Free Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson Page A

all of the acres around the town of Cayote are for sale.” Ella paused. “There is no free land near Cayote, Mr. Drake.”
    Mama stood up beside her. “Shame on you. You must have known that. Why didn’t you tell us?”
    “Well, now”—Drake reached up to loosen his collar—“ ‘near to town’ means something different out here than it does in St. Louis. Homesteaders out here think nothing of driving a dozen miles just to go to a dance.” He glanced Mrs. Haywood’s way. “Isn’t that true, Mrs. Haywood?”
    “True or not,” Mrs. Haywood said, “we both know there isn’t any free land around Cayote, and these ladies seem fairly certain you said there was.”
    Ella gestured around the table. “You promised free land near town. And you knew very well what we heard when you said that.”
    “Eighteen dollars in filing fees,” Ruth Dow offered. “One hundred and sixty acres free and clear in five years’ time. That’s what I heard.”
    “It’s what the law says,” Ella added.
    Caroline spoke up. “But you never gave the law much thought, did you, Mr. Drake? You never expected the land to be a problem because you’ve assumed we’ll all get married right away. In fact, you’ve all but promised that to the men who received this telegram, haven’t you?” She waved the paper in the air.
    Ruth’s voice wavered as she said, “And you shooed those men off the platform today for fear they’d give away the real meaning behind the Ladies Emigration Society before you had a chance to collect even more money on Friday.”
    Drake’s eyes darted around the table. He swallowed. “You have misunderstood my intentions.”
    Sally sat back and folded her arms. “I’m listening. You gonna explain?”
    When Drake nodded and said he would “gladly” explain, Ella and Mama sat back down.
    Drake cleared his throat. “The telegram was meant to provide a possible—and I emphasize that word ‘possible’—alternative for those of you who might have been somewhat . . . daunted, shall we say, by the landscape as we came west. I well remember the look on your faces when we crossed the burned prairie. Why, I half expected some of you to have turned back by now. And who would blame you? It seemed only reasonable that having some unmarried gentlemen meet the train in Cayote might provide yet another alternative. One that might be attractive—”
    “To who? To someone with an idea to sell first dances?” Sally’s cheeks flushed red as she said, “I made it real clear at the meetin’ I attended that I don’t want no man, and you was wrong to bring me out here thinkin’ you could change my mind.” She paused. “And fer yer information, who I do and do not dance with is not up to any two-legged, low-down—”
    Drake interruped. “I assure you, Mrs. Grant, that no one is going to force you to—”
    “Well, at least you got one thing right,” Sally snapped. “I’m not takin’ one more step in any direction you got a thing to do with.”
    Mavis Morris warbled, “I want that return ticket.”
    “So do I.” Mrs. Smith and three others spoke in unison.
    Drake closed his eyes in a pose that made Ella think of the minister at Milton’s church. She never had liked that man.
    Taking a deep breath, he insisted, “You have misjudged both me and the fine citizens of Cayote. Especially considering that you haven’t so much as seen —”
    “I’ve seen,” Mavis said. “Just like you said: burned prairie and flat land. I wouldn’t leave a dog I didn’t like out here.”
    “Even St. Louis had its beginning, Mrs. Morris. A few years from now—”
    But Mavis wasn’t having any of it. “St. Louis also had a navigable river and trees,” she retorted even as she stretched her arms wide and motioned around them. “There’s nothing outside these four walls but grass and sky.”
    “Actually . . .” The one-armed stranger blocking the doorway spoke up, his voice a gentle rumble. “You may not have seen it yet,