Camp Camel: The Heart of Texas

by Eaton, Rosemary

  Lieutenant MacLeod replied, “Captain you’re going to regret that.”

  Captain Bowman retorted, “I don’t think so. Tear those Lieutenant stripes off. You’re now a Sergeant and if you keep that up, you’ll be lower than a buck Private before this night is up. I’m not a medic and not nearly as nice as Travers and I don’t care if you’re a Priest or not MacLeod. I’m not Catholic either.”

  Private Collins hurried over to the door and unbarred it for Jenny. She nodded, “She need oil for knees. You bring some?”

  Private Collins smiled, “Yes, Mam. Right away.”

  Jenny lead Daisy to the water trough and let her have her fill, then took her to her stall where the Private gave her a bottle of liniment. After a good rub down, Jenny said, “You stand or sit like you want now. You do good job today.” Jenny patted her nose, “You miss your home? I miss mine too. I miss my baby. He died like yours. Guess we have more to talk about tomorrow. Tonight you sleep.” Jenny looked at Private Collins, “I ready. You take me back to prick.”

  Private Collins looked at the tears in her eyes, “He didn’t mean to do that Mam. I didn’t understand him. Sometimes Captain Travers thinks we’re all highly educated, but I’m not. Dumb as a stick is what my father said. No more sense either. I’m what they call cannon fodder.”

  Jenny asked, “What that?”

  Private Collins said, “A body they line up and send toward the enemy. We’re expendable. No great loss to anyone, but when there are enough of us, sometimes we win.”

  Jenny sighed, “That what brother call me. Expendable. Mother say I go to hell. Father wish me dead already. Thought Bryan different, but still soldier, then doctor, then teacher, then friend, then husband. It is hard to be a woman in two different worlds. Just when you figure out your place in one, you find you in another. Try to do good job, but I think it not possible. Always a man from other world telling me I failed.” Private Collins didn’t know what to say to that. He pretty much didn’t want to hear it, it was more personal that he was comfortable with. Who did she think he was, her confessor?

  Private Collins said, “I hear there is a Priest here to help with that stuff you brought back tonight. Maybe you should tell him how you feel Mam. I didn’t have sisters and I’m just not sure what to say to that.”

  Jenny grunted, “Not matter. Just need to say it once. Not your problem to fix.”

  Private Collins gave a sigh of relief, “That’s good to know. Well here we are again.”

  Jenny looked at the bars, “Maybe tomorrow, I clear path to window. Maybe Daisy can visit but not come in. You bring her to window for me?”

  Private Collins smiled, “Now that I can do.”

  Jenny walked past Bryan back into the cell and closed the door behind her. She looked around and spotted the little wooden horse and carefully retrieved it and walked back to Bryan, “You give to Gage?”

  Bryan took the horse, “Jenny, I need to tell you something first.”

  Jenny shook her head and crumpled on the cot, “Who did you practice medicine on tonight? Are they alright?”

  Bryan sighed, “Sergeant Long has a broken leg, but he’ll mend. Private Garner, well he’s got a lot of cuts and broke an arm. I think that well casing collapsed on him.” Bryan looked at Captain Bowman, “Someone let me in there. I can’t tell her this out here.”

  Captain Bowman called out, “Private Collins, the key please.”

  Private Collins popped his head in, “Sir?”

  Captain Bowman pointed to the cell door, “Let Captain Travers in, she closed the door on him.”

  Private Collins looked over to Captain Travers, “Sir, you’re not giving her bad news are you Sir? Maybe she needed that space, you know to get her thoughts straight about which world she’s in.”

  Bryan asked, “Which world?”

  Private Collins whispered something in Bryan’s ear and handed him the key. His face was red then he noticed Lieutenant MacLeod in the cell next to hers. Private Collins looked pleased, “Mam, there’s that Priest right there across the bars from you. Hopefully he can be of comfort to you.”

  Bryan unlocked the door and closed it behind him handing the key to Captain Bowman. He made his way over to the bed and sat down beside her trying to wrap his arm loosely around her shoulder avoiding the gun shot wound, “There now Jenny. Let me start out by saying your Father is fine. That’s good news isn’t it? The mule made it almost all the way home. What happened wasn’t your fault. You tried to tell them. Sergeant Long said you were right, there were two levers. They even saw the switch.” Bryan swallowed, “Seems it was a train you heard too. There was a bunch of carts strung together than would run down to the falls or come back depending on the lever.”

  Sergeant MacLeod piped in, A little more explicit instructions on those levers would have prevented all that damage. If you’d let me finish what I started, we might have gotten the gold out without that that mule being sent through the gates of Hell.” Jenny’s sob turned into an unexpected snort, then a giggle, then back to sobbing.

  Bryan commented, “Shut up MacLeod, this isn’t your conversation to have with my wife.”

  MacLeod replied, “Really, that’s why she requested a Priest to confess?”

  Bryan asked Jenny, “Confess? What do you feel like you need to confess?”

  Jenny said, “He knows.”

  Bryan frowned, “What did she mean by that?”

  MacLeod said, “Oh, maybe adultery, child out of wedlock, incest, having relations outside the blessing of marriage, taking a youth too young to be having relations, taking a man’s seed for unnatural purposes to breed women like farm animals, use of peyote, starting a war with the Mojave, sinking a ship in the middle of the desert, creating sand storms. Those would be a few I could think of. Which would you like to start with dear?”

  Jenny said, “I killed my son when I let my sons take me home.”

  MacLeod paused, “Did you try to abort?”

  Jenny said, “I went into my time to deliver too early. If I had stayed, maybe he would have been born later with a stronger heart.”

  MacLeod stopped taunting, “I don’t think he will hold that one against you, but it’s good to know next time you would think about your child first. What else?”

  Jenny said, “One of my sons may be my brother’s child. I took his seed. He did not know until it was too late, then he tried to strangle me and almost succeeded if the other men hadn’t been looking for their wives, I would have died. I should have died. I shamed my brother, but I did not know it was him until I saw his face and saw my own.”

  MacLeod replied, “If you had know it was your brother, would you have done this deed?”

  Jenny said, “No, I would have killed myself before I bore Mouse Dog’s bastard. He raped me and any face but his seemed better. Gage was guest, and it was allowed by my husband to pleasure him. His first wife sent me to him. His child was as if it was Sparrow Hawk’s in Comanche law where Mouse Dog’s would have shamed Sparrow Hawk and cost my son his life.”

  MacLeod sighed, “Well, that brings up multiples issues. What is expected in cases where a rape results in a child for example. The children are to be protected, rape or not. Since you regret your actions with your brother we will leave that one alone. You didn’t bear this Mouse Dog’s child?”

  Jenny said, “No. I cut his prick off after helping stone him for raping another woman.”

  MacLeod gasped, “Good God woman, is there no end to this?”

  Jenny said, “No. no end. I bore another child that might not be my husband’s. He looks white but not as much as one that might be brothers. Men did not object to laying with me. I did not steal any seed, they gave it to me willingly and often while the first wife refused to let Sparrow Hawk grace my bed. This was my owner’s wish. But you know this one.”

  MacLeod replied, “You were raised white, you knew this was a sin?”

  Jenny said, “I was not white when it happened and to refuse Sparrow Hawk’s
wishes to leave with you was to invite beatings or death. I was slave and did good job many times.”

  MacLeod said, “Perhaps you should have died, there would be less to answer for before the Lord.”

  Jenny said, “Is that not a sin too? To kill oneself. If not, I wish to die now. Can you help me not sin more?”

  MacLeod replied, “NO. It’s not allowed.”

  Bryan swallowed, “Just torture? You could have killed her easy enough. This is ended. Jenny, you don’t need him to forgive you.”

  Jenny said, “No, I do not need him to forgive me. I have seen the other side of death and there was no fire and brimstone or even golden streets. There was only peace husband. I do not fear death, only more life that feels like there is no end to the pain. What news do you have that you could not tell me outside those bars?”

  Bryan said, “It is nothing, really. It can wait.”

  Jenny said, “Maybe, but it will keep you awake if you not tell me so speak. How did it end at my Father’s ranch.”

  Bryan replied, “Gage is staying with your Father. There is a lot of work to put things back together at the ranch and he decided he wanted Cole and Hope to know their Grandfather while they finish up the recovery.”

  MacLeod said, “What he meant to say was, the barn collapse, the well entrance is gone, and they’re going to have to go down through the middle of your Father’s home to dig out a ton of mud, rock, and what was left of the barn to find that mule. Captain Travers volunteered to buy the ranch and let him stay until he died.”

  Jenny said, “Could be worse. They not dead.”

  Bryan said, “There was just one thing. He thought you’d be the one finding him. He was a little disappointed.”

  Jenny said, “Banned.”

  MacLeod replied, “That would be the polite version of what he muttered when you didn’t show up.”

  Jenny sighed, “He loves me. But he would have said something nasty like you prick if I had come.” Jenny asked unexpectedly, “Are you my brother? You sound like Mother a lot.”

  Bryan watched the Lieutenant’s reaction. Jenny had definitely touched a nerve. Lieutenant MacLeod said as if he was reliving a moment in his youth, “Sister Abigail is a hard person to please. Never liked being disciplined by her.”

  Jenny said, “You grab a chin like her. I did not like that either. She hated Father sending us for small trinkets. She like to tell Father when he was wrong too often. He did not hit her, but I could tell he wanted to sometimes. He settled for proving her wrong until she wasn’t.”

  MacLeod said, “Pride.”

  Jenny said, “Yes, men are full of pride. He could not admit the mine was too dangerous or he was wrong.”

  MacLeod frowned, “No I meant she suffered from the sin of pride. She was not willing to submit to her betters.”

  Jenny grunted, “So you take your anger out on me. You blame me for your life too brother. I see it all. Maybe not blood brother, but we share time with my Mother looking at us like we not what she hoped. You did not pass because of her. They reject you.”

  Sergeant MacLeod grabbed the bars between them trying to put his hands on Jenny’s neck, “Definitely Sister Abigail’s spawn of the devil himself! Who said that! Which of your brats spread that malicious lie about me!”

  Jenny smiled, “Very funny woman your God. I met her once when she gave me to Sparrow Hawk. Who would have thought the best thing in my life was trying to cut my own throat.”

  The Priest shook his head, “Blasphemy! Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.”

  Bryan called out, “Stop it you two! Jenny move now, before he sprinkles you with some holy water and your eyes start burning or something. This day just can’t get any worse.” Jenny shut up and crawled down on the floor wrapping up in the blanket.

  Bryan touched her, “Are you alright?”

  Jenny shook her head, “No. Everything hurts.”

  Bryan chuckled, “Well, yes it does. Me too. Tomorrow we fix this Jenny. It’s going to get better.”

  Jenny put the little wooden horse under the bed as she thought to herself, “Maybe, maybe not.”

  Camellias

  Dallas had a bouquet of camellias in his hand as he walked through the door of his home. It has been a hard week. The last twenty-four hours came close to killing him more than once. There was nothing like a brush with death to make you want to live and want to feel her skin next to his own. The passion that was raging through him would have to wait, but there was the scent of her hair, her neck, her breasts, and the sweet taste of her milk for what ever time they could steal from the children tonight. Dallas smiled shyly like a newlywed as he presented his flowers.

  Lacy looked hesitantly at the bundle, “Camellias? You shouldn’t have.”

  Dallas let his eyes dip and his long thick eyelashes flashed in front of her face, “You like pink. They were the largest pink flowers I could find.”

  Lacy said, “True, they’re large. Dallas I need to say something before you get any closer.”

  Dallas stopped in his tracks. His hands lost their grip on the bouquet, “You’re leaving me? You’re really leaving?”

  Lacy said, “Well, no. That wasn’t it. You see, I’m allergic to camellias. I like pink roses, pink tulips, but camellias make me…” Lacy tried to hold her nose but it was too late, “AH CHOO! Sneeze. They make my eyes itch and my nose run. You mind?”

  Dallas quickly picked them up and tossed them out on the porch, “Better?”

  Lacy held her arm over her nose, “Too late. I’m going to sneeze again.” After about three sneezes and Dallas kicking the shit out of the camellias until they were completely off the porch, Lacy’s allergies settled down. Lacy turned, “Wash your hands, and change clothes for me.”

  Dallas stripped, “I could stay this way if you like?”

  Lacy grinned, “Very funny. I’m sure Bryan told you, I’ve got my monthly. So how did it go?”

  Dallas said as he dressed for super, “Well, Jenny found the room, but nature giveth and nature taketh away. This smart ass Lieutenant they assigned pulled guns on us and tortured Jenny because she remembered some levers that we needed to set. He didn’t believe her. Can you imagine that? She tried to tell him something that could save our lives and he accuses Bryan and Jenny of pinching stones. Tells her all kinds of hurtful things trying to break her down. He’s a Priest. Can you believe that, a Priest.”

  Lacy’s brow went up, “Lieutenant MacLeod? That nice man did that? Huh, he knew her Mother too.”

  Dallas said, “Inquisitor is what he was. You know, one of those that goes around pulling finger nails out with tongs and such. He dislocated her finger on purpose.”

  Lacy asked, “Well, how did you get out of that. Did he decide she wasn’t lying or what?”

  Dallas replied, “We were attacked by an army of bats. Who would have thought I would be thankful for bats. But they were so thick MacLeod never saw me coming until I beat the snot out of him.”

  Lacy winced, “Are you hurt? He’s bigger than you. You should have let Gage wallop him.”

  Dallas said, “I’ll have you know I held my own. I can whip Gage too. You’ve just never seen me riled enough.” Dallas grinned, “Speaking of riled, you remember how you cut your hair before I signed you up at West Point?”

  Lacy giggled, “Pixie fairy is what Bryan called me. Whacked it off.”

  Dallas said, “Don’t make fun of Jenny, alright? She had at least three bats in her hair.”

  Lacy cringed, “Tangled?”

  Dallas sat down and started to eat, “Don’t think Gage waited to see, just whacked those locks off faster than skinning a jack rabbit. Can’t really see where Lizard scalped her so much now.”

  Lacy looked at Dallas, “She was scalped and she’s alive?”

  Dallas kept eating, “Gang raped and scalped by what remained of Red Eagle’s men. Don’t say anything about that either alright.
There’s enough that know without the women getting started on her.”

  Lacy said, “Why didn’t you send her with Bryan?”

  Dallas said, “Orders. We had to turn her over as soon as Gage got her to show him that room she took JC to. Besides, your Lieutenant MacLeod had his own plans.”

  Lacy asked, “To do what?”

  Dallas replied, “Cloister her with the Sisters, if she lived that long.”

  Lacy asked, “And Gage was going to let him? Lock her up like that. I thought they give her some medical help in Houston, or send her to Mercy at Atlanta. Shoot, she gets them that much gold and jewels and the best they can do is lock her up and throw away the key?”

  Dallas picked up his plate and put it in the sink, “You got to remember. He only knew what his parents told him. His old man, well, there’s a character for you. Her Mom is not a lot better. Never once tried to see her and Sister Abigail knew. Lacy she knew where Jenny was all those years. They were educating the older boys at the mission.” Dallas turned, “Expendable. Use peyote to trigger memory of the mine if needed is what they put in her file.”

  Lacy looked at Dallas, “We were drugged on purpose. You’re saying Gage Travis drugged us?”

  Dallas said, “Maybe. He says he didn’t, but sure looked like he could have been the one putting that idea in their heads. You know Gage, anything it takes.”

  “Speaking of that silver tongued devil, we’re making great progress with Cole and Hope and our little Brianna, well she’s the best. She’s on goat milk now. The other two still want my milk mixed in. So when can we expect him back?”

  Dallas replied, “Well, it’s like this. He’s not going to stay on base. His Dad saw the first explosion down by Sparrow Hawk’s old camp and brought a mule.”

  Lacy said, “He rode a jackass?”

  Dallas chuckled, “No a mule is what Jenny named his mining cart with a hand car attached. Anyway, it was loaded with gold when it crashed. Took out his barn, and it’s covered in tons of mud and dirt. Gage has to dig it out. He’s staying on the ranch. He’ll send for Cole and Hope.”