Chapter 4
“Marta, tell us about you and your family. What did your father do for a living? Is it too painful for you to talk about him, if it is don’t worry about it.” Nimrod told her kindly.
“I don’t mind talking about my family, Mr. Harper.
We had a small home in Casper. Papa worked for the railroad.
He was a conductor for the trains that went through the Rocky Mountains.
He loved his job. Mama, Mattie, and I had a small house in town.
We had a garden, a few chickens, and I helped the lady next door clean her house for some extra money.
She was older and often needed me to run errands to go to the store to get supplies and medicine for her.
We weren’t rich, but we were happy.” Marta paused.
“The Gambelli Gang jumped onto one of Papa’s trains.
They attacked Papa and took control. When he pulled up at the depot in Casper, they made him take him to our home…
they shot Papa and Mama and burned our home to the ground.
Mattie and I were taken hostage…we spent ten days as their prisoners before Grady and Tim came and shot them and rescued us…
if I didn’t do what they told us to do…they were going to kill Mattie.
When they got bored, they beat on both of us.
I thought they were going to kill us before they were done.
” Marta didn’t even realize that silent tears were running down her cheeks as she told her story.
Nimrod, Brody, Kyra, and Grady had put down their forks as she spoke of what happened to her.
They all knew that the men had raped her…
over and over again while she was their hostage.
The horror was on her face. They could see the bruises and the shadows under her eyes showing the sleepless nights she had spent trying to protect her little brother.
“Marta, as long as you are under my roof and a part of this family, no one will ever hurt you again. You and Mattie are safe here. We will protect you with our lives and we will also show you how to protect yourself and your brother while you are here. My wife showed our children and our neighbor’s children how to live in the west, she will show you, too.
Breathe in the good air, eat the good food, and sleep well here…
you are safe and will remain so for as long as you wish.
” Nimrod told her and nodded at her. Marta nodded back.
She felt safe, but she also felt like her very soul was still back in that shack with those four filthy men.
She wondered how long it would take for that to be erased.
She and Mattie slept well that night in the soft beds. She knew she was protected with Grady on one side of her and Brody on the other side of their bedroom. She also knew that Nimrod was under her and wouldn’t let anyone go up the stairs to them. It was nice to feel safe for once.
Morning found them helping Kyra in the garden.
She was canning vegetables…both green beans and corn.
Mattie didn’t ever remember helping his mother before, but Marta did.
They made an assembly line for the green beans.
Mattie broke off the ends and the green beans into pieces.
Marta put the green beans into the jars with water.
Kyra put the jars into the large kettle to boil for fifteen minutes to seal the tops.
She removed them and put them over on the porch to cool.
When they had shucked the corn from their husks and the hairs and washed it in a wheelbarrow filled with water, Marta cut off the corn with a sharp knife, Mattie used a funnel and put it in the jars, and Kyra filled them with water.
She put them in the boiling water to seal them for fifteen minutes then put them on the porch to cool.
They worked hard all morning long, only taking a break to eat some pemican bread and drink some cool water.
At noon, Mattie played in the sand box, swung on the swing, and even climbed up into the tree house that had been made for Grady and Brody long ago.
Cisco watched them all to make sure they didn’t have any strangers coming to the house.
Grady left them to go to a hot spring that wasn’t too far from the house to soak his leg.
He was gone for most of the morning, but he came back walking much better even with the crutches.
He saw all the jars on the porch and smiled.
How like his mother to make the two new people at their home feel welcome by putting them to work!
She was taking Marta and Mattie out to the barn to see the baby kittens, baby chicks, little piglets, calves, and colts and fillies.
Mattie was thrilled with all the new life and Marta had never seen so much new life before.
She loved holding the small chicks and little kittens in her hands.
She also couldn’t believe that calves, colts, and fillies stood up and walked soon after they were born.
So much that he took for granted was new for both Marta and Mattie.
Grady sat on the porch waiting for them to come back. Usually after working in the garden, his mother would go out hunting. He would wait here for her. He wasn’t up to going hunting yet, but he wondered when she would start teaching Marta the ways of the west.
Kyra came out of the barn with Mattie and Marta. She smiled seeing Grady on the porch. She was also leading a horse. Grady knew then that she was going hunting. The horse would just carry back a travois with the game she would kill.
“Marta, I am going hunting. I would like you to go with me. Mattie will stay with Grady.” Kyra told her and gave her a knife to start wearing around her waist. “You need to wear the knife at your waist at all times. It can help you protect yourself, and today it will help us clean up the game we will shoot and bring back.” She went into the house to get her bow and arrows and rifle.
She and Marta left in five minutes. Marta didn’t say a word.
She was too surprised to say anything. Mattie ran to play in the sand box.
He had found some funnels in the sand box, some cups, and some plates this morning when he went to play.
He loved it. He had never played in a sand box before.
While Kyra was with Marta, she taught her to watch for the markings on the ground for the footprints of deer, hens, turkeys.
Marta had never paid any attention to what was on the ground before.
She also pointed out the different trees around them…
ash, cedar, oak, maple, the different kinds of bushes that grew all around them…
she also pointed out where the berries grew that they would come back and pick tomorrow after they were done canning.
Marta’s head spun with all the information Kyra was telling her and then she saw her pull her bow and arrows.
She was silent as she put her arrows to her bow…
silently it flew to the desired mark and the turkey fell without making any sound at all, not only one, but two turkeys before the flock was alerted and went into hiding.
She had Marta help her make a travois to put the turkey’s on and to attach it to the horse’s back.
They continued on their path almost noiselessly.
Marta listened to Kyra tell her what to look for…
and they came to a stream…a doe was there with its baby.
Kyra told her they didn’t kill mother animals with their babies…
.it helped the woods always insure that they would have game in the future.
Marta nodded, she liked the wisdom that Kyra used in the picking of what she would kill.
Then she saw a big buck. Kyra pulled her rifle around and took aim…
one shot, and the buck fell. Kyra ran to slit the buck’s neck.
She didn’t want any animal to suffer. She field dressed it by slitting the stomach of the buck and taking out the guts of the deer.
Marta helped her drag the buck to the travois.
They were in the process of heading for home when they came upon a small bevy of quail.
Her bow and arrow were quick and silent as she was able to get four of them without them hearing her at all. Marta ran to pick them up.
Marta was amazed at all the meat on the travois.
It would keep them in meat for a very long time.
They arrived back to find Mattie playing in the sand box.
Grady had made them sandwiches. Kyra and Marta took the time to eat a sandwich before taking care of the game on the travois.
The first thing Kyra did was to put a large kettle of water on the washstand.
“If we dip the turkeys and quail in the boiling water, the feathers will fall off the fowl. All we have to do is split them open, taking the guts out to the pigs, cut off their heads and feet, dip them again to clean them and hang them in the smoke house. It’s the easiest way to take care of any fowl that you catch.
” Kyra told Marta. They quickly took care of the two turkeys and four quail.
Marta was amazed at the ease it was to clean them and put them in the smoke house.
Grady came and helped them hang up the buck in the oak tree by the smoke house. “Best stand back and watch now. You’ll get your dress all bloody if you don’t.” Grady told her and saw her step back.
Grady and Kyra skinned the deer, took the skin and salted it down and nailed it to the barn wall.
Then they started cutting up the deer into sections that they put into the smoke house to eat later.
Grady was right, they were both bloody and messy.
After the buck was finished, they went to the horse trough and washed up laughing.
It had been a long time since they had skinned and cut up a deer together.
Marta was amazed that a tiny little woman like Kyra could shoot and kill a buck as large as she had.
Not only kill it, but skin and cut it up, too.
Kyra came back and sat down beside Marta.
“Before you leave here, Marta, I’m going to make sure that you can shoot well enough to bring down a deer with a gun, shoot hens and turkeys with a bow and arrows, and use that knife at your waist to cut them all up to put in a smoke house.
You already know how to can vegetables from a garden.
Between the vegetables and the meat from a smoke house, you can provide for your family wherever you end up.
I just have to teach you how to keep yourself safe from two-legged and four-legged predators that roam this land.
You’ve already become a victim from some two-legged varmints…
I’ve also run into some two-legged men. Nimrod came in time to shoot them, but I spent some time in the clinic in town with a concussion and stitches.
Those were the injuries they could see…but there were others that they didn’t see.
Those I still carry with me.” Kyra told her quietly.
And suddenly Marta saw the sadness in her face along with all the other lines she had there.
“I’m worried, Mrs. Thatcher that I might be pregnant from the rapes of those bastards.” Marta told her sadly. “What do I do if I am?”
“Let’s take one day at a time. If you are, we’ll cross that bridge and meet it head on. If not, it’s a problem we won’t have to worry about. For now, let’s concentrate on making you as confidant as we can about your abilities to keep you and your brother safe. All right?”
“All right.” Marta agreed. One day at a time. She could do that.