Lacy (48 page)

Cole knew that wasn't quite true, but Lacy's
adoring eyes made his knees weak. He bent and kissed her forehead with aching
possession. "Of course, your talent helped too," Cole added, glancing
at his brother. "You used words the way Cherry and Taggart gentle
horses."

"That's high praise," Ben said.

"You're my brother."

Ben grinned. "Glad you noticed. Does that
mean you'll give me the loan of the runabout to drive in to San Antonio
tomorrow?"

Cole groaned. "I walked right into that
one!"

"With your eyes closed," the younger
man agreed. "Thanks, Cole! You're a prince!"

IT
was a long drive.
Ben
had spent a wonderful night at home in the security of his family. It had
strengthened the old ties and made him realize finally what he wanted most. He
wanted what Cole and Lacy had. What Turk and Katy had. He wanted a wife and a
home of his own, and a family. If he could convince Faye to give in and marry
him, he'd have the family ready-made, he thought amusedly.

She was at the dress shop. He stood at the
window and just stared inside at first, fascinated by the change in her. No
more wild, flighty clothes, no more impish youth. Faye was a woman and looked
it, from her neat gray maternity suit to the stylish short haircut that was
neatly trimmed. She wasn't made up at all, and she didn't need to be. She had a
flawless complexion and fine bone structure.

Ben opened the door, setting a small bell
ajingle. Faye looked toward the door smiling.

"Yes, may I help you... ?" Her soft
voice trailed off as she stared at Ben. She went very pale and still, wondering
if she was daydreaming again. So often, she'd thought how it would feel if he
ever came to see her. Now she was struck dumb by the impact of it.

Ben took off his hat and swept back his hair,
smiling quietly as he looked at her across the counter. "Yes, you
may," he replied. "I'm on my way to the bookstore to buy a book on
how to grovel. I've never done it before, you see, but I think I've reached the
age of enlightenment. I'd like something to do with sackcloth and ashes, as
well, if they have it, so that I can do the thing properly."

Faye put down the book she was slowly learning
to read— Tennyson, in fact—and just stared at him.

He moved a little closer so that he could lean
against the counter. His eyes went to her small, soft hand resting there. No
rings of any kind graced their whiteness. "You look blooming, Faye,"
he said after a minute. "Are you well?"

"Yes."The word sounded more like a
squeak than a syllable. "You didn't answer my letters," he said, with
soft accusation. "There seemed little point," she managed slowly.
"I do very well by myself. And you have your career."

"My career will do just as well with a
family as without one," he said simply. "You see, I've discovered
that I was searching for myself in all the wrong places. I wasn't in Paris at all, Faye. I was right here," and he touched his fingers very gently to the
gray fabric over her heart.

She jerked back, flushing. "Ben, you
mustn't!" she exclaimed, looking quickly around to make sure no one had
been looking in the window.

He smiled. "You're not my old Faye at all,
are you, darling?"he said softly. "You're very proper these days. You
don't even sound the same."

"I've been improving myself," she
explained.

"You never needed improving," he said,
watching her. "You were always generous and giving and overflowing with
love. I was the one who needed improvement. I won't say I've achieved it, but I
think I'm somewhat better than I was when I left. Take a chance on me,
Faye?" he added, his face somber.

"Be—because of the baby?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Because I need
you," he replied. "I didn't know it, but I do." "You don't
love me."

"Don't I?" He took her soft hand in
his and lifted it to his mouth. "I've never been with any woman the way I
was that day with you—when we loved each other so tenderly. If that wasn't
love, I'll never know it at all."

She hesitated. He'd hurt her very badly, and she
wasn't sure that she wanted to risk her heart again.

"I don't know." She touched her
swollen belly and suddenly jerked.

"Are you all right?" Ben asked
quickly, his face a study in horror. "Faye!"

"She.. .kicks," Faye said hesitantly,
and blushed. "What?"

She reached for his hand uncertainly and,
glancing around quickly to make sure they were alone, she laid his fingers
against the hard mound of her stomach and let him feel the baby's feet pushing
against them.

He gasped. He blushed and then he paled, and his
eye were full of astonishment, wonder. His fingers moved. "Faye, I can
feel.. .a foot!"

"Yes, of course," she said, laughing
involuntarily at his absorption. "Ben, they move. Didn't you know?"

"No!" His hand flattened over his
child and he lifted his eyes to hers. "Oh, Faye. You've got to marry me
now!"

"I can't go to Paris—"

"I'm going to buy a house here in
town," he interrupted. "You can go ahead with your job, if you like,
while I write."

"The baby will interfere with your
solitude..."

"I'll watch the baby while you're
away," he said, with grinning practicality.

"That would be scandalous!" she
gasped.

"So what? Don't you like shocking people?
You must, to be working in that blatant condition." He leaned over the
counter. "Marry me. I'll keep you in fashionable poverty and drive you mad
with lovemaking."

She laughed. It was the first time she had in
months. "Oh, Ben," she said, exasperated.

"One little word. It's very easy to say.
Just, yes."

She hesitated. But the baby kicked, and Ben's
smile widened, and she caved in. "All right, then. Just.. .yes."

His eyes twinkled. "I knew you would."

She hadn't, until now. But when he took her in
his arms, as close as the baby would allow, it all came right. He kissed her
warmly, hungrily, and then again.

"Wait a minute "he said abruptly,
lifting his head and frowning. "You said—
she—
kicks!"

"I want a little girl," she said
simply. "But you don't know..."

"Well, Ruby said I'm carrying very much
behind and I'm very wide, so it must be a girl. Boys are high up and very
rounded in front." "Old wives' tales," he scoffed.

"Just you go ahead and laugh," she
said. "It will so be a girl. You'll see."

Teresa Margaret Whitehall was born three hectic
weeks later. Ben and Faye had been quietly married two days after he'd arrived
home, and he'd moved them into a small but neat house near the dress shop. As
he'd promised, he kept the baby while Faye went out to work. The neighbors just
shook their heads and smiled when he pushed the baby down the sidewalk in her
pram. But they were kind smiles, just the same.

turk unexpectedly inherited
a piece of land near Victoria, Texas, and after much deliberation he and Katy moved there after their daughter,
Mary Elizabeth, was born. Cole gave Turk a seed herd of his best Santa
Gertrudis cattle to start with, and Turk grinningly promised that he'd parlay
them into an empire. He was already on the way. He'd renovated the old Spanish
house that sat on the property and named it Casa Verde. It was one of a kind,
like the ex-flier himself. Katy was supremely happy, content with her loving
husband and her little girl. There were frequent unsigned cards from Chicago. They came on Katy's birthday and Mary's. They came at Easter, Christmas and
sometimes on Valentine's Day. As Mary grew older, present accompanied the
cards. Turk snarled at first but as time went by and he grew secure in the love
of his family, he unbent enough to overlook the attention from his old rival.

It did disturb him that he had no son to leave
his holdings to. But Mary was a delightful child who'd inherited his blond hair
and Katy's green eyes, and was as open and loving as her mother. She'd have
sons, he supposed. Anyway, he had the moon. At least he had a child. Cole
didn't. That had to be the one bare spot in his friend's plain of happiness.

the family had all come
together for a Fourth of
July celebration. It was early 1926, and the country was temporarily prospering
as stock prices kept going up and up. Cole had actually made some investments
through his business partner in Chicago, and had made enough to pay off Wardell
and put a huge chunk of money in the bank as well. He'd invested in still more
stocks and was on his way to wealth.

Lacy hadn't invested her money in stocks,
despite all his coaxing. She'd put it in land, instead, even buying into Turk's
enterprise over near Victoria. Land, she said, was safer than banks; he'd see
one day. He only laughed.

She was walking with Mary Elizabeth, picking
wildflowers in the field near the house, when her head began to spin and she
fainted. She came to with Cole's white face above her, his arm cradling her
head.

"I'm so sick," she managed.

"Here, dear," Katy said, placing a
cold, wet cloth on her head. "I didn't tell Marion. She's not doing at all
well today herself."

"Good thing you didn't," Cole
muttered. "Her heart is giving out. Lacy, sweetheart. Can you get
up?"

"I don't think so." She groaned.
"It must have been something I ate."

Katy grinned. "Really? You haven't kept
breakfast down one day this week."

"I know." Lacy sighed. She looked
worriedly up at Cole. "I didn't want to tell you. It's enough that Marion's so poorly without your having to worry about me. I can't imagine what's
wrong."

Katy was laughing. She laughed until tears ran
down her cheeks.

Cole glared at her. "Illness amuses
you?" he demanded angrily.

Katy sat down on the ground. "Oh, Cole! Are
you both blind? Don't you really know what's wrong with her?"

Lacy lay very still. Her monthly hadn't come.
She'd thought it was because of all the upset over Marion's deteriorating
health, but no emotional upset had ever made her late before. She wasn't just
late, either. She counted mentally and blushed. There had been a very long
night about six weeks ago that had left her exhausted and Cole strutting.

Cole's arm under her head was rigid. "But,
it.. .can't happen," he said falteringly. "I'm not able to father a
child."

Tears were blinding Lacy. Sheer joy shot through
her slender body like lightning. "They didn't say you couldn't," she
whispered, oblivious to Katy's shock, because she'd never been told the extent
of Cole's injuries. "They said it was
unlikely"
Her
voice broke. "Cole.. .I'm pregnant!"

He clasped her close, his tall body shaking. He
buried his face in her throat and seconds later she felt the wetness, heard the
throb in his voice as he whispered how desperately he loved her.

Katy had discreetly left them alone, but from
the barn, Turk spotted Lacy apparently lying in the road with a shattered Cole
supporting her, and he ran across the field to get to them.

"My God, what's happened?" he asked
urgently, dropping to one knee beside them. "Is she dead?" he added,
because Cole's face was wet.

"She's.. .pregnant!" Cole choked.

Turk's face relaxed, and then seemed to glow
with wonder. He looked down at Lacy's pale face, her blue eyes almost too big
for it, drenched with tears and blinding joy. "Well, my God," he
said, chuckling. "Bolting down the slats worked, didn't it?"

"You son of a—"

Turk guffawed with delight, jumping out of range
of Cole's furious blow. "And you said you couldn't! You'll strut for a
month, now, I guess—and be so smug you won't get a lick of work done!"

Cole gave up and laughed. "I'll beat your
head in later."

"I'll keep it ready for you,"Turk said
complacently. "Lacy, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she whispered tearfully.
"Oh,Turk. I'm just fine!"