Night Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy) (52 page)
Read Night Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy) Online
Authors: Shirl Henke
Lee bent down and whispered to his wife, “I told you she'd be the one. Jimmy will be stoic like a
Tejano
. She's the contrary one—just like her mother.” He grinned and looked from the red squalling face of his daughter to the beatific calm of his son, James Alexander Thomas Velasquez, her fraternal twin, held securely in his mother's arms.
Melanie smiled serenely and whispered back, “Just wait.” When it was Jimmy's turn, Charlee and Melanie exchanged babies and the ritual was repeated. Again the startled squall, this time emanating from the twin. Marie fell blissfully asleep in her mother's arms while Jimmy squirmed and cried. Melanie looked up at her tall husband with a self-satisfied smirk.
When the baptisms were completed, Father Gus dismissed his little flock with a joyous blessing. By the time they had all emerged into the warm August air outside the cathedral, both twins were dozing contentedly, Marie in her father's arms, Jimmy in his mother's.
“You and Charlee planned this,” Lee accused, and his wife stifled a giggle.
“How could we? Neither of them like getting their heads wet, that's all,” Melanie explained patiently.
“Surely, you can't fault my experience holding babies, Lee,” Charlee asked with a laugh, patting her protuberant belly. The proud godparents were expecting their fourth child within two months.
Everyone laughed, even the usually pompous and solemn Clarence Pemberton. He and Amos were present for the family celebration, as were all the children from Father Gus's school. Lame Deer, an honorary godfather, hovered between the two babies, in awe of such tiny bits of humanity and half afraid of them, although he would never admit as much.
Above the babble of children's laughter and adult conversation, a special guest of honor offered his opinion of the occasion. His orator's voice rang out sonorously across the plaza as he addressed Lee. “May I offer my sincere felicitations and commend you, Lee, on beginning with the odds even. Alas, I fear I have become sadly outnumbered since Mrs. Houston has presented me with four sisters for young Sam. You have a fighting chance with a boy and a girl at the onset.”
“Well, Senator, when you wait until you're twenty-three to have your first baby, you might as well not do it by halves. That's why we decided on twins,” Melanie replied with a twinkle.
“Considering what your Grandfather Manchester endured during your crusading years, dear heart, he's the one who's overjoyed most of all,” Deborah said fondly.
Rafe placed his arm around his eldest daughter and a smile lit his harshly chiseled face. “He's waiting in Boston, broken leg and all, for you to bring his first great-grandson and -daughter for a visit, princess.”
“We've already booked passage, Papa.” Melanie assured her father.
“Yes, the
Star
waited for its best reporter during two months' maternity hiatus, and now she takes off for an extended visit to Massachusetts,” Clarence interjected testily. “Adam Manchester is no older than I. Tell him to come to Texas as I did.”
“Jeehosaphat! Yew old goat, Mr. Manchester's got hisself a broke lag—‘n if ‘n yew don't quit yore bellyachin' he won't be th' onliest one afflicted that way,” Obedience warned the editor, who edged away from her warily while everyone else, including Amos, laughed.
Viewing the assembly of beloved friends and family, Lee felt his heart overflowing. “Looking forward to the trip, Night Flower?” he asked his wife.
“Oh, yes. Grandfather will be so thrilled to meet you and Jimmy and Marie! I'll even introduce you to William Lloyd Garrison and Lucretia Mott.”
Lee rolled his eyes and exchanged a look of mock martyrdom with Jim Slade and Wash Oakley.
“I have every faith in this young woman,” Houston boomed out. “Having frequently made the arduous trek to citadels of eastern power, I have learned that nothing is so sweet as to set foot once again on Texas soil.”
“I heartily agree, Senator,” Melanie said simply, reaching out to squeeze Lee's hand.
Lee looked down at their children and then at the small beautiful face of his wife, “My parents came to Texas with a dream.” Then raising his eyes to the assembled multitude filled with so many beloved faces—Hispanic, German, and Anglo, black and red—he said, “Through all of us, their dream will live on.”
Author’s Note
In terms of research,
Night Flower
proved to be the most troublesome, yet fascinating, of the Gone-to-Texas Trilogy. Originally, I conceived of a story in which the good guys were ranchers and rangers, and the bad guys were stereotypical Indian agents of B-western lore; but my research into Texas history destroyed these preconceived notions. Far from being the villains so often portrayed, Texas Indian agents, such as Robert S. Neighbors, who was am actual historical figure, were mostly unsung heroes who faced corrupt whiskey dealers and land-hungry settlers. Men like Neighbors struggled and often sacrificed their own lives to save Native Americans from extinction.
I also found that a number of Texas rangers like Seth Walkman were far from being the fearless champions of law and order described by Walter Prescott Webb. Such villains as Walkman may well have outnumbered noble rangers like Jeremy Lawrence. As to the Comanche and other smaller tribes beleaguered in blood feuds with the Texians, they, as all other races, produced people as good as Lame Deer and as evil as Buffalo Gall. Somewhere between the noble red man of Robert Trennert and the contemptible savage of Walter Prescott Webb, the truth about Texian-Indian relations must lie. My research indicates that neither side was blameless.
For those wishing to investigate these topics further, I would suggest several sources cited previously in the trilogy: John Henry Brown’s
History of Texas
, Volume II; Walter Prescott Webb’s
Texas Rangers
; and Lesley Byrd Simpson’s
Many Mexicos
, all standard reference works. For a more detailed and documented chronicle of the unsuccessful attempts to establish federal Indian reservations in Texas—the only state to enter the Union as a sovereign nation—I highly recommend
Alternative to Extinction
by Robert A Trennert, Jr. and
United States-Comanche Relations
by William T.
Hagen moves beyond the time frame of this story to the tragic conclusion of one of the longest and bloodiest race wars in history, as do
The Comanche
and
Lone Star
by T.R. Fehrenbach. Both Fehrenbach’s books are standard reference works mentioned earlier, superbly evenhanded and insightful in their treatment of this controversial issue.
As in
Cactus Flower
and
Moon Flower
, Sam Houston again makes cameo appearances in
Night Flower
, now as a United States senator and the proud father of one boy and four girls. The Houstons were later blessed with three more boys!
Sam Houston’s Wife, A Biography of Margaret Lea Houston
by William Seale is interesting and written from a point of view different from that of standard biographies of the great man already cited. I must beg pardon for taking a liberty with historical events, in that I placed Senator Houston in San Antonio in the fall of 1852, when in fact he was in Washington at that time. For the purposes of my plot, his presence as guest of honor for the gala ball was essential, and he did relish such political and social events. Additionally, I might add that although the Blaine-Walkman-Greer conspiracy was fictional, Houston’s unpopular concern for the plight of the Indians has been well-documented. His involvement with Lawrence would have been in keeping with his character.
A fascinating, well-documented, and bloodcurdling description of an adventurer’s life in the old Southwest,
Savage Scene, the Life and Times of James Kirker
, by William Cochran McGaw, provided me with ample and gristly details for Lee’s nightmares. The diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin,
Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico
, gives excellent insights into how women fared on the frontier and describes politics, social customs, and daily life in superb detail.
As in the first two books of the Gone-to-Texas Trilogy,
Night Flower
is the weaving of a rich historical tapestry peopled by real-life and fictional characters. I hope their heroism and villainy, their humor and courage have entertained you and deepened your appreciation of the complex and wonderful land of Texas.
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
.