"Shoot anytime you're ready, gentleman. It's only a stinking Indian after all."
Cade held his rifle loosely at his side, but his focus was entirely on Ricardo. "Order them to shoot, if you like, but I'll take you with me before I go."
"Don't be ridiculous. Remember, I saw you vomit your guts out when you had to shoot that horse back in Gonzales. You couldn't shoot a jackrabbit if you wanted to." Ricardo drew a cigar from his jacket pocket and calmly cut the tip.
"I had to shoot that horse because your renegades let it loose to stampede over a child. If you'll remember correctly, I was drunk at the time. I'm not drunk now, Ricardo. But if you don't believe I'll shoot, let me warn you that half the town is behind me. You'll not get away with one of your back door assassinations this time."
Three guns were suddenly lowered while their owners checked over his shoulders. Cade obligingly stepped aside, and the room began to fill.
Alarm flared in Ricardo's dark eyes before they shuttered closed again. "Welcome, gentlemen. To what do I owe this honor? I must warn you that I try to stay out of local politics. My only position here is that of land agent for the government."
Cade held the floor. "I have a man back at my house with a bullet through his middle who is prepared to testify that you ordered the raid on my place tonight. He also mentioned an additional bonus for my death, Ricardo. That's conspiracy to murder, and it's a hanging offense under any law that I know."
"A man with a bullet in his gut will say anything. Your alcalde and I have merely been working late tonight to finish up these records so I can move on. I suggest you come up with a better story than that if you wish to strike fear into my heart."
Ricardo rose and rifled through a stack of papers on the table, producing the one that he wanted and handing it to Ralph Langton, the oldest and most responsible man present. "There's the real reason that my friend here is out to cut my throat. It's a will deeding my father's ranch to me instead of to him."
Cade shook his head in disbelief. If Ricardo weren't so much smaller than he, he would strike him now and save his breath. "I'm beginning to think that you actually believe your own lies. These men have only to go back and consult with my grandfather to learn that I drew up his will last spring. You inherit your mother's dowry, as he told you. The ranch is mine, and in the event of my demise, it goes to my heirs. And as a precaution against your taking out your vengeance on Lily and her children, he leaves the ranch to the town of Bexar should anything prevent their inheriting. A copy of that will has been filed in Bexar so they know to make their claim. Try again, Ricardo."
Langton shredded the piece of paper in his hands, and a nervous twitch worked at Ricardo's jaw but his retort was scornful. "I am sure these men will be able to ascertain your lies soon enough, but in the meantime, there is no excuse for this conduct. I have done nothing for which I can be held. I think that it is time that you leave."
"But I'm not done with you yet." Cade lifted his rifle as a reminder. "I want you to tell all these good folks how Jim Brown came to die by a white man's arrow in his back, just like that poor sodbuster back in Galveston."
"You've taken leave of your senses now." Ricardo scowled at Cade. "You murdered that farmer. Everyone in Galveston knows that. His money was never recovered. You never did explain where you got yours."
There was an angry murmur, but it settled as Cade spoke. He didn't raise his voice, but the deadly menace of his tone carried through the room. "I may have been born half-Apache, Ricardo, but I was raised white. I can't hit the broad side of a barn with an arrow. I've always preferred rifles as more efficient. You might have noticed that if you'd paid more attention to details. That farmer was shot by the same renegade who shot Jim Brown, the same man who tried to take my scalp tonight and got a bullet through his gut for his efforts. The man swore to it in front of witnesses, and I've got another witness who says he saw him shoot Brown. Your imitation Indian also swears you paid him to commit both murders."
"What would I have to gain from murdering farmers?" Ricardo asked over the growing anger forming around them.
"Their land and your money back. I earned my money honestly, but you're carrying a pocket of Tennessee coins that the first farmer meant use to increase his acreage—until he discovered you sold him nothing but swamp. And now his land belongs to you, just as you thought Brown's land would become yours with a little persuasion. I'm tired of arguing with you, Ricardo. We'll let someone else judge whether you ought to hang."
"I'm damned well not going to hang for you or anyone else. Ollie Clark is the one who wanted Brown's land, along with the widow. You'll not nail any of this on me."
Ollie elbowed his way to the front with a roar of rage. "You bastard! I wanted land all right, but I didn't go shooting poor Jim to get it. For what it's worth, Dixon and I will testify against you, but if you had Jim killed, I'm all for hanging you now."
That seemed to be the consensus, and the crowd surged forward.
Finally realizing that logic wouldn’t win over rage, Ricardo ran for the passage leading into the store.
A shot rang out, and he jerked, then fell sprawling to the floor.
Langton turned in suspicion to Cade, but Cade, was leaning on his weapon, staring at the fallen man with disbelief. The only smoking gun in the room was Ollie's.
Chapter 39
Long streaks of baby blue and gold colored the eastern horizon behind the collection of weary riders trailing down the San Antonio road. Of the two dozen who had set out from town, several had dropped along the wayside to spread the news, and others had ridden in to take their place.
It didn't look like there was going to be a hanging, but a town meeting of some sort needed to be called. But the man who had the most right to call for a trial and jury had no intention of lingering in town longer than necessary. That being the case, the others followed him home. The extent of the night's destruction needed to be investigated and repaired and the whole story discussed until some decision could be reached.
Not caring if the whole damned town followed him, Cade set his eyes hungrily on the cabin he called home. Smoke rose in a gray column from the chimney, although the day already promised to be another Texas boiler. His glance went to the ruined kitchen, and he judged the cooking had been moved to the cabin, but he urged his mount a little faster. He needed to know that the night had had no other disastrous consequences.
A small figure flew out the front door at his approach, and Cade's heart nearly stopped in his chest. Jumping from his horse, he grabbed Roy as the boy threw himself into his arms.
"Papa, Mama's calling for you! Hurry!"
Terror all but froze Cade in place. Over Roy's head, Cade saw Travis leap from his horse. Giving Roy a hug, Cade tried to calm the boy's fears along with his own. "I will go to her."
Looking at the man who had stood beside him as friend these long months, seeing Travis's dismay as another man was addressed by the title he craved, Cade asked, "Roy, you know I am not your true father?"
The boy looked over Cade's shoulder to the man who looked so like himself and nodded.
"Then go to him while I see to your mother." Cade didn't stop to see the light in Travis's eyes as Roy made his first tentative steps in acknowledging his real father. Holding on to his rampaging fears, Cade tried to take a dignified pace toward the cabin.
But the sight of two young Indians guarding the dogtrot sent him into a distinctly undignified run.
The men behind him were already raising their rifles, but Travis waved them down. At the same time, a gaunt old Spaniard limped into the morning sun from the main cabin, and the men from town were treated to yet another curiosity. Silver buckles and spurs gleamed in the sunlight as the old man called to someone behind him, and Juanita stepped out in her best finery, bracelets ringing on her wrists and silver sparkling at her throat. Sedately following this vision came an old Indian in full tribal dress, tattoos scarring his torso and shoulders, loincloth fringed and beaded, hair looped
and feathered and hanging to one shoulder. He remained aloof on the porch, arms crossed over his mighty chest, while Juanita and Antonio joined the men in the yard.
Ignoring their astonished audience, Antonio spoke directly to Travis. "Lily sent your woman out. She says Juanita would never wish to have a child if she watched now."
Juanita glared at Travis, although she swished her skirts and boldly walked up to confront him. "I shall never have children," she declared firmly. "Why go through such pain just to bring another man into the world?"
Wiping his dusty brow with the back of his arm, Travis looked away from the old Indian on the porch and down at Juanita, grinning widely as he looked her up and down.
Her brown skin glinted with golden highlights in the dawn, and the loose neck of her lacy blouse revealed more than was necessary of the narrow valley between her breasts. He had finally been treated to more than just a glimpse of that delight last night, before the raid, and even in his weariness he couldn't control his surge of lust.
"Where would women be if they did not have men to cook for and to warm their beds and to fill their bellies with bonnie babes? And look what fun you'd miss." With one quick grab, Travis hauled Juanita into his arms before she could escape, and he assuaged some of his hunger with the feel of her ripe body pressed into his and her lips opening beneath his kiss.
Several of the younger men whooped. Ralph Langton removed his hat and climbed down from his horse, holding out his hand to Antonio. "I don't believe we've met, senor. I'm Ralph Langton. I take it Lily's having the babe?"
Antonio accepted the offered hand and threw a proud look over his shoulder to the cabin Cade had entered. "I am about to become a great-grandfather. I have promised the young ones a fiesta. Come inside and we will begin the celebrations."
Leading Langton to the impassive Indian on the porch, Antonio made introductions in Spanish. "Cade's father, El Caballo—Cade's friend, Ralph Langton."
White man and red stared at each other. El Caballo offered a stern nod. Langton held out his hand. Serena darted between them and held up a cornhusk doll in beaded leather, waving it happily at the tall Indian who was the only grandfather she would ever know. The Indian obediently crouched to pick her up and, holding this bundle of sunshine, solemnly offered his hand to Langton. Juanita hurried past them to fill plates for the starving men who were spilling from their saddles and pouring in and around the main cabin.
Ignoring the entire chaotic spectacle, Cade entered the bedroom just in time to watch Lily struggle with the pain of a long contraction.
"She is not yet ready," Dove Woman informed him in her language.
Cade scarcely heard her. He was afraid to touch Lily as she pulled at the headboard spindles, her beautiful face twisting with pain as the child moved within her. Even now, when the pain ceased and she rested, Cade feared to come between her and her fierce concentration on the child. But his panic was great watching Dove Woman wipe the perspiration from Lily's brow.
"Ricardo?" Lily gasped when she finally found the breath.
"He was killed trying to escape." The words sounded flat and stale instead of resounding with the triumph he should have felt. Ricardo's death had no importance in the face of the birth of new life happening here. Cade struggled helplessly for words to convey his feelings, but Lily was already straining against another pain.
"Why does it not come?" he demanded sharply of Dove Woman, who was merely sitting cross-legged on the floor, humming to herself.
"Because it is not time," she repeated.
"But it is killing her! Look how she suffers. We must do something." Cade paced, throwing anxious looks at Lily as she took a deep breath and released the bed once more.
"You had better go out with the others, Cade. There is nothing you can do to speed the child's coming." Not understanding the actual words between Cade and Dove Woman, Lily understood their content.
"I will fetch Travis. He will give you something for the pain."
Before Cade could start for the door, Lily gave a groan of pure agony, and Dove Woman unhurriedly rose from the floor.
"She is in pain! Santa Maria, do something!" Cade dropped to his knees beside the bed and tried to lift Lily into his arms, but she reached for the bed rails.
"Send him out," Dove Woman enunciated in clear Spanish when Lily rested once more. "It will save pain for both."
Lily looked up at Cade's anguished expression, startled by the immense emotion displayed for the first time on his usually implacable features, and her heart took two leaps and a jump before settling more calmly in her chest.
"Leave, Cade. There is nothing more you can do here," she said softly.
"How can I leave?" he cried. "I have done this to you. I would take the pain away." As Lily's eyes closed with the onset of the next contraction, Cade panicked. "Lily, I can't lose you! Lily, please..."
Dove Woman went to the door and murmured to the two boys waiting outside. The eldest looked rebellious at her words, but he disappeared into the opposite cabin. Moments later, he returned with Travis.
Travis pounded on the closed bedroom door and shouted, "Cade, get your royal ass out here before I have to come in and get you!"
Lily's eyes blinked open, and she half smiled at this command. "Go, Cade. You can't bring the child any faster."
"I can't leave you here to suffer alone." Cade touched her brow, unwilling to form even in his mind the words for the fear he felt. He had just watched a man die, but it was Lily’s pain that was ripping him apart, tearing down the walls of his heart and soul.
"I wish there was music," Lily whispered, surrendering to the pain once again.
Cade caught the wish even as Travis slammed into the room, gun in hand to order him out.
"Cade, damn you, the women want you out!" Travis shouted.
Seeing only an obstruction between himself and the means to satisfy Lily's wish, Cade coolly knocked Travis's gun aside, floored him with a single punch, and stepping over his friend's fallen body, walked out the door.
In the yard, men turned to find the source of the commotion, but Cade was already half running toward the paddock and the oxen grazing there.
Hearing Travis's shouts and seeing Cade running, two men stepped into his path to halt his progress. Cade plowed his fist into the belly of one, the jaw of another, and broke into a full run.
Cade had the oxen out of the paddock and heading for the wagon before the rest of the crowd barreled around the corner of the house. As Travis stumbled out of the cabin shouting, Ollie dived full length at Cade's legs, causing him to stagger but not to fall.
Langton ordered two of his men to help hold Cade while El Caballo sent his young sons to their brother's rescue.
Cade roared and flung aside his attackers like so much chaff in the wind. Snatching up harness, he wrestled the animals into position.
"Hell and tarnation, man, you can't leave your wife while she's havin' your babe!" Red shouted as the two Indian boys jumped on the back of the oxen and to help Cade fasten the harness.
Jerking a rifle from the man nearest, Cade leapt to the wagon seat and glared defiantly at the gathering crowd. "My wife wants music," was the only explanation he gave as he grabbed the reins and swatted the animals into motion.
Men rubbing sore jaws and aching bellies grumbled at this idiocy, but a light leapt to Travis's eyes. Turning to a sullen Ollie, he demanded, "You still got that piano of yours?"
Having felt like a prisoner on trial since the shooting, Ollie regarded the question suspiciously. "It's there. Ain't anybody gonna steal it real easily."
Leaping to the back of the wagon before it could gather speed, Travis grabbed Cade by the back of the shirt. "You go build a kitchen. We'll find Lily some music."
Before Cade could swing at Travis, Red jumped in to grab his arm and jerk it down while the other ranch hands hurried to hold the oxen. A holiday mood had taken over as the men washed the night away with a bottle of Travis's medicinal whiskey. Anticipating a
brawl, they joined Travis in dragging a struggling Cade from the wagon seat. Landing in the dust, pinned by half a dozen men, Cade roared and fought like a wild man while the wagon rolled off with a party of jubilant piano-seekers.
When they finally allowed him to his feet, Cade could only stare after the departing wagon. His clothes were coated with dust and sweat poured from his brow. He ran his hand through his hair and left a streak across his cheekbone.
In a state of shock, Cade stared at the dust of the wagon and back to the cabin. One of his brothers shoved a flute into his hand, and he looked at it blankly. As the muffled screams from the bedroom fell into a momentary silence, Cade shuddered, closed his fist around the instrument, and stalked determinedly back to the dogtrot.
Sitting cross-legged in the shadow of the breezeway, Cade began to play. The air filled with a wildly haunting melody for which there was no written music, a sound that caused gooseflesh to rise on the arms of his listeners. Serena crawled into his lap and bounced her head against his chest in time to the tune, and the music took on a new note, a sweetness that pierced the heart. Cade's father and grandfather and half brothers kept vigil with him, and the music encompassed them in its wild dissonance. Juanita supplied them with lemonade and spicy tortillas, and in the yard Travis took charge of repairing the kitchen.
Lily heard the flute through a haze of pain and smiled. She continued smiling as the morning advanced and the child still did not come. The erratic, haunting tunes Cade began with gradually became wilder and less stable. Dove Woman looked out the window, shook her head, and commented "Much people," before returning to tending her patient.
Cade's playing grew increasingly frantic with the frequency of Lily's muffled screams. Finally, reduced to dance tunes, he switched from one to another and back again without noticing. Lily tried to keep up with them as she bit a rag to hide her pain. Just as she felt the baby move into position, she heard a wild cheer in the yard, and her screams miraculously became mixed with the tinkling notes of a piano.
Texas Lily Page 34