Sweetwater by Dorothy Garlock Page A

horse.
    “Thank you for helping to put out the fire.”
    “You’re very welcome. Thanks for the meal.”
    “Ha!” A snort came from Cassandra. “You could hardly choke it down.”
    “If the Murphys are willing to consider your offer, I’ll bring them over in the morning. Is that rifle I saw in there loaded?”
    “It is and I know how to use it.”
    “Glad to hear it. It eases my mind some. ’Bye, girls. ’Bye … Miss Gray.” He tipped his hat and put his heels to his horse.
    “Call her Jenny,” Cassandra yelled.
    He turned in the saddle and waved.
    “Do you like him, Virginia?”
    “I do,” Beatrice said. “He’s not fat like Charles.”
    “Whit’s over by the schoolhouse.” Jenny saw the boy squatting beside the building, holding the reins of his pony. She waved. As usual, no response. “Let’s walk over and talk to him.” Holding Beatrice’s hand, she headed for the school. Cassandra lagged behind.
    “Hello, Whit,” she called as they neared. “We’ve had a lot of excitement today. First a grass fire, then a neighbor came to help us put it out”
    “Girl-Who-Squawk is stupid to make fire in the grass.”
    “I am not stupid,
Boy-With-Chicken-Feather-Growing-Out-Of-Head!
” Cassandra’s voice was shrill. “How was I to know there were hot coals in the ashes? And how come you didn’t come help?”
    “You want me to feel the lash?” he spit. “Three
Wasicun
watch. But I would have come if McCall had not.”
    “You know Mr. McCall?” Jenny asked.
    “Have heard talk of him. He is not one of
them
.”
    “Men were watching us and didn’t come help? Did you know them?”
    “They come to store with agent.”
    “Did they stay after Mr. McCall arrived?”
    “They go first to see where dam was broke. Then go toward river. I have grass for the horses. I’ll bring when dark comes.”
    “Where is it? We can carry it over.”
    “I bring when dark comes,” he said stubbornly. His beautiful face was expressionless, but his dark eyes darted back and forth along the edge of the forest that surrounded the ranch buildings.
    On the way back to the house, Cassandra walked ahead. Once she looked back at the boy still squatting beside the building.
    “I could like him if he wasn’t so smarty. I know how he must feel not being allowed on his own father’s land. It was almost like that back home. I wonder what he’ll do when he grows up. I sure know what I’m going to do.”
    “You do? What’s that?”
    “Well. I’m going to hire some men, the meanest men I can find. I’ll have a fine carriage and the men will ride alongside as I go up the drive to the house. Margaret and Charles will think they’re getting a fine visitor, but it’ll be little old Cass. I’ll walk right in and slap Margaret so hard and so many times her eyes will cross. Then I’ll take over the house and demand that she clean and do the washing … naked. The men will laugh and pinch her butt when she walks by. She’ll sleep on the floor without a blanket and Charles will spend his nights sleeping in the barn with the rats. I’ll put my fingers in his eyes and pull on his
thing
!” Cassandra’s voice became almost a whisper. “I’ll whip him with the razor strop like he whipped us and make him say the Lord’s Prayer a million times. I’ll tell him how ugly he is and that his mother was a whore. Then … I will kill him!”
    Jenny had put her hand to her mouth to keep back the sobs while her sister was speaking. With tears running down her cheeks she put her arm around the little girl.
    “I’m sorry, darling. Oh, I’m so sorry.”
    Trell felt an urgency about getting back to the girl and her grandma. He hadn’t mentioned it to Jenny, but he had seen three riders on the reservation land while they were fighting the fire, and they were not Indians. He rode the roan hard and arrived at the Murphy’s just as it was getting dark. He pulled up and shouted his name. There was not a light and no answer to his