Texas Lily (9 page)

"Well, I'll see if I can remember some, and you can pick up when you recognize them. How's that?"

The girl looked more than relieved, and soon Lily discovered heavenly bliss as her fingers once more struck ivory keys. The instrument was old and out of tune, but with a little work, she could pump a rousing frolic from it. It wasn't Beethoven, but the dancers responded instantly.

Cade watched as the weary features of Mrs. Jim Brown, farmer's wife, relaxed into the laughing, glowing excitement of Lily Porter Brown, musician. It was a miracle to him to discover that a woman could have more than one face. He had more or less lumped females into certain categories relative to their sexual availability. Lily Brown transcended those categories.

Relegated to the band, where he couldn't offend the sensibilities of the ladies present, Cade began to enjoy himself. He had never played for an audience, but he appreciated their response now that he and Lily had enlivened the music. A guitar player stepped in on "Piney Woods," and the crowd began to hoot and holler with joy.

A boy led the girl at the piano into the dancing, and Cade was reminded of something Lily had said the night before. She'd never experienced the pleasure of dancing because she had always been the one playing the music. She certainly didn't seem to mind it. Her face was aglow with pleasure. He had never seen her happier, but the foot-stomping excitement that the music generated was affecting even him. Cade wanted to know what it would be like to have a woman in his arms, swinging her through the steps like the other men were doing with their wives and girls. Would Lily be feeling the same way?

She laughed and looked up at the young piano player’s father when he stopped to thank her for helping Anna out. Alan Whitaker's proudly watched his daughter as she sipped lemonade with her partner, and Lily could see that he was happy because his daughter was happy.

"She's a charming girl and I'm glad to have been of assistance, Mr. Whitaker. I can remember myself at that age, dying for a chance to dance and stuck at the piano instead. Besides, I'm being entirely selfish. I love to play."

"Anna's shy, and we've been worried that she doesn't get a chance to talk with young people her age. I don't know how you did it, Mrs. Brown, but I have to thank you."

"Anna did it all on her own," Lily assured him. Before she could say more, she looked up to find Cade towering over her.

"Do you think they could do one song without us so I might have the pleasure of the next dance?" he asked formally.

Lily looked startled and Whitaker frowned, but Anna had just arrived and offered shyly, "I'll play for you, Mrs. Brown. What would you like to hear?"

It was settled. Feeling a quiver of excitement, Lily took Cade's hand and rose from the bench. "Do you know 'Molly Cotton-tail'?" It was an easy song, one every child learned, but great fun for dancing. Lily smiled at the child's eager nod. She would finally have a chance to try dancing.

Lily's excitement was irresistible. Ignoring the fact that he would most likely get his head blown off for daring to lay a hand to a white woman, Cade led her out to join the dancers. Langton and his wife were there, and they joined the circle beside them. Cade hid his surprise as Maria haughtily joined them, towing one of Lily's farmhands behind her. Maria was a whore at heart, but she hadn't denied him her bed as many another had done before. Cade wouldn't begrudge this offer of friendship now.

Unaware that a small cadre of friends and neighbors were forming a protective circle around them, Lily laughed and took Cade's hand as the music began. She had waited for this moment all her life, and she expected to enjoy it to the fullest. She no longer pictured a dream man to sweep her off her feet. She merely wanted to enjoy the music.

Cade watched in amazement as Lily spread her wings and flew. She didn't need anyone's protection. The sheer delight on her face as she swung from arm to arm around the circle, her feet scarcely touching the floor, was enough to stop even the hardest heart from treading on her happiness. Cade almost half-believed that life had some meaning beyond mere existence as he watched her. He wouldn't need liquor if he could always feel that kind of joy, even secondhand.

Lily collapsed, laughing, into his arms as the music ended. For a moment, Cade was supporting her slenderness against him while she recovered her breath. He had no right being aroused by innocence incarnate, but while Lily laughed, Cade burned.

The evening ended simply enough. Lily played a few more tunes until the drunken farmers became too rowdy, then she accepted Cade's escort to the wagon waiting outside.

Cade deliberately kept his distance, but he could feel every movement she made as she walked beside him. He drank in the clean scents of her soap and rosewater and burned in every place she had touched him this night. Remembering the priest's preaching of purgatory, Cade knew he had found it right here on earth as he walked beside this completely unobtainable woman.

He should have been feeling relieved that no one had offered to shoot him for daring to invade a territory that had always been off limits. Mostly, Cade wished he'd taken the opportunity to get drunk so he would be numb now instead of burning like a lovesick schoolboy.

As Lily called farewell to her newfound friends and neighbors, Cade worked at reining in his lusts. It was lust in the plural, he knew. He didn't want just her body, although that would go a long way toward easing some of the ache. He wanted everything about this woman. He wanted her joy, her home, her family, all the things he'd never known—and would never know.

Scowling, Cade stared at the oxen's rear ends as they pulled the wagon down the road toward the ranch. Lily hummed, totally oblivious to his predicament. She was his boss. She was white. She was an American. She was a lady. He built the barricade of bricks between them with thoroughness. He should have dragged Maria off to a dark corner and eased his hungers before he left the safety of the lighted barn with this woman.

"You'll never know how much I appreciate this, Cade." Finally sensing her companion's silence, Lily reached out to him in the only way she knew, with words. He had given her an evening to remember for the rest of her life. She wished there were some way to show her gratitude.

Cade responded with a surly grunt.

Surprised, Lily studied the man beside her. His size was still intimidating, but he had touched her with gentleness all evening and had not once stepped on her toes. She was beginning to feel almost comfortable in his presence, if only she could break through his reserve.

"I mean that, Cade. I've been dying inside without music. I hadn't realized that until tonight. I feel alive again. It's the most wonderful feeling. I wish I could make you feel it too."

Cade pulled the wagon to the side of the road beneath a stand of oaks. The darkness engulfed them, the leaves blocking out even the stars' light. Without a word of warning, he slid his arm around her waist and drew her closer.

Cade's lips came down across hers, smothering Lily’s gasp. That was the last protest she made. Her whole body was engulfed in a bonfire that she had not expected and had not asked for but could not fight. Her lips parted beneath his, and the heat of his kiss swept through her insides.

This was insane. She hadn't felt this way since she was a child and didn't know better. She couldn't...

But she could. As Cade's hands spread across her back and his mouth took its pleasure and returned it threefold, she very definitely could feel this way.

And with a determined thrust, Lily shoved him away and folded her arms over her aching breasts.

Silently, Cade picked up the reins and set the cattle in motion.

Chapter 7

"Hell, there's land out there for the takin'. Them Mexicans are too lazy to do anything with it, and there's plenty of Americans itchin' to get their hands on it—with our help, of course."

The man sipping his whiskey at the table looked at the speaker with contempt. "Santa Anna might have a thing or two to say about that. Do you think it's any accident that Bowie and his lot got thrown out of Coahuila? Or that we got a Mexican army camping on our doorstep? Until we have an army to hold the Mexicans off, we'll not get our hands on any more land. The easy days are over."

A third man shrugged his lacy cuffs from his coat sleeves and disdainfully inspected them for dirt. "There is land to be had if the right people are approached properly. Meanwhile, there's always that swamp down along the river that you can parcel out when this next lot of fools arrives. Unless, of course, you can manage to get the land away from your lady friend. Sold a parcel at a time, it could bring a tidy fortune."

The second man threw back another slug of whiskey. "It's not going to be as easy as I thought. And with land prices skyrocketing like they are, she's likely to ask a fortune for any of it. We'll have to find another way."

The first man grinned. "You could marry her. Just think of havin' that tall drink of water in your bed. Right gives a man goose bumps."

"Especially if she learned you've already got a wife back in the states," the elegantly dressed man sniffed. "A lot of men have been getting away with it, but I've got a suspicion your Mrs. Brown isn't the type to take such news lightly."

"How would she find out? Her father is easily persuaded. If I could just get rid of that damned drunken Indian..."

"Indian?" The third man looked up with sudden interest. "She has an Indian working for her?"

The explanation, when it came, made the stranger smile.

* * *

"No, you cannot ride out with the men, and that is final. Get back in the house to your schoolwork."

"But Mama, Cade said..."

Lily pointed her finger at the back door, and her rebellious eight-year-old scuffled his feet in that direction. It was almost more than she could take these days, whipping an army of recalcitrant men into line. Thank goodness her father had gone into town so she didn't have to listen to some complaint from him too.

She smiled in relief as Juanita came out of the kitchen carrying Serena. At least there were a few women whose support she could rely on. Lily took the child in her arms.

"She is spoiled, that one.
El Monstruo
ruins her." Juanita crossed her arms over her ample chest as she frowned at the laughing child.

Since the night of the dance Lily had avoided Cade by the simple expedient of putting Juanita in her place. Juanita regarded her new status as messenger with suspicion but without questioning. Lily wasn't any more satisfied with the arrangement than the other woman was, but she hadn't come to terms yet with her response to Cade's kiss. She knew it was her own fault for allowing him to take her to the dance. Men had the most ridiculous view of their rights where women were concerned. She should have expected Cade's response, but she hadn't. Nor had she expected her own. That was the part that was giving her trouble.

Lily tickled Serena's belly and sent her into gales of giggles. "What has she been up to now?"

"She decided her dolly should be white and she dusted her in my flour bin. Then she fed my buttermilk to her cat and poured it all over my clean floor and herself and the cat. We will not have biscuits tonight."

Juanita was righteously indignant, but these were still more words than she had spoken in years. Lily smiled and met the maid's flashing eyes. "I don't know of a child alive who isn't a nuisance. What would life be without them?"

Juanita's expression softened momentarily, then grew hard again. "If only they could be had without men." She turned and marched back to the kitchen.

That was a problem. Lily carried the toddler back to the house for her bath. She was barely twenty-five years old, but she was condemning herself to a life of celibacy just like Juanita was—celibacy and childlessness. They would both grow to be cantankerous old spinsters at the rate things were going.

Jim had at least saved her from that fate, but not by much. Sighing, Lily began stripping off Serena's batter-encrusted gown. Why couldn't men behave with the same civility as women? What made them turn into raging animals at the drop of a hat? Or an eyelid.

She was going to have to come to terms with Cade somehow. Even as she thought it, she saw her foreman crossing the yard toward the barn, another man trailing after him. Perhaps this was the new hand Cade had promised to hire. When the stranger turned slightly, Lily suppressed a gasp of shock, then allowed rage to take over. This had to be the final straw.