Liberty House Read online

  Gloria was already in there cooking. She asked if she needed to help Tommy, but Katrina was, so she finished cooking breakfast or more like brunch.

  Ellen had gone home to get the children and she would be back, she was not happy, that Owen didn’t want to stay for the whole day, he said he would stay at the office for most of the day and be back in the evening. Frank would stay that night at the office.

  While Susan cleaned the cuts on his neck, Maverick stated, “You’re Cowboy, I reckon.”

  He nodded, wanting to know, “She ever spoke of Cowboy before?”

  “Yes, but not often. Never like that.” Maverick looked at Cole.

  Cole took a drink of too-sweet coffee. “I never knew she thought of me as her hero. I did protect her from bullies, but I did all the children that were picked on. She called me her cowboy. Everyone did after that.”

  “Yellow Rose of Texas? Where did that come from? I’ve never heard Tommy say it before."

  Cole nodded, “I called her my Little Yellow Rose of Texas. It was her blond hair and blue eyes as the Texas sky, I would say. I can’t believe I almost forgot what her eyes looked like.” He shrugged a little, embarrassed that he expressed so much. “I don’t remember when I first called her that. It just stuck,” his look softened, and grinned.” We would be yelling at each other and to end I would call her Yellow Rose and she would giggle, then run away. She would love to run along the beach, and I would chase her. I taught her how to swim in the gulf. I love it with her. She made me feel like I was a person that mattered so much. I didn’t get treated like that often.”

  “When she left, I would go to the beach, mostly to get away from Pa but also to remember. Sometimes it hurt so much I thought I would die. I wanted her there so bad, to see her smile when she knew she was in trouble, to hear her giggle, to see her up on stage cocky as I taught her to be, reading in her big library every Sunday, encouraging her to draw, running with her along the sand, telling her about my life and dreams. I listened to her life, fears, and dreams, holding her when she cried. I missed it all.” Cole put his head in his hands.

  Maverick was done being cleaned up. He put a hand on Cole’s shoulder. “She’s back in your life now. Just take time to let it sink in.”

  Cole turned wet eyes to Maverick, “It did when she yelled my name. When she stayed at my house, or I stayed at hers, sometimes in the barn, we both had bad dreams, not this bad. But she would yell my name then too, not even Juan Jose’s name but mine. When she would wake up, we would talk ‘til early mornin’. She was such a good friend.”

  “One when you needed it most,” Maverick pulled Cole in a bear hug. To a man that wasn’t touchy to anyone besides family, that took a lot.

  “What was that for?”

  “A big thank you for helping Tommy.”

  “You don’t need to thank me. It’s Tommy that helped me.”

  “Well, who wants breakfast at lunchtime?” Gloria asked. She started dishing out orders to get the food on the table. Tommy was the only one sleeping; they let her and sat down to eat. It was eaten in silence, all of them left to their thoughts.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Tommy stared at the ceiling, wondering why she was in bed during the day. Then she remembered the night before. Her body felt bruised as if she had been in a fight. That was odd. She sat up, saw Ellen walk in, and asked, “How’d you sleep?”

  Tommy knew Ellen expected an honest answer no matter what it was. She shrugged. "Like everyone else I guess."

  Ellen smiled softly, "It's one of those nights, dear." She handed Tommy a glass of water.

  Tommy took it and drank some before asking, "Where are the children?"

  "Out eating lunch with the others." She added, "If you need to talk some more, I’ll have them do something outside."

  "Do you want me to tell them?"

  Ellen looked at her thoughtfully. "That is up to you. I think in time, the older boys should know, but right now if you want to wait I would."

  Tommy nodded not ready to tell anyone else at the moment. “That sounds good.” She had to know. "How is the family doing? Have they realized?"

  Ellen shook her head sadly like Tommy just wouldn’t understand what was right in front of her. “Maybe one day you will see God did not bless you with this family to just shut you out when it gets hard. What do you want them to realize that you aren’t lovable because of this in your past? I pray you will one day realize how much you are loved."

  "Ellen," Tommy whispered, "I am trying."

  Ellen kissed her cheek. "I know that, my love." She added, "Get dressed and come on out to eat.”

  Tommy got up and went to the dresser where she began to wash up, she looked in the mirror; under her eyes looked heavy, her face looked so pale. She looked terrible. She washed her face and tried to make her hair look a little normal. She changed into a simple green flowered dress. That’s when she noticed a black mark on her arm that hurt. Where did that come from? Tommy thought.

  Susan and Katrina walked in.

  “How do you feel?” Katrina asked as she sat next to her on the bed.

  “I’m not sure.” She showed Katrina the bruise. “I don’t know how this happened. I don’t remember getting it.”

  Katrina looked at her and shrugged, “It was rough last night.”

  “What happened last night?”

  “Let’s go get some food. You must be famished,” Katrina said as she took her hand and led her out.

  When Tommy was led to the kitchen, she told Katrina she wasn’t hungry.

  “You have to eat something.”

  “I would just throw it up.”

  She nodded, knowing that was probably true.

  The awkwardness was felt when Tommy walked into where her family assembled. No one knew what to say. Well, she had never been good at starting conversation. She knew Jesse would feel like getting drunk. She hated causing her family pain. She was thinking it wasn’t a good idea telling her family. Now they didn’t know what to say. She felt panic setting in.

  She looked to Sawyer, not feeling anger, just panic they would leave. Sometimes a childhood fear would not go away.

  Everyone could see she was panicking, so Matt spoke up and said, “Do you have anything to say about what we said last night?”

  She shrugged, “I did most of the talking. What do y’all think?” She gasped.

  “How did you expect us to feel?” Matt asked.

  She looked nervous, “The Feds got angry at me. My pa would have gotten mad, if I didn’t tell him things or when I didn’t. Aunt Mary would encourage me to talk. Charlotte would at the beginning, but that was out of the question then. So, I don’t know.”

  “What do you feel about it?”

  “The way Cowboy acted when I would tell him my fears.” She looked to Cole, blushed, and looked away, not meaning to say that much.

  “You don’t have to feel bad. I would do the same thing,” Cole told her.

  She looked at him. “You don’t regret that.”

  “No, not one minute. You kept me through the war alive.”

  Tommy looked confused.

  “That day on the beach, you told me that I was wrong. And I realized it then how true it was and that kept me through the war when all of Texas was against me. Even my Mexican kin.”

  “What did you tell him, Tommy?” Katrina asked.

  “Somethings,” Tommy answered.

  “Oh, I would never have guessed,” Katrina said dryly.

  “Right. I... hmm...believed different then. So, I told him what my Nanny and Ma taught me.”

  “You don’t believe it now?” Jesse asked.

  Tommy shook her head. “After Nanny left, I had no women in my life that cared besides Aunt Mary. And she pushed me to have more faith. I couldn’t. Juan Jose was the only one that didn’t push.”

  “So, it just didn’t end in one night?” Andrew asked.

  She shook her head again. She looked to Cole, then away. He knew things her fami
ly didn’t know, not even Sawyer. She had told him though; she couldn’t remember it all. She changed the subject. “My Ma was the one who taught me to draw, she was good.”

  “But you’re better,” Cole replied.

  “How do you know?”

  “Your house was full of her art. I still have all of it, in the one storage room. I haven’t looked at it since you both left, but she was really good.” Cole said gently, “Going through that door was like opening up a past that I wanted to be shut out though I did try to find you. I remember more of your Ma’s touch and how sweet she was.” He looked at Ellen. “She reminded me of you. I think she would have liked you. You’re strong like she was. A lot stronger than my ma.”

  Ellen smiled softly. “I am not that strong. I just depend on the Lord for my strength. I am sure I would have liked her. She did a good job with her children.”

  Sawyer looked at her and said, "She never got to raise us for long, she was taken so young. I often wondered if we would have gotten taken if she had been alive that day."

  Ellen looked deeply at him, "You can’t live with what if. God knew what you would need so He sent you both to us. You make us a perfect Star though it was painful to get here."

  Sawyer nodded, "I still struggle with how she was taken. It was one of the reasons I didn’t get close to you. I resented you so much. I expected you to up and die or leave."

  Ellen had known this, "I knew that. I saw it behind your eyes that you had been hurt before. I just didn’t go anywhere, and I am not going anywhere now."

  Sawyer's face softened, "I am glad for that. I guess Tommy and I get another chance with you, being completely honest."

  Ellen nodded. "So glad you have that chance too." She looked at Tommy who had relaxed a little, “You both have a chance to be free from the past.”

  Tommy realized how true that was for her. She had hidden her secret for years. Then, when the family did find out, they were still all here for her. She never expected them to stand by her.

  For the first time in nearly fifteen years, the first tear dropped.

  Everyone stayed deadly still as they watched her in amazement. The only sound in the room was the old clock on the wall.

  She wiped at more tears. “Y’all are really here for me.” She buried her face in the sofa and sobbed for the first time in fifteen years. She let the pain wash away in tears. She felt strong arms come around her. She looked up to see Maverick, hugging him back as she saw his tears. She cried even harder. He understood her like not many of the family did.

  No one knew how long Tommy and Maverick cried holding each other. Many of the others were crying as well.

  Finally, Tommy sat up and wiped her eyes. “I’ve not cried in nearly fifteen years.”

  “Tears long overdue,” Susan said, wiping at her own.

  She smiled. Then looked at Maverick and that’s when she spotted his neck. She pulled down his bandana to see his red marks, then pulled up her sleeve showing her bruised arm. She looked back at Maverick. “I did that to you.”

  “It was an accident,” Maverick tried to tell her. “I’ve done worse.”

  “And I have too. It’s just something you have to live with, something from your past,” Cole said.

  “But I already have the men after me. I want to be normal.” She wiped her eyes.

  “As normal is in this family,” Andrew said. “We all have issues from our past, it's part of the Starry Yankees.”

  “Except Susan, she’s pretty normal,” Jesse teased.

  “That’s a bad thing.” Susan defended herself, even though she laughed.

  “Thank you all for staying,” Tommy said again.

  “Stop thanking us. We’re a family just like every other; besides, we were chosen by great parents,” Matt said gently. “Just learn to trust us, Tommy.”

  “I do trust y'all.” Tommy defended herself. Though all the family knew she would still struggle with it. They would deal with it when it happened like everything else they dealt with within their lives.

  “Then you will stop thanking us to stay and you tell us all of it in time. Just take your time, we ain’t going anywhere,” Matt told her again gently.

  Tommy nodded, whispered honestly, “I’m working on it. Though it may take awhile.”

  “We were all friends when y’all didn’t talk for two years. We know about time,” Andrew drawled.

  “You all were great then, too.”

  “God sent them to protect you and the others,” Cole said.

  Tommy didn’t say anything to that.

  Cole tried again. “And it paid off. You were nice to me and some of the other troubled children there and so the Yankees were nice to you. God was watching out for y'all by sending you all together.”

  “I was only nice to you because Izzy told me to be,” Tommy told him.

  “What?” Cole raised his eyebrow.

  “Okay, maybe not. But I did like hanging around her, and you always had to come along.” Tommy tried to be serious.

  “Oh, so that was the reason you were nice and hung around me. I am so hurt,” Cole mocked.

  “So, the truth comes out.” She smirked, laughing.

  Cole turned serious. “Izzy did talk to you about me hiding my color?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t think much about it, but she told me how she felt, and she never spoke of that from what I remember. I knew I had to make you see sense.”

  “She doesn’t talk about it, but she won’t say the past was fine like Annie does.” He paused. Looking deeply into her eyes, he told her, “Thanks. You made a big difference. I just wish I had stuck with it.”

  While Matt and Jerry went to relieve Owen at the office before supper, the family was talking, and Gloria was cooking when Tommy tried to come in and help.

  “I’m fine, Tommy. I got it,” Gloria told her.

  “I want to help.”

  “Well, I’ll let you get the sense I can’t help,” Gloria snapped.

  “What are you talking about?” Tommy asked, confused.

  “You never thought once to tell me. Maverick, he knew something was up and didn’t tell us. You didn’t think of telling me all those years. After all, I told you about what I went through, you never thought to tell me. I thought I was your best friend.” Gloria cried. She put a glass bowl on the counter, and it slid off and shattered on the floor.

  Cole leaned his head in to see what happened, then left. Neither girl noticed.

  Tommy ignored the glass on the floor. “You are. And I’m sorry. You did help me in ways Maverick never could.”

  “How? All I was there to open my heart to you, and you tell me nothing of your past in return.”

  “By being there, by treating me like I was a person.” She slid down the wall to the floor as she felt her legs shaking. “With you, it was different. I don’t know why, maybe because of Diana, but she was my best friend in so many ways closer than even me and Izzy got. And in one night she was killed,” she said, distraught. “I wanted out of this life. I…had some thoughts of...ending my life.” She hid her face in her hands in shame.

  Gloria gasped. She went to her sister and knelt beside her. “I didn’t know.”

  “I could never do it. You know why?” Tommy looked at her.

  Gloria shook her head.

  “It was you. When we would sit on our bed and you would talk. I listened-even if I didn’t show it to your soft voice, it helped. And if I did it, I would never hear it again. Even if I wouldn’t admit it then, I started to love you and the others. I was afraid of that because of all I could see myself as kidnapped with maybe some of y’all. Then moved again from all I knew and loved, so I figured what the point in telling any of y'all. And lately that fear has still been there,” Tears ran down her face. “I love you, Glo." Tommy breathed out, uneasy but relieving.

  Gloria took Tommy in her arms and cried with her for the first time ever. “I love you, Tommy,” Gloria whispered. “And I’ll always be here. Always.”

/>   Cole walked in the kitchen to see Tommy and Gloria starting to clean up the glass. He took the broom from Tommy and told her to start cooking as he cleaned.

  “I thought you didn’t like my cooking as a boy?” Tommy asked as she cleaned off the counter.

  “Just keep some of the hot stuff out of it and your food was fine.” Cole signed. “I like it fine enough now.”

  “Fine. Is that all then? I might not cook at all for y’all,” Tommy signed.

  “Fine, your food is wonderful.” He made a face.

  Gloria looked at them in amazement, things finally connecting. “Tommy, that is how you knew sign language by the time you came to the orphanage?”

  Cole nodded, “I taught her.” He gave Tommy an amused look. “Well, Juan Jose helped along with that.”

  “In trade for something of course.” Tommy grinned.

  Cole chuckled. “Aunt Mary continued the lessons.”

  “But you don’t dance anymore.”

  “I don’t know. But I used too. I was forced to go to dances, balls, and special events to keep the train in business in the first few years.”

  “You were forced too, huh?” Tommy teased.

  “No.” He turned all serious.

  Gloria watched from the corner of her eye as Cole cleaned up the floor. “You know, Cole, for a U.S. Marshall, you sure are gentle in your ways.”

  “My aunt taught me and her boys how to be a true gentleman.”

  “Yeah, but you go beyond your job as U.S. Marshal, you help Tommy become a famous artist and you clean up our messes.”

  “I have always done more than the job requires. Working with children, they don’t get the best care emotionally or physically. You have to work harder at helping them and try to not murder their lazy, rich, self-served parents.” Cole ground his teeth on the last statement.

  “You never liked my pa,” Tommy said sadly.

  Cole shrugged, “But your pa realized it a little too late. Most of these parents didn’t. We teach children how to work. It gives them something to do.”