Texas Lily (10 page)

Leaving a half-naked Serena in Roy's bemused command, Lily stormed out of the house. She could not believe Cade was doing this to her. It must be his way of getting even.

Cade read the fire in her eyes clearly enough as Lily approached. Even the man beside him could see it, and he shuffled nervously behind Cade and out of range of the first shot.

Before she could speak, Cade made introductions. "Mrs. Brown, this is Abraham Tulane. He's just come to work for us."

Us
. He had his nerve saying
us
. Lily glared but replied with a reasonable politeness. "I need to speak with you a moment, Cade." Her expression finished the sentence with
alone
.

Standing there in half-open work shirt and tight denims, his thick hair brushing his shirt collar, Cade presented a formidable problem all on his own. Lily knew better than to be anywhere alone with him, but anger ruled.

Cade nodded toward the barn. "Go in and choose a mount, Abe. I'll be with you shortly."

He knew what she meant to say, and still he sent the man to pick a horse. Lily didn't allow Cade's masculine presence to deter her response.

"What are you trying to do to me?" she hissed. "It's bad enough I have to listen to complaints about you, but what in hell am I going to do when the whole lot walks off because you hired a damned Negro?"

Impassively, Cade crossed his arms over his chest and ignored the glint of sunlight in her hair. "Clark wants you to hire slaves. Tell them he's a slave. Damned if I care what you tell them. I worked with him at Martin's, and he's good. He'll do twice the job of any of those lazy maggots you have now."

It was bad enough that Cade swore in her presence, but his insolence was beyond the bounds of propriety. Lily wanted to smack his enigmatic face, but she had sworn to be reasonable. Holding her breath until her temper returned to a simmer, she tried a logical approach.

"If I tell them he's a slave, they'll treat him like a slave. I can't have that. And I can't have my whole staff walk off the job either. You have to be reasonable about this, Cade. He might be able to do the job of two men, but he can't do the job of six."

Cade held Lily's defiant gaze. He could still taste the fervency of her kiss, and the sight of her full lips aroused an unwanted response. He knew he must be losing his mind to even consider this woman in that way, but obviously his body had little to do with his mind. He kept his expression unmoved and his gaze away from her breasts as he answered.

"Let them quit. There are better men out there to be had for the asking. You're the boss, not those griping asses."

When she didn't immediately respond, Cade turned on his heel and walked away. Lily stared after him, wishing for a gun. She couldn't believe he'd said that to her. She couldn't believe that he just might possibly be right. And she couldn't believe she was watching the man's broad shoulders and narrow hips like some love-starved adolescent as he walked away.

As she envisioned what would happen as soon as that black man joined the ranks, Lily groaned and retraced her steps to the house. Maybe Ollie was right. Maybe she should never have hired Cade. But how in hell would she find another foreman to do the job as well as he?

Lily didn't want to feel like she was losing control, but she was. That became more evident when her father returned in time for dinner, dragging Ollie Clark with him. Both of them were well on their way to being inebriated.

At least Jim never got drunk. Lily was beginning to appreciate his few virtues more and more these days. Jim might have been boring, passionless, and single-minded, but he was a saint compared to most of the men in her life. Gritting her teeth, she saw the men seated in the main cabin, and she headed for the kitchen and Juanita. The evening meal ought to be right entertaining.

Lily did her best to smile as the two men praised the food, complimented her appearance, and even tried to impress Roy with their interest. Roy had grown accustomed to his grandfather's vague addresses, but he didn't take kindly to Ollie's questioning on his riding lessons. He gave their handsome guest a look that very much resembled one Cade might have given and asked to be excused.

"You be careful out there tonight," Lily admonished, as she gave Roy a hug and sent him out to join Cade for their lesson.

Embarrassed, Roy pulled away, but he nodded obediently. "Cade says I'm good enough to ride out with the others," he reminded her.

"And maybe you are, but you'll have to save your riding for the evenings now. Your books are more important during the day. Maybe Saturday."

Roy stalked out without replying to that. He would develop a swagger just like Cade's if she didn't swat his little rear end soon, Lily decided before she returned her attention to her guests.

"Lily, you give that boy too much rope. Your foreman is a bad influence on him," Ephraim admonished his daughter.

"Cade is merely teaching him to ride, Daddy. We've been over this before. Would you rather I went out there and tried to teach him to ride like a man?"

Since that was another topic that had become a sore point between them, Ephraim backed away before the gauntlet could be tossed. "Now, I know you're doing what you think is right, Lily. You've always been just like me and done things your way. But I think you're old enough to realize you can't always have the things you want. I know I criticized Jim when you wed, and I was wrong, but you ought to know I only want what's best for you."

"I know that, Daddy. You'll just have to remember I'm not a little girl any longer. Would you and Ollie like another piece of cake?" Diverting their attention to food was always the easiest way out.

But not this time. Her father leaned over the table and patted Lily's hand. "You being a grown woman is all the more reason I should look after you. If you're determined to stay out here and not come home where you belong, then you have to think about marrying again. Jim would want it, I'm sure."

Lily wanted to close her eyes and scream. It would be such a relief to release the tensions of this day, and perhaps it would end the subject for once and for all. Or it would convince them she needed a keeper even more than ever. Resolutely, she rose from her chair, picking up her plate to carry it to the sink.

"I'm not in the least bit interested in marrying again, Daddy. Jim hasn't even been gone for three months, and we can't be sure that he's gone at all."

"You know full well that the Indians must have done for him, Lily," said Ollie. "They're hiding out on the other side of the river. A bunch of us are ready to ride out after them. I can't promise we'll bring back Jim's body, but we'll try. And three months is too long for a woman out here. Your father's right. You need to marry again."

If Ollie Clark thought she would be grateful for his reassurances, he was wrong. Lily glared at him. "Those Indians never hurt a soul. You keep your band of drunken renegades away from those people. I don't want them riding down here burning the place to get even with something the lot of you have done."

"Now, wait just one minute, young lady..."

Outside, in the warm night air, Cade heard the angry voices and hesitated. The open windows allowed the words to float by in bits and pieces, but he didn't have to hear them all to guess their argument. It had been more or less the same one this past month. The introduction of this new topic of the Indians on the river worried him, but his more immediate concern was the bitter lines of pain etching Lily's face. She had not lied when she told him she disliked argument. The magical butterfly he had seen that night at the dance had disappeared.

It wasn't any of his concern. Lily Porter Brown had been given more at birth than Cade had ever possessed in a lifetime. There was no reason in the world to care whether or not she enjoyed what she possessed. But the idea of her marrying Ollie Clark turned his stomach. He turned and walked back to his front stoop.

Lily took the argument for as long as she could, then making her excuses, she left the two men to drink themselves under the table and slammed into her bedroom. She wished Jim had installed a bar with which to lock the door so she could slam that too.

Swiftly, she tore off her clothes and bathed in the tepid water beside the bed. She was too angry to sleep, but if she lit a candle to read, someone would notice and she would be made to listen to more drunken entreaties.

Jerking on her long nightgown, Lily cursed the trap of helplessness. She couldn't send her father away. He was her father and she loved him and he was trying to do what was right for her. But he didn't know her anymore, didn't know how much she had changed in these last nine years, and he couldn't understand that he couldn't walk back into his old place in her life again.

Dropping down against the pillows, Lily crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the room's only window. She wouldn't cry. She would sit here and figure out a way to end this ceaseless argument.

But her head hurt just to think about it. She wished Jim were here. That was the only solution that came readily to mind.

To her surprise, as if her wishes had conjured up a ghost, a masculine apparition appeared in her window. As it stepped through the opening, Lily realized the towering shadow couldn't be Jim, but she couldn't believe it was who it looked to be, either.

Cade held out his hand. "Come. I will show you the music in the night."

She didn't know if it was rebellion or quixotic dreaming, but Lily took Cade's capable hand. At least he would take her away from those two drunken oafs in the other room.

Chapter 8

Adding only a robe over her nightgown and a pair of leather moccasins, Lily followed Cade through the window. When she was younger, she had seldom been allowed out of the house to explore the darkness. After she had married Jim, she had been tied to his wishes in the evenings. It hadn't occurred to her that she was free at last to do as she pleased.

Only she shouldn't be doing it with Cade. Lily knew that, but she continued to follow him—past the small knoll and the oaks overlooking the house, along the creek that led to the river, and up a narrow path through the trees to a ridge of rock split by a single pine.

Standing there they could look out over the tiny lights of the farm to the faraway stars. In the distance, Lily could almost imagine that she saw the lights of town. Complete silence engulfed them until gradually, one by one, the bullfrogs began to call.

As she listened, there were other sounds. Crickets wove an intricate serenade punctuated by the staccato beats of an owl's cry. The almost inaudible whine of mosquitoes by the river produced a different music, and the occasional splash of some creature of the water mingled with the contented gurgles of the current. It was music of a different sort than she knew, but it was fascinating just the same.

Wrapping her robe around her legs, Lily sat upon a tuft of grass beneath the pine and scarcely noticed when Cade took the place beside her. They sat in silence until the howl of a distant coyote made her shiver.

"He sings for his mate," Cade reassured her.

"Does he think the sound of his loneliness will attract her?" Lily asked wryly.

"I'm sure it is the beauty of his song." His voice contained almost a hint of a chuckle.

"I'm sure that's what he thinks."

Her scoffing hid an undertone of bitterness, and Cade was silent for a while.

"Men often hide their fears with actions," he finally said.

By this time, the anger of the day had leeched out of her and into the cold stone. Wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her head upon them, Lily reluctantly gave his statement some thought. Cade had a way of saying things that made sense, even when she didn't want to admit it.

"I suppose a man who wasn't afraid would be a fool. I just find it hard to imagine someone like you being afraid."

Cade's low laugh wasn't amused. "Because of my size or because of my birth?"

Lily considered this. "Both, I suppose. To me, Indians are like the wolves, fearless of anything. All I have seen or heard of them is the damage they have done. And your size makes you seem invulnerable, even though that is ridiculous. A bullet knows nothing of size. Perhaps it is your attitude. You look as if you scorn everything, even death."