Antebellum BK 1

by Jeffry S. Hepple

  “Josiah’s vowed to kill him.”

  “Josiah had better look to his own life,” she growled. “William isn’t going to be easy to kill.”

  Thomas took a moment to form his next thought. “If William turns up here, what should I do?”

  “You’ll have to decide that for yourself.”

  Their conversation was interrupted by Jane, who came onto the porch and dragged a chair over next to her husband. “What do you think of our boys, Marina?” she asked as she sat down.

  “They’ve grown,” Marina answered. “Where did that rabbit go?” She shaded her eyes and peered toward the closed stockade gate.

  Jane gave Thomas a questioning look and he nodded. “Are you planning to visit Anna and Quincy before you retire to Mexico, Marina?”

  Marina sat back in the rocker but still didn’t make eye contact with Jane. “I wasn’t planning to visit here, but your husband and his brothers were insistent.”

  “I was thinking that I might go to West Point with Pea and take Johnny along,” Jane said. “Maybe you’d like to come too.”

  “That’s almost two years from now,” Marina said. “Anything could happen in two years.”

  Jane glanced at her husband again, then continued. “What did you think of Jack’s wife?”

  Marina finally looked at her. “Why are you asking me all these questions? Do you think I’ve forgotten your children’s names, or their ages, or Jack’s wife’s name?”

  “No, no. Of course not,” Jane stammered. “I just wondered what your impression was of Jack’s wife, that’s all.”

  “I met Clementine at Port Isabelle when she was a saloon girl, before Jack met her. You almost surely knew that. Why did you ask? Are you testing my memory?” Marina sat forward and fixed Thomas in a baleful stare. “You told her to ask me those questions.”

  He gave her a noncommittal shrug.

  “You had better not be trying to find a way to have me declared mentally incompetent, Thomas.”

  “Why would I do that?” Thomas asked, pulling a face.

  “How should I know?” Marina snarled. “Your father’s money, maybe.”

  “Oh, Mother, don’t be ridiculous,” Thomas replied. “I have plenty of my own money.”

  “All I know is that you and your brothers are trying very hard to prove that I’ve gone mad.” She got up and limped into the house, slamming the screen door behind her.

  “See?” Thomas said. “She’s gone mad.”

  Jane looked at the empty doorway. “No. She’s not mad, Tom, she’s angry.”

  “At what?”

  “At being alone and infirm.”

  “She had you in hysterics last night.”

  “I wasn’t hysterical, I was just hurt. She’s an unpleasant woman on her best day. But, unpleasant or not, she seems perfectly rational to me. She knew that Pea would be going to West Point in two years, she knew everyone’s name and she remembered knowing Clementine at Port Isabel. I think that you, Jack and Robert should just let her go back to Mexico, if that’s what she wants.”

  “You don’t really know her. She’s not herself.”

  “She just went through a terrible ordeal as a prisoner of war and then she lost her husband the day after she was rescued. You need to give her a chance to adjust and recover, Thomas.”

  “Bah,” he said, dismissing the argument. “She needs to stay here and that’s that.”

  Jane raised her hand and waved at Clementine who had come out onto the front porch of the nearest house. “I think I’ll go make peace with my sister-in-law, now that she’ll be going away. You go make peace with your mother and see if you can convince her to stay.”

  “Bah.”

  Jane crossed the sparse lawn, skipped down the stone steps and followed the path to the smaller house. “Good morning, Clementine.”

  “Howdy, Jane,” the younger woman replied. “Want some coffee?”

  “No thank you. How’s Jack?”

  “Good as new and sleeping like a baby. Come sit with me.” She patted the glider seat.

  “That’s all you have to say about your husband’s homecoming?” Jane teased.

  “That’s not all I’d have to say if I was sayin’ it to anyone else but you.”

  “What does that mean?” Jane sat down beside her.

  “It means that I love Jack and I’m glad to be his wife. I admit I had some doubts about that, but after last night I’m right sure that he’s worth any price I’ve got to pay, includin’ your unkindness.”

  Jane was stunned. “If I’ve been unkind to you it was unintentional.”

  “Whatever.” Clementine waved her hand.

  “I’ll try to be kinder.”

  “That’d be nice.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, me too. Forget it.”

  “How did you and Marina get along?” Jane asked after a long, uncomfortable silence.

  “We’ve always got along fine.” She eyed Jane. “Unlike some, she doesn’t hold my past against me.”

  Jane hesitated. “Do you think that I do?”

  Clementine shrugged. “I know you do. You’ve made it plain enough. Not that I blame you. I’m not real proud of some of the choices I made.”

  Jane’s reply was cut short by her brother-in-law coming out to join them.

  “Good morning, ladies.” Jack stretched luxuriantly and walked to the porch rail. “It really is beautiful here.”

  “After you get used to the idea of the dwarf trees,” Jane said. “How are you feeling? With all the excitement yesterday I didn’t get a chance to ask you.”

  He sat down across from them. “I’m fine. Good as new. Thanks to Clem. And Dad, of course.”

  “Your father?” Jane raised her eyebrows. “What did your father have to do with your recovery?”

  “He helped us survive the epidemic in New Orleans when we lived there and he knew more about yellow fever than the army doctors in Mexico,” Jack replied. “He was wounded at about the same time that I fell ill and he arranged to be with me in the field hospital. I doubt that I would have survived otherwise.”

  “He’s lucky he didn’t get the yellow-jack,” Clementine said.

  “He’d had yellow fever and was immune,” Jack replied.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask,” Jane said. “Was Robert in the hospital at the same time that you and your father were? We got a letter from him about you and your father, but he wasn’t very clear about himself.”

  Jack nodded. “We were all there together. Robert single-handedly took out a fortress and was pretty badly burned by the explosion. Dad had a saber wound on his hand and two bullet wounds in his back. I had yellow-jack. We were a sorry lot.” He chuckled.

  “Tell us more about how you rescued Marina from that castle,” Jane urged.

  “What did she tell you?” Jack asked,

  “She won’t talk about it,” Clementine replied. “We don’t know a damn thing about what happened to her.”

  Jack shrugged. “Well, I can’t tell you much about what happened to her either. I only know that she was captured by the Mexican army. Others have said that she was beaten, raped, tortured and then eventually delivered to Santa Anna himself when the interrogators realized that she might have value as a political prisoner. When Santa Anna took up residence in Chapultepec Castle, he took her with him. I’m not sure why or what happened.”

  “Have you asked her?” Jane asked.

  Jack nodded his head. “She gets angry if I ask questions.”

  “That’s odd,” Clementine said.

  “Maybe she just doesn’t want to think about it,” Jane suggested.

  “Or she’s ashamed of what she did,” Jack replied. “Everyone breaks under torture but…” He shook his head. “Anyway, I guess we should respect her wishes. She needs time to recover.”

  “I wish we could convince her to stay here with you, rather than running back to Mexico,” Clementine said.

  “She doesn’t want to stay here
,” Jane replied, looking at Jack. “But since you and Robert will be posted in California after this leave of absence expires, maybe Marina would agree to go there with you, as a sort of compromise.”

  “How’s that a compromise?” Jack asked. “California’s now a territory of the United States and it’ll be a state before long. Mother’s loyalties are to Mexico.”

  Clementine shook her head. “I don’t believe that, Jack. I think she’s makin’ excuses to get away from y’all because y’all keep probing at her wounds. Jane’s got a good idea. Marina might like California and I’d be plenty glad for a woman’s company.”

  “Do you know exactly where in California you’ll be going?” Jane asked Clementine.

  “San Francisco,” Clementine replied.

  Jane shook her head. “Never heard of it. Where’s that?”

  “You may know it as Yerba Buena,” Jack suggested. “It was renamed last year.”

  Jane shook her head again. “No. I’ve not heard of Yerba Buena either.”

  “It’s just a small settlement with a good port,” Jack replied.

  “What will you and Robert be doing there?” Jane asked.

  “Our duties there will be primarily political until a civil government’s established,” Jack answered. “The climate is reported to be cool year-round with no real winter. It’ll be like a vacation.”

  “So?” Clementine interjected. “Do you like Jane’s idea or not?”

  He nodded his head. “Yes. I think Jane idea’s a good one. I’ll ask Mother to go with us. I hope she’ll say yes.”

  “As do I,” Jane agreed. “Not that I don’t want her,” she added quickly.

  “It makes more sense for her to come with us,” Clementine said. “Her and me get along just fine.”

  ~

  Marina slipped out the back door and crossed behind the barn to the corral, where a young Indian boy was exercising horses. “I need a horse,” she said in Shoshone.

  The boy looked surprised. “I am Comanche, not Shoshone.”

  “Then you should be with your people while they still exist,” she replied, adjusting the pronunciation to that used by the Comanches. “And, I need a horse.”

  “Do you have money?” the boy asked.

  “Yes. Gold. I also have a pistol and I can use it.”

  “Do you want the horse saddled, Mother?”

  “I can ride bareback if I must, but I need it bridled.”

  “How far will you travel?”

  “Far enough to die.”

  The boy caught a big thoroughbred. “If we are going to steal a horse, we might as well choose the best one. No?”

  “We?” She shook her head. “You are not going with me.”

  “I know. You are going with me.”

  She chuckled. “Where are you taking me?”

  “To our medicine woman. I can smell death upon you, but I do not think it is too late.”

  “Very well. But steal two horses. I am too old to be riding behind you. It would shame you with The People.”

  He grinned. “And the whites can only hang me once.”

  ~

  “What do you mean, she’s gone?” Jack shouted.

  “I mean gone as in no longer here,” Thomas growled. “She and a Comanche boy that we’d hired to break a new string of mustangs stole two horses and rode away.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Robert asked. “We have to go after her.”

  Thomas nodded. “We will. In the morning, when we can see their tracks.”

  “This is all my fault,” Jane said. “I thought Marina was upstairs and I didn’t realize that she was gone until I went up to call her for supper.”

  Clementine looked out the window toward the setting sun. “Goin’ after her is a waste of time. Nobody is gonna find Marina unless she wants to be found.”

  July 9, 1848

  Comanche Territory, Texas

  The saloon was just a log frame structure with a canvas cover. “Ante up,” Marina shouted over the din. “The game is five card draw. Nothing wild. Jacks or better to open.”

  A dusty cowboy walked up behind Marina. “Is this here a closed game or can anybody play?”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “Hello, Josiah. How did you find me?”

  “Looked where nobody else looked,” Whipple said.

  “Edwin,” Marina shouted. “New dealer, please.” She held the deck of cards over her head until a man came to take it from her. “Do you want a drink, Josiah?”

  “Got me one before I come in here,” he said, taking her arm and helping her stand up. He looked down at the squaw-boots she was wearing. “How’s them feet? And don’t ask me how I know.”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine ain’t a complete enough answer.” He began guiding her toward the door.

  “Fine is the only answer you’re going to get.” She jerked her arm free and pointed a double-barreled derringer at him. “You’re a few seconds from a fifty caliber surprise under your short ribs.”

  He raised his hands. “Okay. Don’t shoot.”

  “What do you want, Josiah?”

  “Nothin’, Marina.” He lowered his hands. “Yer polecat son, William, gimme the slip and I thought he might of come up here. When I stopped by Tom’s ranch, he asked me to keep a eye open for you. That’s all there is to it.”

  “Horseshit.” Marina tucked the derringer in her sleeve and walked out into the street. “What are you doing here?”

  “I just told ya what.”

  “Yeah, now tell me the truth.”

  “Well, what I told you was true enough, but when I found out that William was headed back to Mexico I thought I’d find you and see if ya wanted to go with me.”

  “To Mexico?”

  “Ain’t that where you wanna go?”

  “Yes, but why would you want me to go with you?”

  He shrugged. “Guess I just enjoy yer company.”

  “Were Jack and Robert still at Tom’s place when you were there?”

  “Yeah, but their orders was changed from San Francisco to New Orleans.”

  “New Orleans?” She smiled.

  “What?” he asked. “You thinkin’ about goin’ with ‘em to New Orleans?”

  She shrugged. “If they’re already gone, it hardly matters, but I love New Orleans and think of it as home.”

  “I always wanted to see them French girls in New Orleans that show what’s under their skirts.”

  “Your cultural appetite is underwhelming.”

  “Jack and them’s headed for Galveston with two teams pullin’ two heavy wagons. I know a shortcut that wagons can’t take. If we leave now, with two remounts each, we can be waitin’ for ‘em in Galveston when they get there.”

  “Why would you do that, Josiah?”

  “I told you, Marina. I like yer company. And it’d do me good to see you happy again.”

  She looked up into his face, then at the rising sun. “Well then, let’s go.”

  September 3, 1848

  Galveston, Texas

  A huge tropical storm was raging outside and the vast, chandelier-lighted lobby of the Hotel Menard was crowded, hot and almost noisy enough to drown out the sound of the wind-driven rain, the rolling thunder and the pounding surf. Jack and Clementine were standing at the registration desk. Jack was trying to convince the desk clerk that they had wired in advance for a reservation and Clementine was tugging at his sleeve. He glowered at her. “Just a minute, Clem. Can’t you see I’m busy?”

  She continued to pull on his sleeve.

  “What?” he asked angrily.

  She pointed across the lobby toward the well-appointed dining room. “Your mother wants you.”

  “My what? My mother?” He turned around to look and saw Marina beckon. She was sitting alone at a table, wearing a stylish, green velvet dress with a big feathered hat and she looked like all the other fashionable ladies of Galveston. “Well, I’ll be damned.” Turning his back on the clerk, Jack took Clementine�
�s arm and led her across the lobby into the dining room. “What are you doing here, Mother?”

  “Sit down, Jack,” Marina said.

  He looked over his shoulder. “I have to find us a room. The whole town is full to the brim because the bad weather’s stopped all the steamers from sailing.”

  “I have two suites,” she said. “Both suites have two bedrooms. Unless you’ve picked up someone along the way, that’s more room than we need. Where’s your brother?”

  “Sending a telegram to New Orleans to alert the Army of our delay.” He pulled out a chair for Clementine, then seated her and took the chair opposite Marina’s. “How did you get here?”

  “On horseback, of course.”

  “Alone?”

  “No. Josiah Whipple was with me, but there was a wire waiting for him here advising him that William had been seen in Beaumont. He turned around and left right away.”

  “How is it that you ended up with two suites?” Clementine asked.

  Marina shrugged. “I knew that you were coming and when the storm was predicted I knew that rooms would soon be scarce, so I booked another suite.”

  Clementine was horrified. “Two suites in a fancy hotel like this must cost a stinkin’ fortune.”

  “Mother has more money than she can ever spend,” Jack said dismissively.

  “You never told me that,” Clementine complained.

  “What difference does it make?” he asked.

  Clementine shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seems like you should have told me that your family’s rich before you asked me to marry you.”

  Jack grinned. “If I had told you, would you have still married me?”

  “I don’t know,” Clementine said seriously. “I’ve never much cared for rich folks.”

  As a thought suddenly occurred to him, Jack turned back quickly to his mother. “Four bedrooms? Is one of them for Josiah?”

  “Yes. If he comes back before we sail.” Marina looked puzzled. “What of it?”

  “I don’t know. I guess it seems wrong for you to be sharing a suite with a man so soon after Dad died.”

  “It’s a suite not a bed.”

  “It’s disrespectful to Dad, none-the-less.”

  Marina laughed out loud. “Who do you think you are? Hamlet?”