Leaning on the stick, the old man stepped forward, his gaze never leaving Cade's face. The ravages of age had left deep lines on his visage. His eyes were nearly shrunken in his head, but they were bright and fierce and black as Cade's own. His mouth worked slowly, as if the joints were unused and in need of grease, He stopped a foot from Cade and measured him with his eyes.
"You are bigger than they said. If your father looks like you, I could understand a few things a little better."
"He is not so tall but more striking. My mother loved him when she did not hate him."
Tears formed in the old man's eyes, and he nodded curtly and strode in the direction of the house. "You had better come in. The wind grows cold and I am an old man."
Standing there for a moment, Cade let the cold Texas wind cut through him as he looked up to the high, scuttling clouds and around to the massive mud walls. He had dreamed of this moment all his life. He needed to remember it now. Dust swirled around his moccasins, and he drank deeply of air stronger than whiskey. Then he turned his eyes to the sprawling house ahead and the impatient old man silhouetted in the doorway.
He had come home.
* * *
"Granddad, hold me!" Serena held up her three-year-old's chubby arms and pouted prettily.
Frying bacon over the tiny iron stove in the detached kitchen, Ephraim frowned down at the child. "I'm busy, girl. Go pester your mama."
Lily looked up from her sewing to smile at the exchange. It was Juanita's birthday, and she had been ordered to take the day off to go into town with Travis. It had been Lily's intention to do the cooking herself, but she hadn't protested when her father had insisted that she stay off her feet. She was scarcely five months into her pregnancy and already she felt like she was ready to deliver. Roy had never been this large, she was certain.
So she sat comfortably ensconced in the corner of the tiny kitchen, instructing Roy and Ephraim in how to cook. Men ought to have some knowledge of the basic necessities of life. It was a good lesson for both of them.
"Roy, you'll need to crack more eggs than that or someone will walk away from the table hungry. The cook eats last, you realize."
Roy frowned. "But that's all there are. I didn't find any more."
"Those hens aren't as dumb as you think. They're hiding them from you. Did you check all the stalls?"
Her son flung off his borrowed apron with disgust and went back outside to rummage in the hay, swearing he was going to let the hens into the bunkhouse where they could at least nest on sheets.
Ephraim grinned as Roy slammed out. "You've got a fine boy there, Lily. He's going to grow up right. Always wanted a boy, but I think you've done a better job than I would have. I'm proud I got a chance to know him."
"I'm glad he's had a chance to know his grandfather. I hope you've decided to stay out here. Cade and Travis will push Roy awful hard. He'll need you to spoil him a bit." Lily handed Serena a wooden spoon and bowl, and the child settled contentedly to making dinner for her doll.
Ephraim's drinking had tapered off these past weeks as Lily had found more and more for him to do, and Travis hadn't obliged in joining him at the bottle. With Cade gone and Lily increasingly incapacitated, both men were shouldering more responsibility. It was quite a sight to see sometimes. Lily wondered what Cade would do if she told him he was fired when he returned.
When the child fluttered and turned within her, Lily closed her eyes and leaned back in the rocking chair. If he returned. It had been nearly a month. How long did it take to get to San Antonio and back? The rivers were rising. Travel would be difficult. Perhaps Cade was waiting for the weather to improve. There hadn't been anyone through here in weeks. She had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world. Dear Lord, she thought, make it the weather that delays him.
Lily didn't know when she had gone from hating Cade for leaving her to waiting anxiously for his return. Perhaps it had been when she had finished sewing the linen shirt and wanted him to try it on. Perhaps it had been the day she had felt the baby move. Anything was possible, It was possible that she still hated him. He had a lot to answer for. But she wanted him here to answer personally.
She didn't let any of the confusion show. If anyone was going to take Cade apart piece by little piece, it would be her. She really didn't believe the hateful gossip Ricardo was spreading around with the help of Ollie, but Cade ought to be here to defend himself.
Ephraim's shout of pain brought Lily to her feet without further thought. Coming in the door with a bowl of eggs, Roy dropped them with a splattering crash, dashing to his grandfather's aid.
Flames leapt from the older man's sleeve. Screaming, he tried to find water to douse them. Roy grabbed the pail kept by the stove while Lily tried to get her father to hold still so she could beat at the sleeve with a towel to smother it. She gasped in relief when Roy managed to lift the heavy pail and hit the flames with the first throw. The fire died, leaving the acrid stench of burned flesh.
Where was Travis and his cock-and-bull medicine when she needed him? Together with Roy, Lily led Ephraim back to the house, Serena trailing behind them. Ephraim stoically bit back his moans, but Lily could tell he was in great pain, and it tore at her to feel so helpless. She should have warned him about the dangers of that damned stove. The sparks flew all over the place and caused more burns than Indians caused deaths. There ought to be a safer way to make stoves, but now wasn't the time to complain.
Inside the cabin Lily removed her father's destroyed shirt and found enough lard to smear over the burned area. Ephraim groaned as she applied it, but she knew of no other remedy. When she was done, she handed him the jug of whiskey. It was the best painkiller in the house.
Roy helped her to make a pallet beside the fire where they could keep an eye on their patient. Ephraim protested and refused to lie down until Lily informed him she could hurt herself if she had to lift him when he passed out.
That seemed to occur quite soon after he lay down.
Worriedly, Lily left Roy to keep an eye on his grandfather while she returned to the kitchen to finish throwing together some kind of meal. The men would have to make do with biscuits and ham. They wouldn't be happy, but it was all she had time for.
After she saw the men fed, she hurried back to the cabin. Her father was still unconscious, and Roy's brow was puckered with worry as he tried to keep Serena quiet and watch over the groaning man at the hearth.
"Climb into Travis's wagon and see if there's any medical books in there. Maybe we can find something else to do for him." Doing anything was better than nothing, and it seemed to relieve Roy to be useful.
He came back with an armload of books on anatomy and diseases and a book called Gunn's Domestic Medicine. Lily jumped on the latter and hastily devoured the contents page, cursing when she couldn't find "Burns" and then flipping quickly to the "Scalds" section. She read the pages hastily. She should have applied more cold water. They didn't have ice. They didn't have sweet oil. Would lard work as well? When she came to the recommendation for "Turner's cerate," she pointed it out to Roy.
"See if you can find some of that in the wagon. It says it will cure any burn."
Lily checked the unbandaged arm as she waited. She didn't see any signs of infection yet, but it was red and swollen. Perhaps if Roy found the medicine, she could start all over, wash off the lard and soak the arm in cold water, then apply the salve. Or would that just serve to wake her father to the pain?
The rain began to fall again, and Lily wanted to cry with frustration. The skies had been like lead for weeks. Couldn't it let up for just a little while? If only Cade would come home.
She heard the ox wagon pulling up and almost cried with relief. Travis and Juanita hurried in with Roy a moment later.
"Let me take a look at him, Lily. You go sit down. My God, you're white as a sheet. Juanita, get her something to drink."
Travis moved briskly through the room, taking command, and Lily let him. She was terrified she had
already done all the wrong things. Ephraim shouldn't have passed out so quickly. The burn wasn't that serious, was it? There ought to be something more that could be done.
"Here, drink. Travis will make him well." Juanita poured some of the whiskey into a hot cup of coffee and handed it to Lily.
Juanita's saying a good word about any man was cause to wonder, but Lily didn't even notice. She sipped at the coffee and watched anxiously as Travis went to work.
He actually did seem to have some idea of what he was doing. He mixed some potion to clean the wound, causing Ephraim to wake up cursing. When Ephraim sat up, Juanita handed him a cup of the potent coffee, and he sipped at it while he warily watched Travis.
The salve Travis dug out from his store of supplies apparently stung, for Ephraim howled and cursed when it was applied. But when Serena woke and started wailing, he quieted and beckoned the child to crawl in his lap. He told her some wild tale about a rabbit that talked while Travis finished bandaging his arm.
"It's going to hurt like hell for a while, but you'll be as good as new in a few weeks. Give you a taste of what you're in for if you don't repent your sinful ways." Travis stood up and cleaned his hands in the bowl of water Lily kept by the hearth.
"You're expecting enough for me to believe a snake-oil salesman knows anything about doctoring. Don't ask me to listen to your preaching, too." Grumpily, Ephraim accepted Travis's hand and stood up, weaving unsteadily until he found a chair.
"I'm about ready to believe anything Travis tells me right now, so you'd better treat him nice." Relieved, Lily scolded as she found a pillow for her father's arm and one for his back and fluttered around him until she was certain he was almost back to normal.
Dinner was a fairly quiet meal. Surprisingly, Juanita kept up much of the conversation, telling of the silk ribbon Travis had bought for her, the arrival of a new shipment of fabrics, and her conversation with her cousin. Travis encouraged her by drawing her out about the Indians they had seen boldly walking through town in their leather leggings and shirts and hideous tattoos. When Lily asked if there were any news of the war, Travis shrugged and changed the subject.
That did not bode well, but Lily was too tired to argue. Swearing he was well enough to retire to his own bed, Ephraim dragged himself to the dogtrot and up the stairs early, carrying a jug with him. Lily made no objection to the liquor. His pain was too evident.
When everything was cleaned away and the children in their beds, Lily asked to borrow the medicine book and took it to her room with her. The supply of candles was running low, but she would indulge herself for one night. She wasn't sleeping much anyway. The bed was too empty.
She read the section on pregnancy and wished Cade were there to discuss it with her. She wasn't certain what to make of the doctor's treatise on the woman who felt compelled to steal when pregnant or the one who stopped stealing only when she was pregnant. Did that mean the child was controlling their behavior? Perhaps the one child had inherited a tendency to steal and was showing his true nature by forcing his mother to do so. She wished the doctor had gone on to observe the children that resulted from this strange behavior.
Maybe she would talk to Travis about it in the morning. It was hard to believe that Travis actually had some skills behind all his talk. Cade might be relieved to know he was worth more than the few coins he paid in rent.
Blowing out the candle, Lily settled down to listen to the sounds of night. She was exhausted, but she couldn't sleep. The child stirred, and she covered her growing stomach. There wasn't anything in the book about how long a pregnant woman could make love before she had to give it up.
Jim had not made love to her until a long time after she had delivered Roy. It was one of those things that had made her worship him. But with Cade it was different. She wanted him to make love to her. She needed the reassurance. But if she grew any bigger, it didn't seem possible, and all that business about the womb pressing downward—she should never have read the book.
A whistle split the night air. There was nothing heart-stopping about a whistle unless it came in the middle of a quiet night when everyone should be in bed. Lily sat straight up, aware that she had dozed off. Had she dreamed the whistle?
She smelled smoke. It had to be her memory of earlier that day, when the stench had been hideous. Surely not twice in one day.
A shout had her leaping from the bed and hunting for slippers and robe. More shouts, and thundering feet on the stairs outside. What was happening?
The stench of smoke nearly rocked Lily back on her heels when she threw open the bedroom door. Running outside to the dogtrot, she could see the flames leaping from the cabin roof, and she screamed.
Her first urge was to run toward the house where Serena and Roy slept, but someone jerked her away from it. Lily struggled, and Jack's curt tones woke her further.
"There's others as can carry the children out faster. Don't give us another one to hunt for."
Juanita came running from her kitchen pallet, hair streaming in ebony lengths behind her. She caught Lily's arm and stared in horror while men pumped water and handed it up the chain forming to the roof. Abraham rushed out of the main cabin with Serena in his arms at the same time Travis climbed into the loft and handed a sleepy Roy over the railing to a waiting ranch hand.
That left only one person unaccounted for, and Lily held her breath as figures appeared through the smoke pouring out of the big loft. They weren't figures she recognized immediately. Slight and erect, they carried a heavy burden between them. Her urge was to rush forward and give them aid. But the men on the stairs were already catching the unconscious man, hauling him downward, releasing the two young Indians from their burden.
Indians. Lily expelled a breath and, shaking free of Juanita, ran to them. Some of the men were already glaring at the youngsters with suspicion.
"It was your whistle I heard! Thank you. I owe you more than horses this time. Cade isn't here. I'll tell him..." Near hysterics, Lily tried to reassure the two boys Cade had called his half brothers while letting the men know that the boys only meant to be helpful. She didn't even know why they were here. It didn't matter. They could have all burned in their beds if the boys hadn't seen the flames and warned them.
The elder one, the one who looked most like Cade, touched her arm and gestured with his hand. The seriousness of his dark eyes brought Lily to her senses. She wished it hadn't. She would have preferred to go on babbling mindlessly a little while longer.
Instead, she turned in the direction he indicated and stepped toward the man lying on the muddy ground. Travis was already bent over him, breathing into his mouth, pumping on his chest, and cursing in between. Lily tried not to make a sound, tried to do nothing to distract him, but tears poured down her face. She stumbled to her knees before she could stop herself.
"Daddy! Wake up, Daddy! It's me, Lily! You've got to wake up now. You're scaring me, and it's not funny. Please, Daddy. I'll play for you. There's a piano back in town. You haven't heard me play it. I'm sorry I haven't had time to play it for you yet. We'll go tomorrow night. Or maybe Saturday if you're not feeling up to it. Please, Daddy..."
Someone pulled her away. Someone else half-carried, half-led her to the barn and out of the rain that had started again. Lily knew Roy was sobbing, heartbroken. She could hear Serena crying and Juanita hushing her. Someone was speaking to her, handing her a cup of something. But she couldn't taste it. She couldn't see them. She had to see that her father was all right.
Lily tried to get up and go to him again, but they held her back. She screamed and fought them, but there were too many. When Travis entered, he shook his head as he looked at her. That's when Lily knew it was over.
Weeping openly, she collapsed on the hay and cried for Cade, and for herself, and for the father she would never know again.
Chapter 26
Cade thought he saw flames leaping on the horizon as he rode his exhausted horse out of the woods. His heart nearly stopped in his che
st.
They had been riding for twelve hours or more. He was soaked to the bone and should have found a camp hours ago. But the thought of spending the rest of the night in bed with Lily had been too compelling for common sense.
Cade tried to focus his gaze on the flickering flames, but they were already fading below the horizon. Perhaps it had been lightning, but he hadn’t heard thunder. The direction was too uncomfortably close to the house. No campfire would reach that high. Something was wrong.
Sensing home and shelter, the gelding responded to Cade's urging with one last surge of energy. They raced across the prairie in the direction of the ranch.
* * *
She wasn't even aware he was there until he gathered her in his arms. Weeping hysterically, Lily fell on Cade's shoulder and poured out all her fear and sorrow.
Holding her, Cade glanced at the men standing helplessly about.
"Smoke inhalation. He was dead before we carried him out. I tried, but it was too late." Travis shrugged and watched Lily’s hysteria with bewilderment.
Cade had already taken in a white-faced Roy and a sobbing Serena. His gaze drifted to the long body covered in an old horse blanket. Ephraim. First her husband. Now her father. The gods were exacting their price.
"It's all my fault,” Lily sobbed. “I shouldn't have let him take the bottle to bed. He would have seen the fire, smelled the smoke, if he hadn't been drinking. He's been doing so well... He was just telling me how proud he was of Roy, how he'd always wanted a son. Why, Cade? Why does this have to happen?"
"Because he'd made his peace with the world, Lily, and it was time for him to go. Don't fault yourself. There was nothing you could do." Cade glanced back at Travis. "Is there anything habitable? She's shivering. We need a fire."
"The roof is gone on the main cabin and rain is going through the loft floor. I'd be afraid to use the chimney. The other two bedrooms weren't touched." He hesitated, then offered, "I think Ephraim had one of his cigars before he went to sleep. He'd been in pain earlier, and he'd told me he slept better after a good cigar. It could have fallen in the blankets and smoldered. He was probably asphyxiated before the flames started."
Tin-Stars and Troublemakers Box Set (Four Complete Historical Western Romance Novels in One) Page 22