The Cattleman's Bride: Brides Along the Chisholm Trail, #3

By Maxine Douglas

Suzanne Butler is saloon girl “Montana Sue” at the Lady Gay in Dodge City who has been hiding from an arranged marriage for over a year. Word has reached her that the man she spurned is on his way to Dodge City to reclaim her.

Cyrus Kennedy is a widowed Texas cattle baron, expected to deliver his cattle to the stockyard in Dodge City, make arrangements with a new housekeeper and tutor for his ten-year-old son. He didn’t expect a former feisty saloon girl would be going back to Texas with him.

Will Suzanne be able to shed “Montana Sue” and avoid an unwanted marriage?

What will Cryus’ men and his boy think when he brings the red-headed Suzanne Butler home with him along the Chisholm Trail?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maxine Douglas
• Release date: Nov 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386722960

Maxine Douglas

Maxine Douglas first began writing in the early 1970s while in high school. She took every creative writing course offered at the time and focused her energy for many years after that on poetry.  It wasn't until a dear friend's sister revealed she was about to become a published author that jumpstarted Maxine into getting the ball rolling; she finished her first manuscript in a month. Maxine and her late husband moved to Oklahoma in 2010 from Wisconsin. Since then Maxine has rekindled her childhood love of westerns. She has a son, two granddaughters, a great-granddaughter, and a domestic grey tabby named Simon. And many friends she now considers her Oklahoma family. One of the things Maxine has learned over the years is that you can never stop dreaming and reaching for the stars. Sooner or later you touch one and it'll bring you more happiness than you can ever imagine. Maxine feels lucky and blessed, that over the past several years she's been able to reach out and touch the stars--and she's still reaching. Maxine loves to hear from her readers. So, come on by and say "Hello"; Maxine would love to hear from you. You can catch her on: Facebook Reader Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/maxinesbookdivas/ X: @waMaxineDouglas Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6423715.Maxine_Douglas BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/maxine-douglas

Book preview

The Cattleman’s Bride

Maxine Douglas

About the Book

Suzanne Butler is saloon girl Montana Sue at the Lady Gay in Dodge City who has been hiding from an arranged marriage for over a year. Word has reached her that the man she spurred is on his way to Dodge City to reclaim her.

Cyrus Kennedy is a widowed Texas cattle baron, expected to deliver his cattle to the stockyard in Dodge City then make arrangements with a new housekeeper and tutor for his ten-year-old son. He didn’t expect a former feisty saloon girl would be going back to Texas with him.

Will Suzanne be able to shed Montana Sue and avoid an unwanted marriage? What will Cyrus’s men and his boy think when he brings the red-headed Suzanne Butler home with him along the Chisholm Trail?

Dedication

To the men and women who endured the hardships along The Chisholm Trail. I hope they found their happiness on their journey.

To my husband, Randy, who is always ready to hit the trail on my next research adventure. I love you with all my heart.

And to my family and friends for their love and support as my mind weaves stories and listens to the voices stirring there.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Mark Rathe of the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce for giving me the idea for a Chisholm Trail series in celebration of its 150th Anniversary.

To Patricia Cunningham of the Grady County Historical Museum for lending a hand when I needed it.

To my favorite librarians at the Chickasha Public Library for their undying assistance when I needed to find research! Chickasha is lucky to have you all there.

Author Note

While there may not have been a ranch near Proffitt, Texas (now a ghost town), I found it the perfect area for the Double K along the Brazos River.

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Author.

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition November 2017

Prologue

Dodge City

Late Spring 1877

Suzanne Butler scanned the sheet of paper in her hand again, barely aware of the townsfolk passing her on the wooden walkway in front of the mercantile, like river water parting around a boulder. She knew this day would come.

Darling Daughter,

I can no longer protect you, Suzanne. Your father and Regan Murray are gathering their provisions and will find a way to collect you. They pooled their resources when Father found you missing from Aunt Clara’s. They believe to have finally found you in Dodge City and will be on their way as soon as the mountain passes are clear enough to travel from Missoula Mills. Your father aims to bring you back home to marry that horrible man, Mr. Murray.

I will delay them for as long as I can, but you must run, Suzie, in any direction as far as any trail you choose will take you. Find a place where you are protected, and they won’t be able to bring you back. I fear if they do, you will be unhappy for the rest of your life, while your father, through his blind ambition, believes he will flourish when our two families are united, and our lands have expanded. I fear otherwise and that our family will be doomed at the hand of Mr. Murray.

I miss you, my darling, and am resolved that I may never see you again. Know that you are in my heart at all times.

With all my love,

Mother

Suzanne Butler read over the letter one last time, folded it, and tucked it into her skirt pocket. She knew the length of expense and deception her mother had gone to for so lengthy a missive. Slender fingers trembled as she pulled several coins from her reticule to pay for the telegram that she prayed would save her for a bit longer.

She’d been living in Dodge City for the past year, having escaped the unwanted marriage her father had arranged to take place on her next birthday. She was to marry the neighboring rancher, Regan Murray, on her twenty-first birthday. An embittered man who was cruel to animals and rumored to have killed his first wife, although there wasn’t proof of it. His beady, dark eyes had sent chills of warning through her from the first time she’d met him when Father introduced Mr. Murray as her betrothed.

With her mother’s help, Suzanne stole away from her Aunt Clara’s on the eve of her twenty-first birthday and what was to have been her wedding day. She arrived in Dodge City ragged, dirty, and tired, looking for work wherever she could get it. With her heart hardened and a new identity, she landed at the Lady Gay Saloon. Only once since arriving had she let her heart soften. When it had gotten stomped on, Suzanne had grown all the more bitter toward love or letting anyone close to her again.

With the arrival of mother’s letter several days earlier, Suzanne believed it had been God’s hand that kept her heart behind a wall. Now that Father and Mr. Murray were on their way, she wouldn’t have a husband to protect her.

She had no choice but to run again. So first thing this morning Suzanne had headed toward the telegraph office with the only option she’d been able to surmise could give her more time.

Are you sure you want to do this, Montana Sue? Jake asked from his perch behind the counter. There must be families here in Dodge you can work for.

None that would hire a former saloon girl, though. Sue swiped at a tear in the corner of her eye. Who here would believe that I have the ability to do everyday housework, let alone be a teacher to their children?

Everyone who knows you would vouch for you; you must know that.

I can’t entertain that idea, not after all that has happened. Besides, who’s going to believe a lot of cowpokes and gamblers? Suzanne looked over the advertisement she’d written to The Dallas Weekly Herald one last time. I have to do this, Jake. Dodge City doesn’t have a place for me anymore.

If that’s what you want to do, but it’s going to cost you some money. It would be less expensive for you to send it with the stagecoach.

No, it needs to get there quicker than that. The only way I know is to send it by telegram. Suzanne slid the form across the telegraph office counter, any lingering apprehension gone. She’d taken Mother’s advice to find a trail leading her away from what would surely be a lifetime of unhappiness.

Jake reached for the paper and began tapping the words of her advertisement.

Educated woman seeks position on Texas ranch as children’s tutor and/or housekeeper. Stop. Immediate availability. Stop. Send letter of interest to SB, Dodge House, Dodge City, Kansas. Stop.

Chapter One

June 1877

The day was hot and dry when Cyrus Kennedy drove his herd into Dodge City, dirt and trail dust coating him from head to toe. He needed a bath, shave, and a good meal after he visited the Pinkerton agent assigned to his cattle rustling case. Then he’d get a room at the Dodge House and inquire about Miss Butler, the woman who was to become the keeper of not only his home but also his ten-year-old son Johnny.

Johnny needed a woman to look after him even if he was becoming a young man. A woman to give him the kind of attention and teaching Cyrus and his brothers couldn’t. There wasn’t much time on the ranch for book learning or keeping house. Johnny was starting to act and talk like a ranch hand. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but Cyrus had made a promise to Maggie that their boy would grow to be a gentleman, not a roughneck.

Miss Suzanne Butler’s advertisement had come as a godsend, and he’d wasted no time in responding to it.

Cyrus dismounted, handing the reins to his older brother, Beau. I’m heading over to the sheriff’s office to find Agent Granger. I’ll see you at supper after you get the cattle settled and make yourself presentable. I am hoping to have things settled with Miss Butler by then.

Beau grumbled something about women and a bath then rode away with the Palomino trailing behind. Cyrus shook his head. Someday a woman is going to break that chunk of ice around his heart, and we’ll all be happier for it.

Cyrus ambled down the street to the sheriff’s office. Pushing open the door, he took measure of the sheriff’s feet on his desk with his eyes closed. Sheriff, I’m looking for Logan Granger about some rustled cattle he found. Where might I find him?

The young sheriff eyed Cyrus with speculation then spat into a nearby spittoon. You’ll find him over at Dodge House.

Thanks. Cyrus tipped his hat then walked out the door and across the street, shaking his head and thinking Dodge City was doomed if that was the man hired to protect her citizens. Slapping the dust from his clothes, as he stepped up onto the boardwalk in front of the Dodge House, his late wife’s words echoing through his head: Don’t you dare bring that trail dust into my house, Cyrus Kennedy!

Cyrus stepped through the doorway and over to the clerk behind the registration desk. I was told I’d find Logan Granger here.

Yes, sir. He’s here. The clerk pointed toward the dining room then returned to his ledgers.

Mighty obliged. Cyrus turned, spotting a man seated by the window, his head bowed over the papers scattered across the table. The man wore a string tie, white shirt, and black vest, looking more like a bartender at one of the establishments in town rather than one of the famed Pinkerton Agents.

Agent Granger?

Who wants to know? The man didn’t look up from the papers he studied, his posture stiff and uninviting. So much for being cordial.

Cyrus Kennedy.

Sitting back in his chair, the man looked up at Cyrus. Kennedy, your cattle are being held at the stockyard. You can mix them with the herd you just brought in.

Cyrus pulled out a chair at the table, not waiting to be asked to sit. I appreciate you finding them. I’ll send payment to Chicago as soon as I finish with my business here in Dodge City.

Nodding, the agent gathered the scattered papers together. Excuse my abruptness, Mr. Kennedy. I’ve got a case that has come up that requires my full deliberation.

That explains your less than hospitable greeting. Cyrus relaxed a bit, placing his hat on a knee.

Logan Granger at your service, Mr. Kennedy. Logan Granger stood, extending a hand. Explains it but doesn’t excuse it by any means. I tend to get engrossed with a new case which is why my wife has chased me from our table today. I’m not to return until I have things settled in my head—and I think I do.

Standing, Cyrus grasped the extended hand firmly then looked Granger over. No wonder the Pinkertons were masters at disguise. No one would guess the man sitting in front of him belonged to the famed detective agency. He looked like he should be pouring shots of whiskey and glasses of beer.

I believe our business is concluded, Mr. Granger. Pushing his hat back onto his head, Cyrus turned then paused for a moment. I’m looking for a Miss Butler. Do you happen to know where I might find her?

Sue Butler?

Yes, Miss Suzanne Butler. The surprised look on Granger’s face caught Cyrus off guard. Was there something about the woman he’d hired she neglected to tell him?

"Montana, er, Miss Butler has a room here at