The Rancher’s Lady

by Elmore Leonard

Willis Calender has come to town on the stagecoach with his eleven-year-old son, Jim. Willis’ wife died a year ago and he needs a wife, especially for the little girl back at the ranch. That is the purpose for this long trip to town. A marriage broker had arranged for Willis to correspond with a Miss Conway and, after three letters each, they agree to marry.

Jim, secretly, isn’t so sure about his father’s plan.

“She’ll be fat and smelly like Mrs. Granby and those other ladies down on Veso Creek. How come all women get so fat? All except Ma. She wasn’t fat and she smelled nice and she never called me Jimmy.”

Even before Willis has a chance to meet Miss Conway in person, Willis also begins to have doubts about his choice. A ranch-hand who used to work on a neighbor’s spread grins and makes some insinuations about where Miss Conway worked and what she did there.

In spite of that, Willis and Jim walked on to the hotel to meet Miss Conway. She’s very nervous, quiet, rather shy, and – skinny. Willis is also nervous. After a few minutes he leaves to go over to the Justice of the Peace, saying he needs to settle some things. He left Jim in the lobby with Miss Conway.

On the way to the Justice’s office he again meets the cowhand and his friends who are grinning and making snide comments about Miss Conway. At the Justice’s office Willis has a chance to talk it over with the justice. He seems to have a middle of the road opinion about girls who work in saloons. But, after talking it over, Willis decided to go back to the hotel and tell Miss Conway he couldn’t marry her. But when Willis gets back to the hotel, Miss Conway is not there and Jim has his own opinion about Miss Conway to share with his father.

This was such a sweet story. In seven short pages I understood the character of Willis, Jim, Miss Conway, the Justice, and yes, the nasty ranch-hand. Elmore Leonard is best known for his hard hitting crime fiction but he got his start in the 1950′s writing Western novels and short stories. I’m sure he wouldn’t like it if he knew I called his story sweet, but it was.

The story first appeared in Western Magazine in September, 1955. The original title was The Woman From Tascosa. I found it in The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard published by HarperCollins in 2004.

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