Authors: Ann Mayburn
Wild Lilly
Wild Lilly
By
Ann Mayburn
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Wild Lilly
Copyright 2011 by Ann Mayburn
ISBN: 978-1-61333-141-5
Cover art by Patricia Schmitt
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC
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Prologue
1860
Jackson Brooks twirled his niece, Lilly, on the red Oriental carpet, her petticoats flaring about her chubby four-year-old legs. With a mock growl, he chased her around the room. Her blonde curls escaped the careful confines of her pink bonnet.
“And then the grizzly bear chased me all around the camp, roaring and growling at me like the devils of hell themselves!” Jackson got down on his hands and knees, not caring if he wrinkled his expensive suit, and chased Lilly with a throaty snarl. A large blue vase teetered as they raced past the fireplace, righting itself before it could shatter on the expensive Italian marble.
In short order, he caught her and kissed her rosy cheeks. Wide, hazel-green eyes twinkled at him as she spoke.
“And then what happened, Uncle Jackson?”
He set her on his knee and continued his tall tale. “Why, I jumped into the cook’s tent and grabbed a sack of beans.” He tilted his head. “Bears love beans.”
Lilly laughed and clapped her hands together, the palms of her white gloves a dirty grey after crawling like a bear past the fireplace.
“So I made that bear a big pot of my world-famous beans, and he was so happy he caught me a fish as a present.”
“Uncle Jackson, bears don’t give presents!” Lilly giggled, apparently overcome by the notion of a bear carrying a pretty package festooned with bows.
“Oh, but they do, my fine girl. A nice big salmon. I ate it while I watched the sun set over the plains. Never a more beautiful sight than a sunset out west. Nothing but endless sky as far as the eye can see. Great oceans of grass that move and dance with the wind.” Jackson sighed happily and cuddled Lilly close.
“Do you think I can come with you someday, Uncle Jackson?” Lilly asked, playing with the gold chain of his pocket watch.
A stern woman’s voice snapped from the carved wood doorway of the parlor’s entrance. “Certainly not. What in the world have you done to your gloves, Lilly? A lady’s hands proclaim her station, and your gloves are filthy!”
Wincing, Jackson turned around to face his sister-in-law, Rosetta Brooks. She was a thin woman with golden hair and an icy demeanor, and Jackson often wondered what his brother saw in her. Behind her, trying not to laugh, were his three teenage nieces and his brother Abraham. All his nieces were blonde and beautiful, with skin like peaches and cream. He pitied Abraham when they got old enough for courting.
In his lap, Lilly peeked at her mother through her fair lashes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get dirty. Uncle Jackson was just telling me about the bear—”
“I don’t care what your Uncle Jackson was saying. We are going to be late for church.” Rosetta sniffed at Jackson, who still sprawled on the floor. “Some of us believe living a godly life is important.”
Behind Rosetta, Abraham placed a gentle hand on his wife’s elbow. “Now, Rosetta. We can still make it in time. Alice will take Lilly upstairs and fetch a new pair of gloves while we take a seat in the carriage.”
Lilly reluctantly removed herself from Jackson’s lap and took Alice’s outstretched hand. With Lilly in the lead they both hurried away while Rosetta made a disapproving noise and straightened her husband’s tie. Small feet stomped down the stairs as Lilly ran ahead of her older sister, who descended in a more refined manner after a scalding glance from her mother. Before Lilly joined her parents at the door, she darted over and gave Jackson a kiss on his scruffy cheek. “Someday I will come out west, Uncle Jackson. We will feed bears beans and watch the sunset together.”
Jackson exhaled and held her close, regretting he had never found a woman to settle down with and have children. “You never know what the future holds, Lilly. You may get to see the glory of a prairie sunset yet.” He pulled back and gave her a kiss on her freckled pixie nose as Rosetta watched with a disapproving glare.
Chapter One
Go West, Young Woman!
1876
“Absolutely not!” Her mother’s voice ripped through octaves, from disbelief straight to fury.
Lilly smoothed the skirt of the bright blue silk dress with a trembling hand and examined herself in the mirror behind her parents’ back to reassure herself that she was maintaining her composure. A grown woman, she had a mass of deep gold curls with white-blonde highlights. Her chubby baby cheeks had melted away, revealing a delicate bone structure that gave her an angelic appearance. Behind her curls and dimples lay a rather unladylike temper. And right now that temper made her want to beat on the needlepoint pillow next to her in frustration.
Rosetta paced circles across the throw rug of the family room, her bustle bouncing behind her in agitation. The only things Lilly had in common with her mother were long golden hair and hazel green eyes. On the inside, they were as different as could be.
Lilly tugged Rosetta wailed, at the lace extending from the sleeve of her dress with a shaking hand. “I have already accepted the teaching contract and bought my train ticket, Mother. I will be leaving for Caldwell, Kansas, in five days.”
“Abraham!” clutching her ample bosom. “You must talk some sense into your daughter. You were the one that let her go to school to learn how to be a teacher. You were the one who assured me it was just until she secured a good marriage!”
Abraham replied in a mild voice. “Oh, I’m sure a cowboy would make a nice son-in-law.” His eyes twinkled with mischief as she threw her hands in the air in horror at the idea.
He tapped a finger on the leather arm of the chair, watching his wife huff and puff, before he turned to Lilly. “Are you sure this is what you want? You do know the West is a very dangerous place, especially for a proper young lady such as yourself.”
His lips twitched in a suppressed smile as Rosetta glowered at them. Growing up, Lilly had been anything but a proper young lady. She found climbing trees, catching grasshoppers, and fishing with her father much more interesting than ladylike skills. She had been the son her father never had, and the hellion who’d given her mother fits.
“Yes, Father. I’m certain Uncle Jackson left me his land in Kansas for a reason. He knew that’s where my heart wants to be. He gave me the chance to live my dream.” She closed her eyes, missing her uncle. He’d left her three thousand acres of land in Caldwell after his death five months ago. Jackson, a professional gambler, died in San Francisco during a poker game that had turned into a shootout.
“I won’t have it,” Rosetta screeched while glaring at Abraham. “We have a duty to see our daughter married to an acceptable man, not some filthy farmer in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by savage Indians and wild animals.”
Abraham rolled his eyes at Lilly when Rosetta turned her back. “You have three grown and married daughters, Rosetta. And ten grandbabies to spoil. Let Lilly have her chance at happiness, too.”
Rosetta whirled and jabbed at the air in front of Abraham with her finger. “You’ve sheltered her too much. She has no idea how treacherous the world is. She lacks the common sense to run away from danger. In fact, she seems to attract it like lightning to a weathervane!”
“Now, Rosetta.” Abraham rose from his chair and tried to approach his pacing wife.
“Don’t you ‘Now Rosetta’ me! Did you forget about the incident in Boston when she was seventeen? Your daughter decided to chat up a strange man in a robe while having tea at the hotel. He then offered you two thousand dollars to make her his third wife and take her back to the Ottoman Empire!”
Lilly groaned inwardly as her mother’s hands began to flap around, a sure sign of an impending fit. How was she to know that man had been looking for a wife? His turban and dagger were so fascinating, and he really was charming. Before her older sister caught them in the solarium together, he’d showed her kissing with your tongue could be quite exciting.
“I won’t be alone out there, Mother. And I do try to stay out of trouble. The mayor of Caldwell assured me I would have all the help I needed to settle in. Uncle Jackson left me a farm and a log cabin.” She bit her lower lip in regret as soon as the words ‘log cabin’ passed her lips.
Abraham placed a hand on Rosetta’s elbow and stopped her pacing. It was a move he used on her during those few times he opposed his wife’s wishes. “Rosetta, she will only be gone a year. When she comes back, if she has not found a suitable husband, I’m sure Lilly will be more than happy to have you find a good match for her.”
Lilly bit her cheek in an effort not to speak. She’d managed to avoid her mother’s and sister’s matchmaking so far. Now that she was twenty, her family’s efforts to marry her off had tripled. As if she wanted to be shackled to some pompous little man who spent more time fixing his hair than she did. She wanted a real man, the kind that would sweep her off her feet, a man who was not afraid of hard work and danger. Someone who lived his life for the glory of the day.
She needed a rugged cowboy who would stand up to her and match her passion. All the men she had courted were taken aback by her enthusiasm, or were like kissing a bowl of bland porridge. The thought of a man strong enough to dominate her wild spirit made her shiver.
Tying a bonnet around her fair curls, Lilly announced, “I have to go visit Grand-mère Colette.”
If anyone would understand her craving for the spice of life, it would be her grand-mère
Abraham nodded while Rosetta lifted her nose and gave a disdainful sniff. “You do that, Lilly. Your mother and I will have a talk while you are gone.”
She pulled the blue silk shawl over her smooth shoulders, and gave her father a grateful smile as she left to see the one person in the world who would understand.
***
“Oh, ma chérie, that is too wonderful.”
Colette clasped Lilly’s hand in her own, a bright smile crinkling her kind face. Lilly stared at her still-beautiful grand-mère, thankful she shared the woman’s high cheekbones and pert little nose. “I have often imagined going west myself, but I am afraid that is a dream for the young. I cherish every letter I have from my Jackson about his adventures on the frontier.”