To Wed in Texas (30 page)

Karlee closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep, but the way Daniel had touched her kept drifting through her mind. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but sleeping alone tonight wasn’t what she hoped for. She almost wished she could have been the wife who died after knowing the completeness of his love rather than the wife who lived and would never have but a part of him.

At dawn, she awoke still alone. She tiptoed to Daniel’s study. He was sound asleep in his comfortable chair, his leg propped on the old box he used as a dresser. Books lay open around him, and a pencil still rested in his fingers. Papers were scattered across his lap and a blue ribbon wound its way across the mess.

Karlee moved closer, watching him sleep. The first rays of sunlight danced in his hair and across the handsome lines of his face. Asleep, he looked much younger. Young enough to still believe in loving.

He was resisting her, she thought, and himself. He had passion in what he said, and what he felt. He’d proved that last night at Caddo Lake. He wanted her, or at least he wanted to touch her, but he kept himself just out of reach. Because May had died, he’d condemned himself to a life without love.

She brushed his hair lightly. A curl circled around her finger. If he were waging battle over feelings for her, she aimed to make it a little harder for him. Karlee loved
him more every day and figured she had a lifetime of love stored up.

Thirty minutes later, Karlee placed a cup of coffee beside his chair and knelt in front of him. She’d brushed her hair and scrubbed her face, but left on her nightgown. As she watched him sleeping, she unbuttoned her gown several buttons and leaned forward.

Her lips touched his lightly at first, bringing him into morning slowly. He moved with her, taking her kiss as a part of his dream.

She leaned forward, brushing her body over his arm as the kiss deepened. Her hand slid timidly beneath his open collar and covered his heart. It was pounding. He was alive whether he wanted to admit it or not.

Daniel jerked suddenly, fully awake. “Karlee!” His eyes reflected his surprise at her nearness.

“Good morning,” she answered as she moved only inches away. “I brought you coffee.”

Daniel frowned and plowed his hair back. She could see him growing distant. “Coffee is fine, but you need not wake me so personally.”

“I thought you liked my kisses?” She wasn’t being coy, simply asking a question.

He looked away. “I do,” he answered. “But…I can’t …”

“You can’t what?”

He closed his eyes. “I don’t know if I can make you understand. I’m not sure I do.” He turned his face toward the window. “Years ago, I gave my love wholly and completely to another. To sleep with you, to have children with you would be wrong. Don’t you see, Karlee? I’ve nothing to give you but a husband during the day. We’ll never share the nights.”

“But last night …” “Last night was a mistake that kept me from sleep most of the night,” he snapped. “I thought I could touch
you and get it out of my system. I was wrong. The feel of you still lingers on my hands.”

Karlee smiled. The battle was nearly over, and he didn’t even know it. “All right,” she said. “If that’s what you want.”

“That’s the way it has to be between us.” He sounded so determined, but his words were forced. “I’ve told you that from the beginning.”

“I agree,” she answered. “Only, since you unbuttoned me last night, don’t you think you should button me up this morning?”

Daniel looked at her. First at her eyes, then his gaze lowered to her nightgown with a two-inch opening at her breasts. “I’m not a saint, Karlee.”

“Yes, you are.” She shifted slightly so that her gown opened more. “Saint Daniel. Ready to sacrifice your whole life for the love of one who died. Well, prove it. Button me up.”

Daniel faced her and began at her throat as if the task she asked of him was nothing. But as his hands slid against the sides of her breasts, sweat broke out on his forehead.

“If I touch you again like I did last night, there’ll be no stopping.”

“I didn’t stop you last night, Daniel.”

He finished the buttoning, his hands shaking slightly. “Don’t expect me to sleep next to you again.” His voice was gruff. “After touching you, I don’t think I could lie next to you without …”

“Whatever you want, dear,” she answered sweetly. “I’ll make sure you have it.”

She stood and left, knowing she’d win. It might take a week or a month or even a year. But eventually, she’d win.

All morning, Gerilyn’s barbs had no effect on her. Karlee simply remembered the way Daniel had touched
her at the lake. If she were so deformed and ugly, he wouldn’t have caressed her so. She could almost feel his strong fingers working fire over her skin.

Gerilyn didn’t notice Karlee lost in a daydream. Her pattern of speech sped up, as though she felt the need to talk faster and get everything into the lecture.

Valerie stayed the morning, feeling a need to protect Karlee. They worked on the girl’s graduation dress while Gerilyn pouted with boredom.

Finally, when Valerie left and the twins were down for a nap, Gerilyn asked, “How does it feel, Cousin, to be a hand-me-down wife? I know you’ve had seconds all your life. Well, now you have another woman’s husband.”

Karlee didn’t answer as she poured tea.

When Gerilyn didn’t get a response, she wandered on to another topic, having no idea her words had hurt Karlee.

“I think I’ll venture down to the docks when it cools a little and see if there is a boat leaving in the morning. I’ve done about all the good I can do here.”

“I’ll dress the twins and go with you.” Karlee brightened.

But her good mood soon faded as she walked through the market. Something was wrong. She wasn’t sure what, but she could feel it in the air, in the way men greeted one another, in the absence of children and women outside and in the stores. Trouble was blowing in like a summer storm.

While Gerilyn checked on passage, Karlee stopped to talk with Valerie’s mother. “What is it? What is happening?”

Valerie shook her head. “My
madre
will not speak of it. She says talk brings trouble walking in.”

Ida passed with her arms loaded down with fresh bread. “That could be true, child. Listen to your mother.”

Karlee busied herself with other conversation, knowing she would get nothing out of the two women. As she left the store, Valerie followed.

“I must know,” Karlee whispered, hoping Valerie would confide in her.

“I’m not supposed to say. But you’re not from around here and don’t know what’s going on.” Excitement danced in the girl’s eyes the way it does in only the young when danger is near.

They sat on a bench outside the bakery. “There is a man named Cullen Baker. He’s plenty mean. Folks say he killed his first man when he was nineteen and liked it so much he keeps killing. He was a raider during the war, not caring which side he robbed and murdered. But since the war ended, he picks on mostly Yankees. So, some folks hide him out and think he’s somehow good. But my
madre
says there is no good in him.”

“But how is this Cullen upsetting the whole town?”

“Baker and his men robbed an army shipment a year back. They killed the guards and took everything, wagons and all. The rumor is one of his men betrayed him and kept part of the goods. Baker has bragged that he’ll ride into town tonight and take back what’s his. He says he’ll kill anyone who helped the traitor.”

“But he can’t just ride into town. The sheriff, the troops.”

“The federal troops don’t have a cavalry big enough to chase him. Tempers have been boiling for months. They say there will be a riot tonight over the way the courts have been handing out justice.” Valerie looked truly frightened. “Some even say bodies will hang from the trees come morning.”

Karlee stood. “When you close tonight, you and your mother come home with Ida. I’ll make room for you both at our place.”

Valerie shook her head. “I don’t know if
Madre
will do that.”

“Tell her I’m afraid for the children because Daniel will be away.” Karlee thought that wasn’t far from the truth.

Valerie nodded. “I will tell her.
Madre
loves the little ones.”

Karlee hugged Valerie good-bye and walked calmly back down the street to where Gerilyn stood waiting to know if she had passage. She’d wanted the twins to keep her company, but now crossed her eyes with exasperation.

“I thought you’d never come back, Cousin. You really should be more aware of the time you waste. If you were better organized, you could accomplish twice as much each day.”

“I’ll remember that.” Karlee motioned toward the papers in Gerilyn’s hand and quickly changed the subject. “Are you going?”

“Tomorrow, late morning. On a steamer I would call adequate and nothing more.”

“Since it’s your last night, I’ve invited company for dinner.”

Gerilyn plastered on a smile that was almost believable. “I love dinner parties. But nothing too fancy, Cousin. I have to pack and really have little time to prepare.”

“Nothing fancy,” Karlee promised.

The afternoon was spent with Karlee trying to cook and Gerilyn packing. She asked Karlee to bring her three matching trunks up one at a time. As Karlee delivered each, she knew it was only a matter of time before Gerilyn realized one trunk was missing. She couldn’t empty out the guns from her trunk inside the house with the children about. If she emptied them on the porch all the town would probably notice.

Karlee had to think of something. A idea popped full-blown into her mind as she dragged a loaded trunk from Gerilyn’s room, down the stairs and across the foyer. It was a great plan.

She slid the hidden panel open quickly. Lifted the trap door carved in the floor remembering how Daniel had asked her to climb into the hole that first night.

This was perfect. Gerilyn would never miss the clothes, and if she did, she’d think one of her trunks was lost in transport.

Karlee opened the trunk, grabbed armfuls of carefully folded clothes and shoved them into the coffin-sized hole. In less than a minute, the trunk was empty.

Out of breath, Karlee closed the trap door, slid the panel shut and began pulling the now-empty trunk back up the stairs.

She’d only made it halfway up when Gerilyn appeared on the landing. “Oh, there you are, Cousin. I was just about to tell you I needed my last trunk.”

“I have it right here.” Karlee smiled at the brilliancy of her plan. What could possibly go wrong?

D
ANIEL WALKED THE STREETS OF JEFFERSON, LISTENING
to the sounds of hate around him. It was bad enough that the Southerners resented the Yankees’ presence while the Northerners thought the Rebs should pay for the war. But the hatred was deeper. Far deeper. A kind of wound that has festered so long no one remembered how it started.

Sometimes he felt like the world had gone mad with resentment and prejudice. It reminded him of a story he’d read once about a tribe long extinct. The culture considered itself to be a civilized lot. So when two chiefs had a quarrel, they would stand on either side of the river with their people behind them. To show his belief in his cause and anger with the other chief, the leader on one side would kill one of his own tribe. The other chief would do the same. Back and forth it went, until one leader was sick of how many of his people lay dead at his feet. That chief was declared the loser for he would kill no more of his own. Sometimes, according to legend, only the chief would remain. He’d killed his entire tribe to prove how strongly he believed in his cause…he’d won.

Somehow being right and getting revenge were more
important than saving those he loved. Like the ancient tribe, everyone in Jefferson seemed to have lost sight of what mattered.

Added to an already boiling pot were men of Cullen Baker’s type, who preyed on the festering wound like maggots. Daniel was not happy to hear that Baker was coming to town to even the score between one of his former men and himself.

A nagging thought brewed in the back of Daniel’s mind. Rumor was, Baker’s former partner withheld part of a loot stolen from a federal troop shipment. The guns that had been in Daniel’s hidden closet were all new Union-issue rifles. Maybe it was just coincidence, for nothing else matched the former preacher and owner of Daniel’s home to Baker…nothing except a mother who’d disappeared and the stash of rifles.

He planned to ask Karlee what she’d done with the guns. The sooner he could get rid of them, the better. But when he opened the door of his home, a dozen people greeted him.

Valerie and her mother were cooking. Ida fussed over the children. Several of the young German men talked by the fire. Gerilyn sat at the table looking very much like she’d been committed to the state ward for the insane. His sister-in-law was dressed for a dinner party that obviously hadn’t turned out to be what she’d expected.

Before he could close the door, Gerilyn jumped at him as if drowning. “Oh, Daniel!” She didn’t seem able to say more.

Daniel nodded at everyone. “Welcome,” he said, and caught Karlee’s glance.

She smiled back a little shyly. “We’ve company for dinner, Dear.”