Read Cactus Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy) Online
Authors: Shirl Henke
Cactus Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy) (53 page)
“Well, you certainly got your wish,” he said fervently, running his hands up and down her delicately curved body, pulling her protectively to him. “What do you say to a honeymoon night the day before the wedding?”
When she reached up to kiss him, it was impossible to tell if the purr of assent came from deep within her throat or that of the large orange cat watching intently from the lengthening shadows beneath the willow tree.
Epilogue
Austin, Texas, February 6, 1846
The crowd gathering on the capitol grounds was boisterous and carefree, typical of Texians anytime. But this was not just any occasion. There was a sense of expectancy and impatience permeating the air.
“Some folks just want to git it done, I reckon,” a grizzled veteran of San Jacinto said, spitting a wad of tobacco onto the clean carpet of grass.
Eyes shiny in excitement, a youth replied, “It's the greatest moment in our history!”
Dogs barked and babies cried. Tennessee twangs blended with Georgia drawls and harsh New England inflections. Spanish, French, and German were mixed in with the cacophony of English regional accents. All were Texians now and soon to be something more.
Charlee sat in the shade of a comfortable black buggy, leaning against the padded leather seat to rub her swollen abdomen. “Ouch, you rascal, that hurts,” she groused.
Jim, standing next to the team and holding their two-year-old son Will, looked up at her with undisguised affection in his eyes. “All that kicking must mean it's a hellion of a daughter, just like her mama,” he teased.
She wrinkled her nose at him and reached down to tousle young Will's thick yellow hair. “Or, it's another male Slade, all temper and cougar's eyes.”
Just then there was a signal from the platform by the steps of the capitol building. “They're beginning, Jim. Do you think Lee will be here?” She looked uncertain.
Slade smiled and patted her hand. “If he can tear himself away from his beloved Dulcia, he'll be here...speak of the devil.” He waved to the elegant figure striding across the grass toward them.
Lee Velasquez was taller and heavier now, a man grown, but still possessed of that irrepressible boyish charm that made his black eyes dance when he smiled. He reached up to give Charlee an affectionate hug, then shook hands with Jim and reached his arms out in invitation to young Will, who squirmed eagerly forward to be given a bird's-eye view of the festivities from his uncle's broad shoulders.
“I wasn't sure you'd be here in time,” Charlee said uncertainly.
A look of pain flashed across his face, but quickly vanished. He smiled in understanding. “You mean you weren't sure if I wanted to see the festivities, I know. It's all right. I understand our options, and this is the best of them.
Tejanos
and Texians will have to see it through together. Your husband fought at San Jacinto. He believes what's about to happen is for the better.”
Jim gave his friend a gentle smile and said, “I'm a man with feet in both worlds, Lee. Maybe that makes it easier for me. I fought with Houston and I still follow him. This is his time above all.”
The presentations had been going on for a while now. They fell silent to hear President Anson Jones give the last words of his valedictory address.
“The first act in the great drama is now performed. The Republic of Texas is no more!”
Before Governor James Pinkney Henderson gave his inaugural address, the flag of the Republic was lowered for the last time, and United States Senator Sam Houston knelt to gather its folds in his arms.
Author’s Note
First, a word about the use of “Texians” instead of the modern word “Texans.” During the era of the Gone-to-Texas books, Anglo residents of the Mexican state, the Texas Republic and the twenty-eighth state admitted to the American Union, referred to themselves as either Texicans or Texians. The word “Texan” did not come into common use until the twentieth century. Arbitrarily, I chose Texians over Texicans.
Although Jim Slade and Charlee McAllister are fictional, the cast of
Cactus Flower
is filled with many historical figures, including such greats as the war hero and president Sam Houston, and the intrepid ranger captain John Coffee Hays. Several more obscure characters are also taken from real life. The British charge d’affaires in 1842 Texas was Charles Elliot, although his ticklish request to President Houston on behalf of William Kennedy was born in my imagination. Kennedy himself was a fascinating figure, author of a two-volume work on the Texas Republic, and a wily diplomat with shadowy connections in Lord Aberdeen’s Foreign Office. Whether or not he was an agent sent to incite the Comanche against the Texians cannot be proven, but he was undoubtedly involved in British intrigues to keep Texas from entering the American union. Vincente Cordova and Antonio Perez were pro-Mexican revolutionaries intent on restoring Texas to Santa Anna. They did deal with the Indians. The French mercenary, General Adrian Woll, was a career soldier of outstanding tactical genius, possessed of considerably more integrity than the dictator whom he so ably served.
During the decade of the Republic, Texas was a nation with a complex and exciting history. In my research, a number of sources proved invaluable, especially General Woll’s complete campaign reports, written during the fall of 1842 when he made his incursion into San Antonio. This material is included in the Master’s Thesis of Lima M. Benavides, University of Texas, 1952,
General Woll’s Invasion of San Antonio in 1842.
Also of particular help in fabricating the political machinations of my villain Ashley Markham and his cohorts Cordova and Kennedy was
British Interests and Activities in Texas 1838-1846
, by Ephraim Douglass Adams.
Other standard reference works that gave me excellent background on Texas during this period were John Henry Brown’s
History of Texas
, Volume II; T.R. Fehrenbach’s
Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans
; and Walter Prescott Webb’s
The Texas Rangers
. For pictorial excellence as well as a fine introduction to the history of Texas in its formative years, I highly recommend
The Texans,
edited by David Nevin, A Time-Life Book in the superb Old West Series.
The definitive reference work on Sam Houston remains, of course, Marquis James’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work,
The Raven
. In addition to its droll and wonderful insights, I also found M. K. Wisehart’s
Sam Houston: American Giant
to be very useful in bringing the genius and humor of this complex man to life. Sam Houston changed the course of history on the North American continent during the nineteenth century. One of my deepest regrets is that he and his European alter ego, Otto von Bismarck, were not contemporaries. To borrow a phrase from Marquis James, what a “fox-lynx game” Houston could have played with the Prussian! I’d bet on Sam.
About the Author
SHIRL HENKE lives in St. Louis, where she enjoys gardening in her yard and greenhouse, cooking holiday dinners for her family and listening to jazz. In addition to helping brainstorm and research her books, her husband Jim is “lion tamer” for their two wild young tomcats, Pewter and Sooty, geniuses at pillage and destruction.
Shirl has been a RITA finalist twice, and has won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewer’s Choice Awards from
Romantic Times.
“I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ballpoint pen—it’s hard to get good quills these days,” she says. Dragged into the twenty-first century by her son Matt, a telecommunication specialist, Shirl now uses two of those “devil machines.” Another troglodyte bites the dust. Please visit her at
www.shirlhenke.com
.