Sweetwater (33 page)

“Jenny, listen,” he said urgently. “Trav and I had another brother, beside Pack, who turned outlaw and was killed by another outlaw. Our father drank and almost gambled away the inheritance of his niece. Thank God she came to Laramie before it was all gone. My background is that of poor Irish—”

“Is that all?”

“No. I’m not only poor as Job’s turkey, now I’ve got a face that will scare children.” His voice was so low that she could hardly hear. “I won’t burden you with it. I want you to know that I’ll stand by you and see to it that you’re left alone here.”

“Burden
me
? Don’t make excuses, Trell. I realize that I’m not suitable for life on a ranch. Colleen would be a far better helpmate.”

“Colleen is a fine girl and I’ll welcome her to the family when Trav marries her.”

“That isn’t likely to happen. She doesn’t even like him.”

“Trav is in love with her. He’ll win her over.”

“Trell, I came to Wyoming because I
had
to come. I want to tell you why I left the security of family and friends to come here with my two sisters.”

“I saw you and the girls get off the stage that day and I thought about you all the way home.”

“Sweetwater, Stoney Creek, the school—none of it was up to my expectations. Things only started going right when you came and helped me put out the fire.”

“I fell in love with you that day.” His voice was so low that she could hardly hear. There was so much love and concern in his eyes that she would have known what he said if she hadn’t heard.

“Trell! My heart’s been aflutter over you for weeks.”

“You’re not just saying … that—?”

“No, no, my sweet man! But I want to tell you why the girls and I came here. There’s something you need to know about me, Trell. If I should leave the territory, I would be arrested for kidnapping.”

For the next half hour Jenny leaned close to the man on the bed and told him of her life in Allentown and all the events leading up to her taking the girls and fleeing to Wyoming Territory.

“That sonofabi—”

“It’s all right. Say it. I’ve called Charles that many times in my thoughts. He will never get his hands on the girls again. I think … I really think I would kill him first.”

“You wouldn’t have to, honey. You’ve got me and Trav. We’ll take care of it, if it comes to that. I wish I wasn’t in this damn bed!”

“What would you do?”

“I’d hold you in my arms and kiss you.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“Come closer,” he whispered.

Trell put his free hand at the nape of her neck and pulled her face down to his. His lips were warm and firm. He kissed her deeply and sweetly, careful not to smear her with the salve on his cheek. Jenny closed her eyes and gave herself up to the sweetness of his kiss.

Dear and generous God, I thank you for bringing this wonderful man into my life. I will love him, respect him, and cherish him for as long as I live.

When she lifted her head, she looked down at Trell with eyes shining with love. Gentle fingers stroked the hair at his temple.

“It broke my heart to think of you lying out there alone and hurt. If you hadn’t come … back—” Her voice broke.

“But I did, my love. I don’t have much, Jenny, but it’s yours.”

“No one has ever offered me so much. I’m proud to accept it and you. Everything I have will be yours. We’ll share the good and the bad. Oh, Trell. I wish I could kiss all the hurt places on your dear face and they would be well. I’ve never been in love before. I had a few schoolgirl crushes that lasted a week or two. It’s a grand feeling to know that a wonderful man loves me and that I love him.”

“Do you really love
me
? It’s like reaching for a star and suddenly you have it in your hand. I’ll spend my life taking care of you and the girls if you let me.”

Trell already knew many of the things that had happened since she arrived. Jenny had told him about slapping the agent, and about today’s visit from the Reverend Longfellow.

“Uncle Noah would say that the preacher talked out of both sides of his mouth. Whit said he talked with a forked tongue. I had the feeling he was here to see what he could find out. He said he just dropped by on his way to the Agency store. Wouldn’t you think he would have mentioned that he was going to visit his daughter?”

“He didn’t?”

“No. He told me a pitiful story about the children in Sweetwater who wanted to go to school, but had no teacher. Mr. Havelshell had already offered me the job. Longfellow didn’t care whether or not the Indian children had a teacher.
My dear, they may learn a word or two, but what good will it do? They will never let go of their savage ways.”
She mimicked the preacher’s soft voice.

“And, Trell, he thought Whit had no right to anything of his father’s because he was a half-breed bastard. I told him that Mr. Whitaker and Whit’s mother were married according to Shoshoni customs. He actually laughed and shook his head in such a patronizing way that I wanted to hit him.”

“Don’t get upset, sweetheart. Most of the people who came to settle the West feel like that about the Indians. It’ll take years for them to realize that this was
their
land, and their customs are as old or older than some of ours.”

“Another reason that I love you is that we think alike. Hurry and get well,” she whispered close to his ear.

“I’d be up tomorrow if I had a crutch.”

“I asked Mr. McGriff to bring a pair when he comes back next week. But you shouldn’t get on your feet too soon.”

“It was hard to stay in here today when the preacher came. I didn’t know what was happening or if you needed me.”

“Your brother represented you very well. I don’t think you’ll be able to count the preacher as a close friend.”

“Trav has a way of rubbing folks the wrong way.”

“Did Ike tell you that Trav knocked Frank Wilson off his feet?” Jenny chuckled softly.

“They don’t come too big for Trav to take on. Wilson was lucky he didn’t loose some teeth.”

“Cassandra was put out because she didn’t see Trav do it.”

“She told me about the dart and the slingshot.” Trell smiled with one side of his mouth. “She had intended it for Havelshell’s horse.”

“Cassandra is a strong-willed little girl. She doesn’t hesitate to take matters into her own hands.”

“I know. She’s asked me several times if I wanted to marry you.”

“Oh, no! Oh, my goodness. I’m glad I didn’t know that. That isn’t why—”

“Silly girl! I wanted you the first day I came here but didn’t dare think I had a chance.”

“Thank goodness Beatrice takes after her mother and Cassandra is one of a kind.”

“Cass knew I wanted to be alone with you. She’s giving me the chance to court you.”

“I’m beginning to like
your
brother a lot, and I wish
my
sister was small enough to spank!”

“Our luck could run out any minute and … I want to kiss you again. I love you, Jenny. Are you afraid of it?”

“No, my love. I’m grateful that I’m the one you want.”

“I want you … very much.”

He stared gravely at her, then pulled her to him. He held the back of her head in his large hand, working his fingers through her hair while his lips made little caressing movements against her. His hand was firm, his lips soft. He gave her no chance to withdraw and she did not want to. At the soft touch of his tongue on her lower lip, emotion surged from deep inside her, and impulsively she pressed his hand close to her breast. He kept it there for a long moment.

They drew away together. She let her breath out slowly. When she looked in his eyes, she knew that he hadn’t wanted the kiss to end.

“We’ll have other times together,” she whispered, then laughed softly, her breath feathering his wet lips. “I don’t think I’ll sleep a wink tonight. I’ll want to remember each and every word we said to each other. Oh, dear! I’m acting as if I were sixteen.”

“I’ll not sleep either. I’ll be wishing you were here with me. Instead I’ll have to listen to Trav snore.”

“He said at supper that he was going over to the Double T for a few days, that is, if Ike was going to be here.”

“First he’s stopping in Sweetwater to see if he can find out anything about the fellers that shot me. I wish he’d wait because I sent a letter to our brother Pack and told him what was going on here and asked him to get in touch with a friend of ours who is a Federal marshal. The last I heard Cleve was in Big Timber, Montana Territory, and I’m sure he’ll come down soon, if he isn’t tied up with another investigation.”

“I hope he does. There’s something wrong here. Terribly wrong.”

“Be extra careful while Trav is away.”

“I will. Now, I should go and let you get some sleep. Travor will be wanting to go to bed. He’s probably sitting outside waiting for me to leave.”

“Kiss me again and tell me—”

“That I love you? I do. Believe me, I do.”

“You’ve given me the world.” His hand stroked up and down her arm, then moved to smooth the hair back from her cheek.

The lamplight slanted onto his face and his thick lashes made fans of darkness in the hollows beneath his eyes. A new feeling grew in Jenny, a wish to take away his hurt, absorb his pain, and to give herself to him wholly and completely.

They gazed at each other for a moment that was so still that it seemed time had stopped moving. Then, slowly, tenderly, she lowered her mouth to his again.

Jenny and Colleen, with help from Cassandra, usually washed the supper dishes. Granny cooked the meal, and they insisted that she sit in her chair while they did the cleaning. Tonight Cassandra took the drying towel and instructed Beatrice to reset the table with the clean dishes, placing the plates facedown and covering with a cloth the
necessaries
Granny left on the table.

Ike, who never stayed indoors any longer than was necessary, went out as soon as he finished his meal.

“Meal was … fair. Thanky.”

“Ya didn’t hafta eat it,” Granny retorted.

“’Twas eat or starve.”

“Ya can starve, fer all I care.”

“Ya’d miss me somethin’ awful, if’n I did.” Ike laughed his dry chuckle and hurried out the door.

Granny rocked in her chair and Travor, while pretending to read a newspaper that had been left by McGriff, watched Colleen. She had braided her hair Indian-fashion and wore baggy old overalls, but she was the most desirable, fascinating woman he’d ever met. He recorded in his mind every movement, every gesture, to bring out and mull over when he was away from her.

When the cleaning was almost completed, he went out, returned with an armload of firewood for the woodbox and went out again. He lit a cigarette and waited beside the well for Colleen. He knew that she would not go to bed with an empty water bucket on the washstand.

The door finally opened, but it was Cassandra who came toward him, the glow of his cigarette serving as a beacon for her.

“I’m making sure you don’t go to the bunkhouse for a while,” she said, coming right to the reason for her being there. “Give Trell some time to be alone with Jenny.”

“Well, if you aren’t the little matchmaker.”

“I try to be. They are right for each other, and Trell is in love with her.”

“How do you know that?”

“I asked him. How else would I find out what I want to know?”

“And what did he say?”

“He didn’t say anything. He hemmed and hawed around. But he didn’t have to say anything. I knew he was smitten with her the first day he came here. Just as I know that you’re smitten with Colleen and are waiting for her to come out to fill the water bucket.”

“You’re a regular little miss know-it-all. A man wouldn’t stand a chance if you wanted him.”

“The man I choose will be extra smart. I can’t abide stupidity.”

“Is that the reason you like me so much?” he teased.

“You’re not dumb, Travor, but not overly smart either. You’ve backed Colleen into a corner with your flirty ways, which, by the way, she hates. She’s put up so much resistance to you now that it will be hard for her to admit that she likes you without looking and feeling like a fool.”

“You think she likes me?”

“I’d have to be deaf, blind and dumb not to know that. And if you’re as smart as I think you are, you know it, too.”

“What does Granny think?”

“Why not ask her?”

“I’m afraid to, that’s why, little miss wise-owl.”

“Granny is very smart. Oh, not in book learning, but in experience and horse sense, which at times is more valuable to a person than a college education.”

“You’ve figured this all out, have you?”

“Of course. Granny realizes that she’ll not be around for many more years. She loves her granddaughter and wants to see her settled with a good man who will take care of her. I think she wanted Trell for Colleen, but it was clear from the start that he wanted Jenny.”

“Godamighty!” Travor dropped his cigarette and stepped on it. “Are you sure you’re not a thirty-year-old midget?”

“I’m nine years old, Travor, as you well know.” Cassandra spoke in a resigned tone of voice, as if she were bored with having to repeatedly tell her age. “I’ll be ten in two months. Age has little to do with intelligence. You either have it or you don’t.”

“And you have it.”

“It was not my doing. My parents were responsible. Now, it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on here. You’re waiting like a little boy hoping for a glimpse of the princess.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“A man with serious intentions would go to Granny and ask her permission to walk out with her granddaughter.”

“What if she turned me down?”

“It would be up to you to persuade her that your intentions are honorable.”

“Hmmm—You may have a point.” He stuck out his hand and Cassandra put hers into it. “Let’s give it a try. If this works, I’ll get your advice on a few other problems I have.”

“Anytime. Glad to help. Go on in. If we go in together, Colleen will think we’ve been plotting.”

Travor went determinedly to the door and flung it open. Colleen stood there with the water bucket in hand. He took it from her, then with his hand on her back prodded her to where Granny sat in her chair.