Chapter 9 #2
“Doing odd jobs in town turned into bartering my labor at nearly every store where I did business. I almost never pay cash for anything, and if I get ahead, they pay me or they keep an account open for me. Like at the general store last week, I was able to have Griff’s bills taken off what I had in my account, and they traded the value of your dress.
So that bill is all settled. Quite a few of them are. ”
“You are paying all of Griff’s bills with your labor?” Cassie sipped carefully at the burning-hot brew.
“Sure. Labor is how you get money. How else do you think I could do it? If I paid cash—I do have some money in the bank these days—that money is all labor too. It’s the same.”
“But…then why didn’t Griff work for them when he owed so much?” Cassie’s voice faded away. She knew why. Griff would have found working for Seth beneath him. Even now Cassie could feel a twist of embarrassment to picture Red doing all that menial labor for the town shopkeepers.
“Griff had his way. I have mine. I’ve managed to add another one hundred and sixty acres to my holdings as other settlers gave up. Because I have good water, I control several thousand more acres. I’m buying it all up as fast as I can because I don’t want there to be any question about the title.
“I worked at the lumbermill to pay for the barns and corrals. I traded work with a farmer to get the chickens. I traded one of Rosie’s calves for Harriet.
I’m up to nearly five hundred head of cattle now, with last spring’s calf crop.
There’s a lot of money to be made in cattle drives back East, but I take a little less and sell my cows in Divide because I don’t want to be gone from my place for the whole summer.
I don’t hire a lot of hands like a lot of ranchers do. ”
“Five hundred cattle? You built that up from ten cattle in only…how many years?”
“I’ve been out here four years now, counting the year before I homesteaded.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours hunting the hills for cows that have gone maverick.
I’ve bought cattle cheap that weren’t ready for market from settlers who were folding up.
I’ve sold off the steers only once. I had a few three-year-olds ready to sell last spring, but I’ve held on to all the mama cows so they could build the herd.
It’s a lot of work to build something from nothing, but God gave us a bountiful world.
He put gold under the ground in California, and He put gold in the ground here in the form of rich soil and plentiful grass and water. ”
“I’d be proud to help you in town if you needed me to, Red. I’d like to be part of what you’re building.”
“We’ll see. As I said, a lot of it’s hard labor and heavy lifting. But I’ll think on it.”
“Didn’t you say you haul groceries from Seth’s to Libby’s Diner?
I could carry that back and forth, just take a lot less each trip than you do.
Please, Red, you’ve been so good about letting me help.
Oh, I want to say again how sorry I am about knocking you out of the hayloft in the barn earlier.
I was trying to lift the bucket of corn up there so I could pour Harriet’s food into her trough from overhead.
She gets so upset whenever she sees me. And now that the colder weather has forced you to move the feeder away from the fence to keep it out of the wind, I can’t reach it to pour in her ears of corn.
I thought you saw me raising that bucket up to the loft. ”
“I did see you, Cass. I just thought you looked like you didn’t have a very good foothold.
I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that. It’s all my fault.
I was just afraid if I said your name to warn you I was there, you might be startled and fall.
That straw can be slippery. I guess I proved that by slipping on it. ” Red smiled.
“Thank heavens you landed on the haystack. You could have really been hurt.”
Red’s cheeks got pink and his jaw tightened.
How sweet that he was embarrassed at his clumsiness.
His sweetness reminded her of the way he snuggled up to her every night, even though they were careful to fall asleep with a respectable space between them.
This morning, she felt him rubbing his chin on top of her head when he was still asleep.
It had almost felt like his mouth instead of his chin, but despite his assurances that a woman expecting a baby wasn’t unclean, she could tell he didn’t want to kiss her.
She was the one who had kissed him, that awkward kiss the first night they’d been together. He’d never followed with a kiss of his own, so he must not like kissing. But she liked to pretend he kissed her while she slept.
“The haystack was lucky, all right.” Red finished his coffee in one last, long gulp. “Let’s not feed Harriet that way again. I’d be glad to do that chore. She’s a cantankerous old monster.”
“I suppose the haymow wasn’t a good idea. But I’m sure to find a way I can keep feeding her.”
“Yes, well, yes…you’re sure to find a way. Let me wash these two last cups.”
“No, you must have chores to do if we’re staying away overnight. I’ll get things straightened in here and come help you as soon as I can.”
Red nodded. “I’d better get going, then.” He practically ran out of the house.
“He’s always in a hurry,” Cassie murmured to herself. “I wish I could help him more.” She cleared the last bit of the kitchen quickly so she could get to her outside chores.