Chapter 74

The next morning, they were up before daybreak, cooking and eating breakfast. They could hardly wait to ride up the wide slope of the east ridge and look back to the north at the huge sprawling valley that belonged to them.

“See that creek that comes out between those tall hills on the west side near those two trees?” Eli said as he and his brothers looked through their scopes.

“I do, Eli. That’s your place, isn’t it?” Ezra said as he looked down at his map.

“Yep, now look on your maps and see what Jefferson and Mr. Howard named that creek when they made this map!”

“Let me see, Eli,” Kit said as she pulled the map closer and leaned over on his horse to look.

“Oh My God.

“Crow Creek. I just love that!” Kit yelled and the others did too when they saw it on their maps.

“Yep, I’ve already thought of a name for our ranch on the way over here, Kit.”

“What is it, Eli? We’re all so excited about this!” Kit said.

“Crow Creek Cattle Company” he announced.

“I LOVE IT.” Kit yelled and leaped from her horse to his as she clung to him, laughing and crying.

They had ridden at a fast pace the rest of the day after leaving their new lands, when they came upon the clear-water lake they all loved to swim in. They had never been here without the grownups and now they were left to make their own decisions about right or wrong, being grown, and using good judgment.

“Kit, Lee Yu and I have a question to ask you and Ruby and I hope you don’t mind if it’s personal,” Lilly Beth said as she and Lee Yu walked over to where Ruby and Kit were undressing.

Their group had separated, the Bucks going one way from camp and the girls another.

There was still another three to four hours of sunlight and though the air was warm, they tested the sparkling clear water and it was really cool. They had decided to swim in the lake regardless of how cool it was, since they were alone and no grownups were around to make sure they acted proper.

“Lilly Beth, Ruby and I have nothing to hide from you, Lee Yu, Kia, or Michi. We’ve all been as close as sisters since the day we came to live with you. You can ask us anything and we’ll tell you what we know,” Kit told her.

“Is this about sex and us being with Isaac and Eli?” Ruby asked as they all huddled closer to talk.

“Yes. Do you mind if we ask you about those things?” Lee Yu asked as she looked at Kit, then Ruby.

“Heck, I’ll tell you anything you want to know, that is if it’s about something Eli and I have done, or even thought about doing,” Kit told them.

“It is, Kit and we just wanted to ask you some things we aren’t sure about,” Lee Yu added.

“We probably don’t know a lot more than either of you, though. Until we came to stay with your family, we had never been around boys. Your mommas and Miss Miranda has taught us about how boys and girls are supposed to behave, just as they have all of you,” Ruby told them.

“What we wanted to know was a little more personal than the things they taught us,” Lilly Beth told them.

“Yeah, since you both get to spend a lot of time with Eli and Isaac, we were wondering how it felt to be close to a boy like that. I mean, well, Lilly Beth and I get to thinking about meeting boys and we get all jittery and itchy and feel sort of funny all over. Even our titties feel different,” Lee Yu told them.

Lilly Beth knew if she ever got Lee Yu to help get some answers, she would cut right to the heart of it, and ask the pertinent questions just like they had talked about.

“Wait, we want in on this too,” Kia said as she and Michi came over.

“Kit and I talk to each other about our feelings a lot. All of you have heard us trying to understand what we feel. I can’t speak for her, but I can tell you right here and now, I get so excited at times when Isaac and I are alone, that I have to make myself stop and think about all of us and the family too,” Ruby told them as the six girls stepped out of their buckskin breeches, wearing nothing but their new underwear and their buckskin shirts.

“Me too, Ruby. Eli can just look at me sometimes and I get all jittery and feel like I could just take his clothes off and do things to him,” Kit told them.

“What things, Kit? That’s what we were wondering about. What do you think about doing with Eli?” Lilly Beth asked, braver now that they were actually talking about their feelings with boys.

“Lilly Beth, he’s your brother and I don’t want you to think bad things about me, but I want to get naked with him so bad, I hurt in my belly, and like Lee Yu told us, even my nipples ache too,” Kit told them.

“Do you ever feel guilty after having those thoughts about Eli?” Lilly Beth asked.

“Heck no, I don’t ever feel guilty about that. I know when we get old enough, I’m going to get naked with your brother and do all the things I’ve wondered about. I want to do all those crazy things, Sissy, Catt, and Eva talk about, but never really tell us how they do them,” Kit told them and they each laughed nervously.

This was a first for them, talking about grownup, personal feelings among the six of them. Wanting to know more, wanting to know how each of the others felt when they thought about sex things.

“Does it make us bad girls to have thoughts about boys and wonder what it’s like to be naked with a boy?” Lilly Beth asked.

“Since Miss Miranda became our momma, she has talked to Kia and me a lot about how a girl feels when she’s with a boy. She never talks about what they do when they get naked though. We know boys and girls do get naked though, they have babies and we already know how that happens,” Michi told them.

“I don’t want to have babies until I’m married and I don’t want to get naked with a boy, well, not just yet anyway,” Lee Yu told them. “What I do want to know is what it’s like when a boy kisses you and why does it make me feel all jittery and feel so good that I want to take my clothes off when I just think about being kissed,” Lee Yu told them.

“Momma told me that was when a woman felt aroused, Lee Yu,” Lilly Beth told her. “She told me a woman has the same feelings a man does, but she just has to keep them hidden or people will think she’s a slut or a whore,” Lilly Beth added, shocking the others that she said whore.

“When a girl marries, does she still have to keep her feelings hid from her husband?” Kia asked.

“I asked Grandmother that very thing, Kia,” Ruby told her. “She told me that if she and her husband both felt the same and he understood her feelings, they could have such a great relationship. If the girl wasn’t sure about how her new husband felt about things like that, she better be sure, or he may think she’s a bad person. She didn’t say the words, ‘slut or whore’, but I know that’s what she meant,” Ruby told them.

“Ruby, has Isaac ever seen you naked or partly naked?” Lee Yu asked.

“No, but I want to be naked with him so we can see what each of us looks like with no clothes on. I know all of you sisters may think I’m wrong to feel that way, but just wait until you meet your own young man, you’ll see what I mean,” Ruby explained.

“I feel the same way, Ruby. If we hadn’t already promised Eli’s dad and momma we’d conduct ourselves as responsible grownups, I would have already been naked with him and he knows exactly how I feel about it too,” Kit told her sister.

“That’s the reason the four of us want a boy like the Bucks and like our dad. We want one who will love us and respect us in spite of how wild we want to be at times,” Lilly Beth told them causing the others to laugh.

“Lilly Beth, do you really want to get wild with a boy?” Michi asked, teasing her, and they laughed again.

“When I meet the man I know will love me and let me be myself, I will get wild with him, “ she answered and shook her backside to let her underwear slide off her legs, standing naked with the others.

“Momma told me that when I meet a boy that I know loves me with all his heart, never be afraid to show him how much I love him. Make him feel like he is the only reason I’m alive,” Lee Yu told them.

“I love the way that sounds. That’s what I want to do with my man, Lee Yu. I want to love my man like all of Dad’s women love him,” Lilly Beth said.

“We’ve all read about what our Dad and our mommas are doing, is not accepted by society. But I can’t see anything wrong with all of them loving Dad. They just never talk about it and we never go many places for it to be known,” Michi told them.

“No one better say anything to our Dad about the women he loves. He’ll either cut their throats or scalp them or both. Then he’ll cut their nuts out too,” Lee Yu said. The six girls doubled over in laughter just as they heard the Bucks calling for them to hurry up and swim, the water was already cold.

The girls slipped into their extra underwear suits and buttoned them from their crotch to just above the swell of their young breasts. They looked around the circle at each other and Kia grinned as she reached up to loosen one more button at the top, exposing the swell of her young breasts even more. Each of them loosened another button and pulled the top open more as they smiled at each other. They knew they were becoming women and they already knew their breasts and nipples were going show when their swimming suits got wet.

Still standing in their circle, Kit reached up to loosen one more button as she looked around at the others, as if daring them. Then as they watched, she tucked the lapels of her underwear top down into the bodice, exposing her entire upper chest and all the way down between the valley where her freckled breasts swelled and separated.

With their lips spread wide in wicked smiles, the other girls loosened another button, then folded their lapels inside, just as Kit had.

“Damn, if you girls haven’t noticed, we have already become women,” Lilly Beth said as they left their clothes hanging on the surrounding bushes and held hands.

They ran toward the lake together, jumping into the water, screaming and laughing as the cold water covered them.

“You girls better be glad dad and our mommas aren’t around. You’d be wearing dresses and never riding a horse again,” Eli told them when his sisters, Kit, and Ruby surfaced next to them in the cold, clear water.

“We had to do it, Eli. We never get to be wild back home and it’s not like you can see us, really.

“Is it?” Kit asked as she stood before him.

“Kit, you better take a good look at yourself, then a take good look around at our sisters. Just be glad we’re your brothers. If you do this in front of others, you’d better know them well.”

“Eli, so we’re your sisters, but we always know you Bucks will tell us straight. Are we women?” Michi asked.

“All six of you are grown women,” Ezra told them before Eli could speak.

“He’s right. All of you are grown women now and you have to behave as women,” Isaac told them.

“Except when our brothers are close by to protect us?” Lilly Beth asked and grinned when Eli and his brothers did.

Eli turned to his brothers as they all stood in waist deep water, shivering, “we better find these sisters some boys to like. I’m not sure we can control them much longer,” he told them.

“You better be glad we put these swimming suits on. We started to swim naked,” Lee Yu told them, laughing as she dove in the water, splashing them.

They weren’t able to stay in the water much longer, the air was getting cooler and when they came up, they were shivering.

With the girls laughing and shaking their backsides, they split up to dry off and get dressed before they ate supper by the fire.

Pecan Ridge Cattle Company
Indian Territory
April 1, 1889

The Young Bucks and their sisters rode into Pecan Ridge ranch headquarters and saw Don Cowden and Clara outside with their daughter. They saw Martha, Clara’s younger sister sitting on a bench in the warm sun, next to a tall handsome man with a big mustache. As soon as they saw him, each of them knew he was Jud McClanahan, the former cavalry lieutenant their dad was friends with.

Little Eli stepped up to speak to Don and the others first, “Don, how’s it going down here? Good to see all of you again.”

“Eli, it’s been good here. How’ve y’all been? How’s your dad and the other folks back home?”