Taming Texanna (12 page)

Swish, slap, wait, sting. “Oh, oh, please, I can’t take this. It is too much.”

Swish, slap, wait, sting. The tears began to fall in earnest and finally her legs began to flail. Again, the precise cycle of his swats did their task as Texanna began to sob. Third round elicited one more burst of tears and finally, a fourth that concluded his lesson on her tail. She knew he had finished because she felt his hand tracing lines on her bottom and she thought it must be the lines left by those evil switches. She would forever do what she could to avoid a birching again. Her pa had used leather always. She had only ever experienced one other and she never wanted one repeated on her seat. She felt as though angry hornets resided on her lower half.

Colton lifted his bride up off his lap and pulled down her skirt. He helped pull up her drawers. Texanna hiss and sucked air through her teeth as the previously soft material slid over her well-punished bottom. “Now, you understand why I did this just before we reached the house. You won’t have to sit but a few minutes. I imagine you won’t want to sit for longer than that. But, Texanna, I am going to keep this little bundle of correction in case you feel the need to disobey me again.”

She swiped at her tears and tried to calm her breathing as she said, “Yes, sir,” and she hiccupped.

Colton reached over and kissed her salty lips deeply. Then drew her in close, giving her the part she had never had, the love and forgiveness after the punishment. She might be able to handle him after all.

***

He was going to take off for the rest of the day so he could show her around the place, but she shooed him off, encouraged by suddenly chatty female relatives. Satisfied she was comfortable enough to stay, he reluctantly left her to be coddled and instructed by the women. He figured if she were able to get comfortable with his women folk, then she would be more comfortable with him.

He sat in the office until he couldn’t stand it any longer and walked over to the cattle yards to see what was going on there. He had gotten a wire just the other day stating some men were coming into the area and that they brought with them plenty of trouble of the thieving kind. He didn’t think he was wasting energy by just looking around. The judge was due to return home any day and Colt’s life would get back to normal. Well, at work anyway.

One stampede narrowly avoided and two fights later, Colt was on his way home feeling as though the only accomplishment for the day was done in the morning. The rest of the day was blown away with the dust. He should have listened to his instincts and stayed home to show Texanna around, settle her, and her things.

After putting his horse away, it was painfully apparent that the place was silent. That was typical but today he had expected quite a different welcome for it was anything but an ordinary day. He had anticipated movement and more life with his little bride there. She was not to be seen when he walked in. He had a bad feeling. In fact, the things he had unloaded that morning still sat on the floor of the bedroom and there was not one woman to be seen. He took a walk through the rooms and found his Kaku in her room weaving and his mother there as well, beading shoes.

When he didn’t find Anna with them, he asked, “Where have you hidden my bride?”

His pia said, without looking up, “You’re early.”

“Yes, and where is Texanna?”

His mother continued her train of thought as though he didn’t speak at all. “We should cook for you now.” 

Pia and Kaku got up to move to the kitchen.

Standing in the doorway with his hands on his hips Colton stood to his full height and bellowed, “Where is Texanna and if you answer anything but my question, I’ll not be pleased. I warn you I’m not patient when it comes to her well-being. Now where is she?”

There was a feeling in the pit of his stomach that caused him alarm for her safety, and it caused his voice to change from molten to forged steel.

“She’s walking,” Kaku said as she moved toward the other room again only to not be allowed that exodus. Colton didn’t budge.

“Where is she walking?”

His mother answered this time. “The land. She needed to find a place for her spirit. A calming place. She knows what she needs and she will find it. It will help her settle.”

“A wood sprite,” he mumbled. “How long has she been gone?” he asked Pia.

The women shrugged in unison. Pia answered. “How long have you been gone?”

“What? She has been gone that long? What were you thinking? Did you not consider advising her or looking for her? Why do I have two older, supposedly wiser women in my house if they won’t teach the younger one and watch out for her?”

“Women need to search things out and find the feel of their land. She’s your wife now, and while she’s young, she’s not without great understanding. But she trusts the untrustworthy.”

“What do you mean, she trusts the untrustworthy?”

Pia shrugged. “I don’t know but it is a truth.”

“Pia, I agree she needs her space, but she has not been here before, and she lived in town, not out here. She doesn’t remember her mother. Her father is too bitter to have been a loving instructor, as she grew older. What if she’s lost, or hurt, or…”

“Or she wants to be alone. She needs to find the place her spirit talks to her.” Pia shook her head indicating her son was missing the point. “Yes, that wouldn’t be good for your wife to spend time trying to figure out her life now without two older women in her steps all day.” She made the hand signals of one palm slapping and sliding over the other palm to indicate dogging her steps.

“Sarcasm, Pia? I expected it from Kaku but not you. You don’t understand. I can’t stay here and wait to see if she comes back unharmed. She might not be safe. Something is not right.”

“Yes,” his grandmother said, “She’s too young to take care of herself.”

“
Kaku
, it’s not like that, but I’m not going to explain anymore. She can care for herself but I’m just worried. I
know
her like you
know
me.”

“Go find her,
Tua,
but do not be angry with her. She’s doing as she should.”

Colton opened his mouth to respond but closed it hard, clenching his jaw. They didn’t understand. They had lived their whole lives in nature. They had a way to do things that had been carried down through the centuries, but Texanna didn’t know of those ways. She was young and inexperienced so to allow her to go wherever she desired without escort was irresponsible of the women. He didn’t even know if she could shoot a gun.

He looked at his mother and Kaku in consternation. How did he respectfully tell women of fifty-five years and seventy-two years that they didn’t understand the ways of this new woman he had brought into their midst? He never considered asking them to teach her and take care of her because he thought they would do it naturally. Not for the first time did he question his thinking on adding another woman to his home.

After several more exasperating moments, he threw his hands up and stormed out of the house grabbing his rifle and slicker on his way. Looking for signs, he muttered to himself, “They were unconcerned. Unconcerned! We are going to have a heart to heart when I find her. Whatever they think they need, they are going to get it and more. There is not going to be strife in my house.”

He kicked himself for letting the women in his life take it over. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. He needed to set the standard and expect things to follow his way. He was through allowing the women to rule his roost. Texanna didn’t even know what her spirit was.

***

Texanna had decided to go for a walk because coming from a house with no women to one with now two other women was overwhelming, to say the least. Colton’s mother and grandmother were nice enough, but they didn’t talk much. Well, at first anyway. They had encouraged her to go and walk around. The women said that she would feel more comfortable if she knew the land and brushed off her worry that she had not put her things away.

Colton’s grandmother, Kaku, was interpreted intermittently by his mother, Pia.

Kaku nodded sagely and encouraged her new granddaughter. “You are not ready to put things away. You need to find where your spirit rejuvenates. Go and find that place on this land. It is a wise woman who takes ownership of what is hers. The strength that comes from that ownership is great.”

Pia had a thoughtful look on her face when she picked up the explanation. “Your place as my son’s bride is only part of who you are. A woman has strong medicine if she learns how to balance her life. You are young, but it is never too early for a woman to learn how to do that. I know you enjoy the land. Go to it and let it give you peace. There is a place of the four winds…”

Pia went on to describe the place. Texanna had found that place and she instantly felt at peace. This was her substitute for her creek at her father’s home. This was her new thinking place. It was a good feeling. Pia and Kaku had been right, even though she thought they were trying to get her in trouble. This was right.

Texanna left thinking the women odd but when she had been gone only a little while, she began to know what they meant. She sat at the place of the four winds and thought. She hadn’t been properly courted. She had not been afforded the luxury of time to dream about what it would be like to be Mrs. Colton McFadden, so she was rather glad not to have to move into his space immediately. She felt she would need to before she went to bed, but it was still afternoon, and she could wander a bit longer. To see what else there was to see.

The breeze was gentle and seemed to speak to her of calmness and comfort. She surveyed the land as she went, coming to the edge of the staked property. She then proceeded to follow the stakes from one end to another. She was surprised at the breadth of the land that her husband owned. At the far edge of the delineated acreage, she ambled along the Trinity River that made its own border and at everything greening up along the river. The air was crisp but not too cold, and the breeze off the churning river was brisk. She had not taken a cloak because it was warm but as the day waned so did the heat giving her a second chill of the day. The first chill from the rainstorm at the creek was worse than this one, though.

She took cleansing breaths, allowing all that was in front of her to soothe her when she was startled by movement. She stopped and listened as a wild animal does to determine the creator of the sound. She carefully stepped around a large briar patch and came face to face with some squatters on the land. She called them squatters, but she didn’t know what Colt would call them, maybe he had invited them. This was her first taste of squatters, and she was more than curious so she walked closer.

“Hello?” She called out to the small group. As she neared them, she found that it was a family, and they seemed startled by her approach.

“Oh, please don’t go away. I’m sure my husband wouldn’t mind if you rested here for a while.” She didn’t know why she felt confident in that statement for she truly had no idea how he would feel about it.

The man of the family looked at her a moment and didn’t speak for what seemed like an eternity. He appeared to be sizing Texanna up as she was actively doing the same. The three dirty children looked tired and hungry. Their mother looked even more tired and when the woman turned toward her, Texanna released a gasp immediately recognizing the woman and her children to be Indian and she was obviously pregnant. She wondered if they were Colt’s relatives but discarded that thought as she spoke to them.

“Oh, you poor things, tell me where do you live?” Texanna had forgotten her woes and irritations of the day in the face of such need. She drew closer as the man stood to the side, not between his family and her. She instinctively knew Colt would have pulled her behind him, as he had done yesterday in his office.

“We have come a long way and would just rest here. Thank you for allowing it.”

The young bride’s eyes widened in concern as her hand waved through the air. “But where are your food and blankets, supplies?”

“We have a few things. We hunt and gather daily for our food. I was about to do that when you saw us.”

“But your wife and children, they are not healthy. Please, your wife is Indian. My husband is part Indian. His family, Pia, and Kaku live in the house as well, and I’m sure we could help. It looks like you were caught in the rain. Where are you from?”

“We stay in rooming houses sometimes but we needed to go a long distance. Not everyone needs or even wants to live in a house,” the man stated.

At the word Kaku that meant grandmother, the woman lifted her tired head and repeated the word.

“Yes, Kaku and Pia,” replied Anna happy for the recognition.

The woman said something low to her husband, and the children seemed to perk up slightly in their bedraggled state.

With a bit more persuasion, Texanna was able to convince the impoverished family to come home with her, and she didn’t even think what her husband or her new female relatives might think. She would have never thought of such a thing if she were still in her father’s house. Oddly, for some reason, she was not concerned to bring them to a home she had yet to spend even one night in herself. She knew they had plenty of rooms and the children could bed on the floor near their parents. She would give them her blankets she brought in the wagon to make a pallet bed for them. Most importantly, they could eat and rest easily. It would work if her husband allowed it.

“I’m Ann-I’m Texanna.” She had always shortened her name before but Colton liked Texanna, and she was his now, so she would try to use it more often. The man nodded in acknowledgment but didn’t offer his name. She didn’t ask.

She helped the children, the man helped his wife, and that is how Colton found them. A ragtag group of five that his bride had in tow was slowly but steadily coming in his direction. Colton cocked his head in a questioning way as they approached. He called to his wife as he picked up the pace, closing the distance between them quickly. When she heard his voice and her name, Texanna looked up, smiled and waved at him as though what he was seeing was typical.