City Girl

by Arlene James

  Garrett sounded the horn, its tinny blast shattering the quiet solemnity and making Crystal jump.

  "This is it," he announced. "Home."

  Chapter Four

  "Hey, boss! Welcome back!"

  Crystal peered into the shade at the sound of the heavily Spanish-inflected voice and spotted a queer bow-legged creature in droopy cowboy hat and pointy-toed boots hurrying down the hill toward them.

  "Hey, Petie! Glad to be back," Garrett called, getting out of the car. "Give a hand here, will you?" He moved away to begin unloading Crystal's luggage from the rear of the El Camino. She let herself out and stood beside the El Camino, not knowing what to expect from this toothless, shriveled little man now glaring openmouthed at her.

  "What we got here?" he queried bluntly, looking from one to the other suspiciously. Suddenly, as if a man possessed, Petie's eyes bugged out and he stared at Garrett. "What'd you do, go and get married on us?"

  Even as Garrett roared at the little man to keep his ill-mannered mouth shut, Crystal reeled backward in shock. The word "no" formed in the back of her brain, but she never got it out. Garrett was busily and angrily setting the matter straight.

  "And where the devil are your teeth?" she heard Garrett exclaim loudly. He turned apologetically to Crystal, and immediately the color flamed to her cheeks.

  "Excuse this old coot, ma'am," he said deferentially and a bit formally. "I suppose it's my fault. I didn't take the time to call and let anyone know you were coming with me. But that's no excuse for rudeness." He shot a warning glance in Petie's direction and grimaced, hands coming irritably to belted hips.

  Crystal's eyes instinctively followed his, just in time to catch Petie in the act of fishing his dentures out of his jeans pocket and popping them into his mouth. He smiled apologetically, teeth gleaming white where there had been a black, gaping hole before.

  The whole ridiculous scene seemed suddenly funny, and she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing outright.

  "I go tell the missus," the little man muttered contritely, and took off on his misshapen little legs.

  Crystal erupted in giggles, watching the strange creature waddle back up the hill, mumbling to himself with elaborate gestures.

  "Well, I'm glad you thought it was funny!" Garrett grumbled, clasping a big hand around her arm just above the elbow and propelling her forward. "I'll send him back down for your things, but right now I think we better get you in the house and properly introduced."

  As she obediently allowed herself to be escorted beneath the alameda, she could see that the house was built in two separate wings with a high, wide, enclosed entrance area connecting them. At each end of the entrance hall stood double doors easily eight feet tall and now standing open, allowing her a view of a courtyard in the center of the huge house. The hallway itself she judged to be at least thirty feet deep and perhaps ten feet in width. The courtyard beyond was paved with reddish cobblestones and furnished with several small white wrought-iron divans with yellow vinyl cushions. It was here that Garrett finally loosened his grip on her arm after depositing her safely on one of the little divans.

  Crystal took in as much of her surroundings as she could in the few seconds allowed her before the household erupted in gales of babbling Spanish. This appeared to be only one of two courtyards, the inner one. Crystal could see over a low adobe wall at the rear to another where the blue waters of a large rectangular swimming pool glinted in the sunlight. Beneath the archways that bordered the inner courtyard on the three remaining sides, Crystal could see heavily tinted glass walls.

  The voices babbling Spanish grew louder, and a brown woman of gigantic proportions suddenly burst through an open doorway of sliding glass and descended upon Crystal as if she were a prodigal daughter returned home. With smothering hugs, Lupe made her enthusiastic welcome known, then turned to Garrett and pounded him affectionately on the back.

  "Welcome! Welcome!" she chanted through a thick Spanish accent. "Welcome, little one. I am Lupe. Oh! So thin!" She inspected Crystal's arm through the thin fabric of her blouse and clucked a sweet scolding.

  "Good Lord! Has everyone around here forgotten their manners?" Garrett boomed, but Lupe only folded her arms across her great breasts and winked down at Crystal, who perched self-consciously on the edge of the yellow vinyl cushion, hovering somewhere between despair and delirious laughter.

  "Speaking of manners!" Lupe scolded, wagging a chubby finger at the lean, tall cowboy. "Since when is it good manners to bring home a guest without giving us a chance to prepare for her?"

  "Am I supposed to inform everyone on the place before I hire on more help?" he boomed, throwing his hands above his head in exasperation.

  "Ooh!" Lupe's thick brows rose in surprise, then her black eyes narrowed perceptively. The look she gave him implied that she doubted his motives for bringing this pretty young woman here, but she turned a welcoming smile on Crystal. "Forgive me, pretty seňorita. I did not know."

  "That's all right, Lupe," Crystal responded with a nervous smile of her own. Such a welcome! She was not sure what to think. "I should apologize for making such an abrupt entrance." She was suddenly very tired. Her shoulders sagged perceptibly, but seeing that Garrett was not in any mood to make explanations, she went on. "I've come to tutor the children. I am a teacher."

  As understanding lighted Lupe's eyes, she poured out a fresh cascade of welcome, her big hands pounding Crystal affectionately on the back. Crystal had to gasp for air with each pound, but at least her presence here would not be resented, anyway not by this big Mexican woman. Still, she wondered if she could survive much more friendliness.

  Garrett interrupted with an order for his housekeeper. "Get her settled. You can visit later. And see to it that Petie brings her bags in and then have him unload the bulls in the feedlot. I'm going to wash up." He began moving away, rolling up his sleeves as he went.

  Just then, however, a thin, rangy cowboy came hurrying through the gate in the back wall of the courtyard. When he saw Garrett, he picked up his pace. "Got trouble, boss, over on section three. Hay baler's broke down. I was hoping all the way in that you was back."

  The grimace on Garrett's face contained an odd mixture of irritation and challenge. "Where's Rod?"

  "Pulling a calf over on section three."

  "Well, what about Rick?"

  The rangy cowboy shook his head. "Fence down on five." He danced uncomfortably from one foot to another, eyeing Crystal speculatively.

  Garrett scowled, then flung a hand out in capitulation. "Oh, all right," he grumbled. "I sometimes wonder what I pay you men for. I always have to do everything myself anyway."

  "Yes, sir," the cowboy acknowledged absently, still eyeing Crystal with a furtive sideways glance.

  Again Garrett scowled. "This is Miss Crystal Gentry, our new schoolteacher," Garrett introduced, making a great show of the whole affair with a flourishing sweep of his hand. "And this is one of our top hands, Cleave Lawson. Now, if everyone has his curiosity satisfied, can we all get to work?"

  "Yes, sir!" Cleave snapped smartly, squashing his hat off with a big bony, freckled hand, showing flaming orange hair and a white smile. "Pardon me, ma'am," he said with a quick bow, jammed the hat back on his head, and started off in a hurry.

  Garrett rolled his eyes heavenward, muttering beneath his breath, and followed the redheaded wrangler, with Crystal watching in amazement. At the gate, he paused momentarily to cast her an unfathomable look, then turned and was gone.

  No sooner had the two men disappeared through the back gate than Lupe plopped herself down beside Crystal, nearly catapulting the petite woman off the small divan. There would have been room for three ordinary people, but Lupe alone could have filled the divan to overflowing.

  "You have nice trip?" she inquired politely, baring white teeth, then hurried on, leaving Crystal nodding an affirmative. "You married? Engaged, maybe?" Crystal's mouth fell open. "No, of course not!" Lupe answered her own questio
n with a giggle. She patted Crystal's hands. "This is a good place. You will like it here. We fix you up nice. You want Lupe to fix you something good to eat?"

  "No, no, please!" Crystal found herself protesting more vigorously than necessary and had to back up quickly to keep from hurting the other woman's feelings. "We only ate lunch an hour or so ago," she explained. "What I'd really like is to see the house and get settled into my room."

  Lupe's face brightened. She heaved herself to her feet and waddled to the glass sliding door from which she had entered, bawling out in Spanish for Petie to get the teacher's bags and help Gloria unpack them. Crystal wondered who Gloria was, but supposed she would find out soon enough.

  Almost immediately Petie appeared in the doorway beneath the arch, munching a cookie leisurely. "Where you want them?" he asked.

  "In the Rose Room," Lupe folded her hands over her rotund belly and repeated herself. "In the Rose Room. Pronto!"

  Crystal caught a murmur of protest in Spanish, but the set of Lupe's wide shoulders told her that the little man should not even bother to argue with his enormous wife, and he, too, seemed to know this, for he scurried away, mumbling and motioning to himself.

  "Come. Let me show you our house," said Lupe, beckoning to Crystal, who rose and followed the lumbering figure beneath the archway and through the glass door. "This is our kitchen," she pointed out needlessly, gesturing with obvious pride at the modern appliances and gleaming blue countertops.

  It was a wonderful room with lots of cabinets and counter top space. At one end, the counter formed an L, making a bar where meals could be taken. The tile was green, and the barstools were cushioned with a bright blue-and-green print fabric, which was repeated in the wallpaper covering one wall. Copper pots and utensils hung from wagon wheels suspended from the high ceiling. Altogether, Crystal could not imagine a more perfect room. She would have added some potted plants, but then she would add plants to almost any room that did not already have them in profusion.

  What followed was a complete tour of the house, which, as Crystal had surmised, was actually built in two separate wings.

  The smaller wing contained the kitchen, the formal dining room, and a spacious apartment occupied by Lupe, Petie, and their daughter, Gloria.

  "You are not so much older than my daughter," Lupe informed sweetly. "I'm sure she will enjoy having you here for company."

  "Oh, that would be nice," Crystal replied hopefully. It really would be so much easier to have a friend near her own age to spend time with.

  "I'm sure you will get along," Lupe went on, adding, "She's a good girl, very pretty, maybe a little impetuous, but still a good daughter."

  The second wing of the house was much larger than the first. It consisted of a spacious, rustic living room with a huge natural-rock fireplace and heavy leather-upholstered furniture, several guest rooms, a study, a game room, Garrett's private quarters, Crystal's own room, and beyond that, the garage.

  Crystal hugged herself with delight. This was like some very luxurious and exotic retreat. She could not have imagined anything so beautiful and lavish. It was a maze of cool hallways and wooden-beamed rooms, stuccoed walls and high rock fireplaces, archways and glass walls and courtyards.

  Crystal found it odd that her room was situated next to Garrett's private quarters, but since their doors were actually quite far apart and there was a private entrance that opened onto the outer courtyard and the swimming pool, she felt it was a suitable arrangement.

  Lupe did not actually allow her to see Garrett's suite, but she did explain that it contained an office, a small private dining room, a sitting room, bedroom and bath.

  "This door is to the office," she explained, pointing to the door nearest Crystal's own door. "And this is to his private suite." Crystal nodded her understanding, and the wide woman waddled farther down the hall.

  "This," she said, opening a door on the outside wall, "is the private entrance I told you about. And this," she indicated the door opposite it, "is the door to your room, which I will show you now."

  She threw the door open and stepped back for Crystal to enter, smiling knowingly.

  Crystal passed through the door and gasped with delight. "This is… this is… well, it's unreal!" she gushed, turning circles in the lovely room.

  "You like it, then?" Lupe asked with an eager face.

  "I love it! I've never seen anything so beautiful!"

  "Ah, I thought so," Lupe murmured strangely. "I knew it immediately I saw you."

  Crystal turned a blank smile to her, then again turned to take in the lovely room. It was easy to see why it was called the Rose Room. No other name would have done it justice, and it was one of those special rooms with so much personality of its own that it deserved a name.

  The smoothly stuccoed walls were painted a warm peachy color, accentuated beautifully by the plush carpeting of a deep wine red. All of the heavy furniture, and there was a lot of it, was of darkly stained rosewood. The big, wide bed was canopied in a pale pink fabric lavishly embroidered with roses, as were the exquisite spread and drapes, which were parted, displaying louvered window shutters painted a vivid green.

  The window was a high arch with a seat at the base, which was covered in wine-red velvet and crammed with sweet little pillows of various shades of pink, red, and green, all embroidered with intricate roses. Even the lovely milk-glass lamps on the bedside tables had roses on them, handpainted and very delicate.

  There was a small dressing room off one end, with a closet half again as large as the outer chamber, and a private bath that was covered, walls and floor, with stone tiles of the same peachy pink as the walls of the bedchamber. Here, too, were roses. Even the knobs that controlled the flow of water into the deep, sunken tub were intricate golden roses.

  Crystal explored the room thoroughly, enjoying the lavishness and looking for some sign that would tell her whose room this had been. It had very definitely belonged to someone, perhaps even been specially designed for someone. It just had too much character to have been done without a specific person in mind.

  This was a woman's room. Crystal knew it intuitively. She ran over in her mind the other parts of the house which Lupe had shown her. Nothing she had seen seemed to indicate that the same person who decorated the rest of the house had also decorated this room.

  No man put this room together, she told herself silently, not Garrett Dean or any other man.

  "You wash up and then come to the kitchen," Lupe said. "I'll give you some coffee and a bit of cheesecake. Later, after Gloria unpacks for you, you can bathe."

  "Oh, no, don't have Gloria do that. I work here, remember? I'll be glad to unpack my own things." Crystal wanted to belong here. She let her gaze wander around the room once more.

  She wanted to carry her own weight around here. No one must get the idea that she needed to be waited on hand and foot. She wanted to make herself a part of this household, even if it would only be a temporary involvement.

  Lupe shook her dark head. "We each have our jobs," she said. "Yours is to teach."

  "All right," Crystal laughed, "but just this once. From then on, I pull my own weight around here."

  Lupe shrugged noncommittally and hurried away, closing the door behind her.

  Crystal washed the grime from her face and hands and pulled the pins out of her hair, letting it tumble down her back from a center part managed with a small folding-comb-and-brush set she carried in her handbag. She took off the jacket and surveyed herself in the mirror over the vanity. Could be worse, but she would certainly like to change into fresh clothing. She wondered then just how Petie would manage her heavy trunks, and an image of Garrett easily hoisting the trunks one by one onto his powerful shoulders came to her with a twinge of excitement.

  Quickly she shook off the feeling and decided not to wait for Petie. A vague restlessness warred with the fatigue of the long trip. Perhaps a cup of Lupe's coffee would handle both.

  Leaving her jacket behind, she wen
t out of the room and crossed the hall to the door that opened onto the outer courtyard and stepped through. This, too, was a lovely place. Her eyes lingered hopefully on the still, crystal-clear waters of the blue-bottomed pool.

  It would be so lovely to swim in this pool, luxuriate in the serene privacy, and loll in the sun. She felt guiltily like a vacationing jet-setter and told herself sternly that there would be much work for her to do here. She had best concentrate upon that and not let herself become spoiled to these luxurious surroundings. She was an employee here—nothing more or less. Best to keep that fact in mind.

  Lupe was prepared for her when she slid back the glass door and entered the spotless kitchen. A hot cup of coffee waited for her beside a plate of cheesecake, and she knew instantly that it would be futile to try to refuse the sweet. Lupe would not be satisfied until she had fed her new charge.

  Despite the fact that Lupe's idea of a bit of cheesecake would have made dessert at Aunt Judith's house for a week, Crystal dived into it gamely. It was delicious. She would have to watch herself around Lupe's cooking, or by summer's end, she, too, would look like a baby elephant.

  Not that the cook's size intimidated Crystal or made her respect the woman any less; quite the contrary. The more they talked, and Lupe was very easy to visit with, the more Crystal respected the woman, and the more she learned about the ranch and its boss.

  Crystal could not imagine how Lupe managed this huge house and all of the cooking, for Lupe told her that she prepared meals for the top hands, excluding Rod Hardesty now that he was married, her own family, and Garrett as well. A few of the wranglers were married and lived at various spots spread over the ranch. The others were provided a kitchen in the bunkhouse and prepared their own meals. Only the top hands were given private quarters and allowed to eat in the big house whenever they chose.

  With only Gloria and Petie to help her, Crystal wondered how Lupe managed to keep ahead of her work. The house was immaculate, and the grounds, which were Petie's responsibility, were kept beautifully. In addition to the everyday chores, Lupe informed her that they entertained often, especially in the fall, when the busy time on any ranch has passed.