When Samuel reached them, he leaped off Samson and dashed to her. He hauled her up and into his arms and hugged her fiercely. Old Bill must be right. Samuel was indeed more than a friend.
Despite her resolve to keep her feelings for Samuel secret, Louisa let herself hug him back. A profound feeling surged through her—a feeling that Samuel cared for her and she cared for him. The sensation was joyous. In that instant, their hearts joined. But that was all that could ever be joined. Soon she would strike her bargain with her father and marry Long.
When he finally released her, Samuel’s words rushed out on his nearly breaking voice. “I thought those three had gotten you!”
“They were Osage, Samuel,” she cried. “They were about to overtake me when I spotted Mr. William’s camp.”
“Thank God you did,” he said and kissed the top of her head.
“I’m so sorry. I should never have gone off on my own.”
He nodded and took hold of her hands. “I wanted to leave you alone, as you asked, and decided to watch you from a distance. When I saw you head into the woods, I followed your tracks. The trees were so thick I couldn’t see you. I had to take it slow so I wouldn’t lose your trail. I knew I could find you as long as I could detect your path. Then I saw the tracks of three horses join yours. The deep ruts told me they were racing after you. When I heard their yelps in the distance, I knew you were being chased by Indians. I feared I would be too late.”
He wasn’t too late. But, sadly, it was too late for them.
One of his hands slipped down her back, and he brought her close to him again. He cupped her face with his right hand and gazed intently into her eyes. “I don’t want to lose you—not to Indians, not to Commander Long, not to your father—ever!”
Regret surged through her veins. “Samuel…I…”
Samuel finally noticed the trapper watching them and he released her. He extended his hand and introduced himself to Old Bill. “I am greatly indebted to you, Sir. Thank you for saving Louisa.”
“I only saved her from three Osage. I have a feeling you will save her from a great deal more.”
Chapter 15
Samuel invited Old Bill to dinner. It was the least he could do after the man saved Louisa’s life. He still couldn’t believe she’d come so close to death or a fate worse than death. And it had been his fault. If he’d just told her how he felt about her, and given her some hope, she wouldn’t have reacted the way she did. And he should have stopped her. But he wanted to give her a taste of the freedom he knew she craved.
The only good thing to come of Louisa’s ordeal was that it forced him to the realization that he genuinely loved her. He likely would have come to that conclusion soon anyway, but when he’d thought he’d lost her, it made him intensely aware of how deeply he cared for Louisa. He’d never felt worry and fear so deeply. Only love could make a man hurt like that.
On the way back, Louisa explained to Old Bill the situation with her father and Commander Long. Perhaps she wanted her rescuer to understand why she’d felt the need to run off into the forest alone.
“My father wants to marry me off to a man named Commander Long, a plantation owner from Louisiana,” Louisa said. “Long intends to raise an army to rise up against Spain and take the Province of Texas from them. The Commander appears to be a man who is promoting his own interests and he needs a wife purely to gratify his ambition.”
“But why pick Louisa?” Old Bill asked Samuel.
“I’ve wondered the same thing. Aside from her obvious beauty, I think he wants to be able to say to his supporters that his wife is a Texan.”
“Long isn’t so much picking me,” Louisa said. “My father is picking him. And Long is flattered enough to go along with it as long as I meet his needs. He needs me merely to decorate his arm as he proceeds with recruiting his army.”
“In any case, he’s a big-headed, brash filibuster,” Samuel said with disdain. “He’ll have to do his filibustering without you, Louisa.”
She glanced over at him but she didn’t smile.
He couldn’t wait to get her alone. He wanted to share that he loved her. He’d meant what he told her earlier when he let his tongue say what his heart thought. No one was going to take her away from him. Ever.
The trapper asked few questions and listened intently. “That’s why you were asking about freedom,” he told Louisa.
“Yes,” she said. “I’ve lost all control over my life. I’ll be commanded to marry against my will and forced to live with someone I don’t love for the rest of my life—that’s…”
“Not going to happen,” Samuel finished for her. “I won’t let it.”
“Sometimes in life, we don’t have choices. We just do what we have to do,” she said, and rode on ahead.
He stared after her, baffled by her comment.
When the three of them reached the cabins, his brothers were still chopping and stacking wood. They glanced up at them and then concern showed on all their faces as they took in Louisa’s disheveled and scruffy appearance.
“What happened?” Steve asked.
“I’ll tell all of you at once. Where is Father?” Samuel asked.
“He’s in the barn grooming George,” Cornelius said.
“Baldy, Melly, and Adam are all in the clinic. A patient of his just left,” Thomas added. “I’ll go get them.” He took off at a sprint.
“Tell Baldy to bring salve for Louisa’s face,” Samuel called after him.
Having heard them arrive, his father emerged from the horse shed.
“You can feed and water your horses over here, stranger,” his father called.
The three of them rode up to the horse shed and dismounted. His father glanced at Louisa with concern but didn’t ask any questions. Samuel knew he could also tell the mare and Samson had both been ridden hard.
Samuel introduced Old Bill to his father.
“We’ll explain everything when we’re all together,” Samuel said.
“Go on inside then. There’s coffee already made. I’ll take care of these horses and join you shortly,” his father said.
They dismounted and strode toward the house.
“Nice setup,” Old Bill said, glancing around.
“We’ve only been here six months, but the seven of us managed to accomplish a great deal in that time,” Samuel told him. “Louisa and her little brother recently started working here too.”
They entered their home, poured coffee, and Old Bill and Samuel took seats at the table as they waited for everyone else. Louisa washed her face and hands, put an apron on, and then started to bustle around making preparations for dinner. Samuel kept an eye on her in case she needed any help as he discussed the trapper’s recent beaver hunts with the man.
“Where are you going from here?” Samuel asked.
“Further south. Toward Nacogdoches,” Old Bill said.
“Why leave the area?” Samuel asked. “There are plenty of beaver along Pecan Bayou. My father won’t mind your trapping on our place. The beavers’ dams jam up the waterways and cause flooding. Their dams force water out of the natural stream channel and spread it across our pastures, which can turn them into marshes. And that takes grass away from our cattle and in turn, food away from people.”
Before Old Bill could answer everyone else filed into the house.
Samuel and Old Bill stood. He introduced the trapper to everyone.
“Old Bill saved my life,” Louisa said as Melly, Baldy, and Adam put all the food on the table. Then she told them all about her hair-breath escape from the Osage.
“Let me see that welt on your face,” Baldy said. He took a close look and told her, “It’s only reddened. It’ll disappear in a day or so. Put some of this on it tonight when you go to bed.” He handed her a small jar of salve and she stuck it in her apron.
While the women finished preparing dinner, Adam told the trapper, “Samuel saved Louisa and me. We got ourselves stuck in quicksand in the Red. We were gonna di
e. But Samuel pulled us out with a rope.”
“Don’t feel bad about getting bogged down, sonny,” Old Bill said. “That river is so quicky in places it might even bog down a butterfly.”
Adam laughed at that.
In a few minutes, Melly and Louisa had spread out a bountiful meal of chicken and vegetable soup, fresh bread, butter, and two pecan pies for dessert. Melly had said pecans trees were plentiful in the area, hence the settlement’s name Pecan Point, and their nuts had just ripened. Tomorrow, they would gather more nuts to replenish their supply.
After Baldy said the blessing, they all ate, asking Old Bill a number of questions about all the country and happenings between Mississippi and the Texas Province. Besides the occasional newspaper, travelers were about the only source of news in the settlement.
“One important thing,” Old Bill said, “in April, Congress adopted the flag of the United States as having thirteen red and white stripes and twenty stars, one star for each state. Stars will be added whenever a new state is added to the Union.”
“What will be the next state?” Adam asked.
“It looks like it will be Illinois,” Old Bill said.
“Once the Illinois star is added, we’ll order a flag,” his father said.
“Have you ever killed an alligator, Old Bill?” Steve asked.
“Why yes, I have,” Old Bill said. “On the Sabine, I came across a woman with three little children in her wagon. Hysterical, she could only scream and point to the river where the water was churning furiously. When I realized what was happening, I raced my mount some distance into the water, jumped off, and plunged into the water.”
“What was happening?” Thomas asked.
“The poor man had waded out into the river to see if it was safe to ford with his wagon. He was seized by an alligator and drug under. By the time I got there and planted my knife in the creature’s skull, the man had lost his left hand.”
“Good heavens!” Louisa said. “Are there alligators in the Red River?”
“Indeed,” Old Bill told her. “It’s best to view the Red from afar.”
Both Louisa’s and Adam’s eyes widened as they glanced at each other.
“I’ll be glad when they finish building that ferry,” Melly said.
“It’s only useful when the water is high enough to float it,” Stephen said.
“What happened to the man?” Baldy asked. “How did you stop the bleeding?”
“I made his wife press cloth to it while I made a fire real quick. While the fire heated, the man emptied my whiskey bottle, with just a wee bit of help from me. Then I heated my knife and charred that stump.”
“Well done! You saved that man’s life twice,” Baldy said. “If you hadn’t done that, he would have bled to death or the wound would have festered.”
“Please, let’s have no more talk of such things at the table,” Melly said.
“Where’s the prettiest spot you’ve been too?” Steve asked him.
“Why it’s here, young Sir. I’ve never seen taller trees. The grass is as thick as lamb’s wool. And even though the Red is a trickle right now at the end of summer, I can tell she’s a beauty when she’s running strong.”
“The Red River, whether a torrent or a trickle, is always treacherous,” Stephen told Louisa. “It is navigable only seven to eight months of the year and nearly dry the rest of the year. That’s when quicksand makes it treacherous for uninformed travelers.”
The trapper was pleasant company during the rest of their dinner, and they all talked of politics, nature, and bear hunting. Steve and Adam continued to pepper the man with questions, which Old Bill patiently answered. Sometimes his answer was a long, fantastical story and sometimes it was a short quip.
Samuel didn’t want to be rude and leave, but he was getting anxious to speak privately with Louisa. However, she seemed to be as enthralled by the trapper’s stories as everyone else was.
“How is it you’ve survived this long in the wilderness and among Indians?” Steve asked, gazing at the trapper with open admiration in his eyes.
Old Bill grinned. “Sleeping or waking, I’ve made it my habit to have one eye open and the other not more than half closed.”
Their father laughed aloud. “You sound a lot like my oldest brother, Sam. He always said the West required keeping an eye out for threats in four different directions at the same time.”
“When Captain Sam said that,” Baldy told them, “the western edge of the frontier was Kentucky.”
“True,” Father agreed, looking thoughtful. “Twenty years later, the West is now about seven-hundred miles further west.”
“Both places require a person to stay vigilant and be ready to act,” Samuel said.
“Indeed,” Old Bill said. “The West is no place for amateurs. As for Indians, I’ve found that if you can talk to them, especially in their language, and you’re not planning on staying too long, most tribes are quite tolerant.”
“I presume you’re just traveling through then,” Thomas said.
“Presume anything you please,” Old Bill said, with a half-smile. Then Old Bill’s expression became serious and he turned toward Samuel and Louisa. “What about Commander Long? I sense the man’s spirit is here disturbing both of you.”
Old Bill’s observation was true. “Louisa and I are about to go discuss that,” Samuel answered. “But if you have any suggestions, they’re welcome.”
“Only one. Live boldly while you have the chance, and when the time comes, die bravely.”
“When will you return, mister?” Steve asked.
“About the time I come back,” Old Bill said with a wink.
It was time to live boldly. The second they were alone in the woods, Samuel reached for Louisa and kissed her. Their lips melted together like butter on hot bread and the kiss grew even more delicious with every second. When she opened her mouth for him, and he deepened the kiss, he felt his soul touch hers. And the touch seared his heart, branding him as hers. And branding her as his.
It was then that he knew for an absolute certainty that he was meant to marry Louisa. He intended to shield her from further hurt. He wanted to make her hopes and dreams come true. And he needed her to make his own hopes and dreams come true.
But when he held her tighter, she stiffened in his arms. He sensed that she was holding back. Baffled he released Louisa and gazed down at her. He marveled again at her natural beauty and her alluring body. Perhaps she just needed to be reassured of his feelings. “You’re as lovely tonight as wildflowers blooming on the prairie in the spring.”
“Some of those wildflowers have barbs,” Louisa said and stepped away. “You have to be careful which ones you pick.”
Her life was a thorny mess. But he would do whatever he had to to make Louisa his wife. He moved around in front of her and gazed into her face. “I’m a careful man, Louisa. That’s why I’m twenty-one and still unmarried. But I know I want to pick you for my wife. You’re one of the purest and most beautiful of all God’s creatures. But I want more than your beautiful body. I want your heart. If you’ll have me, I’d like for us to be married.”
Her eyes widened a moment and her cheeks flushed, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, confusion paraded across her beautiful face.
“I have been as bothered as a fly in a tar pot about how to get you out of this mess,” he said. “The surest way is for us to get married.”
She stood there thoughtfully. Then, with a sad look on her face, she shook her head. “I can’t.”
That was not the reaction he was expecting.
She turned away from him. “I can’t marry you. I must marry Commander Long.” Her voice was firm, final.
Samuel grabbed her elbow and turned her around again. “What? You can’t seriously intend to marry that pompous ass.”
“I do intend to. I have to. To save Adam,” she cried. “I’m going to agree to marry Commander Long but only if my father agrees to let Adam stay here and live with B
aldy and Melly. I have to think of Adam first.”
Now he understood why she’d been trying to push him away. “Adam wouldn’t want you to make that bargain. And neither to do I.”
“I’ll do anything to protect him. His life will be so much better with Baldy and Melly. It’s a bargain I’m willing to make for my brother’s sake.”
“Louisa that is an exceedingly bad idea. You can’t trust your father to keep that bargain. Once you’re married, he could easily renege and come and get his son. Legally and rightfully, the boy is his.”
Her brow pinched and her lips tightened as she struggled with that truth. “I hadn’t thought of that.” Clearly confused, she sighed heavily and took a few steps away again.
“You know it’s true, Louisa. He considers Adam his property. Just as he does you. He won’t give him up.”
“But I’ll get him to swear to me…”
“You know you can’t trust him. He may pretend to agree just to get you to commit to this marriage, but he’ll soon come for him. And by then it will be too late for you. You’ll already be married to that mad man.”
They stared at one another across a sudden thunderous silence.
The shock of defeat held her still. He could almost see wretchedness fill her as her shoulders slumped. With a groan of distress, she stepped away again.
“I can protect Adam,” he said. “But not without you. If you’re gone, we would have no right to claim Adam. But as his adult sister, his blood relative, you could. Marry me and I’ll get you out of this mess.”
She raised her chin and turned to face him. “I’m not getting married to get out of a mess.”
“Yet you were willing to marry Long?”
“Not for me. For Adam!”
“If you go off with Commander Long to Nacogdoches or he sends you to some Louisiana Plantation, Adam will be miserable,” Samuel told her. “You think you’re doing what’s best for him, but you’re not.”
Red River Rifles (Wilderness Dawning—the Texas Wyllie Brothers Series Book 1) Page 15
