Calico Christmas at Dry Creek

by Janet Tronstad

  “We’ll take you to school and see that everything’s okay,” Jake said.

  Elizabeth looked over at him.

  “We’ll stop by after Spotted Fawn has settled in a bit,” Elizabeth corrected him as she made one last knot in a rag and patted the girl on the shoulder. “There, you’re all ready for bed now. Have sweet dreams and don’t worry about anything.”

  Spotted Fawn looked over at Jake with a question in her eyes.

  He nodded. “I’ll be up in a minute to say your prayers with you.”

  Red Tail had always said evening prayers with Spotted Fawn and Jake knew that was the time when his niece missed her parents the most.

  Spotted Fawn stood up and Elizabeth took the apron off of the girl’s shoulders. For a second, Jake had thought Elizabeth was going to bend down and kiss the top of his niece’s head. But she didn’t.

  Spotted Fawn was waiting for something, though.

  Elizabeth looked down at the girl. With her hair in rags and the worried expression on her face, Spotted Fawn looked a lot like Elizabeth had felt at her age when she needed to walk to a new household to see if she could work there for a while. Everything always depended on the kindness of the women in the new place. She supposed it would be the same for Spotted Fawn.

  “The day will go fast,” Elizabeth said softly as she reached over to smooth down a stray piece of the girl’s hair that had escaped a knotted rag. “And I’m going to bake some molasses cookies to put in your lunch pail.”

  In the two days that she and Spotted Fawn had been getting ready for school, Elizabeth had discovered that the girl liked cookies. Elizabeth planned to bake some before the stove cooled off tonight.

  Spotted Fawn nodded to Elizabeth before turning to the ladder that led up to the loft.

  Elizabeth watched as the girl climbed the ladder.

  “Here.” Jake walked over and pulled out a chair for Elizabeth. “Rest a bit before you worry about those cookies.”

  Elizabeth nodded as she eased herself into the chair. It had been a long day. “I hope—” She looked at the loft above. Spotted Fawn was already up there.

  Jake nodded. “Me, too.”

  Elizabeth could hear Spotted Fawn moving around in the loft.

  “We can’t go with her to school, though,” Elizabeth murmured quietly so they wouldn’t be overheard. “The other kids will tease her if we do.”

  “Well, what do other parents do?”

  Jake looked so bewildered, Elizabeth started to giggle. “I’m sure I don’t know.”

  Elizabeth couldn’t get her breath. She knew it was half from exhaustion, but the more she giggled the more Jake’s eyes danced along with her. She liked watching the lamplight flicker on his face. He was standing beside her chair, looking down at her, and then—

  Oh, my, Jake had bent down and was kissing her. She should pull away and say something, but she couldn’t think of anything coherent to say. This kiss was—no, she was. Everything stopped. Yes, she was a bad woman.

  “You’re not supposed to do that,” Elizabeth finally whispered as she managed to pull away slightly.

  She remembered, of course, that he had kissed her when the minister pronounced them married, but that had been a kiss with a purpose. A wedding kiss had a certain dignity to it. But this—this kiss was something a grieving widow should never be part of.

  Matthew and her baby had only been dead for fifteen days. What was wrong with her? They were cold in the ground and she was—she’d never felt this way before.

  Elizabeth couldn’t look at Jake, but she saw him stand up anyway.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll leave—I—”

  “You can’t leave. You have to pray with Spotted Fawn.”

  Elizabeth kept her gaze on the table, but she eventually saw Jake start walking toward the ladder that went up to the loft.

  Elizabeth was glad when he’d climbed to the top.

  She wanted some peace while she contemplated what was wrong with her. Maybe all the time that Matthew had been grumbling because she wasn’t enough of a lady to suit him, he wasn’t talking about her hair or her clothes. Maybe he had been able to see inside of her and he realized she was a wanton. A loose woman.

  She had never suspected. She had known she had to be very careful in the households where she worked. People all too often assumed servant girls had no morals. But she had always thought the problem was with other people. She had never expected to feel this heat rising up within herself.

  Elizabeth listened to the sounds of Jake and Spotted Fawn praying together. How could he talk to God after this? He had promised to respect her grief. She had been Matthew’s wife and she’d been on the verge of betraying his memory. The worst of it was that she had never been stirred like this with Matthew.

  It wasn’t until she heard the voices upstairs fade away that she stood up. She had cookies to bake before she went to bed. It was her gift to Spotted Fawn—something to give the girl comfort in the middle of the day tomorrow. It would remind her that people were at home thinking of her.

  Jake sat up in the loft until Spotted Fawn closed her eyes. He could hear Elizabeth moving around downstairs and he thought he should give her some peace. He had blundered badly. He had seen the shocked distress on her face.

  The problem was he’d neglected to court his wife. He was feeling married to her, even if he had no right to it. But he should have remembered she didn’t feel the same about him.

  He had noticed earlier in the afternoon that she was marking the days beside her bed as she had done beside her tent. He’d even counted the days she had there, but he had not realized what all of those lines in the dirt meant. Elizabeth still marked her life by the death of her husband. God might not be sending her the fever, but she considered herself tied to that family she’d buried in a way that left no room for him and his nieces.

  He slowly climbed down the rope ladder. Elizabeth stood by the stove. The room smelled of ginger and molasses.

  “Thank you for all you did today,” Jake said quietly. Even if she didn’t have room in her heart for him and his nieces, she was doing her duty by them. That was more than a lot of women would do. Come spring, he’d have to find a way to let her go if that’s what she wanted.

  Elizabeth didn’t turn around as Jake walked out of the cabin. She was ashamed to face herself; she certainly didn’t want her emotions to be seen by anyone else.

  She finished baking the cookies. Then the baby woke up, hungry to be fed.

  Elizabeth held the baby as it nursed. Everything always seemed better when she had the baby in her arms. The little one was gaining weight and making happy gurgling sounds that made Elizabeth smile.

  The baby fell back asleep before Elizabeth returned her to the crib.

  The house was warm and quiet again before Elizabeth went to bed. She didn’t sleep well, but she hadn’t expected to. Finally, she got up early. She wanted to make certain that the cabin was warm for Spotted Fawn when she dressed. Elizabeth had already decided that she would react to Jake as though nothing had happened last night. She didn’t want Spotted Fawn to be any more worried than she already was.

  Besides, the problem didn’t lie within Jake; it lay within her. She was the one who had forgotten her husband.

  When Spotted Fawn came down the ladder, Elizabeth put all worries out of her mind. Yesterday, she’d helped Spotted Fawn try on each new piece of clothing. Now, of course, the girl didn’t like anything she was supposed to wear.

  “I’ll be cold,” Spotted Fawn complained as she stood by the bed. Elizabeth was holding out the white linen pantalettes. Fortunately, the mercantile had some that were only a little large on the girl.

  “You’ll have an extra petticoat.”

  Black lace-up boots were sitting on one of the table chairs and the blue calico dress that Elizabeth had cut down from one of hers was hanging on the back of the rocking chair.

  “I’m sorry, but you can’t wear your leggings,” Elizabeth said
when Spotted Fawn kept frowning at the pantalettes.

  Leggings wasn’t the right term, but Elizabeth refused to call them animal pelts although that was what they really were. They had been Elizabeth’s biggest challenge. She knew Spotted Fawn didn’t stand a chance of being accepted by the other children unless she dressed like them and the leggings were the most obvious difference in her usual clothes. To make matters worse, the pelts had been rubbed with bear grease, probably to keep out the dampness, and had a strong animal smell.

  When they’d gone to the mercantile earlier, Elizabeth had picked out a length of yellow calico to make another dress for Spotted Fawn. She’d start sewing on that this afternoon. And she’d see about dyeing the girl’s old dress. Elizabeth had enough dried leaves and things to work with until she could grow the plants she usually used for her dyeing.

  “Why don’t you pick out your ribbon while I get the biscuits out of the oven?” Elizabeth suggested. The ribbons were the one thing that Spotted Fawn had liked about her new wardrobe.

  Elizabeth wasn’t surprised when Spotted Fawn picked the red one. The girl loved that color. After Jake came inside and they ate breakfast, Elizabeth tied the ribbon around Spotted Fawn’s hair.

  They had agreed they would all ride into Miles City in the wagon early enough to get Spotted Fawn to school on time. But Jake and Elizabeth would wait a couple of hours before stopping by the schoolhouse to see how things were going for the girl.

  It was almost two hours after the school bell had initially rung that Jake looked up from the newspaper he was reading. He was sitting on a chair in a corner of the mercantile while Elizabeth stood over by the counter, looking at some dress patterns and chatting quietly with Annabelle. Fortunately, someone must have explained to Annabelle that Jake wasn’t a wolfer because she had been cordial to him this morning.

  “Do they ring the bell again for recess?” Jake asked as he stood up.

  “Sometimes,” Annabelle said. “I think it’s up to the reverend.”

  “Is it time for us to go over?” Elizabeth looked up at him.

  “I’d guess they are out to recess about now so it’d be as good a time as any to say hello to her.”

  Elizabeth nodded and put the pattern she was looking at back in the box on the counter. They both said goodbye to Annabelle and then they walked out of the store.

  Jake heard the sound of children laughing as they walked down the street toward the schoolhouse so he figured he’d timed it about right for recess. Maybe if all of the kids were outside, he’d be able to ask the reverend how Spotted Fawn had done this morning. She knew how to speak English, but she’d be at the beginning of the McGuffey Reader they used in the school. He wondered if he shouldn’t have tried to teach Spotted Fawn how to read a little bit before she went to school.

  Jake heard a girl’s scream and then a yell—“Ho’ka hey.”

  “What was that?” Elizabeth asked as she looked around.

  Jake started to run. “The Lakota battle cry.”

  He heard Elizabeth’s footsteps following him.

  The reverend was coming out of the schoolhouse as Jake reached the steps.

  “Where’s Spotted Fawn?” he asked the other man.

  “Behind the school with the other children. It’s recess.”

  “Not any longer,” Jake said as he started to run around the school.

  Jake came to a stop when he reached the area behind the school. There were a few scrub trees close by, but the children were all standing still as though they were afraid to move. In the middle of them all, Spotted Fawn was crouched down with a wild look in her eyes and a small branch in her outstretched hand.

  “What happened here?” Jake asked as he slowly walked toward Spotted Fawn. He knew she had times when she remembered her village being burned by some soldiers, but he hadn’t expected this.

  “My ma says we don’t need to go to school with no Injuns,” one of the taller boys said. He had flaming red hair which could only mean one thing: he was a Barker.

  Jake didn’t pay him any attention. He squatted down to be level with his niece. “Spotted Fawn?”

  His niece looked up at him and, as she moved her arms, he saw the egg that had been thrown at the front of her new dress. Her face was dirty and she had a bruise on her cheek. Her red ribbon was missing and her hair swung around in disarray, the curls all gone.

  “Elias Barker, you go inside this minute,” the Reverend Olson’s voice thundered behind Jake. “Mary, you go get Mrs. Barker for me. We’re going to get this settled right now. I won’t have my students caught up in a brawl.”

  “Well, it was her fault,” Elias said.

  “I doubt that very much,” the reverend said as he pointed to the schoolhouse. “And if I find out that you’re the one that started this, you’re going to be cleaning blackboards for the rest of your natural life.”

  Jake saw Elias walk back to the schoolhouse at the same time as Elizabeth bent down beside him. She’d found the red ribbon somewhere.

  “Here, let’s get you cleaned up,” Elizabeth said as she offered a hand to Spotted Fawn. “I’m sure Annabelle will let us use her room so you can get rid of this dirt.”

  Jake had thought Elizabeth had taken care of his nieces earlier. But it was nothing compared to what she was doing now. She helped Spotted Fawn get up and put her arm around the girl’s shoulder as if they were going for a stroll somewhere. She made everything look so dignified.

  Elizabeth turned to look at the reverend. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  The reverend nodded. “Rest assured, I’ll have the class ready to apologize by the time you do.”

  Elizabeth nodded as she walked away with Spotted Fawn.

  Jake still felt like pounding something. He settled for glaring at the two older boys who stood there smirking.

  “What was that?” a nearby girl asked Jake and he wondered what she meant.

  “That thing Spotted Fawn said,” the girl persisted. “What does it mean?”

  “That it’s a good day to die. The Lakota Sioux say that when they ride into battle.” Jake looked over and noticed the boys weren’t smirking any longer.

  “That doesn’t make them come here, does it?” one of the boys asked. “The Indians, I mean. It’s not like calling them here, is it?”

  Jake hid a grin as he shrugged. “You’ll have to ask Spotted Fawn.”

  Jake wished adults could be told to stay after school the way their children could. Mrs. Barker wasn’t doing anything to encourage peace in the classroom. Fortunately, the Reverend Olson had asked the rest of the children, even Elias, to stay outside while the adults had their meeting.

  “I told you there would be trouble,” Mrs. Barker said the minute the three adults were inside and the door was closed. “That girl doesn’t belong here.”

  “Your son started the trouble.”

  “Indians have no place in the Miles City School.”

  “You don’t own the school,” Jake said.

  “Neither do you.”

  Mrs. Barker stood in the school aisle with her hands on her hips and Jake felt his temper rising.

  “Now, now,” the reverend said as he came back from closing the door. “We need to talk about this rationally.”

  “I am being perfectly rational,” Mrs. Barker said as she pointed at Jake. “He’s the one who isn’t moving ahead with the times. This isn’t Indian country any longer. Those savages have no place here.”

  “My niece is going to this school and if you try to stop it I’ll call in my loan on the lumber.”

  Mrs. Barker turned to the reverend. “Can he do that?”

  Reverend Olson nodded. “It’s his right. Half of the lumber in the school is his.”

  The woman turned around to face Jake. “The school can’t afford that.”

  “I know.”

  “Well, your niece can sit on your side of the school then, but my son will sit on the town’s side.”

  With that the woman
turned and walked out of the school.

  “Well, I guess that is a compromise,” the reverend said hesitantly. “Or at least moving in that direction. She said Spotted Fawn can be here.”

  Jake grunted. He wasn’t sure what was going on in Mrs. Barker’s head, but he didn’t think it was compromise.

  Chapter Eight

  Elizabeth used her fork to pick up a piece of cooked carrot. Jake had invited her to have a roast beef dinner with him in the hotel. Of course, she knew the invitation was just an excuse for them to linger in town until it was time for school to be dismissed. Neither one of them had wanted to return Spotted Fawn to school unless they were close enough to help if there were problems later.

  “We should have pie, too,” Jake suggested. His new hat sat on the chair next to him and Elizabeth sat across the table from him. He didn’t even seem to notice that the waitress had stopped to ask several times if he’d like her to put his wonderful new hat on the rack by the door. Wonderful, Elizabeth thought sourly. That was the waitress’s exact word. A hat wasn’t wonderful.

  “Pie would be nice,” Elizabeth said. She needed to forget about Jake’s hat and enjoy herself.

  The hotel had maroon rugs spread along its floors and white linen napkins on the tables. The silver was heavy and well-polished. Elizabeth had never been in such a fine place to eat. Then the waitress came back. It seemed she was not only worried about Jake’s hat; she also seemed to be offering him more coffee than the other diners.

  Not that Elizabeth was jealous, she assured herself. She just didn’t want the young woman to exert herself for nothing. Elizabeth put her hand on top of the table and turned the ring on her finger slightly so it would catch more of the light shining in the window.

  There—by the look on the woman’s face, the waitress had finally noticed.