Taming Texanna

by Alyssa Bailey

  Pia went on to describe the place. Texanna had found that place and she instantly felt at peace. This was her substitute for her creek at her father’s home. This was her new thinking place. It was a good feeling. Pia and Kaku had been right, even though she thought they were trying to get her in trouble. This was right.

  Texanna left thinking the women odd but when she had been gone only a little while, she began to know what they meant. She sat at the place of the four winds and thought. She hadn’t been properly courted. She had not been afforded the luxury of time to dream about what it would be like to be Mrs. Colton McFadden, so she was rather glad not to have to move into his space immediately. She felt she would need to before she went to bed, but it was still afternoon, and she could wander a bit longer. To see what else there was to see.

  The breeze was gentle and seemed to speak to her of calmness and comfort. She surveyed the land as she went, coming to the edge of the staked property. She then proceeded to follow the stakes from one end to another. She was surprised at the breadth of the land that her husband owned. At the far edge of the delineated acreage, she ambled along the Trinity River that made its own border and at everything greening up along the river. The air was crisp but not too cold, and the breeze off the churning river was brisk. She had not taken a cloak because it was warm but as the day waned so did the heat giving her a second chill of the day. The first chill from the rainstorm at the creek was worse than this one, though.

  She took cleansing breaths, allowing all that was in front of her to soothe her when she was startled by movement. She stopped and listened as a wild animal does to determine the creator of the sound. She carefully stepped around a large briar patch and came face to face with some squatters on the land. She called them squatters, but she didn’t know what Colt would call them, maybe he had invited them. This was her first taste of squatters, and she was more than curious so she walked closer.

  “Hello?” She called out to the small group. As she neared them, she found that it was a family, and they seemed startled by her approach.

  “Oh, please don’t go away. I’m sure my husband wouldn’t mind if you rested here for a while.” She didn’t know why she felt confident in that statement for she truly had no idea how he would feel about it.

  The man of the family looked at her a moment and didn’t speak for what seemed like an eternity. He appeared to be sizing Texanna up as she was actively doing the same. The three dirty children looked tired and hungry. Their mother looked even more tired and when the woman turned toward her, Texanna released a gasp immediately recognizing the woman and her children to be Indian and she was obviously pregnant. She wondered if they were Colt’s relatives but discarded that thought as she spoke to them.

  “Oh, you poor things, tell me where do you live?” Texanna had forgotten her woes and irritations of the day in the face of such need. She drew closer as the man stood to the side, not between his family and her. She instinctively knew Colt would have pulled her behind him, as he had done yesterday in his office.

  “We have come a long way and would just rest here. Thank you for allowing it.”

  The young bride’s eyes widened in concern as her hand waved through the air. “But where are your food and blankets, supplies?”

  “We have a few things. We hunt and gather daily for our food. I was about to do that when you saw us.”

  “But your wife and children, they are not healthy. Please, your wife is Indian. My husband is part Indian. His family, Pia, and Kaku live in the house as well, and I’m sure we could help. It looks like you were caught in the rain. Where are you from?”

  “We stay in rooming houses sometimes but we needed to go a long distance. Not everyone needs or even wants to live in a house,” the man stated.

  At the word Kaku that meant grandmother, the woman lifted her tired head and repeated the word.

  “Yes, Kaku and Pia,” replied Anna happy for the recognition.

  The woman said something low to her husband, and the children seemed to perk up slightly in their bedraggled state.

  With a bit more persuasion, Texanna was able to convince the impoverished family to come home with her, and she didn’t even think what her husband or her new female relatives might think. She would have never thought of such a thing if she were still in her father’s house. Oddly, for some reason, she was not concerned to bring them to a home she had yet to spend even one night in herself. She knew they had plenty of rooms and the children could bed on the floor near their parents. She would give them her blankets she brought in the wagon to make a pallet bed for them. Most importantly, they could eat and rest easily. It would work if her husband allowed it.

  “I’m Ann-I’m Texanna.” She had always shortened her name before but Colton liked Texanna, and she was his now, so she would try to use it more often. The man nodded in acknowledgment but didn’t offer his name. She didn’t ask.

  She helped the children, the man helped his wife, and that is how Colton found them. A ragtag group of five that his bride had in tow was slowly but steadily coming in his direction. Colton cocked his head in a questioning way as they approached. He called to his wife as he picked up the pace, closing the distance between them quickly. When she heard his voice and her name, Texanna looked up, smiled and waved at him as though what he was seeing was typical.

  When Texanna saw her husband’s countenance, she had her first worry that he wouldn’t want to help this family. She inadvertently hesitated, and it caused the whole group to slow to a stop. She wished that her new husband looked more welcoming. She must have made a big mistake. How could she not bring them at least into the barn? She surreptitiously watched as his face softened its expression. She relaxed. He might have been worried but at least, he wasn’t angry.

  He was devastatingly handsome, this husband of hers. With his bronzed skin, dark hair, and piercingly blue eyes, if she didn’t trust him, he would be frightening indeed. Texanna knew that he was as comforting as he was strict and the combination gave her tremors of expectation. She felt that warm flush again as she watched him follow their approach.

  “Anna, baby, who have you brought us?”

  Still slightly confused by the change of his expression, the almost indulgent manner and the repeat of the endearment he had used much earlier in the day, her step faltered again. He called her Anna when she knew he liked Texanna. She had introduced herself as Texanna because she knew he liked it. They were a pair. It warmed her heart to know that he was trying to do as she had asked. He was trying to please her.

  Was it only today that she had married and come to a new home? Now she was bringing strangers to his place because she wanted to help them. What was she thinking? She watched as his eyes took in all that lay in front of him, resettling on her with concern. She anxiously waited where she was and allowed Colton to come to her.

  Chapter Seven

  Colton wanted to throw up he was so worried. One of the notorious Texas gangs had been sighted not far from here. Well, two out of three members of the gang had been seen. No one, so far, could identify the third. He had been worried something terrible had happened. His gut was uneasy and he prayed it wasn’t because she was hurt or worse.

  Now that he could see she was all right, as in alive, his concern was why she had people with her. He watched his wife as she bit her lip. Colton remembered her doing that when she had asked him to spank her so she didn’t have to face her pa. Was that just three days ago? Where did she find these people? The woman, was she pregnant?

  Colton didn’t have a good feeling about all of this and not because he was generally a cautious person, which he was due to the nature of his job. Here was his adorable, impulsive wife mere hours after her wedding, dragging strangers home. She did seem to do things first and then thought about the advisability of her choice afterward. It had gotten her into trouble several times in the last few days and it looked to be doing it again.

  Colt wondered if it was the pregnant woman, the vulnera
ble children or just her way. He noticed she had been welcoming when she saw him instead of showing concern that he might not agree with her choices in bringing strangers home. She had come toward him as though this was an ordinary day. Maybe it was and maybe it would become normal for him as well, now he had her in his life. Lord help them if he had to teach her not to bring in all the stray travelers. However, this family was in real need.

  He smiled as he looked up into her slightly frowning face. Gone was the happy welcome she had first offered him. He would bring it back. He needed to talk to her first before he condemned his woman’s choices. Kaku and Pia was right, he needed to give her some space. He felt sure he would also have to add this to the talk they were most certainly having later this evening.

  His heart swelled at her generosity but he worried about her being too trusting. Colton put out his hand to his wife and watched the emotions flit across her face, as she was understandably confused about how to respond to him, not knowing him as she would in future days. Clearing the disbelief from his head and taking all consternation from his face, he met his wife and her followers.

  “Texanna, where were you? I went looking and couldn’t find you. You have been gone for some time. Sweetheart, I was so worried.”

  “Oh? Well, I was walking the land. Pia and Kaku told me of a place. Pia said it was where the four winds meet and it was so beautiful… Why did you come looking for me? I thought this was what I needed to do.”

  He ignored her question. He would deal with that situation later. “Who have you brought us?” he asked again drawing her into the protection of his arm while extending his hand to the man she had in tow. The men exchanged a handshake.

  “Um, I don’t know all their names.” Colton stiffened and knew she could feel the tightening muscles and his more secure grip on her but kept his face welcoming and asked their names.

  “Well, then let’s get the introductions out of the way, shall we? I’m Colton McFadden and this is my wife, Anna.”

  He didn’t anticipate how good it made him feel to say those words. He relaxed slightly. There was silence for long enough that Colton thought they were not going to reciprocate and that would be a problem. Texanna stepped in to try to smooth the uneasy silence.

  “Colt,” she started by using a shortened name he felt sure was for the children, “this sweet little face is Mary. Mary, this is Colt.” Mary was silent.

  “Oh! Your Pia gave you a name for a baby horse. But you’re a man,” noted the eldest boy who looked to be about eight years old.

  Colton was taken aback that the boy used his word for mother and so he fell into the Comanche language to see if he would respond. “It is really Colton, like pucurua. I grew from a colt to a stallion. What are you called?” Colton asked and was gratified with an answer in his mother’s tongue.

  The boy spoke in Comanche. “I’m called Walker for I do not need to run everywhere I’m content with walking. I am eight.” Young Walker turned to introduce his little sister who looked to be about six years old. “And this is Mary Rose. We call her Rose because Pia says she looks pretty and smells sweet but has a painful sting when angry.” Walker turned to the youngest of the three children and patted him on the back. “And this one is William. Pia says it’s because he’s willing to do whatever you ask him to do.” Colton accepted the English adaptations to their names, knowing they had been born during a time of great unrest and it would help the children to be accepted later if their names did not make them stand out.

  Young Walker had taken care of the children’s introductions and everyone looked expectantly to the person before them. It seemed as though the woman was encouraged because her native tongue, the one she understood best, was being spoken and she pointed to herself and said, “Nada. I’m Nada.”

  Now, finally, it was the man’s turn to speak. Still, he hesitated as he stared at Colton’s badge and then at Colton. Colton began to feel a bit uneasy with the man’s reticence to give his name, but he did his best to lower the tension. He observed the suspicious reaction to his badge. That could be trouble. He thought back and didn’t remember any of his posters or telegraphed descriptions including a man like this.

  “Mark.”

  “Mark, what?”

  “I go by Mark just like Nada goes by Nada.” However, Mark was white and White’s had two names. Always.

  “Sir, I don’t know why you’re slow to supply your full name, and I can see that your family needs some basic things like food and sleep. I’m willing to offer those things. However, I’m not going to be able to offer them to a man who I don’t know his name. So the choice is, of course, yours, but if I were you and this was my family with an invitation earnestly being offered, giving my name wouldn’t seem like such a hardship.”

  Still the man hesitated. Colton spoke in Comanche to the woman and the children, “I’m sorry that my hospitality isn’t being accepted. My mother and grandmother would be happy to also welcome you and make sure that you’re all healthy if I allow it. However, without everyone’s name, I cannot help. It would be foolish for me to bring into my home a man that I couldn’t identify again except by sight. I’m sorry, but I must also protect my family.”

  Colton knew that if the man were worth the family he had, that he would relent and give his name. Colton was now concerned what that name might be and if he would have to react based on his position as marshal. The woman, being Indian, did not contradict or berate her husband, allowing him to decide their fate.

  Colton was also eternally grateful that his Texanna didn’t understand Comanche. He knew that would be a short-lived blessing, but he was going to take advantage of it now. His little family spoke a hybrid mixture of English, Kiowa, and Comanche.

  “If you won’t give your name, you will have to leave my land.” He repeated his words again in Nada’s tongue. The man remained silent. Nada remained silent. The children remained silent.

  Colton’s face turned sorrowful and he lifted his hand halfway in a signal of leaving and turned around with Texanna walking her toward the house.

  “No. Wait.” Texanna protested urgently to stop his return home. “What are you doing? Did you just tell them you wouldn’t help them? What kind of man would turn away a pregnant woman and three small children?” Texanna shook loose of her husband and he allowed it. She turned to go back to the family and her husband grabbed for her arm, but she stepped out of his grasp quickly.

  Colton was exasperated and shook his head frowning at his wife, as she turned full of righteous indignation to face the man she thought would have understanding for the family’s plight.

  “I needed the man’s name, Texanna, his full name. I need to know who he is because I’m not bringing a man unknown to me into my home with my family until I’m sure he’s honest enough to at least give us his name. Sweetheart, doesn’t it bother you just a little bit that he doesn’t want to disclose who he is?” He reached for her arm again, this time grabbing it quickly and pulling her impatiently toward him. He began to walk toward the house again.

  “No, that’s suspicious I agree. Can we just help the mother and the children?”

  Colt looked into her face and tried to convey his sorrow at the events. He didn’t want to leave this young family to fend for themselves at a time that they obviously were not doing well surviving. He hurt to hear Texanna begin to beg for the children.

  She stopped again and tried to reason with him. “What if the children should fall ill? What if Nada has trouble giving birth alone or if the baby is not well? Colton, please.” She shivered. Colton felt her skin was cold and wrapped his arms tightly around her before he answered her. His hands running up and down her arms to bring heat back in them. Where was her shawl or wrap?

  “Honey, I don’t like it either. Please do not beg me to help them. I’m sure he will change his mind and come tell us his name. Let his cueh, his wife, talk to him. Trust me. I know some things and I know this will change but I am still worried. Something is not right.�
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  Tears began to stream down her face, as she continued to beg him to at least help the children and their mother as they walked closer to the house. However, Colton continued walking not relinquishing his hold on his bride. She waited until they were in sight of the house and she felt Colton’s grip relax on her arm before she jerked it out of his grasp and began running back to the house giving free rein to her tears as she did so.

  ***

  She burst through the door, slamming it hard before leaning back against it while her breathing began to calm just slightly. She knew she would have a moment or two as Colton just continued to walk slowly whereas she had run away from his decision. Texanna had run away from him, now. She always felt like she needed a place to go when things were not to her liking. Colton had said she needed to be where he put her. He had put her here at the house but he had not told her to stay.

  Did he know what it was like to have no one to stand up for you or take your side? She had thought Colton was going to do that tonight but in the end, he didn’t. Was she always going to take off when she was faced with a problem? She was so tired of running. She was so tired of being alone.

  With clipped sentences, Texanna explained to Colton’s Pia, who was beading beautiful blue gems onto a pair of soft moccasins, what had happened. She wanted to ask if she could take some things to the children and their mother, but the wise and insightful woman surprised Texanna.

  “This is your home now. Go take anything you think you should. Listen to me and learn to be careful who you trust, my young one. Listen to your husband.”

  “How did you know?” Colton was like that sometimes, so she wasn’t completely alarmed, but it was still hard to understand.

  Pia shrugged and continued to bead. Now feeling calmer but still concerned about her husband’s reaction, she rushed into the kitchen. She began opening and closing lids, cupboard doors swinging, searching for items she could offer them. As Texanna gathered a loaf of bread and a scoop of butter, she wondered if she “should” be doing this without her husband’s agreement.