“Ah, but you can seldom please everyone, and that is the problem,” added Minna.
“The mill needs the railroad, and the people need their land, and no one seems to compromise.”
“This town needs someone who can stand up and lead the way,” said Minna looking pointedly and directly at him.
After the meal ended, Annie shooed her grandmother and Jesse from the kitchen so she could tidy up. Crooking her arm in his, Minna led Jesse to the hallway where she pointed at two framed photographs hanging on the wall: One was of Annie's father and Minna's son, and the second photograph was of Annie's mother who had died in childbirth. The young man looked of mixed blood with Minna's dark almond shaped eyes and Reese Morgan's strong jawline and aquiline nose . Minna pointed to the picture with pride in her smile: “Here is my boy, my Jared. He has chosen to live on the reservation south of here. He thinks of himself an outcast...and stays away...but came to town to see Annie when she was growing up with me on the hill. I hope to see him again some day. And this is Annie's mother... the Irish Shanty Town-girl, Hannah.” Minna grew silent, introspective. Jesse saw Hannah had been no more than sixteen with a slack pouty mouth and empty eyes that had not her daughter's spark of pride and liveliness.
“This is the couple you hear the tales about,” Annie said, lowering her voice almost to a whisper. “I am sure Buck Hennessy told you of the newborn taken by the she-wolf. It happened when the father left to fetch help for a wife dying in childbirth. Buck was...in essence...speaking to you of Jared and Hannah and their baby Annie...and of Tahsha who instinctively felt the dire situation and took baby Annie to her den ...protecting her as she would one of her own. No one could find Annie until she was five. She was spotted by loggers as she ran through the forest making sounds like a wild animal. The men who captured her brought her to my hut on the hill...away from prying eyes...and I raised her in isolation to be the woman you see today. Her grandfather, Reese Morgan, acknowledged her... and Jared... and little else...and only when Annie was civilized enough to seem “normal”. I expect he knew I would give him no choice. It is my belief that Tahsha knows and remembers Annie... in her primitive way... and feels she is her own. Perhaps this is why she spared your life that night just before Thanksgiving...having seen you with Annie....sensing you were her friend. We can never know what guides an animal. ”
Jesse was stunned by Minna's revelation. Looking at Annie, who was refined and educated, albeit, informally, he could hardly believe she, as a little one, was nurtured by a wolf . It was almost too outrageous. Although Buck had told him the story, he had dismissed it as a backwoods legend or just one of Buck's embellishments on truth. Some suitors, he supposed, would be put off by what he had just learned. Not Jesse. He felt a new sense of protectiveness toward Annie and pride in her accomplishments, which, considering her formative years, were remarkable.
“One thing more...” said Minna. “There will always be a part of her that unknowingly longs for the isolation of the woods... for freedom from society's restrictions. But it is that which makes her stand apart. There is a side of her that is free spirited and willful...and if you are to love her...you must accept it. She can not be controlled.”
“All I need her to be is herself, “Jesse replied. “I am taken with her and intend to tell her so tonight.”
“Do not be disappointed if she runs from you, Jess. It is what she does when anyone tries to get close.”
“Thank you for telling me about her past, but I won't be put off. I'll be always be mindful of it and patient with her.”
Minna smiled sadly and said nothing more.
The conversation came to a close just as Annie finished up in the kitchen. Removing her apron, she turned to Jesse: “Shall we get some fresh air? The moon seems to be calling my name! I do so hate being cooped up. Come walk with me.”
Minna remained inside, and Annie took Jesse's hand for a walk along the path that led from her house. They walked in step one with the other, their warm breaths visible in the night air. They walked so closely he could feel the length of her from shoulder to hip as if they two were one. Taking her hand, he felt the steel behind its softness, the willfulness behind its compliance. He felt he knew her as deeply as any man would be able to know any woman. He knew her heart and mind but not her body, which was pure and sacred to him. He had never been so close to anyone; and the experience was both righteous and worldly at the same time.
At first they walked together silently until they were a good and private distance from the house. Then he turned her toward him and kissed her deeply, clinging to her as a drowning man clinging to a lifeline. He was as warm and dizzy and senseless as if filled with Mr. Percy's sweetest Muscadine wine.
“Annie...Annie...” he began, searching for the words to share his heart and soul. But before he could manage another word, she withdrew from his embrace and pointed to the sky behind him.
“Jess!...look yonder... toward the Boggy Slough ! Shanty Town is on fire!”
XIV: Danger and Devilment
Jesse watched as the dark skies over Boggy Slough blazed from the brilliance of a monstrous fire. Another lost moment with Annie, he told himself. Yet the real and sudden danger could not be ignored. “I've got to get over there to see what can be done,” he said. “Wait here for me.”
“I'm going with you,” said Annie. “Don't try to tell me otherwise!”
“Then bring your satchel... in case there's no doctor. We don't know what we'll find.”
By the time they crossed the bridge over Dead Man's Creek, the deadly glow illuminated the night sky to overshadow the stars. Jesse's mind raced as he considered the possibilities should the fire go unchecked; but surely a bucket brigade had begun from the waters of Boggy Slough close by. At the scene of the fire mayhem ruled, with stunned townsfolk milling around, some crying piteously, others busy hauling water and checking to be sure the children were safe and unharmed. The Conners' shack, along with two others, were burning to the ground while men stoically manned a bucket brigade. All three families affected were accounted for, while others ran for their buckets, as the blaze neared their property.
Mrs. Conner huddled in the grass with her bawling children, and Mr. Conner paced obsessively, oblivious to his smoldering shirt sleeve. He cursed as he walked, his eyes red and bulging, his voice tinged with despair and anger : “They've gone and done it,” he wailed. “I knew it would come to this. The bastards done gone and burnt up everything we own!”
“Mr. Conner!” shouted Annie as she ran toward him.”Mr. Conner...your arm ...drop to the ground!” Mr. Conner looked through her with a blank stare, as if he had gone deaf and blind. It was apparent that he was in a state of shock, causing Annie to strike him soundly across his cheek.
“Drop to the ground and roll your arm in the dirt!”she shouted. Looking dazed but now aware, Mr Conner began to scream as the smell of burning flesh reached his nostrils. He at last dropped to this side and smothered his smoking arm with dirt, then curled up and moaned loudly:“They've near 'bouts kilt me! All of this over my land. They flushed me out like a scorched rat!”
The man's hysteria caused Annie to grow impatient: “It's a small burn, Mr. Conner. Shush. You're scaring your children. For God's sake, be a man about it. Now hold still while I tend to you.” She opened her satchel and produced a vial of vinegar which she poured over his arm, followed by the jelly-like salve from an Aloe Vera plant. Mr. Conner carried on as if being tortured, causing his children to cry even louder.
“Get away from me! I'll not let a Morgan touch me...you included. I need a real doctor!,” Mr. Conner's chin jutted in defiance and his coal black eyes gleamed with hatred.
Annie had finally reached the edge of her patience and altruism. “ “Well then... send your wife down to Percy's Tavern,” she said. “She'll find your real doctor there...a real drunk doctor . I'm done with you.” That being said, she snapped shut her satchel and went to check on the children.
Meanwhile, Jesse pull
ed bucket after bucket of muddy water , passing it along to a line of men who worked beyond exhaustion. It became apparent that the best they could do was to keep the fire from spreading. The three houses involved were losses. As he bent to scoop more water, his eyes caught sight of someone watching furtively from trees on the other side of Boggy Slough. Jesse handed off his bucket and motioned for Buck Hennessy to take his place in line. He had to know. He had to know, once and for all, the cause of all this trouble and grief.
Jesse sloshed through the swampy bog toward the woods, toward the lone person on horseback. Where the water grew shallow, he sank knee deep into slimy mud; but he trudged forward to the other bank, drawing closer and closer to the shadowy figure whose face he could not see. It brought to mind his reoccurring dream of an image on horseback appearing from the depths of the forest: a faceless, nameless being retreating before he could see who was there. He had to know. He had to see who or what waited and watched in hiding.
Suddenly, from out of the shadows behind him, a strong arm encircled his neck like a vise, and he felt the tip of a knife pressing into his throat. “Not one step farther.” said a deep voice he recognized as Domingo's. Jesse gasped for breath then slammed the heel of his boot upward into Domingo's groin. The big man dropped the knife and bent double, writhing in pain.
“Who is it that gave you orders to burn these people out? Who sits atop that horse yonder in the trees? Morgan...or the preacher man Elias Wyatt...who we all know wishes to shut me up. Beyond that, who is it that burns folks' houses...railroad men? Who? Tell me who is behind the trouble I've met since my first day in Morgans Bluff.”
As Domingo recovered, he omitted a guttural growl and came at Jesse anew. Just then, an uncommonly large wolf leaped through the darkness and sunk its fangs into Domingo’s arm, the weight of its body toppling the big man into the swamp. Jesse recognized his ally as none other than Tahsha. The beast had tasted blood and was ready to pounce again, as a stunned Domingo stared up at gaping jaws and bared fangs.
“No, Tahsha! Go back into the woods! The man will kill you.” As if understanding Jesse's command, Tahsha slowly retreated , without taking her bright eyes from Domingo, who pulled himself up and disappeared into the woods.
Yet the shadowy figure on horseback remained and moved slowly toward Jesse from the darkness, just as he had dreamed. Jesse felt a chill run up his spine. “Who are you? Let me see your face!” he called out.
“Jesse McCann, it is I... Lorena Wyatt,” came the answer, as Morgan's daughter let the hood of her cape fall from her head. “You can tell anyone you please that I was here tonight. No one would believe you. It is after all I... the sweet, submissive minister's wife and daughter of Reese Morgan... the most powerful man in Texas. You see? I have more grit that my esteemed husband and rich papa put together. I take care of business. It is I whom you should fear. Domingo is merely my puppet.”
“What kind of hold do you have on the man?”
“Money...what else? Certainly not love.”
“But why? Why have you burned these homes, when people could have died?”
“I have two priorities, Jesse McCann. The first of which is my husband's good name and my pride, and the second is my inheritance and my current source of income... papa's railroad. You see, my papa had Elias investigated several years ago...after a man came through town, saying he knew Elias Wyatt as Clinton McCann... someone he knew in West Texas. Now obviously, we can't have the congregation know who and what their beloved Brother Wyatt really is. My father confronted my husband with the accusations, and he admitted everything and begged my forgiveness. We have seven children and apparently no real marriage...as it turns out. What choices do I have? But I'll not have my husband sent to prison for bigamy...leaving me in shame and disgrace. You alone would dare bring that shame to light. You are a bug in my nice glass of lemonade, swimming around and polluting its sweetness and hard to remove.”
“I'm not a helpless bug to be squashed in your hand....and I'm not going anywhere,” Jesse replied.
“Well then. You want to confront your father? Come to the house tomorrow. Maybe we can work out our differences.”
“You're a criminal and a she-devil. I was raised to speak respectfully to ladies... but you are no lady! You could have killed someone tonight. You could have had me killed that day in the log avalanche in the Big Muddy. I'll bet you put Domingo up to that as well.”
“Don't be so high and mighty, Jesse McCann...just wanted to shake you up a bit... nothing personal. Come down to earth and realize you can change your situation. Go back and tell that to that pious mama of yours. Tell her to divorce the man and be done with it.”
“Would that I could! My mama died several weeks ago. All I want now is the money owed to my family for the theft of my grandmother's show horse...a debt unpaid from twenty years back. Why did you send your so called puppet after me that day in the Big Muddy. It was you behind it, wasn’t it? If Clinton McCann never acknowledges me, I couldn’t care less.”
“Well now...that changes things considerably...with your mother's passing and your lack of interest in exposing your father's secrets. If the money owed is all you want...why don't you come by the house tomorrow evening. We're in the big brick house at the end of Main Street. Perhaps we can work out that problem in a more civilized way than this situation with the railroad. You see...these Shanty Town vermin are not so civilized. They take a firm hand. Now I'll let you get back to the other men and that winch of yours...the one who shamefully wears my father's name.
Jesse felt the blood rush to his head. “'Say nothing about her! Do not mention her name! If you were a man I'd pull you off that horse and beat you senseless.”
At that Lorena jumped from her horse and raised her whip against him. “What are you waiting for?”she snarled. As the first lash struck his face, he stayed her hand and pulled the whip from it,feeling his hand go raw from the force of her pull, until his strength overcame hers. Now he stood face to face with an enraged Lorena who was not about to let the subject die: “Do you know... my mother even went so far as to take Jared in as one of us...an illegitimate spawn... from a a red skin squaw and my own father?”
“But you made it impossible for Jared Morgan, your own brother, to stay ...impossible to claim his birthright as Morgan's son.”
“What if it is so? I answer to no one...least of all you.” Now Lorena looked about her and saw that Domingo had long since disappeared. “Elias will be wondering where I am. I must get back. From the looks of it, the fire has been squelched...but a message has been sent, has it not?. My father will take whatever land he needs...and he will have his railroad built just where he wants it....else I'll see every shack in Shanty Town burned to the ground.”
“Would it have weighed on your conscience had someone died in that fire?”
“Oh my goodness. Aren't you the dramatic one. They scattered like ants from a mound. Even they have sense enough to escape harm. All that burned were piles of worthless junk. Just think...Domingo and I did those peasants a favor. Now they can start fresh...as soon as they turn over their land. Morgan Mills will have its railroad. It will succeed. It is...after all...my inheritance... my heritage!”
“Your heritage is the guile and deception of pure evil...and all the more deadly because it is hidden by the pretense of a sweet nature. You’re beyond a hypocrite, Lorena. You are evil.”
“Good that you know that, Jesse McCann,” she replied as she retrieved her whip and remounted. “We'll be expecting you tomorrow...your father... and I.” With that, Lorena galloped away toward town.
Now skirting the edge of the forest Tahsha moved quietly, her luminous, ever changing eyes following Jesse protectively as he made his way out of Boggy Slough and back to Annie. It had been an unsettling day, but now Jesse was armed with truth.
The question is what do I do with it? he asked himself. Within the jumble of his confused thoughts and raw emotions, no answer came.
XV: Aftermath
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What a worrisome night it had been, even after a perfect Sunday afternoon at Annie's. Jesse's return to the scene of the fire served to accentuate the depravity of Lorena's actions and the seriousness of her mental state. All that remained of three families' homes and possessions was rubble and ashes. The newly homeless had been taken to empty tents and company houses for temporary shelter; and now, only Buck Hennessy remained at the scene. Jesse found him sitting on a stump inspecting his wooden leg which appeared charred and shorter by a few inches.
“Stepped into a pile of ashes still a'burning underneath, Jess. I did me a jig, son. Ever see a one legged man try to stomp out a fire and keep his balance at the same time?”
“What are you doing out here by yourself?”
“Waitin' for you! Annie was fretful...not knowing where you had gone. I told her to go on home... and I would wait for you . Ain't proper for a young woman to be alone here in Shanty Town late at night.” Then Buck looked up at Jesse, hands spread, palms up: “You just high-tailed it out like a jack rabbit . What could I tell her...that you thought you saw somethin' in the woods and had just lit out through a swamp?”
“There was someone there,” Jesse replied “...someone who was behind the fire here tonight and several other unsavory deeds in the past. You won't believe me if I tell you who. Eventually you will know...but not yet. There are some who will stop at nothing to get what they want, no matter who gets hurt.”
“If you know why this happened and who's responsible...you need to tell the justice of the peace!”
Jesse McCann: The Journey (The McCann Family Saga Book 1) Page 7
