LAND OF STARS: The Texas Wyllie Brothers (Wilderness Dawning Series Book 2)

by Dorothy Wiley

  Samuel interrupted her. “But I…”

  “I’m not finished.” Rebecca held up a hand, stopping him. “We all bring strength to this partnership. You bring skill with raising cattle, a sizeable herd, and valuable government contracts. Steve brings skill with horses, breeding, and management. And, thanks to my father and mother, the Tylers will contribute land. Father has also offered financial backing if we need it to purchase horse stock or additional cattle. It is a perfect blend of our resources. You no longer need the Alcalde’s land now that Steve and I are to be married. You have ours…Brother.”

  Samuel’s eyes widened, and he lifted his brows. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Say, thank you,” Father suggested.

  “Thank you, Rebecca. I will always be grateful and consider you a sister,” Samuel told her, standing taller now. “And thank you, Mr. Tyler. You saved my herd and our future. Someday, I will find a way to repay you.”

  “Steve promised me beef steaks and grandchildren. In that order,” he said with a chuckle, “so I am more than happy that we could help. And having strong men like the Wyllie brothers around to help protect my daughter and future grandchildren will be a great comfort to me.”

  “Steve is taking me home now,” Rebecca told her father. “And you are all invited to our home to share the news of the Alcalde’s arrest with the others.”

  “I’ll be along shortly,” her father said. “I want to thank Comandante Cosio before I leave.”

  “Before we go,” Steve told Rebecca, “I must speak with Solicitor Navarro. I want to make an appointment to speak with him.”

  “What about?” she asked.

  “Us.”

  Chapter 30

  The next day, at the agreed-upon appointment time, Steve sat with Rebecca in the office of the Mexican solicitor.

  “Will our marriage be recognized here in Coahuila and Texas if Dr. Grant, a protestant, performs the wedding?” Steve asked.

  Rebecca sat beside him in the lawyer’s office. She appeared as worried, as he was. Even if Baldy married them, he knew she would not live with him unless they were legally married.

  José Antonio Navarro’s forehead wrinkled. “Concerned Mexican citizens of Nacogdoches have diligently tried to obtain a priest. Last year, they wrote to Governor Saucedo that the sacraments of the church, including marriage, could not be performed for lack of a priest.”

  “What happened?” Steve asked.

  “Scarcely a month after the new priest’s arrival, the town’s Mexican citizens ran the man out of town for committing criminal relations with a woman,” Navarro explained.

  “I’m not sure I would be comfortable being married by a priest anyway,” Rebecca said. “My family has always been Presbyterian. At least we were in Louisiana, where we had a church to attend.”

  “And Baldy adheres to the doctrines of both Methodists and Baptists,” Steve said. “Whenever there’s a conflict between the two, he searches scripture to see which faith is closest to what the Bible actually says. As far as our ceremony, I’m comfortable with whatever Baldy will do.”

  Navarro shook his head. “Marriages by protestant pastors are considered invalid.”

  “What can we do then?” Rebecca asked. Worry marred her beautiful features.

  “Those desiring marriage must turn to civil authorities to approve their union,” Navarro said.

  Steve’s heart sank. “Procela.”

  “Yes, he was the local civil authority,” Navarro said. “He charged an exorbitant fee for granting approval to marry, so many couples were forced to just live together without the benefit of marriage. Then he would levy fines on them for immoral conduct.”

  “The man’s corruption knew no bounds,” Rebecca said.

  Navarro nodded his head in agreement.

  “So, what do we do now?” Steve asked.

  “You are free to have a protestant clergyman marry you, but I would recommend also receiving civil approval, what is known as marriage by bond. Only then will the marriage be legally binding. Without it, you will be violating both divine and human law.”

  “What does a marriage by bond mean exactly?” Rebecca asked.

  “You both swear that you are free to marry, that you are not of direct blood kinship, and that you do not have other living spouses. The parents of the prospective couple must also give their explicit approval of the union,” he explained. “I assume none of that is a problem.”

  “No,” Steve and Rebecca both said at the same time.

  “In that case, a marriage by bond will make your marriage legal in Coahuila y Tejas.”

  “But with Procela imprisoned, must we wait until a new Alcalde is appointed to marry?” Steve asked.

  “We can’t do that! That could take months,” Rebecca said.

  “We could travel to Louisiana to be married,” Steve suggested. He would leave that very day if they had to. But that likely meant none of their family could be there to share their joy.

  Navarro smiled. “I am pleased to say that I met with Comandante Cosio yesterday. He informed me that based upon the recommendations of the oldest and most socially prominent citizens of our community, including your father, Miss Tyler, Cosio has named me the interim Alcalde.”

  Rebecca laughed with relief and joy. “Congratulations, Solicitor Navarro. I’m certain you will make an excellent Alcalde.”

  Navarro held up a hand. “Of course, my appointment is still pending approval by Governor Saucedo.”

  “I wonder why Father didn’t say anything about recommending that you become the new Alcalde,” Rebecca said.

  “Perhaps he wanted me to be able to tell you,” Navarro said. “But I believe he was the first one to suggest my name to the Comandante.”

  “Father must have done that after we left the fort,” Rebecca told Steve.

  “As Alcalde, I will be responsible for land grants. It is my hope that your families and mine will become paisanos,” Navarro said.

  “What does paisanos mean?” Steve asked him.

  “It means fellow countrymen.”

  Steve smiled. Samuel might finally get help obtaining a land grant. “I heartily agree. We will certainly be paisanos.” But Steve was still worried. “As interim Alcalde, you’ll be able to marry us?”

  “Indeed. It will be my great honor. Just say when.”

  Steve gave Rebecca a sideways glance and saw happiness light up her face. He took hold of her hand. “Looks like we will legally be husband and wife soon.”

  “I can’t wait,” she said.

  That afternoon, a noisy and turbulent crowd of both Texians and Tejanos lined the town square waiting to see Alcalde Procela punished and humiliated for his transgressions. Steve saw several women push their way to the front to gain an unobstructed view of Procela’s and the killer’s end. And several curious boys, undoubtedly eager to catch a glimpse of someone dying, had climbed onto nearby rooftops.

  Steve did not understand the morbid appetite people had for executions.

  Of their family, he and Rebecca were the only ones there. Father and Thomas were occupied helping Samuel, and the hands, move the herd to the land Mr. Tyler had so generously provided. Steve had wanted to help, but Samuel agreed that he needed to accompany Rebecca to the punishment. It was not a day for her to be alone. Mr. Tyler was tied up showing Samuel where the land was, and Mrs. Tyler wasn’t interested in watching the spectacle. Louisa and Abigail were busy buying supplies and furnishings for their new homes. And Baldy, Melly, and Adam were setting up their new clinic.

  Steve had tried to talk Rebecca out of watching the executions, but she felt, for her brothers’ sakes, that she needed to be there. Although it would be hard for her to watch, he hoped Procela’s execution would help to purge her soul of repressed anger and lift the veil of bitterness clouding her life. And that would allow her to focus on their future together.

  The crowd spewed angry shouts as several soldiers brought Procela, shirtless and riding an old, very u
gly mule, to the square in the center of town.

  After jerking the former Alcalde off the mule, several soldiers smeared Procela’s chest and back with honey, which drew swarms of buzzing flies. With all the droppings from horses tied near the square and in town, flies were everywhere. For a few moments, the soldiers snickered and hooted while the flies enjoyed the honey. Procela tried unsuccessfully to shake the swarm of flies off. Soon his skin was crawling with them.

  Next, they showered him with chicken feathers. Then the crowd erupted with riotous laughter when the soldiers dressed him in a fool’s cap made with strings of garlic and a pair of pig’s ears, no doubt symbolizing stinking greed.

  This degradation was soon followed by real misery—fifty lashes across his back. Procela screamed from the first lash to the last.

  Steve suspected the number was fifty because that’s how many gold coins the Alcalde took from them.

  One of the soldiers announced in both Spanish and English, “And now Señor Procela begins a ten-year sentence for his crimes.”

  Procela promptly passed out.

  “What!” Rebecca exclaimed. “He’s going to live?”

  “I’m as surprised as you are,” Steve said.

  Giller, who had confessed to multiple murders, stood steady atop a horse as the hangmen performed the grim task of setting the noose around his neck. He died like a man to shouts of, “Killer Giller.”

  Rebecca clearly didn’t agree, but Steve considered hanging to be the more lenient of the two punishments. At least, if the man had asked God for the forgiveness of his sins as Baldy urged, Giller might be in heaven. If he wasn’t, he shuddered to think where the man would be.

  Rebecca had watched stoically as the soldiers carried out the sentences, but when the public punishment concluded, and he turned to face her, he saw that tears streaked her face.

  Her lower lip quivered as she said, “The Comandante should have shot Procela by firing squad so he could have faced exactly what my brothers did.”

  “Procela will be lucky to survive those lash wounds,” he told her. “And if he does, he will suffer for weeks.”

  Rebecca nodded wearily. “Perhaps the Comandante intended his pain and lingering in prison to be a worse form of punishment. But it’s not enough. Not near enough!” The stark, searing anger in her soul bubbled up seeking release.

  “It’s time to put it all behind you, Rebecca,” he told her. “Justice has been served.”

  She whirled to stare at him. “Maybe for you, but not for me!”

  “It’s not about us, it’s about your brothers. Procela was found guilty, and if he lives through that beating, he will spend ten long years caged like an animal. I suspect he will be underfed and deprived of all comforts. In the winter, he’ll suffer through freezing weather with no fire to warm him. And in the summer, he’ll be baked by the heat in an oven-like cell and eaten up by mosquitos and fleas. His life will be hell on earth.”

  “But he should have been sent to hell.”

  “Perhaps God wants him to suffer here first.” He took out his handkerchief and wiped away her tears. When he finished, he drew her to him for a hug before they turned away from the square. He wanted to find a way to help her. Perhaps talking to Baldy would help.

  Leading both their horses, he walked them to Baldy, Melly, and Adam’s new location for the clinic and apothecary. The three of them wisely opted to spend the day setting the clinic up rather than witness the punishment.

  In a daze, Rebecca ambled quietly beside him, and Steve kept a close eye on her.

  “Rebecca, are you all right?” Baldy asked as soon as they entered the large shop the doctor bought that would shortly become a clinic. “I know that must have been disturbing for you to watch.”

  “Indeed, it was.” She said the words slowly, with a faraway look in her still moist eyes.

  Steve briefly described to the three of them how Procela and Giller were punished.

  Melly came over and gave Rebecca a motherly hug. “I’m sorry you had to witness that.”

  “Justice can be a healing medicine,” Baldy told Rebecca. “I hope you and your parents can accept that justice has been served.”

  Rebecca took a deep breath “But it hasn’t. Ever since my brothers were killed, I’ve known that it was Procela who’d caused their deaths. The Comandante should have ordered him to be shot. He should have faced exactly what my brothers faced. Now, every time I pass by that fort, I’ll think of him, alive in there, while my brothers are dead in their graves.” Raw hurt gripped her face and her voice.

  Steve had hoped the Alcalde’s punishment would have eased her anger and her grief. If anything, it seemed to have made it worse. He took hold of her shoulders so she would face him. “True justice remains in the hands of God,” he said gently.

  Baldy stepped closer to her. “Procela is a consciousless madman who deserved to die.”

  “Exactly!” Rebecca said.

  “But you must consider two things,” Baldy said. “First, the extent of his earthly punishment was not up to you. That was Cosio’s decision. Secondly, I want you to remember that what God has in store for that evil man will be far worse than being shot by a firing squad. You can count on that, I assure you.”

  “Can I?”

  “Indeed,” Baldy said. “You have my word, as a man of God and as your friend. I sincerely doubt the man will ever humble himself enough to turn to God. So, he will one day face the Lord and pay dearly for all his crimes.”

  “Rebecca, dear,” Melly said. “I know you’re disappointed. And that’s understandable. But now it’s time for you to focus on what God has given you—not what was taken away from you. In Steve, you’ve been given a great gift of untold value. Value you have yet to fully appreciate. I believe it’s time for you to focus on how you’ve been blessed and how much you will be blessed. Think of how much happiness you will know when you and Steve are married, have your first child, and hold that precious little life in your arms for the first time. Don’t let anger dilute the beauty of what you have received.”

  Rebecca let out a deep breath and nodded her understanding. “You’re both right, of course. I guess I’ve been holding on to that anger for so long it’s hard to let it go. Well, right here and now, in this clinic, I will let my soul be healed. I will no longer let rage and resentment torment me. I will focus on the man I love.” She gazed up at Steve. “The man who taught me to see the stars again. I love you so very much.”

  He squeezed her hand and gave her a reassuring smile. “And I love you. You are everything to me. You’re my lone and shining star.”

  “I’m tempted to marry you two right here and now,” Baldy said with a grin.

  “Mother would thrash me soundly if I did that. She is truly excited about the wedding,” Rebecca said with a laugh. The tension on her face eased, and she glanced around them. “You’ve already made great strides,” she said, changing the subject.

  “We’ve been working since early this morning,” Melly said and wiped her hands on her apron.

  “The apothecary will be even better than the one we had at Pecan Point,” Adam said with obvious enthusiasm. “We’re going to put a wall up here and here. When Baldy finishes with a patient, he will come through the door we’re going to put here,” he said, pointing to the spot on the floor. “Baldy will discuss what medicine the patient needs with me. I’ll mix it up in this little room with an opening cut into the wall. The patient will be called to the window when their medicine is ready. What do you think, Steve? Better than Pecan Point?”

  “I think your brilliance will have a chance to shine here. All three of you will help people here even more than you did in Pecan Point,” he said.

  “And instead of the two patient beds and the one surgery room we had at Pecan Point, we will have three beds and three exam and surgery rooms,” Melly said.

  “The town will be so fortunate to have a doctor of your caliber, Dr. Grant,” Rebecca said. “And to have you as a nurse and m
idwife, Melly.”

  “Thank you,” Baldy said. “I have a lot of plans for the future. There’s so much that can be done here. In addition to setting up my practice, I want to increase awareness of the importance of sanitation around the town’s dwellings and buildings. And I intend to create a Board of Health to isolate persons with contagious diseases such as smallpox.”

  “And the Board of Health will help us identify those who abuse or neglect children,” Melly said. Then her eyes lit up with joy, and she smiled broadly. “Most exciting of all, Mr. Tyler gave me the money that was in the robbers’ saddlebags to start an orphanage. It was a sizeable sum and will enable us to feed, clothe, and house a considerable number of children and young people.”

  It didn’t surprise Steve that Mr. Tyler gave the money to Melly. She had a particular fondness for children in need. That’s how she’d come to help Louisa and Adam six years ago.

  “That’s splendid news,” Steve said.

  “It was Mr. Tyler’s idea. He wanted the robbers’ ill-gotten gains to be put to good use.”

  “I’ll volunteer to serve at the orphanage, and Mother would likely enjoy being on your Board of Health,” Rebecca said. “The town sorely needs both.”

  “Excellent!” Baldy said. “We could use your help. Now, on to happier subjects. Have you two set a wedding date?”

  “We have indeed,” Rebecca said, her mood finally brightening.

  Although nothing could make up for the loss of her dear brothers, perhaps helping orphans would bring Rebecca a measure of happiness and fulfillment.

  And, of course, having their own children would also bring her joy. She was going to make a wonderful mother.

  Steve couldn’t wait to make her his wife. His partner. His lover.

  Without a doubt, she would be all to him and he to her.

  Epilogue

  June 1824,

  Two weeks later

  When Rebecca descended the stairs, her smiling father waited for her. As she reached the bottom step, he held out his hand and took hers. He looked dashing in a new navy suit with a royal blue waistcoat and a fancy white cravat at his neck.