Chapter 29

We all got up and went out into the front yard. We stood there with our arms around each other as I said, "Katie, I have something to tell you about Sam and Cassie and me that might change the way you feel about us."

I went on to tell her about being kicked into this time from the future. She listened intently, not even asking any questions until I had finished. "So, that's our story. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it's true. Does that change how you feel?"

"Do you think it would make a difference to me if you were born in Baltimore, Maryland or Baltimore in County Cork? Where you were born or when you were born doesn't matter to me. I fell in love with who you people are, not with where or when you were born."

I pulled her to me and kissed her. When we finally broke apart, Kate was breathless and I'll admit I was close to that myself. "Katie, when I thought you were seriously injured this morning, it made me realize just how important you had become to us. I think all four of us have come to love you in the short time we've known you and all four of us have agreed we'd like for you to be a part of our marriage."

"Is that why you kissed my tits this morning?" Katie asked with a big grin.

"That and the fact that they are two of the most beautiful tits I've ever seen," I said.

"Ed does like tits," Delia giggled.

We were all still holding each other as we went back inside. I noticed that Stu and Angie had their arms around each other too.

Later on, Kate decided she was going to stay in our room with us. All of us agreed that would be fine, but almost as soon as we started getting ready for bed, we ran into a snag.

First off, the bed is too small for all of us. We were really pushing it to get four people in it. Five was impossible. My wonderful Sam said she and Delia would sleep on our sleeping bags and pads on the floor for the night. That left me and Cassie and Kate in the bed.

The next problem came when Kate figured that since she was our newest spouse, she would get to make love to me. Wrong! Not only was it Cassie's turn, but we had also gone through the violence during the day and Cassie was at a fever pitch.

I could smell Cassie's arousal from the time she started undressing. I thought my two bed mates were going to come to blows, so I put an arm around each of them and explained our problem to Kate.

With few preliminaries, Cassie climbed on top of me and rode me to four or five climaxes. It seemed she was starting a new one before the last one even subsided. Finally, she must have taken the edge off, because she said, "Do me from behind," then she assumed the position.

Kate must have been feeling a little left out, although I had kept my arm around her. Cassie must have noticed that too, because as soon as I entered her, Cassie touched the mattress right under her head and said, "Kate, put your butt right there and spread your legs."

Kate looked like she was going to refuse, but Sam said, "We all do it, Kate. It's not as good as when Ed is making love to us, but it sure beats anything you've ever done for yourself."

Kate hesitantly moved into position and Cassie dived in like a starving man at a pie eating contest. In less than a minute, Cassie had another orgasm and seconds later, Kate joined her. Cassie had one more orgasm and Kate had two before I emptied myself in Cassie's sweet little pussy. Cassie collapsed on top of Kate and I collapsed on top of Cassie.

We laid there a minute or two, then Kate said, "Damn! Who needs a man?"

Sam giggled and said, "Just wait until tomorrow. You'll find out."

Day 130 - Monday, September 7, 1847

Rawhide, Andy and I went into town on that Monday morning. The main thing we were wanting was to find a source for wagons. We figured we were going to need eight or ten covered wagons for the trip west and one covered buckboard. Rawhide had a couple of wagons on his ranch, but neither of them were up to making a 2,000 mile trip.

One of the first buildings we saw when we rode into town was the courthouse. "Gentlemen," I said, "I think it's high time I freed our slaves. I'm going to stop at the courthouse and find out how to go about it."

Rawhide and Andy both agreed, but said they'd go ahead down main street and see what they could find while I was busy. When I was inside, I asked a clerk how to go about emancipating a family of slaves. He said he could handle it for me.

He had some pre-printed forms that all I needed to do was fill in the names of the slaves and the date along with my name as their owner. He had me do it on two of the forms and sign them in the proper place, then he took them to another man who looked them over and signed them. He brought them back over and said there was a two dollar fee, one dollar for the court and one dollar for the justice of the peace who signed them. I gladly paid the fee and he gave me one of the forms and said the other would be filed with the court as a permanent record.

It was just that easy. I carefully folded the form and put it in my saddlebag when I went back outside. I felt good inside, knowing my friends and my wife were now free.

I found Rawhide and Andy without too much trouble. They were talking to a man who was almost as big as Andy. When I pulled up, Rawhide asked, "How many wagons are we going to need, Ed?"

"I'm thinking we might as well go ahead and get two covered wagons and six freight wagons," I said. "We also need some kind of wagon with springs and a cover for the baby."

The big man nodded and said, "I'm Ira Harding. Do you want to haul anything in the sprung wagon, or do you just want seats?"

"I'd say we just want seats. One for the driver and two more for passengers. I'd like the wagon bed to have springs and each seat to have springs as well. Could you do something like that?"

"Yep. It'll cost you a mite. What about the cover? Do you want it to just cover the top or do you want the sides covered as well?"

"Could we have it so the top is always covered and so we could raise and lower the side and back covers?"

"I can do that. I'm gonna be hard put to get that many wagons built by spring though. I'm gonna have to send all the way to Pittsburgh for the hardware. When do you need them by?"

"March first," I said. "How much are they going to cost and how much do you need now to get them started?"

"Well, now. The covered wagons and freight wagons are gonna run you seventy dollars each. The covered passenger wagon is gonna cost you two hundred. I can get started on everything for two hundred down."

"I'll tell you what I'll do, Mr. Harding. I'll give you three hundred now so it isn't any burden on you, getting started. I'll give you an extra hundred if the wagons are ready on March first."

Harding readily agreed. I left him talking with Rawhide and Andy while I found a secluded spot and removed thirty gold eagles from my money belt. When I had gotten back and paid Harding, Andy said they had found out where to buy oxen to pull the wagons.

We'd killed half a day already. So we decided to go back to the ranch and see about the oxen tomorrow. We talked on the way home about the difficulty of finding fifty-four oxen to pull the wagons. We'd also need four of our mules to pull the buckboard.

The women were happy to see us. We were mobbed by the time we had dismounted. I managed to snag the paper I had gotten at the courthouse and we all went inside.

"Mina, where's Jud?" I asked.

"He's out getting a bucket of water. He'll be back in a minute."

"Okay, I have something to show you all when he gets in."

I hadn't much more than said that when Jud came back in the house. "Jud, Mina, Delia, and Dalia," I said. "I have a paper here that will interest all of you."

They all looked at me and I handed the paper to Delia. "Can you read what this says, love?"

"It says Cert... Cer-tif-i-cate of E-man-ci-pa-tion. Certificate of Emancipation."

"That's right, love. Now, can you read whose names are on it?"

"It says Jud Hill, Wilhelmina Hill, Delia Hill and Dalia Hill. Ed, is this really what it says?"

"This is a copy of a paper that is filed in the court in Dayton saying the four of you are free. Nobody owns you any more. You are all totally free."

I could see tears running from Mina's eyes as she looked at me. I held my arms open and she stepped into them. We hugged for several minutes while Sam and Cassie were hugging Jud.

"Thank you," Mina said after a while.

"You're welcome, Mina. Keep that paper somewhere safe. It's the only way you have of proving you are free."

"Oh, I'll keep it safe alright. We knew you were going to do this, Ed, but until it's done, there's always that little doubt."

"I know that, Mina. I wanted to do that from the day we got here, but things just kept happening and I didn't want to leave my wives here or take them with me to get it done."

"That's just fine. It's done and we are really free." We were still holding on to one another when Delia came over and threw her arms around me. She kissed me so well I was almost embarrassed that her mother was standing there. "Ed Hill, tonight you are going to have to fight me off with a stick if you don't want me to rape you. I love you with all of my heart."

"I love you too, Delia. It isn't rape if the other person is willing."

Delia laughed and said, "See, mama. He has an answer for everything. I love him anyway though."

I got a handshake and a hug from Jud that afternoon and a hug and a kiss from Dalia. I felt like I had been paid in full for what we had spent on them.

We all did some talking that afternoon and we decided that since Rawhide was short around three hundred head of cattle, we should start looking for them.

"I'm not sure that's really a good idea," Angie said. "My pa and his brother are dead, but others will have taken over as heads of their families. My brother Rafe will now be head of my family. He's just as mean as pa was."

"Angie, child, they stole three hundred head of cattle from me. That's around three thousand dollars," Rawhide said. "I'm not going to let those dad blamed thieves get away with that."

"Do you know where they're keeping the cattle they stole from Rawhide, Angie?" I asked.

"Well, from what I heard them talking, they were going to divide them up equally between the four families. That means they're probably spread out over half the county."

"That'll make it a little harder," I said.

"Let's think on it," Rawhide said. "I think a lot of the fight went outta those fellers after they attacked us. We may be able to just ride in and take them back."

"Don't count on it," Angie said.

"Delia, could you wait to thank Ed until tomorrow?" Kate asked. When she saw Delia hesitating, she went on, "Cassie was all fired up last night and I didn't get to make love to him."

Delia gave Kate a hug and asked, "Are you a virgin, Kate?"

"Yes, Delia, and I don't want to be a virgin any more."

"Ed is very good with virgins. You go ahead and enjoy yourself. I'll wait my turn."

"Don't I get a say in this?" I asked.

"Sure and you're gonna be turning down this poor Irish lass?"

"No, my love. I don't intend to turn you down. I love you, Katie."

Katie was a virgin, but luckily she didn't have a hymen. Sam, Cassie, Delia and I worked her up to a point where I thought she was going to go out of her mind. By unspoken agreement, we'd bring her until she was close to climax, but wouldn't let her go over.

When we didn't think we could work her up any farther, I positioned myself between her legs. Sam guided my cock to the entrance of Katie's pussy. I just held it there for a few seconds and Katie started hunching up against it, trying to get me inside her.

Katie was tight, but she was so wet, I went in a couple of inches before I could stop. Katie's entire body froze for several seconds, then she started shuddering. I tried to hold as still as I could while her orgasm ripped through her pretty body, but she wasn't having any of that. She grabbed my hips and pulled me the rest of the way into her, and her body started hunching on my cock.

Katie was moving way too fast, so I started slower movements to try to calm her down a little. Kate was making two thrusts to my one when she went over the top again. She slowed her pace slightly, so I sped up a little to match her.

It wasn't long until I could feel her building to another big orgasm. This time I let myself go and followed her. We came together and I collapsed on top of her. I tried to roll off to the side but she wouldn't let me.

After we were starting to recover, Katie said, "You darling man, you. Now I see why Cassie says we need a man."

Day 130 - Tuesday, September 8, 1847

Two of the hands who had worked for Rawhide's brother-in-law came riding in this morning. Fred Nelson and Abner Hunt. Neither of them had any ties to the Clifton Clan, so we hired them to ride for us, at least for the winter.

We talked with them for a while and I asked them why they had left before. "Well, sir," Ab said, speaking for both of them, "After Mr. And Mrs. Clifton died, we was kind of at a loss as to what to do. We went on taking care of things for two months, but we never got paid. Then, the other Cliftons started coming around and threatening us."