Lily folded her arms. “I’ll be at my brother Rupert’s house on Division Street,” she said, though a moment later she regretted sharing the information.
Bianca had taken a handkerchief from her bag, and she was drying her eyes with it. Her shoulders trembled slightly as she wept.
“Rascal,” Lily said to Caleb, wrenching the door closed. “Fiend!”
“Lily!” Caleb shouted.
Sam yelled to the horses, and the coach raced into motion. Lily moved to sit beside Bianca and lay one hand on her shoulder.
“Caleb was the man you wanted to marry,” she said quietly, bracing herself for the reply even though she knew full well what it would be.
“Yes,” Bianca sniffled. “And I have a feeling you’re the woman he favored over me.”
Lily’s emotions were a welter of confusion. She didn’t know whether to be furious with Caleb or to disregard the incident completely. After all, she had made no promises, and neither had Caleb. It wasn’t as though he had betrayed her. And yet she hated to think of him loving any other woman in the same intimate ways he’d loved her.
“Well?” Bianca prompted when Lily didn’t answer immediately. “Aren’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Lily replied.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
Lily sighed. “I have no claim on Major Halliday’s affections, Bianca. Nor do I want one.” She spoke from her mind, overruling the distinctly separate dictates of her heart.
Bianca began to cry again. “You can’t possibly know how wonderful it was, being held in his arms….”
A stab of pain went through Lily, but she weathered it with no change in her expression. “If you truly love him, perhaps you shouldn’t go.”
Bianca shook her head. “Once the major’s mind is set, there’s no turning back. Caleb married without love once, but he’d never do it again. He was too unhappy.”
Lily remembered Sandra saying that Caleb’s mind couldn’t be changed by a blast of dynamite once he’d made it up on a subject, and she had a hunch both women were right. Caleb was the most hardheaded man oearth.
“He must love you,” Bianca went on brokenly, “if he’d follow you all this way.”
Lily shook her head. She couldn’t bear for Bianca’s words to be true, or for them to be a lie. She wished she’d never met Caleb Halliday, never danced with him, never eaten his chocolates and appeased his needs. “He’s just angry because I didn’t obey his orders,” she said finally. “My guess is that he’ll ride back to Fort Deveraux and forget all about me.”
Bianca shook her head. “Not Caleb. The gates of hell itself won’t stop him if he wants you.”
Lily didn’t know what to say to that, so she just patted Bianca’s hand and kept silent until the stagecoach had come to a stop in front of the Grand Hotel.
“I truly hope you’ll be happy,” she said when she and Bianca had both alighted. Caleb was standing at a distance, she saw at once, looking miserably uncomfortable. Sam Hargrave was hauling baggage down from the top of the coach.
Bianca nodded and kissed Lily’s cheek. Then, with one unreadable look at Caleb, she hurried into the hotel.
Lily immediately stormed over to Caleb. She couldn’t let on that, against her better judgment, she was glad to see him. “You’ve broken that poor woman’s heart,” she accused.
“I told you I kept a mistress before we met,” Caleb answered, sounding a little defensive for all his recalcitrant stance. His uniform, usually so impeccable, was crumpled and covered with dust. “And I told her that we’d never be married.”
“I don’t think we have to discuss this on the street.” Lily’s voice and manner were prim as she turned away to claim her single valise. She smiled at Sam. “Thank you, Mr. Hargrave, for a very comfortable ride.”
Sam grinned at Lily and lifted his battered hat. “Any time you want to travel with us, Miss Lily, we’ll be more than happy to have you.”
Caleb was grumbling about something when Lily took her valise from Sam and started off down the street. It wasn’t far to Rupert’s house.
“Just a damn minute,” Caleb barked, bringing her up short with a quick grasp on her elbow. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To my brother’s home,” Lily replied, her chin high. “Kindly unhand me, Major. If you don’t, I’ll scream.”
Reluctantly Caleb let go of Lily’s arm. He swept his hat off his head and then put it back on again in a single furious motion. “I want to know what you’re doing here,” he hissed, keeping up with Lily’s short strides easily when she set out for Rupert’s home.
Wagons and buggies rattled by on the brick street, and Lily indulged in a secret smile. “I’ve become a woman of means, Caleb,” she said, still walking briskly. By that time he’d taken her valise, so she swung her arms at her sides. “I’m going to buy all the things I need to homestead my land.”
“That’s crazy. Who’s goin to protect you from Indians and outlaws?”
“I am,” Lily answered without pause, though inside she didn’t feel so confident. “I suppose I’ll marry one day, though.”
Caleb swore softly. “Fine. Marry anybody you want to,” he snapped.
“Thank you,” Lily replied in a dulcet tone. “I will.” She turned onto a side street, and her spirits lifted because she could see Rupert’s small house in the distance.
“Tell me where you got the money for this harebrained project!” Caleb demanded.
Lily looked up at him out of the corner of her eye. “I sold myself to every man on the post,” she whispered. “I let them do everything you’ve ever done.”
Caleb was practically apoplectic. “I’m warning you, Lily Chalmers—”
“Of what?”
Just as Lily would have entered Rupert’s front gate Caleb caught hold of her again. He dropped the valise to the ground and gripped her by both shoulders. “Tell me.”
Lily sighed. “I don’t know exactly where the money came from, Caleb,” she said moderately. “My mother sent it. Apparently her circumstances improved considerably after she got rid of us. Now, since I’ve answered your question—and may I say it was none of your business in the first place—will you stop carrying on in public?”
Caleb glowered at her and let go of her arm. “We have to talk.”
Lily worked the gate latch. “Why?”
“Because when you go in there you’re going to find out that I’ve been here asking questions, that’s why.”
Lily’s hand froze in midair. “What?”
“I’ve hired a Pinkerton man to look for your sisters, Lily.”
Lily was stunned. “I told you—”
“That you didn’t want to be obligated. I know. But I wanted to do this for you, and I can afford it, so I went ahead.”
Before Lily could think of an answer, Rupert appeared in the doorway of the little frame house and shouted gleefully, “Lily! What brings you here?” He gave Caleb a friendly smile. “Good to see you again, Major.”
While Lily was embracing her brother she was looking at Caleb and wondering. The man was such a mystery, one minute making love to her as though there could never be another woman for him, the next crossing the street to avoid her. He expected to dictate Lily’s comings and goings even though they were practically strangers, for all their intimacies, and he’d followed her all the way from Fort Deveraux to Spokane just to find out what she was doing.
He had to be loco.
Caleb touched the brim of his hat and nodded an acknowledgment to Rupert, then spoke to Lily in the clipped, authoritative tone she’d heard him use with his soldiers. “We’ll leave for the fort tomorrow,he announced.
“You may do whatever you please, Major,” Lily responded coldly, “but I’m staying here. I have business to attend to.”
“Shall I explain to your brother why I have a claim on you?” Caleb asked, his tone a mockery of indulgence.
Lily felt her face go hot as a stove stoked for cooking.
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Rupert looked pleasantly baffled. “Did I miss something here?”
Caleb relented just in time to save himself from a kick to the shins. “Tomorrow,” he repeated. And then he excused himself and started to walk away.
“Come back for supper!” Rupert called after him, and this time it was her brother Lily wanted to kick. “So,” he said, putting an arm around her shoulders and escorting her toward his small wooden house, “you’ve finally come to your senses and decided to settle down and make a real life for yourself. The major seems like a fine man to me.”
Lily wondered if Rupert had overlooked the fact that she and Caleb hated each other. “He’s a pompous, overbearing, bullying ass,” she replied.
Rupert grinned. “Just what you need,” he retorted.
As luck would have it, Caleb appeared at supper that night. His uniform had been shaken out and pressed, and his butterscotch hair gleamed with cleanliness. He brought Cuban cigars for Rupert and a delicate china figurine for Lily.
She looked at him in bewilderment, and he smiled at her as though there had been no disagreement at the front gate only a few hours earlier.
“I want to marry your sister,” he announced after he and Rupert had consumed the better part of a chicken, along with mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn, at the simple table in Rupert’s kitchen.
Lily had no illusions that Caleb meant what he said. It was just that even he wouldn’t have the gall to stand there flat-footed and tell Rupert he wanted to keep his sister as a mistress.
He and Rupert each took a cigar and lit up.
“Don’t I have anything to say about this?” Lily demanded, slamming the cast-iron skillet she’d been about to scour back onto the stove top.
Caleb leaned forward in the fog of blue smoke that curled between him and Rupert and said confidentially, “I’ve compromised her, you see. There’s nothing to do but tie the knot before she’s ruined.”
Lily would have exploded if she hadn’t been so surprised at Rupert’s reaction. He should have been angry—outraged, even—but he only sat back in his chair and puffed on that damnable cigar. “I see,” he said.
“I will not marry this—this pony soldier!” Lily raved. “He’s only fooling, anyway! Do you hear me, Rupert? There will be no wedding!”
Rupert assessed her thoughtfully. “Is it true that he’s compromised you?”
Lily’s face was red as an ember. She couldn’t have answered that question to save er life.
“There might be a child,” he reasoned. “Did you ever think of that?”
“Yes,” Caleb collaborated. “Did you ever think of that?”
Lily groped for a chair and sank into it. Pregnancy was a possibility she hadn’t once considered. She’d been too wrapped up in her problems for that. “Shut up, both of you,” she murmured, feeling ill.
“I think you’d better marry the major,” said Rupert.
“I think I’d sooner marry the devil,” countered Lily.
Caleb chuckled. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
Rupert frowned. “Personally, I think she needs a spanking.”
“I agree,” said Caleb.
“Will you two please stop talking about me as if I weren’t here? And it would take a bigger man than either of you to get the best of me.”
Caleb leaned forward in his chair. “Is that a challenge?”
“No,” Lily said, and the word took a great piece of her pride with it as it left her mouth.
“I thought not,” said Caleb.
“Don’t push your luck,” said Lily.
Nothing was resolved that night.
On Sunday morning, after a sleepless night spent worrying that she might be pregnant, Lily went to church and prayed that God would make Caleb go away and leave her alone. Provided she wasn’t expecting, that is—she hadn’t bled since before she left Tylerville.
When she returned to Rupert’s house there was no sign of either Caleb or her brother. She scavenged in the cupboards until she found the ingredients for a dried apple pie, and she was rolling out dough when there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” she called without thinking.
The door opened, and Caleb stepped inside. “I want to apologize for last night,” he said, his hat in his hands, his expression as innocent as an altar boy’s. “The truth is, I don’t think we should get married.”
Lily was beginning to get disturbing ideas about the rolling pin in her hands. His disclaimer came as no surprise to her, of course; she’d known he was an out-and-out scoundrel all along. “Oh?”
“We’d do nothing but fight. And make love, of course. I think we’d better just stay away from each other from now on.”
Lily had prayed to hear these words that very morning. So why did they hurt so much? “What if I’m pregnant?”
Caleb shrugged as though they were talking about the possibility of a splinter or a stubbed toe. “I’d take care of you both, of course.”
“Like you took care of Bianca, I suppose.”
Caleb’s grin was infuriating. “Yes.&8221;
Lily began tapping her palm with the rolling pin. “But you don’t think we should be married.”
“Absolutely not,” Caleb replied firmly.
“What if I think we should be?”
He grinned. “If you propose to me, Lily-flower, 1 might reconsider. You’d have to be suitably humble, of course.”
Lily made a strangled sound of rage and rounded the table, wielding the rolling pin like a battle ax.
Caleb easily wrested it from her hand and tossed it aside before pulling her into his arms. She squirmed, but there was no escaping, and when he caught her chin in one hand and forced her head back for his kiss she was lost.
When it was over, and Lily was breathless, Caleb set her away from him. “When you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Lily glared up at him. “I’ll dance in hell before I’ll come crawling to you, Caleb Halliday!”
He laughed, more in amazement than good humor. “If I didn’t think you might be carrying my baby, I’d turn you over my knee right here and now and blister your behind!”
“I’m not carrying your baby!” Lily stormed out of the house toward the woodshed, bent on getting kindling for the cook stove.
Caleb followed, cornering Lily against a sawhorse, and said a possessive hand on her abdomen. “We’ll see about that in a few months,” he vowed. His fingers moved downward to tease her most private place, and even through her skirts and petticoats Lily felt herself catch fire.
Her breath came hard and fast. “Caleb—stop—”
He withdrew his hand, only to press his hardness against her, and Lily groaned under her breath. In that moment she hated Caleb for his ability to get past her reason and play havoc with her very soul.
“Rupert will be home any minute,” she fibbed, practically moaning the words.
“Liar,” Caleb replied, his voice low and husky. “He’s having Sunday dinner with the pastor’s daughter. She’s sweet on him, you know. They’ll probably get married soon.” All the time he was talking Caleb was lifting Lily’s skirts, and she was powerless to stop him.
She tried with the last of her will to turn away, and she would have fallen over the sawhorse if Caleb hadn’t caught her.
He moved in closer, kissing the nape of her neck. The woodshed was shadowy and fragrant, and Lily ached as her pride and her resilient young body did battle.
Caleb raised her skirts to her waist and brought down her drawers, and still Lily didn’t fight him. She only gripped the sawhorse with both hands as wave after wave of heat rolled over her. Instinct made her bend forward; pleasure made her cry out softly as he slid into the velvety depths of her femininity.
No longer concerned with her skirts, Caleb raised his hands to Lily’s breasts, straining beneath her dress, and kneaded them gently as she met every thru his hips with a parry of her own. As his pace increased so did hers, and when a violent climax racked her Lily b
it down hard on her lower lip to keep from letting him know how he’d pleasured her.
Caleb plunged deep and then, with a low moan, spilled his warm seed into her. He remained joined with her, his hands moving on her breasts, his breath coming in short gasps.
Lily was amazed when she felt him growing hard again, and she tried to wriggle free. He withdrew, but only long enough to sit down on the chopping block and turn Lily to face him. Then he brought her sleekly down onto his rod, and she felt it straining within her, as powerful as ever. She let her head fall back in surrender as Caleb began unbuttoning the front of her dress.
She whimpered when he bent forward to nip gently at a nipple still covered by her muslin camisole, and she tried to bare herself.
Caleb clasped her wrists in his hands, holding them away from her body. He continued to enjoy Lily’s breasts through the thin barrier of her camisole, and the pleasure—between that and the slight, tantalizing motions of his shaft within her—was an exquisite torment.
“Caleb,” she pleaded, arching her back so that her breasts were thrust toward him.
He untied her camisole and laid it aside to suckle, and Lily’s freed hands went immediately to his head. She tangled her fingers in Caleb’s hair and held him to her, beginning to rock feverishly on his lap. Finally, in wild desperation, she sought his mouth with hers, and he kissed her, claiming her with his tongue even as he claimed her with his manhood. And she rode him shamelessly into an explosion of searing glory, her legs wrapped tightly around his hips as she drew his essence from his body into hers.
Chapter
12
That night, parted from Lily and sleeping fitfully in his hotel room, Caleb dreamed of his brother Joss, and of the battle that had changed both their lives.
The air was hot, filled with the smells of fear and blood. Screams and exploding shells seemed to echo against a placid blue sky. Young and desperately afraid, Caleb lay on his belly behind a little rise, his hands slick with sweat where he gripped his rifle.
A day before, an hour before, Caleb would have sworn that the devil was nothing more than a myth made up to scare women and children into behaving themselves. Now, with a sense of evil lying over him like a smothering shroud, he was a believer.
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