Within the Heart Page 7

  “But it wasn’t because of his age, she did not want to marry him,” Shanny rejoined. “Besides, I don’t know what you are worried about. I haven’t even had my coming-out party yet, and Mother tells me that once that happens, there will be all sorts of young men looking to court me!”

  “Is that so? I suppose you are simply giddy over the prospect!”

  “I don’t see why it should upset you. I thought you were happy with Eleanor’s company.”

  “Eleanor is not you, Shanny. You are the one destined to become my wife.”

  “Eleanor will feel quite rejected if that is what you think. I am not destined to become anything I don’t wish to become, Joey, and you might as well get used to it!”

  As she spoke, Callie and Chayton beckoned to them, and Shanny felt relieved to end the conversation, as she headed in their direction, with Joey following close behind. They had found a cab and the trunks were already loaded. It was time to discover what Philadelphia life was all about, and Shanny was eager to encounter it. She happily stepped up in the handsome-cab and gaily peered out the window, as she raised the leather flap. There was so much going on at every glance, that she wasn’t sure what to look at first. She noticed Joey was glumly looking out of the other window across from her. The city did not seem to interest him.

  The hooves of the horses pulling the cab struck with a resounding clap with every step upon the cobblestone road. People dressed in their finery walked along the walks in front of impressive buildings on either side of the street. Flower vendors and young hawkers called out to everyone who passed, hoping to sell their wares. This was nothing like Texas, Shanny thought happily. It frightened and excited her all at the same time.

  When they arrived in front of Callie’s parent’s townhouse, Callie looked out the window of the cab at the lamp across the street from her parent’s house. She recalled how she had seen Chayton’s face in that lamp glow as she looked down at it from her bedroom window the night her mother informed her she was to marry Chet. At the time she thought it was the face of Satan warning her of impending doom by the hand of that eerie apparition. However, she discovered in the end, it was actually a vision of her future encounter with Chayton.

  She realized she had her parents to thank, not for forcing her to marry Chet, but making it possible for her to go where she would eventually find Chayton, and fall in love with him. Now she was going to have to steel herself for the reaction she knew her mother would have when she discovered that Callie had married Chayton. She hoped her mother did not have a heart attack over it.

  However, the marriage was not a legal marriage. Chayton had taken her to his tribe to have the marriage performed through the traditional ceremony of the Comanche. If Callie actually married him in a legal American ceremony, she would forfeit everything she owned to her husband’s control. At that point, she would own nothing. Callie had sacrificed so much and worked so hard, she did not want to lose her right to her property or any decisions concerning it. Chayton said land cannot belong to any one person. It all belonged to Grandfather Moon and Mother Earth. He didn’t want control of it, he told her. Therefore, Callie retained her married name from Chet but considered herself the wife of Chayton. What her mother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. The ranch would eventually go to Connor anyway, and she didn’t want any legal complications standing in the way of it.

  The four stood nervously at the door, while Callie lifted the knocker, and let it drop with a resounding thud. A few minutes later the door opened to reveal a butler appraising them.

  “Is that Callie?” they heard a high-pitched voice in the background calling.

  Then Mrs. Hamilton was bustling forward, pushing the butler aside.

  “Callie!” she exclaimed, opening her arms, and then stopped abruptly. “Who…who are these people?” she asked a little hesitantly. “I didn’t know you were going to bring Texas heathens with you!”

  “This is Shanny, your granddaughter,” Callie said, smiling brightly, as though nothing was out of the ordinary, as she pushed Shanny forward. “And this young man is Joey. I told you about him. You know… the Comanche infant I nursed to save his life. Chayton, here, is his father, and he helped deliver Shanny. It was all very harrowing, but I am here to show that it turned out well in the end because Chayton and I eventually married. This is your new son-in-law, Mother.”

  Mrs. Hamilton stumbled back a few steps.

  “I have a wild Indian for a son-in-law?” she almost shrieked.

  “That you have, Mother. I warned you about the Indians in Texas, and you refused to listen to me, so you can’t complain. You should feel relieved the only thing he took was my hand in marriage, and not my scalp. Are you going to make us stand out here all day? Send a footman to collect our trunks. We are tired and would like to freshen up after our travels.”

  “I…I hadn’t expected…”

  “You begged me to come before Father took worse and died, so I am here. There was no way I was going to leave my husband and children behind. Rolletta’s children stayed to care for the ranch. If it weren’t for that, I would have brought them too.”

  “Yes. Do come in,” Callie’s mother said softly. “We will straighten all of this out later.”

  “There is nothing to straighten out, mother. You sent me to marry Chet, who by the way was the cause of Rolletta’s death, and Chayton saved me from a marriage made in hell. Now that I am happy, you should be happy for me.”

  “Goodness! What will your father say?” Callie’s mother said in a fluster.

  “How is Father?” Callie asked.

  “Doing better, but he may have a relapse the moment he lays eyes on your so-called husband.”

  She gave Chayton an up and down appraisal, and almost shuddered as she did so.

  “Nonetheless, he is my husband, so Father will just have to get over it, the same as you.”

  “Follow me. You can have your old room, and I will give Shanny Rolletta’s room. Joey can use the guest room.”

  “That will be fine,” Callie smiled.

  “After you rest and freshen up, I will send Joel to call you to dinner. By then, your father will have time to get used to having a wild Indian as a son-in-law. I suppose there is nothing to be done about it now.”

  “Exactly,” Callie laughed, as she and the others followed Mrs. Hamilton upstairs.

  “I’ll have Thomas bring your trunks up and leave them in the hall for you to sort out.”

  “That will be fine,” Callie agreed.

  When Shanny entered Rolletta’s room, she realized it was not much different from her own room at home. Her mother had taken great pains to make the house she had built in Texas resemble her own home, longing to bring a sense of property to a wild country such as Texas. However, Callie had been too headstrong to bow to custom, and though the dwelling resembled something from an upper-class house in the city, she never ran it the way her mother had.

  There never was a butler, personal maid, or footman, though for a time there had been a cook. When the cook left, saying she had to care for an ailing aunt, Callie took over cooking until they could find a new cook, but she ended up settling into the routine of cooking for her own family and then continuing to do it. By that time, the children were old enough to work the ranch on their own, and Callie had more free time on her hands.

  Her girls had never taken an interest in cooking since their passion was horses and cattle and outdoor activities. They certainly would never fit in here, Shanny thought. She wondered if she would even learn to fit in, but the prospects of discovering what it was like to live like a debutant caught her interest. From the events Arnel had described to her, she was looking forward to discovering a whole new world of frilly dresses, bright exciting balls, special excursions to museums, picnics on the green, and riding in the park, while at the same time, being surrounded by young people to share it with. Her mother’s description of her early life in Philadelphia sounded appealing to Shanny and she was eager to dive he
adlong into the discovery of it all.

  A few moments later, there was a tap at the door, and when she answered it she discovered a young maid and a footman at her door.

  “Your mother showed Thomas which trunk belonged to you,” the young woman said, with downcast eyes. “He will bring in the trunk, and when you have chosen what you wish to wear, I am available to help you with your toilet.”

  “Why, thank you,” Shanny smiled. “What is your name?”

  “Nancy,” the housemaid told her, somewhat shyly. “Just ring the bell when you are ready for me to assist you.”

  “I will,” Shanny laughed lightly.

  She had never had anyone to wait on her before, and the thought was overly pleasant. She watched Nancy nod and then turn from the room, as Thomas brought in the trunk and deposited it onto the plush carpet that covered the hardwood floor.

  After the door closed, Shanny occupied herself looking about the room, which had belonged to her aunt. She felt slightly uneasy, knowing the room belonged to her aunt who had died. Connor said Roletta looked a lot like her mother, who was sent to take Roletta’s place, raising him and his sisters. Connor told Shanny how his mother had died, which made her feel doubly sad. She had left all this luxury behind, thinking she was marrying a Cattle Baron, only to find it was a scrub ranch with a dingy shack of a house. According to Connor, they had all lived a hard, unrewarding life, and then his mother died shortly after giving birth to Shanny’s cousin, who also died a year later, right after Shanny was born.

  Shanny realized everything in the room had once belonged to her dead aunt, and she was almost afraid to touch anything, for fear of desecrating the memory of Rolletta. There were still little bottles of perfume on the dressing table, but when Shanny lifted one of the stoppers to smell it, it smelled stale and uninviting. The clothespress had a few dresses still hanging there, but they were inside dress bags and smelled of mothballs. Shanny did not know that is what the smell was since she had never experienced mothballs before. She merely knew, she did not like the smell, and didn’t want to expose her own dresses to it.

  Despite wrinkles that would invariably remain, she decided her dresses would keep their home in her trunk unless her grandmother removed the smelly bag of clothes in the press. Now she busied herself looking for a fresh dress to wear, and using the picture and basin on the side table to freshen up with.

  Later, after Nancy had helped Shanny dress in something fresh, she followed the housemaid downstairs to the dining room. She found the rest of the family already seated around the table. Shanny noticed that Joey had chosen to wear a dinner jacket, though he still had not removed the eagle feather from his silky black hair. Chayton had changed into another one of his fringed traditional Comanche costumes. She saw the disapproving expression on her grandmother’s face, as the elderly lady appraised the group.

  Callie’s father felt well enough to join them for dinner, which made Callie suspect that her father was not actually ill, but merely feeling his age and wanted his daughter home for a bit. He smiled acceptingly at her, while his wife appeared more rattled about Callie bringing a Comanche’s from Texas with her. They were not even blood relatives, but merely adopted heathens Callie had taken a fancy to, she thought, accusingly, in her pious opinion.

  As the first course was served by the footman and the housemaid a silence remained while everyone busied themselves spooning soup or toying with toast. Finally, Mrs. Hamilton cleared her throat.

  “I am happy to have you home again, Callie,” she said sweetly, nodding towards her daughter. “I am sure your father is pleased as well. It just pains me that you have brought Texas natives that know little about proper attire or social graces. Shanny is about to enter a very important phase of her life where finding her a proper husband will be paramount. I am sure there are no qualifying men in Texas, so I feel it is my duty to make sure Shanny becomes properly betrothed before this visit is over.”

  “The same way you betrothed me to Roletta’s widowed husband?” Callie stated, eyeing her mother sternly.

  “That was different,” her mother defended. “You were well beyond your prime, and since you refused to accept any offers when you were first turned-out, there was no other choice for me to take. However, I am sure Shanny is a sensible girl and will be happy to find a suitable husband while she is in Philadelphia.”

  She gave an encouraging look at Shanny and then her eyes fell on Joey, and his father sitting next to him.

  “The sad truth is that unless your children are instructed in proper social graces and acceptable dress, there will be little hope of enticing anyone of the ton to offer for Shanny. They will believe she is uncouth and unworthy of their attention, regardless of her beauty. Having a couple of Indians hovering around her would only scare away any promising prospects. Therefore, I have decided that if this is going to be a successful endeavor to secure Shanny’s future, changes will have to be made.”

  “What kind of changes?” Callie asked with raised eyebrows.

  “Clearly, you have been away for so long, you have forgotten the importance of appearance and suitability in high-society circles. There are certain expectations of Mamas and Papas for their inheriting offspring. Even if someone became enamored by your daughter, it would be up to their parents to accept or reject a future daughter-in-law. It would be essential to make sure Shanny is completely accepted by those doting parents. And to do that, your husband and stepson would also have to be considered acceptable.”

  “You had no problem accepting Chet as Rolletta’s husband, and he was a crude mean person!”

  “We were not aware of his character, since his father was of notable birth, and we did not have a prolonged experience of him. However, he presented himself as someone who would make a suitable husband for your late sister, and she was attracted to him. It is sad that expectations were not met in the end.”

  “I don’t see why so much fuss should be made over Shanny’s choice in a husband. If the match is not motivated by love…”

  “Love has little to do with it, even though it may be a factor to tip the scales. Before love can bloom, you have to have a prospective husband to work with. Shanny may be an oddity that will attract attention in the beginning, but a true acceptable husband will never step forward. Not from the desirable families in the area, anyway. Is that what you want, Shanny?”

  She gave Shanny a questioning gaze.

  “I hadn’t thought about it, but Joey did tell me that in Texas the only men I would be able to choose for a husband were ranchers or drovers since we had little social life on the ranch.”

  “You see, Callie?” her mother said pointedly. “That is the very problem. There is no opportunity for Shanny to hope to find a husband in Texas, so while she is here, it is her only chance to set herself up for a successful future. Only it is not going to be easy if the young men have to approach a wild Indian to ask for his daughter’s hand.”

  She turned her gaze toward Chayton in his Comanche dress.

  “All he would have to do is offer me the right number of horses if he wanted Shanny for his wife,” Chayton said with a straight face, and Callie jabbed him with her elbow.

  “That is outrageous! It is the woman’s family who offers a dowry to the potential husband,” Mrs. Hamilton informed him.

  “Are you telling us that we have to pay to get someone to marry our beautiful daughter? It is the husband who should pay to have the privilege of marrying our daughter,” Chayton complained.

  “First of all, she is your daughter in name only,” Mrs. Hamilton informed him, and Chayton frowned. “Since you are her legal guardian, it is necessary for the young man to get your permission to marry her. Beyond that, she is a Callahan, and Chet’s family is well known in this area, even though they no longer remain since his parents died and he was an only child. However, the name and the station is enough to attract the right man worthy to take Shanny as his wife.”

  “Is the dowry is large enough?” Chayton
asked.

  “You needn’t worry your head about the dowry. While I am sure your cattle ranch is lucrative, Shanny’s dowry will come out of Callie’s future inheritance, since she will end up inheriting everything when we die.”

  “Only I will have the last say,” Chayton informed her. “If I disapprove of the young man, I shall never let him marry Shanny, who has been my daughter almost since her birth. You forget I helped bring her into this world.”

  Mrs. Hamilton turned her eyes up in disgust.

  “It must have been horrible for Callie to have a heathen delivering her only child!”

  “Nonetheless, I did. I am the only father Shanny has known and I love her as much as I love my own son, which your daughter raised as her own. It is what tied us together from the beginning.”

  “Actually, that is neither here-nor-there right now. What is important is what must be done to assure your daughter a happy future. Would you have her marrying a rancher or drover, as she claims is the only choice available to her out in Texas?”

  “I was hoping she and my son would marry,” Chayton offered.

  “My word, you cannot be telling me the truth! You want my granddaughter to have half-breed babies?”

  “Mother!” Callie interjected. “You are insulting my husband and his son! Joey and Shanny were raised side by side their entire lives. If they choose to marry, it would be up to them, and not to you or anyone else!”

  “You don’t plan to marry your adopted brother do you?” Callie’s mother demanded of Shanny.

  Shanny gave a long look at Joey, who had a hopeful expression on his face.

  “He wished me to, but I have not agreed yet,” Shanny decided to respond, hoping it would not sound like a complete rejection to Joey. She was feeling torn about Joey because their friendship had started to deteriorate, and she missed the closeness she used to share with him.

  “That is very sensible of you,” her grandmother smiled. “So I will help you both find a suitable partner in life. There are plenty of eligible young women here who could easily be attracted to a young Indian man if he presents himself as civilized and stable. Since I know that your ranch is successful and has brought you wealth, Joey should have an inheritance of his own which would add to the acceptability of his offering for some young lady of Philadelphia.