“You might be overstating that a bit.”
“You’re defending my brother taking his stock to New Orleans in order to avoid paying taxes, is that not true?”
“It is as far as it goes, yes. But if it wasn’t for the Beef Trail, to New Orleans, the Mexican Government would take half of all the Texian ranchers’ income, including your brother’s. That wouldn’t even leave them enough to pay the ranch hands. How long do you think that could go on?”
“There are legal steps that can be taken.”
“They’ve all been tried but Mexico City is jealous of the success of these American immigrants and they’re afraid that the United States may try to annex Texas. The legislators lack the foresight to realize that this country is nothing but dirt, cactus and a few stunted trees without men like Stephen Austin and your brother.”
“If from your manner of speech I were to presume that you are an educated man, would I be correct, Captain Lagrange?”
“I graduated from the College of William and Mary, Madam.”
“That’s Miss, not Madam; I’m not married and never have been.”
“Oh, I thought…” He blushed.
“Yes, I know what you thought and I know what you now think after learning that I am a fallen woman.”
“Oh no, Miss. I don’t think less of you – that is…”
“Of course you do, Captain, and well you should. I gave in to seduction and this is the proof of my sinful behavior.” She smiled at her child and kissed his forehead. “Oddly enough, this is also my greatest accomplishment.”
“Quincy is a fine boy, Miss Anna, and you’re a fine lady,” Lagrange said.
“Why thank you Captain. Please don’t hesitate to call on me while my brother and sister-in-law are away. There would be nothing improper in that, I assure you.”
“Oh.” Lagrange looked stricken. “Yes, Ma’am- I mean Miss, I surely will.”
“Then I bid you good day,” Anna said, and she turned to walk back toward the house.
Lagrange watched her for a moment then crossed to the small blockhouse that he shared with Captain Whipple.
Whipple looked up as Lagrange came through the door. “They get off okay?” His right foot was bare and soaking in a bucket.
“Yup.” Lagrange tossed his hat at the rack, missed and walked over to pick it up. “How’s the snake bite?”
Whipple took his foot out of the bucket and looked at the wound. “No better.” He put his foot back in the water.
“I’ve seen moccasins with leather tops for sale in San Antonio. They might be better than those squaw-moccasins you wear. Hell, anything would be better than those damn useless things.” He dropped heavily into the other chair.
“Jane’s gonna buy me a pair o’ boots in New Orleans. Somethin’ botherin’ ya, Charlie?”
“No.” Lagrange shook his head. “Yes. That damn woman trapped me.”
“Do what?”
“Did you know she’s never been married?”
“Who? Anna?”
“Yes, who else would I be talking about?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Yer talkin’ kinda outta yer head so who could guess?”
“Yes, I’m talking about Anna Van Buskirk. Did you know that she’s never been married?”
“Y’ just answered yer own question. She’s Tom’s sister and she still has the same last name as him.”
“Well I never thought about it, so I didn’t know.”
“So what’s so troublesome about that?”
“I dunno. I just thought she was a widow or something.”
“What the hell does it matter? Y’ never turned yer nose up at no whores and they’re all a hell of a lot more experienced than Anna by a long shot.”
“I’m not turning my nose up, but I’m not wanting to go courting either.”
“There you go again, talkin’ outta yer blamed head.”
Lagrange raised his hands over his head and dropped them in exasperation. “The damn woman trapped me.”
“Trapped you how?”
“She gave me permission to call on her and now I’m obligated.”
“Well if I give y’ permission to suck the poison outta this here snake-bit foot, it don’t mean y’ gotta do it.”
“There was a kind of implied consent – I don’t know.”
“In other words y’ kinda obligated yer own self.”
“Those would be the other words.”
“She’s a right handsome woman, that Anna. Best ass I ever saw on a white woman.”
Lagrange shook his head. “Jane.”
“Okay. Second best. But Quincy could use a pa and you’d be a good ‘en.”
“What kind of name is Quincy anyway?” Lagrange asked.
“She named the boy after John Quincy Adams. Reckon he’s the father?”
Lagrange thought that over for some time. “I didn’t vote for the bastard.”
“The bastard John Quincy Adams or Anna’s bastard Quincy?”
“Now who do you think?”
“I think a damn educated fool like you would of voted for John Quincy Adams. You and him talk the same highfalutin way.”
Lagrange got up and retrieved his hat. “I’m gonna ride out and check on the west stockade.”
“Take a couple o’ the boys with y’. The Comanches surely seen the herd move out and they might get brave thinkin’ that we’re short handed.”
Lagrange nodded. “If we’re not back by noon tomorrow come looking.”
“If I see buzzards over to that direction I might come sooner. Be sure to give Anna a nice kiss good-bye.”
“‘Hope your danged foot rots off,” Lagrange shot back as he headed out the door.
September 30, 1830
New Orleans, Louisiana
Thomas and Jane were sitting side-by-side on the top rail of the cattle chute. The stockyards were so jammed with animals and people that it had taken two days for the Two Alone herd to reach the auction yard and they were now second in line. “With all this stock, the price is going to be pitifully low,” Jane said loudly enough to be heard over the bawling of cattle.
Thomas shook his head. “I don’t think so. All these European and Eastern cattle are half dead, skin and bones, but our Texas Longhorns look as fresh and fit as the day we left the ranch.”
Jane was watching as the herd in front of them was being moved into the auction yard. “We need to register a brand.”
“We’ve got an earmark registered.”
“I know that. But you can’t read an earmark from a distance like you can a brand.” She pointed at the cattle that were moving past them. “With no fences, it won’t be long before ours and other ranchers’ stock get mixed up on the range.”
“Did you have something in mind?”
She nodded. “If you used the large half-circle dotting iron and the bar iron below and slightly to the right of it, the brand would look like the numeral two.”
“That’s it? Just a two?”
“A two alone. Since it’s so simple, I doubt that anyone else has registered it yet. But with only two irons it should make branding fast and relatively easy.”
He grinned. “I’ll see if I can register that when we get back.”
“Do you need me to stay through the auction?”
“I guess not. Where did you want to go?”
“I promised Josiah that I’d buy him some leather boots and I need to buy some ready made dresses for Anna and for me. Neither one of us has the patience to sew.”
“Do you want me to send one of the men with you?”
“To watch me try on dresses?”
“Okay. Be careful. This may look like a civilized city but it’s a long way from being Manhattan.”
“The market’s right down there on the River, Thomas. You can see it from here and they have constables that walk through all the stalls. It’s perfectly safe.” She climbed down off the fence and started away.
“Jane?” Thomas said.
&nbs
p; She turned back. “Yes?”
“Now don’t get mad.”
“That doesn’t work. Say whatever you think is going to make me mad or don’t say it.”
He gestured toward the eight women that had come along on the drive. “Those painted ladies have been a lot of help on the ranch and they even stood night watches on the trail. We’ve never paid them a copper cent since the day they arrived. I was just wondering…”
“If you want to pay them, go ahead.”
“No. Well yes, that too.”
“Too?” She stepped up onto the lower rail and looked up at him. “Spit it out?”
“It’d be very thoughtful of you if you’d ask if any of them wanted to go to the market with you.”
“What?”
“I asked you not to get mad.”
“And I told you that doesn’t work.”
“It wouldn’t kill you to be a little civil to them, Jane. You treat them like dirt.”
“They’re whores, Thomas.”
“They’re whores because life’s beaten them down.”
“They’ve made their choices.”
“They haven’t had the choices that you have.”
She looked toward the women then back at her husband. “If they want to go to the market, they don’t need me.”
“You may not have noticed, but they’re not all that self-confident.”
“Well they can go with the men after the auction.”
“The men are going to collect their pay and go off to get drunk and to look for other women.”
“Other whores, you mean?”
“Yes. That’s what I mean.”
She looked again at the eight women who were standing alone in a group. “I can’t believe you’d ask me to do this, Thomas,” she said angrily.
He took off his hat and scratched his head, then put his hat back on. “No. I can’t believe I did either. Have a good time at the market, Jane.”
She hopped off the rail, turned and began striding toward the river then stopped. “Shit.” She turned back and walked toward the group of women.
The first of the eight to notice Jane bumped the woman beside her with her elbow. The chain reaction from woman to woman soon turned every head and produced dead silence. Jane was surprised and a little ashamed to see the fear on their faces. “I was going to visit the market and wondered if any of you ladies would like to come,” she said.
They looked at each other but no one spoke.
“I have some money for each of you too,” Jane added. “My husband decided to pay you the same as the drovers.”
“That’s very kind of you, Ma’am,” the oldest of the group said. “But you don’t want to be seen with us in the New Orleans market. Folks will think you’re one of us.”
“I grew up with folks thinking badly of me and it never bothered me,” Jane replied, surprising herself by her own sincerity. “Anyone that wants to come is welcome. I don’t know if I have enough money to pay you all that we owe you at the moment, but I’ll advance you whatever you need to buy what you want, and we can settle the difference after the auction.”
“I’m Nellie Coyne,” the older woman said. “That is, if you didn’t know my name.”
Jane shook the woman’s hand. “No. I didn’t know your name, Miss Coyne, I’m ashamed to say.”
“It’s Mrs. Coyne but I’d like it if you called me Nellie. Nobody ever calls me Mrs. Coyne any more.”
“You have a New England accent,” Jane observed.
“Boston. My husband was a fisherman. He was lost at sea.”
Jane walked through the others shaking hands. Some of the younger women were so awed by Jane that they curtseyed deeply and refused to make eye contact. “Well then. Shall we go?” As Jane started off toward the river with her new charges, she saw Thomas, still on the top of the fence, grinning happily.
~
“It’s nice that you’ve made new friends,” Thomas teased as Jane climbed up on the fence beside him.
“Some of them are just trashy women as I always suspected,” Jane said. “But a few of them were exactly what you said: women who life gave very few choices.”
“I noticed that you left here with eight painted ladies and came back with nine,” Thomas said casually.
“I was planning to discuss that with you.”
“Now would be a good time.”
“She’s mulatto.”
“I noticed that too.”
“Okay,” Jane said, shaking her head. “She’s a runaway. Nellie asked me if we could take her and I said yes before I thought.”
“Well, if you already said yes I suppose that there nothing left to discuss.”
“How much trouble is she going to cause?”
“That all depends on whether we get caught with her before we cross the border into Texas.”
“What do you mean?”
“In Texas we’ll get some arguments and maybe a few threats from the slave owner settlers, but in the United States we’re in violation of Federal law.”
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
“The worst? Out here, I can’t even contemplate the worst. I suppose we could all be hanged.”
“I’ll tell her that we can’t take the risk.”
Thomas shook his head. “No. You gave your word. We’ll take the risk.”
October 1, 1830
Two Alone Ranch, Coahuila, Mexican Province of Tejas
Anna poured tea into Captain Charles Lagrange’s cup. “Are you my friend, Charlie?”
He thought a moment before answering. “I don’t think men and women can really be friends like men can.”
“Really?” She poured her own tea. “Why’s that?”
He picked up his teacup, sipped, burned his tongue and spluttered. “Hell, I don’t know Miss Anna.”
“Well I know one inhibitor is the Miss in my name. Why can’t you call me Anna instead of Miss Anna?”
He blew on the tea and shrugged. “You’re Tom’s sister. It’s a matter of respect.”
She laughed softly. “You think of me as a fallen woman but respect me enough to title me Miss because of my brother?”
“I never said that I think of you as a fallen woman.”
“Your eyes don’t tell lies, Charlie.”
His face colored. “You’re a puzzle to me Miss Anna.”
“Anna,” she urged.
“Anna.”
“In what way?”
He shrugged. “You’re so controlled and proper.” He shrugged again and blushed a deeper red.
“Can I ask you a question, Charlie?”
He nodded uncertainly.
“Since most of your experience with women seems to have been with whores, did you know that so-called proper women like sex?”
His face was so red that it seemed to glow. “Uh. Well…”
“Uh well, we do like sex,” she said with a laugh. “In truth, we’re not much different from men. I dare say that if we didn’t have to worry about becoming pregnant, we wouldn’t be at all different.”
Charlie sipped his tea and ignored the heat.
“Sometimes I can’t sleep at night because all I can think about is sex,” Anna said. “Has that ever happened to you?”
He hesitated then nodded.
“If it happens again while my brother and Jane are gone, please come to my room.”
He stared at her.
“Day or night,” she added. “Now, if you want.”
Like a sleepwalker, he stood up and offered her his hand. “Are you sure, Anna?”
“Oh damn right, I’m sure,” she said taking his hand. “But I need your word of honor that you won’t tell anyone. Not Josiah or anyone.”
“You have my word.” He pulled her to her feet.
“Even if I get pregnant.”
His eyes went wide. “I’m not so sure about that. If I fathered a child I’d want him or her to know me.”
She pulled her hand away. “Then forget it.�
��
October 4, 1830
New Orleans, Louisiana
Jane pushed aside the tent flaps and walked out to stand behind Thomas who was sitting on a stool by the campfire. “What a beautiful sunrise.”
“Red sky at morning, sailor take warning,” he said, pouring coffee into a tin cup for her. “If you want some breakfast you’ll need to hurry. They’re about to start packing the kitchen wagon.”
“I ate too much of that fancy French food last night.” She sat down on the stool beside him. “Have I ever mentioned how proud I am to be your wife?”
He smiled. “Well I’m proud to be your husband too.”
“Come on now, don’t cheapen what I said by parroting it back at me.”
He shrugged. “Are you and my sister laying a trap for poor Charlie Lagrange?”
“What makes you ask?”
“The clothes you bought for Anna including the unmentionables.”
“It occurred to me that we might not get back here for a year or more. And there might be a wedding before then.”
“Charlie Lagrange and Josiah Whipple are Texas Rangers because they like living wild.”
“Charlie’s smitten with Anna and you can’t deny it.”
“I don’t deny it. Anna’s got a hook in him and she might, in fact, reel him in. I’m just saying that if she does, it’ll be a marriage made in hell.”
“You’re being overly dramatic.”
Thomas waved his hand at the camp. “These men are not like all the men you knew in New York. These men are adventurers. Maybe someday when they get older they’ll settle down…” He stopped at looked at her. “I’m wasting my breath, aren’t I?”
“Are you happy, Thomas?”
“Yes, of course I am.”
“Then why couldn’t Charlie Lagrange be happily married?”
“Because Charlie Lagrange and I are cut from entirely different pieces of cloth. I brought my wife out here, he came alone.”
“Well, it hardly matters now anyway.”
“In the whole equation, you’re the only one that does matter since Anna won’t listen to anyone but you.”
“No, you don’t understand. It’s too late for me to try to influence her. She’s going to use our absence to seduce Charlie.”
Home of the Brave Page 15
