Texas Lily (14 page)

When the men rode into the yard at noon, hooting and hollering over some incident, splashing their faces in the well as they leapt from their horses, the aromas from the kitchen were already permeating the air. Lily set the last batch of bread on the table, wiped her hands off on her apron, and determinedly set off in pursuit of her wayward son, Serena trailing behind her.

She located Cade first, and her anger centered on this man who should have known better than to let an eight-year-old ride out when he had other responsibilities.

"Where is my son? I'll not have you carrying him out of here every blamed time he gets tired of doing his schoolwork. I ought to tan both your hides for this."

Cade shoved his hair from his face and contemplated her fury with more puzzlement than anger. "Roy's not with me, Lily. I told him he had to have your permission before he could ride out."

Lily stared at him a moment longer before her face went white and she turned desperately to search the men and horses crowding the paddock and yard. Roy was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?"

Cade grabbed her arm before she could collapse. If Roy had meant to ride out and join them, he hadn't made it. He glanced blankly at the miles of open plain beyond the yard and his insides cracked. It would be like searching for an ant on a mountain.

Chapter 11

"I know a few places where he might be. Let me check them first." Cade tried to sound reassuring, but Lily's pale face ate at his innards. He knew as well as she that the boy would have come looking for him.

Lily tore off her apron and threw it over the fence. "I know some places to look, too. The men will have to feed themselves."

At least Roy's pony hadn't come riding back. That had to be a good sign. As the men around them began to grasp that there was something wrong, Lily saddled a fresh horse.

Giving quiet orders to the men, Cade let her go until he caught sight of her mounting the horse and leaving without a word to anyone. Catching her reins, he forced her to halt.

"You're to be back here in an hour to report to me just like the others. I'll be damned if I'll spend the day looking for both of you."

Lily nodded, and when he let go of the reins, urged her horse into a gallop.

Cade shook his head at her heedless pace, then gained his horse and rode out after her. Some of the other men were already saddling fresh horses. He hadn't ordered a full-fledged search yet. The time for that would come when all the obvious places had been checked.

An hour later everyone rode back into the yard with no report of any sign of a little boy and his pony.

Lily’s expression was wooden as she and Cade divided the ranch into sections. They sent each man in a different direction, leaving one of the hands at the ranch to care for Serena and to set up a message center. Everyone carried a firearm to give a signal if Roy was found. Times were set for reporting in. One man was sent to town in case Roy had decided to wander there. It was all well planned and carefully thought out, but everyone present knew the vastness of the territory to be searched and the impossibility of covering every inch of it.

Cade circled the ranch, looking for some sign of a single horse and a small rider. It hadn't rained in weeks and tracks were few, but he found some cropped grass and drying dung heading in a different direction than his men had taken that morning, and he set off that way. It looked as if the boy had chosen the same path the men had taken the day he had ridden with them. His hopes rising, Cade eased his mount down the path, keeping a sharp lookout for any differences in the landscape.

His keen eyesight had found Jim's body in the midst of a vast plain when no one else's had, but it couldn't help him find a small boy and his horse when they weren't there to be seen. By sunset, Cade had lost all sign of Roy's passage. He couldn't bear to return to the ranch and report to Lily, but he had to turn around. There was some chance that the boy had already been found and he just hadn't heard the signal.

It was dark by the time he rode in. He had only to see Juanita weeping in the kitchen doorway to know the news wasn't good. The men were idling around the paddock. Ephraim Porter stood on the back steps with his hands in his pockets, staring blankly at the horizon. Lily was nowhere to be seen.

Dismounting, Cade was about to make inquiries when he saw her riding in. Her shoulders were slumped with fatigue, and he didn't need to see her face to know the anguish that would be written on it. He caught her reins and lifted her down, and she collapsed briefly against him—all the evidence he needed to know that she was beyond exhaustion. Her soft curves molded against him without any recognition of where she was or why.

"Go get something to eat. I'll question the men and get back to you."

It was much simpler to follow Cade's orders than to consider the alternatives. The arms holding her were corded with muscles and exuded a strength she had never possessed. Nodding wearily, Lily drew away and turned toward the house.

When Cade entered a while later, he found her sitting stiffly in the rocking chair, a sleepy Serena on her lap cuddling her doll. Lily's eyes were blank and full of pain as they met his, and Cade seemed to feel her anguish spilling into him. He was an outsider, a man who never got close to anyone, but somehow this woman had got inside of him. He didn't like the feeling, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now.

"Jack's inquiring at the neighboring ranches. I'm going back out to take another look. I think I know the direction he took. It might be easier to hear him at night."

"I'll go with you." Lily moved to set the sleepy child down, but Cade crossed the room and caught her shoulder, pinning her to the chair.

"No. The men have to get some rest if they're to go back out tomorrow. You need to be here in case Jack comes back with some word." He didn't state the usual nonsense about her getting some rest. If the child wasn't found, Cade was quite certain she would never rest again. There was that much pain in her eyes. She had already lost her husband. The fates couldn't be so unkind as to take her only child.

Cade squeezed her shoulder and Lily stayed where she was. "I'll put Serena to bed in here tonight so you won't wake her when you come back," was her only reply to his gesture.

Ephraim stepped out of the shadows, for once without a whiskey bottle in his hands. "If you tell me what to do, I'll go with you. You've been out long enough as it is."

Cade looked at the older man and tried not to see himself in the bloodshot eyes and shaking hands. He hungered for a drink right now. He had planned on taking a bottle with him. The caricature of a man standing before him put an end to that intention. The liquor would fortify him through the night chill, expunge the pain that seeped from Lily to him, but it wouldn't find Roy.

He shook his head at Ephraim. "The way is treacherous in day. Lily needs you here."

He turned and walked out, leaving father and daughter to deal with one another.

"He called you Lily." Ephraim said accusingly.

"I call him Cade." Lily rose, carrying the child, and headed for the dogtrot that led to her bedroom.

There wasn't any point in arguing. As Lily walked out, Ephraim went in search of a bottle.

* * *

It was late when Cade rode into his father's camp. He'd had longer days, but emotion had a way of draining every ounce of strength until there was nothing left. Somewhere out there was a terrified little boy, lost, possibly injured, and he couldn't find him. Cade wanted to rage at the world. Instead, he sought his father.

The older man looked at him with sadness when Cade stated his request. "Had you stayed with us, you would know our ways for yourself."

"You have taught me much, Father, and I am grateful, but even the greatest warriors would have difficulty tracking a little boy without knowing his direction."

"The buzzards began to gather at sunset. You should have watched for them," he admonished.

Cade closed his eyes and let that information sink in like an arrow to his heart. He had not looked for the buzzards because he refused to consider that possibility. Emotion was blinding him. He was going to have to find some way of putting Lily and her son in the proper perspective.

Forcing his fear and anguish back into the box where he kept his feelings hidden, Cade made himself ask, "Where?"

"The wash. I will send your brothers with you. You may need their help."

The wash was a treacherous gully carved out by the river and the spring floods. It was sheer bluff, and the sides crumbled at the slightest touch. If anyone could climb in and out of such a place, it would be his younger brothers. Cade didn't argue his father's decision.

The seventeen-year-old and fourteen-year-old who responded with alacrity to their father's call eyed Cade with suspicion, but promptly gathered their ropes and horses when the orders were given. Sons of the Waco wife Cade's father had taken after Cade's mother ran away, they were full-blooded Apache and had never known any life but this one. Cade knew who they were, but he knew little more than that.

The search took the rest of the night, and the sun was rising over the horizon before they hauled the unconscious child from the creek bed. Cade had to shoot Roy's suffering mount, but Roy was unaware of even that.

The two youngsters helped Cade rig a travois to carry Roy, strapping his broken leg to prevent further damage and wrapping him in blankets from their horses. When Cade offered to have them accompany him so they could be appropriately thanked for their rescue, they refused. He watched his half brothers ride off toward their camp, realizing that he could have been just like them had his mother not "rescued" him by returning to San Antonio.

Lily was out of the door and running toward Cade even though he was barely in sight of the ranch. Her cries brought men stumbling from the bunkhouse into the dawn, still pulling on their pants and wiping their eyes.

Weeping openly, Lily fell down beside the travois to be certain Roy was alive and to test his head for fever. Then she walked slowly beside him, holding his hand, as Cade dragged the litter toward the house.

There wasn't anything resembling a doctor within fifty miles, and Roy's leg had already waited too long for there to be time to send for one. After placing Roy in a bed in the main cabin and treating his other wounds, Lily clenched her teeth in contemplation of the broken bone.

So exhausted he could barely stand while she performed these tasks, Cade still managed to push Lily aside when he read her intent. He met her gaze without speaking, then placed his hands on the child's leg. Cade clenched his teeth and twisted the broken bone into place.

The boy's anguished screams wrenched something in his soul, and he stared down at his large hands on the boy's small leg with horror. With the child's cries echoing in his ears, Cade held his hands out before him with despair at the pain they inflicted so easily.

Roy's screams were the first sound the boy had uttered since he had been found. Reacting differently to them than Cade did, Lily gulped back her tears and shoved the shattered Cade back to his chair. She began wrapping Roy's leg between two boards. This was something she had learned to do as a sixteen-year-old bride, and she'd used it more than once since then. Life on the frontier taught a person many things.

Ephraim handed Cade a bottle of whiskey as he collapsed in the chair after the child's cry died. Cade took a sip, felt it burn all the way to his gullet, then silently returned it to the man. He'd had to do hard things in his life, and he ranked handing that bottle back right up there as one of them, right next to listening to Roy's scream. The pain of that sound twisted around his heart.

Lily didn't even notice. Finishing the bandage and making certain that her son was sleeping, she led the way outside before asking questions.

Cade held up his hand to silence her before she could even get started. "I'm going to get some rest. I'll explain later, but you had better be thinking of some way to thank those Indians that your friend Ollie wants to kill."

He stalked off, leaving Lily choking on her gratitude.

* * *

Once inside his cabin and safe from accusing eyes, Cade reached for the bottle of whiskey on the shelf. He would drown these emotions scalding his insides and never be battered by them again. Sipping the liquor, he closed his eyes and let the liquid relief pour through him. When he was back to normal he would have to take the matter of one Lily Porter Brown back into consideration. He had been blinded too long by blue eyes and blond hair. She was a woman like any other, a means to an end. That was all that mattered. The whiskey sliding down his throat concurred.