‘I’m not saying a word against her, but when the man bug gets you it can beat any friendship feelings.’
‘I think Doug would come with us.’
‘Aye, he might at that.’
At this point the door opened and Ma One came in, and hurriedly wobbled across the room to Luisa’s side, saying, ‘Better let on. Big boss slidin’ along backway makin’ for here while back. Then boss McNeill come, an’ he did back off. But now he’s on trail again. You see him? Or will I tell him no?’
Luisa had risen to her feet and she looked from Ma One to Tilly; then turning from them, she stared into the fire for a moment before swinging round again and looking at the old negress and saying, ‘Let him come.’
‘You know what you doin’?’
‘I know what I’m doing, Ma.’
‘Well, God d’rect you.’
On this she quickly wobbled out again, and Tilly, pulling her hood on to her head, said, ‘I’ll be off, Luisa. It’s better if . . . ’
‘No’ – there was a plea in Luisa’s voice – ‘don’t go. For two reasons, don’t go. One, I don’t want to be left alone with him; the other is, if he doesn’t see you you might learn things that you’d never guess at and which I couldn’t bring myself to tell you. Go in the bedroom there. He doesn’t know you’re here else he wouldn’t have come.’
Tilly hesitated for a moment as she looked towards the outer door, then turning, she hurried into the bedroom.
The room was dead cold and she stood shivering as she glanced about it. It was the first time she had been in this room. It was as sparsely furnished as the rest of the house; the only feminine touch about it was a silver-backed brush and hand mirror on the rough wooden dressing table, and a wooden-framed picture of a man. She moved nearer and picked it up. It showed a young, pleasant-faced man in a slouch hat, the brim turned upwards from his face. He was wearing a neckerchief very much like the mufflers pitmen wore on a Sunday back home. His hair looked to be fair; his eyes round and merry; it was a nice face.
At the sound of Alvero Portes’ voice coming from the next room she quickly replaced the picture on the dressing table and, moving nearer the door, her head to the side, she listened. And as she did so she had to tell herself that it was Alvero Portes who was speaking, yet she could not associate the soft, whining tone or the buttered words with the man, the austere man who usually spoke in precise correct English, and Spanish too, for he would nearly always address Diego or Emilio in Spanish.
‘You are not well, Luisa,’ he was saying; ‘I am worried about you, my dear. Please, please, can’t you let bygones be bygones. I promise you things will be entirely different . . . You look ill, child.’
‘I am not a child.’
‘You will always be a child to me, Luisa.’
‘If that is so then why did you try to turn me into a woman?’
There was a pause; then Alvero Portes’ voice muttered, ‘Oh, Luisa! Luisa! I suffer nightly because of my sins. I pray to God nightly to forgive me.’
‘If I remember, you’ve always prayed to God but it didn’t stop you, did it?’
‘Luisa! listen to me. Please listen to me. I promise you that if you will come and live with me again I shall not lay a hand on you, I shall not come nearer than an arm’s length to you, and I’ll swear on Christ’s crucifix.’
‘Huh! don’t make me laugh; I have a cold on me and it hurts my throat. There was a crucifix, remember, hanging above my bed, put there by yourself before you first crept into it. It was winter, remember? like it is now. “I’m cold, Luisa, warm me,” you whined. And my mother downstairs needing to be warmed. I was twelve years old, remember? Twelve years . . . old, and no one to run to, for I daren’t tell Mother; she had enough to carry without that. Yet she found out, didn’t she? So, you took pleasure in killing her and killing the man who was about to take me away from your dirty claws.’
‘Luisa, Luisa, why keep recalling the past. And I didn’t, I didn’t kill her, not your mother. I didn’t kill her.’
‘You didn’t? You only held her in front of you and let Eddie’s bullet go into her. Don’t tell me to disbelieve the things my eyes saw. It was no wonder afterwards I lost my mind. And I’m telling you this, Father, whenever your hand touches me again it will be the end of you, and the same verdict you managed to wangle will be repeated, self defence. Self defence.’
Tilly was leaning against the wall next to the door; she had her hands beneath her collar holding her neck. She was feeling sick and her mind kept repeating, Poor Luisa. Poor Luisa.
Now Luisa’s voice came to her again, saying, ‘Well, you’ve had your answer and I’ll thank you to go.’
There was no immediate movement. Then Alvero Portes’ voice came again, saying, ‘You have turned into a hard woman, Luisa. What if I were to tell you that I am a sick man and my days are numbered?’
‘I would answer to that, that you’ve got the number of days under your own control. That business a little while back with the diarrhoea, you might have fooled others but you didn’t fool me. You took enough horse jollop to make you ill but not enough to kill you. And all in vain, because you’ve now lost Matthew as well as me. You had him beguiled for those first three years but when he brought a wife back with him you couldn’t bear it. You’ve done everything in your power to break them up, haven’t you?’
‘Only because she’s not right for him.’
Tilly’s head lifted sharply as Alvero’s voice, now more recognisable as his usual one, said, ‘There is something about her; she’s not what she appears.’
‘You’d like to think so, wouldn’t you? Perhaps she keeps one step ahead of you.’
‘I didn’t come here to talk about her but about us. Luisa, if you’d only believe that I’m in earnest. You are my daughter, I love you, you’re all I’ve got. What I did I did out of love for you.’
‘Get out! If you stay a minute longer I’ll swear to you I’ll leave this place.’
‘Don’t talk foolishly. Where would you go?’ His voice held a scornful note now.
‘The Purdies; Tessie Curtis; or the Ingersolls. Any of them would gladly house me. The only reason I haven’t gone to them before is because I didn’t want to shame you. Nor did I want one or other of the men to come and beat the daylights out of you, which they would have done years ago if they had known the true set-up here. But there is one on this ranch who does know it, so in case I call for his help you’d better make yourself scarce.’
Luisa’s voice ceased, and there was no response now from her father, nor did any movement come from the room, but it was a good minute later when Tilly heard the door close.
She didn’t go immediately and join Luisa; in fact she didn’t move until Luisa opened the bedroom door and without even glancing at her turned back into the sitting room and seated herself once more in her chair by the fire.
Slowly Tilly walked into the room, but she didn’t face Luisa. Somehow she couldn’t look at her; nor apparently could Luisa look at her, for her attention was turned to the fire as she said, ‘Well, what do you make of that?’
‘It’s unbelievable.’
‘Ah well, you can believe it. He didn’t deny a word I said, did he?’
‘Why haven’t you left before?’
‘Where would I go?’ Luisa now swung sharply around. ‘Oh yes, I said I could go to the Curtises or the Ingersolls or the Purdies; but wherever I went what could I do? They would put me up for a few weeks, in fact tell me to stay as long as I like; but what use would I be to them? The mothers and the daughters do their own cooking and their men wouldn’t tolerate a woman riding out with them. Of course’ – she tossed her head now and her voice was scornful – ‘I could have gone to one of the forts and been a laundry-woman and made a dollar on the side supplying the soldiery. They’re always wanting laundry-women at the forts because there are not many wives there.’
‘You could have married. I’m sure you could have married.’ Tilly spoke quietly now with th
e thought of Mack in her mind, and her statement was answered on a laugh that had no mirth in it.
‘Yes, if anybody had asked me.’
Tilly now took the seat opposite to Luisa and she brought her attention towards her as she said, ‘You mean to say Mack hasn’t?’
Luisa coughed, then rubbed her chest with the heel of her hand before nodding and repeating, ‘Yes, that’s what I mean to say, he hasn’t.’
‘He . . . he cares for you, Luisa; I’m sure he does.’
‘Aye, some people are fond of dogs.’
‘Oh, don’t talk like that.’ Tilly got to her feet abruptly and she walked completely around the table before coming to a stop again; and then she said, ‘I’ve wanted to say this for some time, and I’m speaking for Matthew, too. We’ve both got money. I have interest from shares; I don’t need it. If you won’t take money from Matthew then take it from me. I can’t bear to see you any longer going round like a . . . ’
‘A squaw? Seventh wife of Big Chief Buffalo Horn?’ Luisa laughed now, but it was a laugh without bitterness, and she put her hand out towards Tilly and, patting her arm, she said, ‘Thanks. I’ll think about it in a year or two’s time when I’ve got to save me nakedness.’
‘Oh, Luisa!’ Tilly now dropped on to her hunkers in front of the small woman and, gripping her hands, she said, ‘I thought I’d had a rough time of it in my young days, but looking back it was nothing compared to what you’ve been through.’
‘How did you have a rough time if you married into the gentry?’
Tilly dropped her gaze away as she muttered, ‘I didn’t always live with the gentry. Well, perhaps some day I’ll tell you about it.’
‘Ah yes, I’d like to hear because I agree with him about one thing, you’re not all you seem. I’ve known that from the beginning, from the day Matthew brought you in . . . I’ve always wanted to ask you, did you know Matthew’s people? He didn’t talk about them; I felt he hadn’t much use for them.’
‘Oh, I think he had, at least for his father.’
‘He was all right then, his father?’
‘Oh yes, yes; he was all right.’ Tilly now got to her feet, saying, ‘I’d better be getting back, I left a pie in the oven. I’ll come down later. Is there anything you want, I mean in the food line?’
‘No. No, thanks; Ma sees that I’m well stoked up . . . And Tilly.’
‘Yes Luisa?’
‘Don’t repeat to Matthew what you’ve heard this morning.’
Tilly didn’t answer immediately, and so Luisa said, ‘Please, because if he knew I don’t think he’d go near him again or wish to speak to him. For the remainder of the short time you’ll be here now, let things rest as they are.’
‘What do you mean, the remainder of the short time?’
‘Oh, I can smell change on the wind. I should say you’d be gone by spring. Matthew’s been making discreet enquiries about homesteads.’
‘It’ll be for the best, Luisa; although I’ll miss you.’
‘And me you. Still’ – she let out a long, slow breath – ‘who knows what might happen before the spring. You know, it’s always amused me the folks who have come in from the towns, the casuals. They get bored, they say, because nothing happens along the plains. Dear God!’ She moved her head slowly now. ‘There’s more tragedy and comedy happening in one week than you’d get in a town in a month of Sundays. A few years back people could be hale and hearty one day and without their hair the next; and the lads who rode in yesterday say they’re breaking out again, the Comanches. And after all, this isn’t such a long ride away for them.’
‘Oh don’t talk like that, Luisa. I thought you laid great stock on the rangers and the army, and Matthew says we’re hundreds of miles away from them, especially the Comanches.’
‘Yes, yes; but as I’ve said before what’s a hundred miles to a horse Indian. The only time you’re safe from Indians in this country is when you’re dead. People around here are getting too complacent. They imagine that the politicians have them all nicely railed off in their tipis, but you can never rail an Indian off. Anyway, what am I talking about? If they come I’ll scream for you like Katie did about the bear. And by the way, I still think it’s a mistake to have kept the cub, ‘cos cubs grow up, and then what? Far better to have shot it.’
Tilly said nothing to this but went out. She knew that Luisa’s chatter about Indians was in the way of an attempt to erase from her mind the conversation she had heard from the bedroom. She liked Luisa, she was very fond of her, but she didn’t profess to understand her. She had a strange turn of mind; yet could you wonder at it after what she had gone through with that man? that aping aristocrat, that hypocrite, that praying Christian who had aimed to seduce his daughter when she was but twelve!
Had he succeeded?
Eight
The ranch had become like a camp divided against itself. More and more Alvero Portes had excluded Matthew from the rides. In the beginning he had made Matthew’s lacerated arm the excuse, but now when Matthew went down to the compound he would often find that Rod and Mack or Mack and Doug and the black boy Three, together with spare hands, had gone out on a round-up.
One day last week Matthew had returned to the house furious because five of the men had been sent off almost at a moment’s notice on a branding trip, which meant rounding up the already branded shorthorns and marking their calves by splitting their ears in a special way.
Stamping up and down the room, Matthew had exploded, crying, ‘He’s testing my temper! He’s using breaking-in tactics, but he’ll find out I’m no horse.’ Then stopping abruptly in front of her, his voice sank deep into his chest as he said on a note that almost sounded like one of sorrow, ‘I’ve had to keep telling myself he’s the same man I knew before I returned home, but now there is no comparison, he’s as sly and devious as an Indian, and he’s vicious. Yes’ – he had nodded at her – ‘he’s vicious. You know, you aren’t aware of this and I didn’t mean to tell you, but likely Luisa would when she gets prattling, but he flogged Four last night.’
‘Flogged him? Oh no! But why? What had he done?’
‘Supposed to have caught him ill-treating a horse. Can you imagine it? All Four ever wants to do is to get on to a horse’s back. I’ve half expected him to steal one before now and go off. No, it’s my opinion, and Doug’s also, that he found the boy with Eagle, and having reared the animal himself, he values it more than any other in the stable, and likely Four was just admiring it. It would be enough for Uncle to see him put his black hand on it: daring to touch his precious thoroughbred! But I’m sure that was merely an excuse for the thrashing; he happens to be Luisa’s boy, so it was a way of getting at her.’
After a moment of resting her head against his arm, she said, ‘Let’s get away from here, Matthew, soon, please,’ and he nodded slowly as he replied, ‘Yes, you’re right; we must get away from here, and as you say, soon, the sooner the better . . . ’
On this particular morning the sun was shining, the air was clear, the sky was high, the grass on the plains was rolling in green and yellow waves on a never-ending sea.
The young horses in the stockade were kicking their heels and galloping here and there as if they had suddenly become aware of the power in their sinews. Willy and Josefina were playing in front of the house with the tethered bear cub now named Nippy; they also had a wooden horse with a real horse’s tail nailed to its end and a similar mane on its roughly carved head.
For all her one year advantage over Willy, Josefina was not as big as he, nor as strong, as was proven when she tried to dislodge him from the saddle of the wooden horse, and so she attempted to straddle Nippy; which caused Katie to remark to Tilly who was passing through the kitchen, ‘They’re at it again, those two; fighting to see who’s cock-o’-the-walk.’
Tilly turned her head on her shoulder and laughed as she said, ‘Well, as long as it remains fifty-fifty we needn’t worry.’
‘Here’s the boss comin’.’ Katie p
ointed out of the window, and Tilly, hurrying through the room, went to the door and opened it and awaited Matthew’s arrival with some trepidation, for he hadn’t been left the house more than half an hour. However, she could see by his face that he wasn’t troubled, but even pleased about something.
He came into the room with his hand outstretched, saying, ‘It’s a letter from the Curtises. They’re having a barbecue at the weekend; they would like us to go and stay the night.’
‘Oh, that would be nice. But why are they having a barbecue at this time?’
‘The letter says’ – he pulled it out of the envelope and handed it to her – ‘two visiting dignitaries. It could be Houston, it doesn’t say. Anyway . . . visiting dignitaries will have their entourage with them, and you know Tessie has three redheads to get rid of; although I wouldn’t like to be the one who’d tackle either Bett or Ranny or Flo, unless they like dray horses.’
‘Oh! Matthew.’ Tilly flapped her hand at him. ‘They’re nice girls.’
‘So are buffalo cows.’
‘Matthew!’ She pulled a long face and they both laughed. Then becoming serious, she asked, ‘Has he got an invitation?’
‘Oh likely; there was a letter for him.’
‘Who brought them?’
‘Oh, three cowboys on the trail; they’ve been working for Lob Curtis. I left them down in the yard. I think they’re asking to be taken on for a day or so.’
‘Do you think that Tessie didn’t mention the name of the dignitaries in case one is Houston and they knew that your uncle wouldn’t accept?’
‘Could be.’
‘Why doesn’t he like Mr Houston? I can’t just think it’s the senator’s policies.’
‘I think it’s because Mr Houston has never stopped here on his travels. He’s travelled for years over the State, I understand, but has never given this ranch the honour of being his headquarters or Uncle his host. But one of the reasons Uncle says he can’t stand the man is because of his sojourn with the Indians when he was a young fellow. At one time he lived with them for three years, so to my mind he should know them more than most. Anyway’ – he waltzed her round the room now – ‘we go to a real party and for the first time I’ll have a chance to show you off.’ He stopped abruptly and, pulling a grave face, said, ‘You will wear your very best gown, Mrs Sopwith, and every piece of jewellery you own for I’m determined to be the envy of every American, rough or smooth neck, at that gathering.’
Tilly Trotter Wed (The Tilly Trotter Trilogy) Page 29
