Delilah's Flame (36 page)

Or did Barrett know the kind of marriage he offered was what Lilah preferred? Perhaps he knew her better than she thought. In truth she was convinced that high-flung emotions like love and jealousy only got in the way of a successful marriage. Just look how miserable a little jealousy was making her feel now.

As she pondered those things, Sarah spoke up again. “I’m telling you about Sally Ann because she’s sure to show up at the ranch. She’s dropped by every week since Tabor’s been gone, asking when he would be back. Soon as she knows he’s here, she’ll be around. And when she sees you, she’ll have her claws out. She’s never has any competition. At least not around here.”

“I wonder why Tabor hasn’t mentioned her,” Lilah said coolly.

Sarah contained her grin. “Don’t get me wrong. Tabor hasn’t encouraged Sally Ann. Leastwise not that I know of. He just humors her a little. Takes her to a dance once in a while. This idea there’s something between them is all hers.”

Lilah’s dander was up, with wondering if Tabor and Sally Ann ever did more than dance. The barbs of jealousy bit into her again and her eyes narrowed. “I hope you don’t think there’s anything binding between me and Tabor.”

“Isn’t there?” Sarah turned the mules through a wooden gate built post-and-lintel style. The board overhead had “Cooke Ranch” burned into it. On either side was a Circle C. Sarah identified the symbol as her brand.

“Why, no,” Lilah answered stiffly. “We’re friends, that’s all. Really this plan for me to visit the ranch was something he worked out with Papa. My father thought I ought to see this part of the country.”

“I guess maybe I got the wrong notion about things,” Sarah said. “But consarn it, the way that boy looks at you, I thought...Anyway, I’m sorry if I’ve embarrassed you with my presumption.”

Lilah moaned to herself. She hadn’t meant to be short and hurt Sarah’s feelings. Besides, what else could Sarah have thought? Tabor might have indicated as much, as a way of explaining why he was bringing her to the ranch. Maybe she should have let Sarah keep thinking there was something between them. Admittedly, she was glad to learn Tabor didn’t make a habit of inviting girls to visit.

“Of course I do like Tabor a lot.” Lilah offered the words cautiously. “And you never know what might happen.” There. That ought to smooth out the wrinkles. “Thank you for letting me know about Sally Ann,” she added calmly.

The ranch house came into view, a whitewashed frame structure of two stories with an outdoor staircase running to a porch on the back of the second floor. The house was no mansion like Damon House, but it was larger than Lilah had imagined and had an inviting hominess to it. The rose garden Tabor had told her about was inside a picket fence on one side.

Sarah drove right past the house and on down to the barn. A wrangler ran out to welcome Sarah back and to take the mules. After Lilah had been introduced to the few ranch hands who were around the barn, she and Sarah walked back to the house.

A wide and airy shotgun hall ran from front door to back. Within it, a sturdy staircase climbed up to the second floor. A cheerful blue paint covered the walls, and white trim bordered the door and window frames. The floor of scrubbed planks showed the indentions of many boot heels. A wooden clothes rack hung just past the front door and held an assortment of hats and jackets and one gunbelt.

Lilah peeped into a parlor, only to be startled by the glass-eyed stare of a stuffed bear head above a new-looking medallion-back settee. The room looked as if Sarah and Tabor had fought over the furnishings and ended up in a bizarre compromise. A bowl of silk flowers sat on an occasional table, a stuffed bird on another. A frilly green fern filled one corner while a carved wooden Indian stood ground in another. Lilah decided Sarah’s parlor was indeed the oddest room she had ever seen.

The kitchen, bigger than the parlor, was clearly all woman’s domain. No sign of Tabor glared at her there, save a pair of polished boots resting by the fireplace. A blackened cast iron wood stove occupied a big share of the room. Between it and the fireplace rested a box heaped with split wood and kindling. The cupboards were open shelves lined with pottery bowls and glass jars filled with dried beans or apple butter or other delectable samples of Sarah’s culinary skill. A tin-lined sink hung against one wall alongside the dry sink and a marble-topped counter for bread-making. Even without a fire going the atmosphere was warm and cozy, and Lilah guessed Sarah and Tabor spent as much time here as in the parlor.

Sarah had no maid, so Lilah helped start a fire in the stove and helped heat water for her bath. The bathtub turned out to be a large wooden washtub Sarah dragged in from the back porch, but it was clean and big enough to accommodate Lilah. After three days of bathing from a washbowl, Lilah found the oak tub every bit as delightful as the big brass hip tub at Damon House.

After her bath, however, Lilah received the bad news that her trunk hadn’t yet arrived at the ranch. Since she had no clean clothes of her own, Sarah offered one of her best calico frocks. The dress was bigger than Lilah’s waist by a good six inches and the red print was horrendous with her pink slippers. Laughing at herself, Lilah donned it anyway and cinched one of Sarah’s starched aprons around her waist to tighten up the fit. She would have hanged herself before going out in San Francisco clad as she was, but since no one was likely to see her on the ranch, she accepted Sarah’s invitation to sit out on the porch.

“Maybe Tabor will pick up your trunk while he’s in town. It’s probably at the stage office in Sandy Flats, but they haven’t gotten around to sending anyone out to tell us.”

Lilah groaned. “I certainly hope he does. If my trunk has been lost, I don’t even have a decent outfit to wear into town to shop for new clothes.” She saw amusement in Sarah’s black eyes. “Oh, I don’t mean your dress isn’t decent, Sarah,” she hastened to say. “I’m only complaining about the fit.”

“No need.” Sarah chuckled. “I understand. You’re much too pretty a girl to be covered up by an extra two yards of calico.”

Still smiling and thinking how much she liked Sarah, Lilah lifted her damp hair off her neck so it would dry more quickly in the warm breeze. She noticed Sarah looking toward the gate. “Do you see something?”

“Looks like a buckboard coming in,” Sarah replied, getting to her feet and shielding her eyes as she strained to see who it was. “It’s leading a horse. Tabor must have rented one to bring your trunk.”

“Thank goodness,” Lilah responded, standing and joining Sarah on the edge of the porch. She could see the buckboard clearly, and there definitely appeared to be a trunk in back. Tabor’s black hat identified him. Lilah was distressed to see that he wasn’t alone. “Who’s that with Tabor?” she asked.

“By thunder! It’s Sally Ann,” Sarah said as the buckboard rolled around the last bend in the road.

Now Lilah could make out the womanly figure close beside Tabor on the driver’s seat. All at once the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up catlike. She could also see the young woman was not a kid, nor the plain-faced country girl she had imagined. Lilah took a quick glance at herself dressed like a bunkhouse cook in Sarah’s attire. She was all set to dash in the house and wait to meet Sally Ann when she was properly outfitted. But there wasn’t time.

“Hello!” A feminine voice lifted out of the thin cloud of dust the buckboard scattered in front of the porch. “I’ve brought the prodigal home.”

Tabor gave Sally Ann a forbearing smile as he hopped from the buckboard and tied the horse to the hitching post. He unhooked his saddle horse from the back of the conveyance and tied him to the post as well. With both horses taken care of, he returned to the back of the buckboard for Lilah’s trunk.

“Hello, Sally Ann,” Sarah replied. “That was nice of you.”

“Well, he had that heavy trunk to bring for your guest.” Sally Ann’s smile flagged as she realized Tabor was struggling with the trunk in question and had forgotten about helping her from the buckboard. “I guess that must be you.”

Her perusal of Lilah was sharp and quick, her eyes telegraphing her conclusion that this ill-clad city girl with wet, lank hair wouldn’t prove much of a rival. Giving up on Tabor, she climbed down by herself and walked up the steps.

Carrying Lilah’s trunk, Tabor edged past the women on the porch. The tension in the air was almost tangible. He gave Lilah a hasty smile, aware he hadn’t made the wisest choice about transportation. Then he pushed through the front door, anxious to get out of harm’s way.

Lilah was intent in canvassing Sally Ann Caufield, but she found a second to shoot a furious glance at Tabor as he passed. Accustomed to her wardrobe being the envy of her peers in San Francisco, Lilah was colossally put out at meeting another young woman while dressed as she was. Sally Ann observed her discomfiture and immediately called attention to her stylish teal dress by brushing an imaginary speck from the draped skirt.

Lilah reeked with indignation at being made to feel inferior. Sally Ann’s gown, with its covering of Chantilly lace over a front yoke and a panel of the bustle, definitely made her feel dowdy. Like the top hen in the barnyard, Sally Ann swished her way across the porch to offer a hand to Lilah. As she extended a gloved one, Sally Ann tilted her head to reveal the impressively large diamond studs in her ears and to show off her rich brown hair so fashionably pinned up with silver combs.

“This is Miss Lilah Damon of San Francisco, Sally Ann.” Sarah pulled up a third rocking chair for the young woman as Lilah shook that gloved hand with her own sunburnt one. “She’s visiting with us for a while.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Sally Ann Caufield.” Her green eyes flashing regally, Sally Ann gave a lofty smile as she let go of Lilah’s hand. “My father owns the Bar Z. It’s the biggest spread in these parts.”

“How nice,” Lilah said, attempting to be polite, though Sally Ann’s patronizing looks prodded her quick temper.

“You must be a friend of Sarah’s,” Sally Ann remarked as she accepted a glass of lemonade.

Lilah tensed. The little snip was hinting she wasn’t attractive enough to interest Tabor. Her chin went up. “Tabor invited me,” she said boldly. “He’s been a guest at our house for several weeks. Now he’s asked me down here for a visit.”

Her words delivered the intended implication that she and Tabor hadn’t been ready to part company.

“How long will you be staying, Miss Damon?”

“She’ll stay as long as she likes, Sally Ann.” Expecting at any minute to see the girls’ backs curl up like angry felines’, Sarah stepped in. “I’ll invite you and your mother and father over for dinner one night and you can all get to know Lilah.”

Sally Ann sneered, not pleased at Sarah’s hint to run along.

“I’m not sure we have many evenings free,” she remarked dryly. “But you can ask anyway.”

“I’ll do that, Sally Ann. And thanks for bringing Lilah’s trunk out. I’m sure she appreciates it.”

“I certainly do,” Lilah said icily. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you.”

“Whew!” Sarah exclaimed as Sally Ann snapped the whip over the horse’s head and drove away. “I sure am glad you don’t have any personal interest in my nephew. I’d be right upset to find myself caught between two jealous women fighting over a man.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.” Lilah tried to keep her voice calm, but her words crackled anyway. After all, this wasn’t Sarah’s fault. “Where is Tabor? I’m surprised he didn’t come back to say good-bye to Sally Ann.”

Sarah laughed aloud but didn’t say what she was thinking, that a man developed a cowardly streak when two females were furious at him at the same time.

Lilah excused herself and went upstairs to the bedroom Sarah had prepared for her. She found her trunk in the middle of the floor. She hadn’t noticed Tabor downstairs. The doors to the other rooms were open and she peered into all of them but he wasn’t to be found. She assumed he had ducked out and down the back stairs, then had taken his horse on to the barn when Sally Ann left. That was fine with her. She had nothing to say to him. Not when he had been so discourteous as to bring another woman visiting when he knew she didn’t have a thing to wear.

Lilah unpacked her dresses and hung them in the pine armoire, never thinking that Bess usually attended to such tasks for her. She looked at her beautiful gowns, any of which would have put that catty Sally Ann Caufield to shame. Her fine red-gold brows arched sharply. The next time they met, she wouldn’t look like a vagabond.

Still fuming at Sally Ann and Tabor, Lilah took off Sarah’s dress and got into one of her own. By the time she had her other things unpacked and her hair dressed, Sarah was calling her downstairs.

The look Tabor gave her took away all her unease about being overdressed for supper in the ranch kitchen. She hadn’t been thinking about that when she chose the ivory satin and the garnets she wore. She had been thinking something totally foolish, that she wanted Tabor to acknowledge she was prettier than Sally Ann Caufield. He just had.

Her appetite was less hearty than it had been on the trail. Tabor’s seemed to have picked up. He ate several slices of ham and two helpings of potatoes. She lost count of the biscuits. She also lost sight of most of the caustic things she had wanted to say to him, and by the time supper was over and Sarah had taken them to the parlor, she was all smiles.

Sarah poured glasses of wine for everyone, then left Tabor and Lilah alone while she went back to the kitchen to do the dishes. Lilah felt bad about that, but as Sarah pointed out, she wasn’t dressed for dishwashing. But, Sarah agreed, she could have the chore the next night.

“What do you think of the ranch?” Tabor asked, looking for safe ground. He knew she had been miffed at him for bringing Sally Ann out unexpectedly. Dammit! He’d tried to avoid that little nuisance in town, but she had caught him coming out of the sheriff’s office and followed him to the stage company. Once she saw he had a trunk to cart home, nothing he could say would stop her from lending her buckboard.

“The ranch is nice. Bigger than I thought.” Lilah decided the wine had made her giddy when one more inane comment slipped from her. “I like the house.” It took her a few minutes to realize that what really had her nervous was wondering if Tabor planned to slip into her bedroom during the night—and knowing she hoped he would.