One Bright Morning

by Duncan, Alice

  Maggie couldn’t think. She could only stare up at Jubal with eyes that looked fairly stunned and completely dazed with passion. She was panting hard.

  So was Jubal. With a monumental effort, he heaved himself off of Maggie’s wonderful body. Her arms fell away from his shoulders and landed on the riverbank when he stood up with one jerky movement. When he looked down at her, she was spread out like a sacrifice. His breath was coming in tortured gasps. His sex was so hard and throbbed so much that he could hardly walk.

  He got annoyed when Maggie didn’t move, but just lay there and stared up at him as though she didn’t know what on earth had just happened to her.

  “Get dressed, Mrs. Bright,” he growled. His voice was harsh and ragged.

  Then he cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered, “We’re here! It’s all right!”

  Suddenly Maggie sucked in an enormous breath. She realized all at once where she was and in what state of undress, and felt her face heat to a fiery red. She covered her naked breasts with crossed arms and drew her legs up.

  Jubal could only shake his head at her and resist the urge to carry her off into the trees like a caveman and make love to her until neither one of them could walk.

  “Get dressed,” he said again. “They’re looking for us.”

  Maggie’s brain finally jerked into gear. She sat up and grabbed for her fresh camisole in one fluid movement.

  “I—I’m dirty again. I have to rinse off,” she whispered. She found her voice didn’t work very well yet.

  Jubal finally tore his eyes away from her. He passed an agitated hand through his thick hair.

  “Well, hurry it up. I don’t want Dan and Four Toes to see you like that.”

  “No,” Maggie said with a wobble in her voice.

  She quickly walked a little ways into the water and threw icy water over herself to wash away the dirt and grass that clung to her. She looked over her shoulder to find Jubal staring at her again.

  “Turn around, Mr. Green,” she directed in a high, strained voice.

  Without a word, Jubal turned his back.

  Even so, she went back to shore with arms crossed over her bosom. She dried herself off and donned her clean camisole and shirtwaist while Jubal continued to stare off into the trees.

  She turned around when she took off her drawers, thinking that it would be more discreet to do that than to doff them in front of Jubal, even when his back was turned. She didn’t see the agonized expression on his face when he peeked over his shoulder and her smooth pink buttocks, firm and silky as fresh peaches, were revealed to his hot eyes.

  That’s what you get for looking, he told himself with furious frustration.

  “I think I’m ready now,” Maggie said in a somewhat squeaky voice when she had buttoned her skirt and pulled on her stockings and shoes.

  She carried her dirty clothes with her when she stumbled back to camp, being pulled along by Jubal Green.

  Jubal and Maggie didn’t say another word to each other until they had been on their way toward El Paso for a good two or three hours that night.

  Maggie pretended to be occupied with keeping Annie happy. She pointed out curiosities in the dry, dull desert landscape until it got too dark to see. Then she sang nursery rhymes to her until the little girl’s yawns became too obvious to ignore any longer. Then she laid Annie down in the wagon to sleep.

  Although the day had been hellishly hot, the night was becoming cold. Maggie made sure Annie was well protected from the elements and fetched her own heavy coat to wear.

  She realized Jubal didn’t have anything but his shirt on and was stabbed all at once by a torrent of conflicting impulses. She finally decided that, while she might have made a blazing fool of herself with him this afternoon, that didn’t negate her responsibility to him as one of God’s creatures.

  “Would you like me to bring you your jacket, Mr. Green?” she asked politely.

  Jubal, who had been spending the last few hours trying to pretend Maggie Bright wasn’t sitting next to him, ripe, womanly, and more desirable than any woman he’d ever known in his entire life, wished she hadn’t spoken. It was harder to make himself believe he didn’t want her when she wasn’t being her usual kind self to him. Maggie was the first woman he’d ever met in his life who seemed to believe it was natural for people to take care of one another.

  He finally decided he’d been enough of an ass for one day, and that it would be better to accept Maggie’s offer gracefully than freeze to death. Already, his wounds were beginning to ache with the cold. He cleared his throat with some difficulty.

  “Yes, please,” he said. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Mr. Green.”

  Maggie brought him his jacket. She was obliged to help him on with it, since he had to handle the reins. That necessitated her leaning over his back to hold the left sleeve at an appropriate angle for him to slip his arm into it. When she did that, her breasts pressed against his back, and they each experienced a few moments of embarrassment. They both pretended not to notice.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Bright,” said Jubal.

  “You’re welcome, Mr. Green,” said Maggie.

  They were silent for another few miles.

  Maggie was staring up into the sky, wishing she could see the stars better when Jubal’s voice startled her.

  “I—I’m sorry for—for what happened back there, Mrs. Bright.”

  Maggie sucked in a quick breath and her gaze dropped to her lap. By the light of the millions of stars, she could barely make out her hands as they kneaded themselves together nervously on her skirt. In spite of the full moon, the desert spread about them like an ocean of blackness.

  “That’s all right, Mr. Green. It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Yes it was. I shouldn’t have done that, Mrs. Bright. I’m sorry.”

  Maggie turned her head to look at Jubal’s face. She could barely discern his profile, dark against the darker background of the night. Even in the blackness, she could tell he was a handsome man. She sighed, and knew he had heard her when he flicked a quick glance at her.

  “I—I guess I miss my husband, Mr. Green,” she confessed. “I don’t know what else could have got into me. It wasn’t all your fault. It’s all right.”

  Damn, thought Jubal sourly. Why does she have to make it all sound so reasonable?

  It didn’t seem reasonable to Jubal. He’d never lost control of himself so completely before in his life. He realized that he actually resented Maggie’s jumbling him together in a neat little package with her dead husband. He sure as hell was no Kenny Bright, he told himself. Jubal would no more have taken a gentle creature like Maggie Bright into the uncivilized wildness of New Mexico Territory than he would send a sheep out to tame lions.

  The truth of the matter, that the gentle Maggie Bright had been surviving quite well in the Territory before he’d been thrust upon her didn’t occur to Jubal to interfere with his grump. He was a better man than Kenny Bright, and he’d prove it to Bright’s widow or die trying.

  He didn’t respond to Maggie’s comment, and she was embarrassed. It had cost her a good deal to admit to desiring a man. Desire was something proper ladies didn’t admit to anybody, ever, except maybe, once in a great while, to each other. She had been trying to make Jubal feel a little better about his boorishness. Besides that, it was the truth. Maggie had been missing Kenny more and more lately, for some strange reason. At least, she thought it was Kenny she missed. She wasn’t sure about that all at once.

  “Well,” Jubal said at last, “I’m sorry.”

  Maggie sighed again. “It’s all right.”

  They didn’t speak to each other again during the long, black night. Maggie continued to stare at the stars and wish she could see them. Jubal continued to drive the team and try not to think about Maggie sitting next to him in the wagon.

  The following day, the little band rested under some dusty brown outcroppings in the middle of the blank, blazing desert.
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  “My goodness, I’ve never seen anything so empty before,” Maggie said as she surveyed the miles and miles of nothing that spread out before and around them. There didn’t seem to be any vegetation at all but gray, dry scrub, but that appeared to go on forever.

  Dan was spreading his saddle blanket out to sleep upon. “Yeah,” he agreed. “It’s pretty ugly around here, all right.”

  For the first time since that first surge of excitement had begun to blossom within her when they were a few miles away from her farm, Maggie’s spirits started to droop. She hoped Jubal’s ranch wouldn’t look like this. She was used to green trees and water. This was the devil’s land here.

  She kept her opinion to herself, but Jubal noticed her mood and was sure he was the cause. He cursed himself.

  “Here, Mrs. Bright,” he said. “You and Annie better drink some water now. You have to keep drinking in this desert, or you’ll dry up and blow away before you know it.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Green,” said Maggie in a shy little voice. She took the proffered cup of water from him, drank some of it, and held the cup to her daughter’s lips.

  “Thank, Juba,” said Annie.

  Jubal grinned down at the tiny girl. “You’re welcome, Annie.”

  That little exchange seemed to lighten Maggie’s mood some.

  The desert was a perilous place, and Four Toes rigged up a rope to keep Annie safe. One end of the rope was tied around Annie’s waist, and the other was tied to his wrist. That way, if the baby got bored and wandered off while the adults slept, the rope would tug on his arm and he would wake up.

  Maggie was terribly impressed with his thoughtfulness. “Thank you very much, Mr. Smith. I really appreciate that.”

  “It’s all right, Mrs. Bright. I grew up tied to the end of a rope myself.” He laughed when Maggie’s eyes got round.

  “It’s the truth,” he said. “There’s all sorts of things around here that can hurt a child. The cougars find little kids easy pickings. And a kid can wander off easy as pie. Anything tiny is hard to spot in this land, and if a body don’t keep drinking, you can die in just a few hours. It’s better to be tied to a rope than die, my family always thought.” He grinned at Dan and Jubal, and they grinned back.

  Maggie didn’t understand that shared grin, but the words made sense and she swallowed hard. “I should say so.”

  It turned out that Annie wasn’t much of a problem. She was happy to play with her nice new wooden toys while her mama and the men slept. It was too hot for adventures, anyway. When Maggie woke up a few hours later, Annie was sound asleep next to her. She herself was drenched in sweat, but there would be no bath today. There wasn’t a crick or a stream or even a mud hole around for miles and miles.

  All of the adults were glad when the next morning found them rumbling along the dry, dusty streets of El Paso.

  Chapter Twelve

  “We’re going to stop at Garza’s and get some supplies,” Jubal told Maggie. “Then I have a couple other stops to make.”

  “What’s Garza’s?” Maggie wanted to know.

  “Big mercantile. They have dry goods and food supplies. I want to stop by the seed store after we stock up with flour and beans and such.”

  Maggie nodded. She guessed Jubal would know what they needed on his ranch.

  Her astonishment nearly overwhelmed her when she stepped into Garza’s Dry Goods Emporium. She’d never been in such a big store in her entire life. Even the mercantile in Indiana, while tidier and more civilized-looking than this place, was tiny by comparison.

  Jubal noticed her reaction and grinned to himself. He and Maggie were becoming easier around each other, now that a day or so had passed since their mutual indiscretion.

  “Big place, isn’t it?”

  Maggie looked at him blankly. “Big?” she said. “It’s huge. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  She stood in the entrance of Garza’s and tried to adjust her eyes to the bounty arrayed before her. She held Annie tightly. Annie, too, seemed amazed. The little girl’s big brown eyes were wide and she stuffed her fist into her mouth. That’s what she did whenever she was surprised.

  Immediately in front of them was a long aisle that ended in the biggest, shiniest plank counter Maggie had ever seen in her life. The shelves that lined the aisle were stacked with jars full of spices and patent medicines. There were spices Maggie had never heard of before in her life. She picked up a jar of allspice and wondered if it contained a combination of other spices. She put it back again and felt foolish.

  She noticed three different brands of cod liver oil. There were bitters, pain killers, magnesia tablets, tonics, seltzers, syrups, salves, and balms. She wondered what Appolinaris Water was good for. She liked the name. If she dared, she would have spent a few of her carefully saved pennies and bought Annie a bottle of cherry seltzer. But she felt intimidated in this new place and merely looked with awe at the vast array of goods neatly stacked before her.

  It took her quite a while to walk down that one center aisle, she was so fascinated by everything. Once past that first intriguing lane, though, she gasped with pleasure.

  “Oh, my, Annie, will you look at that,” Maggie breathed.

  “Look dat,” said Annie. She pulled her fist out of her mouth and pointed a moist finger toward where her mother was staring, agape.

  It seemed to Maggie as if she were looking at a mile’s worth of fabric and notions, at the very least. Bolts and bolts of bright calicos and ginghams tempted shoppers. Heavy denims, gabardines, and muslins lined a wall. There were wools for cloaks and coats, percales for sheets, and gauze for diapers. There were even satins, frilly laces, and tulles for wedding dresses and veils. A shelf laden with cotton batting, threads, cords, and braids took up an entire wall behind the cloth.

  Maggie fingered several pretty fabrics and wished she dared buy something. She’d love to sew her little Annie up a dress out of a pink checked gingham.

  “I can’t do it, though, Annie,” Maggie said, as though she were apologizing to her daughter. “I don’t know even where we’re going to be pretty soon. I can’t start spending our money foolishly, now can I?”

  Right before they’d left New Mexico, Jubal had handed her what seemed to Maggie to be a phenomenal amount of money. It was the reward that had been paid for French Jack’s corpse, and he had given all of it to Maggie in spite of her protests. In fact, it was his swelling anger at her refusal that finally shut her up about it. The mere thought of spending any of that money on frivolities made her feel guilty.

  “I’ve never had so much money in my life, Annie,” Maggie said now as she stared with longing at the bounty before her. She eyed the pretty pink gingham and then wondered if her notion was completely frivolous.

  “Of course, baby,” she said thoughtfully, “If I made me a dress, too, then it wouldn’t be such a waste. We could wear them to church. There must be a church near Mr. Green’s ranch.” She looked around, wishing she could spot Dan or Four Toes in this amazing place. Maybe they could guide her in the proper way to go about buying fabric in such a fancy store.

  A voice behind her startled her into squeezing Annie too hard, and the little girl uttered a chirping protest.

  “Find anything you like, Mrs. Bright?”

  Jubal had been watching Maggie eyeball the fabrics with a funny feeling swelling in his chest. Her wistful expression did not escape his notice. At first he wondered why she didn’t just start yanking bolts off the shelf like his mother or Janie would have done. Then he realized, yet again, that Maggie Bright was nothing at all like his mother or Janie. Maggie was a woman who appreciated how hard life was. She didn’t take things like bolts of pretty fabric for granted.

  Maggie turned quickly to find Jubal looking at her with a soft smile on his face. His green eyes, which were sometimes so hard and cranky, were watching her with a tenderness that made her swallow and drop her own gaze to the floor.

  “Mr. Green! I didn’t know you were there. I—
I’ve never seen anything like this store before. It’s so big.” Maggie’s voice held awe.

  Jubal chuckled. “Yep, it’s big, all right. Garza’s got the biggest place for hundreds of miles. There are huge spreads around this neck of the woods, Mrs. Bright, and they all come here for supplies. Pretty nearly all the people who live in the other small towns come here, too. Garza has a regular mercantile empire in west Texas.”

  “I guess he has, all right,” Maggie breathed. Her eyes swept the store again and she shook her head.

  Jubal cleared his throat. “You like that cloth, Mrs. Bright?” He nodded at the pink gingham.

  Maggie could feel her face flush up. She felt stupid because she didn’t know how to buy something in this huge place. Every other mercantile she’d ever been in in her life was basically one small room with a proprietor never further than a holler away. To Maggie, hollering in Garza’s would be akin to hollering in church.

  “Well,” she said, “I—I was thinking about it.”

  “It would look good on you,” Jubal said. Then he was embarrassed at having said something so perfectly inane.

  Maggie looked up at him quickly. “Thank you,” she said shyly. “I thought I’d make a dress for Annie out of it, too.”

  Jubal nodded, as though he were considering her words carefully. In truth, he knew very little and cared even less about ladies’ apparel. He just wanted Maggie to be happy.

  “Good idea,” he said.

  “Do you think so?” Maggie asked her question with a bright lilt to her voice, obviously relieved to find somebody who could advise her.

  Jubal nodded again. “Sure,” he said. “I’ll go get a clerk.”

  “All right,” Maggie said. She didn’t know what a clerk was.

  She found out a minute or so later when an efficient young Mexican man accompanied Jubal back to her side.

  “You’d like this gingham, ma’am?” the young man asked her politely.

  “Yes, please,” Maggie answered in a tiny voice.

  The clerk had a pencil tucked behind his ear and carried a pair of scissors and an account pad in his waistband. He hefted the bolt of gingham off the counter and carried it to a cutting board. Maggie dashed after him, afraid she’d get lost if she didn’t keep up with him.