Night Flower (Gone-to-Texas Trilogy) by Shirl Henke Read Free Book Online Page A

them,” Lee said. His face was set in tight lines.
           “You sound like you're ready to join the Mexican Army,” Jim retorted angrily. “Jack Hays is an honorable man and a damn good Comanche fighter, I might add.”
           Lee waved dismissively. “Hell, I don't mistrust Hays, but there are plenty of Anglo rabble in San Antonio and all along the border who'd use any excuse to kill Mexican civilians, even those born on Texas soil. It's been so tense in the city the past months I haven't even taken Dulcia to visit her friends because of the drunken brawls and mob mentality of the ‘noble militia.’ If you ask me, we could use Hays right here in San Antonio to control the Texas volunteers for this damn undeclared war before they loot and burn an American city!”
           Jim knew what Lee said was justified. Incidents between the companies of Texians forming up to fight with Taylor and the Texas-born Mexican populace, the Tejanos, had grown alarmingly common.
           Jim said, “I fought with Houston at San Jacinto to free Texas from an invading army. I am sure as hell not going to march into Mexico and become the foreign invader. But Mexico's government, such as it is, has declared war on the United States; and now Texas is a state. If they come here, I'll fight again.”
           “But if they don't, you won't follow Taylor below the Rio Bravo,” Lee finished for his troubled friend.
           “Rio Grande in Texas,” Jim corrected Lee. “No, I won't follow Taylor anywhere. He's no General Houston.”
           Lee snorted in agreement. “History sure has played some dirty tricks on us, mano .”
     
    * * * *
     
           “I don't know why you persist in disliking the girl so, Charlee,” Jim said with irritation. “I know she's immature, but she's only seventeen.”
           Charlee swung up on her little paint filly's back with surprising grace for one who was eight months' pregnant. “Immature,” she snorted. “Spoiled rotten is more like it. Lee treats her as if she were made of porcelain.”
           Jim walked Polvo alongside his feisty wife's horse in a leisurely after-supper ride. Charlee insisted it helped her digestion. “You sure you're not just jealous of how he dotes on her, Cat Eyes? If you like, I could get you a covered buggy like hers; and you could use a screen so the eyes of the vulgar couldn't gaze on that delectable little belly,” he teased.
           “Speaking of vulgarity, Don Diego , you're pushing the outer limits,” Charlee replied with as much dignity as her expanded midsection allowed. “I might just get the vapors from being in such a delicate condition and tell you to go sleep in the guest bedroom tonight.”
           Jim laughed. “And deprive yourself? That'd be cutting off your pretty little nose to spite your face. As I recall, the day before Will was born you attacked me—”
           Charlee reached over to swat playfully at her tall husband, who continued undaunted, “We were on a picnic, right out in front of God and everybody.”
           “We were not!” she shot back in mock anger. “We were in a very secluded copse of willows down by the creek and nobody saw us...well, maybe the cat and the horses,” she amended as her husband laughed fondly.
           “I'm afraid it's just Lee's Hispanic gallantry, all polished up while he was under the civilizing influence of his uncle, away from Texas riffraff like us. He's only twenty-two, Charlee, and being a new husband and prospective father is a lot of responsibility to take on.”
           “Yeah, and considering her ideas about marriage, it sure isn't going to get any easier,” Charlee replied darkly.
           “Not wanting to appear in public while she's pregnant isn't an unforgivable sin, Cat Eyes,” Jim remonstrated.
           Charlee sighed. “That's silly, but if she wants to molder for nine months,