by Anna Jeffrey
Drake glanced toward the other end of the table at the two Texas Rangers. They were engrossed in conversation with Bill Junior and Pic and obviously weren’t hearing the conversation between Kate and her brothers. Drake turned his attention back to his sister. “You know better than to shoot across the canyon,” he said in a low voice. “It’s against the law. Aside from that, it’s dangerous.”
“What if you had missed and hit a person?” Troy asked, also low-voiced. “You could go to jail. I’d be sneaking hacksaw blades in to you.”
Drake, too, set down his mug. “And I couldn’t keep up with all the lawsuits—”
“Oh, bullshit,” Kate snapped. “There’s no people over there. It’s so steep you can barely stand up. It’s nothing but cedar trees and boulders. If belongs to us anyway. Even if somebody had been over there, they would’ve been trespassing.”
Shannon glanced at her husband. He drilled his sister with a hard look. “I’m telling you, just don’t do it again. My God, you’re a grown woman. You should have more sense.”
“Okay, okay. I got the message.” Kate leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her breasts. A fleeting glister, barely discernible, showed in her eyes. “You might at least compliment me on the shot. It’s got to be at least a mile across there.”
“And that’s the real reason you did it, isn’t it?” Troy snapped. “So you could brag about it.”
“That is not why I did it. No telling how many of our calves a hog that big has killed. It was good riddance.”
“Whatever,” Troy said. “I hope to hell you know you can’t tell a damn soul.”
“Maybe I just wanted to see if I could do it,” Kate snapped back at him. “Don’t tell me you’ve never done something just to prove you can.”
“Okay, you’ve done it,” Drake said firmly. “That’s enough. This is not the place for this conversation.”
Kate turned to Shannon. “It made good sausage, don’t you think?”
In truth, Shannon had a hard time swallowing the wild pork. She had a hard time even thinking about swallowing it. “Uh, it’s fine.”
Shannon had both empathy and admiration for Kate, the way she held her own against her brothers’ badgering. She had to be a strong person. Her brothers loved her but growing up as their baby sister must have been hard on her.
A question came to Drake from the other end of the table about a football game and the group sailed on to a conversation about Super Bowl playoffs. Grrr! So much for getting the chance to get better acquainted with Drake’s sister.
Piqued, Shannon rose. “I’m going to check on Will. He’s probably awake by now.”
She walked into the kitchen, dragged Will’s highchair near to the breakfast table, then returned to her and Drake’s suite to see if Will was awake. She washed him and dressed him, then carried him into the kitchen. After settling him into the highchair, she handed him the new horse Kate had given him and went to the cabinet to heat his cereal.
Kate came into the kitchen. “Let me do it.”
She seemed to have a special attachment to Will. Shannon handed her Will’s box of cereal and watched her mix it. She fed Will a couple of bites. “I hope you don’t mind my asking,” Shannon said, “but how did you come to shoot a hog on the other side of the canyon?”
“Just one of those flukey things. I glanced in that direction and saw the thing moving around. I wasn’t sure what it was until I looked through my scope.”
“You didn’t know you weren’t supposed to shoot across the canyon?”
“Sure, I knew it. But it was a big ol’ boar with some age on him. Like I told Troy, no telling how many of our baby calves or other people’s lambs or goats he had feasted on. I had my rifle in my Jeep, so I shot him.”
“You weren’t hunting?”
“In Texas, it’s open season on hogs. You can kill ’em any time. The more you can wipe out, the better.”
Just then, commotion came from the dining room as the men at the table rose and started to gather their gear. “Oops. Gotta go.” Kate handed Shannon the bowl of cereal and joined the men. They moved into the utility room, strapped on pistols and trouped outside carrying rifles and shotguns and extra shells, flasks of whiskey and coffee-filled thermoses Johnnie Sue had set on the stainless-steel counter in the utility room.
Along with Blake Rafferty’s two big dogs—retrievers of some kind—all of them climbed into Pic’s crew cab pickup and one of the ranch’s Jeeps and away they went toward the pastures behind the barns. Marcus, Sal and Dixon Turley followed in one of Redstone’s SUVs. They, too, were armed. Left behind, Pic’s two cattle dogs whined and howled.
“Good grief. A big game safari couldn’t need more guns,” Shannon said to Johnnie Sue.
The housekeeper gazed out the window over the kitchen sink, watching the hunters drive away. “Yeah. Doesn’t exactly look like they’re headed for church.”
Abruptly, Johnnie Sue stamped out to the utility room and the back door and yelled at the dogs to shut up. Seconds later, she returned to the kitchen. “That one named Steve didn’t go with them. He’s outside hanging around the back door,”
“Drake said he stayed here to protect the women,” Shannon said.
“Well, at least he ain’t howling like them damn dogs.”
Shannon couldn’t keep from laughing.
Chapter 27
Just then, Mandy walked in and drew a cup of coffee from the urn on the end of the counter. “Hi,” Shannon said. “Feeling better?”
“I’m fine,” she answered curtly.
Shannon studied her sister-in-law for a few seconds. She did look fine. She no longer had that stricken expression on her face that had been there when she left the dinner table yesterday.
“Anything left from breakfast?” Mandy asked.
“Still got some sausage and biscuits,” Johnnie Sue answered. “It’s all in the warmer. I can cook you an egg if you want.”
“No, thanks. I’m not in the mood for anything heavy. I’ll just have some cereal.” She dragged a box of cold cereal out of the pantry.
Shannon suspected her sister-in-law wasn’t a lover of the wild pork sausage either, but she wouldn’t say it. “Kate went hunting with the men. Does she always do that?”
“Usually, if she’s here,” Mandy answered. “She likes the competition.”
“Hm. Must be genetic. Her big brother is the most competitive person I’ve ever seen.”
“Kate outshoots the men most of the time, so they’re always a little annoyed at her.”
“Earlier this year, she got a hog that was bigger than she is,” Johnnie Sue put in, showing some pride. “There’s a picture in her room. You should take a look at it. She’s been the major hog killer this year.
Obviously, the housekeeper was Kate’s fan.
Shannon was even more fascinated by Drake’s little sister. She couldn’t imagine shooting any animal no matter how obnoxious. And furthermore, what would you do with a hog after you shot it? “Really,” she said.
“Hogs is what they go after, really. Getting a few birds at the same time is just a bonus that happens to be good eating.”
Mandy grunted. “That’s a matter of opinion.”
As she dragged a bowl from an over-the-counter cupboard and poured cold cereal into it, a memory from a few days ago of what Mandy had said about game birds came back to Shannon. “It hadn’t occurred to me that the real target was wild hogs.”
“They’re a menace,” Johnnie Sue said. “They tear up everything. They’re a threat to calves. ’Course there ain’t any baby calves this time of year, but that don’t mean hogs won’t attack one that’s a little older than a baby if they’re hungry. A passle of hogs don’t have any trouble taking down a calf. An ol’ cow is practically helpless trying to defend against ’em.”
“Feral hogs are a serious problem in rural Texas,” Mandy said. “Drake’s never told you about them?”
“Well, yes, and I’ve heard landowners in
Camden County talk about them. But I never gave it much thought. I’ve never seen one except in pictures.”
“They’re nasty, ugly things,” Mandy said, then sighed. “But the meat’s sweeter than domestic pigs and not as fat. We do eat some of it, but it’s an acquired taste. Bill Junior mostly has sausage and salami made out of it.”
“I only make spicy recipes that call for it to be good and done,” Johnnie Sue said, “Like chili and stews. But I always wear gloves when I handle it and I make sure I wash up good afterwards.”
An alert went off in Shannon’s brain and she frowned. Bill Junior and Kate both brought pork when they came to visit in Camden. “Why is that?”
“They can carry nasty diseases that other animals and even humans can catch.” Johnnie Sue answered.
“Brucellosis is one of them,” Mandy added.
What the hell is brucellosis? Shannon’s stomach clenched again. Since being married to Drake, she had heard that word, but hadn’t bothered to learn about it. Had Drake told Gloria how to deal with the raw meat from wild hogs? In case he hadn’t, Shannon made a mental note to take care of that immediately when they returned home. Thank God Drake didn’t want to live here on his family’s ranch. Shannon would never adapt.
Mandy and the housekeeper both must have seen the expression of horror on Shannon’s face because Mandy chuckled. “Makes you want to have a nice pork roast for supper, doesn’t it?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Johnnie Sue said. “All you have to do is be clean and be a little bit careful. That’s true of most raw meat.”
Ugh! Shannon might never eat pork again. Maybe she would give up meat altogether and become a vegan. She’d had enough of this conversation, but she made another mental note to discuss all of this with Drake.
“I’m not worried,” she said. “I’m not much of a cook, so I don’t know about the, uh...finer points. So, um...do they always take booze when they go hunting?”
“If the weather’s chilly,” Mandy said.
“Is that safe? I mean, whiskey on top of all the guns they have?”
“Bill Junior taught all of his kids how to handle guns when they were little kids,” Mandy said. “Drake doesn’t have his guns at home?”
Until knowing her husband, Shannon had never been around hunting. Or guns. Or, for that matter, people who were dedicated hunters. She pictured the rifle that used to stand in the corner by the door opening out onto the back deck. Sometimes Drake used it to shoot coyotes, but he was always sober when he did it. She, too, had shot it, with his help. With Will starting to walk, Drake had locked the rifle in a gun safe in his office.
“Well, yes,” she said to Mandy.
She swung a look at her baby boy still sitting in his high chair playing with his toy horse. At what point did Drake intend to buy him a gun? When would he start taking him bird hunting or hog hunting? A sting of tears darted behind her eyes, but she blinked them away and pressed her hand against her stomach. She must be over-emotional because of the pregnancy.
Will still hadn’t eaten his breakfast. “Uh, I guess I’d better finish with Will’s breakfast. How long will the hunters be out?”
“Should be back before noon. If they get enough birds, we’ll have a quail feed for supper.”
Shannon returned to her chair at the breakfast table beside Will’s highchair. The toy that had his unswerving attention was the rubber horse Kate had given him yesterday. She could think of no single toy that had fascinated him so much. Was loving horses and hunting and guns in his genes?
She heaved a sigh and reached for Will’s dish and spoon. “Okay, cowboy. Time for you to finish your breakfast. We’re going to try this again.”
By the time they finished, his cute bib that was decorated with red and green Christmas elves was covered with gray cereal. Drake had mentioned a few days back that the nanny had asked to take Christmas off and what Shannon had replied came back to her: “Go ahead and tell her to take off. We made this kid together and I gave birth to him. Surely we can take care of him for a few days.”
Had she been in her right mind when she said that? Lord, she missed Lauren. And to think, before Will’s birth, she believed they wouldn’t need a nanny. A feeling of inadequacy threatened to overwhelm her. What was wrong with her? Most of the parents she knew raised their kids without a nanny. And a lot of them raised them on ranches. With guns. With horses. Shannon gave herself a mental shake. She had to stop this stewing.
As she tried to cajole Will into taking more bites of cereal, he pushed her hand away and the contents of his spoon landed in a splat on the tile floor. He continued to pound on his highchair table with the toy horse.
Johnnie Sue’s helper rushed over with wet and dry paper towels and cleaned up the mess.
Johnnie Sue stood watching her, her arms crossed over her flat chest. “Somebody told me once that when a kid gets hungry, he’ll eat. Maybe he’s not hungry.”
Shannon sighed. “Maybe he’s not.”
Needing to free herself from the housekeeper’s scrutiny, she gave up on feeding her son, set his dish on the table away from the highchair and began to wipe his hands and face with a damp baby washcloth. He squirmed in his seat and resisted.
The housekeeper turned and walked back to the counter in the kitchen, leaving Shannon alone with Will.
Shannon lifted him from the highchair and carried him to the bedroom to clean him up. Prissy trotted along beside her. In the suite, a low fire burned in the fireplace. It hadn’t been there when she and Drake arose before daylight. Who had built a fire and when? At home, if they had a fire in the fireplace, Drake usually built it himself.
Will fretted and protested as she washed him in the bathroom sink. Prissy looked on anxiously and even barked. She was very protective of Will.
After Shannon finally wrestled the one-year-old into clean clothes, she was worn out. She hadn’t been nearly this tired during her first pregnancy. She ordered Prissy to her doggie bed, then sank into the nearby plush recliner/rocker and cradled her baby boy against her body. With her protruding belly, there almost wasn’t enough room for him.
Soon he settled and his eyelids fluttered closed. This was the part of being a mother she loved most, when they were almost as close as they had been when he was growing inside her. Maybe when she held him like this they were re-bonding. Maybe he was even bonding with his new brother.
She drew a deep breath, closed her eyes and let her mind drift. Privacy at last. An escape from the commotion of a roomful of adrenaline-fueled males and the prying eyes of Drake’s family. Four more days to go. She began to count off the hours.
Her thoughts traveled to her own little family’s arrival yesterday. The minute Steve Logan helped her out of the backseat of Redstone’s SUV, every Lockhart family member had stared at her as if she had grown a set of horns and they had been sneaking furtive glances at her ever since. Drake should have told him she was expecting again and not sprung it on them suddenly. She couldn’t remember now why he hadn’t.
But what difference did it make, really? When Will was born, only Bill Junior and Kate had come to the hospital. She was readying to leave the hospital when Pic and Mandy showed up. Only Bill Junior and Kate dropped in at their home in Camden for an occasional visit. Pic and Mandy, not so much. Since Pic had taken over management of the ranch, he had little free time.
A big family was a big pain. You had to constantly walk on eggs to keep from offending someone. Funny. She had always thought she wanted a big family, but in some ways, this was more difficult than her caustic relationship with her own sister.
A light tapping sounded on the door. Shannon struggled to her feet with sleeping Will, placed him inside the playpen and opened the door. “Oh. Mandy.”
“Johnnie Sue and I weren’t sure where you’d disappeared to.”
Shannon glanced back at Will who slept soundly. “Will was wearing his breakfast, so I came back here to give him another bath and change his clothes. I was just about to go ba
ck to the kitchen.”
Mandy walked into the room and over to the windows that overlooked over the Brazos River Canyon.
“Hunters aren’t back yet?” Shannon asked.
“Not yet. Johnnie Sue and Rita are working in the kitchen getting lunch together. Or dinner as we say here. I still haven’t gotten used to lunch being dinner and dinner being supper. Half the time, I have to check the clock to know which meal I’m eating.”
Shannon laughed again, finally relaxing in Mandy’s company, “I know what you mean.” She walked over to the window, too, and looked out. “This is the canyon Kate shot across?”
“Yep. The Brazos River Canyon.”
“I can see why you shouldn’t do it. I still can’t believe she went hunting with the men. I can’t think of anything I’d enjoy less than shooting birds. Or I should say, shooting at birds. I doubt I’d hit one.”
Mandy shrugged. “She’s always been one of the guys. That’s the way Bill Junior and Betty raised her. Pic says that even when she was a little kid, she never liked playing with dolls and girl stuff. Bill Junior taught her and Troy together to ride and rope and shoot. She’s not a total hoyden though.”
Shannon looked across her shoulder at Mandy. “You’re going to have to enlighten me. I don’t know what a hoyden is.”
“Tomboy. She does like clothes and jewelry. She spends a fortune on clothes.”
“Oh, well, I suppose she’s got it to spend. ... Drake says spending money keeps the economy going.”
“It does get to the point of being ridiculous though. You should see the Rocketbusters she bought herself. She called them a Christmas present, but she would’ve bought them whether it’s Christmas or not.”
“Rocketbusters?”
“Boots. She paid over four-thousand dollars for them. If I hadn’t known she’s done it before, I might’ve fainted.”
Shannon felt her eyes bug. “For boots? Oh, my God. Are they sewn with gold thread or something?”