Frontier Fires

by Rosanne Bittner

  “I need to sell them,” Caleb answered angrily, his eyes still on Clawson.

  “Maybe another time. We can make do.”

  “Forget it today, Father. I’ve got money,” Tom told the man, struggling with his own temptation to light into Byron Clawson.

  “I don’t need my son’s money.” Caleb stormed past Byron then toward the corral. Tom and Jess grabbed the three horses and followed, and Byron strolled behind them.

  “If you’re going broke, Caleb, I’d be glad to float you a loan,” he called out deliberately, a broad grin on his face. He looked up at Sarah. “You should have stayed with me, Sarah. I could have done so much more for you.”

  Lynda rode between her mother and Byron. “Don’t you even talk to my mother!”

  “What’s wrong here?” the sheriff asked Byron, coming up behind them. “These people being ungrateful?”

  Byron just laughed lightly. “That’s the way some people are, Sheriff. Comes from living with Indians—so uncivilized, you know. Everything is fine. You go ahead and clean up the mess these people made. Maybe after this they’ll know how to conduct themselves when they come to town.”

  The sheriff walked away, and in the distance a few people still stood mumbling about the “damned Indians.” Caleb opened the gate to the corral, then turned and eased up onto his big Appaloosa, riding over to where Byron stood near Sarah.

  “Get away from my wife and daughter, or by God I’ll kill you here and now, hanging or no hanging!”

  Byron backed off, struggling to appear unruffled. But inside he seethed at the thought of Caleb winning Sarah first all those years ago. How he hated her, and Caleb. Lovers! Wild young lovers, enjoying each other—Caleb Sax stealing her virginity before Byron could do it! It made him feel so much less a man. He struggled to stay in control.

  “I’m certainly glad I didn’t bring my dear wife to this place,” he answered evenly. “I wasn’t sure Texas was a place yet fit for ladies.” His chilling eyes moved to Sarah and Lynda. “Now I can see it isn’t, for I’ve yet to meet a proper lady since coming here.”

  Caleb edged his horse closer to the man. “What are you after, Clawson? It must be pretty important, for you to show your face in front of me.”

  Byron’s eyes narrowed to slits of hatred. “Just your land, Sax. And your ultimate destruction. I’ll have both. I’ve got the money—and the power.”

  “Then try destroying me. You already tried it through Charles Hafer. You know what happened to him. Now I truly hope you try again. You won’t die as quickly as Hafer did. I can promise you that!” Caleb’s hand rested on the handle of his knife. “Now get out of my sight. Right now I’m thinking a rope around my neck would be worth the feel of sinking my blade into your guts.”

  Clawson breathed deeply. Caleb Sax seemed to have grown more fierce, and even bigger physically, than when Byron had known him. But then that was nearly twenty-four years ago. Could so much hatred really live that long and spring forth so readily in a man? Yes. Apparently it could, and apparently his wealth and power had little effect on Caleb Sax.

  “We’ll see which one of us stays in Texas, and which one goes,” Byron sneered. He turned and stalked off. Tom rode up next to his father.

  “There goes a dead man,” Caleb said. “His days are numbered.”

  “You’ll have to be awful careful, Father.”

  Caleb wiped some of the blood from his face. “I’ll know when the time is right.”

  “Caleb, stay away from him,” Sarah spoke up in a trembling voice. “Don’t let him take you from me by getting you hung.”

  Caleb rode up to her, reaching out and pulling her onto his horse in front of him. Feeling her tremble, he knew another spell of shaking was trying to possess her. Caleb held her tightly.

  “Don’t you ever let that man get to you again, Sarah. Don’t let him do this to you. I’ll kill him as sure as I’m sitting here on this horse, and I promise you I won’t hang for it. You just remember I’m here, and he’ll never hurt you again. And he by God won’t be the cause of our being apart again.”

  She broke into tears and he squeezed her harder. “Stop it, Sarah. Do you trust me?”

  She sniffed and wiped at tears and he jerked her again. “Do you?”

  She nodded then and he bent forward and kissed her cheek. “Then you leave it all up to me, understand? You put Byron Clawson right out of your mind. He’ll not trouble you or insult you again. I told you that a long time ago and I meant it. He’s scared—so scared he’s come here to check on me himself. He’s made the dumbest move of his life.”

  He looked at Jess and Tom. “You two all right?”

  They both grinned through battered lips and bruised faces. “We’ll live,” Tom spoke up.

  “So will I,” Caleb answered.

  “You sure can fight, Pa,” James spoke up. “Tom and Jess, too. I never saw a fight like that!”

  Cale held up his small fist. “We were gonna help.”

  Caleb gave the boy a grin. “Some day you and James will fight better than any of us,” he told the boy.

  “What do we do now, Caleb?” Jess asked.

  “We take the horses and go back. We’ll stop at the Handels. Wil is still a good friend. I’ll pay him to come into town with the horses and sell them for me. We can give him a list of supplies and have him pick them up.” He looked at Tom. “Including a couple of those Colt rifles and pistols. It looks like we might need them.”

  “Are we leaving Texas?” Tom asked.

  Sarah turned to look up at him, shocked at the suggestion. Lynda and the others looked at Caleb and Tom both in surprise. It was the first time such a thing had been mentioned seriously in front of them, and Sarah’s heart ached at the terrible sadness that came into her husband’s eyes. Caleb turned to watch the crowd breaking up, noticing a few men stood and still watched to make sure they all left with the horses.

  “I don’t know yet, Tom. I only know I don’t like what happened here today.” He looked back at Tom. “And I especially don’t like the presence of Byron Clawson. But whether we stay or go, I think we’ll need the best guns we can get.” He looked at Sarah then.

  “Caleb,” she whispered. “Leave our home?”

  His chest hurt at the thought of dragging her out into the wilderness again. He would never forget the first time he had done that, when they ran away together and she had gotten so sick.

  “I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect my family, Sarah. You’re all I have left. Land is land, and there’s more in other places. It never goes away. But people can’t be replaced. I’m just sorry for the insults you’ve suffered being married to me.”

  Their eyes held. “You don’t really think it matters, do you?”

  He kissed her lightly, pressing her close with his arm still around her. No, it didn’t matter, and that was why he loved her so much.

  He rode forward then, and Lynda took up the reins of Sarah’s horse and led it along beside her. Jess and Tom routed the horses out of the corral and herded them along the street. The Sax men watched the onlookers carefully, all three of them with a grip on their pistols.

  It sickened Sarah to think of what just happened. She held up her chin proudly as she rode down the street in front of her husband, sure there wasn’t a man there who could hold a candle to Caleb Sax.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Six

  * * *

  It took five days for the Saxes to get home from San Felipe. They stopped first at the Handels and had to wait for Wil to take the horses back to town and pick up needed supplies. The old German couple’s steadfast friendship bolstered Sarah’s faith.

  James was excited when old Wil returned with the Appaloosa colt, but his joy faded quickly. He learned it was only because Handel wanted to buy the animal himself, in addition to two fine horses Caleb had already given him for his help and friendship.

  “You don’t have to pay me for the colt,” Caleb told the man. “I’ll throw him in for all your tr
ouble.”

  “No! No,” Handel insisted. “This one I pay for. It is fair. And you should not turn away money, Caleb, especially if you might be leaving Texas.”

  James’s heart tightened. Leave Texas? This was the only home he’d ever known. Pepper was buried here. And how could he leave behind the colt? If he could have kept the animal, it would have been like taking a part of home with him.

  James wanted so much to be proud of his Indian blood, but it seemed that everything bad that happened to them was because they were Indian. If admitting to having Indian blood meant living in constant misery and harassment, how could he think of owning up to his heritage? He didn’t look a bit Indian with his light skin and sandy hair that lay in thick, curly waves. Every day he was more glad he looked white. His eyes were blue like Caleb’s, the one thing his son was glad he had inherited.

  James fought tears as Wil Handel handed his father the badly needed money for the colt. How could he argue against it? His father needed every penny he could get right now.

  Caleb turned away from the corral gate, catching the look in James’s eyes. The boy stood staring at the colt, his lips puckered, his face blotchy red from wanting to cry. “What’s wrong, James?”

  James looked up at him. His emotions were so mixed about this man. He was in awe of his own father. He loved him, but sometimes he wished someone else were his father—a white man. “Nothing,” he answered.

  Caleb looked from the boy to the colt and back. “Is it the colt? I’ve seen you with him a lot.”

  The boy just nodded, then shrugged. “It’s okay.”

  Caleb walked up and tousled his hair. “I’m sorry, James. But I can’t turn down any sales. There will be other colts. And the time is coming when one will be all your own. You’re a good rider now. I’m very proud of that.”

  The boy’s heart lightened and he looked up then. “You are?”

  Caleb grinned. “Of course I am. Come on. Let’s get home.”

  The boy touched his arm. “Pa, are we going to stay?”

  Caleb lost his smile. “I don’t know.”

  “I don’t want to leave.”

  “I know that. None of us wants to leave. But we might have no choice. You’re going to have to be a man about a few things, James. I’m just sorry there’s been no time for you to be a little boy. That’s the way it was for me when I was growing up. Sometimes I wonder if I was ever a boy.” He bent down and hoisted the boy to his shoulders with strong hands. “Let’s go get your mother and head out.”

  Sarah felt her husband’s tenseness. She knew his rage toward Byron Clawson was greater than ever, and it worried her. Seeing Byron Clawson had brought back all the bitter memories: his loss of Sarah, the thought of Clawson beating her and forcing her to submit to him, the agony over knowing her baby had been taken from her and that she’d been drugged so badly that it had had a lifetime effect on her.

  As soon as Sarah moved under the covers, Caleb drew her close. Sarah belonged to Caleb Sax and no one else. She needed that reassurance just as much as Caleb did, and their lips met in heated passion. She wondered why she had even bothered to put on a gown. In no time it was off, and Caleb himself had come to bed naked. He raked his hand through Sarah’s long, tumbling hair, still so beautiful and thick, glinting a red-gold color. His hand left her hair and moved down her bare back, massaging her hips, moving around and dipping between her legs to find that secret place that he had been first to claim.

  In her own need to assure herself this was Caleb, and that it would always be Caleb, Sarah gripped his muscular arms tightly, returning his kiss with equal hunger and passion. She wanted him to touch, to taste, to claim her. She raised up to him, pressing her breasts against his chest. Neither of them needed to explain the urgency they both felt to give and take and share and be one.

  Sarah began to think of their uncertain future, and felt tears coming.

  Caleb kissed them gently. “Ho-shuh,” he whispered, soothing her with the Cheyenne word for “be still.” “No one will hurt you ever, ever again,” he added, meeting her mouth then as he moved on top of her. Sarah opened her legs, welcoming him readily. She gasped when he entered her with a hard, strong thrust that left her almost breathless. He moved then with wild rhythm, a deliberate, determined act this time, proving to himself and to Sarah that he was her man and there would never again be another—not filthy squatters and not Byron Clawson!

  Caleb’s virility and demanding claim whetted her womanly needs and she moved with him, her excitement building until he felt the pulsating explosion that drew him even deeper into his woman and told him he had pleased her greatly. The joy of this glorious union would never change, he was sure; and from it he drew new strength. He held himself back, wanting to keep the pleasure going for as long as possible. But, finally, there was no stopping the release of his life, and he groaned her name and clung to her tightly.

  He relaxed beside Sarah, holding her close. Yes. He was already contemplating how he would stop Byron Clawson. It would take some planning, but he would do it.

  It was later that same night that they came. Caleb heard horses outside. He leaped out of bed, pulling on his buckskin leggings. “Get a robe on and get in the loft with James,” he ordered Sarah, grabbing up his new Colt rifle and revolver. Comanche would not come in the night. These were either outlaws, or squatters up to no good—or maybe Rangers.

  Sarah hurriedly pulled on a robe, her heart pounding as she ascended the ladder to the loft, where James was already awake from the shouting outside.

  “Stay there, James,” she told him, moving into the loft and around a corner out of sight. Caleb went to a window and threw open a shutter. Several armed men sat outside on horses, some of them holding torches. Two wagons full of Cherokee who had been living on Caleb’s land were with them, some of the Cherokee men bound.

  “Caleb Sax!” someone shouted.

  Caleb hoped Jess was shoving Lynda and Cale and the baby into the hidden wall at their own cabin. He cocked his rifle.

  “Who the hell are you and what do you want?” he called back.

  “We’re Texas Rangers, sent by President Lamar to get rid of all remaining Indians, you included. You have five days, Caleb Sax. Five days to gather what you can carry and get out of Texas.”

  Sarah held James close, feeling him trembling. “It will be all right, James,” she whispered.

  “This is my land. I settled it before any of you ever came to Texas,” Caleb growled back. “I have a former wife and two sons buried on this land, and a daughter-in-law. I lost a son-in-law to Comanche and I fought at San Jacinto and was wounded!”

  “We can’t make allowances, Sax. We’ve rounded up the Cherokee living on this land illegally. They’re leaving with us tonight and at daylight they head north to Indian Territory. The only reason we’re giving you five days is because you did fight at San Jacinto. You’re lucky you have that much time.”

  “What gives you the right to come onto my father’s land like this?” Tom shouted from behind the men, pointing his rifle at them. Jess moved up beside him. The leader of the Rangers whirled, and Caleb unbolted his door, moving outside, steadying his own rifle.

  “This is no longer Sax land,” the apparent leader answered Tom. “It belongs to the local county and will be auctioned off as soon as you’re gone.”

  “And there isn’t a hell hot enough for the likes of you,” Tom answered angrily. “The ground under a snake couldn’t be any lower.”

  “You had better watch it, boy. We’re Texas Rangers, with full authority to do whatever is necessary to make sure orders are carried out. If you want to get out of Texas alive, you’d better put down that gun. There are a lot more of us than there are of you, and we’re all carrying the same repeating rifle you’re holding.”

  Tom moved around them, still cradling the rifle and coming closer to his father.

  “Who arranged to have you men suddenly come here like this in the middle of the night?” Caleb asked. “B
yron Clawson? I’ll bet he’s ready to do some heavy bidding at the auction, too!”

  “We can’t name names, mister. We just carry out orders.”

  “You don’t have to name names. Clawson never was good at fighting his own fights or meeting a man straight on.” He was counting. There were twenty of them. There was not a chance in the world against them. He could get away with killing squatters. But he didn’t dare pull a trigger on these men.

  He glanced at the wagons, his heart aching at the forlorn looks on the faces of the banished Cherokee. It appeared they’d been allowed to take only what they could grab in a matter of minutes. A deeper sorrow engulfed him when he saw Jake and Ada. Caleb looked back at the leader of the Rangers. “I want to talk to these people before you go.”

  The man cocked his own rifle. “Only if you lay down your arms first—you and that young man there and the one standing behind us. Have him come around where we can see him better.”

  “Jess! Come on around,” Caleb called out. He looked at Tom. “Put the rifle down. There are too many of them. We can’t shoot it out with Rangers.”

  Tom’s face was black with rage as he stared at his father.

  Caleb jerked the rifle from his hand. “I’m not going to lose one person in this family over land,” he said firmly. “Where is your pistol?”

  Tom’s jaw flexed with repressed anger and sorrow. “Still in the bunkhouse.”

  Caleb carried the two rifles to the doorway and stood them against it. He turned to Jess. “Put yours up there, too.”

  Jess hesitated, then nodded, setting the rifle against the door and standing by it while Caleb walked to the wagons. He reached out and touched Jake’s arm. “I’m damned sorry, Jake. If I could stop them, I would.”

  The man nodded, looking suddenly very old. “I understand. When you leave, Caleb, if you have no place else to go, come to Indian Territory and look for us. We will help you settle.”

  “Thanks, Jake.” Caleb fought tears, looking around at the tortured faces. Some of the women were quietly crying and a couple of children were whimpering. These people were so dear to him! It was Cherokee who had helped him in his first terrible years of struggling alone after losing Sarah. These people had been chased out of the south. They had hoped to find a home and some peace in Texas, but that was not to be. “Some day people will know the truth, Jake,” Caleb told the man. His voice choked. “They’ll know the truth, and it will be to the shame of this country.”