Cade cut Serena's food into small portions and saw that she picked up as much of the squash as the bread. Juanita ran out to the kitchen to bring in more bread, and Travis tilted his chair back and asked for more coffee. Lily started to rise to get the pot from the fire.
Not looking up from his plate, Cade interrupted. "Get it yourself, Bolton. You've got two good legs and two hands."
Lily halted where she was, astonished by Cade's speaking out as much as by what he said.
Travis motioned her back into her chair and rose to get the pot himself. "I thought Indians believed in making their squaws do the work. Seems odd for you to be ordering a man to wait on himself."
"Squaws wait on men who have been hard at work protecting and feeding the tribe."
Travis slapped his mug on the table and sent Cade a black look as he returned to his seat. "You're the hired help, and I don't owe you any explanations, but I'm paying room and board, if that's what you're insinuating. I'm selling my medical supplies. People around here are glad to have my experience. Just ask Lily if I'm not earning my way."
That was a provoking comment, but before Cade could respond, Juanita entered, balancing a pitcher of milk in one hand and hauling an iron skillet of pan bread in the other. Lily rose to help her, but Cade was on his feet and shoving her back into the chair before she could do so. He took both the pitcher and the skillet from Juanita and set them on the table, sending the terrified maid back to her corner with just a look.
"Dammit, man, you're scaring her. What in hell is wrong with you tonight?" Since Cade had already returned to his seat, Travis remained in his, but his clenched fists indicated that situation could change at any moment.
Watching the two men glare at each other, comprehension dawned. While Lily might be grateful that Cade meant to take care of her, his high-handed methods didn't work any better in here than outside.
Telling him that wouldn't ease the tension around the table, however. Even the children could sense it. With a look to Juanita, Lily said quietly, "Take Serena and Roy out to the kitchen to eat, will you? They're likely to have stomachaches, elsewise."
"Dammit, Juanita, you stay right here where you belong. If anyone's going outside, it will be me and that thickheaded mountain over there." Travis was already halfway out of his seat as he spoke.
Switching her skirt, Juanita gave him a look of contempt as she reached to take Serena from Cade and muttered a string of Spanish beneath her breath. Cade replied in a word or two of the same language, causing her to give him a swift look before she hurried the children out of the charged atmosphere.
Balking, Roy demanded, "Why can't I stay? I'm no baby. If there's going to be a fight, I want to see it."
"If there's going to be a fight, it will be outside and you can see all you want. Now get out like you're told." Containing her fury at the two men, Lily rose and shepherded her protesting son out the door. When she returned to the table, both men were still sitting and her father was drinking his whiskey and watching them with amusement.
"What was Juanita saying?" Travis demanded, irked by his inability to know what Cade had said.
"If I understood her correctly, she was comparing all men in general to asses." Lily sat down and picked up her fork, hoping common sense would prevail.
"You are being either polite or very naive," Cade commented as he returned his attention to his own plate.
Lily threw him an irate look. "I know what Juanita thinks of men and why. Which do you think I am?"
"A lady is always polite."
"What in hell would you know of ladies?" Travis asked, disgruntled by the exchange.
Cade raised his head, much as a buffalo might when aroused to danger. "My mother was a lady. What about yours?"
Before Lily could do anything unladylike like slinging the plate she had in her hand, Ephraim put a halt to the bickering. "I don't think either of you is impressing anybody." He turned to his daughter. "Lily, I think it's about time you started making some choices before somebody gets killed. If you've got your heart set on staying here instead of coming home with me, you have to settle on one man and get it over with—unless you like watching grown men behave like young bucks and challenging each other."
Lily sent her father a furious look. "I could just tell the lot of them to get the hell out and leave me alone, and that includes you, too. I'm sick to death of men telling me what to do."
Cade raised an eyebrow but returned his concentration to his plate.
Travis leapt into the fray with both feet. "Your father's right, Lily. There must be a dozen men out here to every woman. It's a dangerous situation. We've known each other a long time; that's more than you can say about anyone else. You know how I feel about you, Lily. And Roy needs a father. There's plenty of room in this new country for a man like me. You can run the ranch if you want, and I'll settle down to do doctoring and maybe selling a little land on the side and maybe even go into government once they make up their minds what they want to do. You can be the lady you're supposed to be."
Lily felt the intensity of Cade's gaze, waiting for her to speak up, to state her decision.
He said nothing, although their whole future rode on her response. Travis was a nice man and Roy's father, but there was nothing between them anymore. Travis would always be a nice man with a shallow character. On the other hand, Cade's character was as deep and dangerous as a river’s currents.
She knew how marriage worked, and they didn’t have that kind of relationship. Yet. These past months she had not stopped to consider Cade's feelings, wasn't even certain he had any, and she certainly had never consulted his wishes. Not that he had ever consulted hers, either.
But somewhere, they had to start talking to each other. Somehow, they had to tell the world that they were man and wife, and they meant to stand by each other through thick and thin and all the stages in between. It had been hard with Jim. It would be even harder with Cade. She hadn't wanted to consider it. She had better start now.
With a sigh, knowing the explosion that would follow, Lily lifted her fork and smiled as sweetly as she could manage under the circumstances. "Daddy, I hope you'll be happy to hear that I've already made that decision. As a matter of fact, I made that decision before Travis ever got here. Cade understood when I asked for a little time before telling you, but I guess the time is here. Cade and I were married three months ago. I'm expecting his child in July."
To say all hell broke loose put it mildly, Lily thought as she rose and left Cade to handle the chaos for which he had built the foundations.
Chapter 18
As the shouting from the cabin became progressively louder, Roy slipped from Juanita's protection and dashed to his mother's rescue. Entering, he found no sign of his mother, but the sight revealed held enough interest to keep him from wondering over her whereabouts.
Cade had neatly captured Travis's arms and held them behind his back despite Travis's height and strength and vigorous protests. Roy's eyes widened at the ease with which Cade kept his grip while Travis and Ephraim shouted at each other and at Cade.
"No damned Indian marriage will stand up in a court of law! The boy is mine and I'll be damned if I'll see the likes of you as his father."
Ephraim turned a furious red at this announcement. "The hell you say! Lily wouldn't be consorting with no itinerant peddler. You've got no call..."
But neither Cade nor Travis was paying any attention to this protest.
Cade jerked Travis's arm a little higher to keep him from saying anything more damaging. "I'll not take the boy from you, but you can't take him from his mother. That's final."
Cade looked up in time to see Roy staring white-faced at them, and he pulled Travis around to see the same. When Cade was certain the other man had taken note, he released him.
Travis dusted off his coat sleeves and contemplated the stricken gaze of his son. When Lily's father began on his tirade again, he ordered, "Shut up, Ephraim," and took a step toward Roy. "Your
mother told you to stay in the kitchen, son."
The word "son" had been applied to him by every male in the district as a euphemism for "boy." Roy had never rejected the word before, but in his confusion, he rejected it now. "You're not my father. Don't call me that."
Travis's shoulders slumped, but he didn't give up. "Jim was a better father to you than I ever could be, I'll grant you that. But he's dead now, Roy, and your mother needs a new husband. I'd like to be the man who acts as your father in Jim's place."
Travis was a big man with dark, wavy hair like Roy's own and a way of speaking to him that made him feel they were equals. He'd given Roy toy soldiers and taught him chess and been a good friend these last months. The idea of Travis taking his father's place had some appeal, but Roy was intelligent enough to know things weren't that easy. He looked questioningly at the man who had taught him to ride and rescued him from the river wash.
On his own most of his life, Cade had little experience in dealing with the intricacies of human relationships, but he knew how to deal with terrified animals. Lowering to sit cross-legged on the floor, he invited Roy to do the same. Curious, the boy did as expected.
"I cannot be your father any more than your mother can be Serena's mother," Cade told him. "But you need a father and Serena needs a mother, and we would like to act in their places. Your mother has already agreed to give me a child of my own, so there is no question about my staying. I will be with your mother for as long as we both live. And she does not want to be parted from you, so we will all live here together. Do you understand?"
His voice was soft and reassuring and totally unexpected from so large a man, particularly one who seldom said more than three words together. Roy continued to stare at him even after Cade finished speaking.
Travis shook his head. "Cade, he's too young to understand. This is between us. Leave Roy out of it."
Cade looked up from his position on the floor. "You're the one who doesn't understand. Lily has made her decision. You're the one who has been left out. You can work with us or get out."
Roy looked from Travis to Cade, then tugged at Cade's sleeve to hold his attention. "I want Travis to stay. Can Travis stay too?"
"If he's been messing around with my daughter, I'll throw him out on his ear, dagnab it." Ephraim glared at the traveling salesman who had dared malign Lily's name.
"I'm staying," Travis informed the room in general, turning a defiant glare on Cade. "I'll buy my own land and move out. But you can't take the boy from me."
"Fine, but I'd suggest you find your own woman." With that, Cade rose from the floor and held his hand out to Roy. "It's past your bedtime, boy. We'll still be here in the morning. Go on to bed."
Roy was reluctant to go, afraid he would miss something of this new change in his world, but even Travis joined in to usher him out of the room, and with dragging footsteps, he left.
Cade turned to Lily's father and told him, "We're going in to register the marriage with the alcalde in the morning. You are welcome to come with us as witness."
He walked out, leaving the other two men to wrangle the night away as they wished.
* * *
"It is time you got back on a horse, Roy. You can get in the wagon later if you are tired."
Cade rode up on the gelding he had given Lily, and she smiled. This was the first time Cade had ridden the horse since their "marriage." The horse was obviously now considered communal property.
Roy looked uncertainly at his mother, but Lily didn't attempt to interfere in this decision. Cade was in the right of it. When Travis brought out a small pinto he had recently acquired, Roy gave in to the command. Travis helped him into the saddle, and Roy learned the paces of his new pony, delighted with the mount and not in the least concerned with the tension between the adults.
Ephraim took the seat beside Lily, leaving Juanita to ride in the wagon bed with Serena. Travis had saddled one of his horses and rode beside them with a grim expression.
It made for an interesting wedding party, Lily decided as they traveled more or less silently into town. Serena was cold and cranky and whined most of the way. Juanita was her usual uncommunicative self. And the men didn't seem to be on speaking terms.
On the road to San Antonio they met a small band of Tennessee militia on their way to join the forces at the Alamo. Travis stopped to talk with them, but Ephraim kept the slow oxen wagon moving east, in the opposite direction. Lily looked over her shoulder at Travis's excited shout, but not until he rode back did she know what had prompted his excitement.
"That was Senator Davy Crockett! He says there's more coming to join him. There's men pouring across the Sabine to help fight Santa Anna. With men like that, Texas will be a republic yet."
Lily shot him a speaking look. "The Mexicans have a thousand troops here already. Santa Anna is likely to bring a few thousand more. All you hotheads will accomplish is getting us thrown out of our homes."
"Lily, you've got to see that Santa Anna can't run Texas from a thousand miles away. He just hasn't got the resources. And his way of thinking isn't ours. We need slaves to grow cotton and make the land pay. What does he want us to do, live on tortillas like his starving peons? We're not lazy Mexicans like he's used to."
Cade gave him a dirty look and, growling something irascible, kneed his horse ahead of the wagon. Lily watched him go with a curious mixture of pride and fear. She knew nothing about him, but she understood him to an astonishing degree. Only it wasn't her place to explain his position if Cade wouldn't do it for himself. Sometime, though, people needed to recognize that he was as much Mexican as he was Indian.
Their arrival in town went unremarked, since Saturday was the one day of the week when the streets were filled. Cade and Travis took care of the horses and oxen while Ephraim helped Lily out of the wagon. She didn't inquire into the argument that had gone on without her the night before, but she noticed the men were being mighty polite to her today.
By mutual unspoken consent, the entire party turned in the direction of the general store where Bert Dixon kept his office. The town was supposed to build a hall and a storage place for public records, but enough funds hadn't been found yet. Lily didn’t like the idea of making their announcement in front of all the idlers at the store, but she kept her chin up and took Cade's arm as they entered.
Cade gave her a surprisingly gentle smile and covered her hand with his. Inside, Dixon was involved in a bickering dispute over a boundary line with one of the newcomers to the settlement, but he glanced up instantly when Lily's party approached. A frown formed between his eyes as he noted Cade's presence, but he greeted them politely.
"Mrs. Brown, this is a delightful surprise. And you've brought your family, too. I don't think Ollie is in this morning; I'm sure he'll be sorry he missed you."
Preferring to establish his position immediately, Cade spoke before Lily could. "We've come to sign the marriage register."
Dixon looked stunned. He took in Lily's determined hold on Cade's arm, the grim expressions of the men behind her, and shook his head slowly. "I doubt that we can do that. Indians aren't official citizens of Mexico. I can only register citizens."
"I am a Mexican citizen, Dixon. My mother is a de Suela." Cade waited patiently for the next objection. He had expected this; it was the story of his life. Lily, however, was unaccustomed to being questioned. For her sake, he would speed the proceedings if he could.
"Have you proof?" Dixon examined the sheet of paper Cade produced from his pocket and shook his head again. "You're not one of Austin's settlers. You'll have to take this to the priest in San Antonio. He can marry you there, although I must say, Mrs. Brown, I wouldn't advise you to go through with this. You have a valuable amount of land out there. It wouldn't do to let it fall into unscrupulous hands."
Cade removed the paper from Dixon's hands and returned it to his pocket. "The ranch is hers, Dixon. If you know anything of Mexican law at all, you'd know it can't become mine even if she dies, unless she
legally leaves it to me. We're married. We just want it in the public register."
Lily looked up in surprise at Cade's announcement. She had thought a wife's property became a husband's upon marriage. That's the way it had been in Mississippi. It was a positively feudal law; it was hard to believe the Mexicans had gone beyond it.
Apparently Dixon thought the same. He gave Cade a contemptuous look. "Use that line on a fool woman if you like, but don't use it on me. Go find the priest."
Until now Travis and Ephraim had stayed out of the dispute, but when Cade walked away at this command, they both stepped up.
"What do you mean, you won't register my little girl? She's got as much right to choose her man as the next person. Who appointed you anyway? I know Austin personally. I'll see to it that he hears about this."
Travis overrode Ephraim's verbal protests with a more overt action. Grabbing the smaller man's coat collar, he lifted Dixon off the floor. "Now Dixon, I might have a personal prejudice against Cade myself, but I won’t let you insult a lady."
By this time they had gathered a crowd. Lily glanced around at the onlookers and wished herself a hundred miles away. She wanted to follow Cade out to the wagon, but she feared the crowd. Some of the women wore furious expressions, presumably because Lily's word had been questioned or because any man dared interfere in the lawful process of marriage.
Some of the men snickered over Dixon's predicament. His position wasn't an elected one, and he wasn't the choice of everyone present. There were other men, however, who made rude comments behind Cade’s back. Lily knew they looked at her as if she were a piece of trash. They’d had bigots back home in Mississippi too. She shivered, hating this, wishing Cade would return, because she knew he would.
Sure enough, before a general riot could ensue, Cade shouldered his way back, carrying a heavy tome and flipping through it. Lily stared at the book with surprise. She had never seen it before, had not known Cade possessed such a thing, and couldn't believe he read it as quickly as he seemed to be doing.
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