Wyoming Wildfire (42 page)

“But I’ve never been in love with Emma.”

“Does Sibyl know that? Did you
tell
her you were only being polite to a guest, or did you leave her to take it on faith? And what about those terrible arguments?”

“You’re the only person I know who
didn’t
argue with Sibyl. She’s stubborn, hardheaded, determined to have her way, and absolutely positive that she knows more about everything than any man alive.”

The exact words she used to describe you,” Augusta said, unable to repress a tiny smile.

“But she couldn’t think I didn’t love her. Good Lord, I let her run the place anyway she liked. I never would have done that with Emma and she was
raised
on a ranch.”

“Did you ever tell her?”

“I told everybody about her cooking and that the party was all her doing.”

“I don’t mean that. Men always expect women to be excellent cooks and to give nice parties. Did you tell her about the ranch?”

“I never interfered with anything she did. I didn’t need to tell her.”

“That’s all the more reason.”

“Why?”

“After having virtually forced you to leave it to her, she needed to have you tell her that she had done a good job, that you were proud of her.”

“I tried to thank her for saving my life a dozen times over, and all she did was shrug it off. How was I to know she wanted to be thanked for a full smokehouse and curtains at the windows?”

“That’s not the same thing. Anyone would have tried to save your life.”

“Do you mean to tell me that being thankful for butter and eggs and haystacks by the creek is more important than saving my life?”

“It doesn’t sound very good when you put it that way” Augusta admitted, “but that’s the way Sibyl would see it.”

“I will
never
understand women,” he announced in disgust, “not if I live to be a thousand years old.”

“I don’t know that I can explain Sibyl to you, but I’ll try. My father was a rich than, something of the proud patriarch, and he spoiled his three daughters terribly. Cornelia grew up before the war believing that life would always be the same. When she saw what the war had done she retreated into a shell. Then she married Stuart and had Sibyl, and we thought she had recovered. But as Sibyl grew older, Cornelia began to depend more and more on her until the child bore more responsibility than any boy her age.

Things might have turned out even then, but Sibyl, like her father, is extremely intelligent and intolerant of stupidity. When it was made plain to her that everything a than said was to be accepted without question, she rebelled. The result was a lot of ill-natured heckling from the other girls and an intolerable amount of good advice from well-meaning matrons. She responded by taking every opportunity she could to puncture what she saw as pompous conceit and meaningless tradition.”

“I imagine she would,” grinned Burch.

“But no one could see how terribly she suffered. Sibyl’s father, dear man, had absolutely no perception and was exactly the kind of person Sibyl was fighting against. He expected her to be able to make all the decisions when he wasn’t there, and then meekly accept his authority on his occasional visits.”

“Did she?”

“No, but she could always bring him around gently.”

“I never doubted that.”

“Stuart was inordinately proud of her, but I don’t think he ever admitted, even to himself, that she knew more about the farm than he did. But his pride didn’t help Sibyl when she saw her friends marry and assume positions of consequence denied her. Sibyl was always much more beautiful than any of them, and they couldn’t help gloating.”

“I can’t believe no one wanted to marry her.”

“Several did, but she didn’t want to marry them. She called them little boys playing at being men and drove them from her. I tried to show her her mistake, but she told me she couldn’t respect anyone who would buy a pretty pot without knowing whether the cream inside was curdled. And you have to admit that most men never see past Sibyl’s face. So when your uncle died, she made up her mind to come out West.”

“What for?”

“I don’t think she ever thought of that, only what she was hoping to escape. I’m afraid there is very little of Cornelia in Sibyl. She’s much more like her grandfather. She will never be able to accept a subordinate position. She might do everything you ever wanted her to do, but she will do it because she wants to, not because you tell her to, no matter how much she loves you.” Burch screwed up his face in an expression of great perplexity. “Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” Augusta asked. ‘’I’m not very good at explaining things.”

“A little,” he said without changing expression.

“Imagine yourself in her shoes and being treated as she has.”

“I wouldn’t put up with it,” Burch said decisively.

“That’s just it.
You
could do something about it; Sibyl couldn’t. She once told me that coming out here was her last chance to escape.”

Burch’s expression lightened. “Then why didn’t she stay? She got what she wanted.”

“It turned out that what she wanted was you, and what she couldn’t live without was her self-respect. I imagine it was when she saw she couldn’t have them both that she decided to go back.”

“But why didn’t she say something?”

“Sibyl is a fighter, but she doesn’t whine or beg,” Augusta said proudly. “Love that is not given freely is not worth the price. It’s better to turn your back than try to buy happiness in that manner.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Burch spoke more sharply than he ever had to Augusta, “and you should know it, despite your stiff-necked Southern pride.”

“And you should know that you don’t rope and brand a wife like you would a cow,” Augusta replied severely. “I do not defend Sibyl’s conduct during these past months, but you have acted with a lack of perception that I find incredible in one as intelligent as I believe you to be. Both of you laugh at Lasso. Don’t deny it, I know you do, but what neither of you sees is that behind the jokes and loud voice he understands how people feel. He senses what’s important to me without my ever having to tell him. You and Sibyl are so tied up with your own selves you can’t see anything but your
own
wants and needs.”

“What should I do?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Shake her until her teeth rattle for being so brainless,” Burch said savagely.

“I don’t imagine Sibyl could listen very well with her teeth rattling about in her head.” Augusta responded dryly, surprising a crack of laughter out of Burch that snapped the mounting tension.

“You’ll soon be able to give Lasso back his own” Burch said, bending over to give a surprised Augusta a tender kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“Leave your wife alone for one moment, and the neighbors come rustling behind your back,” roared Lasso, entering the parlor with the little girls.

Augusta turned pink, but Burch noticed there was no hint of uneasiness between them. Their trust was complete.

“How did you find the herds?” she asked, presenting her cheek for his expected salute.

“Terrible” he replied, abruptly grim. “I hope you won’t find yourself married to a pauper come spring.”

Tm sure you and Burch can find a solution between you “ she said, rising from the chair. “How about a cup of hot chocolate, girls? Your noses look frozen.”

The girls giggled and happily followed Augusta to the kitchen. Burch looked on as Lasso’s eyes followed Augusta with obvious contentment.

“I wondered how long it would be before you came hightailing it this way,” he said, turning back to his friend.

“I came to ask Augusta if she knew why Sibyl went back to Virginia.”

“And did she tell you?”

“Sibyl didn’t tell her, but she has some pretty shrewd ideas’

“Augusta always does. And what do you plan to do now?”

“Go after her.” Lasso regarded his friend with a fixed stare.

“Do you think that’s wise?”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Burch, firing up.

“Exactly what it sounds like,” replied Lasso, unmoved. “It didn’t seem to me that you two ever got along very well. Too much temper and sharp words between you for my liking.”

“I’m not bringing her back for you.”

“Who says you’re bringing her back?”

“Why the hell do you think I’m going after her?”

“I’m damned if I know, but I do know you’re going to have to give her an awfully good reason to change her mind.”

“Whose friend are you?” Burch asked angrily. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were dunking only of Sibyl.”

“I’m thinking of both of you, but I’m thinking of Augusta most of all,” Lasso said bluntly. “She thinks the world of you, for which I don’t blame her …”

“Thanks, but don’t try so hard,” interrupted Burch.

“ … but she loves her niece. Shell be unhappy with Sibyl back in Virginia, but she’d be downright miserable with her at the Elkhorn and you two carrying on like cock roosters all the time. I don’t say I wouldn’t like to have Sibyl close by to give Augusta some company, but I don’t want it if it ‘s going to mean a constant aggravation to her.”

“I want to marry her, you blind fool, not fight with her.”

“Are you sure you know the difference, cither of you? I always thought you were a sensible than, but from the day that girl arrived, you’ve acted like a schoolboy suffering his first crush.”

Burch rose from his chair in fury. “Then I won’t inflict this tawdry tale on you any longer,” he said furiously.

“Sit down and stop acting like a lovesick fool,” Lasso commanded sternly. “You once told me that if I wasn’t willing to accept Augusta like she was, I’d best back off. It was better advice than you knew. I would have married her expecting her to be something she wasn’t and never seen the beauty of what she is. You’d better ask yourself the same question. Do you love Sibyl just like she is?”

“Yes,” replied Burch miserably after a pause. “More than I suspected.”

“You’re a fine man, Burch, and one I’m proud to call my friend, but you can be downright stupid when you put your mind to it. Can’t you see that Sibyl’s no more like Ada than I am? You’re one of the lucky ones; you’ve got two women in one—a comforting companion and a participating partner. You won’t get her on any other terms”

“How about some hot coffee and cake?” Augusta asked, setting down a tray loaded with a steaming pot of coffee and slices of fresh stack cake. “You’ll need something to keep you warm on your ride back.”

For the next half hour nothing was said of the problem that occupied all their minds, but as soon as Augusta took away the cups, Burch asked Lasso, “Will you watch the Elkhorn while I’m gone?”

“Then you are going after her?”

“I always was. I only came here because she didn’t leave a letter for me.” That was a difficult admission for Burch to make, ever to his closest friend.

“Then you’d best go at once,” said Augusta, coming back almost immediately. “The longer you wait, the more difficult it will be to convince her that you love her.”

“What should I say to her? I don’t mean for you to put words in my mouth,” Burch assured them, stung by their incredulous stares. “I didn’t say the right things before, and I don’t want to make the same mistakes again.”

August’s eyes softened with understanding. “I don’t know what to tell you to say, but I doubt it much matters what words you use. She knows what you’re bound to say, in any event. You have to convince her that she has your trust and respect, or she won’t come back with you no matter how desperately she wants to.”

“I’ll bring her back,” said Burch. “I don’t know how, but I’ll do it.”

“That’s the cricket,” said Lasso, wringing Burch’s hand.

“I thought you weren’t sure.”

“Just sure I didn’t want a cougar and a lynx sharing a lair next door to me,” he grinned.

“Will you give this to Sibyl for me?” Augusta asked, taking a thick envelope from her pocket.

This must be a dozen pages long,” Burch said. “When did you have time to write it?”

Augusta blushed prettily. “I wrote it days ago, I knew you would come.”

Chapter 28

Rising from her chair with unladylike abruptness, Sibyl paced the room with short, rapid strides. She moved to the window and jerked back the curtains, but her glazed eyes were focused on something far beyond the wide lawn or the hundred-year-old tulip poplars that gave the house its name. Burch dominated her thoughts and the house merely made it worse.

She had fled to the home of her aunt, Louisa Russell; Louisa had inherited the family home,
the house Uncle Wesley had copied at the Elkhorn.
Sibyl never realized how much the two houses were alike. The three sisters, completely different in personality, had been so alike in their excellent taste that even their furnishings were similar. Several times Sibyl had caught herself half expecting Burch to walk through the door, his guns over his shoulder and another hunting trophy for the already crowded walls. It was almost as though she hadn’t left the Elkhorn. All the pressures were still here, all the feelings of futility weighing down her spirits and making her moody and withdrawn.