A Chuckwagon Ride to Safety

"Horace bought all five thousand head I took to Abilene, so I figure after paying off the inspectors and paying to ship the cattle, Horace made about a hundred thousand on my herd alone.

"What I decided is that next year, I was going to telegraph my friend in Chicago before the drive, and when I found out the going prices, I was going to force the buyers to pay accordingly or I wouldn't sell to the them. I have enough connections in the meat business I could ship all my cattle to my friend's slaughterhouse myself and collect the market price in Chicago. That would have cost me a little more, but I'd have come out ahead in the long run. That was until I saw what Horace was trying to do to you.

"Where I've been the last month was Fort Leavenworth. The general in charge of Fort Leavenworth was my commanding general when I was assigned to Texas and we got to know each other pretty well. Some of the beef from Abilene is sold to the US Government to feed the soldiers based all over the United States and territories. I thought he might be interested in knowing that Horace was controlling the price the Government was paying for beef.

"He was interested because the Union Army was paying eighteen cents a pound for corned beef from Chicago where the year before they'd paid twelve. He sent some people from the Department of the Army in Washington to talk to the slaughterhouse where the Union Army buys their corned beef. What those people found out was that not only was Horace fixing the price paid to the ranchers, he was fixing the price the slaughterhouses were paying him by paying off a couple of their managers. All he had to do was pay off one slaughter house and the others would follow suit. It would be either that or they'd go broke because they wouldn't have any beef to sell.

"The Army started the process of investigating Horace for defrauding the US Government. Somebody in the Government, I figure somebody Horace paid to raise the price, let Horace know that. That's why he shot himself.

"I hadn't intended for that to happen. All I wanted was to take him out of the cattle business forever and hopefully take away most of his money. Apparently he decided being dead was better than going to prison and having to pay back the money he'd defrauded the US Government of.

"Anyway, the long and short of it is this. Horace won't be paying any more men to come look for you because he's dead. His wife owns his business now, but I'd bet anything she'll sell it and move back to New York City where she came from. From what I heard, she was trying to get Horace to do that anyway. Abilene wasn't sophisticated enough for her.

"By the way, I checked with the Marshall in Abilene on my way back. There's never been a wanted poster for you or any charges filed against you for anything. The Marshall had never even heard your name. Those four men must have made it all up. I suppose they figured if you were wanted, I'd give you to them so I wouldn't be charged with helping a criminal.

"What all this means is you're free to do whatever you want now."

Jake paused for a second.

"Charity, you're crying again. I thought this would make you happy."

Charity smiled.

"It does make me happy. Don't you know that women cry because they're happy? Well, we do."

Jake looked at the ground then.

"Given any thought to what you're going to do now?"

Charity nodded.

"I decided before you came back. Maria said she doesn't want me to leave, and when I thought about it, I knew I couldn't leave her...or you."

Jake looked up then.

"So, if you're going to stay, are you just going to be my cook?"

Charity put her arms around Jake's neck again and smiled.

"That, Mister Donaldson, depends upon what you want me to be."

They were married at the church in town a week later. Maria wore one of the dresses Jake had brought her and stood proudly beside Charity. Seth stood beside Jake. At the end of the ceremony, Jake took Charity in his arms and kissed her, then said, "Hello, Missus Donaldson. How's it feel to be married to a rancher from Texas?"

Charity kissed him again and then whispered, "I'll tell you after tonight."

After the ceremony, Maria whispered something to Charity and then Seth swung her up behind him on his saddle horse. Maria waved as they rode away, and Jake noticed tears in Charity's eyes.

"Charity, you love that little girl like she was your real daughter, don't you?"

Charity sniffed and then wiped her eyes with a handkerchief.

"Yes. I didn't want to, not at first, but she sort of worked her way into my heart, just like a man I know did."

Jake chuckled.

"I hope that man was me, otherwise you've made a big mistake."

Charity squeezed his hand.

"The only mistake I made was not realizing it sooner."

They walked to the hotel and had supper, then went up to their room. Charity asked Jake to stay in the hall until she called to him.

A few minutes later Charity opened the door a crack and whispered, "Jake, you can come in now."

When Jake walked into the room, he stopped and stared at Charity. She was wearing a white nightgown that bared the tops of her breasts and fitted snugly around her hips. Charity let him look for a few seconds and then said, "Am I what you thought I'd be?"

Jake smiled as he began taking off his clothes.

"Charity, you're all that and a lot more."

What Jake had been taught was that a woman would lie there in bed in her night clothes while he did what men have done since the dawn of time. He wasn't ready for Charity to walk up in front of him and ask him to take off her nightgown. He fumbled a little, but finally got it pulled over her head. He had to stop and stare again.

Jake had seen naked women several times before. Prostitutes seemed to appear out of thin air anytime his company was camped for over a couple of days. Since the men were in tents and the tents were pretty small, those women often undressed and dressed standing outside the tent. In winter if it was snowing or raining hard, they'd often be encamped long enough for the men to build rough cabins. A few of the women who came to the camp often went from cabin to cabin without bothering to completely dress.

Jake never asked any of those women to join him, but he understood why the men did. Most were young and had little if any experience with women. They knew that their next battle might be their last, so they were getting as much experience as they could.

The women who came to the camps were mostly not very pretty and many were pretty heavy. Charity was nothing at all like them.

She'd let her hair down and the long blonde waves draped over her shoulders and down over her breasts. Those breasts were round and sat high on her chest, and her darker nipples peeked out from between the blonde waves.

Charity's waist was narrow and her hips spread a little wider than her waist. Just below her slightly rounded belly was a thatch of blonde hair that disappeared between her slender thighs.

Charity smiled as he stared at her and then lay down on the bed and held out her arms. Jake lay down beside her not really knowing how he was supposed to act. Charity solved that problem for him. She rolled to her side, pulled his right hand to her breast, and then kissed him.

From that point on, Jake followed Charity's lead and marveled at her response. When he stroked her breasts, Charity shuddered a little, and then gasped when his fingertips brushed her nipple. The longer Jake stroked her breast and nipple, the faster Charity breathed, and she started making little moans.

Jake thought it was time for him to do what he'd been taught and was starting to rise up to do that when Charity pulled his hand down between her thighs. Jake felt crinkley hair, and when Charity pushed his hand a little lower, he felt the puffy softness of her lips.

Charity gasped when his fingertip slipped between those lips, and she moaned as Jake began to probe deeper. She kept breathing faster and faster until she was almost panting. When Jake pulled his finger out of her passage and moved it up, Charity moaned a long, low moan.

Jake had felt a little bump just before she did that, so he stroked the little bump again. Charity gasped and lifted her hips off the bed. After a few more of those strokes, she whispered, "Jake, make me your wife now. I'm ready for you."

As Jake knelt between Charity's thighs, she spread them wide and then put her hands on his back and pulled him forward. It took him a few tries before he found her entrance, but when he did and pushed his manhood into her, Charity lifted her hips again. What had seemed to be a tightness suddenly disappeared and his manhood slipped quickly inside her so deep Jake felt Charity's lips spread by the base of his shaft.

She moaned then and began stroking his back. Jake pulled out a little and then pushed back inside Charity. She moaned again, and he felt her fingernails dig into his back a little. For a while as he stroked his manhood in and out of Charity's snug and rippled passage, he felt her stroking his back. Then, suddenly, he felt her hands slide down to his hips.

On his next stroke, Charity gasped and then held her breath until he pulled back, then gasped again when he pushed inside her again. He felt her passage contract around him just as she moaned and lifted her body up. That let his manhood slip inside her a little deeper, deep enough that when he pulled back out, something inside Charity seemed to suck at his manhood as if to keep it inside her.

That feeling was more than Jake could manage. He pulled out and then pushed in again. When his manhood was buried as deep inside Charity as it would go, Jake felt a surge leave his loins and race up his shaft. He groaned at the same time Charity began rocking her body up and down over his shaft.

Jake felt three more spurts and groaned three more times before he sagged into his arms. Charity kept shaking and rocking her hips for a few more seconds, then pulled Jake down on top of her.

For a while, they lay there together, both their hearts pumping frantically and both breathing in gasps. When Charity could breathe almost normally, she pulled Jake's lips to hers and kissed him, then nestled her cheek against his chest. Jake could feel the throbbing of her heart through the breasts mashed flat into his chest.

Charity just lay there and stroked his back for a while, and then whispered, "I know what it feels like to be married to a rancher from Texas now. It feels like I'm floating on air."

Jake chuckled.

"It feels to me like I'm mashing you out flat."

Charity stroked his back again.

"Just stay this way for a while so I can keep feeling this way."

Jake stayed on top of Charity until his manhood shrank enough to slip out of her, and then he rolled to her side. Charity fell asleep with her arm over his chest and her breasts pressed into his side.

The next morning, Jake and Charity had breakfast at the hotel, and then drove back to the ranch in the same wagon they'd come to town in. They didn't talk much. Charity just moved over until she was close to Jake and then put her arm around his waist. She was smiling because she knew she'd found the place where life wanted her to be.

When they went through the gate of the ranch, Maria came out of the house running and when Charity got down from the wagon seat, she wrapped her arms around Charity and hugged her.

"I was afraid you wouldn't come back", she said.

Charity smiled and stroked Maria's head.

"Maria, I won't ever leave you again. If I go somewhere, I'll take you with me."

Maria looked up and grinned.

"Did you do what I said?"

Charity bent down and whispered something to Maria. Maria grinned and said, "I'll go start dinner", and then ran back into the house.

Jake got down from the wagon seat, and as Seth drove the team toward the barn, he asked, "What was that all about?"

Charity smiled.

"Maria was afraid we wouldn't come back. I told her I'd never leave her again."

Jake shook his head.

"No, I mean what did you whisper to her?"

Charity blushed.

"Well, while you were gone, we had some talks about men and women and babies. At the wedding, she said she hoped we'd make a baby that night. While ago, she asked me if we did, and I said maybe, but it was too soon to tell."

As it turned out, they hadn't, but that was fixed along about the second month they were married. Jake was happy, Charity was happy, and Maria was ecstatic that she was going to have what she called "a little brother or sister".

That baby was a boy, and Charity named him Jeremy. She said since the ranch brand was the letters J and D it wouldn't do for their sons to have a name that started with something other than J. When Jake asked her if that meant she intended on having more than one son, Charity just smiled and said, "That, Mister Donaldson, depends on how many sons you want."

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Over the years, things changed a lot at the JD ranch. Charity gave Jake two more sons and two daughters. The big house that had impressed Charity when she first saw it proved to be just the right size for their family.

That family included Maria. When Maria was eighteen, Jake and Charity took her to the graves on the ranch side of Puck Creek. Jake explained to Maria that he'd found her mother and father both dead inside their house and had buried them on the ranch.

"Maria, I brought you home with me because you had no other place to go. I didn't tell you what happened until now because I didn't think you'd understand. I hope you can understand why I did what I did."

Maria looked at the stone grave markers for a while, and then turned to Jake and Charity.

"I don't remember them really. I only remember bits and pieces of them. You're the only mother and father I remember, and the only mother and father I want to remember."

Charity started to cry then, and so did Maria. Jake felt a lump in his throat that didn't go away until he cleared his throat and said they should probably be getting back home.

}{}{}{}{

The JD Ranch is still there, though most of the original ranch outside of where the main house was has been sold to other ranchers and farmers. What Jake and Charity's great-great-great-great grandsons kept was about thirty thousand acres around the original house. They still run a couple thousand head of cattle and some horses, but the real income comes from the oil pumps that suck crude oil out of the ground and into tanks.

To Jake, the oil seeps were just a nuisance that he had to fence so his cattle wouldn't get into them. To his great grandsons, they're the income that keeps the family ranch going and lets them operate it as a tourist attraction as well as a profitable ranch.

The big house is still there, though it's been remodeled into a guest house. You can stay at the ranch for a week and live the life of the men and women like Jake and Charity and Maria and Billy and Daniel and Seth. The big dining room now has a table that seats twenty and the meals are all cooked in Charity's kitchen, though the stoves burn propane instead of wood, and the water comes from a tap instead of the well just outside the kitchen door.

On Friday night of each week, they put half a steer on the spit over a mesquite fire and if you want, you can crank the handle and turn that steer while it slowly cooks until the meat almost falls off the bone. The beef is lean and tasty, and the barbecue sauce made with brown sugar and apple cider vinegar and chili peppers add a little zing to that beef flavor. The cook has been basting that steer with that same sauce for the entire time the steer was cooking.

There are also huge bowls of potato salad and baked beans, all made using the same recipes Charity passed on to her daughters and they passed on to theirs. If you'd rather make fajitas with your beef, there are chopped peppers and onions and stacks of tortillas made the same way Maria taught Charity to make tortillas.

The men and women of that time were like Jake said. They were fighters who didn't run away when things got tough. They fought their way through the years of drought and the diseases of both cattle and people. They fought their way through two world wars and the Great Depression, and they're still there today, fighting whatever comes up and still winning. I think Jake and Charity and Maria and the rest of the JD Ranch crew would be proud to have been a part of it.