The Diary of Jerrod Bently - J.W. Osborn (mobi ebook reader TXT) 📗

“Imagine that,” she commented as she headed for the back door, “a cousin. Maybe she’ll be like a little sister.”
“And if it is a boy?” Victoria called after her.
“Doc will teach him the cross draw and I’ll teach him to ride.” Sam called back.
“And I will teach him to cook!” Both women laughed as they went about their chores before heading to the bakery.


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For a young woman with the energy, drive and determination Sam Dodge had, it had been hard for her to stay quiet and rest. She longed to feel her horse under her again and to dash across the open fields outside Portersville, but she had to be patient. She missed the freedom of the open range, her Grandfather and the drovers she had come to know as friends, but most of all she missed Jerrod Bently. In all of her young life, the people she had loved and counted on had left her. Her parents, her grandmother and one day it would be her Grandfather too, but Jerrod was special and though she would not admit it to anyone, Sam was hoping the spend the rest of her life with him.
The front porch of Victoria and Doc’s cottage was a pleasant place to sit in the mornings with bright warm sunshine and the baskets of flowering plants Victoria had left there all summer. There were two old wooden rocking chairs on either side of the front door. This had become Sam’s favorite place to sit, either by herself, with her aunt or, young Hap Johansen and sweet heart, Suzy Titus.
She there in the sun, Jerrod’s last letter in her lap. She had read it countless times, and it only served to make her miss him all the more. The fact that there had been no more news was forcing her to believe in the words of Hap Johansen when he said “No news is good news.” She had come to know Hap and Suzy quite well during the weeks of her recovery and she liked them both. But their company did not ease the loneliness she felt with Jerrod gone. Everyday she prayed for her Grandfather and her young man to be safe as they moved on to finish the cattle drive. She sometimes thought she would give anything to be with them when they rode into Abilene. As she sat in the rocking chair, she set aside the letter and picked up a basket of snap beans Doc had brought over from the Double J and sighed in frustration. Victoria Stevens stepped out the front door, a second basket in her hands. “What is it Sam?,” she asked.
“Nothing,” she answered as she rocked back in the chair and looked around herself. “I was thinking about the herd. Wondering how far along they are.”
“And missing your friends,” Victoria replied as she sat down in the empty rocker nest to Sam.
“I was so stupid, “ she said “I should never have stopped to let Trouble drink that day. I should have ridden back to camp like I was supposed to and then....”
Victoria cut her off. “Sam.” she said gently “There is no way to know what might have happened if you had taken a different route, or Jerrod had been farther away than he was. The accident was a bad one, you were hurt very seriously and a man died, but as hard as it may be for us to understand at times, it all is part of God’s plan for our lives. “
”Grand father talks about these things,” she answered quietly “I just wish it had been different and I was able to finish what I started. “
“I find it amazing that you accomplished so much in such a short time.,” Victoria said “Most women would never have the where with all to do what you did Sam.”
“I wanted that ranch,” Sam replied “I paid half down and agreed to be head wrangler on the cattle drive for the rest of what Hinkley wanted. I was glad to do that, but I never thought I’d end up having to be trail boss as well.”
“Doc was very impressed,” Victoria said with a warm smile as she took a hand full of fresh snap beans out of her basket. “You never did tell me how you met your friend Jerrod.”
“He signed on as a drover,” she answered “I had to teach him to ride before we left Grants Creek. When I saw him for the first time out at The Flying S, when the drovers were signing up, I thought I had never seen a man so handsome as he was. “
”Sounds like you liked him right away,” Victoria stated as she began snapped the ends of the beans and dropped them into an empty reed basket next to her chair.
“I did,” Sam confessed “But I had to keep my cover. When I met Jerrod I had to dress and act like a boy to keep my job. “
”Did he figure it out?”, Victoria asked.
Sam laughed “Well,” she said “I think he suspected, but he never let on.”
“I know you miss him,” Victoria replied “But absence makes the heart grow fonder. I am sure that he misses you very much.”
Sam picked up a handful of the beans and looked at them, a hint of sadness showed on her face. “He saved my life, Aunt Victoria,” she said as tears rushed into her eyes. “And out there somewhere there is a man who wants to kill him because of what happened.” Suddenly Victoria’s arms were around her,“Shhh,” she said soothingly “God will keep your Jerrod safe from harm, Sam,’ she said comfortingly “and your uncle will do all that he can to protect everyone.”
“I know,” she sniffed a she snuggled against her shoulder “Aunt Victoria?”
“Yes, honey,” she replied.
“When you and Uncle Elliot have your baby. You are going to be such a wonderful parents,” Sam said quietly.
“Thank you, Sam,” Victoria said lightly “And remember. We must not say a word to Doc about this until I am sure that there is a baby on the way.”
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In all my born days, I had never seen so much rain or mud as we saw in the state of Kansas. We pushed on passed the limits of exhaustion, moving ever Northward to our destination. Some days I felt like I’d see Abilene around the next bend in the trail and others, like it was no more than a myth like Eldorado. Scrub Pot told me I could use Sam’s bunk in the chuck wagon if I wanted to and with all the rain that seemed to keep falling both day and night, I welcomed a dry place to sleep. In a way, it made me feel closer to Sam, even though she was now many miles behind me, safe in Portersville. I wrote to her every night, telling her of our progress and adventures. I told her how much I missed her and how I was counting the days until I would see her again. I had at least twenty letters, may be more. Scrub Pot grunted when he saw them. “When we get back to Portersville, she will be too busy reading for you to court her, Jerrod Bently,” he said “You must send them from Abilene when we get there.” You will probably see her before your letters do,” the old man added.
I thought about it. Well, I’d kept a pretty good account of everything at least and decided I’d just give them to her when I saw her. Ah yes, Portersville, a bitter sweet place in the future. I wanted to be there more than any other place in to world, because Sam was there. I also knew that I had to turn myself in for killing Tom Dalton. Now Doc had assured me he felt everything would work out all right, and I had to have faith and believe him and hope that if the time came, American justice would prevail in my favor. Of course at this point I had no knowledge of what Jake Titus had discovered about Dalton and had I known, I would not have had a care in the world past moving those long horns across Kansas and getting back to Portersville and Sam. I missed her. I think everyone did. The boys admired her and everyone kind of looked after her with me, but now days, with her gone Ely seemed to keep to himself more, only speaking to me when he had to. I knew why. He was not fooling anyone.
The rail head at Abilene was a good week to ten days ahead of us but with the bad weather, it was doubtful we’d make it in the time we’d hoped to. I sent Ely on ahead to send a telegraph to Roger Hinkly back in Grant’s Creek to tell him. I never mentioned Sam , only the business at hand. The sale of the cattle. I never forgot that even though Ned Travis was nothing but a bungling idiot, that he had been sent to kill Sam. I shudder to think of what might have happened if Hinkly had sent someone other than him. Ned Travis was in jail back in Portersville and we had to not let Hinkly know that we had uncovered his plans. Scrub Pot knew there would be trouble once we got back to Texas, but he did not seem all that concerned about it. The immediate concern was getting the job we’d been hired to do done. The rain finally let up and things began to dry out. The days passed, long, dusty and dry. We were heading into early Autumn and the stifling heat that hot Western summer began to give way to cooler days and even cooler nights. If the weather held for the next few days, we might be heading back to Portersville sooner that expected and that was what