Rayne Comes to Town by Alwayzdreamin

CHAPTER 2

The last couple of weeks and flown by and by the time Rayne realized it she had pretty much all the hard work done. So far she had the out buildings and the fence around the barn done. The rails had been split by hand, she had the blisters to prove it too, but damn she felt good. This was her place, her heart blood sweat and tears were being poured into it and she was damn proud of that fact. With the Barn and the fencing done, she could now start on her herd. By her count she still had close to a thousand dollars in hard cash in the bank so that should get her well on the way to a great start. "Yup, we're looking damn good here Apache don'tcha think?" She asked the big bay who stood beside her grazing on the luscious green grass. With a soft snort and a slight nod of his head he went back to eating. She looked over to the other two younger horses that stood near by, Samson and Delilah, "What do you two think? Feeling up to headin into Sulfur Springs and seein if we can get a few head of cattle...think you're up to a cattle drive?" She asked. The two neighed and stomped their front hoof in show of excitement and as if to say "Well it's about time we got to do something." So far the only thing the two had done since coming to live with the tall dark woman was pull the wagon to and from town loaded with supplies, lumber and grains. They did realize that once she got back with the cattle though that they would be put to work in the fields, well at least that's what they did with their last owner; he how ever wasn't as kind as their woman was. Given the choice Sampson and Delilah would give their lives for this kind woman. "Well alright then tomorrow morning we'll head out, stop in town and set Apache and Delilah up either at the livery stable or maybe over at Mark's place. We'll have to see if he's up to watchin over you boy." She said as she stroked the bays nose and handed him a sugar cube, while the other two snorted their agreement of the woman's plan. And with plans made she lead the three horses into the respective stalls inside the barn and gave them each a bucket of oats before heading in to take care of her meal. As she walked towards her little house, she looked at the setting sun, and the beauty of the land that lay in front of her, and a calm feeling fell upon her, "This is what it's all about, God this is beautiful!" she said to herself, and with a final look she went inside and started her dinner.

The next morning she rose early and headed out to the barn to saddle Sampson, as she did she spoke to Delilah and Apache, "Okay here's the plan, ol Sampson here is gonna go with me and you and Delilah are gonna stay here, no way I can ride three horses and drive cattle. So ya both will stay here and not cause trouble ya hear. I'm thinkin Lucifer will be goin with us as well. He can keep the cattle in line." She said as she looked over at the big black dog who sat staring at her. The dog appeared one night out of the blue and just made himself at home here with the woman and three horses. She had no idea of the animal was good with cattle but hell at this point she had to try something and it was about time the dog did something to earn his keep. She really had no idea why she named the animal Lucifer other than when he bared his teeth and growled, it sounded like the devil himself had been unleashed. And this she knew because that's exactly what the dog did when she unexpectedly walked up to a rattler that had been sunning himself. The rattle on his tail started shaking and the snake looked like it was about to strike when the dog appeared at her side baring teeth and growling fiercely. Before she could react the dog had lunged at the snake and snapped his neck between his teeth, up until that point the only thing Rayne had called the animal was 'dog'. At that moment the only thought in her head had been that the dog looked like Lucifer himself waging war on some unsuspecting creature. The minute she thought that the dog looked at her as he licked his lips and indeed the look in his eyes was one that reminded Rayne of the devil. Lucky for her the dog liked her and never showed that side of himself since that day...not that Rayne ever encouraged him to.

Together the dog, three horses and their owner set of towards town. True to her word she rode up to Marks office and tethered the horses to the hitch and told Lucifer to sit while she went in to speak to Mark. When she came out the nice man was with her, Lucifer had yet to meet the tall man and he let out a low growl until Rayne spoke to him telling him that the man was alright. And off they went towards Marks home and the barn behind his house. Once they had the animals settled, Rayne thanked him for watching her two horses and said she would be back as soon as she could and off she road with the dog trotting behind her. Her next stop before leaving town had been the bank where she once again had to deal with the unpleasant banker, Tom Wilson. His manner was condescending and bordering on rude where Rayne was concerned, and he acted like giving Rayne her money was robbing his own pocket, never mind the fact that it was her money not his.

"Mr. Wilson Thank you for your concern over my account but I assure you I am very capable of managing my own affairs. And since it seems so very hard for you to understand that I do believe I'll be withdrawing all of my money today and closing this account."

"Well no I don't believe that would be wise nor do I believe that is what Mr. Benton would want."

"First off, you have no right to decide for me what is wise or not and Mr. Benton is not my father nor my husband, he did what he thought was best at the time when he sold the cattle my Uncle had and by placing the money in an account in my name, and honestly Mr. Wilson the account IS in my name and therefore I can do anything I please with it. So now if you would kindly bring me the money this statement says is in my account I'll be taking it with me and closing this account."

"Now Miss Mathews I don't think that would be the smart thing to do,"

"Mr. Wilson, is there anyone else listed on the account?"

"Why, no there isn't,"

"As far as you know, Am I Rayne Mathews, the owner of the account in question, have I provided papers and letters as proof that I am who I claim to be?"

"Well yes...but..."

"No buts about it, I want all two thousand dollars that this statement says is mine and I want it now otherwise I suppose we can both take a walk over to sheriff Kennedy's office and talk to him about it,"

"Oh very well Miss Mathews I'll be right back," The balding fat man said his face red with fury. And in a few minutes he returned with two stacks of bills and a paper for the woman to sign. She had him count out the bills to make sure there was the exact amount, not a cent less or a cent more than what was due her. And once she was satisfied she signed the paper, placed the money in her saddle bags and walked out of the bank hoping and praying she would never have to deal with the man again. With the saddle bag secured to her saddle she got in the saddle and headed off out of town.

That night found her, Lucifer, and the two horses Samson and Delilah under the stars next to a nice warm campfire. As she thought and gazed at the stars it occurred to her that she was finally home. In fact the only area she felt dissatisfied was that she was alone, she had no one to come home at night to, and she no one that she shared her life with. There was the companionship that couples had that she missed so much at times it made her hurt. When she saw her new friends Mark and Emily and all the love and closeness radiating from them she felt lost. That was the one point that made her sad. 'This is the life you choose Rayne,', that little voice in her head said. 'Well yeah but damn at times it's lonely,' She countered as she closed her eyes and drifted to sleep where she dreamt of a little blonde woman with blue eyes.

With the rising sun Rayne was ready to finish her ride to the small town that was her destination. Armed with money and a couple of names she was ready to fulfill her dreams of a ranch. By mid morning she had arrived and with a few questions she was able to locate Joel Mathers and Abel West, both who agreed to sell her 15 head of cattle and arranged for a couple of their hired hands to drive them to her ranch the following week. With a smile the tall woman headed to the bank with what was left of her money hoping the banker here wasn't a complete ass and held women in such low regard as Tom Wilson had.

As she walked into the bank she was greeted by a dark haired man dressed in a well made suit, which immediately stood up and flashed a welcoming smile.

"Welcome, I'm Jefferson Smith, how can I help you?" he said as he held out his hand.

"Hello I'm Rayne Mathews and I'd like to see about opening an account here," she said as she accepted the outstretched hand.

"Of course Miss Mathews, I'd be glad to set you up with an account," And with that the man pulled out papers and began the process and within a few minutes later she had a new account and had deposited the remainder of her money. So with a hug smile and a satisfied feeling she once again mounted her big horse and headed for the hotel where she was sure she would find a good meal before she headed back home. Maybe she should see about getting a room since it was already mid afternoon, and the ride back was long, if she left now she was looking at riding all night just to get home. As she road down the main street of this to she saw a couple of bar and decided a drink would be a nice treat for herself so she headed to one and hitched her horse to the post outside its swinging doors and headed in. Like always the chatter stopped and all eyes were on her, some shocked at a woman daring to enter their establishment, some looking just to see who it was that entered. As she walked towards the long bar some of the working girls flashed her big smiles, which she returned kindly. Once at the bar she took up a spot and immediately ordered a cold draft, which the man behind the bar poured quickly the vanished as he went to see his other customers. She took a long drink and felt the cold refreshing liquid flow down her throat, "God that's good," she said as she set the mug down. To her surprise she heard the man on her right agree with her. It was far from normal for any man talk to her in a bar unless it was to tell her to go home where she belonged, so it threw her a tad and she looked around to see if it were possible that he had been speaking to someone else. He just smiled as he said, "Ain't takin to no one but you stranger. Most around here are either to drunk to hold a conversation or just wanna take my money, so I don't bother...you on the other hand just came in so you gotta be sober and ya appreciate a nice cold beer, might be good at conversation, so thought I'd agree with ya. Now can ya converse or just stand there with a silly look on yer face?" the man finished as he took a swig of his beer and hid a smile.

"Well I suppose I can converse, use to be able to at any rate, been a while since I was put in the spot though so I might be a mite rusty at it so don't go holdin it against me alright,"

"Well alrighty then I won't hold that against ya at all, hell only one I talk to most times is Scruffy my dog and well he ain't all that good at it mostly just wants his food ya know.

"Totally understand, old Lucifer is pert near the same way...course I talk to him and he looks at me like gone and lost my mind. Not Apache though he understands me,"

"Now who is Apache?" the man asked.

"That would be the big bay that's hitched out on the post."

"Ah okay yeah I use to talk to Apollo before I met my wife...then funny thing is she sort took offense when I talked to the horse instead of her, can you imagine that? So to keep peace in the house I gave up telling all my secrets to old Apollo, thinkin he got broken hearted, was never quite the same after I got the Misses."

"Oh really, well I suppose I can see where Apollo woulda got his feelin's hurt." Rayne answered the man with a serious look on her face and a laugh in her voice.

"Let me get ya another beer... Jacob, get us two more alright," the man spoke to the other and then continued to say to Rayne, "I'm Martin by the way nice to meet ya,"

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Rayne," Rayne answered as she put her hand out to Martin.

"So what brings you to Cherokee Falls?"

"Well, I came to buy a few head of cattle from Joel Mathers and Abel West, actually,"

"Oh well I hope you succeeded, they both have some mighty fine looking herds,"

"I managed to get a few yeah, even got em to deliver em next week!" Rayne said a touch of pride in her voice.

"Nice...so I take it since they're deliverin em next week you ain't living here in Cherokee Falls."

"Nope, I got me a small ranch over in Willow Creek that I inherited from my uncle."

"Ah hell you ain't kin to Luke and Martha Mathews are ya? Sorry about their passin, they was damn good people."

"Wait...you knew my Aunt and Uncle? Did you see them often, were you good friends?" Rayne asked in a rush.

"Now hold on there sprout...let's get us a table and I'll tell you all you wanna know," and with that the man stood and headed for a table with his and Rayne's beer in his hands. Rayne followed and as she sat down she once again asked, "How did you know Uncle Luke?"

"Well Luke and me road up from Boston way back when. See he was my best friend and neither of wanted to go into our families business. Now I ask ya, can you see Luke as a pompous preacher? Nope not me and hell I couldn't see me behind some counter sellin clothes to uppity people. So one day we just up and left, figured on headin to Montana, but we stopped here for supplies and well old Luke met your Aunt Martha and swore he wasn't leavin, so I decided I'd stick around long enough to see him settled with Martha, and well hell wouldn't ya know I got stuck for the winter and met my wife Sarah."

"Now that makes sense. Least now I understand why my father was always so..."

"Yeah it would, your pa being the younger of the two always dreamed of heading off and seekin his own fortune, counted on your uncle being the one stuck following daddy's shoes instead it was him. Course it served the pompous ass right...sorry I know he's your pa and all but he was a jackass when I knew him and I'm sure he ain't changed none."

"I..."

"You ain't spoke to your kin in a while have you?" the kind old man asked.

"No sir I haven't...we kind of had a fallin out you could say,"

"Well I ain't sure what happened but your uncle did a get a letter telling him he should let em all know if he heard from you, and if ya showed up ever he was to send word so they could come get ya. If I remember correctly he told me that he had sent word for em to go straight to hell, said if you ran off it had to be cuz they done something really bad to ya."

"Can ya remember who sent for me?" Rayne asked a little surprised. 'Wouldn't the law come after her if she had killed her father?' she asked herself.

"It was a letter from you pa, single page near is I recall, really made Luke mad. Not sure what it was all about but I gotta figure it was bad cuz ain't never seen Luke that mad before, hell he said after that he didn't have a brother. Maybe one day you'll feel comfortable enough with me to tell me what happened. I know you don't know me from Adam, but I loved your uncle like he was my own and I sorta feel like I...I don't know feel like I owe it to him to watch out for you." Rayne was at a loss as to what to say to that, just as she was about to speak, the man spoke again. "Hey look I'm sorry I made ya uncomfortable, I was just...hell I don't know, Luke was like my brother and you being his kin and all...damn I can't believe how much you resemble him. I hadn't noticed it before." Rayne blushed and said the only thing she could think of and that was thank you.

"So uh, Martin, when was the last time you saw my uncle?" she asked.

"Oh I suppose it was about a month or so before I heard about his passin. Why you ask youngun?"

"Did he mention to you any problems he was having with the ranch or anything like that?"

"Can't say I recall...you sticking around or heading back to Willow Creek tonight?"

"Well I was thinking I'd get me a room and stay over, head back come first light," Rayne answered.

"Why don't you come on home with me and have dinner with the misses and me and I'll see what I can recall, maybe Sarah can recall."

"Your wife won't mind at all?"

"Nope she will be thrilled that I brought Luke's niece home,"

"Alright just let me get me a room first," Rayne said as she got up to head to the nearest hotel.

"Now hold on there Sprout, ain't no way I'm lettin you take some room in town, when I got a perfectly good room out at the house. Sides the wife would have a fit so might as well plan on stayin with me and the misses." Martin said as he stood too. Together they walked out the door and got on their horses and headed towards her new friends home.

Continued...