Free All Men Fear Me by Donis Casey Page A

into town by six. And what about dinner? When’s he going to eat?”
    Alafair’s reaction made Shaw laugh. “If he don’t think he has enough time to eat breakfast at five with everybody else then he can eat leftover cornbread and buttermilk from the night before. Don’t worry, honey. It’ll be good for him. If he thinks he works hard now, he’ll change his opinion right fast once he takes on a job at the plant on top of everything. Besides, it’ll give him an opportunity to work off some of the ardent zeal he’s developed lately. At worst he’ll learn himself a lesson.”
    â€œI declare, that boy will give me gray hair before my time.”
    â€œHe’s sixteen, Alafair, and full of beans. He’ll get over it soon enough.”
    â€œI don’t remember Gee Dub being such an imp when he was sixteen.”
    â€œGee Dub was born old. Besides, he’s had an impish day or two, if you remember.”
    â€œWell I just hope that if the war is still going in September, Charlie doesn’t decide to quit school.”
    â€œI don’t think he will, since Gee Dub not only graduated from high school but went on to A&M. Since he was little, Charlie’s wanted to do whatever Gee does.”
    That was a true fact, and made Alafair feel a little better. Still… “He is old enough to quit school if he wants to, though.”
    Shaw gave her arm a comforting squeeze. “I don’t intend to let him know that is an option, darlin’.”

Chapter Fifteen
    â€œ[Indians] are not citizens. They have fewer privileges than have foreigners. They are wards of the United States of America without their consent or the chance of protest on their part.”
    â€”Dr. Carlos Montezuma, 1917
    Rob was amazed at how quickly he was able to fall right back into the pattern of farm life. The work felt good to him, a natural thing, in his bones. He and Charlie spent the morning heaving bales of hay out of the soddie-turned-hay-store and into the back of a wagon, hauling the load to the stock in the fields, unloading, spreading, and driving back for another load. Shaw’s two long-legged, raw-boned hunting hounds, Buttercup and Crook, and the exuberant young mutt Bacon, followed the wagon back and forth, trotting afield and thoroughly sniffing every dusty, gritty, fragrant bale as it was broken open.
    At noon, when Alafair called them in for dinner, Rob was ravenous. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so hungry, or so exhausted, or his hands so blistered from the wooden handles of hay hooks and the rub of leather reins.
    Three more of Rob’s nieces came in for dinner, the last of Alafair’s mighty brood left to reacquaint himself with. As soon as he walked in the door, the women descended on him like a flock of doves. Of all of Alafair’s considerable tribe, Rob had known and enjoyed these grown women best when they were children. It made him sad to realize that if they hadn’t had a distinctly Tucker look about them, he probably wouldn’t have recognized any of them.
    He remembered that Phoebe had always been overshadowed by her gregarious twin, Alice, but none of Alafair’s children were quite so sweet-natured as little Phoebe. And it seemed that she had found a husband who was cut from the same cloth as she. John Lee Day was a small, dark-eyed man with an easygoing manner. Rob knew about the tornado that had blown through last summer and destroyed the Days’ house and barn and nearly killed John Lee. Alafair had told him that John Lee was doing well, even though he still had a gimpy leg and a bad eye that teared constantly. Robin noted that Alafair and Shaw treated John Lee no differently than any of their other children.
    Their turquoise-eyed boy Tuck was as loud and boisterous as his sister Zeltha was quiet and dreamy, and both children were doted on shamelessly. Not for the first time since he had come to his