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Lily and the Major

Page 33

by Linda Lael Miller


  Caleb’s mouth fell open, but he recovered himself quickly. “I don’t believe I’m hearing this. You’ve fought me from the day we met because you wanted to find your sisters, and now you’re standing there telling me that it’s no use looking for them. What about that letter you had from Wyoming?”

  “It said Caroline had disappeared, Caleb. That’s hardly reason for encouragement.”

  “Maybe we’d better go there and find out.”

  Lily had never dared to think such a thought. “Travel all the way to Wyoming? But what about the chickens?”

  “What’s more important to you, Lily—your sister or those damn chickens?”

  espite herself, Lily was beginning to believe her dreams might come true after all. “My sister,” she said quietly.

  Caleb reached out at long last and laid his hands on Lily’s shoulders, drawing her close. “Lily, come to Fox Chapel with me,” he said hoarsely. “I’m going to need you.”

  Lily looked up at her husband. He was, for all practical purposes, the only family she had, and she couldn’t imagine living without him. “What if I hate it there?” she asked, her voice very quiet. “What if I miss my house and my chickens so much I can’t stand it?”

  He gave her a light, undemanding kiss, and his lips were warm and soft as they moved against hers. “If you hate Fox Chapel, I’ll bring you back here.”

  “Is that a promise?”

  “Yes.”

  “Even if you work things out with your brother and want to stay?”

  Caleb sighed. “I told you—your happiness is as important to me as my own.”

  Lily was not a worldly woman, but she’d seen enough to know that such an attitude was rare in a man. She hugged Caleb. “In that case, maybe you won’t be mad that there’s nothing for supper but biscuits.”

  Although his lips curved into a slight smile, Caleb’s eyes were serious. He lifted one hand to caress Lily’s cheek. “I’m sorry about your mother,” he said quietly.

  Lily straightened in his arms. “I didn’t even know the woman, really,” she said lightly. “So it’s not as though I’m grieving.” She would have walked away toward the house, but Caleb held her fast.

  “I think you are,” he said.

  Lily swallowed. Damn the man—now he had her on the verge of tears. She struggled all the harder to maintain her composure. “If I wept for her, Caleb, I’d be weeping for a woman who never existed—the woman I needed her to be. She was never a real mother to us.”

  At that, Caleb let Lily go free and followed her into the small, stove-warmed kitchen. While Lily was washing her hands to roll out the biscuit dough Caleb got eggs and cheese from the larder and onions from a bin under the sink. By the time the biscuits were ready to go into the oven he had an impressive omelette steaming in a pan.

  “You’re a remarkable man,” Lily allowed.

  Caleb smiled at her, his gaze sliding over her figure, making silent promises for the night. “And you’re a remarkable woman.”

  Lily felt a little tug in her heart.

  All during supper Lily was conscious of being drawn toward Caleb. She squirmed, all too aware that she hadn’t any defense against him.

  When the meal was over and the dishes were done Caleb began yawning. “It’s been a long, difficult day, Mrs. Halliday,” he said, reaching out to trim the lamp. “Let’s go to bed.”

  Lily’s face flushed hot. “My chickens—”

  He shrugged. “Your chickens are just fine. In fact, they’d probably appreciate it if you gave them a little peace.”

  “Suppose there’s a coyote, or a fox?”

  Caleb had caught her by the elbow, and he was ushering her toward the door of their tiny bedroom. “No animal in its right mind would try to get past your shotgun.”

  The door closed behind them, and Lily was suddenly as shy as if she’d never shared her body with this man. She turned her back and filled the basin on the washstand from its matching pitcher, then started unbuttoning the front of her dress. She heard the bedsprings creak and risked a look back at Caleb.

  He was sitting on the edge of the mattress, pulling off his boots, and he gave a great yawn, like a bear settling down to hibernate.

  Lily took up her basin and moved toward the door. Despite her intimacy with Caleb, there were certain things she liked to attend to alone. She slipped out into the main part of the cabin, darkened now that the sun was set and the lamps had been extinguished.

  There was still a fire burning, and Lily undressed nearby, remembering long-ago winter mornings when she and Emma and Caroline had jumped from their beds, squealing, and rushed to warm themselves by the coal stove. Her eyes filled with tears as she recalled her sisters’ faces and beard their voices, and she knew she had never truly given up on finding them—she had only taken a rest from hoping when it had become too painful.

  When Lily had finished her makeshift bath she opened the cabin door and tossed the water out. She nearly dropped the basin when she turned and found Caleb watching her, leaning against the bedroom doorjamb. He was wearing trousers, but nothing else, and his eyes moved over Lily’s naked curves like molten gold.

  Idly, he straightened and held out one hand to her. “Come here,” he said, in a husky voice.

  Lily was struck yet again by the power of the love she felt for him. Smiling through her tears, she closed the door, set the basin aside, and went to him.

  Caleb laughed and reached out to claim her. He carried her into their bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him. Somewhere close by a coyote barked and howled, giving his lonely benediction, but Lily didn’t give a thought to her chickens.

  *

  Caleb didn’t speak of his brother for a full two weeks. He went to the post in the mornings, remaining there until midafternoon, and then he worked on his house. Lily stopped asking why he wanted to build it when he didn’t plan on staying in Washington Territory. She finally understood that while Caleb’s hands were occupied his mind and spirit worked at the dilemma that troubled him.

  Late in June Caleb left the army for good, over Colonel Tibbet’s loud objections, and to celebrate he made Lily put the chicks in Velvet’s care and took her to Spokane.

  Caleb’s house was much larger and much grander than Lily’s, and when they reached the city he went straight to the mercantile and started ordering things for it. He sent away for a piano, and a big cook stove with a hot-water reservoir, and an icebox with a brass handle. He selected Oriental rugs, too, and a clock that stood as tall as he did.

  Lily was baffled, but she kept her questions to herself. Caleb had told her to buy anything she wanted or needed, and she wasn’t too shy to comply. She selected dress patterns, thread, and a number of lengths of fabric. She chose muslin for drawers and camisoles and petticoats, and lace for trim.

  At midday she and Caleb went to lunch in the hotel dining room, and in the evening they paid a call on Rupert. The yard surrounding his small house was sweet-scented with lilacs, and they sat on the porch in worn wicker chairs.

  Lily’s adopted brother was obviously pleased that she’d married Caleb; he kept beaming at his new brother-in-law.

  Lily wondered when somebody was going to notice that she hadn’t been the only one to make a good match, but she didn’t complain. She and Caleb had spent the afternoon making love in their hotel room, and that sweet violence had left Lily feeling generous and very patient.

  “When are you going to marry Winola?” she asked directly.

  Rupert “ahemed,” took his pipe from the pocket of his worn coat, filled it with tobacco, and tamped down with a practiced thumb. “She and I were married a week ago,” he confided in a low tone of voice, “but we’re keeping it a secret for the time being.”

  A secret marriage! Lily was delighted, but she was also curious. “Why don’t you tell the world?”

  Rupert sighed. “Winola wants to keep on teaching. If the school board finds out she’s married, she’ll lose her job.”

  Caleb,
who had been listening thoughtfully, spoke for the first time. “If it’s so important to her, why don’t the two of you start a school of your own?”

  “We’ve thought of that,” Rupert replied. “There are a lot of children growing up uneducated because they live so far from town. Winola and I would like to start a boarding school for young men, but it takes money.”

  Lily was reminded of the Reverend Sommers, who had never permitted her to go to school. She’d been allowed to sit in on Isadora’s lessons with Rupert only because Rupert had insisted. “Why young men,” Lily demanded, “and not girls?”

  Caleb put a hand over hers in a gesture that had become familiar. She knew he wasn’t silencing her, but merely asking her to wait. “I’d be willing to invest in something like that,” he said.

  Rupert looked embarrassed and chagrined. “I couldn’t take money from you.”

  “Why not?” Lily wanted to know. She was still ruffled and spoke peevishly. “He must have piles of it, the way he throws it around.”

  In that instant the tension was broken and both men laughed.

  “Perhaps I should discuss this with Winola,” Rupert conceded.

  “I still want to know why it’s going to be a boarding school for boys,” Lily put in.

  Rupert smiled at her and took her hand. “Lily, dear, so many people don̵t believe in educating girls. Boys, now, they have to make their way in the world—” Lily was outraged. “And girls don’t?” she snapped, looking from Caleb to Rupert. Caleb was distinctly uncomfortable, while Rupert wore his prejudices and complacency as easily as a pair of old slippers.

  “You and Winola are both notable exceptions, of course,” Rupert allowed with a benevolent smile. “Mostly, though, girls just need to be taught to cook and sew and care for children, and they can learn those things right at home.”

  Caleb closed his eyes as though bracing for an explosion.

  Lily leapt to her feet, waggling one finger in her brother’s face. “Is that what you’ll want for daughters of your own?” she sputtered. “Nothing but babies, and slaving for some man?”

  Rupert’s expression was one of kindly bafflement. Obviously Winola’s progressive ideas had not affected him. “It’s what a woman wants—”

  Lily wouldn’t have begrudged Rupert a penny if it hadn’t been for his narrow and unfair views. “If you give this man money for a school that admits only boys, Caleb Halliday,” she railed, “I’ll make you sleep in the chicken house!”

  “Sit down,” Caleb said quietly.

  Lily sat, but grudgingly.

  “I’ll be happy to give you the money you need,” Caleb told Rupert.

  Lily favored him with a horrified glare. “You mean you would support such a prejudice?” She was back on her feet again. “Tell me this, Caleb Halliday—do you want your daughters to be ignorant? I can assure you they won’t be, because I will not permit it!”

  “That,” said Caleb evenly, “is enough. You and I will discuss this later, in private.”

  Lily’s cheeks were flaming, but she resisted an impulse to storm off to the hotel in high dudgeon because she knew Caleb would not follow or try to assuage her anger in any way. “Yes, Major,” she said sweetly.

  Caleb narrowed his eyes at her but said nothing. Rupert looked concerned. “I can’t be the cause of trouble between the two of you,” he said. “Winola and I will think of some other solution to the problem.”

  “You could at least include girls in the classes,” Lily said stiffly.

  But Rupert shook his head. “Their parents would never permit them to live in such close quarters with young men, Lily,” he reasoned, “and rightly so.”

  Lily still felt as though her entire gender had been insulted, but she kept silent.

  Finally, after a half hour had passed, Caleb stood. “We’ll be having dinner at the hotel at seven,” he said to Rupert. “Lily and I would enjoy having you and Winola join us.”

  Lily didn’t look at her brother. “I presume Winola will be able to read the menu for herself, even though she is female,” she observed.

  Caleb gave her a little jab with elbow. “Don’t mind your sister, Rupert,” he said. “If she can’t behave herself, she’ll have to eat alone in the room.”

  “I will not be sent to my room like a child,” Lily hissed when she and Caleb were walking along the sidewalk toward the center of town.

  Caleb smiled down at her. “If you don’t enjoy being treated like a child, maybe you should stop behaving like one.”

  Lily drew a deep breath and let it out. It was still light outside, since summer was near, and the scents of early flowers and freshly turned earth took away some of the pungency of the horse manure dappling the street. “You are completely ignoring the fact that I have a valid point,” she said formally.

  “When we have daughters,” Caleb conceded generously, “they can go to school. Now are you happy?”

  “It will have to be a real school, Caleb. Not a place where they are taught to embroider and pander to some man’s every whim.”

  “What would you have them learn? Military strategy?”

  “Higher mathematics,” answered Lily, who had always found numbers fascinating. “And science.”

  “Those subjects are useless to a girl,” Caleb objected.

  Lily quickened her pace. “It’s a wonder anyone was ever able to teach them to you, Major, given the fact that your head is so hard.”

  He chuckled. “You know, Lily, when we reach Fox Chapel you’ll be assured of at least one friend—my brother Joss. He has the same low opinion of me as you do.”

  “I’m sure he’s even more bullheaded than you are,” Lily said, folding her arms. “Therefore, I don’t expect to like him at all.”

  They’d reached the hotel, and Caleb led the way through the lobby to the stairs. Soon they were in their room.

  Lily took a hat she’d bought that afternoon from its pink and white striped box and perched it atop her head. It was a delightful creation, with a narrow straw base and a plume of scarlet ostrich feathers, and it tied with a ribbon beneath her chin. She turned from side to side to admire her reflection in the mirror.

  “You look beautiful,” Caleb said softly, laying his hands on the sides of her slender waist.

  Lily smiled at his reflection in the glass. “Don’t you try to flatter me, Caleb Halliday,” she warned. “I think you’re a brute with a despicable attitude toward women.”

  He cupped her breasts in his hands. “I love women,” he said, bending to nibble at the exposed flesh of her neck.

  “When they obey, of course.”

  “Of course,” Caleb replied. He was untying the ribbon of Lily’s hat, taking it from her head, setting it back in its box.

  “You needn’t think you’re going to take me to bed,” Lily said airily. “Not, that is, until you apologize to me and tell Rupert you won’tnd him the money to build a boarding school unless he allows girls to attend.”

  Caleb turned Lily to face him. “You’re free to disagree with my opinions any time you like, Mrs. Halliday, but you will not refuse me your bed. Is that understood?”

  Lily’s cheeks heated. “I don’t guess you give a damn about my opinions,” she said, “but you’ll come around soon enough.”

  “Sometimes I think you enjoy baiting me. It makes the pleasure more intense when I lay you down and take you, doesn’t it, Lily?”

  She raised her hand to slap him, then thought better of the idea. “You are reprehensible.”

  Caleb dragged her close and kissed her. Lily struggled for a few moments, but her instincts betrayed her, and she ended up returning the kiss wholeheartedly. When she was practically dissolving against him, Caleb set her away from him.

  “I’ve got some business to attend to,” he said brusquely. “I’ll see you later, at supper.”

  Lily couldn’t believe he was going to leave after the way he’d just kissed her. “What kind of business?” she asked, smoothing her tumbledown hair as she f
ollowed her husband to the door.

  “If you must know,” Caleb answered patiently, “I’m going to answer my brother’s letter with a wire.”

  Even though Lily had accepted the idea of leaving the homestead to travel to Fox Chapel, she still tensed at this announcement. “What are you going to say?”

  Caleb reached out to caress Lily’s left breast, making the nipple pulse beneath the fabric of her camisole and dress. “I plan to tell him to go straight to hell,” he answered. With that, he went out of the room and closed the door behind him.

  Lily loved her husband, but in that moment she longed to murder him. He’d deliberately aroused her, just to put her in her place, and now she would suffer until he chose to relieve her. It was a punishment, and Lily resented it heartily.

  After several minutes she took one last furious look around the room meant to be her prison, opened the door, and went out, carrying her dress patterns and fabric in a valise. If Caleb expected her to stay put like a naughty child pondering her transgressions, he was in for a surprise.

  Finding the livery stable, Lily hired a surrey and a pair of horses to pull it, charging the cost to Caleb. Then, with her purchases, she set out for Rupert’s house.

  He was there, but it took him a long time to answer her knock. From his rumpled appearance Lily guessed that Winola, her brother’s secret wife, was hiding out in the bedroom.

  “I came to tell you good-bye,” Lily said in a straightforward voice, “and that I bear you no ill will for your appalling prejudices.”

  Rupert stared at his sister, then looked beyond her to the surrey. “You don’t mean you’re leaving? Does the major know?”

  Lily shook her head. “Caleb thinks he can be arbitrary, not to mention arrogant, and order me to , carrying our room like a child. He believes women should be raised expressly to care for the needs of a man. For the sake of any daughters we might have, I’m going to teach him a lesson.”

  “It’s you that’ll be learning a lesson, I think. Don’t do this, Lily. It’s rash, and you’ll have cause to regret it.”

 

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