Texas Rich

by Fern Michaels

  How I treasure those few days we had at Christmas. If only it could have been longer. I’m not complaining; it’s just that I miss you so.

  Your mother sends her love. She’s been talking about Amelia a lot of late. Before I went to the hospital we spent one entire afternoon looking at baby pictures of you and Amelia. She really does miss your sister. I wish I could meet her. Your mother seems to think that we would get on well together.

  Darling Moss, I must close for now. I want to check on Maggie and it’s almost time for dinner. I thought I would have mine with your mother this evening on my first night home. I guess it is my home now that Maggie’s here, but in the beginning I rather felt like a visitor. Having Maggie seems to make me permanent, if you know what I mean.

  All my love to you, Moss. Please write when you can.

  Love, Billie

  Billie sealed the letter and put an airmail stamp on the envelope. She wondered when Moss would get it. There had been no mail from him for over two weeks. Perhaps tomorrow. I’ll say an extra prayer, she thought, and couldn’t help wondering if Seth had heard from his son. She had shared her letters with him and Jessica, but Seth had not shown her the same courtesy. She hadn’t wanted to make an issue of it and so had remained quiet, but it seemed so unfair. Didn’t he know how worried and upset she was? And whom was she fooling about being permanent and belonging? At best she was merely tolerated. In a sense the baby did make a difference, but Maggie was a girl. Seth Coleman wanted a grandson.

  Doctor’s orders or not, she was going to take a shower and wash her hair. What harm could it do? And she would feel so much cleaner and better than with a sponge bath and talcum powder. She’d lock the bedroom door and the one to the bathroom. Who would know? Who would care, really?

  The thick steak staring up at Billie made her gulp. Jessica’s light salad and small dessert of Jello-O was more appealing. Billie picked guiltily, knowing she should be grateful for the meat. Back in Philadelphia her friends would have given anything for a steak like this one. Tita removed the heavy dinner almost intact. Jessica smiled as she poured the coffee from a handsome silver urn.

  “Now tell me, child, how bad was it?”

  “Bad. But it’s over now.”

  “Billie, giving birth is the most wonderful experience in the world. We’ve been so fortunate. True, there is pain, but it’s the most easily forgotten kind. Once you see that little pink or blue bundle, nothing else matters. Don’t you agree?”

  Billie knew what she was supposed to say. But to forget fourteen long hours of the most excruciating misery known to woman! And that pink bundle. Perhaps if she had been able to hold Maggie after the delivery, she might feel as Jessica did, but it had been three days before Maggie had been brought to her because of the baby’s low birth weight. Still, pleasing Jessica and being agreeable was so much easier than telling the truth. Besides, Jessica didn’t want to hear unpleasant facts. She was living her life within the four walls of this room, sheltered from unpleasantness and stress. Seth had said Jessica was to remain calm at all costs. So she forced herself to meet Jessica’s eyes and took a deep breath.

  “Yes,” she lied.

  “She’s beautiful, Billie,” Jessica went on enthusiastically. “So healthy-looking, despite how little she is, and all that hair! I’m sure Moss is delighted. Seth said he sent word to the Enterprise. I expect we’ll be hearing from Moss any day now. I pray that we do every day. At least you’ll never have to worry about Maggie going off to war. Good girls always stay near their mothers.”

  Billie sipped her coffee. Good girls? Did that mean she didn’t consider Amelia to be a good girl?

  “In England, Jessica, the women are doing their bit. I’ve been reading about it. They’re so brave. The whole thing is just so terrible. While I was in the hospital I read—” Billie bit her tongue. What she had read would be considered upsetting to the frail Jessica. A young woman had been driving an ambulance with four wounded men inside and they’d been bombed right off the road. Only bits and pieces of the bodies were found. No, that surely would upset Jessica, with Amelia in England. Maggie was the only safe topic of conversation, or the weather. Mentioning Agnes always brought a tightening of Jessica’s lips.

  “I just wrote Moss a letter telling him all about Maggie,” Billie said. “That reminds me. Can you recommend a good photographer to come and take her picture? I want to send it to Moss.”

  “Seth has already taken care of that, Billie. A photographer will come out when Maggie is christened next week.”

  “Christened? Next week? I suppose I’ll be up to it, but I’m not sure about any of my clothes fitting me. My goodness, so soon?”

  “Billie, there’s nothing to fret about. Seth and Agnes will take care of everything. Besides, the mother doesn’t go to the church. It’s not going to be an event. A simple christening with some pictures taken. A sit-down dinner for a few of our closest friends. That’s all there is to it. Maggie will of course wear the same christening dress that Moss and Amelia wore. I was very careful about preserving it when I packed it away. The laundress will see that it is cleaned and each tiny ruffle ironed to perfection. You don’t have to concern yourself about these details.”

  But I want to! Billie almost screamed. She couldn’t go to the church? It was unthinkable. She was going to miss her own baby’s christening? Well, we’ll just see about that!

  “Billie, what is it? What’s wrong?” Jessica asked anxiously.

  With great effort, Billie forced herself to speak quietly. “I would like to do these things. I want to go to the church to see Maggie christened. She’s my first child. How can I write Moss about it if I’m not there?”

  “Darling child, this is the way we do things here. You’re going to have to get used to it. You’re a Coleman now and you have to accept our ways. That’s why Moss sent you to us. I think you’re overly tired and it is your first day at home. Tomorrow you’ll realize that Seth is more than capable of handling all these matters. Your mother is helping—or will help, if she’s needed. Moss expects it.”

  And that was the last word.

  Billie held her tears in check when she bent down to kiss Jessica good night. “I’ll go by the nursery and check on Maggie before I turn in for the evening.”

  Jessica hated to do it and she practically bit her tongue to make the words come out right. “‘Why don’t you wait for morning, Billie. I’m sure the nurse has settled Maggie for the night and you might wake her. Routine. Nurses always have such strict routines.”

  “Is that the same as telling me the nurse won’t allow me in the nursery to see my own baby?” Billie asked in a trembling voice.

  “I’m afraid so, Billie. If the door is closed, it stays closed.”

  Jessica ached to gather Billie close to her, to pat her head and tell her everything would be fine. Lately, though, she’d begun to have the feeling she wouldn’t always be here to comfort Billie. Mollycoddling, as Seth called it. The sooner Billie learned and accepted that things were done the “Coleman way,” the better it would be for her. There was little sense in spurring the child into rebellion. Jessica drew her rosary from her dressing gown pocket, leaned her head back against the chair, and closed her eyes. There were cruel lessons that Billie would learn, the same lessons she’d had to learn herself. And for what? To end up a woman old before her time, sitting alone in her room with every unfought and unfinished battle still tearing at her heart. No, it would be easier in the long run if Billie became a true Coleman: hard, greedy, and selfish. Otherwise she’d have to run away, just as Amelia did. Just as she was doing herself.

  Billie fled the room. Her eyes went down the endless hallway to the nursery door. It was closed. Her shoulders slumped as she entered her own room and locked the door behind her. She wasn’t used to closed doors; she hated them. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she picked up the letter to Moss and held it close to her heart. It didn’t bring him any closer.

  Maggie was three months old the day Set
h entered Sunbridge by the kitchen door, his weathered face wreathed in smiles. He’d just come from the Cattlemen’s Club.

  “You look like someone just handed you their prize bull,” Agnes said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “Would you like a cup? I just sent Tita up with tea for Jessica.”

  “My news is a damn sight better than getting a prize bull. I just got a call from Washington: the Enterprise is coming into Pearl for repairs. My boy is safe and sound and we might be able to get some calls through and talk to him. They’re due into Pearl on the eighth of May; that’s four days away, Aggie. I’m going up to tell Jessica.”

  Agnes stared after Seth’s retreating back. It was awesome how the Colemans got everything their way, but things had to be handled delicately, quietly. Billie was getting her back up these days about the smallest things. If she were to suspect for one minute that another pregnancy was being planned by her father-in-law and her mother, there was no telling what her reaction would be.

  Billie would be delighted to go to Hawaii to see her husband, though. And when she returned, with any luck she’d be carrying the Coleman heir. And luck would be on their side. How could anything be simpler than letting nature take its course?

  PART II

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Agnes stared out the multipaned window in her bedroom, savoring the seemingly limitless expanse of Sunbridge. For months now she’d considered the homestead, as Seth called it, her own.

  She had sailed into her duties with a capability that had stunned Seth. At first she’d merely been efficient, making the household revolve around him and his activities. She could tell he liked the way she did things and she anticipated his every need. Often, she wondered how close she’d come to spending the rest of her life wasting away in Philadelphia, becoming older and dowdier caring for a small house and boarders. The thought made her shiver with revulsion.

  Seth found Agnes amenable and smart and often invited her along to luncheons at the Cattlemen’s Club. The day he’d leaned across the table and asked her opinion on a matter, in full view and hearing of his friends and their wives, she’d enjoyed their astonishment. Seth Coleman had never been known to ask a woman the time of day, much less her opinion! That day had marked Agnes’s total acceptance into Austin society. All she had to do now was sit back and reap the rewards. But no matter how efficient she was or how dependent Seth had become upon her, she accepted reality. She was dispensable. At least until Billie produced a male heir. And what better place to get the ball rolling than the paradise of Hawaii? Romance and baby making went hand in hand. Moss would be more than agreeable, especially once he saw this new, ripe Billie, more than a girl, just a shade less than a woman. How appealing! The urge to smack her lips was overwhelming.

  A rolling tumbleweed danced across the front lawn. Agnes frowned. Now where had that come from? She pressed her face against the window to see where the offensive weed had landed and made a mental note to remind the gardener to search it out in the morning. Her eyes strayed heavenward to the early spring sky. Even the first stars of evening seemed bigger and brighter, the moon more silvery and round. Perhaps it was true that everything in Texas was bigger than life and better than anywhere else. She, for one, certainly believed it.

  A muted cry filtered down the hall and was instantly hushed. The baby. Agnes’s lips thinned to a hard line. Maggie Coleman. Thank the Lord for nurses and nannies. Billie would be able to go off to Hawaii and not have a care in the world. Money was such a marvelous thing.

  A second, more piercing yowl shuddered down the hall. Agnes gave her head a little shake and left her room. Seth would be waiting for her in his study, and she’d be willing to bet that the man hadn’t poured his own bourbon but was waiting for her to do the honors. It was now a ritual she rather enjoyed, feeling a certain little warm spurt of power in being the one to please him.

  A smirk played around Seth’s mouth as he watched Agnes walk toward him with his evening drink. The woman amazed him. Bourbon and branch water. He’d been dumbfounded the first time he’d seen her pour and swallow the beverage as if it were Coca-Cola. And she was probably the only woman in Texas who didn’t mind his cigar smoke. Liked it, she’d said when he caught himself apologizing. A thick Havana cigar found its way to his mouth. He clipped the end and lit up. Old Aggie never gasped or sputtered or dabbed at her eyes. Once he’d tested her and had blown smoke directly at her. She’d sniffed and smiled and passed his test. And she knew it.

  Right now, he sensed there was a bee buzzing around in Aggie’s bonnet. He could almost hear the droning. He thought he knew what was on her mind, but so far, except for the day Maggie was born, it had remained unspoken. He decided to play her little game, hear her out, see how she’d handle him. He always enjoyed how Aggie went about things. Every day she learned something new, some new kind of maneuver, some devious little trick to get what she wanted. It pleased him that he was making her work for what he would have given her anyway. She was going to be rocked back on her hind end when she found out he had Billie’s ticket to Hawaii in his desk drawer.

  Seth downed his drink in one gulp and held out his glass for a refill. Agnes stared at it a moment and then shook her head. “That was a double I gave you. You know the doctor said one drink and one drink only. If you want another, you’ll have to get it for yourself. I refuse to be a party to your destroying your health.” Seth knew she meant it. He clamped his teeth down on his cigar and almost bit off the end. Women!

  “There’s tumbleweed in the front yard again.”

  “For Christ’s sake, Aggie, this is Texas. Tumbleweeds are all over the place. If it bothers you that much, I’ll speak to the gardener in the morning.”

  “I’ve already mentioned it to him,” Agnes lied. She was in charge of the house and that included the front lawn as well.

  “Did your daughter get a letter from my son today? Tita said she did. I waited all through lunch for Billie to mention it and when she didn’t I thought maybe Tita was mistaken.”

  “I really don’t know if Billie received a letter, Seth. I’ll check with her when I go upstairs.” Damn Billie. And damn that Tita, too. If she ever got the opportunity to fire her, she would. The woman knew too much about family business.

  “Billie looks well,” Agnes began, “don’t you think? Dr. Ward has given her a clean bill of health and the go-ahead to resume all her activities.” Agnes met Seth’s speculative stare unblinkingly. “I was a little concerned for her during her pregnancy.” She led into the question and let it lie there.

  “Well?” Seth demanded impatiently. “Just how concerned are you for her now?” Damn woman, she liked to play games as much as he did.

  “Oh, I’m not concerned at all. Why should I be? Nature takes care of itself, I always say. Why, just look how she’s bloomed. She’s not the young girl who first came to Sunbridge. There’s something different. Perhaps it’s maturity. She’s more of a woman, if you know what I mean.”

  “Damn right I do,” Seth said dryly. “I was thinking the same thing myself. ’Course, I never knew Billie when she wasn’t feeling sick, but right now I’d say I could almost see why my son married her.”

  Agnes ignored the left-handed compliment. “The baby is gaining rapidly, especially for a premature birth. Now that she’s on a rigid schedule she’s eating and sleeping better. Nurse is very pleased. It’s so nice to know that Billie doesn’t have to tax her strength with middle-of-the-night feedings and all that goes with a new baby. And little Maggie is just remarkable.”

  “She’s a Coleman, isn’t she?” Seth said gruffly.

  “Moss is going to be so pleased when he sees what motherhood has done for Billie. It would be so nice if they could get together. Christmas was almost a farce, you know. I’d hate to think that Moss could only remember what Billie looked like then. A pity he can’t see her.” Agnes drained the last of her bourbon. She might need another before this conversation was over.

  “C’mon, Aggie, pour me another
drink. What can it hurt? You’re going to have another. How can you sit there and drink it in front of me?”

  Aggie. It was said with affection. She could hear the tone, feel it. “All right, but if you tell that fool doctor, I’ll deny it.”

  Seth winked conspiratorially and maneuvered the cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. He liked it when he had her on the run. So much for her worrying about destroying his health.

  When she handed him the refill, Seth removed the soggy cigar from his lips. He swirled the amber liquid in his glass, staring at it as if mesmerized. Agnes watched him, hardly daring to breathe. She had his habits down pat, knew what he was going to say before he said it. In the end she always let him think it was his idea.

  “Aggie, do you think the girl is up to a trip to Hawaii? It’s barely three months, you know. Jessica never mended this quickly.”

  “Billie comes from hearty peasant stock. On her father’s side,” she added hastily. “I’m sure she’s well enough. We can check with the doctor and Billie herself. Seth, how marvelous of you to think of this. Billie will be forever in your debt if you can arrange it. You can, can’t you?” she asked anxiously.

  “For my boy, anything. Billie, too,” he added hastily. Agnes understood. She held up her glass and Seth did likewise.

  “What shall we drink to?” Seth asked.

  Agnes pretended to ponder the question. “What else but love?”

  Seth almost choked on an inch of wet tobacco. “To love.”

  “To love,” Agnes said, swallowing the remainder of her drink. For one wild, crazy moment she wondered if Seth were going to throw his glass into the fireplace and smash it to . smithereens. She wished he would, so she could do the same. Instead she set her glass firmly on the little coaster on the table.

  “How long do you think it will take you to make the arrangements?”