This chapter is again written in Ethan's POV because I think it will work better. Ok the chapter you've all been waiting for, but I can tell you, it isn't over yet.

Cattle Call

It's been a week since Emily came out and stayed at my place and luckily for me, John didn't fill me full of buckshot or tack my hide to a wall. I am riding in to town to see him this morning, well at least see him first, then I plan to go and track down Emily. I have something that I want to ask her before I head out to Dodge to get my cattle.

John is busy doing paper work when I walk into his office. He looks up at me and says, "Ethan! What brings you in here?"

I step forward and wipe my sweaty palms on my pants legs. "John, I have to ask you something."

"Well what is it boy?"

"I would like to ask for Emily's hand in marriage." I get out around the lump in my throat.

John stands up and comes toward me and I really begin to get nervous. "Ethan, I would be honored to have you as a son-in-law and if it would make you happy to marry my girl then I'm not going to stop you. You know I've been thinking this day would have come a long time ago."

I feel the lump go out of my throat and the knot in my stomach disappear. "Thank you John. Do you mind if I go find her and ask her now?" I feel like I'm five years old asking if I can have another cookie after dinner.

"Well sure, but what's the rush?" John asks me.

"I'm leaving for Dodge City tomorrow to go pick up my herd of cattle." I tell my future father-in-law.

John puts his hand on my shoulder, "Well if you think that you have to do the askin' now, I'll let you get to it. Say, you plan to come to supper tonight don't you to celebrate?"

"I guess." I say. "She has to say yes first though."

John just smiles at me, pats my shoulder and says, "She'll say yes, don't worry about that, son."

I fairly float out the door of the jailhouse and over to Emily's house. I find out she isn't there, Alexandra tells me that she's over at Louise and Oliver's place so I ride over there.

"No." Louise says to me at the front door where she is standing, balancing baby Jesse on her hip. "She was here a while ago, but then she told me that she had to get out to your place that you were expecting her. Something about saying goodbye to you before you left tomorrow."

"Thanks Louise." I say and turn around, ready to run my horse the whole way home if I have to. It's like the damn ring is burning a hole right through my pocket and into my leg.

I mount back up and trot through town, holding myself back until I reach the outskirts of town and then I put the spurs to my bay and head for home. A mile before I reach home I slow him down and allow him to cool off. When I get there I again find Emily's sorrel in my corral, unsaddled and no Emily around. I unsaddle the bay and throw it over the fence and then turn him into the corral as well. Then I take bounding steps towards the house. I find Emily in the bedroom changing the bed linens, humming softly to herself. Trying to be nonchalant I come in and lean against the door jam and say, "Howdy darlin'."

I didn't scare her this time. This time, she turned around and smiled at me. "Hi Ethan. I was just changing your bed linens for you."

"Darlin' I'm not going to be home for two or three weeks." I say to her.

"Ok, well then I'm changing them for myself." She said continuing about her business like she had never heard me.

"What do you mean, changing them for you?" I ask, confused.

"I'm going to stay here and do your chores while your gone."

I laugh but I don't find the situation funny. "No, darlin' you aren't going to stay out here by yourself." I walk over to her and take her hands to stop her from what she is doing. "I won't let you risk staying here alone. I won't risk a wild Indian coming along and getting you."

Emily laughs at me then. "Ethan your being silly!" She exclaims, "Besides, your parents are just over those two little hills. I'll be fine."

"No." I tell her. "I-I can't have you out here. I can't deal with worrying about you the whole time. I'm gone. Please!" I beg her. So much for making a grand proposal before I leave. Now wasn't the time to do such a thing.

Emily finished what she was doing. Then looked up at me, "Where were you at, all dressed up?"

"In town." I say miserably. I walk out the kitchen and fill the dipper in the water bucket. I take a long drink and then look back at Emily who was coming out of my bedroom, the dirty sheets in her arms. "I'm going to go change clothes and then go get back to work ok." I kiss her and then go into my bedroom. I change my clothes and put the ring back into drawer. When I come out I find Emily down at the creek, washing the sheets. I can't help but watch her, I know what a chore washing clothes is, I've done it enough times on my own. I watch her until she gets done scrubbing and rinsing and then I go down and say to her, "I'll carry them up for you, ok."

After I carry her clothes up to the line, I help her spead them on the lines to dry. I turn to her when we're finished and say, "I'm sorry Em. I didn't mean to be so short tempered with you when I came home. Promise me you won't take off before I come back this evening?"

Emily looks at me with her big blue eyes and says, "Ok. I promise."

I kiss her on the cheek and head to the barn. I have to get things ready for tomorrow and the next three weeks. I have Slim and Dusty, the two cowboys who went with me on the trail drive with Tom to Dodge before. They we're going to help me buy and trail back the cattle that I planned to purchase. We had plans to not sort them until we made it back to my place as I didn't want the bulls I was planning to buy to run with my cows all winter.

That night after supper, Emily washed the dishes and then went into the sitting room. She had her knitting in there and it seemed to me that she wasn't going to head my words at all about her not staying at the ranch while I was away. I guess I'll have to get Pa to come and check on her everyday and I'll worry about her and hope that I would come home to a whole woman.

I look in on her, setting there knitting it looked like something for Jesse or the baby of a friend, it was really hard to say and I made my decision. I had to ask her before I left. I just couldn't ride off tomorrow and leave the words unsaid to her, I had to ask her to be my wife and then I could come home and we could plan a wedding for the spring. That would giver her plenty of time to plan and fuss and do what she felt needed to be done. I go into my room and pull that little diamond ring out of my draw and sliding it into my pocket I go into the sitting room again. "What are you making Em?" I ask to start out.

"A new blanket for Jesse. That boy has about outgrown his other one." She says without looking up at me.

I walk across the room and then I say to her, "Uhm, Em, could you stop what your doing long enough to look at me?"

Emily stopped what she was doing and laid her knitting in her lap. "What do you need, dear?"

I drop down on one knee and take her left hand in mine. "Emily Munch, I love you, will you marry me?" I had more that I wanted to say but Emily flew into my arms so fast and was hugging my neck so hard that I couldn't get another word out.

All I could hear was, "Yes!" smack, "Yes!" smack as her lips hit my cheeks, my chin, my forehead and my lips. Finally she calmed down enough for me to get a word in edgewise. "Let me see your finger, darlin'."

She held out her left hand an I slipped the little blue diamond onto her third finger. That caused her to cry as she looked at it.

"O-o-o Ethan. It's so b-beautiful!" she said, the tears streaming down her face. She held it up and watched it sparkle.

I set down on the sofa and Emily followed me. "Do you like it?" I finally ask. I think I know the answer but I ask anyway.

"Yes." She breathes.

We spent the rest of the evening making plans and talking about a May wedding. We knew that we wanted to wait and not have the hurried affair that Oliver and Louise had when they got married.

The next morning I got up early and finished collecting my gear to leave. When I left I left Emily crying on the front porch, after I kissed and told her that I loved her.

"Be careful Ethan." She said.

"You know I will." I told her.

I rode to my parent's house next and told them our good news and also asked my father to check on Emily daily. He couldn't understand either why Emily wanted to stay out to my ranch but he agreed to go over and check in on her.

I hit the trail to Dodge at a lope and soon catch up with Slim and Dusty. "Hey Ethan!" Slim calls out as I approach.

"Still pinein' away over that girl?" Slim asks me as I pull up my horse beside his.

"Nope." I tell my friend. "I'm plannin' to marry that girl next spring."

"Well you don't say. Congratulations, Ethan." Dusty said. "I'll buy you a drink when we get to Dodge."

"Yeah that sounds real fine, Ethan." Slim say and reaches over to shake my hand.

We ride that day talking, laughing and catching up. It's been almost a year since we last seen each other as Slim and Dusty both stay on the trail helping various ranchers move their cattle about.

It takes us almost a week to ride to Dodge City. When we arrive we all take rooms at the boarding house, rather than the hotel to save money and then I begin to go down to the stock yards to look for the cattle that I would like to take home to stock my ranch with. I have the bank draft in my pocket book that I will use to pay for my cattle and I'm so excited that I can barely stand myself. I am reliving the feeling that my little brothers and sister get on Christmas morning when they run down the stairs to see what Santa Clause left them under the tree. We also spend a little time with Marshal Dillon, Festus and Miss Kitty at the Longbranch Saloon. That seems to be Slim's favorite place to spend time anyway.

After a week in Dodge I manage to buy 300 head of heifers and young cows off a rancher that is selling out due to poor health. I ask my two helpers if they think that we can handle that many cattle on our own the whole way back to Rock Springs. Slim assures me that we can and I trust his judgement.

The day that we leave I send a telegram back to Rock Springs that says.

Em. Stop. Leaving Dodge.Stop. Expected arrival two weeks. Stop. Ethan. Stop.

It takes us the whole two weeks to get the cows back to my ranch in Rock Springs. We were lucky though in the fact that the whether stayed cool and that made the cows trail home easier. We didn't even have the bad luck of any storms coming up and stampeding the herd. I felt so luck and like everything was finally falling into place. I was really on top of the world as we pushed the cows back into my corrals for sorting and further inspection. I was aware that in buying in my type of situation, I would have to cull a few cows but I could always take them to Rock Springs and get rid of them. Little did I know what lay ahead for me, for once again it seems my good luck was going to run bad again.