Chapter 10

August 8, 1846 - December 24, 1846

Our new house seemed empty after everyone went home. Our bedrooms were huge. Tess and John had their own large bedroom while my wives and I had another. Eve, Abby, and Mary shared another large bedroom, and Mike was in a large room all by himself. We knew that over the next few years both of the kid's bedrooms would fill up.

John and I spent a lot of time that fall building furniture. We made one trip down to mom and pap's trading post, just to see what he had gotten that we might use. A lot of his trading now came from the wagon trains that were coming through, heading on towards the Willamette Valley. A lot more of his business came from trading with the Indians.

Pap had also managed to work out some kind of agreement with a trading company that brought their goods in on ships that had come around the horn from Boston and New York. Tess and my wives just about cleaned him out on mattress ticking and a few other things.

Millie told him she wanted him to hold two large padded sofas he had traded for from people on the wagon trains. Then we had to make another trip in a wagon to pick them up. He also had a couple of nice armchairs, which we took as well. We traded furs for these things and we still had a lot left over.

We made another trip that fall to where the Reverend Green had been building his church. We knew there had been quite a few animals in their village, and we were hoping to find some of them. Pap had some kind of ridiculous idea that anything coming from that village was haunted, so he wouldn't even go close to it.

We found a lot more than just some animals. Only about half of their hogans had burned, and in the others, we found a treasure trove. We picked up two nice dressers, a pie safe, a kitchen cabinet, some clothing, and many other useful things.

We also managed to recover a lot of tools, harness, and even an anvil. We didn't find any horses or mules, but we did find half a dozen oxen. We also found four milk cows, two of them with calves. Chickens were another story. There were literally dozens of them around, but we only managed to capture a little over thirty of them.

We had to expand our chicken house when we got home. We also had plans to build a larger barn the following summer.

Other than that, this fall went much as last fall had. We cut some more trees for our new barn before the weather started getting cold. We also spent some time checking out our herd. About half of our cows had calves that summer. All of them seemed in good health as winter approached.

December 25, 1846

Our second Christmas on the Tackett-Ware Ranch was a lot more comfortable than our first Christmas had been. We had a lot more room to spread out in, and we had some comfortable furniture to sit on. We had two large fireplaces, one in the living room and one in the kitchen which, which kept us reasonably warm.

It was also nice having a real wood floor under our feet. The women had made the bear skin into a nice rug, which they placed in front of the living room fireplace. Eve, Abby, and Mary just about took this over as their favorite place to lie in the evenings before bed. All three of them could comfortably lie on the skin, it was so large.

Mike was now eight, almost nine, as he liked to tell us. He was big for his age, and as sharp as a tack. He seemed to soak up the things John and I were teaching him like a sponge. Since he was big for his age, he started to become a real help for John and me.

Ab and Pris had come over several times during the fall. Lelah was always with them, but Adam was not. Eve remained an enigma. The more time she spent without being exposed to Adam, the closer she got to us.

We had a wonderful Christmas, and were looking forward to the coming year. We had lots of plans, including expanding the garden. We had managed to preserve a lot of the vegetables we grew this past summer, although there was not nearly enough to last us through the winter. We planned to do a lot better next winter.

May 2, 1847

John and I managed to get a lot more traps out last winter. We had a great year for pelts. I sometimes wonder if we'll be able to do this many more winters. If we take so many pelts, we surely have to be decreasing the number of animals that normally would have been living here. I think one more winter is all we'll have to depend on for good trapping. After that, we may quit completely.

I'm sure I mentioned before, that our valley was mostly fenced in by natural barriers. We had added a fence across the entrance to the valley the first fall we had been here. So far, that had seemed to be all we needed. We had lost a few cattle in some of the side canyons, though, so we had started fencing them off this spring.

We were working on the fence across a canyon that was about a mile from our house, when we saw a rider coming toward us from the direction of the house.

"Who do you suppose that is?" John asked. "The women don't expect us home until supper."

"It looks like a man," I said. "Isn't that Ab's horse?"

"You know, it might be. I wonder what he wants."

"We'll find out soon enough," I said.

When Ab pulled up, he said, "Howdy, men."

"Howdy, Ab."

"You guys haven't seen Adam, have you?"

"No, Ab. We haven't seen him since last fall. Has he disappeared on you?"

"Yeah. He took off late last night. He stole a horse and lit out."

"Do you want us to help you look for him?"

"No, I think I'll just let him go. I can afford to lose the horse. It makes me mad that he stole my revolver and my best rifle though."

"Didn't you try to follow him?" John asked.

"Yep. He headed south after he came out of our valley. I tracked him for about a mile, then he rode into a creek and I couldn't find where he came out. I guess part of that is my fault, since I taught him a lot about tracking and the like over the last couple of winters."

"Well, he's fourteen. I'd expect he can make it on his own. It's a shame he felt he had to steal from you to get a start though. We'd have all pitched in and given him what he needed to make it on his own."

"Well, if you remember, when you brought him over to our place, Pris said that someone who steals doesn't usually reform. They just get sneakier."

"You've got a smart wife, Ab. I was kind of thinking he might be doing better."

"I thought so, too. I guess that's why it surprised me so much when he took off. I stopped by your house, and your women folks fixed me some lunch. Eve said it didn't surprise her that much. She said that the last time she saw him, he was still talking about you guys being part Indian."

"Well, maybe we're all better off he left," I said. "Jasper Province and the other guy who tried to kill me, both had really nice rifles. You're welcome to one of them to replace the rifle Adam stole."

Ab got a big grin. "I'm much obliged to you for that, Jase. The only other rifle I have, has been shot so many times, it just ain't accurate no more. I am going to miss my revolver though."

"Well, that's something we can't help you with," I said. "I've got the revolver pap gave me, but that's the only one we have."

May 13, 1847

We didn't see any one else for almost two weeks. Then, this afternoon, we were made aware there were people outside our family. It was not done in a good way.

It was a really nice afternoon and we were taking a rare day off. John and I had spent the last few days getting the foundations dug for a large barn, so we weren't the cleanest we'd ever been. Millie decided it was time we all took a bath in the creek.

Abby was still as enthusiastic about swimming as she'd always been, and Mary was just about as bad. Eve had gotten over a lot of her shyness and she joined us freely. I was having to smile as I watched Mike. At his age, I don't think he even realized there was a difference between girls and boys. On the one hand, he still did most anything Abby asked him to do; on the other, he tried to imitate John and me as much as possible.

We were all enjoying the water. I had washed, but I was reluctant to leave the cool waves that were lapping up against me. I was just thinking about how much I enjoyed our ranch and our family, when Wanda came over to me. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist.

I looked down between us and I could see her pussy resting against my belly. When I looked back up, Wanda was grinning at me.

She leaned in close and whispered, "Just a few more months, and you're going to have to make a woman out of me, Jase."

I had to admit, she was looking like a woman already. Her hips had widened, and her breasts had grown since she had moved in with us. Her waist was now slender. She had lost any baby fat she might have had. To top that off, she was completely uninhibited.

I kissed her gently, and told her I was looking forward to it. I was just getting ready to ask Millie if she'd like for me to hold Betsy for a while so she could get washed up when there was a splash in the water beside me followed closely by the sound of a rifle shot.

"Shit," Tess yelled.

When I looked over at her, I could see she was holding her left side. Blood was streaming out between her fingers.

"Down!" I yelled. "Lettie, Tess is hit."

"I think it's just a scratch," Tess said.

Everyone had gotten down to where just their heads were out of the water. I looked at where the bullet had hit the water and to where Tess had been standing, and then I pointed in the direction the shot had come from.

"They're up there," I said.

I had made my way over to the bank by this time. I started getting my clothes on when I heard another shot. This one didn't hit anyone, but it scared the crap out of us.

"Get behind that big log there," I said.

Everyone moved in that direction and I could see John checking out Tess' wound. He kissed her then made his way to the bank where I was getting dressed.

"This one's mine," he said calmly. "The bastard just gave up his life when he shot my wife."

I nodded, and handed him my revolver. "I'll throw a few shots his way as you go after him," I said.

John gave me his shot pouch, his rifle, and his powder horn. Another shot rang out and a chunk of the log the women were hiding behind flew up in the air.

"Tess isn't hit bad," John said. "There's a crease along her side that's about a quarter of an inch deep. She'll be okay."

"Kill the bastard, anyway," I said.

John nodded and took off at a crouch. I had a fairly good idea where the shots were coming from, so I fired once in that direction, then quickly reloaded. Another shot hit the log, and this time I saw the smoke from his shot, so I fired just under the smoke. I didn't think it did any good, though.

The ambusher and I exchanged several more shots, before I heard my revolver fire three times, very quickly. Everything was quiet for a minute, then I saw John waving at us. I got up, and ran towards him.

"I think he got him," I yelled at the women. "Try to get Tess's bleeding stopped."

When I got to where John was waiting, I saw what I had expected to see. Adam Green was lying dead at John's feet.

"I tried to give him a chance, Jase," John said. "I got behind him and told him to put down his gun. He had a revolver beside him and he grabbed for it. I had to shoot him or he'd have shot me."

"Don't worry about it, John," I said. "It had to be done."

"Yeah, but Eve..."

"Just tell Eve what happened. I'm sure she'll understand."

John reluctantly followed me back down to where the women were waiting. All of them had gotten dressed except Tess, who only had her pants on. I went over to her and looked at her wound. It was only about a quarter of an inch deep and about two inches long. They had gotten the bleeding stopped so I figured she was going to be alright. I kissed just about an inch above the wound and she grinned at me.

"Who was it?" Millie asked

John hesitated and Eve said, "It was Adam, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, Eve. I'm sorry," John said, then he went on to tell everyone what had happened when he got to where Adam had been hiding.

"I can't fault you for what you did, John," Eve said. "Jase and I should have probably hung him when he stole the horse, the first time."

Eve said she didn't want to have a funeral for Adam, but John and I decided we were at least going to give him a decent burial. We dug a grave for him on the other side of our first cabin.

The rest of the summer went well. John and I got the barn finished. It was a lot easier than a house because we didn't have to have a foundation all the way under the walls. We did like Caleb had done on his first cabin and just put in foundations at each corner and the center of each wall. We did get Timmy to cut some shingles for the roof.