Taming Texanna (6 page)

“Hmm,” Kaku grunted her satisfaction. “Your woman troubles you.”

“What?”

He knew it was a useless question with his
kaku.
She never repeated herself if she was sure he heard her. She continued to shell peas. She only spoke in the hybrid Kiowa-Comanche tongue. His mother, on the other hand, was too silent even for her. The women in his family knew him too well. They also had the uncanny talent that he had in reading situations and on occasion, people, quite well. Obviously, this was one of those times for his kaku as well as his pia. He hated when he so easily showed them his personal thoughts. He remembered how effortlessly he read Texanna earlier.

“Yes, I have two women to clean, cook, sew, and irritate me. Why would I want a third?” He shook his head and walked out to the shed to begin cleaning the debris brought in by the last tornado. The turmoil inside was as chaotic as that storm had been. Standing around inside hoping for more conversation was a waste of time.

Was it a week ago? His mother had done just about everything she could to clean things up after the hot, humid weather brought with it that whirlwind storm. Luckily, he did not have too much built up yet on his property but his family and his home were at risk. It appeared to skip from river to pasture land without doing any real damage. He was not happy when he had raced home after the storm and found his mother and grandmother outside clearing debris.

He sent them both in and threatened to find a man to put them in their places. They mumbled about the uselessness of most men. He knew at that moment he was among the scorned, but he wouldn’t have them outside moving broken tree limbs and large debris when he could do it. They just wanted it done immediately, as always.

He had cleaned the front on that day, but while his mother would have gone further into the wooded area, she didn’t defy her son. He was the man of the house, and if he was not concerned that the rest of the yard was unkempt, he knew she wouldn’t embarrass him by pointing his shortcomings out. Now, he was ashamed he had forgotten, so he spent the next several hours clearing the land of debris.

Afterward, he chopped wood, patched the roof of a small outbuilding, and then cleaned all his equipment. He ended his day with sharpening every knife and sharp edge that he possessed from the machete to the smallest kitchen utensil. He couldn’t find anything else that needed doing. He wondered if it meant his mother and kaku did too much. Was it possible that they were too capable?

It might be there just wasn’t as much that needed doing if you were three adults on a small farm. He spent a few minutes reminding the women that the blades were sharp only to be lost in thoughts of a creamy white bottom turned red belonging to a particular young lady. He realized his carving had taken on a life of its own tonight and instead of a woodland animal his kaku loved so much, he found he was carving a flat, hand sized oar. He immediately knew he was fashioning the paddle he would use on his lovely wood sprite and in his distraction cut his own finger on the sharpened knife.

The pain cut through his thoughts. “Dammit.”

Kaku was first to hand him a cloth for his bleeding finger. Colton, angry with himself, grabbed the cloth and waved her away but was immediately contrite.

“I’m sorry, Kaku.” 

“Just go and bring her home, grandson.” Kaku was always succinct.

“What?”

Of course, silence.

“Women are the curse of God to man,” he mumbled as he wrapped the cloth around his sliced skin.

His mother did laugh at that. “It is interesting that when a woman has a man worked up, she’s the curse, but when she lets him work her up, she’s a blessing.”

Surprised his pia would bring up sensitive subjects like arousal with him he figured he would play it out some. “Yes, but a woman can get under a man’s skin and continue to burrow intent on driving him crazy. When a man works his woman up, she is content when he is through.”

Pia grunted. “It makes you crazy either way.”

He had to laugh at that. She wasn’t wrong.

She served his dinner and tried to change his thinking to things he had more immediate control. “I need more jars. Our garden has not quit producing heavily, all season.” He nodded absently. “Kaku loves the Mason jars. I got used to them, too.” She shrugged offhandedly but Colt knew they both loved them. “And wax.” He obediently nodded in agreement.

Kaku went on to the weather changes and tanning the last hide he had brought home. The women watched him. He hated that. He went outside to finish the evening chores before he wished them goodnight and went to bed.

He dreamed of Texanna and it bothered him to see her still in his mind’s eye when he woke up. That meant something in his world. Her spirit was seeking his spirit. He found fugitives and outlaws by seeing them skate along his sleep. He found his stolen horse in a dream, and now this slip of a girl was in his night visions. Kaku wouldn’t be surprised. He decided to keep this piece of news to himself.

Colton got up and took care of the morning chores. The women were up before him again. Last night notwithstanding, Colton wondered if he would ever be able to go to bed late and get up early more efficiently than his female relatives. Being diligent as usual, he soon returned to the kitchen where he sat to have a cup of coffee while his grandmother put her bark in the water to soak for her weaving and his mother put on his breakfast. The women always waited for him no matter when it was he got up and finished his morning routine. Today they didn’t have to wait long. His sleep having been disturbed to the point of forcing him out of his bed before the sun, he started his day early.

“Colton, if she’s in your thoughts that much, bring her home, dear.”

“Mother, it does not work that way.” He no longer wondered how it was that his pia and grandmother always knew what he was thinking, or dreaming. He shook his head. “You don’t understand.”

Kaku sat next to him and Pia finished cooking the eggs before sitting on the other side of him.

“Are you so sure it doesn’t? Does it have to be so difficult? You find out if that young woman wants to have a future with you, and if she’s your destiny, you bring her home. I know you have to have a preacher or someone say words over you for the government, but for you two, it is done when you ask and she accepts.”

He stared at his eggs and said in a perturbed voice. “I hate it when you talk like this. I always feel as though I don’t have a choice.”

“Let your heart tell you the choices.” His mother stated. They finished breakfast discussing other things, which suited him fine.

Colton finished his breakfast, gathered his things for the day and checked his pack that Kaku had put lunch into before kissing his mother and Kaku goodbye. Kaku said as he walked out the door, “If she’s young, it is easier to teach her. Age isn’t a reason to deny your destiny.” Of course, she knew that he was worried about her being younger than he was by ten years.

Chapter Three

At first, Texanna thought he wouldn’t have noticed but her pa was so mad that she had not finished the wash yesterday, and evidently, he needed those underthings. She had washed all but his unmentionables. Honestly, how was a girl to know when her pa needed those cleaned? That was a wife’s job, and he needed one instead of depending on her to do all that he needed.

Actually, she had just recently started to do those items for him. He had been taking them to the woman down the road who took in washing because the preacher told him it was unseemly to let his daughter wash his undergarments. It was one of the few times that the minister put his two cents in and she appreciated it. However, for some reason, her pa told her she was old enough not to be embarrassed to do his full wash now. Lately, he had become unreasonable on many things, this being only one of them.

Her ma had left about fifteen years ago when she was just a small child. She really didn’t remember what she looked like and didn’t know why it was that Miranda Carruthers Grant left. The few occasions she had asked, her father had yelled about women, cursed her mother, and stormed out of the house. When she persisted, he took a strap to her. After a few attempts, she decided learning about her mother was not enough of a reason to have him angry with her for days. It wasn't that she didn’t want to find out; it was just that she would rather sit comfortably than know the details.

If she could have asked, she would have asked why her ma was so unhappy, and what did Texanna do to make her leave without her?  She had needed a ma for learning to put up her hair, why some boys would bother her so much in the school and what that strange feeling was when she looked at the marshal. She would have asked how to bake a cake, what was a good color on her and what was monthly bleeding all about. As it was, Mandy’s mom did the best she could to educate Texanna along with Mandy. It meant Texanna got some education late and Mandy early but it worked out well enough.

She wasn’t sure it was love that she felt for her pa anymore. He was an angry, bitter man these days. He had always been harsher on her than he had been on her brother, and he had said plenty of times she was just like her mother. She must have looked like her mother or sounded like her. Lord, on days like today, that was enough for her father. That is what he was yelling today after he bared her for a strapping over the wash and found out that someone had gotten to her first. She could still remember the argument they had this morning after his discovery.

Cooking breakfast that morning, she heard her him yell out from his bedroom. “Texanna, where are my underclothes?”

She froze. She tried to pretend she didn’t hear him and hurried to finish his breakfast. He yelled again. She again busied herself pulling the biscuits out of the oven and didn’t answer. Finally, he came out of the back bedroom storming.

“Pa, your breakfast is done.”

He sat automatically and began putting salt on his eggs. “Where are my underthings?”

“I guess where you keep them.”

“No, that you washed.”

“Oh, well, finish eating and I’ll find them for you.” She stood frantically worried about how she was going to tell him. Maybe she didn’t have to tell him. She grabbed the money for payment and took off out the back. She ran for all she was worth to Widow Martin’s and rapped on her door.

“What is it?” the older woman grumbled.

Texanna rubbed her hands on her skirt and looked around to make sure her pa hadn’t taken off after her. “Ma’am, I need those underthings of my pa’s I brought you yesterday.”

“Well, I ain’t had time to get them done,” she snapped.
The woman was mighty rude today.

“Yes, ma’am. Could I have them anyway?”

“Hold on.” The woman handed over all her pa’s underwear.

“Thank you,” she called back as she raced home. Flying in the back door, she was putting them on his dresser while trying to catch her breath when her pa walked in.

“Where did those come from?” he asked indicating the pile of clothes she put on his bureau.

“They aren’t clean.”

“Why not? Why didn’t you wash them?”

That was the question and she needed to decide if she was going to be truthful or not. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Texanna had always been truthful and it set heavy in her heart to lie.

“I took them to Widow Martin but she didn’t get them done yet.

“You just can’t do as you are told, can you? Well, I am tired of waiting for you to mind me.”

Texanna heard the distinctive chink of the metal buckle and the telltale wispy slide of the leather belt as it swished through the pant loops of her pa’s britches. She sucked in her breath and cringed, moving away from the bed.

“Pa, it isn’t right. I washed all your other clothes. I just can’t bring myself to wash your underthings. It isn’t seemly.”

She wrapped her skirt around her fearing the searing pain of the belt when her pa was angry.

“I don’t care what you think, it is what I asked of you and it needed to be done. Why should I pay a washerwoman to do my underthings when I have a perfectly good daughter to do them for me?”

“Because I am your daughter and she isn’t. She does all sorts of men’s undergarments. She isn’t embarrassed. And I am paying for it myself.”

“Bend over that bed. I am tired of running out of underthings. Better hurry before I come up with another reason to raise you up off the ground.”

She flung herself on the bed and felt her pa toss up her skirts. “Take the drawers down. No need in wearing them when you are getting strapped because of underthings.”

She held her tongue but knew that she was not going to give in on this. She would take them to the washerwoman herself. And she struggled with the fact that she was still in this house allowing him to discipline her harshly. The cold air hit her nether region reminding her of yesterday when the marshal had her over a chair.

Just as she braced for the first strike her pa screeched at her. “What in blue blazes happened to your nether regions?”

The moment he said it, Texanna had no doubt as to what he was looking at. “Um, what, Pa?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew it was the wrong thing to say.

His tone went from curious to indignant and ended on demanding. “Someone has whipped your rear end something fierce. You have gotten someone else fired up, have you? Who was it, girl?”

Oh, no. What can I say
? “Um, what are you talking about? There wasn’t anyone.”

If it had not been several days since he had taken after her, then she would have said it was he, but that would have made it worse on her. Lying always made her anxious. “You’re just like your ma. Showing your wares to any who would look.”

She stood up at that and her skirts fell around her as she faced her accuser. “That’s not what it is, Pa. I got a licking from the marshal because he caught me doing something maybe I ought to have known better than to do. I’m always proper. I am a respectable woman, and he is a decent man, Pa. Nothing happened. He caught me acting childish and treated me accordingly. That’s all. Honest. I didn’t show him anything.”