Historical Romance Western
Red River Ranch Series

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CHAPTER ONE
Carpe Diem

“Boys, I got something to tell you. You getting up in years, and I ain’t got nothin’ more to give you. Get your shoes. The best bet for ya’ll is to hoof it to Memphis.”

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William Burnston Sullivant knew better than to charge his stepfather with a left hook to the face. It would injure his mother’s pride in her sons' upbringing, that of instilling the quality of temperament in a man’s soul. Though considered homeless, Mary had taught her sons it was how they viewed themselves whether or not they were derelicts without hope or travelers on a journey to find their fortune immersed in morality and higher achievements. He looked at his younger brother, Finn, who was staring at his bare feet. Then, at his mother, who was watching from the only window in the shack they occupied. He thought it might happen long before today, as his stepfather was a hard man. It could be worse; Jacob Walker only had to take his oxen and go, leaving the two brothers penniless and responsible for their mother’s support.

Two weeks had passed since they crossed the Mississippi River to Arkansas on a ferry costing two dollars, the fare for the four humans and two oxen pulling a wagon that held all their belongings.

 

Lucky for them, they’d been able to clear some acreage of stumps with the oxen for a farmer, who let them stay in an abandoned shack for their services, one of many former slave cabins that were still habitable, dotting the South. William and Finn were the ones who managed the oxen, clearing the fields, dragging logs, or any work they could get for free housing. Jacob would cut the stumps and fallen branches into fireplace logs and kindling to sell when winter arrived.

 

“Finn, let’s go.” Finn’s mouth was trembling, alternating in sorrow or anger, and William tugged his brother’s sleeve to turn toward the house to keep the old man from having the satisfaction of seeing the fear of the unknown in their eyes. In the cabin, they pulled on their one pair of socks and worn work shoes.

 

Their mother had filled a feed bag with their clothes and enough corn pone and dried beef to last a day or so. While she wasn’t crying, her face was twisted with pain, and her hands trembled. She had been unwell for weeks, and they couldn’t afford a doctor or medicine, making their presence an added burden for Jacob. “If ya’ll head to Memphis, here’s enough money to take passage across the river.” She hugged them tightly and kissed their foreheads. “Be careful, you hear? You boys somehow let me know you’re safe.” Mary had saved pennies for months, for when the day came, to give her sons, as Jacob had said that two grown men no longer needed his help, and he couldn’t afford to feed them. She had exhausted all of her options.

 

“We will, Momma.” William pocketed the money, and Finn hoisted the sack over his shoulder. Without another word, they turned, left the one-room dilapidated house, and walked past Jacob Walker, not acknowledging him with even a glance. They turned east on the dirt road that led back to the landing, where they crossed the river to Arkansas, looking for farm work. The boys calculated they should reach the Mississippi in an hour and still have daylight once they made it into Memphis. They waited in Mound City for the next ferry. The Yankees burned down the river-town during the War, leaving nothing of the busy town it used to be, but it remained a usable landing site for ferries to and from Memphis. Previously, it had been among the largest riverside towns along the Mississippi.

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William sat on a stump next to the rubble of a long destroyed building, with Finn at his feet, their food supply resting on the ground. “What we gonna do, Bill? You always said he'd do the same to us as he did to Harry and Herbert. Ain't heard a word from them in two years. All we got left is us.”

“Not sure. Guess we’ll know when we reach Memphis.” William fished fifty cents from his pocket that his mother gave him. It would cost thirty cents for them to cross the river, leaving twenty for food or a room to rent. From what he’d noted while traveling through Memphis the first time, it was a bawdy place with many businesses on Main Street where William hoped to find employment as quickly
as possible.

Even though the worst had just happened, William patted Finn on the shoulder. Only a year apart in age, he felt responsible for his brother and prayed they’d figure it out as time went by. If not, they’d get pretty hungry. But he felt pretty confident they’d turn up work in Memphis. Rested, they scampered down the bluff to the river’s edge to wait. A flatboat carried them to the cobblestone landing on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff side of the wide muddy river, where hundreds of bales of cotton lined the stones for shipment.

The boys weaved through the bales, passed men by the dozens who were loading or unloading lumber and merchandise from steamboats, keel boats, and flatboats onto mule-pulled wagons that hauled their loads up the dirt bluffs to merchant warehouses.

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On Main Street, a wide thoroughfare flanked by tall buildings housing businesses, grain dealers, and eateries, traffic was a maze as the boys sat on the walkway curb with their sole possessions between them. Horse and mule-pulled buggies and wagons lined both sides of the street except where business owners posted ‘don’t hitch here’ signs on the tall street poles to keep manure from accumulating at their door. Cobblestones paved the streets with a double set of trolley tracks down the center. Throngs of people walking around the walks and streets ignored the garbage and debris that littered the curbs and the two boys.

“I’m hungry, Bill. All we got is dried beef and corn pone.”

 
William was hungry, too. “Would have been nice to have a relative in town, but I don’t know nothing about our real father’s family, and yellow fever took all of momma’s family.” William had denied it to himself, but they were now orphans.

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Excerpt from Dear Darling Lilli by permission of Cam Locke Copyright © 2025 All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.