick up for them."

"Why didn't you tell me he raised sheep?"

"I wanted to see if he was man enough to tell you himself. I was surprised, too, at first, but then I thought maybe there is a way to work it out." She stepped closer. "Luke, he seems like a fine young man. He's proud and sure, and he loves Katie. You can see how happy she is."

He sighed deeply and swallowed the whiskey. "She's only sixteen."

"Not a normal sixteen-year-old and you know it. She's no innocent, and yet in some ways she is, just as I was— innocent of the beauty of being with a man. I think Brad will be good to her."

He shook his head. "Sheep. I don't understand what she could be thinking."

"You don't
understand?
What part about all of this
don't
you understand, Luke? Love? You certainly know what love is like. You can remember what it was like for us in the beginning, how it felt to want to be together. Maybe you don't understand the fact that she's willing to go far away with him if necessary. Well, that doesn't make sense either. I believe I remember another young man who wanted to take a young girl far away from her family, too—only that was even worse, because he took her to a very dangerous, unsettled land. And I believe
that
young man and woman also had not known each other for very long, but they knew they were in love, and she was willing to follow her man to the end of the earth, if that was what it took to be with him."

Luke turned to look at her, the anger in his eyes turning to a mixture of love and guilt.

"And maybe you don't understand that Brad has a dream of making it on his own. Is that it? Well, Luke Fontaine, I remember another young man who had a dream, and who dared to risk everything for that dream. He was proud and determined, too, just like Brad is. Don't tell me you don't understand any of this, Luke, because Brad and Katie's situation is no different from ours seventeen years ago. And
I
understand how Katie feels. She's found a man she thinks can make love beautiful for her. After what she went through, do you really want to take that away from her?"

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed in exasperation. "You know I don't. Lettie, I can't forget how she looked when I found her with those men. What if this upstart doesn't understand that? What if he's just after the family money? What if he hurts her, disappoints her?"

"Luke, do you think my own parents didn't have the same questions about you? We hadn't even known you as long as Katie has known Brad. And you've always been a good judge of people. I feel good about this boy, and I know that deep down inside, you do, too. If he was after family money, he wouldn't be talking about going off someplace else to start on his own."

"Well, that's another thing I don't like. Katie is special for reasons we both know. I don't think it would be good for her to go far from home like that."

"Like when you brought me to Montana, when it was wild and dangerous country?"

He rolled his eyes and waved her off.

"Luke, my parents would have loved it if you had gone on to Denver and got a job there so we could all be together. But you wanted to do something that was just yours. You had an idea, and you were proud and independent. So is Brad. And if you weren't so damn stubborn about this sheep thing, they wouldn't
have
to go far away. They could ranch right here in Montana, somewhere close to us. Maybe right here on the Double L. You were ready enough to give them some land when you thought he raised
cattle!"

Luke set his whiskey glass aside and took a couple of puffs on his cigar. "For God's sake, Lettie, I am president of the Cattlemen's Association. You know how all those men feel about sheep! How is it going to look, me announcing that my own daughter wants to marry a
sheep
man, let alone offering to let him raise those sheep right here! Katie is an intelligent girl. How in hell could she let herself get mixed up with the very kind of people I've been running off this place for years?"

"Love knows no boundaries and no rules, Luke. She loves him, plain and simple. She wouldn't care if he shoveled horse manure for a living. A man's worth isn't judged by what he does for a living, Luke Fontaine. You know that. Why don't you give him a chance? Maybe he's right. Maybe it is possible for sheep and cattle to range together. Maybe a lot of men have died needlessly in the range wars, and maybe this is a way to keep that from happening here in Montana. This could be just one more way to keep the peace and show the federal government we're on our way to qualifying for statehood. Range wars certainly won't win us any points."

He set his cigar in an ashtray and studied the only person who could sway his opinion on anything. "You're determined to let this happen, aren't you?"

Lettie frowned, stepping closer. "I am determined that Katie will be happy. I'm tired of seeing her cry."

Someone knocked on the door. It was Tyler. When he opened the doors he looked nervous but determined. "Pa?"

Luke shook his head, able to read his son's eyes. "You, too?"

Tyler shrugged. "Pa, I've been talking to Brad. He says his folks come from Iowa, but more and more farming there forced them to come west to graze their sheep. They've been through a lot, Pa, been shot at, had their sheep slaughtered by cattlemen. They finally settled in northeast Colorado, but a drought there has made things real hard. Brad's pa is going to quit, but sheep are all Brad knows. He wants to keep raising them. There's good money in sheep, Pa, real good money. All he needs is a place to raise them, and with all the range wars in Wyoming and Colorado and farther south, and the Mormons taking up all the good land in Utah, he figured Montana would be a good place to come. Brad says—"

"I'll speak for myself," Brad said, walking in behind

Tyler. "I say sheep and cattle can graze together, Mr. Fontaine," the young man said, keeping his voice firm. "I've seen it back in Iowa. You let the cattle graze first. Sheep aren't as particular about what they eat. They come along behind the cattle and eat what they leave behind. And sheep are cheaper to raise. It takes at least seven men to herd a thousand head of cattle. Am I right, Mr. Fontaine?"

Luke frowned, folding his arms and nodding his head. "That's about right."

"Well, sir, one man and a good sheep dog can handle about
three
thousand sheep. And I've heard of men who herded sheep from New Mexico to California and made ten times their original investment. With the herd I can get from my pa down in Colorado, I can get a good start. Sheep sell for about a dollar and a half a head when they're shipped to market, and like I said, it's cheaper to ship them because it doesn't take so many men to get them there. I'm also thinking that once I build up my numbers, I won't have to bother herding them anywhere. I can hire men to shear them and I'll ship and sell the wool. That goes for eight cents a pound right now. I can take it by the wagonload to Cheyenne to sell back East, and I hear that before long there will be a railroad come right through Billings, probably in another five or six years, so I'll make even more money because I won't have to herd sheep or haul wool so far. My pa has some good, healthy ewes, figures the lamb crop to be real good next spring. I aim to go down there and bring most of them back to Montana. If I have to do it farther west, then that's what I'll do. It will be dangerous herding them through Wyoming, what with the problems there with cattlemen and all, but I'll manage."