Bonds, Parris Afton

by The Flash of the Firefly

  "Indeed! It isn't? Just look at this." Otto fumbled at his pants pocket and produced a wrinkled, folded envelope. "The mail carrier just brought this. Listen."

  He began to read hurriedly. '''...and in order for the Republic of Texas to secure a treaty of commerce and navigation with Great Britain, it is important that Lord Palmerston know how well the Texas towns are prospering under the newly formed Republic.' "

  "I can't imagine calling Adelsolms a prospering town. Nine-some-odd cabins that are little more than lean-toe doesn't―"

  "Anne, let me finish. 'With this in mind, I will be' bringing with me Sir Colin Donovan of the British Diplomatic Service. It is his task to make an informative report to the British Parliament on conditions in the Texas Republic. We hope to arrive―'"

  The sheer joy of knowing she would see Colin again 'was as intense as pain, shooting through her mind, blasting away the cobwebs of apathy, glowing in the region of her heart like unextinguishable bright red coals. "When did you say they are expected?" she asked, not quite trusting the steadiness of her voice.

  "Well―" Otto glanced through the letter again. "It does not give a specific date. Just within the next month."

  "May I see the letter? When is it dated?" Oh, just to see Colin's name! "May twenty-fourth, 1838," she read. "Why, that was two weeks ago! They could be here any time now. We must hurry. The VereinsKirche will have to be finished inside so they'll have a place to stay. And there's the dinner to plan―and a hundred things to see to!"

  Surprised at his wife's outburst, Otto looked at her flushed face, noticing for the first time in a long while how beautiful she was. The first thing he had noticed about her was the wide, smoke-tinted eyes. They had sparkled with vitality and gaiety in Barbados but now seemed restless, haunted.

  His gaze roamed to the copper-colored hair pinned loosely atop her head, hair that was neither red nor golden but shined with a life of its own. How his fingers longed to take out the pins that bound those titian tresses. He jammed his hands into his pockets. If he did not keep himself in tight control, he would find himself putting his wife first before the Lord and His work.

  "Better get back to work," he murmured. "Ernst will need help in raising his barn."

  Anne scarcely heard him leave.

  x

  If only she could see what she looked like! If only there were a mirror. Anne held the white silk gown to her shoulders and whirled about the room as if dancing. With the pink grosgrain ribbon at her waist and the white lace sleeves removed from the bodice, she doubted if anyone would recognize the dress as her wedding gown, not even Otto.

  "Oh, Tante, it's beautiful you are!" Elise breathed. She sat on the hearth, hugging her bony knees against her chest in delight. It was like one of Grimm's Fairy Tales, she thought, living with the Maren family. Not so much Herr Maren. He was always so dour. But at least he never beat her like Herr Jurgens did Fritz. It was Tante that made life special. The way she hummed little tunes to herself during the day. And the way she smiled, the dimples forming in her cheeks when she would ask the Scottish woman some silly question.

  And now Tante seemed to hum to herself more often. As if she knew some wonderful secret.

  "Sit yo'self down, Miz Anne!" Delila said, brandishing the hairbrush. "Yo' hair looks like a chicken nest!"

  "Vill you brush my hair, too, Delila?" Elise asked.

  If only her hair wasn't yellow―like everyone else's hair in Adelsolms. If only she could look like Tante some day.

  "Chile, you needs to git yo'self to sleep!"

  ''I'll tell you everything that happened tomorrow morning," Anne promised. "Oh, hurry; Delila. Otto's already at the Vereins-Kirche."

  "If'n you hadn't been so long in bathing―"

  "I know, I know. But this is special. It's not every day Sam Houston―"

  Delila paused in the stroking of the young woman's long hair, burnished by the brush until it seemed to leap like a bright flame.' "Are yo' sure, baby, it's Sam Houston that makes dis party special?"

  Anne turned from where she sat and looked up at the frowning woman. "Of course, I'm―" Then, in a pathetic whisper, "Does it matter, Delila, what the reason is? Are a few moments of happiness too much to ask in exchange for a lifetime spent out here―on the edge of the earth?"

  The two Tonkawas stood to either side of the Vereins-Kirche's great wooden door. Their opaque eyes regarded Anne as impassively as Brant Powers often had. Yet Anne lingered there between Houston's personal scouts, fierce warriors who served with the Texas militia, for what seemed an eternal moment. Now that it was here, the moment she had been waiting for, she wanted to postpone it. The meeting with Colin seemed to have come all too soon―and would all too soon be over.

  At last she went inside, and Otto hurried to her side before her eyes could search the crowded room. "You are late," he whispered frantically. "It may be impossible now to find a moment alone with the President."

  Anne could think of no reply. Indeed she was like a rag doll, letting Otto propel her through the people surrounding the President.

  He was a tall man, this Sam Houston. Well over six feet and weighing maybe two hundred pounds .Anne estimated. And in a way he was strikingly handsome with wavy, gray black hair that swept back from his forehead like a lion's mane. The graceful carriage that indicated his splendid physical condition and his galvanic manner seemed to draw a crowd of admirers wherever he went, mostly women. And Anne had heard Otto say that the man was one of the greatest orators of the times.

  The President was saying something to Brant Powers on his left. In some ways the two men resembled each other, and it was more than just their stature. Perhaps it was the way they both carried themselves, as though they were more at home in the outdoors than closed in some room. Anne had heard the President had lived among the Indians―the Cherokees. He had even been given an Indian name―the Raven. And she wondered fleetingly if Brant had Indian blood or if, like Houston, he had lived among the Indians.

  But it was not Brant Powers who claimed her attention nor Sam Houston, as magnetic a personality as he had, but Colin. Surrounded by almost as many people as Houston, still it was as if Colin sensed her presence in the large crowded room. At once his devilish green gaze fixed on her face with such an ardor that Anne shivered with the lightning flood of desire. The loud voices suddenly muted, and the milling figures blurred until there was only that one face that Anne knew would be delineated on her brain for the rest of her life.

  At the same time that Otto introduced Anne to Sam Houston, Johanna Meusebach laid a demanding hand on Colin's arm, saying something to the Irishman that made him smile.

  Houston bowed over Anne's hand, taking in the breathtaking loveliness of the minister's wife―a loveliness unexpected on the frontier. "It's not often I have the opportunity to converse with the brave men and women who have settled Texas―who will one day make it a great nation. More often than not, Mrs. Maren, I'm holed up with some fat, fast-talking politician who has no idea what it's like to live off the bounty of this land―or to fight Mother Nature and the Indians at the same time."

  "Then it is true about the Indian problem?" Colin asked, suddenly there at Anne's side. Anne clutched her fan so the trembling of her hands would not show. How handsome he was in the elegant velvetcoat and trousers decorated with broad gold lace. The settlers in their worn homespuns and dingy buckskins paled beside the Irishman.

  Otto at once introduced Anne to Great Britain's unofficial representative to Texas, saying, "We really have very little trouble here at Adelsolms, Sir Donovan. This is a very peaceful colony."

  Only Anne was aware of Colin's kiss that burned her fingertips.

  "Ja," Professor Bern added. "Theze scouts the President haz patrolling the settlements―they seem to have calmed the Indians―all but theze Comanches ve are told."

  The talk of the Indian problem continued, and Anne was forced to leave the group of men and help the other women set the long tables that had been placed along the
walls. Still she would stop in the midst of helping to search out among the men for Colin's fine figure.

  Once Anne's reverie was interrupted by the tugging at her skirts. "What is it, Fritz?" she asked, stooping so that her face was on level with the boy's own thin one.

  "Elise―she is coming?"

  The large brown eyes looked so old in his young face that her heart ached for the hard life he led with the Jurgens. "No, Frau Schilleris telling Elise stories at our place. But if you like, I'll take you over―"

  Zelda Jurgens' pudgy fingers grabbed hold of Fritz's left ear, yanking on it so that the boy's head bobbed like a puppet's. "For vhat do you doddle, dummkopf? Vhere is the vater I told you to bring?"

  "The snakes," Fritz began. "I am afraid―"

  "Fritz," Lina Bern intervened, "I have made for you and the other children my special punch and molasses cookies. Run help yourself before everything is gone."

  Zelda, who would have made three of the little woman, rounded on Lina. "Frau Bern, it is not your place to―"

  The frail woman cupped her hand to her ear. "Eh? Vhat iz it you say?" she shouted, and all the women's eyes were turned on the two.

  Zelda could only mutter something and waddle away. Anne managed to keep from smiling as she set out the fine silverware some of the women had brought with them from the old country. She only wished she could put Colin's place near her own, but etiquette decreed he sit at another table. But later when the dancing began ...

  Dinner went quickly with Sam Houston at her left amusing her with his stories of his life in Tennessee. In one anecdote he related how he had visited the White House clothed only in an Indian blanket to protest the United States' treatment of the Cherokees, leaving Anne choking with laughter.

  The time for dancing finally came, and the dishes were cleared away. The German people enjoyed festivals and merrymaking perhaps more than any other nationality, so when Professor Bern brought out his violin the room was filled with even greater excitement.

  And across the room's expanse the expectant. gazes of Colin and Anne met, waiting for the music to begin, when the two could at last be in each other's arms. But Colin was forced to drag his gaze from Anne, as the little flirt to his left, the Meusebach girl, claimed his attention again.

  Yet his thoughts remained with Anne. A vision of her had plagued him since the night they parted at Velasco. It had been a difficult job for him, persuading Sam Houston that he should see the remote interior of Texas, the German colony, as well as the Spanish one of San Antonio de Bexar and the Irish San Patricio.

  Just now, the way those full apricot-colored lips flattened out in a dazzling smile meant for him alone, the way she tilted that perfectly rounded chin up, almost daring him to claim those willful lips as his own, he bloody well had better get a hold on himself before he kissed her in front of that sanctimonious husband of hers and everyone else. But how to rid himself of the eager colleen at his side?

  His problem was solved when Peter presented himself before Johanna. The youth nervously pushed the hair out of his eyes. "Care to take a turn on the floor, Miss Meusebach?" he asked Johanna.

  Johanna looked with disappointment to Colin who was chagrinned to find Houston turning to Anne as the Professor struck his first notes on the violin. Quickly but courteously Colin asked the old woman on his other side, Lina Bern, to dance. Lina giggled like a schoolgirl but accepted, thereby saving Colin.

  As it turned out, Otto had cut off the President's request of Anne, telling Houston of the new mill Adelsolms hoped to build, and Anne was forced to wait impatiently for the promenade to end and the next dance to begin.

  At last Colin stood before her, requesting her to dance The Silver Waltz with him. Her heart soared, and she laid her hand over his proffered one. But as she moved to rise, Otto said, "I am afraid, Sir Donovan, my wife will have to decline."

  Anne gasped, and Colin's hands clenched at his sides, but the minister tried to placate him ,saying, "I "have been brought up to regard dancing as sinful and therefore can not condone my wife's participation in such entertainment."

  The remainder of the evening was like a nightmare. With the rest of the matrons, Anne watched the young people dance. Watched Johanna whirl by in Colin's arms. And thought she would personally strangle the girl the first chance she got. She bit her lips in frustration. When Colin danced a second dance with Johanna, Anne's lace fan snapped in half. She looked up to find Brant at the next table watching her with amusement dancing in his brown eyes. .

  Yet total disaster was averted that evening. For when Otto cornered Sam Houston to talk about moving the capitol from the city of Houston inland, Colin was at Anne's side. "You must tell me more about colonial life," he said, placing her arm in his and leading her toward a table where a large crystal bowl of pineapple punch had been set out.

  Anne talked inanely, of what she could not remember later, until they were alone near the fortress door with only the two Tonkawas to hear them.

  "Anne, come away with me! Now!" His feverish gaze embraced her as his arms could not do, and she had to keep herself from swaying toward him.

  "You know it is impossible, Colin!"

  "Do you think I'd let you stay after seeing the conditions under which you live?" With a bang he set the porcelain cup on the nearest table.

  "I'm taking you with me, Anne. We'll leave at daylight."

  "But my husband―and Houston. They'd never let us―"

  "Houston will not gainsay me. Great Britain's good will, and thus my own, is tantamount in importance to the Texas Republic. And by the time your husband realizes you're gone, we'll be miles away."

  Anne bit her lip in indecision, but Colin took her hand, kissing the inside of her wrist as if they were alone in the room. ''The details will be taken care of, Anne. I'll speak with Houston later this evening. Be ready for me."

  Anne withdrew her hand from Colin's, fearing her desire for him was written on her face. He had removed all obstacles to her leaving, and his almost intimate kiss on her wrist had wiped away any reservations she had.

  She was not actually aware of when the evening finally ended, of when she and Otto finally left and went home to their cabin. She was only grateful that Otto was too tired to make his customary sexual demands. And grateful that she herself was too tired to think, to reason.

  She did not want to argue with the turmoil of thoughts that besieged her now that she was away from Colin's electric presence. She did not want to argue over what was right or wrong. She only knew she loved Colin, had loved him since she was ten years old, and would not give up this chance at happiness. The only chance she might ever have ...

  XI

  "Son of a bitch!"

  Anne sat up in bed. There it was again. The cursing, now mingled with other voices. On bare feet Anne padded across the dirt-packed floor. She had not slept at all, waiting tensely for dawn. But as she cautiously drew back the bar and opened the door, she realized it was still a good hour and a half before daylight.

  Figures stumbled about in the dark, and Anne recognized the tallest as belonging to Sam Houston. "Damn it to hell!" he swore, turning back from the river bank. "Trust those two Tonks to get themselves plastered!"

  Another figure, hurriedly buttoning his breeches, joined that of Houston's, and Anne recognized Colin. Both men were shirtless. She blushed but could not refrain from calling out softly as the two passed near. "What has happened, Mr. President?" Clad only in her high-necked gown, she carefully kept all but her head hidden behind the door.

  "Beg your pardon, madam," Houston said. "I didn't realize my profanity was loud enough to disturb you."

  Anne heard the humor in his voice, but her gaze went past him to Colin. "That's all right, I was awake anyway."

  "It seems our two Tonkawa guards―ah, fell asleep on the job. And a panther scared the pack mules in all directions."

  Anne shivered. A panther coming this close to the settlement? "Is everything all right now?" she asked, when what she re
ally wanted to do was run to the safety of Colin's arms.

  "Powers's recovered all the pack mules, Mrs. Maren. But most of Donvan's baggage is missing―probably dumped in the river somewhere." He turned to the Irishman. "I suppose this will delay our trip, Donovan?"

  Colin's fist slammed into his left palm. "All my notes―correspondence―every bloody item gone!" She felt, more than saw, Colin's glance fall on her, as if he realized that was not all that was gone. The opportunity to take her with him was lost as well.

  Colin, with Houston and Brant and the group's retinue, departed that same day for the Texas capital, Houston's namesake. Colin wore borrowed clothes, ill-fitting nut-brown homespuns that made Anne's heart go out to him. Yet he had seemed unaffected by having to wear the shabby garments. She knew that he was more distressed by the work that lay ahead of him. He would have to return to Houston and there try to rewrite the missing documents. That in itself would be a consuming task.

  Yet his concern had been for her those few brief moments they were alone that morning in her cabin. When she had held out to him a woolen shirt of Otto's he had caught her hands, caring nothing that someone might see them from the open door. His eyes, greener than the Irish countryside, held hers. "What I find unbearable," he whispered in that soft, magical brogue of his, "is that I must leave you alone with that moralistic husband of yours. All else I can face ...but not that!"

  "Don't, Colin. Don't say these things. It makes it more difficult for me to stay here and watch you go. Better you had never come. At least I would never have known what I missed."

  His hands tightened on hers, hurting her. "I'll find some way to take you away from here, I swear. I did not have a chance to talk with Houston, but I've other contacts here. As God is my witness, Anne, I'll leave no stone unturned until I have you at my side. Be patient, darling."

  But patience was not one of Anne's virtues. The days crawled by agonizingly slowly, and were unbearably boring. She longed for even the smallest distractions―Peter's bi-monthly arrival to court Johanna, the sighting of a black bear down at the river, even the tediously dull quilting bee at Zelda Jurgens' house. .