Texas Twilight (26 page)

“If Brandon is doing something for you then
it must have something to do with the law. What else could it be,”
she went on stubbornly, not ready yet to give up.

When the door opened, this time it was
Emmeline waiting for him. “Char, I need you to keep this to
yourself, okay?”

“Okay. But you better tell me if you’re in
any danger. I knew I had a strange feeling about you.”

Both hurried to the house where Emmeline
waited. Her dark eyes assessed him questioningly. He took her hands
in his and she went up on tiptoe so he could kiss her. “I didn’t
know you were coming out today,” she said, a bit breathless.

“Sorry it’s taken me a few days.”

“That’s okay. I’ve been very busy. There’s
hardly time to think.”

“That’s true,” Charity agreed. “Yesterday
Chaim and Uncle Winston took us for a tour of the ranch that lasted
all day.”

John stepped through the door and removed his
hat, hanging it on a peg. “You rode?” he asked with surprise,
looking at his fiancée.

“No,” Emmeline laughed, moving farther into
the room. “Chaim drove me in the buggy and Charity and your uncle
rode beside.”

“Well, good. I did notice the pretty pink in
your cheeks.”

Emmeline clapped her hands together,
resembling a little girl. “It’s lovelier than I’d have ever thought
West Texas could be. I really love it here. We took along a big
basket of food and had a picnic.”

John had been hoping that maybe the
topography, with its heat and cacti, not to mention rattlesnakes
and scorpions, would not be to her liking, and might make this
transition a little easier if she wanted to go back to Boston
herself.

“John!” Chaim said as he came into the room.
He wore a blue and white cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up
over his powerful forearms; his pants were tucked into his tall,
hand-tooled boots. He stood next to Charity and shook John’s hand.
His boyish smile split his face as he squeezed John’s hand in a
grip like a bear’s. “You just get here?”

“I did. Emmeline and Charity are just telling
me about the outing you all had yesterday. Sounds like I missed a
heck of a day.”

Oddly, color came up in Chaim’s face. “We did
have a good time,” he answered. “It would have been better, though,
if you had come along, too. You’ve yet to see it all.”

“That’s true. I hope to remedy that soon.
Where is everyone? Seems deserted around here.”

John followed Chaim and Emmeline into the
parlor and seated himself on the sofa, getting comfortable. Charity
stood in the doorway, looking a little downcast.

“Not really,” Emmeline said, taking the seat
next to him. Her gaze followed Chaim across the room until he sat
in a leather chair by the window. “Becky and Madeline are upstairs
doing something and I think your uncle is out working with
Dustin.”

“Nope,” John said, relaxing next to Emmeline.
“Saw Dustin in town this morning in Lily’s shop.”

Becky came in the room all smiles and took a
seat on the green velvet settee. “Yes, that’s right. I think he’s
going to ask Lily to go to the Fourth of July celebration with him.
He was asking me all sorts of silly questions about women. Can you
imagine? Dustin?” Everyone laughed except John. When he looked
over, Charity was watching him closely.

“I’m not surprised,” Chaim said. “I saw that
coming.”

So he wasn’t imagining it. Dustin had
feelings for Lily. Could he blame him? He was astounded that there
weren’t more men beating a path to her door.

“I’ve been hearing all sorts of wonderful
stories about the celebration coming up,” Emmeline said softly.
“There’s a bronco riding contest, pie eating contest, and shooting
contest. I’d like to know what the women are supposed to do. Just
watch?”

“I’m not watching. I’ll compete in the
shooting,” Charity said boldly, her chin tipping up. “I might try
the horses, too.”

“I can understand the shooting,” John said,
“As a matter of fact, if they’re taking wagers I’ll put my money on
you. Just stay off the horses. I don’t want to be patching up any
broken bones—or your head, either.”

“We get to make a box dinner, Emmeline, and
the men have to bid on them and then eat it with you,” Becky added,
her face lighting up. “It’s so much fun. I’m going to fry chicken
and bake a cherry pie.”

Chaim shook his head in disbelief. “Aren’t
you a little young yet?”

“I participated last year, don’t you
remember?”

“Oh, yeah, now I do. You had to share with
Poke and Bill, our ranch hands.”

“That’s because Pa wouldn’t let any other
boys bid. This year will be different. A

secret glimmered in Becky’s eyes.

Chaim laughed. “Lord, protect him—whoever he
is.”

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” She
straightened her skirt.

John said, “I had no idea it was such a big
deal.”

“Well, it’s coming up fast,” Becky said. “I
have my dress already and everything else I need.”

Emmeline
looked to John expectantly, as if waiting for him to say that they
were going.
Hell
. He wished
there wasn’t such a big social event coming up. She would be
crushed if they didn’t go, but he knew he couldn’t drag this on a
day longer. It was one of those impossible situations.

“Should I be thinking about my dress,
John?”

John felt his face go hot. What the devil
should he say? “Certainly, Emmeline. I’m sure the whole town is
going.” She was searching his face again with her big brown eyes.
“Chaim, is it possible that I borrow your buggy and take Emmeline
out today. Would you mind? We’ve hardly had a moment to
ourselves.”

Chaim stood and strode over to the door. “Of
course. I’ll tell Poke to get it ready now.”

L
ily folded up
the collar of Madeline’s dress and set it on the worktable next to
her chair. The work was intricate and took her full attention. Her
eyes ached and the tips of her fingers were numb. She needed a
break, just for a few minutes, and then she’d resume in earnest.
Dustin still relaxed against her cutting table where he’d been for
the past hour, reading the day-old paper, and Tante sat in the
kitchen area, her chair in the spot of sun coming through the
window.

“All done with the lace?” he asked when she
stood. He folded the paper in two and set it aside.

“Not yet. But I will be later today. Then I
will fit the pieces together with the rest of the dress and stitch
them together. I hope to be completely done by the end of the
week.”

Dustin had been waiting around, as he did
often these days, as she worked. He was nice enough. Handsome, too.
She liked his reserved sense of humor when he came up with
outrageously funny comments, so unlike his serious, contemplative
nature. And the timber of his voice when he laughed reminded her
exactly of Roland and made her a bit homesick for all her siblings
so often of late. It had taken a few weeks, but she finally felt as
if she knew him quite well and understood why he was here. He had
designs on her and would soon bring up the subject of courting.

Courting.
What would she say? What
should
she say? The man she loved was an impossibility? She’d
resigned herself to that fact the day Emmeline had shown up in
town. Until then, the dream of John falling in love with her had
been a constant in her heart. Now, it was on with life. Life
without John. But, did she want to go on alone when there was a
wonderful, handsome man interested in her? Her practical self told
her to consider Dustin. Her heart would hear none of it.

Dustin followed her over to the wall where
the frame stretched with green velvet hung on the wall, still
completely blank. She reached up to take it down but Dustin beat
her to it and laid it on her cutting table.

She smiled into his face. “I need to work on
this so it will be pretty by the time the celebration is here. I
have been meaning to sew something onto it each evening yet I
cannot seem to keep my eyes open long enough.” She laughed,
reaching for her button box under the table, and the draw string
bag holding the stray crystal and sequins her aunt had collected
over the years. She spread them on the counter with the palm of her
hand and began picking out the most colorful and appealing
pieces.

“Have you always been such a hard worker?”
Dustin asked as he watched her put several brightly colored buttons
off to the side. “This is supposed to be a break and now you’re
working on this...”

“…piece of art,” she finished for him.
Selecting a pretty mother-of-pearl button, she set it in the center
of the velvet and moved it around until she was satisfied with its
position, then quickly stitched it on.

“Lily, there’s something I’d like to talk to
you about.”

At that instant, the bell above the door
sounded and Martha Brown and her daughter, Candy, came into the
store. Martha’s eyes lit up a fraction when she noticed Dustin but
quickly shifted to Lily’s face. Lily had met the petite woman once
before and liked her very much. Candy’s too-short brown calico
dress was ragged from use, but she was clean and her hair glistened
prettily.

“Good morning,” Lily greeted. “Is there
something I can help you with?” she asked, thankful for the
distraction.

“We’re just looking, thank you.”

Lily nodded. “Just let me know if there is
something I can show you.”

Martha took her daughter’s hand into her own
as the girl reached for a roll of lace. “Don’t touch,” she
whispered softly.

Lily smiled and went back to her sorting and
began laying some of the buttons and glimmer onto the velvet. She
glanced up at Dustin to see if he was going to finish what he had
been about to say. He just smiled a crooked grin and shrugged.

“Mama, can I have some lace for my doll’s
bonnet?” Candy asked. “It would make it much prettier. Can I, Ma,
pleeease?”

Lily quickly set her project aside and went
over to the lace rolls where the child and her mother were looking.
“Let me show you,” she said, taking a thick roll and handing it to
Martha.

Candy, whose eyes were opened wide in awe,
gazed at the beautiful lace in rapture.

“How much is it?” Martha asked.

“Twenty-five cents a foot.”

Martha’s expression fell but her daughter had
no idea of knowing that luxuries such as hand-tooled lace were
expensive.

“Can I, Ma?”

“No. Not today, Candy. You promised you just
wanted to look.” Martha quickly placed the bolt back where it had
come from. “We’ll come back some other time.”

The disappointment in the child’s face was
more than Lily could bear. If she didn’t have such a hefty
self-imposed debt to pay off to Dr. Bixby, she’d give the child the
lace. As it was, it was going to be hard to make that money up
before she died, even if she sold a hundred dresses. Maybe the tiny
scraps she’d snipped from the collar she was working on for
Madeline would be something the child could use.

Just then Dustin stepped forward. “Consider
this a Christmas present in June. Lily, could you please measure
out a foot of lace for the young lady. Will that be enough?”

“Mr. McCutcheon,” Martha gasped, as her
daughter’s angelic face looked back and forth at the adults.
“That’s a lot of money. We couldn’t accept such a gift.”

Lily moved into action when Dustin nudged
her. “How would I sleep remembering the yearning in Candy’s eyes?
It’s my pleasure, Martha.”

Lily quickly measured off the lace, cut it
and folded it carefully. She wrapped it up in a piece of soft brown
paper and tied it up securely with a string. After handing it to
Candy, she gave Dustin a smile that mirrored how her heart was
warmed. What an incredibly nice thing for him to do. He pulled the
coins from his pocket and placed them in Lily’s hand.

“Thank you,” Candy said, excitement beaming
from her eyes as she clutched the small package to her chest.

Martha nodded once more, then smiled nicely
at Dustin as she hurried to the door, propelling her daughter with
her hand between Candy’s shoulder blades.

When the door closed Dustin turned to Lily.
“Before I’m interrupted again I have something I want to ask you,”
he said, glancing at the kitchen where Tante Harriett sat.

Lily smiled, knowing she couldn’t put him off
forever. The glow of the moment from his good deed was still fresh
in her mind. “Yes, Dustin?”

“I’d like you to go to the Fourth of July
Celebration with me, Lily. Be my guest. I’ll buy your box dinner
and we can eat together. What do you think?”

She looked away. Now that going was a
possibility, she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Not without John. “I
have nothing to wear. And no time to sew.”

“I don’t care what you wear.” His mouth
dropped open, astonished. “Wear this.” His hand swept to her side
gesturing to the work dress she wore. “You’re beautiful in anything
you put on.”

She didn’t care what she wore, either. Silly
as it seemed, because she was a dressmaker, that was the last thing
she thought about. She had said it just to buy a little time. She
could go and have a fun time she was sure, but would that just be
leading him on? If she could not have John, she felt certain she
wanted to stay a spinster, like her aunt.

“Well, at least don’t say no this instant.
Think about it. You don’t have to give me your answer today. I’m
leaving tomorrow for Sweetwater to take some stock over to a
rancher. I’ll be gone for about a week. Think on it and give me
your answer when I return.”

What else could she do? John had Emmeline.
Loved her. Was going to marry her. She needed to forget about him.
She needed to force him from her heart. She looked up at Dustin and
nodded.