by Mari Collier
Toni was busy pushing the desk against the door while Anna dumped the table over on the floor. Then she pulled it closer to the arch doorways dug into the bluff. “Check the drawers for ammunition,” she ordered Toni.
Outside they could hear the horses whinny and heard the banging of tubs being overturned and men laughing and whooping. They're probably amused by the white men's clothing thought Anna. Toni scooted behind the table with a box of bullets, and Brigetta let out a scream. This set the children to screaming and more whoops could be heard outside as someone jumped onto the porch and started for the window. Toni pulled the rifle trigger and they heard a grunt before the man disappeared from view, his blood splattering against the window sill.
Brigetta and the children were still screaming and Anna longed to slap them into silence. They heard the men outside bang at the door, then hatchets crashing into the heavy oak timbers, but the door held firm, and the Indians stayed far away from the windows set on either side. For a moment there was silence. Then a flurry of arrows sailed through the windows, most of them went downward into the floor while others struck the tipped over table top.
“Antoinette, scream in your mind for Lorenz,” Anna said through set teeth.
“Why, whatever for?” Toni had heard of Anna's kenning ways, but never that Lorenz possessed any.
“Sometimes vhen two people love each other and something is not right, they sense it.” Anna closed her eyes. Lorenz had not told her! Something was wrong, her stomach was still making her dizzy and she fought back the nausea. “Mina, stop screaming. Keep them quiet. Hide them!” She was shouting at her daughter.
“Mina, honey, toss me my purse,” Toni called.
“Vhy?”
“There is a revolver in it. I'm a good shot with that and it is not as heavy as this for close quarters.”
“Mina, take that revolver and if the Indians make it to the bedroom door, shoot for the middle of the door. Du can do it!”
“Mother MacDonald, that would mean they'd kill them all.”
“That vould be better than them taking them.” Anna's voice was grim.
Both were taking cautious peeks around the edge of the table while they talked. Toni noticed the arm sliding through the window on the left side of the door. She lifted, then shifted her rifle into a better position. Anna realized the same was happening at the window on the right side and gripped her shotgun with both hands. Dear Gott, she prayed silently, let me kill them.
As though synchronized, two Comanche started to slide through the windows. Had either woman bothered to look, they would have seen these were young men still in their teens. Neither woman looked at the Indians as men but as demons, and both shot as the torsos appeared. Antoinette's bullet crashed into one's head, smashing it and blowing out the back. The youth's body fell, draped half inside, half out, his blood staining the floor. The other man yanked back and slid to the porch. Anna had not missed, but the shotgun's pellets had not killed him. The pellets had his left blood splattered over the sill. What they didn't know was the shot had blinded the man.
Anna sank back to the floor; dizziness, then gray started to blank her eyes. For some reason her head was incredibly light and she had sense enough to put her head down.
“Mother MacDonald, are y'all all right?”
Anna slowly straightened. “Ja, I just felt so strange.” She set her lips and reloaded the shotgun. The aching in her left arm started to descend and the nausea threatened to release itself. She fought to keep from vomiting or befouling her linen, petticoat, and hose.
From above they could hear someone starting to chop away at the shingles. Someone must have pulled the stove pipe out as the cast iron stove burped smoke and ashes, and Brigetta broke their concentration on the ceiling by screaming again. Toni blinked and swung the rifle back to the windows and fired.
“Mother MacDonald, shoot! Ah have to reload.” She did not look at Anna, but opened the breach and methodically put in the cartridges and snapped it together. She fired one shot upward where she could hear some sort of noise and then fired around the table edge, hoping it went up towards the window. She had not heard Anna's shotgun and now she turned to look at the older women.
“Oh, dear God, no,” she half-whispered.
Anna was sprawled backward on the floor, her grey eyes wide-open and her tongue out. The shotgun rested on her long legs, pointed at the table. Above the sounds of chopping had stopped, but now a crackling was heard and smoke began to seep downward.
Toni closed her eyes momentarily praying. Her survival depended on a run into the dug out bedroom where the children and Brigetta were screaming. She took Anna's shot gun and aimed it at the two windows before firing. She knew that running upright in her long skirts was her only chance. Then she stood and fired the rifle, turned, and ran.
Chapter 7: Rescue
“Stay away from the doorway!” Toni screamed and then grabbed Mina before she could run to her mother. “Blow out that lamp. We'll need the air.”
Brigetta stopped screaming long enough to whisper. “Ve'll all die. Gott uns mitt us.”
“Mama, Mama!” Mina was screaming and stamping her feet, trying to pull away from Antoinette.
Toni couldn't tell whether she was hearing Mina's screams, her own children's or the Rolfe children's. Tears were streaking down Mina's cheeks.
“You left Mama!”
Toni pulled Mina away from the doorway, making soothing noises. Kendall was pulling at her skirts crying, “Mama, Mama.”
It was then she realized gunshots were still being fired. “Do you hear that?” she screamed. “The men are here!”
Quiet seemed to fill the room while more shots echoed and horses screamed. The silence was broken by Lorenz pounding on the door.
“Antoinette, lift that bar. You all have to get out of there!”
“I can't do it by myself. Mother MacDonald is gone.” Toni yelled back. She realized Mina had rushed to her mother. Toni scooped up Kendall and grabbed Randall's hand. “Children, follow me. They'll carry your mama out of here.”
She swept out of the room and did not see the oldest Rolfe boy, Marty, grab his mother's hand with a determined look in his blue eyes. “Kumen, Mama, kumen.”
Lorenz climbed through the window, looked at her to satisfy himself that she and the children were all right, ran to the door, dragged the desk to the side, and flung the bar out of the way, and stepped back as the door crashed inward.
MacDonald rushed in and looked at Lorenz and Toni. “Where tis she?”
“Papa! Mama won't talk to me!” Mina was sobbing and screaming at the same time.
Lorenz stopped long enough to pick up Randall and two-year-old August, the youngest Rolfe boy. Then he and Antoinette carrying the children ran out the open door. They didn't see the huge form drop to his knees and pull his dead wife up into his arms rocking back and forth while Mina threw her arms around her father's neck and continued to cry and scream. From the bedroom came the sound of Brigetta screaming again. Fire ate away at the roof line.
“She's having her baby. Y'all will have to carry her out,” Toni managed to yell at Martin as he ran pass them through the door.
Lorenz kept Augie from rushing after his father. Once they were outside he heard his father's mindspeak in his.
'I am taking her to the Golden One. Mayhap there tis a procedure there.'
'Papa, she's dead,' his silent mind-cry went out. 'She died before we rode up'
He went back to the door. MacDonald was moving toward them, his Anna cradled in his arms and Mina hanging onto his neck. Lorenz doubted if his father even realized she was there.
Martin appeared in the bedroom doorway carrying Brigetta. Young Martin was behind them, then scooted ahead to run out the door. They left the porch, hurrying away from the smoke and the embers that were starting to fall.
“We need the mattress for Brigetta.” Antoinette was issuing orders. “We'll put it under the shade of the willows or the wagon by the river if
we have to.” A quick glance had told her the Indians had fired the barn and wagons.
Some of the hands must have pushed one wagon into the river and then pulled it back. Like the others she ignored the dead Comanche warriors lying on the porch and the ground.
“We'll also need sheets and blankets. I can use the tub from the wash if someone will fill it with water. It should be warm, but right now we need to be ready.”
Martin looked at them both, panic edging his voice. “I'll go get Olga.”
“Martin, your wife is having a baby. Y'all are staying right here. Your father or one of the hands can go get Olga.” Lorenz looked at his friend in disgust. “Y'all are just going to have to hold her hand or look after your boys.”
He looked at the senior Rolfe dismounting, rifle in hand. “Uncle, would y'all or some of the men get the mattress and sheets out of there? Brigetta's going to need them. We can't take her anywhere until she's finished.”
Rolfe looked away from MacDonald and nodded. His blue eyes were hard and his face set. He spat and farther befouled his white mustache. It was hard to tell what the natural color had been. The old mountain man was still dressed in his buckskins and moccasins and he ran into the house.
Lorenz bent over Antoinette and asked, “Can y'all handle things here, honey? I've got to talk with Papa.”
Toni nodded and watched him hurry over to MacDonald who was trying to mount his huge horse while cradling Anna and ignoring Mina clinging to his neck and dangling down his side.
Lorenz used mindspeak and made it sharp. 'Papa, Mina is alive and needs you.'
Aloud he said, “Papa, let me hold Mama. You and Mina can mount and I'll hand her to y'all.” The water in his eyes and the huskiness of his voice surprised him.
MacDonald's dark eyes were guarded as though he refused to acknowledge those around him. Grudgingly, he handed his burden to Lorenz. “My wee one,” he whispered, “climb onto my back as ye did when ye were truly wee, and we twill take yere mither home. Hang on tightly.”
Mina continued to sob into his neck but gradually changed her position. Lorenz waited until both were seated and lifted his mother towards MacDonald.
“Papa, I have to stay with Toni and the children. Martin can't be trusted to deliver that baby alone with all those other babies running around. It may be late when we get back. Will you all be all right?” He laid his hand over MacDonald's knowing how much a Thalian needed the touch of another being.
MacDonald's mouth was set, the eyes like obsidian, and he nodded his head. In truth, he did not trust himself to utter another word. He clucked his tongue while snapping the reins and the big stallion trotted off.
Lorenz hurried back to Antoinette and the children. The group had utilized the wagon that had been shoved into the river, dunked, and hauled back up. The one side was charred, but the wagon was intact. Someone had placed the mattress, still with its bed coverings in the partial shade of the wagon and Brigetta was lying on it. Toni was directing that a saddle be placed at her back while she added saddle blankets and a pillow to brace Brigetta. The elder Rolfe was standing to the side folding the grizzly pelt he'd rescued from the small den that served as his bedroom when and if he slept there.
Martin looked up as Lorenz approached. “Everything's gone.” His blue eyes were bewildered as though the enormity of the day's events were beyond his comprehension. “We'll have to start all over.”
Toni looked at him in surprise. “Martin Luther Rolfe, you have thousands and thousands of dollars in the bank. You can just take some of that money and build your wife a decent home with two stories for all of the bedrooms that you all are going to need if you keep having children every year! Do you hear me? Brigetta deserves a home with a real kitchen and dining room. She needs a place for company, and you need an office.” She turned her back on the two men and knelt beside a sobbing and moaning Brigetta.
Lorenz was smiling. “Martin, I wouldn't argue with her right now. Did y'all send someone for Olga?”
Brigetta screamed.
“Lorenz, Martin, hold up something to shield her. The baby's coming! And somebody watch those other babies.” Toni knew she was yelling to hide her own fright. What did she know about delivering babies? Mother MacDonald, Tante Gerde, or Olga had always served as the midwife.
Chapter 8: Father and Son
Wisps of daylight lighted the way when Lorenz made his way to the main house and hung his hat on the peg by the kitchen door. His mother never allowed men to wear hats in her house.
He had left Antoinette and the children at their house. Toni insisted the children be bathed before dressing for bed. Before heading to the main house, Lorenz gave instructions to Ramon to have a couple of the younger hands bring in water for her. Ramon was then to take the bundle of baby linens to Brigetta. The Rolfe's had chosen to take Brigetta and children into Schmidt's Corner to stay with Olga and her family. They would be crowded, but it was family.
Lorenz walked through the narrow kitchen, smelling the smells of his mother and the food she had cooked; vinegar, vanilla, roast beef, yeast breads all vied with each other to bring back memories and constrict his heart. He found his father sitting at the table, sipping a brew as the big man called his beer, while cradling a sleeping Mina.
MacDonald looked up as Lorenz approached. Lorenz lowered his head on one massive shoulder, then the next, as he made the tsking sound in MacDonald's ear that was the standard Thalian greeting. On Earth, it was a greeting done in the privacy of home. The sorrow deep within the big man hit his mind and spread through his body like herd of stampeding cattle running over him. It was sorrow that engulfed and almost took him to his knees. With an effort he was able to straighten and begin speaking.
“Papa, my heart sorrows with yours.”
“Aye, my laddie.”
MacDonald's free hand almost crushed his. Damn, he thought, but held his tongue. He knew telling him that she was with the Lord would not make MacDonald feel any easier. Right now it wasn't helping him that much except to make him feel guilty for the hurt inside. He put up his mind walls and spoke aloud.
“Papa, y'all want me to put Mina to bed?”
“Nay, I canna sleep. I dinna wish her to wake and start to scream. I had to have Armeda watch her whilst I cleansed and dressed my Anna for the funeral tomorrow. Tom Jackson tis making the coffin for her.
“How tis Brigetta?”
“She's fine Papa. It was a little girl this time, no bigger than a mite. They've named her Christina Anna.”
MacDonald's big chest heaved and Lorenz saw moisture forming in the brown eyes. Lorenz decided to keep talking.
“Martin was acting like he was going to live in a cave when Toni lit into him about the thousands of dollars he has in the bank and how he should build a decent home for his family. When Brigetta started screaming and giving birth, Martin gave in.”
Both men smiled at the thought of tight-fisted Martin letting loose of his money.
MacDonald took a deep breath. “We twill give them a suitable housewarming gift. Ye can attend to it. After the funeral, I twill take Mina with me to Arles. There I twill order a marble headstone for the two of us with her dates on them.”
“And just what are y'all going to put down for your birth date? The year, whatever it was in Thalian reckoning isn't going to look right on Mama's tombstone.” Lorenz deliberately kept his voice low.
“I had nay thought of that. I shall give them a false one based on Earth years. Something a few years younger than hers should be fine. After I make those arrangements, Mina and I twill visit mither in Galveston. She can verify the space navigational math I've done and start me on the next segment. Then we twill travel to Europe. I'll arrange for a tutor and governess for Mina to travel with us while I'll study, and mayhap, attend to other things in the evenings. Occasionally, we twill return here so that I can study at the controls of the Golden One. Mither twill do likewise. We may even consider moving it as it must be flown in the sunlight within the next
thirty years. Ye and Antoinette may have this home. I canna live here again. The hurt tis too deep.”
Lorenz stared at his father for a moment. “Papa, are y'all sure? Y'all might change your mind in a couple of years. This is all Mina's ever known. She may wish to come back.”
“Aye, for myself I am sure. If Mina does return when she tis of age, are ye going to turn her away?”
“Good Lord, no.”
“There tis one more thing. Ye have nay told Antoinette about yere abilities or yere biological fither, have ye?”
“I've told her that y'all adopted me, but she knows that; has since we started writing.”
MacDonald looked down at the sleeping Mina and then at Lorenz. “Ye ken what I mean. She tis nay stupid. She has been bedding with ye for nigh four years. She can hear, and I'm sure she kens that Randall also has two hearts. Ye canna put it off any longer.”
“I know, but I'll wait until she has this baby…”
“Ye Gods, ye mean she tis expecting a wee one again!” MacDonald's huge voice rumbled out and Mina stirred in his arms.
He bent his head and whispered, “Shh, my wee one. Yere fither tis here.” He rocked back and forth and watched her quiet.
“Lorenz,” he whispered, “ye canna keep having wee ones every year. Ye twill kill her. Ye must do what I did for my Anna. Visit the Golden One with her and go to the Medical Unit. Weigh her or yereself and enter the information that twill prepare the dosage to stop her eggs or yere sperm from developing. Promise me ye twill attend to this.”
“I will, Papa, but right now she's upset enough over the Indian attack and Mama's dying. We all are. What happened? I didn't see an arrow.”
“Twas nay a mortal wound, but like her twin, Kasper, her heart just gave out. Mayhap it twas the thought of her or her family being captives again. I dinna.” The pain was back in his face and in his voice. He looked up at Lorenz.
