Arizona Territory

Chapter 1

"Everthing Happens For A Reason"
                                                       "Anonymous"

The ranch house was even bigger than we could imagine. A two story house with a verander at the front. A large barn with horses I presume, a chicken coup and a large field of cattles. To the West of the land had a large garden which I'll be happy to take care of. I was scared to be honest my brother and I we're moving to the other side of the country to a place we ever only read about. But we didn't exactly have a choice, it was hard leaving the only place we knew but there was nothing left for us in that town. We were known as the broke siblings, pretty dumb name if you ask me but I guess it summed up our life.

....."and this is my sister Ella", I only heard the last of the conversation because I was day dreaming as usual.

"Hi" as you could tell by now am not really good with people. I tend to say what's on my mind a lot and according to the people of Red County, young ladies like me need to learn to filter my words, whatever that means.

....... "She gets distracted a lot". Once again I only heard the end of the sentence because I was in my head again.

"Sorry, this is just a lot to take in. I never been here before so you can understand my fascination." I think that was a good save right me talking about this place.

"It's alright", said my brothers Forman also known as Peter as my grandfather said in his letter.

"I'll let you guys tour the house and then when you come out I'll give you a tour of the land. You wouldn't be able to see all of it in a day but I'll show you the important stuff."

"Thank you" said my brother.

I rushed inside the house because as soon as we made it here, this was the only thing I could stare at, it was just so beautiful for a house.

"Pick any room you want Ella, you have first dibs." My brother always does this, put my needs before his but for once in my life I wanna do something nice for him.

"No you have first dibs, go pick out the best room with the best view. You deserve it Charlie for taking care of me all these years."

"Your my sister of course I was going to take care of you." Before I cried like a little baby I hugged my brother real tight and sent him up the stairs to pick a room. Judging by how many doors I saw when I reached on top of the stairs, I'd say he'll take a while to actually pick a room. So I sat on the floor not very ladylike but who cares and waited until he had enough time to pick. About ten minutes later my brother came out of a room with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"I take it you found your room" I said.

"Yes come see quick" he said with a laugh, "I've never seen a bed so big" he explained. Like I said we were pretty poor but we survived, looks like someone is looking out for us.

This room was like our living room and kitchen in one that's how big it was. "Wow" was the only thing that could come out of my mouth right now. "This room is amazing Charlie."It had a big bed right next to a window that was really big as well, a dresser to the opposite side of the bed a changing room for a girl and alot more things I don't want to go into detail with.

A loud laugh bubbled out of my mouth when I saw this. "Well Charlie looks like you need to find a wife," I said while still laughing.

"Quit your laughing will you I'll move that out as soon as possible and put it in a room you choose," Charlie said with his face bright red, "and I don't need a wife."

"Watever you say brother, whatever you say." I wondered out of his room and into the rest looking for a room suitable to my taste. It was lovely just like Charlie's own. Turns out my grandfather had a thing for big windows because this room was no different.

"Come on Ella let's hitch the horses and tour our land." My brother said with a weird look on his face. "What's wrong?" I said and gently rest a hand on his shoulder. "We'd be on the streets right now if we...."

"Hey stop thinking about that were okay now you just have to learn the ropes of running a ranch and we'll be fine Charlie, no jinxing our luck right now we're doing good."

"Alright sis we have a ranch to run." We ran down the stairs like a bunch of toddlers and burst through the front door startling poor Peter of his horse.

"What in tarnation" Peter said from the floor looking up at us. Charlie stuttered out an apology while I was trying to catch my breath from laughing so hard.

A jab to my ribcage stopped all laughing immediately and I also apologized for startling him.

Peter stood up from the ground and dusted of his pants. "There's a horse hitched for you Charlie," I looked around saw that there indeed was only one horse hitched so I voiced my thoughts." Where's mine? Peter looked confused and said "Your what, I was going to show the lad around the ranch."

"So what about me?" I asked

"See to it that you have a late lunch ready for your us when we returned," And he even had the audacity to tell Charlie to mount up to go. By now I was seeing red I knew we were still in the 18's but equality was given to both woman and men not all things for woman but riding a horse certainly wasn't frown upon.

"Look here you in-," I didn't get to finish my sentence when my brother jumped in.

"Peter go get my sister a horse and don't you dare hitch a side saddle," he said angrily. "My sister could ride a horse very well and any other disrespect towards her you'll find your self without a job."

To say I was shocked was an understatement I never seen my brother this angry before. "I hate people who thinks men are inferior to woman, they should treat them with respect not like a slave."
I stood quietly to the side because to be honest I don't really know what to say, well there's always a first time for everything.

"And this here is the north pasture we have to move the cattle here by next week because they finished with the grass on the West." Charlie nods silently listening and taking in all he has to know to run this ranch. After the whole awkward thing back at the house they some how put it behind them for now.

Am riding a black stallion and he's a beauty. His name is Prince, fitting name for a magnificent creature.

It took another hour and a half for us to see the important parts of the land and by that time I was plum exhausted. Peter was showing us the east pasture when I kinda saw the outline of a house in the distance.

"Hey Peter is that our neighbor way over there," I pointed out.

"That's the Silver Tale Ranch, second largest, yours being the largest of course. He said proudly, Jack Sterling is the name of the owner."

"We should go over to introduce ourselves," exclaimed my brother.

"I don't think that's a good idea boyo, Sterling there doesn't like anybody as a matter of fact he doesn't even go into town. Nobody really remembers how he looks like. He keeps to himself and he only has two ranch hands on that land with him. I heard they fought in the war."

"Wow so he doesn't like to talk to people or something" I said.

"It's not that he doesn't want to talk to people its just that he keeps to himself, those who has the pleasure of talking to him says he's a handsome guy and is very polite."

"He's handsome eh Peter, you like him" I said while raising my eyebrows.

"W-what no!" he exclaimed.

"Why are you getting so defensive then,"He looked at me with wide eyes and was about to respond when my brother butted in
"Ella that's enough stop making fun of Peter."

Peter composed himself and said "Well kids that's all the important stuff you need to see and know for the time being, but with time you'll know every inch off this ranch.

We headed backed to the house where our journey is now about to begin.