One Bright Morning (35 page)

Hell, didn’t last night
meant anything at all to her
?

Maggie was dismayed. She hadn’t meant to
irritate him. “I’m sorry, Jubal,” she began, and was even more
dismayed when he became instantly exasperated with her.

“
Will you quit apologizing
to me?”

Maggie’s mouth dropped open and she nearly
apologized for annoying him by apologizing. She thought better of
it almost immediately. A prickle of irritation smote her and she
had to take a deep breath before trying once more. Her aunt’s
constant admonition about not making people angry sang off-key in
her mind, and she phrased her words carefully.

“
Um, well, I just wondered
when we’d be getting close to your land, Jubal.” The question was
asked with some trepidation. Recalling her resolve not to cling and
her worry about his intentions, Maggie tried to phrase it so that
it wouldn’t smack of impatience. Lord, it was tricky business,
trying to stay off of this prickly man’s toes.

But Jubal wasn’t angry. He was surprised.
“Hell, Maggie, we’ve been on my land for three hours now.”

Maggie was absolutely astounded. Her mouth
dropped open and she looked at the landscape surrounding them as
though she expected to see a sign or something.

“
Oh—well—but—”Maggie finally
just gave up trying to express herself and laughed.

Maggie’s laugh was so sweet and enchanting
that it made Jubal’s insides ache with hunger for her. He watched
in appreciation as her eyebrows lifted into two incredulous arches
above her pretty blue eyes. His uncivilized masculinity reacted by
instantly thickening up.

“
I thought you knew that,”
he said inanely.

Maggie was still laughing. “How on earth
could I know that Mr.—I mean, Jubal? I’ve never been here
before.”

“
I guess not.” Jubal wasn’t
sure why she thought this was so funny.

“
I didn’t know a human being
could own so much land,” Maggie admitted with an awed shake of her
head. “I guess I’m kind of naive, Jubal, but still, three hours’
worth of Texas is a whole lot of land to belong to one person.”
Maggie was mighty impressed.

That innocent, wondering comment finally
made Jubal unsettled mood smooth over. “I guess it is,” he said
with a grin. “But if you ride in the other direction, you can go
for days and still be on Green land.

“
Oh my.” That was
impressive, indeed.

At the moment, Jubal was driving the wagon
along the base of some stony foothills that angled out from the
Rocky Mountain which had spawned El Paso in one of its low passes.
He pointed at the top of a rise.

Maggie’s gaze followed the line indicated by
his finger, but she couldn’t really see much except the brown,
rocky hill, even when she squinted hard.

“
I don’t know if you can
make him out, but one of my men is posted guard at the top of that
hill over there.”

He waved at the guard and Maggie could just
make out the glint of light that was made when the late afternoon
sun struck the guard’s rifle barrel as he waved back.

“
Oh, I see something
now.”

Jubal was squinting at the top of the hill.
“Yeah. I think that’s Ramon. I have men posted everywhere.
Mulrooney’s people can’t get at us here, Maggie. See him up
there?”

Now Maggie was
really
impressed. He even
had guards on his land. “No, I can’t see him,” she admitted. Then,
with a thrill in her voice, she added, “But as soon as my
eyeglasses are ready, I’ll be able to see him and everything else,
too.”

She actually gave herself a little hug of
pleasure. Jubal wanted to hug her, too, but he had to drive the
wagon. His grin got bigger, though.

“
Yep. You’ll be able to see
everything. I just hope you like what you see.”

A sudden, unpleasant thought struck Maggie
like a blow and she eyed Jubal uneasily. She swallowed hard. “It’ll
be real nice to be able to see clear,” she said. Her voice was a
little shallow.

“
I guess it will be,” Jubal
agreed. He didn’t notice that her mood had changed.

“
I, um, don’t believe I’ve
seen too many ladies wearing spectacles.”

Jubal had never particularly thought about
it before. He considered Maggie’s words now, though.

“
I don’t guess I have,
either, come to think on it,” he said, interested that Maggie had
noticed the absence of spectacles among the general female
population. He appreciated observant people and chalked up one more
point for Maggie Bright.

“
I—I don’t guess spectacles
will improve my looks any.”

Maggie ventured that observation with a tiny
little laugh that trickled out uneasily. She was still watching
Jubal out of the corner of her eye, keenly studying his face for
any sign that might ease her worry or confirm it.

Jubal turned his head to look at her. “Do
you worry much about your looks, Maggie?”

Now she felt embarrassed and
wished she hadn’t gone on this stupid fishing expedition.
You are what you are, Maggie
Bright
, she told herself firmly.
You can’t help it that your eyes aren’t good and
you need spectacles
.

Yeah, and you can’t help it
that you want to look pretty for Jubal Green,
either
, her self answered back.

She had to clear her throat before she
answered him. “I—I don’t guess I worry, exactly. But, well, I want
to look nice, yes,” she said shyly. She couldn’t look at him now.
She knew she was blushing.

“
I think you’re pretty,
Maggie,” said Jubal. “I think you’ll be pretty with eyeglasses,
too.”

He looped the reins into one hand and
reached out a leather-gloved hand to nudge her under the chin so
she’d look at him. He was surprised to see tears glittering in her
eyes when she finally succumbed to the pressure of his touch and
turned her face toward his.

“
I think you’re about the
prettiest lady I’ve ever met, Maggie.” He didn’t know if it was the
truth or not, but he did know that she was the only one he’d ever
loved.

“
Oh, I’m not,” she
whispered, stunned. Nobody but Kenny had ever said such soft, sweet
words to her, and she’d never believed them then. She didn’t
believe them now, either, but discovered that she really, really
wanted to.

“
Don’t argue with me, Maggie
Bright,” Jubal said with assumed fierceness. He squeezed her chin.
Then he leaned over and kissed her on the lips.

“
Thank you,” she
murmured.

She couldn’t look at him any longer because
his eyes were making her go all over melty like she’d been last
night. She stared into her lap and blushed furiously.

Jubal was rather pleased at her reaction to
his words and touch. Maybe he could get used to this love stuff. He
clicked gently at the mules and turned his attention back to his
driving.

They arrived within seeing distance of his
ranch house a half-hour or so later. His father had built the place
near a branch of the Rio Grande that ran beside a little nest of
hills. It was, therefore, much more green in Green’s Valley than in
most of the surrounding desert lands.

Jubal pointed the ranch out to Maggie long
before she could see it. He could tell they were almost there
because his own eagle eyes had picked out the spreading sward of
green and the dark pinpoints that indicated treetops. Cottonwoods
and willows lined the stream, and it wasn’t long, too, before Jubal
began to see the distinctive white gleam of the roofs of the out
buildings and the ranch house itself.

He discovered to his surprise that he was
getting nervous. Until this moment, he hadn’t realized how much he
wanted Maggie to like it here. He didn’t want her to pine for that
stupid, dumpy farm of hers; he wanted her to think of her home as
where he was.

Maggie was straining to see Jubal’s place in
the distance. When she thought she could finally discern a darker
patch against the vast sandy brownness that spread in front of
them, she nearly jumped off the wagon seat.

“
Oh, Jubal, I think I see
it.” Her whisper was a burst of happy excitement.

He smiled at her, glad for her enthusiasm.
“I hope you like it, Maggie.”

“
Oh, I’m sure we
will.”

Jubal didn’t miss that “we.”

“
When we get close, I want
Annie to see it, too,” Maggie told him.

“
Well, let her sleep for
now. Distances are deceiving out here. It will be an hour or so
before we’re there.”

“
An hour?” Maggie was
disappointed.

“
Afraid so.”

She sighed heavily. Her disappointment was
relieved somewhat when Dan and Four Toes rode up to the wagon.

“
Gettin’ close,” Dan
called.

Jubal waved at him.

“
Want us to ride on ahead to
warn Cod Fish and have Beula get a room set up for Mrs. Bright,
Jubal?”

Jubal didn’t answer right away. He hadn’t
actually considered sleeping arrangements yet. All sorts of
scenarios, some of them quite appealing, flitted through his nimble
brain before he finally said, “Yeah. That’s probably a good
idea.”

Jubal had never been hasty in his life. And,
while he admitted that he loved Maggie Bright, sort of like he’d
admit to having a bum knee or a broken arm, he decided it would be
better to go slow. After all, if luck were on his side, he’d get
over it before it settled in and became a permanent condition.

The two Indians rode off in twin puffs of
dust and Maggie watched them with interest.

“
Who are Cod Fish and
Beula?”

“
Cod Fish is my foreman and
Beula is his wife. She sort of keeps house for me.”

“
Is his name really Cod
Fish?”

Jubal chuckled. “Nah. It’s Henry. He’s from
Maine. I guess some of the hands began calling him Cod Fish decades
ago and it just stuck. He still talks funny, like an Easterner.
Calls himself a Mainiac.”

Maggie giggled. “Oh. That’s funny.”

She wasn’t too sure of her ground here, but
she did know that she wanted to be as useful as possible while she
and Annie were living at Jubal’s. She also much preferred to offer
her own suggestion as to how she could earn her keep rather than
wait for any unsavory propositions Jubal might make. In fact, she
was pretty sure any such proposition would go far toward breaking
her heart. In a tentative voice, she said, “I’d be happy to help
keep house, Mr. Green—I mean, Jubal.”

She was peering at him nervously. She never
quite knew how he was going to take things. Sure enough, his
forehead began to wrinkle up and his eyebrows dipped over the
bridge of his nose. Maggie sighed in exasperation.

“
I don’t want you working
hard here, Maggie,” Jubal told her tersely. “You’ve worked too hard
in your life.” He shot her a brief scowl before he returned his
attention to the desert in front of him.

“
Oh.” Maggie didn’t know
what to say to that. She opted for, “Thank you,” and hoped he
wouldn’t get fussy at her for thanking him. Then she contemplated
her folded hands and hoped against hope that he wouldn’t suggest
she become his mistress. The possibility made her want to cry, but
she braced herself.

He didn’t. Instead, he just growled, “You’re
welcome,” and flicked the reins.

It was another forty-five minutes before
either of them spoke again. Then Jubal told her, “I think it’s time
to wake Annie up.”

Maggie had been nodding on the hard wooden
seat with her eyes closed. The sun was barely visible above the
hills now, the worst of the heat had burned itself out, and she was
feeling sleepy and oddly happy. Jubal’s words snapped her awake in
a jiffy, and she was amazed to see that they had driven through a
steep-sided rocky gorge and out into a lovely green valley.

Her gasp of pleased surprise was music to
Jubal’s ears. He grinned at the mules and peered at Maggie out of
the corner of his eye. She was staring around in happy
astonishment.

“
I had no idea, Jubal. This
is wonderful. I expected it to be all brown and dry like the rest
of the land around here.”

“
Yeah,” he said. “My pa
always used to say that the first time he saw this stretch of land,
he knew that this was where he was going to make his heaven on
earth.”

“
What a pretty thing to
say,” said Maggie, impressed with the poetic nature that Jubal’s
father apparently hadn’t handed down to his son.

Jubal snorted. “Yeah, well, his intentions
were good, anyway. It didn’t exactly work out that way, thanks to
Prometheus Mulrooney and my mother.”

Maggie peered at him quickly and saw that
his face had gone hard. She decided she’d better not say anything
about being kind to mothers. After all, she hated her aunt; maybe
Jubal’s mother had been like her. It was an appalling thought, but
it did occur to her that perhaps some people were just not worth
the energy it took to love them.

“
I’m sorry,” she said
softly. She didn’t see Jubal glance at her in surprise, because she
was too busy leaning over the back of the wagon seat to wake her
daughter up.

“
Annie, honey, we’re here.
Wake up, sweetheart. We’re at Jubal’s ranch. You can meet his dog
Rover now. And there’s a man named Cod Fish, too, and a lady named
Beula. It’s pretty here, Annie. There’s a river and trees, and—”
Maggie glanced up. They were in view of the ranch house itself now,
and her mouth dropped open momentarily. The house was so big and
pretty, Maggie gaped in astonishment. “Oh, Annie, it’s beautiful,”
she breathed.