Nada woke up briefly and Pia made sure the children had a few moments with their mother. Nada gathered her children around her and she quietly talked to them. She let them chatter away at her as she appeared to slip in and out of sleep and so Pia said it was enough. The children left their mother to rest.
Colt had not returned and it worried Texanna that not only had Mark not returned but her husband had made no appearance. Mark had done this a few times before but never Colton. She dozed in between nursings and as the late afternoon approached, Pia put Anna in bed. She placed the baby in the cradle Colt helped Mark create. Texanna found it easier after that to meet the nursing routine and sleep in between feedings. The day progressed and as Nada moved into a more restful sleep, Texanna began to automatically respond to the infant’s cries. Pia slept when Nada slept. Kaku napped and Walker presided over his two well-behaved siblings.
The overcast day passed slowly as all nature seemed to wait on Nada and her son to decide on their fate. They were in a strange place where tiptoes and whispers resided in fear and anticipation of pixies and fairy dust—and dark angels. Finally, as dusk rolled into the cold, wintery night, the somber atmosphere lifted, to be replaced by the ethereal cloak of peace, and all in the McFadden home floated quietly off to rejuvenating sleep. All but Texanna.
As the hours progressed, everyone reverted to sleep that was more natural in its pattern. The one exception was the woman who had no premonitions about events or people, and who was no longer so exhausted that her body could only stay awake a short time, Colton’s wife. Texanna fretted about her husband and didn’t sleep well. Her whole body ached from the tension of the previous thirty-six hours and her fears had not subsided; they just refocused on the man who she loved.
Now that there was nothing else to grab her concern, she was unable to reason away her anxieties. Where was he? He was the best tracker she had ever heard of and certainly that she had ever known and yet, she was sleeping alone. How far could Mark have gone that Colton had not found him and brought him back?
“Come home, Colton. Just come home,” she murmured to herself as she fell into a restless sleep filled with nightmarish trepidations.
***
Colt was glad he had brought his gear that he had at the ready for times when his unique tracking abilities were needed and he made sure that he was prepared for anything. Once again he was thankful that his mother had endowed her ability to know things others didn’t. It gave him the edge he needed and now, with a family he knew would be growing in the next year or so, he would never think this gift was an annoyance. He only hoped this was one of the times it worked quickly. But it had been longer than he had expected and decided to give one more concentrated effort before returning home. Maybe his wife had been right to wonder if Mark would take off without his family.
To that end, Colton put himself in a sheltered area and focused his thinking on the one thing that mattered right now and that was finding Mark with no bloodshed. Colt focused on the clues Mark had left but there weren’t many and with this new snow, he figured most of the tracks were below the white covering but he was able to see impressions. His thoughts strayed again, thinking of the possible things Mark could have done that would not send him to jail and the things that would.
Unfortunately, with unscrupulous cattle companies, ranchers vying for the best hands and the greedy cowboys themselves sometimes, it was not an easy life these days. Cattle drives to Kansas still didn’t make as much if they arrived with another ranch’s cattle close behind. So the competition to get them to market made the trail even more dangerous with hired killers, paid sabotagers, Indians, Mexicans, and nature all working to stop the cattle getting to market. Was it possible that Trenton was one of those who took what didn’t belong to him for profit? Kicking his foot against a rock as he made himself concentrate again, he studied the area for a sign and finally found what he was looking for, a direction to follow.
He had searched all of the late hours into the day with minimal success. As his first full day came to a close, he searched a little longer before he turned toward home. There, ahead, he saw a cluster of bent bush branches and found some leaves that had fallen. The wind was calm tonight, unlike last night, so something had to press up or more like rubbed up against it. Not something most animals would have done at that height, nor that angle. Humans did that. Colt took the time to listen to the rustling and the cries of the night. An owl hooted, whippoorwill sang, and a gray wolf howled but he tried to hear through the sounds of nature and hear the tromping of a lumbering human intent on being quiet.
Quietly, he watched as night animals began to forage all around him. He sat silent and still as his grandfathers and uncles had taught him as a young boy. His own father was not interested in learning about the intimate ways that the Indian communed with his environment but he never stopped Colt from learning and practicing the skills. Colt soon became the hunter for his family and as his father ran a mill for several communities around the area, Colt learned that trade as well as the carpentry that went along with a sawmill.
Colton had learned subsistence farming but nothing on a business scale and he never regretted that. Running cattle was not something that interested him either but the bounty hunting and the tracking for anything interested him. Just as he decided to go further in the direction of the sign left, he heard it. He could barely discern the shuffling. There was a sound like the scraping of vegetation by a human only it was bigger. It seemed broad. Colt was not a small man but this person had to be as large as the shopkeeper near the edge of town. Trenton was not that large.
Stealthily, Colton moved into position and tracked the person from the vibrations and his keen sense of hearing before falling in behind the sound. It didn’t take any time at all for Colt to see that it was Mark. After he had located the weapon on Mark’s body, slung over his shoulder and could tell both hands were secured on the animal on his back, he took a side path in the woods, walking parallel to Trenton. He kept quiet, only to step out in front of Mark not too far from the house.
Mark stopped suddenly and Colton identified himself equally fast so that there was no threat felt by Mark.
“Trenton, it’s Colton. What are you doing out here?”
“I would think the bird on my back would tell you. And I should say that while it is not a huge turkey and gutted, it is still heavy. So, if you don’t mind, I need to keep walking.”
“It is a fat bird. We can walk but you need to tell me why you’re really out here for I need to remind you that this bird was shot quite a while ago. Looks to be hours ago.” Colt reached up and touched the stiff, cold bird.
“It was.”
Mark shifted the bird and typically, Colt would have offered to carry it since Mark had done so thus far but he didn’t want him to gain any free hands. It was just a precaution but there it was. After a moment of silent walking, Colton came to a decision.
“I will need to know where you have been but first, you need to take care of something.”
“What is that?”
“You need to give me the bird and then you need to go and meet your newborn. I haven’t seen the child but I am positive he or she is here.”
The look Mark Trenton gave to Colton told him that this man wanted the child regardless of whether he was honorable or not. He just needed the final proof. He would get it after the man saw his child and wife. Mark nearly threw the bird at Colt and ran the rest of the way.
“Lumbering white man,” said Colt as he smiled and shook his head. He carried the bird home.
When he had hung the bird in the barn entrance where animals couldn’t get it, he walked into the kitchen and took stock of his home. He saw that the house was sleeping, and from the sounds of it, most inhabitants were as well. He took his tired body into his bedroom and looked over in search of his sleeping wife but didn’t see her. Then he heard the soft padding of her feet coming into the bedroom. Texanna looked up to her husband’s face and ran into his op
en arms.
“How is everything? Do we have a baby?”
“Yes. And Pia thinks they will both live.”
“Good.” He reached down and tenderly kissed his wife and felt her hot tears.
“If all is well, why are you crying?” He thumbed the flow.
“It was so much, Colton. So intense. So scary. I was afraid she wouldn’t live and the baby, he didn’t suck at first and then he gets so tired feeding on Nada and then the cloth.” She allowed Colton to put her to bed. “Mark will bring me the baby when he has suckled Nada. I have so many things to say to you, but we are both tired. It will wait. Except, where was Mark?”
“We will talk tomorrow. I am not totally sure yet but he needed to see his family first.”
Texanna nodded as she yawned and waited while Colt completed undressing and crawled in behind her, spooning his wife. They were asleep in a moment.
Texanna was visited twice more by a hungry baby before she felt she had slept enough to get up. Feeling over to the side of the bed where Colt’s body should be, she knew he would be gone and he was. She had yet to awaken before him. She would swear that when her eyes opened during the night, his body went on alert. He probably didn’t sleep after the second time she cared for the infant. This was how it feels to have a man love you, she thought. Lounging for a few more precious minutes before rising, she could smell bacon sizzling and children trying to be quiet.
Getting up, she did her morning wash up and made their bed still warm with the heat from her body. She dressed quickly and warmly. The house was cold this morning because there were no men to feed the fire in the night and everyone had been exhausted. She opened the bedroom door and felt the heat from the great room’s fireplace, and that combined with the comfort of bacon, biscuits, and oatmeal, made her feel coddled and loved. She checked on Nada.
Mark checked on his wife and then put his coat back on to go back out to wait on Colton, who had cautiously followed Mark into the room.
“Aren’t you done with chores?” asked Anna, meeting her husband partway in the room.
Colt answered her after he placed a kiss on her lips. “Yes. But we have one more thing to take care of. We won’t be long.”
“But, Colt, can’t you just stay home today?” Texanna was pouty and put out with him.
Colt looked steadily at Texanna for a few seconds and when she didn’t respond or change her stance, he leaned down and slowly slid his hand down the small of her back to the first curve of her bottom. He patted gently and nearly purred in her ear.
“I will talk to you later about everything we have not yet discussed but you mind me and you will be sitting happily. Just let it go for now.”
He kissed her ear and ran his tongue on the outer shell to encourage her to drop her irritation. He knew it tickled. She giggled and nodded her head.
“Good girl. I’ll be back soon.” Dropping one more kiss on her head, he and Mark walked out the door. Anna rubbed her ear, and still with a bright smile, set about her own chores.
Chapter Fifteen
Colt and Mark took a walk, checking the property for upkeep needs while they prepared to talk. The silence was long enough to allow the early morning sounds to settle in around them. They kept walking and were a few hundred yards away from the house before Colt spoke.
“I need to know where you have been going. I am a U.S. Marshal and I just can’t allow you here if I don’t know what you do when you take off. My family will not be at risk.”
Another silent period and then Mark said, “I do a little bounty hunting sometimes and I saw someone I recognized on one of the wanted posters the other day when I went in for supplies. I took off yesterday to see if I could locate him. It took too long and so I thought I had better not come back empty-handed.”
“That’s what you have been doing when you’re gone at odd times?” ask Colt confused.
“That and a little day work around town and neighboring properties.”
“Why couldn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was trying to work out how I was going to give Nada what she wants more than anything but would never beg me to do it. See, I’ve been doing this bounty thing since before I met her. This isn’t a life for a wife and children. She needs a place to be to stay near other women, your women. She likes the area, she knows her children will not get to go to school, but maybe this last one will.”
They were standing by the river now and Colt seemed like he was a million miles away but when he spoke, his manner had changed.
“Are you any good?” he asked, never taking his eyes off the moving river.
“At bounty hunting? Some. It’s as much dumb luck as anything else sometimes.”
“Well, I am a pretty good tracker if you’re a good information gatherer. I get information but as a marshal, gathering information on the boot level doesn’t work as well. We can split the reward money of any we do together. I can only track the ones the judge okays or that I get the order to track but I have the authority and can bring with me anyone I choose or no one at all. I am allowed to keep whatever bounty is attached to the outlaw. What do you say?” Colt was still watching the shoreline.
“I say, are you sure?”
“Yep.” Colt stood up and tossed a flat stone, watching it skip several times before succumbing to the force of the moving creek.
“Then I would be proud to handle that with you,” agreed Trenton.
“You know, we still need to keep up with the place. I don’t allow any of my womenfolk to do men’s work if I can avoid it and so far, I have been able to do it.” Colt smiled. “When they listen to me, anyway.” He looked away from the shoreline and stared at Mark. “One more thing on the tracking, I don’t shoot my prisoners. I never have and don’t intend to. I might have to someday, but it will happen because I have no other choice.”
“I understand.”
“Good, now, I think I have an idea how you can make Nada happy.”
They continued to walk and talk as they surveyed the needs of the land and seemed to come to an agreement. Colt knew his wife would love that it was settled. Her tender heart would be satisfied and if he could, he would always try to do that. As they approached the house, Colt saw movement just before he followed Mark into the house. He turned and spied the tail end of his wife’s skirt disappearing inside the barn. What was she doing now?
As he approached the door, he leaned in and watched Texanna milking the cow. He smiled until he noticed she had no coat on. Hoping she had just taken it off to give her more freedom in her movements, he viewed the whole area and couldn’t locate it. Now, things were going to get awfully warm around here.
“Texanna, where is your coat?”
She jumped and then turned back to the cow. “I’m just milking the cow.”
“I can see that, but that's not what I asked.” Colton had walked closer and he could see her hands shake.
“I’m almost done.” Her voice tremored as well.
He crouched down next to her. “Texanna Rae McFadden, I won’t ask again.”
“Fine. I left it in the house. It isn’t very cold out here and the cow is warm. I was just busy and forgot.”
Colt stood and watched her finish her pail, stopping her before she picked it up. He leaned down to grab it and set it on the wooden tack table before turning to look at his wife. She grew more beautiful to him every day. But her level of minding him had not improved much.
“What did I tell you two nights ago before I left to find Mark?”
“That you would be back as soon as you could?” she was rubbing her hands on her dress.”
“No, when you came to tell me about Nada going into labor.”
“Oh, then. Well, I’m not sure I can remember. I was pretty rattled, you know.”
“Well, let me refresh your memory. You were out here without a coat. Jar your memory yet?” Colton asked calmly.
“Maybe.”
“And?”
“I don’t want to say,
really.”
“I bet you don’t but you will.”
“I suppose that you said, it wouldn’t go well for me if I kept forgetting.”
“Close, what I said was you needed to start wearing your coat or I was going to take a strap to you. Do you remember, now?”
“Please, Colton, I just forget and am long gone before it comes to mind.”
“Did you leave it often when you were a child?” he asked, figuring her answer already.
“Yes.” She fiddled with her dress and Colt watched a shiver most assuredly of cold and probably worry wiggle through her.
“And no one said anything?”
“Not really.”
“Well, this ends here. Lean over that bale.”
“What?”
“ You know you are getting a spanking,” he stated calmly.
“What?”
“If I have to be the one to teach you, I will. The next time you want to run out of the house without a coat or warm covering in cold weather, I want you to remember this.” He leaned her quickly over the bale next to the contentedly munching cow and dropped his hand hard on her covered bottom accompanied by her surprised squeal. “ If you do it anyway, I will strap you again. Understood?” he finished his speech to the back end of his sweetheart’s skirts as he landed another hardy spank.
He knew it was cold and so he intended on doing this quick but she was not going to forget this lesson quickly. He tossed her skirts up and said, “I can’t warm you up too much for you’re without a coat but that means it is going to hurt more and the leather isn’t going to stay warm for long. It hurts more when it is stiff with cold.”
He unbuckled his belt and Texanna was already crying. Good, he thought, makes my job easier. He made the unclasping of the metal buckle clang loudly and the belt’s swish from his pants sound ominous. Then, putting his free hand on the small of her back, he raised his hand and let it fall in a controlled fashion, carrying the leather with it in a precise line. She yelped and jerked but did not do more. He raised it again and heard the next hissing sound from his protesting wife as he landed another moderated stripe of the leather. He needed to make the rest really count. It meant he was going to have to take special care of the quality.
Taming Texanna Page 23
