Her Unexpected Soulmate – Extended Epilogue

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Spring 1891

Rue sat on the wagon seat next to John, the wagon bouncing over the sometimes-rough trail causing her to sway and bump into him. She didn’t mind, and he didn’t either. Every time it happened, they grinned at one another. Five years. Five years she’d been married to John Williams, and she had never regretted it, not even a moment. As far she was concerned, the sisters of fate had known what they were doing. She heard an outburst of giggles from the wagon bed and turned to eye her four-year-old twin girls, Cassie and Katie. They took after their father, with heads of dark blond hair and beautiful green eyes.

Her heart overflowed with love and affection, and today, with even greater excitement. They were headed for town and the railway station, where the train from Chicago would be bringing her dear friend Evelyn and her parents. They would rest at the ranch tonight, and then tomorrow, they would ride up into the Black Hills for a picnic. 

Over the years, letters had flown between Rue and Evelyn, each new event instigating another letter. Evelyn was being courted by a gentleman named Percy Johnson and, though she didn’t put it in words, Rue read between the lines and understood that sometime over the next coming months, she would be engaged. Malachi Andrews had rebuilt the restaurant.

As for her part, Rue had kept Evelyn up to date on events in Dakota Territory. A severe drought the summer after she had arrived had hit the Dakotas hard, but because of John’s forethought and planning, he got by. The drought had lasted a couple of years and had come to be known as the great Dakota Bust, which resulted in many settlers leaving the region. Rapid City had endured, and although things had changed a lot over the years, Rue had embraced the town and its people and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. In November 1889, President Harrison had formally admitted both North Dakota and South Dakota into the union, and Pierre had been selected as the capital of South Dakota.

Peace between settlers of the Dakota Territory and the Sioux Indians in the region had been interrupted due to the crop failures and the decrease in beef rations, leaving the Indians living on reservations on the brink of starvation, along with increased resentment. Last summer, the Sioux and Cheyenne had begun performing what they called Ghost Dances. They believed the dances were magical and would bring back the buffalo and their dead ancestors, along with the bonus of pushing the white settlers out of their beloved Paha Sapa, the Black Hills, and the plains surrounding them. Tragedy had struck as fear and confusion had grown, many white settlers believing that the Sioux were planning an uprising. The Army was brought in, and fighting and skirmishes broke out. That fall, the infamous Sitting Bull had been shot and killed. 

Upon hearing of the great leader’s death, the Cheyenne, along with their friends, the Sioux, fled to the Badlands, and more skirmishes ultimately resulted in the Wounded Knee massacre. It was to be the last effort of the Sioux to restore their old way of life, a way of life that was not to be. The buffalo herds were gone, decimated by prolific hunting, and because the buffalo were the prime sustenance for the plains tribes, they could no longer survive. Most reluctantly returned to the reservation lands set aside for them.

Early spring rains had brought hope that this year would prove fruitful for the ranches, the farmers, the cattle, and the crops. Through it all, Rue doted on her family, and, as if it were possible, it seemed that with every dawning day, her love for John and her children grew. She couldn’t imagine life without John by her side. So strong, so steady, always confident, and supportive. She still spent several days a week at the restaurant, not because she needed the money to support the family but because she wanted to be.

Mattie now managed the restaurant with her husband, Nick, and she, too, had a child, a rambunctious, two-year-old boy with ringlet curls and hazel eyes. The child could often be found sitting atop the shoulders of his father in the restaurant, pulling his father’s hair like one would the reins of a horse, guiding him in one direction or another. At the same time, the man tried to conduct business and look after customers.

Sarah Hamilton had given over complete control of the restaurant to Mattie and Nick. Upon her suggestion, she had even added a separate bakery to the building, which also occupied much of Rue’s days. Her reputation in baking pastries, cakes, pies, cookies, and tarts had spread, and the small addition had even gained the attention of the cities’ more wealthy residents and even the mayor. She often baked for people having celebrations, socials, weddings, and fundraisers. Last month, she had even had a request from the mayor of Rapid City himself.

John encouraged her, and they both shared the parenting duties of the children, who seemed to enjoy riding out on the range with her father more than they like being stuck inside the bakery with her, sometimes to her chagrin. The four-year-olds rode double on Thumper, the colt that John had gifted her so many years ago. He was a gentle gelding and had been appropriately named when he grew impatient, often thumping the ground with his hoof.

The wagon bounced hard, and Rue tottered sideways and bumped into John again. This time he laughed and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. “You’re distracted,” he commented.

She nodded. “I am just thinking.” She turned to look at his profile, his skin tanned and leathery, the wrinkles around his eyes a bit more prominent than they had been when they first married, his profile a bit sharper than it had been when they met, but she didn’t care. She looked forward to growing old with John, to the wrinkles and gray hair, of grown children and, if they were blessed, grandchildren as well. As long as she had John by her side, she would deal with anything that life threw her way.

They had a good life, and the ranch was growing every year. John’s foreman ran the ranch most of the time, so he was able to concentrate on the business end of things. It was a good life. Hard sometimes, challenging often, but a good life nevertheless.

They headed through the foothills that rolled from the northwest to the southeast between the ranch and town, nothing but pleasant thoughts on her mind when suddenly, the wagon took a sharp jolt. She heard a loud crack of splintering wood and uttered a startled gasp as she nearly bounced out of her seat. John immediately pulled the team of horses to a halt as she turned to make sure the children were all right. They clung to one another, eyes wide but otherwise safe.

John whispered a low curse, and Rue saw him a frown and scolded him. “John, not in front of the children!”

The irritation left his face, and he turned to her and nodded. He turned to his children. “Everybody out. I think I might’ve busted a wheel. Wait for your mother to help you out.”

With that, Rue climbed from the wagon and reached for her children in the wagon bed, examining the wheels on her side of the wagon. “Nothing looks broken on the side, John.”

“That’s because it’s on this side. I’m going to have to replace the wheel.”

Holding each of her daughters’ hands in hers, Rue stepped around the wagon and saw the crack in two of the spokes of the rear wagon wheel. She nodded, glancing toward the shade of a pine growing a short distance from the trail. “We can wait over there for you to fix it. Do you need my help?”

John shook his head, staring at the wheel. “Don’t think so.”

She stood beside him, the children quiet by her side as she once more eyed the wheel. It was a good thing that John always thought ahead, always tried to anticipate trouble. Bad planning or no planning could get a person into dire straits out here on the prairie. As such, for years, John had always tied an extra wagon wheel underneath the wagon bed, lashed tightly to be out-of-the-way but handy in case it was ever needed.

It was needed now. She was just about to direct the children to sit under the shade as John reached into the wagon bed for his box of tools when she heard the sound of hooves. Several moments later, three riders emerged from around the edge of a hill ahead of them, maybe fifty yards away. They pull to a halt, watching them. Immediately alarmed, Rue stepped to the wagon bench and reached for the rifle that John kept there. She grabbed it and urged the children to stand behind her.

John stood beside her, his thumbs hooked into the waistband of his dungarees, but his casual stance didn’t fool her a bit. His hand was only inches away from the Colt revolver in his holster. Her heart pounded as she stared at the trio of men, ever cautious. They might be an official state now, but South Dakota was still rough around the edges, and bad men still rode the trails. Did these men mean trouble?

One of the men gestured his horse forward at a slow walk. Rue watched them tense. The men looked rough, their clothes dusty, the lead rider’s face was shadowed with a thick growth of whiskers on his cheeks, the other two with full beards. Their hair was long, and all of them, she noted as they were closer, wore guns on their hips and had rifles in their saddle scabbards.

“Mornin’,” the man in front said. 

He stopped his horse, maybe fifteen feet from their wagon. Rue saw him studying the broken wheel, then glancing at John, Rue, and the children, then his eyes returned to John. A slight frown marred his features before he seemed to remember his manners and swept his hat off his head. His companions followed suit.

“Howdy, ma’am,” he said politely.

Rue lifted her chin, though she didn’t break eye contact. “Good morning.”

The man gestured. “You need some help with the wagon, mister?”

Rue sensed John hesitating. Sometimes, friendliness was just that. Friendliness. Other times, it was a trap. While there hadn’t been any incidents of robbery or murder in the area for quite a while, one could never be too careful. Cowboys, disgruntled settlers, and financially ruined farmers and their families crisscrossed the country of late, some returning to their origins back east while others continued to head west and south, looking for greener pastures.

The man dismounted, as did the other two, but they didn’t look threatening, didn’t reach for their guns, and moved slowly, just in case.

“I suppose so,” John said. He glanced at Rue and gestured for her and the children to move toward the tree. “Why don’t you wait in the shade?”

“The name’s Jasper,” the man said. He gestured toward his friends. “This here’s Jared, and that one’s Marty.”

John eyed them, then offered a small nod. “John.”

Jasper looked curiously at John for a moment, then at Rue. “Well. Let’s get this wheel fixed so that you can be on your way.”

Rue didn’t believe that the men meant any harm, but one couldn’t be too careful. The children settled at her feet, but she continued to stand, the rifle held in two hands across her body, ready to aim and shoot at a moment’s notice. That was another skill that she’d learned over the past few years.

She watched as the men bent to help John, little conversation as the three strangers lifted the wagon off its broken wheel while John took a large wrench to remove the lug that held it in place. What would’ve taken John an hour or so to do himself was accomplished in a quarter of that time. When it was finished, John brushing his hands off on his pants, Rue once again noticed Jasper looking curiously at John, his head tilted slightly, a frown on his face.

“You look familiar,” Jasper said.

John looked at him, then at the other two once more as they also stood, watching the two with curiosity. John cast a quick glance at Rue. She waited quietly but alertly as John turned back to the man. “I do?”

“Yes.” The man frowned still more and then shook his head slowly. “You said your name was John. You wouldn’t happen to be John Williams, would you?”

It was John’s turn to frown, and Rue looked more closely at Jasper and his friends. She didn’t recognize any of them.

“I am,” John said. While he didn’t take an aggressive stance, he did look wary. “Why?”

Jasper heaved a sigh, shook his head, and smiled. “The chances of running into you out here…”

“What do you mean?” John said. 

John took another hard look at the man, his eyes narrowing slightly, thinking hard. Then, she saw a flash of recognition in John’s expression. Alarm tingled through her body and she tightened her grip on the rifle.

Jasper nodded.

She noted that the man was careful to keep his hands away from his gun. His two friends stood with their arms crossed over their chests, not aggressively but making it plain that they wanted no trouble. Just a few men stopping to help another on the trail. Rue wondered who these men were and why they seemed to know John.  He still stared at Jasper, his frown deepening.

Jasper grinned. “You recognize me now?” 

John said nothing, but Rue recognized the change in her husband’s demeanor. He stiffened slightly, his body tense. What was happening? Who were these men? Her heart began to thud in her chest. She took another step forward, determined to protect her children if need be.

To her surprise, Jasper suddenly stuck out his hand. “I guess I owe you thanks,” he said.

Confused, almost as if he expected a trick, John slowly extended his hand and shook Jasper’s.

“Why?” 

Jasper sighed, glanced at Rue, then back to John. “You might not remember me, but I used to ride with Shelby Ackerman.” He amended his comment. “Not always, but sometimes.”

John stared at the man. Rue observed John as he tried to place him. He shook his head. “I don’t remember you.”

“I was in Rapid City that night of the…of the fight that ended with that man’s death—“

“That man was my best friend,” John interrupted, his voice hard. “His name was Mike Edwards.”

Jasper nodded, an expression of regret on his face. “Yes. I was putting the horses up in the stable when the trouble occurred.”

Rue stared in dismay at the man. He looked rough, but he didn’t look like he was out for trouble.

“You boys better get going,” John said.

Because she knew John so well, only she heard a slight tremble in his voice. Not a tremble of fear but anger. 

“I agree, but again, I want to thank you.”

“Again, I ask, why?” John said.

The man then glanced at his companions. “Mount up.”

The two friends glanced warily at their friend and then Johnbefore doing as asked. When they were out of earshot but still within Rue’s, he quietly explained.

“After that… trouble, and Ackerman was shot and killed up in Deadwood, by you, by the way, the Sheriff of Rapid City tracked another friend of mine and me down. Although we weren’t involved in the fight that night, or the shoot-out up in Deadwood, we had been involved in some of the robberies.” He paused, looking from John to Rue and back again. “I served my time in jail and just got out a few months ago.” He gazed over the prairie. “A man has a lot of time to think in prison, and I realized that I had wasted years of my life. That’s over now. I’m headed for Kansas to look for honest work.”

The man spoke quietly, John and Rue listening to every word. 

“Well, like I said, I did my time, and I spent that time thinking about what I wanted out of life and to take my second chance and make the best of it as I could.” He paused and awkwardly pulled his hat from his head, swiping his fingers through his hair before planting the hat back on. “I have you to thank for that in a roundabout way. If you hadn’t followed Ackerman up to Deadwood, the Sheriff would never found me, and who knows? I might be dead now too. Anyway, I’m starting over.”

John didn’t say anything for several moments. Finally, he spoke. “Well, you did your time. I hope you stay out of trouble, and I wish you luck.”

Rue was proud when she saw John slowly extend his hand. Jasper’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, but then he shook John’s hand.

Jasper looked John in the eye as he spoke. “I’m sorry about your friend.”

With that, Jasper turned and strode back to his horse, which he mounted without glancing at his companions. The three of them turned their horses to the south and rode off, leaving a cloud of dust trailing after them.

Rue walked up to John, the girls trailing behind. She tucked the rifle back under the wagon seat and then turned to him, stepping close and wrapping her arms around his waist. He returned the hug, her ear pressed against his chest. She heard his steady heartbeat beneath it and clung even tighter. After everything that had happened, she was supremely grateful that she and John were together. She knew that John often thought of Mike and the might-have-beens, but he remembered Mikeas the happy-go-lucky friend of his youth more often than not.

“Are you all right?” she asked softly.

“I am.”

His voice rumbled up from the depths of his chest, and she looked up at him, love filling her heart. “I love you, John.”

He nodded and peered down at her. “And I love you too.”

“What about us?”

Both of them looked down at Cassie and laughed. Rue reached down for Cassie and lifting her into her arms while John did the same with Katie. He met Rue’s eyes and smiled. 

“Well, I suppose we’d best get going. We don’t want your friends to have to wait for us at the station, do we?”

“No,” Rue laughed, shaking her head. Still amazed by what had just happened, she helped the girls into the wagon bed and climbed back onto the wagon seat. She couldn’t wait to see Evelyn. Her heart burst with love and pride as John whistled to the horses, and the team started moving forward, the wagon jerking slightly as they continued on their way. 

John turned to her with a knowing grin. “You going to ask them to stay?”

Rue looked up at him with a smile. “I don’t see why not. After all, we’re quite civilized out here now, aren’t we?” She shook her head, gazing out over the plains, at the rippling grasses, and in the near distance, the rising spires of the Black Hills. “The state is growing. We could use people like them.”

“You think they’d consider moving here? After all, he’s got the restaurant in Chicago.”

She shrugged. “Evelyn told me that it was doing well. No reason he can’t have two restaurants, and heaven knows that Rapid City is growing fast enough. It might be nice to have some friendly competition, don’t you think?”John laughed.

Rue sobered. “I took a chance and came out here, and now I can’t imagine being anywhere else.” She paused, glancing at John and then over her shoulder to her children. “After all, it was the best decision I’ve ever made, wasn’t it?”

John wrapped his arm around Rue and nodded in agreement. “It sure was, Rue. It sure was.”

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