Dorothy Garlock - [Wyoming Frontier] (48 page)

“Bein’ a true Irish gentleman, I’ll be lettin’ ye love me, if ye be so determined ’n all.”

“Letting?” Mara almost choked on laughter. “But sir, I don’t be knowin’ what to do.”

He pulled her up until his lips could reach her ear. His whispered words produced cries of alarm.

“Oh! ’Tis indecent what ye’re proposin’, sir!”

Their laughter filled the room and spilled out of the window and into the yard below. Aubrey McCall paused, listened, smiled, and continued to empty the washtubs. He wished that Brita could know how things turned out between Pack and Mara Shannon. He looked up at the heavens.

“Maybe ye do be knowin’, me love,” he murmured. “For if ever there be an angel it is ye, Brita Gallagher McCall.”

In the bed upstairs, Mara was tangled in Pack’s arms as they rolled to their sides, her soft belly against the flat muscles of his. His strong body quivered as hands, softer than silk, glided over his bruised flesh. For a long moment they lay with lips barely touching while she whispered her love over and over, hearing the words returned in a hoarse whisper. Her tongue licked at the cuts on his lips, his sore and swollen hands caressed the smooth skin of her back and buttocks.

“Ah, love, love,” he sighed blissfully.

“Lie still, my gladiator, let me love you.”

Her heart was filled to overflowing with love for him. He had given her so much. He had asked for nothing in return, not even her love. As her hands and her lips moved over him she tried to tell him all that was in her heart.

And when the time was right, she took him in her hand and guided him to her as he had told her she would always have to do.

“Come in, darling,” she whispered. “Please, come in.”

EVERYDAY CAKE—Modern measurements
2
/
3
cup of butter
1½ cups sugar
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2
/
3
cup milk.
Mix butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix baking powder and flour in separate bowl. Add to the butter and eggs mixture alternately with the milk, beating after each addition. Bake 25 minutes at 350°.

EVERYDAY CAKE—Brita’s measurements
Lard the size of an egg
A teacup and a little more of sugar
Two eggs
Grate a little nutmeg for flavor
Two teacups and a little more of flour
Baking powder to fill the palm of your hand
Milk enough to make batter spread in a pan.

Mix all together and bake in an iron skillet until a straw comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cake.

The earliest evidence of boxing as a sport is found in Crete from about 1500 BC. The sport was introduced by the Greeks into the Olympic Games in the late seventh century. Boxing for the Greeks was a part of physical training for the military as well as a sport, with the emphasis on courage, strength and endurance rather than agility and defensive skill.

The first set of rules governing bare knuckle boxing were drawn up by Jack Broughton, known as the father of English boxing, in 1743. The rules were revised in 1838 and again in 1853. Under the new rules, called the London Prize Ring Rules, bouts were held in a 24-foot square ring enclosed by ropes. Butting with the head, gouging, hitting below the waist and kicking were banned, although in some areas back-heeling to trip an opponent was permitted. In 1889 under these rules, John L. Sullivan beat Jake Kilrain in a seventy-five-round fight in defense of his heavyweight championship. He was the last of the bare knuckle fighters.

Beginning with the Irish immigration from the late 1840’s, following the potato famines, the Irish provided a constantly renewed pool of boxers in the United States.

Reaction to bare knuckle boxing from the law and from religious groups was persistently hostile in the 1800’s, more in some areas than in others.

The Marquess of Queensberry Rules, which called for gloved matches, appeared in 1867. The first champion under these rules was James (Gentleman Jim) Corbett, who defeated John L. Sullivan in 1892.