by Sandra Brown
“There. That should hold you until we can get you back to Keypoint and summon the doctor. Can you ride?”
“Hold on just a goddam minute, Missy. I ain’t agoin’ nowhere but to my house, and no stinkin’ sawbones is goin’ to touch any part of Jack Turner.”
“But, Mr. Turner, those wounds are serious. Your ankle may be broken.” She couldn’t let him return to that cave he lived in without medical attention. “Please, if you don’t want to go to Keypoint, let me get Rudy, you know Rudy Men—”
“Hell, yes, I know who Rudy Mendez is, and he or no one else is goin’ to take care of this ankle ’ceptin’ me. I’ve had more broken bones than you’ve had years.”
“But you may need to be sutured.”
He raised his scornful eyes to her then and cursed imaginatively. “Who you think sewed up my face when them Injuns did this to it, huh?” He didn’t expect an answer and Lauren was too mortified to make one. “Now get outa’ my way.”
Jack struggled to his feet and shrugged off her attempts to help him. He leaned down and picked up his trap, condemning it for being empty. He damned as well his own clumsiness at having stepped on it. He limped to his horse and took a long pull on the canteen before he hoisted himself into the saddle.
“Would you like for me to follow you and see you home? You may need some help.”
“No, ma’am. You seen more of Jack Turner than any other human has in twenty years or so. I’d be obliged if you was to forget what you seen.” He looked away shyly and said, “You seem like a real decent sort of woman, Miz Lockett.”
Lauren knew that he would resent the pity she felt inclined to show him, so she said, “Thank you. It has been a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Turner.”
He tipped his hat to her and rode away. She didn’t follow him so as not to invade the privacy he coveted. She waited until he was out of sight before she mounted her horse and rode back to the ranch house, after stopping once at the river to wash the blood from her hands.
She went into the kitchen and gathered up a basket of food, then returned swiftly to the riverbank across from the house growing out of the rock wall. She left the basket on the flat rock as she had seen Jared do. She didn’t tarry, but rode away without looking back.
* * *
As Gloria’s delivery date drew near, the women sewed and knitted, talking over names, deciding first on one and then discarding it for another. Elena happily announced one morning that she, too, was pregnant again. She radiated good health and energy, while Carlos wore a perpetually sappy grin. Lauren was touched by their obvious happiness with each other and their new home.
The Mendez baby chose the twenty-third day of January to make its appearance. Gloria had been listless since getting up that morning. She, Lauren, and Maria were sitting in the large living room near the fire enjoying a cup of midmorning tea when she clutched the arms of her chair.
“I think I’m going into labor. That’s about the third pain, and it’s the strongest.”
Lauren nearly dropped her cup, but Maria went to her daughter-in-law and supported her as they walked into the bedroom she shared with Rudy.
“Lauren, will you come help Gloria into bed, please?”
Lauren jumped in alarm, but she followed the other two into the room. At Maria’s instructions, Lauren turned down the spread and covers on the bed, and Maria eased Gloria down onto the sheet.
“I’ll undress her, Lauren, if you’ll go tell Elena to take care of the children for the rest of the day,” Maria said placidly. “Send word to Rudy by one of the vaqueros. They’ll know where he is. Then come back. I’m sure we can use another pair of hands.”
Lauren sped out of the room, grateful for any task that took her away from the birthing bed. She didn’t relish witnessing that secret rite which had killed her own mother.
Elena was elated, and assured Lauren that she would take care of the house and the children and would stand by if needed for anything else. Rudy came bounding into the house a few minutes later, looking gray under his dark features.
“Rudy,” Lauren cried. “I was counting on you to calm my nerves. I thought you’d be used to this by now. You look like a new father.”
He grinned abashedly. “I guess every time is like the first time. Is she all right? Can I go see her?”
“Well, I suppose so.” Lauren wasn’t sure what etiquette dictated in this instance. “Let me check.”
She crept into the dim room to find Gloria propped up primly in the middle of the bed talking amiably to Maria. Lauren hadn’t expected that. She thought she would find her writhing in pain. “Is it all right if Rudy comes in to see you?”
Gloria laughed. “It’s his fault I’m in this predicament, so I guess that entitles him.”
Rudy entered after Lauren bade him to and crossed to the bed in three long strides. He sat down close to Gloria and put both of his large hands on her abdomen.
“So by nightfall we’ll have another mouth to feed, hey?”
“I’ll be the only one feeding it for a while, remember?”
“I’m sure you can handle it.” He grinned and cupped her swollen breasts in his hands.
She swatted them away playfully. “Rudy Mendez, even at a time like this you’re a lecher. And in front of your mother!”
“She knows I take after my father.” He laughed. Then he leaned down and kissed his wife tenderly on the forehead. “I’ll be outside if you need me. I love you.”
Gloria kissed both his hands before he got up and left the room. Lauren’s eyes filled with tears and a lump in her throat prevented her from replying as Maria asked her to stoke the fire in the grate.
The afternoon dragged by. Gloria’s pains became more insistent, and Lauren watched in horror as the bed was flooded with water tinged pink with blood. She thought something was dreadfully wrong until Maria assured her that this was normal, and that the baby would be coming soon.
About an hour later, Gloria’s face twisted in pain, but with Maria’s gentle urging to push harder, she was delivered of a baby boy. Lauren watched as Maria drew him from his mother’s body and cut the cord that had bound them together. Her mother must have suffered in the same way to deliver her and the little brother whose birth had killed her. She felt a great loneliness for the woman she had never known. She wished she could remember telling her mother that she loved her. Surely she had.
Maria was wrapping the squirming, squealing baby in a warm blanket when Gloria cried out, “I don’t think that’s all!”
Maria and Lauren rushed back to her and saw another dark head emerging from the opening between her legs.
“Lauren, help her,” Maria commanded as she held the infant boy closer, trying to muffle his loud cries.
Lauren turned pale and started to object, but Gloria moaned again. She looked back to see the baby’s shoulders trying to push their way into the world. Trembling, Lauren took the child’s head in her hands as she had seen Maria do and gently pulled. The baby didn’t move, but it set up a howl even with mucus still clogging its small throat. Lauren was perspiring and shaking as she pulled more firmly on the slippery head. The baby almost popped out into her waiting hands. It was a girl.
She was laughing and crying all at once as she announced, “It’s a girl,” to the anxious mother whose face then relaxed into peaceful repose.
“Here, Lauren, you take this one and I’ll cut the cord.” Lauren laid the baby girl on the sheet as Maria shoved the other one at her before cutting the cord for his sister.
“Gloria, you have twins. One of each.” Maria was giggling like a young girl.
“Tell Rudy,” Gloria whispered weakly from the pillows. Lauren turned and left the room, still carrying the new boy who was making his presence known.
“Rudy, it’s twins! A boy and a girl!”
Rudy came to her quickly and looked down at his new son. “Twins?” he asked stupidly.
“Yes, come and see.” She led him back into the room where Maria held up the baby gi
rl.
“Twins!” He laughed, then whooped so loudly that the babies started screaming even louder.
“Now see what you’ve done,” scolded Maria as she laid the baby girl on Gloria’s shoulder. Rudy took his son from Lauren and sat down on the bed next to his wife. They oohed and aahed over the babies even while Maria was tending to Gloria between her raised knees. Lauren felt like an interloper, and left the room.
She didn’t realize how tired she was. It was late in the evening and she had spent most of the day in the room with Gloria and Maria. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, but the emptiness she felt inside wasn’t hunger.
Crossing to the wardrobe, she opened the door. She took one of Jared’s shirts from its hanger and held it close to her. It had been over a mouth since she had seen her husband. She longed to share the experience of the birth with him, the wonder of it.
She lay down on the bed and pulled the shirt over her. Closing her eyes, she could see Jared’s face just as it was when he had gazed down at her in awe after he had made love to her. There had been no cynicism or bitterness on his face then. Only tenderness. Where are you now, Jared? What are you doing? Do you ever think of me?
She pulled off her shirtwaist and skirt and slipped Jared’s shirt over her head. Pulling a pillow against her, she fell asleep.
* * *
For the next few days, the arrival of the twins upset the normal routine of the household. The other children were continually underfoot trying to get glimpses of their new brother and sister. Lauren was amazed at the patience that Gloria exhibited. She listened to their chatter and managed to have a private time with each of them every day. Lauren knew she was fatigued after the birth and from the necessity of feeding two healthy infants, yet she didn’t neglect her other children.
Benjamin was the name given to the baby boy, in honor of his paternal grandfather, and Lauren was deeply moved when they named the girl after her.
“After all, you brought her into the world. And I hope she will grow up to be a lady like you.” Gloria had hugged her sister-in-law and ignored the tears rolling down her cheeks. She was quick to cry these days.
Young Benjamin and Lauren were one week old when something greatly disturbing happened. Rudy was in the house for the noon meal when one of the vaqueros came to the door and told him someone outside wanted to see him. The ranch hand shifted his eyes uneasily and looked ready to stand behind Rudy if support was needed.
Lauren followed Rudy out to the porch and saw the charcoal burner Wat Duncan and his sister June sitting on a derelict horse which was almost as dirty as his riders.
Duncan dismounted and strode toward them. “Howdee do, Seeñor Mendez. Heerd you had a new set of twins.” Duncan smiled his insolent smile. He had not changed clothes since Lauren had first seen him, only added layers in deference to the cold.
“What are you doing here, Duncan? You know only certain areas of Keypoint are open to you, and this is definitely not one of them.” Rudy’s voice was firm and cold.
“Well, I jes’ came to give you my congrajulashuns. It ’pears your babies is the only younguns that’ll be born in the Lockett fambly. Seein’ as how Jared deserted his purty bride an’ all.” He grinned sardonically at Lauren and she shivered under his lascivious scrutiny. She averted her gaze to June, whose shapely legs, bare and seemingly impervious to the cold wind, straddled her mount.
June was staring at Lauren spitefully and licked her dry, chapped lips when she met the other’s eye. “Reckon Jared had to go to Austin to find a warm bed for the winter,” she drawled.
“My brother’s business is none of your concern,” Rudy snapped, after a furtive glance at Lauren. It worried him that they knew so much about the happenings at Keypoint and Jared’s whereabouts. “He is engaged in important business with the railroad, but keeps in constant contact with us. Now, you’ll state your business and leave.”
Wat Duncan assumed an obsequious attitude. “Now don’tcha go gettin’ all riled up, Rudy. I come in good faith. Vandiver and some of his heavies been snoopin’ around and axin’ a lot of questions. I don’t give a good goddam what happens to them Mexies—no offense intended. I jes’ don’t want nothin’ to happen to my deal with Lockett. Y’all understand. It’s my bisness I’m worried about.”
The muscles of Rudy’s jaw had hardened to granite and Lauren saw him stroke the holster that held his six-shooter. “Get out of here, Duncan. Don’t ever come near this house again, or I’ll personally kill you. As for your business, it’s intact as long as Jared and I say so. Vandiver has nothing to do with it. Now get off this property.”
“Awright. I’m agoin’. Jes’ tryin’ to be neighborly like.” He sauntered to the mangy horse and mounted in front of his sister. She hooked her thumbs into his belt. Her fingers brushed the front of his trousers as she cooed, “Who’s Rudy been sleepin’ with, Miz Lockett, now that his wife is laid up havin’ babies?”
Rudy reached for his gun, but Lauren put out a restraining arm. “No, Rudy,” she whispered, for she had seen Duncan’s hand moving to the far side of the horse where a shotgun was strapped. She was grateful to see that the word had spread among the vaqueros that the disreputable pair were there and that many of them were moving into place, virtually surrounding the miscreants.
The girl tossed her long white hair and laughed, confident that Rudy wouldn’t draw on her brother. “Tell Jared I come axin’ about him. I’d like to see him when he gets back.” She looked at Lauren and snorted. Duncan pulled the reins of the horse around and they clopped out of the yard, obviously in no hurry to leave.
The vaqueros and Rudy watched until they were out of sight, then Rudy commissioned two hands to follow them and make sure that they returned to their camp.
When he came back into the large room, Lauren was sitting staring into the fire. He crossed to her and took both of her cold hands into his as he squatted down in front of her. “Lauren, Jared has never had anything to do with that dirty slut.”
Lauren smiled at his kind, sympathetic face. “I know that. He has no affection for me,” she confessed wryly, “but I know his taste in women would be more discriminating than that.” Maria and Gloria had moved over to them and were listening anxiously to the conversation. “What worries me,” Lauren continued, “is what Duncan said about Vandiver and his heavies being in Pueblo.”
“Yes, that bothers me, too, but not as much as his knowing about everything that is going on in this house. He is trouble and no doubt about it. Ben would have had him shot on sight if he had come here before, and I may regret that I didn’t. How did he know you?”
Lauren told them about the day she and Jared had gone to Pecan Creek and passed through the charcoal burners’ camp on their way home.
“Rudy, I’m frightened,” Gloria said.
He stood and put his arm around his wife, who had been up out of bed only one day. “I’m sure he’s just testing our authority now that Ben’s gone. There’s no need to worry. Jared and I’ll talk it over and decide what’s to be done about them. I don’t like having that scum anywhere on Keypoint.”
The lines around his mouth were grim and he stayed near the house for the rest of the day, though he tried not to appear nervous. Lauren noticed that for the next few days, three or four vaqueros were posted around the house. Despite his reassurances, Rudy was still worried about Wat Duncan.
* * *
Holding true to the dire predictions, the unseasonably mild weather of January gave way to blindingly cold storms in February. There was little that could be done on the ranch in such weather, and Lauren felt sorry for the vaqueros whose turn it was to ride out and check on the vast acreage of Keypoint. They always took plenty of provisions, planning to spend days at a time in one of the line cabins built for just that purpose.
Those in the house confined themselves to entertaining the children, caring for the demanding twins, and sewing and baking for the family and the idle cowboys in the bunkhouse.
It was on one
such late-evening excursion to the bunkhouse to deliver a batch of cookies that Thorn approached Lauren. The basket had been gratefully received by the vaqueros and she was scurrying back across the compound toward the house when the Comanche loomed out of the deep shadows to stand directly in front of her.
She managed to stifle a startled scream by covering her lips with her hand.
Without preamble or apology, he said, “Mrs. Lockett, I found this on the gate this morning.”
She hadn’t known what to expect his voice to sound like, but it was low and deep, almost cultured. She found herself staring up into the implacable mask of his face. Then she looked down at the crude package he had extended to her.
The bundle was wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string. On it had been childishly scrawled Miz Lokit. “What…?” she said, looking into Thorn’s face again.
“I believe it’s something that belongs to you.”
She slipped the string away and opened the paper. The kerchief she had wrapped around Crazy Jack’s ankle was caught by the cold wind and nearly ripped from her hand. When she had grabbed it back, she saw that it had been washed and folded. All traces of blood were gone. Her lips tilted into a secret smile. Who would have expected the old hermit to meticulously launder her scarf? Had he chanced being seen to return it to her? He must have.
Lauren was suddenly aware that Thorn was staring at her closely. “I… I must have lost this somewhere,” she stuttered. “I guess someone found it and… returned it. Thank you.”
The Indian’s eyes didn’t waver, and she sensed that he knew more than that stoic face revealed. He didn’t speak again, but acknowledged her thanks by a quick jerk of his chin. Lauren didn’t realize he had moved away from her until his form was swallowed up by the descending darkness.
* * *
The third week of February, they saw the first snowfall. It had threatened for about a week with fierce north winds bringing rain, freezing drizzle, and enough sleet to coat the ground.