Taming Texanna (31 page)

He also got the impression that he was going to have to remind her that he needed to keep her safe by going a distance out to look for his bounty. He would not track anyone so close to his family unless they were in danger because it would bring danger to them. Even if he had to follow them until they were out a ways.

That meant possibly being gone for some days so as not to put her in danger. He hung some of his hope on the fact that Nada would also be without her husband and that they could lean on each other. He would rely on the other woman to show that it was a bit nerve racking, but not as bad as he knew his wife would first believe.

Mark had spoken to Colton for a while after they agreed to join forces on the bounty and he had one man nearly caught. Mark revealed more of himself.

“You know; I’ve seen the Adder gang. I’d be more than happy to rely on your better information to locate and bring them to justice.”

“Just so long as you remember there will be no killing unless we have no other choice.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“You know, I have searched and the deputies have searched since I was sure it was Adder that Anna came across. Unfortunately, Adder seems to have disappeared. I’ll find him, though. It is just going to take longer than I had hoped.”

Mark shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll do what I can to help.”

Colt quirked eyebrow but said nothing. He changed the subject. “Since we are about to finish the cabin, I think I need more wood.”

Work on the cabin was completed the next week and there were no more conversations about gangs and safety. There were no other cattle drives for a few months and Colton was feeling more in control than he had in a while. His wife was happy, safe, and content, finding it not as hard to follow his direction. She sat a lot more comfortably, too. It was a good feeling.

After the excitement of the birth of the newly arrived James McFadden Trenton and the strengthening of Nada, the travel weary family moved into their new living quarters. It wasn’t much and certainly didn’t compare to the house that Colton had worked on for six months but it offered stability. While Nada knew about nomadic living, it was hard to do as a lone family.

“Are we going to stay here for a few days, Pia?” Asked Rose as she ran and touched every corner of the home.

“And more.”

Walker asked cautiously, “How many more?”

“How many more do you need, son?”

“Many more.”

“Good,” she answered him with a nod and a smile. Nada believed it was a castle.

That night Texanna was pensive in the over quiet house. They had been married three months now.

“Do you think we will have four children, Colton?”

“Hmm, is that what you want?”

“I have no idea, but if we did, I would not be unhappy. But the noise will be tremendous.”

Colton drew his wife into his arms and smiled. “Yes, tremendous.”

“But I guess we should start with the first one, right?”

“That is the normal way.” Colton tensed.

“Well, then we are doing it right.”

“Yep.” He kissed her head.

She swiftly turned in his arms, “You knew?”

Colton smiled. “Pia is rarely wrong.” He leaned down to kiss his officially pregnant wife.

There was more excitement coming in the future, but for now, however, the house was quiet and Texanna was becoming restless. Except for Mark’s work around the place to earn his family’s keep, it was very quiet. The silence was profound. She often went for walks.

“Pia, I am going for my walk.”

Pia looked outside and nodded. “I don’t want there to be any weather coming in and you out in it. Where do you think you will be going? We have all learned that your husband does not take well to finding out we do not know where you are going and if the weather is stormy. I love a storm but he is a man. Sometimes he takes his responsibility too strongly.” Pia shook her head.

Texanna laughed. “Well, I don’t want him to make it difficult for me to sit at supper. So, I am going to the river. It is my most favorite place to go. It is like the water talks to me.”

Pia nodded. “You are more a water spirit than the wood spirit your husband calls you.”

***

Colton was glad that things had calmed down enough for him to start looking at the newest wanted posters with an eye toward he and Mark capturing a few. He would get the bounty just as a hunter would and he wanted to begin building up his rainy day fund. Things could change when it was least expected. Things like their new baby or an adjoining piece of land coming available. Mark wanted his own land. He said he was not a farmer or a cattleman but he could do as Colton. Farm enough to keep the family.

To that end, Colton gathered up the posters and began committing them to memory trying to find the outlaws with the least experience. He had been on the lookout for the Adder gang but never saw one sign of them. Judge Jackson had said there was really nothing they could hold Horace on because hanging around with men in a known criminal group was stupid but not criminal unless he was in with them doing the crimes. They had no proof and Grant denied even being at the creek. He had not hurt Texanna in the café or even laid a hand on her. Grant was released. Colton had accepted it but he was ever vigilant and Texanna was on a forever ban on traveling alone. One argument, one tantrum, and one spanking later, they were at a truce.

Bringing his mind back to the business he was paid for, Colton picked the man he would go after first. Judge Jackson wanted him to look at whatever menace he thought he could get off the street. Times were usually quiet in the winter and since he didn’t have any fugitives but on these posters, for now, it was the direction of Colton’s work. He chose this first one, Dingler Fisk because he usually worked alone, would be the easiest round up if he ran the bounty and it was less dangerous.

Mr. Fisk had made the posters because he had robbed a stage that just so happened to have quite a wealthy passenger. The bounty was $500 dollars and far enough without being too far. Of course, he might not have gone back home. He might have gone anywhere but there. However, for this first time, it sounded like it would be a good introduction for Anna. Colt knew that sometimes there was no choice but to go after the biggest trouble but lucky for him, trouble had not shown its head in over a month. Not since that Adder incident.

Colt told the judge he was going to be gone a bit to try to round up the lone outlaw Fisk and to shake a few trees to see if he could find out the whereabouts of the Adder gang. The judge agreed and said he would do fine with the deputy.

Colton gathered his horse from the stable and began to mentally make a checklist of the items he needed in his pack. He thought about the home supplies, did they have enough? Colt stopped at the mercantile and gathered supplies that were more essential: flour, sugar, baking powder, coffee, and salt pork. He had bought a pig that he had mated in early fall, but it would be next fall before they could make their own pork.

Colton grabbed some tobacco for his Kaku, a book for his wife who would say she didn’t have enough to do at home without him, some large needles for his mother, as she was sewing hide this week without any metal ones, and candy for the little ones. He was feeling proud of himself when he walked into the house with the supplies.

Texanna looked up when she heard her husband ride in. Throwing her beading work down with little care for the needle or beads, she ran out to meet him.

She grinned and almost bounced. “I missed you, husband.”

Colton answered with a grin of his own. “Not because you are in trouble, I hope.” He reached and grabbed her around the waist drawing her into him.

She snuggled in, “Good as gold, I tell you. I just seemed lonelier for you today.”

He kissed her temple and brought her chin up to receive his kiss on her upturned lips. His hold tightened.

“We better get this in. You take the gifts, and I will bring in the heavy things.”

“Oh, I can help.” She reached into his saddlebags for the parcels.

“Thank you but I need my supper. I am starving.”

Anna hesitated for a moment and nodded. “All right, I will allow you to brush me off if you give me another kiss.” She moaned when he did, bringing a smile to his face.

Once Colton had brought the staples inside, Texanna quizzed him. “What do we need all of the supplies for? We have plenty. Where are you going? And gifts? You are going somewhere.”

Colton ignored her question and kissed her pouting lips. He set things down on the large wooden table in the kitchen eating area and let his mother and Kaku do what they wanted to put things away. He saw his mother, out of the corner of his eye as she poured some of the coffee in the grinder he had brought home some time ago. He knew she was used to him doing this right before he left. He also knew she would begin to put foodstuff in a pack for him to take because Pia knew what he took when he left.

The thing was, he was always happy that Pia had done it before but now he had Texanna and he needed her to understand, see the pattern he had and then to help him pack up the food. She needed to take on more of the wifely role and it just made him feel better that she was included in this. He spoke to Pia in Comanche and she answered him as she put down the beginning preparations that she had started and returned to finishing dinner.

Texanna looked at him oddly. “What is going on? What are you doing? What did you say to her?”

Colton reached over and walked his Anna into their bedroom, closing the door quietly. Anna turned frightened eyes to her husband. “Tell me. There is something that is terribly wrong.”

He sat down on the bed, bringing her down onto his lap and cuddled her for a moment. He ran his hands through her hair after he loosened it. He kissed the top of her head.

“What is wrong, Colton McFadden?” Texanna’s tone became demanding. It made Colt chuckle.

“Nothing is wrong, baby. I just need to go and track for the judge and so I wanted to make sure you all had enough basics. I had no idea how much we already had. Don’t worry, okay?”

“Go where? For how long?” she shot those questions in rapid fire. He could see the concern in her scrunched up eyes and her pursed, trembling lips.

“Anna, honey, it is not a big deal. I just don’t want you to run out of supplies while I am gone and it could be a few days or even a couple of weeks.”

“Weeks? You could be gone for weeks? Colton, you can’t leave me alone. I don’t know what I would do without you. Is it dangerous? What or who are you tracking?”

“Just a lone man and it isn’t anything that I can’t handle, honey. I am going to ask Mark if he would like to go with me.”

“But Nada is still weak.”

He pushed a stray clump of hair behind her ear. “Well, of course, he could say no. If he doesn’t, I can easily do this alone. I have done many like this alone. A man just came up on the posters so he might not even know he is on them yet. That is the best time to come up on a person when they don’t think you are looking for them.” He reached down and kissed her again, “Besides, you have all of this company. You will be fine.”

Colton spent more time reassuring his wife that this was not a big deal and that she would be safe.

“I will offer that he stays with his family. That way, there would be a man near if it makes you feel safer.”

“What? You think he would make it safer than being with just Pia and Kaku? No, no one would be safer than with those two women unless it was with you. They
know
things, just like you, and I don’t think anything could happen that they don’t have some kind of idea about before it happens. I have heard of women’s intuition but this is so much more.”

Colton spoke cautiously. “You’re right; they do know things, often. It is different from intuition. They are positive that they know. It is a powerful thing to the Indian. It is a gift. That is why you feel extra safe with them. You feel safe because they have shown you that they can understand a situation and interpret the meanings. They know what to do because they understand the underlying causes.”

He pulled her to the head of the bed with him and drew her into his lap. He laid her head on his shoulder so that they could relax and talk.

“But
how
do they know?”

“The Indian believes that all things have spirits and that spirits can change shapes, can speak to people, can influence the outcome of life. It is these strong spirits that speak to Pia and Kaku.”

“And you.”

“Yes and no. As a boy, I believed all people had those understandings. As I grew and learned that was not the case, then I figured it was a just a strong gut feeling. Then I was on a quest to know who I was. It was as all young men do in his own way, only to the Indian, it is for your spirit protector. The fox found me. I thought he was my protector. He is cunning, smart, tracks well, and then, the next night the wolf found me. He is loyal and intuitive but also fierce when challenged. Later still, when I found that I could understand and
know
things about some people more than others, I found it works best when it is about something or someone important to me. Tracking is one of those
things
I care about that makes it easy to track.”

He looked down and kissed his wife. “And you are the
someone
I care most about and I can know things about you most times. For instance, I found you at the creek when you took off. I knew where you were when you went on your first day here.”

“And you knew Mark would tell you his name.” She perked up and added.

“Yes, because it was about your safety. If it is about you, I can sense things.” He took a breath. “You are the only one that I have ever loved like this. You are the one I can understand and know the best.  Never could I see into another’s heart as I can with you.” He tapped and kissed her nose. “Except when you are very emotional and you are so chaotic inside. It is so much harder to know your thoughts and feelings then.”

“Why?” Anna snuggled into his shoulder again.

“It is like the river when it is running quickly. When the water is calm, you can see right through to the rocky and sandy bottom. When it is rushing or churning, you cannot.”