Growing up in southern Arkansas and living in Louisiana all these years, I have oft heard all kinds of names for puma concolors, small cats. My husband and his family from California, Texas, and New Mexico used many of the same words.
Early Spanish explorers of North and South America called it leon (lion) and gato monte (cat of the mountain), from which we get the name "mountain lion." "Puma" is the name the Incas gave this cat in their language. "Cougar" seems to have come from an old South American Indian word, cuguacuarana, which was shortened to "cuguar" and then spelled differently. And "panther" is a general term for cats that have solid-colored coats, so it was used for black pumas as well as black jaguars and black leopards. All of these names are considered correct.
Mountain lion, cougar, puma or panthers, painters or catamounts or as my father-in-law called them, mountain screamers-you can choose the word for Nick's Big Cat.
I let my granddaughter choose this story after watching a special and she went with panther so here we go!
Chapter Four
Victoria and Jane didn't get to catch up or Jarrod and Liesel fulfill their plan, as Audra unpacked some of Scott's belongings and fell into another fit of loud despair. It took both of them to calm her and get her to quit crying.
Her mother and Aunt had to lay down with her; Liesel took the fretting Scotty into their room.
"I am sorry Jarrod." when she saw the disappointment in his eyes after a week of abstinence on their honeymoon on the train. "The rest of the children are sound asleep all bunked together. I didn't want to take a chance on waking five children under the age of four. That would make a more unpleasant night than just bringing our niece in here with us."
He reluctantly agreed, kissed her on the cheek and they spent the next hour bouncing the precious little girl.
For a fleeting moment, he tried to see Ghislaine or any of the other women he had known, balancing the exhaustion of the families and Audra's grief so patiently.
They came up short. Her comment about divorce still unnerved him again. Surely she wouldn't think about it anymore.
Jarrod sang to Scotty softly while Liesel unpacked some more of their personal items into the chifferobe. She carefully folded his garments, brought them to her nose, and smelled his cigars and bay scent.
She listened to his baritone voice and inhaled deeply of his scent. "Can I care for and desire this man anymore?"
The clock chimed midnight and she trimmed the lamps completely. He lay the sleeping baby in the Moses basket and began to take his shirt off quietly in the dark.
Liesel stopped his hand with her palm and brought his fingers to her mouth kissing them and nibbling on them. She unbuttoned his shirt as he shivered in the cool air in anticipation. She placed his silk pajamas on the bed and pushed him backward.
She giggled as they removed the baby bottle from under his shoulder blades as she moved on top of him.
"Shhhhhhhh" they both said at the same time and quieted themselves with a deep kiss. Scotty blissfully slept for the next few hours to the comfort of her uncle and aunt.
Jarrod learned another lesson of marriage: sometimes parenthood means taking your moments when they are available and sometimes the most imperfect moments become perfect when you are with the one you love.
—&—-
Vic and Jane left Audra's room at daybreak and headed down for coffee in their robes. They curled up at the study fireplace after greeting Heath leaving for the day.
She shut the paneled doors so they wouldn't be overheard.
"Heath seems more in 'sorts this morning. Yesterday was rough on all of us. He and Audra have always been so close and he's still so young. I know he just wants to protect her. He and Jarrod will get straight again. He has so much on his shoulders right now with Scott's business, and all the details he takes care of for us. Jarrod and Liesel are exhausted. They have started a brand new marriage, hardly knowing each other well but knowing they could love each other. They have taken care of me and Audra and the baby on the train. They haven't had much sleep for the three children and the train. I think we will all be better now that we are home."
"Audra just broke my heart last night, Victoria. I believe you are so right. She's going to have to be pushed. Mollycoddling is the worst thing for her."
"Oh, another note, a more pleasant one, Jane. Please let me know all about your new man. I have scratched my head all the way across the ocean."
"His name is Douglas and he's seven years younger than me. He's a foreman."
Victoria still was confused. Jane looked like the cat that ate the canary.
"Douglas—McColl."
Victoria gasped and grinned cheek to cheek.
"He is one of the finest men I know. His wife and son are buried in town but they lived in the old foreman's cottage when my children were small. Tom said he was the best friend he ever had."
She clasped her sister's hands and just smiled.
And Jane blushed and told her sister how he had captured her heart.
And as she concluded, "And how will my Joey and Will take it? Your boys know but they haven't said a word to me, they just smile."
"I would like for him to come to dinner with the family soon. I will ask him Jane so he knows how I feel. He's a very humble, modest man and it may take some convincing but I want him to know he is welcome at our table."
"Thank you, Vic. I want to talk to Jarrod soon. To help me convince my boys. Douglas told me that he won't come between me and my family. Vic, I don't want to lose him. I feel happier than I ever have in my life."
They heard the front door open quickly and someone bound up the stairs with jingling spurs.
—&—
Jarrod and Liesel woke relaxed and contented to the cooing of little Scotty at daybreak themselves.
Liesel lifted her up, changed her nappy, and put her in between her and Jarrod in the large paneled bed.
The chubby baby girl kicked her feet out of the swaddling making little noises and smiling.
"She slept six hours, Jarrod," Liesel said, relieved.
"Quite a bit better than the train." raising his eyebrows and shaking his head. All he wanted to do was pull Liesel closer to him in his morning desire.
Nick tapped on the door after he heard them talking, "Jarrod, I need you downstairs. Sorry to bother you at sunrise but we have a problem."
Jarrod could hear the raw emotion in Nick's voice and jumped up quickly to dress. He knew that tone. He grabbed his brown work pants, slate gray shirt, and a vest out of his closet. "It feels good to be back in ranch clothes."
Liesel got the baby ready to take back to Audra to feed. She would stop at the nursery to check on the other children.
He reached over and kissed his bride, "I promise you. We will get more time alone. I am worried about the tone in Nick's voice. He didn't sound himself. He was too quiet."
Heath and Nick were pacing in the foyer and were relieved to see Jarrod coming down so quickly. They burst into the study and interrupted Jane and Vic.
"Sorry duchess, we didn't know you were up. We can go somewhere else to talk."
"Nicholas, is everything alright?" and they did not move, waiting on an answer.
Victoria thought Nick looked pale and shaken. "I think he has tears in his eyes if I am not mistaken."
Nick seemed to have trouble getting the story out so Heath explained,
"Jarrod, we have had some losses again. It looks like a cat—-bigger than the one Ed Tanner and Nick hunted down. We have been tracking the scat and its trail. It's an elusive one for sure and—" he looked over at Nick.
Nick seemed even paler and more shook as Heath spoke. Jarrod remembered the attack well that almost killed his brother and he called the hunter for hire, Ed Tanner in.
"It got Tab's new pony last night in the southern corral."
Everyone did a sharp intake of air.
Nick shuddered and spoke in an octave above a whisper, "I don't know what I am going to tell my boy. He was mighty fond of that girl."
"Jarrod, we have lost more head of cattle and so have the Wheelers. I talked to Ole 'Cap Wheeler and he was willing to cough up some gold too for Tanner to come back. The Wheelers have a bit of trouble bubbling up over there. 'Waitin' until you came home to talk—Cap has been chomping at the bit for you to come home, Jarrod. They need a lawyer and they say they only trust you."
Jarrod went to say "no" but saw the look in Nick's eye.
"I can't simply take on anything else until I get the Breckenridge estate settled."
"There is a lot more to this story and my brother knows it. I will head over and talk to him about Tanner again. I may take Liesel and the children out for a ride and kill two birds with one stone. I can't let down one of Father's oldest friends—and Nick."
Jarrod looked at Nick's eyes of hazel. He could see the muddled anger and raw fear again of a panther on the loose. This time a panther had touched his family and his boy's heart. Nick's body still had several deep ugly scars from the attack; Jarrod had no doubt they were on the inside too. And maybe something else.
—&—-
Liesel readied the children after breakfast and Nick brought Tab around.
"We will just ride over with y'all."
Tab and Jack chatted happily in the back while Rose was content in Liesel's lap. She was quietly sucking her thumb and holding onto the ragdoll Audra had bought her in New York. Nick rode quietly beside the rig.
They drew up to the Wheeler ranch; its brand was a wagon wheel. Two wagon wheels were welded on each side of the locked gate,
"I don't think I have ever known this gate to be locked, Nick."
"They got a good reason, Jarrod. It's what they need to talk to you about along with Ed Tanner."
About that time, four hands rode up fully armed. Liesel's eyes grew big.
Jarrod patted her, "It's fine, Liesel. You will get used to guns living around here."
They unlocked the gate and greeted the Barkley's.
"Cap is up at the house with the family. They will be glad to see some friendly faces, Nick"
Jarrod was intrigued. He knew all of the Wheelers from birth. Aside from a few rustlers, they had shot legally and a rowdy poker game or two in town, the Wheelers were upstanding citizens never needing legal services other than land deeds or sales. Straight cattle and horse folk with an orchard for folding money. No mining or vineyards or mills or stocks. Just what they could touch with their own hands. Simple, good folk, friends, and neighbors.
Nick led the way through the gate. Jarrod followed with the rig. He noticed several men and a sharpshooter in the old deer stand.
"What in the world?"
Cap and his housekeeper, Maggie met them on the porch.
"Morning, Jarrod. Glad to meet you, Mrs. Barkley. Nice young'n's. Nick. Tab. Maggie, there is a passel of kittens in the barn I bet these child'rn will like to see. Afterward, you get them some lemonade and those good apple cookies, you make them."
Liesel and the children went towards their spacious verandah for refreshments and then to the barn. The children including Rose ran gleefully into the yard. Her chubby legs toddled to keep up with the boys.
Nick and Jarrod went inside with Cap Wheeler.
"Want a drink? Whiskey? Oh yeah, Jarrod, you are a scotch man."
Both men said yes and Nick downed his quickly. The panther was getting to him.
"Fix me one too, dad." and Carl Wheeler came down the back steps to the room.
"Well Carl, I didn't know you were back. Welcome home. " Jarrod shook his hand.
He looked over at Nick who obviously knew Carl was back on the property.
"Well Jarrod, I have gotten into some legal issues and we were hoping to see you sooner than later. Cap got a judge to issue a restraining order but it's likely to go a lot farther, you see…" and they were interrupted by an older stark-white-headed man coming down the stairs cursing.
"Eh, Jarrod Barkley? 'Bout time you got home from them, frogs, them Frenchies. Pour me one Carl and make it full to the top this time." grumbled Carl's grandfather and Cap's father, Carlsson Wheeler himself, known as Sonny.
Three generations of Wheeler men in the same room: handfuls of thick hair, blue piercing eyes, and trim builds. It was like looking at a mirror glass through the years: Sonny at 70; Cap at 50; and Carl at 30. Carlsson Harper Wheeler I, II, and III in the same room.
The three children ran by the large window and distracted Jarrod's attention. He smiled to himself how quickly his life and love changed. Already he knew he would do anything for those children and Liesel.
Nick started the conversation, "First off. We lost a pony last night to the panther. It was my boy's." with raw emotion in his voice.
Carl growled, "Awww Hell no, Nick. I am sorry man."
Cap replied, "I hate that Nick. We haven't lost anything this week but we lost quite a few good heads the weeks before. I am interested in Jarrod hiring the hunter you got last time. Whatever gold you need, you got it."
Jarrod said, "I will send a telegram immediately when I get back. I don't want anyone hurt. Now, let's hear why there is a sharpshooter in the trees, and you are locked down like San Quentin."