by Leigh Smith
Lily Rose had been living in Greystone for over a year but it wasn't home. What do I have to show for all that time? she asked herself. She picked up her journal and began to read. How she missed having someone to love and someone to love her, someone brave and true like her Johnny. Would she ever find that again, she could only hope.
Little Johnny Billings and his family had headed west to start a new life. The promise of vast open spaces and nothing but wilderness waiting to be tamed called to many, and wagon trains began crossing from east to west quite regularly. Unfortunately, some of those wide open spaces either crossed through, or were, Indian territory. Promises and treaties made between the US Government and the Indian tribes were continually broken as more and more settlers headed west. It wasn't long before the fragile peace forged between the white man and the Indian vanished along with the broken promises.
In spite of the many hazards, wagon trains filled with settlers hoping for a better life continued their westward journey. They traveled at their own peril. While some trains traversed the entire breadth of the country from east to west without a single Indian sighting, others were attacked and vanquished, not only by Indians but by disease, cattle thieves or outlaws in general. Some managed to complete their journey while others were decimated, leaving behind only the unburied dead and burned out wagons strewn across the land to mark their passing.
Unfortunately, the Billings' wagon train was one of the unlucky ones. Johnny and his friend, Luke, who had been away from the wagons hunting when the train was attacked, were the only survivors. They returned to find their families dead and very few possessions left to salvage.
Horse soldiers out on patrol arrived too late to ward off the band of renegades. They found the two boys searching for anyone or anything that might have survived the onslaught. Some of the soldiers left to try to catch whoever was responsible for the attack while a few stayed behind and helped the boys bury their families and gather whatever was salvageable. Sgt. Francis William Culhane, a wily old coot who had been with the cavalry since he was a young lad, was in charge of the soldiers left behind. He led the remaining members of the patrol, along with the boys, back to the fort. Since the boys were only eleven at the time, they were too young to be left alone but not old enough to be treated as men. The commanding officer would decide what was to become of them until other family members could be contacted.
Care of the boys was left to Sgt. Culhane. He had always been assigned the newest recruits, so to him, it wasn't much different. This patrol was to be his last before he retired. However, he agreed to stay on until the boys were safely back with their relatives. After months, when no word from relatives was forthcoming, he took them to his family home in Green Haven, Kentucky.
Life with Sarge was not always easy. He was a strict but caring taskmaster and loved Luke and Johnny like the children he never had. He taught them how to do many of the things they'd need once they were on their own. By the time they were eighteen, they were ready to spread their wings. Johnny wanted to fulfill his parent's dream of heading west, and with the help of Sarge and the things he had taught him, was hired as a scout for a wagon train heading to Oregon. Luke was still considering his options and stayed in Kentucky.
It was on Johnny's first trip as a scout for the wagon train that he met Lily Rose Cochrane. Growing up as the pampered daughter of the proprietors of the Sweet Grass General Store, Lily Rose could be sweet and docile one minute and thorny as hell the next. The year she turned fifteen, her mother took sick and her life changed drastically after that. It fell to Lily Rose to take on the task of nursing her mother as well as taking over her duties at the store. Her father began to rely on her more and more and to do less and less. He drowned his sorrows in whiskey, and by the time her mother passed from consumption a year later, her father was a full-fledged alcoholic.
As usual, Lily Rose was working at the Sweet Grass General Store when Johnny came in to purchase some supplies. Johnny Billings immediately noticed the beautiful young girl behind the counter. She wore her chestnut hair in a single long braid that almost reached her waist. Soft tendrils had escaped, framing her face. He yearned to feel their softness and stroke that creamy white skin. He found himself staring into hazel eyes and was brought up short by a sharp voice.
"What are you looking at, cowboy? Can I help you find something?"
He was taken aback by the harshness of the voice coming from a gal who hardly seemed capable of uttering such words. He quickly turned away, embarrassed at being caught, and started to search the aisles for the supplies he needed. Finding them, he brought them to the counter, quickly paid and left the mercantile. He chided himself for not being more responsive because it was unlikely he would cross paths with her again.
On his last free night before the wagon train left for Oregon, Johnny went back into Sweet Grass to share a meal and a quick round of poker with some of his fellow wagon train mates. He wasn't ready for the saloon doors to swing open and almost ran into the people coming out. He immediately began apologizing and was shocked when he saw it was the gal from the mercantile. What's she doing in this place and coming out holding up a drunk old enough to be her father? he thought to himself.
"Can I be of some assistance, Miss?" he asked.
"Mind your own business, cowboy. I know what I'm doing and this isn't the first time," came the reply, and she kept on walking past him.
"Some girls need to be taught some manners," he called out to her departing back.
If she heard him, she didn't acknowledge his remark. When the barkeep took their order, he asked about the girl. That explains it, he said to himself as the bartender told him the story. He'd like to see if Miss Lily Rose Cochrane had a soft spot and was sorry he was leaving the next day, before he could explore the possibility.
When Johnny returned to Sweet Grass after he finished his scouting job, his first stop was the mercantile to look up Miss Lily Rose. She was never far from his mind on the entire trip to Oregon and back. He walked in and there she was, all flushed from the heat of the day and those soft tendrils framing her face, just like the first time he saw her.
More seasoned now and not the shy man of the previous year, he stepped up to the counter. After a few moments, she looked up from tallying a column of figures. Those hazel eyes had a touch of weariness to them that wasn't there the year before.
"Can I help you?" came that voice.
"Yes, you can. I don't know if you remember, but I came in last year."
"A lot of cowboys come through here. Why would you think I would remember you?"
"Still prickly, I see," he said.
She cast him a look that was meant to cower him, but it didn't work. She repeated her request if she could help him.
"I'd like to get to know you and I'll begin by asking you to join me for dinner at the hotel this evenin'."
"You're awfully bold, considering I don't even know your name. And the least you could have done before coming in here was take a bath and get a shave."
Johnny looked at himself and realized he should have at least brushed off some of the trail dust before searching out Lily Rose, but after months of thinking about her, he couldn't wait. He smiled at her snappishness and looked forward to the possibility of taming this churlish twit of a gal.
"What are you grinning at?" she queried.
"I now know why you're still here at the mercantile. Not many men would put up with your sass."
"How do you know I'm not married or engaged?"
"Well, for one, there's not a ring on your finger, and two, no self-respectin' fiancé would leave you alone here with all the trail hands in town."
She looked at him. "You being one of those trail hands. You think you're so smart. Why do you want anything to do with me if I'm so damn rude?"
"Because I'd like to think I could break through some of that attitude. I'm patient and have had good luck with spirited horses and trainin' 'em to be manageable mounts."
"Now you're comparing me to a horse. You have a funny way of asking a lady to accompany you to dinner, Mr. ..."
"Billings, Mr. John Billings," he told her. "What do you say?"
"Come back after you've bathed and shaved and I'll give you my answer then." She twirled and walked through the curtain to the back of the store.
Lily Rose decided that if Johnny Billings came courting, she'd accept his dinner invitation and a proposal if one was forthcoming. He could be her ticket out of Sweet Grass. If she could put up with her drunken father, she figured she could put up with any man. Living out her days taking care of a drunk and a store was more than she could handle alone. It wasn't her idea of life. If she weren't around to pick up the pieces of the life her father was throwing away, maybe, just maybe, he would stop drinking. If not, she wouldn't be around to watch him decline further.
Johnny Billings was sure Lily Rose would accept his invitation. After a bath and shave, he slicked back his hair, donned a clean shirt and brushed the trail dust off his hat and boots. This time, he deemed his appearance presentable for Miss Lily Rose Cochrane. Passing by the saloon on the way to the mercantile, some of the bar girls were hanging around the swinging doors. Hearing their catcalls and invitations to buy them a drink or twirl them around the dance floor, gave him the courage he felt slipping away the closer he got to the mercantile.
He nodded and smiled but kept on walking. He wasn't the best looking man by any means, but his smile and relaxed manner more than made up for any shortcomings. On his latest journey, many of the single ladies on the wagon train sought him out and if it wasn't for meeting Lily Rose, he might already be hooked.
He was surprised to find the closed sign in the shop window. Seeing a cowbell attached to the door, he pulled the string.
"Go away. We're closed," he heard a gruff voice call out.
He rang the bell again. "Goddammit, I said we're closed," came the voice again. He heard scuffling and the door jerked open.
"What the hell do you want?" He recognized the man he learned was Lily Rose's father.
"I'm John Billings." He extended his hand to the man. "I'm here to call on Miss Lily Rose Cochrane." The man ignored his hand and was about to close the door in his face when Lily Rose arrived.
"It's okay, Pappa. Mr. Billings invited me to dinner over at the hotel and I'm going." She started out the door.
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