Always and Forever (17 page)
Grace thought that a brilliant suggestion and hastened to his side. She took on the chore of holding Tess’s head and he backed out of the way while the women formed a circle around the fallen Tess. They all stretched wide their skirts, creating a shield around Loreli and Daisy as they opened Tess’s clothes. Ruby returned with the now filled canteen and slid into the circle’s interior.
Standing a respectful distance away, Jackson was admittedly impressed seeing them rally on behalf of a fallen companion, and he thought maybe they were beginning to form the camaraderie Grace had hoped for, but wondered where the women had learned to use their skirts in such a manner and if it was something females learned while growing up. He put that thought aside. He was about to announce his first real wagonmaster edict, and he knew they were going to go through the roof.
Once the groggy Tess was helped to her feet and escorted back to her tent by Daisy and Belle, Jackson looked out on the small sea of female faces and declared, “Ladies, from now on, it would be better if you went without your corsets.”
For a moment there was a stunned silence, until a suspicious sounding Grace asked, “Why?”
“Because once we get on the road, we aren’t going to have the time to stop twenty or thirty times a day to revive fainters. You’re going to be working like men, and you need to be able to breathe like men. After driving six, eight hours a day, those teams aren’t going to care whether your waist is eighteen inches or not, but your lungs will.”
His voice and manner made it easy to determine that
this was not a request, but Grace spoke on behalf of her brides. “Jackson, we are not going without proper undergarments.”
“I’m certainly not giving up mine,” Sarah Mitchell huffed.
“And neither am I,” her sister pledged.
The only woman who didn’t appear angry was Loreli Winters, and she said matter-of-factly, “For what it’s worth, I agree with him.”
Silence descended, and in unison the women all turned to stare.
“I think corsets are the number one menace to female society,” Loreli said. “You can’t breathe, they leave you scarred. Who needs them? The first time I wore one was the
only
time I wore one. I can’t abide the things.”
The women looked at each other as if trying to decide whether to declare Loreli a traitor.
The well-endowed Trudy Berry said coolly, “That’s all well and good, Loreli, but what about those of us who have a bit more to offer, shall we say? I can’t bounce all the way to Kansas City!”
“Then bind yourself,” Loreli encouraged. “We’ve all done it before at one time or another. Even bound you’ll be a lot more comfortable.”
Jackson could’ve kissed her, but his voice was firm as he added, “And ladies, any cheating, and you’ll be on pie-shoveling detail.”
Grace stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. Her hands went to her hips and she stood there a moment. Granted, he might have their health in mind, but to issue threats! He was not the type to blow smoke, so she had no trouble believing he would do what he’d pledged, but she swore if any brides decided to back out of the venture because of Jackson’s methods she’d feed his ears to the mules.
Jackson could see the volatility in Grace’s eyes but he paid it no mind. She hadn’t hired him to mollycoddle these women. She’d hired him to get them to Kansas City, but they weren’t going anywhere if everybody started dropping like flies. Preparing himself for a visit from the fire ant later, he told everyone, “Let’s get finished up here.”
So for another hour and a half, they put tack on, they took tack off. They threaded reins through the teams of horses, they unthreaded reins through the teams. They hooked teams to the wagons, they unhooked teams to the wagons. Only when they had him convinced that they could indeed do the tasks in their sleep did he dismiss them.
“The rest of the day is yours. Grace, I need to see you later.”
“And I wish to speak with you, too,” she said with a false brightness. “Now.”
He had the nerve to smile her way, then walked back toward his tent.
When he was out of earshot, Sarah Miller asked, “Surely you are not going to let him run roughshod over us this way. What will he demand next, that we go without our drawers?”
The stout Sarah Mitchell turned her angry gaze Loreli’s way. “I can’t believe you took his side on the corsets.”
“I’m probably going to do a lot of things you won’t believe before we get to Kansas City,” Loreli tossed back. “But that’s what we no-corset-wearing, gambling women do.”
Grace held up her hands. “Ladies.”
Sarah Mitchell huffed and turned her head.
Loreli had a smile on her ivory face that did not reach her eyes.
Hoping this wouldn’t lead to a serious spat, Grace said, “I’m going to speak with Mr. Blake.”
“I’d rather he be boiled in oil,” Fanny declared.
“Hear! Hear!” schoolteacher Ruby O’Neal called out. “I’m so tired, I’ll probably never walk again!”
Everyone laughed at that and as the chuckles faded away, Grace looked out over the assemblage and saw the dirt-stained clothes and sweaty faces that verified how hard they’d worked. “You ladies did well today. Everything we learn and everyday that passes put us one step closer to Kansas. Be proud of yourselves.”
She saw a few smiles, and that buoyed her spirits. “Now, our general has given us the rest of the day off, so go enjoy yourselves and we’ll see everyone at dinner.”
As the woman trailed away, Grace set out for Jackson’s tent. He was behind it chopping firewood. “You were quite short with us back there.”
He put down the ax, then wiped his brow on his sleeve. “Was I?”
“Yes.”
For a moment he studied her silently, then asked seriously, “Do you want the women to be prepared for this journey or not?”
She thought that a rather silly question. “Of course I do.”
“Then let me prepare them.”
“But—”
“They won’t be ready if I have to talk softly or kiss skinned knees all the time.”
“No one’s ask—”
“Grace,” he said calmly, cutting her off.
She snapped her mouth shut. “What?”
“I’m going to be tough on everyone, including you, because their lives, your life, may depend on how well
you learn. If I’m rude, it’s because I want it done right. If anything happens, I don’t want it to be because you and the ladies couldn’t tie a proper knot, couldn’t control your teams, or couldn’t breathe…”
“You make it sound as if we’re enlistees.”
“In a way, you are, and I’m first in command.”
Grace didn’t think she liked his attitude at all. “You and I are going to fight a lot, if that’s going to be your thinking.”
“We’ve already conceded that point, remember?”
She did.
“If the thought of my doing something like forbidding corsets keeps someone from fainting and maybe injuring herself or the animals or someone else, so be it. You aren’t paying me to be liked, either.” He went back to his chopping.
“If I were, you’d already be shown the door.”
He smiled and paused. “You don’t like me in my general’s hat.”
She didn’t lie. “No, I don’t.”
“Well, when we get to Kansas City, I’ll burn it, but until then, this is the way it’ll have to be. I’m responsible for this train, and I take that very seriously.”
“Too seriously, I’m thinking.”
He went back to chopping.
Jackson knew he wouldn’t be nominated for any congeniality awards today, but he wasn’t seeking any. All he wanted was to get the brides to the men in Kansas in one piece, and if he had to act like an overseer in order to accomplish his goal, then so be it. The women were rawer than the greenest army recruit. They were going to have to be toughened up, and if wanting to take a buggy whip to him for issuing orders about their underwear added to that toughness, he was all for it.
“You know,” he said between swings of the ax, “I
respect your business sense and that razor-sharp mind, but neither of those attributes is going to mean much to the teams you and the other women are going to have to drive for hours on end, or to the rivers they may have to ford, or to the hundred other dangers that might lay ahead.”
He paused and looked her way. “Even if this trip is smooth sailing all the way, it’s still a very serious undertaking. I’ve got every faith that these women can make it.”
“Even if you didn’t think so at first?”
He wanted to kiss that sassy mouth of hers until she saw stars. “Even if I didn’t think so when I hired on. The ladies worked hard today.”
“Then you should tell them that,” Grace pointed out. “It would mean a lot. When I left, they were talking about boiling you in oil.”
He chuckled. “That bad, huh? Then maybe I should.”
Grace was glad the tension had dissipated.
“Are you still mad at me?” he asked frankly.
“No. You’re right about the corsets. We do need to be able to breathe.”
“Good.”
In the silence that followed, their eyes held. Grace could feel herself beginning to drown in his eyes.
“You know,” he indicated softly, “There are certain advantages to not wearing a corset. Remind me to show you the next time you come around looking to be kissed.”
Grace could’ve sworn the ground swayed beneath her feet. “That isn’t going to happen,” she somehow managed to retort.
His eye said he didn’t believe her. Neither did her pounding heart.
Deciding now would be a good time to hoist anchor,
Grace said more hastily than she’d intended, “I’m going to my tent now. I’m glad we talked.”
“So am I.”
As he watched her head back the way she’d come, he said again, “So am I.”
T
hat evening after dinner, Jackson called everyone together. As the tired and weary women took seats at the trestle tables, Loreli leaned over to Grace and whispered, “Do you know what this is about?”
Grace shook her head. She hoped it had to do with her earlier suggestion that he say something positive to the women, but after his declaration this afternoon concerning their undergarments, who really knew why he’d convened the gathering.
Once everyone was settled, Jackson stood. “Ladies, I brought you together just to let you know what a fine job you did today.”
A stunned silence filled the air.
Someone called out humorously, “What did you do with the
real
Blake, mister?”
Laughs followed, and even Jackson had to smile. “I’m
serious. I know I didn’t win any prizes from you today, but you ladies won one from me. Oh, you grumbled and fussed and wanted to boil me in oil, or so I heard—”
He looked at Grace. She ducked, her head hoping he wouldn’t see her grin. “But you worked hard, and I’m real proud of you.”
Just as Grace had predicted, the women looked pleased as punch. Any animosity they might’ve been holding seemed to slip away.
“Does this mean tomorrow’s a holiday and we don’t have to work?” someone cracked.
Jackson replied through the resulting laughter, “Nope. We’ve got to start driving lessons and get that second horse pen built.”
Mock groans filled the air.
He shrugged his wide shoulders and smiled. “Sorry.”
As a group they spent a few more moments discussing tomorrow’s agenda and then the meeting adjourned. The women drifted back to their tents with a bit more pep in their step than they’d had when the meeting had begun. Grace attributed it to Jackson’s praise.
“Thank you,” Grace told him, once they were alone at the tables.
“You’re welcome, but I should’ve thought of doing that myself. Being decent is something I used to be fairly good at, believe it or not.”
“I think you’re pretty decent now,” she admitted. “You don’t think of yourself as decent.”
“Not as decent as I once was. No.” As a wanted man, he could never reclaim the man he used to be, the man decent enough to pin on a star.
Grace saw a bitterness in his eyes she’d never seen before. “Are you all right?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
Grace sensed a darkness in him she wanted explained.
What secrets did he harbor? She realized she knew very little about him. “Will you tell me about it someday?”
The question surprised him. He searched her eyes for a moment and read the concern. “There’s nothing to tell.”
He’d lied because he didn’t want her involved in his past. If she didn’t know anything, she couldn’t be drawn into whatever awaited him in Texas.
“You’re lying, Jackson Blake.”
That caught him off guard, too, and he chuckled lowly. “Says who?”
“Says me. You’re not being fair, you know.”
He wanted to ease her into his arms and give that very perceptive mind of hers something else to think about, like his kisses. “What am I not being fair about?”
“Remember last evening, when you made me tell you what was on my mind?”
“Yes.”
“Well?”
“Well, what?” he asked with mock innocence.
“It’s time for you to reciprocate.”
“That’s another one of those highfalutin words.”
“And that’s your attempt to keep from speaking the truth.”
Jackson knew she was right, but he was a wanted man. How was he supposed to tell her that? He stated seriously, “Grace, if and when the time comes, you’ll know.”
That wasn’t a lie. That was truth.
Grace realized he hadn’t given her much, but she accepted it and let the rest be. “I’m holding you to that.”
He nodded his understanding. Looking at her he realized that were he not a wanted man, he’d be giving serious consideration to the idea of courting her, plain and simple, even though she was probably destined for
a man with a much higher social standing than he’d ever attain. He saw her with a doctor or a politician or some fancy Negro mortician with a gold watch in his pocket, not a Texan who couldn’t even give her his name.
“A penny for your thoughts.”
Her voice brought him back to reality. “Just thinking about you being married to some fancy doctor or politician.”
Grace’s face filled with mock alarm. “Whoa, cowboy. I’m not marrying anyone.”
“Sure you will, eventually.”