Mail Order Bride- Illinois

Chapter 14

The new year went by with little fuss. It was never celebrated in Abby’s home and Jonathan in general didn’t celebrate any holidays. January passed slowly and routinely. The only change was the size of Abby’s belly. The baby inside Abby made its presence known to her in more ways than one. She was unable to finish her normal chores. Abby was no longer able to do the laundry, but getting anyone to replace her was nearly impossible.

The ranch was several hours from any neighbors or the closest town so no one wanted to come help Abby with the house hold chores. Jonathan had the same issues, which is why he decided to get married.

Cooking was also becoming an issue for Abby. She had to cook three meals a day for ten men, two boys and herself. It was no easy task. It took up most of her day, and she was just too exhausted. Not to mention swollen to stand on her feet and cook all day.

So Abby changed the menu to sandwiches for lunch, and mainly soup and bread and cheese for dinner. While the men missed her fried chicken, and steak and eggs they would take one look at her miserable face and often help her with the clean up afterwards.

The only one who complained about the change was Jonathan. To be fair to Jonathan he had a rough week himself. The neighbor had been coming around telling him and the local sheriff that his cattle had gotten loose wondered onto Smith property and were his. All three parties involved knew it was total bullsh*t as the sheriff was a farmer himself and was at the sale when Jonathan bought the bulk of his herd.

However, the sheriff had to go by the letter of the law and do an unbiased investigation. While Jonathan respected the sheriff. It didn’t change the fact that it was a pain in his a*s.

Jonathan had been dealing with both the sheriff and his pain in the a*s neighbor all week. Not to mention a cold front moved in and brought a snow storm. Jon was from Texas and he could only recall it snowing once in his life when he was a young boy. So when they had stew for dinner for the fourth time that week, he just snapped.

“When are we going to have a real dinner?” Jonathan regretted it as soon as he said it. The men around him gave him looks of either disbelief or anger. He was afraid to look at Abby, afraid to see her crying.

“I guess whenever you make it your own damn self.” She said and waddled out of the room.

“Damn it,” Jon said and threw his fork down.

“Boy, what the hell is wrong with you?” Buzz asked him.

“Can’t you see she is exhausted?” Henry asked him.

“I know, I know. I’ve been dealing with that asshole McHenry all week and my patience snapped.”

“No, you’ve been taking her for granted. Dad would be ashamed.” James said to him.

“Really? I’m sure he’d be so proud of your gambling and cheating as well.” Jonathan said, sick of his sanctimonious brother.

“You got me there big brother,” James said with a smirk on his face. Jon quickly finished his dinner then went back to do his chores. He went to find His wife to apologize but by the time he found her she was asleep.

Jonathan woke up early as always and checked on the herd. He needed to double check that their brands were not tampered with. His cattle were branded with a letter “S” obviously for the smith name, but it also had a mirror “S” next to it. The idea was so it would make it harder for cattle thief’s to add or change the brand claiming his cattle as their own. But here he was having to check his entire herd for any brand tampering.

An hour later Jonathan was pissed as all hell. He didn’t have time to check the whole herd, just about fifty head. It was twenty cattle in when he found the first tampered branding. It was only done a few days ago, as the steer was still scabbed over. Jonathan could see the design clearly. Whoever has done this changed the design to look like two eights instead of “S.”

Jonathan came to the house, immediately sat at the table and was handed a plate of food.

“Buzz I need you to head to the sheriffs office right away.” Jon said as he took a swig of his coffee.

“Oh yeah? Why is that?”

“The sheriff needs to come out here, the b.astard has been tampering with my brand.” Jonathan said as he took a bite of his toast without looking at it. He immediately spit it out as it was like eating charred firewood it was so burnt.

“What the h.ell?” Jonathan took a look at his plate for the first time and saw burnt ham, burnt toast. The only thing edible on here looked like the eggs. Jonathan knew he was on thin ice with Abby so he didn’t say anything else. He ate the eggs, and ate most of the ham.

“Sorry big brother, I’ve never been able to cook anything but eggs.” Jonathan looked up at James in shock.

“What are you talking about? Where’s Abby?” There were only a few hands left at the table and they left abruptly.

“She hasn’t came out of her room this morning.” Buzz said. “Did you not apologize to her last night?”

“No she was asleep when I went to bed, and asleep when I got up.” Buzz didn’t say anything else.

“I’ll just head into town, and let the sheriff know what’s going on.” Jonathan nodded his head. Jonathan went upstairs to check on Abby.

“Abby you ok?” When he entered the room she was still laying in the bed with her eyes closed. Jonathan placed his hand on her belly and said,

“I’m sorry.”

Jonathan went back out and finished his work with the herd. He was glad he trusted his instincts, as he only found about thirty or so with that specific brand.

Which meant these men were just starting their work on his farm. He had seen this several times. He worked as a hired g*n once or twice. He knew how these men operated. He needed to talk to his i***t neighbor, he was being used. He also needed a few hired guns himself, he just had to find them.

Jon rode back home, and needed to talk to James. He found him in the kitchen putting together lunch.

“Hey have you talked to any other of our brothers?”

“Yes I have why?” James asked guarded.

“Cause I need their help.” James stopped what he was doing and looked at him.

“What is going on?” Jonathan let out a sigh.

“Some one is coming to try and steal my cattle, I found about thirty cattle with altered brands.” James let out a sigh. “You and I both know that it is just the beginning, it’s not going to be good.”

“No it’s not. Well I have seen Jaime and Josh in Kansas City. I actually wrote to them and let them know where your ranch was. Jaime had talked about coming this way, but he was in Virginia. I’ll write to him again. When I wrote to Josh he had no interest in coming here and having a family reunion. He took the death of Jimmy hard.”

“They were twins, what do you expect?” Jonathan said. Twins ran in his side of the family. Jimmy and Josh were twins, his father was one in a set of twins. So it was likely he would have twins as well.

James just nodded solemnly,

“I’ll write him again and let him know there is trouble.”

“Thanks, wait what are you doing in the kitchen?” Jonathan asked just realizing that it was lunch time and Abby wasn’t in the kitchen preparing lunch.

“Abby hasn’t come down all day, I thought you said you would apologize?”

“D*mn it, she was asleep when I went up there.”

“Well go up there. I mean the poor woman deserves the rest, but you still need to apologize and let her know what’s going on.” Jonathan didn’t think that was the best idea. Abby had a lot on her plate, maybe just apologizing was the way to go. Jonathan headed up the stairs with his tail firmly between his legs and trying to figure out the best way to apologize and fix what he did.