Texas Rose

chapter 27

Staring at the gravestones, Evie uttered several noncommittal remarks about her husband's wandering cousins, and allowed Mr. Hale to lead her toward the grander monuments in the Howell family plot. She refused to reveal how shaken she was as she listened politely to his explanations. He pointed out the patriarch of the family, Cyrus Howell, his wife beside him, a son who had died at an early age, and various and assorted relatives. But none of the graves were new. Tyler had said the Hardings' mother had recently died.

Evie placed her gloved hand on the lawyer's frock-coated arm and turned away. "I'm afraid my friend will be terribly disappointed. She is only my age. It seems most of those people were much too old to be her parents. But I do thank you for your time, sir."

Hale hesitated, then led her farther down the same path. "All the Howells aren't buried in the family plot, of course. Wives are usually buried with their husbands. Louise Howell Harding, for instance, was Cyrus's daughter. She's buried in the Harding family plot. I believe you are acquainted with the Hardings? It was a tragic accident."

They stopped before a newly erected monument, and Evie held her breath as she scanned the writing. She scarcely paid attention to the name of Randall Harding. Her whole being focused on the name below it: Louise Evangeline Harding, born 1829, died 1870.

Evie quivered. She reached out a hand to touch the stone, but didn't dare in Hale's presence. Tears filled her eyes. She wanted to fall to her knees and weep, to pour out twenty years of grief and pain and frustration into the grass just barely started over the dirt mounds.

Her mother. She knew it. Evie could feel it to the very bottom of her soul. It was as if Louise were standing over her now, holding out a hand in sorrow. She had died so young. If only Evie had come a few months sooner. She would have known her, spoken to her, maybe come to love and understand her. Just a few short months, and now eternity separated them. It was more than Evie's heart could bear.

She turned away and started down the path before her tears could betray her. She pulled out a handkerchief and neatly dabbed at her eyes, forcing herself to behave as Maryellen Peyton, disinterested observer. She should be handed an acting award. Her very foundations had been shaken, and she was walking with this man as if she didn't have a care in the world.

"How sad for the Hardings. Their mother must have been terribly young. It is always tragic when someone dies young." Evie was doing mental acrobatics. Applying her mind to a problem always helped to alleviate emotion. She had no reason to cry over a mother who had abandoned her, even if that mother could barely have been twenty years old when she had her. Her age. Evie could very well remember the terrible fear of being pregnant with no man's name for her child. She didn't want to feel sympathy for the dead woman, but it would come later, when she didn't have to think.

"Actually, she was just their stepmother. I'm right between Jace and Kyle in age, and I can remember when she married their father. She probably wasn't much more than ten years older than Jace, but she made us boys jump when she came around. She was a mighty fine woman. She's the one who put up the money for the school. The government has finally got around to saying we ought to have public schools, but the money just isn't there. Without her, the children around here would be growing up ignorant."

Evie liked hearing these things. Her mother was a good woman, a well-respected woman, and a good mother. It gave her some small sense of pride. She supposed if she thought about it she could be furiously bitter that such a good woman would desert her only daughter, but Evie was certain there were mitigating circumstances. She couldn't have done what her mother had done, but was abandoning a child so much worse than killing an unborn one? That's what she had meant to do.

Lost in the torment of her thoughts, Evie almost didn't hear Mr. Hale's next words. She halted a minute as if to adjust the buttons on her gloves, then looked up at him through her lashes. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Hale, I believe I missed what you were saying."

He tucked his cane beneath his arm and took her arm to guide her over a tree root as they left the cemetery. "Perhaps it would be better if I did not repeat it. I have no business talking so freely to you like this, but I can see you are a woman of compassion, and that you have Miss Howell's best interests in mind. I do not know how to phrase this without going beyond my authority to do so."

"You mentioned the Hardings," Evie recalled. "I fail to see how they would be of any interest to my friend."

Hale answered in low tones as they traversed the main street. "Mr. Harding had a younger brother. Really, Mrs. Peyton, I cannot say more. As long as your friend does not come to Mineral Springs, there's no need to worry. The Hardings are very attractive young men. It would just be... shall we say, indelicate, if she should develop any relationship with Kyle or Jace."

It didn't take too long to work out that hint. If Kyle's uncle were Evie's father, the Hardings would be her first cousins. So much for her mother being a good woman. Evie's lips tightened.

"I'm certain that won't be a problem. Evangeline is happily affianced to a very wealthy gentleman back in St. Louis. You can understand why a woman on the brink of marriage might be concerned about her heritage." Since Mr. Hale was being so understanding, Evie boldly pushed forward. "As a matter of fact, I have given thought to what we discussed the other day. I have already written Evangeline, you understand, but wouldn't it be better if you were to write her immediately and tell her what you know? Her wedding is a few short months from now, and it would be so much better if her concerns were answered quickly."

Hale hesitated, giving her a quick look. "As a matter of fact," he said carefully, "I have been trying to get in touch with Miss Howell. You'll understand that I am not in a position to divulge the details. I have left my card with both her guardian and her legal adviser in St. Louis, but I have not heard from either of them."

Evie was jubilant, but she didn't dare reveal anything yet. If she could only tell him who she was... it would save a great deal of time and worry. But the abductor the other night made her give Tyler's and Daniel's warnings more consideration than she would have otherwise. She was almost positive she knew who her mother was, and Hale had insinuated at her father's name. Those were pieces of information she could savor for a long time. It wouldn't hurt to wait for the rest of the details.

"Her guardian has only recently died, sir. I'm sure there is an amount of confusion involved. She will be in touch, particularly if she receives my letter. I thank you so much for your kindness, Mr. Hale." They had come to the alley by the hotel, and Evie held out her hand in farewell. For some reason, she was reluctant to let him see where she was staying, although he certainly seemed to know everything about her.

"May I be so bold as to ask for your company one evening over dinner, Mrs. Peyton? It is not often that we have an attractive young woman in this town, and I will admit to being most interested in you."

She hadn't thought she'd made much of an impression at all on this dry stick of a man. Evie hid her surprise at his request. "I would be honored, Mr. Hale, but as I have told Mr. Harding, it is rather difficult for me. My brother suffered an accident and is confined to bed, and the Rodriguez children look to me for their welfare while we search for their uncle. Perhaps another time."

He bowed over her hand. "I will find some way to see you again. However, I am unhappy to inform you that I have heard the children's uncle was killed in California some years ago. You may do better to let the town see to their placement in homes."

Evie frowned at this piece of news, and absently dismissed the lawyer before going her own way. Why would Mr. Hale have heard of the death of someone in California, if the man's own niece and nephews hadn't heard of it? But Mr. Hale had been so extremely helpful in other ways, she couldn't just put the information aside.

She needed time to assess all the facts and innuendos she had accumulated this day, but as she walked in the door, the sight of Tyler spread-eagled on the floor decimated all else.

Maria and Jose sat on each of his arms and Manuel held his legs. When Evie entered, Tyler looked up and began scattering children across the floor. They giggled and laughed and came back for more, climbing into his lap and pulling on his arms and wrapping small arms around his neck to try to pull him down again. Evie gaped, amazed.

"It's the only way I could keep them all in one place," Tyler explained, embarrassed, as he rose from the floor with Maria still clinging to his neck and Jose hanging on to his knee.

"Where are Carmen and Daniel?" Instantly on the alert, Evie looked to the pallet where Daniel usually lay. Finding it empty, she started for the back bedroom door.

"I'm fine, Evie," Daniel called from his bed. "They're just making a fuss about nothing. I need food more than I need a doctor."

Tyler pulled the youngest leech off his neck and dropped her into Evie's arms. "He was trying to stand and the pestilence here knocked him over." He tickled Maria on the belly, sending her off into a fit of giggles. Obviously, she felt no remorse. "Carmen's gone to find the doctor."

"Oh, Daniel, no!" Carrying Maria into the bedroom with her, Evie tried to determine the extent of the damage by the paleness of Daniel's face. He was in pain, she could see that. But the leg still seemed to be straight.

"It's fine. I know it's fine. I just bruised myself a little. I'm going to walk again. I'm going to ask the doc if I can take some of these bandages off. It will be easier to exercise if I'm not all wrapped up."

Daniel shifted his weight against the pillow and leaned over to look at his offending leg. He'd been wearing the same set of trousers for three weeks now rather than slit all his clothes up the side to accommodate the bandages, and this pair were looking worn.

Tyler came in behind Evie, holding Jose like a sack of grain beneath one arm. The six-year-old kicked and squirmed, but Tyler acted as if he weren't there. "Daniel's made of tough stuff. He'll survive if you'll get a little food into him. I managed to keep an eye on this nest of rattlesnakes, but I'm not getting near that stove of yours."

Jose squealed at being called a rattlesnake and started throwing punches, but Tyler upended him by the ankles and threatened to bounce him off the floor. The boy laughed with delight.

Evie watched this play dubiously. Tyler was wearing buckskins and boots, but his shirt was the white linen of a gentleman and not a cowboy. Still, he wasn't wearing the ruffles and waistcoat of the gambler, and she had never seen him in anything else before. And it wasn't just the clothes that were different. Could this be the same Tyler who had backed out and practically run when he'd returned to the hotel to find the children singing?

"What are you doing here?" she asked suspiciously as she accepted Daniel's reassurances and returned to the front room to fix dinner without Carmen's experienced aid.

"I've been asking myself that for the past hour. The question is, where have you been for all that time?' Tyler had dropped Jose, and the two boys wrestled on the floor at his feet. Maria toddled to the sewing basket by the fireplace, and began pulling out thread and needles to scatter them across the hearth.

Tyler appeared untouched by the confusion. He stood beside Evie, hands on hips, waiting for an explanation she didn't feel prepared to give. She slapped a bowl at his middle so he had to grab it, then poured in some cornmeal.

"If you're going to be underfoot while I'm fixing diner, you'll have to help. Add milk until it gets thick."

Tyler stared at the bowl as if it were a pig that had sprouted wings. Evie ignored his expression and turned back to the stove to add onions to the beans that had been soaking all day.

Refusing to be intimidated, Tyler set the bowl on the dry sink and began adding buttermilk from the pitcher. "What do I do with it now?"

"Mush it around so everything's moist, throw in a little sugar, some of that bacon grease in the can over there, and anything else that seems good." Evie wiped the onion juice off her hands onto her apron and reached for some of the dried chili peppers hanging from the shelf.

"Aren't you supposed to measure these things?" Tyler asked, looking at the sugar and grease with bafflement.

"Do you win at poker by counting cards or watching people's faces?" she asked, seemingly irrelevantly.

"I've spent years watching people's faces. I've never poked at a bowl of cornmeal before." Grimacing, Tyler threw in a lump of grease and a spoonful of sugar."

Throwing in the chopped peppers, Evie removed the bowl from his hands. "Then go entertain the children or keep Daniel company."

"All I wanted to know is where you've been." Tyler stepped out of her way, but not so far that she couldn't hear him.

"And all I wanted to know is why you're here," she replied. "Stalemate. Now scat. I've got to keep my eye on this stove."

She was in a flurry of motion, and Tyler stood back to admire the choreography. She was in one of her schoolteacher gowns today: no bustle, no flounce, no crinoline. The simple-figured cotton swirled around her ankles as she moved from stove to table to sink to cabinet. She sent Manuel out to bring in vegetables from the cellar and Jose to fetch a pail of water.

Tyler remembered the kitchen back home with black slaves singing and moving about, and his mother occasionally testing a dish and instructing the young girls how to properly mix a cake. He remembered the scent of baking bread, frying chicken, and bubbling peach cobbler. He remembered feeling at home and content in the small world that was all he knew.

And he remembered how it had exploded all around him. Turning his back on the scene, Tyler started for the front door, only to halt when it flew open with the entry of Carmen and the doctor on her heels. With a sigh, he caught Carmen as she tripped on one of the spools of thread rolling across the floor. Setting her straight, he grabbed Maria before she could go after the doctor and set about picking up the contents of the sewing basket while Carmen led the way to Daniel. He'd be damned if he'd ever have children of his own. They ought to be avoided like measles.

But Maria patted his cheek and kissed his ear and Tyler didn't put her down. He wandered over to halt the screaming argument between Carmen and Daniel so Evie wouldn't have to drop what she was doing to investigate. Even if Carmen's words were half in Spanish, her tirade wasn't very difficult to translate. Tyler dumped Maria into her sister's arms, turned Carmen around, and shoved her back through the bedroom door. Sometimes, men had to stick together.

Daniel gave him a grin of relief and finally submitted to the examination. "She's afraid I'm going to die, too," he explained shyly. "I guess 'cause she's lost her mother and father in this past year."

Tyler nodded his understanding. Daniel had a good head on his shoulders. He seemed to take the vagaries of the world with a calm that Tyler had worked for years to develop. There were times when he still wanted to rip things apart at the injustice of fate, but he wasn't letting this solemn adolescent know that. He watched as the doctor unwrapped the bandage.

"How's it knitting, Doc?" Tyler asked. He didn't want to care what happened to the boy, but he did. If Daniel never walked again, Evie would never forgive herself, and Tyler would have one more black mark to chalk up against a God who hated his creations.

"Satisfactorily, it seems to me." The doctor had Daniel move the leg around in different directions, checking the development of the disabled muscles. "I wouldn't want any pressure on it just yet, but with a crutch to keep the weight off, he might get around a little. The idea is to keep that leg moving just as if you were walking on it. The bone has to knit before you can use the leg, but you have to get those muscles working for you." These last remarks were addressed to Daniel, who nodded in understanding.

"How much can I be up? Can I go down to the newspaper office for a while each day?"

The doctor frowned. "That's a bit of a risk. You could stumble or be knocked down again."

The disappointment in Daniel's face was so apparent that Tyler couldn't hold his tongue. "What if someone were to walk with him, just in case something happened? Is there any reason he couldn't walk that far?"

The doctor shrugged, closed his bag, and got up from the bed. "None that I know of. It would be a good stretch for him."

Daniel didn't dare look excited until after the doctor had left, and then only a note in his voice gave him away. "Who can walk with me? Evie's teaching every day."

"I reckon Ben or I or somebody or another can show up most mornings. It's no hardship to walk those few blocks."

Evie was at the door, wiping her hands on a towel as Tyler said this. Her eyes widened, but she left the questions to Daniel.

"I don't want to put anyone out any," he replied cautiously.

"That's all right, looks like we're gonna be around anyway." Tyler held Evie's gaze with his own "They caught one of the thieves last night. It seem someone from outside helped them to escape."

The same someone who wanted a distraction for Evie's abduction is what his eyes said.