Within the Heart Read online

  WITHIN THE HEART

  Sequel to Beyond the Heart

  Jeanie P. Johnson

  OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

  Native American books

  Apache Pride

  Beyond The Heart

  Cherokee Courage

  Gentle Savage

  Kiowa White Moon

  Kiowa Wind Walker

  No Price Too High

  Paiute Passion

  Savage Land

  Shadow Hawk

  Son of Silver Fox

  Historical or Regency/Victorian Romance Books

  A Bride for Windridge Hall

  Defiant Heart

  Highroad

  Indentured

  Wild Irish Rose

  Winslow’s Web

  Contemporary Western Romance Books

  Passion’s Pride

  Single-handed Heart

  Georgie Girl

  Historical Western Romance Books

  Elusive Innocents

  20th Century Historical Romance Books

  Italy Vacation

  Moments of Misconception

  Radcliff Hall

  Taxi Dancer

  Action and Adventure Mystery Romance Books

  Ghost Island

  Futuristic Action and Adventure Romance Books

  Chosen

  Pony Up

  Surviving

  The Division

  The Dominion

  The Mechanism

  Time travel/Reincarnation Romance Books

  Egyptian Key

  The Locked Room

  Seekers

  Seekers Two

  Seekers Three

  Non Fiction Books

  Dream Symbols Made Easy (how to analyze dreams)

  Chief Washakie (short history of Shoshoni Chief)

  Peaches (inspirational)

  The Prune Pickers (my childhood)

  Whimper (true story of racial conflicts)

  A Collection of short stories (some true)

  Children’s Picture Book

  Dandy The Horse

  This is a work of fiction. All characters are out of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to anyone living or dead is mere coincidence.

  Story by Jeanie P. Johnson

   Copyright 2017

  CHAPTER ONE

  1884

  The wind tore at her blond curls as she looked over her shoulder. That crazy Comanche was still on her tail and gaining! She gave her willing horse a kick, to encourage the mare to pick up speed. It resulted in a burst of momentum that almost unseated her. She leaned forward over the neck of her horse, clutching the sacred eagle’s feather in one hand as her other hand held steady on the reins, over Surefire’s ears, giving her horse its head. She hoped Surefire would not betray her now! If she could get to the barn before the dark-skinned Comanche caught up with her, she could find safety, and she would put that feather where he would never find it, she vowed.

  The ranch came in view as a cloud of dust plumed around her stampeding horse. Connor jumped out of her way, as she plummeted forward, almost causing his horse to throw him.

  “What the hell is going on?” he called, as he frowned at his half-sister, noting her horse lathered in sweat.

  “I can’t let that dumb Comanche catch me!” she called over her shoulder, as her horse disappeared into the shadow beyond the open barn door.

  A moment later, Connor saw Joey barreling down in Shanny’s wake, and shook his head.

  “Those crazy numbskulls are at it again,” he muttered, taking the battered hat from his head and slapping it on his knee to get the dust out of it. Then he reshaed it before placing it back on his head, watching beneath the brim as Joey’s horse came to a skidding stop when it entered the barn.

  Shanny reached for one of the rails of the ladder leading to the loft, as Surefire came up beside it. She grabbed it and pulled herself up off of her horse, taking the rungs two at a time, as she clamored for the safety of the loft.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” she heard Joey calling bellow. “You give me that feather back!”

  “You’ll have to find it first,” she yelled, as she passed a sack of grain, and stuffed the feather deep inside.

  A moment later, she felt her body slamming against the floor of the loft, causing straw to fly up around her as Joey tackled her, grabbing her wrists and forcing them over her head.

  He was glaring down at her, his long, dark, straight Comanche hair falling over his shoulders as his chest rose and fell in his attempt to catch his breath.

  “Give it here!” he grunted between his teeth.

  “Never!” she hissed back. “It’s just a stupid feather! You put way too much stock in it!”

  “It’s not a stupid feather! It’s a sacred Eagle’s feather. That feather is blessed! Father gave it to me, and you had no right to take it!”

  “You and your father live in the past, Joey. You no longer have an Indian name! My mother raised you as a white person, and you don’t even appreciate it! You want life to go back to the way it was when heathens, related to you, could roam over the land and live in teepees. It’s never going to be like that again, Joey! You might as well give up on your stupid Comanche Indian ceremonies, thinking they have a place in your life, because they don’t!”

  “You have no say over what I do or believe in,” Joey huffed at her, lowering his head closer to hers.

  “Someone has to bring you to your senses! Mama was crazy to let Chayton teach you his Indian ways. Those Indian ways are never coming back. You and your people are going to have to learn how to live in a world where you don’t do Indian dances and worship bird feathers!”

  “Where’s the feather?” Joey growled.

  “In a place where you’ll never find it!” she spit back.

  “Shanny, I’m warning you! If you don’t tell me, I’ll… I’ll…”

  “You’ll what?” Shanny sassed, sticking out her chin at him.

  “You infuriate me!” he bellowed.

  Joey glared down at his adopted sister. For the last sixteen years they had been inseparable, but lately, Shanny was developing a mind of her own, and constantly challenging him in ways she had never done before. He thought she understood his strong ties to his ancestry, along with his need to learn his Comanche culture. She had even joined in, when his father told the legends of his people, and explained the importance of their spiritual beliefs. How could she desecrate his sacred Eagle feather?

  Joey lowered his head even closer to Shanny’s, glaring into her teasing blue eyes, which always sparked with mischief. He noticed how her golden curls matched the color of the straw that mingled in its strands. If anyone represented the vision of an angel, Shanny was that person, but she was acting like a little devil, and he had come to the end of his patience with her.

  “I’ll make you sorry you ever…”

  “How?” she demanded.

  In answer, Joey’s mouth came down over Shanny’s smothering her words. He felt her struggle beneath his lips and then lay still. He immediately lifted his head from hers.

  “What in the hell did you do that for?” she demanded, staring daggers at him.

  “If you don’t tell me where that feather is, I’ll do it again,” he threatened.

  “You’re my brother!” she bellowed.

  “I’m not even part of your blood!” he roared. “You’re just a little snip of a white girl, and besides, when we get older, I plan to marry you!”

  “You what?” Shanny shrieked.

  “You know we can never part. Your mother nursed me, right alongside you, when we were babies. It is crucial that we remain side by side for life.”

  “You are one crazy Indian if you believe that malarkey” Shanny yel
led. “Get your crazy Indian body off me!”

  “Not until you tell me!” he responded.

  “I’m never going to marry you, Joey, and you know it! Whatever put that thought into your head?”

  “Who else you going to marry? We live out in the middle of nowhere. The only men you ever meet are no-account drovers. You’re going to marry me, and then I am going to save money to start a horse ranch since Connor will end up with this spread.”

  “You are dreaming! You could have a hundred horse ranches, and I wouldn’t marry you!”

  Joey’s eyes filled with hurt and anger.

  “You’ll come around in time,” he predicted.

  Then his mouth covered Shanny’s again. It surprised him that she didn’t struggle, but she wasn’t responding to his kiss, either.”

  “Damnation, Joey! Get the hell off of me!” she bellowed when he lifted his head.

  She started to struggle beneath him.

  “Tell me where you put my feather, and I will,” he taunted. “Until you tell me, I can sit up here all day kissing you!

  “I’m telling Chayton!” she threatened.

  “I’ll deny it. It will be your word against mine.”

  “You must have more Indian in you than I thought, Tsahle-ee Jogul,” she said, calling him by his Indian name. “You’re just as underhanded as a wild Comanche!”

  “Comanche people are not underhanded, P’ee-shan,” he returned, using her Indian name as well. “My father helped your mother give birth to you! He saved her from…”

  “After he killed my father!” she hissed.

  “Your mother hated your father. He forced your birth on her if what Connor says is true.”

  “Connor knows nothing!” Shanny cried.

  “Are you going to tell me or not?” Joey demanded, getting back to what most concerned him.

  “Never!” she balked.

  “You must like me kissing you then, for all your pretense about not wanting to marry me!”

  Shanny merely glared at him, as his face came closer to her lips once more.

  “What are you two doing up there?”

  The voice of Connor broke in, and Joey almost flew off Shanny but remained holding onto her wrist.

  “Mama wants us in the house. She has something she needs to tell us,” Connor called up. “Get yourselves down here, if you know what’s good for you!”

  “Where is it?” Joey hissed, as he jerked Shanny to her feet, and then twisted her arm behind her back, pushing her up against the barn wall.

  “For me to know and you to find out,” she smirked.

  “I’m not letting you get away with this” he promised.

  He grabbed her other wrist and held them both behind her back.

  “I could get used to kissing you until you comply,” he said, narrowing his eyes at her. “This isn’t the end of it!”

  He pushed himself against her and took another kiss, this time lingering until they both felt out of breath.

  “I think you like it,” he sneered, when he removed his mouth from hers.

  “Doesn’t matter, you are never going to see that feather again!”

  “We’ll see about that!” he spat, as he released her and headed down the ladder ahead of her.

  When Shanny came down, Joey lifted her from the rungs, halfway down. He slung her denim-clad body over his shoulder, smacked her bottom with his open hand and started walking across the yard towards the house.

  “You put me down right now!” Shanny demanded.

  Joey just laughed, as he brought her up the front steps of the house and then deposited her on the floor of the entryway.

  “You’re going to tell me where that feather is. And regardless, when you turn eighteen, you’re going to become my wife,” he told her flatly.

  Then he sauntered past her into the parlor where the rest of the family was waiting.

  Callie looked up, as Joey and Shanny straggled into the room. They both looked out of breath, and by the looks on their faces, she assumed they had been up to something. She watched as Connor glanced in their direction, shook his head, and then looked back at his mother, who was really his aunt. She had raised him since he was ten, and she looked so much like her sister, who had died, that he kept getting mixed up in his mind who his real mother was. His three sisters, Ina, Tommy, and Beth turned as Joey and Shanny came in and stood beside them. The only ones sitting was Chayton and Callie, their eyes looked serious, so Connor figured they had something important to tell the family.

  Callie’s eyes wandered over her brood. Most of them were her dead sister’s brood, but she thought of them all as her own. Shanny was the only one she had given birth to. Though she and Chayton had tried to have their own children together, she never conceived. The doctor explained that when she had gotten so sick with a high fever right after the cattle drive, she led, it must have done something to her, which kept her from having any more children.

  She was the only mother Joey had ever known. His own mother had been killed while she was still carrying him. Chayton had to cut him from his wife’s body before Joey died as well. Even though he looked so much like his full-blooded Comanche father, Callie considered him her own blood. She loved him the same way she would have, had she given birth to him.

  Callie’s attempts to get the girls to wear proper dresses had long been abandoned. They had been so used to wearing overalls and denims when their father was in charge, they chose to continue to dress like boys. It was only on special occasions that Callie could get the girls to present themselves as young ladies and put on a dress. Shanny was no different.

  They all took their part in working on the cattle ranch, and could probably ride and rope as well as any drover they hired for the cattle drives. She was proud of every one of them, which was why she was certain she could trust and rely on them now.

  “I have some important news to tell you all,” Callie said and then cleared her throat.

  She glanced over at Chayton, dressed in his fringed buckskin, as usual. He had never given up his native clothes, and Callie finally stopped trying to get him to dress any differently. He told her he may live in a white man’s world, but he would never become a white man. He still looked as handsome as the first day their eyes met, and he assisted her in giving birth to Shanny. One of his Comanche companions had killed her husband when Chet tried to shoot them. All they wanted was a cow so they would have milk to feed Chayton’s infant son. Now she was mother to that son, and he was father to Chet’s daughter. It had been a blessing in disguise since Callie hated Chet from the moment her parents sent her to become his wife and raise her dead sister’s children. Now, everything was coming full circle.

  “I have received a letter from my mother. Your grandmother,” Callie informed the children as all eyes looked at her expectantly.

  “She tells me that my father is ill, and she wants me to come home before he dies. She is afraid he is going to die, only I believe it is an excuse to get me to come to see them. I told them when I left, I would never forgive them for sending me to become Chet’s wife. However, had they not done that, I never would have met Chayton, or been able to raise all of you, so I suppose I will have to forgive them now. I will show my appreciation by going home to be with them for a period of time.

  “The problem is, I don’t know how long I will be gone, and I refuse to go alone, so Chayton is coming with me. I would bring all of you to meet your grandmother and grandfather, only someone has to stay here to run the ranch, so I am only bringing Shanny and Joey.”

  Shanny gave a gasp, and Joey merely shrugged. Callie continued speaking.

  “Conner can run the ranch well enough, and since he will become the owner of the ranch eventually, it is time he takes on more responsibility. The rest of you, do what Conner tells you to do because we are leaving him in charge.”

  An audible groan filled the room, and Connor gave a satisfied chuckle.

  “If you need extra hands you can send for Chogan, or A
vonaco. They may be willing to come back for a short time to help, or point you to someone who can.

  “It will be a good experience for both, Chayton, Joey, and Shanny to discover what living in a big city is like. I had to give it up and come to the country, and now the tables are turned. I think it is the kind of education you all need.”

  “Better them than us,” Connor smiled. “I wouldn’t know what to do in a big city.”

  “When are we going to leave?” Shanny asked.

  “In the morning, at daybreak. Connor will drive us in the wagon, to Dodge where we will catch the train. It will take a few days to get there, so we will have to camp on the way. If we don’t get back before the cattle drive, Connor will have to be responsible for that as well. You’ve all been on enough cattle drives to manage on your own. Connor will have to hire more drovers since the herd has doubled this last year.”

  “I heard there are several ranches in west and central Texas who are starting to use barbed wire to keep the sheep ranchers from letting their sheep roam onto their grazing land and spoil the grassland, not to mention all the diseases the sheep carry. The damn sheep eat the grass right down to bare dirt, so the cattle can’t grab it with their tongues,” Connor mentioned something he had been intending to talk to his parents about. “I was thinking of looking into it here.”

  Chayton frowned.

  “I don’t like the method,” he mumbled. “I have heard of horses and cattle alike getting caught up in barbed wire.”

  “We have to keep up with the times and protect our grazing land,” Connor insisted. “The sheepherders are getting up in arms about it though, and there have been out and out wars over it with several people killed. No telling what will happen next, but I think we should be prepared.”

  Connor didn’t mention that it was mostly Mexicans and Indians who were sheepherders, and the Texans were trying to chase them out by making grazing laws to prohibit them free range, or if worse came to worse, physically forcing them out of the area.