Texas Rain

he opened the letter.

My dear Travis. She used his first name as if they were friends and the dear as if she cared for him. Travis smiled. He would do the same if he knew her name. Strange how he knew the feel of her and not her name. He read further.

At first her account of the two women plotting a murder appeared humorous. Women planning to kill some no- good man didn't seem like it would be all that unusual a conversation. He could almost picture his fairy woman curled up in her bed by the window as she listened.

Then it occurred to him that if the barmaids were serious, and R. had overheard them, she might be in real danger. He'd noticed over the years that once a person kills, it's not all that hard to kill again.

He reread the letter. She'd left no hint as to where she was, but he knew it could not be anywhere near San Marcos. Unless the settlement had experienced a grand growing spurt, there was no alley where saloons framed in one side and three-story homes were on the other side.

Travis folded the letter into his pocket and drove home. By the time he reached Whispering Mountain, he'd made up his mind about two things. One, Miss R. could be only one place close enough and big enough to fit her writing… Austin. And two, he planned to be on his way there by morning. The least he could do was find her and warn her.

He might not be able to handle a horse yet, but he could manage a wagon. The trip would take longer, but it made more sense than staying at the ranch spending his days worrying about his fairy.

All he had to do was come up with a reason to leave, and it had to be something besides mentioning the letters.

By dawn the next morning his plan had a few problems. He'd explained that night at supper that since he'd read all the books on law for the state and he'd been enforcing those laws for ten years, he planned to take one of the wagons to Austin and sit for the state bar exam. All he needed was for a district judge to call together a panel of practicing lawyers who would ask him questions. If he made it past the panel, he could serve a short internship and then begin his own practice. Judge Gates had been trying to talk him into doing just that for several years. Maybe it was time he listened to the old man. Or, Travis thought, used the bar as an excuse to go to Austin.

While his leg healed, he had to do something, and Travis explained that becoming a lawyer would be as good a way to spend his time as sitting on the porch watching the weather.

No one in the family thought his plan sound. They also didn't hesitate to say so. Sage thought he should wait until spring when the weather would be better. Tobin said if he waited a month then the two horses he had to deliver would be ready and he'd go along. Teagen saw no need for a lawyer in the family. In fact, he pointed out that most of the lawyers he met spent more time trying to break laws rather than uphold them. Travis would only be putting himself in rotten company by passing the bar.

When his siblings saw they were getting nowhere, Sage switched strategies. 'If you think you have to go now, and you're taking a wagon anyway, I might as well go along, too. All of you have said I could go to Austin as soon as I grew up.'

Teagen stood up from the table and tossed his napkin down. 'Whatever for?'

Sage jumped and faced him as if they were the same height. 'Because I'm tired of waiting around for the perfect man to accidentally fall onto the property. I'm almost nineteen and haven't even met a man I'd consider marrying, much less one who likes me. Maybe if I go to the capital, I'll bump into one.'

All three brothers ganged up on her. They shouted all the obvious holes in her plan. She was too young. Austin was a wild town with almost a thousand people. It could snow, or rain, and they'd be stuck by the side of the road. They could be robbed.

Sage faced them all. 'I'm not too young. I'm almost an old maid. Teagen, you and Tobin can't leave the ranch right now, but I could ride along with Travis. If there's trouble, I could help.' She dared one of them to argue.

Travis opened his mouth, but Duck caught his eye before he could say anything. The kid had been playing with a ball on the stairs, but he now stood facing Travis with a look of terror in his eyes.

Before Travis could say a word, the boy ran toward him. He'd somehow sensed Travis was talking about leaving.

As he did several times a day, Travis leaned and lifted Duck up. Though they'd fed him for weeks, he still weighed nothing. It had taken over a week for the boy to let Travis out of his sight, and now he held to Travis as he had that first night. His little bony arms circled Travis's neck as if they didn't plan to ever let go.

Tobin moved closer and whispered, 'He's afraid you're going to leave him behind.'

The argument about Sage going to Austin was forgotten as they all realized their yelling had frightened Duck.

'He'll be all right here at the ranch.' Travis said the words, but he didn't believe them any more than the others did.

'He'll run,' Tobin warned. 'I can feel it. If you're not here, he'll run just like he did when the Germans tried to keep him.'

Travis didn't have to close his eyes to see the cage. The memory of Duck's small hand gripping the bars would forever stain his mind. He wouldn't… couldn't… allow anyone to chain the boy up, not ever again. He wanted to go help his fairy woman. He wanted to make sure she was safe. But not if it meant seeing Duck locked up somewhere on the ranch. It might be weeks before he could get back, and the progress they'd made with the boy would be forgotten by then.

Teagen stepped closer and cupped the back of the boy's head. 'He might be all right for a few hours without you. We managed to keep him busy while you drove into town, but come nightfall he'd start looking for you.'

Sage agreed. 'He's happy with me most of the time, but now and then I notice him looking around, nervous and on edge until he sees you.'

Travis knew they were right. Duck was content to play around the house, even watching Sage and Martha cook while Travis read in the study. But every night he stayed close, refusing to go to his bed in front of the fireplace until Travis lowered himself into his bunk in the study. Only then would Duck climb beneath his covers and close his eyes.

He awoke to the sound of Travis reaching for his cane every morning. He might stay with Sage in the house for a while, but all of them had noticed the way he watched the door whenever Travis went for a walk.

'In time, he'll trust all of us,' Tobin added. 'But right now you're his mother duck. You're the one he needs to be near to feel safe.'

Duck loosened his grip and raised his head. He stared at Travis as if trying to understand what was going on. The boy was smart. Picking up a hundred things a day it seemed. Travis knew he couldn't understand English, yet he'd sense something was happening and he'd been frightened. How scared would he be if he thought Travis abandoned him.

'If I go with you,' Sage said, 'I could watch out for him while you take the test if that's what you want. And we could check with all the authorities about finding his family. I'd also ride shotgun during the trip. I'm as good a shot as Tobin and a much better campfire cook.'

Travis didn't like the idea of taking Sage off the ranch, but they couldn't make her a prisoner here any more than they could cage Duck. When he'd been her age, nothing would have stopped him from leaving. He glanced at his brothers. Though Teagen still frowned, Tobin nodded slightly in understanding.

'If you go,' Travis began, 'we leave before dawn and make the Wilson Trading Post by nightfall. They have a second-floor loft for their daughters. You can bunk in with them the first night.'

'And the second?'

'By the afternoon of the second day we'll be into country where farmhouses are closer together. Any farmer will let us sleep in the barn. By the third night we'll be at Fort Croghan. From then on we can follow the stage trail into Austin. If we have to stop, we'll find lodging at the stations, but I can't promise anything clean.'

Sage whirled around. 'It doesn't matter.'

Tobin laughed. 'You say that now, but wait until you feel the bite of a bedbug or a roach crawling across the bridge of your nose while you sleep.'

Sage made a face. 'I don't care. I have to pack. I'll take a small bag for the trip and Father's old trunk to hold all the clothes I'll buy in Austin. Imagine, I'll get to eat at a cafe and walk Congress Avenue and shop in stores that carry more than three dresses. I might even find one of those ladies' shops where they make a dress just for me.'