Love on the Line - Deeanne Gist [145]
Bettina rose, winked at Georgie, then tipped her hat at Luke. “Ma’am. Sir. If you’ll excuse me.”
They watched her swagger off to assist her fellow posse members.
“Was that . . . ?”
“Yes,” Georgie said.
“But she’s a—”
Squeezing his hand, she shook her head.
“Mama?”
Georgie looked down. “Yes, Tina?”
“Is that true? What that man said?”
“What’d sh—he say?” Lucious asked.
“That there isn’t anything a man can do that a woman can’t do better.”
Lucious’s eyebrows shot up.
“No, dear,” Georgie answered. “There’s a big difference in reaching for the best we can be and in trying to be something we are not and never will be.”
“So women can’t do everything men can?” Tina clarified.
“I’m afraid not.” A slow grin began to form. “Women can do more.”
“Georgie,” Lucious admonished.
Laughter bubbled up within her. “Some things are just different, that’s all.”
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close. “I think, Bettina Landrum, your mama is full of sass from getting that piece of legislation named after her.”
“She is?” Tina asked.
“She is.” He looked over his brood of girls. “But the truth is, your mama can do anything she sets her mind to.”
Georgie gave him a playful push. “Don’t tease, Lucious. They’ll believe you.”
“And well they should.” Leaning over, he gave her a kiss flush on the lips.
In a cry of protest, their daughters covered their eyes and expressed their disgust at such a display from people so old they didn’t even have telephones when they were little.
Author’s Note
This was such a fun book to research. Not only because of the variety, but because I had the good fortune to find some wonderful turn-of-the-century material which I was able to incorporate into the novel. The Frank Comer character was based loosely on an actual Texas train robber who garnered the support of citizens in the ways Comer did and ended up becoming a legend.
Luke’s character was loosely based on a combination of real Texas Rangers. I read up on several and took the parts I found most intriguing, then compiled them into one character. We really did have a Ranger who was known for his fancy duds, who had ornate pistols with carvings of a boy and a girl—which he wore closest to his heart—and which he’d inscribed with a motto almost word-for-word to Luke’s. (He didn’t name his pistols, though. At least, not that I know of.)
The water moccasin incident? Really happened to one of our Rangers when he was a boy.
The speedy disarming of bad guys when the odds were against the Ranger? Really happened—one Ranger being particularly known for this.
The rounding up of the train robbers? Really happened the way I depicted it in the book except instead of posing as a troubleman, the real Ranger posed as a tree salesman and made sales calls to the outlying farms until he could determine which were the gang members and which were not. When he was ready to round them up, no one would join his posse—not unless he planned to bring an army of soldiers along with him (which, of course, he had no intention of doing). After a great deal of effort, he found one man willing to drive the hack; then he rounded up the gang single-handedly, one by one. The captures of the Comer Gang in Love on the Line are retellings of the arrests he made back in the day. (All except for Alec’s arrest. I made that one up.)
And didn’t you just love Brenham? They really did host the 26th Annual Texas State Sportsmen’s Tournament. No one cheated, of course, but the 1903 Brenham Banner covered the tournament in their newspaper (which was on microfiche), and Kenny Ray Estes of the Trapshooting Hall of Fame had the entire tournament on microfiche as well. It was one of the last tournaments in the country to use live birds.
Brenham still celebrates Maifest every year, so if you’re ever in the Houston area around the beginning of May, it’s only about an hour and a half northeast of us and an absolute treat. Leaving a Mai tree at your sweetheart’s door is a real tradition, but I don’t know if it’s one Brenham specifically followed. The Brenham