It will be over.
She thought back to that day in Maine, of how hard it was to find two witnesses in town who would stand up for her. A traveling salesman had finally agreed, for a small fee, to step in as proxy. He had been wearing a musty-smelling checkered suit, a bowler hat and bow tie, but she wouldn’t have cared if he had had two heads. The salesman had only been a stand-in for the man she had fallen in love with, a substitute for her groom. She had held Reed’s photograph in her hands.
Now, as soon as Reed’s lawyer presented them with papers to sign, the marriage would be null and void.
So simple. So final.
Tell him you don’t want to sign.
Tell him you wouldn’t be opposed to an agreement, see what he says.
Go to Charm and ask her how to seduce him.
Had she imagined the warmth she had seen in his eyes an hour ago? Or had her own desire been reflected there?
Reed was still watching her. Daniel was kicking the leg of the table and squirming around on his chair.
Afraid Reed would turn her down, she left everything unsaid and changed the subject. “It’s time for Daniel’s bath.”
“I’ll bet he’s never bathed so much in his life.” Reed shook his head.
“He’s actually beginning to like it, I think. Who wouldn’t in that room your father built?”
He was staring at her speculatively now, almost as if he could see her in the huge tub.
She felt herself go crimson.
“I’ll pump some water and put it on to boil,” he offered, surprising her.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” He stood up. The chair legs protested with a sharp squeal against the floor. He shoved his fingers through his hair and looked down at Daniel. “Did the Greenes say they would be back?”
She shook her head. “No, but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them. They . . . claim you don’t want to keep him, that if you did you would have been here.”
Kate realized she was holding her breath, waiting for him to say something, anything reassuring.
“Yeah, well, I’m here now.” He looked away from the boy. Nodded at her. “You did the right thing.”
Reed watched them leave the room, listened to the sound of Daniel’s crutch against the wood floor and Kate’s voice as she chatted all the way down the hall.
She continually surprised him. She had faced down the Greenes—formidable foes, he knew. Becky had little love for them. He suspected her parents were the reason she had married him so soon after they had met. She told him outright that she wanted to get away from them, to be free of their overzealous beliefs and unbending rules.
Kate had done right by Daniel in his stead. He would never have agreed to let them take the boy, even if he had decided not to keep him. No child deserved that.
Reed picked up a pail beside the stove, took it over to the pump, and set the bucket beneath the spout. He primed the pump, and started working the handle up and down.
No wonder the minister was dancing attendance on Kate every Sunday. He probably felt sorry for her after hearing her long, sad tale. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Reed figured the reverend would make Kate a fine husband. She deserved someone that polite and well mannered. A true gentleman.
Anybody would make a better husband than me.
The affidavits were in his saddlebag. Once Kate signed, she would no longer be his concern. If she and the preacher married, her future would be secure.
But what he kept coming back to time and again was the notion that until those papers were signed and recorded, until the proxy marriage was declared null and void, Kate was legally bound, and she would stay at Lone Star.
34
It was Saturday. Clouds were gathering in the southwest; the air was close and thick. Even the horses in the corral were affected by the weather, too lazy to do more than swish their tails with their heads hanging.
Kate and Daniel were seated at the library table in the parlor where she was trying to teach him to copy the letters of his name when she looked out the window and saw a buggy coming over the rise like a little black spider crawling across the land.
She watched the driver negotiate the dry rutted road up to the house and as the buggy drew closer, Kate recognized Preston and wondered if Reed had seen him yet.
She heard footsteps overhead on the second floor in Reed’s office. For the past week he had met with each of the four Lone Star foremen and afterward spent hours alone poring over ledgers and accounts.
She took the pen from Daniel, picked up a rag, wiped the steel point, and placed it in the pen case. Then she began to dab at the India ink on the ends of his fingers.
“We have a guest, Daniel. Shall we go out and greet him?”
Daniel used his crutch to limp over to the window and together they watched Preston tie his horse to the hitching post. Kate motioned for him to follow her outside.
When she reached the veranda, Preston had already cleared the steps. “Good morning, Reverend. This is a nice surprise. What’s brought you out here on such a hot morning?”
“How are you, Kate?”
“Doing quite well, despite the weather. I feel as if I might melt and run down into my shoes.”
“You certainly don’t look it. You look fresh as a daisy.” The screen door banged behind them, and Reed stepped out onto the porch. Daniel moved so close to her that he was pressed against her hip.
“Reed.” Preston acknowledged Reed with a friendly nod.
“Preacher.” Reed wasn’t smiling.
“Would you like some lemonade?” Kate offered. “I believe Charm just made some.” She tried to make up for Reed’s less than enthusiastic welcome.
“I would love some.” Preston smiled again. Reed stepped aside, and Kate led the way to the door.
“The church is having a Saturday afternoon social today, and I’ve come to invite all of you.” Preston followed Kate down the hall.
Charm was in the kitchen rolling out pie crust. Preston sat down at the table. Reed walked in but continued to stand, and Daniel went straight to Charm and pressed close as a baby chick.
Kate poured the preacher a glass of lemonade as Preston went on to explain about the social.
“There’ll be a dessert auction, plenty of home-cooked food, games. The town band will perform, too. I thought you might want to bring Daniel so that he could meet some other children.”
Daniel was standing nose to crust with a hot apple pie that Charm had put on the dry sink. Kate realized how far he had come, but with his crutch, a headband around his forehead, and his hair halfway to his waist, she was afraid that other children would tease him unmercifully, especially in a place where animosity toward the Comanche was a way of life.
As if he could read her thoughts, Reed interceded. “It’s too soon for him to go to town.” His tone brooked no argument. Then he glanced over at Kate and added, “Children can be mighty cruel.”
Secretly she wished that there were some way she could go. In over a month she had yet to see anything of the ranch except this house and the land immediately around it.
She had never been to a church social, never walked along a street where she had not been treated with scorn or curiosity.
“Perhaps later, when Daniel is more . . . settled.” She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice, then she remembered that Charm had mentioned wanting to go into town to pick up the things she had left behind at Dolly B. Goode’s. Although Charm certainly would not want to attend a church social, Kate knew she would appreciate the chance to see her friends and collect her things.
Kate caught Reed watching Daniel limp over to the table where Charm had set out a piece of pie. If she and Charm left for the day, Reed and Daniel would have hours alone together.
“Aunt Martha was looking forward to meeting you,” Preston was saying. There was no mistaking his disappointment.
“Actually,” Kate said quickly, “Charm has been wa
nting to collect some of her belongings, and I have not seen Lone Star yet. Perhaps the two of us could ride back to town with you for the day. Scrappy can drive in later and bring us back.”
Reed was looking at her as if she had just sprouted green hair.
She crossed the room until she was no more than a few inches from him and lowered her voice. “You don’t mind, do you? I haven’t had a day to myself since we made our agreement.”
She could see that he wanted to say no, but with Preston waiting for an answer and Charm looking hopeful as a new spring morning, she knew he could hardly refuse.
“What about Daniel?” Reed looked at the boy. He was busy stuffing apple pie into his mouth.
“Why he’s no trouble at all. He’ll just follow you around outside. Maybe you can let him help with the horses.”
“They’ll be back before dark,” Preston assured him.
Reed looked uncomfortable, almost trapped. Kate tried not to smile too triumphantly.
“Fine.” He finally agreed, but grudgingly. “Go ahead and have a good time.”
For Reed it became a long, quiet, boring day that went from bad to worse as more dark clouds gathered on the horizon.
He waited on the veranda with Daniel as Kate and Charm got themselves gussied up and loaded into the preacher’s buggy.
As soon as the buggy turned around and headed down the drive, Daniel had bolted off the porch, struggling to run with his crutch beneath his arm, trailing behind the carriage as the dust swirled up and blinded him. Kate and the others rode on, unaware Daniel had tried to follow.
Reed had to literally drag him back to the house, assuring him over and over that Kate would be back after supper, but Daniel was so despondent, Reed figured he was just wasting his breath. Eventually he fell silent and forced the boy to sit in his office while he worked. He gave him a lead pencil and some old ledger paper and showed him how to draw, but Daniel refused to do anything except stare out the window and watch the empty road.
Finally, Reed took him outside. Afraid Daniel might get the best of Scrappy, he stood by idle while the boy helped the wrangler feed and water the horses.
Reed couldn’t help but feel pride creeping up on him when he noticed the easy, natural way Daniel had with horses. A huge white Andalusian his father had imported was Daniel’s favorite, and Reed knew why. Among the Comanche, white and pinto horses were the most valued of all.
“Didn’t think I’d ever see it, but he’s comin’ along just fine.” Scrappy walked over to where Reed was leaning against an open stall, watching Daniel pour feed into a trough.
“Kate’s bound and determined to see it.”
He had been thinking of her every other minute since she had waved and rode off neatly tucked in between Preston Marshall and Charm in the cramped buggy. She had changed into her blue silk gown and combed her hair up real fancy. In fact, both women had changed so fast he had been amazed. Becky had never gotten ready for anything in her life in under two hours.
“She’s one of the most hardheaded women I ever seen,” Scrappy mumbled.
Reed nodded in agreement. She was almost as stubborn as he. He would have liked to go along, liked to show her a good time, see her enjoy herself, but he couldn’t imagine taking Daniel into town and subjecting him to ridicule. Even the Benton name wasn’t big enough to prevent that, not now, not with the boy acting Comanche.
“They leave you anything to eat?” Scrappy asked.
“There’s plenty in the kitchen. Want to join us later?” Things might go easier if he wasn’t all alone with Daniel’s brooding silence.
“Naw. Just gonna offer you some chili and beans. Course, if I left now, I could mebbe eat somethin’ decent at that sociable.”
There was no missing the hint. Reed sighed and found himself chuckling again. It didn’t feel half bad, either. “Go on, then. It looks like it may rain tonight, so you best leave sooner than later.”
Scrappy rubbed the gray stubble on his jaw. “You know what they say—”
“Fools and strangers predict the weather in Texas.”
“Yep. Well, I guess I’ll be going. If I get there in time I can get the week’s supplies from the Mercantile, too.” Then Scrappy looked at Daniel. “What are you gonna do with him for the rest of the day?”
Reed watched Daniel’s long hair sway against his back as he limped around the stall and then stopped to rub noses with the Andalusian mare.
“I was thinking that with the women out of the house, maybe it’s time to do a little barbering.”
Fast Pony did everything Tall Ranger wanted, but he moved slowly, with the heaviest of hearts. Soft Grass Hands had put her arms around him, brushed her hand over his hair the way his mother always did, then she had spoken to him very softly before she left him, but she had left him just the same.
Now she and Yellow Hair were both gone. Both taken by One Arm who had not given one single horse in exchange for two women.
He hated Tall Ranger now, worse than before. His hate smoldered so deep that the time had come for him to leave. Trying not to draw suspicion, Fast Pony fed and watered the horses and whispered to the huge white mare that soon they would both be free of this place. Free to ride the prairie and find his people again. He promised the white horse that she would be happy at last because she would carry him, a great warrior, home. He would make her proud when he rode into the center of the village and told his tale.
He closed his eyes and pressed his cheek to the horse’s soft muzzle and hoped that he would find his mother and his father both alive. He wanted to slip into his old life again and forget that this terrible thing had ever happened to him.
Now that Soft Grass Hands was gone, there was no reason to stay.
When he finished feeding and watering the horses, Fast Pony followed the Ranger back to the house. He didn’t know why the man wanted to keep him anyway. Until today, he had not been expected to do any useful work, at least not anything Daniel considered to be of use.
Soft Grass Hands never expected anything of him except to listen and sometimes make the black D-A-N-I-E-L marks on paper. He still refused to speak. Whenever he was tempted to repeat words the way she wanted him to, he remembered his vow never to let the white man’s words live in his mouth.
Tall Ranger stopped in the cooking room and pointed to a chair. Fast Pony decided that the man was going to feed him, so he sat down. After all, he needed to eat so that he would not get hungry on the trail. The band may have moved farther north and it could be a very long ride back to the Comancheria.
He tried not to appear to be watching as Tall Ranger picked up one of the white cloths hanging on a hook across the room. Soft Grass Hands used to tie one around his neck before he ate, and now Tall Ranger was doing the same thing, so it didn’t alarm him. Tall Ranger covered Fast Pony’s shirtfront, his shoulders, and smoothed out the white cloth.
Then he stepped back and was rattling things in the place where the dull silver knives and other eating tools were kept.
When Tall Ranger stepped close behind him, Fast Pony was tempted to look over his shoulder, suspicious of the big man, but he refused to let Tall Ranger see his fear.
Then, before Fast Pony knew what was happening, the man gathered his hair into a bunch and held it tight in his fist. With a swift sawing movement, he cut it off.
Fast Pony cried out in horror and twisted around on the chair. He yelled Comanche curses, calling terrible evil down on Tall Ranger as he stared in horror at the long clump of dark brown hair clutched in the man’s hand.
Tall Ranger looked as shocked as Fast Pony felt, and for a heartbeat, the two of them stared at one another. Then Fast Pony ripped the white cloth from around his neck and threw it on the floor.
He was still yelling curses when Tall Ranger put aside the cutting tool and the hair and began to yell back. Fast Pony tried to jump off the chair, then he grabbed hold of the edge of the table. Tall Ranger reached for him, picked him up and held him tight against his shou
lder.
Fast Pony started kicking and beating the man about the head with his fists. He could feel the air on his neck where his hair used to be, felt the ragged edges brushing against his earlobes and suffered deep, abiding shame.
He continued hitting Tall Ranger over and over with his fists as the man carried him up to the place where they made him sleep.
Reed took the stairs two at a time, kicked open the door to Daniel’s room and tossed the ranting, raving, kicking, spitting boy onto his bed. When he hit the spread, Daniel’s eyes widened, and he grew silent as he lay there panting, his chest heaving, staring daggers.
“You might have those two women wrapped around your little finger, but not me.” Reed lowered his voice, reined in his temper, and with his hands on his hips, leaned over the bed.
“When you simmer down and act human, I’ll let you out, but not a minute before.”
Turning on his heel, Reed stalked out of the room, closed the door hard, and flipped the key in the lock. He pocketed it and went downstairs without looking back.
If the boy was going to be part of this household, he was going to start now, today, to learn to behave.
Reed walked back into the kitchen, picked up the long hank of hair he had left on the table and carried it to the trash box. He stood in the open doorway damning the gathering thunderclouds and the heavy smell of rain on the air and hoped Scrappy made it to town before the storm hit.
Then he thought about the tears shimmering in Daniel’s eyes just before he had turned his back on him and walked out of the room.
35
They dropped Charm off in front of Dolly B. Goode’s Social Club and Entertainment Emporium, which was situated close enough to the rest of Lone Star so that it could be seen, but far enough away so that the tinny sound of piano music that played night and day couldn’t be heard.
Charm waved good-bye and was quickly enfolded into the arms of Dolly’s lovely soiled doves lined up along the porch rail; standing together, they all formed a rainbow of satin and lace. They smiled and waved and threw boisterous, lip-smacking bare-armed kisses at Preston. He studiously avoided them all as he drove away.
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