“Jackson and I built it together when I’d saved some money. I guess I was almost seventeen then. Didn’t seem right for me to live with Mom and Jackson any longer.” It had been a happy time for me. “I bought this land up here for almost nothing. Jackson helped with the building material and the construction.”
“So you actually hammered all the nails and so on?” Felicia looked genuinely amazed.
“Yep. Jackson and Mom and I drew up the plans. Jackson showed me how to do the figuring on the raw material. We had a little help with the actual building of it.”
My friend Dan Brick had helped, every hour he could get off from his folks’ bakery. I’d been glad to have him. It was only later I learned Dan Brick had pictured living in this cabin with me. He hadn’t been around since he’d realized that wasn’t going to happen, after he saw Eli. I kind of missed him.
“You stopped in the middle of what you were saying,” Felicia said.
She and Peter were staring at me. Eli had his back to us because he was reading a book we’d picked up at the secondhand bookstore in Fort Worth last time we’d passed through.
“I guess this thing with Thomas is spooking me,” I said. My eyes lit on my husband, and he happened to look up at that moment.
“What’s wrong, my darling?” he asked. When Eli was worried, he could get flowery.
“I guess it’s time for me to go to bed,” I said. “What about the rest of you?”
“I know I took a long nap, but I think I could get back to sleep,” Peter said, yawning. Felicia nodded. “Me too.”
“Tomorrow morning, I’m going to take Felicia to meet Chrissie and Mom,” I told Eli. “Can you and Peter make sure we have enough wood for the cooking fire? Maybe take Peter by the hotel?” My stepfather owned the Antelope, the hotel on the town square. It had a bar and a restaurant. Peter had been there before, a day that had been pretty much a disaster. “I know Jackson would like to see Peter.” I didn’t say again because I didn’t want to bring up memories.
“Of course,” Eli said. He looked pleased at the idea of having Peter to himself.
Wood was not abundant around Segundo Mexia, where there weren’t a lot of trees of any size. Eli didn’t mind doing a lot of mundane tasks, but he didn’t like to scrounge for fuel for the fire. He’d go into town and buy some from Franklin Wood. When people drifted into Segundo Mexia, sometimes they took new names to simplify their lives, and often those names had something to do with their means of living. Sometimes—often—they were escaping from trouble elsewhere.
CHAPTER THREE
The morning was less hot. We ate oatmeal for breakfast with raisins thrown in. Felicia and I did the dishes while Peter and Eli got ready to go. They both had their vests on.
I did my best not to make a face.
The people hereabouts would have cottoned to Eli much more quickly if he didn’t wear the vest; it marked him out as different and made them anxious. If he only wore it when he was working, even. But the one time I’d brought it up, he’d let me know in no uncertain terms that leaving the vest at home was as out of the question as me leaving my guns at the cabin.
Peter and Eli were talking nonstop as they walked down the hill. I had to smile, watching them. They might not look that much alike, but anyone could tell they were brothers.
We took in the laundry I’d done the day before and folded it, and I swept out the cabin. Felicia kind of raised her eyebrows.
“We take turns,” I said, warning her from starting any picture of me as a downtrodden doormat. “They’re going to be gone for hours, you know.” They’d have a lot of talking to do about family stuff.
“About losing the baby…” Felicia began.
“I don’t want to talk about it. It was awful, it’s done.”
Felicia gave me a strange look, part understanding and part doubt. “I don’t think that’s all you feel about it. And how is Eli?”
“Not now,” I said, and after a few minutes of silence, we were okay again. I asked Felicia if she wanted a sandwich, but she was still full from the late breakfast.
I strapped on my Colts, but there was no need to take the rifle.
“You always go armed?” Felicia said.
“As often as Eli puts on his vest.” The difference was that people knew I wasn’t going to shoot them without provocation. They weren’t so sure about Eli’s spells.
I brushed my own hair (outside) and put combs in it to hold it out of my face. Felicia asked me to help her braid her longer hair. I had it done real neatly in a jiffy. I tied a bow around the end to keep it in order. I felt sisterly.
Felicia beamed at herself in the bathroom mirror. “I’m really looking forward to meeting your mom,” she said.
Felicia didn’t remember her own mother, who had died of a fever when Felicia was a little tyke. I could tell she hoped somehow my mother would feel maternal toward her. I also knew such a possibility had never crossed my mother’s mind. But there was someone else who was panting to meet Felicia, and in a couple of minutes, we were knocking on her door… even though it was open.
My neighbor Chrissie popped out immediately, with Emily Jane on her hip.
Chrissie was still pretty, though with three children in the past six years, she’d weathered some. She and her husband started their family early. Chrissie was just a year older than me—I’m twenty-one and a bit. Her husband, Lee, was away from sunup to sundown, working as a ranch hand.
Chrissie worked those hours, too, cooking and washing and watching the kids, in between going down the hill to do her shopping and attend the Catholic church. She also visited her folks and her brothers and sister. The past school year, nearly over, had been a golden time for her, both boys enrolled and only one baby to tend.
I introduced my half sister to Chrissie, who gave Felicia a very thorough once-over. “You’re going to be taller than Lizbeth,” she said. “I know you’re happy to see your sister! I can’t imagine living so far from my family.”
“I am glad to see Lizbeth,” Felicia agreed. “Where do your folks live, Chrissie?”
“Right yonder in town.” Chrissie pointed downhill and to our right. “They’re east of the square. I’m expecting the boys home from school in a while, but I have some time before then if you two can sit for a spell.”
“Sure,” I said. My mother would still be busy at the school, anyway. We followed her inside.
Chrissie had a floor of painted boards, a recent development. I’d had some lumber left over after we’d finished the new room, and I’d given the boards to Lee. He’d managed to get some more, and with this, he’d put in a floor. Chrissie was so proud. She’d painted it dark green with what was left over when her parents had painted their house. Lee had also gotten a couple of sheets of plywood to build a partition between the bed he shared with Chrissie and the kids’ beds.
Chrissie forced Felicia and me to take the chairs, while she sat on the bed. We took turns holding the baby. Emily Jane was fair and plump—and calm, thank God. Emily could walk, but she preferred to sit in someone’s lap, and she enjoyed being carried. Emily entertained herself now by pulling a lock of my hair straight and then letting it spring back into a corkscrew.