Arizona Territory (Byrnes Family Ranch) - Softcover

Richards, Dusty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 078603663X ISBN 13: 9780786036639

Verlag: Kensington Publishing, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

“Dusty takes readers into the real west at full gallop.” —New York Times bestselling author Jodi Thomas

Western Heritage and Spur award-winning author Dusty Richards tells the thrilling saga of Chet Byrnes, a man who brought the spirit of Texas into Arizona Territory—and the guns to back it up…

Have Gun, Will Battle

Chet Byrnes has built a ranching empire from the ground up. And he’s defended it with his sweat, blood and a ragtag band of ranch-hand fighters. Now a beautiful young Spanish widow comes into Chet’s life, just as he starts off in search of a lost cattle drive. The search leads into the eye of a sprawling, violent storm.

Chet, and his men—and his seductive new woman—end up on a wild ride through Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas, where authorities want to confiscate the beeves for trespassing. With Indians, outlaws and an oppressive government crossing their path, Chet is on a cowboy’s honeymoon: fighting and shooting all the way back home.

“Dusty Richards writes…with the flavor of the real West.” —Elmer Kelton

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Author of over 85 novels, Dusty Richards is the only author to win two Spur awards in one year (2007), one for his novel The Horse Creek Incident and another for his short story “Comanche Moon.” He is a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the International Professional Rodeo Association, and serves on the local PRCA rodeo board. Dusty is also an inductee in the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame. He currently resides in northwest Arkansas. He was the winner of the 2010 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Fiction for his novel  Texas Blood Feud and honored by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2009.

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Arizona Territory

By Dusty Richards

KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

Copyright © 2015 Dusty Richards
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7860-3663-9

CHAPTER 1

Two months later, Chet held a meeting with his various ranch foremen and, afterward, they left him in the living room to prop up his handmade Hyer boots and get ready for a new page in his life. Everyone came to talk about their plans for each of their operations. He took notes on all the things that mattered, ranch by ranch. He sure needed to hire an accountant. His late wife, Marge, and the Verde River Ranch foreman's wife, Millie, had kept the books, paid the bills, and handled all those chores. While he knew Millie was sincere, she had three children to raise, and it had been Marge's leadership that ran that end of the business.

Maybe his banker, Andrew Tanner, might know someone he could get. Millie said when Chet had to be away and until he found someone, with Tom's aid she'd keep the books up to date and pay the bills. Tom ran the widespread Camp Verde Ranch over the mountain in the Verde River Valley. Lucy took care of the books on the North Rim Ranch out by Hackberry. His sister, Susie, cared for a newborn son, Erwin, and with her husband, Sarge, ran the Windmill over northeast—where each month they gathered the cattle to deliver to the various Navajo agencies over around Gallup, New Mexico.

Up on the rim, Robert and his new bride, Betty, ran the ranch's log operation, hauling logs to the big steam-powered sawmill. Leroy and Betty Lou Sipes operated the fruit farm in Oak Creek Canyon. His late brother's wife, May, and her husband, Hampt Tate, ran the recently expanded outfit that he called East Verde Ranch. She had two near-teenage stepsons, her own daughter, Donna, plus they had a new baby boy, Miles. The home ranch in Preskitt Valley was run by Chet's very strong foreman, Raphael, and his vaqueros. His other nephew, JD, ran Rancho Diablo, in the southern desert. His wife, Bonnie, waited in Preskitt for them to complete her new house down there so she could join him.

When Chet first arrived, Bonnie's mother, Jenn, who ran a café in town, befriended him, and she'd found him much of his help to start with. Later on, he brought her daughter, Bonnie, back from white slavers in Mexico, trading some valuable horses from his golden Barbarossa stallion for her to an influential hacienda owner in Sonora. She'd proved well worth it. Cole Emerson, who rode with him, was married to Valerie, who the three men, JD, Cole, and Chet also rescued in Tombstone and sent to Preskitt to help Jenn and Bonnie run the café.

Going over it all in his mind, he chuckled at the thought that he actually carried all their names in his logbook, so he didn't leave anyone out.

His son's teenage nanny, Rhea Obregon, interrupted his thoughts when she brought Adam in the living room for him to hold.

"Rhea, sit down. You were Marge's choice to care for our son. I want you to continue to stay here and do that. Monica will help you."

Her tan face beamed at his words. "Gracias, he is like my own son."

"I know that. He needs to learn English. But he also must learn Spanish. Please talk to him in both languages."

"Marge told me that, and I do it."

He gently bounced Adam on his leg. "The goat's milk works well?"

"Oh, he never cries. He is growing so fast."

"I know he is. You're a good mother. The next three years will be important. If a baby can live beyond that, he should make it to being an adult. As long as you want one, you will always have a job here. Don't worry about him growing up, 'cause you'll never be out of work. You'll be very important to him. But he must mind you. You savvy that?"

"Yes. Monica and I talk a lot. I appreciate your trust in me. It will be a very hard job, but I will learn to read so I can teach him. I am not so good at numbers, but when he needs numbers, I will know them well when he counts."

"We'll hire a tutor for you."

"Oh, that would be very good."

He spoke to his infant son lying on his legs. "Adam, your mother, Rhea, is going to educate you to run an empire." He kissed the good baby and handed him back. "I don't care if he goes to your church with you, but I want him to learn Marge's religion, too."

"I can do that. I have been in your wife's church. Can I have him christened in my church?"

"Certainly."

"Good, I have worried much about that."

"He will grow and become a good person under your guidance."

She crossed herself. "Oh, I am so relieved to have this talk with you."

"Rhea, you can always talk to me. I'm just Chet."

She nodded. "When you are away, I will have Monica write to you about him until I learn how."

"Good."

"Time for his nap."

"Good-bye, Adam. Via con Dios."

"I have some lunch for both of you," Monica announced.

"Put mine in the oven. I am going to lay him down," Rhea said.

Monica nodded and when Rhea was upstairs she said, "What did you tell her? She sounded like she was in charge."

"I told her so. We need a tutor for Rhea. Can you hire her one?"

"Of course—"

"When she learns how to read and do sums, she'll teach Adam."

"Very good; your wife would have done that for her."

"You two are my wives here—now."

"Oh?"

He shook his head at her. "You must run this ranch, answer Raphael's needs, and decide things when I am gone."

"Alright. She and I can do that."

"I trust you two."

"You must feel like you should go to the south again?"

"The Force and Rancho Diablo need me to look them over."

"Did JD take Bonnie down there last week when they went home?"

"Yes, her house is nearly finished. I think they wanted to be together. I know if I was a newlywed, I'd want my wife down there."

"I didn't know if that marriage would work," Monica said, using a towel for a potholder to bring his plate from the oven.

He looked over his beef-cheese enchiladas and nodded his approval. "Best I can tell, seeing them together, they're very close."

"I think he grew up and she did, too."

"I hope so. Two lost souls before that."

"Will that be a great ranch someday?" Monica asked.

"I think so."

"But like the rest, they cost a lot to get them productive."

"Well, we're large. Markets like the one with the Navajos had to be developed. In ten years, we should have rails here in the north. But economic conditions in the U.S. keep bouncing in and out of good and bad. To survive until then will be hard."

"Oh, you will figure it out. Your wife always told me that a hundred times."

He nodded and went to eating his lunch. "I plan to go down south. Jesus and Cole will meet me for the stage tomorrow. Remember, Tom or Hampt can be here in a few hours. If you or Raphael need them, they'll come on the run."

"Yes, I know that. I am so glad you take Jesus and Cole wherever you go. They have really grown up, riding with you."

"I'm glad to have them at my back."

"Will you keep doing the Force down there?"

"It's funded by the federal courts. Who knows what they will do and for how long?"

"Be careful. You are the one who holds us all together."

"Thank you, Monica."

The next day, under cold stars, the three men drove two buckboards to the Black Canyon stage office on the east side of Preskitt, where they loaded their saddles and war bags into the back of the stage. They were well dressed against the cold and had wool blankets to wrap in. The taller of his two men, Cole Emerson, was in his mid-twenties, and,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Kensington Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 078603663X
• ISBN 13: 9780786036639
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Kensington Publishing Corporation; http://www.wmg.com/; ; 1633 Broadway ; New York, NY 10019 ; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: Dietmar Rusche; 15110751138; rusche.dietmar@gmx.de; ; Dr.-Willi-Bergmann-Str. 13; St. Andreasberg; 37444; Deutschland