Antebellum BK 1 (36 page)

June 1, 1854

The Town of Kansas, Kansas

W
hen the steamer was ten feet from the dock, Robert leaped aboard, hopped the rail and hugged Marina tightly. “Hello, Mother. I’ve missed you.”

Normally, Marina would have pushed him away and chided him for the public display of affection, but instead she clung to him and stifled a sob. “Thank you for meeting me.”

Robert released her and picked up the bag at her feet. “Is this all?”

“
Yes. I put everything else in storage at the Port of New Orleans. I’ll get it on the way home.”

Robert waved to his sister and Nancy who were both weeping.

“
Why are they crying?” Marina asked.

“
Because they know Josiah was with you when you left New Mexico and they can see that he’s not with you now. Is he dead?”

Marina nodded. “Yellow fever.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and took a deep breath. “What on earth are they wearing?”

“
Bib overalls and floppy hats,” Robert said.

“
Let me rephrase the question,” she said, gathering her strength. “Why are they wearing bib overalls and floppy hats?”

“
White women have become a valuable commodity,” Robert replied. “I thought hiding their hair and figures was prudent.”

“
I agree. But why do they look like snowmen?”

“
They’re wearing their dresses under the overalls.”

“
In this heat? Might I ask why?”

“
It has something to do with being able to squat and urinate. I decided not to delve too deeply into the subject.”

“
I see.” Marina smiled wanly. “Can they use those pistols they’re wearing or are they window dressing?”

“
They can use them well enough.” He hesitated. “I know you disapprove of some of Anna’s methods, and I agree with you. But it takes a lot of courage to do what Anna and Nancy have been doing here, Mother.”

“
Sleeping with the enemy isn’t courageous,” she said in a scoffing tone.

He gave her a pained look. “They both face enormous risks for something that they believe in deeply. Please don’t ridicule them. As a favor to me.”

Marina bit back an angry answer. “Very well. I won’t.”

Robert put his arm around her. “It’s going to be okay, Mother.”

She leaned against him. “How many times have you told me that?”

“
Hasn’t it always been true? Hasn’t it always turned out okay?”

“
Yes. But each time it’s a little less okay.”

“
I don’t have an answer to that.”

“
You don’t have to have the answer, Robert. Your father always thought that he had to have the answer to every question and the solution to every problem. It made him old before his time.”

“
Jack’s like that. I’m not. I know my limitations.”

“
I’ve probably never told you that I’m proud of you, Robert. But I am. Very proud. You didn’t start out as the best, but you became the best because you always try so hard.”

“
You’re scaring me, Mother.”

“
I suppose.” She sighed. “The worst part of getting old is looking back at all the mistakes that it’s too late to correct.”

“
Then don’t make another one with Anna. Let her affair with Senator
Rucker alone.”

“
Didn’t I just promise to do that?” she asked angrily.

Robert rolled his eyes and didn’t answer.

They waited until the gangway was in place, and then filed across with the other passengers to where Anna and Nancy were waiting. Marina kissed Anna on both cheeks and gave Nancy a fierce hug. “Thank you both for coming to meet me.” She put one arm around each girl.

“
I’m going to buy a buckboard, a team and supplies,” Robert announced. “I’d rather camp on the open prairie tonight than risk a night in this town.”

“
How did you get here?” Marina asked.

“
Horseback,” Anna replied, rubbing her buttocks.

Marina looked at Robert. “Forget the buckboard and buy me a horse.”

“
Are you sure?” he asked. “It’s over seventy miles.”

“
I can still ride,” Marina replied. “Do you have enough money?”

“
Yes.” He unbuckled his holster and handed it to Marina. “Stay right here. I won’t be more than an hour. Shoot first and ask questions later.”

“
Be careful.” Marina strapped the pistol belt over her hips, then gathered her skirt between her legs and tucked it under the belt behind her back, exposing her bare legs from her shoe tops to mid thigh. “Don’t say a word,” she warned Anna.

Anna shook her head. “I admire your ingenuity.”

“
And I admire your legs,” Nancy added. “But they might attract the wrong kind of attention from the wrong kind of somebody.”

“
Wrong for that somebody, not wrong for me,” Marina said. “I’m just itching to shoot Mr. Somebody.”

Anna giggled. “That’s my mother.”

“
Where are your horses?” Marina asked.

“
There.” Nancy pointed to the hitching posts.

“
Let’s move closer to them,” Marina suggested.

Anna picked up Marina’s bag. “We’ve been here since dawn and no one’s bothered us or our horses, Mother.”

“
You’ve had a big, tall, tough-looking soldier with you,” Marina said.

“
And now we have you and your burlesque-girl legs to protect us,” Nancy chuckled.

“
Yes,” Marina said. She drew Robert’s pistol and checked the load. “And a Colt revolver.”

~

Robert was back in less than an hour with a saddled horse, and a loaded mule. “Any trouble?”

“
Not a bit,” Anna said.

“
Do you need your pistol back?” Marina asked.

“
Keep it for now,” Robert suggested. “I bought a new one, but it’s not Army issue. We’ll trade before we get to the fort. Do you need help mounting, Mother? This horse is taller than I would have liked.”

“
I’m okay.” Marina got her left foot into the stirrup, bounced twice and then swung her right leg over the horse’s rump. “Let’s go.”

Robert swung onto his horse without using the stirrups. “We’re going to start off downriver and once we’re sure that we’re not being followed, we’ll circle back the other way.”

“
What if we’re followed?” Nancy asked.

Robert patted the big rifle in its scabbard.

“
You can’t just shoot everyone,” Nancy said.

“
Yes I can.” Robert kicked his horse.

~

The three women were riding side-by-side across an endless prairie. “No, Mother,” Anna said. “We don’t stay at the fort when we’re here. Lately we’ve been staying at a hotel in a Free-State town called Lawrence. It’s about thirty miles west of Fort Leavenworth.”

“
Near the junction of the Kansas and Wakarusa Rivers,” Nancy added.

“
That’s why we almost didn’t get to the landing in time to meet you,” Anna explained. “Thomas sent the telegram to me in Lawrence, where it was delivered by an express rider. Then Nancy and I had to ride to Fort Leavenworth to get Robert to decipher it.”

Marina wrinkled her brow. “Thomas wrote it in code?”

“
He might as well have done,” Nancy replied. “He used abbreviations that Robert understood, but they made no sense to us.”

“
Thomas has become a miser,” Marina said. “He probably saved ten cents by using abbreviations.”

Anna laughed.

“
It’s true,” Marina insisted. “His land is on the only ford across the Brazos on the Chisholm trail, so he charges the cattlemen a dollar a head to cross.”

“
Lord,” Nancy said. “It’s a wonder that people agree.”

“
Thomas doesn’t give them a choice,” Marina said. “He’s got an army of hired gunmen to enforce his laws. There’s a gunfight almost every day. Thomas provides the dead ranchers with a nice, Christian burial, then he confiscates their cattle.”

“
What if the ranchers agree but don’t have enough money?” Nancy asked.

“
Simple. Thomas confiscates enough cattle to pay the crossing fee.”

“
Has no one gone to the law?” Anna asked. “Sued him?”

Marina nodded. “Often. The judges work for Thomas. The cattlemen always lose.”

“
Ha,” Anna said. “So now two of my brothers are thieves and killers.”

“
Except that one of them is always running from the law while the other one gets fat and makes the law.”

“
Fat?” Anna said in surprise. “I can’t even imagine Thomas being fat.”

“
It was a metaphor, Anna. If anything, Thomas is leaner and meaner than ever.” Marina stood up in the stirrups and shaded her eyes. “I don’t see Robert.”

“
Don’t worry about him,” Nancy said. “He’s smart as a whip and tough as nails.”

Anna giggled. “I think Robert’s made a convert of Nancy. She might even like his whiskers.”

Nancy glared at Anna then turned to see Marina’s reaction.

Marina chuckled. “I’ve known you your whole life, Nancy Vreeland, and I love the bones of you like another daughter.” Before Nancy could answer, Marina stood up again. “Riders coming. A dozen or more.” She looked around. “Damn this land is flat. There’s nowhere to hide.”

“
They’re soldiers,” Nancy said. “It’s okay. Robert’s leading them.”

“
Yes,” Anna agreed. “That’s him.”

Marina sat back in her saddle and breathed a sigh of relief. “Lucky for us. I was daydreaming. That’s a bad habit when you’re in a dangerous place.”

Robert reined in and turned his horse to ride along beside his mother. “This is Lieutenant Kimbrough.” He gestured toward a dust-covered officer who looked like a teenager. “He and one platoon will take you to Lawrence. I’m urgently needed back at the fort.”

“
Trouble?” Marina asked.

“
Always,” he replied. “Although I don’t generally care much for anything that Anna’s former boss has to say, he was right in labeling this territory
Bleeding Kansas
. Although Bloody Kansas might be even more appropriate.”

“
Anything we should know?” Marina asked.

“
Yes.” Robert turned in his saddle. “Trust these men. They may look like boys to you, but they’re all seasoned veterans. Do what they say. I’ll see you when I can.”

“
Robert?” Nancy called.

“
Yes?”

“
Could I come with you?”

He considered for a moment. “I suppose it isn’t any more dangerous either way. Come along if you like. But we’ll be riding all night.”

“
I can keep up.” Nancy smiled at Marina and blew Anna a kiss, then she kicked her horse.

“
Well, well,” Anna said with a smile. “I’ve been trying to make that match since I was twelve. It looks like my prayers may be answered after all this time.”

“
You may not be doing Nancy any favors. Robert has always seemed like the softest of my sons, but deep inside he’s the hardest.”

“
He’s also the most thoughtful,” Anna replied.

Marina nodded. “Yes. There is that.”

“
Are you ladies ready?” Lieutenant Kimbrough asked.

“
Yes,” Marina said. “Lead on, sir knight.”

Kimbrough raised his hand. “Troop. Forward, at a walk. Ho.” He dropped his hand, then urged his horse forward.

June
2, 1854

San Francisco, California

T
he sun was just rising over San Francisco Bay when Colonel Jack Van Buskirk trudged up the long hill toward his home. He was bone-weary from six days in the saddle and he wished for the hundredth time that Clementine hadn’t convinced him to let her build the house way up here. The view was indeed spectacular, but the road was awful, and Jack had chased away the architect before the stable was complete so he had to walk home from the livery stable every night after boarding his horse.