Chapter 3 – Chapter 3

A man introducing himself as Henry – but saying most called him Hal – met Edward and Alo at the stagecoach stop in the town of Driggs, Idaho. The stop was in front of a saloon and the man came out of that wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. He was a big, strapping redhead, who Alo thought was maybe five years older than he was. Alo wished that he could go into the saloon too, but civilization had reached this little town in the shadows of the towering Grand Tetons. He wasn't old enough. It didn't matter that his parents had let him drink from the moment he'd said he wanted to try it. Of course, that had worked as they probably wanted it to. Since it wasn't forbidden and he wasn't at all impressed with his first drunken state, he had only drunk in moderation since then.

He started to tell Edward that he might like to have a drop to assuage the dust of the long journey, but he stopped when he saw the assessing look Edward was giving Hal. In any event, in a short time they were on horseback and on their way east, toward the plain at the base of the foothills into the Tetons. Edward, Alo, and Hal were each astride a horse, and two other pack horses carried their luggage. Edward didn't travel light.

While they rode, Alo asked, out of curiosity, "I don't understand why the ranch is named Eremenos. Is that an Indian word?"

"No, it's because of what happens at the ranch," Hal answered. But then, looking like maybe he wasn't supposed to say anything, he clamped his ruggedly square jaw shut.

Edward looked over to the cowboy and said, "Eremenos? You?"

The man laughed. "I'm twenty-five, and, no, that was never me."

Edward sighed and looked away from the man. He turned to Alo and said, "It's not an Indian word. It's a Greek word. As this young man has said, it signals, although doesn't dwell on the actual import of the word, the business of the ranch to those of us who are interested."

"How so?" Alo asked.

"Eremenos is Greek for a young man, a boy really, younger than you by a few years, who accommodates an Erastes, like me. An older man."

"An older man?" Alo asked, still not getting it.

"Older men who fuck boys, young boys, sometimes as young as nine years old, during the ancient Greek period," Edward said, with an amused look on his face. "To keep it legal in these United States – even in Idaho now – it's younger men rather than boys. It's like Alexander the Great and his young lover, Hephaestion. It was quite common and acceptable in Greek times. The gods did it – Zeus fucked the young Ganymede. And the Thebans were said to have three regiments made of seasoned warriors and their young male lovers. The Greeks married, of course, but they also were permitted to have boys to fuck. I guess 'Hephaestion' wouldn't be readily pronounceable for a ranch name, though. Eremenos is pretentious enough. But I'm sure it does the job for advertising what you can get at the ranch – or near enough if you take into account how young the Eremenos can be."

"So a ranch named Eremenos is a place offering young men for older men to fuck?"

"Yes, of course. They have younger men – for guests like me. But they also have their Erastes – for young men like you." He turned to Hal then, who Alo was somewhat embarrassed to realize was listening to the conversation. "And you, Hal. You indicate you aren't Eremenos, and indeed you look too old to be that, although you do look magnificent. But an Erastes? I think not – not yet."

"I am just a hired cowboy, sir," Hal answered. "There are different jobs at the ranch. I train the horses and handle them – like coming into Driggs to pick up guests like you."

"But you look too sexy to be only that," Edward said. Alo looked sharply at him again, disturbed by Edward's open interest in the man. "I'll bet there are guests who want you to handle them too."

"So you aren't teasing me," Alo interjected. "You really have brought me here to prepare me for you to want to fuck?"

"Yes, little one. I want you to work with several Erastes here before being handed back to me. But yes, before we leave here, I am going to be fucking you silly."

Hal cleared his throat. They had reached a rise. "There it is," he said. "Eremenos Ranch."

They looked down in a bowl nearly surrounded by higher ground – much higher ground, the foothills of the Tetons, to the east. The ranch complex was a large one, with several buildings radiating out from a central long, low-slung log cabin structure that was the heart of the operation.

"If you need me while you're here, you can usually find me by that corral over there," Hal said, standing up in his saddle and pointing to the edge of the spread. "I train all of the horses here."

"I indeed may need you," Edward said, laying his hand on the rump of Hal's horse, giving Alo the sense in the look Edward gave the cowboy that he'd lay his hand on the cowboy's rump at the first sign of acceptance.

Alo couldn't see the expression on Hal's face, but he was disturbed enough by the expression he saw in Edward's face.

They were met by the ranch manager in the great room of the central building.

"We are honored that you are staying with us for the summer, Mr. Deal," the manager said. "I understand you will be writing a book and that . . . ah . . . you have special needs. We have a young man for you, Tom, who I'm sure will meet your specifications. And this," he said, turning to Alo, "is the young man you have other needs for?"

"Yes. I believe I set forth the program for him in my letters to you."

"Yes, of course. There won't be a problem. In fact, seeing him, I can say that there will be no problem at all – not for anything or anyone on the staff who he might fancy."

"That's all of the luggage," Hal interjected. He'd just arrived in the great room with the last of the baggage. He turned and gave Alo a big smile. Alo was somewhat comforted that the smile had been given to him and not Edward, but he was mostly preoccupied with the conversation going on between Edward and the manager.

"Your rooms are down here," the manager said, as he guided them down a corridor off to the left the great room.

"Rooms?" Alo involuntarily spurted out.

"Yes," the manager said. "Mr. Deal will be in this suite here, with the bedroom and a study. You will be in a single room down the hall."

Alo turned his face, showing concern, to his companion. "Edward?"

"I will be in here with . . . I believe the young man's name is Tom," Edward said. "Until you are prepared to come to my bed in full acceptance," he continued. "I've asked for an isolated single room to be provided for you. One with its own door to the outside. They have such here, they advertised . . . for complete privacy of the guests. As I told you, Allen, until I am assured that you are ready to come to me, I want you to accept anyone who takes your fancy here into your bed. And I do want you to select men to fuck you. I have a routine settled for you, but I want you well-seasoned. The sooner you take care of this the better."

Alo was bumped a bit before he could respond and the manager and Edward already had entered the suite, leaving Alo in the corridor.

"Excuse me. If you could tell me which of these cases is yours and which is Mr. Deal's . . ." the man who had bumped Al, the cowboy Hal, said.

Alo couldn't explain why a jolt of electricity went through him when Hal's shoulder touched his, but it did. Turning away from the door to Edward's suite and shivering with second thoughts of having agreed to come here, the young man busied himself with the separation of the luggage.