The Long Trail (The McCabes Book 1) by Brad Dennison (microsoft ebook reader .TXT) 📗

get as far from that little cowtown in California as he could. Their ride brought them to this valley, where they wintered with the Shoshones. Then in the spring, he decided he wanted to find Lura and confront her about the letter. But he had no idea where she would have gone.

Zack said, “You know her, Johnny. Where would she have gone?”

Johnny thought about it, and said Lura had talked about an aunt in San Francisco who was more like a mother to her than her own mother. So, they saddled up and began the long ride from Montana Territory to San Francisco.

What Johnny found was Lura, with their child in her arms. When each told their respective side of the story, all was forgiven and the lovers were once again united.

Ginny decided to measure the backbone of this boy right off, and said to him, “Well, it took long enough for you to come looking for her, didn’t it?” And she aimed the Gaze at him, shooting with both barrels.

And he fired it right back at her. Never flinching. Never looking away. It was then that Ginny was convinced Lura had found herself a good man.

Lura wanted to be married aboard ship, as her grandfather had been a sea captain and by then owned a small fleet of merchant vessels. Even though the old man had passed away long ago, the business was still in operation, with Ginny as the primary owner, so she had the small wedding party of Lura, John, Zack Johnson, John’s brother Josiah, and herself rowed out to one of the ships. The captain, who had gotten his start working for Ginny’s father as a deck hand, performed the ceremony.

The romance between John and Lura had been the stuff of storybooks. When they were in a room together, the bond of love was so strong between them you could almost taste it in the air. And then she was gone, a bullet meant for John but cutting through her instead. John’s wayward past from Texas had caught up with him.

Lura was buried in the Brackston family plot in San Francisco. Johnny had talked to Lura for years about the little valley in Montana, and he wanted to someday relocate there, but as Ginny had become the only family Lura now had other than John and the children – Lura was no longer in contact with her parents, and to this day they had never met their grandchildren – Lura was reluctant to leave. And John loved her too much to ask her to.

After Lura’s death, John decided that the time was right to return to that little valley, so he brought the family to Montana. Along with him came Zack Johnson and a small number of cowhands, and they brought the herd with them. One long cattle drive. And Ginny boarded up the house in San Francisco and went along, to help with the children. She had not seen San Francisco since.

John had seemed to feel drawn to this valley ever since his first winter here. He had often said if only he had listened to his heart and insisted they move here after they were first married, maybe that bounty hunter would not have been able to find them. Maybe Lura would still be alive.

Ginny respected him too much to offer such platitudes as, “you don’t know that for certain,” or “you shouldn’t blame yourself,” or “no one can know the future.” Instead she remained silent.

And so, she and John raised the children here. An agreement was made – the house would be hers to run, including the furnishing. She would be responsible for the education of the children. He would oversee the operation of the ranch. The battle lines were not quite as clearly defined as that, and sometimes there was some overlap, but seldom.

There was no school in McCabe Gap at that time. In fact there was no town there at all until two years ago. So, Ginny served as teacher to the children. She taught Joshua, Jackson and Sabrina the basics of reading and writing and arithmetic. The so-called “three R’s.” Then she took them into higher learning. History. Literature. She had books sent from her house in San Francisco, and the children were educated in the classics. And they were taught etiquette. Joshua and Jackson, especially, had to know how to conduct themselves when in the presence of ladies and other gentlemen. In this time, girls generally didn’t attend college, but Ginny firmly intended the boys to go to a fine school. For Jackson, it was clear early on that he had a gift for science, and a strong sense of empathy. It was obvious medical school would be in his future. However, Ginny couldn’t see Joshua as a doctor – his temperament wouldn’t allow for good bedside manner. But maybe he would want to pursue law. The world would be open for him.

And Joshua and Jackson dressed like young gentlemen. A white shirt, a tie, a jacket. When they were very young, they wore the knickers and long stockings fashionable among boys his age in the more civilized regions, then grew into long trousers.

However, while Jackson seemed to embrace concept of education, drinking in knowledge like the proverbial sponge, Joshua’s heart was never in any of this. He didn’t yearn for college. He yearned for working with horses and cattle. For open range, and branding season and drives to market.

He had been a reluctant student, preferring to day dream than to delve into the education she was trying to offer him. Poetry? He found it foppish. She tried to introduce him to Ivanhoe, one of the greatest adventures in literature, hoping to capture his restless heart and imagination. But he found it dull.

One day when he was twelve, she had left him at his father’s desk with a volume of Hawthorne, which he was to do a book report on. She went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, and