Chapter 18

And I was born ... the next of kin -
The next of kin to the wayward wind...

When we returned to Windy Ridge, I thought of Lois and Henry Parker, out in the chicken house.

Henry had managed to roll over on his back. His eyes were open, but he was dead. I figured he had vomited and drowned in his own vomit. I didn’t feel one bit of loss, or regret over him dying.

Lois Parker was glad to be set free and the first thing she did, was run naked to the pump and wash her mouth out before drinking her fill of water. Indira brought Lois a dress to put on while she was standing at the pump.

Sheriff Harper showed up, driving a wagon, with two deputies on horseback. He told me that Mr. Collins advised him to bring a wagon. “He told me that he just knew you were in a killing mood when you left his store.”

Mr. Alfred Mosely had ridden into town after we’d left him, and he too told the sheriff that I had killed two, and possibly all three of the men who had taken over The Windy Ridge after Merle Peters died. The sheriff wanted me to come into town and give him a detailed statement about what happened - how and why I did what I did.

“I’m planning on being in town early tomorrow to meet with the banker. I’ll stop by your office while I’m there.”

We went into the kitchen after the sheriff and his men left to gather up the dead brothers. Indira and Rosanna had dinner on the table.

Lois Parker sat at the table with her head down as Ruby told us about how the woman had defended her and her daughters, “Joss, I want Lois to stay here with us. She will be a big help when we have our babies and besides, she has nowhere else to go.”

I turned to Lois and told her, “Lois you’re welcome stay with us as long as you want to. You will help with the house work, but you won’t be a maid to us. I want you to hold your head up and be proud of the fact that you defended Ruby, Jonnie and Jamie. For that alone, I give you my word that you will never want for anything as long as you stay here with us.

“Now, to speak of better things and our future. I have made a deal to buy the both of the Mosely spreads that lie to the east of us and join The Windy Ridge. I’m meeting them at the bank tomorrow morning to close the deals.

“Indira, I need you to write some letters for me tonight so I can post them while I’m in town tomorrow. We will have many more women coming here to live with us in the near future. Most all of them will be with child and one of them is a nurse. I want all of my women to be happy and love one another. As big as this place is now, we’ll still need to start adding onto the house as soon as we can. I’ll ask in town for the name of a good carpenter so I can start planning.”

Ruby told me, “Joss, we want to change the name of the ranch to The Wayward Wind in honor of you, for what you have done for our family, and for everyone here. Merle would be so proud of you, Joss. He’s the one who suggested we change the name once you returned to take over. He told us before he passed, to never give up hope ... Merle knew in his heart when you left, that you’d return.”

“Ruby, I have had that very name in mind for many months now. For you and your daughters to change the name of this ranch to honor me, makes me even more proud that I’ve come back here to make my home.

“I want to hang new signs at all the entrances to each of our ranch lands.”

That night, Indira, Ruby and I lay naked in bed together.

Jamie and Jonnie were lying in a bed next to ours. They’d come into the room naked earlier after they bathed. When they were in bed, I went over and kissed their swollen bellies and then, with my face touching their bellies, I told our babies that I loved them. I kissed my two women and patted their bellies once more before returning to our bed with their momma and Indira.

“Joss, I have a letter here that Merle asked me to give you when you returned,” Ruby told me when I laid down on our bed.

“A letter?”

“Yes – well, it’s more than a letter – you’ll see when you open it. Merle and I both knew his time was slipping away. We had the girls ride into town and ask Mr. Brenner, the bank president, to ride out as soon as he could get away. He was here the next morning early. He, Jonnie, Jamie and I sat in Merle’s bedroom as Merle had Mr. Brenner write out an amendment to his last will. It concerned the money we have in the local bank and the money Merle already had in the Bank of St. Louis when we married.

“You see, Merle was a rich businessman when we met in Kansas City. He asked me to marry him and move back to England with him. I finally told him that I’d marry him, but only if he promised we’d always live in America.

“He was older than me – a dashingly handsome man. Tall, very kind and courteous to me, and my momma and daddy. I fell in love with him in no time. Then he asked me what it would take for me to be happy for the rest of my life, and I told him that I wanted to live on a big ranch in Kansas with lots of horses and cattle. He bought this ranch and we were so happy, living here. Jonnie and Jamie were born and we were even more happy together. We bought more property along the way – Merle wanted us to own thousands and thousands of acres. Then he was hurt really bad when he was thrown from a young horse he’d never ridden before.”

I was reading the papers as Ruby talked. Before she stopped and looked at me, I held the papers up in front of her. “Ruby, do you mean that Mr. Merle left half of all that money in my name, with the lone condition that I return here to live and take over the ranch?”

“Yes, Joss. Your name is on the bank account in Silver Lake and your name is also on the account in St. Louis. You’re the head of our family now, just like Merle wanted you to be. Jonnie, Jamie and I have agreed – we want you to use the family’s money, which Merle left to all of us, to pay for the Mosely land you’re buying tomorrow. We want you to buy even more land and make The Wayward Wind into the huge ranch spread both you and Merle have always dreamed of.”

Manuel, Piter, and Horacio rode into town the next morning with Henri, Enrico and me. We were early, so we went to see the sheriff first, then to Mr. Collins’ store.

“Mr. Collins, I want you to meet the men I’ve brought back to help me run the ranch. We’ll be adding on lots more acres as we find other property to buy. I want you to treat my men as well as you would me or Miss Ruby Peters. They will be needing supplies for the sections of the main ranch they will oversee. We’ll do all of our purchases here with you, as long as you’re fair with your prices and fair to my men.”

I didn’t expect him to shake their hands, when I introduced the men to him. Most people look down on Mexicans as much as they do Negroes and Indians. If they’d ridden with these men on that long cattle drive like I did, they would have a much different opinion of them. But Mr. Collins went right down the line, shaking their hands, calling their names, and telling each of them to come to him for whatever supplies they’d need for their portion of The Wayward Wind.

I told the men I’d be back as soon as I had the land deals taken care of at the bank.

First, I walked next door to the post office and posted all my letters. That done, I stepped out into the street, headed toward the bank.

As I walked toward the bank, I looked up, stopped, and had to blink my eyes.

There sat Polk on a bench in front of the bank. I walked right over and sat down beside him. He had a carpetbag under the bench and with his foot, scooted it back out of our way. I was grinning and he was too, though neither of us had spoken.

“Polk, I had to look twice to be sure it was you sitting here. I’m so glad to see you, I’d hug you if I knew no one would talk about us. Did you come to visit, or have you come here to stay, just as I have?”

“Joss, I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried. I wanted to surprise Ruby and her family. I didn’t even know you were here. Seeing you walking toward me, grinning before you got here, was the best feeling I’ve had since I saw you in Kansas City that last time. I reckon you can say that I’ve come to stay, that is if Ruby and the family will welcome me to their house after all these years.”

“What about your smithy-shop and the livery? Did you sell out?”

“That I did. A man offered me more than twice what it was worth. He wanted to tear it down so he could build a new hotel on the spot. He caught me at just the right time with the right offer and I sold out. I had an auction and sold all my stuff that was stored back inside both places. You wouldn’t believe what some folks will pay for some mule and horse harnesses, and even old-timey plows and Oxbows, that have never been used.”

“Polk, I don’t suppose you knew about Mr. Merle, did you?”

“Has Merle passed-on, Joss?” He sucked a quick breath in when he asked.

“Yes, he passed-on before I got back. They told me he passed about a month or so after I left. He and I had made a pact before I left, that I’d come back and run his spread and be the head of the family. Polk, I got to tell you before you find out from someone else, your daughter and both your granddaughters are less then three months away from having my babies.”

“JOSS, is that right? You mean I’m about to be a great-grandpa?”

“Yes you are. Are you not upset with me for letting it happen?”

“Hell no, I’m not upset. I’d bet a brand-new Silver Dollar that Merle and Ruby planned for it to happen that way soon after they met you. Am I right?”

“You’re right about that, and to tell the truth, they told me they’d written you asking for your help in finding a man to take over, even before he passed. You sent me here, knowing what Ruby and Mr. Merle expected of me, didn’t you?”

“Yes I did, Joss, and I could never have made a better choice if I had searched this big land over ... Tell me, Joss, where all have you been and what all have you been up to? You’re already a man, and when you walked across the street toward me just now, you walked with long, slow-measured strides and a grown man’s swagger.”

“Polk, it would take me a day to tell you all about my travels. I’ll tell you the places I’ve been and when we get settled out at the ranch, I’ll sit down with you and tell you all about the folks I’ve met and the places I’ve seen.”

“Where did you go when you left here?”

“I made my way down to El Dorado from here.

“Polk, on the way, I had to kill three men who were about to kill me and take my money and horses. I remembered what you told me, and killed them before they had a chance to kill me.”

“I had a feeling you’d already killed a man. I’ve known many men who’ve had to kill a man to stay alive. I’ve also lost friends who had the chance to kill a man and didn’t. Some lost their lives because they couldn’t find it in themselves to kill a man. Some lost the lives of their family members, because they didn’t act in time. It’s a terrible thing when bad men makes a good man into a killer just to save his own life or the lives of his family.

“Remember forever what I’m about to tell you, Joss. If you had not killed those men and they had killed you, I would have been so lost without my best friend. Ruby and her daughters would never have been able to go on with their lives at the ranch. All the people you met and became friends with from that day on, would have never known you as a friend.

“Just think back on that incident forever and how much you now mean to so many people.

“Now, tell me what happened next.”

“I took them to El Dorado and received a reward for the three men. Four hundred dollars among the three of them. Then, before I could leave El Dorado, the town marshal introduced me to his brother, who wanted me to escort his daughter and two granddaughters down to Fort Worth, since I was headed to Texas anyway.

“Marshal Tate had warned me about the outlaws and no-good saddle tramps we’d come across in Indian Territory. We did too. But we made it down Buffalo Springs before we had any problems. Then when we left, I had a feeling we’d be followed. Sure enough, the next day, three of them jumped us and I had to kill two of them. One of the girls killed the other one.”

“From what I’ve heard of Indian Territory and the lawless men who hang out down there, I’d be surprised if that was the only time you were jumped while on your way south.”

“You’re right about that, Polk. We had made it all the way south to Duncan’s Store and Trading Post when we ran upon a few more scraggly looking no-goods. They followed us south until dark when we made camp off to the side of the Chisholm Trail. I had a feeling they’d come after us, and hid back in the trees, out away from camp. I killed all three of them without even warning them I was going to.”

“Did you deliver the women safely to their family in Fort Worth?”

“I did and from there I headed toward Wichita Falls.”

As Polk and I sat on the bench in front of the bank waiting for it to open, I told him about my travels and about meeting Mr. Charlie Goodnight and Mr. John Chisum. He sat and looked at me without saying a word as I described what all we went through before we even started our cattle drive to Wyoming. Before I got around to telling him all about the cattle drive, the banker stepped upon the boardwalk.

Polk and I introduced ourselves to the man and it was then I noticed the leather satchel Polk had under his left arm.

“What can I do for you gentlemen this morning?” The man asked as he held the door open for us to enter ahead of him.

Polk spoke first, “I came here from Kansas City with the intentions of living on the ranch with my daughter, Ruby Peters - and my granddaughters. I want to deposit all my money in your bank.”

While they were talking, the door opened behind us and I turned to see Mr. Alfred Mosely walk in with two more men. He waved to me and walked over to where I stood.

“Joss, I want you to meet my brother Amos, and our neighbor, Jacob Bratcher. Jacob is in the same fix as Amos and me are in. When I told him about you, he came with us in hopes you had the funds to bail him out in the same manner.”

I shook hands with all three men, Mr. Bratcher being last. “Mr. Jacob, how many acres do you have in your spread?”

“Joss, I have close to seventy-seven hundred acres and the banker is about to foreclose on me since I can’t meet my mortgage payment this year, for the second year in a row.”

“What would it take to set you free and let me take ownership of your land?”

“I owe seventy-two hundred dollars on it and if you could pay that and see a way to give me five hundred above it, like you agreed to do with Amos and Alfred - then the three of us would make you the proud owner of nearly twenty-one thousand acres of ranch land, all joining The Windy Ridge spread, at one point or another.”

“Mr. Jacob, would you shake on that so we can tell Mr. Brenner that I’ve agreed to pay all three mortgages off and take possession of your spreads?”

I turned to see Polk sign a bank deposit paper with eighty-one hundred dollars on it.

I looked over at Mr. Brenner and he was already smiling at me. I had a feeling he was just about as proud as I was about the three ranches I had agreed to pay off and take possession of.

He knew about my name being on The Windy Ridge bank accounts and I told him to write all three of these new lands up as The Wayward Wind property and change all his records over from The Windy Ridge to The Wayward Wind.

By the time the five of us walked out of the bank, there were a lot of smiling faces. Of them all, I knew I was the happiest of the bunch. I now had my spread and The Wayward Wind has grown from a lonesome boy’s dream of owning a small parcel of land Out West, to nearly thirty-five thousand acres of prime Kansas ranch land. I already had plans to plant between ten and fifteen thousand of those acres in wheat this coming year. I read where wheat prices were close to a dollar a bushel and Kansas wheat farms were averaging thirty bushels per acre.

Mr. Jacob had ridden his horse into town, with his wife and daughter driving the wagon loaded with their personal possessions. I made him an offer of sixty-five dollars for his horse and saddle. He took me up on it and I turned to hand the reins to Polk.

Before we could walk across to Collin’s Store, Mr. Brenner came out onto the boardwalk and motioned for me to step over closer to him. “Joss, would you be interested in two more ranch spreads, both of which join the east side of the land you now own?”

“Tell me about them – how many acres and how much would it cost me to own them?”

“My bank has foreclosed on both properties and now I’m in need of selling them at auction unless I can find a buyer soon. There is a small river which runs through both of the ranches and on through both Mosely properties. One ranch has fifteen hundred acres and the other has twenty-six hundred acres. Both have some of the best pastureland available here in Kansas and I could let them go for as little as a dollar and a half per acre, including houses, barns, livestock and farming implements.”

I knew he was asking more than what I had just paid. I also knew that I had just bailed him out of some big mortgages that he was about to lose money on, if he’d had to foreclose and sell them at auction.

“That’s more than I just paid for the other land, acre wise. I’ll think about it and I may decide later to come back and talk to you. If these ranch spreads had been in the middle of what we just dealt on, I’d be willing to grab them up. But since they’re both outside my new property, I’ll have to take a look at them close, before I agree to that price. I may just wait and take my chances at auction when you have to sell.”

“Would you go as high as a dollar and a quarter per acre, including the houses, barns, livestock and all?”

“Mr. Brenner, I’ll make you a one-time offer right now, of one dollar per acre, just as they stand this day, sight unseen and take both spreads off your hands today.”

“You just bought another forty-one hundred acres, Joss Wayward. I’ll draw the papers up for The Wayward Wind and you can sign them when you’re back in town.”

“We’ll be back in town tomorrow, more than likely. We’ll have to outfit the new spreads with staples, feed and other supplies before my men can move in and begin operations. We may combine the last two spreads, after we take a look at them.”

“Joss, I’d be glad to finance your Wayward Wind operations for a small amount of annual interest, just to keep you from spending your cash money on hand. You can deposit your personal savings in my bank like Mr. Polk just did and the Peters family have done for years, and know your money is safe. that way, I could pay you interest at the rate of two and one half percent on your annual balance.”

“If it looks like The Wayward Wind can save money this way, I’ll give it a try.”

Before we left Silver Lake, I met with two brothers, who Mr. Collins had recommended as the carpenters he uses at times. The men told me they could be out early tomorrow and I told them to come as early as they could, that we had a lot of things we needed to take care of tomorrow.

As we neared the ranch, Polk became nervous and doubtful. “Joss, I sure hope Ruby and her daughters will accept me. I haven’t seen her since her momma died and she and Merle came back to Kansas City for her funeral. I’m ashamed to confess this, but I’ve never even met my granddaughters.”

“Polk, you have nothing to worry about. Ruby will love you and I can tell you now, Jonnie and Jamie will love you too. They look enough like Ruby for all of them to be sisters. They are big in the belly and they are as happy as they can be about having babies. Just let me go in first and we’ll spring a big surprise on them. I need to make sure they are dressed for company anyway.”

“Ruby was just like her mother growing up. Neither of them seemed to give a thought about clothes when they were inside the house. I suppose her daughters are the same?”

“Exactly the same.

“Enrico, you men give Polk and me a few minutes to get the family back together again and we’ll have dinner before we head over toward the new spreads we just bought.”

“We’ll tend the horses, Joss. The five of us are hoping we’ll soon have big families also, now that we have found a real home.”

That made me think, “Would your cousin, Miguel help these men find women back in Texas if we get Indira to write a letter?”

“YES! We would really like that, Joss,” Henri jumped at the idea.

“Then we’ll get her to write the letter and we’ll post it when we go to town tomorrow to stock up on supplies.”

Polk laughed and asked me, “You mean you can just write a letter and have four women sent up here ready to marry these men sight-unseen?”

“Yes we can, Señor Polk. We could have you a pretty young Mexican señorita come here to be your woman too, if you like,” Enrico told him.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No Señor. When you see Joss’ woman, Indira and my woman, Rosanna, you will want to have your own young señorita to come be your woman and maybe your wife.”

“Joss, is he telling the truth?”

“Polk, you’ve been without a woman too long. You need a young one to keep you warm in winter and happy in summer.”

I left Polk with the men and went inside. The women were anxious to know all about our land deals.

I told them, “We’ve settled on the two Mosely spreads and three more spreads which gives The Wayward Wind a total of almost thirty-five thousand acres now...

“ ... Ruby, I met an older man in town this morning and I’d like you, Jamie and Jonnie to meet him too. I brought him home with us and I hope you three will approve of him. He’s looking for a home and I couldn’t turn him down.”

“Where is he, Joss?” Jonnie asked.

“Where is he from?” Ruby asked.

“I’ll go get him and let you meet him. He’s sort of shy, so you’ll have to make him feel welcome, that is if you decide to let him stay.”

“Joss, if he’s homeless and you still approve of him after what we went through with Henry Parker, you know we will too,” Ruby told me as I stepped to the back door.

Polk was looking at the door when I opened it. Waving for him to come on inside, I picked up his carpetbag and carried it in ahead of him.

When Ruby saw him, she screamed and ran to hug her daddy. She was crying and laughing, and there was no way I could keep the tears from my own eyes as I watched them. Jonnie and Jamie stood looking at their mother hug the man, then lay her head on his shoulder and sob.

Both of them walked over next to me and Jonnie asked, “Joss, is this mother’s daddy? Our Grandpa Polk?”

“Yes he is. He was worried you girls and your mother wouldn’t accept him after all these years of not being around.”

Before I had finished, both of them were hugging and crying with their mother as Polk leaned his head back and smiled at me through his tears.

Their family was now reunited and I’ve become a part of it. My Ma and Pa are gone, but now, I have a new family and a new home I can call my own.

Indira stood beside me and I couldn’t help but pull her close and give her a hug. She was smiling too and her eyes were filled with tears. I knew she must be thinking about her own mother and daddy who she never knew, as she watched the Peters women welcome their father and grandfather home for good.

I called Enrico and the others in so we could eat. I wanted us to visit all the new spreads before sundown so we could start putting together a list of what all was needed for each of them.

When we left, Polk went with us. He wanted to see the new spreads too. Rosanna rode with us also. She and Enrico were going to stay at their new home tonight and meet us in town early tomorrow with a wagon.

The two Mosely spreads were as clean and liveable as the Peters home. The furniture was still in them and even the dishes, pots and pans were left in the cupboard.

After inspecting the barns, corrals and storage sheds at the two Mosely spreads, we left Enrico at one and Henri at the other.

From there, we headed toward the Bratcher spread. The Bratcher spread had two ranch houses, built a quarter mile apart. I told Manuel and Horacio this would be their new homes and they could look after the seventy-seven hundred acres together.

Mr. Brenner had drawn me a map showing how to get to the other two spreads.

I told Piter he could live in the ranch house and take care of the twenty-six hundred acre spread.

When we came to the fifteen hundred acre spread, Polk walked into the ranch house with me to look it over. This one looked as if someone still lived here. The beds were made and the furniture looked polished. The windows had curtains on them and the rugs on the floors looked new.

Polk had been looking into closets and in the kitchen pantry. Now, he stood looking out the wide kitchen window at the barn and corrals when he asked, “Joss, what do you have in mind for this ranch?”

“I first had in mind to combine this spread with the one where Piter is going to live. I’m not sure, now that I’ve seen it. This is a really nice house, not that big, but well-built and not but a few miles from the main ranch where I’ll live with my women...”

I wasn’t a bit surprised when Polk turned around and told me, “Joss, I’ve been thinking about what Enrico said to me earlier. What would you say if I wanted to live here? I’ll even pay for the land myself and still let it be part of The Wayward Wind.”

“Polk – Ruby, Jonnie, Jamie and I have agreed that we’ll pay for all the new land with the money Mr. Merle left us, but I’ll make you a deal on this one.”

“What sort of deal?”

“If you’ll let Miguel find you a woman down in Texas, you and her can live here and take care of this spread. We’ll hire a couple of ranch hands and you’ll have it made.”

“Joss, I’ll ask Ruby, Jonnie and Jamie when we get back, what they think about me having a young woman living with me. If they don’t put up a fuss, I’ll take you up on that deal.”

“Then we need to have Indira write that letter tonight.”

By the end of the next week, I was getting antsy about hearing from my women I’d sent letters to. I knew it was too soon, but I wanted them here with us before our babies were born.

I saw Polk almost every day. Either he was over here or I was over there to see how he was coming along with his new ranch spread. I hired a young married couple in town to live in the bunkhouse on the ranch and help Polk take care of the livestock.

Mr. Collins had told me about them looking for a job and a place to live. I caught up with them at the livery where they were staying, cleaning out the stalls and feeding the horses boarded there, just for a place to sleep and one meal a day.

I had never been around Blacks or Indians before, except in passing. They even seemed leery toward me when I first asked them about living and working on a small ranch. Lula is a mix of Black and Indian. Tomar is a mix of White and Indian. Both of them can read and write, and this really impressed me about them. Not many people can do either one, and for someone who has never been to school to learn, it must have taken a lot of effort on their part.

Both are young, not even twenty years old yet. But once they knew I was serious about offering them a real job and a house to live in, they were excited.

The next time I went to the post office in town to check on my mail, I asked the postmaster if he knew of someone I could pay to bring my mail out to the ranch as soon as I had a letter come in. I told him I was expecting a lot of letters in the coming weeks and I needed them as soon as I could get them.

He told me that he had recently bought his son a horse and as soon as they had him broke to ride, his son was going to start delivering mail to those out in the rural countryside who would pay a small fee.

“I’ll break him to ride if your son will deliver my mail for free.”

He told me where his house was and his son’s name ... I couldn’t get there fast enough.

They lived out at the edge of town and as soon as I rode up in the yard, I knew someone had come up on the wrong end of a crooked horse trade.

“Nate, my name’s Joss and your daddy sent me out here to break your horse to ride ... No offense to you or your daddy, but I’m not sure this horse is sound enough to ride daily. Where did you buy this horse anyway?”

“From the man at the livery. We paid thirty-five dollars for him. He told us he was sound and all he needed was to be saddle broke.”

“Hand me that lead rope and you climb up behind me on Red. We’ll go down to the livery and get your money back.” I reached down to grab his wrist and pulled him up behind me.

“Are you sure? I mean, well, I need a horse to deliver mail and make some money.” He was still in doubt about what we were doing as we rode back into town.

“No offense to you or your daddy, but this is a broken down old plow horse that has probably never seen a saddle in his life. Have you even got a saddle?”