Rebellion in the Valley Read Online Free Page A

or do you have the notion to fill yer belly
on some of Ethel’s apple pie?”
    Ethel made herself a favorite for a couple of
years back; she made the best pie ever - but they wouldn’t dare
mention it in front of Richard. She layered hers deep in cinnamon
and sugar. As a real treat, the woman topped it off with a generous
helping of vanilla ice cream, which was an item the ranch did not
have very often.
    Halfway down the dirt street, Bruce heard the
train a few hundred yards behind them. He turned to get a good look
at it, but only saw the heavy black smoke pouring out from the coal
engine over the brown-topped roofs of buildings on either side of
the street.
    “Who ever thought we’d see something like
that runnin’ through a civilized town, huh, Tobias?” he asked with
a jerk of his thumb. “Just amazing.”
    He paused a moment to allow a woman in a
heavy-looking green and white calico dress to pass by, tipped his
hat to her.
    Tobias nodded his head to the woman and
lowered his eyes out of respect until she has passed by them before
they crossed the street and made their way to the wooden-planked
walkway lining the storefronts.
    The younger of the two men spied the shops he
was anxious to explore and found the one stocked with all the
equestrian gear a rancher could ever dream about.
    Bruce caught the way his friend eyed the
front window of the shop and reminded him to get what he
needed.
    “Now, I mean it, Tobias. I don’t reckon we’ll
be back to town for another six months, what with the winter
coming, on. You fill your list, you hear me?”
    Blessed to work for such a generous man, he
parted ways with Bruce until dinnertime and made his way into the
equestrian storefront, list in hand.
    The owner of the Red Bone Ranch turned his
attention and walked past the empty lot between the Webb &
Thurman store and McGee’s & Mack’s Feed Store, making a mental
note to stop in the feed store before he left town to ask about
enough trees for a sizable apple crop come spring.
    When Bruce found his daughter, she stood
perched in front of a tall glass cabinet housing several glass
bottles of various fragrances, colors, and sizes. Just the sight of
it caused one of his eyebrows to arch when he wondered how females
went about their selection process in such feminine matters.
    This should be a mother’s place, he shook his
head as he kept his fatherly role distant at the back of the store;
even a father could see she hadn’t chosen quite as many items as
she wanted to; she appeared to be having a great amount of
difficulty in deciding whether or not to get the fragrance in the
tall greenish bottle or the shorter rose-colored one. She held the
shorter bottle in her hands, indicating that she was close to
making her mind up to take that fragrance.
    When he saw the store clerk wrapping all the
items in butcher paper, Bruce made his way to the shelves lined in
books, confident that his daughter had taken care of her most
delicate needs.
    Choosing, in the end, one last amber-colored
bottle, both father and daughter made their final selections and
paid for them at the wooden counter in the back of the store.
    Handing the store owner some cash, Bruce
inquired about how his children were and asked him to please send
his greetings back home to the wife.
    “I’ll stop by before we head back up the pass
to settle up with you for the charges my ranch hands sign for,
Todd,” Bruce reminded the man as he reached out to shake his
hand.
    “That sounds fine, Bruce, sounds fine,” he
agreed.
    The pair turned with packages in tow and
found the sun already setting.
    “Tobias wondered about that steak and taters
place down there,” he pointed to the end of Main Street. “How’s
that sound for dinner?”
    Hailee would eat mud-covered biscuits if
Tobias suggested them.
    “Sounds great to me. When are we supposed to
meet up with everyone else, Daddy? And are we staying at Cassiday’s
hotel again?”
    Bruce grinned. He certainly enjoyed