Texas Lily (37 page)

"Rest. I will be right back," Cade assured her before plumping the pillows one last time and walking out.

Yes, but who would he be when he returned?

Serena came in and jumped on the bed before Juanita, following behind, could stop her. Even Juanita looked different this morning. Her hair was braided in shining loops at her ears, and she wore a new blouse that was scooped in the neck and full in the sleeves and totally inappropriate for cooking. She had silver bangles in her ears and on her arms and jangled them, with a child's wonder, when she thought Lily wasn't looking.

It was as if everyone had set out to make her understand that this was a Mexican household, that she was in someone else's territory and not her own. It was a strange feeling. Even when she had moved to Texas, Lily had been confident that the cabin they built was home and not a strange new way of living. In the Indian camp, she had felt awkward, but she hadn't known those people, Here, she was surrounded by people she knew, but she didn't know them.

Cade entered with a tray and, seeing Juanita, left her to deal with the complexities of feeding an invalid. Lily wanted to shout at him to stay, that she needed answers, but he seemed impatient to be off and her voice wouldn't do more than croak a few protests. She threw a pillow after him when he closed the door.

Serena laughed at this new game and threw a pillow at Roy when he came in a short while later. Sullenly, Roy threw it back at her, and she dived laughing into the covers, completely oblivious to Roy's displeasure.

At Lily's frown, he reddened and put his hands behind his back. "Are we going to live here forever?" he demanded.

"No," Lily managed to croak. She reached to brush a straying hair from his face.

"Good. Everybody speaks Spanish, and I don't understand a word they're saying." He helped himself to one of Lily's tortillas and settled into a corner of the room to munch.

“This is still Texas,” she reminded him.

Lily sipped her coffee and glanced around at her new living quarters. Wherever she was, it was more elegant than anything she'd ever had at home, even in Mississippi. Besides the ornately carved bed with its rich covers, the room contained matching wardrobe, washstand, and a chest of drawers. The wood was heavy and dark and artistically embellished and accented by glittering brass candleholders and crystal containers and silver hardware. A tapestry in silver-blue and gold depicting a bullfight hung on one wall, and similar colors were repeated on pillows and covers and tablecloths. The linen she slept on was almost like silk. Lily knew she would never own such niceties if she lived to be a hundred.

Why would a man who owned all this accept a half-breed into his home? Surely Cade's grandfather knew of Cade's Indian heritage?

Worried, Lily stared out the window to a plain devoid of the green she called home. Why had Cade brought her here?

Chapter 29

"I wish to speak, with my grandson's wife," The old man stood in the doorway, his sharp eyes commanding Juanita to move away.

Barely glancing at Juanita after she stepped aside, Antonio nodded toward the door. "You will leave us," he commanded with all the authority of one accustomed to being obeyed.

Lily hid her dismay as Juanita unhesitatingly did as told. Her throat was too raw and hoarse to contradict the old man's orders. Instead, she shifted her focus to examine this new obstacle in her life.

She could only assume that this was Antonio de Suela, since no one had bothered to introduce her. He was nearly as tall as Cade, but only half his breadth. Had she been well and feeling like herself, she could almost believe that she would be stronger than this frail old man gazing at her with such intensity. He leaned on a gold-handled walking stick, but his black eyes were alert and observant.

"You are carrying Luis Philippe's child," he stated without preamble.

The name did not sound strange on this man's tongue, but it took Lily a moment to respond to it. She merely nodded her head in reply. She had a feeling she would need to save her voice for what would follow.

"I had hoped my grandson would find a wife among his own people." Antonio took a bedroom chair but continued to hold himself stiffly upright.

Lily lifted an inquiring brow. His own people? Had the man forgotten that Cade was equally Indian?

Antonio scowled at her response. "Among
my
people. It would be easier to show that he is a de Suela if he had married appropriately."

This man had come here with an axe to grind, and nothing she could say would stop him. Why waste her voice in trying? She reached for the shawl on her bedside stand and wrapped it around her.

Her silence forced de Suela to realize he left her no room for comment. "He tells me you are a wealthy lady in your own right. I should not complain. I apologize. I am an old man and have come to realize that many of my dreams will never come true. For many years I have wished for a child to carry on my name, but I thought it was not to be. Now that I have found my grandson, I wish him to be everything that I would have made of him. I forget that he is already a man of his own."

"Very much so," Lily whispered, finally hearing something with which she could agree.

Antonio nodded. "I think you are a good woman. We will make the family see that you are one of us, as they must come to see that Luis is mine. It is good that he takes my name. The child you carry will be a de Suela. Luis has done the right thing by bringing you here. I am not so old that there is not time to see my destiny passed on to my grandson and his child."

Lily felt a flicker of alarm, but the old man was already rising, and the shakiness of his hand on the stick prevented her from protesting aloud. She was in no state to argue, and in any case, this was not the man with whom she wished to argue. "Luis" had a few questions waiting for him whenever he deigned to put in an appearance.

Antonio bowed over Lily's hand. At the sight of the silver ring on her finger, he hesitated, and an expression of such deep regret crossed his face that Lily wished she could comfort him. He merely kissed the ring, wished her well, and departed.

Determined to show the old man that he could not arrange everything to suit himself, Lily prepared for a fight. When Juanita returned, she was struggling to get out of bed. "Where's Cade?" she whispered before the maid could even say a word.

"He and Travis have gone into Bexar. You are supposed to stay in bed. We have none of us slept for worrying about you. If you make yourself ill again, we will never forgive you. Back!" Juanita ordered, bustling about, pulling at the covers and plumping the pillows.

"I want to get dressed. I will sit right here and rest, but I want to be dressed when they come back." Lily slid from the high bed to her feet, swaying as she did so. The fever had left her weaker than she had realized, but she clung to the bed and maintained her balance.

"Your clothes are being washed and pressed. There is nothing for you to wear. Now is not the time to be modest. They have seen you in your nightgown before."

Lily didn't know whether Juanita referred to their nights in the tent or if she hinted at Lily's past relationship with Travis. There was a slightly sharp edge to her tone that made her think the latter. Reluctantly, Lily returned to the massive bed with its suffocating feather mattress. Crossing her arms over her chest, she scowled at thus being thwarted.

"I am not an invalid. What am I supposed to do here all day?"

"Sleep. Travis says you are to get much rest." Juanita jerked the curtains across the windows to conceal the winter sun.

"And since when have you paid any attention to what Travis says? He is a man like any other." As long as she was bored, she might as well draw Juanita out on a few subjects. Unfortunately, her throat still hurt enough to keep her from saying as much as she would like.

"He is not evil." Juanita gave a haughty sniff, but her cheeks colored.

"No, he's too damned charming for his own good. Unless you have decided to raise a child on your own, you'd better stay away from him." Lily couldn't make her warning any plainer. Travis may have matured over the last few years, but she couldn't see him settling down to a Mexican maid and the role of country physician.

Juanita blushed more deeply and stalked out without a reply. Lily stared at the window on the far wall and wondered if her life would ever be the same again. Less than a year ago she had thought herself safe and secure. Suddenly she was married to a man she didn't know, living in a house that wasn't hers, and wondering who the hell she was and what she was doing here.

She wanted to go home, but the chances were good that she no longer had a home to go to. She wouldn't even be able to return to Mississippi once she wrote to tell her sisters of their father's death. They would probably sell the house faster than she could travel.

The past was gone, and she had only an uncertain future to look forward to. Leaning back against the pillows and placing her hand over the child in her abdomen, Lily vowed to right that situation as soon as possible. She would have a home again. Her home. Not some stranger's.

When Cade returned, Lily was asleep. He laid the present he had brought for her over a chair back and hesitated near the bed. Asleep, she looked little more than an innocent child, but the evidence was there to prove that he had stolen any claim to innocence. He touched the bulge of her stomach beneath the bedclothes with his brown hand, and she instantly awoke.

"Cade." The word was a sigh of relief and a warning all in one. Lily struggled to rise, and Cade placed pillows behind her back.

"Have you heard news?"

"The news is not good,” he reluctantly told her. “Tell me how you are feeling. Can I get you anything?"

"You can get me out of here, and you can tell me the truth. How bad is 'not good'?"

There was a stiffness between them that should not be there, but Cade did not know how to erase it. He fully intended to make this house his home, just as he had made Lily his wife, but he had lived thirty-two years without either and it was taking time to adjust. He knew she was uncomfortable with the situation, but Lily was as strong as he. She would learn.

"It will not be good for the child to hear the details. Houston's army is retreating. Do not ask me more. Shall I call Juanita to bring your supper?"

Cade had promised that his grandfather would help keep her land if Santa Anna won. She would have to trust him.

He couldn’t tell if she did. She turned away to stare out the window. "I can't stay in bed forever. Are my clothes dry yet?"

She hadn't even noticed the gift he had left across the chair. Not certain how to react to that, Cade removed the gown from the chair and spread it across the covers. "Will this do?"

Lily glanced down in surprise, picking at the rich velvet bands of mourning sewn to the heavy silk of the skirt. "It is lovely. Whose is it?"

Cade rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, suddenly uncomfortable with these civilized clothes and gestures. He knew what to do with a woman in bed. He wasn't at all certain what to do with one who was ill, in mourning, and carrying his child. He groped desperately for the right words.

"Yours, I thought... because of your father..." Her face lightened with comprehension, and Cade made no attempt to explain further.

"You've bought me a mourning gown! Cade, that wasn't necessary. It's so expensive..." Lily smoothed the rich silk lovingly. "I could have dyed one of my other gowns. You shouldn't have..."

"You are my wife." He said this with firm conviction, as if it answered all that was between them, but in reality Cade was uncertain of anything that had to do with Lily.

He had thought this matter of taking a wife a simple thing, but it led to all manner of complications with which his experience wasn't equipped to deal. Her illness had terrified him, shattering his defensive barriers. Her pallor made his stomach tremble with fear. Cade wanted to keep her in that bed and not let anything happen to her, but he had enough understanding of the woman he had married to know that was impossible. He stood helpless before her, but he hid that fact behind his implacability.

"If it fits, may I come to dinner? I am tired of sitting here by myself." Inexplicably uneasy in Cade's presence, Lily countered with boldness. Standing there in a rich black brocade vest she had never seen before, his linen shirt open at the throat as usual, Cade was a commanding presence and a stranger. And this was his home, not hers.