The Prettiest Girl in the Land (The Traherns #3) (11 page)
Read The Prettiest Girl in the Land (The Traherns #3) Online
Authors: Nancy Radke
“They get new life on the way home. Going out, they’re loaded
and pulling uphill. They act half dead when we get to the mines. But coming
back they get a second wind and by the time we get home, they’re clippin right
along.”
“Travers looks content, riding with you,” I said.
“He’s a help. If I have to leave the wagon a minute, for sure
nothing gets stolen. Men just leave my cargo alone.”
“Maybe they should pay him wages as a guard.”
He laughed. “He’s worth it, but I doubt they’d do that. What do
you plan to do next, Ruth?”
“I was a-thinking about that as I walked down here. I’m wonderin
if’n I should go see some of California before I start another job. I
especially want to see those trees.”
“Sounds good to me. I need to see my folks.”
His comment made me happy. Sounds like I wouldn’t be making the
trip north alone.
He turned the gold dust over to the foreman, then went on to the
stable area and unhitched the horses. I had on my work dress, but it warn’t
made for this kind of work, so I just watched while Gage watered and fed them,
gave them a brush down, and put the harness away. It were the most pleasure I’d
had in a long time.
We rode back together in a cab, with Travers sitting at
our feet, looking out the window.
“I worry some that someone will shoot him,” Gage said, reaching
down to stroke the dog’s head. Travers looked up at him and licked his hand.
“Most of the stuff people worry about never happens. If’n we
don’t take chances, we’d never do anything, maybe never find happiness. I’d
take him along, just to get him out where he can run. He was a’frettin in that
small yard. He’s happy with you.”
“He was. But he’s eager to come back to you at the end of each
trip, Ruth. As am I.”
“This is a good place to stay, ” I said, motioning towards the
boardinghouse. We pulled up and stopped.
“Wouldn’t matter where you stayed. Tennessee or California. His
heart is with you.”
I smiled at Gage, not quite catching his drift. I got out of the
cab and started to go inside. He caught my hand and held it.
“So is mine.”
I looked at him, puzzled. “So is your what?”
“My heart, Ruth. I love you. I been hinting, but you don’t take
hints.”
Love? He loved me? Since when?
“I don’t take plain talk either. I’ve heard you swear your love
to every girl in every holler and then some.”
He put his face in his hands. “Ahh!” He slapped his hips
as he looked back at me. “Ruth, you never would let me get close. You were
always working. You wouldn’t let me help you. You sent the boys off with Mary.
I joined that group, hoping I could get close to you. “
“Oh.”
“I finally gave up and went around looking, but not finding. I
come back to Mary’s wedding and you’re still all prickly and independent. Do
you ever plan to get married?”
“Of course.”
To my Boaz
.
“Would you marry me?” He sounded right put out.
My first proposal. It didn’t sound at all like I thought it
should. Not sweet and flowery. More exasperated
. Why ask me?
“Gage, you can have your pick of any woman in San Francisco. Why
would you ask a plain one like me?”
“I’m like Travers. I want to be where you are. And you aren’t
plain, Ruth. When you laugh, your whole face lights up, and your eyes dance. To
me, you’re the prettiest girl in the land. You can run circles around the other
women.”
I looked at him skeptically. I couldn’t believe him
.
Me? Pretty?
“I thought you already had
you a girl in California.”
“I do. You. I been chasing you all the way from Tennessee. And
you been running so fast I could hardly keep up.”
Time to defend myself. “I been looking for my Boaz.”
“Who? Boaz?
You’ve already got someone?
”
Now, if’n I had any doubts left about Gage, that took care of
them. He looked like someone had pole-axed him. I’d never seen a man collapse
as completely as he did, except when a man would get news of his wife or child
dying. The disbelief, followed by complete anguish, over the loss of a loved
one, couldn’t be faked.
Gage loved me! Here I’d been praying for my Boaz, and he’d been
a’chasing me clear across the country.
God must think I was dumber than a block of wood. Here He had
been trying to answer my prayers, and I couldn’t see it. He must be laughing at
me right now.
I started to chuckle, bemused.
Gage just shook his head in misery, and turned and walked away.
“Gage. I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at me. I was too
blockheaded to see what you were up to.”
He stopped. Turned around. “But this other man. This Boaz.”
“I’m Ruth, Gage. Like in the Bible. Preacher Rowe told me to go
find my Boaz. My other half. I been looking. Just not behind me. There is no
other man.”
“Then I got a chance?” He looked so happy, I wouldn’t have been
able to tell him “no,” if’n I’d have wanted to. Besides, this was Gage, the
man, talking to me. I’d come to know his qualities during our trip out here.
“If you don’t mind a girl who can’t read sign,” I said.
“Then you will? Marry me?”
I barely hesitated. I trusted him and knew he wouldn’t betray
that trust. Did I love him? I wasn’t sure. But I was already starting to
picture little boys with Gage’s eyes and way of laughing. Gage would back bring
the sunshine into my life that I’d lost with Mary. “Yes.”
He took and kissed me. I’d never been kissed like that before,
like I had pushed him to the end of his rope, and he was going to tie a knot in
it before I took off again.
I decided I liked it. So this was what Mary had been doing.
My heart started thumping and I kissed him back. Love? It was
swooping down on me like a chicken hawk on a chicken. I wanted Gage. I wanted
to be married to him. And I wanted to join with the man that God had picked out
for my husband.
My Boaz.
Thank you, God.
We got married that weekend. Lila helped me pick out a fancy
white dress and did my hair. She was my maid of honor. I have my wedding photo.
I was so extremely happy, I looked beautiful. And Gage looked prouder than I’d
ever seen him.
Gage quit his job and took me north to where his pa and ma
lived. I wasn’t disappointed in the trees. They looked like they could sweep
the sky clean, pulling the clouds to the earth. And Abigail beamed that she
would finally get some grandchildren from Gage. She’d given up hope on him.
Jacob had a place by the ocean, where the soil was deep and
black, but I told Gage I’d prefer the hills, if’n he didn’t mind.
After spending two weeks with Jacob and Abigail, we went on to
Walla Walla where Trey and Mally lived. It overlooked the valley, a well built
place that Gage had helped him start. Trey and Gage had brought logs down from
the mountain slopes last fall, long straight Ponderosa pine, and Trey had taken
off the bark and flattened the sides, ready to build.
The wood had cured out, but he was waiting for help to put up
the home he planned. He had several neighbors who were coming over. They could
raise a house, or barn, in a day, if the material was ready. Trey had even cut
some planks to make a floor, splitting the wood with wedges, then finishing
them off with an adze. He’d made nails during the winter, cutting the metal to
length, then hammering on a head and a point.
Smaller poles formed a corral, and a temporary home had seen
them through the winter.
My brother welcomed us and just about doubled over laughing.
“You two? Married? I’d never have guessed.”
Gage grinned at him. “You should have. I spent a lot of time at
your place.”
“We all thought you were sparkin’ Mary.”
“Ruth wouldn’t pay me no attention, so I had to have some reason
to come around.”
“I’m glad you won her.”
“So am I.”
They shook hands, and Mally and I just smiled delightedly at
each other.
“I figure on getting us some land around here, if it’s still available,”
Gage said.
“Yes. It’s now about ten dollars an acre. I know an area close
by that no one’s considering yet. I’ll show it to you. Do you have money?”
“The bank gave each of us a reward for saving their money for
them, that’ll set Ruth and me up pretty well.”
“We read about it. In our paper. Is that Travers?”
“Yes,” I said. “He sort of brought us together.”
So we had to tell them about the trip, correcting the spots the
reporter had exaggerated.
“Also,” Gage said, “I was best man at your cousin’s wedding.
Matthew’s.”
“So he made it, then. Good.”
“He says, “Thank you for the horse. And his life.”
“He’s welcome.”
“He’s planning to send you some of Hero’s colts.”
“I’d like that.”
“Matthew claims that Hero is the smartest horse in Texas.”
“He is smart, for a horse.”
“And Mary wed a Yankee. A captain of a ship,” I added.
“How ‘bout Jonas?”
“He asked Josephine to marry him.”
“I wondered when he’d do that. Cousin Mark?”
“He and Luke are leaving the mountains soon. They were going to
help their folks a little first.”
“Who else?”
“Well, cousin John came back early from the war, without an arm.
He’s going to stay with his folks for a bit. On our side of the family, other
than Jonas, y’all left and never came back. So I don’t know about y’all.”
“Any other news?”
“Yes,” Gage said. “My pa showed up and took Ma to California.
They got them a sweet spot near the ocean. So I won’t be bringing her here to
live. We saw them on our way. Our families are scattering out.”
“Building a country,” said Trey. “One people will be proud to
live in.”
My brother had filled out with Mally’s cooking. He was right
handsome now. And Mally told me she was five months along with their first
child.
“Mally’s been riding all over the countryside, taking care of
sick folk and delivering babies,” Trey said. “She’s getting a reputation for
being quite the doctor. People see her pony outside a place and know someone’s
either sick or having a baby.”
“Gage said you used to care for your mother,” I said.
“I did,” she replied. “We don’t have a doctor around here, and
if we did, we couldn’t pay for him. My aunt had a doctor book in the wagon,
Doctor Gunn’s work. So I go and help.”
“She hasn’t lost a baby yet,” Trey said. “She’ll have to stop
for a bit while she has ours.”
“Stay here with us,” Mally said, her eyes sparkling as she
looked at me. “Trey and the neighbors plan to put up our house this coming
week. You can look at the place Trey is talking about, buy what land you can
now, and then we can do your home. We help each other here, and log houses go
up quickly. We’re building strong,” she said.
“One home at a time,” I agreed.
I liked Mally. I liked this part of the country. And I loved my
Boaz.
THE
END
But
not the end of your reading, if you wish to read a short story. There is one
included in this book that is part of The Traherns Series, called
The
Prettiest Gal on the Mountain,
a story about Abigail
Courtney. To find it, use the menu in this book. There are also a couple of
prologues from other books.
Thank you for
reading
“The Prettiest Girl in the Land.”
If you enjoyed this
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The
Prettiest Gal on the Mountain (Short pioneer story)
RADKE
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