Wolf's Tender (19 page)
They both giggled over the words that in light of both their life adventures seemed a rather odd stricture to be concerned with.
Comfort settled the matter, continuing with her opinion of the McCallister cousins. “Well, I don't care what
Godey's
has to say. Those two are odd. It is a terrible truth that a woman may have to work hard to win her husband, but she gets the crazy relatives for free."
It wasn't hard for the sisters to resume a friendship that had been interrupted seventeen years before. Naomi smiled a lot, supported Comfort's business venture by spending Charlie's money, and felt hope die within ...
he wasn't coming back
.
"What is wrong with you?” Comfort had pounced on her listless behavior immediately and she'd confessed her doubts.
"Of course, he's coming back. You've got his saddlebags. Men don't leave their personal items with someone they're not planning to see again. Besides that, you have his money.” Then, remembering the last shopping excursion she'd used to cheer Naomi, she amended, “Well, you have some of his money."
Naomi knew these things in her head, but her heart waited for his return, silently more frightened each day of his absence.
Comfort insisted that they visit the Double Q ranch, and since it was a way to get her mind off of missing Charlie, although she did miss him there as well, she spent two nights visiting with Brody Quince and meeting Brody's mother, Lucy Quince.
Brody had already demonstrated many times over her storytelling ability, but repeated the events of the Sparrow Creek Ladies’ rescue for anyone who would listen. Naomi was always part of the audience, since seeing the event through another's eyes that were just as admiring of Charlie as her own helped keep his memory alive.
She already mourned him as a lost lover.
Which was why, when they arrived back in Eclipse, trotting toward the CQ Boarding House, and Old Mossy stood tied in front, Naomi's head went up, her spine straightened, and her nostrils flared, preparing for the moment when she would tear a strip of hide off of Charlie Wolf McCallister for leaving her alone so long.
Charlie traveled to Abilene, accompanying Hiram Potter, the McCallister cousins, and the U.S. Army as they herded the Comancheros to justice. It had been decided that Jericho would remain under federal custody and all interested parties would travel with the prisoner to settle up claims.
He hated leaving Naomi. She'd folded her hands in that old-maid-pious manner of hers when he'd said he was traveling to Abilene, but she had remained uncomplaining although he could see the words fighting to bust loose from her tight lips.
She'd been thumbing through her instruction manual on wifely duties, and it had advised her that wives should be silent and respectful.
It was a shame he had to leave town and miss that five-minute episode in her life. After finishing their business in Abilene, he and his cousins swung over to the MC3.
That was why his mother accompanied him back to Eclipse and waited in the parlor of Comfort Quince's Boarding House while he paced the front porch, irritated that Naomi wasn't where he'd left her.
When Comfort and Naomi came trotting up the street in that fancy rig belonging to Hamilton Quince, Charlie felt the palm of his hand begin to itch.
Before the horse was tied off or the ladies ready to step down, he stood waiting for his wife.
"What is it about ‘stay put’ that you don't understand?” He set Comfort Quince on the ground and reached for Naomi. She stared at him and then launched herself out of the seat and straight into his arms.
"What took you so long?” was her first question, followed by seventeen more before she slowed down to notice him.
They stood beside the buckboard. The rest of Eclipse had disappeared some time before, at least as far as they were concerned.
"You cut your hair.” He'd sat on a stool in his mother's kitchen and let her cut it. He touched his neck self-consciously, feeling bare.
"What kind of man has prettier hair than his woman?” he repeated her question to him from sometime before.
When he'd been crouched Indian-style riding into Eclipse, and she'd swerved to protect him from guns held in the hands of white men, he'd made some hard decisions. He now also wore white men's denims, boots, and Sam had bought him a fancy Stetson with some of their Jericho bounty.
But none of that mattered at this minute. There would be time for
telling
later. Right now, he needed a room and two or three hours of uninterrupted
showing
of how much he'd missed her.
He kissed her, savoring the feel of her mouth beneath his. “Mi corazon,” Charlie murmured into her ear holding her closer than decency allowed. “I missed you."
"I missed you too.” Naomi hugged him. And then in honeyed tones unlike her usual self asked, “Mi corazon ... What did you say that meant?” She said it casually, as though it was unimportant. He knew from her change in manner that she hoped to trap him into divulging a secret.
"Chattering badger,” Charlie grinned down at her, ready for the next skirmish. Her face primmed up and she glared at him.
"The last time, you lied and said it meant ‘sharp-tongued woman.’ You can't keep your stories straight, Mr. Wolf. I will expect better of you in the future."
Whatever else she might have said was silenced by his kiss.
Two women stood watching from the porch of the CQ Boarding House. Comfort Quince turned to Rachel Wolf McCallister and asked, “What does he keep calling her?"
Rachel smiled a memory of joy. “When his father spoke it to me, ‘mi corazon’ meant ‘my heart.’”
Historical Notes
Although the characters in Charlie Wolf McCallister's family are fictitious, history records that Black Kettle, the Cheyenne Chief mentioned in
Wolf's Tender
, was present at Sand Creek, the site of a massacre that took place on November 29, 1864. While Chief Black Kettle sought peace with the U.S. government at nearby Fort Lyons, his village along the Sand Creek in Colorado Territory became the focus of an unprovoked attack in which 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children were slaughtered.
The life of mystic, healer, and woman warrior, Lozen, is well-documented. It is written that as the sister of Apache chief, Victorio, she used her supernatural powers to heal wounds, communicate with animals, and detect the proximity of the enemy.
Naomi's choice of reading material,
Godey's Lady's Book
, published from 1830 to 1898 in Philadelphia, was the defining voice of civilization for the early American woman. The most popular magazine of its day, it included recipes, sewing patterns, advice concerning social congress with men, and rules for women of all ages on proper conduct and deportment.
The End
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