A Texas Promise

by Laura Conner Kestner

  Murmuring words of encouragement when it seemed appropriate, Maggie mostly listened. Peg probably hadn’t talked to a soul about this in years.

  The older woman told of the first time she’d seen Blue Harmon, the immediate connection, the courtship, their wedding and plans for the future.

  “The having him then makes up for the hurting now,” Peg said. “But there was a time I didn’t think I’d survive it.”

  Maggie placed a hand over Peg’s. “I’m so sorry.”

  Peg nodded, throat working as she battled tears.

  “Was Blue his real name?” Maggie asked.

  “No. His name was Joel James Harmon. He said his father wanted to call him J.J. but he had these deep blue eyes. A real unusual shade. Said his mother started calling him Blue. It just stuck.”

  She took a sip of the tea. “Something similar happened to Bliss. As you heard earlier, his real name is Reuben, but his mother called him Bliss. Eventually everyone around here did, too.”

  Peg seemed lost in her thoughts for awhile, then suddenly began talking again. “Blue’s buried here in Moccasin Rock, you know. He’d traveled all over Texas and Mexico, and fought battles and engaged in skirmishes from one end of the state to the other, and he died within a day’s ride of home.”

  Reaching into her pocket, Peg pulled out a handkerchief and swiped at her eyes.

  “They brought him home in an old wagon. The coffin was a wooden box they’d pieced together in a hurry. Every lawman in the area, as well as a good many of the peaceable Indians, rode along. There was no fancy funeral. Not that many people living here at the time. So a preacher said the words over his grave. But everyone that could be was there. Some people were there out of love, some out of respect, and some probably out of curiosity.”

  Maggie was unprepared for Peg’s next statement.

  “I lost the baby that night,” she said softly. “It was a little boy.”

  “Oh, Peg.”

  The woman was miles away now, lost in her memories, and Maggie was struck anew by what a generous soul she was.

  Peg had lost her husband, and her son, and yet she’d spent years trying to make sure that other women would experience the joy of cradling their infants in their arms.

  Swallowing several times, Peg’s voice had gone husky when she spoke again. “It was wrong of me to shut Bliss out the way I did. At the time all I felt was pain when I saw him. The man who came back wasn’t the one I wanted. Nothing Bliss said or did would change that. I figured that he’d leave, but he stuck around. I also believed he’d gotten over it all years ago.”

  Peg raised sad eyes. “When I saw that look on his face today, I knew he wasn’t over anything. He’s still hurting too. I’m so sorry about that.”

  “I’m sure if there’s anyone who could understand, it would be Bliss,” Maggie said.

  “Probably so.” After a few moments, Peg started in reminiscing again about her husband.

  Eventually, the older woman went off to bed, while Maggie remained at the table deep in thought. Peg would probably revisit many memories of her laughing, blue-eyed husband in the days to come, while Maggie’s mind was suddenly filled with a brown-eyed man who seemed far too serious for his years; a man who carried much responsibility on his shoulders.

  Maggie didn’t know if anyone else would still remember Eli Calhoun years from now—like they did Blue Harmon—but she would.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Maggie entered Dr. Nathaniel’s office to find the front area empty and followed the sound of familiar voices toward the back.

  Nathaniel had stopped by Peg’s that morning, on his way to see another patient, to let them know that Brody was continuing to improve—to such a degree that he was now getting bored.

  Eli was taking him home the next day, but Nathaniel had encouraged Maggie to visit Brody if she could. With Peg’s blessings, she’d left Lucinda for a while in order to bring him his favorite cookies.

  She entered the room to find Eli sitting in the rocker by Brody’s bed, trying to get him to eat.

  Maggie smiled, watching the two of them—Brody with a mulish expression, and Eli playfully coaxing. “C’mon, a little more oatmeal,” Eli said. “You have to get your strength back.”

  “I will,” Brody grumbled. “Seems to me that I’d have a better chance of doing that with some real food, though.”

  “Oatmeal is real food.”

  “Better than wind pudding and rabbit tracks, I guess, but not by much.”

  Maggie stared at Brody in surprise. Rabbit tracks? Was she the only person not familiar with that expression?

  Eli laughed, which did Maggie’s heart good. After so many hours of worry and waiting vigil at Brody’s bedside, he looked nearly as young as the boy.

  The laughter faded when he saw Maggie, replaced by a soft smile as he sat the bowl down and pushed to his feet. It was a smile of welcome that seemed to go beyond the mere hello he offered. Maggie wasn’t sure exactly what it meant, but she wouldn’t mind seeing it more often.

  “Something wrong?” Eli asked.

  She hadn’t responded to his greeting. Maggie wasn’t about to tell him what she’d been thinking. “Oh, nothing really. I’ve never heard that expression before, the rabbit tracks thing, and now I’ve heard it three times recently.”

  Eli’s brows lifted. “Three times?”

  “Yes, just now from Brody, and I heard you say it when you were talking to the baby.”

  Eli ducked his head. “Oh, you heard that, huh?”

  Maggie couldn’t help but tease a little. “Yes, and I would love to hear you sing the songs you remember from your childhood.”

  Raising his head, Eli grinned. “Not a chance.”

  Laughing, Maggie turned her attention to the patient. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m great,” Brody said. “At least I will be when Eli lets me eat.”

  “You’ll be eating real food by this evening,” Eli assured him. To Maggie he said, “He’s eager to get at some of the gifts that people brought him.” He pointed to a corner table stacked with various breads, cakes and cookies.

  “I can’t believe so many people have been here to see me,” Brody said, eyeing the heap of goodies. He seemed awed by the town’s thoughtfulness.

  That warmed Maggie’s heart. “Goodness,” she said, adding the cookies to the stack, “folks have been generous. You better take it slowly with all that.”

  Brody sighed heavily. “I am, Eli’s seeing to it. At least he let me have a piece of candy.”

  “You’d be regretting it right about now if I’d let you tear into all that,” Eli said. He turned to Maggie. “Silas even brought Brody a whole bag of licorice, peppermint sticks and lemon drops.”

  “You take some, Miss Maggie, there’s plenty,” Brody added. “Eli had one.”

  Eli raised his hands. “I didn’t touch the licorice or lemon,” he said, “although I was coaxed into having a peppermint.”

  Maggie laughed. “No thank you, Brody, maybe later.”

  Eli stretched and yawned. “When was the third time you heard someone talking about rabbit tracks?”

  “Caleb said it.”

  Eli frowned. “Caleb?”

  “Yes.”

  After a moment’s thought, he shrugged. “Well, it’s a thing my mother used to say. So I guess it makes sense that Daddy said it, too. Since Caleb had the same father, that’s probably where he heard it.”

  “Maybe, however in this instance, he was talking about a woman he’d seen at the asylum in Cartersville.”

  Eli had picked up the bowl and offered more oatmeal to Brody, now he turned his attention to Maggie. “What woman?”

  “Caleb didn’t say a name. Just said that the woman had been crying to him about her baby, and then mumbled something about wind pudding and rabbit tracks.”

  At Eli’s thoughtful look, she added. “Caleb didn’t seem to think it unusual. I guess it’s a common enough saying. After all, you and Brody both
said it.”

  “Brody said it because I did.”

  The boy had been looking back and forth between them. “That’s true,” he told Maggie. “I’d never heard it before I met Eli.”

  Eli handed the bowl to Brody and turned toward the door. “I need to talk to Caleb,” he muttered.

  He stopped and looked back. “When I return, I want to hear that you’ve been eating like a bear waking from hibernation—real food first, then the sweets.”

  Brody said, “Yes, sir,” and was smiling when Maggie hurried from the room after Eli. She caught up with him in Nathaniel’s kitchen. “Eli, is something wrong?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess I’m wondering if that woman might’ve known my mother. We’re probably not the only family that used that little saying, but it’s not exactly common.”

  Eli was always so in control, so absolutely sure of himself in any situation, that it was strange to see him so befuddled.

  Maggie had about a hundred questions, but now wasn’t the time. “Hopefully Caleb can help you.”

  “Thanks, Maggie.”

  To her utter astonishment, Eli reached out, pulled her close and kissed her before leaving.

  Maggie was still staring at the closed door, hand to her mouth, when it suddenly popped open again. Eli stepped inside, eyes wide. “Did I…”

  Lowering her hand, Maggie smiled. “Yes.”

  “Do I need to get a skillet for you?”

  She laughed. “No. I didn’t mind.”

  He gave her that full smile again—the one that did funny things to her stomach.

  “Good to know. I’ve wanted to do that for a while. Couldn’t decide on the right moment. I guess my mind settled it for me.” He stepped closer, and placed a hand on her cheek. “I need to go on to Caleb’s, but I hope you’ll be agreeable to trying that again soon.”

  Heart hammering like a drum, Maggie nodded.

  “Good.” He stepped back and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry to be so distracted. I can’t get that rabbit tracks thing outta my mind. I don’t know what to think. What a strange coincidence.”

  “Do you remember any of your mother’s friends?”

  “No. We didn’t have any close neighbors or friends that I recall, except that one old man.”

  A thought occurred to Maggie. What if it wasn’t someone who’d known Mrs. Calhoun? What if it was her? She didn’t voice the question. “What do you remember about the day you last saw your mother?”

  “Not much. The house was fully ablaze when Nathaniel and I got there, and Mama was nowhere to be seen. She’d been in the house when we left. We tried to get to her.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, anguished even after all these years.

  But he was obviously thinking along the same lines Maggie had. “How could she have survived something like that?” Eli said. “And that neighbor of ours told us she was dead. I’m sure it’s some weird coincidence, but I want to see if Caleb remembers anything else about the woman at the asylum.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t mention it sooner,” Maggie said. “I meant to tell you the day I heard you talking to the baby. Then I got a look at the damage to your face, and I forgot all about it.”

  “A similar thing happened with me. I had something I’d planned on telling you the night Ruthie went missing.”

  “You did? What?”

  Eli hesitated a moment before he spoke. “I went to see Lucinda’s grandparents.”

  Even as the anxiety and denial built in Maggie, he was speaking again. “Don’t worry. She’s yours. I’ll explain it all later. I was afraid that someday they could come and claim her.” His voice dropped as he cupped her chin and looked into her eyes. “I was trying to do right, by everybody, and I didn’t want to see any more misery in those beautiful eyes.”

  Before she could think of anything to say, he murmured goodbye, opened the door, and left.

  From the doorway she watched as he walked right in front of a horse and rider, apologized to both of them, and then passed by several of Adger Wilson’s animals with only a nod.

  Poor man. He really was in a distracted state. Could his mother somehow have survived the fire? And if it were her, how had she ended up in the asylum? How long had she been there?

  Maggie shuddered at the thought. She had only been confined for a few weeks, and it had changed her. How bad would it be if you’d spent years there?

  * * *

  Eli found Caleb finishing dinner at the Horton Boarding House. After greeting everyone, Eli declined an invitation to stay for dessert and told Caleb he’d wait on the front porch.

  With an increasing sense of urgency that didn’t make a bit of sense in his own mind, Eli waited for his youngest brother to join him. It was only a few minutes later.

  “You need help?” Caleb asked as he settled down in the porch swing facing the chair.

  “No, just curious about something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Maggie happened to mention that you’d heard a woman at the Cartersville asylum talking about wind pudding and rabbit tracks.”

  “Yeah, that was a sad one,” Caleb said. “It was that woman who was trying to grab on to me. One minute she seemed almost normal, then the next she went all to pieces. Why are you asking? Is it important?”

  “I don’t know,” Eli admitted. “Can you tell me exactly what she said?”

  “Maybe not exactly, but as best I can remember, she was talking about her baby.”

  “Her baby?”

  “Yep, when I walked up, she said something about her baby, and then she reached through the bars. To be honest, I didn’t give it much thought then. Now that I’m recalling it, she was looking at me with the strangest expression.”

  Eli tensed. “Like what?”

  “She looked disappointed. She was mumbling something under her breath.”

  “Disappointed?”

  “Yes, that’s how it seemed. Like I’d let her down. Then she walked away.”

  “And that’s when she said something about wind pudding and rabbit tracks?”

  Caleb nodded. “She was mumbling those exact words. Sure didn’t make sense. But considering where we were, I didn’t find it too odd.”

  Thoughts were tumbling around in Eli’s head. He couldn’t get a firm grasp on any of them. “Do you remember what she said about the baby?”

  “Sorry, I didn’t hear most of it. The only part I heard was, “my baby’s eyes are brown.”

  A chill ran down Eli’s spine as his fragmented thoughts suddenly snapped together. He looked at Caleb’s face, so like his own.

  “Maybe she thought she recognized you,” Eli said softly, “because you look like me and Nathaniel. Like she remembered my father looking. Maybe she was saying that her babies—both of them—had brown eyes.”

  Caleb stared at him in astonishment. “Are you saying you think that was your mother?”

  “I don’t know what I’m saying.” Eli pushed to his feet and started pacing back and forth across the porch. “I need to find out more about that woman.”

  “I thought your mother died in a fire.”

  “She did.” Eli shook his head. “I mean, I thought she did. But what if she didn’t? I’m going to Cartersville. I’d better see if Nathaniel wants to go.”

  “Do you want me to keep an eye on things here while you’re gone?”

  “Yeah, thanks.” Eli was almost out of the yard when he stopped. “Did the woman say what her name was? Or do you recall hearing anybody say it?”

  “No. What’s your mother’s name?” Caleb asked.

  “Cordelia.”

  “Do you recall any of the names the doctor said that day?”

  “It seems like I remember him naming off Maude or Myrtle, maybe Bess. Nothing that could be confused with Cordelia.”

  Eli turned to see Nathaniel coming through the gate into the Horton’s yard.

  “When I got back to the office Maggie was sitting with Brody,” Nathaniel sa
id. “She mentioned you might want to talk to me. What’s going on?”

  As Eli filled him in, Nathaniel was as stunned by the whole turn of events as he was, and as reluctant to get his hopes up. Thankfully, he was also as determined to go check it out.

  Nathaniel stared at Eli, brow furrowed. “If by some miracle it is Mama, do you realize what kind of shape she might be in?”

  “Yes. And there’s even a better chance that it’s not her at all. It’s like pinning our hopes on something as substantial as rabbit tracks and wind pudding.”

  But he wouldn’t let himself dwell on that.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Eli and Nathaniel pushed their way past the startled porter, murmuring apologies as they left the train station platform at a near run, hurrying toward the asylum at the edge of town. They’d left Moccasin Rock calmly enough, but the closer they got to Cartersville, the more anxious they’d become. Now everything—the wagons and carriages, the people walking in the streets and on the boardwalk, seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace.

  Finally, they reached the iron gates, mercifully unlocked, and pushed their way through.

  Plowing through the front doors, they were met by a sour-faced woman. She was outfitted like the other women Eli remembered from the first visit, right down to the ring of keys attached to the wide leather belt at her waist.

  “I’m the nurse in charge here. What do you want?” the woman demanded.

  As both Calhouns started to explain, she held up a hand. “Can’t hear neither of you if both of you are talking.”

  What she said made perfect sense, but Eli felt as if he would explode while waiting for Nathaniel to explain. He spoke quietly and calmly, while Eli fought the urge to run up and down the halls screaming their mother’s name. Would she even remember her own name? That thought brought another wave of troubling thoughts. What if she didn’t?

  Whatever Nathaniel told the woman worked. She motioned them to follow her as she started down one of the long corridors.

  “I’m not sure the patient you’re looking for is still here,” she said. “They took several women to Austin due to the overcrowding.” She looked at Eli. “If the doctor let you in once before then I doubt he’d mind if you checked again.” Eli hadn’t heard Nathaniel mention his and Caleb’s previous visit, but was grateful that he had.