Lily gave Rupert a look fit to strip the fur from a bear’s hide. “My brother will be happy to explain,” she said. And then she marched into the house, climbed the stairs, and locked herself in her room.
When she came down to breakfast the next morning Rupert was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping coffee.
“What are derstaning here?” Lily asked inhospitably. “I’ve come to say good-bye.”
Lily was chagrined. “You mean you’re leaving? Just like that?”
Rupert nodded. “I’ve got a school to run, remember?” He paused to waggle a finger. “Don’t forget your promise—you’ll come home immediately when things go wrong.”
Lily was stung by his certainty that she would fail, but she wasn’t about to argue. He was letting her stay and try to achieve her dream, that was the important thing. “I promise,” she said softly. “And I’ll write often.”
Rupert reached out to squeeze her hand. “That would be nice.”
Lily had been wondering about something most of the night. “How did you find me?”
“The postmaster told me you were here.”
Lily nodded. Of course. Some of the letters she’d written to the marshals of various towns in Washington Territory must have passed through Spokane. “You’ve really been very understanding, considering,” she ventured to say.
Rupert smiled. “I only want you to be happy, Lily. Happy and safe.”
Lily thought of the lonely winter nights she would spend on her farm, with the wolves and the wind howling in the darkness, and she shivered.
“What is it?” Rupert asked, alarmed.
Lily reassured him with a soft chuckle. “It’s nothing.”
That morning when the stagecoach set out for Spokane, Rupert was on it. Lily was left with a lonely feeling that would have been all-encompassing if she hadn’t had the officers’ ball to look forward to. That was going to be the adventure of a lifetime.
Charlie hadn’t completely forgiven Lily for upsetting his routine the way she had, and he was cranky and demanding all through her first shift.
When she arrived at the rooming house that night, however, there was a parcel lying in the middle of the bed. The return address said simply, Tibbet. Fort Deveraux, W. T.
Overcome with curiosity, Lily tore away the twine and ripped open the package.
Inside the box was a lovely gown of lavendar lawn. The sleeves were puffy, trimmed with the most delicate lace imaginable, and the neckline, while certainly within the bounds of propriety, was anything but demure.
Lily scrambled to the cracked mirror over her bureau, holding the glorious dress to her bosom. The pale amethyst color was becoming, at least in the dim light of her room.
She pulled off the calico dress she’d worn to work and carefully put on the dancing gown. Except for being a fraction too large at the waist and several inches too long, it fit her perfectly.
She whirled, imagining herself in Major Halliday’s arms, looking up into those wonderful, impudent, whiskey-colored eyes of his….
Lily stopped. She was going to have to be careful not to forget that Caleb’s intentions were not honorable. To him she was just an amusement, something to play with. His interest in her was as selfish and thoughtless as Isadora’s had been.
With a sigh, still holding the dress, Lily sat down on the edge of her bed. For all of that, Caleb was haunting her waking moments as well as her sleep. For instance, this afternoon, when she’d been helping Charlie bake dried apple pies, she’d gone right ahead and imagined what it would be like to lie in bed with Major Halliday.
Lily’s cheeks burned at the memory. Mortified, she stood up quickly and went downstairs to borrow Mrs. McAllister’s sewing basket. She concentrated hard on altering the lavender gown until she couldn’t see clearly anymore, then tumbled into bed and dreamed that she was hoeing corn in her own garden.
She backed along the row, hoeing and hoeing, until she collided with the scarecrow. When she looked, Caleb was standing there in the scarecrow’s clothes, smiling down at her. He swept her into his arms and kissed her, and Lily didn’t resist.
In fact, she awakened with a start, breathing hard and feeling an embarrassing ache deep in her middle. It was a pain she didn’t understand, except for the surety that Caleb would know how to ease it.
Lily sat up in bed, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her chin on her knees. The room was bathed in moonlight, and the lavender gown, carefully hung beside the door, seemed enchanted. She could almost believe it would leap down from the peg all on its own and dance around the room.
With a sigh Lily crawled to the foot of her bed and looked out the window. She could see the neighboring houses clear as day, and the sky seemed to be bursting with stars, all competing to see which could shine brightest.
She got up, found the box of French chocolates where she’d hidden it in her bureau drawer, and lifted the lid. After helping herself to a bonbon she crawled back into bed, taking the candy with her.
The chocolate melted on her tongue, and Lily sighed with contentment. She wondered why Caleb had been so uncomfortable when she’d eaten that first piece of candy. Wasn’t that why he’d given it to her, to eat?
With a shrug Lily took another chocolate from the box and popped it into her mouth, where she rolled it slowly from one cheek to the other. Then she let it rest in the center of her mouth, sucking gently so the flavor would last. Men were such strange, incomprehensible creatures, giving a lady a present and then tugging at their collars and squirming in their seats just because she enjoyed it.
When she saw Caleb again on Saturday she’d ask him to explain. Smiling, Lily put the candy box away and stretched out to sleep.
Chapter
4
The stockade stood on a high, grassy butte, rising like a castle of pine logs against the cloudless blue expanse of the sky. Daisies grew around its base, resembling a fluffy white moat. Between the hard-packed ruts that made a road of sorts, yellow and scarlet monkey flowers nodded in the spring breeze.
Lily drew her head back inside the stagecoach and sat up a lite straighter on the hard seat. In another few minutes she was going to see Caleb again.
Not that she was excited.
She loosened the strings of her new yellow bonnet, which matched her dress. “We’re almost there,” she said to the soldier who sat facing her.
The man’s expression revealed a distinct lack of enthusiasm. “I surely did miss that place,” he drawled, pushing back his billed hat to an impudent angle.
In the distance a bugle sounded, and Lily looked out again to see men in blue coats moving along the parapets. The great doors of the stockade opened inward as the stagecoach approached.
“You here to do laundry for the men, ma’am?” the soldier asked, taking in Lily’s trim dandelion-yellow dress. All during the trip he hadn’t said two words, but now, apparently, he wanted to make conversation.
Lily shook her head. “I’ve been invited to the officers’ ball.”
The thin, wiry corporal leaned forward on his seat. He was not a comely man, with his unfortunate complexion and discolored teeth, and the smell of his clothes made Lily wish she hadn’t spoken to him. “Whose lady are you? You look to be the sort Lieutenant Costner might pick. Or maybe Cap’n Phillips.”
Lily tugged at her gloves—part of the getup she’d spent some of her precious savings to buy—and squared her shoulders. “I am the guest of Major Caleb Halliday, if that is any concern of yours.”
The soldier sat back abruptly, bumping his hat askew. “I’m really sorry if I aggravated you, ma’am,” he said quickly. “I surely didn’t mean to.”
The stage was rolling through the open gates of the fort, and Lily had better things to think about than some soldier’s poor manners. Pleased that she had been able to put the man in his place with so little effort, she tied her bonnet strings again and neatened the skirts of her dress.
Looking out the window, she saw that Fort Deveraux was a small city u
nto itself; there was a store and a post office, and a few well-dressed women wheeled wicker baby carriages along the wooden sidewalks.
The stage driver stopped the coach in front of a small building with flags on either side of its door and almost immediately came back to assist Lily. He was a good-looking dark-haired man with a manly mustache and laughing brown eyes, and he doffed his battered, dusty hat as she alighted.
“I’ll be looking forward to having you ride with us again, miss,” he said easily.
Lily smiled at him, allowing him to help her onto the sidewalk.
Gertrude Tibbet was waiting for her, accompanied by a strikingly attractive woman with dark hair who looked vaguely familiar. There was no sign of Caleb, though. Lily was careful to hide her disappointment.
“Hello, Lily,” Mrs. Tibbet said fondly. “I’d like to introduce you to my niece, Sandra Halliday.”
“Hello,” Lily said, suddenly feeling so awkward that she wished she could get on the stage again and head straight back to Tylville. It might be coincidence that Sandra’s last name was the same as Caleb’s, but a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach said it wasn’t.
“You were expecting Caleb, I know,” Sandra said soothingly, and in that moment Lily remembered her. She was the woman who had come into Tylerville on the same stage as Rupert nearly a week before. “I’m afraid only the army can depend on him. The rest of us have to take our chances.”
“Sandra,” Mrs. Tibbet scolded good-naturedly.
Sandra pointed an elegantly gloved finger toward the parade grounds, which were across the road from where they stood. “There he is. He does make a dashing figure, doesn’t he?”
Lily’s legs were cramped from the long ride in the stagecoach, but she forgot such annoyances as she watched the troops moving in skillful, ever-changing patterns, like bits of blue glass in a kaleidoscope. Caleb was their commander; he rode the familiar black gelding, and it danced beneath him as he shouted orders.
Forgetting Mrs. Tibbet and Sandra, at least for the moment, Lily crossed the road to stand at the edge of the parade grounds. She took off her bonnet to let the breeze cool her scalp and the back of her neck.
A column of soldiers had been riding toward her in perfect order, but in the instant when Lily removed her bonnet everything went awry. The fellow in the lead seemed to forget all about the drill.
Every semblance of order was thrown to the winds as the young man, whooping and hollering, galloped toward Lily. His blue cap flew off his head and was trampled by the mounts of the other men of his humble rank, who approached her just as eagerly.
Lily retreated a step, fearing she’d be run down, and it was then that her eyes pivoted to the imperious man with yellow stripes down the sides of his trousers.
Caleb gave another order, and the half-dozen deserters reined their horses around and returned to rank. They remained in formation, their backs rigid, their gazes fixed straight ahead, while their commanding officer rode toward Lily.
He touched the brim of his campaign hat with a gloved hand and spoke to her in an abrupt voice. “God knows I’m glad to see you, Lily,” he said, though his expression belied his words, “but you shouldn’t be here. You’re distracting the men.”
Color blossomed in Lily’s cheeks. “I expected you to meet my stagecoach, since you said you would.”
Caleb sighed and resettled his hat, even though it had looked perfectly all right in the first place. “I thought it would be better if Mrs. Tibbet did that.”
Lily nodded stiffly. Perhaps she’d presumed too much. After all, the major had never pretended that his feelings were noble. For that matter, neither were hers; she was using Caleb, just as he had planned to use her. “I’m sure you’re right,” she said, starting to turn away.
He stopped her with a low murmur. “You look like spring sunshine in that dress.”
She wet her lips nervously with the end of her tongue. No answer came to her beyond a muttered, grudging “Thank you.”
“I’ll see you later, at the Tibbets’.” With that, Caleb touched the brim of his hat briefly and then turned and rode back to his men.
Mrs. Tibbet and her niece had crossed the road, Lily discovered, and were standing only a few feet away. Sandra held the handle of Lily’s ancient carpetbag in both hands.
“That was quite a show the men just put on,” said Sandra. “I wouldn’t be in their shoes right now for anything.”
Feeling vaguely alarmed, Lily turned her head and saw Caleb riding alongside the column of transgressors. Although his voice didn’t carry, she knew the men were being reprimanded, and she felt partially responsible for their severe circumstances. “What will he do to them?” she asked, worried.
Gertrude Tibbet touched her arm. “Turn them into some of the finest soldiers in the United States Army,” she said reassuringly. “Come, Lily. Let’s go and get you settled. No doubt you’re ready for some tea and a good long chat.”
Lily glanced back at Caleb once more before walking away with Mrs. Tibbet and Sandra.
“Auntie tells me that Caleb has taken quite a shine to you, Lily,” Sandra remarked as the three women strolled beneath trees that were just sprouting spring leaves.
“Now, Sandra, Miss Chalmers is our guest.” Mrs. Tibbet linked her arm with Lily’s. “Don’t be baiting her.”
Sandra laughed, and the sound was musical. “Stop fussing, Auntie,” she said. “I’m not going to say anything scandalous.”
Lily felt as though she were standing on the edge of a high precipice. She could no longer bear the suspense. “You have the same last name as Caleb,” she said.
Sandra was quiet for a moment, then she put a friendly arm around Lily. “I’ll probably get three days in the stockade for this,” she said, “but somebody should have told you, and it’s obvious no one has. Caleb and I used to be married.”
Lily was speechless, even though she’d suspected the truth from the moment she’d been introduced to Sandra.
Mrs. Tibbet stopped in front of a two-story shuttered house with awakening rosebushes in the yard. She opened the gate for them to step through. “No one will ever accuse you of being subtle, my dear,” she said to her niece.
Lily was wondering if it was too late to get back on the stagecoach and go home. What kind of situation was this?
Sandra gave her a little push through the gateway. “Don’t worry, Lily—much as I’d like to, I’m probably not going to offer any competition for Caleb’s affections. I’m out of his good graces, you see.”
“Sandra!” Mrs. Tibbet protested, and this time she sounded as though she meant it.
Sandra said no more, but she was still smiling.
“Perhaps I should just go back to Tylerville,” Lily said uneasily.
Mrs. Tibbet was advancing up the porch steps, holding her billowing skirts in her hands. She used just one word to dispense with Lily’s idea. “Nonsense.”
“But…”
The front door was opened, and Lily followed Mrs. Tibbet inside.
“You’d think it would concern Caleb that you and I are here together, wouldn’t you?” Sandra chimed as they entered a cluttered parlor. There were framed photographs on every surface, and potted palms stood in the corners.
“Why should it?” Lily asked crisply.
Mrs. Tibbet waved at her niece in a dismissive fashion. “Give me that satchel, Sandra,” she said, her tone impatient. “I’ll show Lily to her room, and you can make tea. While you’re at it, my dear, you might meditate on the wisdom of interfering where you don’t belong.”
Sandra sighed dramatically and swept off in a rush of fashionable skirts toward the back of the house.
“Caleb should have told me,” Lily said forlornly when she and Mrs. Tibbet were alone in the room that had apparently been selected for the major’s guest.
Mrs. Tibet set the carpetbag on a little chest at the foot of an attractive brass and ivory bed. The colorful quilt cheered Lily; it was just the kind of thing she planne
d to have when she moved into a house of her own. “Yes, he should have,” she agreed with a little sigh. “Knowing Caleb, I would guess that it never occurred to him. He doesn’t quite think of Sandra in the way a man usually does of a former wife.”
Mystified, Lily sat down on the edge of the bed. Divorce was almost unheard of. How could Caleb have such a casual attitude toward Sandra that he wouldn’t even take the trouble to mention her? “Wh-what happened between them?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to ask Caleb and Sandra about that. Just keep in mind that they have very different versions.”
Lily wanted more than ever to go back to Tylerville and forget she’d ever met Major Halliday. One night at a ball wasn’t worth such humiliation. “Which of them should I believe?”
Mrs. Tibbet paused at the door of Lily’s room and smiled. “Why, both of them, my dear. They’re equally truthful—it’s just that things of this nature are so much a matter of perspective.”
Lily was more baffled than ever, but asking more questions obviously wasn’t going to get her anywhere. After Mrs. Tibbet had gone she opened her valise, carefully removed the precious lavender dress, and hung it inside the oak wardrobe.
She sat down in a rocking chair beside the window, looking out at the bustling fort and wondering if Rupert’s parents had been right about her. They’d always said she didn’t have the sense God gave a doorpost.
And now here she was, in a stranger’s guest room, looking forward to an evening with a man brazen enough to say outright that he wanted her for a mistress, a man who hadn’t troubled to tell her that he just happened to have a spare wife who’d be staying in the same house.
“Caroline,” Lily said in a whisper, “what should I do#8220;Wh-21;
Her sister wasn’t there to answer, of course, but Lily longed for her. Caroline had always known what to do about everything. Wherever her eldest sister was, Lily felt sure she’d grown into a woman of firm opinions.
There was a soft knock at the door, and then Sandra stepped in. She was truly a vision in her white cotton dress trimmed in eyelet, with her luscious dark hair and spirited eyes. She’d probably broken Caleb’s heart, and he didn’t talk about her because he couldn’t.
Lily and the Major Page 7