Texas Brides Collection (76 page)

When pride tugged at Pearl, arguing was useless. Benjamin tried another tactic. “If you’ll let me tag along, I’ll consider it a personal favor. You can do a good deed for an old friend, can’t you?”

“I—I don’t know.”

He searched a satchel he carried and found the bottle of perfume he’d been saving for just the right time. The tuberose scent was Pearl’s favorite and one the shopkeeper didn’t always have in stock. Benjamin had been lucky to get the last bottle.

She gasped when she saw the pink glass vessel.

“This sweetens the deal, wouldn’t you say?”

She uncorked it and inhaled. A dreamy look entered her eyes, and she indulged by dipping the bottle upside down so the cork would absorb some of the scent and then using it to apply a drop behind each ear. Before she closed the bottle, she took another whiff.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying your gift already.”

“I’d better while I can. Ma won’t abide the scent of perfume around her. Says virtuous women don’t need any aroma other than soap.”

Benjamin wondered how good business would be at Sadie’s place if the women didn’t keep themselves painted and smelling pretty, but he decided not to make reference to the life Pearl was leaving. “You’ll just have to wear it when she’s not around.”

“Maybe.” She slipped the bottle into her dress pocket. He had a feeling she’d hold on to it the whole trip.

“So you’ll consent to me following you?”

“Against my better judgment,” she agreed.

Benjamin grinned. “Whether your judgment is good or bad remains to be seen.”

P
earl didn’t say much during the second day of the trip. Worried, she fiddled with her skirt, a simple brown cotton affair she had worn on the day she first went to Sadie’s and hadn’t donned again until that morning. Ma would be glad to see her in a drab house dress, even though the hem had muddied from the trip. If she tried to approach her mother while wearing silk, despite Ma’s desperate illness, she’d throw Pearl out faster than a gunslinger could draw his pistol.

Why she hadn’t given the silk frocks in her trunk to her friend Eliza, Pearl didn’t know. Why were the dresses—a literal outward show of the past she wanted to shake—so hard to shed?

Musing, she realized the dresses symbolized another link. To Benjamin. She was thankful he’d followed her, even though she pretended to be mad at him about it. She could only hope he wouldn’t buckle under the pressure of Ma’s discipline and insistence that everyone in her house walk the straight and narrow. Though Ma was ill, she’d find a way to control them. She didn’t know how she could stop it.

Lord, I know I haven’t talked to You much, but I pray You’ll keep me strong now. I’m teetering on the edge of the new life and the old. Don’t let me fall off the fence and land in the muck
.

They reached Rope A Steer, Texas, that afternoon. Pearl hired a buckboard to carry them to her mother’s place.

“The ranch sure is beautiful,” Benjamin remarked as they approached an unpainted gate. The sign said “M&H,” which stood for Milk and Honey. Pearl had told him the name represented the Bible’s promise and her father’s hope. The horse pulled them past a stand of brush, over a shallow creek, and down a fenced field. The simple frame home looked to be missing a few roof shingles. The house wasn’t much, but he hadn’t expected to be so taken with the acres upon acres of flat land stretching as far as he could see. Nearby a cow grazed on more land than she needed, rich green grass offering a veritable feast.

“I’ve always thought it was beautiful out here.” A wistful look covered Pearl’s face. “You should see the fields in spring when the bluebonnets are at their peak.”

“I can only imagine how pretty that must look.” Benjamin noted that Pearl couldn’t seem to take her gaze away from the land. From the moment she had stepped into Sadie’s, Benjamin knew Pearl wasn’t meant for that kind of life. Now she was back home, and the radiance in her face showed she had landed right where she needed to be. “You really missed the ranch, didn’t you?”

“I suppose I did.” Pearl cleared her throat as she put her hand on the front door latch and looked him in the eye, much like Sadie used to do when she was about to lecture him on how to be a gentleman. “Now Ma isn’t expecting you, so you need to be real quiet and let me handle her, you hear?”

“I hear.”

Pearl straightened her shoulders and crossed the threshold. Her surefootedness surprised him, considering Pearl had said Ma was quite a character. Perhaps since Pearl no longer bore the marks of one of Sadie’s girls, her ma could overlook her brief mistake, and they could start anew. At least that’s what he hoped for Pearl. He set down both of the trunks he carried—his and Pearl’s—on the kitchen floor.

“I’ll go ahead and put on some coffee. You can help yourself to a cup while you wait for me to greet Ma,” Pearl instructed. “I’ll let you know when you can meet her.”

Benjamin nodded and took a seat at the rickety oak table. Seemed a mite small if they were expecting to serve a number of ranch hands their meals. He shrugged. Maybe the hands ate in separate quarters. Smiling to himself, he fantasized about easy pickings from bored gamblers. He’d seen that the nearest town, Rope A Steer, offered an inn, a blacksmith shop, and a tiny dry goods store. Not much in the way of entertainment. Surely the men here would be more than happy to go a round or two of cards. He’d make sure to hit them for a game on payday.

Pearl said a quick, silent prayer for courage before she entered the sickroom. No matter what Ma said, she was determined to be as cheerful as any paid nurse or companion. Even more so. She remembered how Ma’s favorite daughter, Rachel, conducted herself. Rachel’s sweet demeanor and radiant peace brought life to her plain features and made Pearl wish she could be more like her. Pearl decided she’d do her best to emulate her older sister.

Opening the door, Pearl found Ma lying in the finely carved four-poster bed Pa had built out of pine years ago for his new bride. Though her eyes were shut and she lay in repose, Ma’s face looked haggard and pale. Had she really aged ten years when Pearl had been away only a few months? Her mother’s mortality, and her own, struck her.

Before Pearl could ponder her new role as a nursemaid in silence, Ma opened one eye then the other. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”

Pearl had been prepared for a cool greeting, so her heart didn’t twinge, nor did she draw near to her mother for a kiss. She summoned her best impression of Rachel. “I’m happy to see you, Ma.”

“Sure you are.”

“I’m pleased to hear your voice sounding strong even though you look a mite peaked.”

“Of course my voice is strong. It had better be if I have any intention of convincing a sinner like you to stay out here in God’s country. Sure would have been easier on me, not having to preach while I’m sick. If Minnie had come, I’d never have to say a word to her. And Emmie would open the Bible right along. I don’t suppose you have a Bible with you, do you?”

She flinched. “No, ma’am.”

“Never mind. Mine’s right here on the table. You’ll be reading at least a chapter a day to me, you know. Maybe you should start with the tale of the prodigal daughter.”

“You mean son.”

Ma’s eyes narrowed. “You would know, wouldn’t you? Guess I can’t expect to bear ten children and not have one turn out to be a black sheep.” Ma pulled herself up on her elbows.

“You sure you’re up to sitting?”

“Sure I’m sure. Wouldn’t try it if I wasn’t.”

Pearl rushed to her side, placing pillows so the older woman could situate herself in comfort.

Ma inspected Pearl with sharp brown eyes. “I see you’re wearing the same dress you wore when you left.”

Pearl winced. “You won’t be seeing any colorful silks around here, Ma.”

“That’s good. You know red’s not a good color to wear around a bull. Maybe it works real good around a two-legged bull, but not one with four legs. Did I tell you our bull died?”

“No. I’m sorry.” Pearl pursed her lips. The bull’s death had no doubt been yet another setback for her mother and the struggling ranch. She was sure the event had only added to Ma’s agitation, which was greater than Pearl expected. She didn’t want to break the news about Benjamin’s arrival to her mother. “I’ll be fixing supper shortly. Maybe I can fry up one of those cheese omelets you like so well.”

“That’s one thing you can do, is make a cheese omelet. And I’ve got some cheese and a few eggs in the house—what I was able to gather before I got so sick I had to send for you.” Ma let out a labored sigh. “I’m mighty tired of livin’ off the atrocious food Mrs. Wilkins brings by. Not that I’m not grateful for whatever that good Christian soul is willin’ to do for me. She’s mighty obedient, livin’ the Lord’s commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. But her cookin’ is somethin’ awful.”

Pearl laughed out loud in spite of herself. “Now, Ma, you’re mighty picky for someone so sick.”

“A sick person needs edible food.” Ma crossed her arms, but Pearl detected the slightest upward curve to her lips.

Since her expression was the closest to congenial she’d seen in the few minutes she’d been there, Pearl decided to broach the subject of Benjamin. “I—I didn’t come here alone.”

All pleasantness evaporated. “What are you sayin’, child?”

“Someone followed me here. Benjamin.”

“Benjamin? Who is that?”

“I didn’t ask him to follow me, but he did.” Pearl decided she might as well tell the whole truth. “He’s the man I love. And he loves me, too.”

“Is that so?” Ma eyed Pearl’s left hand. “Then why don’t I see a weddin’ band on your finger?”

Without meaning to, Pearl inspected her ringless hand. “Maybe you will one day.”

“That’s what he wants you to think.”

“I don’t ask you to approve of Benjamin, but I do ask you to meet him,” Pearl said.

“Fine. Stuck in bed as I am, I have no other choice.” Ma looked down at her night shift. Though the garment was fashioned from opaque cotton and the collar covered her neck, she grabbed her bed jacket from the foot of the bed and donned it, fastening the buttons with quick expertise that reminded Pearl of how Ma used to dress her.

After a nod from Ma, Pearl went to the door and motioned at Benjamin. Without hesitation he set down his coffee and made his way into the room.

Ma tilted her head and peered at him through narrowed eyes. “Well, well, lookee here. Cat’s been busy today.”

Benjamin was obviously taken aback by Ma’s odd greeting. “Come again, ma’am?”

“Ma’s just being Ma,” Pearl said, rushing to intervene before she made the introductions.

Ma looked Benjamin up and down. “You must think a mighty lot of my daughter to follow her all this way. Though only the good Lord can understand why.”

Benjamin shot Pearl a distressed look before he answered. “I think your daughter is a fine woman, Mrs. Hubert.”

“You do, do you? Turn around and let me see you.”

Benjamin hesitated.

“Go on, boy. What’s the matter with you—got some sort of defect you don’t want me to see?”

“Ma!” Pearl objected. With his fine features and strong physique, Benjamin had nothing to be ashamed of in his appearance.