Tess was half-blood Comanche by reason of her Comanche mother’s marriage to Jacob Wyman, one of the first white traders to deal with the Indian tribes long before Texas became a Republic and later a state. Her mother, Knows Healing, was a medicine woman renowned among the Comanches for her treatment of illnesses and injuries, often via her medicines concocted of various plants.
The marriage had been unique, because Knows Healing continued to reside with her people, but Tess and her brother, after they reached school age, lived with their white grandparents and attended school during fall and winter. They saw their father only infrequently since his trading required almost constant travel. Thus, Tess, then known among the Comanches as “Healer’s Daughter,” and her younger brother, Jeffery, also known as “Two Tongues,” were raised in two cultures and, adaptable as children usually are, moved easily between them.
Tess, during the time she resided with the Comanches, was an apt student of her mother’s skills and apprenticed at her side. Two Tongues eventually joined his father in the trading business, his mixed heritage and bilingualism being an asset as they traded with the tribes. The fact that he was bilingual was particularly helpful in dealing with Comanche bands. He eventually married a white woman and left the Comanche world with only occasional visits to bring his children to see their grandmother who steadfastly remained Comanche.
Tess, on the other hand continued to move between the two cultures, never marrying but spending more time with the Kwahadi as her mother aged and needed her help. Tess received a modest inheritance from her grandparents when they died and maintained a bank account in the small town where they had lived. She also held a half interest with her brother in a farm the grandparents had owned.
The Kwahadi and many of the other bands had come to rely on Tess’s skills, but after the death of her mother, she had desired more physical comforts than she found in a Comanche tipi. She worked out a compromise. She would find a location still largely ruled by the Comanches, build a house, and be available to those who chose to travel there. The North Concho Valley was the logical location for her residence. The location she chose was a short ride to the Middle Concho River to the south, and the bottomlands along the two rivers abounded with plant life to harvest for her medicines. Her home would be near enough to nomadic Kwahadi routes that her Comanche friends could procure such herbs and shrubs that she might request from other sources.
The only downside was that the military was planning a fort nearby and a white village was already springing up in anticipation. The trading post, however, less than five miles distant would solve her concern about procuring food and other supplies. Once the location had been identified, Tess had approached the rancher who claimed the land and negotiated purchase of a tract at a nominal price. Jack Wills’s incentive had been that the Kwahadi would cease their raids and stealing of his cattle and warn off other bands from his range. The rancher paid a fee of five steers annually to the Kwahadi for the protection, a fraction of the annual losses he had been incurring as a result of Comanche theft. More importantly, ranch hands and their families had begun to enjoy a level of security previously unknown at ranch headquarters.
When Jack nudged his mount around a bend in the trail, Tess’s house appeared, nestled at the base of some hillocks that rose gently from a prairie alive with new greening grass and a sprinkling of early spring flowers. The north and west sides of the house were shielded by a cedar windbreak. The house was a simple rectangular structure, constructed of limestone quarried from Jack’s first excavation of an otherwise useless half section nearer San Angelo, which had turned into a profitable venture.
Juana Marshall handled bookkeeping chores for all the enterprises, but several years earlier, Jack had asked Jordy to review financial reports with her semi-annually, so he might become better acquainted with the business side. He had recently observed that the ranching operation always showed a small loss or a profit that was razor-thin, and that the other side of operations subsidized the ranch. Jack had just smiled and said, “Yep, that’s a cattleman’s life.”
Jack dismounted and tied the bay at the hitching post in front of the house. He would not be here long enough to justify putting the horse up in the small stable south of the house. The front door opened even before he stepped onto the covered porch, and he was welcomed by a wide perfect smile backdropped by a woman’s copper-tinted face. Tess Wyman’s snow-white hair was tied back, and she wore a red cotton shirt that fell over faded, blue denims along with ankle-high moccasins that did not have many walks left in them. To Jack, this woman, not quite bony but slim and wiry, was a stunning creature to behold.
Tess waited for Jack to cross the porch, and when he opened his arms, slipped into them and held him close before planting a quick kiss on his lips. “I’ve missed you,” she said, tugging him into the house.
“It’s been only three days, but, yeah, it’s been too long.”
“Can you stay a while?”
“I’m on my way to town, so this stop will have to be a short one. Coming back, though . . .”
“You could come for supper?”
“At least.”
“Are you suggesting you might stay the night?”
“If I had an invite.”
“Since when have you needed an invitation? You know you are welcome here anytime—or all the time, for that matter. I will plan for you for supper and overnight. Now come in the kitchen. You at least have time for coffee.”
“Yep. Of
