“Da-da-ba-ba,” Matthew babbled, which made both women exchange surprised and pleased glances before looking back to him.
“Yes,” Ruth nodded, “he’s been making all kinds of sounds lately.”
“You are good for him, Ruth,” Elizabeth smiled approvingly. “I never got a chance to speak to him because I was so busy. I’m happy he’s progressing so well.”
“Thank you,” Ruth felt overjoyed and relieved at Elizabeth’s response. “I’ll be careful about carrying him only if I need to.”
“Glad to hear it,” Elizabeth said with a grin as she resumed dinner preparations.
Matthew began sounding his vowels louder; his laugh was musical and contagious.
“Okay, Matthew …” her voice trailed off as she heard the unmistakable approach of horse hooves coming up the road and then stopping. Matthew noticed too and his eyes widened, his plump cheeks dimpling.
The sound of boots in the hallways announced Daniel’s arrival. Ruth feared he might still be upset from this morning. When Daniel rounded the corner to the kitchen, he greeted Ruth and Elizabeth with a pleasant grin. Ruth wanted to run up to him but resisted the urge.
Matthew held up his arms to Daniel, making gestures and chatter.
Daniel looked down, surprised, as Matthew tugged on his pants. He looked from Matthew to Ruth and back to Matthew.
“Ba-ba-ba …” Matthew babbled, looking up at his father happily and waving his arms. Daniel stared wide-eyed at his son and then at Ruth. She was nervous, wondering what Daniel was thinking. He had not said a word since he arrived home.
Ruth noticed Daniel had not taken his eyes from her despite Matthew’s plea for attention, and for a brief moment their eyes connected, and she felt goose bumps across her skin. Maybe she had been dreaming but she felt as though he understood what was happening.
“Da-da-da-da-da-da …” Matthew kept tugging on Daniel’s pants. Daniel looked away from Ruth and bent down to Matthew’s level.
“Matthew,” Daniel peered closely at his son, “Matthew, are you trying to say Daddy? Papa?”
“Da-da,” Matthew repeated, his contagious laugh filling in the kitchen as Daniel lifted him and tossed him into the air to the boy’s delight. Ruth and Elizabeth could not help but join in the laughter.
Daniel gave Matthew a tight hug and held him close. “Did you teach him to talk?” Daniel asked Ruth in astonishment. The way he looked at her made her skin tingle. He and happy and impressed.
“I only helped him along with sounds and words and—” Ruth hesitated, feeling herself grow hot.
“Oh, don’t be so modest!” Elizabeth laughed, waving her hand at Ruth. “Of course, you did,” she turned to Daniel, “He’s been making those sounds all day.”
Matthew rubbed his small hand against the stubble on Daniel’s cheek and cooed, “Da-da-da.”
“Alright,” Elizabeth ordered. “This gathering has to change locations since I’m trying to finish dinner. All of you, shoo!”
Ruth felt blissful and realized that she had not been this happy in a long time. Matthew was starting to talk, and his first word was Dada, and the way Daniel had looked at her the first time he heard it rendered her speechless. She felt the connection, she was sure of it, but could it be only because Matthew spoke his first word? They shared an interest in Matthew, but was he beginning to feel what she felt? Ruth could not help smiling as she watched Daniel play with his son until Elizabeth announced that dinner was ready.
Chapter Ten
Cheyenne city was quiet in the early morning as Daniel trotted along Capitol Street and kept left down 18th Street. He passed a row of quaint fashionable houses known as the Cottage Row homes, which had been quite popular since 1880. They were all strikingly similar. Daniel could not imagine living in one of those homes; they were too small, too frilly, and just too much the same. He felt thankful to live on the wide-open ranch. He thought fashion could never compare fashion with comfort.
He felt good this morning and realized that he had not had a drop of whiskey last night. He hadn’t felt this happy in a long time and he knew it had started with Matthew and Ruth. How did she do it? Matthew called him Dada repeatedly and every time he heard it, Daniel felt himself glow with joy and pride. His boy,hisboy spoke his first word. He wished Mary Jane could hear it, and guilt washed over him, but he knew she would want him to keep on, to not give up. It was Ruth that seemed to boost him, and at times she made him feel something that he had not felt in a long time—he felt happiness.
He stopped outside T. Conroy’s Livery on the corner of 17th Street and Central Avenue. A large rectangular simply styled building with white horizontal wood paneling and six windows facing the street. Below the windows were two doors on either side of a large barn-sized entrance in the center with doors that slid open. The top section housed stalls for horses, accessed by ramps and supported by thick square posts in a W shape for support. Around the corner toward the side and back of the building were separate entrances for carriages, wagons, and buggies.
Thomas Conroy had relocated to Cheyenne in 1860 and set up his stable and livery business. Daniel didn’t remember much of him other than he was a robust man with a walrus mustache, and a hearty laugh that could be heard for blocks around. Some twenty years ago Thomas Conroy died of a heart attack and now his sons ran the profitable livery business.
Daniel dismounted Spark and led him inside the stable where Robert Conroy greeted him. He was very much like his father, except Robert didn’t quite have his father’s head of hair or the famous mustache, nor was he robust, but he inherited his father’s expansive sense of humor that easily sent him into gales of laughter.
“Thanks again, Robert,” Daniel said as he handed Spark over to him and received a nod. “I see Alistair is already here?”
Daniel noticed Black Jack, a dapple gray Arabian stallion, chewing hay in one of the stalls. When Daniel’s father was still alive, he offered a horse to Alistair, whose horse broke a leg and had to be put down. Alistair turned his father down and said he’d ordered a magnificent black Arabian from a horse owner in the East and when the horse arrived, he somehow exceeded his capacity to boast.
But within a few months, the horse started began to change its color. Daniel watched the horse’s black mane undulate as he moved his head and the same black on his tail swatted flies. The horse’s gray coat was dappled in various shades of black and gray. Although Alistair stopped boasting and swore he’d been swindled, he kept the horse nonetheless. There was no doubt that it was a good, handsome mount.
