“We’ll talk about it when we return home,” Callie smiled.
She knew Conner felt that Chayton did not know as much about raising cattle as he did, seeing as how Chet raised Connor on his ranch from birth until Callie took over. Chayton only knew about hunting buffalo and deer, in Connor’s estimation. Chayton liked wide open spaces, but the world was getting smaller each day as more ranchers moved into cattle country, Connor thought. Others were using new methods of ranching and Connor wanted to be part of that future growth.
“Can I ride my horse to Dodge?” Joey asked. “Connor can tie him on the back of the wagon, going home.”
“I suppose there won’t be a problem with that,” Chayton agreed.
“Then I want to ride too,” Shanny piped up.
Callie frowned.
“I’m sorry, Shanny, but you are going to have to wear a dress like a proper young lady. You can’t get on a train dressed like a cattle drover,” she smiled.
“I could change before we got on the train.”
Chayton glanced over at Callie and gave a slight nod. Callie shrugged her shoulders.
“Very well,” Chayton will allow it, against my better judgment. But before we get near Dodge, you will have to change and ride up in the wagon.”
Shanny smiled happily and looked sideways at Joey. She knew he was still angry about the feather, but since they were leaving for Dodge first thing in the morning, he couldn’t taunt her about it. He would have to leave all his Indian ways at home, once they got to the big city, she smiled to herself. However, she worried about how she was going to like living in the city? Her whole life, up to this point, was enjoyed with little restriction, where she could do pretty much as she pleased. Her mother had often told her when she was growing up she had never gotten away with half the stunts Callie let Shanny get away with. Apparently, grandmother was very strict, Shanny decided. She hoped her grandmother had mellowed out over the years.
CHAPTER TWO
Shanny sat mounted on Surefire’s back. She looked over at Joey, who rode bareback on Tumbleweed, his strawberry-roan stud. He frowned at her because she still refused to tell him where his feather was.
The wagon stood loaded down with trunks full of Callie and Shanny’s clothes. Shanny noticed that her mother had packed nothing but dresses, and she frowned, knowing she could not wear her denim britches as long as they remained in Philadelphia. There was one trunk of clothes for Chayton and Joey, and three trunks for herself and her mother.
Other than the trunks, there were quilts and camping supplies, enough food to last them on the trip to the station and Connor on his way back. Connor threw on a sack of grain to feed the horses, beyond what grass was along the way for them to nibble on. Then the supplies were all covered by a canvas sheet, to keep them safe from the weather.
Conner sat on the wagon bench with the reins in his hands, and Chayton and Callie sat beside him. Ina, Tommy, and Beth stood on the porch waving, as the wagon pulled out, while Shanny and Joey followed on their horses.
Tumbleweed tossed his head. He was fresh and wanted to stretch his legs. Joey knew they had a considerable distance to travel, and didn’t want Tumbleweed to wear down too fast, so he held the horse in check. It felt like Surefire caught the energy that Tumbleweed was exhibiting and Shanny could sense her tensing up. Shanny frowned as her black and white pinto kept watching Tumbleweed with a wary eye.
“Don’t ride so dang close to me,” Shanny hissed at Joey. “Your horse is getting Surefire all worked up.”
“She’ll settle down after a bit,” Joey drawled, remaining close beside her.
“You’re doing that on purpose,” Shanny complained. “You know Surefire likes her space.”
“Too bad,” Joey muttered.
“I can tell this is going to be a miserable experience,” Shanny sighed.
“Yeah, I don’t look forward to leaving the ranch and having to live in a noisy, smelly city.”
“Maybe it will teach you how to be a real human being,” Shanny smirked.
“I am a real human being. It is the white man who is destroying this country with their railroad tracks, and towns, and now barbed wire, that Connor thinks is so great!”
“Too bad you didn’t have to live in squalor on an Indian reservation like the rest of your people, raising disease infested sheep. You should be thankful you can live the life of a white man on my mother’s ranch!” Shanny sassed.
“It is the white man who put our people in squalor,” Joey retorted.
“You can’t change the past, so you might as well live in the here and now.”
“Where’d you hide my eagle feather?” Joey asked, changing the subject.
His eyes sparked as he spoke and she knew he was still angry about it.
“I suppose I can tell you now since you will never see it again.”
Shanny eyed him and gave him a taunting smile. Joey thought she was beautiful even when she was being a pest, but he would never admit it to her.
“I put it down in a sack of grain, and by the time we get back home, Connor will have fed that grain to the cattle and they will mangle that feather beyond recognition!”
“You what?” Joey bellowed.
“You heard me! So just get over it!”
“You know, you are a mean-spirited person! I think I have changed my mind about wanting to marry you. No man would want to marry a girl like you! You knew how much that feather meant to me, and you don’t even care!” he growled as he stared daggers at her, his dark, obsidian eyes smoldering.
Joey kicked Tumbleweed and moved forward on the other side of the wagon, away from Shanny.
Now Shanny felt a strange pang at Joey leaving her behind to stare at his straight, strong back as he sat stiffly on his horse ahead of her. It was a hot day and he had removed his shirt. She couldn’t help but admire his bronze, muscular back. Her eyes observed his long, dark hair flowing over his shoulders, flying up at times when a small breeze would try to tangle it, and then seem to lose interest. He wore a black cowboy hat which shaded his face. She thought, for an Indian, he was actually handsome. Yes, he was Indian through and through, she admitted. Shanny knew nothing she could do would ever change that. He would never consent to meld completely into a white man’s world, she resigned to herself.
Joey glared once over his shoulder at her, and it made her feel hurt that he thought she was mean-spirited. It had all started out as a game. She merely wanted to tease him. Now he probably wouldn’t talk to her for the rest of the way to Dodge. He had always been her closest ally. They had been partners in playing practical jokes on Connor and their sisters, growing up. She always rose to every challenge he gave her. Only lately, she felt she was changing, and as a result, their relationship began to change too.
Shanny remembered how Joey had kissed her when he had her tackled in the barn loft. At first, it had stunned her. Then it felt a little exciting, yet strange at the same time. She had always thought of him as her brother, despite his skin tone and that he was full-blooded Comanche. Kissing him seemed wrong and right all at the same time. He claimed they were meant to be together for life. Did she want to look forward to a lifetime with Joey beside her? He was too familiar. When she got married, she wanted to fall in love with someone she had never met before, not a brother, who had teased her all her life.
However, the thought of his shunning her made her feel unhappy. She liked the closeness they shared, but lately, she had been going out of her way to annoy him and she couldn’t figure out why? It was as though she wanted to get a rise out of him for some reason beyond her own understanding.
Callie glanced over at Joey riding beside the wagon. He had a stony expression on his face, which meant he and Shanny had been disagreeing about something. Usually, the two got along so well. She knew that Joey loved his adopted sister, and she often wondered what would happen between them when they became adults. Chayton told her he was certain that Joey would ask Shanny to become his wife. Like Joey, he
believed the two belonged together. Only their scuffles and arguments had grown in the last few months and Callie feared they were pulling away from each other to find their own identities. They had always been like twins, only perhaps now, they were not only seeing the difference in their genders but in their culture as well.
Callie had allowed Chayton to raise his son in the traditional Comanche way, except for teaching him to become a warrior. She knew Joey needed to learn where he came from and how his ancestors lived but she feared it would confuse him, once he had to live as an adult in the real world run by white men.
She worried how the people in Philadelphia would treat him? She knew there was an Indian school in Carlisle where the government sent native children off reservations to be taught and inducted into a white man’s society. The students there were well accepted, only it was clear over on the west side of Pennsylvania. Carlisle was small, not any were close to the size of Philadelphia, with their high-society population that had been involved in developing American culture.
She knew high society would look down on her for taking Chayton as her husband. Even so, she and Chayton could handle society’s snubs. It was quite different when you were young and impressionable. Joey was raised in the country around rough society consisting of Mexicans, whites, and Indians. He had limited contact with anyone beyond the ranchers and those they met on the cattle drives. Even Shanny was not prepared for what Callie believed her grandmother had in-store for the girl. On the other hand, she felt her children needed to broaden their horizons so they could see how others lived, and learn simple rules of conduct in polite society.
Callie had been rudely introduced to the crude lifestyle on a ranch, and the demands of an undesirable husband, when she was sent to Texas to become a mother to her dead sister’s children. She had married Chet against her will and regretted it the moment she became his wife. There was no one there to take her under their wing and prepare her for what she had experienced. She had survived, and since both she and Chayton would be there to give their children encouragement, she felt they would fare much better than she had when she was young and unsuspecting.
However, even her, own, mother was going to be in for a surprise. She never told her mother she had married a Comanche warrior. She merely told her the Comanche came to help her on the ranch when Chet died. She explained how she raised Joey as her own after his mother died before he was even born and needed a mother to nurse him. Only that was the extent of her explanation of her life in Texas after Chet was killed by Chayton’s companions.
As the wagon lumbered on, Callie couldn’t help but remember the first time she had taken this trail with Chet, on their way from Dodge to Chet’s ranch. No matter how hard she tried, she could not block out the memory of her wedding night with Chet, and his determination for her to conceive a son. Instead, she gave birth to Shanny. Chet had been killed, shortly before Shanny’s birth, which in many ways, was a relief to Callie.
The wagon slowed and Callie realized the sun was already starting to set. Connor was pulling over to set up camp and stop for the night.
“Why don’t you grain the horses, while Chayton, Joey and I, unload and set up camp?” Connor instructed Shanny.
Shanny shrugged as she swung down from Surefire and started loosening the cinch on her saddle. She pulled the saddle off and leaned it against a tree. By that time, Connor had unhitched the horses from the wagon and placed halters on their heads. Shanny took all four horses down to a nearby stream to water them. She took the lead ropes and hobbled each horse, then went back to the wagon to get the grain.
Shanny pushed the scoop into the grain sack and started transferring it into a bucket. When she pulled the last scoop of grain out, she noticed something sticking up out of the grain in her scoop. Shanny gave a broad smile and a little giggle, as she pulled the eagle feather out of the scoop, and stuck the tip of it into the back pocket of her denims. She looked sideways at Joey, who was helping Connor set up camp, and gave him a little wave. He merely frowned at her. Then she headed down to the stream to share the bucket of grain between the horses. Her heart was lifted, thinking how happy Joey would be to see his feather again.
Once the camp was set up, Callie began fixing the meal. Connor started playing his harmonica as he leaned back against Shanny’s saddle. He had never forgotten how the cowhands had played the harmonica on their way back to the ranch after they were rescued from Chayton and his friends. He had gotten himself one after the cattle drive Callie led, and learned to play all the songs the cowboys taught them. Now the mournful music filled the air, reminding Callie of that time so many years ago when she had first met Chayton. She glanced over at Chayton remembering how attracted she had been to him, even though he was a wild Comanche.
Chayton had been gentle, helping her deliver Shanny, and she had agreed to nurse Joey to keep him from starving to death. Now the music filled her soul flooding so many other memories into her brain.
Shanny liked it when Connor played his harmonica. She had been an infant back then. However, it brought back other memories that happened over the years when they went on cattle drives. She remembered how Connor played the old familiar songs while the rest of the family sang.
She noticed Joey sitting out under a tree near the stream watching the horses graze and she slowly walked out to join him.
“What do you want?” he asked gruffly when she approached and looked down at him.
“I just thought I would come out and keep you company,” she smiled sweetly.
“Well, I don’t want any company!”
“Really?” Shanny asked. “In that case, I will just take your silly old eagle feather and toss it in the stream,” she said, pulling the feather from her back pocket and holding it under his nose.”
“You had it all along!” Joey bellowed.
“Nope, I found it in the grain sack, but since you don’t want me around…”
She turned and started sprinting away, the feather still in her hand.
“Shanny! You get back here!” Joey yelled as he leaped to his feet in pursuit of her.
Callie lifted her head from what she was doing and noticed Joey close on Shanny’s tail. She gave a smile. They were at it again, she thought, as they disappeared into the shadows. The sun was almost completely behind the mountains now.
“You give me that feather,” Joey called after Shanny.
“You will have to catch me first!” Shanny responded.
She knew Joey could overtake her, but she didn’t want him to think she was willing to give him the feather and felt he needed to work for it before she handed it over.
Once again, Joey caught up with Shanny, and tackled her to the ground, only this time she was laughing, as she waved the feather over his head.
“You can have it if you want,” she told him, bringing it against his cheek and smoothing it over his skin.
The feel of the feather against his cheek caused a calming feeling to come over Joey as he looked down into Shanny’s laughing blue eyes.
“You are such a tease,” he murmured, as he let her continue to run the feather over his skin.
“I’m glad the cattle didn’t get it and mangle it,” she said honestly. “Who would guess Conner would load the very sack of grain I hid the feather in?” she smiled.
“Lucky you,” Joey grinned. “Otherwise I would have figured out a way to make you suffer.”
“Is that so?” Shanny said, smoothing the feather over his lips.
“Yeah, that’s so,” Joey almost whispered. “But since you found it, I suppose I should reward you somehow.”
“And how would you do that?” Shanny asked.
“I’ll think of something,” he murmured, wondering what he could do to reward her.
“Then take your feather,” Shanny said, holding it in front of him.
Joey was still straddling Shanny, as he took the feather from her. Then he, in turn, started to smooth it over her face, which caused her to giggle.
“Actually, it does,” Shanny agreed. “Like a bird’s wing brushing against your face.”
“Nature has strong medicine,” Joey told her. “We all have a little bit of nature in us. We just have to learn to tap into it,” he informed her, as he continued to explore her face with the feather.
Joey became completely consumed with brushing the feather against Shanny’s skin. He drew it over her cheek and then her eyes. He brushed it over her soft lips, and tickled her ear with it, then traveled down over her neck and up over her chin.
Shanny’s eyes lay closed, enjoying the feel of the feather tracing over her face. She found herself drifting into contentment as she let Joey use the feather in such an unusual manner.
Shanny’s eyes opened with a start when she felt Joey’s lips on hers. They felt as soft and as tender as the feather had, so she did not pull away. Instead, she allowed him to kiss her, thinking they needed to make up, and if this is what he wanted, she was not going to upset him.
“You know you belong to me,” Joey said as he lifted his lips from hers. “We have always been together, and I want it to remain that way.”
“I can’t marry you, Joey,” Shanny almost moaned. “It wouldn’t be right. We are like brother and sister. I could never feel that way about you. I want someone new and exciting and…”
Shanny didn’t continue when she saw the expression on Joey’s face change from tender to angry.
“You don’t think I am exciting?”
“I know you too well,” she tried to explain.
“No, you don’t, Shanny! You don’t know me at all!”
Joey jumped up and glared down at her.
“I would protect you with my life, only you don’t even care!”
“I don’t need protecting, Joey! I can handle a gun the same as you. I can protect myself!”
“That is not what I meant,” Joey muttered.
“Don’t be mad at me, Joey,” Shanny said, jumping up and grabbing his hand.
Within the Heart Page 2