Texas Lily (5 page)

Cade didn't arrive Sunday morning as promised. Lily set her jaw and stoically went about her chores, ignoring the grumbles of the men as she set them to their various tasks. She had promised them a foreman, and they were certain she was reneging on her promise. Hung over as they were after a Saturday night on the town, they weren't exactly willing to listen to reason. Nor were they particularly interested in listening to a woman's decisions. She read the rebelliousness in their eyes as she sent some to riding the fields and others to mending fences.

Normally, Lily didn't allow herself the pleasure of anger, but she couldn't stave it off now. She had spent well over a month worrying herself to death over Jim's disappearance, but no one seemed to care about that. Their only concern was for their own male pride. She could lose everything she had worked for these last nine years, and it would all be the fault of every infuriating male she had ever come in contact with. The whole gender was highly overrated in her opinion. She only wished she could tell them all so.

Instead, Lily hitched the wagon, checked her rifle, and headed into town. She had a very good idea where she would find one Cade Whatever-his-name-was.

* * *

Lily drove directly to the little shanty on the back street of the now-silent town. She was too angry to know what she intended to do when she got there, but Cade saved her the problem. As she drove through the dust she could see him sprawled along the front step where the child had sat the day before. His long legs appeared to take up half the narrow side street as he leaned with elbows back in the doorway. As she watched, he lifted his arm to drink from a flask in his hand.

He was drunk. Fury flared even higher as Lily stopped near a conveniently placed public pump. Filling the pail with a few hard strokes, she stalked to where the man half-sat, half-lay, blissfully ignoring her. With a single swing of the pail, Lily drenched him from head to toe.

Before Cade had time to do more than splutter and shake his head from the force of the deluge, Lily stepped back and launched into the tirade that had been building all morning.

"You're going to cost me my ranch! Do you have any idea how long and hard I've worked and slaved on that blasted piece of dirt, and you'll throw it all to the winds feeling sorry for yourself? Hell, my husband's gone and I don't even know where he is, but I'm not sitting around moping about it. I'm keeping that ranch if I have to drown you to do it."

He was beginning to rise like some great monolithic beast, stirring massive legs and flexing arms that resembled small tree trunks. If she hadn't been so blamed mad, Lily would have felt fear. Instead, she caught sight of a small golden head peeping out the doorway, and with more courage than sense, she darted forward, grabbed the child, and headed back for the wagon.

That brought the monster to his feet with a roar.

The child laughed and clapped her hands as Lily set her on the wagon seat and her father stormed down the road with murder in his eyes.

Lily picked up her rifle and calmly aimed it at him. "I'm taking her out to the ranch. When you're sober enough to ride out, you can come claim her."

Cade stalked right past her to the oxen's heads. With a swift jerk of his bare hands, he dismantled the yoke, rendering the reins useless. Giving Lily a look of pure rage, he stalked past her again, this time in the direction of the house.

For the first time, Lily acknowledged the trickle of fear running down her spine. She had dealt with the ignorant and the stupid, she had learned how to handle violence, she knew how to demand respect from the best and worst of men, but she had never come in contact with a man quite like this before. He didn't respond in the same manner as other men. She had fully expected this one to follow sheepishly after her when he'd had enough of the drink. For all she knew, he could very well be locating his own weapon right this minute, and she was helpless to do anything but run.

She wasn't running. Lifting her rifle protectively, Lily stepped away from the wagon and the child. She wasn't letting an innocent get caught in the crossfire, if it came to that. But she sure as hell didn't mean to walk back to the ranch. He broke the yoke. He'd darned well better fix it.

She lowered the rifle again in surprise when Cade staggered out of the house carrying a doll's cradle under one arm and a child's feather mattress under another. The child squealed with delight as he dumped the load into the back of the wagon. Without giving Lily a glance, he stalked back to the house.

When he returned bearing a dresser spilling small cotton garments and glimpses of lace, Lily hurriedly began arranging the articles in the wagon bed and fastening them down so they wouldn't slide too much. The doll's cradle looked handcarved and beautifully done. The doll inside had once had a lovely china face, and her long linen nightdress was now well worn with time.

She dodged out of the way as Cade returned and flung in a bedroll and the rails for a child's bed. Without a word, he made one final trip to the house, this time carrying out a splendidly tooled Spanish saddle, a bundle that undoubtedly represented his own meager wardrobe, and saddlebags that appeared too heavy for any normal man to carry.

After dropping the last of his worldly possessions into the wagon, Cade walked past Lily and toward the stable. Unable to do anything else, Lily started to climb into the wagon seat when she noticed a small gray kitten peering around the corner of the house. Deciding that as long as she was adopting the man's family she might as well adopt his cat too, Lily went to collect the stray.

The kitten had other ideas. Scratching and spitting, it leapt from Lily's grasp and darted to the safety of the wagon wheels. Lily was on her hands and knees under the wagon bed trying to remove the animal when Cade returned, leading his horse.

If he had anything to say about his employer's unladylike position, he had the sense to leave it unsaid as he hitched his horse to the back of the wagon and leaned over to scoop up the snarling kitten in one mighty fist. While Lily hastily backed away from his too-close proximity and stood up to dust herself off, Cade dumped the kitten in the child's lap and went around to the front of the wagon to mend the yoke with wire he had brought with him.

Lily climbed to the seat and waited uneasily for Cade to finish. With his horse tied to the back of the wagon, it was quite apparent that he didn't mean to ride. The idea of having the man beside her on this narrow seat didn't sit at all well. If he was drunk, he gave little sign of it as he worked steadily at repairing the damage. She didn't know how she would react when he claimed the remaining portion of the bench. She fully meant to keep the reins to herself, but what chance had she against his obvious strength if he decided otherwise?

Before Lily could thoroughly panic, Cade finished his mending, walked around to the back of the wagon, and throwing himself in, collapsed against the bedroll. He passed out cold before Lily could urge the oxen out of town.

* * *

"Esta un monstruo, senora,"
Juanita whispered fearfully, peeking out the window curtains at the man unloading his possessions into the small cabin in the side yard.

"A monster?" Lily glanced out to see the child dancing happily between the wagon and the cabin. "I don't think so. A giant, maybe, but I think he's gentle." She tried to say the words convincingly to calm Juanita's fears, but the memory of the rage in Cade's eyes and the ease with which he had dismantled the wagon was troubling. If she remembered the fairy tales correctly, sleeping giants should be left undisturbed.

Not wishing to think about that, Lily checked the baking bread. The men would be in for dinner shortly, and she would have to introduce Cade to them, but she had not yet had any kind of talk with him. He had not even formally agreed to take the job. This was no way to manage a business. Somehow she had to regain control of this situation.

Juanita gave her an odd look and went back to her cooking. Petite and slender, her black hair drawn stiffly into a bun that didn't disguise her fragile beauty, she was everything that Lily was not, but they had worked so long together that Lily no longer felt any awkwardness over their differences. Lily's life had been an easy one compared to Juanita's. She could never resent the other woman's more feminine beauty, knowing the high price it had cost her. It was doubtful that Juanita would ever overcome her fears to enjoy the gift of beauty she had been given.

"Men!" Lily thought with disgust. She wouldn't go so far as to say they were all alike, for she knew her husband had been different, but she had seen enough variation on the same theme to doubt that there were many differences. With that thought in mind, she shrugged, set aside her potholder, and went out to confront the beast.

Lily walked out to discover that her son had confronted the new foreman first. His bronzed face completely devoid of expression beneath an irregular fringe of black hair, Cade stood with arms crossed over his massive chest, waiting for Roy to finish what seemed to be a long and involved tale. As she approached, the half-breed looked up and his features formed into a formidable scowl. She returned a scowl for a scowl, and by the time she had reached the pair, her arms were crossed just as intractably across her chest.

"A man needs to know how to ride," he said, with thorough disapproval in his tone.

"I agree." Lily watched disbelief appear in his eyes before she continued, "And girls need a mother to guide them."

A flicker of understanding crossed Cade's face. So, he was not unintelligent. Lily waited.

"You have women here who will look after Serena?"

"Juanita and I will look after Serena. In return, when there is time, you will teach Roy to ride."

He frowned, looked down at the rebellious boy with hands on hips, and nodded agreement. "We begin today. I will get Serena."

He found it blamed awful easy to dump his kid in her hands, Lily decided, but he undoubtedly thought she had nothing better to do but sit around the house like other women. It was time she made it understood who was boss.

"The men will be in for dinner shortly. I will introduce you, but you needn't give them any orders until tomorrow, when we've had time to discuss what needs to be done."

Cade turned around to face her again. The fine hair she had woven into thick braids and wrapped around her head escaped in frail tendrils to blow in her face. Tanned by the sun, her features were even and sprinkled with freckles. A generous mouth pulled in an authoritative frown ruined the rather feminine appeal of her gently molded chin.

He replied firmly, "I will introduce myself. You may take Serena to the house."

He walked away before she could argue. Lily opened her mouth, snapped it closed again, and stared after his departing back with a shiver of rage. Never, in all her born days,
never
had she been talked to like that. Mr. Cade Half-breed would have to learn some manners if they were to deal well with each other. But she had already drowned him with a pail of water and shouted at him like a fishwife this day. She wasn't up to another tantrum. Finding the child toddling toward the flower garden, kitten in tow, Lily went after her.

"Come on, Roy, if I'm to take care of this hooligan so you can ride, you'll have to learn to help. Grab the cat and I'll get the brat."

It was with satisfaction later that day that Lily brushed the soft, golden, and newly cleaned curls of Cade's child into a halo. She had dressed the toddler in one of the garments she had boldly retrieved from the dresser Cade had carried into his cabin. The blue muslin and white lace appealed to her nearly buried feminine instincts. Serena was an utter delight, and Lily's heart ached as she remembered the child she had never had with Jim. There had been times when she had hoped... but they had never come to anything.

It wasn't as if they'd had a particularly passionate relationship. Not at all like... Lily shook her head and set the child down. That was the past and well left behind. She had been no more than a child when Roy was conceived. She knew a great deal more now. Passion was not a force she could rely on. Jim had been just the steadying influence she had needed.

Juanita answered the knock at the front door. It couldn't be said that they lived in a grand house requiring servants for that job, but both Lily and the maid had come from similar situations and had fallen easily into familiar patterns. The first one-room log cabin Jim had built had been added on to over the last few years, until they now had a dogtrot and four rooms up and down as well as the detached kitchen, but it was scarcely a mansion by anyone's account. Lily dusted a spot on her particular pride and joy, the massive walnut dining table, and waited for their guest to be introduced.

"Mrs. Brown, I hurried over as soon as I heard..." Ollie Clark ducked through the low front door and removed his hat as he noticed Lily sitting in the old rocker she had brought with her from Mississippi. His gaze stopped at the child at her feet.

"Come in, Mr. Clark, have a seat. You've had word of Jim?" Lily’s breath caught in her lungs as she waited for the words she didn't want to hear.

Ollie took the overlarge wing chair that had once decorated a bedroom parlor and wrung his hat between his hands. "No, ma'am, I didn't mean to get your hopes up none. I was talkin' 'bout Cade. The boys were just funnin' about him the other day. He's a drunken half-breed, Mrs. Brown. You don't want the likes of him about the place. Let me explain things to him and send him on his way. It ain't right for a respectable lady like yourself to have to deal with a man like that."