Charlene Sands (21 page)

“Only out of necessity.” He adjusted the blankets behind her head. “Lay back and rest. I’ll bring it over when it’s done cooking. Bethann, come sit with Lily.”

Bethann had been chasing a wild rabbit in the clearing. She ran over to Lily. “How you feelin’, Miss Lily?”

“Much better. Thank you.”

“Papa says we have to wait for you to heal up some, but I don’t mind.”

“I’m glad. Looks like we’ll be spending the night here. How are you, sweetheart? Were you scared when you were taken?”

She nodded, putting her head down. “Uh-huh. I didn’t want to go. But Uncle Brett told me lies. That’s what Papa said.”

“Yes, your uncle’s not right in the head. He meant
to do us all harm. I’m just glad you’re all right. Come close so I can give you a big hug with my good arm.”

Bethann sat down beside her and leaned in. Lily brought the child close and wrapped her arm around Bethann’s shoulder. “Oh, I’m so glad we found you in time. Your papa and I were sick with worry.” She gave her one last gentle squeeze before letting go. Her eyes misted with tears. If Bethann were her own child, Lily couldn’t love her any more.

Bethann looked at Lily, her heart reflected in her eyes. “Now we can go home and be a family.”

Lily wanted that more than anything. But the decision wasn’t hers to make. Tyler hadn’t asked her to stay. The kidnapping had taken all priority. Perhaps once they returned to the ranch and things got back to normal, Lily’s future would be determined. If Tyler would only let her into his heart, Lily knew she could make him happy. She loved him now more than ever, if that were possible. When she’d seen Muldoon point that gun his way, Lily knew her own life would surely end if Tyler died. She had done the only thing she could do—she saved his life, because her life blended with his. There was no beginning, no end. Why couldn’t Tyler see that they belonged together? The three of them—a real family.

She had no choice but to be patient.

Tyler Kincaide was a man worth waiting for.

“Tyler, I can ride Pearl just fine,” Lily said softly. Her voice was still weak, but slowly over the last three days, her strength was returning. Her biggest obstacle was the man who insisted she ride with him. He’d coddled her, as if she were the child instead of a capable
adult. The trip back to the Circle K had been at a snail’s pace.

“Quiet, Lily, we’re almost home. You’ve been nagging me for the last twenty miles.” There was a teasing hint in his voice.

“Me, nagging? Why, Mr. Kincaide, you’re the one always hollering for me to be careful so I don’t re-injure my arm. And who’s always looking over my shoulder making sure I eat my meals so I can recuperate. I believe you’re worse at doctoring than being the patient. That’s saying something.”

Bethann giggled when Lily made a face at Tyler. He pretended not to notice, but a crooked smile made its way to his handsome face. Lily, too, smiled, hoping she was just imagining the look of regret in his expression when she’d caught him watching her lately. He’d tried to make her smile, cajoling her with silliness at times, but the merriment never quite reached his dark soulful eyes.

Tyler had taken to heart the job of tending her, not allowing her to lift a finger in any manner, other than to feed and dress herself. She had the feeling he would have done that, also, if she would have allowed him.

But other than his concern over her welfare, Tyler had been extremely quiet on the trip home. He seemed deep in thought, withdrawing into himself. Only when Bethann asked a question or Lily needed something, did he come out of his long stretches of silence. So much had happened over these past weeks to fill Tyler’s mind. She sympathized with his worry, but her heart rejoiced just the same. Sitting astride Blaze, with Tyler’s arms around her, how could Lily feel anything but elation?

Bethann was safe and heading back to the ranch
strapped into the saddle on Pearl’s back. The little one had held up wonderfully, caring for Lily, giving her sips of water, brushing out her hair at night. Lily had been taken by Bethann’s voluntary gestures of love.

And best of all…they were almost home.

It was early in the afternoon when they made the round in the bend that led them to the Circle K Ranch. The bright sun glistened on the branches of familiar pecan trees, casting gleaming twinkles of light as the wind caught the leaves. Maybe it was just coming home that felt so good. The horses plodded down the path, trampling on wayward buttercups that had grown alongside the road, and Lily had never felt more alive, more exhilarated.

But the sight that welcomed them as they caught their first glimpse of the house Tyler’s father had built nearly a half century ago made Lily’s stomach contort with anguish.

Destruction, plain and simple.

The house, if one could still call it that, looked more like the skeletal remains of some ancient dwelling. The fireplace stood proud and tall where the parlor had once been. The kitchen was gone, as were the other rooms, except for Tyler’s bedroom at the far end of the house. That space, the last the fire must have reached, still resembled a room with charred vulnerable-looking walls poised at ninety-degree angles and the once formidable-looking doorway leading to nothingness now.

Lily held back a gasp, glancing at Tyler’s face, resigned in his expression of pain. He had dismounted, leaving Lily on Blaze, to walk over to his daughter and unstrap her from the saddle. Bethann came down
into his arms and he hugged her to his chest as quiet tears fell from her little cheeks.

“Papa?” she asked in question. Tyler had thought it best not to tell her of the fire. She’d been through enough of an ordeal. Tyler had contended they didn’t know the level of the damage so why disturb her young thoughts with worry.

Now they knew. Everything, just about, had been lost.

“There was a fire, darlin’. Looks like you get to sleep in the bunkhouse for a spell. How’d you like that?”

No degree of cheerfulness could coax a smile from Bethann’s pitiful face. She began to cry anew. “Miss Daisy.”

Lily wanted to shout to the high heavens she’d make her another doll but it wouldn’t be the same and she had sense enough not to say anything.

Like wooden soldiers, they ambled toward the house. The devastation was even worse closer up. And Lily thought she made out the figures of two men standing on the charred remains of the porch steps. One she believed was Wes, she never could abide by his dilapidated worn-out old straw hat. The other man looked familiar. She pushed Blaze to a trot until she could focus solely on the man standing rather forlornly in front of Tyler’s home.

Then she realized who he was. “Uncle Jasper.”

T
he decision Tyler had been struggling with since Lily had leaped into his path to take a bullet intended for him was all but made now. Her uncle had arrived. She’d be leaving soon, and he wouldn’t have to be the one pushing her out of his life. A deep ache lodged itself in his chest. It would be his constant companion, he knew, for years to come.

Tyler would let her go. Guilt over almost losing her had eaten at him all through the trip back home, and now as he watched Lily rush into her uncle’s inviting arms, he knew it was the answer.

He’d lost one woman he loved already. Death is too final to be ignored. Lily had saved his life, almost at the price of her own. Her devotion wrapped around his heart like a barbed wire, securely, but with piercing sharp edges that meant to wound. If he had lost Lily, the woman who owned his very soul, it would have been too horrible to bear.

He had to let her go.

For both their sakes.

“Uncle Jasper,” Lily said with a proud smile, “I’d like you to meet Tyler Kincaide.”

Tyler took the man’s hand. His grip was firm, like that of a man determined. And judging from the cut of his clothes and the way he held himself in dignified fashion, Tyler knew this man was wealthy.

“Proud to meet you.”

Tyler nodded the same and introduced Bethann. How much more could his daughter take? When she realized that this man would soon take Lily away, Bethann wouldn’t be offering any more tentative smiles.

Lily went on to explain the events leading up to the fire while Bethann raced to the barn to check on her pony.

The gray-haired man nodded, taking all of it in. Tyler stood back slightly. He should be checking out his property, talking to Wes who had disappeared from sight when they’d made their way to the house, but instead he stood by, listening. His fate would also be determined by what Jasper Brody had to say.

“I’ve booked a room at the hotel for you. I’m sure you could use a few days’ rest. I was worried sick when Sheriff Singleton told me what had happened to you. Lily, you’re my only family. I lost your aunt Helen and my own daughter in a terrible fire in ’71.”

“Oh, Uncle, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry. I read about the fire in Chicago.”

“It nearly crippled the city. After losing my family, I threw myself into my work. My lumber mill was at the edge of town, well away from all the turmoil. After the fire, my small company was the only one within miles, so you can imagine the business I did. Everyone wanted to rebuild quickly. I made a small fortune, but had no one to share it with.” His eyes filled with regret as he spoke of the past.

A look of sympathy spread over Lily’s face. “Father asked me to look you up. He’d died months ago, but I couldn’t locate you.”

Jasper sighed deeply. “It’s been a lonely existence. One year ago I sold off the business. I’ve been moving around, making my way west. I’d always planned on visiting my brother. Stubborn as he was, I still loved him. About three weeks ago, one of your wires caught up with me. That’s when I knew I’d been too late.”

“My father died of consumption. He held no ill feelings for you when he passed. He told me he hoped you’d feel the same.”

“He was a good man. What can I say? The war does things to men. I have nothing but fondness in my heart for him. Except that he left you pretty much penniless from what I understand.”

“It hasn’t been so bad. Tyler,” she said, casting him a heart-melting smile, “he offered me a job. I’ve been working here while trying to contact you.”

Jasper Brody gave Tyler an assessing look. “I thank you kindly for helping Lily out.”

“She’s been more help to me than otherwise.”

Lily’s uncle glanced at the makeshift bandage around her arm. He knew the details of the shooting. Probably knew Lily had risked her life to save his. He raised an eyebrow at Tyler, but didn’t respond.

“You must all be exhausted. Lily, I hired a buggy to take us back to the hotel in Sweet Springs. You have a room there now,” he said with an uncertain smile. “Will you take me up on the offer of going back to town to get to know your uncle again?”

Lily glanced at Tyler. This was it. He was losing her. But he had to let her go. She’d searched all these months for her uncle. He had to give her the chance
to find the family she’d always yearned for. He mustered a bit of enthusiasm, though it cost him. His gut clenched. “Go on. This is what you’ve wanted from the start.”

Lily didn’t smile or appear happy. Instead he saw disappointment and hurt in her eyes. Did she want him to deny her time with her uncle? Hell, Tyler didn’t know what she wanted or expected. He only knew he had to let her go.

And the tightening in his gut intensified.

“But—” Lily responded softly, glancing around one more time at the devastation. Tyler knew she felt like a traitor leaving him to deal with all this alone. He knew it, just as he knew his heart was shredding.

“We’ll manage here. We always have, Lily. You go on.”

Lily stared at him for a long drawn-out minute. She searched his eyes for the truth. Tyler steadied his gaze, keeping firm resolve in his expression. He couldn’t allow her to see him weakening. He was doing this for her.

Finally she glanced away, and Tyler nearly slumped with relief. She nodded to her uncle. She’d leave with him.

Tyler had given her no choice.

“I want to say goodbye to Bethann.”

“It’s best that you don’t,” he said as softly as he could. Tears brimmed Lily’s eyes, but she didn’t argue the point. Tyler felt worthless for hurting her.

“Tell her…tell her, I’ll be back soon.”

“To what, Lily? It’ll take weeks, maybe months, to rebuild the house. There’s nothing here for you. I’ll explain to Bethann.”

Lily chewed her bottom lip, keeping her tears at
bay. Thank goodness for her stubborn pride. She’d not let him see how much he’d hurt her. Good for Lily, Tyler thought. Good for them both.

“Ya gonna eat that meal or just stare it to death?” Wes asked, eyeing Tyler as they sat in silence at a long wooden table outside the bunkhouse. Bethann had only eaten a smidgen herself.

“You call this a meal?” Tyler shoved the breakfast plate away and grimaced. Hell and tarnation, Wes had been a pain in the backside lately.

“Ya been starin’ down my food for better’n two weeks now. Skin and bones, is what ya’ll be gettin’.”

“I’m not hungry.”

Wes didn’t even try to hide his smirk. “Wonder why that is?” He casually scratched his whiskered face. “’Course that house is going up faster’n a spirited kitten chased up a tree. Yore workin’ yoreself in the ground. What’s yore hurry, son?”

“Work’s got to get done.”

When Wes shook his head and stalked off, Tyler sighed and sipped godawful coffee. He hadn’t remembered Wes’s coffee being so bitter, or his meals so dang inedible. Since Lily left, nothing’d been the same.

There was no joy or laughter at the ranch. The ranch hands looked grim. Tyler knew he’d worked them hard, having them do double shifts to help get his house up and tend to his herd at the same time. He’d paid them for their trouble, but his paychecks couldn’t stop their grumbling about missing Lily and the special care she took with them.

Tyler worked just as hard, pushing himself to the limit so that maybe, at night, exhaustion would claim
his weary body. It was the only way for him to get any sleep. And not think about Lily.

“Papa, can I go into town to visit Miss Lily?”

The same question uttered every day for the last two weeks tore at his heart. “Not today, sweetcakes.”

“But—”

“I’ve got too much work to do today. Now go on and tend to your chores.”

“I already fed Pint-Size. There ain’t no flowers left to garden.”

Tyler’s eyes immediately riveted to the garden Lily had tended with such loving hands. Everything had been destroyed. The sunflowers would never again peek up at the sun, vegetables didn’t rise from the soil to prove Lily wrong about Bethann’s willingness to eat them and flowers didn’t spread their color to lift a spirit on a dreary day.

The destruction left Tyler empty. Losing Lily’s garden was worse than smelling the ashes that had once been his family home. He could rebuild the house. But Lily would never be back to plant another garden.

Randy strode up to the table. Tyler looked up at the young smiling cowpuncher. Tyler was annoyed to see the man look so jubilant this early in the morning. And with both hands behind his back, it was obvious the man was hiding something. “Mornin’, boss. Bethann.”

They both grumbled a hello.

“I got in late last night after you sent me to town for supplies. Saw Miss Lily and her uncle.”

Bethann’s head popped up. Her smooth jade eyes fixed on Tyler’s ranch hand.

“Actually, they were nice enough to invite me to dinner. Did you know her uncle has offered to take
Miss Lily to San Francisco so she could open a dress shop?”

Tyler’s meal churned in the pit of his stomach.

“Papa, is San Acisco far from the ranch?”

Her pleading eyes tugged at him from every corner of his heart. “Yeah, sweetcakes, it’s in California.”

Bethann put her head down.

“When’s she going?” Tyler asked, feigning a nonchalance he wasn’t feeling.

“Don’t rightly know. Maybe never. She’s thinking on stayin’ put right here in Sweet Springs and reopening her father’s mercantile. Her uncle’s willin’ to do whatever Miss Lily wants. But the train leaves day after tomorrow. Miss Lily hasn’t made up her mind yet.”

Tyler grunted. “Just like a woman, doesn’t know what she wants.”

Randy gave him a curious stare. “Jeez, boss, everybody knows what Miss Lily wants. Everybody but you, that is.”

Tyler twisted his mouth, then glanced at his daughter. Bethann gave him a hopeful look. Tyler glared off into the distance. Having Lily leave was one thing, but having her stay in town, just out of his reach, would test his willpower to the limit.

Tyler lifted the mug of coffee to his mouth. Bitter.

“While we were eatin’ a fine meal at the hotel, Bud Henderson came up to pay his respects. Seems he’s wantin’ to court Miss Lily.”

Tyler spit the caustic brew out of his mouth. “Bud? Jim Henderson’s boy?”

Randy scratched his head. “He ain’t a boy anymore, boss. Bud’s about the same age as Miss Lily, as I recall.”

“Humph.” Tyler tossed the remaining coffee in his mug out. He watched the stream of liquid splash onto the ground. Blood pulsed up in his head, making it throb. Must be Wes’s terrible coffee giving him a headache.

He cleared his mind as he made mental calculations, realizing Randy was right about Bud’s age. An image of the handsome young blond-haired man he’d known for some time now flashed into his head. Bud Henderson and Lily? The throbbing in his head intensified. Angry, he shifted his body to view Randy directly. “Anything else you’re wanting to report.”

“Uh, report?” Randy looked puzzled. “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Miss Lily made this here doll up for Bethann.”

He swung his arms around from his back to show her the doll. Bethann jumped for joy seeing the homemade doll that nearly resembled Miss Daisy. When he handed it to her, she clutched the doll to her chest.

“Oh, boy!” Bethann’s face lit like a thousand candles. “Papa, lookee what Miss Lily made for me.”

Randy added slowly, as if reciting from a book, “She says to treat the doll like a new member of the family. Not a replacement. She says you can love someone new, completely and wholly different from the way you loved the one you lost.”

Tyler shot his head up to stare at his cowhand. Was that message meant for his daughter or for him?

Had he been unfairly comparing Lily to his deceased wife? Lizabeth couldn’t abide living at the ranch. She wasn’t cut out for it. Tyler had come to recognize that fact over the years. And the guilt he had felt at losing her in that stampede nearly destroyed him.

But Lily…was different. She adapted easily. She took to the ranch like a swan to a clear lake. Gracefully. She’d learned how to shoot, how to ride, and she’d saved his life on two separate occasions. Even when he’d told her not to, she’d holstered her gun and come to his defense against Muldoon. If she hadn’t, perhaps both of them wouldn’t have survived and Bethann would be at the mercy of a deranged man.

“Papa, now can we go into town so’s I can thank her?”

Tyler still couldn’t think past Lily almost losing her life because of him. “She’s got her uncle now, Bethann. They’re a family, just like you and me. It’s best you remember that. We’ll write her a note and I’ll see that someone delivers it to her.”

Tyler faced the miserable truth. He was no closer to getting over Lily than the day she’d left with her uncle. It had been weeks. And now the threat of her leaving, or worse, staying and being courted by the men in town, rankled. The thought brought searing pain to his gut.

Tyler was at a complete loss.

If he asked her to stay, as his wife, would she? She’d already refused his two other proposals. But he hoped this time would be different. He’d be asking her to stay for all the right reasons.

A wealthy uncle could offer Lily the world. All Tyler had was a small parcel of mud-entrenched grazing land, fly-stickin’ cattle and a house only half built without a lick of furniture. Tyler got up from the table abruptly.

Damn it all.

He took a last look at his pouting daughter. “I’ve
got a ton of work to do today. Maybe by tonight, we’ll be sleeping in our house again. Would you like that?”

Bethann’s downcast expression was answer enough. His daughter learned a tough lesson at much too early an age.

Life wasn’t always fair.

“I suppose,” she said, keeping her eyes down. “Won’t be the same without Miss Lily, though.”

No, Tyler thought, nothing’s the same without Lily.

Lily descended the stairs of the hotel slowly, recalling the last time she’d been here—when Tyler had dragged her up to a room to lecture her. He’d nearly destroyed her reputation that day, but none of it mattered now. She’d be leaving town soon, to start a whole new life.

The thought recoiled in her stomach with such commotion Lily rubbed the area reflectively. She met her uncle at the base of the stairs.