Lonesome Dove: Clara's Ranch

All roads lead to Clara, as Elmira, July, Gus, Call, and Newt make their way to her horse ranch on the Platte river. Clara is reunited with Gus after 15 years.

Clara noted that Gus had already charmed the girls — July Johnson would be lucky to get another bowl of soup out of them as long as Gus was around. She stood at the window a minute studying him. To her he seemed not much older. His hair had already turned white when he was young. He had always made her feel keen, Gus — his appetite for talk matched hers. She stood for a moment in the kitchen doorway, a smile on her lips. Just seeing him made her feel keen. She was in the shadows and he had not seen her. Then she took a step or two and Augustus looked around. Their eyes met and he smiled. "Well, pretty as ever," he said. To the huge astonishment of her girls, Clara walked straight off the porch and into the stranger's arms. She had a look in her eyes that they had never seen, and she raised her face to the stranger and kissed him right on the mouth, an action so startling and so unexpected that both girls remembered the moment for the rest of their lives.

Photo: Swan Land Company

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