Free A Heart Renewed by Karen Baney Page B

Mrs. Colter at all times.  As he introduced each man, she greeted them as she would any man, Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Convington.  After a few snickers, Will whispered in her ear that it was not necessary to be so formal with them.  Several went by their last names, except for the two youngest, Jed and Hawk.  Oh, and there was Snake.  And the Mexicans went by their first names as well.  She felt odd at first when she addressed the men thusly, but she gradually became accustomed to it, though she had very little interaction with them since the first day.

    The trip to Prescott proved more productive than Will hoped.  He and Ben were able to find three more men.  One he would keep on permanently, if he worked out.  His name was Warren Cahill.  Seems he had worked on a ranch prior to seeking his fortune in mining.  Said he found mining to be a whole lot more work than ranching.  Will would send Cahill with Ben on the drive.
    The other man that would head out on the drive with Ben was Simon Palmer.  Though he had no experience with cattle, he was good with horses.  Will decided Palmer would be the wrangler for this drive, freeing up Covington to ride with the herd.
    The third man he hired was Ian Flanagan.  Obviously Irish, from the name and his speech, he looked as solid as a tree.  He had a sister with him who was taking a job in town for the time being.  He said he’d be more than happy to work as the night guard until Will’s men returned from the drive.  Then he said he’d be looking for work in town.
    Dismounting Jackson, his favorite horse, Will had to admit Ben was right this morning.  He had been foolish to think he should go on the drive to California.  He was tired just from the half day in town and his headache had returned.  No doubt he still was not fully himself after the accident.
    About six weeks ago he had been riding out on the eastern edge of his property when Jackson spooked.  He was thrown from the horse.  Normally, that wouldn’t have caused him much more than a bruised hind end and bruised ego.  Unfortunately, when he landed on the ground, he hit his head hard on a rock.  It was two weeks before he woke up.  When he had, he struggled to remember a few things at first.  Eventually, most everything came back to him.
    Everything except his ability to read.  It was so odd.  He was still able to manage the ledgers and calculate sums and distances—anything mathematical.  At least he thought he retained those skills.  Maybe he should have Hannah double check the ledgers just to be certain.  But when it came to reading words on a page, like in his Bible, he just could not make sense of the words, not even old familiar passages.
    And he missed it.
    He missed being able to read his Bible on his own.  Before the wedding, Jed and Hawk took turns reading scripture to him in the morning.  Since Hannah was now at his side, she took over that role.  In the evening, she insisted they spend an hour working on his reading skills.  She seemed to think he was improving, but Will disagreed, still frustrated over having lost the ability.
    Besides not being fully healthy, he would have been miserable if he left Hannah to go on the drive.  In the week since their wedding, he wanted to spend more and more time at home.  He even took himself off of the rotation for herding the cattle, something he thought he would never do.  Though, he would have to help out again when the men left on the drive.
    When he stopped working with the cattle, he started working on building up the horse breeding and training business.  While he knew a little about training horses, he certainly did not know as much as Adam Larson.  Hopefully the young man was on his way west.  He had not received any returned correspondence from Larson to the offer he made back in June.  Despite having regular mail service within the territory, communication outside of the territory seemed very slow.
    There was no rule anywhere that