Chapter 2

Sully was a youngtwenty-one–year-old miner. He'd had a hard time over the years and had missed many of the privileges that other youths had had. He'd been alone, other than when he and Daniel Simon had teamed up travelling west to seek their fortunes. Two young boys pitting their abilities against the whole untamed Wild West. Adults would try to exploit and rob them blind; paying them less than their labour was worth. Eventually they just moved on answering to no one only themselves. Daniel was the schemer with the big ideas and Sully was the doer so they made a great team and together they had survived despite all the odds.

His entire small family from the old country was all gone by the time he'd reached the age of ten. First his Pa, a farmer who was crushed by the big city of New York, died. Then his older brother died in front of his eyes by that horse when his foot stuck in the stirrup. Then his broken hearted mother went down to the river, never intending to come home again. Why'd she do it when she still had him he could never fathom. He blamed himself; he just wasn't good enough to be loved. He'd been there comforting her after his long day hauling coal off the big ships at the docks. He gave her all his meagre wages weekly to buy food, clothing and the warmth they needed in the severe winters and pay the rent for the drafty shack they called home. But his love couldn't stop her crying and being sad. She couldn't have loved him or why did she drown herself?

At ten he did not know what to do or how to help his Ma. He had been tortured by this until now. The unfathomable thought for him was that if you loved a child why would you deliberately kill yourself leaving them to be an orphan? If he was ever lucky enough he would do all in his power to let his child know they were loved and cherished; this much he knew with every fibre in him. Nobody, no real woman could love him; he didn't *deserve* love did he? His Ma obviously didn't *love* him. If he was ever lucky enough though to have the true love of a woman he'd let her know that he loved and adored her till he died. He'd forever be grateful for her love; she would always know this by his actions.

Daniel had his own sad past but that was another story.

They finally had arrived at the silver mine at Pikes Peak. Both youths had a unique ability to pick up and use information really quickly. Hence young Sully had accelerated through to being a powder monkey, the term used for a man able to use explosives. He had a head for numbers and was reliable as well as cautious in his work, having seen too many accidents where men died needlessly through others taking risks and not taking enough care. He had a will to survive that was brought on by his determination to show the world that a *Sully* had made it despite the odds being stacked against him.

….

Abigail Bray had been a small girl when her folks had come to the frontier settlement of Colorado Springs. She had watched as her Pa had built the mercantile and stocked it, becoming a powerful man in this isolated community. She had been lonely as her Ma was one of a handful of women who had come out West with their men. There were a few children mainly farmer's children. They stayed on the farms helping establish a living on the cleared land. That was why she had few opportunities to socialize other than when the Church arrived years later. Then the only social events were those run by the church and of course the Sunday service.

It had been an inhospitable existence, and once a year they had made the stage coach ride to Denver to peer into the huge shop fronts at the latest fashions, unsuitable for their way of life at home. Although, her Papa would indulge her whims and buy her that latest doll dressed from London or Paris.

Her two aunties and cousins she rarely saw. Maybe once in her life she'd met her Pa's sister Olive who was crazy enough to reside in Mexico. Her Ma's married sister Dorothy had brought her children to visit once although they didn't live too far from Colorado Springs. Abigail had picked up that there had been some tension between the adults but had enjoyed the company of her cousins. The girls actually looked down their noses at her as she was a little younger but Tom and she had hit it off immediately, having fun sitting and talking for hours. Unfortunately the visit seemed to be over even before it had begun. As Aunt Dorothy's husband Uncle Marcus had turned up one evening and they were gone early the next morning. She'd heard her Ma and Pa talking at how Aunt Dorothy wasn't as happy as they thought she should be.

Abigail and Maud's meagre existence improved when the widow Cooper came to town with a very young family. Maud and Mrs. Cooper, as Abigail was instructed to call her, became close friends immediately. Though Maud called Mrs. Cooper Charlotte and she had called Ma Maud as well. Her children were a lot younger than she but they were great to play with and a diversion from the boring mundane life she'd led till now.

If she'd lived in one of the big cities when she reached her eighteenth birthday she would have been presented to society. A grand function would have been arranged by her folks and every eligible bachelor would have been presented to her. But here she had a small mention in the church the Sunday after her birthday, and then everyone went to the meadow outside the church for the weekly picnic. As usual it was not a lot of fun for her though, although the town was growing. She was too young to be an adult and too old to be a child and berefted of other young women whom to form a friendship with. There still weren't many people living there in the small town. Many whom her father disapproved of anyway with his antiquated ideas on social reforms she had read in the papers coming in from the cities around the country. He continually was interfering in any social opportunities she could have by his controlling nature.

Loren decided the minute Mr. Martin Anderson, a thirty-year-old man alighted from the stage from Denver that he'd be his heir apparent. He had immediately offered the man a job at the mercantile grooming him for the position, and encouraging the man to get to know his daughter.

Though Abigail did not agree to such a union and Maud was extremely unhappy, her father had decided only a few months after Martin arrived that she would become engaged as soon as possible. The day that Loren and Martin came to their agreement Abigail was forced to make a decision.

"But Papa, I don't know Martin at all and I don't want to become engaged to him" she'd pleaded to her Pa whom she had always been able to dissuade.

Loren set in his outdated ways, did not consider his daughter's wish. Wasn't a good marriage better than some nonsensical notion women had about love?

"It's decided, ya' goin' to marry Martin and that's it," he'd said without compassion for his distressed daughter.

Maud having endured the years of solitude in a loveless marriage tried after her daughter's desperate look. "Now Loren, won't you at least take some time to consider? After all, we know very little about Martin," she attempted, realising there was little or no chance at dissuading her husband from his set course.

Desperately trying to convince her father Abigail screamed, "I won't and ya' will have to drag me to the church and I won' say *I Do* to him!" Tears were flowing down her cheeks by now.

"You'll do as ya' told," he retorted. "You'll do as ya' father says," he continued as the man he had this control over his kin. "Enough!" he said.

Having no other argument Abigail turned and rushed off to her room without another word.

"It's for the best" Loren said turning to his distressed wife. "You'll see."

…

As far as young Miss Bray was concerned though only one young man so far had caught her eye and that was the young miner Byron Sully who actually preferred just to call himself *Sully*. They had talked on a number of occasions and become friend although she had told him that her Pa had ideas for her future to which she would have no control over.