Cade was essentially alone now. He'd never really learned to rely on the help of others when there was trouble. If everyone followed orders, that was well and good, but he didn't intend to count on them. Ollie was a bumbling ass, but someone had put him up to this, and he didn't have much trouble imagining who or why. They had made a mistake in sending Ollie, though. If someone had come here and said the de Suela claim was being stripped, Cade would have ridden out today and left the ranch practically undefended. Instead, they had sent a man whose interests were here and not in Bexar, and he had concentrated on Lily and not Cade. That was a major tactical error.
Humming to himself, Cade rode out to the pasture where part of the cattle herd had been gathered. There were several young and restless bulls in the herd. They ought to be cut out and separated sometime. Now was as good a time as any.
* * *
The summer sun was sinking slowly behind the line of trees on the distant horizon when a piercing whistle split the air. Cade’s men waiting in the dry pine needles and old leaves of the forest along the low-lying ridge looked around in puzzlement for the source of the sound. Several mounted up, and others checked their rifles while watching the road below them.
To their incredulity, their boss on his gray gelding came riding down the road, calmly cracking his whip over a herd of young bulls. Red lifted his hat to scratch his head and whistled to himself.
"Hell, ain't never seen one damned man ride herd on the sons of bitches like that. Think he's plumb gone out of his friggin' haid?"
The rest of the men watched Cade keep cool command over some of the meanest, most rambunctious animals on the range. Their bellows of rage echoed clearly as Cade forced them in the direction he had chosen and not one to their liking. The man had to be loco.
"Look. Over there," Jack whispered to Abraham, nodding in the opposite direction.
Down the road from town rode a cavalcade of horsemen and a single wagon. The riders were heavily armed. The wagon contained surveying equipment. They rode hell-bent for a collision with the animals stampeding just around the bend.
For stampeding they now were. Whereas Cade had maintained full control over the bulls up to this point, he seemed to have suddenly misplaced his magic spell. The animals were screaming their fury and galloping flat-out along the path of least resistance—the open road.
Abraham chuckled and swung up on his horse. "That man ain't gonna need us. He done got full charge of the sit-che-a-shun."
And so it seemed. The rampaging bulls charged straight ahead, tossing their horns and scattering the trespassing horses and their riders off the road and across the prairie as each bull broke from the pack after a different target. The wagon horses screamed and raised their forelegs and broke into a wild gallop that sent the wagon careening through baked-mud ruts. Tools flew everywhere. The driver leapt for his life. And the wagon itself finally smashed into splinters as the horses attempted to escape on either side of a live oak.
The small group of ranch hands in the trees rode down to help when they saw Cade stop and make inquiries of the driver. They arrived in time to hear Cade say, "Poor timing on both our parts. My men were just gathering some rogue cattle. Are you hurt? My wife can see to that bump, if you like."
The driver staggered to his feet and cursed raggedly, but the motley collection of cow herders riding down on him prevented more than that. He spit to check a loosened tooth, then glared at the massive Indian in denims and blue work shirt.
"You don't run bulls on the road, you fool." He looked around to locate his scattered surveying equipment. "Have your men gather up my tools. They're too valuable to lose."
Helpfully, Jack leaped down beside a shiny piece of metal on a wooden stick. An ominous crack followed his landing, and the surveyor spun around in fury just as Jack bent to pick up the now-mangled tool. "This yor'n?" he inquired, handing it back.
The rest of the equipment was gathered in much the same manner. By the time a few of the armed riders escaped the rampaging bulls, the surveyor was in near-hysterical tears, ranting and stamping his feet in the road at the bent and mutilated equipment collected in the remains of the wagon bed.
Cade still sat majestically upon his gelding, surveying the destruction with calm authority. He lifted a questioning look to the furious horsemen jerking their mounts to a halt before him.
"You're going to pay for this, Injun," one burly scout snarled.
"I'm going to pay?" Cade glanced out over the prairie, where the dust rising over the grass was the only indication that his cattle had ever been present. "You just drove my herd halfway to Galveston and you think I'm going to pay? I'd suggest you check your maps. This is a private road. You're trespassing. I think it's time I had a few explanations."
The click of rifles caused the intruders to glance around them nervously. The previously inept lot of cow herders now sat in their saddles, backs straight, rifles cocked, and held deceptively loosely in their hands.
"There ain't no such thing as a private road," the surveyor blustered.
"Is it on your maps?" Cade leaned over his horse's neck to inquire. "Check your maps, and if you're any kind of land agent at all, you'll see that this piece of land is square in the middle of property deeded to Jim and Lily Brown in the fall of 1824. Jim cut this road to get his cattle down to the San Antonio highway. That makes it a private road, gentlemen, and I can't think of one good reason why you should be on it."
The burly rider recovered fastest. Unfastening his rifle from his saddle, he held it in hand but raised it no farther when half a dozen guns rose in response. Still, he sat confidently as he replied, "That's the reason we're here. That deed ain't worth the paper it's written on. This land wasn't Austin's to sell. It belongs to another land grant, and Mrs. Brown is the one who's trespassing. The true owner wants the place surveyed and prepared for sale."
Cade still didn't bother lifting his weapon, but the tension in his muscles was evident. "I can guess who that imaginary owner is. Tell Ricardo to give up and I won't add his scalp to my collection. Otherwise I won't bother wasting my time with the law and the courts again. I'll have his scrawny neck instead. I'll make him sorry he ever messed in my wife's business."
The other man bristled at the threats. "I don't know any Ricardo, mister. I'm just doing my job. If you don't keep out of our way, we'll have the law after you."
Cade smiled, and the men around him stared in astonishment. Cade never smiled, and they hoped he never smiled again. The look was pure malevolence, and they glanced at the intruder to see if he shivered as they did when Cade spoke.
"Try it, gentlemen," was all he said. Turning his horse, he rode away, leaving his men to get across the message that trespassers had better turn back.
* * *
By the time Ralph Langton caught up with him, Cade looked more like a tired farmer than a menace. The other rancher kicked his horse to ride beside Cade.
"Heard there's trouble."
Cade swept him a sour look. "Isn't there always?" Without waiting for a reply, he finished, "It's Ricardo. You'd better beware. If he's decided to rewrite the records to declare this side of the river part of his land grant, you're in danger too. He won't let a small thing like revenge stand in the way of a profit."
"He can't rewrite the records. We've all got deeds."
Cade watched a hawk floating toward the sunset. "Deeds are worthless if he declares Austin had no right to issue them."
The other man remained silent for a minute. "We've got friends we can call on," he finally answered.
Cade sent him a smoldering look. "Even if I had any friends, I wouldn't put them in Ricardo's path and still call myself friend. Stay out of this, Langton. It's time I took care of Ricardo. I don't think turning the other cheek works against devils from hell."
"You can't go taking the law into your own hands, Cade. Think about Lily."
"I am thinking about Lily. If I weren't thinking about Lily I'd be out of here now, chasing Satan back where he
came from." Cade paused and gazed at some spot in the distance, then turned his head to Langton and asked, "Do you think the courts would accept Indians as witnesses?"
"Nope. What are you getting at?"
"Hell, I don't know." Tiredly, Cade admitted, "I think I've got a witness to Jim Brown's murder. I've spent the better part of my life studying Mexican law to keep myself and Ricardo's victims out of trouble, and now there's no damned law at all. I don't have any choice left, Langton. I have to go after him."
Langton stared at him but didn't question further. He knew as well as Cade that an Indian witness would be worthless even if there were a court to bring him to. "There will be a law," he said slowly. "You've just got to be patient. Law or no law, you can't kill a man without getting hung. There's too many willing to witness a good hanging."
"Then I guess I'll just have to hang him." Stating that with quiet finality, Cade spurred his horse into a gallop in the direction of Lily and home.
She was waiting anxiously for him. Seeing the worried look on her face, Cade attributed at least part of her concern to himself. He needed to feel wanted for just a little while. He swept her into his arms and held her close and allowed the warmth of her embrace to ease his hurts just a little.
"You've been gone for hours. I was afraid you weren't coming back," Lily murmured against his open collar.
Those words were balm to his angry heart, and Cade pressed a kiss to the golden spill of her hair. "I came as soon as I could. You'll have the child all stirred up and complaining if you go working yourself into this state just because I'm out for a little while."
"Out for a little while!" Lily tore out of his arms and, hands on her hips, glared at him. "You go riding out of here with your troops and stay the better part of the day and come back and pretend you were out stargazing? What the hell happened, Cade de Suela?"
Her worry might be balm to his heart, but her fury was balm to his spirit. Cade grinned and, lifting her up, deposited her in the newly repaired rocking chair. "Sit. I don't want that child leaping out to get me with a hatchet in his hand." He turned to a worried Juanita. "Bring me something to drink. Rounding up cattle has me parched."
"Rounding up cattle!"
Cade had Lily in a state halfway to fury by the time Travis ambled in. As a tin cup flew across the room, Cade ducked and Travis jumped out of the way, letting it slam against a far wall with a satisfying crunch.
Travis lifted an inquiring eyebrow and caught the next cup that flew at him and set it on the table.
"I don't suppose the two of you ever thought of sitting down at the table and discussing things rationally, did you?"
"Look who's talking!" Shoving her straying hair back from her face, Lily looked scathingly at the mud stains on Travis's shirt. "Just tell me what happened out there and don't give me a cock-and-bull story about rounding up cattle. Something's happened or El Monstruo over there wouldn't be grinning all over himself."
Travis shrugged and took the mug Juanita handed him. "Can't rightly tell you more than that. I've been up visiting with the Indians myself."
Juanita retrieved his mug and dumped the contents over his head. Travis howled, and Roy—sitting quietly on the hearth—finally gave in to mirth. Serena, not to be left out, giggled and pulled herself into Travis's lap, patting her small hands against his wet shirt and making smacking sounds.
Looking around at the bedlam that was his home, Cade pulled Lily against his side and kissed her soundly before she could offer any protest.
"I'll wager they're married before the baby comes."
"I'll wager she kills him before then." Lily poked a fingernail into Cade's side to indicate the threat worked for both of them.
"You'll not do it," Cade declared boldly. "If you did, who would you have to..." he whispered the rest of the sentence so little ears couldn't hear.
As it was, the whispered words singed Lily to her toes and made her cheeks redden. It was obvious she wouldn’t get anything sensible out of him any time soon, but he would regret making her wait. In the meantime, she turned her mouth up for a kiss, bit Cade's lip, stepped on his toe, and sidestepped his grab as she sashayed out the door in search of their belated supper.
Chapter 37
"The box was there, but the deed is gone. What are we going to do, Cade?"
Lily whispered the words as they lay in each other's arms that night. The day's emotions had taken their toll, and exhaustion weighed heavily, but she was too frightened to sleep.
"There will be a copy of the deed in the alcalde's office, and Austin will have the plat marked in his records. A piece of paper is meaningless if Ricardo means to change the rules. There's such chaos right now that they had to close the land office. Nothing legal can be done until they reopen. It's terrorism that Ricardo wields best."
Lily held her hand against Cade's broad chest, hearing the frustrated fury through her fingertips as well as with her ears. He had made it more than evident that Ricardo had been the bane of his life since he was a child. He had disappeared into the vast open spaces of this land to stay out of Ricardo's way, but Ricardo had always found him. And now he was threatening more than Cade. Lily had been surprised when Cade hadn't run to save his grandfather from Ricardo's clutches. She wondered what held him back now.
"What are we going to do?" she asked quietly.
Cade shrugged. "We'll wait. There's nothing else that can be done." Trying to ease the mood, he stroked the place where his child grew. "We'll watch our child grow and wait for the corn to rise."
That was what she wanted to hear, but Lily had a feeling that wasn't what Cade wanted to say. She could almost feel him erupting inside, feel the frustration and the fury tearing at him. She knew that despite his size, Cade wasn't a violent man, but there was a limit to how much any man could take. Lily very much suspected Cade had been pushed to his limit, but still he lay here calmly telling her he was content to wait for events to happen.
"I think, perhaps, it is time for you to go to your grandfather," she suggested, testing the waters.
Cade stiffened. "Bexar is several days' journey. I would not leave you now. My grandfather has friends who will watch over him."
Lily pushed up on her elbow and stared down at him incredulously. "You are staying because of me?"
For him, she had worn her hair unplaited, and it spilled across her shoulders and breasts now. Cade ran his fingers through the strands before answering, "You and the child are more important to me than all the land in the world."
Lily couldn't believe she was hearing this. She searched his face for lies, but whatever Cade might be, he wasn't a liar. The wall that he had built around him was finally opening, and she could see the shadows of his doubts and fears in the look he returned to her. Lily fell into the wicked trap of her emotions.
If she loved him, she had to let him go. Returning to Cade's side, she curled there, fear and desperation and a terrifying wave of love sweeping her downriver and over dangerous shoals.
She meant more to him than the land. It wasn't a gallant, romantic declaration of love, but it spoke the truth as Cade knew it. And her hopes swirled, spiraling upward to new and previously unexplored heights. She hadn't thought love was real, but whatever this was she couldn't control it, couldn't rationalize it, couldn't even speak of it, it was so new—and frightening.
Lily said what came to her heart, responding to Cade, reaching out to ease his ache despite her own. "I am in no danger here, Cade. Your grandfather might be. It could be weeks yet before the baby comes. I think we will both feel better if you find out what is happening."
She chose the words as carefully as possible. She didn't tell him to seek out Ricardo and kill him. She didn't tell him that the idea of having this child alone scared her to death, but Ricardo scared her more. She didn't tell him to do this for himself, but for both of them. She knew how to use words to say what he needed to hear, and she did it because she loved Cade, not for her own sake.
Cade lay quiet
ly holding Lily until he could find the words to speak. "I spent the months with Houston regretting leaving you. When I heard you were no longer with my grandfather, I thought I had lost you. I don't ever wish to live through that time again."
Perhaps Cade would never say the words Lily wanted to hear, but she had never thought to hear them anyway. He had spent a lifetime trapped inside himself. She couldn't expect him to come out too often. What he had just told her was sufficient proof of the tie binding them, a tie she had never believed could exist between the taciturn Indian and herself. It was amazing what she could do once she knew it was more than lust binding them.
"I do not want you to go, but I know you must, just as I knew you had to go with Houston. I'm not going to leave you, Cade. We're bound together for the rest of our lives, no matter what is thrown our way. I know the words were never said, but in marrying you, I agreed to be your wife until 'death do us part,' Just don't go getting killed on me. This brat of yours will need a man's handling."
Cade smiled at the roof over their head. He had never owned more than a horse and a saddle, and he knew he didn't own Lily, but she was his, just the same, by her own admission. He liked the notion of having a companion for life, one who wouldn't walk out when she got bored or irritated. He sure as hell was tired of talking to four walls.
And it wasn't just an end to loneliness, the beginning of something more. Remembering Lily's heated arguments and equally heated lovemaking, Cade's smile grew broader.
"I think I'll bring a priest back with me. I want to hear those words said before a man of the cloth. I think I will feel much better if I can produce a witness when you start throwing things at me again."
Lily laughed against his shoulder. "I'll hold you to that promise. I don't want you disclaiming this child when he starts screaming all night. If you think Ricardo is a formidable foe, you've never tended an infant."
* * *
The garden gate to the hacienda was barred, as Cade had known it would be. Sliding his knife between the gate and the frame, he pried at the dried-up board until it fell with a soft "thunk." In moments, he was inside the gardens.
Texas Lily Page 32
