It was late afternoon when they came to the edge of a canyon that looked down upon the snaking, mud-colored Brazos River. If the map Mr. Grimshaw had drawn for them was accurate, and if they hadn't somehow miscalculated, the Spanish Spur was just on the other side.
Sam was ensconced in the driver's seat as they approached what appeared to be a shallow place to cross the river. Casey saw that he was tense when his hands tightened nervously on the reins. She realized he was probably remembering that their father had been killed in a river crossing very much like this one. She patted his hand.
"It's all right-you can do it."
Deciding he would be less distracted if she left him alone, she climbed inside the wagon and set tled jenny on her lap so she could brush the tangles out of the child's hair. Pulling the red-gold curls away from her sister's face, she tied it with a blue ribbon. Little jenny was weary from their long months of traveling. Casey would be glad when they were settled in their new home so she could attempt to make a normal life for the family.
"My hair is like yours, Casey," the child said, looking up at her with pride in that fact.
"Indeed it is. And our mother's hair was the same color. Sam has Papa's dark hair."
The child's forehead furrowed. "Will Papa be waiting for us at our new home?"
"No, he won't." A lump tightened in her throat, and it took her a few moments to be able to speak. "Remember when I explained to you that Papa is with Mama now?"
Jenny's frown deepened. "Why can't they live with us? Didn't they like us?"
Casey was saved from answering when a sudden jolt tilted the wagon, propelling her and jenny forward. In a frantic attempt to keep jenny from being slammed against the back of the wagon seat, Casey clutched the child to her chest, then somehow managed to land Jenny on top of a stack of folded quilts, but Casey herself was slammed against the seat's iron support.
Everything shifted from the impact, pinning her between the seat and a heavy trunk. Pain shot through her shoulder, and she was unable to move.
Sam scrambled inside and quickly assessed the situation. He shoved the trunk aside so that Casey could free herself. She ignored her bleeding arm and the bump that was already rising on her head and gathered her frightened sister to her. With Sam's help, she managed to climb down into the river, carrying jenny in her arms.
"What happened, Sam?"
"I'm not quite sure. The river is so muddy, I can't see whatever it is that bogged us down."
Casey held jenny close and waded through knee- deep water, ignoring the fact that her gown was sopping wet and her shoes were probably ruined. When she reached the back of the wagon, she handed jenny to Sam and bent down to examine the damage.
"It's listing pretty badly, Sam." She felt along the bottom of the wheel. "It appears to be wedged between two rocks."
Sam bent down beside her and nodded. "It's all my fault. I should've seen the drop-off, but I didn't."
"It's not your fault," Casey assured him. "You probably kept the wagon from tipping over." She felt around the wagon spokes and was relieved to find that none of them were broken. "We are fortunate the wheel didn't come off."
"That's something, anyway," Sam said in a pained voice. "I feel real bad about this, Casey."
"Don't." She tried to sound cheerful. "Let's see if the horses can pull us free of the rocks."
Sam looked crestfallen. "They can't do it tonight-they're too tired." He sounded defeated. "Maybe in the morning we can lighten the wagon and pull it free."
Casey judged the position of the sun and nodded. "We'll have to spend the night here."
Sam looked so dejected that she placed her arm around his shoulders. "I told you not to worry. You have nothing to feel bad about. I'm so proud of you. Just look at what you have done-you brought us safely home, Sam."
He gave her a weak smile. "Almost home."
She took jenny from him and climbed up the bank, where she sat Jenny on the grass while their brother unhitched the team. Her shoulder was throbbing with a pain that was becoming difficult to ignore.
She bent down and spoke to her sister. "Jenny, you must stay right here while I help Sam. Don't go near the river."
The child, unaware of the gravity of their situation and looking at it only as a new adventure, curled up on the grass and yawned. Her eyes drifted shut almost immediately.
For two hours they unloaded the wagon and carried everything onto the riverbank.
As Casey and Sam carefully lowered the wooden crate that held their mother's china, their gazes met, communicating the unspoken worry that the dishes might have been broken in the mishap. Their mother had valued her Spode china above all her other possessions; therefore, the delicate dishes were important to her family. The trunk that Casey's mother had brought with her when she married her father had fallen into the river when she and Sam tried to carry it to shore. The fine linens inside were soaked and had to be hung across branches to dry.
Daylight was fading fast, and it was after dark when they finally rescued everything from the wagon. Casey carefully unpacked and examined every piece of her mother's china. Fortunately, none of it was broken, so with the same care she packed the dishes back in the crate.
It was a bedraggled brother and sister who stood amid their few possessions as afternoon turned into evening.
They had been so busy they hadn't even had time to observe their surroundings.
Casey stretched her cramped muscles and winced in pain. Her shoulder ached, but she tried to sound cheerful. "We are on our land now, Sam."
"Yeah, I guess so," he answered wearily. "But so far it isn't going all that well, is it? We're just lucky the river isn't swift, or it would have carried everything we own downstream with the current."
Thunder rumbled in the distance and lightning flashed across the sky. "Pray it doesn't rain tonight."
It was late when Casey spread quilts on the grass while Sam tended to the stock. "I hope today isn't a sign of troubles to come," she mumbled to herself.
Jenny woke up the minute Casey lifted her onto the quilt. Childlike, she smiled as if the day's tragedy had not touched her world.
"I'm not going to have a cookfire tonight, Jenny," Casey told her. "You'll have to eat one of the biscuits and bacon from this morning."
The child nodded and settled next to her. "Casey, will you tell me about Mama and Papa and when you all lived together in the big house?"
Sam joined them and sat with his back braced against a tree, staring broodingly in the direction of their wagon as if he could will it up the embankment. "Jenny, Casey's tired, and besides, you have heard that story a hundred times. Let her rest tonight."
"It's all right." She smiled down at her sister, who never tired of hearing about a brighter time in their lives. The child snuggled closer to her, melting Casey's heart with her sweetness. "Well, let me see," Casey began. "Papa's family had owned a bank in Albemarle County, Virginia, for generations."
"Charlottesville," Jenny supplied. "That's where we lived, wasn't it?"
"That's right Our house was on a wide boulevard with many trees. It was a big house with an upstairs and a downstairs. There was a fireplace in every room, and a wide veranda surrounded the house on all sides."
"Tell what happened to our house," Jenny urged. "Tell how it got all burned up."
Sam smiled faintly and shook his head. He knew jenny could have recited the story word for word if she chose to. But Casey patiently continued, hugging the child to her. "You were born in that house, and so was Sam, and so was I.Papa bought the house when he married Mama."
"And Mama was born in Texas and traveled all the way to Virginia to meet Papa. Then she stayed with him in Virginia." Jenny's eyes clouded. "Then she left us."
"Yes. But she didn't want to," Casey said softly. "Mama had to go away."
"Tell about the soldiers that came to town and what they did to our house."
Casey drew in a deep breath. The memory of that awful day still haunted her, an
d it probably always would. For Jenny's sake, she had managed to sugarcoat the tragedy. "There was a war raging and soldiers in blue uniforms came to Charlottesville and burned Papa's bank."
Jenny nodded. "They were Yankees. And they burned the house, too. Tell about that, Casey."
"There had been a long siege. Papa had heard that the Union soldiers had broken through our lines and would soon be in Charlottesville. He was packing us up to take us to the country, where we would be safe."
"But the soldiers got there before we could leave, didn't they, Casey?"
"That's right. They burned most of the businesses in town. I don't think they really intended for the fire to spread to family homes, but the flames were out of control and went from rooftop to rooftop. The soldiers quickly started a bucket brigade and tried to help us save our house-but it was too late."
"I want to hear how Papa saved our mama's Spode dishes. Tell about that next."
"Well, Papa was very brave and went into the house many times to rescue our belongings, and the soldiers even helped him. They saved three quilts that Grandmother Ruth had given Mama as a wedding present. And Papa saved Mama's Spode china, the very dishes her great-grandmother brought over from England when she came to this country as a young bride. And one day those dishes will belong to you, jenny."
"When I'm a bride, like Mama was when her mother gave them to her?"
"Uh-huh." Casey winced when she tried to move her shoulder. It had been hurt worse than she'd thought, and the pain was getting more severe. But there was no reason to worry Sam about it. He had enough on his mind. "That's right. Mama's dishes will be yours when you become a bride."
"When can I be a bride?"
Sam looked serious for a moment; then he managed to smile. "When you grow up and find a man who can love you as much as we do."
"Casey's grown-up, and she isn't a bride," Jenny said, yawning and laying her head in her sister's lap.
Sam chuckled. "That's because she hasn't found a man who will love her as much as you and I do."
Casey pulled a quilt over her sister, glad that Jenny was too young to realize the gravity of-their situation. "You are far too inquisitive. Now close your mouth and go to sleep."
The child was silent for a moment, then finally asked, "You mean close my eyes, don't you?"
Casey kissed her forehead. "Yes. Close your eyes and dream beautiful dreams."
"About the big house?"
"No, jenny-that's gone. Dream about growing up strong and happy in our new home. That's what Papa and Mama would have wanted for you."
"That's what you are going to do," Sam said in a determined tone.
"Let's all go to sleep and see what great adventure awaits us tomorrow," Casey said.
"We'll just be trying to get the wagon out of the river," Sam reminded her.
The four team horses pulled and strained so hard that Sam had to stop to rest them. The wagon groaned under the stress, then rolled back into the deep rock bed. It didn't seem possible that they would ever be free of the river.
Wet, muddy, and discouraged, Casey and Sam sank down on the grass to rest before they tried again.
Jenny was picking wildflowers, and she had several varieties clamped in her chubby little fist. She giggled when a butterfly landed on her hand, and then went chasing after it when it fluttered away. She did not hear the rider approaching, and he didn't see her, since she was mostly hidden by the tall grass.
The man reined in his horse just in time, guiding the animal sideways to avoid the small child.
With a heavy hand, he managed to bring his skittish mount under control.
"Look," Jenny said to the stranger, holding up her flowers for his inspection. "These flowers are growing just everywhere. Do you want to smell them?"
The man uttered a curse under his breath and dismounted. "Where are your folks?" he asked, kneeling beside her, anger coiling inside him because someone had allowed this child to wander off by herself.
Jenny pointed toward the river. "Right back there. Do you want to see them?"
His lips tightened. He supposed she belonged to one of the steady stream of sod busters who had migrated to Texas since the end of the war.
"Come on. I'll take you to them," he said, lifting her in his arms. He had never held a child before, and it felt awkward to him. He was certainly going to let the parents know how close their daughter had come to being trampled to death.
He remounted his horse, and she laughed up at him when he settled her across his leg. "Papa used to let me ride on his horse with him."
The stranger was taken by surprise when she turned to him and shoved a bright yellow flower behind his ear. "Now you're pretty," she told him.
He ground his teeth and jerked the bloom from behind his ear, crushing it in his fist. He felt a prickle of regret when he saw the disappointment on her beautiful little face and the trem bling of her chin as if she were about to cry.
"Let's find your folks," he said gruffly, nudging his horse forward.
Casey gripped the wooden spokes and pushed forward as hard as she could while Sam maneuvered the horses. She could feel the wheel give a bit, but it rocked back again, and the impact of it threw her face-first into the river. She went underwater and came up sputtering, while rivulets of mud trailed down her forehead and stung her eyes.
"Someone's coming," Sam said, reaching behind the seat for his rifle.
Casey was coughing up river water, and at the moment she couldn't see anything. By the time she could catch her breath, she saw the rider dismounting with jenny in his arms.
Like a mother hen protecting her chick, Casey quickly waded out of the water, flew up the embankment, and grabbed her sister out of the man's arms.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, clutching her sister tightly to her.
When she saw the man's murderous expression, Casey quickly stepped away from him.
"I'll tell you what I've been doing, ma'am-I've been rescuing your child. Something I wouldn't have had to do if you'd been watching her. There's no telling what could happen to her out here."
Fear climbed up her spine, and she took another tentative step away from him, not sure what his intentions were.
The stranger was tall, powerful, and lean. His dark hair was coal black, and, like Sam, he also needed a haircut. His black hat was pulled low over his forehead, so she could see only the bottom part of his face, which was covered by several days' growth of stubble. He looked exactly like she imagined a gunfighter would look-right down to the holster' that was laced about his leg as it cradled a dangerous-looking black-handled gun. Suddenly he shoved his hat back on his head, and she stared into cold, silver-gray eyes that were riveted on her in an intimidating manner.
A quick glance at Sam relieved her mind. His rifle was aimed directly at the stranger.
"Where did you find her?" Casey demanded. She frowned at her sister, who was certainly going to be reprimanded as soon as the man left.
"She was about a half a mile from here. I'd say with her short legs it took her quite a while to get that far. You should have missed her by now- why didn't you?"
Casey stood there dripping wet, attempting to wipe the mud from her face, but merely smearing it more. "We were trying to get the wagon out of the river, and I thought she was asleep."
Gabe scowled at the woman. Her gown was wet and clung to her soft curves. She certainly was not a beauty. But she did have the most unusual blue eyes he'd ever seen-they were turquoise. He couldn't tell what color her hair was, and there wasn't a clean spot on her face.
Gabe's attention suddenly focused on the boy, who rested a rifle in the curve of his arm and was watching him closely. With a quick assessment of the situation, he realized that they had real trouble.
"Where's your husband, ma'am?"
Casey was suspicious of the stranger, or, more accurately, downright frightened of him. "My husband is nearby," she said quickly, not wanting the man to think they were without protection.
"He should be back any moment."
She saw the expanse of his chest when he took a deep breath of irritation.
"You'll need to put something underneath the wheel to get leverage, or you'll never get that wagon out of the river. We need branches. I suppose you have a saw or an ax in there, boy?"
Sam nodded, looking from Casey to the man. "Yes, sir, I have an ax."
"Ma'am, you need to stay out of our way and keep the child safe," he ordered.
She was so irritated with him that she considered telling him they didn't need his help.
He took the ax Sam handed him. "You people come out here with no notion what you're in for. Why didn't you just stay where you were?"
Casey was soaking wet, in pain, and accustomed to being treated with more respect. Her temper flared. "We aren't asking for your help or your advice. Why don't you just go away and leave us alone?"
The man brushed past Casey, ignoring her outburst. She held her breath when his hand went to his gun belt, until she realized he was only unbuckling it. She was relieved when he tossed it across his saddle.
"Keep the kid away from my horse," he ordered, turning away. Without hesitation, he waded into the river to discover what was holding the wagon wheel.
At the point of admitting defeat, and feeling so bone-weary she could cry, Casey carried jenny up the riverbank and sat down to watch the stranger examine the wheel.
Casey kept a watchful eye on Sam as he accompanied the man a short distance from the river to help him chop branches off a mesquite tree. Without realizing she was doing it, she had become fascinated by the way the stranger's muscles rippled across his broad shoulders while he worked. There was power behind the ax he wielded, and some anger as well. Her gaze followed him as he waded back into the river and drove several stakes between the rocks and 'the wheel.
"Pull forward slowly," he instructed Sam. "Keep one hand on the reins, and the other on the brake. When I tell you to, push the horses hard."
Casey held her breath as the wagon inched forward. She wanted to shout for joy when it pulled out of the river and onto solid ground, but she didn't. She watched the stranger wade out of the water to stand dripping on the bank. She should thank him for helping them, but she was still seething from the unkind remarks he had made.
Heart Of Texas (Historical Romance) Page 2
