DECEMBER 16TH 1870
“Dear Miss Dodd.” John said as he wrote.
“My dearest Becky.” Hazel corrected him with a grin.
“She is not my dearest.” he protested. “I don’t even know her.”
“Yet.” Hazel said again with another grin. “Come on, John. “Dear Miss Dodd” sounds so formal.”
“Okay then, “Dear Becky.” he said, changing it on the paper.
“Fine, that’s better…I suppose.” Hazel and John sat in the sitting room. Hazel had goaded John into writing back to the woman who had responded to his add in the Matrimonial News. She was insisting that this girl could “be the one”, and she said the first letter had to be interesting enough to draw her attention.
“Dear Becky.” he said, again. “I was happy to get your letter and cabinet card. You are a….”
“Lovely.” Hazel said.
John gave her a slant eyed look and went on, “You are a lovely young woman. Yes, to answer your question, I am a cowboy. I was happy to hear that interested you. I work for the largest cattle ranch in Texas. I am twenty eight years of age and I have never been married, but I am in mind to if I can find the right woman.”
“Good.” Hazel told him. “That’s a great start.”
“What do you mean, start?” he asked her. “It’s already as long as her whole letter was.”
“Oh John.” Hazel said. “You are so lucky to have me.” John knew what Hazel meant, but his heart wanted to imagine that she meant he “had her” in the sense that Heath “had her”. He knew that his thoughts were wrong, and he was sure that God would somehow punish him for having them. What he didn’t know was how to get rid of them. How do you make yourself fall out of love? “Let me see the pen,” Hazel was saying now.
John held the pen to his breast pocket and said, “What are you going to write?”
“I’m going to start her falling in love with you. You’ll thank me later.” she said. John made a face. He hoped she was right, but just now, he doubted it.
“I get to read and approve it before it gets sealed….right?” he said. Hazel just looked up at him with those pretty green eyes and smiled again.
“Don’t you have some work to get to?” she asked, slyly not answering his question.
“I mean it, Hazel. Don’t go writing no gushy love letters to some girl I ain’t never met.” Hazel giggled.
“You are way too serious, John.” she told him, not for the first time since they met. He stood up and narrowed his eyes again at her playfully.
“I’m serious about approving that letter, young lady.” he said.
“Fine.” she said. “Go on now and let me work.” John put on his hat and left through the front door. He stood out on the wide porch of the main house and took a deep breath of the morning Texas air. He loved it here, and he loved his friend, Heath. Heath was finally happy after years of loneliness that sometimes bordered on despair. He’d been ridiculed and shunned his whole life because of the way he looked until finally he met someone who was willing to look with her heart. Although John was a decent looking fellow, and he didn’t feel the need to hide from anyone, his heart ached to find someone like that. He knew that many people married for convenience, or for a partner to help them on their farm, but John didn’t want that. He wanted what Heath had. Maybe Hazel was right and this Becky was “the one”. As he headed for the tack house for the tools he would need to fix the fence, he promised himself that he was at least going to keep an open mind about it.
**********
Hazel liked John a lot. At first, when he had shown up in Ohio, she hadn’t been too sure about him. She was hurt and angry that he and Heath had used his photo to try and trick her. But as John talked to her about Heath, she could actually see the love and respect for his friend in his eyes. He was one hundred percent loyal to her husband to be, and for that reason alone he had earned her respect and admiration.
Hazel thought carefully about what she wanted to write, then she put her pen underneath where John had written his little blurb and she wrote:
Hi Becky!
My name is Hazel, and I am engaged to John’s best friend and employer. I have come to know John over the past several weeks. I know that sometimes it’s hard to tell by what someone writes about themselves if they are speaking the truth or not, so I wanted to give you my opinion of John. I have seen him as a hard worker, my fiancé’s right hand man and most trusted employee. I have seen him take a bullet in the back, fired from the gun of a lowly coward because he was defending my husband. He is loyal and devoted, handsome and kind and intelligent and well-read. John is a cowboy, yes…But he is so much more, and any woman could count herself amongst the blessed to be loved by him I’m sure. He won’t sing his own praises in these letters to you, I’m sure. Just telling you about himself is hard. He’s a simple man.
Thank you for reading this Becky and I hope that someday I may get to meet you in person.
Sincerely,
Hazel Lynn Morgan (Soon to be Hazel Lynn Key)
Hazel smiled when she wrote the last part. Sometimes she practices writing her new name. She couldn’t wait to marry Heath. She used the seal that John had left behind to seal the envelope. She knew he would be aggravated with her for sending it and not letting him read it first, but Mr. Lee was headed to town and she wanted to be sure the letter got out today.
**********
John spent the day working hard and sweating, even in the cold of December. He thought about Heath out there on the harsh trail…Where he should be. Heath should be home with his fiancé, getting ready for their wedding and for Christmas. Christmas had finally been declared a legal holiday this year. John had spent many Christmases here on the ranch with Heath’s family while they were both growing up. Heath deserved to make new Christmas memories with Hazel. John knew his temper sometimes got the better of him. He should have just kept walking in that saloon. What did he have to show for going back? A bullet in his back, and his best friend away from the woman he loved out on a cold, dangerous trail, that’s what. If Heath didn’t make it home in time….
John suddenly had an idea. Hazel needed a Christmas tree. It wouldn’t guarantee that Heath would be home on time, but it should help lift her holiday spirits. He knew that she wasn’t only missing Heath; she was missing her whole family. Heath had taken care of that part before he left. John finished up the repairs on the piece of fence he was working on and headed back to the tack house to pick up some different supplies.
Some of the men were already back from their jobs and having supper that Sally and Mr. Lee had brought out to them. On Sundays, Heath had the men up to the house for their supper, but the rest of the week the staff would bring it out to them.
“Hey Boss,” one of the men named Ray said, “How are you feeling?”
“Good as new.” John told him. It was a little bit of a lie. The cold and the morning’s hard work had made his back tighten up and ache, but he wasn’t going to die, so he wasn’t going to complain.
“That’s good. Are you going to join us for some supper?” Ray asked him. “Cook made us up some of his famous cornbread and chili beans.”
“I’ll eat later,” John told him, grabbing an axe off the wall. “I have something I need to do first.”
“Sure boss, we’ll save you some.” Ray told him. John grinned at that. He knew better. Heath had twelve full-time ranch hands working for him. That didn’t count the fifteen that were with him now on the trail. These were big, hard-working, hungry men. They wouldn’t save him any, and he didn’t expect them to.
“I’ll be back in an hour or so.” John told him. “When I get back I’d like to move those longhorns back out to the east side. I fixed that fence this morning.”
“Okay. You shoulda hollered at me. I would have done that for you.” Ray told him. John was the foreman, and therefore most of his men thought he should stop going out and doing the hard work himself. John looked at it differently…Heath was the owner. He could have grown up a spoiled, arrogant rich rancher and hired other people to do all the work while he traveled the world. He didn’t though, even if it wasn’t for his being self-conscious about his face, he would have still stayed and worked hard John bet.
“I’m still capable of hard work.” John told him. “When I see Heath slowing down, then I’ll think about it too. I’ll see you in a bit.”
John got back on his horse with the axe and the rope he had taken from the tack house. He stopped near the barn and got one of the wooden pallets they kept there. He rode his horse along one of the trails that led out to an area that was still deeply wooded. He got off his horse and tied him to a tree, and then he walked through the thick patch of firs trying to pick just the right one.
He came upon one that he knew at once was perfect. It stood almost seven feet tall, and although dragging it back to the house was going to be an adventure in itself, it would fit perfectly in the parlor of Heath’s house. John got busy and spent almost an hour cutting the stubborn fir down. Then, he tied it to the wooden pallet and the back of the horse.
**********
Hazel sent the letter to town with Mr. Lee for him to mail it. She was more excited about the whole prospect of finding John a wife than she probably should be. He just seemed so lonely, and so deserving. She had just sat down to read a book she’d chosen from the library shelves when she heard John calling for her. She got up and found him standing in the doorway of the parlor with a wide smile.
“What are you up to?” she asked him.
“Close your eyes.” he said. “I have a surprise.”
“What is it?” Hazel said, wide eyed like a child.
John laughed. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you. Close your eyes and take my hand.” Hazel did as he asked, and John had to chastise himself once more for the thrill the simple touch of her hand gave him. He led her into the parlor and positioned her in front of the tree he had dragged in and set up against the wall. “Okay, open them.” he said.
Hazel opened her eyes and at first, she looked confused. Suddenly, she clapped her hands together and squealed like a little girl. “Christmas! Oh my goodness I’ve been so preoccupied that I almost forgot!” Then she did something that John both wished she hadn’t , and lived for a time when she might do it again. She whirled around and grabbed him in a hug. It was just a quick, friendly, thank you kind of hug but John’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest because of it. “I love, love, love it! Thank you so much, John.”
John smiled at her. He loved seeing her happy, even more so when he was the one who had made her that way. “I’m sure that if Heath were here he would have gotten you one, but since he had to go out on the trail and leave you here alone because of me, I thought it was the least I could do.”
“Oh stop it! It’s not your fault Heath had to go. None of it is your fault. He’ll be home soon, anyways and we’ll have the tree all decorated by then.”
“We?” John said.
“Of course. Don’t you want to help?” she said.
John laughed, “Not particularly, unless it’s only as your ride into town to get some decorations.”
“Into town? No, we can make our own decorations. We don’t need to spend any money.”
John laughed again. “You have no idea how much money your husband has, do you?” It was another point in her favor as far as John was concerned, and one of the things the man in the saloon had said to make him so angry.
Hazel looked at him again with those big, innocent green eyes and said, “I’m sure he has a great deal of it. He’s a wonderful businessman. But I don’t see any reason to spend it frivolously just because.”
“Okay,” John said with a smile, “Suit yourself. I have to go move a few hundred head of longhorns now, so I’ll check in with you later.” he told her. Hazel was still smiling from ear to ear.
“Thank you again, John.”
“It was my pleasure.” he said. When John got to the front door he turned back to look at her. She had her nose pressed to the tree and was smelling it. God help him, he didn’t think he was going to be able to stop loving her. He was sure that because of his love for Heath and her both that he needed to keep it to himself.