Chapter 8

The second week in Santa Fe started out much as the first had gone. I spent the morning with Anna who had narrowed down the selection of cutlery to two different styles and now needed me to help her make the final selection. As usual we both liked one pattern over the other, so the cutlery was paid for and consigned to Mendoza Freight for delivery. The china pattern was a different story. Anna still couldn’t find anything she liked, so I suggested she explore the possibility of getting a custom-made pattern she designed herself. She liked the idea of custom ordering, telling me she had some ideas on the design, and she’d spend the next couple of days seeing what was possible.

I spent the afternoon with Lucien and the Judge making up for last week’s losses, ending up one dollar ahead.

Anna met me at the hotel as we’d arranged and after cleaning up a little in the room we went into the restaurant and were seated at a nice table near the back wall. I seated Anna and then took the chair opposite her with my back against the wall. We had ordered and were sipping our wine while waiting for our steaks when I noticed a couple come in from the hotel. What caught my attention was how much the woman looked like Anna. A slightly older Anna, true, but the resemblance was uncanny.

I had stopped talking when they entered and after a moment Anna asked, “What are you staring at?”

“I think your twin sister just walked in the door,” I said.

She smiled and turned around looking for the woman I was talking about. A moment later she was out of her chair and in a fast walk approached the couple asking in a disbelieving voice, “Josefa? Josefa Jaramillo?”

The man with Anna’s twin looked a little unsettled at the resemblance between the two ladies while the woman smiled and answered, “Yes, I’m Josefa.”

I couldn’t hear the next part of the conversation but a moment later a beaming Anna led the couple over to our table and introduced them as Mr. and Mrs. Carson. Mrs. Maria Josefa Jaramillo Carson was her distant relative on her father’s side of the family. After the introductions were made, we sat down and let them know that we had already ordered but hadn’t eaten yet. They quickly decided and ordered the same steak supper we had ordered along with drinks.

I started to ask Mr. Carson what he did for a living, but before I could finish the question he held out his hand stopping me and in a gentle, quiet, and unassuming voice said, “Since we’re now related through our wives, it’s best if you just call me Kit like the rest of my family and close friends do.”

Talk about being gob smacked. I think my eyes bugged out and my jaw hit the floor because Anna and Josefa started a giggle that soon turned into full blown laughter. I blinked a couple of times and then looked at Anna who was still laughing. The little minx had known who her cousin’s husband was and purposely didn’t tell me ahead of time.

I hadn’t told Anna about my long-standing admiration of Kit Carson, but she knew I’d heard of him. I had done much more than hear of him though. I had studied him for years. When I was seven, my mother took me to the library introducing me to biographies of great men written for children and the We Were There series of historical books. Of all the men I read about, Kit Carson was my early favorite and despite the revisionist historians of the late 20^th century, he remained my favorite. And now, here I was, at the same table, after being told our wives were cousins, and eating supper with him.

Eventually, I came back to myself realizing that everyone was looking at me. The whole time I was trying to recover myself he had sat quietly watching me with a chagrined expression on his face as if he was uncomfortable with his fame and notoriety. Taking a sip of wine, I looked at Kit telling him I had hoped to meet him at some point but hadn’t expected it to happen this trip or that our wives were related. He laughed and told me that he was just as surprised as I was. Josefa hadn’t told him they were going to meet one of her southern cousins nor that the cousin looked very much like her twin.

From a distance of a few feet they were very similar in appearance and were clearly related although there were differences. Anna was about four inches taller, had a narrower face, smaller nose, less prominent jaw, and her eyes were less hooded than Josefa’s. Overall, I thought Anna was much prettier than Josefa, but then again, I was probably more than a little biased.

Over supper we got to know each other as we talked about our lives. Anna told them about the Estancia and the shopping she was doing in Santa Fe while Josefa talked about her son and the frequent absences of Kit during the last war followed by herding sheep to California with Lucien.

Kit patted her hand on the table and told her that was all over since he’d just been appointed the Indian Agent for the Utes and Jicarilla Apaches and he’d be home from now on. Josefa beamed one of her special smiles at Kit and with the twinkle in her eyes the similarities between her and Anna were even more pronounced.

I asked him in Apache if he was the agent for just the Jicarilla or all Apaches. He responded in Spanish that his Apache wasn’t as good yet as his Navajo or Ute, but he was getting better, and then answered my question, telling me it was just the Jicarilla for now. When I raised an eyebrow in question, he said that some bureaucrat in Washington thought all Apaches were Jicarilla Apaches. He was trying to get it rectified but it would take time thanks to the distance involved.

We spent the rest of the evening talking about the Apache and our relationship with the Garcia families that were Mescalero Apache. Before leaving the restaurant, we made plans to meet for breakfast in the morning and coordinating our activities.

Back in our suite, Anna told me that Josefa was just as she remembered her and that she was just as in love with Kit as Anna was with me. She also thought the relationships I was building with Lucien, the Judge, and now Kit would go a long way in helping us create the refuge we wanted the Estancia to be. I agreed with her, and told her that Kit, being the Indian Agent for the Apache, had the potential to help us at least shield the Garcia family, if nothing else. I also told her we needed to subtly influence the Army through Kit when they were selecting reservation lands. We fell asleep before we could explore the topic in any detail, but it was in the back of both our minds.

We were getting dressed the next morning when Anna asked me if I had heard the story of how Josefa and her older sister, Ignacia, had escaped the Taos revolt in 1847. I vaguely remembered hearing the story when I was growing up in the 20^th century but told her I hadn’t heard it. With great relish Anna told me the whole story.

Josefa’s sister had also married a great and famous mountain man, Charles Bent. When the Army captured Taos near the beginning of the war in 1846 Bent had been named the first Territorial Governor. Within a few months a group of Spanish villagers and Pueblo Indians had revolted in Taos. Kit was out of town scouting for General Kearny on his way to California. Josefa was staying at the Bent house with Ignacia and her family when the revolt started. Charles went outside to try and calm things down but was unsuccessful, tortured, and killed in the front yard. When it became clear that Charles wasn’t going to succeed and would, in fact, be killed, Josefa and Ignacia used a fireplace poker and a large spoon to chop a hole in the adobe at the back of the fireplace, and escaped around the corner to Josefa’s house with Ignacia’s children, before the mob could break into the house. To this day Ignacia and her children lived with Josefa and Kit.

“The reason I told you the story was so that you know I come from a long line of survivors,” she said. “I’m bound and determined to continue that legacy.”

Anna finished her story as we were walking downstairs to the lobby and found Kit and Josefa waiting for us. We walked into the restaurant and were seated at a table, ordered breakfast, and received coffee. A few minutes later Anna and Josefa were quietly talking while Kit and I drank our coffee in companionable silence when Helen breezed into the restaurant.

Helen was introduced, and the ladies quickly began a conversation planning today’s attack on the merchants of Santa Fe. Kit looked at me and rolled his eyes before we got into a quiet conversation ourselves. Kit was in the same position I was in, having escorted Josefa to Santa Fe for shopping while not having anything planned for himself.

He did need to spend some time at the Governor’s Palace, but he didn’t expect to be too long as he didn’t get along well with David Meriwether, the current Territorial Governor. My plans for the morning were simple, a nice relaxing bath in the room followed by another visit to the tailor for a fitting and a check on the shirts.

The ladies informed us that they were having lunch at Madam Blake’s Tea House. I suppressed a shiver at the thought of spending another lunch at a delicate table covered in doilies, eating finger food, surrounded by women chatting about every topic under the sun and quickly agreed to meet Kit at the club for lunch followed by an afternoon of cards.

When the ladies left, Kit and I received our smiles, hugs, and kisses, before sitting back down to enjoy another cup of coffee in peaceful silence.

Finally, Kit sighed. “I guess I’ll go over to the Governor’s Palace and get this meeting over with.”

We said our goodbyes in the lobby, and I went upstairs to our suite where a tub of clean hot water was waiting for me. After a relaxing bath, I dressed and strolled over to the tailor where I found the five suits almost completed and tried each of them on for separate fittings. When the alterations were all marked, I changed back into my clothes and examined the shirts. I was impressed with the workmanship and how close they’d managed to get to the original example. All in all, I spent just over an hour at the tailor’s before leaving.

With some time to kill I decided a haircut was in order and walked over to the gentlemen’s side of the club where I knew a barber had set up shop. With a few men in front of me I sat in the barbershop and listened to them talk about the town before getting my turn in the chair. After a trim and shave I walked into the club dining room to wait for Kit and found him already at a table talking with Lucien.

Lucien waved me over and began to introduce us when Kit waved him off telling him we’d discovered last night that our wives were not only cousins but resembled each other closely. I sat down for lunch and companionship with these two remarkable legends.

Lunch was the standard fare with coffee and, when we were done, we went to Lucien’s table in the gaming room to sip drinks while we waited for others to arrive so we could start our afternoon game. Kit turned out to be a scotch drinker and I offered to leave him a case of the good stuff I’d found at the warehouse if it wasn’t already on a freight wagon.

He accepted gratefully, and I suggested we all take a walk over to the warehouse to see if it was still there. Lucien declined saying he was going to stay so no one took the table. As Kit and I were walking to the warehouse he told me that Lucien didn’t walk anywhere he could go on a horse.

We were in luck at the warehouse as the freight wagons hadn’t arrived yet, so the owner quickly retrieved the case I asked for. We opened a bottle for a taste among the three of us and Kit proclaimed it was the best he’d had anywhere west of the Mississippi River.

I made arrangements with the owner to add, and deliver, a case from my annual order, to Kit in Taos from now on. When we left Kit carried the case of precious scotch back to the hotel room to drop it off. He brought one bottle with him when we returned to the club and told the barman it was his private bottle, as he handed it to him. He had the man open the bottle and pour glasses for both of us.

Returning to the table where Lucien had remained patiently waiting Kit and I sipped our drinks. Kit made a lip-smacking sound of approval after his first taste and told me it was the nectar of the gods. I tended to agree with him, but Lucien, being a whiskey drinker, just laughed and downed his drink to make room for a fresh one.

The Judge and Hiram showed up shortly thereafter and we settled into our poker game. The five of us played poker for over five hours before Hiram, Kit, and I all needed to leave for supper with our wives. We bid Lucien a good evening as we left the table and then said goodnight to Hiram as he split off from us outside the club to go home to Helen.

Kit and I walked into the hotel lobby to wait for Anna and Josepha. I remembered to ask Kit how his meeting went, and he replied that he and the Territorial Governor didn’t see eye to eye on anything, so it went as he expected it to. As far as Kit was concerned, it was a good thing the Territorial Governor had no say in the selection of Indian Agents, or he’d never have gotten the job.

Anna and Josefa showed up a few minutes later and after beaming us their special smiles wasted no time informing us that we were having supper at the club with Hiram and Helen. I swear that even though Josefa’s special smile was second to Anna’s it was a very close run.

We arrived at the club to find Hiram and Helen waiting for us along with Lucien who had decided supper with friends beat eating alone. Both Hiram and Lucien were amazed at the resemblance between Anna and Josefa. Dinner that evening was dominated by sheep talk. Anna peppered both Lucien and Kit with questions about raising and driving sheep.

She was determined to have sheep on the Estancia as soon as possible even after our discussions on the difficulties of trailing a few hundred sheep south along the Camino Real with raiding parties and bandits looking to make a quick profit. This was the first that Kit had heard of our interest in getting some sheep on the Estancia and he did his best to dissuade Anna telling her that of all the animals he’d worked around sheep had to be the dumbest, dirtiest, and most worthless creatures alive. He admitted that sheep wool was useful, and mutton was tasty but the effort it took to keep them alive was, in his opinion, too much effort for the return.

When he finally saw that Anna was serious and wouldn’t be deterred, he told her he’d think on it for a while and maybe come up with a solution for her. Anna beamed him one of her smiles, but I don’t think I had anything to be jealous about.

The next six days went pretty much the same way. Anna and Josefa would disappear after breakfast, sometimes with Helen and sometimes without. Kit and I would find things to do to keep us out of trouble, either individually or together, until lunch, when we’d meet up with Lucien and play poker in the afternoon. I did remember to look for more 20-gauge shotguns and between the various gun stores found forty more double barrel shotguns using the new brass cased ammunition. I bought all forty as well as two thousand rounds and had it all consigned to Mendoza Freight for delivery to the Estancia.

We always met the ladies back at the hotel in the early evening where they would tell us where we were going to supper that evening. Dinner was always a lively affair with Anna and Josefa regaling us with stories of their shopping adventures. I don’t know what Kit and Josefa did after supper, but every night, Anna and I shared a bottle of her favorite wine, and always had another set of ‘possibilities’ to explore. I was a happy man.

Sunday, as usual, was completely different than the other days. A late breakfast followed by a morning of church. A late lunch after church was followed by an afternoon of riding. For the first time in almost two weeks Anna and I rode out of Santa Fe. Kit and Josefa accompanied us. While we all were enjoying the time in Santa Fe, we were also glad to get an afternoon on horseback.

Anna of course wanted to get some target practice in while we were out of town and I encouraged her as I was looking forward to firing a few rounds as well. We found a nice canyon a few miles from town and tied up our horses. Anna and I found sticks for targets while Kit and Josefa watched with interest from the shade. Kit’s eyes about bugged out of his head when Anna pulled her pistol and practiced snap shots on the sticks. I followed when she was done and fired off a magazine. Done with the pistols we reset the targets 300 yards down the canyon for rifle practice and Anna fired off a magazine followed by me with two magazines.

Josefa was impressed that Anna not only could shoot but shot well while Kit was impressed with the weapons. We gave them the complete story about the weapons on the ride back to town and over supper that night we finished up with Anna and Yolanda learning to shoot and some of their encounters with would be abusers and bandits including the fact that Anna was responsible for killing four of the six bank robbers trying to rob Hiram’s bank. Over our after-supper coffee Anna also told them about Tai Chi and the hand to hand fighting she was learning.

A couple of days later we started our third week in Santa Fe as we had the previous two weeks with breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The previous evening Anna had told us that she hadn’t been able to find a china pattern she liked and had designed her own with the help of local merchant. She’d finalized the pattern and placed the order late yesterday afternoon and expected to get the china from back east in eight or nine months.

At breakfast this morning Josefa told us that this was her last day of shopping and she’d be ready to return home anytime Kit was ready. Kit asked us about our plans and I told him that other than picking up my clothes from the tailor which were supposed to be ready tomorrow morning and finalizing our business with the lawyer we had accomplished just about all we’d set out to do in Santa Fe.

He asked what our business with a lawyer was about and I told him we were setting up a trust for the Estancia in case something happened to us. When he asked who was handling it for us, I told him Hiram had recommended Tom Stevenson and that was who we’d gone with. He seemed quite relieved to hear that. After a little more discussion, it was decided that we would stay in Santa Fe through tomorrow to finish up our business and then travel to Taos with Kit and Josefa for a short visit before starting our return journey home.

Anna and Josefa disappeared after breakfast while Kit and I chatted over a last cup of coffee. Kit decided to join me at the barbershop for a long leisurely bath followed by a shave. Afterwards he accompanied me to the tailors and sat talking with the tailor and his assistants while I tried on all the suits to ensure the cut and fit were correct. When I’d approved everything, the tailor wrapped all five suits and the 20 shirts in paper and Kit helped me carry them all back to the hotel.

I decided to change into one of the new black suits for the rest of the day as they were much more comfortable than the suits the seamstress in Las Cruces had made for me. Finally bathed, shaved, and wearing brand new clothes; I was eager for lunch, and an afternoon of playing cards with the once-a-week players.

Kit and I walked into the game room after lunch and sat down at our usual table. Lucien was absent this week as he’d decided a few days earlier to head home to see how things were going. The Judge, Tom Stevenson, Steve Adams, and Hiram all showed up within minutes of each other and we quickly got down to some serious card playing.