The House Near the River (25 page)

A quick nod
acknowledged
the question. “She will not survive your birth. That is evident as we watch her struggles now.”

“She dies. I’m born.”

“On this November night in the year 186
8
. And with the morn, the village is attacked by soldiers and many of us die. This is my last chance to give you guidance as you will use your gift, my time walker granddaughter.”

“Time walker,” the words were spoken so softly that Matthew could barely hear them.

“Small moments change lives and worlds. We play the role, we serve our people. And for you, this boon, to save the life of the man you love.”

“It’s all mixed up, all happening out of order. Clemmie says he will vanish not long after we’re married, when we’re expecting a baby, and she fears we will never see him again.”

The silence of the village lay deep around them. Matthew half expected to hear the cries of a laboring woman, but did not. Even the consultations of the chiefs seemed to have ceased.

“As soon as you are born, I will carry you into time to deliver you to the woman who will act as your grandmother and to the parents who will love and care for you. I do this to save you from the fate of my village.”

“You could save yourself as well,” Matthew finally spoke.

She looked sadly at him. “Since I cannot save my village, I will remain with them and with my husband.”

She closed her eyes. “The babe is about to come into the world. We must go.”

Abruptly the winter night, though cold, was less so and the ground was bare of snow.

“Who sleeps here then?” Matthew asked, looking at the lonely grave.

“
Angie’s
mother
Luiza
Barry, as it says. She will rest beside the place where her daughter will begin
her life
and where the time
ways are thin and easily penetrated.” She reached out one hand to lightly touch Ange’s shoulder. “Remember my daughter, you must begin at the beginning and then the way will be straightened.”

Then she turned and was gone.

Matthew put his arm around Ange and drew her close.

She looked at him, her face bleak. “I’m not so good at Oklahoma history though I can tell you all about the Alamo. What happened to the Cheyenne village?”

He didn’t want to tell her, but he had no choice. “On a morning in November, 1868, a band of soldiers
led by George Armstrong Custer
attacked  the winter encampment of Chief Black Kettle on the Washita River near Cheyenne. Some folks call it a massacre. Medicine Woman and Black Kettle were both killed.”

If they’d had the opportunity
for a professional photograph, Angie supposed they would have looked like any other bridal
couple
from the 40s. She wore Clemmie’s trim black and white dress with high heeled shoes and a little hat.
Clemmie styled her brown hair in waves with a pompadour in front.
Matthew looked handsome in the black suit he usually wore to funerals.

They were married in the seldom used living room with all the family, even Tobe, present, though it was a school day. They had a bridal breakfast afterward of ham and eggs with hot biscuits, finish
ing
with the wedding cake Clemmie had made.

The pastor left first and then Matthew packed their belongings into the Nash and before they said goodbye, Angie ran out to the grave for another farewell. Her
biological
mother had died
many
ago, but to her it had been just last night. Even more acutely she felt the loss of her mentor and guide, Medicine Woman
,
who had tried
so
futilely to save her people and who had managed only to help one newborn child to escape.

She had so many questions to ask Medicine Woman and now they would never receive answers. She still had to live with the fear she and Matthew would lose each other more lastingly and the last words the Cheyenne woman had spoken to her seemed unfathomable.

She wished she had flowers to put on her mother’s grave, but of course there were no flowers at this time of year, not even for a bride.

She kissed each of the children, even Danny who squirmed uncomfortably at the attention, said goodbye to Tobe who gave her his good wishes, then shook hands with Matthew. She hugged and kissed Clemmie and then stood back while her new sister-in-law said goodbye to her brother.

“Come back soon,” her voice floated after them. “Call and let me know how you’re doing. Reverse the charges.”

The drive home was one of those lovely, uneventful times when she snuggled close to his side and they
t
alked or were silent as the mood took them, simply enjoying their time together.

They spent the first night of their married life in the shack on the farm, prizing privacy more than comfort as they began to learn how to love each other. Most of the next day passed in the same way until, voting in favor of a bath and real food, they got in the Nash to drive down to the cottage that was to be their home.

Angie met jovial John Henderson along with his daughter and grandson. She might have hated Salina on the spot out of sheer jealousy, but that she knew the other woman was engaged to be married. That and the fact that Matthew couldn’t keep his eyes off his new wife.

Theirs was not exactly a traditional honeymoon because Matthew started right in on both his work at home and his job for John. Angie spent her days playing at housekeeping in the little house, showing off her skills at cooking and baking for her husband. Her nights were filled with new delights and she couldn’t help thinking that the physical side of marriage could never have been so lovely if she and Matthew were teenagers or
even in their early twenties
.

They had an acceptance, an understanding of each other,
that came with a certain level of maturity, and an appreciation that follows the real risk that this happy ending
might
never take place.

Sometimes she wondered how Matthew could farm all day and make love with her for half a night without serious bodily harm, but he was, as he liked to tell her, holding up real well.

At Christmas as promised Clemmie, Tobe and the kids came down for the one night and a day that was all the
county
office could spare their sheriff.

Matthew cut down a cedar tree from his farm and they made homemade decorations by stringing popcorn and berries. Clemmie brought them a gift of half a dozen of the celluloid decorations she’d acquired during the war to start their collection. Any cash money either of them had was saved for food and for little gifts for the children.

Matthew gave Angie a
small
carving he’d made himself of
a
Christmas
star
. She put it on the kitchen table where, since there was no dining room in the little house, they were to eat their
holiday
dinner.

Having no money and little in the way of crafting skills, she made his favorite chocolate cake for Christmas dinner.  They had the wild turkey he had shot, roasted brown, with mashed potatoes, gravy, mashed turnips, and the canned corn Clemmie had put up herself.

Clemmie made delicious hot rolls and had brought, as well, three homemade pies and a jar of pickled peaches that went especially well with the chocolate cake.

They ate to repletion
. The women did the dishes while Tobe  drove up to the farm with Matthew to see to the livestock, then
both
came back to oversee the evening chores on the Henderson farms.

John Henderson dropped by that evening for a little conversation, bringing a bottle of wine as a gift to the celebration. Angie suppressed a grin as Clemmie tried to hide her reaction to the idea of spirits being brought into her brother’s home.

John told Angie that Salina and his grandson were
spending the evening with her intended’s
family. She sensed that he felt a little lonely and en
couraged him to linger with them.

He took a particular liking to Shirley Kay. He said she reminded him of his daughter at that age. “Always up to mischief,” he told the little girl and her dimples twinkled as she smiled at him.

Later that evening after the kids were in bed and Tobe and Matthew sat in the living room smoking, she caught Clemmie pouring
what was left of
the wine down the drain in the sink.

It had been a good Christmas, but after she went to bed she lay thinking about Dad and David and wondering if they missed her as much as she missed them.

Only now and then
as she said goodbye to Matthew’s family and went back to watching the days move into the new year,
did she allow herself to remember that this was not the happily ever after, not yet.

Medicine Woman had left her with one last task to accomplish.

And when her breasts began to grow tender and her stomach unsettled, she knew they had reached another milestone. Clemmie had said she was expecting a baby when she vanished.

She put off telling Matthew, knowing that once he got word to Clemmie, they would have crossed the line and whatever happened next, could happen.

But he’d grown up on a farm and worked with animals all his life. He found her puking in the morning and guessed right away.

He was ecstatic about the baby in his own quiet way, almost as happy as on their wedding day and insisted he take her immediately in to see a doctor in McKinney where she was pronounced as ‘fit as a fiddle’ by the old doctor, who said she was definitely expecting.

Matthew went to John’s house that evening to call Clemmie with the news.
When he came back, after he’d told her what everybody had said, she announced that now it was time to tell her family. She was homesick for Dad and David and meant to go visit them.

He stared at her in shock. “You mean to go deliberately into time again? You would risk everything by doing that!”

She hadn’t been really sure until she’d said it right out loud like that. Clemmie had said they had—separately—disappeared. First her, then Matthew. A split that might never be resolved.

Somehow Matthew’s opposition raised her own determination. He got to see his family but she couldn’t see hers!

Suddenly for the first time in their married life, they were in the midst of a serious quarrel.

“You would risk everything we have, our life together, on this whim? Ange Harper, I forbid you to ever go travel in time again.”

Incredulous, she stared at him. “You forbid me?” Never had she used such a tone to her beloved Matthew.

“I won’t have it,” he snapped.

“Not your choice,” she snapped back.

“I’m your husband.”

“And I’m the oldest. Remember, I was born in 1868.”

“You don’t look a day older than twenty eight.” This time, relaxing a little, he grinned.

Somehow she was more enraged by his humor than she had been by his anger.

This time she deliberately reached out, seeking a way to her father and David. It didn’t happen
the way she intended
.

She was living on two levels, seeing the world around her twice was like having double vision on a seriously deep level. She was conscious that something was
very
wrong.

The first stars were beginning to peer out as
she
drove up the narrow, winding dirt trail that led to the tall, weather-gray
ed
old house. “If I ever believed in haunts,” she said aloud, merely because the sound of her own voice was somehow comforting, “this would be the night.”

She’d been here before. This was happening again.

Her thoughts continued to roll even as the car moved slowly ahead.

She hadn’t planned it this way. As she’d listened to the country music that came in from nearby radio stations, feeling that it was the thing to set the stage for this particular outing,  she’d thought she’d get here long before dark. She had visualized the meeting with this cousin she
only rarely
seen since she was a little girl.  She and Amanda would stroll through the rooms of the old house, empty now for a long time, but full of memories of the days when they’d been best friends, close to the same age, and a day at Grandma’s house was to be treasured.

She’d pictured this as happening in bright sunlight in the middle of the afternoon, but her Volvo had decided to indulge in a flat in the middle of isolated western Oklahoma farm country, the kind of flat where the tire was ruined beyond repair and needed to be replaced immediately. Only she hadn’t been able to loosen
it from
the wheel no matter how hard she’d tried and she was admittedly not very accustomed to even the simplest auto care. Back at home in Dallas, all she ever did was call her roadside service and they put things right.