I have a small ranch right along the west side of the Platte River in the middle of Nebraska. The area is not the most safe at times. Indians come into the area on a regular basis. Some are friendly but most are not. I have been here five years now and I have an Indian beside my north fence for nearly every month I have been on my place. It is not a place to have a family.
I had lived on my ranch for over four years alone. I crossed over into Colorado for some more cattle to buy and stopped into the saloon for a drink and to check out the female workers. It had been longer than I'd care to admit since I had seen a pretty female, let alone had anything close to more than a tip of my hat and a nod.
I had no more than stepped up to the bar when I had a hand on my arm and a smile looking up at mine. I had to rethink my thinking to wow where did this come from? Girls who work in saloons are rarely beautiful. And rarely even pretty and they age quickly having sex with anyone and everyone.
This woman was young and beautiful. I could not get her upstairs fast enough. She was every bit as beautiful naked as she is with clothes. As I enjoyed her sexually I talked with her about why she was working there? She explained she had no where else to go. Her husband had been killed in a fall from his horse and she couldn't take care of the place by herself. She had come to town and offered herself up to the owner. She had been working for him for seven months now as one of his girls.
I got my cows bought and was trying to hire a couple riders to help drive them home. Id been back to see Mary McGreggor was her name, and I was quite taken with her. I went back to see Mary a third time and as I enjoyed her I casually ask if she might consider ranch life again?
"Yes Mr. Johnson I would be interested in ranch life again. Did you have something in as a cook in mind?"
"No Mrs. McGreggor I had something more as a wife in mind."
"Oh my God Rafert Johnson are you asking me to marry you?"
"Yes Mary I am."
"I am a whore in a saloon Rafe."
"Well you were a ranch wife before you became a saloon whore. I recon you could return to being a ranch wife. It might not be as exciting as whoring? Have you enjoyed your whoring Mary?"
"I do hate to admit I have enjoyed it some."
"Well Mary you could maybe enjoy both? I just hired two hands that I'd like to keep on so you could maybe do both?"
After we were married we walked back up to the saloon to get Mary's things we were met by the saloon owner who felt he owned her. He told us so and grabbed her arm to show us so.
I stepped back a step and said calmly to him.
"Mister, I just married this young lady and I will ask you to please take your hand off her arm now."
"Just who the fuck you think you are boy, Take a hike before I hurt you."
"I happen to be Rafe Johnson. Bar man and your friends are just as close to being dead as you'll ever be."
His hand jumped off Mary's arm like it was hot. And he began to cuss a stream as good as a man can do. Something about his luck being very bad. But his hands stayed high and away from his gun.
I casually suggested he was alive and he might not have been. He turned and went into the back.
I bought a new horse for my new wife and the four of us headed our small herd of cows toward home. Besides my new wife I had added two hands to my ranch. Marvin Branch is more than twenty years older than my 30 years. A short thick man with lots of hair on his face and very little on his head. Not a homely man but not good looking and one who reportedly could be hard to get along with. I just planned to see if he was a man I wanted to try to keep.
Jamie Hook was just turned 18 and full of it.. An average size kid looking to fit in someplace. He couldn't keep his eyes off my new wife. She knew he was quite taken with her. She was nearer his age than my own. Mary had whispered in my ear the first night out of Colorado that my having a whore for a new wife would likely be handy for one of our new hands who had his eyes on her all the time. I laughed and whispered back that she was also a focus for our other hand as well.
I had seen Marvin's eyes on Mary's back side at the fire that first night out too. My young wife coming from the saloon and being comfortable with her working relationship with men would likely need to soon come into play.
I really didn't have any problem with my new wife being with my two new ranch hands sexually. When we had talked about it before we'd married I thought it made perfect sense for her to service their sexual needs for them.
The next evening we camped beside a small stream and let the cattle drink their fill and the moved them back from the water. As Mary put beans and beef in a pot to simmer I told her I would take first watch on he cows and she wanted to bathe up stream a bit from where they had watered.