Taming Texanna (27 page)

“Now, I am not slowing down here. I have the creek that you went to without anyone knowing where you were going and if anything would have happened to you—” She heard him take a huge shaky breath. “And something almost did. You do not
ever
get to put yourself at risk. I can only protect you if I know where you are. You have to help me keep you safe. And if you don’t, this is what will help remind you that it is not an option.”

Colton grabbed up the strap he had on the table and when Texanna got a slight glimpse of this latest instrument of discipline, she began to squall louder. She stood up.

“Do you want the cloth back? I don’t like it there for long. I need to hear your little sounds to know things are still good with you. I know it comforted you so tell me now. Otherwise, sweetheart, if you need to yell, go ahead. If you don’t want others to hear, you’ll need to do your best to keep it down. We are almost done.”

“No. How much more? I need to know, please, Colton.”

He nodded his head. “Five of these will finish you off, sweetheart. Hold tight. I don’t ever want to punish you for disobeying me and putting yourself in harm’s way again. Am I understood?”

“Yes. Oh, please, Colton. Can we be done?”

“Almost.”

She knew she could have gotten up and Colton would have stopped. She also knew she had earned his response and she was almost through it. This was her assurance Colton loved her. She felt protected and cared for not simply punished as she had with Horace Grant. She was punished but she could handle this because Colton was so different. His discipline, his love didn’t compare. She needed him to show he cared, wanted it. Maybe even craved it.

She also decided that it wasn’t worth disobeying her husband when he was doing it for her safety. He had allowed so many things to slip by saying they were just getting used to each other. However, he was not ever going to allow her to be unsafe on purpose. She nodded and lay back down in acquiescence.

“One, two,” counted Colton and she groaned with the dreaded anticipation it created in her belly. “Three, four,” there was a pause and Texanna had to admit her husband was not strapping her harder than to bring a sting. “Five. We are done, sweetheart.” If possible, she thought he sounded as relieved as she felt. This was hard on him too.

She felt Colton checking her skin, running his fingers gently over the punishment lines that she knew were there. Then he untied her hands with one pull of the knot. “I didn’t want to have any trouble getting you out if I needed to.” He grinned absently as he diligently checked her wrists for marks that might cause her discomfort. There were none.

“Let me take your little toy out, baby.” Only he didn’t just take it out he played with her bottom hole for a while and got her so wet she was amazed she had not come yet. “Oh, Colt, I need… I’m going to explode.”

“No, you aren’t. I am not going to give you ease right now. I am going to leave you aggravated and antsy just like you left me all afternoon. But if you are a good girl tonight, I will send you off to sleep with shooting stars.” His laugh was low and seductive as he put his punished wife back together and cuddled her until the tears dried then took her inside.

Later that evening, Colton pulled out the wanted posters and showed them to the women as Mark glanced over the pictures but appeared not too interested.

“Do you need to get a better look?” Colton asked Mark as the man turned away from the group.

“No. I have seen plenty of posters with his likeness on it. Don’t know who the third is. Not even sure there is a third man anymore.”

Colton shrugged. “It’s better to be prepared than to be taken by surprise.”

All thought was gone when Texanna, standing and leaning over her husband’s shoulder for comfort, expelled a horrified moan at one of the posters. She confirmed Henry “Adder” Rogers was the man Horace Grant had met at the creek.

“That’s him, Colton. That poster doesn’t show the eyes the way they are. They are evil.” She tremored and despite her sore nates, she crawled into her husband’s lap for comfort.

Colton drew her into his embrace. “Are you sure this is the man who you saw? And you are sure he got a good look at you?”

“Yes. I won’t ever forget him.”

“We’ll get him, honey. But that just proves that you don’t go anywhere without someone. We can’t take the chance. And,” he looked at his wife intensely, “adult not a child as a companion.”

“Okay,” she whispered back.

Chapter Fourteen

“Snow is coming. Things are changing,” said Pia. Texanna wished she knew what that meant exactly. When Anna herself said it, it meant that it looked like snow and to make sure the provisions and wood are enough. However, she had learned in the short amount of time she was in this home, that Pia and Kaku said very little but communicated much if one just knew how to interpret the hidden meanings. For now, she would have to continue to ask for explanations.

“When? How can you tell? How can I help?”

Kaku, while not really understanding English much, said something to Pia. They spoke for a few moments and then they both stared at Texanna for a few more moments. She felt she needed to offer to do something.

“I’ll bring in the wood and fill up the box.”

“Colt has done it this morning. He wouldn’t be happy if you had to do that and he was not gone out of town. He chops and splits the wood and carries the big pieces in. He leaves the children to bring in the pieces they can so they are contributing. It is important for them to have responsibilities.”

Texanna heard and understood but it didn’t mean she couldn’t do something to help. She had started the bread to rise. That was not something her in-laws did. They made a rather flat fry bread but Texanna baked bread.

“Then can I chop kindling or how about bring in more water?”

“Water. You may bring in water from the barrels outside.

“But Pia, I can do things like chop wood or carry it in. There isn’t nearly as much to do with two men and four women with children. Please teach me to be useful.”

“Water, bring the water.” Pia calmly repeated herself.

“Right,” Anna said with resignation, her shoulders sagging, “where are the water buckets?”

Anna grabbed the wooden buckets and headed out to the barrels. When discovering them very low, decided to fill them. She headed toward the hand pump, determined to be efficient and helpful. The pump was really an ingenious tool except the house was on a bit of a hill and she had to pump hard to keep the water coming. After pouring the bucket of water into the funneled opening of the pump to prime it, Anna had to work hard to bring up the water. Once the water was flowing, she had to fill the buckets, leaving a third bucket for the next priming. She began to wonder what work saving it actually did.

Anna sat down for a much-deserved rest and that was when Walker arrived to ease the task. “I can take the water or do the pumping while you take the water. We will get it done lickety-split.”

“Where did you hear that word, lickety-split?”

“Oh, some men were talking. It means fast.”

“Oh, so you think we can work as a team and get it done faster?”

Walker nodded eagerly.

“Well, I happen to think you might be right.”

Ultimately the two wooden barrels were full with lids in place quicker than what she would have been able to do alone.

“You’re right, we were done lickety-split.”

They finished her sentence in chorus. The remnants of their laugh and the flush on their cheeks from the brisk weather brought a rare smile to Pia’s face when they entered the house carrying the two buckets of water. When they found out the barrels were refilled, the smile went away.

Pia shook her head. “I did not want you to fill the barrels.”

“Well, it is done now.”

Texanna went in to check on what the others in the house were doing and then went into the kitchen where the women usually sat at midday. She wanted them to teach her all that they did. Anna knew there were so many things she would need to know because she had had no mother to teach her. The times she had lamented that same thought were innumerable.

She chastised herself for still thinking about that loss. It was time to release this. She had been thankful for one thing, though. She did know the rest of the story or, at least, all she ever wanted of that story for now. Maybe forever. She might have a relationship with her sometime.

Pia and Kaku, in their own way, were loving and thoughtful. There were still moments that she doubted that there would be any meaningful relationship between her and any other woman in her life, but she would find a happy ground with her in-laws. She felt Colton would not want her to cut the ties completely with her own mother and would be very hurt if she didn’t keep trying to understand his Pia and Kaku. They were trying as well. Most days. She had another chance to have a mother with Colton’s Pia and would use it to her advantage.

“Water barrels are full thanks to Walker’s help and I need some tea. Is there any hot water?”

Pia got up to ready the water as Texanna sat down. Kaku spoke to her daughter and Pia seemed to question whatever was asked. Texanna was learning some innuendos of their communication.

Thinking Kaku was complaining she did not get her own tea, Texanna popped up from her seat. “Oh, I can get it, Pia.” Her mother-in-law looked up at Texanna, giving her a slight smile and waved her away. It was as though Pia knew she had settled the mother issue. Maybe she did. “Sit. You did well but do not do it again.”

Texanna swelled with pride. Pia then said something to Kaku but that sage woman shook her head. After a moment, Pia got down her herb box that she had previously told Texanna that Colton had made for her, setting it in front of her mother.

“What are you looking for?” Asked the curious young woman.

Kaku seemed to carefully choose a combination of leaves that amounted to just a pinch of herbs, from the little drawers.

Pia answered, “It is tea,” and put it in the cup. Pia began to pour the now boiling water over the top. When the cup was set in front of Texanna, it was adorned with honey, the leaves all but dissolved. The tea had the scent of green as in grass green.

“What is this? It tastes different.”

“It is good for young women who will soon be having babies. It builds you up,” said Pia.

Anna flushed a dark red. “What?”

Kaku encouraged her to drink it and though it was a little bitter, the taste wasn’t unpleasant. Kaku began making that tea for her three times a day; morning, mid-day and before she went to bed. Texanna thought that this one time the women were wrong for she had come into her monthly just two days ago. But thinking of having Colt’s babies made her smile. It would happen soon.

The Trentons were looking worried as the days continued and their baby didn’t come. It was obvious to all that Mark Trenton was getting restless and Texanna was worried.

“Do you think that he will make them move before the baby or even,” she hardly dare say it, “leave without them?”

“I don’t know. I wish I could understand why he wants to move right now. I asked if they could stay the winter and he turned me down cold. He was in the war so he might just want to get as far away from the memories as he can but still, a man worth his salt will, at least, make money in the towns so his kids don’t go hungry.”

“What would you do?”

“I wouldn’t bring my family where I couldn’t care for them or, at least, give them a roof over their heads and food in their mouths. My mother’s people took their housing with them or they stayed where they knew there would be game and protection from the weather. This man won’t listen to his wife and he won’t listen to me. Although he is careful about how he responds to my suggestions.”

“Colton, Nada will give birth soon. Pia says she’s probably strong enough but it will take a little while to recover. Longer than it would usually take a healthy woman. Plus, those children are young. Can you try to see if he will leave his family behind for the winter while he tries to find his paradise and then come for them in the spring?”

“I’ll try again, my soft-hearted woman, if you promise to wait to fill up those barrels until I get home next time, hmm?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Walker and I made a great team.”

“Yes, you did. But I would prefer you don’t try to do it alone. Pia says you will soon be giving her grandchildren.”

“I hope we start a family sometime soon.”

“Pia says—”

“Well, Pia isn’t perfect. I started my monthly so she can’t be right. Just wait, it will happen.”

Colton nodded his head. “No carrying water.”

“All right, I won’t.” She smiled sweetly, knowing that if Walker were still here the next time she needed to fill them, she intended to enlist his help thereby following her husband’s request. She wasn’t made of spun glass.

On day two of the special tea, Colton spoke up. “What is this tea, sweetheart?”

She shrugged. “Some tea Pia and Kaku thought I should drink because they think I could be pregnant soon.”

“They have herbs for almost everything. They were sad that I only made twenty-four little drawers for their herb box.” He laughed.

However, when the women continued to give her the same brew ritualistically, he asked questions. His spirit was restless and he never ignored his inner self so he asked.

“Kaku, what is in that tea you have been giving Texanna?”

“It is to prepare her to be a mother. It gives her what she needs. She’s small.”

“You know she has had her monthly. She isn’t in the family way now.”

Kaku shrugged and walked off.

***

As the week wore on Colton could not get the question out of his mind. Could she be in the family way? Kaku’s answer made sense but he was not convinced that it was necessary. Nonetheless, he shrugged it off again. His little Texanna was smaller than most and she was very likely to become pregnant in the next few months so it wouldn’t hurt her he supposed. He trusted Kaku and Texanna seemed content to have the tea so he wouldn’t interfere. They had been married for over two months now and nothing would surprise him about his feisty wife.