Fated Memories (40 page)

“
Oh hell, Charlotte,” he said, as though talking to an ignorant child, “that only applies to sons.” He staggered across the room on his way to the liquor cabinet. “Don’t you know anything?”

“
Thank God we had a daughter then! Otherwise we’d be overrun with illegitimate children to pay for.”

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I seriously doubt that.” He lifted his proud head. “If I’d had a son, I’d’ve taught him the rule of thumb every red-blooded male worth his salt already knows.”

“
And that is?”

“
If you gotta itch, you don’t scratch it with a good girl! You go to someone who can take care of it with no problems.” Eathen danced a light shuffle, a stupid grin plastered across his face. “That way, you don’t need to worry ‘bout it comin’ back to haunt you later on down the road!”

“
What do you tell him about all the diseases he can catch? Some of which can haunt him the rest of his life.”

“
That’s just if he ain’t choosy ‘bout who he takes to his bed.” He nodded, agreeing with himself. “If a man has enough money, he don’t need to worry ‘bout things like that, Charlotte.”

“
Hoorah for Eathen Thornton!” She twirled, throwing her hands into the air. “The man with all the answers! I’m glad now I had a daughter. God only knows what I woulda ended up with if I’d had a son of yours!”

“
I can tell you right now,” he pulled a bottle of his best bourbon from the cabinet, “one thing you wouldn’t have ended up with! And that’s the goddamn shame of havin’ to send someone out to drag his ass home!”

“
You mean like Frank tried to do with Little Frank after he ran off and married Janet.”

“
Well, hell! Can you blame him?” Eathen twisted the cap off the bottle to throw it over his shoulder. “She’s just one step up from bein’ white trash, for Christ’s sake.” He glared at her, before lifting the bottle to his mouth. “McKennah may not be the most conscientious son-of-a-bitch walkin’,” he swallowed another drink and blew out a breath, “but with what he had to work with, he at least wanted Little Frank to marry someone with some sense!”

“
I think Janet’s a very nice girl. So does Sarah. Just because she didn’t come from a wealthy family, don’t mean she’s trash.”

“
All depends on which side of the fence you’re standin’ on, Charlotte.” Eathen ran a rough hand over his stubbled jaw. “One thing’s for sure though, she’s white. Guess he coulda done worse. Look at us! We sure as hell did!”

“
Eathen,” Charlotte sat down on the corner of the raised hearth, “I don’t condone what Jessie did, but can’t you try to look at this from her point of view? She’s young. She fell in love. Can we really blame her for what she couldn’t help?”

With the bottle of bourbon poised halfway to his mouth, he stared at her. “Charlotte, have you lost all your goddamn senses? She went and got herself knocked up by an Indian! She couldn’t’ve done any worse if she’d gone to Mississippi and got herself knocked up by a nigger!” He took a long pull from the bottle and drew an arm across his mouth. “I swear to Christ. I must be the only person ‘round here with any sense left.”

“
No, Eathen,” she sighed, “you’re just the one who thinks with his pride ‘stead of his heart.”

“
Now I understand where she got it from.” Eathen weaved his way to a chair, the bottle clutched tight in his hand. “You think bein’ in love makes everything all right. It don’t matter that she shames her family. Just as long as she’s with the man she thinks she’s in love with. What the hell does a sixteen-year-old girl know ‘bout bein’ in love in the first goddamn place?!” he growled.

“
Not a whole lot, I guess.” Charlotte picked up the poker to push a log further back on the fire. “I married you at that age and look what I ended up with.”

“
I can tell you what you ended up with, Charlotte. You ended up with a man who has more money than anyone else in the whole goddamn state of Montana! Look around you woman!” He waved the bottle he held through the air. “Do you think I wanta leave all this to some goddamn half-breed? You better pull your head outta your ass and think, woman! I didn’t get where I am today by sittin’ on my brains and lettin’ the world pass me by. You and Jessie’ve always had the best of everything money could buy. Now this is the thanks I get!”

“
No one said you haven’t worked hard for this family, Eathen. All I’m tryin’ to say is can’t you try to look at the situation from Jessie’s point of view? I feel terrible she’s pregnant with an Indian baby too.” She reached out her hand to him then dropped it back to her side. “She’s our daughter. I feel we should try ‘n understand why she did what she did!”

“
Maybe she didn’t do anything!” he breathed, banging the now half-empty bottle down hard on the arm of the chair and splashing bourbon over his hand. “Maybe the son-of-a-bitch forced himself on her!”

“
I doubt that’s what happened, Eathen. I don’t think Two Spirits is the type of young man who would take advantage of an innocent girl.”

“
You don’t, huh? Then please tell me what the hell he did do. Jessie’s sixteen-years-old! He’s got to be at least,” he tried to calculate through his drunken haze, “twenty-one…twenty-two? Now,” he bobbed his dark head, “you tell me who took advantage of who?”

“
Yes, at his age he shoulda known better ‘n to set his sights on a girl Jessie’s age. But you gotta remember, we’re talkin’ ‘bout our daughter, Eathen. Jessie’s never heard the word ‘no’ in her life. That’s the way we raised her. Anything and everything laid at her feet. I don’t feel the blame can be placed on just one of our heads. I think we both have to share in it for the way we spoiled her.”

“
A daughter’s place is with her mother when it comes to learnin’ the facts of life. It was your place to teach her right from wrong, Charlotte. I can see now I shoulda never trusted you with such an important task. When she comes home,” he shook a limp hand in her direction, “I’ll see to it she knows the importance of high morals.”

Pushing herself from the hearth, Charlotte stood for a moment, staring down at him. As his chin fell to his chest and he began to snore, she lifted the bottle from his hand. “Talk about the blind leadin’ the blind.”

***

“
Miz Charlotte, wuz you able ter talks Mist’ Eathen into eatin’ sumpin’?” Hattie asked, as Charlotte walked into the kitchen.

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No,” she pulled a chair out from the table, “not yet. He’s content to sit in front of the fire and drown his sorrows.”

“
All dat drinkin’s gwing ter kills him one of des days effen he ain’ keerful.” She lifted down two cups from the cupboard. Taking the pot of coffee from the stove, she moved over to the table. “Ah sho hopes he ain’ still lak dis w’en dat long ha’rd man brings Miss Jessie home.” Hattie poured the cups full of coffee and set the pot down on a hot-pad. “Dat happens, she jes mout teks off agin.”

“
I don’t think she’ll get the chance to leave again, Hattie. Eathen plans to send her away until after the baby’s born.”

“
Well, whar’s he fixin’ ter sen’s her?” She plopped down in the chair across from Charlotte. “Y’all ain’ got no fambly, ceptin’ Miss Martha an’ Mist’ John an’ dey bes all de way back east.”

“
Hattie,” Charlotte jumped up from her chair, “I think you’ve just found the solution to our problem.” She threw her arms around the woman’s shoulders.

“
Ah doan know whut Ah did,” she continued to blow on the steaming coffee, “but effen you’s happy, den Ah guess Ah’s happy.”

“
Eathen,” Charlotte walked towards him to shake him awake, “I may have found the answer to our problem of where to send Jessie to have her baby.”

Bleary eyed, he stared up at her. “I’m listenin’.”

“
We can send her to Martha and John. I’m sure they’d let her come live with them.”

“
Maybe,” he said, his eyelids beginning to droop, and then grow wide as he sat forward in his chair. “And just maybe they might wanta keep the baby. Charlotte, you’re right. You could just have the answer.”

At the angry scowl covering her face he drew back. “What?”

“
I don’t think we have the right to say who’s gonna keep Jessie’s baby. She should have the last say in something that important.”

“
I don’t know why,” he declared, the sullenness back in his voice, “she sure as hell can’t bring it back here!”

“
For now, Eathen, I think we should worry ‘bout gettin’ her back home,” she told him, her patience with him at last exhausted. “We can talk about the rest later.”

“
You…can talk all you want, Charlotte. The fact remains, she ain’t bringin’ that kid back to this house. If she tries, I’ll see to it she’ll never step foot inside these doors herself!” He turned on his side in the chair to fall back to sleep.

Chapter Twenty-Six

For three days the heavy snows continued to fall, making it impossible to travel. Two Spirits and Jessie remained inside the small dwelling, safe and dry.

“
Two Spirits,” Jessie sat cross-legged beside the fire, “does it bother you that the child I’m carryin’ ain’t a boy?”

“
No. In the years to come, I am sure you will bear me a son.” Two Spirits pushed all thoughts of Pehta’s dire warnings from his mind. “Right now, it is our daughter’s turn to live.”

“
My father wanted a son. I know he loves me, but if he could’ve had a choice, he would have chosen to have a boy. A strong, strappin’ son who looks like him, to take over the Thornton Empire when he’s ready to step down.”

“
Some men judge their manhood by how many sons they can sire. It gives them a feeling of immortality. They feel that only sons can pass on their seed. As long as their seed lives on, so do they.”

“
Are you tellin’ me you don’t want a lot of sons to keep your seed alive? I thought Indians always wanted sons more than daughters.” She looked at him with doubt.

“
In the old days, a man needed to have many sons so they could grow up to be warriors and protect our people. Now my people live on reservations and the warriors sit idly by watching themselves growing old and useless.”

“
That’s so sad, Two Spirits. I always had the feelin’ Daddy gave me everything I wanted because he felt guilty about wantin’ a son so much.”

“
If your father felt that strong about a son, why didn’t your mother give him one?”

“
Hattie said my mother never wanted any more children after me. I used to hear them fightin’ about it sometimes when they thought I’d gone to bed.”

“
I think you are wrong about the importance your father placed on having a son, Jessie. I have seen the way he looks at you.” Two Spirits drew her into his arms. “No man could look at a daughter with that much love in his eyes and be sorry he had fathered her.”

“
I know he loves me.” Jessie ran a light hand up his arm. “What I mean is he wanted a son to prove how much of a man he is. Daddy’s a powerful man in Montana, Two Spirits. I’m the only child he has. That’s got to be very humiliatin’ for him.”

“
I think you worry too much, little one.”

“
Now I’ve brought even more shame on him by gettin’ myself pregnant. How he must hate me, if he’s learned why I left like I did.”

“
Jessie, why do you torture yourself with thoughts you don’t even know are real? If your father knows about us, he won’t be intent on harming you. I will be the one he will come for.”

“
Oh, Two Spirits,” she laughed a bitter laugh, pulling away from him, “let me tell you about my father. When he learns about us, he’ll be so angry he’ll come for both of us! I learned a long time ago, the most important thing in the life of Eathen Thornton’s not Mama or me, but how much respect he can get from his peers. The shame I’ve caused him,” she shivered, “will make him livid with anger.”

“
I’ll protect you, Jessie. You’re my woman now. I will protect you with my life if I have to.”

“
How much longer do we have to stay here?” Jessie cast a wary look around the small dwelling. “We should be far away by now.”

“
We must wait until the snow has stopped. If we try to leave before, it will be too dangerous. The mountain trail is very hard to see if one does not know where to look and with the snow blinding us, it would be easy for us to miss the pass.”

“
I feel like an animal caught in a trap.” She laid her head against his chest. “Just waitin’ for someone to come.”

“
Jessie, if we cannot see the trails then no one else can either. The blizzard has kept us safe. You must force yourself to stop worrying.” He gave her flat stomach a gentle pat. “It is not good for the little one.”

“
It won’t be easy, but I’ll try, Two Spirits.”

“
Get some rest while I go for more firewood. Our supply is dwindling fast.” He drew back her long hair to kiss the side of her neck. “I will not be long.”

Taking his advice, she went to their bed, trying to rid herself of the terrible fears refusing to loosen their hold on her. As she lay in the soft robes, she thought back over all that had happened in the days since she had met Two Spirits. That she loved him from almost the first second she had seen him, there was not a doubt in her mind. But had she known all the trouble that love would cause, would she have still tried to win him for her own? Yes! She knew there could never be anyone else for her. Like her father, she met life head on.

Had it not been for the color of his skin, her father would have accepted Two Spirits into their life. She had seen the open respect showing on his face when Two Spirits had bested Jake that day in the holding pen. And later when they walked to the house, he admitted how much he admired him.