The Visitor - Colorado 1869 - 1871

by Barbara Svetlick

  Mirisa settled the children into their room as James brought down a light dinner that they ate out on the porch. The room was warm and inviting with a private porch jetting out over the edge of the drop off into a stand of pine trees embedded in beautiful ferns and rich colored wild flowers before it leveled off into a small brook quietly dropping into the rock outcrops before pooling into the river. The sound of the water reminded her of the forest near the Plantation where she first met Conrad. Mirisa remembered taking off her shoes to walk across the small stream to get to the field where her and Matthew would spend hours watching the wildlife in the distance. She thought Meeks picked the perfect location for the house since the only thing it took away was the field. The lushness of the land was so different than anywhere she had ever lived.

  Meeks walked down to the nursery and could hear the children laughing as he knocked lightly on the open door. Maggie was in a nightgown; her hair was curled in little pieces of white cotton strips and she had Mirisa’s little rag rabbit under her arm. They were all curled around the pillows and covers reading a bedtime story and Meeks just wanted to crawl in bed with them and read. Maggie wiggled out of the covers and crawled across the bed until she was in her father’s arms where she smothered him in kisses.

  “I am glad I put in a large bed since it appears that the children don’t plan to sleep in their own rooms.”

  "This is so beautiful that I really am having trouble just being here." She looked at Maggie who was curled up against her father sucking on her thumb. “Thank you for making it so I’m near the children.”

  “I thought you might need time to settle in without spending a lot of time with us underfoot.”

  Mirisa untangled herself from the boys and told Matthew to keep reading and she would be back. She stepped out onto the porch with Meeks.

  "Mirisa, I want you so bad right now that I can’t even trust myself to touch you." Meeks wasn’t looking at her and was talking low so he wouldn’t be overheard. She turned back around because she knew the feeling was greater than both of them.

  "Where’s your room?" He looked at her and closed his eyes.

  "At the end of the upstairs hall but if you pick the wrong room I am sure no one will be upset." She laughed, turned and kissed him before returning to the children.

  James spent the day at the river fishing with Matthew as Garnett and Dominic headed south while Meeks took Maggie out to pick wildflowers. It was a quiet day and James fixed a light dinner but Mirisa was staying mostly to herself. After dinner, they retired to the library closing the door.

  “You’re running a background?”

  Dominic was chewing on his cigar lost in thought. “There’s something so familiar about him but I can’t bring it up and that really bothers me.”

  “Has she given you any details on how they met?”

  Garnett had talked to her at length about her trip. “She said he walked into their private car by mistake and he spent the rest of the trip visiting or privately dining with her but he was always a gentleman.”

  “Well, a doctor would automatically put her at ease. How much of her life did she reveal?”

  “Too much and when I asked her for details on him they were very impressive but with little substance.”

  James poured another shot. “There’s no way anyone would know she was on that train. He was probably trying to hit on her.”

  Dominic thought before he answered. “Maybe I’m just too unsettled. If he were a doctor from New York then he could afford his own sitting room and wouldn’t be wandering around the train.”

  “Obviously, it is not a good idea to leave her alone for too long.”

  She got up early and James found her sitting at the bar drinking sweet tea and writing in a journal. He walked up and kissed her cheek and then started making breakfast. They talked quietly and soon everyone seemed to be in the room.

  After breakfast Garnett and Dominic rode into town and Mirisa helped clean up before taking the children to the nursery. James told Matthew that he was going south to hunt for game birds for dinner. Matthew ran to his mother to tell her he was going hunting with James. She thanked him for being such a good provider then told him to put on a jacket.

  So many times in life do you believe that happiness seems to be yours only to find something that makes everything else pale in comparison. When Mirisa slipped into Meeks room, he was sitting on the window seat. She closed the door leaning up against it as she took in all of him. As soon as his lips touched hers, they lost themselves into a world that was so forbidden and so beautiful. They couldn’t define it if they tried and they never knew that they were on a collision course with their destiny.

  Mirisa was baking apple tarts when James and Matthew came home with five large birds. Meeks took Matthew out to pull out the feathers and gut them as James cleaned up in the sink.

  “Mirisa, I need to have a serious talk with you.” She raised her eyebrows and then turned back to putting the tarts together. “We’re doing a background check on the doctor.”

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “Well, you do seem to attract men like a light seducing a moth and not all men are the necessarily the gentlemen they pretend to be. You should have learned that after Colonel Smith.”

  “I never found Colonel Smith to be a gentleman or an attractive man.”

  “You find the doctor attractive?”

  “He is refined I suppose and deliberately attentive but not someone I would want as a suitor.”

  “Was it your intent to use this doctor to irritate your husband?”

  Her laugh was so spontaneous. “I seem to be able to irritate my husband without assistance but thank you for thinking I was that wonderfully devious. Plus, I know that all of you tend to shoot first and sort it out later.”

  “I suggest you discourage any further familiarity of your personal life should you run into him.”

  “Well, when you find out he is a doctor and sets up practice in town it might be hard to not run into him.”

  “I agree.”

  James and Meeks sat down with their feet on the railing. Mirisa was walking along the water’s edge with Maggie on her hip and the boys exploring. Matthew and Dog stayed on either side of Jonathan who was squatting and picking through rocks with a stick. He was walking so much better then Maggie but then his legs were very muscular yet lean like Matthews. Garnett came out and sat on the railing lighting his cigar.

  “I don’t think Matthew will follow his father’s footsteps but you can already see the intensity in Jonathan’s eyes. He will never conform to society.”

  “I think it’s a good afternoon to see if we can snag a few fish to smoke.”

  Garnett enjoyed the country. “I never realized how much you enjoy fishing until I saw the little workshop of all your fishing gear.”

  “Matthew has taken to it more than to hunting. He has amazing agility for his age and his command of language is astounding.”

  Dominic walked out as James took off his boots rolling up his jeans and picked up the cane poles before he whistled. Matthew and Dog walked further downstream with James looking for the faster current. James handed Matthew the net so he could scoop up the small minnows then they threw out their lines into the middle of the current. It was only a few minutes before they both began to pull out small trout. When they walked back to the house, Matthew threw the stringer of a couple dozen trout up on the cutting table near the creek.

  Mirisa walked over handing Maggie to her father then sat down on the step watching Dominic teaching Jonathan to swim. Matthew stripped down and swam out to his father putting his arms around his neck. Dominic reached back and snatched him throwing him into the deeper water. Jonathan laughed and tried to swim out to his brother when Dominic grabbed him around the waist as he sunk under the water and reached out for Matthew who was swimming back to him. Dog stood on the bank barking and biting at the little fish in the water.

  “Mirisa?” She turned and looked at Me
eks. Maggie was sound asleep up against him and her little fingers were wrapped in his shirt. She was an absolutely beautiful child who looked identical to Meeks. “When are you leaving?”

  “Garnett has the tickets but I believe in August before the cold weather sets in.” She had not had an opportunity to talk to him for more than a few minutes because Dominic was going out of his way to keep them apart. “Meeks who owns the lodge?”

  “I do.”

  She looked back to the creek watching Garnett cleaning up the cutting table and throwing the fish parts in a bag. He walked back up and sat down next to Meeks.

  “Garnett, when are Mirisa and the children leaving?”

  “Mid-August.”

  Mirisa stood lifting up her daughter taking her into the nursery.

  The aroma of the fish was starting to fill the air and brought Dominic and the boys out of the water. Mirisa brought out towels and helped Jonathan dry off before he followed Matthew into the nursery. She knew he would be sound asleep as soon as his head hit his pillow. Jonathan expended energy at a rate that was beyond a normal child but what surprised her most was his ability to communicate though he was a child of few words. Mirisa stood in the kitchen and reached out telling both her sons that she loved them and they both responded without hesitation.

  “Something wrong?”

  She turned to find Dominic standing on the other side of the bar. “No, I was just thinking about the boys.”

  “Did you have any problems in Texas while we were gone?”

  “No. Sr. Gomez is very vigilant in keeping strangers away from the house.”

  “What strangers?”

  “I don’t know because they never came close enough to see.”

  “Sometimes security isn’t as good as it seems.”

  “Well considering that everyone left Texas without providing me with any type of security, I don’t believe you should be critical of someone who does even if it isn’t what you might consider perfect.”

  He pulled her into his arms. “I missed you.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Building a ranch. You haven’t come to see the house yet.”

  “What is it that is missing that makes you just pull up and leave? What are you running from?”

  “I don’t understand your question.” She stepped away. “Mirisa?”

  “What do you want me to say Dominic?”

  “Mirisa, it means nothing. None of them have ever meant anything to me.”

  “And what does hurting me mean to you?”

  “That was wrong and I can’t ask for forgiveness enough. I love you.”

  “Dominic.” He watched as her body language put up a barrier. “If you love me and if you now intend to convince me of your love and commitment to our family, can you truthfully tell me that you are no longer sleeping with other women? Is there any time since we married that I was ever enough to keep you happy or was I truly just someone to provide you with beautiful children?”

  He thought she had come so far in standing up for herself. “You have to understand that it is my failures that are the better alternative to what happened in Texas. I know my demons and I know my love. Don’t you think sleeping in a separate room and avoiding me doesn’t hurt?”

  “I understand…” She took in her breath. “…that you struggle and that you believe that you are unable to control yourself. All of you should have tried harder to shield me because none of my suspicions and even my overly vigorous imagination could ever have prepared me for what happened. I cannot lie in bed every time you leave knowing what you might be doing to another woman. I can’t even accept that there is such abuse and cruelty. You dismiss them as though they mean nothing but Dominic we all mean something. No woman gets up in the morning and thanks God that she will make money by merely allowing a man to hurt her. No woman says that as she brushes her hair and puts on her rouge facing a long night of selfish men. No woman ever says that. We all hurt. We all cry when you…” Mirisa put the glass on the bar and went into the nursery leaving him standing alone.

  Garnett closed the door and threw a file on the table that was labeled “Ranch” but it was just there in case she came in for any reason.

  “James, did you talk to her?”

  “Briefly. I told her we were doing a background check and she believes we’re just bored.”

  “Did you find out anything?”

  “He answered an ad by Doc Davis so I am assuming he must have experience or at least have the lingo to pull off being a doctor.”

  “When is the report coming back?”

  Garnett leaned back on the couch. “They said it may take a week or two.”

  “What is the best way to handle Mirisa?”

  Dominic shook his head. “I am concerned that she will strike out at me and put herself in danger. Her recklessness can complicate anything we do.”

  James was pacing before the fireplace. “You know it is possible that he is merely smitten with her. We have never allowed her the freedom to interact with other men and there’s no indication that he is anything other than a doctor.”

  They all nodded then started talking about staying for the winter and how good the hunting was going to be. Dominic said if he couldn’t talk her into moving into the new house that he would go back to Texas with her.

  “Did you discuss it with her?”

  “I think I still have the ability to convince her to stay in the marriage.”

  “Has she seen the house?”

  Meeks sat back watching Dominic. “No. She isn’t straying far from the lodge and I believe that Meeks intentionally put her near the children to isolate her from me.”

  Garnett smiled. “Actually it was the only way she would agree to come to Colorado. But if you really believed that we are interfering with your winning her back then you would have stayed in Texas and worked it out while we were all gone.”

  “That wasn’t an option.”

  “Dominic, we all just pocketed millions of dollars and for the life of me I don’t know what you intend to do with the land other then sit on it until prices go up. I personally like not having to work for a change.”

  “You couldn’t tell me that before I started the house?”

  “Dominic, we discussed Colorado at length before we bought the land. It is an investment that will pay off bigger then Texas but it doesn’t require anything to be valuable unlike Texas that was just a flat hot piece of land before we built the horse ranch. This is a place where you can just enjoy being outdoors and where you could settle down and raise a family.”

  “I think if our business is concluded I am going to go sit with Mirisa and look at stars.” James stood and picked up the bottle of whisky as he walked out the door. Garnett picked up the folder dropping it on the desk before they all headed out to the porch. Mirisa was sitting at the railing with her bare legs crossed so she could balance the telescope on the railing itself. James sat down behind her and kissed her neck making her lean back and look up at him when he kissed her again. He began talking to her as she closed her eyes.

  Dominic lit a cigar and sat down. She opened her eyes and focused them on her husband before turning her attention back to Matthew and Jonathan. Garnett sat down next to her and started explaining the location of the stars comparing them to where they were located in the Texas skies. He would point out something, focus in the scope and hand it to her until she found it and Matthew would start to tell her the story of each particular star or cluster. Jonathan was uninterested in the telescope but listened intently to Matthew talk.

  “There’s a journal around here that documents the sky of Colorado and would give you a good indication of what you will find in the summer months.” Garnett readjusted the scope then turned to Meeks. “Do you still have the journal?”

  “I believe it is in the library.”

  “Matthew has spent quite a few nights with the telescope and started charting the stars and their movement.”

  “R
eally?”

  “Yes. He hasn’t quite gotten the art of mapping down yet but he is very good at names and locations. We took him out for a night ride in the mountains and made him lead us out by the stars.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Mirisa, who are you thanking?”

  “All of you. I don’t think a boy could ask for better men to guide him then the four of you.”

  Garnett folded up the scope. “Is there anything sweet to eat?”

  “There is a blueberry pie on the window sill.”

  “Then I think fresh coffee and blueberry pie is in order after a long hard day.” Mirisa stayed on the porch with the children as everyone went inside to get pie.

  MIRISA WOKE up late to find the house empty so she fixed oatmeal and took it into the nursery to eat with the twins. Jasmine told her that the men had taken Matthew to ride with them and wouldn’t be home until dinner. She cleaned up the kitchen and decided a hot cup of sweet tea on the porch would be soothing. She put the tea kettle on and took out what she knew would be her favorite tea cup and filled the strainer with a blend of English leaves. She went into the library and looked for a book she hadn’t read and found a new book by Charles Dickens called Great Expectations. She loved his work. She took it down running her fingers along the leather binding then opened it.

  “Mirisa, I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoy your smile. Alexander.”