Petticoat Ranch Read Online Free PDF Page B

Did you see the way he recognized me? Oh, Ma! Ma, he called me a little angel!” Sally looked up at Sophie. Sally’s joy was so precious, Sophie wanted to say whatever Sally wanted to hear.
    Suddenly, Sally gasped aloud. “If there is a double, then why not the other one, Ma? Why couldn’t we have cut the double down out of the tree?”
    Sophie ran her hand gently down Sally’s uncombed white curls.“They took him from right in front of me, Sally sweetheart. I was there. He was in the yard, just walking away from the house after supper. You remember how it was. You were there. I was standing in the door, watching him go.”
    They’d come charging in and surrounded Cliff. One of them, Judd she now knew, shouted that they’d tracked a horse thief to this property— right to this yard. Then they dragged him away before Sophie could so much as speak a word in his defense and tell them Cliff had been with her all day.
    They’d galloped off, and Sophie had run after them, screaming. They hadn’t even acknowledged her existence. When they’d left her hopelessly behind, she’d dashed back to the corral and caught a horse. She was good at it, having done largely for herself during the war years. She’d been riding after them within minutes. And she’d caught them just as they rode away laughing and sharing a whiskey bottle—leaving Cliff swaying in the wind.
    She’d raced to the tree, thinking she might be in time to save him. But Cliff ’s face was a horrible, lifeless gray. His blue eyes gaped open, staring straight ahead at nothing. His neck was bent at an unnatural angle. All that had been left to do was cut him down and carry him home.
    Sophie had gone for the sheriff, but he’d begun questioning her about the horses on the Edwards’s property, as if he suspected the vigilantes might have been within their rights to hang Cliff. The sheriff had gone back to town without offering to so much as chase after Cliff’s killers.
    Sophie, beyond grief, with the fight battered out of her body, simply dug a hole next to the grave they’d dug for their baby boy. Late in the evening Parson Roscoe showed up with several townsfolk. The parson tried to comfort her, but Sophie couldn’t even respond to his Christian faith. She was afraid if she accepted even a moment of comfort, she’d begin crying and never stop.
    Others came out to pay their respects, but except for the parson,none of them were really friends. On top of Mosqueros’s aversion to the Edwards’s Yankee affiliation, Cliff had a knack for alienating people. There’d been a short ceremony, and Sophie had bitterly refused all help filling in the hole.
    She’d also turned down four marriage proposals. Sophie was mortified her girls had witnessed the crude men trying to convince her to marry them over the fresh-turned earth of her husband’s grave. The parson had ordered them off her land. The next day, Royce Badje, the banker, had ridden out to the ranch to notify her that when the next loan payment came due, he’d expect the full amount left on the loan.
    Sophie had cattle to sell and a large part of the principal of the loan paid down. Mr. Badje said once the man of the household was dead, the woman was a poor risk. She’d either have to pay her loan in full or sell.
    Sophie countered by pointing out she’d kept things going while Cliff was away fighting the war.
    “Cliff was at Gettysburg, wasn’t he?” Mr. Badje asked coldly. The banker’s sons had died at Gettysburg, fighting for the Confederacy.
    Sophie didn’t answer. They both knew. Mr. Badje had given her thirty days to pay up or vacate the property.
    While she was still shaking with anger, the banker proposed marriage. He offered to let her keep the ranch for their home, if she said yes. She’d said no. Then Mr. Badje asked how many years until Mandy was of marrying age.
    Sophie’s skin was crawling by the time he left.

    The man stirred beside her and brought her thoughts back to the