Chapter 4

Things were peaceful at breakfast even with the X-deputy present. He didn't say shit and really, with his mouth wired together like that he couldn't. He did cast a mean looking gaze at me a time or two, but he left before I did and I forgot about him.

After eating I climbed right back on Red's saddle and went back to my place. I hitched the mules to the wagons and drove back to the General Store in town. I'd had enough of whore baths and bathing in a stretched out washtub so I bought what I'd spied sitting in the floor the other day.

It was a cast iron clawfoot tub. I didn't bother with the accesory faucet since I didn't have running water anyway. Hell, I could fill it up with buckets just like everyone else did now a days. It didn't take long to get the tub loaded and I went right back home with it. Luckily my two hands were working around the barn when I got back and I got them to help me take the heavy ass tub into the hours. I set it off to the side in the bedroom and did a little thinking.

I wasn't born to these times and I was accustomed to having running water and by God I wanted some here. It seemed to me we had wind blowing almost every day so I thought of a windmill right off the bat. I was pretty sure none were for sale in town so I decided on a trip to Dallas. It was about a hundred and ten miles from here and I figured I could get anything I wanted there. I spent the rest of the day going over my wagon to make sure it looked like it could make the trip and I was just a little pissed off when I had to go into the house for another whore bath to get ready for my date with Lucy. I got throug it though and then went and hitched the Morgans to the buggy and headed for town.

Lucy and I ate at Lazlo's again and when we paid and left this time we didn't have any run ins with assholes. We climbed back into the buggy and I set the Morgan's trotting out of town and found a mostly deserted road. We pulled off to look at the moon and to do a little spit swapping.

It was about the same as last time. She let me play with her titties but kept me away from the fuzz.

Finally, I asked her, "Lucy, how much of this courting are we going to have to do before we can get married?" I asked.

"Do you mean it? You want me to marry you?" she asked.

"Of course I do. It's why I bought a house and a place, so we'd have a nice place to live when we were married." I said.

"Yes, Jake, I'll marry you," she said.

"Have I got it right though. You are the one who gets the details straight?" I asked.

"No, you have to pay the preacher," she said.

"Well, I don't mind paying him, but what do we have to do to get it set up?" I asked.

"We've just got to go and see him and tell him we want to be married. We don't want to fool around with the whole church there though. Besides, we don't want to wait until Sunday," she said.

Well, that was easy enough. We did a little more kissing and hugging and then I took her back to the boarding house. I promised to meet her in town the next morning so we could decide when to go see the preacher.

I went on to the house after I dropped her off and went directly to bed.

The next moring I was up and at 'em before sunrise. I hitched the Morgans to the buggy again and drove it into town since I'd have to run Lucy around to the parson's house with me.

I had breakfast in the cafe again and there was no trouble this morning and I didn't even see the deputy whose jaw I'd broken. As soon as I finished I went over to the boarding house and Lucy was there with bells on. We headed for the parson's house and after listening to his spiel about marrying for life and all that crap he told us he would charge twenty dollars and as we left he reminded me about a ring. The wedding would be ten days from now and so I decided to pick up a ring in Dallas.

Then I had to break the news to Lucy about my trip. It was lucky I'd thought about the ring since I used it as a good excuse for the trip. I told her I was leaving around noon and I should be back in three days.

After I let her off at the boarding house I went directly to the bank to check on my funds. The assayer had done his thing and so I withdrew ten thousand dollars in gold coins and headed to the house.

I'd already given the wagon as much of a going over as I could and it seemed fine to me. I'd checked at the livery stable and found he had two more mules for sale and they looked better than any I had so I bought them and led them home. I wanted to make the best time I could on the trip so a couple of extra mules wouldn't hurt anything.

I hitched up and headed out after gathering a few supplies. I took along enough to cook breakfast every morning and figured I'd catch my other meals in towns along the way.

I went right through the first two towns I came to since they didn't look like much anyway, but I stopped at the third one for supper. I figured I'd made about twenty-five miles and I'd be stopping to camp along side the road after another few miles.

I had a good supper in a small cafe. It was a big steak with a baked potato and beans. After eating I spotted another livery stable and went by to check for more mules. He had four nice ones and I bought them too. I also bought hobbles and nose bags for them and all the others I didn't have such for already and I even picked up two hundred pound sacks of whole oats to feed my stock with.

It was a damned good thing it didn't look like rain since I didn't have a sign of a tent or even a cover for the wagon. About three miles out of town I spied a little pull off that looked big enough and so I pulled the wagon in and found a stream where I could water the mules. After I had I tied on their nosebags, put in some oats and hobbled them. I unrolled my blankets in the wagon and then cooked a little meal for myself. After I'd eaten and drank all the coffee I wanted I removed the mule's nosebags so they could graze during the night.