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An hour later they ride rode up to the front of Johnny’s ranch. It was a spacious and beautiful house. As Johnny stopped the carriage, they were greeted by Johnny’s housekeeper Carlita and husband Pedro.
Carlita smiles and as she greeted them, saying,
“Señor Johnny I have the Señorita’s room ready.”
He helps Kathryne down and smiles back at Carlita.
“Well Carlita, this is Lee.”
Kathryne extends her hand to the woman.
“Encantada, Señora,” she replies.
Carlita smiles backs at her and has helped Pedro gets her bags off the carriage. Johnny looked backs at her strangely, as, he had no idea she spoke Spanish. As she follows Carlita into the house, he stops her.
“You speak Spanish?” he asked.
“Yes, my grandmother on my mother’s side was Spanish. She was the daughter of a Spanish Don, who came to America to purchase some fine horses to improve his stock in Spain. My grandfather was selling the horses. He met my grandmother who was visiting with her father. The moment he saw her he fell in love with her. She never went back to Spain. They were married in a beautiful chapel of San Luis Rey in San Diego.”
She looked at Johnny.
“Is that a problem Mr. Wilson?”
“No, no problem at all.”
As she continued to follow Carlita, she found herself climbing a stairway in the main hall that lead up to another long hall. Carlita looks back at Kathryne.
‘’Señorita, your rooms are down this way. I hope you will like them.”
“Them?”
“Si, Señor Johnny thought you would like to have more than just a bedroom, but also a small sitting room.”“
She opens the door to the sitting room. As Kathryne walks in she is surprised and pleased at the décor of the room. It was truly done as well as some of the finest homes back east. Tears rolled down her cheek.
“Señorita is something wrong?”Kathryne heard. “Do you not like the room? “
“Oh, no Carlita. It is beautiful.”
The older woman smiles. She had wanted her to feel happy in her new home.
“Señorita, please, you will come to see your bedroom?”
As she asked, she opens the door to the adjoining room.
Carlita opens the door and as Kathryne follows behind her into the room, she noticed that it is was simply beautiful. It would rival any of the fancy bedrooms back home.
“Oh, Carlita,” she breathed, “this is beautiful. How? Where? I just...”
“Señor Johnny had everything shipped here months ago. He wanted to make sure his new wife would be comfortable with living here.”
Kathryne thought about John Wilson, and the many facets he had. She wondered what made him have those outbursts and wondered would she be able to live with a man who had a temper. Carlita looked at her, seeming to be lost in thought.
“Señorita, I will leave you now. I have to get supper ready. Maybe you would like to freshen up before you join us for supper?”
“Yes,” she replied. “That would be nice, thank you.”
“I will call you when supper is ready.”
With that, she left the room and Kathryne was on her own again. She walks over to the window and looks outside, where she sees John speaking to Pedro. He looks up and sees her at the window, and with a smile he shouts up to her.
“Miss Goodwin, do you ride?”
“Yes, I do,” she yelled back.
“Would you like to see some of the farm land before supper?”
Obviously he had no idea that she’d been riding since she was five. She’d show him.
“You’re on Mr. Wilson. I’ll be down in a moment.”
He smiles at Pedro, saying,
“Pedro, saddle up Cheyenne.”
“Si, Señor Johnny.”
Johnny made his way back to the house with his horse behind him. He wondered if maybe Cheyenne would not be a good horse for her to use. Maybe she was used to riding side saddle, the more refined lady way of riding. Maybe he should get a different horse.
He was so lost in his thoughts he didn’t hear Kathryne come out of the door and standing behind him. She cleared her throat and he turned around.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you,” he said.
“I didn’t want to disturb you in your thoughts.”
“Well, the tLovisa is I just wanted to decide which sections of the ranch I wanted you to see today,” he lied.
Kathryne noticed that he didn’t like it when others caught him off guard.
A bit upset that she had seen him lost in thought, he yelled for Pedro. “Pedro, hurry up with the horse!”
Pedro came through the stable door holding the reins of a beautiful black stallion. Kathryne’s face lit up when she saw the horse. Johnny saw the look on her face, and he had a little bit of surprise and pride on him when he realized that she knows about horses.
She really knows that this is one fine horse, he thought.
Pedro hands her the reins and she mounts the horse.
“Shall we get started Mr. Wilson?”
He was again surprised at the ease she mounted the horse. He looks at her and says,
“Seems you have ridden before I see.”
“Mr. Wilson, I was raised on a horse farm,” she replied confidently, “one of the biggest in Louisville. I have been on a horse since I was five, but I must say. This is a magnificent animal, Mr. Wilson. Really beautiful. We never had anything like this at on our farm.”
Johnny mounts his horse next to her, and they began to leave. As he slowly rides down the road leading to the trail, he looks over to Kathryne.
“By the way, that magnificent animal you’re riding is named Cheyenne. Thought you might like to know his name.”
She smiled back at him and picked up the pace. Remembering the road leading to the ranch was almost a straight run, Kathryne bends and leans forward closer to the horse, and whispering, “Let’s see what you can do Cheyenne.”
With that she’s off and, Johnny surprised quickly tries to catch up. It soon became a race, and with Kathryne was in the lead. Johnny was amazed at her skill, and for not knowing the horse, she had effortlessly become one with him the horse as she galloped across the landscape. The Cheyenne would say that she was a kindred spirit to the horse or was one with the horse. After what he has seen today, there is was only one thing he knew for sure.
Cheyenne had chosen his owner and he would always be her horse now.
She slowly brings Cheyenne to a suitable pace, as letting Johnny catches up to her.
“I’m sorry,” she called. “I got a bit carried away. But then again, it is easy to do with a horse like Cheyenne. He is beautiful and wonderful Mr. Wilson.”
“Well, he’s yours.”
“Oh, no, I couldn't,” she said.“I mean..”
“Don’t be silly,” Johnny interrupted. “He’s already chosen you. Why, when you were riding a while back it was as if you and the horse were one. The Cheyenne would say you were kindred spirits.”
“The Cheyenne say?” she echoed. “You seem to know a lot about the Cheyenne.”
“Well, I guess I do. I owe them my life.”
They continued to look at various parcels of land, and Kathryne had to admit that what she saw was breathtaking. The mountains, the valleys, each landscape, were as if God had taken parts of heaven and placed them in Wyoming just for her.
“Would you like to rest a spell before we head back?”Johnny asked.
“Yes, I’d like that.”
He leads led her to a lovely spot near a stream with plenty of shade. The mountains in the far off distance just added to the majesty of the blue sky over above it all. He dismounts and offers to help Kathryne down. To his surprise, she accepts his help.
“I guess it’s been a while since I was on a horse,” she explained. “I’m a bit sore.”
“When you get back to the house ask Carlita for some of that cream she has. It takes the sting out.”
She looked back at him. Though, she hated to admit it, but it was a bit sore, and it did sting.
“A while back you said that you owe the Cheyenne your life,” she said.
“Yes, I do.”
“Is there a reason, or do you feel it is unnecessary to tell me?”
“No, there is no reason. I’ll be happy to tell you,” he started. “The first year I came out here I was a bit green. Being born and raised in Virginia, and after what the war did to it, I just wanted to find a place that was still untouched. I roamed around a bit and found this spot. I liked what I saw and felt it was a good place for me to start new, a place that wasn’t touched by the war, where there were no memories of the past. I purchased this piece of land and moved right onto it. There was a house, well, tLovisa be known, it wasn’t much of a house. It I’ll be honest with ya. It was a shack that was about ready to fall down with a good gust of wind, but I was happy as a kid on Christmas morning. I got my ranch and I had all these dreams of how it was going to be. I hadn’t thought about down the road.
“Seems that I didn’t plan on the Wyoming winter. That first year was one of the coldest winters anyone had seen in these parts in years. Lots of the other farmers lost a good part of their herds. They got caught on the north ridge after the snow fell. There was no way they could get them. I felt bad for the ones who had lost everything. Well during that year I was, all snowed in at the ranch. I had no cattle to speak about five cows and they were in the barn. Well I had only three since I gave two to some Cheyenne braves who were hunting for food and had no luck, well I couldn’t see a bunch of children and women starving besides they weren’t stealing the cows I gave them to them. But when that snow came I just sat there listening to the wind howling, and I could hear the ice hitting the side of the house and on the roof.
“It was on the third day when I noticed the firewood was running low. I knew there was a pile of it out back, not more than ten feet from the door. I really didn’t want to go out there, but I also didn’t want to freeze to death.
“Well, I opened the door and looked outside and there was nothing out there but snow. Everywhere I looked there was snow. There was a fence, but that was completely covered with the snow. There had to be at least five feet out there, and that wood pile was underneath it all.”
“What did you do?”Kathryne asked.
“Well, there was nothing I could do. I had to get the firewood. I took one step off the step and sunk five feet deep into the snow. Each step was slow progress, and it was getting harder to pull my leg out of the hole it was in. Then it happened. I tripped, lost my balance, and fell backward in the snow. My head hit a piece of firewood and knocked me out cold. I must have laid there for hours, but I don’t rightly know. But I was told that this band of Cheyenne braves, a hunting party, came by and saw me lying in the snow. At this point, I was almost completely covered in snow. Tell they took pity on me I guess and took me back to their camp. They nursed me back to health. If it wasn’t for Gray Wolf and those Braves, I would have died that winter. They taught me how to survive in the cold winters here, and also where to find food in the snow. ”
“You mean you stayed with them in their camp?”Kathryne asked, sounding shocked.
“Well tell you the tLovisa Miss Goodwin, they had a nice fire going. Not to mention they were kind enough to share their food with me. Like I told ya, they saved my life. They even made me part of their tribe.”
“Now I know you’re making this up,” Kathryne said, looking back at him incredulously. “No Indian would make a white man part of their tribe.”
“That’s where you’re wrong Miss Goodwin. I heard a story from Gray Wolf, he was the brave who found me. Seems long ago there was this chief. His name was Red Eagle. Well, it seemed Red Eagle was sleeping one night when he woke up and found someone under the blanket with his wife and him. Seems this poor fella had clothes that were in tatters, and he was quite thin and pale. Matter of fact, he was a white man. Well being the chief, Red Eagle, felt sorry for the poor fella and had told his wife to nurse him back to health. As he grew stronger, he would tell Red Eagle of the wondrous things he would bring to the tribe for saving his life. He spoke of knives to use for hunting, and how to make fire using two sticks, even how to make arrows and spears.
“He told them he would get these wondrous things for them if they got him many furs. And so the braves trapped the furs, many of them, and when the spring came, the white man took the furs with him to a white settlement. Many moons passed, and it looked as though the white man would not come back. But, there on a mountain top one day, he appeared with all the things he promised and more , he brought with him a powerful medicine powder that would make such a loud sound that with a tiny bullet, they could kill their enemies.
Now I’ve been told that he was the first white man staying with any Indian tribe.”
“Well, you won’t mind me if I find that a bit too hard to believe.”
“Well, that’s the story I was told. The Cheyenne have many stories that have been passed down over the years. They are very good storytellers, and each of their stories have a message to be learned from them. They have names for everything too. Maheo is the name meaning Great One. It is what you call your God. Veho is the spider, often known as the one who tricks others. The Cheyenne often called the white man Veho because they were considered them to be tricksters. In the tribe, there are Shamans who have healing powers. They are often considered warrior priests to the people.””
She looks looked back at him for a moment, seeming to be thinking about something before she asked,
“Is that why you call your ranch Broken Dreams? Because of that first year?”
“Well, yes, it seems that the first year everything I tired just never really came to pass,”he replied, “I had so many dreams, yet..they all were broken, and after while I just left the name. ”
She looks at him.
“Did you ever pray Mr. Wilson?” she asked.
“Pray?” he echoed.
“Yes. You know, it’s said that faith can move mountains. It can change the course of a person’s life.”
“Did it do that for you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Did your praying help you? That’s all I was asking. Did it change your life and give you back the dreams you lost?”
She looked at him straight in the eyes when she answers him.
“Yes, it has. It helped me accept my fate, the death of my father, because he couldn’t face failure, for a long time I blamed myself for his death but after a while I realized it was his choice, not mine. My time at Goldington Manor, I learned to like the Manor after a while and Miss Chamberlain and Miss Goldington made a home for all of us, and now I am here. Yes, here may not be in my prayers yet, and I was a bit doubtful that this was the right move, but I have faith and my faith will guide me. I pray every day that the Lord will show you the way to your dreams Mr. Wilson, because I believe you need someone to show you. I know Miss Goldington always said to ask for what you want girls and He will give it to you in His time.Do you believe in anything Mr. Wilson?”
“I did ma’am, a long time ago,” he replied. “Seems the war took away most of what I believed in, though. Oh I did pray all the time ma’am I prayed when I was ten years old standing at the foot of my mama’s bed as she was dying , I prayed he would spare her and He didn’t hear me. I prayed before every battle asking it be the last one and we would be spared from killing any more soldiers and again He didn’t answer me, it seems every time I pray I never get an answer. You ask me if I pray, well that requires to have faith and now I don’t have much faith left, but maybe I will get it back one day.”
There was no anger in his voice, just a man simply stating that he, like so many others, had lost so much through the war. There was a stretch of silence between them before he spoke again.
“Well, we best are getting back to the ranch, before it’s getting dark.”
