“Just go and bring her home, grandson.” Kaku was always succinct.
“What?”
Of course, silence.
“Women are the curse of God to man,” he mumbled as he wrapped the cloth around his sliced skin.
His mother did laugh at that. “It is interesting that when a woman has a man worked up, she’s the curse, but when she lets him work her up, she’s a blessing.”
Surprised his pia would bring up sensitive subjects like arousal with him he figured he would play it out some. “Yes, but a woman can get under a man’s skin and continue to burrow intent on driving him crazy. When a man works his woman up, she is content when he is through.”
Pia grunted. “It makes you crazy either way.”
He had to laugh at that. She wasn’t wrong.
She served his dinner and tried to change his thinking to things he had more immediate control. “I need more jars. Our garden has not quit producing heavily, all season.” He nodded absently. “Kaku loves the Mason jars. I got used to them, too.” She shrugged offhandedly but Colt knew they both loved them. “And wax.” He obediently nodded in agreement.
Kaku went on to the weather changes and tanning the last hide he had brought home. The women watched him. He hated that. He went outside to finish the evening chores before he wished them goodnight and went to bed.
He dreamed of Texanna and it bothered him to see her still in his mind’s eye when he woke up. That meant something in his world. Her spirit was seeking his spirit. He found fugitives and outlaws by seeing them skate along his sleep. He found his stolen horse in a dream, and now this slip of a girl was in his night visions. Kaku wouldn’t be surprised. He decided to keep this piece of news to himself.
Colton got up and took care of the morning chores. The women were up before him again. Last night notwithstanding, Colton wondered if he would ever be able to go to bed late and get up early more efficiently than his female relatives. Being diligent as usual, he soon returned to the kitchen where he sat to have a cup of coffee while his grandmother put her bark in the water to soak for her weaving and his mother put on his breakfast. The women always waited for him no matter when it was he got up and finished his morning routine. Today they didn’t have to wait long. His sleep having been disturbed to the point of forcing him out of his bed before the sun, he started his day early.
“Colton, if she’s in your thoughts that much, bring her home, dear.”
“Mother, it does not work that way.” He no longer wondered how it was that his pia and grandmother always knew what he was thinking, or dreaming. He shook his head. “You don’t understand.”
Kaku sat next to him and Pia finished cooking the eggs before sitting on the other side of him.
“Are you so sure it doesn’t? Does it have to be so difficult? You find out if that young woman wants to have a future with you, and if she’s your destiny, you bring her home. I know you have to have a preacher or someone say words over you for the government, but for you two, it is done when you ask and she accepts.”
He stared at his eggs and said in a perturbed voice. “I hate it when you talk like this. I always feel as though I don’t have a choice.”
“Let your heart tell you the choices.” His mother stated. They finished breakfast discussing other things, which suited him fine.
Colton finished his breakfast, gathered his things for the day and checked his pack that Kaku had put lunch into before kissing his mother and Kaku goodbye. Kaku said as he walked out the door, “If she’s young, it is easier to teach her. Age isn’t a reason to deny your destiny.” Of course, she knew that he was worried about her being younger than he was by ten years.
Chapter Three
At first, Texanna thought he wouldn’t have noticed but her pa was so mad that she had not finished the wash yesterday, and evidently, he needed those underthings. She had washed all but his unmentionables. Honestly, how was a girl to know when her pa needed those cleaned? That was a wife’s job, and he needed one instead of depending on her to do all that he needed.
Actually, she had just recently started to do those items for him. He had been taking them to the woman down the road who took in washing because the preacher told him it was unseemly to let his daughter wash his undergarments. It was one of the few times that the minister put his two cents in and she appreciated it. However, for some reason, her pa told her she was old enough not to be embarrassed to do his full wash now. Lately, he had become unreasonable on many things, this being only one of them.
Her ma had left about fifteen years ago when she was just a small child. She really didn’t remember what she looked like and didn’t know why it was that Miranda Carruthers Grant left. The few occasions she had asked, her father had yelled about women, cursed her mother, and stormed out of the house. When she persisted, he took a strap to her. After a few attempts, she decided learning about her mother was not enough of a reason to have him angry with her for days. It wasn't that she didn’t want to find out; it was just that she would rather sit comfortably than know the details.
If she could have asked, she would have asked why her ma was so unhappy, and what did Texanna do to make her leave without her? She had needed a ma for learning to put up her hair, why some boys would bother her so much in the school and what that strange feeling was when she looked at the marshal. She would have asked how to bake a cake, what was a good color on her and what was monthly bleeding all about. As it was, Mandy’s mom did the best she could to educate Texanna along with Mandy. It meant Texanna got some education late and Mandy early but it worked out well enough.
She wasn’t sure it was love that she felt for her pa anymore. He was an angry, bitter man these days. He had always been harsher on her than he had been on her brother, and he had said plenty of times she was just like her mother. She must have looked like her mother or sounded like her. Lord, on days like today, that was enough for her father. That is what he was yelling today after he bared her for a strapping over the wash and found out that someone had gotten to her first. She could still remember the argument they had this morning after his discovery.
Cooking breakfast that morning, she heard her him yell out from his bedroom. “Texanna, where are my underclothes?”
She froze. She tried to pretend she didn’t hear him and hurried to finish his breakfast. He yelled again. She again busied herself pulling the biscuits out of the oven and didn’t answer. Finally, he came out of the back bedroom storming.
“Pa, your breakfast is done.”
He sat automatically and began putting salt on his eggs. “Where are my underthings?”
“I guess where you keep them.”
“No, that you washed.”
“Oh, well, finish eating and I’ll find them for you.” She stood frantically worried about how she was going to tell him. Maybe she didn’t have to tell him. She grabbed the money for payment and took off out the back. She ran for all she was worth to Widow Martin’s and rapped on her door.
“What is it?” the older woman grumbled.
Texanna rubbed her hands on her skirt and looked around to make sure her pa hadn’t taken off after her. “Ma’am, I need those underthings of my pa’s I brought you yesterday.”
“Well, I ain’t had time to get them done,” she snapped. The woman was mighty rude today.
“Yes, ma’am. Could I have them anyway?”
“Hold on.” The woman handed over all her pa’s underwear.
“Thank you,” she called back as she raced home. Flying in the back door, she was putting them on his dresser while trying to catch her breath when her pa walked in.
“Where did those come from?” he asked indicating the pile of clothes she put on his bureau.
“They aren’t clean.”
“Why not? Why didn’t you wash them?”
That was the question and she needed to decide if she was going to be truthful or not. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Texanna had always been truthful and it set heavy in her hear
t to lie.
“I took them to Widow Martin but she didn’t get them done yet.
“You just can’t do as you are told, can you? Well, I am tired of waiting for you to mind me.”
Texanna heard the distinctive chink of the metal buckle and the telltale wispy slide of the leather belt as it swished through the pant loops of her pa’s britches. She sucked in her breath and cringed, moving away from the bed.
“Pa, it isn’t right. I washed all your other clothes. I just can’t bring myself to wash your underthings. It isn’t seemly.”
She wrapped her skirt around her fearing the searing pain of the belt when her pa was angry.
“I don’t care what you think, it is what I asked of you and it needed to be done. Why should I pay a washerwoman to do my underthings when I have a perfectly good daughter to do them for me?”
“Because I am your daughter and she isn’t. She does all sorts of men’s undergarments. She isn’t embarrassed. And I am paying for it myself.”
“Bend over that bed. I am tired of running out of underthings. Better hurry before I come up with another reason to raise you up off the ground.”
She flung herself on the bed and felt her pa toss up her skirts. “Take the drawers down. No need in wearing them when you are getting strapped because of underthings.”
She held her tongue but knew that she was not going to give in on this. She would take them to the washerwoman herself. And she struggled with the fact that she was still in this house allowing him to discipline her harshly. The cold air hit her nether region reminding her of yesterday when the marshal had her over a chair.
Just as she braced for the first strike her pa screeched at her. “What in blue blazes happened to your nether regions?”
The moment he said it, Texanna had no doubt as to what he was looking at. “Um, what, Pa?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew it was the wrong thing to say.
His tone went from curious to indignant and ended on demanding. “Someone has whipped your rear end something fierce. You have gotten someone else fired up, have you? Who was it, girl?”
Oh, no. What can I say? “Um, what are you talking about? There wasn’t anyone.”
If it had not been several days since he had taken after her, then she would have said it was he, but that would have made it worse on her. Lying always made her anxious. “You’re just like your ma. Showing your wares to any who would look.”
She stood up at that and her skirts fell around her as she faced her accuser. “That’s not what it is, Pa. I got a licking from the marshal because he caught me doing something maybe I ought to have known better than to do. I’m always proper. I am a respectable woman, and he is a decent man, Pa. Nothing happened. He caught me acting childish and treated me accordingly. That’s all. Honest. I didn’t show him anything.”
He stood yelling as he rethreaded his belt back in his trouser loops, buckling as he shouted. “He bared you. There ain’t nothing proper about that. You don’t get marks like this without baring a person.”
“Well, I might not think you baring your grown daughter to strap her seemly either. I mean you see my womanly parts, and I’m not a little girl. You’re a man just like Colton.”
Texanna flinched as she moved out of the way just as she saw her father raise his hand to strike her. It was the first time she had moved to avoid his hitting her, and he was furious.
She continued, pulling up her drawers as she did. “Anyway, I didn’t have underthings on so I was already exposed, and I didn’t tell him about my lack of covering beforehand. It wasn’t his fault. I told him that if he didn’t finish the job, I would tell people he saw me in my skin. I was forcing his hand, Pa. Honestly, he didn’t mean to see me, he was going to do it over my drawers, but I didn’t have any on. You can ask him but I wish you wouldn’t. He was livid about it.”
“He was what?”
“Livid, he was spitting mad because I tricked him. Well, not really, I didn’t know that I was going to be getting a spanking by the marshal just on the very day I did laundry.”
“But you didn’t do my drawers? How am I supposed to believe that?”
“Pa, I’m your daughter, I’m tired of telling you. I shouldn’t be doing your underthings. Even the preacher said so.”
“But it’s not embarrassing to show your naked ass to a man? Girl, I think you’re one to get into trouble by just coming into the room. Get your shawl. We are going to see the marshal and see what he has to say about all this and what he plans to do about it. This might work in all our favor.”
Horace Grant grabbed the upper arm of his daughter when she presented herself again and nearly dragged her to the sheriff’s office where the marshal was.
Chapter Four
Colton went into town to open the office and see what the day brought him. Maybe there would be a fight that he could break up, hunt down some troublemakers or even drum up some trouble to settle. He would search for anything that would take his mind off Texanna. After a couple of hours, he decided that he was fighting a losing battle. No matter what happened in his day, he purposed to go ask her father if he could court her.
Pia and Kaku were right. He just needed to go, get her, and bring her home. He knew it wasn’t that simple but he was satisfied with his decision. He would go over to Texanna’s house after lunch and have the conversation. It gave him a few hours to work on his presentation. He refused to take no for an answer. Well, that was unless she said no. He didn’t expect her to decline, though.
However, his day didn’t get better nor did it allow his newly laid plan to play out. Colt reached up to grab his hat to go and check on the progress of his own office when the door was shoved open. The subject of his discomforting thoughts stumbled into the room in front of an extremely annoyed man. He assumed the man to be Texanna’s father, Mr. Grant. He presented as an outraged parent. Colton immediately had the fleeting thought he knew why she didn’t want her father smacking her butt when he was mad. His own stomach churned with the emotions the man evoked. This was out of control and he knew the stories his cousins had told him were true about his disciplining her.
Was this why his thoughts for Texanna were so tortured and urgent? He prided himself on having complete control over his emotions and for something to get under his skin it was hard for him to reconcile. Emotional chaos didn’t happen in his household or in his life. He dealt with many people who had chaotic thoughts and emotions but they were not pertaining to him personally. He looked at Mr. Grant, who was holding Texanna with an iron hand, most assuredly putting bruises on her upper arm. It was all Colt could do not to separate them. It made him want to place a nice fiver on the man’s jaw.
Colt’s heart raced and his chest tightened as he searched her face for any sign of discomfort. Kaku and Pia had been right. He wanted this woman; he needed her in his life. She belonged to him, created and chosen for him. Just as there was no doubt, he belonged to her. Without any reservation, he acknowledged to himself that she was his. As soon as he worked things out with her father, he would claim her and bring her home.
“Can I help you, um, sir?” Colt looked at Texanna, but she wouldn’t look up from examining her feet. She was crying and Colton clenched his jaw. He was on high alert to any changes that he would need to make to adjust the balance of power in the room. For the moment, he resolved only to watch.
“Well, seems to me you have helped enough don’t you think?” yelled the red-faced man.
“I’m sure we can figure this out if you just tell me what the problem is. Tell me what is going on.” Colton tried to appease him in his calm and steady voice, but he already knew yesterday’s activities had been discovered. The problem was how did Mr. Grant discover it? Colt figured the only way he dared think of was baring her for discipline. Colton felt his anger rise. He did not want anyone else chastising her. Not even her pa. She was his.
As though the man could hear Colton’s thoughts as his own, he said, “Yeah, well, you can ta
ke care of the problem by making it your own.”
Colton looked at Texanna as she finally raised her head, and he ached at the tears silently streaming down her face at a rapid clip. Her eyes were swollen, red-rimmed and purple smudged. Her hair was damp and matted to her face, her lips swollen from being bitten. Colton didn’t know how she felt about things, but he needed to settle this because he wanted to stop her tears. He needed to comfort her. He needed to make sure she was all right. Make sure she was all right with him.
“What problem are you talking about, sir? I will help if I can.” However, Colt knew what was coming next. He just wanted to make sure of the circumstances. He already decided that Texanna was his, and he would work on that eventuality, but for now, he didn’t want to traumatize her any more than she already was. He needed to keep a cool head and a civil tongue if he were to attain his goal of taking her home with him.
“I don’t think I need to say anything but since you seem to be less than able to understand, your background and all, I’ll tell you. I know that integrity isn’t something you half breeds understand but there must be some part of the white man in you to show some decency. I know my daughter is a bit wild and she doesn’t do as she ought, and I’d go as far as to say she has caused most all of her own trouble. Nevertheless, no Indian should look on a white man’s daughter and especially on the bared skin.”
Colt’s heritage was being maligned and that had not happened in a long time. The last man who tried to take exception to his mixed heritage didn’t eat well for several weeks due to the unfortunate jaw injury. However, once again, he reined in his tongue. He could take some maligning if the prize for holding his words and his fists were Texanna.
“You ruined my daughter for any decent man. You have taken from her any kind of future and so you’re going to have to provide for her the best you can. You might have enough things for her but you can’t take her into polite society. If you were merciful, you would not have children. No passing on of that bloodline.”
Taming Texanna Page 5