Love As Big As Texas Read online

  A Love As Big As Texas

  Rita Hestand

  A Love As Big As Texas

  Rita Hestand

  Copyright 2015 by Rita Hestand

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN#978-1311402158

  Smashwords Edition

  License Note

  This book A Love as Big as Texas is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebooks may not be resold or given away to other people. Please purchase an additional copy for each person you share with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it. or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation to anyone bearing the same name or names. Any resemblance to individuals known or unknown to the author are purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  About the Author

  Rita's Other Books

  North Central Texas

  Not Far from the Pecos River

  1882

  Chapter One

  "What in hell's name have you done now, dad?" Ben demanded standing directly in front of his father, almost nose to nose. His fists were doubled and only iron restraint kept him from using those fists, that, and a deep respect for the man in front of him.

  "You'll see. You'll be meeting her on the stage at noon." Jason Wyler's brows knitted and he scowled at his son. There was no fear in his eyes, no regrets either.

  "Meeting who? Her who?" Ben came closer, staggering a bit, as he struggled to find the chair in front of his father's desk and slouched down in it, moments later. The leather chair seemed to breathe with him as he sprawled across it, making him sigh with contentment. Like sitting a saddle.

  "Her name is Gabrielle Campbell, and she's going to be your wife." His father went on.

  The room fell silent. Not one sound echoed from the room for several long seconds. Ben didn't move, didn't open his mouth, he just sat there soaking in those words until his foggy brain registered. Of all the things, Ben suspected his father of; finding him a wife was not on the list.

  "My…wife?" Ben repeated lowly at first, then again, in a louder voice that shook the windows in the house. He'd been on a drinking binge for the last three days and coming home to this news was a real eye opener. Nothing his father was saying made a bit of sense to him this morning. Nursing a hangover, he wanted to sleep, but his father had dragged him physically from the bed and made him pay attention. However, those words shot through his brain like a bullet. Now he'd sobered.

  "That's right, your wife. You are going to get married, and stay married. You are going to have children. In short, you are not going to be some lazy, no account cowboy around here any longer. Your time of mourning is over. You no longer have that luxury. You are taking the bull by the horns. The drinking is going to stop, the carousing with wild women is going to come to a halt, and your friends in town will have to do without your company. You will be a married man, with responsibilities. Is that understood?" He waited for an answer.

  When it didn't come, he continued as he pulled a book from his bookshelf, feigning interest. "You're going to work this place, once and for all or—you'll leave here and not come back. I'm sorry; you've forced my hand, Ben. I didn't raise a slovenly cowboy. That's your choices. Take it or leave it, son." Jason voice held no sympathy, instead he was quite proud of himself for thinking of it. He leafed through the book, and then returned it to its place on the shelf. He had a massive amount of books, all of which he'd read. He wondered idly if his son might have read any.

  "Married?" Ben shot to his feet, tossing the word around in his head as he did so. Not once in his life had he even considered marriage. Not that he didn't have his fair share of lady friends. "Have you lost your mind? I don't want to get married." Ben tried to get his mind on straight, but he hadn't had enough sleep. He pushed back his hat, and pinched the bridge of his nose to wake up. He sensed this badgering might be of importance to him.

  "Of course you don't." His father sounded confident that he would react just this way. "But, unfortunately for you, that's already been settled. You shall be married on Saturday. We'll have a big cook out in the yard and invite half the town. All but the whores and roughians you hang out with will be invited to the party." Jason narrowed his gaze, his brows rising with arrogance.

  "Roughians? Whores? Is that what you think of my friends?" Ben repeated to himself, with a look on his face that announced his annoyance. So much for what his father thought. "I won't do it!" Ben pounded the desk in front of his chair making the wax streak. A big mahogany desk had been shipped special from St. Louis. The smear marks made it appear dirty.

  His father noted the action, and then scowled at him.

  "I'll thank you not to smear my desk like that. You have a room full of furniture, if you want to streak it. Personally, I think too much of Helena's effort to clean to do such a thing. Now, understand me, Ben, you'll do it, you have no choice in the matter." Jason snickered. "Your actions or lack thereof have forced me into this position. If you don't know what's best for you, then as your father, I have to make those decisions for you."

  "And if I refuse?" Ben stared him in the eyes, as much as he could see his eyes.

  "Then you'll get off this property, and you won't come back." Jason told him, his expression hard and unyielding as he turned around to look at his son. "Make no mistake of this…I love you son, never doubt that. However, I will not sit by and watch you throw your life away in a drunken stupor over something that cannot be changed. Your mother and sister are dead. You cannot resurrect them. Put it behind you and go on. It's time for you to shape up. I'll not coddle you like your mother did and give into your whims. You will become a hard working ranch foreman. And you'll earn every penny you make. The time for mourning is over. It's time for the living now."

  "Leave my mother and sister out of this." Ben stood up and glared at him. His father had touched the subject Ben preferred not to. He'd gone too far.

  There was a long silence, as both of them stared at each other.

  "You can't do this to me." Ben hollered his anger stirring. Deep down he knew some kind of explosion was coming, but he honestly never thought his father would voice his disproval so blatantly. And he certainly never thought his father would arrange a marriage for him.

  "I can and I will. You've left me no choice. I've waited for months for you to shake yourself off, and get on with your life. You've managed to dig yourself deeper and deeper into a stupor. Well, no more! Now, go upstairs, and have Helena run you a bath and clean up. You meet her at noon on the stage." Jason declared.

  Ben straightened himself, "You're serious? You're serious. You expect me to marry a total stranger?" Ben tried to sober himself. He tried to wrap his father's words around him and digest them, but his head was foggy and all he heard was the word, marriage. The one word he hadn't expected, not even from his father.

  "I do."

  "And if I refuse to marry her?" Ben challenged one more time.

&nb
sp; "Then this place will go to her, you leave me no other choice. I've promised her a home, and she'll get one, with or without you." Jason insisted quite finally. When Ben didn't say anything, he looked at his son and saw the disbelief there. "I've had to take action son, and it's for your own good. You have a choice, I'm not entirely unfair."

  "Why?" Ben hollered again. "Why are you doing this?"

  Jason grabbed his son by the collar, pulled him to the mirror in the corner of the room, and forced him to look at himself. "Look at yourself. Take a good long look at yourself. Your clothes are dirty and rumpled, you smell like rot gut whiskey. You haven't shaved in a while. And you are drunk. You’re a drunk. You can't handle a day's work, you're irresponsible. I've waited for you to come out of this depression you've gotten yourself into. However, nothing has happened. You just keep getting drunker. Well, no more. I lost them too, you know. My heart aches for them both…But life goes on, Ben, and you learn that, as you get older. Do you honestly think it's been easy for me? I loved your mother and adored your sister."

  "Is that a fact? You got a funny way of showing it. You went back to work the same day as the funeral…"

  His father turned to stare at him, with something that looked very much like a tear in his eye. Ben couldn't be sure, he couldn't see for the splitting headache he was nursing. "Some men bury their feelings in their work son. I'm one of those men. I dealt with their deaths the only way I knew how…by going on. I loved your mother dearly, and your sister was my pride and joy. But someone had to go on. Someone had to continue the work. Your mother and your sister are dead. It's time you faced the truth and get on with your own life. We lost nearly half a town with that disease. Others lost just as much as we did. Others went on. That's what you do when things go bad, you go on. You pick up the pieces and go on. No matter how bad it hurts to do so. They caught small pox and they died. I've accepted it. And you have to accept it. They are gone. They aren't coming back. Death is something you have to live with son. We all die. You can't wallow in sorrow forever. No one has that luxury."

  "Stop it!" Ben felt the rage inside him and threw a candlestick holder at his father. "Every time I get drunk you bring it up. Can't you let it alone?"

  "I'll let it alone when you face the facts. I lost just as much as you did, and I'm going on with my life. And so must you…That's what makes us different from animals, we go on."

  "And you think me getting married is gonna solve everything?" Ben hollered once more the pain of their deaths fresh in his heart. However, today, he was facing the reality of what his father was saying. It was time he went on with his life. He knew he'd nurtured this hurt too long. Admitting he was a mess came hard.

  "One can hope, yes." His father's brow shot upward in question.

  "Who is she? Some snob from the east?" Ben asked snarling his nose with distaste.

  "No…she's lived in Colorado for the past five years, with her husband."

  "Well…hell, if she's married, I can't marry her!"

  His father sighed with a patience that was wearing thin. "Her husband died a year ago. And she has a little four year old boy. He's coming with her. So you see, you have to straighten yourself up and act presentable. You'll have to act older than her four year old."

  "I don't believe this…" Ben flopped in a chair and sat stunned by all this news. Not only had his father chosen a wife for him, but also the woman had a son…and he would be the stepfather? Not only a husband, but a father too?

  "And you are going to give her everything, if I refuse?" Ben tried to laugh, but it didn't come out that way.

  "I am. I have to leave this place to someone who will take care of it. The woman has had a rough time of it. She put up with her gold hunting husband, she bore his child and she's lived on practically nothing for five long years. And all without asking for a penny. I promised her a home for the rest of her life, no matter the outcome. And she'll get it. Do you hear me?"

  "I hear you!" Ben snarled. "I'm sorry for her, but I'm not going to be her husband…and that's the end of that. She's not even a virgin. Why would I want her? And her son!"

  It got very silent in the room. Ben could actually feel the storm coming.

  "That's rich coming from you son. You who choses whores to cohort with. This is a good woman, and she needs help."

  His father's face turned black with fury when Ben refused to say anything.

  "Why on earth would you make a promise to a complete stranger?" Ben asked, narrowing his gaze on his over-bearing father once more.

  "She's not exactly a stranger. She's Harold Thompson's daughter."

  "Harold's dead!" Ben reminded him. "He died of the small pox too."

  "Exactly, you two will have something in common, at least." He fumed, and then as he lit his pipe, he drew on the fire and looked at his son. "His daughter is in great need of a home for her son. She's nearly starved for five long years. I owed Harold. I promised him I'd see after Gabby. I intend to do it. The parents of her dead husband, want the child. They have money, influence. She fears she'll lose him without some means of support."

  "I'm sorry for her, truly. But marriage, even you should see how foolish that would be. I know Harold just died a few months ago, but how do you know so much about her?" Ben asked, grabbing his head and holding it. Unfortunately, Ben had quit listening to his father, trying to ignore him as his head pounded with a fury.

  "She wrote him a letter last month, I suppose, not realizing yet that he was dead. In the letter she explained her dire circumstances to him. She wanted to come home…but as you well know, Harold was in arears with the bank on his property. The bank sold it to pay his gambling expenses. Her father had nothing left to offer her." Jason went on. "You need to straighten yourself up, son. She needs a home. I thought it a splendid solution. Therefore, I wrote her and put the proposition to her. She agreed after a couple of letters, and she'll be here at noon. But that's not the end of it. You are going to work this place, once again, or you can pack your stuff up and leave. I'm leaving you prime land, a heritage. And your are going to show me that you can take care of it, and your wife. You've got to prove to me that you can do this. I won't squander what I've worked so long to build."

  His words died a slow silent death as no sound came from the room.

  Ben's head began to work a little now. His father had managed to hit a reality he had been facing lately. In many ways, his father was right. But not about the woman. "If she wrote her father, how'd you find out about it?"

  "Everything came to the bank, after he died. Al, at the bank showed me the letter. It was personal and since Harold and I were good friends, he let me read it. Al felt bad about having to sell that property. But he was left with no choice. He was hoping I might be able to help."

  "You can't do this to me." Ben wailed. "I'm your son. She's a stranger…"

  "I've already done it. You've got a choice. If you want to live the life of a no account, then there's the door. I won't stop you any longer. I won't live with a drunken no-account. You're either going to straighten up and do what is right, or you can pack your bags now and move on. You're a man and I can't stop you from living like this, but I won't put up with it any longer. I have a business to run. A ranch." Jason stood staunchly still now, glaring at his drunken son. "I won't watch you destroy yourself. If this is the life you chose, then I won't be a party to it. If you are my son you will pick yourself up, dust yourself off and stiffen that backbone."

  "Did you tell her I’m a drunk? 'Cause no lady in her right mind would marry a drunk." Ben tried again to laugh and came up short.

  "She knows, I didn't lie to her." Jason sighed. "Perhaps that tells you how desperate she is."

  "She must be uglier than sin, and desperate to boot to take a drunk as a husband." Ben did manage a chuckle that time.

  "I have no idea what she looks like. That's irrelevant. The only picture Harold had of her was when she was a small child." Jason recalled. "And you'll find in years to come that looks are no
t how to judge a woman. It's the heart you must look at. But mark my words, this woman has been through hell. She is barely able to feed them, and I won't have you making fun of her and hurting her feelings. So if that is your intent, pack your bags now. You are going to be the son I've always wanted, and you are going to start today. Is that perfectly clear?"

  "You're so anxious to get rid of me, Pa. You don't want me to have this land. But this is my home. I belong here, she doesn't. And I'm not letting her have what is mine. How could you promise her this place so easily?"

  Jason stared at his son hard. "It wasn't an easy thing to promise. And as a woman, she'll need a man to back her up. If you don't marry her, then the man that does will run this place. It's that simple. However, this is a big spread, and it needs a strong arm. If you can't straighten yourself out, then I have to find someone who is willing to work hard to make things good here. And she is willing."

  "You don't even know her." Ben chimed.

  "Are you going to clean yourself up and meet the stage, or do I have to do that too?" Jason frowned.

  "I'll go. I want to see what kind of little gold digger she is. She won't fool me…like she's done you." Ben hollered going up the stairs to take a bath.

  His head was pounding with his father shouting at him all morning. His father made a lot of sense, but Ben didn't want to hear that good sense. His father was always right. He didn't want to hear that either. Truth be known he wanted to get drunk again, but then…curiosity got the best of him. He wanted to meet this little gold digger.

  Helena, the Mexican maid already had his water ready.

  Ben looked at her in shock. "Are you in on this too?"

  "You must clean yourself up and look nice for your bride to be." Helena smiled at him.

  "My God, you are!" Ben glared at her.

  "No, but I agree, this will be a good thing, Ben. In my country it is done often and most of the time it is a good union."