Other McKay cousins arrived and Charlie told him it took four days of branding to get all the McKay cattle branded. One day at their place. Kade and Kane’s, and Brandt, Tell and Dalton’s calves were branded on the same day. And two solid days to mark the calves that Cord, Colby and Colt raised.
Gavin watched as the guys worked in teams of two. They grabbed a calf from the pen, pinned it on its side. One held the head; one held the rear. Quinn and Ben did the branding with the irons. Libby and Ainsley handled vaccinating the calves. Gavin never imagined the suit and high-heel-wearing bank president down in the muck, but she got right in there.
Cal used the small round iron for de-horning if needed, and Charlie was tasked with castration. One of Colby’s boys was in charge of the “nut bucket” and followed Charlie as he cut off the testicles, turning potential bulls into steers. Gavin peered into the big dump bucket. There looked to be a whole lot of Rocky Mountain oysters.
As the day wore on they were all grateful for the cloud cover. Charlie had warned him to be prepared for anything because the month of May could be as hot as eighty or cold enough for heavy snow.
At first Gavin had been self-conscious about jumping into the fray, but his curiosity won out over pride. It was a challenge, holding the head of an animal as its flesh got seared, its balls got whacked off and its horns were burned away. Down in the trenches the air was thick with the stench of burning hide. By the time he took a breather, his coveralls were covered in mud, manure and hair.
His cousins teased him. “We’ll make a rancher out of you yet.”
After they finished branding, everyone showed up at Quinn and Libby’s. Kids and dogs ran wild. Beneath two canopies tables were piled with enough food to feed an army.
Gavin looked around for Sierra. She waved to him and continued her conversation with Colt’s wife India. Hopefully she wasn’t discussing future tattoo options.
When he saw Rielle, laughing with Ainsley and Libby, he had a feeling of rightness. Of contentment.
Rielle strolled over. “Hey, cowboy. So after a day of branding are you ditching your loafers for spurs to wrassle cattle?”
“No.” Gavin snuck in a kiss or three. “I’d rather wrassle you. You don’t put up nearly the fight.”
She smiled, then shot a look at Sierra before she leaned closer. “What do you know about Sierra’s presentation? Because she’s nervous.”
“Did you talk to her?”
“I tried. But she’s a little high-strung, like someone else I know.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Me?”
“Nope. Me.” She pecked him on the mouth. “Gotta run. Save me a seat at the table.”
Even with so many people the chow line moved fast. Gavin sat across from Keely and Jack. Sierra scooted over when Rielle showed up and didn’t say much.
“Keely, how are you feeling?” Rielle asked.
“Good, for the most part. I’m tired. I could sleep all damn day. This kid kicks all the time.”
“Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”
Keely shook her head. “There are so few surprises in life, we want this to be one of them.”
“Any weird cravings?”
“Tomatoes and Hershey bars,” Jack answered. “And yes, she eats them at the same time.”
That sounded nasty.
“But I’m not hungry at all today,” Keely said. She turned sideways on the bench seat and leaned into Jack.
Jack stretched his hands across Keely’s rounded belly and murmured to her.
Then Gavin was drawn into conversation with Carson and when he turned back to talk to Sierra, she’d vanished.
After everyone had eaten, and they were milling about under the big tent, Vi clapped her hands for attention. “Sierra has something she’d like to share. A piece of McKay history.” Vi gently patted Sierra on the shoulder as she shoved her front and center.
Gavin grinned. Vi had her own way of doing things.
Sierra looked nervous being in front of the entire McKay clan. Her gaze scanned the crowd until she found him. He smiled, elated his daughter still looked to him for support. He gave her two thumbs up, which would earn the, Dad, you’re such a dork remark later.
Sierra clutched a sheaf of papers and began. “Most of you know I did a paper on the McKay family for history class. I started out with an old family tree, branched out, and wow, there are a lot of McKays running around these days. It took me forever to do that part.” That earned her laughter. “Anyway, when I finished, I was still confused about a few things. For one, the lack of information about Jonas McKay’s twin brother Silas, who was unofficially marked as deceased. He isn’t buried in the McKay cemetery and there is no official record of his death.”
A wave of conversation broke out and then Dalton whistled for quiet.
“Aunt Carolyn lent me the McKay archives and I scanned all the information in twenty-seven boxes, including Dinah Thompson McKay’s journals. The other reason I kept going on my search, is because I’ve heard about the West-McKay feud, but no one—in the McKay family or the West family—knew what’d happened. And I mean no one. Not even my Grandpa Charlie and he’s old.” More laughter and Sierra blew Charlie a kiss when he tipped his hat to her.
“Because I didn’t want to be accused of skewing any information I might uncover as favorable to the McKays, I enlisted Boone West to help me search for facts. Boone had no idea what the original source of friction between the Wests and McKays might be either.” She paused and thrust her arm in the air and waved the paper. “And guess what? We found it!”
Excited chatter erupted.
Gavin watched as Sierra waited for the crowd to quiet down, a smug smile on her face.
Keely whistled to cut the chatter. “Pipe down. I wanna hear what she has to say. Go ahead, tell us everything.”
“Thanks, Keely.” Sierra took a deep breath. “Silas and Jonas McKay were identical twins who wound up in Wyoming in 1896. Jonas worked as a deputy. Silas worked as a ranch hand. In 1897 Silas bought a tract of land, which is still part of the McKay ranch today. Then in 1898, during a poker game at a bar in Moorcroft, which was likely a whor—” she shot a look at the little kids sitting in front and amended, “—a house of ill repute, Silas McKay won a chunk of land from Ezekiel West.
“Ezekiel’s brother Zachariah disputed the validity of the game, but the sheriff vouched for Silas. Since Jonas worked for the sheriff, the Wests accused the sheriff of corruption. In the meantime, whenever Ezekiel and Silas crossed paths the following year, they’d end up in fight. According to Dinah’s journal, Ezekiel broke Silas’s arm one night when Zachariah joined in and they beat Silas to a pulp.”
“See, this is already playing in favor of the McKays,” Cam shouted from the back.
“Hush, you,” Carolyn scolded. “You got just as much West in you as McKay.”
A chorus of “Oohs,” broke out.
“This is where Dinah Thompson enters the picture. She was the school teacher and she boarded with the town’s doctor and his wife. Dinah was also expected to help the doctor out on weekends. Silas wasn’t much of a fighter; he ended up at the doctor’s office frequently after his tussles with Ezekiel. Silas became smitten with Dinah and wooed her.” She wrinkled her nose at the term. “Taking her to church socials and community events. They fell in love. Since school teachers couldn’t continue teaching after marriage, she asked Silas for a long engagement, so she could keep earning money to put toward building a new house on the ranch.
“But Ezekiel also had his eye on Dinah. He wasn’t the gentlemanly type that Silas was—Dinah’s words, not mine—and Ezekiel became a stalker of sorts. Dinah wasn’t wearing Silas’ ring, so that made her fair game.” Sierra scowled. “This next part is a little hazy, but near as I could tell, Ezekiel got Dinah alone and hurt her. When she told Silas, he went after Ezekiel. They got into another fight, Ezekiel pulled a gun on Silas, but Silas ended up shooting him.”
Everyone stayed quiet.
“With Ezekiel dead, Jonas had no choice but to arrest his brother, even though it was clearly self-defense. But Zachariah West swore the murder was premeditated and he’d see Silas hang for killing his brother.”
“That’s what happened to him?” Kyler demanded. “That’s why no one talks about Silas, because he was hanged?”
“No. But Silas believed he was headed for the gallows. One night he attacked Jonas inside his cell and escaped from jail. Silas disappeared, never to be seen around here again. Several people swore they saw Silas get killed during a train robbery in Montana, but it was never confirmed. Others said Silas lived with the Crow Indians on the Montana border, but again, nothing was ever confirmed.
“Dinah wrote that Jonas knew his brother would be unjustly hanged so he made it possible for Silas to escape. Then Jonas resigned as a deputy and took over Silas’s ranch. We discovered Zachariah West ended up with a small section of land in Campbell County that’s still in the West family today. Dinah’s last entry alluded to that land being paid for with blood money. What that means is up for debate and probably always will be. Some secrets really do go to the grave. Anyway, Jonas and Dinah fell in love and got married.” Sierra looked up. “And they are the reason we are all here today.”
Applause and wolf whistles rang out.
Charlie sidled up and put his arm around Sierra. “How about my smart and determined granddaughter? Getting to the bottom of all this family stuff and putting rumors to rest with facts?” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m so damn proud of you for taking an interest in our heritage.”
She ducked her head and Charlie hugged her.
Then she was surrounded by curious McKays.
“Quite the girl you have there, proud daddy,” Rielle said.
“She is something. She really fits in with the McKays, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, but so do you. Did you have any idea that Sierra had done so much research?”
