She suspected, though, that his heart was soft.
She wanted to see if he would have the same effect on her when she wasn’t being rescued from certain death. She wasn’t in any danger of swooning again, but she hoped he could once again ease the hurt inside her, if only for a few moments before she had to go back to her own lonely life.
“There now, you’re looking far better,” Melly said giving her an admiring look. “You are truly a lovely young lady when not covered in mud and a tangled mop of hair.”
“Thank you,” Louisa said and stood, wearing a borrowed light-blue gown. Fortunately, the too big waist could be tightened, with a sash. However, when she glanced down at the hem it dragged against the wooden floor.
Mrs. Grant chuckled. “We’ll have to hem that.”
“I’m grateful for the loan of it,” Louisa told her. “Will you show me how to hem it up? I’ve never sewn anything.”
“Of course I will. How do those boots fit? I’m tall, but I have small feet.”
“With these stockings, they’re fine. They’re the best boots I’ve ever worn.”
“She’s finished, you can come in,” Mrs. Grant called to the men.
Louisa stared at the door as a shiver of excitement rippled through her.
Samuel, followed by Adam, stepped inside and he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Louisa. It didn’t seem possible, but she was even more beautiful than he’d thought. Her still damp hair hung to her waist and the borrowed gown made her eyes look even bluer. Her fair face blushed as he gazed at her and she shyly glanced down.
He cleared his throat and said, “My father and Dr. Grant just left for the settlement to spread word of both raids, the one here by the Osage and the one on your place by Comanches. They assume your father will spread the word on the north side of the river.”
“What about your brothers?” Melly asked Samuel. “Are they safe out there in the pasture?”
“I surely hope so,” Samuel said and raked his fingers through his hair. “After last night they’ll be particularly vigilant and stay together. My father wants me to go check on them and our prize bull just as soon as Louisa’s and Adam’s father shows up.”
As he and Louisa ate their breakfast, his eyes kept darting to her. He felt a certain disappointment that their time together would soon be ending. He wanted to get to know her better. He tried to assess her beautiful features. She had perfect pink lips and sparkling eyes, but she seemed troubled and edgy about something.
He was too—worried about his brothers encountering more bands of braves. Years ago, when Father first told them that he wanted to move to the Province of Texas, Samuel made a promise to his sisters to keep their father and brothers safe in their new home on the frontier. And a man doesn’t make promises he can’t keep. So he’d made himself their protector—a self-appointed guardian angel. He was still working on the angel part, but he was a confident fighter, ready to take on any threat to those he cared about. He’d been in more than a few scrapes with those who dared to pick on his brothers, especially when they were all younger.
Thomas, however, was a more cautious type, often quiet and thoughtful, sometimes even pensive. Carefree Cornelius was the family’s boisterous frolicker who found a way to say something funny nearly every day. Sometimes that got him in trouble. Their youngest brother, Steve, was Cornelius’ opposite, taking everything seriously and more prone to want to work with the horses than cattle.
All three could shoot well, but up until last night, they’d never had to fight Indians. Only he and his father had joined other men from the settlement in several skirmishes with hostiles.
“You and your brother need to stay here until your father comes for you,” Samuel told Louisa. Already, his protective instincts made him want to keep Louisa and Adam safe. “If he doesn’t arrive today, we’ll find places for you to sleep.”
“Louisa, you and Adam can stay with my husband and me,” Melly said. “We have extra beds we sometimes use when we have more than one patient.”
“Or Adam could sleep on a pallet in front of our hearth,” Samuel said.
“Staying here until Pa returns would be wise. But he should be back soon. Tomorrow at the latest,” Louisa told him. Unlike her brother, she ate slowly, taking only small bites. “Your cooking is marvelous,” she told Melly. “Thank you for making it for us.”
“It is my pleasure, dear,” Melly said. She poured some coffee and took a seat. “It’s good to have the company of a woman for a change. I am severely outnumbered here—six to one.”
Louisa chuckled and her face lit with warmth. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been around another woman for any length of time too.”
“How long have you been here at the Pecan Point settlement?” Melly asked.
“Just a week,” Louisa said.
“You must still be weary from your journey then,” Melly told her.
“I confess, I was completely spent when we arrived. I thought we would never get here.”
“I wasn’t tired,” Adam said. “Men are supposed to stay strong. ‘Cause women ain’t strong. Except my sister. I think she’s strong.”
Samuel had to agree about Louisa. Escaping Comanches took remarkable courage. “Your sister needs you to stay strong. However, all the women I’ve ever known were often stronger than men.” By the expression on Adam’s face, he could tell that was the first time the boy had heard such a thing.
Samuel wiped his mouth and stood. “Time for me to get out and stand guard.”
“You’ll stay here until my father comes?” Louisa asked.
Samuel saw fear in her eyes and something else that she wasn’t saying. “Yes, until you go back with your father.”
They heard a rider coming and Samuel grabbed his rifle and peered out before he opened the door.
“Louisa! Adam!” the rider shouted.
“Pa’s here,” Adam said.
Samuel wondered why the boy sounded disappointed and why Louisa tensed at the news of her father’s arrival. He frowned as he opened the front door for Louisa.
“What the devil happened?” the man shouted to Louisa as soon as he saw her.
Their scowling father, who appeared to be in his late thirties, was dark-haired and rawboned. His sharp features gave his face a stubborn arrogance. Stained, dirty, well-worn clothes hung on his tall frame. He rode a horse that obviously hadn’t been groomed before it was saddled, although it appeared to be of good breeding.
Samuel hoped the man’s glowering demeanor was due to worry over his children. He stepped off the porch and extended his hand. “I’m Samuel Wyllie, Sir.”
Mr. Pate didn’t take his hand. “Have you touched my daughter? If you have, you’ll both pay dearly.” His voice was accusing and hard.
Samuel lowered his hand and stepped back. He clenched his jaw as he said, “I shouldn’t even respond to that absurd question. But I will for Louisa’s sake. I carried her here to get her help. She was too weak to walk.”
“Father,” Louisa said, “Mr. Wyllie and his family have shown us only the greatest kindnesses. And Samuel behaved only honorably.”
Pate glared at Samuel and then Louisa. “I asked you a question. What the devil happened?”
Louisa took a few tentative steps toward him. “Comanches attacked last night. About seven or eight of them.” She explained how she and Adam hid all night and then crossed the river early that morning. And how Samuel had saved them from certain death in quicksand.
“You should have stayed put,” he said. He finally noticed her bandaged hands. “Why are your hands bandaged?”
“The rope burned them when I pulled her out of the quicksand,” Samuel answered.
Once again, Pate ignored him and said, “You ought to have stuck to the buffalo trail, you foolish girl. Where are my pistols and rifle?”
Considerable embarrassment shown on Louisa’s face.
Samuel detested this man already. He hadn’t even dismounted, much less hugged hi
s two children who’d barely escaped death twice. How could a man be so calloused toward his own children?
Louisa took a deep breath. “The Indians stole the pistols and powder. And we lost the rifle in the river.”
“It sunk in the quicksand,” Adam said in a meek voice.
Pate’s florid face grew even redder. “I might have known better than to leave my weapons and home to be safeguarded by a weak, simple-minded female and a scamp of a boy.”
Samuel turned to Louisa expecting her to dissolve in tears. Instead, only hurt flashed in her beautiful eyes and she was clenching her lips. Right now, she wasn’t drowning in quicksand, she was drowning in her father’s meanness.
The man’s cruelty made outrage swell in Samuel’s chest. He straightened his back and said, “That is uncalled for, Mr. Pate. She’s far from simple-minded. Your daughter showed incredible bravery in the face of serious danger. Both at her home and at the river.”
“If that’s so, why are all my possessions gone? Why is my home ransacked? Why have I lost my pistols and my rifle? Women on the frontier are expected to guard their homes with their lives. Clearly, my daughter failed.”
“She didn’t fail! She kept her young brother and herself from being taken captive,” Samuel argued.
“You shouldn’t have left them alone! Especially at night,” Melly said. The tone of her voice held obvious disapproval. “If she hadn’t hidden, I don’t have to tell you what would have happened to her.”
“She’s eighteen! Many women her age defend their homes and their children on the frontier. But now, what kind of life will she and her brother have?” Pate spat. “We’ve lost everything. Everything!”
“You have your children alive! And I see a pistol on your side and a rifle sheathed in a saddle, which sits on a quality horse,” Samuel said. “Be thankful you have those.”
“Who are you to be telling me what to be thankful for?” Pate growled. “I’ll be thankful when I kill those savages!”
“I’d strongly advise caution, Mr. Pate,” Samuel told him firmly.
“A man must protect his property at all costs,” Pate said. “Damn any man to hell who sympathizes with Indians, including you! They robbed me.”
“I know they did. And another tribe attempted to steal our horses last night. We killed three braves. I’m not sympathetic to thieves. But not all Indians are thieves or hostile. Some are peaceful traders and honorable men.”
Condemnation and hatred skewered Pate’s features. “I’ll kill any Indian I can find, big and little. Nits make lice.”
Samuel took a step toward the man. “Listen to me. There are both Comanche and Osage conducting raids. My father and friend have gone to warn the other settlers on this side of the river. If you are wise, you should go and join them at the settlement to see what they plan. Then you should warn all the settlers on your side of the Red.”
“I’ll go, but it will be to gather up men north of the Red. They’ll help me retrieve my belongings. We can take care of a few renegades. We’ll kill and scalp all we find. By God’s heaven, it’s honorable and right to kill Indians.”
Samuel rolled his eyes at the man’s hard line against hostiles. Wholesale killing of any Indian Pate found could touch off a full-fledged war with more than one tribe. “No possessions are worth your life, Sir. Unless you are an experienced Indian fighter and know this country well, you will only be putting your head at risk if you encounter Osages. And if you lose a battle to the Comanche, you’ll wish you were dead before they finish with you.”
“So, you’d expect me to just let them rob me of everything I own?” Pate nearly shouted.
“No, of course not. But only the guilty deserve punishment. And there’s a time and place to make a stand. We have to be smart about this,” Samuel insisted. “The Comanche are tactical fighters. They will send a few braves ahead to lure their enemies into an ambush. They’ll wait, concealed, until you’re within range. Then they’ll strike, raining arrows down upon you. Meanwhile, you will have already taken your single shot with your flintlocks and will have nothing but your knife to protect you from deadly arrows.”
Samuel knew that inexperienced fighters often made this mistake. They would fire their weapons too soon. Then the warriors would swoop in on them before they could reload.
“Let’s go. We’re leaving this coward. Climb up here behind me,” he ordered Louisa. “Adam, you can walk.”
Louisa glanced down at her brother’s bare feet. They were already scratched and blistered. “I’ll walk. Adam can ride behind you, Father.”
Samuel glanced at Adam. The boy’s saddened face broke his heart. “Leave them here, please,” he urged. “Since you intend to go after the thieves who robbed your home, they’ll be safer here until you are able to stay home with them. There are six men here and we are all well-armed. They will be safe here until this Indian threat has died down.”
Pate sneered. “What? You think I’d leave my eighteen-year-old daughter with six men—all strangers to me? For all I know, you’re an unholy bunch.”
“Sir, I assure you, we are all honorable, men of God. My father is a respected cattleman. Our friend, Dr. Grant is even a preacher.”
Pate grunted. “I can just imagine the sermons he’d preach. And I don’t intend to listen to them. Any preacher who’d settle in a Catholic Province is not a man of God—unfit to even sing a hymn to a dead horse. All of you must be doing the devil’s bidding.”
Samuel heard Melly gasp.
“Keep talking like that if you’re tired of living,” Samuel warned. He would hate to challenge this man in front of his children, but the irrational fool was testing the limits of Samuel’s patience. “And we live within the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase, not in a Catholic Province.”
“That’s a matter of opinion,” Pate shot back. “At the very least you’ve struck your claim on the doorstep of the devil’s own domain.”
Pate’s loathing of Catholics stemmed from a Spanish law that required men living in the Province to conform to the Roman Catholic Church. No other religious worship was tolerated. So far, though, Baldy a devout Protestant and those who listened to him had ignored the dictate without consequence. Among the settlers who were their neighbors, there were many families including Samuel’s of deep religious convictions. He would not tolerate a man saying Baldy was not a man of God. He was a breath away from beating the snot out of the man.
“Pa,” Louisa intervened. “We’re going to need a good many supplies, food, blankets, and clothing. Let me stay here in the settlement. I’ll find a job and work to earn money to buy back what we lost.”
Pate scoffed. “What do you think you can do? You’re just a girl. Not even a real woman yet. You can’t cook worth a squat. You can’t sew much more than a button. And you can barely scribble your name. That’s why I have to find you a rich husband.”
Louisa glanced down and sighed, appearing defeated by her father’s ridicule.
“I’ll hire her!” Melly said and marched over to stand beside Samuel.
Pate cocked a suspicious eye. “To do what?”
Melly looked at Louisa and put a motherly arm on her shoulder. “If it’s alright with you, Louisa, I could sure use your help with chores like the laundry and gardening. I take care of the cooking for six men. And I don’t have time to keep up with all the dirty clothes that come from men who work hard. And we need to get busy planting a fall garden.”
“I would be honored to work with you,” Louisa told Melly, keeping her back to her father. Then she lowered her voice and said, “But my brother must stay with me.”
Melly stared up at Louisa’s father. “I’ll pay her a fair wage and provide her with meals and a place to sleep too. And, I’m sure my husband would employ the boy to help him with such things as keeping his clinic clean.”
“Only if I get their pay. Not them,” Pate said. “They belong to me.”
“We can pay them once a week. But for this week, I’ll pay you in adv
ance so you’ll be able to purchase what supplies you need to get by,” Melly said, sweetening her proposal to him.
Pate cocked his head to the side and regarded her with suspicious eyes. “Why do you want to hire them?”
“Because I need the help,” Melly said. “And because I like Louisa and her brother. She’s a fine, brave young woman and I would be proud to call her my friend. And young Adam here appears to be a lad who would work hard.”
“I am,” Adam blurted out. “I promise I’ll work real hard, Mrs. Grant.”
Their sad excuse for a father nodded. “Hmm. All right, but I’ll expect payment every Friday.”
Melly withdrew two silver coins from the pouch that hung on her belt and handed them to Pate. “I’ll give you that much every Friday.”
Without so much as a wave to his children, the man pocketed the money, turned, and left.
Chapter 6
With Baldy riding beside him, Stephen rode into the Pecan Point settlement. A jumble of rough log cabins and sod houses called soddies, the settlement was little more than an infant of a town although mature principles guided its residents. First, the belief that men have the right to govern themselves as free men. And secondly, the right to worship God as their conscience leads them.
Until they could build something better, many of the settlers near the settlement were forced to construct homes out of what was called rawhide lumber—cottonwood slabs with rough bark on the outside—and they made their roofs out of limbs and thatch. The sight of these rugged shelters made Stephen wonder how they would survive the coming hard freezes during winter.
Circles of men congregated around one of the two trading posts at Pecan Point, this one operated by William Mabbitt. Some men sat on barrels, others stood or leaned on posts. Even one of Mabbitt’s competitors, Alex Wetmore, was there as well, and several Indian traders. Besides selling goods to the settlers, Wetmore and Mabbitt would occasionally trade with friendly Indians to buy furs, bowls, baskets, and other items they could then trade here and in Nacogdoches or Natchitoches for flour and other necessities.
Red River Rifles (Wilderness Dawning—the Texas Wyllie Brothers Series Book 1) Page 6
