Texas Lily

by Patricia Rice

  If he could truly care for her above and beyond what they had in bed, she would do everything within her power to make him happy. Sighing contentedly, Lily covered Cade's brown hand with her own and wriggled more comfortably against the length of his body.

  He responded by kissing her shoulder and pushing her back against the bed so he could see her face. "Don't tempt me any more than I already am, querida. There is much work to be done, and we will both need our strength to do it."

  Lily smiled and stroked the aquiline jut of his arrogant nose. "I have married a monster. I suppose hard work is one way of preventing all the children we are likely to have if left to idleness."

  "Or of supporting them when they inevitably arrive. We will have to beware of planting seeds under the new moon in the future, or we will have a lively crop spilling out the walls." Cade swung from the bed and splashed in the pan that had replaced the porcelain washbowl.

  Amused, Lily levered herself up from the bed. "Is that how you succeeded in getting me pregnant with just one try? You planted me under a new moon?"

  Cade dried his face in a linen towel and came up grinning. He watched admiringly as the golden sun played across his wife's proud figure and danced through the silken strands of hair tumbling down her back. "Plowed and seeded, querida." He stopped smiling and reached to pull a stray strand of her hair over her shoulder. "Do you still regret it?"

  Lily tilted her head and studied his face. "I don't think I ever regretted it. I want this child, Cade. Does that seem strange?"

  "No." Because he wanted it too, but it was a concept Cade couldn't explain. He didn't want just any child, but he wanted this one—carried by a woman alien to anything he had ever known in his past but similar to him in so many ways.

  He kissed her then, not the usual kiss of lust that they shared, but a gentle kiss of understanding—and something else, but neither of them was ready to recognize it.

  Lily only knew that she felt warm all the way to her middle for the rest of the day. She smiled tranquilly at Travis and Juanita’s skirmishes, and rescued Serena when the child climbed to the top shelf in search of cookies and couldn't find her way back down. She even held her tongue when Cade agreed that Roy could help in rounding up the cattle. Such serenity couldn't last forever, but it was good to discover that it existed.

  It was also good to discover that she didn't have to fight all day, every day, to make herself heard. When she suggested over dinner that Travis might want to restock his medicinal supplies, the topic was discussed among them all, and the ways and means were decided upon without her idea being dismissed as a woman's foolishness. When she went outside to see if she could salvage her kitchen garden, Cade sent a hired man to begin the hoeing without her even asking. She had learned how to nag and manipulate Jim to her way of thinking, but Cade seemed to be always one step ahead of her.

  Paradise couldn't reign all the time, of course. As the heat increased in the June sun, tempers flared. The corn had been planted before any work had been done on the house, and Cade complained about the crookedness of the rows and the depth of the seed, with Travis defending his ignorance of farming and his reliance on the hired help. Neighbors returning to their own ruined farms came asking for help and lured away the few available workers with promises of higher wages that no one could actually afford. Reports of Comanche raids to the north and west had everyone's nerves on edge, and any sudden movement could result in gunfire.

  Sewing baby bonnets and gowns and tending her garden, Lily ignored most of the strife. When Travis and Juanita started arguing in the middle of the yard, she coolly dumped jugs of water over their heads and left them to laugh or curse as they chose. She noticed Cade struggling to hide a smile when he came in later and decided the method had been effective.

  "Are the lovebirds kissing and making up yet?" Lily asked with a trace of cynicism as she fed Serena a lunch she'd had to fetch for herself from the kitchen since Juanita was otherwise occupied.

  "They were rolling in the mud when I came across the yard." Cade helped himself to a pitcher of water and gulped it thirstily, ignoring the cup Lily held out for him. Setting the pitcher down again, he shrugged. "Juanita was pulling his hair and cursing him for a fool, among other less polite things, and Travis was telling her to remove her clothing before she caught cold. He appeared to be well on the way to accomplishing it. Do you think I ought to carry another basin of water out there?"

  Lily pushed aside the mosquito netting that now adorned her window and peered outside. No hair pulling now. About all she could see of Juanita was her arms around Travis's neck. Lily let the netting fall back in place.

  "I would recommend keeping everybody out of the yard for a while. If you dump water on them now, we'll only have to suffer through this all over again."

  Cade muffled a laugh in the piece of bread he had stolen from the table. Black eyes dancing, he watched Lily return to setting the table. "You'll lose a cook if Travis takes to the road again."

  Lily favored him with a derisive glance, "The road will lose a peddler if Juanita decides to keep him."

  "Do women always win these wars?" Cade buttered a piece of bread for Serena.

  "Women seldom ever win these wars, but Travis is smart enough to realize that Juanita needs the security of familiarity. He might decide she's not worth staying here for, but he won't take her away."

  Cade thought about that as he chewed his own bread. Lily had been strong enough to follow her husband to a new land and start a new life when she was only sixteen and carrying a child. She was strong enough to start a new life at the hacienda if he asked it of her. But he rather thought she was also strong enough to tell him to go to hell, that she had no intention of leaving her home again. Lily had given him everything he had ever wanted except this one thing. It was a small price to pay.

  Before Cade could reply, a muddy and decidedly disheveled Travis stumbled into the cabin. "There's a rider coming. He's alone. Should I call the men?"

  Lily looked up in surprise at this indication that they were expecting someone and meant to greet whoever it was with an armed force. They didn't usually call the men out to greet a rider.

  Cade strode to the front and pulled back the netting. "Looks like Clark. Call them in and keep them out of sight. Station someone in that stand of pines along the road. Keep everyone away from the cabin."

  Travis grabbed a rifle, buttoned his muddy shirt, and departed, leaving Cade and Lily to stare at each other.

  "You've been expecting this," she accused quietly, trying not to disturb the child chasing her peas across the table.

  "Around here, you'd have to be a fool not to expect trouble. I didn't expect Clark. Why don't you take Serena and go out to the kitchen with Juanita? There isn't much Ollie can do by himself, and I might get more out of him if you're not in the room."

  Lily might have resented being treated like a helpless female, but he had at least explained. There had been a time when he wouldn't have offered any explanation at all. Perhaps life with her had had some civilizing influence. She kissed his cheek as he checked his rifle's breech. She was already lifting Serena before Cade could do more than look up with surprise.

  He didn't have time to ponder her action. At a loud rap on the door, Cade set the rifle beside the door before answering.

  Ollie looked nervously at Cade and glanced into the room. "I thought maybe Lily or Travis would be here."

  At one time, that would have been right, but Cade had taken to staying close to the house. Dove Woman had warned Lily might not carry the baby to term since it was so large. Cade didn't explain any of that; instead he met Clark's gaze coldly. "They're around. What do you want with them?"

  "That's not precisely hospitable," Ollie answered uncomfortably. He relaxed at sight of Travis entering through the other door. "I've brought some of that new whiskey I ordered for the medicine. It's out in my bags. Just a minute."

  Travis and Cade exchanged glances. Personal delivery service didn't usua
lly come with the order.

  "Have you got some cups?" Ollie asked as he returned bearing arms full of liquor. "We might as well give it a try and see if it's what the doctor ordered." He laughed at his own joke.

  Travis obediently grinned and helped set the heavy load on the table, but Cade frowned and waited. Travis was the one to produce the cups, and Ollie poured, extolling the whiskey's qualities as he did so.

  They switched to discussing Travis's pharmaceutical business as they lifted their cups. Keeping an eye on the window, Cade lifted his cup from habit. The strong odor of spirits he hadn't tasted since the fiasco with wine at his grandfather's house jarred him back to what he was doing.

  He still started to sip at the whiskey until his glance rested on the table decorated in gaily colored cloth and set for a family dinner—a table that had once gleamed with polish and Lily's pride. A stubborn old man and whiskey were responsible for that cloth. It could just as easily have been Serena that timber had fallen on.

  Without drinking, Cade set the cup aside. Ollie was up to something. He didn't need to be drunk while he discovered what. He didn't need to be drunk at all. Things had changed, and he had no objection to changing with them.

  "Come on, Cade, you can do better than that. I've seen you put away a jug of that before. Can't you stomach the good stuff after all that rotgut you've drunk?" Ollie asked.

  If the scorn was meant to rankle, it didn't succeed. If it was meant to challenge him into drinking, it failed dismally. Cade gave Ollie a look that should have made his scalp tingle.

  "Cade's a family man now. He doesn't drink," Travis explained genially. "It's good whiskey, Clark. I daresay it will do just fine, but I need the rest of the supplies before I can get started. When do you think they'll come in? I'd not have you riding all the way out here again just because we haven't got time to get to town too often these days."

  Ollie made himself comfortable at the table without invitation. "Everybody's up to their ears with planting and repairing, and no one gets to town much anymore. That's why I'm out delivering. You don't think Lily'd mind if I stay to dinner? I've got a couple more stops to make. Here, give me your cup and let me top it off. Takes the heat off the day."

  Cade watched this performance cynically, but he called for the anxious women. Travis would need food in him if he meant to sample any more of that whiskey.

  Carrying dishes to the table, Juanita reverted to her usual uncommunicative self, but Lily directed the conversation with the expertise of her Southern upbringing.

  "We haven't heard any news in forever, Ollie. Tell us what is happening. Will we really be a republic now, or are we going to petition to join the states?"

  "I imagine it will come to a vote. President Jackson's eager for us to join the union, but I can't say for certain what will happen." Ollie held out the whiskey bottle sitting in the center of the table. "Sure you don't want some, Cade? It's mild as water. I won't charge for this bottle in exchange for your hospitality."

  Since Cade had noticed Travis surreptitiously watering his own cup, he could imagine how mild the liquor was. There had been a time when Cade would never have refused free whiskey, and there had been a time when he would have accepted it out of reckless defiance, knowing what it would do to him. And there had been a time when he would have sought it without prompting to erase the pain of existence. Even now, he could almost taste the alcohol and imagine the stirring in his blood that it would cause, but he merely took another bite of his chicken and shook his head. There had been a time when he had needed oblivion. That time was gone.

  Besides, he was obviously foiling Ollie's plans, and it was tickling Cade to see the man squirm in his seat as his scheme collapsed. Lily had watched the interchange with suspicion, and when Ollie refilled Travis's cup, she discreetly stood up and began clearing empty bowls from the table. The whiskey bottle went with them.

  "I have heard tell that there's some trouble with the legal titles over toward Bexar and the Tejanos are up in arms," Ollie mentioned conversationally. "Seems a lot of these Spanish land grants have been awarded several times over, and no one's precisely sure who owns what. They've been looking into some of the property round hereabouts, too. But I'm sure Jim must have gotten a clear title before he built all this."

  Cade continued eating, but Lily could tell he was as tense as a panther about to spring. The muscles stretching his old shirt across his back were knotted to striking power. She didn't dare touch him for fear he would leap out of his seat. But he kept his fury under control, and no one else at the table noticed.

  Besides worrying about Cade, Lily didn't like this talk of titles. Jim hadn't been a man who had much concern for bits of paper. He was a man who knew the sun and the soil and how best to apply them. He would trust other men to be as honest as he was. If there had been any problem with the title to their land, he would never have known it, but she kept that fact to herself.

  "I'm willing to take Mr. Austin's word that this land was ours for the taking, but tell me more about the land in Bexar. Haven't those people lived there for decades or longer?" she asked.

  "They're lazy, shiftless Mexicans, Lily," Ollie replied with scorn, ignoring the fact that his host was half that maligned breed. "They can't do anything right. There's no surveys, no written records that anyone can find, nothing to show what belongs to whom. I hear Houston is ready to see them cleared out if he gets the presidency. There's those that are ready to clear them out now. A new republic doesn't need that kind around."

  Travis hurriedly shoved an overlarge piece of bread into Juanita's mouth when she opened it, Lily had insisted that Juanita take her rightful place at the table when they returned here, but this was one of those times when she would regret it. When Juanita chose to speak, she had a vocabulary that could singe the hairs off a mule skinner.

  Oblivious to the rage boiling up around him, Ollie looked around for his bottle and, not finding it, scratched his head in puzzlement and rambled on. "Well, anyway, it's been a fine meal, Lily. I do appreciate your invitation. I wouldn't worry too much about these land-jumping claims, especially if, like Cade said when you got married, the land is in your name and not his. If they're after Tejanos, just imagine what they'd do with an Indian. Well, let me leave you folks to your work..."

  He seemed to look around in bewilderment one more time for the nearly full bottle, which would have made an excellent end to the meal, but he retained enough manners not to mention its absence. Lily smugly stood in front of the child's bed with its ruffles hiding a lump and waved farewell as Ollie departed.

  She then turned to the two men standing solemnly behind her. "Where's the damned deed? If it burned with everything else..."

  No one wanted to consider that notion.

  Chapter 36

  Cade overruled the confusion that ensued by the simple expedient of talking louder.

  "Lily, where did Jim keep the deed?"

  "He kept all his important papers in a metal box under one of the floor planks. I think it was that one over by the fireplace."

  Since the area she pointed toward was an area that had suffered the most damage during the fire, Cade turned to Travis. "Was there anything down there when you had those planks replaced?"

  Travis scratched his head, trying to remember even as Juanita began searching for loose boards.

  "I wasn't always here while they were working. Nobody told me about any box."

  "Lily, I'll send Roy in to pull up the planks. Travis and I are going to ride out and take a look around. I don't like the way Ollie was plying that whiskey bottle. Something's meant to happen, and they don't want us ready for it."

  Cade gathered up his rifle and ammunition as he spoke, and Lily felt the first real heartbeat of fear. "Maybe it would be safer if you stayed here instead of looking for trouble?" she suggested, knowing in advance that she would be refused.

  Cade gave her an impatient look. "I'm sending someone over to Langton's. He ought to at least be warned if there's t
rouble brewing. You can go over there if you get worried."

  Like hell she would. Lily kept her sentiments to herself as she watched the men gather instruments of war and head out. She would be damned if they would push her out of events this time. This was her home, and she would defend it as fiercely as they.

  Roy had been eating in the bunkhouse with the men, but he appeared now with a crowbar and began prying at the planks under Lily's direction. It didn't seem possible that the men would have nailed new planks over a metal box and left it undisturbed, but they would have to see. If it wasn't there, then someone had removed it without informing Travis. That did not bode well at all.

  While Lily worried over the deed, Cade directed his men to their positions with the authority of a general before a battle. Some of the hands had been hired since the rebellion and didn't understand the need to jump when Cade said jump. They tended to argue, but they shut up when Cade swung his rifle up and unrolled his whip. No one had ever seen Cade use the rifle or whip, but just looking at the big man wielding them was sufficient to convince them he would. The new men rode out with the same haste as the old.

  Cade turned to Travis, who waited on his horse for his orders. "I have to stay here near the women and meet any unexpected visitors. You'll have to be the one to go to my father. If there are strangers around, he'll know. Do you think that smooth tongue of yours can get the message across?"

  "I know about as much Spanish or Apache as you know Latin, but if those brothers of yours are around, I'll make myself understood. The fiendish little devils know about as much English as I do, I'd wager."

  Cade hadn't really thought about it, but it wasn't a wager he'd take. His brothers were clever enough to keep their mouths shut and let the white men make fools of themselves. He nodded and let Travis ride off across the prairie toward the woods and river.