Godsend (Hell Yeah! Heritage), page 13
The horse had dragged us some distance. Before he could reach us, a bear found him.” Jolie shuddered. “He was evil, but no one deserves a death like that. While…the bear was busy, I managed to get the key to our shackles from the saddlebag. We weren’t too far from the river. Sally decided to try and go home, she still had family there.” Jolie bit her lip to keep from crying. “I had no one but Abraham and Charlotte and I knew they couldn’t help me. I didn’t really know what to do. I just hoped that I could find help.”
“And you found me.”
“Yes. I found you.”
For a few moments they sat there while he absorbed all she had told him. Finally, he began to speak. “What you’ve gone through…” He stopped, unable to go on.
“Like you said, it all led me to you.” She hoped he would always see her coming to him as a blessing.
“If I could turn back time, prevent you from ever experiencing one moment of heartbreak, I would.”
Jolie rose and went to him, climbing into his lap. “I wouldn’t have chosen this path, but I would have chosen this destination.” She laid her head on his chest. “Being here with you is where I belong.”
Austin tightened his arms around her. “I don’t want to go to town now.”
She raised up to look at him. “Why?”
“I’m afraid you’ll leave me again.”
She felt tears welling again. “I won’t. I won’t leave until you ask me to go.”
“Then, you’ll stay forever.”
They held one another for a long while, until he felt capable of continuing with his trip preparations. What he’d learned changed everything. Now, his greatest fear wasn’t losing his land, it was losing her. While he was in Nacogdoches, he would try to find out if anyone was looking for Jolie.
Knowing he would be leaving in the morning, Jolie prepared an extra special supper. A beef roast and potatoes cooked in the coals and she was trying her hand at cooking a plain pound cake in the cast iron pot. She wouldn’t even walk heavily near the fireplace, so afraid the cake would fall. Something was bothering her though…
“Austin, did your family have slaves?”
Austin stopped short. He’d just returned from outside; he’d brought a small attaché from the barn where he’d had it stored in the loft. He was in the process of folding a spare shirt and pants when she asked her question. His movements slowed, but he answered. “Yes.”
Jolie frowned, she didn’t know why she was thinking of this. “What if we’d met there, when I was a slave.”
Austin dropped what he was doing and came to her, clasping her hands in his. “I would have claimed you. My soul would have recognized you.”
As he held her, Jolie prayed he would always feel this way.
By the time the food was ready, the day was waning fast. Austin stood at the door, gazing at the sky. “We have an hour or two of light left. Do you want to go on a picnic?”
Jolie looked at the food. “I’m not sure what I fixed will pack well.” The idea of a picnic appealed to her greatly, though. “Could we go for a walk and eat when we get back?”
“Perfect.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her outside. Sandy ran ahead, barking and running about, excited at the prospect of a family outing.
Hand in hand they strolled, her head leaning on his arm. He told her of his plans for the place. “I want to expand the cabin, more than double the size.” Stealing a kiss from her cheek, he chuckled. “We’ll need the room when we have babies.”
Babies? “Austin!” Her face heated and a thrill shot through her.
Austin stopped, pulling her into him. “Haven’t you thought about it? I don’t have any way to protect you.”
“There are herbs I could take.” Her grandmere had taught her that. She placed a hand on his cheek. “But I want your babies. I want them very much.”
With joy in their hearts, Austin and Jolie ran down to the banks of the Palo Gaucho and dropped down on some thick moss beneath a tree. He lay with his head in her lap and she pleased herself by playing in his long golden hair. “How many children do you want?”
Austin clasped the hand she had lying on his chest and kissed it. “A dozen.”
“A dozen?” Jolie squealed with laughter. “We’d need three cabins!” To her delight, Austin got the giggles. She was completely entranced watching him, even tickling his ribs to prolong the fun.
“Watch it, girl!” He grabbed her hands and pulled her down. When he did, he became aware of her breasts pressing softly through the leather and his demeanor changed. “Let me,” he whispered, working the square necked garment off her shoulders.
Jolie glanced around. “What if someone sees?”
“Who? There isn’t anyone around for miles.” As he revealed the beautiful globes of her breasts, his breath caught in his throat. “I just can’t believe you.” He caressed her warm flesh, tracing circles around her nipples, weighing them in his palms, pressing them together. “I could play with you for hours.”
Jolie closed her eyes in ecstasy. She loved what he was doing as much as he loved doing it. “Put me in your mouth, Austin.”
Austin smiled. His baby was learning fast. “Maybe I could manage that.”
When his lips closed over her nipple, Jolie gasped. She cradled his head as he feasted, sucking on one breast while he milked the nipple of the other between his fingers. The pleasure she was receiving was eclipsed only by happiness she received from watching his face. Love for him rose within her heart like a spring storm.
Bending to kiss his face, she whispered, “Let’s go back. I am very hungry.”
Austin pulled back, a rosy nipple popping from his mouth. He looked disappointed. “You are?”
“For you.”
They raced back to the cabin.
Austin won. In more ways than one.
* * *
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.” He gazed into her eyes, running his palms up and down her arms. It was as if he couldn’t not touch her.
“I will be waiting. And I will be careful. I promise.”
“You’d better, you belong to me and I don’t even want to think about living without you.” He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Sandy will stay with you. Keep him close. And use the chamber pot I put by the bed. Don’t try to go to the outhouse at night.”
She tiptoed to kiss him. “Stop worrying. I’ll be waiting for you when you get back. Everything will be fine. I promise.”
Promises.
Austin’s heart was full of promise. As he climbed into the buckboard and began to pull away, he raised his hand in farewell. Sandy bayed and Jolie waved, keeping her eyes on him until he was out of sight.
…On the trail, Austin kept his horse going at a steady pace. He was intent on traveling as far as possible as fast as possible. He cut north until he hit the trail known as the King’s Highway. Steadying his rifle that rested next to him on the seat, he let his eyes rove the dense forest on either side of him. The bear that killed Jolie’s slave trader was out there somewhere, but Austin had no desire to encounter him. As far as he was concerned, Austin owed the bear a huge debt.
Normally, he would’ve looked forward to and enjoyed a trip such as this. The prospect of seeing another human being, talking to acquaintances and friends, just being around other folks for a time would’ve had him anxious to get there. Now, he was anxious to simply get the journey over and get back to Jolie. How was he going to endure this time apart from her? Already his body was aching to be back in her arms.
A rustling in the bush to his right caused Austin to rein in his horse, stopping to listen. He peered through the maze of trees, the expanse being easier to view now that the deciduous trees had dropped their leaves. At this time of day, the culprit was more than likely to be a deer. He’d seen some whitetail bucks in these woods with racks sporting thirty points. Huge. The likelihood of his shy visitor being a wolf or a bear was slim. He’d give a pretty penny for a glimpse of one of the elusive black panthers that haunted the river bottom. Once he’d seen one lounging on a low tree limb, it’s golden eyes seeming to hold the wisdom of the ages. Austin refused to shoot any of those majestic creatures unless they directly threatened him.
Suddenly, the underbrush seemed to explode and Austin grabbed for his rifle, but he quickly laughed and relaxed when the cause turned out to be a flock of wild turkeys. “With Christmas right around the corner, if I was on the way home, one of you would be sorry.” At the thought of the holiday, he vowed to buy Jolie presents for under the tree.
Relaxing, he flicked the reins and kept his horse heading east, his mind occupied with making plans to find a tree and decorate it for her.
…Back home, Jolie wasn’t having as peaceful of a morning. “I told you to leave that skunk alone, Sandy.” She sat on the very edge of the creek bank, holding the dog by the scruff of the neck as she scrubbed him with some lye soap. “Whew, you stink! We’re both going to catch our death from this freezing water.” Sandy’s eyes were sad and his ears drooped as he endured the unwanted bath.
“When we get through here, I want to go out in the woods and hunt some snakeroot, dogwood bark, feverwort and goldenrod. You never know when we might need it.” She shivered. The idea of Austin becoming ill frightened her. She would do anything to prevent him from suffering and sickness. He showed no signs of any health problems, but something kept nudging her to prepare. “Oh, Grandmere, I need you. I don’t understand what’s happening to me.”
Once she was satisfied she’d done all she could do to help the poor smelly dog, she released him and then ran away giggling as Sandy shook himself hard enough that his ears and lips flopped noisily.
Drying her hands on her skirt, she studied the clouds. “I wish it would snow.” The prospect of celebrating the holidays with Austin made her smile. She hadn’t enjoyed Christmas since her parents died. “What will I give him for a present?” Her mind whirled, trying to come up with something she could make. Frowning, she realized she didn’t really have anything of value to offer him. “I’ll have to think of something,” she mused. And his birthday? “I don’t even know when his birthday is.”
Jolie was struck by how little she knew of the man who owned her heart. There was no way she could complain though, she’d kept so much from him – out of shame and out of fear. She was still amazed at how he’d accepted her secret. Crossing her arms around her middle, Jolie glanced down at her skin, remembering the day she and Charlotte had lain side by side, comparing the color of their skin, wondering how people defined who was good and who was bad – who was valuable and who was worthless. Charlotte had said she was lucky that she looked white. Jolie didn’t know if that was true or not. Where one was born, whether one was light or dark, those distinctions really had nothing to do with what kind of a person someone was inside. Good and evil, smart or stupid, kind or cruel – none of those attributes were confined to one particular race or creed or sex.
“Ouch!”
Jolie swatted at a mosquito. She’d noticed there were a lot of them, especially for this time of year. Probably due to the wetter than normal summer the region had experienced. Austin had said it had rained so much that the bayou had overflowed almost as far as the garden patch.
Oh, well. She knew a recipe for a salve to help the itching. She’d look for some plantain plants. Crushing their leaves and using the juice would keep any bug bite from itching. Hurrying back to the cabin, she entered to find a woven basket perfect for holding the treasures she’d soon find.
…Several miles away, Austin kept up a steady pace. Jolie had packed him some venison jerky, fried bacon, and a biscuit or two that she’d baked that morning. He didn’t stop, but ate as he rode, washing down the now cold biscuit with water from his canteen.
Keeping the wagon on the trail didn’t take much effort, so as Austin traveled, his mind wandered. He couldn’t help but return again and again to the fact that Jolie was a runaway slave. Oh, he knew her circumstances were special. She was caught between two worlds, probably feeling as if she didn’t fit in either one. That was okay, the only world she needed to fit into was his and he intended to fashion his world so she’d feel right at home.
The rhythmic sound of the horse’s hooves mixed with the sound of the wagon wheels on the packed red clay allowed Austin to slip into a trance-like state. He couldn’t help but marvel how quickly life could change. One day he was alone and lonely, the next he received a gift from above, someone to love.
His heart ached for what she’d been through. Austin considered how he felt about slavery. He’d been raised around it. His father owned a cotton plantation and along with it, he owned several hundred slaves. Among his peers, Robert McCoy did have a reputation of being fair. He provided his slaves with clean living conditions and he didn’t separate families. He wasn’t like the plantation owners who treated his female slaves like members of a harem, raping them when the desire arose.
If he were being truthful with himself, Austin would have to admit that he’d never dwelled on the issue of slavery. He’d loved the nanny who’d raised him after his mother died. The house servants had been ever-present, so much a part of his daily life that he barely noticed them. Overseers had taken charge of the field slaves, so Austin and his family had been in the enviable position of benefiting from slavery without getting their hands dirty with the uglier side of it.
Shaking his head, Austin admitted that his own thoughts disturbed him. How quickly views could change. Before, slaves and slavery weren’t something he viewed with any objectivity. Since Jolie came into his life, everything seemed different. Loving her changed everything.
* * *
The next day, as Austin neared Nacogdoches, he mentally made a list of all the things he intended to do. He wanted to travel to the land office and speak to the Alcalde. This would be the same office where he’d come to register for the census. Upon arriving in the state of Coahuila y Texas, he’d been required to bring some type of identification or proof of his religion and character. A note from the priest from the fairly new settlement of Memphis had served as his reference. To become a citizen, he’d gone before the authorities and swore to obey the laws and to practice the Catholic religion. He’d registered his name, his trade, his marital status, and the place from which he’d come. Now, he wondered if Jolie would have to do the same thing or if their marrying would automatically discount any questions. He hoped that would be the case.
His main goal for this trip, however, was to make sure the ownership of his land wasn’t in question. Once through with that chore, he could get down to the more pleasurable tasks of his trip: shopping for supplies and making arrangements to marry the woman he loved.
The closer he came to the village of Nacogdoches, the more people he encountered. There were many Anglo settlers, but also many Mexicans living in the area. When he’d camped out near the halfway house the night before he’d run into a man who was traveling east. Austin had invited him to share his campfire and a cup of coffee.
They hadn’t shared much time before it became obvious the man was not in the best of moods.
“Where you from?” he’d asked Austin grumpily.
“My homestead is just south of Red Mound about ten miles west of the Sabine. Right near the banks of Palo Gaucho Bayou.” Austin had explained patiently. “My name is Austin McCoy. How about yourself?”
“Originally from Bean Town, Tennessee.” He held out his hand. “My name is Ellis P. Bean.”
Austin recognized the name. “You’re the Indian agent.”
Bean let out a long sigh. “Yea, I am. Thankless job.”
“I can imagine.” He really couldn’t, but he wanted to know more. “It’s always hard to make everybody around you happy.”
“Hell, ain’t that the truth.” He sipped his coffee and stared at the fire. “I work for the Mexicans, yet I have to get along with the Indians and the Anglos too. None of them trust the other and it puts me right smack dab in the middle.”
“I’ve heard there’s a bit of tension in the air. Have you heard anything about it?” Yes, Austin was on a fishing trip, not for trout – for information.
“Oh, yea. Haden Edwards, he’s at the bottom of it all. The man rides into town and thinks he can take over.”
“I’ve met Mr. Edwards once before. He seems to be a very ambitious man.”
“Aggressive, quick-tempered rascal.” Bean drained his cup and held it out for more. “If he’s not careful, the man’s gonna start a war. When the Mexicans gave him his land grant and told him he could bring in 800 families, the contract they gave him required Edwards to recognize all pre-existing Spanish and Mexican land titles in his grant area, and to allow the Mexican state land commissioner to certify all deeds he awarded. He ain’t doing that. He’s turning this into a land grab, wanting to pick and choose who keeps their land, weeding out who he don’t want.” Bean leaned forward. “Despite my personal affiliations, I can understand wanting to get out from Mexico if we could, but cheating people out of land and starting a war with unnecessary bloodshed ain’t the way to do it.”
“No, it’s not.” Austin frowned, the news he was hearing was not sitting well with him. “What are people doing about it?”
Bean laughed. “Well, so far there’s just talk. This isn’t the United States of America, organization is lacking and we’re spread mighty thin.”
“And our allegiances are split. You’re from Tennessee, working for Mexico, advocating for Indians and living in a territory that’s fostering an independent spirit.” Austin smiled pensively, staring at the fire. “I can see how you’d feel that way.”
“It’s not like I run from trouble. Hell, all I’ve had is trouble. I came to Texas by way of a Spanish prison. I was hunting mustangs with Philip Nolan, minding my own business, when Spanish troops ambushed our party, killed Nolan and held me captive for nearly a decade. I didn’t get out until 1810 when insurgents broke me out of jail in Acapulco. I was supposed to fight for them, but I decided to throw my hat in with revolutionaries led by a dang priest, Morelos y Pavon.” Bean turned his head and spit into the darkness. “I stayed with him and earned the rank of colonel in the Mexican army.”
