City Girl (9 page)

"Yes, sir!" Cleave snapped smartly, squashing his hat off with a big bony, freckled hand, showing flaming orange hair and a white smile. "Pardon me, ma'am," he said with a quick bow, jammed the hat back on his head, and started off in a hurry.

Garrett rolled his eyes heavenward, muttering beneath his breath, and followed the redheaded wrangler, with Crystal watching in amazement. At the gate, he paused momentarily to cast her an unfathomable look, then turned and was gone.

No sooner had the two men disappeared through the back gate than Lupe plopped herself down beside Crystal, nearly catapulting the petite woman off the small divan. There would have been room for three ordinary people, but Lupe alone could have filled the divan to overflowing.

"You have nice trip?" she inquired politely, baring white teeth, then hurried on, leaving Crystal nodding an affirmative. "You married? Engaged, maybe?" Crystal's mouth fell open. "No, of course not!" Lupe answered her own question with a giggle. She patted Crystal's hands. "This is a good place. You will like it here. We fix you up nice. You want Lupe to fix you something good to eat?"

"No, no, please!" Crystal found herself protesting more vigorously than necessary and had to back up quickly to keep from hurting the other woman's feelings. "We only ate lunch an hour or so ago," she explained. "What I'd really like is to see the house and get settled into my room."

Lupe's face brightened. She heaved herself to her feet and waddled to the glass sliding door from which she had entered, bawling out in Spanish for Petie to get the teacher's bags and help Gloria unpack them. Crystal wondered who Gloria was, but supposed she would find out soon enough.

Almost immediately Petie appeared in the doorway beneath the arch, munching a cookie leisurely. "Where you want them?" he asked.

"In the Rose Room," Lupe folded her hands over her rotund belly and repeated herself. "In the Rose Room. Pronto!"

Crystal caught a murmur of protest in Spanish, but the set of Lupe's wide shoulders told her that the little man should not even bother to argue with his enormous wife, and he, too, seemed to know this, for he scurried away, mumbling and motioning to himself.

"Come. Let me show you our house," said Lupe, beckoning to Crystal, who rose and followed the lumbering figure beneath the archway and through the glass door. "This is our kitchen," she pointed out needlessly, gesturing with obvious pride at the modern appliances and gleaming blue countertops.

It was a wonderful room with lots of cabinets and counter top space. At one end, the counter formed an L, making a bar where meals could be taken. The tile was green, and the barstools were cushioned with a bright blue-and-green print fabric, which was repeated in the wallpaper covering one wall. Copper pots and utensils hung from wagon wheels suspended from the high ceiling. Altogether, Crystal could not imagine a more perfect room. She would have added some potted plants, but then she would add plants to almost any room that did not already have them in profusion.

What followed was a complete tour of the house, which, as Crystal had surmised, was actually built in two separate wings.

The smaller wing contained the kitchen, the formal dining room, and a spacious apartment occupied by Lupe, Petie, and their daughter, Gloria.

"You are not so much older than my daughter," Lupe informed sweetly. "I'm sure she will enjoy having you here for company."

"Oh, that would be nice," Crystal replied hopefully. It really would be so much easier to have a friend near her own age to spend time with.

"I'm sure you will get along," Lupe went on, adding, "She's a good girl, very pretty, maybe a little impetuous, but still a good daughter."

The second wing of the house was much larger than the first. It consisted of a spacious, rustic living room with a huge natural-rock fireplace and heavy leather-upholstered furniture, several guest rooms, a study, a game room, Garrett's private quarters, Crystal's own room, and beyond that, the garage.

Crystal hugged herself with delight. This was like some very luxurious and exotic retreat. She could not have imagined anything so beautiful and lavish. It was a maze of cool hallways and wooden-beamed rooms, stuccoed walls and high rock fireplaces, archways and glass walls and courtyards.

Crystal found it odd that her room was situated next to Garrett's private quarters, but since their doors were actually quite far apart and there was a private entrance that opened onto the outer courtyard and the swimming pool, she felt it was a suitable arrangement.

Lupe did not actually allow her to see Garrett's suite, but she did explain that it contained an office, a small private dining room, a sitting room, bedroom and bath.

"This door is to the office," she explained, pointing to the door nearest Crystal's own door. "And this is to his private suite." Crystal nodded her understanding, and the wide woman waddled farther down the hall.

"This," she said, opening a door on the outside wall, "is the private entrance I told you about. And this," she indicated the door opposite it, "is the door to your room, which I will show you now."

She threw the door open and stepped back for Crystal to enter, smiling knowingly.

Crystal passed through the door and gasped with delight. "This is… this is… well, it's unreal!" she gushed, turning circles in the lovely room.

"You like it, then?" Lupe asked with an eager face.

"I love it! I've never seen anything so beautiful!"

"Ah, I thought so," Lupe murmured strangely. "I knew it immediately I saw you."

Crystal turned a blank smile to her, then again turned to take in the lovely room. It was easy to see why it was called the Rose Room. No other name would have done it justice, and it was one of those special rooms with so much personality of its own that it deserved a name.

The smoothly stuccoed walls were painted a warm peachy color, accentuated beautifully by the plush carpeting of a deep wine red. All of the heavy furniture, and there was a lot of it, was of darkly stained rosewood. The big, wide bed was canopied in a pale pink fabric lavishly embroidered with roses, as were the exquisite spread and drapes, which were parted, displaying louvered window shutters painted a vivid green.

The window was a high arch with a seat at the base, which was covered in wine-red velvet and crammed with sweet little pillows of various shades of pink, red, and green, all embroidered with intricate roses. Even the lovely milk-glass lamps on the bedside tables had roses on them, handpainted and very delicate.

There was a small dressing room off one end, with a closet half again as large as the outer chamber, and a private bath that was covered, walls and floor, with stone tiles of the same peachy pink as the walls of the bedchamber. Here, too, were roses. Even the knobs that controlled the flow of water into the deep, sunken tub were intricate golden roses.

Crystal explored the room thoroughly, enjoying the lavishness and looking for some sign that would tell her whose room this had been. It had very definitely belonged to someone, perhaps even been specially designed for someone. It just had too much character to have been done without a specific person in mind.

This was a woman's room. Crystal knew it intuitively. She ran over in her mind the other parts of the house which Lupe had shown her. Nothing she had seen seemed to indicate that the same person who decorated the rest of the house had also decorated this room.

No man put this room together, she told herself silently, not Garrett Dean or any other man.

"You wash up and then come to the kitchen," Lupe said. "I'll give you some coffee and a bit of cheesecake. Later, after Gloria unpacks for you, you can bathe."

"Oh, no, don't have Gloria do that. I work here, remember? I'll be glad to unpack my own things." Crystal wanted to belong here. She let her gaze wander around the room once more.

She wanted to carry her own weight around here. No one must get the idea that she needed to be waited on hand and foot. She wanted to make herself a part of this household, even if it would only be a temporary involvement.

Lupe shook her dark head. "We each have our jobs," she said. "Yours is to teach."

"All right," Crystal laughed, "but just this once. From then on, I pull my own weight around here."

Lupe shrugged noncommittally and hurried away, closing the door behind her.

Crystal washed the grime from her face and hands and pulled the pins out of her hair, letting it tumble down her back from a center part managed with a small folding-comb-and-brush set she carried in her handbag. She took off the jacket and surveyed herself in the mirror over the vanity. Could be worse, but she would certainly like to change into fresh clothing. She wondered then just how Petie would manage her heavy trunks, and an image of Garrett easily hoisting the trunks one by one onto his powerful shoulders came to her with a twinge of excitement.

Quickly she shook off the feeling and decided not to wait for Petie. A vague restlessness warred with the fatigue of the long trip. Perhaps a cup of Lupe's coffee would handle both.

Leaving her jacket behind, she went out of the room and crossed the hall to the door that opened onto the outer courtyard and stepped through. This, too, was a lovely place. Her eyes lingered hopefully on the still, crystal-clear waters of the blue-bottomed pool.

It would be so lovely to swim in this pool, luxuriate in the serene privacy, and loll in the sun. She felt guiltily like a vacationing jet-setter and told herself sternly that there would be much work for her to do here. She had best concentrate upon that and not let herself become spoiled to these luxurious surroundings. She was an employee here—nothing more or less. Best to keep that fact in mind.

Lupe was prepared for her when she slid back the glass door and entered the spotless kitchen. A hot cup of coffee waited for her beside a plate of cheesecake, and she knew instantly that it would be futile to try to refuse the sweet. Lupe would not be satisfied until she had fed her new charge.

Despite the fact that Lupe's idea of a bit of cheesecake would have made dessert at Aunt Judith's house for a week, Crystal dived into it gamely. It was delicious. She would have to watch herself around Lupe's cooking, or by summer's end, she, too, would look like a baby elephant.

Not that the cook's size intimidated Crystal or made her respect the woman any less; quite the contrary. The more they talked, and Lupe was very easy to visit with, the more Crystal respected the woman, and the more she learned about the ranch and its boss.

Crystal could not imagine how Lupe managed this huge house and all of the cooking, for Lupe told her that she prepared meals for the top hands, excluding Rod Hardesty now that he was married, her own family, and Garrett as well. A few of the wranglers were married and lived at various spots spread over the ranch. The others were provided a kitchen in the bunkhouse and prepared their own meals. Only the top hands were given private quarters and allowed to eat in the big house whenever they chose.

With only Gloria and Petie to help her, Crystal wondered how Lupe managed to keep ahead of her work. The house was immaculate, and the grounds, which were Petie's responsibility, were kept beautifully. In addition to the everyday chores, Lupe informed her that they entertained often, especially in the fall, when the busy time on any ranch has passed.

Lupe was as proud of Garrett as she was of his home, which she unhesitatingly called "our" home. The more she talked about the man, the more she reinforced Crystal's opinion that he was a thorough and exacting boss. According to Lupe, Garrett ran his ranch and other businesses with a firm hand, but Crystal wondered how the housekeeper and her husband could get away with the type of impertinence they had displayed earlier, if that were true. She supposed the answer lay in Lupe's next statement.

"He's like a son to me. I raised him from a baby. After his mother died, his father brought me from Mexico to help raise the boy." She smiled proudly. "And he didn't forget his old nanny, either. When Mr. Dean passed on, Garrett kept us on the old place until he made it big and we came to live here in this fine house."

"You are very proud of him, aren't you?" Crystal could not keep from asking.

"
Si
! Would you not be? When his father died, he left the boy a thousand acres and few rangy head of cattle. Today…" She shrugged expressively. "Not only is he one of the great legends of rodeo, there is oil wells and gas companies and real estate and… oh!" She threw up her hands. "I do not even know it all."

Crystal was duly impressed. Apparently there was a great deal to this man. How had Hal Groman phrased it? "A very big man indeed." She could certainly see how that label applied to more than just his stature. But all this led Crystal to wonder about the personal aspects of his life.

She had been fairly certain from the beginning that he was not now married. That had been obvious when he had explained the living arrangements to her during the interview. Nothing whatsoever had been said about a wife. "My housekeeper's family and I," he had said, or something to that effect. She remembered now how it had unnerved her then, but surely there was a reason why he had never married, if, indeed, he had not.

Curiosity won out over prudence, and she found herself asking questions she would not have ordinarily asked. "Has there never been a Mrs. Dean?" she asked bluntly.

An uneasy look passed over Lupe's face. It was like a veil being lowered, but she responded casually. "
Si
, there was. She is no longer living."

Immediately Crystal wished she had not asked. It was really none of her business, and it seemed to sadden the gregarious cook. She decided to change the subject onto something more lighthearted. "Umm, this is really delicious cheesecake," she complimented, forcing down another bite, and pushed the plate away just as Garrett slid back the glass door and entered the kitchen, followed closely by another cowboy.

Rick Benson was almost as tall as his boss, though leaner and more boyish-looking. His brown hair, streaked cinnamon by the sun, glistened with water. He had apparently doused himself with water, as the stained khaki shirt he wore above soiled jeans was damp around the shoulders. He carried a big-brimmed straw hat in his hand.