Serial Western Romance Novel – Page 7

Go West Chapter~31

Chapter 31

Go West

By DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty One

Before the Parade

Ellie

When rodeo day came, Ellie put on the divided doeskin skirt, and fringed jacket Nancy had worn as rodeo queen. The outfit was of the softest leather Ellie had ever felt and she knew it would blend with Summer’s and Sunrise’s palomino coats. For a blouse, she wore a plaid taffeta shirtwaist in red and gold Molly found in the attic and spruced up.Aldon told her she looked like she’d probably be rodeo queen next year if she stayed around. It could be a possibility, she thought if Aldon wanted her to.. The horses dressed up too, wearing hand-tooled tack made by Aldon’s grandfather over fifty years before. It gave Ellie a warm glow to think how much respect and love creations from the past could generate, and how useful they could still be. The final touch was Ellie’s brown Stetson for which she had spent a great deal of money. She knew it would last her a lifetime, but she didn’t know for how long she would be in a place where she could wear it without looking strange. Stetsons for women certainly were not the rage in Chicago.

Aldon had saddled Summer and Chief and brought them to the back door to await her pleasure. Sunrise would follow where his mother led. Aldon gave put his hands under the stirrup so she could use them to mount. He then got on Chief.

The day of the rodeo was clear with puffy clouds. As Aldon and Ellie road along on the gravel road to town they began to sing the songs they had rehearsed for Sunday Meeting the next day. When they spotted the spires of the churches, they sang, “When it’s Springtime in the Rockies,” and “Home on the Range.” Having traveled the road so frequently on their way to town and back, by now each had memorized most of the songs the other knew. They sang: cowboy songs, hymns and some German songs. Ellie had taught Aldon some of the classical ones she knew and he liked them so much he kept asking for more.

As they got closer to town there were horses and wagons behind and in front of them. Everyone in the valley loved rodeo day and every one who could participate. Aldon’s cousins came from their ranches in flivvers, in spring wagons, and on horseback. All of them clustered under the cottonwood trees near the creek at the Community Church from whence the parade would proceed. Cousins from the German band piled out of their big wagon which was pulled by a pair of black and white Clydesdales with huge hooves and broad backs. The men wore their lederhosen and alpine caps. They were a strange enough sight, but when they started warming up, Sunrise got spooked and ran off.

“It’s the tubas.” Aldon said. “My family always has too many tubas. Most of the instruments came from Prussia where, before the war, they made some of the best instruments in the world. You can look in any attic in the valley and there will be a tuba there. The family almost disowned me when I chose the mandolin. One of these days, though, if I have enough wind left in me, I’ll get down the Tuba and play it, too.”

The parade-master walked among the crowd, trying to say out of the way of the horses’ back feet. He spoke to each group, telling them where they belonged in the line-up. The clowns with their brooms and shovels were assigned groups of horses to follow and clean up after. The Artesia school band had come to march too. There was no high-school in the area so that the students who wished to go on must board in town. Few did as no one seemed to see a need for a high-school diploma when they had so much practical and hard-earned experience with ranching.

Summer was almost prancing when she and Chief passed the family on the sidelines who had come in the ranch vehicles. Seraphina jumped up and down and waved her arms. “Ellie, Aldon!” she yelled. Kate tried to quiet her, but the little girl was too excited to calm down.

Go West~Chapter 30

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Thirty

Ellie

Wham, bang, crash! Ellie awoke with a start. Someone was making a ruckus in the house. She slid out of bed, dressed, and stepped carefully down the stairs avoiding the creaky boards discovered from morning trysts with Aldon. From the kitchen, she heard a rough, country voice.” Git the booze if you know what’s good for you.”

“Si, si, but should we not hide from the clan? They followed us from town and will soon arrive.” It was Enrico’s voice. She heard the basement door open and the sound of feet pounding down the stairs.

Ellie knew she must get Aldon. She opened the front door and slipped out into the misty night. Before she could reach the barn, she heard another commotion and ran behind the chicken coop to hide. A soft, no escaped her lips when she peeked out and saw men covered in white-sheets with peaked masks over their faces getting out of a motor car. They lit large torches, which flared in the darkness as if they were the fires of hades. She knew they couldn’t see her from where they were so she ran toward the barn and climbed up the ladder to the loft.

“Aldon!” she hissed standing over his cot. “Wake up!”

“Ellie,” he said as if he were dreaming. He turned on his side facing her and pulled her into the cot beside him. He put his arms around her and snuggled back into sleep.

“Aldon, get up. We’ve got visitors,” Ellie pushed against his chest and he abruptly let go of her. She fell onto the floor and lay there a moment getting her breath back. When she got up, she pulled on his arm. “Come on, there’s something happening out there. We’ve got to go check on it.”

He sprang up causing her to fall again. It was all beginning to seem like a movie horse opera.

“Get that shotgun over there,” he said. As she handed him the weapon that leaned into the corner, he grabbed two shotgun shells from a drawer in the desk and loaded both barrels.

“Stay here,” he said.

“Wait, let me tell you.” She tried for a deep breath but felt so rushed she couldn’t quite manage it. “Enrico’s in the basement going after some liquor. Two more men are waiting for him in the kitchen. I think they’re drunk. The KKK just arrived – four of them in an open flivver. They’re in the barnyard, wearing robes and hoods, and they have lit torches. We’ll have to be careful they don’t burn down the house.”

“Okay, you’ve done a good job, now you stay right here where you’ll be safe and let me handle it.”

“I’m going,” she said. “Just tell me what to do.”

“We don’t have time to argue about it.” He said descending the ladder.

“I’ll show myself and divert their attention and you can get a drop on them.” She scrambled after him, brushed past, and ran out the door before he could forbid it. She screamed to get the marauders’ attention, and they turned and stared.

“Get her,” one of them yelled.

“Put those torches in the air and hold them high. Okay, now, know this. I’m going to shoot the first man that moves.” Aldon stepped out of the shadows pointing the gun. “Ellie come over here by me.”

“It’s a mite late to go visiting, isn’t it?” Aldon said. “Keep your hands in the air and go stand over there in front of the corral.”

“We hear you’re harboring some folk that don’t belong here.” One of the men said.

“Where did you hear that?” Aldon walked toward the men, whose robes crawled with ominous shadows in the light of their torches.

“From that there Eyetalian you got hanging around here. We don’t cotton to any kind of people ‘cept pure white Americans.” The man with the big belly spoke.

“Who are you after?” asked Aldon.

“For now we want that colored woman. Her husband was a murderer. What better reason could we have for taking her away?” Another man spoke.

“Oh, you mean our friend Kate? Why don’t you just head on back down to where you came from and leave us alone. You don’t have any business here.” Aldon cradled the gun under his arm.

“You see, you don’t understand. We are here to protect you and your family from foreigners and strangers coming in and taking over.” A third man spoke.

“How do you know who’s American and who isn’t?” Aldon motioned for one of the men to raise hands that had been slowly descending.

“First off, they got to be white.” The clansman’s hands rose again.

“Not just them, but their folks too.” They seemed to talk in turn, one and then the other. “They got to have American names, American ways, fight for the country.”

“Did you fight for the country?” Aldon asked while Ellie gave a sigh of impatience.

“We’re all respectable businessmen and upstanding citizens, somebody had to stay here and run the country. Our Grand Dragon is the preacher of the biggest church in Artesia. He is a real American. We got half the politicians in Denver on our side. We’re doing what any red-blooded Americans ought to be doing.”

“We hear you’ve got a half-breed kid here, too,” said a different voice. “We could take her off your hands.”

Everybody jumped when the screen door banged shut and Kate came striding out in a long robe with the biggest broom Ellie had ever seen in her hands. She took a swing at the man closest to her and he went down. She went after a second, and he ran, tripping over his sheet.

“Get out of here and leave us alone.” She turned on the third one who stared at her dumbfounded. She hit the fourth man with the broom. In three seconds the automobile was loaded and had put-putted away. Instead of watching it go, Kate looked around for someone else to hit and headed for Aldon, not quite recognizing him in the dark. He took the broom.

“Whoa there, it’s me. You’ve taken care of them. You can relax now.”

Once Enrico and his two cohorts saw that the KKK had moved on, they came skulking out the back door. One of the men was tall and skinny. The other was broad and hairy. By now, Signor Solano had also descended from his aerie.

“What are these men doing here?” Signor Solano asked moving close to Enrico.

“Allow me to introduce my friends,” said Enrico bowing to the company in a drunken move to take control of the situation.

“What are they doing here?” Signor Solano asked again while supporting his grandson against his own increasing strength.

“I know them,” said Aldon. “They’re squatters.”

Go West~Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Twenty Eight

Ellie

“Lia requests the pleasure of your company in her suite.” Ellie told Molly at the door to her bedroom.

“Suite is it?” Molly placed her hands on her hips and stood staring at Ellie as if she were a stranger.

“Please. She wants to be friends. After all it’s your birthday.” Ellie tented her hands under her chin in a pleading gesture.

“Humph, it’ll be the first time that besom ever thought about anybody but herself.” Molly stalked off down the hallway leaving Ellie five paces behind.

“Look what we bought you in Denver,” Lia stood by her bed with her outstretched hand presenting a display of garments.

“My stars, and garters,” Molly said. “Is all that for me? But why?”

“Will you try them on?” Lia invited, lifting the dress and holding it against herself. “Isn’t this pretty? It’s the right color for your redheaded complexion.”

“I ain’t been a redhead in a long time,” Molly said taking the dress and holding it at arm’s length as if she were looking into a mirror. “My, it is fine and soft.” It was a periwinkle voile that had green leaved violets embroidered on its white pique collar. When Lia moved behind the housekeeper and pulled loose one of her apron strings, Molly dropped the dress on the bed, grabbed her apron, and hung on. “You two go in the other room. I’ve never had anyone watch me dress and I’m not starting now.”

On the way through to the next room, Lia paused to put a large black record on the Victrola. She wound the machine and a lively ragtime piece started to play.

“Do you think Molly has ever worn rayon stockings?” Lia said, doing the one-step across her sitting room floor. “We’ll have to check whether she got the seams straight up the back of her legs or not.”

“I wonder if she has ever worn a silk chemise before,” Ellie said dancing too. Just think, this is only the first stage of the surprises we and Aldon have planned for her.

They heard a lady-like cough and looked up to see Molly standing in the doorway chin up and shoulders back looking like a queen on the front page of The Denver Post.

“You look beautiful,” Ellie said. “Do you like your present?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll wear this outfit for Sunday-go-to-meetings for the rest of my life.” Molly said. Lia took her to the cheval mirror in the corner.

“Why I’m just a regular Miss Got-Rocks, ain’t I?” Molly turned her head one way and then another admiring herself. Why did you do all this for me, anyhow?”

“Happy birthday, dear Molly,” said Lia giving her a careful hug.

“How did you know?” Molly turned to Ellie

“A little birdie told us,” she said.

“Most likely Aldon,” Molly nodded. “Well ain’t that just like him. I’m going to get out of this garb and back into my housedress so I can get supper going.”

“Lets’ go down and wait for the men to come in so they can see the new Molly first,” said Lia.

It took some persuasion, but Molly consented to being shown off with the stipulation that she could, “get comfortable” as soon as she had been adequately admired by the fellows. Ellie and Lia escorted her to the parlor, then went back upstairs to change into their new dresses from which a light shaking had removed the Tuileries dust.

When they went back into the parlor, Molly was wearing a clean apron and wiping the mantle with a rag. Suspicious, she set her head at an angle and stared at them. “Why are you dressed up?” she said. Right then, Aldon and the Signor Solano entered the room

“Bella, bella,” the Signor said, when he came in with Aldon.

“Molly, you look so fine,” Aldon said. “Wait until…”

“Where is my grandson?” Signor Solano interrupted.

“Let’s go for a ride,” said Aldon. “He’s probably going to meet up with us later.”

Aldon asked Ellie to drive the touring car with the Solano family and a bemused Molly in it, and he joined Kate and Seraphina in a Ford truck the ranch had recently bought.

When Colleen met them at the door of the hotel, Molly became self-conscious of her new outfit. A waitress led them into the small, private dining room with a large round table. Two women rose from their seats and came to Molly who swayed slightly when she saw them.

“Nancy!” she said, hugging the tall, willowy one. She then turned to the other, “Trudy!

Aldon took Ellie over to the small group and introduced her, first to his mother, Nancy, then to his aunt, Gertrude.

“How do you do?” said Nancy. “I have heard about you coming all the way from Chicago to work on the ranch. How are you liking it?”

“It’s the prettiest place I’ve ever seen,” said Ellie, noticing the resemblance between the tall, thin Aldon and his mother.

“Aunt Gertrude,” said Aldon, this is Ellie, our hired hand.” Gertrude who was shorter and rounder grabbed Ellie in a hug and almost suffocated her.

Colleen gave suggestions for seating as Kenny came in. The room sounded to Ellie like an aviary, where the birds were all chirping as they looked forward to being fed.

“This is your birthday celebration, Aunt Molly. We wanted to surprise you.” Aldon said.

“Faith and begorra,” said Molly. I never thought anything like this would happen to me, and me having done nothing to deserve it.”

Go West~Chapter 26

Go West

by DiVoran Lites

Chapter Twenty Six

Ellie

”We’d better get back to town, somebody will be missing us,” Aldon said at the end of a dance. He twirled Ellie out and then brought her back into his arms. Taking her hand, he walked her over to the register where he paid the bill. They stopped at the table to leave a tip for the waitress. Once they were in the car, Aldon pressed the electric starter and the engine responded immediately. They looked at each other and grinned.

“No more cranking,” Aldon said.

“This car’s got the moxy.” Ellie felt giddy and carefree as they picked up speed curving down the mountain road. When Aldon shifted into second gear to slow the car, Ellie clapped.

“Saves the brakes,” Aldon looked over at her and nodded. As they left the mountains behind, the road leveled out and he shifted into third gear. Back at the hotel, they discovered that Lia and Enrico were missing, then Ellie remembered Lia’s plan to visit the Tuileries Amusement Park.

“We might as well go on over there,” Aldon said. “We can give them a ride back to the hotel.”

As they approached the park, Ellie gazed at a halo of light beaming from the permanent fairground. She wound down the side window the better to hear the faraway throbbing of a drum. The Ferris wheel, its lights gleaming, rotated against the night sky. Terrified, but delighted screams pierced the atmosphere as a string of roller-coaster cars steamed up one loop and roared down the next.

After Aldon parked, they walked into a thin cloud of dust and the smell of cotton candy. When they came to a shooting gallery, Ellie felt her confidence rise. Now was the time to show Aldon that the lessons he’d given her in spare bits of time had made her into a sharp shooter.

“Step right up! Three shots for a nickel,” the man behind the counter shouted. Aldon gave him money and the two of them started competing for points. They only grew tired of the game when it became obvious that their scores would forever match. Ellie laid down her rifle and the booth tender started shoving stuffed animals into her arms.

“Well done,” Aldon said, patting her on the back. He took some of the animals from her. “Won’t Seraphina be surprised when we get home?” He placed a free arm around her waist. “Let’s go put these in the car so we won’t have to carry them around.”

As they left the parking lot after depositing the toys, Ellie asked if they could go to the merry go round. She hadn’t been on one since she was a child, but recalled it as a happy experience. Aldon bought tickets and they stepped onto the platform just as the carousel music began and the giant machine started to rotate. Ellie sat sidesaddle while Aldon straddled his horse, his feet firmly on the wooden floor which turned with the horses. The various carved animals rose and fell pulling Ellie into a kind of dream as if she were being rocked in a cradle. Soon, tears ran down her cheeks, and yet she had no feeling of melancholy or sadness. The sound of the booming drum, the ragtime piano, and the majestic notes from the steam organ seeped into her heart. She felt as if something inside her was softening and melting, but had no idea what it could be. Perhaps a sort of healing was taking place in her soul. When the merry go round came to rest, Aldon helped her down, and steered her to a bench. He gave her a handkerchief and sat down next to her, holding her hand while she continued to sob.

“Why are you crying?” he asked when the emotional storm quieted.

“I don’t know. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me. In fact, I haven’t felt this happy since I was a child. Isn’t that strange?” She looked up into his face searching for an answer.