Antebellum BK 1 (5 page)

Paul nodded. “And you could spend some time in New Jersey with Anna. Johnny’s never seen a real autumn with trees in color.”

“
Or a real ocean,” Jane added. “I wonder if Tom’s sailboat is still seaworthy.”

“
I’m sure Abraham takes good care of it, just as he does everything else.” Paul pointed out the window. “Here come your boys, riding hard.”

Jane hurried to join him and squinted into the sun. “Oh dear. What now?”

“
Don’t worry.” Paul put his hand on her shoulder, then removed it after a brief pat. “I can tell by the way they’re riding that they have good news, not bad.”

Relieved, Jane let out the breath she had been holding. “Of course. They must be racing to tell us that they’ve spotted the wagon train.”

“
Yes.” Paul pointed toward the brown dust cloud above the horizon. “It looks like Thomas might be bringing his whole regiment and their families.”

“
Oh dear.” Jane put her hand to her throat. “I’m not prepared.”

“
They’ve been living in the field for months. They’ll have everything they need to set up a camp inside the stockade.”

“
I hope so,” Jane said distractedly, watching her two sons race through the open stockade gate toward the house. Both were shirtless, riding bareback. “Look at them.” She shook her head. “They’re like young Comanches.”

“
They’re just a little wild,” Paul said with a slow smile. “They’ll tame down to be fine young gentlemen when the time is right. Like their horses, they’re mostly thoroughbred with just a touch of Texas mustang.”

“
I hope you’re right.” Jane walked to the couch and sat down.

“
I won,” Johnny shouted as the front door burst open.

“
Did not.” Pea shoved him aside and sprinted for the living room. “The wagon train’s topping over the ridge, Ma.”

“
We saw the dust,” Jane said. “And don’t call me Ma.”

“
I saw ‘em first,” Johnny argued.

“
Did not.” Pea flopped onto the couch next to Jane.

“
Get off my furniture with your dirty clothes.” Jane slapped at him without actually touching him. “You smell like horse sweat.”

“
Come with me, you two,” their grandfather ordered. “From the size of the dust cloud it looks like your father has invited half of Texas. We need to get ready.” He gestured toward the door, then followed the boys as they trudged out. “The people in the wagon train are all going to be hot, dusty and looking forward to a nice cool shower. The first thing we have to do is make sure that the water tanks are full.”

“
I get the ladies’ side,” Pea shouted.

~

Clementine Rodgers Van Buskirk walked out onto the porch of her log house and waved to Paul and the two boys. The dust cloud on the horizon meant that her husband would soon be home.
Husband
. The word seemed alien to her. She had met Jack Van Buskirk a little over a year ago in Port Isabel, Texas when he was recovering from Yellow Fever and being evacuated from Mexico. On the trip to Thomas and Jane’s ranch, Clementine and Jack had fallen in love and married. Soon after their arrival at the ranch, word reached them that Marina was a prisoner of war and Jack had set out again for Mexico with his brother Thomas. Now Clementine was waiting for the stranger that she had married.

~

Thomas handed the reins to Marina and stood up to wave toward the ranch. “Almost home, Brother,” he shouted at Jack, who was riding horseback on their right flank.

Jack grinned and waved, then pulled his mount aside to ride back along the column.
Home
, Thomas had said. The Two Alone Ranch was indeed home for Thomas, Jane and their two boys, but it wasn’t Jack’s home. Jack had no home. Or did he, now that he had a new wife? The death of Jack’s first wife and children in the Asiatic cholera epidemic of 1832 had turned him into a sullen, bitter man. The only thing that had kept him going for all the years since then was his love of the Army.

Then he met and married Clementine Rodgers, a woman – a girl, really, that he hardly knew.

~

As the picket riders came through the gate, Jane walked onto the porch. Her sister-in-law, Clementine, waved to Jane from her own porch and Jane waved back. Jane noticed immediately that Clementine was wearing a blouse that showed her bare shoulders and a skirt that showed her calves, ankles and bare feet. To appear in public dressed like that would be scandalous in New York, but in Texas, there was no such thing as decorum.

Texas
. Jane had come to loathe the place. Unlike the verdant ranch at Montauk Point, Long Island where Jane grew up, the trees here were dwarfs, the grass was sparse and the miserable excuse for an ocean was hundreds of miles away. Jane felt that she would never fit in here. Her Montauk heritage made her an outsider to the white settlers who saw her as just another Indian, and yet her Mexican and Indian neighbors viewed her as a white woman.

~

Marina was in a fog. She and John “Yank” Van Buskirk had spent few of their forty-four married years together, but until now, he had always been somewhere, loving her unflinchingly. Now he was gone, truly gone. Marina would never again see his face or hear his laughter or feel his love and his strength. She missed him so badly that she could hardly think. The excitement of her sons’ homecoming was just a dull background roar that barely penetrated her consciousness. She smiled at the boisterous greetings of her grandchildren, exchanged hugs with her daughters-in-law and behaved somewhat normally on pure reflex while she carefully hid her grief and her physical pain.

~

“
Your mother hates me, Tom,” Jane whispered. “Trying to have a conversation with her is like talking to the wall.”

Thomas was watching his mother who, in spite of the fact that it was much too dark to see anything, was staring out the window. “It’s not you, Jane,” he replied softly. “She hasn’t been right since she was rescued.”

~

Robert was also watching Marina and he crossed the crowded room to join her. “Are you okay, Mother?”

“
What?” She turned to look at him.

“
Are you all right?”

“
Yes.” She nodded. “But I’m very tired. Do you suppose that feelings would be hurt if I went to bed?”

“
Not at all,” Robert said. “Let me find Jane and ask her where she’s put you.”

“
Pea knows,” Marina replied. “He took my satchel upstairs.”

“
He’s outside somewhere with Johnny and the young people from the wagon train. Wait just a minute, I’ll find out.” Robert crossed the room to where Jane and Thomas were talking. “Excuse me, Jane. My mother’s tired. Can you tell me where she’s to sleep so I can take her up?”

“
I’ll take her,” Jane said, and she hurried over to Marina. “Robert says that you’re tired. Let me show you to your room.

“
Thank you.” Marina followed her to the stairs and gripped the banister to pull herself up, step by step.

Jane noticed her difficulty and stopped. “Do you need help, Marina?”

“
No.” Marina continued her slow ascent.

“
Very well.” Jane climbed to the top of the stairs, waited for Marina, then led her down the hall to an open door and stepped back. “Do you need some help getting ready for bed?”

“
No, thank you.” Marina crossed the room a bit unsteadily and sat down heavily on the bed with a groan.

Jane went in, knelt at the bedside and started to unbutton Marina’s shoe.

Marina pulled her foot away. “Don’t do that. I told you that I didn’t need any help.”

Jane drew back in surprise, then stood up. “I’m sorry.”

Marina saw the expression on Jane’s face and shook her head slowly. “No, Jane, I’m sorry. Please. I mean, thank you. I can manage. I’m just – I’m very, very tired.”

“
Of course. Good night, Marina.” Jane backed out of the door, closed it and burst into tears.

Marina sighed deeply, then filled the basin on the commode with water. After painfully removing her shoes, she began the agonizing task of soaking off her blood-encrusted stockings.

Anticipating an American attack on Chapultepec Castle in Mexico, Marina had escaped captivity by hiding in the water tower on the roof of the castle. The long exposure to the water while she waited for rescue had resulted in a severe case of immersion foot. In spite of the salve she’d been applying, the infection had worsened during the trek north and Marina now suspected that necrosis was setting in. In a few days, without further treatment, she would be dead. Too bad that her children would have to watch her die. She’d tried her best to save them from it, but they were too stubborn. Maybe she could steal a horse. “Damn. I’ve made another mess of things, John,” she muttered to her husband’s ghost.

June 7, 1848

Two Alone Ranch, Texas

W
ith a steaming mug of coffee in his hand, Thomas walked out onto the front porch. “Good morning, Mother. Did you sleep out here last night?”

Marina was sitting in a rocking chair, watching a rabbit that was nibbling dandelions in the patch of grass that served as a lawn. “I don’t sleep more than two or three hours anymore.”

Thomas sat down beside her. “Josiah Whipple said that you saw William in Mexico.”

She turned her attention from the rabbit to look at her son. “Yes. I had a brief conversation with your brother. Josiah thought that I should have turned him in to the authorities. I suppose he told you that too.”

Thomas nodded. “Charlie Lagrange was Anna’s husband – your son-in-law, and William murdered him, Mother. There’s no doubt about it.”

“
William’s my son. There’s no doubt about that either.”

“
Josiah’s vowed to kill him.”

“
Josiah had better look to his own life,” she growled. “William isn’t going to be easy to kill.”

Thomas took a moment to form his next thought. “If William turns up here, what should I do?”

“
You’ll have to decide that for yourself.”

Their conversation was interrupted by Jane, who came onto the porch and dragged a chair over next to her husband. “What do you think of our boys, Marina?” she asked as she sat down.

“
They’ve grown,” Marina answered. “Where did that rabbit go?” She shaded her eyes and peered toward the closed stockade gate.

Jane gave Thomas a questioning look and he nodded. “Are you planning to visit Anna and Quincy before you retire to Mexico, Marina?”

Marina sat back in the rocker but still didn’t make eye contact with Jane. “I wasn’t planning to visit here, but your husband and his brothers were insistent.”

“
I was thinking that I might go to West Point with Pea and take Johnny along,” Jane said. “Maybe you’d like to come too.”

“
That’s almost two years from now,” Marina said. “Anything could happen in two years.”

Jane glanced at her husband again, then continued. “What did you think of Jack’s wife?”

Marina finally looked at her. “Why are you asking me all these questions? Do you think I’ve forgotten your children’s names, or their ages, or Jack’s wife’s name?”

“
No, no. Of course not,” Jane stammered. “I just wondered what your impression was of Jack’s wife, that’s all.”

“
I met Clementine at Port Isabelle when she was a saloon girl, before Jack met her. You almost surely knew that. Why did you ask? Are you testing my memory?” Marina sat forward and fixed Thomas in a baleful stare. “You told her to ask me those questions.”

He gave her a noncommittal shrug.

“
You had better not be trying to find a way to have me declared mentally incompetent, Thomas.”

“
Why would I do that?” Thomas asked, pulling a face.

“
How should I know?” Marina snarled. “Your father’s money, maybe.”

“
Oh, Mother, don’t be ridiculous,” Thomas replied. “I have plenty of my own money.”

“
All I know is that you and your brothers are trying very hard to prove that I’ve gone mad.” She got up and limped into the house, slamming the screen door behind her.

“
See?” Thomas said. “She’s gone mad.”