Read Texas Lily Online

Authors: Patricia Rice

Texas Lily (7 page)

Then remembering her manners, Lily introduced him. "Daddy, this is Cade, my foreman. Cade, my father, Ephraim Porter." She stepped aside so the men might shake hands, but neither made an effort to do so. Frowning, she watched Cade nod his head stiffly, then turn to her.

"You have company. I'll see to Serena." He didn't even bother to take proper leave of her guests before stalking out, carrying the child with him.

"Who in hell is that and where are your servants, Lily? What kind of place is this that Jim has brought you to? You ought to have some chaperone, someone to deal with the likes of that..."

"I've been tellin' Lily that for some time now, sir. Maybe you can make her see sense. Cade's a drunken Indian and a cold-blooded killer. She shouldn't have no truck with the likes of that. It's Jim's fault for not allowin' slaves and hirin' an overseer like everyone else does."

Lily put her hands on her hips and glared at Ollie. "As law-abiding Mexican citizens, we're not supposed to have slaves. That's half the problem we're having with the Mexican government right now: people like you think you can make your own laws. And I happen to agree with Jim. Slaves are a poor form of labor."

"So is a murdering Indian—"

Ollie's tirade was halted by Ephraim's interruption. "Let's not argue. I've had words with Jim over this before, and there's no sense trying to change his mind. It's disrespectful to talk of him when he can't defend himself."

Relieved, Lily turned her back on Ollie to study her father's tired face. "You've had a long journey. Let me make up a room for you so you can wash and rest. Juanita can keep our dinner warm until you're ready to eat." Selfishly, she made it clear that Mr. Clark wasn't being invited. He might be the best-looking man in town and always solicitous of her well-being, but he was an opinionated ass.

After preparing the loft over the main cabin for her father and sending Ollie away, Lily went in search of Cade. His rudeness was as inexcusable as her father's. She had no intention of living between two warring factions if her father had come to stay, which she very much expected he had.

She found Cade sitting on the front step of the cabin he had taken as his own, feeding Serena pieces of pecans from his hand. At Lily's approach, he put the remainder of the pecans in the child's lap and stood, brushing his hands off against his denims.

"If you won't be needing me, I'd like time to find another place for Serena. I'll pay rent."

Lily stared at the overgrown idiot with astonishment. God had simply given him too much of everything except brains. She was too aware that her eyes only came level with the spectacular breadth of Cade's shoulders. If she allowed herself to look, she could see the smooth copper of his skin beneath the open V of his shirt, but she forced herself to meet those obsidian eyes instead.

"My father has already run one plantation into the ground. I don't intend to give him a chance to destroy another. You're the foreman, I'm the boss, and he's only a guest. I just ask that you be polite to him. I dislike argument."

At last she had drawn a reaction from him: Cade's eyebrows rose a hair. Lily enjoyed the satisfaction at finally getting through to him.

"He'll not like it," Cade warned.

"He didn't like Jim, either, but that didn't stop me." With that retort, Lily spun around and returned to the house.

There were a lot worse things in life than what her father didn't like. It had been a hard lesson to learn, but she had learned it well.

 

 

 

Chapter 5

 

"I want you to come home with me, Lily. I think I've seen and heard enough these last days to convince me this isn't any place for a woman alone. The work isn't suitable for a lady, there's still Indians close enough to be dangerous, and from all I hear, there's war in the air. They're saying the Mexicans are holding American prisoners and planning to shoot them. There's going to be repercussions, just you wait and see."

"Daddy, I'm not leaving. This is Roy's inheritance. This will all belong to him one day. I have to hang on to it any way I can. And you talk as if Jim isn't ever coming back. He could turn up tomorrow. What would he think if I had already hightailed it back home?"

"He'd think you were a sensible woman." Ephraim set his coffee mug down on the table and glared.

"I'm not going, Daddy, and that's final. I don't belong back there anymore. I never did. This is my home and I'm staying." Lily stood up and carried her plate to the sink. Jim had installed the pump in here several years ago, before he built the kitchen, and she was proud to have it. It wasn't the same as having slaves to haul and carry for her, but she preferred it just the same. She liked having something of her own, and this house was hers.

"Not by yourself, you can't. Hell, honey, you're the only woman within twenty miles, far as I can see. These men aren't made of stone. You've gotta have someone here to protect you. It's been over two months since Jim disappeared. You have to start facing facts. If you're too stubborn to leave, you'll need to start looking for a decent man. That Ollie Clark seems like a fine, upstanding young fellow. He owns that store back in town, don't he?"

Lily sighed and ran her fingers over her temple, where a throb was building. She loved her father, but he was beginning to get on her nerves. The fact that Ollie owned a store had impressed him. In her father's eyes, that would make any man fine and upstanding. Maybe he was right, but she had no intention of putting herself in a man's power again. Jim had been a good man, but he had never wanted to hear her opinions. Now she had the opportunity to do things her way, and she fully intended to take advantage of it. The labor-intensive cotton would be the first to go.

She looked up as Roy burst into the house, his narrow face lit with inner excitement as he began to extol upon his latest accomplishment. Letting Roy learn to ride was one of those things that Jim would never have allowed.

"Mama, Cade says I'm almost ready to ride to town. Can I, Mama? Please?"

Sighing, Lily tousled Roy's hair. Roy was only eight. Surely that was too young for such a ride. She would have to talk to Cade. That would be easier than listening to her father's arguments.

She stepped outside before Cade could cross the yard to pick up Serena. Roy piled out of the house after her, sensing the confrontation to come.

"Cade!" Lily knew she spoke too sharply, but it had been a long day. She combed her fingers through Roy's unruly curls as she waited for her foreman to turn and find her.

When he did, his gaze went not to Lily but to her affectionate hold on the boy. It was twilight, and the shadows almost concealed Cade's features, but Lily could almost swear she saw a look of longing in the man's eyes before he raised them to her.

"Roy says he's almost ready to ride to town. That's a long distance. Don't you think it's a tad soon?"

His voice, when it came, was thoughtful and not its usual curt tone. "He learns quick. He ought to be rewarded. It can wait until several of us are ready to go."

Cade was right, of course. Lily had been prepared for a confrontation, but it had only been her own frustration speaking. She couldn't erase that glimpse of longing, of loneliness she thought she had seen in Cade's face. Perhaps he had some human traits, after all. After a few short words, she released him and took Roy back into the house.

Lily pacified her father by turning the subject to her sisters and how well they were doing, while making certain that Roy scrubbed himself down good before going off to bed. The pressures of all the things that had not been done this day was giving her a throbbing headache. She finally retired to the room she and Jim had shared.

The possibility that her father was using her absence to search for Jim's store of liquor no longer worried her. He was a quiet drunk, and there was no one out here for him to embarrass but her, and she was beyond embarrassment.

Not bothering to light a candle, Lily closed the door between her bedroom and the dogtrot and leaned against it with relief. It was times like these when she missed Jim's company. He had been a buffer between her and the rest of the world, a source of support when she needed it, a calm companion who could make the day's catastrophes look like molehills. These months of independence were teaching her how tediously lonely life could be.

Lily drifted to the window and stared out at the tidy assortment of buildings she and Jim had painstakingly created. There were no slipshod lean-tos and ramshackle barns here. All the structures, from the lowly kitchen to the house itself, were as solid and dependable as Jim. There were no fanciful shutters or useless adornments, nothing remotely stylish beyond the practical lines of timber and clay, but she didn't need fanciful. She needed the security of four walls and a roof over her head, and Jim had provided them.

Just as he had provided her with a name and a father for her child. Lily turned away from the window and stared at the low-slung rope bed she had shared with her husband of nearly nine years. Her childish dreams of love and romance had been permanently killed before she had even met Jim. Except for children, he had given her just precisely what she wanted. Why did it feel as if he had never existed now that he was gone?

And she was quite certain that he was gone. Practical Jim wouldn't even have a ghost to come back and haunt her. If he were alive, he would have found some way to send her word. Lily knew that as well as she knew her own name. Jim was gone and he wasn't coming back.

Staring at the empty bed, Lily felt the loneliness curl around her like the notes of the flute in the dry air outside.

Flute?

Grateful for this distraction, Lily stared out the open window. Music was a rare commodity in these parts. Her heart hungered for it, grieved for its absence, and longed for it more than she had ever desired or wanted love. Love was an ephemeral thing, but music was real, so real she could almost taste the notes floating over the still night air.

Knowing sleep would elude her anyway, Lily sought the source of the unusual sound. Not wanting to disturb the rest of the household, she slipped through the window to the ground. Men's trousers had many advantages—getting in and out of tight spots was one of them.

Following the notes of the flute through the quiet night wasn't difficult. She could hear the restless shuffles and low nickers of the horses in the paddock. The music came from the opposite direction, from the low knoll ahead. Loblollies and oaks shaded the grass there. She and Roy used to picnic beneath the trees, before Roy decided he was too big for "baby stuff." She would have to take Serena up there one of these days.

She didn't want to think about Serena either. Cade could take the child away any day, and there wouldn't be a thing Lily could do about it. She was trying to be practical, giving the care of the child to Juanita for much of the day, but Serena was so much like the child Lily had always wanted that it was impossible to ignore her entirely. That was one more piece of the day she didn't have to think about tonight.

Her goal was to find the music. A breeze lifted the loosened strands of her hair as she floated across the yard and toward the hill. The moon was just appearing on the other side of the barn, a silvery spectacle against the black of the sky. It wasn't full yet, but she could feel its pull. Lily shivered and listened to the night creatures harmonize with the notes of the flute as she progressed up the hill.

By the time she reached the top, Lily knew what she would find, but she didn't hesitate. The magic of the music was a rarity for which she would defy the laws of mankind. Already the throbbing in her head had lessened, and her body felt loose, at one with the world. This was the way it had once been and never would be again.

Tears formed at that thought. She didn't allow them to fall. Without a word, she sat down near the man who skillfully poured his talents into the crude reed instrument.

Cade had seen her coming. The overlarge white shirt she wore caught in the silver rays of the moon and gleamed like a ghostly image. He had thought the household asleep. He hadn't meant for any to hear but himself and the stars, but she didn't disturb the oneness between them. The music accepted her into its tightly drawn circle, and he continued to play until the song wended its way to the end.

Then he put the flute aside and turned his gaze to her.

It was impossible to conceive that this incredibly large man could produce such delicate music, but Lily knew better than to speak of miracles. She held out her hand in a pacifying gesture for her intrusion. "I miss music more than anything or anyone else I left behind," she whispered.

Other books

Silent Revenge by Laura Landon
The Pilgrim by Hugh Nissenson
Fright Night by John Skipp
The Evensong by Lindsay Payton
Falling for Finn by Jackie Ashenden
Night by Elie Wiesel
Suburgatory by Linda Keenan
Holy Water by James P. Othmer


readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024