Texas Lily (27 page)

"We won't be growing cotton." Finding the weak place in the harness he had been checking, Cade pulled the rotten piece of leather off and threw it in a stack to be repaired. Lily's words seemed to roll off his broad back.

She tried to hold her temper. "Don't you think that's something we ought to discuss? Don't I have some right in this decision?"

"Cotton requires too much labor. I won't hire slaves." As if that was the last word on the subject, Cade turned toward the door.

Lily ran around in front of him and slammed the door closed. "And I won't let you run this place into bankruptcy. Cotton is our only cash crop besides cattle. How do you propose we stay alive if we don't sell either?"

"Corn." He could easily lift her away from the door and walk out, but he kept his hands to himself and waited for her to move aside.

"There's no market for corn!" Lily declared with exasperation.

"There will be if we grind it. We can sell it here and save the shipping. If we were closer to San Antonio, we could sell milk and butter. People in the city can't supply their own."

"You want to make us backwoods farmers! One bad year and we could be wiped out. Grow corn if you want, though Lord knows where you'll find a mill to grind it, but I want cotton in that field. Go plow your own if you want corn."

Cade simply waited.

Lily glared at him with mounting fury. She was virtually helpless in this debate. The men would take orders only from Cade. If she told them to do something, they would consult Cade first. Except for Jack and one or two of the others, the hands they now employed had all been hired by Cade. They had no difficulty accepting his taciturn authority. Her frustration escalated when he refused even to discuss her opinions.

"I mean it, Cade. You told me this is my land. I ought to have at least some say in how it is used."

"I won't have slaves. You cannot have cotton without slaves."

"We can hire Ralph's for one more year, just until we have a little cash ahead."

"No."

"Damn you, I wish I'd fired you when Ollie told me to." Defeated but refusing to admit it, Lily swung on her heel, threw open the door, and marched out toward the paddock.

Before Lily could reach the horses, Cade was behind her, catching her waist and holding her kicking to his side. Always aware of his greater strength, he spread his legs and braced himself so he could pull her up against his chest where neither of them could harm the other.

Lily's head jerked angrily, and her long braid swung from her shoulder and down her back as she glared at him, face to face.

"If you ride, you must take someone with you."

"Says who? You're not my boss. Put me down, Cade. I'm a grown woman. I can go anywhere I want."

"Jim was a grown man, and he lost his life out there alone. Promise me you will go nowhere without company."

"And if I don't?" Here was an area where she could defy him, and Lily faced him triumphantly. The fact that Cade held her so close his belt buckle pressed into her stomach did not go unnoticed, but she was too angry to react differently.

"I will have Abraham follow you around all day. If you want to pay one of the men to watch over you, then defy me in this."

And Abraham would do anything Cade told him. Wriggling, Lily escaped his grasp and spat, "I hate you," before retreating indignantly to the house.

The honeymoon was over. Cade watched her slam into the cabin, and then he returned to the barn to get the poncho he had left there. The rain could turn to snow before the day was over. February weather was like that.

Chapter 22

With Lily's last words still ringing in his ears, Cade maneuvered his gelding through the dense thicket of trees in the direction of his father's camp. Her words had torn through him as no other's could, and he knew the injury inflicted would be slow to heal. He wanted Lily's respect, not her hatred. He was accustomed to hatred. He had learned to live with it. But not from Lily. He wasn't certain what to expect from a wife, but he wanted it to be more than he'd received in the past. He knew he was running away from the problem, but he hoped he was running in the direction of a solution.

The horse practically knew the way, so Cade had more than enough time to ponder the argument. He had desired Lily from the instant he had seen her wearing those hip-hugging denims and sitting straight in the saddle staring down a group of men. At the time he had considered her unobtainable, but when he had found just how obtainable she could be, he had not hesitated, even knowing the difficulties. Now he had to start resolving them.

He had wanted Lily because she was a lady. But because she was a lady, he couldn't treat her as he would a whore like Maria. A whore's pleas could be ignored to a great extent because she was paid to do as he pleased. In this case, the tables were turned. Lily was giving to
him
. Granted, Cade knew his knowledge of the land and the men who worked it was as valuable as the land itself, but it was not a tangible possession, and mankind thought in terms of tangible possessions. So in Lily's eyes he ought to be doing as she pleased, not the other way around.

But now that he had a lady wife and a child on the way and lands behind him, he was in a position to do more than just survive. There was a debt owed him that he had given up for lost many years before. Lily had returned hope and the need for a future. It was time to call in that debt. Knowing Ricardo was in the territory gave him a better incentive. The white man's arrow in Jim Brown's back was becoming just a little clearer.

This time, however, Cade would take the offensive. He wouldn't wait until Ricardo had him cornered, and he had no choice but to kill or be killed. The timing was wrong, though. With the damned rebels holed up in the Alamo, begging Santa Anna to come after them, it wasn't a time to be on the roads, particularly in that direction. He would have to decide whether to act now or wait to see what spring brought.

His father greeted him without surprise. The older man's fringed buckskin shirt hid most of his scars and tattoos, but he didn't look any less fierce for that. His warlock had turned gray but was still worn knotted long and decorated as became his status. The women and children went off chattering on their own business as father and son sat beside the fire sharing a pipe. Cade accepted the stew he was given and waited for his father to grant permission to speak.

"When will the child come?"

That wasn't the opening he had been hoping for, but Cade answered obediently, "When the corn reaches its height." He shouldn't be surprised by his father's knowledge. El Caballo had taught all his sons well. The youngest two walked boldly through town when they wanted and hid in the grass when it suited them to do so. They were only part of his father's eyes and ears.

"It is past time you raised warriors of your own. You have chosen your woman well. She will bear you many sons."

Unlike your mother
, the unspoken words said. Cade wasn't here to argue with his father. "She is strong," he agreed. "But I would not have her travel when she is great with child. Have you had word from Bexar?"

His father drew deeply on the pipe before answering. "The walls are being rebuilt." He gave his son a long look. "It is not good to return to that place. Your sons will grow strong here."

"My mother's lands belong to me," Cade replied simply.

That was a concept his father could understand. Cade’s mother had brought no dowry in the way of horses or any other wealth to add to the consequence of her children. Land was not something that could be possessed as far as El Caballo was concerned, but Cade had grown up with a white man's ways. If that was the dowry his mother possessed, then it was up to him to claim it. His father nodded a reluctant understanding.

"Their army approaches," he warned. "The snow slows them. They are fools to travel when the days are short."

It was going to be a race against time. Cade stiffened at that knowledge, considering all the possibilities to extract the probable ones. It was a dangerous game he played. He didn't want to involve Lily or the children in it.

Accepting his father's offer of a bed in his lodge rather than seeking out the tepee he had shared with Lily only a week before, Cade retired alone with his thoughts. He had slept alone most of his life, but this past week had taught him how much more desirable it was to share a bed with a warm and willing woman. Even when he could not be with Lily, he desired her. Surely that need would disappear with time, but for now just his wish to know how she and the child fared became a pressing urge. If it were not the height of foolishness to ride through the darkness, he would return to Lily and the cabin tonight.

Cade set out at daybreak, but he hadn't gone far before he realized he was being followed. Suspecting the identity of his followers, he hid his grin. He needed to talk with those two.

He carried a rifle, but he used it only when he needed game. He reached for it now. The slight rustle of an evergreen branch ahead could have been a squirrel. A white man might never have noticed, but a red man would. The boy had a lot to learn.

When the slight figure leapt for his back, Cade was ready. Twisting, he caught the boy in one arm while wheeling his horse from the path and the other mischief maker's attack. He caught the boy in the stomach with the stock of his rifle, knocking him from his pony and onto the pine needles of the path. Leaping from his saddle with a mighty whoop, carrying the younger one with him, Cade straddled one half brother while holding the other one throttled at the neck with his arm.

They glared at him in silence until he grinned.

"Don't try it on any Comanches until you practice more," Cade admonished in their tongue.

At his lack of animosity, the younger one began to chatter excitedly while the older grudgingly climbed out from beneath Cade and sat in the path, listening.

Cade gave the silent one an affectionate cuff on the head. "We have the same father. We know the same tricks. You are good. I can use your help."

The boy didn't visibly brighten, but his sullen look dissolved into one of wary interest.

"I am going to Bexar. I need someone to watch out for my woman and household while I am gone, but I don't wish them to know. If there is trouble, you must judge whether or not you can deal with it or if it will take many. Our father can get word to me if I am needed. Do this well, and I will show you where the buffalo can be found when I return."

This last was the persuasive argument. Watching after women and children was unrewarding, but a buffalo hunt would make warriors of them. Wacos were not warriors. There were no men in the tribe willing or able to search out the herds that lingered too long in Comanche territory. Cade knew his offer was the best they'd ever heard.

The bargain was struck, and Cade rode off feeling a little better about what he intended to do. His half brothers were young, but they were skilled. They would have no defense against a Comanche attack, but that wasn't the enemy that Cade feared. They could out-fight and out-maneuver any white man in town.

When he returned to the ranch, the men were carrying out the orders he had given them before he left, and Cade was at leisure to return to the house and settle his differences with Lily. When he saw the gaudily painted wagon in front of the cabin, he cursed.

When Cade entered, Travis was leaning against the fireplace sampling a piece of cake and teasing Juanita about his granny's cake being better. He looked up at Cade's entrance and grinned.

"Sure am glad I'm not in your shoes,
hombre.
Lily's not a mean-tempered woman, but I know a storm a'brewin' when I see one. Want me to soften her up some first?"

Cade gave this insolence the respect it deserved. Ignoring Travis, he swung Serena into his arms and asked Juanita,
"Donde esta?"

Juanita replied in the same language, "She rode out to the cotton field."

Unconcerned that his knowledge of Spanish went only as far as the word "
hombre
," Travis continued nibbling his cake, interpreting the exchange without need of translation. "She took Ephraim with her. She's already polished the old man off this morning. Told him he wasn't getting another sip of whiskey until he got out of the house and got some exercise. I think Roy is riding shotgun."