Home of the Brave (22 page)

“You have a New England
accent,” Jane observed.

“Boston. My husband was a
fisherman. He was lost at sea.”

Jane walked through the
others shaking hands. Some of the younger women were so awed by
Jane that they curtseyed deeply and refused to make eye contact.
“Well then. Shall we go?” As Jane started off toward the river with
her new charges, she saw Thomas, still on the top of the fence,
grinning happily.

~

“It’s nice that you’ve made
new friends,” Thomas teased as Jane climbed up on the fence beside
him.

“Some of them are just
trashy women as I always suspected,” Jane said. “But a few of them
were exactly what you said: women who life gave very few
choices.”

“I noticed that you left
here with eight painted ladies and came back with nine,” Thomas
said casually.

“I was planning to discuss
that with you.”

“Now would be a good
time.”

“She’s mulatto.”

“I noticed that
too.”

“Okay,” Jane said, shaking
her head. “She’s a runaway. Nellie asked me if we could take her
and I said yes before I thought.”

“Well, if you already said
yes I suppose that there nothing left to discuss.”

“How much trouble is she
going to cause?”

“That all depends on whether
we get caught with her before we cross the border into
Texas.”

“What do you
mean?”

“In Texas we’ll get some
arguments and maybe a few threats from the slave owner settlers,
but in the United States we’re in violation of Federal
law.”

“What’s the worst that can
happen?”

“The worst? Out here, I
can’t even contemplate the worst. I suppose we could all be
hanged.”

“I’ll tell her that we can’t
take the risk.”

Thomas shook his head. “No.
You gave your word. We’ll take the risk.”

October 1, 1830

Two Alone Ranch, Coahuila,
Mexican Province of Tejas

Anna poured tea into Captain
Charles Lagrange’s cup. “Are you my friend, Charlie?”

He thought a moment before
answering. “I don’t think men and women can really be friends like
men can.”

“Really?” She poured her own
tea. “Why’s that?”

He picked up his teacup,
sipped, burned his tongue and spluttered. “Hell, I don’t know Miss
Anna.”

“Well I know one inhibitor
is the Miss in my name. Why can’t you call me Anna instead of Miss
Anna?”

He blew on the tea and
shrugged. “You’re Tom’s sister. It’s a matter of
respect.”

She laughed softly. “You
think of me as a fallen woman but respect me enough to title me
Miss because of my brother?”

“I never said that I think
of you as a fallen woman.”

“Your eyes don’t tell lies,
Charlie.”

His face colored. “You’re a
puzzle to me Miss Anna.”

“Anna,” she
urged.

“Anna.”

“In what way?”

He shrugged. “You’re so
controlled and proper.” He shrugged again and blushed a deeper
red.

“Can I ask you a question,
Charlie?”

He nodded
uncertainly.

“Since most of your
experience with women seems to have been with whores, did you know
that so-called proper women like sex?”

His face was so red that it
seemed to glow. “Uh. Well…”

“Uh well, we do like sex,”
she said with a laugh. “In truth, we’re not much different from
men. I dare say that if we didn’t have to worry about becoming
pregnant, we wouldn’t be at all different.”

Charlie sipped his tea and
ignored the heat.

“Sometimes I can’t sleep at
night because all I can think about is sex,” Anna said. “Has that
ever happened to you?”

He hesitated then
nodded.

“If it happens again while
my brother and Jane are gone, please come to my room.”

He stared at her.

“Day or night,” she added.
“Now, if you want.”

Like a sleepwalker, he stood
up and offered her his hand. “Are you sure, Anna?”

“Oh damn right, I’m sure,”
she said taking his hand. “But I need your word of honor that you
won’t tell anyone. Not Josiah or anyone.”

“You have my word.” He
pulled her to her feet.

“Even if I get
pregnant.”

His eyes went wide. “I’m not
so sure about that. If I fathered a child I’d want him or her to
know me.”

She pulled her hand away.
“Then forget it.”

October 4, 1830

New Orleans,
Louisiana

Jane pushed aside the tent
flaps and walked out to stand behind Thomas who was sitting on a
stool by the campfire. “What a beautiful sunrise.”

“Red sky at morning, sailor
take warning,” he said, pouring coffee into a tin cup for her. “If
you want some breakfast you’ll need to hurry. They’re about to
start packing the kitchen wagon.”

“I ate too much of that
fancy French food last night.” She sat down on the stool beside
him. “Have I ever mentioned how proud I am to be your
wife?”

He smiled. “Well I’m proud
to be your husband too.”

“Come on now, don’t cheapen
what I said by parroting it back at me.”

He shrugged. “Are you and my
sister laying a trap for poor Charlie Lagrange?”

“What makes you
ask?”

“The clothes you bought for
Anna including the unmentionables.”

“It occurred to me that we
might not get back here for a year or more. And there might be a
wedding before then.”

“Charlie Lagrange and Josiah
Whipple are Texas Rangers because they like living
wild.”

“Charlie’s smitten with Anna
and you can’t deny it.”

“I don’t deny it. Anna’s got
a hook in him and she might, in fact, reel him in. I’m just saying
that if she does, it’ll be a marriage made in hell.”

“You’re being overly
dramatic.”

Thomas waved his hand at the
camp. “These men are not like all the men you knew in New York.
These men are adventurers. Maybe someday when they get older
they’ll settle down…” He stopped at looked at her. “I’m wasting my
breath, aren’t I?”

“Are you happy,
Thomas?”

“Yes, of course I
am.”

“Then why couldn’t Charlie
Lagrange be happily married?”

“Because Charlie Lagrange
and I are cut from entirely different pieces of cloth. I brought my
wife out here, he came alone.”

“Well, it hardly matters now
anyway.”

“In the whole equation,
you’re the only one that does matter since Anna won’t listen to
anyone but you.”

“No, you don’t understand.
It’s too late for me to try to influence her. She’s going to use
our absence to seduce Charlie.”

Thomas groaned.

“She needs a husband and
Quincy needs a father, Thomas. Charlie Lagrange is the best
candidate. Just let it go. You can’t control
everything.”

December 24,
1830

Two Alone Ranch, Coahuila,
Mexican Province of Tejas

Anna tip-toed across her
dimly lit bedroom and carefully opened the door to let Charlie
Lagrange in and then gently closed and latched the door.

Charlie walked to the bed,
sat down and began taking off his boots.

“Put the money on the
dresser first,” she whispered.

He squinted at her in the
flickering candle light. “What money?”

“If you’re going to treat me
like one of your whores, pay me like one.”

He gave her a baffled shrug.
“I was just gonna take off my boots so I didn’t make any
noise.”

“Oh.” She thought a moment
and then knelt on the floor. “Let me help you.”

“That’s not how you do
it.”

“Do what?”

“Help a person take off
their boots.”

“How then?”

“Stand up. Turn around.
Straddle my leg and pull off my boot.”

She giggled softly and did
as he suggested. “Oh my. This might be fun.”

“Shh. Jane and Tom are still
putting up the Christmas tree.”

“Then you better take your
own boots off. I’m liable to make some noise if I do it.” She
stepped away from him and pulled her nightgown off over her
head.

He looked at her for several
seconds before speaking. “Damn, you’re beautiful.”

She walked toward him, bent
down, kissed him hotly on the mouth and pushed him down on the bed.
“Ever made love with your boots on, Cowboy?” She began unbuckling
his belt.

He cupped her breast then
kissed the nipple. “Being quiet may be more difficult than
usual.”

“I don’t care. Merry
Christmas, Charlie.”

January 4, 1831

Two Alone Ranch, Coahuila,
Mexican Province of Tejas

“The post rider came,” Jane
said, as she walked into the barn, waving a letter.

Thomas was struggling to fit
a wheel on a buckboard. “Who’s it from?”

“Your brother.
Robert.”

“It’s about time. Read it to
me.”

She sat down on a hay bale,
opened the envelope then scanned the contents. “You better read it
yourself.”

“Why?”

“Just read it.” She held the
letter toward him.

“Tell me, damn it. Can’t you
see that I have my hands full?”

“Robert says that William
has gone mad.”

“What?”

“William has been confined
in a lunatic asylum in Virginia.”

Thomas dropped the wheel,
snatched the letter from her hands and began to read. “This can’t
be. Dad and Mother have done nothing.”

“Nothing? Thomas. You have
to read between the lines.”

“Meaning what?”

“Robert says in the very
first line that William was sent to the asylum by a court of
law.”

“Yes, I saw
that.”

“Instead of prison, your
parents have managed to have William confined in a
hospital.”

Thomas read the letter
again. “Yes, you’re right. I see that’s likely. Robert uses the
word felony at the end but he doesn’t mention William’s
crime.”

“In all probability he’s
ashamed to mention it. We’ve received several letters from your
father and mother in which William has been conspicuous in his
failure to be mentioned. In fact, did you not remark on that
yourself?”

“I think I remarked on the
fact that neither William nor Robert had answered my last two
letters,” Thomas said. “I don’t recall noticing that Dad and Mother
were omitting William from their letters.”

“Well I do recall noticing
and I’ve been suspecting something terrible might have
happened.”

“Well.” Thomas dropped the
letter into the buckboard. “I suppose I must go home.”

“You can’t possibly get home
in this weather, Thomas.”

“My brother needs me now,
Jane, not next spring.”

“If Robert and your parents
can do nothing, what makes you believe you can?”

“Because Robert and my
parents will pursue legal courses of action and I’ll choose an
illegal course.”

Jane put her hands on her
hips. “You can’t be thinking of breaking him out.”

“Why can’t I? It shouldn’t
be hard to get in and out of an asylum. Not like a real jail, in
any event.”

“Then what?”

He shrugged. “Once we get
back here we’ll establish a new identity for him and we’ll all be
safe.”

Jane reached into the
buckboard, retrieved the letter and scanned it quickly. “This says
the hospital is in Williamsburg.”

“Yes. William was stationed
at Jamestown after he got booted from West Point.”

“Charlie Lagrange graduated
from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. He may be
able to tell you if breaking William out is possible.”

“Possible or not, I’m
going.”

“Just talk to him,” she
snapped. “He and Josiah rode in about an hour ago and they should
be in their cabin.”

“Okay.” He threw his hands
in the air and stalked out of the barn to cross the compound toward
the Rangers’ cabin.

Captain Whipple opened the
door when Thomas knocked. “I was just gonna come lookin’ for you.”
He stepped back and held the door open.

Thomas walked in and nodded
to Captain Lagrange who was sitting on the floor, cleaning a rifle.
“How’s the foot, Josiah?”

“Still ugly but it works
good as new.”

“I take it you had some
trouble on your excursion?”

“Yup. A different kind of
trouble,” Whipple said, closing the door. “Kiowa.”