Posts Tagged ‘1880s’

Hard Life

19Nov15

Her father was dead. That was the way it went sometimes. There was still the herd to get to Abilene and if they could cross the mountains before the snow then they might just save the ranch. Jane Campbell-Lane thought herself as a hard woman for a hard country. Her black unkempt hair was hauled […]


Vintage Sunday

15Nov15

An art theme to this week’s selection. I am assuming the last one is faked, but rather well done I thought.


Many years ago I saw a beautiful graphic portrait from the 1950s. It was of a very smart looking aristocratic woman with a young maid across her knee giving her a spanking. The drawing was within an otherwise vanilla collection and no particular attention was drawn to this image as if it was quite commonplace. […]


Jake Harmon swung the horse around and scanned the horizon. It wasn’t a very big column of smoke but it was definitely in the vicinity of the ranch and he felt sick. There hadn’t been any Indian trouble in these parts for years and besides he hadn’t heard any shots, but all the same he […]


The old schoolhouse, as it was known, stood bellow the rise above the stream almost three miles from the Stepford Ranch House. Louise Stepford snorted at the very idea, as far as she knew it was less than 30 years old, having been built by the first generation of settlers in these parts. But then […]


The housekeeper looked at Sophie with a mix of pity and incredulity. Then her employer’s wife caught her eye and they both blushed. “It is quite alright Mrs Blanchester;” Sophie whispered meekly, “My husband is well within his rights.” Mrs Blanchester, as far as anyone knew had never been married, but it was the custom […]


Atonement

25Sep12

The Denver train pulled in with a screech of iron on iron that jangled the nerves of every cowpoke in town and might have even roused one or two of the residents on Boot Hill. Then with a judder and a hiss it came to a full stop in a great cloud of steam. In […]


“Amanda, you are required in the library.” The words clawed at her stomach and her jaw tightened. She knew everyone was watching her, but she dare not remove her gaze from a fixed point next to the clock on the mantelpiece lest their eyes meet. “Amanda, did you hear me?” Sir John’s voice was insistent […]


El Lobo, as she liked to style herself, skipped sassily down the main street. Although no one dared tell her, the hat she wore was way too big and the leather cowboy chaps were an obscenity, worn as they were over her too tight denims that left nothing to the imagination. So tight were they, […]


“This is too much please, I just have to sell, I am desperate. My husband… well we really do need the money.” Julia Cassidy pleaded. The estate agent leant back in his chair and sucked on his pencil. The foolish silly woman was beginning to annoy him. She came in every day demanding that her […]