She looked up to see that she recognized them and groaned inwardly. It was Anna and Rachel. They were the two richest girls in town and as such, they thought they owned the place.
They had caused endless trouble for Lily throughout her time in school, and continued to do so at every chance they got. Normally, Lily didn’t care what they had to say or what rumor they had to spread, but right now, she was not in the mood for their teasing.
“Well, if it isn’t the Carsons’ maid,” Rachel said with a tittering laugh that made Lily cringe.
“I am not anyone’s maid,” Lily ground out.
“Well, how are we supposed to know? It’s not like you look like your family. You look like one of the negroes that are hired as maids.” Anna’s voice was smooth as silk and reminded Lily of honey, slippery and sticky.
“I bet they adopted you so they could have you run errands for them,” Rachel put in, giving Lily a malicious grin.
“Or maybe you just have a different father than your brothers,” Anna suggested in a cruel tone. “Have you ever asked your mother? Maybe she just didn’t tell anyone what happened in some alley.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my mother like that!” Lily felt suddenly shaky. She could take plenty of insults about herself, but she hated to hear her family included.
“What are you going to do about it? You know, there are lots of negroes here now, ranching and homesteading and such.”
Lily tried to think of a clever comeback, but words escaped her. There was nothing to say about the girls, really. They were beautiful and they had people on their side.
Everyone in town adored the sisters, and most praised them, saying that was what men should look for in a wife. Despite their seemingly high qualifications, however, they hadn’t managed to find husbands. That was one fact that Lily kept close to her heart. She must not be the only one who disliked Rachel and Anna.
“What’s going on here?” A deep voice made all three of them turn to the side. Lily’s heart skipped a beat as she recognized George.
She hadn’t thought it possible that she’d run into him here in town. Her excitement turned to embarrassment as she remembered the predicament she was in. She didn’t want George to hear the bad things that the girls said about her, even though she was sure he’d probably heard them before.
There was just something worse about knowing he’d heard those things said about her—and being there when it happened.
“We were just saying hello to Lily, here,” Rachel explained in a sticky-sweet voice.
Lily was surprised. Why was Rachel acting so friendly all of a sudden?
“Tell me, George, do you think Lily is pretty?” Anna asked, twirling one of her blonde curls between her fingers.
George didn’t say anything for a moment, and Lily’s heart sank. Was he going to side with them?
To her utter surprise, he stepped over beside her. “I think she is one of the prettiest girls in this town. Wouldn’t you two agree?”
Rachel and Anna exchanged glances and Lily’s chest swelled with pride. She knew that most of the girls in town would love the chance for George to say something like that about them, and here, he had said it about her.
“If you say so,” Anna finally said. Rachel looked at her sister, fuming. Lily watched with a bit of contentment as the two turned and walked off without another word.
Lily turned to George, who was watching her with concerned eyes. “Are you all right? What were they saying to you before I walked up?”
“Nothing, I’m fine. Thank you for what you did.”
George shook his head. “I was telling the truth.”
Lily’s stomach did a flip and it felt like a whole flock of butterflies were playing tag inside of her. “I-I should go,” she said nervously.
George nodded. “It was nice seeing you. And, Lily?”
Lily turned back for a moment and her gaze met George’s eyes. “What?”
“Don’t ever let people tell you that you are less than you are. They’re just jealous. You are beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Lily paused one more second before hurrying toward the road out of town. She couldn’t take the huge grin off of her face. George had turned a terrible day into a moment she would remember forever. She knew that she had found something special in him.
As she walked home, doubts played in her mind. Of course, whatever Anna and Rachel said about her was a lie, but why did she feel so confused about it? Most of her life, she had heard comments about being adopted.
People would ask her mother if she was adopted or why she looked so different from her parents and her siblings.
Her mother would say that’s just what God decided to send, but now that Lily thought about it, a little doubt began to form in the back of her brain—just enough to make her unsure about who she really was.
Chapter 18
“Here, this is the last one.” Eddy handed Emilia a bucket of water, and she took it with a grin.
“Thank you, Eddy. That’s a big help.” Emilia had gotten the boys to help her haul water to wash the laundry.
She seemed to already be feeling better from whatever had made her ill a few days before. Lily was ecstatic because, apparently, they were invited to a birthday party for one of Lily’s friends.
Emilia dunked the last of the shirts into the fresh water and rinsed them out. When she was done, she carried the basket to the line and began to hang the clothing out to dry.
She watched out of the corner of her eye as Eddy and Eli made a game of chasing Red around. She loved that dog. In the short time, she had spent here with her cousins, she had realized that Red was more than just a dog. He was part of the family.
When she was done with the wash, she stood back and surveyed it proudly. She tucked the empty basket under her arm and headed back to the house. Her aunt was busy in the kitchen, chopping and stirring things, preparing their next meal.
“I finished all the washing,” Emilia told her.
“Thank you, dear. Are you sure you feel well enough to be doing those sorts of things?” Her aunt's concern was sweet, but Emilia couldn’t pass her time at the ranch just sitting around waiting for morning and night. She had to feel useful.
“Of course. I’m fine. I quite enjoyed it, actually, and the twins helped me carry the water.”
“So, are we ready to go? Can we leave now, Ma?” Lily burst into the kitchen. Her cheeks were glowing pink and her hair was pulled up into a fancy braided bun.
“You want to leave right now?” Emilia was surprised.
“Of course. It’s going to start soon. Sara has lovely birthday parties. She’s had one every year.”
Emilia forced a smile. She wasn’t particularly excited about the party. She’d never had great experiences with parties. In fact, the majority of the times that she had gone to parties, something bad had happened and she had ended up going home alone and early.
“Are you sure Sara invited me, as well?”
“Of course, she did! She specifically said to bring my cousin and you are the only cousin I am aware of out here.” Lily gave a mischievous grin and Emilia had to laugh.
“All right, all right. We can go whenever you are ready. I just… I don’ have a lot of experience with these sorts of things. I never was much of a party girl.”
“No worries. I’ll make sure that you have a spectacular time.”
Emilia took a step closer to Lily and lowered her voice. “Is George going to be there?”
“Maybe…” Lily gave her a sideways look that was full of excitement and Emilia knew what this was about. Maybe Sara put on the best parties a person could ever attend, but that certainly wasn’t the reason that Lily wanted to go. She wanted to be around George.
And if George was going to be around, that probably meant that Derek was going to be around.
Emilia was tempted to tell her cousin that she could no longer go, but Lily would think that it was because of her disapproval of George and then mayb
e Carolyn wouldn’t let anyone go. She was committed now. She would just have to follow through.
“How are we going to get there?” Emilia eyed the barn cautiously. She had only ridden the horse twice since she had sprained her ankle. While she hadn’t sustained any injury the second or third time, it still wasn’t her favorite activity.
“We’re gonna have to ride. The boys need the wagon here and it would take forever to walk all the way there.”
“I don’t know…”
“You’re getting great at riding, and you can’t exactly continue to improve without practice. I’ll make sure nothing bad happens.” Lily sounded confident.
Emilia decided to trust her. Maybe she was right about the riding thing. By the time they got out to the barn, the boys had already saddled the horses.
Emilia tried to calm her beating heart. According to her cousins, the horses could tell when you were nervous.
“I’m not nervous,” she whispered to herself.
“Bye, Eddy and Eli. We’ll be back later,” Lily called over her shoulder as they rode away from the ranch. Emilia wanted to say goodbye, but she couldn’t bring herself to take her eyes off of the road and her hands from the reins.
She felt as if making the slightest wrong move would make the horse bolt, and then she wouldn’t be able to control it.
“See? It isn’t that bad.” Lily gave her an excited smile.
Emilia was pretty sure the look on her own face was nowhere near excited. It was all she could do not to panic about riding to town like this.
The thought that the horse could bolt was plaguing her mind. There would be no one to stop it and who knew how hurt she could be this time. The rest of the trip, Emilia kept herself focused on the horse.
Thankfully, nothing eventful happened. In fact, it almost seemed as if she just looked up and the house was there in front of her.
She could see the town below them. The ranch they were on offered a lovely view.
“We can tie the horses over there.” Lily pointed to a hitching post off to one side of the barn. There were several wagons outside with teams of horses and a few horses tied in different spots.
Everyone had kept some distance between the animals, as if to avoid issues of fighting. Emilia certainly didn’t want that to happen.
Once they’d gotten the horses situated, they stopped before they went up to the house. “Do I look okay?” Lily asked, touching her hair and then her dress.
“Of course, you look lovely,” Emilia assured her.
Emilia didn’t want to be too encouraging in Lily’s pursuit of George, or she would have said that George wouldn’t be able to resist.
The house was one of the biggest that Emilia had seen since she had come to Texas. It looked more like a town house. It had two levels and it was made well. Anyone could tell that a lot of work and money had gone into it.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I’m going to have a house like that one day,” Lily whispered so that only Emilia could hear.
Emilia wanted to ask Lily if she thought George could give her such a grand thing, but she kept her mouth shut. She had made a decision that she was going to stay out of her cousin’s decisions, even if it meant that Lily went off and married George. In the end, Emilia knew that she couldn’t control Lily and it seemed silly to possibly make an enemy of her trying to do what she couldn’t.
If Lily decided to marry George, she was going to have to be okay with that.
“Emilia!” A voice called out from off to the side. Both Emilia and Lily turned to try and find its owner.
“Janie!” Emilia called out as soon as she recognized the young woman.
“You know her?” Lily asked softly.
Emilia nodded. “Yes! She was on the train with me.”
Lily seemed bothered but said nothing.
Janie rushed up to them. “Imagine this, running into you here. Where have you been? How have you enjoyed your time here?”
“It’s been nice. This is my cousin Lily.”
Janie gave Lily a quick smile and hurriedly turned her attention back to Emilia. “I’m not staying for the party. I have a previous engagement. But I will be in church on Sunday. The reverend will be there this week. Maybe I will see you there?”
“I think we’ll be there, too.” Emilia wasn’t sure about what their Sunday plans were. She had managed to miss going to church the one time the entire family had gone because she hadn’t been feeling well that morning. She was hoping she could go the coming Sunday.
“I can’t wait!” Janie leaned in and gave her a quick hug. Emilia returned it half-heartedly. She had no idea what was happening. Janie seemed so friendly—a little too friendly, maybe.
“It was nice seeing you again,” Emilia called after her as she hurried away to a horse tied nearby and mounted without any trouble.
“Do you know her?” she asked Lily after Janie was out of sight.
“Not exactly. I’ve seen her around town and only spoken with her a few times. She shows up for church sometimes. I was surprised to see the two of you were so friendly.”
“We weren’t that friendly… I met her on the train. Anyway, let’s go inside. We don’t want to miss everything.” Emilia didn’t want to make Lily feel displaced, but it was clear on her face that Lily had felt awkward about the exchange Emilia and Janie had shared.
“Okay.” Lily grabbed Emilia’s arm and led her into the house, which was full of people.
When they got into the kitchen, Emilia was certain she had never seen one so large. There wasn’t a table to eat at, though, that was in its own separate room. It looked as if twenty people or more could sit at it comfortably. Emilia wondered what it would be like to live with such wealth.
She imagined if she had that kind of money, she would be able to give her mother and sister a nice life with luxuries they had only imagined before.
“Lily! I’m so glad you came, and you brought Emilia.” A short girl with dark brown hair ran up to them.
She had freckles spattered across her nose and cheeks and looked as if she was one of those girls who never ran out of things to say. Emilia could imagine that her sister would have had wonderful fun at an event like this.
Emilia, on the other hand, hated it. She hated the feeling of being surrounded by people. She hated the feeling of not knowing anyone but feeling like everyone knew who she was or had at least made up their own version of who they thought she was.
“It’s so nice to meet you. Lily has told me all about you,” Sara gushed, holding out her hand.
Emilia realized that she had been ignoring both Lily and Sara while letting her mind wander.
“It’s nice to meet you, too. Thank you for having me,” she said awkwardly. Emilia’s feet shuffled and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
“Lily, I want to show you the flowers that someone brought. They’re absolutely divine.”
Lily glanced at Emilia as if she wanted her to come along, but Emilia hadn’t heard her name specifically. She knew that she was probably being silly, but she had no desire to be pushy.
She motioned to Lily that she was going to the other side of the house and Sara dragged Lily off so quickly that neither of them had a chance to do or say anything further about it.
An Enduring Love to Heal Her: A Historical Western Romance Book Page 14