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“I really do need more supplies to make good meals,” she said softly. “How was your day today?”
He shrugged. “Like usual. Lots more calves born. Sometimes the cows wander off to the strangest places to have them, and then we can’t find them if they need help.”
She looked at him and realized that his blue work shirt had blood all over it. She’d have to work to get the blood out when she did laundry. “Have you lost any calves?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, not even the twin that seemed too weak. He’s perked up, and she’s nursing him without a problem. That’s always a danger with twins when one is weak. That the mother will reject him, and we’ll have to either bottle feed or find another heifer who will take him on.”
“I see. What happens next? After all the calves have been born?”
“Then the real work starts. We must brand them and castrate the males. Then they feed all summer, growing bigger, while we constantly move them for good grazing. And then in the end, we drive them to market. Thankfully, the stockyards in Fort Worth aren’t terribly far to take the young steers.”
“That’s where you sell them?” she asked.
He nodded. “I prefer to only keep about three bulls, so all the steers are sold. Other ranchers or even farmers raise them for their meat.”
“I see. Have you always wanted to be a cattle rancher?”
He shrugged. “I guess when I was a little boy, I wanted to be a horse trainer like my pa, but I grew fascinated with the cattle we raised. His parents were cattle ranchers, and he kept up a big herd, but he mostly let his men take care of them, and he concentrated on training horses if he could. My brothers are all interested in horse training and following in Pa’s footsteps, but not me.”
“Sounds like you know what you want, and that’s a good thing.”
“I can also train my own horses without a problem, but I think I’ll let Pa handle that from now on. No need for me to waste my time doing something he can do better and faster.”
She nodded. “A couple of my brothers have ended up as cattle ranchers because they moved west and married women who had ranches. Elizabeth tends to use her siblings to send west to marry the people who write her.”
“I didn’t know that!”
“Well, I’m living proof.”
“How did it come about that Elizabeth ended up running the business instead of the woman Susan talked about…Harriett, I think?”
Alice grinned. “I love this story. Harriett ran the business for a few years, but she had been writing one of the men for that entire time. Instead of finding him a wife, she decided to be that wife herself. She was going to close down the business, but Elizabeth saw her, and asked who was going to help the women in town who were in difficult situations. Harriett not only gave her the business, but she gave her the house she’d been living in. Harriett came from extreme wealth, while we were the children of a poor dirt farmer.”
“I had no idea! I thought she bought the business or something.”
“Not at all. She was just willing to take on the business of helping others, and Harriett agreed with her that someone needed to help the women in town who were in abusive situations. Or who needed to leave town quickly. There’s always someone who needs to leave town quickly.”
He ate three full bowls of the stew before they were finished with supper, and she was thrilled he liked it enough to eat so much. After the meal, he went out to do his evening chores, while she did the dishes, and tidied up the kitchen.
When he came back inside, Alice wasn’t sure what to do with him. In the evenings, her father always read the newspaper while her mother sewed. Perhaps that would suit him, but she wasn’t aware of a newspaper anywhere.
“Would you mind if I sewed this evening?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I need to do some bookwork anyway. I’m trying to keep a tally of all the calves born this spring. I’m sure one of my neighbors rustled a few head last year, but because I didn’t keep good records, I couldn’t prove it.”
Alice took her sewing to the table, while he spread papers out and got to work. She didn’t try to make conversation, because she didn’t know if he needed to concentrate more than that. Though their first night together hadn’t been bad, it seemed to her that tonight—when they were each doing their own things—was harder than the first.
She didn’t know how to act with him, doing normal things that couples did. It felt odd to be alone with a man she barely knew, even though she’d been intimate with him the night before.
“You think too loud,” Albert said as he made some marks on his sheet.
“What does that mean?”
“I can feel your discomfort. We must get used to each other, and part of that is getting used to there being silence between us. We can’t talk every minute we’re together.”
“Well, I never thought we would,” Alice said, feeling a bit picked on. “I thought we’d sleep a lot too.”
He chuckled, reaching out and gripping her hand. “Susan said this would be the hardest part of things, and she was right. She’s been through it all before, so of course, she’s right. At least she and Pa could always talk about how poorly he disciplined his boys.”
