One Bright Morning (34 page)

With a soul-deep sigh, Maggie eased out of
Jubal’s arms. She kissed him lightly on his forehead before she
reached for her chemise and wrapper.

I love you, Jubal
Green
, she thought sadly to herself as she
gazed down at him. She guessed it was all right to admit it to
herself now, after what they’d done the night before, even if the
admission did cause her tumbling emotions to jangle even
harder.

I loved Kenny,
too
, she thought.
I’m sure I did
. Her love for sweet
Kenny Bright, though, didn’t hold a candle to the feelings she had
for Jubal Green. She felt disloyal and mean all of a
sudden.

It was the sensation that he’d lost
something precious that made Jubal wake up a few seconds later with
a worried clutching in his chest. As soon as he saw the rumpled
place beside him and saw that Maggie wasn’t there, he realized what
it was that he’d lost. He sat up in groggy haste, his half-awake
brain in a panic for fear she’d somehow slipped away from him and
wouldn’t ever come back. He couldn’t let that happen. He needed
her.

A hearty sigh of relief escaped him when he
noticed her merely tiptoeing to the door of her room.

Maggie heard that sigh and glanced back over
her shoulder with an embarrassed smile. “I need to check on the
baby,” she whispered.

“
Bring her in here.” Jubal’s
voice was a raspy growl in the morning and Maggie liked it. Still,
she was surprised at his words.

“
You really want me
to?”

“
Yeah. Bring her in here.”
Jubal figured if she did that, then he could be with Maggie
longer.

Maggie smiled brightly at him. “Thank you,
Mr. Green.”

“
Call me Jubal, Maggie,” he
commanded gruffly.

Maggie flushed up immediately. “Thank you,
Jubal,” she whispered, and fled into her room.

Annie was just beginning to stir. Maggie
picked her up, changed her wet bottom, then carried her, still
sleepy, into Jubal’s room. When she laid the baby down beside
Jubal, he smiled because he couldn’t help it. Asleep or awake,
Annie was a darling little girl.

“
Kiss me, Maggie,” he
demanded of Annie’s equally darling mama.

So Maggie did. She felt her face turn a
fiery red, but she kissed him.

She had intended it to be a discreet peck on
the lips, but Jubal would have none of that. Clamping his hand onto
the back of her head, he drew her deeper and deeper into the kiss,
until Maggie thought for sure she was going to drown.

It was Annie’s sleepy question that finally
separated them. “Mama? Dat Juba?”

Maggie flushed and pulled away from her
lover. Jubal took a deep breath, peered at the baby, and smiled at
her.

“
It sure is Jubal, Annie,
honey,” he said to the little girl, and added a tickle.

Jubal’s tickle induced a spate of giggles in
her baby, and Maggie thought this might just be the happiest
morning of her life so far, even if she was abandoned beyond all
redemption.

Jubal yawned and stretched. Then he sat up
and gave Maggie another quick kiss. “Well, I guess we’d better get
dressed. We’ll get to my spread this afternoon if we start this
morning.”

“
I’ll get us ready, then,”
Maggie told him upon a sigh.

She didn’t want to leave this hotel now and
spoil the perfect communion that seemed to have spread about them
like syrup over hot cakes, bathing all three of them in its healing
sweetness. She picked up Annie and headed back for the door.

“
I’ll come get you for
breakfast,” said Jubal, watching with regret as Maggie walked
further and further away from him. He knew it was silly, but he
didn’t want her out of his sight. “Will a half hour be enough
time?”

When Maggie looked back at him over her
shoulder, her face was a picture of delighted surprise.

“
Oh, my, what a treat,” she
breathed. “A half hour will be plenty. Thank you.” Maggie had never
eaten breakfast out before. Having breakfast in a restaurant
sounded almost more decadently luxurious than eating dinner out
did.

At her expression of honest delight, Jubal’s
heart went mushy and he felt like a love-struck schoolboy. He still
wished she wouldn’t thank him every time he did something he wanted
to do for her, but he was beginning to understand. Maggie just
truly appreciated things that other people took for granted. He
hated it when the door closed behind her.

While Maggie got herself and her daughter
ready to face their day, both her heart and her head were in a
whirl.

“
Annie, your mama might have
made a real big mistake last night, but I don’t think I’ll ever
regret it, no matter what happens. Jubal Green’s a good man, Annie.
And I swear I won’t be a burden to him. I won’t cling and whine and
make a fuss. After all, I wanted him just as much as he wanted me.”
her face got hot all over again when she admitted that out
loud.

Then she thought better of confiding these
things to her daughter, even a daughter as young as Annie. “What
kind of a mama am I?” she asked aloud, and shook her head in
distress at her own weakness.

Annie was busy chewing on her fist and
didn’t seem to notice.

They ate breakfast at a different restaurant
that morning, and Dan and Four Toes joined them. Annie, who had
missed her friend, was ecstatic to see Four Toes again.

Jubal was walking them down the street to
the restaurant, and Maggie was holding Annie on her hip, absolutely
fascinated by the busy, dirty little border town. She was gazing
with interest at the magnificently tooled leather goods in a
saddler’s shop, when Annie startled her with, “Fo Toes! Mama, it Fo
Toes!”

The little girl was leaning out of her
mother’s arms and reaching for the tall Indian by the time he
joined them. He grinned broadly at Annie’s enthusiastic
greeting.

Jubal watched Four Toes and
Annie, noticed Maggie’s pleasure at their friendship, and felt an
irrational surge of jealousy.
Damn, I’ve
got it bad
, he thought
grouchily.

The little Mexican place where they ate
breakfast was nothing at all like the grand hotel restaurant where
Jubal had wined and dined Maggie the evening before, but Maggie
didn’t mind. She was still basking in the rosy glow of freshly
discovered love, and would have been enraptured with anything. Not
only that, but their chubby waitress was delighted with Annie and
made a big fuss over her. Anybody who praised her baby was all
right in Maggie’s book.

# # #

The trip to Jubal’s ranch was accomplished
with very little chatting on either Jubal’s or Maggie’s part.

And it was not merely her determination to
keep from burdening Jubal with her love that kept Maggie silent,
either. What had begun as honest puzzlement about his intentions
grew as the day progressed until she was certain that he must
consider her no better than a floozy. She didn’t have any idea what
she’d do if he ever wanted to bed her again. He’d certainly expect
her to capitulate, and she knew she shouldn’t, no matter how much
she wanted to. Oh, Lord, she’d really done it this time.

After
all
, she told herself,
if I were a proper lady, I never would have done
that
. Time after time that day, when
shivers of remembered ecstasy gave her goose bumps, Maggie was
almost glad she wasn’t a proper lady. Then she’d sneak a peek at
Jubal and wish he could love her as she loved him, and her heart
would squeeze in dismay.

Her aunt was absolutely right about her, she
told herself over and over.

In order to keep herself from going crazy
with her conflicting emotions, she decided to spend most of her
attention on her daughter today.

As for Jubal, he’d never been in love before
and didn’t know what to do about it. He half hoped he’d get over it
soon, sort of like a bad cold or a bullet in the arm. He had
nothing at all against Maggie. If he had, he wouldn’t be in love
with her. But he wasn’t used to caring so hellishly much about
another human being, and he found the sensation terribly unnerving.
It played absolute havoc with the settled order of things.

Still, he wished Maggie would talk to him.
She didn’t jabber and prattle or sulk and whine like the other
women he’d known in his life, but he always found her unstudied,
ingenuous observations refreshing. But she didn’t seem inclined to
want to talk at all today, and he wondered if she were embarrassed
about last night.

He got hard immediately and decided he’d
better not think about last night at all. Anyway, even if she
didn’t talk to him, he enjoyed listening to her dealing with
Annie.

The weather was hot, although it was nowhere
near as hot as it had been when they’d been forced to travel at
night. Still, the sun was bright, and Maggie found it difficult to
keep Annie occupied and cool. Her own face was soon flushed and
dripping with the heat.

She wished Jubal would talk to her, but he
didn’t seem to want to talk. Her heart clutched in pain, and she
sternly told herself not to fuss. The man had a job to do. And he
was actually helping her keep her resolve by remaining aloof. Her
heart didn’t quite buy her mind’s reasoning, though. It ached for
his attention.

Maybe he wants me for his
mistress
. That sudden, awful thought nearly
brought tears to her eyes until she realized, with a dismal frown,
that it’s just what a woman in her situation should
anticipate.

What did you
expect
? she asked herself bitterly, already
having condemned Jubal for her own base supposition.
Well, for the Lord’s sake, don’t cry, Maggie
Bright
, she commanded herself. And herself
obeyed.

By the time they stopped for a rest and to
eat lunch in the early afternoon, Maggie was resigned to her fate.
Somehow, she would refuse Jubal’s further advances, if he made any,
and try her best to repair her fallen dignity.

When Four Toes lifted little Annie out of
the wagon for her, she was feeling stronger, and was able to smile
at him with real friendship. They had found a small stream that
hadn’t yet dried up, which was surrounded by a stand of stunted
trees that offered them a little bit of shade.

“
Thank you, Mr. Smith,”
Maggie sighed, glad for the respite some time out of the wagon
would afford them.

“
Sure thing, Mrs. Bright. I
got Annie something in town while we were there. I thought it might
be a good idea to save it for this afternoon, since it’s a long
trip and everybody’s itchy to get home.”

Maggie beamed at him, completely forgetting
her status as wicked woman, when he held up a little gourd doll.
The gourd was pear-shaped and brown, and it had been clothed in
calico. Its face was painted comically, and yarn hair adorned its
head. But the most exciting thing about the doll was that when you
shook it, it rattled. Annie was enchanted.

“
Mr. Smith, you’re a pure
wonder,” Maggie sighed at him. “You should have children of your
own.”

Four Toes looked at Maggie with a rather
rueful smile. “I’d love to, Mrs. Bright, if I knew they could grow
up free like Annie here.”

Then Maggie wished she hadn’t said anything.
Her heart hurt when she considered Four Toes’ plight.

“
He adopts every kid he
sees, Mrs. Bright. He’s got kids all over the Territory,” Dan told
her with a laugh.

As he took care of the wagon mules, Jubal
watched and listened with a brow pleated in interest. He fed each
animal a handful of meal and then gave them some water in a bucket,
and frowned the whole time. He’d never considered this particular
aspect of his friend’s life before.

“
Hell, Four Toes,” he said
at last, “why don’t you just move in with Danny and me. My spreads
big enough for three families easy.”

Maggie smiled at him with such tenderness
that Jubal blinked in astonishment.

Four Toes looked interested.

Dan quirked an ironic brow at Jubal. “Three
families, Jubal?”

Jubal scowled at Dan. “Why not?” He sounded
kind of grumpy. “It’s big enough for three families, isn’t it?”

Dan smiled and hauled down another sack of
meal from the wagon. “Just wondering where all these families are
going to come from is all, Jubal,” he said innocently.

Jubal gave him a hard frown and didn’t
answer. Nor did he look at Maggie. Jubal Green might have,
grudgingly, admitted to himself that he loved Maggie Bright, but he
was nowhere near enough ready to admit it to anybody else in the
world. Dan laughed when, without another word, Jubal stomped over
to take care of his personal business among the scraggly trees.

They ate lunch quickly and continued their
journey without resting long. Luckily, Annie settled down happily
with her new toy and was content to rattle it, play “Mommy,” and
laugh until she finally wore herself out. She’d been sleeping for
an hour or more when Maggie figured it must be getting on towards
four in the afternoon and she decided she’d risk asking Jubal a
question.

She’d had a long time to consider the way
the two of them had spent the night. Ever a realist, Maggie didn’t
suppose brooding would pay any dividends. So she determined that
the best course for her to follow would be to act as though nothing
at all had changed, even if her world was now poised on its tiptoes
and teetering perilously. No matter what, she didn’t want to be a
pest.

“
Mr. Green?”

His head whipped around and he glared at
her. “Call me Jubal,” he commanded harshly. It really annoyed him
that she was back to calling him “Mr. Green.”