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"Have you had actual word from Mr. Butterfield?" Katherine's eyes rounded on him.
"Nope, all just gossip, a drummer ridin' through remarked of it in the saloon the other day, in town. Can't never tell, but the Indians ain't givin' much break these days. Don't know what'll happen around here if the war breaks out neither. The Indians will still be here and they might decide Texas is easy takin's. Could get awfully dangerous around these parts."
"Might ask the whip, he'd know more than us about Butterfield," Jesse chimed in.
"Yeah, we'll be doin' that." Josh nodded as though he'd already dismissed them and wondered why they were still here.
Katherine knew Josh was disturbed by all the war talk. She hoped he wasn't thinking about joining.
"Give us a yell if you get into any trouble, here?" Mathew tipped his hat to Katherine. It was the first time he'd really addressed her and she blushed under his scrutiny.
"We'll be all right." Katherine tried to smile but found it nearly cracked her face to do such a thing. Smiles were a thing of the past.
"I see you buried 'em good and proper," Hawks glanced toward the graves.
"Yes…"
"I'm mighty sorry 'bout that. What you two gonna do now?" Hawks asked as though he had every right to do so. He studied them both with curiosity it seemed.
"Right now, I'm just too tired to figure that out, Mr. Hawks," Katherine cried and turned to go inside.
"Thanks for checking on us, Mr. Hawks," Josh said as he followed his sister. The only way to get rid of Hawks was to walk off and ignore him.
"I'll be about," Hawks said and turned his horse north to ride away. The Tyler's all tipped their hats to Katherine and nodded to Josh.
"I wonder why he's keepin' track of us so," Katherine muttered angrily as she stomped back to the porch.
More trouble, Katherine sighed heavily as she made her way into the house. She didn't need news like they brought. Things were bad enough here at the station. She didn't want to think about other places or people. And she sure didn't want Josh worrying over the war.
Chapter Two
"He's still up there," Josh said, glancing up on the ridge before giving his sister a hard look. His frown climbed all over Katherine.
"I know." Inwardly Katherine shuddered, but for nothing would she let anyone see. "Ain't no law against somebody starin'. Just bad manners is all. Don't give him the satisfaction of knowing it bothers you."
"What does he want? If he's just keepin' an eye on us, he's got a mighty peculiar way about it. Downright spooky if you ask me." Josh's frustration aimed at her.
"I don't know, and I don't care what he wants. As long as he isn't bothering us, it's none of our concern." Katherine's voice was harsh, uncaring. "We got more to worry about than that old man."
"But he just keeps watchin' us all the time. Don't it give you the creeps?” Josh's voice rose with indignation.
"Yes." She turned to look at Josh as though she'd bitten her tongue the last time. "It makes my skin crawl. It makes me want to vomit, but I'll not give him the satisfaction of knowing it. Nor will you."
Josh nodded, his face wrinkling where the dust laid dormant too long. "Guess you're right about that. We'll ignore him and maybe he'll go away." Josh went into the barn.
Katherine sighed heavily, her eyes straying to the top of the ridge just once before she turned back to her task. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. It felt like a warning sign to be wary. Wary of what? Hawks wanted something, but Katherine had no idea what.
He'd befriended her father when they first came here, five years ago. Yet, all the time they'd known him, her father hadn't invited him inside the house. He always spoke with him on the porch. An oddity the rest of the Hightower's soon expected of them. Katherine thought it strange, but she wasn't old enough to voice her own opinion at that time, so she said nothing. Her mother never spoke of the man, but from her glacier expressions Katherine instinctively knew her mother disliked Hawks.
Every time her father spoke with Hawks as he had called him, her father seemed distraught. So Katherine assumed early on that whatever business he had with her father, it wasn't a good thing.
Hawks wasn't a man to be forgotten though, with his bigger than sin beer belly, big bushy eyebrows stuck out over high dark needlepoint eyes, and a voice deeper than thunder itself. Then there was his Indian wife who followed behind him everywhere. Of course Katherine hadn't seen her lately and she wondered about that.
Katherine had asked her mother about the Indian girl many times. Each time the answers were the same. Why did she follow behind him all the time, like a slave?
"She's Indian, that's reason enough. It's their way. Indian women have no rights, they're slaves to their men." Her mother said, "Indian women don't walk beside their men like us white folks, they walk behind. Just another one of the ways they are different. Another reason to leave them alone."
"Are Indians bad, mother?" Katherine asked quietly as they cleaned the dishes one night. When her mother frowned up at her for asking such a question, Katherine bit her lip and was silent a moment. "Well, I mean, are they all bad?"
