The man wearing the brightest shirt rode forward, holding his rifle at the angle at which he might have held a spea. “This Blue Coat’s woman?” he demanded, gesturing toward Lily.
Caleb shook his head. “She’s her own woman. Just ask her.”
Lily’s heart was jammed into her throat. She had an urge to go for the rifle again, but this time it was Caleb she wanted to shoot. “He lies,” she said quickly, trying to make sign language. “I am too his woman!”
The Indian looked back at his followers, and they all laughed. Lily thought she saw a hint of a grin curve Caleb’s lips as well but decided she must have imagined it.
“You trade woman for two horses?”
Caleb lifted one hand to his chin, considering. “Maybe. I’ve got to be honest with you. She’s a lot of trouble, this woman.”
Lily’s terror was exceeded only by her wrath. “Caleb!”
The Indian squinted at Lily and then made an abrupt, peevish gesture with the fingers of one hand.
“He wants you to get down from the buggy so he can have a good look at you,” Caleb said quietly.
“I don’t care what he wants,” Lily replied, folding her trembling hands in her lap and squaring her shoulders.
The Indian shouted something.
“He’s losing his patience,” Caleb warned, quite unnecessarily.
Lily scrambled down from the buggy and stood a few feet from it while the Indian rode around her several times on his pony, making thoughtful grunting noises. Annoyance was beginning to overrule Lily’s better judgment. “This is my land,” she blurted out all of a sudden, “and I’m inviting you and your friends to get off it! Right now!”
The Indian reined in his pony, staring at Lily in amazement.
“You heard me!” she said, advancing on him, her hands poised on her hips.
At that, Caleb came up behind her, and his arms closed around her like the sides of a giant manacle. His breath rushed past her ear. “Shut up!”
Lily subsided, watching rage gather in the Indians’ faces like clouds in a stormy sky. “Caleb,” she said, “you’ve got to save me.”
“Save you? If they raise their offer to three horses, you’ll be braiding your hair and wearing buckskin by nightfall.”
The Indians were consulting with one another, casting occasional measuring glances in Lily’s direction. She was feeling desperate again. “All right, then, but remember, if I go, your child goes with me.”
“You said you were bleeding.”
Lily’s face colored. “You needn’t be so explicit. And I lied.”
“Two horses,” Caleb bid in a cheerful, ringing voice.
The Indians looked interested.
“I’ll marry you!” Lily added breathlessly.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“When?”
“At Christmas.”
“Not good enough.”
“Next month, then.”
“Today.”
Lily assessed the Indians again, imagined herself carrying firewood for miles, doing wash in a stream, battling fleas in a tepee, being dragged to a pallet by a brave. “Today,” Lily conceded.
The man in the best calico shirt rode forward again. “No trade,” he said angrily. “Blue Coat right—woman much trouble!”
Caleb laughed. “Much, much trouble,” he agreed.
“This Indian land,” the savage further insisted. With that, he gave a blood-curdling shriek, and he and his friends bolted off toward the hillside again.
Lily turned to face Caleb. “I lied,” she said bluntly. “I have no intention of marrying you.”
He brought his nose within an inch of hers. “You’re going back on your word?”
“Yes,” Lily answered, turning away to climb back into the buggy. “I was trying to save myself. I would have said anything.”
Caleb caught her by the arm and wrenched her around to face him. “And there’s no baby?”
Lily lowered her eyes. “There’s no baby.”
“I should have taken the two horses when they were offered to me,” Caleb grumbled, practically hurling her into the buggy.
Lily said nothing, and she was glad when she saw Fort Deveraux rising in the distance. After that band of Indians the ladies of the post didn’t seem so intimidating.
Caleb let Lily off at her cottage without so much as a word of farewell. Given his mood, she didn’t envy the soldiers under his command.
Carrying her valise in one hand, Lily went through the gate and up the walk without looking back. When she was inside she locked the door, stumbled over to the bed, and lay down on it, trembling. Soon she was going to be living on that land all by herself. The Indians could return at any time, and she might not win a second argument with them.
A determined knock at Lily’s door made her sit bolt upright. After drawing a deep breath to compose herself she crossed the cabin and peeked out the front window.
Velvet was standing on the step.
Lily opened the door anxiously. “Velvet, come in!”
Velvet gave Lily an odd look and stepped inside. “Mrs. Tibbet sent me over. She and the colonel want you to come to supper tonight.”
“How did they know I was back?”
“The whole fort knows that,” Velvet scoffed. “There’s lots of talk abch as a you and the major goin’ off together and all.”
“We didn’t ‘go off together’!”
Velvet assessed Lily’s travel-rumpled dress as she took a seat at the table. “I don’t figure the facts matter much. As far as the people on this post is concerned, you’re the major’s mistress.”
Lily grabbed the coffeepot off the stove, dumped the stale grounds into the trash, and started toward the back door. She went outside and pumped water into the pot while Velvet came to stand in the doorway, watching. “I suppose you think I should marry Caleb, like everyone else.”
“If he’ll have you,” Velvet replied.
Before Lily could frame a reply to that Judd Ingram rounded the house and vaulted over the back fence. He glared at Velvet, who shrank back a step or two.
“I suppose you think you’re real smart and real fancy,” Judd growled, pushing his cap to the back of his head.
“Get out of here, Judd,” Velvet said, but the order sounded lame.
He drew a sleeve across his forehead. “When the Tibbets send you packing back to Suds Row I’ll be waiting. But it ain’t gonna be easy getting on my good side again, Velvet.”
Lily was tired of arrogant, pushy males. She’d already dealt with Caleb and six Indians that day, and she was finished with diplomacy. After taking careful aim she drenched Private Ingram with a coffeepot full of cold water.
“Get off my property,” Lily warned. “And you’ll leave Velvet alone from now on if you know what’s good for you!”
Judd started toward Lily, but he stopped himself in midstride, swore, and stormed away.
Lily felt a hand close over her arm and looked up to see Velvet standing at her side. “You watch out for Judd,” Lily’s friend whispered. “He don’t have no use for nobody what spites him.”
Lily lifted her chin, even though she felt an elemental, lingering fear. When and if there was trouble, she’d face it straight on. For now, there was no sense in worrying.
The photographer had stopped his wagon beside the parade grounds, and he was setting up his cumbersome camera. Although he had a pronounced limp, there was a familiar deftness about him that made Velvet stop for a moment as she headed back to the Tibbets’. Her heart beat a little faster when the sunlight caught in his coppery-brown hair.
He looked so much like her own Hank.
Velvet wanted to call out that dear name, to see if the man would turn his head at the sound, but her throat was closed up tight. Her legs were no more nimble; although she knew Mrs. Tibbet was waiting for news of Lily, she couldn’t move.
Hank, she thought.
As though she’d shouted, he turned to look a
t her. “Velvet?” he said, and suddenly he was moving awkwardly toward her.
God in heaven, after all those years, after all those men, somehow Hank had found her.
Shame stung Velvet; she knew she could not face him. Even though Hank had been the betrayer, leaving her standing at the altar, she wasn’t about to let him see what she’d become. She lifted her skirts and ran wildly down the dusty street.
“Velvet!” Hank shouted after her. “Wait!”
She ran on and on, past the Tibbets’ place, stopping only when she reached Lily’s cottage across the street from the schoolhouse.
Lily was pumping water to fill the big wash kettle in her backyard, since several of her customers had already been by to drop off their dirty shirts. Suddenly Velvet returned, looking pale as porcelain and gnawing on her lower lip.
“He’s here!” she sobbed. “Oh, Lily, he’s right here at Fort Deveraux!”
Lily took her friend’s arm and pulled her inside the house.
“He’s here!” Velvet cried again.
“Hush!” Lily ordered, and then she dragged Velvet to a chair at the table and went to the stove to pour hot coffee for them both. “Who’s here, for heaven’s sake?” she asked when she was sitting and Velvet had regained some of her self-control.
“Hank,” moaned Velvet, her face full of despair and yearning.
Lily was still completely puzzled.
“He was the man I was going to marry,” Velvet managed to get out, drying her face with the corner of her apron. “He’s a photographer now, looks like, but he was a farmer when I knew him. Courted me right and proper. I had a new dress and everything, but when the weddin’ day came, Hank didn’t show up at the church.”
Lily reached out to close her hand over Velvet’s in an effort to console her. “Your father should have shot him,” she said with conviction.
Velvet gave a wail of despondency, then lapsed into a prolonged bout of snuffling. Lily fetched a yellow bandanna from the wash and handed it to her, and she blew loudly before going on. “Pa said I was better off without the rascal and made me come west with him and Eldon—that was my brother.”
“Maybe Hank had a reason for not showing up at the wedding. Did you ask him?”
Velvet sniffled and shook her head. “A woman’s got to have some pride,” she said.
Lily thought of some of the things she’d done with Caleb and reflected that she’d once believed the same thing. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Velvet said, her broad shoulders trembling beneath the shoulders of her starched calico dress. “I can’t stand for Hank to know about Suds Row, Lily, and about Judd.”
Lily sighed. “Did he see you? Hank, I mean?”
Velvet nodded. “I turned around and ran like the devil was after me.”
“You’ll have to face Hank sooner or later. In a community this small, you’re not going to be able to avoid him.#8221;
Velvet’s face fell while timid hope flared in her eyes. “He’ll never understand.”
Lily was angry. “He’s in no position to go around understanding anyway. Didn’t he ask you to be his wife and then leave you high and dry?”
Slowly Velvet nodded. “I can’t talk to him. I’d be too scared.”
Lily sighed. “Velvet Hughes, I have work to do. I can’t sit around here all day trying to persuade you to do what you know is right.”
“I know what’s right?” Velvet looked patently unconvinced.
“You certainly do,” said Lily with resolution.
“You won’t talk to him for me?”
Lily stood up. “Absolutely not. I’m your friend, Velvet, not your nursemaid.”
For all Lily’s strength of purpose, Velvet looked so crestfallen that in the end she gave in and set off for the parade grounds.
The photographer was engrossed in taking pictures of serious-faced young soldiers. Lily waited—barely flinching when the flash powder exploded with a fiery poof—for him to notice her.
“Velvet sent you,” he guessed. He was quite a handsome man, with dark auburn hair and quick brown eyes.
Lily nodded and introduced herself.
“Why did she run away?” Hank wanted to know.
Thinking of Velvet standing at the altar, waiting in vain for this man to marry her, filled Lily with ire. “People run away for all sorts of reasons,” she said. “You ought to know that.”
Hank looked honestly baffled. “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” he said.
Lily drew a deep breath and let it out again. She had work to do, and the day was practically gone. “She waited for you at the church, and you didn’t come.”
“I had a reason for that.”
“Maybe you’d best share it with Miss Hughes, then,” Lily responded. “A good day to you, sir.” With that, she turned and walked away.
“Miss Chalmers?”
She stopped and looked back inquiringly over one shoulder.
Hank smiled broadly. “Where would I find Velvet, provided I wanted to explain myself and all?”
Lily felt her lips curve slightly. “She works for Colonel and Mrs. Tibbet,” she answered, and then she continued on her way.
When Lily arrived home she threw herself into her work, but by sunset she knew it was hopeless. She’d have to stay up all night to keep up with her orders, and after the events of the past few days she was simply too tired for that.
After carefully closing the curtains, she washed her face and hands and repinned her hair. She’d exchanged her soiled yellress for a crisp calico earlier.
Lily’s steps were slow as she approached the Tibbet house. She did hope Caleb hadn’t been invited to supper, too, but she knew it was almost inevitable that he had been.
Velvet greeted her at the door with a worried look. “Did you see him? Did you talk to Hank? What’s he doing here?”
“How can I answer your questions if you fire them at me like bullets from a Gatling gun?”
Velvet narrowed her eyes in an intimidating fashion even as she admitted Lily to the house.
“He’s going to come and see you,” Lily said, sticking her chin out to show she wasn’t going to cower just because someone made a face at her. Hadn’t she sent six Indians packing that very day, with almost no help from Caleb?
As if the thought had conjured him, Caleb appeared in the parlor doorway. He had obviously bathed and shaved and was wearing a fresh uniform and polished boots. His whiskey-colored eyes moved over Lily’s calico dress with something that resembled amusement flashing in their depths. “Hello, Lily.”
Lily’s greeting was cool. “Major.”
“Come in,” he urged, “and face the music.”
Something in his tone made Lily want to flee, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of running away. She lifted her chin and advanced into the parlor.
Mrs. Tibbet was there, speaking with the chaplain, Captain Horatio. Once again Lily wanted to run; once again she stood her ground.
“Good evening, Mrs. Tibbet. Captain Horatio.”
The captain only nodded, but Gertrude rushed over, linked her arm with Lily’s, and half dragged her into the colonel’s study, which was at the rear of the house.
It smelled of cigar smoke and beeswax, and there were paintings of famous Union generals on the walls. Lily was too much on her guard to notice anything more.
“My dear,” Mrs. Tibbet began with stern affection, “I really must speak to you about your conduct.”
Lily had to stand very straight and bite down hard on her lower lip to keep from crying. Mrs. Tibbet was her only friend, aside from Velvet, and her disapproval hurt terribly.
“Why won’t you give up this silly idea of homesteading?” Gertrude went on. Her tone of voice was moderate, but her blue eyes were snapping. “I can’t help thinking you’re just being stubborn, Lily. Caleb is well able to provide for you, I assure you. He comes from one of the finest families in Pennsylvania—I’ve known the Hallidays a long tim
e.”
Lily looked down at the floor for a moment, gathering her courage. “You wouldn’t understand,” she said softly.
Gertrude sighed. “Do sit down,” she told Lily kindly, taking a chair herself. “Now what is it that I would find so difficult to understand?”
“I love Caleb very much,” Lily began in a shaky voice, “but I’m notre oman for him.”
Mrs. Tibbet raised her eyebrows. “Oh? And why not?”
Lily leaned forward in her chair and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I think I may be like my mother.”
“How so?” Mrs. Tibbet asked, smoothing her skirts.
“She was—she drank. And there were men. Lots of men.”
“Oh, dear,” said Mrs. Tibbet seriously. “And you drink?”
Lily swallowed. “Well—no.”
“Then there are men.”
“Only Caleb,” Lily said quietly. “But he can make me do and say the most shameful things. I’m so afraid it’s because I’m—er—hot-blooded.”
Mrs. Tibbet looked as though she might be trying to suppress a smile. “You wouldn’t be the first girl who’d given herself to a man before marriage, Lily. It isn’t a wise course of action, but it happens often enough.”
Lily drew in a deep breath. “I suppose the drinking would come later,” she said, discounting Mrs. Tibbet’s remarks as mere kindness. “And then the men. No, I’m sure I’m better off going on with my life just as I’ve planned.”
There was a rap at the door, and then Velvet put her head inside. “Pardon, missus, but dinner’s ready, and the men say they’re going to eat without you if you don’t hurry.”
“We’ll be there in a moment,” Mrs. Tibbet answered. “And tell the men that if they don’t wait, they’ll have me to deal with.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Velvet replied with a hint of laughter in her voice. The door closed with a click.
Mrs. Tibbet turned back to her guest. “If you were my own daughter, Lily, I would tell you the same thing. You couldn’t do better than Caleb Halliday if you searched the world over for a man. Don’t throw away a chance at real happiness—it might be the only one you get.”
Lily pushed herself out of her chair and went to stand at the window. From there she could see the moon rising above the roof of the house next door; it looked as though it had just squeezed out of the chimney. “Sometimes I think I know what I want. I’ll decide that I want to marry Caleb and forget all about having a homestead. But then I remember what Mama was like.”
Lily and the Major Page 22