Chapter 16

Sarah rode back home before suppertime dammit, and damned if Carolyn didn't tease me about it. I noticed that Marjorie didn't make a peep though. No doubt she'd already figured out she'd have to take care of my needs by her lonesome tonight, instead of having Mary to help her out.

After bedtime I gave it about half an hour before I went looking for her, and she had a surprise waiting for me. When I entered her bedroom she was up on all fours in the big middle of her bed, shaking her shapely naked ass right at me.

"I'm sure glad it was you coming in the door. I figured it would be, but right there at the last I was a little anxious," she said.

"I see that you're anxious. I guess you intend to break in your bed tonight."

"I hoped we could," she said, and then neither of us did any talking for the next half hour - only grunting, groaning, and a little moaning. Afterwards I didn't see any need to go back to my own bed since Marjorie's was nice, warm, and comfortable.

I slept well cuddled up to Marjorie, but she woke me before the sun was up and shooed me back to my own bed. I don't guess keeping appearances up would hurt anything, but I could see that it was going to be a pain sometimes. Hell, I could live with it though.

No matter where I'd slept, Maybel had another hellacious breakfast waiting for me the next morning, and she also had a request.

"Mr Jefferson, do you have a plow I could use to turn up a garden spot? I could do my own canning and preserving if we had a little patch to raise a few things," she said.

"I'm not about to let you take time away from the kitchen to plow up a garden, but if you want one I'll hire somebody to do the plowing for you and to help you in any way you can think of."

"Well, if you do that I can probably raise a few more things. Who were you thinking of hiring to do it?" she asked.

"Why, I wasn't thinking of anyone, I just now found out you wanted a garden. Do you know who might be good at it and willin' to take the job?" I asked.

"Well, Johnny, the grave digger, is good at things like that. He raises a garden to help feed hisself since there ain't that many graves needed to keep him in enough work," she said.

"That sounds perfect to me. I'd a lot rather have him plowing me up a garden than digging me a grave. I'll ride into town today and see if he can help us out with it."

After eating as much as I could and getting a big smile from Maybel for my trouble, I headed to the barn and saddled Boots. He didn't give me a bit of trouble and seemed glad to get out of his stall. I was pretty sure he'd rather be out loose among the other horses, trying to see if he could find a mare that would let him share some of his big dick with her, but it looked like he'd take any activity he could to get shut of the barn.

Since I didn't have the first damned idea about finding Johnny on my own, I headed for Silas' store. He had the door unlocked by the time I rode up and he offered me a cup of coffee when I entered.

"I don't mind if I do, Silas, but I'm on a mission this morning. I need to find Johnny pretty quick," I said.

"You didn't have more trouble out your way did you?" he asked.

"No, I don't need a grave, I need someone to help Maybel with a garden. If she don't mind raising some kitchen truck I sure don't mind eating it."

"Johnny would be a good 'un to help with that all right. He likes to raise a garden too, and I know he's usually got time on his hands," Silas said.

"Well if he's handy I can probably find a lot of things he can do for me."

Darned if Johnny didn't come in the front door just then, looking for a chaw. Silas introduced us and then while he got Johnny's tobacco I asked about getting some gardening done.

"I'd be proud to do it for ye, Mr Jefferson. When can I start?" he asked.

"Can you come by for lunch? We can eat, and then me, you, and Maybel can pick out a spot. I'm pretty sure there are a couple of plows in among the things that came with the house and I've got several mules, surely one of them knows how to pull a plow," I said.

"Well, iffen they don't I can probably show 'em how it's did," he said, and then left.

Johnny was barely out the door before Silas sat down beside me at the table. He had business on his mind and it was a pleasant surprise. We went over the wagon and mule deal again, and after a few minutes I could see that he'd been doing some thinking of his own over the deal.

I couldn't figure out why he'd even needed any thinking. There was no way he could lose out. I was buying the wagons and mules and I'd spoken for more merchandise than he could normally sell in two or three years from his store. Maybe he just couldn't come to grips with it and needed to talk about it some more to get his mind around it.

No matter the reason, the talk with Silas suited me better than I'd thought it would. The gist of it was he wanted to take off again the next morning, and he intended to buy at least one more wagon while he was gone. With the one he already had it would let him bring back two loads this time. I saw a snag in that plan right away.

"Silas, you need to buy at least three wagons. What's the point in riding back to Dallas in an empty wagon? If you only want to deal with two wagons on this trip, ride a horse to Dallas and buy two for the trip back. It will save time for you and it will save needless wear and tear on the wagon you already have," I said.

"I hadn't even thought of that."

"That's not all either. I think you should put the wagon you brought back last time on display by your store. Put a for sale sign on it," I said.

"Why would I want to sell it?" he asked.

"Why do you sell anything? For profit is why. If someone buys it you've saved yourself an empty haul with it later, if they don't, well then you've still got it. You can't lose on the deal.

"There some other news you need to be thinking about too. As soon as Cooter gets the word to the mill in Jefferson those lumber wagons are going to start rolling and they won't stop for a while. You need to stock up on things you might sell their drivers. I plan on having replacement mules for sale, and I'll bet Frank is going to turn a nice profit on the side, fixing things on their wagons or teams before they head back," I said.

"I hadn't thought about that either, but I remember when they were bringing in materials for the house you bought. They practically picked me clean of food and supplies for their trips back to where they came from," he said.

"Sure they did, and there's always profit to be made when money starts changing hands. Not only am I gonna be your biggest customer for a long time to come, I'm also gonna be bringing more of 'em by you. Think about it. Those teamsters will be making good money and they have to spend it somewhere. It won't hurt a damned thing for them to spend some of it with you," I said, and his smile lit up his face.

Of course I didn't mention that it would be my money they were spending. I knew I was going to create a small artificial boom in the local economy, and I was counting on it. There was nothing artificial about the gold I'd be using to do it, and a little commerce around Lancaster wouldn't hurt a thing, or at least I hoped it wouldn't.

"That's even more for me to think about Bill, but it shore sounds good. Only one more thing is botherin' me," he said.