Braxton's Run: Cattle, Whiskey and Women

Chapter Two

"Some people care about what other people think, worry 'bout what they'll say. Let a little gossip running from a loose lip ruin a perfect day. Saying blah, blah, blah just a jacking their jaws gotta let it roll offa my back. I don't give a darn what other people think, what do ya think about that?"

Laura couldn’t believe her own actions as she quickly made her way to the outskirts of town and into her father’s large home. She had just dumped a bucket of cold well water on a complete stranger! What if he had jumped up and shot her? He could have been a murderer for all she knew…. She must be more stressed and aggravated than she realized for her to have done such a thing to someone who truly hadn‘t done anything to her. She was walking past her fathers office when his booming voice called from behind the closed door.

“Come on in here, Laura. We need to talk.” Laura bit her lip hard and fought the urge to run away. Having a ‘talk’ with her father meant that he was going to tell her the way he wanted things done and then force her to leave his sight before she could offer her opinion on the matter because she was only a woman and therefore had no say in her own life.

Sometimes she hated that she had been born a woman here in Texas… Back east she was sure that women were treated more fairly than they were out here on the frontier. She was just as good and able as any man and she wished her father would realize that.

“Hi, papa.” she said as she stepped into his office. He offered her a smile as he motioned for her to sit in the chair across from him. Laura sat down, smoothing her skirts around her and laying her sketchbook down in her lap. She folded her hands over it and looked at her father expectantly.

“Why is your skirt wet my dear?” he asked with a raise of his graying brow. Laura flushed and wiped at the splotches of water.

“A wagon splashed me as I was coming down the road.” she lied. There was no way she’d tell her father what she had done to that poor drunken stranger. He would probably tan her hide.

“You should be more careful.” he scolded and Laura nodded.

“Yes sir. What were wanting to talk about this morning? I thought you had an important meeting with the other railroad holders about hiring the Pinkertons?”

“Yes I do.” Maynard Greene replied as he smoothed out the front of his gray suit and then looked at her with concern. “Are you okay? I heard about the rather compromising situation Lucas was caught in this morning.”

“Oh, you mean the compromising situation where he was caught sneaking out of the whorehouse window when we are supposed to be getting married this fall? That situation?” Maynard winced.

“Yes that situation. The man cares for you Laura, it’s just that some men have a harder time giving up their vices than others do.”

“You are my father. You’re supposed to go gunning for any man who breaks my heart.” Laura said with disbelief.

“And if he had broken your heart I would have but I know that you do not love him enough to be heartbroken.” Maynard countered.

“If you know I do not love him then why are you insisting I marry him?”

“Because you are twenty-seven years old, nearly twenty-eight and you are well past the marriageable age. I am getting older everyday and want to see my only child married and know that she is going to be taken care of whenever something happens to me. Lucas is a good man deep down. He is a wealthy man and he has plenty of pull in the Texan government to secure your positions in society…..”

“He doesn’t mind that I’m an old maid and is willing to marry me anyway because of the large sum of money he’ll make by doing so.” Laura added. She loved her father but this was one area they could not agree on. Laura was dead set that she would not marry Lucas. No matter what her father and Lucas thought but both of them were dead set that she would.