Dashing Druid (Texas Druids) (39 page)

He loosened her hold upon him and turned to face her. “’Twould be wise if I did. Ye know that.”

“No! I don’t know any such thing. If you try it I’ll find you the same as last time, and sooner or later Howard will track us down. Then what? We’d be on our own.” She shook her head. “We’re safest here with David and his men to back us up.”

“Lily, me darlin’, I don’t want ye risking your life for me.” She tried to interrupt, but he shushed her with a light kiss. “Nay, hear me out. It sickens me to think I’m placing you and Jessie, David and little Nora, and everyone else in danger with my presence here. I’ve already caused the death of one friend, Tom Pearce. I don’t wish to cause anymore, much less yours.”

“You didn’t cause Tom Pearce’s death. We’ve talked about that before.”

He sighed. “We did, but I never told ye the whole story.”

Darkness concealed her expression, but he sensed her mild irritation because he’d kept something from her. “Then tell me now,” she said.

“Aye, I suppose I must.” He ran his hands over her shoulders and down her arms. Her skin was growing chilled from the breeze. “Let’s go in first.”

He led her inside and back to their borrowed bedroom. Drawing her down on the bed, he propped himself up against the headboard, and Lil copied his example. He took a deep breath, girding himself against the loathing she was sure to feel once she knew what he’d done.

“The part I didn’t tell ye has to do with a letter Tom received from his fiancée back in Cornwall. The letter arrived the day before the cave-in. Tom was as excited as a wee child at Christmas . . . until he read what it said. In it, his fiancée told him she would wait for him no longer. She’d taken up with a soldier and they were planning to wed in a few months, as soon as the fellow got the promotion he was expecting.”

“God! Poor Tom! He must have been awful torn up.”

“Aye, he was. Yet, hopeless as it seemed, he was certain he could win the fickle wench back, if only he’d make a big strike and return home before she said her wedding vows. That’s why he was in such a froth the next day, why he wouldn’t take time to shore up the rock.”

“But none of that was your fault. You told me you warned him, but he wouldn’t listen.”

Tye snorted in self disgust. “Aye, but I could have prevented it all. Ye see, I picked up the letter when I went to purchase a few supplies for us. It had come open in the mailing, and I . . . I read it.”

“So you knew what she’d written before he did.” Lil shrugged. “You were guilty of reading his private mail. That doesn’t make you responsible for his death.”

“There’s more. A week or two before that, Tom had mentioned he was thinking of giving up and returning home. Later he passed it off as merely a moment of weakness, but I knew otherwise. I
felt
how badly he missed his homeland and his Sweet Gwen. That’s what he always called her. I knew he was serious about leaving, and I didn’t want him to go.

“Ye must understand the man was my closest friend, like the brother I never had. Jessie had married and gone to Texas, my father had disowned me for leaving home and taking Jess with me, and Rose was lost to me as well, locked behind convent walls. Tom was all I had.

“So I gave him the damned letter, knowing it would break his heart, but thinking it would make him hate Gwen and he’d never want to see her again. He’d stay and we’d go on as before. But he didn’t hate her as I expected. He wanted to return to her all the more, with money in his pockets in order to win her back, and because of that, he was desperate to strike a vein of silver.”

“And he died trying.”

“Aye, all because of that letter. I never should have given it to him. I should have burned the cursed thing as I thought of doing. Instead, I used it for my own selfish purposes.”

Lil scooted around to face him. “But the letter was his. He had a right to know what his fiancée wrote. It wasn’t up to you to keep it from him.”

Tye laughed bitterly. “He would have learned of her perfidy soon enough without the letter. Like I said, he had it in mind to leave for home soon, with or without the riches he’d come to find. Not that he ever said as much, but I felt his secret jubilation because he’d be seeing his Sweet Gwen before long.

“So there ye have it, the whole sorry tale. Because I wrongly thought to keep Tom from leaving, I gave him the letter, and because of that he died. I as good as killed him, Lily.” He met her gaze, expecting to see condemnation, but as with Tom, his expectations proved wrong. She took his hand and, turning it palm up, studied it, lightly tracing the creases, sending prickly sensations up his arm that unsettled him physically and distracted him from sensing her emotions. Then she began asking questions.

“Tye, when you gave Tom the letter, you thought he’d see that Gwen wasn’t worth going home to, right?”

“Aye, as I said, I hoped he’d never want to see her again. But he didn’t feel that way.”

“Mmm. And you figured he was wrong thinking he could get her back if he returned a wealthy man?”

“Oh, I imagine he could’ve won her over, with money. But who’s to say she wouldn’t leave him once the money was gone? I tried to tell him that, but he grew angry and wouldn’t hear it of her.”

“I see. So you tried to save him from more hurt later?”

He had to think about that for a moment. “I suppose, in a way, but as I told ye, I had my own reasons for wanting him to stay.”

She stopped fooling with his hand and looked up, staring at him. “Yet you went down in the mine with him that day. Why? Why didn’t you refuse to help him look for the big strike he needed in order to win Gwen back?”

He jerked his hand away. “How can ye ask such a thing? He was my partner, my friend. I couldn’t turn my back on him.”

“Even though he planned to leave you high and dry?” Her dark eyes bored into him, willing him to look at Tom’s death and everything leading up to it in a glaring new light.

He swallowed hard, shaking his head, stunned by what she forced him to see.

Lil smiled gently. “Tye, you didn’t kill Tom. He killed himself, and he almost got you killed.” A tide of love flowed from her, bathing him in its healing warmth.

Unable to find words, he uttered a choked cry and reached for her. Crushing her to him, he kissed her fiercely, expressing his heartfelt gratitude in the only way he could. She met his desperate need with matching fervor. The sheet she’d wound around herself soon landed on the floor along with his britches.
He reveled in the touch and taste of her, mouth traveling the frontiers of her body.

At one point she tried to fight him, crying, “No! Stop! How can you?”

“With great pleasure,” he said, voice muffled against her quivering flesh. “Now be still.”

Giving in, she strained toward him, accepting his gift of love. He rejoiced when she exploded with an ecstatic cry. He slipped inside her then, and they soared together
, reaching a shattering finish in perfect unison. Afterward, Tye fell asleep with her curled against him, kn
owing peace of mind such as he hadn’t felt since the day Tom died.

* * *

Two days later, Lil asked Tye to drive her into town. He refused at first, with David and Jessie backing him up, arguing against leaving the relative safety of the ranch. However, when she admitted she was about to go loco waiting for Judd Howard to show up, and that she wanted to purchase material for some new gowns – a shock to everyone including herself – she finally convinced all three. At David’s insistence, two of his men would accompany them.

The buckboard ride was hot, dusty and rough, threatening to make Lil heave up the biscuits and gravy she’d eaten for breakfast. Regretting she hadn’t worn her britches and ridden a horse, she fought to control her rebellious stomach. She didn’t want Tye to think she’d turned into a weakling who had to be mollycoddled.

They arrived in Clifton an hour or so before noon. The town lay wrapped in a sleepy summer haze. A pair of horses dozed outside the nearest saloon, heads down and tails switching at flies. The few citizens going about their business turned curious eyes toward Tye and Lil and their escorts as they rode past. At last, Tye halted the team outside Benedict’s General Store.

“This brings back a fond memory,” he said with a dashing grin, something Lil had seen a lot more of since he’d confessed the last of his secrets to her, for which she was thankful.

“It does,” she agreed. “You know, when Pa found out about that day last winter, I swore to him I’d never let you near me again. Guess I broke my word.”

“Aye, ye did, and I’m most glad of it.” Chuckling, Tye jumped down and came around to help her from the wagon. Still a bit queasy, she gladly accepted his assistance. He eyed her closely as her feet touched the ground.

“Are ye all right, love? Ye look a bit peaked.”

“I’m fine, just hot,” she assured him, still unwilling to admit her weakness.

“Would ye care for a lemonade over at the café before ye do your shopping?”

“No! I-I’d rather get on with it.” The thought of the sweet-sour drink curdled her already touchy stomach.

“As ye wish.” Telling the two cowboys who’d ridden in with them to visit the saloon if they wished, Tye offered her his arm.

She gathered her skirts and let him lead her up the steps. She’d worn her blue gown again, preferring to save her lace-trimmed wedding gown for special occasions. The blue had faded from repeated washings and she was thoroughly tired of it. If she was to dress like a woman when she was out in public with Tye, as she meant to do, she needed to do some sewing.  What color yard goods should she look for, she wondered as they entered the store.

‘Lil!” a familiar voice cried.

Stopping short with Tye beside her, Lil looked up to see Thea Knudson standing by the store counter with her husband and three children. Behind the counter, Mr. Benedict was measuring out hard candy for the towheaded young’uns, who clustered between their parents, watching the sweets with eager eyes. Ordering the three to stay with their father, Thea dashed over to Lil, smiling from ear to ear.

“I thought I’d never see you again!” she exclaimed, wrapping Lil in a tight hug. “We heard you’d run off to Colorado.” Stepping back, she trained her cornflower blue eyes on Tye. “After this handsome man.”

Tye tipped his hat to her and smiled. “Ye flatter me, ma’am.”

Recovering her wits, Lil said, “Tye, this is my friend, Thea Knudson. Thea, this is my husband, Tye Devlin.”

“Husband! You went and got married? Lil, that’s wonderful!” Thea hugged her again, even tighter than before. Then she grabbed Tye and did the same to him, causing Lil to smother a grin behind her hand when she met her dashing Irishman’s dumbfounded look.

“I’m, uh, pleased to meet ye, Mrs. Knudson,” he said in a strangled voice.

Thea let him go and backed off. “Land sakes, call me Thea. I remember you from the Bayliss’s barn raising. I knew right off that you and Lil were meant for each other.” She giggled. “The way you looked at her when she wasn’t looking! And Lil, when I saw you staring at him with his shirt off –”

“Thea!” Lil blurted. “You don’t need to go on about it.” Seeing Tye grin like a strutting rooster, she felt a fiery blush creep up her throat into her face.

Thank goodness Thea’s husband, Arni, chose that moment to walk over and join them, leaving their three offspring happily sampling their sweets. Lil used the distraction to subdue her embarrassment while Thea performed the introductions.

“When did you two get hitched?” Arni asked.

“Oh, yes, do tell,” Thea urged.

“We were wed in Colorado, just before we left to come home,” Lil replied. “We got back a little over a week ago.”

Slapping her hands to her cheeks, Thea exclaimed, “Oh my! Lil, I bet your folks were shocked when you announced you were married. How did your ma take the news?”