"You'll have everything you need to cook anything you can think of," Emeline assured Nate, "and you're right, we'll be turning men away." She liked the men so far, they seemed dedicated and interested in making the ranch a success, and while she didn't know much about the logistics, she did know that keeping the same hands would be instrumental to building a good business.
"I'll be sure to order the basics when we get to town," she continued, "then we can discuss what else you need after you get a chance to look the place over and take stock."
As much planning as she'd already done in her head, actually meeting the men added to the excitement she'd been feeling. Now it was a matter of getting home and getting started!
"That sounds good Missus Pike, real good." Nate agreed with a continual smile that seemed to be plastered on his face. "Be there the better part of the day from whot I been told. I move about the speed 'o them doggies. Cattle never seems to be in a hurry, well, til they are, an' stampede."
This was something, but it would seem rare that a trail cook would have the good fortune of running into a woman that had a cafe and knew real cooking. A woman that would know what he needed, or even what he might want to ply his trade feeding the hands.
"Now, I think we're gonna get on just sparklin', Ma'am. Just sparklin'! Feedin' folks as best we know how, that's what we do, an' I cain't hardly wait ta get started for this Rockin P Ranch'a yours.!"
Pike smiled, looking over the herd and the string of Morgans, it was a good start. The offer he had made to the men was more than fair, what with a new bunkhouse for the men and their own Nate Ambrose doing their cooking three times a day, that would be a comfort having the same cook with them.
He was close to home, close to the Lickskillet as well as the Marshal's Office and ranch. It would be good to be home once again and to see what had changed if anything. He turned to Frank, "Time we headed out an' get that woman ta home. Had her all over the country this summer, be a treat ta be home at long last."
"Pythias, Dallas, Larado, saddle up." Teal ordered. "They're good men Pike, the best. They'll do ya right, all'a them will." Teal was glad the Pikes had crossed their trail, and that the men had the chance to meet them. "I'll start the herd again com mornin' and run onto ya along the way."
"Sounds good Frank. Can hardly wait! Best I let the Missus know." He said and started for the chuckwagon where Em was in conversation with Nate Ambrose and Danny Baker.
"Well Love, best we get a move on, make supper at the Licksillet an' home before nightfall." He promised, and it was well within reach.
After the Pike group had left, it was back to herding cows and horses, but Justus could tell that there was a change in the men, an air of excitement, and he was feeling it as well. While he hadn't been with the drive from the start, he'd still been with them for a long time, not just in days but in miles as well.
And now, those miles were between him and the boy who'd changed his name from 'Wheeler', and had grown into a young man determined to make a good life for himself and steer clear of trouble.
Just another day or so, and he'd get a gander at his future...
Zane stood looking after the couple that owned the ranch where they were taking the horses and cattle, the people that were offering a future to a group of men that had managed to push those very same animals some thirteen hundred miles through heat rain, wind, dust you name it. Outlaws and Indians and there they were at what amounted to the end of the drive, and the beginning of something else, whatever that might be, cowhand or maybe on the drift, though that really did not sound all that good.
For Zane Geraghty, his considerations for the future were now mixed, yes he had come a long way to find his friend Tyrell Thorton, but he was now enmeshed with this bunch, a part of them.
"So wha'd ya think there Justus?" He asked, "Maybe this'd be the place to lite and set a spell?" The he grinned wide, "Lucky man that Pike. Got him a woman he does. Now she's what I'd be lookin' for, tain't the beauty which she's surely got, it's the gumption! That's what make's him so lucky."
Justus laughed as they set into an easy pace along with the livestock, his eyes looking at the trail ahead, not seeing just the land the lay before them, but the future. He realized that this was a rare opportunity, and he wasn't going to squander it. His only regret was that he hadn't given a name farther from his real one, but what was done was done.
"Well, now, yer right on Mrs. Pike, she's a...she's elegant." Had to be careful when speaking of the boss' wife! She surely was lovely and kind, and she was to be respected and protected, but she was otherwise off limits.
"So, now, ya reckon Mrs. Pike has a dozen'er so sisters, lookin' ta take up with some handsome cowboys?" They should be so lucky!
"Well, now, yer right on Mrs. Pike, she's a...she's elegant." Had to be careful when speaking of the boss' wife! She surely was lovely and kind, and she was to be respected and protected, but she was otherwise off limits.
"Elegant, that'd be a good description of the lady, an' she shore is a lady, I'll take my oath on that one!" Zane chipped in, agreeing to the term used. "Yessiree Bob she is!" He nodded as he spoke.
"So, now, ya reckon Mrs. Pike has a dozen 'er so sisters, lookin' ta take up with some handsome cowboys?" They should be so lucky!
"Now wouldn't we be the lucky ones was that to be true, though I kinda doubt we got us thet kinda luck." He mused with a grin, "Yep, that'll be the day we stumble in on the likes of her lookin' fer some range hands to tie in with." And he laughed at his own statement.
"Yeah, yer probably right." Justus shrugged, then shook his head. "Just our luck all th' good ones are taken!" But honestly, when he was ready to take that step, he'd feel lucky to find a gal like Miz Emeline, fair of face, soft-spoken, yet bold enough to jump bareback on a strange horse...Gals like that would be hard to come by, and Mr. Pike was one lucky man!
"Reckon we'll see soon enough! Leastways, I'm sure there'll be some pretty gals at th' saloon who'er willin' ta..." Inadvertently, his cheeks started to burn red, and he found all those cows really interesting!
Zane grinned, "You can count on that, else ways they got 'um a bordello close by to solve that need. Mots towns got one, now how pretty they are, well that one's up fer grabs, some is, some ain't but they all solve the problem ya bring 'em."
"Them big cow towns, Abilene, Ellsworth, Dodge City, you cross the tracks into the wrong part'a town where the respectable people live an' ya go ta jail. That is if'n you ain't beat bloody 'er shot. Don't figger this Kalispell's like that. I mean, they don't get cattle drives like them Kansas towns." He offered.
"Nothin' so wrong with havin' part of town that ain't so respectable," Justus observed, "gives a fella a place ta go where he don't got to worry 'bout bein' too proper...not that I ain't a gentleman, mind ya, but I got no fancy clothes nor airs, an' I don't take kindly ta old wemmen lookin' down their noses at me!"
Even in some saloons, where the only women were 'workers', there were still men who would thumb there noses at a fella that wasn't all gussied up in a brocade vest and fancy frock coat.
"Reckon we'll know pretty soon!" While he was anxious to see the new spread, and have something better to look at than the hind-side of a cow, he would be careful, too, and not stray alone until he was sure he was safe.