Authors: Jeffry S.Hepple
“
I’ll get his home address from the newspaper office,” Anna said. “What are you having?”
“
The chicken and dumplings, I suppose,” Robert replied. “It’s probably not chicken but it won’t be dog meat.”
“
I’ll have that too,” Nancy said.
December 18, 1855
Mesilla, New Mexico Territory
M
arina was engrossed in a book and jumped when someone pounded on the front door. She plucked the lamp from the table, then grabbed her shotgun and hurried into the entry hall. “Who is it?”
“
It’s me, Mother. Jack.” The voice was muted by the heavy door and the pounding rain.
“
Jack?” She put the lamp on the floor but kept the shotgun and peeked out through the small viewer in the door. The wind-driven rain made it impossible to see.
“
It’s really me, Mother,” the voice said. “Please. Clementine’s in a bad way.”
Marina struggled with the latches, opened the door and stepped back to let Jack, who had Clementine in his arms, come in. Shielding her eyes, she peered out into the dark driveway. “Is anyone else with you?”
“
No.”
“
How did you get here?”
“
Cotton boat,” Jack said. “Mother, please. I carried her all the way from your dock and my arms are killing me.”
“
Take her into the bathroom.” Marina pointed down the hall, closed and locked the door, then scooped up the lamp and ran to catch up. “Her lips are blue. Put her on the toilet seat and I’ll draw a warm bath.” She hung the lamp from the ceiling hook and then lit two sconces. “We’ll put her in the tub and then undress her.” She pushed the plug into the tub’s drain, turned on the hot water tap and mixed in some cold.
Jack was kneeling in front of Clementine who was barely conscious. “A flush toilet and hot and cold running water?” He pushed his wet hair off his face.
“
In all four bathrooms,” Marina said.
“
Four? Really?”
“
The master bathroom is bigger than the living room was in our New Orleans house.” She turned to look at him. “So are you going to tell me what’s happened to Clem and why you’re here?”
“
Yes, if you’ll give me a chance.”
“
You have your chance.” Marina tested the temperature of the water in the tub with her elbow.
“
You knew she was in prison, right?” Jack asked.
“
Yes. And Anna wired me when her sentence was commuted. But Anna also said that you were taking Clementine to Mexico.”
“
And I did.” He rubbed Clementine’s hands between his. “But by the time we got to Matamoras, Clem was so weak that I got back on the steamer to El Paso the next morning. From there we caught the cotton boat to here. It may have been a mistake. It was farther than it looked on the map.”
“
It’s not far, but those barges are slow when they’re traveling against the current. You should have taken the stage.”
“
I didn’t know.”
“
Of course you didn’t.” Marina kicked off her sandals and stepped into the tub. “Give her to me.”
“
She’s too heavy for you, Mother.”
“
Nonsense. Give her to me.”
Jack put Clementine over his shoulder, dandled her legs over the side of the tub and let Marina take her weight. “Okay? Do you have her?”
“
Yes.” Marina lowered herself and Clementine into the water. “Help me get her dress off.”
“
The buttons are on the back.”
“
Oh. Yes. Hold her up then.” She began unbuttoning the back of Clementine’s dress. “She’s not wearing anything under this.”
“
I know. That’s Nancy’s dress. When we took Clem from the prison, she was wearing a filthy shift and nothing else. We almost had to start a war to get her released so I was anxious to get out of Kansas.” He looked up at his mother. “You knew that Robert and Nancy were married, didn’t you?”
“
Yes. But I’m confused about why Nancy didn’t loan Clementine undergarments to go with the dress.”
“
Nancy was wearing this dress when they brought Clem out of the prison. She took it off right there in front of the prison and gave it to Clem.”
“
That girl’s always had pluck. Couldn’t you buy something else on the way?”
“
Other than one bad night in Matamoras and an hour in El Paso, we haven’t set foot on dry land since we left Kansas,” he said defensively.
Marina looked at Clementine’s bare back and hissed. “What’s happened to this poor girl’s back?”
“
She was caned repeatedly in prison.”
“
My Lord. If you hadn’t gotten her out of there they would have surely killed her.”
“
I’m not so sure that they haven’t done that.”
“
She’ll be fine. We’ll warm her up, get some food into her and you’ll see.”
“
You don’t understand, Mother. She’s sick. Very sick. She has a fever, vomiting, bad stomach cramps.”
“
She doesn’t have a fever right now. She’s like ice.”
“
She gets better for a while, then goes cold like this and then the cycle starts over. Each time it’s worse than the last.”
Marina pushed the dress off Clementine’s shoulders and down her arms. “I’ll lift her and you pull the dress off over her hips.”
“
Okay. Can you lift her higher?”
Marina sat down in the tub and leaned Clementine against her chest. “How’s that?”
“
Okay.” Jack hauled the soaking dress out of the water and tossed it onto the already flooded floor.
“
Does she have a rash of any kind?” Marina asked.
“
I don’t know.”
“
Well look, ninny.”
“
Okay. Christ.”
“
Don’t blaspheme.”
“
Is this a rash?” He pointed to what looked like a large cluster of tiny pimples across Clementine’s belly.
“
Yes.” Marina began combing Clementine’s hair with her fingers. “It looks like tick fever. The tick should have fallen off after the first feeding but if it didn’t, and it’s still feeding, that could account for her cyclical symptoms. Or she may have several.”
“
A tick could make her this sick?”
“
A tick could kill her. Check her over inch by inch. Creases, warm areas like behind her knees, in her pubic hair, under her breasts, under her arms.”
“
What’s a tick look like?”
“
A freckle or a mole.”
“
I’m not so familiar with Clementine’s body that I know every freckle and mole, Mother.”
“
Just look closely at every freckle and mole, Jack. If you find one that looks a bit odd, show it to me.”
“
We’ll have to take her out of the tub to check her back.”
“
Wait. Here’s one.”
Jack stood up and looked where Marina was holding Clementine’s hair parted. “How do we get it out?”
“
There are some tweezers in that drawer.”
He got the tweezers and gave them to his mother. “Do you need help?”
“
No,” Marina said. “Now that you know what to look for, keep looking. If that prison was infested with ticks there could be others.”
December 23, 1855
Mesilla, New Mexico Territory
M
arina bumped the door closed with her hip and carried the tray to the bedside table. “You look better.”
“
I feel better,” Clementine said with a smile. “Much better. It’s a miracle. I really thought I was dying.”
“
Let me help you sit up.”
“
No, no. I’m okay. I just have to move slowly or I get dizzy.”
“
Another few days of rest and good food, that’ll pass.” Marina put the tray across Clementine’s legs, then pulled a chair over to the bed. “Jack still wants to go to Mexico when you get well. I’d like you to stay here.”
Clementine hesitated before she replied. “I’ve been a terrible wife, Marina. But Jack’s stuck by me through it all. If he wants to walk off the edge of the world, I’ll follow him.”
“
He’s only going to Mexico to get you out of the country.”
“
Weren’t you planning to move to Mexico?”
“
I was. Now I’ve changed my mind.”
“
If you convince Jack to stay here, I’ll stay here.”
“
Which would you prefer?”
“
I’d prefer to let Jack decide.”
Marina smiled. “Okay. That’s fair enough.” She stood up. “I’ll be back for your tray in a few minutes.”
“
Oh. Before you go. I’ve been meaning to ask you whose apartment this is.”
“
This would be the housekeeper’s, if I had a live-in housekeeper.”
“
But you
do
have a housekeeper. I met her.”
“
Yes, but she prefers to live in the village with her family.” Marina crossed the room and stopped at the door. “We can move you upstairs if you like. Jack and I only put you in here because he was too tired to carry you upstairs the night you arrived.”
“
No. This is fine. Thanks.”
Marina left the room and went through the house to the covered veranda where Jack was smoking a Mexican cigar. “She’s having her lunch. She’ll be fine in a few more days.”
He nodded. “Thank you, Mother. You’ve saved our lives.”
“
It was about time I did something for you. And I’m happy to have you here, by the way.”
He grinned. “It’s peaceful here.”
“
Why don’t you stay?”
He puffed on the cigar and examined the ash. “One Federal judge put Clem in prison for twenty years, then another set her free with a stroke of his pen as a favor to Anna. I can’t trust what the next judge might do.”
Marina pointed to the southwest. “On a fast horse the Mexican border is fifteen minutes away.”
“
Fifteen minutes is too long when you have the U.S. Cavalry on your heels.”
“
I have a hundred and fifty men working for me here. Half of the vaqueros are Mexican army veterans who would love to have an excuse to shoot some Gringos. You and Clementine are safer here than you would be in Mexico where you’ll have no income, no family and no friends.”
“
Let me think about it.”
“
One more thing while you’re thinking.”
“
What?”
“
Your Spanish is terrible.”
He chuckled. “My Spanish is perfect, if you’re a Californian.”
“
Is that what you are?”
He gave her a puzzled look and shook his head. “I don’t know what I am.”
“
Then this is a good place to be because it’s nowhere right now. Not Mexico, not Arizona and not New Mexico.”
Jack looked at his hands. “All right, Mother. We’ll stay. But as far as the rest of the family is concerned, we’re in Juarez.”
“
Why?”
“
I can’t trust Anna to keep her mouth shut.”
“
Anna would never do anything to harm you.”
“
No. But she just doesn’t know how to keep a secret.”
“
Very well. I’ll tell Robert that you’re in Juarez.”
May 23, 1856
New York, New York
S
treaming a long ticker tape behind her, Anna walked over to the National Editor’s desk. “Got a second?”
He looked up. “Sure.” He put his pen back in the inkwell. “Have a seat.”
She sat down in the side chair and began rolling up the tape. “It looks like Kansas is going to keep heating up. I was wondering if I could go back.”