Teaching Miss Maisie Jane

by Mariella Starr

  Levi didn’t want to wait for coffee, so they separated the teams and wagons. Jake dashed back inside to put several bricks and a pot coffee on the stove. He checked on Maisie but she was curled up in a tight little ball under the covers. He drove his team into barn, unhitched them and put them in their stalls. He had to get Maisie warmed up first and then he’d come back and finish dealing with the horses and unloading the supplies.

  Back in the house, the kitchen was warming up, as was the coffee and the bricks. He added some more wood to the stove and wrapped the bricks in pieces of old blankets and tucked them into their bed.

  “Honey…”

  “Hum….” Maisie Jane murmured sleepily.

  Jake unbuttoned her coat, and undressed her rubbing her arms and legs briskly.

  That got Maisie Jane’s attention and she woke up. “Did I fall asleep“?

  “No, you got too cold.”

  “I know how to warm up,” Maisie Jane wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “Hold that thought. I’ve got coffee on stove, but I have to get the horses tended. You stay tucked in until I get back.”

  By the time Jake finished his chores, he went into a warm bed but a sound asleep wife. He pulled her close spooning and drifted off himself.

  Meanwhile outside a blizzard began.

  Jake got up to his chores and was stopped in his tracks by the darkness of the house. He went to the kitchen and realized that the windows were covered with snow blocking all the light. He opened the back door and faced snow up to his waist, and blowing horizontal winds. He could barely make out the outline of barn. His eyes automatically went to his woodpiles stacked in vertical rows several feet from the side of the house. He heard a crack and watched as a very large tree split and hit the ground so hard the ground jolted.

  “Maisie Jane ran into the room wrapped in a quilt and frightened. “What was that?”

  Jake closed the door before she could get chilled again. “A tree came down.”

  “Are there any close enough to hit us?” she asked going to the window.

  “No, Brett was wise building the house and barn in a clearing. I’m going to have to close the shutters though, these kinds of winds could blow the windows in. Go back to bed, little darling, I’ll close up everything tight.” Jake lit the lanterns and closed all the shutters. Then, he carried all their supplies into the water closet. The bacon, fatback, and quarter side of beef didn’t need to be near the heat of the kitchen stovetop. Finally, he’d found some use for that cold ass room.

  Maisie Jane was sitting up in bed listening to winds that had suddenly become gale force slamming against and rattling the windows and shutters.

  Jake smiled, slid in and cuddled up close. “Guess what? Looks like we’re going to have a couple of play days.”

  The blizzard lasted two and half days. Maisie didn’t last that long. By midday on the second day she was congested and her throat was sore. By the morning of third day she was weak and said her head hurt. She slept fitfully, and began to cough. Jake spent his time digging out to get to barn and trying to nurse his sick wife. The blizzard, accompanied by high winds, had created drifts and valleys. Some areas had two inches on the ground, others had six feet.

  Meanwhile fevers and chills hit Maisie Jane. Jake kept the bedroom warm and alternately bathed her in cool water or climbed in beside her adding his body heat to hers to try to warm up her shaking body. By the third day of fever she began to fight him and was half out of her mind. Scared out of his wits, and not knowing what else to do, Jake gathered up every blanket and quilt in the house, wrapped her up tight and holding his precious cargo rode through the black of night to the Campbell’s homestead.

  Jake carried Maisie Jane in his arms and pounded on the back door. Levi came through his kitchen with a lantern and opened the back door wide.

  Cora came following her husband. “What is it?”

  “Maisie Jane’s sick, bad, I don’t know what to do?”

  “Take her into the little bedroom. Levi light a fire in that fireplace and get the kitchen stove-top fired up,” Cora ordered. She followed Jake and as soon he laid her down drew back the quilting and felt her face and forehead. “She’s burning up, let’s get her in bed.”

  Cora fell back on her mothering instincts. She asked question after question to Jake trying to get a clear picture of all the symptoms.

  Cora did all the things that Jake had done except she kept forcing Maisie to drink cool water and then spooned chicken broth into her mouth. The fight for Maisie Jane’s life was on.

  Jake sat in a chair and never took his eyes of her. When Cora left the room, he’d pick up one of her hands and talk to her but there no response. Neither Cora nor Levi could convince Jake to eat. That evening Cora said she’d stay with Maisie Jane but Jake said no, she needed to get some sleep. He’d watch over his wife and wake Cora if he needed her. Sometime in the night, Maisie Jane started fighting him again, so he carried the rocking chair out of Levi’s sitting room and put it beside the bed. He wrapped his little wife, lifted her into his lap, tucked her head under his chin, and held her as he rocked. She settled down, and he rocked all night. Cora nursed her during the day. Jake held her at night and rocked.

  Jake only left her side long enough to ride over to his place, tend the animals and ride back, bringing Cora the eggs and milk and other staples because he was living at their place.

  “You need some rest!” Cora scolded one morning at breakfast. “You can’t keep this up, Jake, you’re up all day and night. You’re going to collapse yourself if you keep this up.”

  “I’m all she has, Cora; she needs me,” Jake said quietly. “She’s all I have. I need her.”

  “Let the boy, be,” Levi told his wife. “He knows what he’s doing.”

  Eight days into the vigil, Cora came out of the room one morning and told her husband the good news. “The fever broke.”

  Two days later in the middle of the night, Maisie Jane opened her eyes to find her husband, holding her and rocking her like a baby. And, when he saw that she was awake, he cried.

  Chapter 20

  It was another two weeks before Cora would let Jake take her home. Maisie Jane had lost a score of weight and looked thin and frail. Maisie Jane was very weak and as much as she loved Cora, she couldn’t wait to go home. She needed to get away from the clucking and hovering.

  The only problem was the clucking and hovering followed her home and was now being done by Jake, who was a lot firmer about it. He carried her when she wanted to walk and watched her like hawk, making sure she eating enough, drinking enough and he wouldn’t let her do anything.

  After her long illness, Maisie Jane finally remembered about her late Christmas present to Jake. She asked him to get her another little tree, but he thought she was being silly, so she gave him his gifts. Jake was appreciative of the gifts but she was disappointed when she also got a lecture about spending her pocket money without talking it over with him first. She had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t the same.

  The ebb of Maisie Jane’s illness coincided with the ebb of winter. There were no more snowstorms and mild almost spring-like temperatures prevailed. The snow melted off gradually and the earth began to firm up through February and March. In high desert country though, everyone knew the good weather could change overnight. Snows could come as late as May, sometimes even June.

  After two months of being infirm and treated like an invalid, Maisie Jane was slowly being driven crazy.

  And something was wrong with Jake. He didn’t seem happy. He treated her like she was made of glass and was going to break. She’d defy him sometimes to just get a reaction out of him. She snuck out early to milk the cow, and all he did was catch her and carry her back to bed. He wouldn’t let her gather the eggs anymore, or even churn the butter. When he’d told her she wasn’t well enough to cook she threw a skillet at him. He never got mad.

  And even worse, he didn’t want her any more. He didn’t tease in be
d anymore, or come in during the day to get what he called “a little extra lovin”. Even if he reached for her at night, he was different now. He was gentle and slow and careful. And if she reached for him, he stopped her and said he didn’t want to “tire her out.”

  But, the worst thing Maisie thought was that he didn’t call her his “little darling” now.

  No, the day before, he’d called her his “pretty porcelain doll.”

  Maisie Jane sat in one of the big chairs in the sitting room. Jake had firmly told her was to stay inside and rest all day. She burst into tears. She’d been thinking about it and thinking about, now she’d figured it out. Jake didn’t love her anymore. The desire had been there, and so had the lust, and maybe for a while he’d loved her but not now. Jake didn’t love her anymore. She was a porcelain doll to him, breakable and fragile and he didn’t want her that way anymore.

  Maisie Jane jumped up and stalked around the room. She had to leave, that was it. She’d leave. She wasn’t staying with someone who thought she was a glass doll. She wasn’t staying with someone that didn’t love her. Jake was over at Levi’s; they were shoeing the big work horses. She’d leave before he got back. She’d take his horse. She could get away faster with his horse. Maisie spun around and looked at her home, but not really her home. There were those fancy, ugly tables she hated. And, there were all those ugly figurines everywhere. They were porcelain dolls too, and that’s what Jake thought she was—useless and breakable. She picked up one of statues and smashed it against another, and then another and another as she cried, and stomped and smashed all the figurines. Then she went into bedroom and smashed those too until they were all dead too. With tears running down her face, she pulled off her wedding band and threw it at the bed. If he didn’t want her, then she didn’t want him either! She grabbed her boy’s coat and ran to the barn. She’d seen Jake saddle his horse lots of time; she could do it. And, she did do it. She climbed up on a bale of straw and got in the saddle, straddling it like Jake did except she had to sit kind of to one side because her legs were too short and she could only reach one stirrup, and the other foot was dangling well above the stirrup. She kicked the horse in the ribs and held on bouncing all over the saddle but that was okay because at least the horse was heading in the right direction.

  Jake walked his two work horses home. He was tired and dirty but it was one more job done before true spring arrived. He entered the barn and realized that the door was open. He put the two horses in their stalls and saw that his riding horse was standing outside its stall and his saddle was askew. Had Maisie Jane tried to saddle his horse for some reason? He took the saddle off and put the horse in the stall.

  He was going to have to have a talk with that gal. She was pushing herself and getting sassy about. All he was trying to do was take care of her. She been so sick, and she didn’t need to tire herself out.

  He went to house and the back door was standing open. Now he was worried.

  “Maisie Jane. Why have you got the door open? I told you, you need to careful about being in drafts…” Jake stopped in the doorway of the sitting room and looked around at the room’s destruction, there was broken glass everywhere. Everything was smashed. No, not everything, just the figurines and the fancy table had been overturned. What the hell? He walked back to the kitchen and saw two figurines were broken on the china shelf. He went through to the bedroom and those figurines were in shattered into pieces too. And… what? Right in the middle of that blue blanket was Maisie Jane’s little wedding ring.

  Well, damn, what the hell was going on? He looked to the wall hooks and Maisie Jane’s boy coat was gone. He stepped out of house, and pulled the door closed. Okay, his wife had gone crazy for some reason, smashed all the figurines and appeared to have run off. Obviously, she’d tried to take his horse, but didn’t pull the cinch tight enough and the saddle had come loose. A free horse close enough to its’ stable would pretty much always return on its own. Or, she could have fallen off and be lying hurt somewhere...

  Jake ran back to the barn and re-saddled his horse. He’d had more than twelve years of tracking criminals on his record, finding one runaway wife shouldn’t that hard. He just hoped she wasn’t hurt or he got to her before she did get hurt.

  Maisie Jane was spitting mad. That idiot horse had stopped in the middle of the road and wouldn’t go. So, she’d tried to get off and the stupid saddle had slid sideways and she’d almost fallen off, except that her heel was stuck in that stirrup thing. Then the dumb horse had decided to go and dragged her along in the mud until she finally got untangled. She was covered in mud, and her heel was broken. She hated those shoes anyway, so she ripped them off her feet and threw them away in the bushes. Nobody was going to tell her she had to wear shoes that hurt anymore! Especially that stupid Jake Maddox. So, now she was walking down a disgusting muddy road in her stocking feet and they were muddy and wet and her feet were cold!

  Maisie Jane’s tracks could have read by a four-year-old. He saw where she’d been dumped, but the drag marks worried him. Further down the road the footprints changed and it looked like she was in her stocking feet! Finally, Jake spotted her up about a hundred yards ahead, but when she looked over her shoulder and spotted him, she took off running.

  “Maisie Jane! Stop right there,” Jake ordered.

  But, she didn’t stop. Jake spurred into a gallop and was about to snag her up off the road, when she veered and ducked into the woods.

  “Maisie Jane!” Jake reined into the woods and a few seconds later saw her sprawled on the ground having tripped over a fallen log.

  He dismounted, but she was off and running again. He caught up with her fast enough and hauled her up on his hip. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Let me go!” Maisie Jane screamed, fighting and kicking.

  “Stop it,” Jake snapped, setting her down on her feet. She tried to take off again but he snagged her by back of her skirt and pulled her back to him and – damn it - she bit him! He let go, and she grabbed a chunk of fallen wood, threw it at him, making a direct hit on his kneecap. He’d just turned away from that hit and she picked up another and came near to getting him in his jewels. Damn her aim was getting better.

  “Maisie Jane! I’ve had enough!” Jake roared.

  “So have I, you idiot!” Maisie Jane screamed. “I’m leaving you, and you can’t make me stay. If you don’t love me, I’m not going to love you back!”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Jake demanded.

  “I’m not your little play toy to be used then thrown aside when you get tired of me.” Maisie screamed. “I got along just fine before you and I’ll get along just fine now. I am not a God damned porcelain doll! I’m not fragile and I don’t break.”

  “Maisie Jane!” Jake roared. He made to grab for her and she dodged, snatched up a glob of mud and threw it at him. He ducked the worst of it and caught her lifting her off her feet. But, she was still fighting him, with her skinny little arms swinging and legs flailing. He dragged her back over to log she’d tripped over, sat down, pulled her over his knee, yanked her skirt up, pulled her bloomers down and started wailing on her bare bottom hard. She kicked and screamed and tried to bite him and he laid into her harder until she stopped fighting and was sobbing.

  He pulled up her bloomers and set her on her feet. “You make one move to run and I’ll tan you again!” He dragged her back to his horse and tossed her up across the saddle and mounted his saddle behind her. He left her bent over his knees.

  “One more nasty word out of your mouth and I’ll spank you all the way home. I don’t know what’s gotten into you but I sure plan to get to the bottom of it one way or the other!”

  Maisie Jane was still spitting mad but she wasn’t crying anymore. Her bottom stung like crazy but she knew she was in a really vulnerable position.

  It didn’t take very long to get back to the house. Jake rode right up to the back door, stepped, down and hauled her off the horse and
set her on her feet. When he turned to tie the reins, she took off. But, Jake had much longer legs than she did and he caught up with her before she got past the barn. He picked her up like a sack of potatoes, under his arm and hauled her inside kicking and screaming.

  Jake tried to set Maisie Jane on her feet, but she was still fighting. He grabbed her by the arms and gave her a good shake. “Stop it, Maisie Jane, stop it right now or I’m going out and get me a switch.”

  Maisie Jane grabbed a metal water pitcher and threw it at him and backed across the room. “You’d better not. You gave me your word of honor that you wouldn’t!” she yelled.

  Jake dodged the pitcher but got hit full on with the water. He was drenched but he stopped, a pitcher full of water having cooled his temper a bit. He pointed one finger at her. “Stop! You’re right, I did give my word, and I won’t break it. But, you’re going to stop throwing things and calm down. I’ve already set your bottom on fire once, and I won’t hesitate to do it again. Now, you’re going to tell me what’s set you off on this rampage. Do not raise you voice, or scream, or swear at me. I have had enough of your temper tantrums and I’m not taking any more.”

  Maisie Jane stood shivering and breathing but shook her head.

  Jake stood looking at her for a few seconds. She was covered in mud and filth, and wet to the bone, but she still looked mad enough to start throwing things again. She looked like a scared, half-drowned waif.

  Jake walked over to the doorway and looked at her sternly. “Do not move!” He went into the bedroom, pulled two blankets off the bed, took them to the kitchen and handed them to Maisie Jane. “Get out of those wet stockings, and anything else that’s wet and get wrapped up.” He turned and stoked up the fire in the stovetop range and added more wood. He put on a kettle of water and started pumping water into the larger pots and set them on the stove. When he’d finished, Maisie was wrapped up in the blankets and not shivering anymore, either from cold or temper.