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"I guess we ain't dead after all…if you can still dream."
Katherine thought of it, and the dream, and the man in the dream. He was handsome beyond compare, but how could she have conjured him up. She'd never seen anyone like him before in her life? She shrugged such thoughts away as there wasn't time to think of dreams. Perhaps she had eaten too much, that would account for the dreaming. Besides, such a handsome man would never have anything to do with her.
Four graves as yet unmarked made the small area beside the barn look like an abandoned cemetery. Katherine swallowed hard. The dried lump in her throat made it painful. "Sometimes I feel like we need to dig one for you and me."
"Yeah…me too…" Josh's expression wore blankness.
Katherine gathered the crosses they constructed and placed them with the names and dates on them as well. It seemed such a final act. Carved with a kitchen knife, they would have to do.
"Hawks is comin'," Josh walked along side his sister.
"I seen him. Wonder what he wants this time. He's been over nearly every day. You'd think he'd have the decency not to bother us on a day like this."
Josh shrugged. "He's got some others with him today. Maybe he's just bein' neighborly and wants to help us," he said, frowning.
Katherine glanced at the approaching riders. She recognized them all, but she couldn't muster any welcome for them, she was simply too tired. They stirred the dust up and it took a few minutes for it to settle enough to speak.
Katherine couldn't smile any longer; she just stared up at them, muttering under her breath at Josh. "Somehow I just don't think it's help he's offering. He doesn't show up for any work, if you'll notice."
"Mornin' Miss Katherine, Josh," Hawks reined his horse as he rode up beside them. If he heard them he didn't let on. The other four were the Tyler brothers. They were neighbors too, much younger than Hawks, one even Katherine's age. The boys tipped their hats.
She looked at them for a moment assessing each one. There was Jesse Tyler, the oldest; he'd taken over his Pa's farm when his Pa died in an Indian attack. Paul Tyler, he acted a gentle man, only four years older than Katherine, always kind and considerate, she liked him. There was Rufus Tyler, the edgy one, always nervous, as though someone were about to shoot him in the back, and then the youngest, Mathew Tyler. Mathew had more sense than the rest of them. He'd had more schooling too. Katherine rather liked Mathew but he seemed shy of girls.
"Hawks, Jesse, Paul, Rufus, Mathew."
"Sorry we got here too late to help," Mathew sounded genuinely sorry, his glance slid quietly over Katherine. He rocked in the saddle as though torn between jumping down and helping her right then, or going on with the others. She knew Mathew had shown an interest in her, but it would be a long line of Sundays before he got the nerve to speak of it. And Katherine might be too old by that time to consider it. "Ya'll okay?"
"We got it done." Katherine leveled her voice even though the knot in her throat hurt her to talk.
"Fever is a bad thing, you're just lucky you and Josh didn't come down with it." Jesse held his rifle in his hand as though he intended using it. Jesse was no nonsense and all business, setting an example for his brothers, Katherine supposed.
"Yeah, I guess we are," Katherine's voice squeaked this morning. She didn't feel lucky. And she wasn't sure she wasn't dead. Something inside her seemed to have died. She didn't feel like talking, but they couldn't know that. They couldn't know that her and Josh felt more dead than alive.
"Comanche's are on the up rise again, Old Buffalo Hump's been givin' us trouble off and on. You'd best keep your rifles near," Hawk directed. "We're alertin' everyone along the stage lines."
"Thanks, we heard about Camp Cooper closing. That's not good for us. You'd think with the smallpox that it would have stopped them for a while. But we heard the Second Calvary pursued them." Katherine glanced at them.
"They did, but then again they ain't gonna forget the Council House slaughter. Not old Buffalo Hump at least. All his chiefs done in as they was. That's what got him riled again. So you two keep your rifles loaded, and watch out. We're alertin' all the settlements around about here." Jesse was saying.
"We will, and thanks for the warning." Josh nodded.
"You know…I feel bad about what happened at the Council House, I mean the way I heard tell of it, it wasn't a fair fight. We shouldn't have done that to them, I mean, not like we did anyways. What's done is done. Can't change it, I suppose. But when will the killing stop?" Katherine reflected on the incident.
"Don't go feelin' too sorry for them, they been raidin' families all along the Red because of it. It's gotta stop somewhere. Aw…I reckon that ranger got a little carried away up in Kansas, but that's what happens
…heard tell some Texas settlers got some revenge done on the reservation too. It's like it never stops. One side does somethin' then the 'tother. Just be ready," Hawks warned.
"We will. You're welcome to come in and sit a spell?" Katherine offered, not really feeling as charitable as she should.
"Nope, ain't got time for that. We'll be movin' along. Gotta put out the warnin' for all the folks along the line. You be tellin' the whip about the Indians ya hear?" Hawks instructed. "They as likely to come down on him as any. I don't look for Butterfield to stay in this business long now, what with the talk of war between the north and south."
"Is it that bad?" Katherine grabbed her chest. "Will it come to that?"
"It ain't lookin' good. Damn slave issue is 'causin' all kinds of hell in Washington they say. Some young lawyer up there makin' speeches about freedom for all, so there's no tellin' what might happen. South blames the north, the north blames the south. It's almost as if they don't speak the same language. Words out that Butterfield is broke too," Hawks informed them.
"What does that mean for Texas?" Katherine asked caught up in the tale. "And what would that mean for the stage line?"
"Texas is sorta split on slavery, so we ain't sure just how that will go. Some needs their slaves for the cotton pickin' down here. Others don't own slaves, sort of a toss up how we'll go if there's war. As for Butterfield, it could mean shuttin' these stations down. Too much killin anyway with the Comanche."
