Mattie returned to her household chores. The doctor was pleased to see her up and happy. The bruising around the bite faded into an ugly yellowish-green.
“Where did you take your medical training?” he asked Mattie while attending to her leg.
“What makes you think I had training?” Mattie smiled at the doctor.
“I could use someone like you in my clinic. Not many people would have known what to do for someone who had been shot.” The doctor patted Mattie’s arm.
“I’ll help when I can, but I already have a full-time job here. I trained under a doctor in Georgia. He’s a good teacher,” she said.
“I need to train under him. The work you did on Rose and yourself is exceptional.” Doc winked at her. He turned for the door.
“Quit trying to steal my help, Doc.” Rose’s teasing voice came through the doorway.
“I know I’d get good treatment if you shoot me, Rose Parker.” He laughed as he shut the door behind him.
“And I know she would do a good job of cleaning up the mess,” Rose called back.
Mattie ran upstairs. Her sister would be here, and she wasn’t ready to meet her yet. The doctor took longer than she expected. She rushed around the room, leaving her dirty clothes to litter the floor. She changed quickly and smoothed out her hair.
“Mattie. This is no time to play around. The train will be here any minute. We should be on our way.” James’s impatient stance stirred heat in Mattie.
“I swear something is going on with that man.” Mattie said under her breath.
Rose smiled. “He loves you; that’s what is going on with him. Ed is meeting us at the station.”
“No, he doesn’t. He has never said anything to make me think he does.” Mattie waved her hand to Rose. She wished he did though.
The sun blazed in the sky and warmed the air. Linden sprang full of life, and they waited on the wooden walkway in front of the train depot. It seemed to Mattie they had waited for hours. The train whistle alerted its arrival. Mattie’s excitement was hard to contain as the train rolled to a stop.
Men, women, and children filed off. Searching faces of passengers, Mattie wondered if Laura missed her train, or if something happened to cause the delay. The boardwalk cleared of endless foot traffic. Families greeting friends and loading luggage into wagons brought disappointment to Mattie.
Almost in tears, Mattie grabbed one last glance. There, with two children, crept along Laura and her husband, Luke. Mattie hurried to Laura, tears rolling down the cheeks of both women. They embraced. Mattie greeted Laura’s husband, who introduced the two children Mattie did not know they had. The children recognized James and ran to hug him.
Mattie entwined her arm with Laura’s. Ed helped gather luggage and load it in a wagon to deliver to the boarding house.
“There is something about you that has changed, Laura.” Mattie couldn’t believe the changes in her sister.
Laura patted her stomach, “Maybe it’s the baby that has changed me. They have a tendency to do things like that.”
“You’re having another one? Your children are beautiful.” Mattie watched the kids hanging on James.
“Especially when they’re asleep. They look so peaceful, angelic.” Laura’s sweet laughter floated on a breeze.
“The girls and I are stopping off at the grocery store. Mother, do you need anything from there?” James called over his shoulder, holding the hands of Laura’s daughters.
“Not right now. Looks like you have your hands full the way it is, James.” Rose called ahead to him.
“When Mr. Parker came to visit us, the girls grabbed right up with him. Normally they’re quiet and shy.” Laura’s smile reached her eyes.
Mattie let her heart swell as the three disappeared through a door of the tiny store. She happily crept along beside her sister and the rest until they reached the boarding house. Taking their luggage to an empty room, Mattie gathered two cots and placed them in the room along with extra bedding.
“I’ll leave you to rest. In your condition, I know you must be exhausted.” Mattie gently shut the door behind her and crept along down the stairs.
James and the girls came in the front door. Mattie stepped to the landing and stopped to listen to giggles filling the air with softness. Sparkles in James’s eyes danced merrily, enhancing his bright smile.
“I didn’t know he knew what a child was,” Rose whispered close to Mattie’s ear, “much less how to draw them under his spell.”
“Rose, why hasn’t he ever married?”
“He hadn’t met the right woman until you came along.”
“Me? What do I have to do with it?”
“Oh, Mattie, you’re so naïve sometimes.” Rose waved her hand to Mattie then headed to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
Mattie stared after Rose. Naïve, she mused as she followed along to do her chores.
Sitting on her stool, washboard resting in the tub, Mattie washed, rinsed, and hung laundry. She glanced at the woods with a new perspective. The prying eyes were no longer present. Her day-to-day chores were a pleasure.
Naïve? If Rose only knew, she wasn’t as naïve as Rose thought she was. She coaxed James into the unthinkable. Mattie laughed lightly to herself. She turned her thoughts back to getting chores done.
Maybe James would have some free time later, so she could take another exploration journey.
Listening to the wind in the treetops, the call of the wild, and the buzzing of insects, Mattie relaxed. The undeniable feel of home, just like in Georgia, gave her a sense of belonging.
Two young girls flew out the door, giggling as they raced around the backyard followed by James with a sheet over his head acting the part of a ghost. The girls caught his legs, and he fell to the ground. The girls fell on top of him and pulled the sheet from his head. Laughter echoed in the woods. James wrestled with the girls. He took turns tickling each of them.
Mattie walked over to them and paused with her hands on her hip; she smiled down. “Got kicked out of the house, didn’t you?”
The faces with broad smiles stared up at her. “Yes,” they said, and more laughter erupted when they glanced at each other.
Shaking her head, Mattie turned to walk back to the washing. She spotted Laura and Rose poised in the doorway snickering. Laura’s husband, a deputy in Louisiana, visited with Ed at the sheriff’s office for the afternoon.
“The two of you have produced some very active children. I wonder what they will be like when they grow up.” Mattie tilted her head to Laura and Rose.
“Your day will come, little sister,” Laura called out. “Your day will come.”
Mattie sat on the stool. She thought about the day Laura threatened to come. Mattie loved children. However, she never thought about having any of her own.
For the most part, she was content with her life until she came to Texas. Now the need for revenge was gone, she examined the thought of a life full of bliss.
She gathered the dry linen from the line and carried it into the house to fold and put away. Mattie joined Laura and Rose at the dining room table for afternoon tea.
“I suppose the Howards and Fraziers were in for a surprise. They didn’t know my husband was a deputy until they came for me. They sure didn’t expect me to shoot Mr. Frazier in the leg.” Laura said, adding a laugh.
After tucking the girls in Rose’s room for a short nap, James joined them at the table.
Mattie threw back her head and burst into laughter. “I wish you could’ve seen the looks on their faces, Laura. One of them called me a witch. So, I turned into one.”
“Not that wretched voice you used to scare me with.” Laura’s eyes widened a few seconds ahead of a laugh.
“Oh, yes, ma’am. When he closed the door, I made up some silly sounding spell. I hopped to the door, and one of them opened it. Then I hopped to each one, staring them in the eye. The next thing I knew, the front door was open and feet were moving. Then I threw in a laugh,” Mattie said.
James and Rose raised their brows at the laughing sisters. When their laughing slowed to almost nothing, James asked, “You scared them out of the cabin?”
“You should hear her tell ghost stories. She can stand the hair on a preacher with that voice and laugh. It is scary. It gives me the shivers just thinking about it.” Laura glanced at James.
“The way you talk, I don’t think I want to hear it.” James glanced at Rose and shrugged his shoulders.
“I love to be scared by ghost stories,” Rose said, as playful little stars danced in her eyes.
“Do it, Mattie, before the children wake up. I don’t want them to get scared out of their wits,” Laura taunted.
Neither Rose nor James ever heard a witch. With hair standing on ends and shivers down to their toes, they said they were sure they never wanted to hear that noise again. Mattie’s impersonation raised the question of if she were a real one. Laura assured them she wasn’t, as long as you didn’t make her mad. Laura laughed when James glanced at Mattie.
“When we found the cowards, they were looking in the window of the room they held you in. Now, I know why. They wanted to see for themselves if you were a witch. I can’t imagine what they thought when you weren’t still tied in that bed,” James said. “I would’ve left too.”
Another burst of laughter from Mattie echoed the halls. “I wonder what their faces looked like when they found I wasn’t in there.”
James grinned from ear to ear. “That could explain why they attacked us. They probably thought your ‘witch friends’ were after them.”
James left the table to go to the kitchen. A soft humming came into the room, followed by the door closing on the wood stove. Mattie gave Rose a quick glance.
“He’s baking cookies.” Rose smiled. “He hasn’t done that in years.”
“Strange how two little girls can change a man,” Mattie said as she shrugged.
“And a woman.” Laura said, more to Rose than to Mattie.
“He finally met a woman?” Mattie tried to hide her disappointment. She was happy for James. He never professed any feelings for her, and she didn’t know where she fit into all of this.
“You could say that. She hasn’t looked inside herself long enough to realize who she is yet,” Rose said, winking at Laura.
“She’s a lucky woman. How long will it be before he’ll introduce her to us?” Mattie hated the woman already.
“I don’t think it will be long now,” Laura said, smiling at Rose. “If you don’t like her, you can always bewitch her.”