Calder Brand - Janet Dailey Page 0,80

bed, gazing down at his sleeping wife. With her glorious auburn hair spread on the pillow, and her lashes lying like silken fringe against her cheeks, she looked like a beautiful doll—or perhaps like the child she was. Pampered and indulged for the full seventeen years of her life, what else could he have expected of her?

Joe had proposed to Amelia in the fall and married her six months ago in a simple ceremony at the Hollister home. Amelia, who’d dreamed of a lavish church wedding, had cried through her vows. She had wanted to get married in St. Louis, with her friends as bridesmaids, followed by a honeymoon in New York, or at least Denver. But given the long, expensive journey and dangerous weather conditions, it couldn’t be done in the winter; and spring was roundup time, when Joe and her father couldn’t be spared.

They’d spent their wedding night at the McQueen House in Miles City. Despite more weeping from the bride, they’d managed to consummate the marriage. After two more nights that had gone somewhat better, they’d returned to the big ranch house and moved into an upstairs bedroom. The next day, Joe had returned to work on the ranch.

Joe knew that Amelia had expected more of marriage than this—being left alone most days while her husband worked. He knew that he owed her more attention. But his head was full of ambitions that he was determined to carry out. He would never settle for just being Loren Hollister’s son-in-law. He had plans for a ranch of his own.

When it came to claiming land under the Homestead Act, Joe had known better than to wait for his father-in-law’s promised help. Something told him that any parcel he wanted to file on would be claimed by Loren Hollister, as part of what the older man called the family empire. In other words, Hollister would be doing what Benteen Calder had done—having friends and employees file on 160-acre parcels that would then become part of his own bigger ranch.

Joe wanted none of that. He was determined to have an empire he could claim for himself. In the years ahead, when Loren passed away, with Amelia and her future children as his only heirs, that would be the time to combine all the land into one big spread.

Bending over the bed, he brushed a kiss onto her forehead. She made a little purring sound, stirred, and settled back into sleep. He would be good to her, Joe vowed. He would shelter her, protect her, and see that she and their children wanted for nothing. In time, he could only hope that he would grow to love her in something like the warm, passionate way he’d loved Sarah.

Without taking time for breakfast, he crossed the yard to the stable. The pen that had held the blue roan stallion was empty now. A few months ago, when Joe was elsewhere, a friend of Loren’s, a man named Loman Janes, had decided to ride the horse. When the stallion balked at his rough handling, Janes had taken a whip to him. Joe had come home to find Dusk standing with his head down and his coat streaked with blood. Late that night, when the ranch was asleep, Joe had broken down the fence and arranged an escape. No one had seen the stallion since.

In the stable, he saddled his buckskin and rode out of the ranch gate. Now that he was family instead of hired help, Joe enjoyed not having to report to the foreman or even to Loren. He could go wherever his business took him.

Today his business was taking him to the bank in Miles City. Over the past weeks, with the spring roundup and calving season over, Joe, who’d studied the maps, had taken to riding out alone, exploring the land parcels that were still available for homesteading.

As Loren had told him, most of the good grazing pasture was already taken. But there was acreage to be had in the patches of hilly land that rose above the prairie. One of these intrigued Joe more than any of the others. The terrain wasn’t ideal for cattle. The land was steep and hilly, the soil rocky, the grass spare, the winters colder and snowier than on the plain. But there was shelter in the canyons and water from a swift-flowing creek. The slopes were forested with pines, which could be cut and sold for lumber or used to build a home on