To Wed in Texas (27 page)

“Don’t say that.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “You’re not making it any easier to walk away.”

She tilted her head slightly in question.

He frowned. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” He stared at her with passion still darkening his eyes. “About the time I think I have a handle on how it has to be between us, you get just a little too close. And then you smell like you do, all fresh and newborn. And you taste better than any woman should taste. It’s like I can’t get enough of you.”

When she didn’t answer, he continued, “And the feel of you is maddening. Do you have any idea how good you feel in a man’s arms? Soft as warm butter.”

His voice hardened. “And what right did you have of kissing me like you did when you visited me? There could have been people watching. That wasn’t exactly a polite greeting kiss, Mrs. McLain. I lost more than one night’s sleep thinking about it.”

Karlee shrugged, taking his criticism with a laugh.
“How did I kiss you? Like you just kissed me? And there
are
folks watching, now.”

Daniel glanced at the barn. Half a dozen Germans smiled at him.

Stepping away suddenly, he seemed embarrassed at his own rambling. “I don’t have time for such foolishness. I have to find Wolf before trouble breaks out. He needs to know what happened at Sandtown.”

“I can get word to him,” Karlee volunteered.

Daniel circled, staying a full three feet away from her. “Good. Send word for him to meet me here. I should be back by nightfall.” He glanced up at the closed window. “I hate to leave you with Gerilyn, but there are things I have to do.”

“I’ll survive.” Karlee smiled with limited conviction. They’d given Gerilyn enough to keep her lecturing all day.

Daniel squared his shoulders. “I seem to be always thanking you. In truth, I wonder how I made it without you.”

She blushed. He couldn’t have paid her a greater compliment.

He stepped a few more feet away. “Our marriage? It was a good bargain?”

She nodded. “A good bargain.”

He was gone without another word.

Karlee finished the first line full of clothes before the twins woke up and her day truly began. Gerilyn stayed in her room until almost noon. When she descended, she was ready for battle.

She played the perfect guest until lunch was served and the girls were busy playing on the porch, then she opened fire.

Karlee didn’t mind the insults about her cooking and the poor quality of her housework. She didn’t even mind the digs at how poorly she dressed and how nothing
could make her hair better. But, finally, as the afternoon wore on, Gerilyn hit on what did bother Karlee. Like a hawk, she spotted the vulnerable spot and flew directly toward it.

By supper time, she’d explained in detail why Daniel would never want to have children with someone like Karlee. After all, she was already so large. Pregnant, she’d be a walking mountain. And no man wants ugly offspring. Especially not a girl child who might take after her mother.

But it wasn’t just Karlee’s looks Gerilyn patiently explained in detail. A man might overlook the “large bones” and red hair, but the lack of grace and quick thinking could never be ignored. Not only would his female children be unmarriageable, but his sons would be slow and clutsy with two left feet and a heritage of clumsiness.

Karlee wasn’t to blame, of course. After all, her mother, though plain, had come from a good family. But she’d married a sailor. The whole family had known it was a mistake from the beginning. He was huge with knotted muscles and the inability to stand with his feet together like normal men do. He’d had red hair and a laugh that shook the house. No man of breeding would have acted as he did from the moment he saw Karlee’s mother. It was a disgrace, Gerilyn assured Karlee. Neither of them cared a wit what anyone thought. They were dancing fools, drunk on love. They married without even a formal wedding. And of course, no one was surprised at their offspring. Karlee was doomed to have the worst of both parents. Her father’s looks and her mother’s slow wit.

Gerilyn kept on rattling as Karlee set supper by the stove. The house guest didn’t see any need to wait dinner on Daniel, but also didn’t seem surprised Karlee insisted. Karlee could almost feel her mentally listing just
one more in a long column of sins that she’d relate in a letter to Aunt Rosy.

The twins played quietly with their dolls. They’d been told once too often by Gerilyn not to mess up the new dolls she’d given them. So her china-faced gifts lay on the table while they played with the family of rag dolls Karlee had made them.

Karlee excused herself, claiming she needed to freshen up. She could hear Gerilyn’s advice on grooming as she hurried into the hallway and out the front door.

It was not full dark yet, but gray clouds made the air thick with promised rain. The whole world seemed to reflect Karlee’s mood. She could hear thunder far to the north as though it were rumbling, churning before stampeding. The breeze caught her hair and lifted it, combing the first raindrops through curls.

On the silent, shadowy porch, Karlee took her first deep breath all day. She felt as if she were bleeding from a hundred tiny cuts over her body. Leaning against the house, she tried to relax and gather the strength to make it through the rest of the evening. Part of her wanted Daniel to return, part didn’t know if she could bear for him to hear all the things Gerilyn said.

Karlee faced the wall and pressed against the wood, wanting, as she had since she was a child, to disappear. Why hadn’t her parents taken her with them? Had they left her behind because she truly was the worst of them both? She pressed harder, wanting to move into the wood and never be seen again. Tears bubbled from her eyes as she let the weight of all her shortcomings settle on her. She’d been so busy these past few weeks she’d almost forgotten who she was. What she was.

A hand rested on her shoulder, so lightly at first she wasn’t sure when it had appeared.

“Karlee,” Daniel whispered as he turned her around. “Don’t lean into the wall. Lean into me.”

She folded into his arms without a word. How could she tell him all Gerilyn said? He could probably see for himself.

His strong, powerful arms closed around her so tenderly, she wanted to cry all the more.

He held her as she fought to control her breathing. He didn’t say a word or tell her to stop. He let her cry without question, without reason.

When she finally stopped, she wondered if he had any idea what a rare gift he’d just given her.

With his arm around her shoulder, they walked inside. She didn’t miss the way he let her take a little of his weight almost as though it were too much for him to handle any longer alone.

“Jesse Blair’s brother died early this morning,” he whispered before they reached the kitchen door. “I’ve been out among the Rebs trying to stop a riot. If the doc hadn’t convinced them Altus died of natural causes while in jail, I think they would have stormed the stockade.”

“Are you all right?” She could see the tired lines in his face.

“I will be soon. There’s a meeting tonight somewhere near the Blair place. Can you get word to Valerie and ask her to sleep over in the twins’ room? I’ll need you with me.”

Karlee rested her hand on the kitchen door. “You forgot our house guest.” She pushed, and Gerilyn came into view.

“How could I forget?” he mumbled against her ear. “We’ll wait and leave after the house is quiet. You will go with me?”

She wasn’t at all sure why he wanted her along, but she nodded.

The twins ambushed him, drawing his attention as Karlee set the table. No matter how tired or what troubles he thought he had, his daughters lightened his load. Starlett filled the room with stories she’d dreamed up, and Cinnamon managed to hug him more times than he could count.

He hardly noticed Gerilyn complaining and was thankful when Wolf appeared at the kitchen door and drowned her voice out completely.

When the hairy man was invited to stay for supper, Gerilyn looked aggravated, as though she’d been asked to dine with dogs. Her irritation seemed to jolly up everyone else in the room.

Wolf made an effort to be the gentleman, doing his best to show her that he’d been raised with proper Kentucky manners. But she didn’t seem interested.

Before the bread was done and on the table, Gerilyn had reverted to her favorite pastime of belittling Karlee. She even tried to enlist Daniel and Wolf in her endeavor.

“Have you ever seen a woman with such hair?” Gerilyn chimed into the men’s conversation. “Unbelievable color. Simply unbelievable.”

Wolf growled at her, knowing there was an insult to his friend, but unsure where it lay hidden in her words.

Daniel didn’t care what his sister-in-law said. What mattered was the way Karlee reacted. He watched as she pulled her hair back as if trying to hide it.

Gerilyn continued, “It’s quite unfair, being blessed with a far from petite body and hair like that as well. Sometimes I think our Maker has no mercy. Don’t you agree, Reverend?”

Daniel remained silent. He simply watched and remembered how he’d thought her hair had looked like velvet fire at dawn when he’d seen her standing outside in the wind.

Wolf wrinkled his brow and stared at Karlee as
though it had been he whose opinion were sought. “I always thought red hair was pretty, different from the run-of-the-mill. As for her size. She seems the right size to me. At least she’s not skin and bones.”

When Karlee glanced toward the hairy man, he winked.

Gerilyn looked down at her plate paying Wolf’s praise no mind. “What is this, my dear cousin, a biscuit or a coal? I can’t tell.”

Wolf reacted immediately. “Why, that’s a biscuit, Miss Gerilyn. You must be getting where you need glasses. That happens when a woman gets to your age. There’s nothing to be ashamed about. Now look closely. It’s a biscuit, nice and done, just the way I like them.”

He leaned so close his shoulder brushed Gerilyn’s. “If you ain’t going to eat it, ma’am, I’ll take it off your plate. I can’t get enough of Karlee’s biscuits.”

He said it so convincingly, Gerilyn’s jaw dropped in a very unladylike manner.

Daniel saw the game. He grabbed a handful of the hot dough-centered rocks and laughed. “Wolf’s right. Karlee makes the best biscuits I’ve ever eaten.” He’d pray later for the lie.

Karlee looked as surprised as Gerilyn as the two men almost fought over every dish she set on the table. They bragged and ate as if kings at a royal feast.

At one point, Wolf closed his eyes and moaned as he chewed a bite slowly. “This is the best fried ham I’ve ever tasted.”

“No,” Daniel argued. “I think the one she made a few nights ago was better. Though I’ll have to have another slice to tell for sure.”

Gerilyn kept nibbling at her food, at first convinced they were mad but slowly, like a first-year student among masters, she tried to see what the men saw in Karlee’s work of art.

By dessert, the men had put on quite a show. They both asked for a large slice of pie.

As she stood to oblige, the door flew open and Valerie blew in with the damp rainy air. Her black hair circled her like a cape and she carried a bundle half her size.

“Evening,” the girl said with a wide smile. “Ida’s son told me you’d like me to spend the night with the twins tonight.”

“If you’d like,” Karlee grinned at the wonderful little girl who had become almost part of the family.

“I’d love to.
Madre
says she can teach me to cook, but I’m to ask you to help me with my sewing if you have a few minutes. I’m working on my graduation dress. I’ll be finishing the eighth grade in a few months. At the rate I’m working on this dress I’ll have to wear it at my wedding.
Madre
and Ida agree that you’ve got the finest stitch they’ve ever seen.”

Gerilyn raised her eyebrow at Karlee. “I
truly
doubt that to be so, Cousin…a fine stitch from such a large hand?”

Valerie might not yet be a woman, but the hot blood of her ancestors thundered in her veins full grown and exploded before Karlee could answer.

“Well, of course, it’s so, lady. You don’t think my
madre
is in the habit of lying, do you?” She stood with her hands on her hips, ready for a fight.

Wolf’s laughter shook the room. “Now calm down, little Miss Valerie. We usually don’t like to scalp guests until after dessert.”

Valerie stood her ground. Gerilyn tried to laugh, but kept the woman-child within her sights.

Daniel stood and pulled out a chair for Valerie near the twins. “Would you like to join us for some of my wife’s delicious pie?” He bowed low as though seating a queen.

“No thanks,” Valerie answered politely, her blood
cooling to kindness as fast as she fired when insulted. “After living around sweets all the time, I never eat them. Though I’m sure your wife’s pie is as fine as her sewing.” She directed the last words to Gerilyn.

Gerilyn was wise enough not to answer.

Karlee opened the pie safe. She was warmed by their lies, but not as easily fooled as Gerilyn. In gratitude to these two wonderful men, she cut them large slices of the last of Granny’s pie. Karlee cut Gerilyn a small slice of one she’d made.

This time the men’s praise was loud and genuine. They did everything except lick the plate. Gerilyn forced down a few bites, complaining that she must be under the weather for nothing had much of a taste to her tonight.

As the meal ended, Daniel stood and crossed to a small box on the top cupboard shelf. “I’ve been meaning to give you this, Dear,” he said as he pulled something from the box. “You should have had it from the night we married.”

Gerilyn watched with great interest as he held out his hand to Karlee. A gold band rested in his palm.

“Surely, you’re not giving her May’s ring?” Gerilyn cried. “Not my poor, dear dead sister’s ring? It wouldn’t be right.”

“No,” Daniel answered. “I gave May’s ring up long ago to save a woman’s life.”

Karlee stared at the gift, speechless. Except for the tiny cross a teacher had given her once, she’d never owned a piece of jewelry.

Gerilyn had no such problem with talking. “Well, it’s for the best. Karlee could never wear such a tiny ring as May’s. Look at the size of her hands. Farm hands, my mother would have called them. Nothing but plain old farm hands. In fact, I’m sure no lady’s ring will fit.
You’re wasting your time to even try putting it on Karlee.”