“Maybe it’s time you let someone take care of you,” Barnette said, twisting Corinne’s long tresses into a tumble of soft curls and pinning them high on her head.
“I feel awfully fancy for breakfast,” Corinne laughed nervously.
“Then we’ll have to have somethin’ special,” Barnette said.
“I think someone else beat us to it.” Corinne sniffed the air.
Barnette smiled. “I didn’t even know Daniel was up yet. How nice.”
When the two women descended the stairs they found Lee and Daniel busy preparing food together.
“What have we got here?” Barnette walked up and looked at the fare.
“Breakfast!” Daniel smiled.
Elijah dropped food from his chair and Mince caught it mid-air.
“This is like a fine vacation!” Barnette said.
Lee looked up and saw Corinne standing beside the table quietly. She looked fresh and sweet and she smiled kindly.
“Lovely,” he said softly.
Chapter Fifty-One
Corinne’s spirits rose steadily from the moment her day began. The family breakfast was hearty and delicious and she felt fresh and revived. She didn’t even mind that every time she met his eyes, Lee was smiling at her. And when Daniel announced that he thought she and Lee could make the trip back with the wagon alone she had no reservations. She felt that she and Lee were becoming better friends, but she could not help but wonder what she would feel like when her home was finished and his leave from the cavalry was over.
Their departure from the ranch was tearful but joyful too, and when Corinne handed little Elijah back to Barnette she thought about how it would be several months before she held him again. He was just beginning to take his first steps and she knew that babies grew up and became independent quickly. He would not be the same pudgy baby for long.
Lee shook Daniel’s hand warmly and Corinne was surprised when Daniel embraced him in a hug, like an old friend. Barnette hugged Lee as well and Elijah threw his tiny arms around Lee’s neck. Lee took the child and then pulled a tiny trinket from his pocket. Corinne recognized it immediately as a silver rattle she had tossed aside at the cabin. When Lee retrieved it from the pile he had nodded at her. Corinne couldn’t imagine why he had wanted it. Now when she saw the smile on Elijah’s sweet face it all made sense. Now Elijah had a little piece of Dustin. Corinne smiled at Highland and said her goodbyes as well.
“That was so kind,” she said softly to him as they climbed into the wagon. The thought occurred to her that all of her family had been closer to him than she had. She had never herself hugged him once. Mince licked Elijah’s face briskly and then leapt into the wagon and stood behind Corinne looking ahead eagerly.
“We’ll be up as soon as we get your wire!” Daniel called to them as they prepared to pull away. “Don’t be foolin’ around, get that place together so I don’t have to come durin’ harvest.”
“Foolin’ around?” Corinne looked at Lee puzzled.
“Don’t worry,” Lee assured him. “I think that’s a ways away.”
“Harvest?” Corinne asked.
“Maybe,” Lee said, shaking out the reins. He winked at her and Corinne felt as if she must have missed something.
“Unless the weather has been wet there, all the bricks will be dry and ready for buildin’. I can hardly wait. Now we’ve got the stove and I can start my pies. Then I have to figure out where I can sell them. I’m hopin’ a couple of good restaurants are built near the fort. Maybe even a nice hotel. I baked for a hotel back home and I could barely keep up with them. They wanted pies every day. They sure paid well though. If I could find a place like that it would be just wonderful.”
“I would have never imagined you could make a living baking pies,” Lee said.
“Oh, I can. ‘Most anywhere I go. If I can get them to take one pie they always want more.”
“Oh.” Lee reached up under his hat and scratched his head.
“What?” Corinne asked.
“What if that happens to me?”
“What on earth are you talkin’ about?”
“What will I do if you make my pie and then I want more?”
Corinne looked at him. “You’re teasin’ me.”
“Am I?” Lee winked at her.
Corinne looked straight ahead. She wasn’t even sure anymore how it had come about that he was getting one special pie to pay for everything he was doing. She knew she would owe him so much more.
They stopped several times to help people struggling along the road before they were anywhere near the newly claimed lands and she grew impatient. She was eager to get home certainly, but it clearly was a fact that he was always eager to lend a hand to someone. She realized that, of all the people he wanted to help, she was at the top of his list. Corinne studied his face as he climbed back onto the wagon after helping a young couple with a broken bridle.
“Will you stay in the cavalry when you go back?” she asked.
“I will have to. I have a little more time, then I can reenlist.”
“Would you? Reenlist?”
“I don’t know. I think I’d rather not. But I’ve been doing it for so long I’m not sure what else I might do,” Lee said.
For a moment Corinne considered asking him to continue helping her but then she took a breath and continued. “Towns need good sheriffs. You don’t drink that I know of and you sure do like helpin’ people. You definitely would look good with a big star on your chest.” Corinne cleared her throat and looked away.
Lee looked at her face beneath the wide hat. She looked wholesome and able, yet still vulnerable.
“It sounds like something you can never walk away from. Long hours, late nights.”
“Well.” Corinne considered what he was saying. “If you were doin’ something important it might be worth it. Besides, you’d have a good excuse for wearin’ that god-awful huge gun.”
Lee chuckled dryly. He noticed she often looked at his gun apprehensively. “Are you afraid of the gun?”
“Afraid? Heavens no. I know how to shoot a gun. I’ve got one in my bag near as big as that one. No, not afraid.”
“What about it bothers you?” he asked.
“A regular gun kills a man just the same. What difference does it make havin’ a big one like that? It just seems like braggin’ is all.”
Highland looked out over the team of horses. He’d bought the gun years ago, even before he had enlisted. He had to go through several channels to get permission to carry it instead of the government issued weapons. He admitted to himself that when he had purchased it, it was exactly for the reasons Corinne suspected. He’d bought it to impress a woman named Anita. He wanted her to see him as a big man. He looked down at the gun on his hip thoughtfully. It occurred to him that Corinne had just said she owned a similarly large gun herself.
“You’re right,” he said. “I bought it to impress someone. Why do you have one?”
“It was also bought to impress someone,” she said. “Me. It’s Hank’s gun. I think it’s part of what got him killed. He was always drunk and flashin’ it at somebody, tryin’ to prove he was the better man. The last time he flashed it he lost the challenge.”
“Why do you keep it?”
“I was afraid I’d need one. I’d just as soon throw it in the river. I actually did pull it out the day of the land run.”
Lee was surprised. “Why?”
“There was a man on my heels when I got to the parcel. There’s no question in my mind he was ready to take it from me, no matter what. But he rode off.”
Highland knew she was independent but he couldn’t help but worry about her sometimes. They rode in silence for several minutes before he spoke again.
“Would you like me to get rid of it?” he asked.
“What?” Corinne sat up straight.
“The gun. I’ll get something smaller.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Why not? I can get someth
ing else, or get one issued. It’s alright as long as I can defend myself and I’m armed when I need to be.”
“Don’t get rid of it just because I don’t like it. It’s your gun and if you want a big gun on your hip you are perfectly welcome to wear one. I just don’t like it because of Hank, that’s all. I don’t want you to change because of some fool drunk I knew.”
“People change, Corinne, for a lot of reasons. When I bought the gun maybe I was a little like Hank trying to prove I was a big man. I certainly did my share of drinking too. Now it’s different. I don’t feel that way so much anymore, and besides, it bothers you. Can’t that be reason enough?”
“I don’t want you to change for me,” she said.
“Why not?”
“I wouldn’t want to be changin’ for you.” Corinne looked up straightforwardly. “Keep the gun. I’m the one who needs to change my thinkin’ about it, not you. Maybe it’s time I get over Hank Fisher once and for all and get on with my life.”
“That might be good advice for both of us,” Lee said.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Corinne looked over the landscape and she could see the fort in the distance. The heat from the sun gave it the dreamy look of a mirage on the dusty prairie. It was clear there had been no rain. The bricks would be hard and dry and ready for building.
Thinking they were still at least an hour’s ride away, Corinne posed the question that had been picking at her mind.
“Who was it you were tryin’ to impress? With the gun, who was it?”
Lee was pulled away from contemplating his reenlistment and looked at her somewhat surprised.
He cleared his throat. He’d never told anyone about what had happened with Anita, though he knew his family had some idea. Maybe it was time now.
“It was a woman,” he began. “Beautiful, like you.” He chuckled dryly and Corinne furrowed her brow. “She worked in a cantina in New Mexico. I was trying to take over the family ranch and I disagreed with my father on everything. I thought I had better ideas about running the place. Now I think if I had taken over I would have run it into the ground.
“I was young and full of myself. I was always taller than all the other kids, and most of the ranch hands. I thought about boxing for a while but it was only an excuse to best some fellow in a fight. A couple of shots of whiskey and a few choice words and I could lay out some poor cowboy with my fists before the bartender filled the glass the third time.
“I told her I was going to be a rich rancher and went to the cantina to see her every night. One night I got drunk and hit some cowboy wanting to impress her. I thought for a while that it worked. What was actually happening was that she was selling liquor and I was an easy mark. She’d cheer me on and I’d buy another and she’d cheer again and so on. I thought I was in love with her.” Highland shook his head.
“After nearly a year of thinking about nothing except how to prove my love to her, beating up every guy in the bar, bragging about the big ranch I was going to own, and buying this big gun, I got impatient.
“I waited until closing one night and snuck around the back of the bar and waited. I had been drinking a lot of whiskey and I really thought she had feelings for me. When she stepped out into the back I was waiting and I pressed her.”
Corinne held her breath.
“I confessed my love to her and promised her the world. She laughed at me, just laughed. I couldn’t believe it. She told me I was just a fool kid, too tall and too full of myself. She said I had no sense and didn’t care about anyone but myself. She called me rich and spoiled and said I had no self-control.
“She was right, of course, but at eighteen it was exactly what I didn’t want to hear. I rode home and came back the next night and started drinking hard.
“I waited again, but this time when she came out she wasn’t alone. She was with the foreman from my father’s ranch. He was a good man, really. He had every right to be with her. He was a good worker and he earned his pay. I loathed all that about him, even before I saw them together in the moonlight.” Lee looked out over the plains, his mind many years and many miles away.
“I walked up to him, ready to put my fist right up to his face. He pulled his gun. I had mine. I was bigger, my gun was certainly bigger and I was insane with jealously. I was also drunk as all hell. When I lifted the big piece I had never fired a gun so large. My aim was completely off and I hit the door jamb. A large sliver split off and hit her.”
“My heavens!” Corinne gasped.
“It lodged right in her cheek. They pulled it out at the doctor’s alright, but it left a very noticeable scar.” Lee shook his head shamefully.
“I took off. I stayed drunk for months and I learned to shoot this gun dead on. Then one day I ran out of money so I sobered up and enlisted. My folks were devastated.”
Corinne watched his face and he turned to face her.
“Maybe your Hank would have grown up over time. Maybe he’d have seen you and his child differently. People change, if they want to. I like to think I did. I just can’t change what I caused is all. I can’t change that mark on that poor girl’s cheek. And I can’t change what it did to my father.”
“Do you see them, your parents?” Corinne asked.
“No, but I have a friend who looks in on them for me.”
“Have you ever thought about seein’ them?”
“Maybe, when I’ve grown up enough I suppose. As long as I’m in the service I still feel as if I’m running away somehow. Maybe that’s why I’m not sure about reenlisting.”
“Maybe you’ve done your time,” Corinne said. “How do you know when it’s time to put that all behind you and move on?”
“I wish I knew,” Highland said. “I guess when you’re ready you have to give yourself permission.”
“Maybe,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like it’s not Hank I need to forgive anymore, it’s myself. You’re a good man, Lee. I see you stop for everyone who needs help, especially me. I worry about how I could ever repay you for that. If it makes any difference I have to say that I think you’ve paid your dues. You’re not a fool drunk anymore. I can’t see you shootin’ anyone to prove a point or ever leavin’ a feverish baby behind. Maybe it’s time to forgive yourself and take that good man that you are now and do somethin’ important.”
Lee watched her face. He thought that if he could somehow make Corinne happy he would do that. She deserved it. He couldn’t change what he had done, or bring back her lost child. Maybe all he could do is give her what Hank had taken from her and somehow in doing that he could redeem himself. Maybe that’s why the day he had set eyes on her he felt she was important somehow.
“Let me help you,” he said. “Let me give you all the help Hank never did. Would you let me do that?”
Corinne was completely overcome and she asked him to stop the wagon. When she jumped to the ground Lee did not know what to do.
“Corinne, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
She looked at him and climbed back up. “You don’t need to apologize,” she said quietly. “What you just said was the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me. Let’s go home.”
Lee thought that a home would be a fine thing.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Lee skirted the fort, taking the wagon on a wide circle to the west. He did not want to think about being a first lieutenant. He wanted to spend the time he had left with Corinne being a settler on new land. He wanted to throw himself into building a home, even if it was not his own.
Corinne saw the Hawkins’ claim. Even after several days little had changed. While other claims across the plains were now being plowed and developed the Hawkins’ land was littered and unworked. Hawkins sat in a broken chair in the shade of the wagon while his woman scrubbed laundry in a battered tub. Corinne could not help but remember Hank lounging in the shade while their cabin was being built, joking and telling his stories.
Although it was late in the day they decided to press on to
the claim in hopes that they could at least set up their tents there and wake up in the morning on the land.
Corinne could barely contain herself. Mince seemed to sense that they were getting close and jumped from the wagon several times, running ahead and waiting excitedly for them to catch up. Lee was sure that if Corinne could do the same she would be leaping down herself. He couldn’t help but get caught up in their excitement. He told himself that life took directions you might not expect and maybe all he would ever be to Corinne would be a good friend. Lee decided it didn’t matter. He would enjoy building the home with her and let fate decide. He began to speak in eager tones himself.
“I’m really not supposed to say anything until we’re back but I think we’re close enough to tell you now,” he said.
Corinne looked at him expectantly.
“We have windows,” he said. “On the wagon. Two nice big ones and a couple of smaller ones.”
“Windows?” Corinne nearly fell from the vehicle. “Really? Windows?”
“Real windows, with glass. Daniel got them from James, Axel and Mark.
“Windows!” Corinne clapped her hands and bounced happily on the hard bench. “Have you decided where they ought to go?” she asked.
“In a way.” Lee was afraid he had overstepped his bounds. “I thought that there really weren’t too many choices considering how small it’s going to be. I thought two big ones in front and the smaller ones at the sides.”
“Lee, that’s perfect. This is so excitin’ I can’t stand it. How wonderful! Windows!”
Corinne threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly.
Lee sighed a deep sigh of relief when she sat back on the boards, a wide grin on her face.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Mince held his nose up to the wind and caught the scent of his mistress on the landscape. He smelled the bricks and took off running. Lee and Corinne both watched him on the horizon.
Piecrust Promise Page 13