Realizing her fate could be much worse if she displeased him any more than she already had, she obediently lay beside him, without complaint. She could not help but wonder what he would demand of her, but considering the experience of the last couple of days, she really didn’t want to know. She hoped he would forget about his request of the future, but she doubted he actually would.
Callie was roughly taken up in Chet’s arms, as soon as he stirred the next morning. His mouth raked over her lips, as though demanding some unknown response from her. She withstood it, the same way she had been forced to withstand everything about this unwanted marriage. When he lifted his mouth from hers, he gave her a satisfied look and chuckled.
“I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me of my previous handling of you,” he smiled.
He seemed to be in a good mood as he jerked her to her feet and told her to get back in the wagon. They continued on their journey to Chet’s ranch, and Callie was grateful that along the way, the weather at night was so cold, they both had to sleep in their clothes.
“Welcome to the ‘Double C Ranch” Chet exclaimed as the wagon pulled through a gate that had a cross bar overhead, with two C’s back to back burned into it. “That’s what my brand looks like,” he mentioned, as he pointed to the cross bar.
The ranch was barely a ranch, Callie thought, as the wagon approached a shabby looking building, which was passing for a house. Beyond the house, there was a barn, and in the distance, Callie could see long-horned cattle dotting the landscape beyond the fencing that surrounded his spread.
Chet Callahan did not appear to be a Cattle-baron by any stretch of the imagination. His ranch looked more like the dirt farmers’ who didn’t even own the land they farmed on, Callie thought. When she thought of her sister living in such squalor, it pained her heart to think of it. Now it would be her duty to take up where Rolletta left off, and she gave an apprehensive glance in Chet’s direction. She certainly was not thanking her mother, for ‘nudging’ her in this direction.
“So this is your fabulous cattle ranch where my sister was forced to live and die,” she muttered. “It is worse than our groom’s cottage, which I would prefer to live in than this place. Where do you have room for five children?”
“I plan to expand it one day, so until then, you will just have to suffer with it. It fulfills my needs at present. The price of beef is going up, and I plan to make more money this coming year than I have in the past five years. It may not look like much now, but there is a lining behind the dark clouds.”
“I believe that is what you told my sister when you first brought her here. She wrote and told me about it. You never fulfilled your promise to her, and I doubt you will fulfill that promise to me either. I cannot believe you think you are doing me a favor, by bringing me to this so-called shelter. Five minutes of you poking me, is not worth the lot of this! I can see my wifely duty to you does not come close to a fair trade!”
“Shut your mouth, woman. I’m going to take the wagon to the barn. I’m leaving your trunks there as well. When I got your dress out for you, I realized that none of the falderals you brought along with you can be used on a ranch. You can wear your sister’s old clothes.”
“Then, here is the bargain, husband. Until you can furnish me better accommodations than this shack, you shall have none of my wifely duty. I have already overpaid you as it is!” Callie spouted.
Chet grabbed her by the back of the neck. “You do not dictate to me!” he bellowed.
“I will fight you tooth and nail if you ever try touching me again. If you end up killing me in the struggle, then you will not only be without a wife, but without a mother to my sister’s children. Then you can just kiss the notion goodbye of having someone to bring any sons into the world if it actually ever comes to that. The choice is up to you.
“You led my parents to believe you were some sort of Cattle-baron, which I can see you aren’t. Therefore, I will sue for divorce on the grounds of false representation of your ability to furnish me the same kind of life my parents gave me. You are a fraud, and a liar, on top of being a despicable man!
“My sister may have married you out of love, and believed you had her best interests at heart, but I shall not be bamboozled by you. If you lay one finger on me, I shall leave your place, and take my sister’s children with me, when you are out on one of your damn cattle drives!”
“How dare you threaten me!” Chet growled.
“How dare you deceive my parents and myself!” Callie flung back.
“Go in the house and tell Lucia, she is no longer needed to care for the children, and I will deal with you later.”
Callie climbed down from the wagon, glaring up at her new husband.
“Yes,” she smiled. “We shall see how you are able to deal with me later.”
Chet glared back at her, with the same intensity. The determination in her eyes jarred him in a way he hadn’t expected. Rolletta had been meek and timid, nothing like her sister. No wonder, no one ever offered for her hand, he began to think. He had the sinking feeling that things were not going to go as smoothly as he wished they would.
Callie opened the door to the ranch house, that was a rough-hewn log house, that seemed sturdy enough, but rather ugly in appearance. When the door opened, she was met by the frightened eyes of four young children, one boy, and three girls, and the inquisitive look of a Mexican woman hovering near a cradle, which held Rolletta’s youngest.
“I am Rolletta’s sister, Callie,” Callie introduced herself. “Chet has brought me here to care for my sister’s children. He told me to tell you, that you are free to leave now.”
The Mexican woman looked relieved and shuffled from the room. A moment later, Callie saw her through the window, riding away on a horse, bareback. She could also see Chet coming towards the house, with a determined look on his face.
The moment the door opened, all four children seemed to withdraw into themselves. Their curious eyes took on a blank look, and they actually took a timid step backward, instead of rushing to greet their father. This gave Callie all the information she needed as to the relationship Chet had with his children. They appeared to act like they feared they had displeased him in some way, by merely being in the room, halfway hovering behind her.
“Hello children,” Chet said. “I have brought you a new mother. This is your mother’s sister, but you must treat her like your mother from now on.”
Chet glanced at Callie, and then at his children.
“Step on up so I can introduce you to her,” he demanded.
The oldest one, who was at least eight years old, boldly stepped forward. His light blond hair stuck out in all directions around his head, and Callie thought he looked rather unkempt and even slightly dirty, as well as did his sisters. All four children were wearing overalls, and it was hard to tell that three of them were actually girls, since their hair was cut short. Callie was appalled that Chet would degrade his daughters in such a way, to make them appear to be boys, when in truth, they were young girls.
“This is Connor,” Chet informed Callie. “The next is Ina, and then Tommy, I was sure was going to be a boy, and the scrawny one is Beth. The baby is Rolletta, named after her mother. Go wash up, children, your mother is going to fix us some supper.”
Callie turned towards the stove and saw that there was already a stew simmering on the stove, which Lucia must have prepared. She rummaged around in the cupboard for some bowls and placed them on the table. She could see the house had been neglected and needed a good cleaning. Maids had always performed those kinds of tasks at her parent’s house, but Callie realized if there was going to be any improvement in the appearance of the house, it would be left up to her.
Callie began dishing up the bowls, and by the time she had finished, the children were through washing up. They began settling around the table that was situated at the end of the room which was designated to be the kitchen. She could see two other doors leading off of the main r
oom of the house, and assumed they were bedrooms. The children probably shared one room, and the other one, must be Chet’s room, which she would be forced to share with him, she thought wearily.
She was extremely hungry, but insisted on saying grace over the food first, wondering if the children had any religious teachings, considering Chet was always talking about Gods will when it came to wifely duties.
The meal was eaten in silence, and then Chet informed her that the children needed to be put to bed.
“They all need baths,” Callie insisted.
“There is a round tub you can fill, to bathe them in,” Chet informed her. “I will bring it in, and then bring in water from the spring. You can warm the water in that smaller round tub hanging on the wall over there.”
Callie placed the circular metal tub on the stove, and Chet brought several buckets of water in to fill it, stoking up the fire to heat the water, when he was finished. At length, the larger tub, which Chet placed on the kitchen floor, was filled with warm water, and Callie proceeded to bathe each child in turn. Chet watched on and handed the children their night shirt when they were through bathing.
“Help me carry the tub out to dump it,” Chet told Callie, and she picked up her side of the tub with the handle, as he picked up his.
When they returned to the room, the children had already gone to their room, but the baby had started to cry, and Callie felt unprepared to actually know what to do.
“She probably needs feeding,” Chet muttered. “I’ll get Connor to go out and get some warm milk from our milking cow.”
“He just went to bed,” Callie muttered.
“Well, he can get out of bed,” Chet insisted, as he went into the boy’s room and pulled Connor out of bed, handing him a cup to use to catch the milk in.
Connor stumbled outside and soon returned with a cup of milk, handing it to his father, then going back to his room.
“I got these new-fangled bottles to feed the baby with. You let her suck on this little rubber hose that connects to the top of the bottle,” he informed her, as he poured the milk into the narrow neck of the bottle, using a funnel.
Callie had already picked little Rolletta up and was rocking her in her arms, but the child seemed to be screaming even louder.
“Sit in that rocker,” Chet instructed, and then handed Callie the bottle when she was seated.
Callie offered the baby the hose, which only caused her to make a face, and turn her head from side to side.
“You’ll have to force her, so she’ll take the milk,” Chet suggested.
“I am not going to choke her to death!” Callie muttered.
“She’s used to having a breast,” Chet grumbled. “Give her your breast and the hose at the same time. It may fool her into sucking the milk.”
Callie looked at him in horror, but he merely stepped forward, unfastening the buttons on Callie’s blouse to expose her breast, and the moment he did, the baby was grabbing at her breast with her mouth.
“Stick the hose in the corner of her mouth,” Chet instructed, and Callie had no other choice since the crying had stopped.
“Almost like the real thing,” Chet murmured. “She seems happy now.”
Callie looked upon her sister’s child, seeing features of her sister’s face in the infant’s face. As much as she dreaded having to become an instant mother, her heart went out to the poor confused baby, as she gurgled the milk down, while the small mouth sucked against her. Callie felt like she was in over her head, but there was nothing she could do about it now.
CHAPTER FOUR
Callie lay beside Chet in the bed he brought her to after the baby had settled down. He had placed the crib next to her side of the bed, and since her trunks were out in the barn, Callie was left to sleep with no clothes on, once again.
“You did good with the baby,” Chet whispered. “I think she likes you. You probably remind her of her real mama. You remind me of her real mama.”
Callie wasn’t listening. She was tired, and all she wanted was to go to sleep.
“I’m sorry if I have frightened you,” Chet continued. “I guess I was just expecting you to accept me as your husband right off the bat. My needs were denied for so long, I think it got the better of me. I want you to be happy here, Callie. Your sister did love me. She came to me willingly. She never once complained. She kept trying for another son, Callie. She wanted me to try to bring on a child for her, hoping for a boy. Then when she saw it was a daughter, she seemed to lose faith. A few days later, she died. She promised to give me sons, and maybe she felt she had let me down, and didn’t have a reason for living. I hope you understand that. You are going to have to love little Rolletta to make it up for her mother dying.”
Callie turned in the bed and faced him. It was the first time she had heard anything soft fall from his mouth. But the thought came to her that maybe Rolletta died because she didn’t want to keep trying for a son.
“I don’t know how to be a mother, Chet,” she whispered. “I don’t know how to be a wife. Everything is all new to me, and I’m scared.”
Chet awkwardly put his arm around Callie and pulled her closer to him.
“Don’t be scared, Callie. I know this is all new to you. I said some gruff things to you. I may have treated you rough, but I am just a cowboy. I’m not used to courting a woman, or knowing how to sway her. I just know what my needs are, and how Rolletta fulfilled those needs. I thought you would be more like your sister, and it would fill that empty part of me, she took with her, when she died. I thought you knew what your duty was, and would take to it, once you married me. Maybe I was too impatient, since the moment I laid eyes on you it was like looking at Rolletta come back from the dead, still wanting to give me sons.”
“I’m not Rolletta, Chet. I can never be her.”
“I wish to hell you were, though,” he said, and Callie was shocked when she realized that Chet had begun to shake as tears started to fall upon her skin.
“Don’t cry, Chet,” she whispered. “It won’t bring Rolletta back.”
“Only you are like bringing her back,” he insisted. “I could see the way the children were looking at you like they believed I had brought their mother back from the dead. It won’t take them long to take to you the same way they took to their mother. I even have to tell myself that you are not Rolletta.
“Maybe that is why I was so abrupt with you on our wedding day. I wanted you to be her, but you weren’t. You were frightened. You didn’t like me. You looked at me with scorn and spoke to me as though you despised the very sight of me. It angered me that you were the spittin’ image of her, and yet you weren’t her, and you were rebelling against my very touch.”
“You did frighten me,” Callie admitted. “Everything about you frightened me. I didn’t want to be married. I didn’t want a husband.”
“You’re stuck with me now, Callie. Maybe we should make the best of it.”
Callie felt Chet kissing her forehead, and then his lips were wandering over her face, leaving soft kisses along the way. She could not believe the gentle way he was now handling her, after the revulsion she had felt at his touch from the moment they got married. Slowly, Chet’s lips found their way to her mouth, where he paused at first, and then tested her response, as he put pressure against her lips, and subsequently, moved his own lips over hers.
Callie was caught by surprise when the kiss actually felt somewhat pleasant, and coaxing, bringing a tender sentiment from within her towards Chet. Callie decided to allow him this small comfort, thinking that perhaps he had loved her sister, and Rolletta had loved Chet, in return. She knew she could never take her sister’s place in the hearts of either her sister’s children or Chet, but like he had said, she was stuck with him and maybe she should make the best of it since it seemed she had no way of changing it.
As Chet sensed her relaxing, he proceeded to deepen the kiss, feeling his passion rising to the surface. There was more than one way to skin a cat, he thou
ght almost smugly to himself. ‘You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar,’ he chuckled the old adage under his breath.
It had excited him to watch Callie letting the baby suck on her, as she tried to get the baby to take the milk hose. It reminded him of how he often watched Rolletta feed their children as infants, which made him want to have her as soon as she put the infant down. Now that old need had resurfaced, and he knew he desired Callie in the same way.
Chet took his time, though, pacing himself; forcing himself to slowly seduce Callie into accepting him as her husband, without her fighting him off, the way she had threatened him, she would do. He needed to employ a lighter hand until she got accustomed to accepting the inevitable.
In Chet’s younger days, he had frequented soiled doves on every occasion he could manage. There had been few women out on the Texas plains to fulfill a man’s need of a wife. When he met Rolletta, he knew it was his only chance to finally have himself a wife to bring him sons. Only he was rough around the edges and found himself treating his wife, somewhat the same way he treated women whom he paid to service him.
Because Rolletta loved him, she accepted his ways, but it hurt his pride when Callie had accused him of using Rolletta up. Perhaps he had been too insensitive to his wife, he admitted, remembering Rolletta’s last days before she died.
Now, Chet focused on the situation at hand. He knew ways to bring Callie around, and her own naivety worked in his favor. It pleased him when he felt her responding to his kiss the way he intended. Her murmurs were more of pleasure than fear.
He let his mouth slide down her neck until he had captured the very breast, his daughter had used, and could taste the sweet remains of milk left there. Feeding the baby seemed to have softened Callie’s resistance. Perhaps she enjoyed the feel of lips upon her in that way, he decided. Therefore, he would give her what she desired.
At any rate, she was allowing him this subtle progress, and he was determined to use it to its fullest until he had her willingly allowing him his due. The very taste of her skin against his tongue spurred him on; making him contented she was not shrinking away.
Beyond the Heart Page 4