Rimfire Bride Read Free Page B

he’d gotten her on the train without his boys.
    What business was it of hers how he raised his children? They were healthy and seemed happy. Maybe Sam couldn’t read as well as she thought he should, and maybe Benji said “son of a bitch” too often, but they had the love of every cowboy who rode the range at Rimfire Ranch, and the attention of every single woman in Bismarck. To get Rose to leave, he had agreed to hire a full-time nanny.
    He laughed. Could Elfrieda Considine be considered a nanny?
    The boys and he had been without a woman’s presence for two years now. Two painful, lonely years, he thought, and returned to his seat behind the desk.

TWO
    July 4, 1880
    F rom the Bismarck Tribune :
    FOURTH OF JULY
    The committee on grounds has prepared what is pronounced by competent judges to be the finest race course in the territory, and the speakers’ stand, seats, refreshment booths, official headquarters, the barrels for ice water, the bandstand, decorations, etc., are so nearly completed as to afford the most positive assurance that nothing will be lacking by July the 4th.
    Cannon from Fort Lincoln will be fired at intervals during the day, and the combined bands of Bismarck (eighteen pieces) will furnish excellent music.
    At 10:00 p.m. the grand pyrotechnic display will be held. The citizens of Bismarckcan expect a glorious birthday celebration, as it has been reported that the good merchants have put up $1,000 for this extravaganza.
    When the marshals were assembling to head the parade, Drew Malone, who was one of the parade marshals, took his place beside Clement Lounsberry, the editor of the Bismarck Tribune, and Sheriff Alex McKenzie.
    “You’ve done a great job promoting this celebration,” Drew said to Lounsberry. “Look at all the people. They’re everywhere.”
    “I’m doing my damnedest,” Colonel Lounsberry said. “I want the Territorial Legislature to move the capital from Yankton to Bismarck, and it’s events like this that will get the word out. Anybody here will spread the word that we’re the town to watch.”
    “I’ve got a bad feeling having so many folks in town. I’ll bet there’s at least twenty-five thousand people here, and when that many congregate, you know there’s going to be trouble,” Alex McKenzie said.
    “I think you and your men can handle it,” Drew said.
    “That’s why we keep electing you sheriff,” Lounsberry added.
    “But this is different. You get all these people liquored up and bunched together. I don’t like it, not at all.”
    When the marshals had walked the length of the parade route, Drew hurried back to join his wife,Addie, and their two children, who were sitting on a quilt spread out on the boardwalk in front of Drew’s office. A sign in gold leaf was painted on the door: PARTNERS, FRANK B. ALLEN & ANDREW B. MALONE, ATTORNEYS AT LAW.
    Four-year-old Sam was sitting patiently, watching everything that was going on, while Benji, who was two, was making the acquaintance of a stray dog that had wandered up on the boardwalk.
    “Stop it, Benji. Leave that mangy old thing alone,” Addie said as she moved the boy to another spot. But as soon as she sat down again, Benji went after the dog.
    “Here, doggie, here, doggie,” Benji said as he jumped off the boardwalk, falling onto the street. When he did, his face puckered up, but he did not cry.
    “Now look what you’ve done. Can’t you sit still like your brother?” Addie helped Benji to his feet and began to brush the coal cinders off his knees. “Where’s your father?”
    “I’m here,” Drew said as he approached his family.
    “Good. You take him. I should have kept them both at home,” Addie said.
    “But Sam would have missed seeing the callithumpian band if you would have done that.” Drew picked up his younger son and put him on his shoulders. “Now you can’t get in any trouble, little man.”
    Benji began to run his hands through Drew’s thick brown hair, making it stand up in