Chapter 44

Tom and Cal were both nervous and excited at the same time, talking to the preacher about marrying them the next day. Early McClain looked up as he heard a knock at the back of the school building where he had his study.

He opened the door and there stood the half-breed Indian that had given the church the money to buy books and a piano as well as school books for his wife to teach from.

“Tom won’t you come on in.”

Tom introduced Cal to Early McClain and they told him what they were there for. The preacher was excited that they had chosen him to perform the services, he asked both young men if they would agree to let him invite the members of the church. They both agreed.

While Tom, Cal and Dale Canady were in town, the women washed and ironed the girls wedding dresses. When that was done, they loaded all of Beth’s belongings they could in a wagon and put Callie’s in there too so she could ride the wagon, instead of the horse full time. Beth’s dad had given her the young Thoroughbred mare that Tom’s horse had bred earlier in the spring. The two girls were talking about riding their horses some and then ride in the wagon too, in the heat of the day and if there was any bad weather.

They planned to be married before noon and leave out right after they were married. This way, they would be in, The Dakotas in three days. Just saying that made Callie and Beth smile and get excited as they were planning to travel north to a new life on the prairie in The Dakotas.

The two became instant friends and laughed and giggled like young girls with a secret. They were thrilled and they were excited, they had feelings inside their young bodies that made them shiver. Each time they were alone, one or the other would bring it up.

“Have you and Cal ever done anything before Callie,” Beth asked, blushing as she asked her new friend personal things.

“We did lay together some and I showed Cal my bosom and he touched me, after I touched him. I had to ask him to though, he’s so shy. Did you and Tom ever do anything?”

“We lay naked together and swam in the creek one day before he left, I would have let him do anything to me that day, but he said we couldn’t. I’m glad now, we’ll be married tomorrow morning and leave out to make a new home for us. We have the rest of our lives to be man and wife and lay naked together. I get so excited just thinking about him being naked and next to me that I tremble and shake when I see us in my mind.”

“I hope they will build our homes close together so we can be best friends all our lives up there, don’t you Beth?”

“I sure do, we’ll have so much fun, I can’t wait until Tom gets me with a baby, I want to have a houseful of young’uns.”

“Me too, Cal has said he wants all boys, but I want a girl or two also, don’t you?”

“Yes, I sure do and just think, all our children will grow up next to yours and Cal’s and be best friends like us and their dad’s.”

They talked all about how it will be and they hugged each other, they both knew that each of them would be the rock for the other to lean on, for years to come.

“Callie, do you get excited when you think of Cal?”

“I sure do, I’m excited now just from us talking about us having babies and laying with our men.”

“Me too, are you going to wait until you get to The Dakotas to let Cal do anything?”

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to wait. I want him to hold me naked so bad and be my man. Are you gonna wait?”

“Tom don’t know it yet, but tomorrow night when we stop, I’m going to lead him away from camp and strip off naked and ask him to make me his woman.”

“Oh my God, I was thinking the same thing Beth, aren’t we shameful to think such things?”

“I’m not ashamed, I can hardly wait now as it is. I wonder if a man is like a horse and can do it more than once a day?”

“Lord girl, we do think alike, I was wondering the same thing. Mother told me and my sister that it may hurt the first time if the man was rough. Then she said I’d be sore a few days after that. I hope not, I already want it a lot and we’re not even married.”

“My Mother told me and my sisters the same thing, but she said that no matter what our man wanted, we were to obey his wishes. Then she added kinda sneaky like, that when we got used to him, we could train him good.” They both laughed at what Beth had said and hugged again.

“I’m sure we’ll have more talks Callie, we just have to be careful and never let it slip that we’re telling each other things. Mother said men were different about that stuff when it comes to talking about their wife. Her Mother had warned her about that. I’m sure that when we learn all about our men we can train them like Mother said,” Beth giggled.

“You know what Beth?”

“What?”

“I’m gonna lead Cal away from camp in the other direction tomorrow night, I just now made up my mind.”

“Oh my Lord, you and I will be howling in the night like coyotes,” Beth said.

“I will if you will,” Callie said and they both doubled over laughing.

They laughed so hard they had to hold their sides and wipe the tears from their eyes, then they hugged and laughed some more.

Margaret Canady and her other two daughters Alissa and Catherine heard the two young women talking and laughing in the other room. They looked at each other and laughed until they also had tears in their eyes.

Beth and Callie were both full of life and excited about becoming the wives of the men that had taken their heart and held it in their hands. Though they were both only seventeen, they were ready to be women.

For the first time in their lives, they were both feeling like women, just as they were readying to become a wife the next morning. They were now laughing and making plans to become a woman in the arms of their respective husbands tomorrow night.

They ate a light meal for supper and the whole household was in bed early this night, again Tom and Cal slept in the barn.

Again Dale and Margaret Canady held each other naked in bed and she urged him on as he slammed into her body until they were both spent.

“Dale you will need to hold me and be patient with me when Beth leaves home, we’re both going to be lost with her gone, her sisters are too.”

“I’ll need you more too Margaret, I will need your touch and your help and your understanding as I try accept the fact that she’s gone. Then in less than six months, all our daughters will be married and gone from our home where they were raised.”

“I know, and I’ll be as close as you let me Dale, I too will need more from you. Just think though, in a year or two, we will have grand kids to visit and to bring here to see us when we get old.”

“You’re never gonna get old Margaret, you still look as young and pretty as you did when we first got married and I took you away from your parents to live here with me.”

“I will get older Dale, as you will. We will just have to make up for the loss of our daughters with love for one another, you think you can keep up with me?”

Dale pulled his wife to him and held her tight.

“Twice in the same night, it’s been a while Dale.”

The ranch came awake early. Margaret had told the cook to fix an early breakfast and had told everyone to be in the kitchen at 7:00 to eat together.

At nine o’clock Margaret and her daughters, Allisa and Catherine, took the two brides to be, into her and Dale’s bedroom, where they proceeded to help them dress for their double wedding.

Both young girls stripped naked in front of the others and stood there smiling at each other and at the others in the room.

“Well, it looks like the two of you have become brave in your last hours as single girls and are prepared to become women as well as wives,” Margaret Canady laughed.

“We have talked about this nonstop since we met and we’re gonna be best friends for life. We’re gonna make our husbands the happiest men in The Dakotas,” Beth said.

“Well Beth, I think we need to get you two dressed before you walk out in the garden to be married.”

They were both dressed in long white dresses with petticoats spreading their skirts wide around them. Dale Canady was to walk both of them out of the bedroom door into the garden when he saw the wave from the preacher.

Tom and Cal would already be standing in front of the preacher, facing the house when they walked out.

They had planned to have a small reception after the ceremony, with all those in attendance invited. Soon after that the newlyweds would dress in traveling clothes and leave out on horseback and wagon, headed for a new life in The Dakota’s.

Dale Canady had hired a photographer to come out and take pictures. He had his camera set up and a young woman was holding the flash pan over her head for a flash.

Cal was dressed in a white shirt and his new waist overalls, he’d cleaned his new boots too.

Tom was dressed in a white shirt his mother sewed for him and his buckskins that Wong Lee had bleached nearly white down in Hays, Kansas. He had his clean moccasins on too. His hair was pulled back and hung loose down his back, he wore a wide, dark blue, beaded head band.

Neither man wore his gun, but they were hung over the back of a chair nearby. They had bought rings at Millers Gen. Mose. while in Newton yesterday.

Tom was nervous as he looked out over the crowd of twenty five people including the ranch hands on the Canady spread. He saw Sheriff Keyes smiling broadly, sitting next to Mrs. Croom. He saw Millie Croom sitting between Jr. and her brother Danny; they were smiling proudly too. There was Mr. Clifton and Bud the bartender. There was Mayor Dean and Mr. Miller. He saw Runt hobble in and sit on the edge of a bench in back as he stretched up so he could see. Runt had his best clothes on, he bought them with the money Mr. Canady put in the bank last. He also bought a pocket watch for a dollar and Miss Beth taught him to tell time.

Tom looked over to the other side and saw Callie’s Mom and Dad as well as Cathy and Daniel Tanner sitting there, he nudged Cal and nodded toward them. Cal smiled as he saw the Bowers sitting next to Margaret Canady and her other two daughters.

Tom looked out toward the barnyard and saw his horse standing at the end of the walkway.

About ten of the church members were there and all the Canady wranglers stood up in back. Tom saw Preacher Early McClain make a wave with his right hand and looked at the door on the side of the house. Beth, Callie and Dale Canady all walked out, then with one on each side, Dale Canady walked along the stone walkway to where Tom, Cal and the Preacher stood.

Callie stepped over to stand in front to Cal and Beth stood facing Tom.

“Family and friends, we are here today to see these two young couples get married and begin a new life together. I could talk for a while on the subject of marriage and what it has meant to me, but I won’t. My wife’s done told me not to.

“I do want to tell you that The Lord looks down on us here today and especially on these two young couples standing here. I know you will all join with me in wishing them a good and happy life with many children to spring forth from their homes.

“Do you Tom and Elizabeth, each take the other to be your lawful wedded spouse in the eyes of God and family?”

Tom and Beth said ‘I DO’ loudly, smiling at each other.

“Do you Calvin and Callie each take the person standing before you as your lawful wedded spouse in the eyes of God and family?”

“I DO” Cal and Callie said loudly, they too smiled a big smile at each other.

“Now place the ring on your wife’s finger. It’s customary for the man to kiss his wife at this time, so you fellers get to it.”

The young men leaned over their new brides and kissed them long and hard to the calls and hoots from all the onlookers.

“Ladies and gentlemen come congratulate the newly married couples, they will be leaving shortly for The Dakota Territories to make their homes and make a new life for themselves,” Early McClain said.

Margaret Canady was the first to reach Tom and Beth, she kissed Tom on the cheek and hugged her daughter, telling them she loved them.

Mrs. Bowers all but ran to Callie and hugged her, then Cathy was next followed by her Father.

Dale Canady, Catherine and Allisa all hugged Beth as well as Tom. Dale Canady spoke to Tom.

“You’re my son, just as Beth is my daughter, I’m proud to call you son.”

Dale Canady slipped a small package into Tom’s hand and turned to Margaret and hugged her, both had tears in their eyes, but they were happy tears.

Callie spoke to her Mom and Dad and to Cathy.

“I didn’t know you would be here, I’m so proud you came, I’m so happy that I have you as parents and you as my sister Cathy. I love Cal so much and he loves me too. We’ll be back next spring to see all of you,” she was crying, but she was happy inside.

The two new brides went in the house to get dressed in traveling clothes. They returned shortly, talking and laughing with all the visitor’s that had come out to see them married.

Beth walked over to Callie and they hugged each other for a long time, then leaned back and smiled to each other. They both turned to see Tom and Cal standing at the end of the walkway that led out to the big open yard in front of the house.

“This is the hard part Callie,” Beth said.

They each went to their parents and family once more, and hugged for a long time then kissed each of them on the cheek. They walked over to hook their arms into the crook of their husbands arms and walk out to the wagon. Their horses were saddled and tied to the wagon wheel.

Runt was sitting on the wagon seat, the leather reins in his hands, he was smiling.

Dale Canady walked up to Tom and Beth.

“Runt’s gonna go with you, he wouldn’t be any use to me here, with both of you gone anyway.”

Beth laughed and climbed up the wagon wheel and gave Runt a big hug right in front of everyone. He turned as red as the old rooster pecking in the yard.

The two young wives mounted up and Tom ‘n Cal swung to their saddles. With a wave of hands they started out the long lane to the main road, then turned east toward the river.

They were followed by the entire crowd of visitors to the end of the lane. They stood waving until the wagon was but a small white dot and the horses couldn’t even be seen.

They rode through Newton, Nebraska and waited for Runt to get his money out of the bank. He climbed back up the wagon wheel and pulled his pocket watch out to look at it, an hour since they’d left the ranch, not bad at all, he thought.

“Tom how far is it up to Sioux Falls, that’s where we cross the Missouri River isn’t it?” Beth asked as she rode by his side on her long legged young mare.

“We’ll be there by noon tomorrow, we’ll stop before dark today and make camp near the river, then tomorrow we’ll leave out at first light. When we cross the Missouri, we’ll still be the best part of three days from the trading post, we’ll have to travel slow for the wagon.”