The Valiant Women (49 page)

“You like them, then, the Americans?” Talitha quizzed.

“Hell, Tally, they're not Yanquis, they're good people and damned fine to have as neighbors! Next time I go, I'll take you.” He grinned, cocking his head. “Those good-looking, educated bachelors will swarm like bees to honey!”

And he wouldn't care. He'd be relieved if she married one of them, probably, except then he wouldn't have an English-speaking person to look after three-year-old Caterina. Would she herself always be a child to him? Hurt, Talitha gave her patched skirt a yank and said scornfully, “No fancy gentleman's going to pay court to me in these clothes!”

Shea looked at the dress and frowned. “God's whiskers! That
is
a rag, Tally! Why haven't you said you need some new things?”

“I don't, around here.”

Only last summer had she and the other women of the place succeeded in using the last of the garments salvaged from the Cantú ranch. Carmencita was expert at altering and sewing and Anita had some of her skill so Talitha used a needle only to mend.

“Any woman ought to have a few pretty dresses,” Shea decreed, assuming what Socorro had called his “burro” look. “If you want different cloth from what the mining
conducta
brings up, we'll have the Santa Cruz Freighting Company get you something from San Francisco or even St. Louis. Just make out a list of what you want.”

Talitha stared at him. “I don't know,” she said helplessly. “I don't know what ladies are wearing or what kinds of material there are.”

Grunting, Shea's brow furrowed deeper before it cleared and he laughed triumphantly. “Judah'll know, or if he doesn't that high-falutin' wife of his sure will!”

“I don't want Mr. Frost doing any favors for me!” Talitha protested, but Shea ignored her.

“Rodolfo's been wanting to go to Tucson and see some cousins, though I suspicion a girl's the big attraction. I'll tell him to go in the morning. You want to write Judah?”

“No!”

“Then I'll just send a message,” said Shea, unperturbed. He had long ago decided not to heed her obvious dislike of his business partner.

Now that Tubac was occupied by well-armed men, abandoned ranchos along the Santa Cruz came back to life and mines seemed to be everywhere.

“There must be a hundred and fifty mines within sixteen miles of Tubac,” Marc Revier said on a visit to Rancho del Socorro. “Most of them are primitive affairs, but some are taking out a good amount of ore. The Ajo's copper ore's packed to Yuma on Jaeger's mules, then sent by the Gulf of California to San Francisco for shipment to Wales. We're still freighting our bullion to Guaymas.”

With danger from Apaches considerably lessened, Marc came perhaps once a month, sometimes bringing newspapers and periodicals given him by friends he'd made in Tubac. He remained a favorite with the twins, who were eight years old, though they didn't study much now that they could tag the vaqueros from dawn to dusk. Caterina happily added him to her subjects and scarcely let him out of her sight during his visits.

Whether it was this or something else, there was, Talitha thought, a change between them. The old ease was gone and he no longer teased her or lured her into arguments. When he called her “Miss Scott,” that was too much.

“Marc!” she cried reproachfully. “Do you want me to call you Mr. Revier?”

“No, of course not!” Flustered, he looked directly at her, his blue eyes distressed. “But you're growing up, Miss Talitha. You must be treated with respect.”

She made a rude noise. “Friends can respect each other without being stuffy!”

He bowed. “Whatever you prefer, Miss Talitha.”

Repressing an urge to pinch him and see what he'd do, she sniffed disgustedly. “For heaven's sake, Marc, I turned sixteen in April but I haven't changed! I'm the same person you taught to read and write, the same one who showed you what plants were good for food and medicine. Those things are real!”

“Those things are very real.”

“Then can't you act the way you used to?”

His gaze swept her face before he seemed to physically wrench it away so that he looked toward the mountains, hands crossed behind him. “No, Miss Talitha, I can't act the way I did when you were a child. Nor can I, in conscience, behave as I would were you a few years older.” With a wry laugh, he swung about, rumpling his brown hair. “You're in between, my dear, but that'll change. Meanwhile, could I escort you to the Christmas festivities at Tubac? A number of respectable ladies are coming from as far as Magdalena, Tucson and Sopori for the holidays and you could, I'm sure, share a room with one of them.”

As she stared at him in surprise, he laughed and was almost the old Marc. “Shea thinks it's a wonderful idea, in fact, he's coming, too. And he's assured me you're going to have a party dress!”

A
real
party? And Shea coming! People from all around! Talitha thrilled, so breathtaking was the prospect, though it was also fearsome.

Except for that trip to Nōnó, she hadn't been off the ranch since Shea and Socorro brought her and James home from the Apaches. If she watched the ladies, though, she could copy them, keep from making any horrible mistakes. And Marc was as traveled and educated as any of the mine officers. It would be good for Shea to have some fun, too, though Talitha hoped, if any of the women were single, Shea wouldn't have an eye for them.

“Oh,” she said in a small voice, remembering. “The children! Shea and I can't both go off and leave them at Christmas.”

“No more will you,” Marc said cheerfully. “I'll come the day before Christmas and we'll all be with the children Christmas Eve. Sometime the next afternoon, I'll take you to Tubac.”

“But Shea—”

“Will ride over after I take you home. They'll be making merry till the New Year so he won't miss anything.”

It sounded too grand and strange for belief. Giving in to delight, Talitha scooped Caterina up and spun in a circle, all thoughts of what Marc could mean by his cryptic statements completely scattered. There was going to be a party and she was going to go!

As the first week in December passed and her dress material hadn't come, Talitha worried that it wouldn't appear in time to be made up.

“Don't fret,” Shea admonished. “Rodolfo said Judah promised to have it delivered special if it missed a regular run, and I've left word with Mr. Poston to have someone bring it straight over from Tubac when the wagons drop it off there.”

She scolded herself for getting so wrought up, but there was simply
nothing
she could wear. If the material didn't come quickly, she couldn't go and that made her heart sink.

Then Judah Frost rode in one evening with a large bundle tied behind his saddle. “Personal delivery for Miss Talitha Scott!” he called as he worked at the knots. “Santa Cruz Freight—farther, faster! That's our motto, Shea. Aren't you proud to see your partner living up to it!”

“Mighty proud,” grinned Shea, shaking hands. “Chuey'll see to your horse. Come in and warm up!”

Torn between relief at getting the material and annoyance that Frost had brought it, Talitha thanked him politely and put the package to one side while she went back to preparing supper, though she was longing to peek at the contents. There'd been a most enticing rustle in the moment she held the parcel.

“God's whiskers!” Shea exploded, taking over the stew. “Here you've been fidgeting for weeks over whether that stuff would get here in time! Open it!”

“Yes, Tally! Open!” urged Caterina, dancing around her. Even the twins pressed close though they'd been teasing her about the new dress, saying she ought to wear the trousers she used for working cattle.

Her fingers shook as she unfolded the coarse wrappings, the layers of paper, to reveal a rich shining blue, the color of the sky. When she started to pick it up, she saw that it was already fashioned into a marvelous gown, the three full flounces of the skirt patterned in flowers of deeper blue which were repeated at the deep heart-shaped neckline.

“Oohhh!” breathed Caterina, touching it with awe.

“Brocade,” said Frost. “Leonore had her own seamstress make it from
Godey's Lady's Book
. She bade me tell you those pagoda sleeves are the height of fashion. A mercy, isn't it, that they finally do narrow at the top?”

Talitha slowly examined the series of false sleeves, each one requiring so many stitches that it made her dizzy to think of it. Let alone those extravagant flounces! “Oh, that poor seamstress!” she said. “So much work for one dress!”

“Leonore brought with her one of those new-fangled sewing machines,” Frost said airily. “Josefina, the seamstress, loves it.” He turned to Shea. “I was sure you'd want Talitha to have all the necessary things, so I took the freedom of asking Leonore to select them.”

“We're much obliged,” said Shea heartily. “Tally, you'll be the grandest lady at the party!”

“I fancy Leonore will be quite impressive,” chuckled Frost. “Let me hold the dress, Talitha, while you look at the others. That cloak of blue cashmere trimmed with swan's-down is to go with the brocade but you can wear it with other gowns, of course.”

A miniature cape, similarly lined with brocade, fell out of the larger one and Caterina snuggled and pranced about in it when Frost said it was a gift for her from Leonore who, he added with a curving lip, very much wanted a little girl of her own.

“The gray-blue gaberdine is a riding habit,” Frost explained. “You are especially to note the stylish
Mousquetaire
cuffs, slashes faced with steel-gray velvet like the trim on the basque.”

Shaking her head at the handsome costume with its fine cambric underblouse, Talitha carefully placed it on a bench. “I don't know when I could ever wear that riding! The thickets would tear it to pieces.”

“The cows would sure laugh if you came after them in that rig!” chortled Patrick and hugged Miguel in the ecstasy of that thought.

“Times are changing,” said Frost, unruffled. “I wouldn't be at all surprised, Talitha, if you didn't go riding with some of the officers who've moved in at Calabazas.”

“What officers?” demanded Shea, smile fading.

“Major Enoch Steen with four companies of the First Regiment of Dragoons. Toward the end of November, he established Camp Moore at the old stock ranch and you should just see the place! Overrun with carpenters, blacksmiths, laundresses, ambulances, cook wagons, freight wagons, teamsters and all sorts of hangers-on! Steen's trying to rent the land from Gándara, but if the price is too high, he says he'll sit tight anyway. Gándara, as off-and-on governor of Sonora and a big landowner all the time, should be damned glad to have someone checking the Apaches.”

“So they've finally come,” Shea muttered.

“Oh, they'll not be concerned about your differences with them almost ten years ago,” Frost shrugged. “With the territory full of Apaches and real outlaws that've been run out of California, Sonora and Texas, they won't have time to pester settled, respectable folk but will be very glad you're here. The next dress is simple, Talitha, for home occasions when you want to look nice but not elegant.”

It looked elegant to Talitha, poplin the silvery green color of the underside of a cottonwood leaf, with a pointed bodice and flared half sleeves over long fitted ones. This dress had only one flounce and a plain oval neck. Frost grinned as she laid it aside and bent toward the Remaining parcel.

“Perhaps you should open that in privacy; Leonore thought you would need—other things.”

Shea cautiously eased an arm beneath the cloak and dresses. “Come, lass, let's get this plunder to your room where it won't be getting dirty!”

“I can't hang them on pegs!” Talitha wailed.

“No need,” soothed Frost, following with the brocade. “I brought some wicker hangers. They're in that package.”

“It's mighty kind of you to do all this, and of your lady wife,” said Shea. “Of course I'll pay for the seamstress and material and all, but there's no way to pay for all the pains you and Mrs. Frost took.”

“Please do thank her for me,” said Talitha, unable to bring herself to be grateful to him.

“You'll have a chance to thank her yourself at Poston's gala,” smiled Frost. “She hopes perhaps you'll share a room with her.”

There was nothing to do but murmur that she'd be glad to. What was Leonore like? To go to all this effort for someone she'd never seen, she must be kind and generous. And to send the small elaborate cloak for Caterina—yes, she must be sweet!

Resolutely Talitha determined to form her opinion of Leonore completely apart from her loathing of Frost. She couldn't imagine why he'd gone to so much trouble when, married, he must have given up those ridiculous plans he'd had earlier. Perhaps he simply wished to ingratiate himself with Shea.

However it was, Talitha thought, as the men dropped the clothes on her bed and withdrew, she now had a most wonderful party dress, and she was going to enjoy it!

XXVI

For several days before Christmas Anita and Talitha prepared tamales, nut and seed cakes,
pipián
, turkey with
mole
sauce, a ham Shea had obtained from Pete Kitchen who was raising pigs on Potrero Creek, acorn stew, pumpkin, beans simmered with chilis, and
pozole
.

The O'Shea children would get their presents Christmas morning since Shea felt this was the proper time, but January fifth would be when Talitha would steal over after dark and leave gifts for Paulita and her small baby brother, Ramon. Little Juan Vasquez, son of Juana and Cheno, would be given his cuddly toy during his visit, for the Sanchezes would come feast Christmas at the home ranch. Though at two-and-a-half Juan was as big as Caterina, he was almost a year younger, and obeyed her in all things. Paulita, when she'd had enough of Caterina's imperious leadership, had learned to simply vanish.