“It’s no crazy talk.” Benjamin didn’t want to admit he planned to follow Pearl because he couldn’t stand to be without her—and because he saw a new opportunity in relocating. “I need to leave town, to—to—help out a friend.”
“Pearl.” Eliza grimaced and crossed her arms.
He didn’t answer but looked at the pine floor.
“Don’t try to fool me. I know she left yesterday. Something about her ma dyin’. But she didn’t say nothin’ about you goin’, too.”
He looked into Eliza’s face. “That’s because she doesn’t know.”
Eliza shook her head. “This gets crazier by the minute. If Pearl didn’t invite you, why are you goin’? There’s plenty of us around here who’d love to take her place.”
When Eliza swayed her hips, the motions had no effect on his heart or emotions. The realization only made him long for Pearl.
Eliza persisted. “I’ll bet Sadie doesn’t like that you’re leavin’.”
“No. She doesn’t like it at all,” Benjamin admitted. “And Pearl might not like it, either. But I’m a man who’s hard to stop once I set my mind to something.”
“That I know. But don’t stay too long.”
Benjamin didn’t make such a promise but tipped his hat as Sadie had taught him and left.
As he made his way to the corner where he was supposed to meet the coach, he tried not to look back. Leaving the familiar house presented new opportunities, but he hadn’t remembered feeling so anxious since his brothers dropped him off there years ago. He wondered what awaited him at Pearl’s family ranch.
Minutes later, to his surprise, among the crowd Benjamin saw Pearl approach the corner of Main and First. Like him she had only one trunk. But instead of her familiar red rouge, darkened lips, and black lines around her eyes, she had left her face bare. He studied her countenance, hoping his admiration wasn’t obvious. Her cheeks contained natural color, a soft pink rather than the red circles to which he was accustomed. Even without paint accentuating her eyes, their chestnut color stood out, dotting skin the color of cream. Red color no longer covered her lips, but her full mouth still looked appealing. Pearl had always possessed beautiful black hair. The sun caught reddish highlights he had never before noticed. He hadn’t thought it possible, but she looked more ravishing on that day than she ever had at Sadie’s.
Feeling curious and amused stares upon him, he remembered they stood amid three others awaiting rides out of town. Apparently he had been observing Pearl too long, and his fellow sojourners had taken notice.
At that moment, Pearl’s glance caught his. Her mouth slackened, and he watched surprise turn to vexation. “What are you doing here?” she asked, keeping her voice just above a whisper.
“Waiting for a coach. What are you doing here? I thought you left these parts yesterday.”
“I was planning to, but the coach I was supposed to be on broke down. So they said I could ride out on the next one.”
“But I didn’t see you at Sadie’s last night.”
Pearl shook her head. “I’d said my good-byes. I couldn’t return. I stayed at Mrs. Hoffman’s.”
“Mrs. Hoffman’s?” He started to say more, then thought better of it.
“I know what you’re thinking. She wouldn’t want a woman like me in her place. But without my face paint, I’m not sure she realized who I was.” She averted her eyes. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re here. You aren’t leaving because of me, are you?”
He took her aside, out of earshot of the others. “I decided on my own to leave town. To start a new life. Time to move on before the gamblers around town catch on to my tricks.” Remembering W.C.’s veiled threat, he held back a shudder.
“I wouldn’t worry about that. They have their fun. Where would they be without you to offer them a challenge?”
“I suppose. Sort of like trying to outgun a sharpshooter. Haven’t been caught yet. Well, except for that one time when that traveler caught on and landed me a pretty good punch in the jaw.” Benjamin rubbed the now-healed spot. His account attracted the attention of one of the ladies. She clutched her bag closer to her, apparently afraid that Benjamin might be interested in her cash, too.
“Yes, you do present a challenge,” Pearl conceded and smiled.
He liked her familiar smile, even though it wasn’t painted on.
Soon the coach arrived, jangling to a stop. Minding his manners, he acted the gentleman, letting the ladies board before him and taking the least desirable seat by the window. Dust always came through there the most, especially landing on those who faced forward. Pearl’s posture relaxed, and he felt comfortable.
After five hours of riding down bumpy trails, away to another world Benjamin didn’t know anything about, the coach finally stopped for dinner at a town even smaller than Denmark. The inn in question wasn’t much better than a bunkhouse. The meal offered was a watery soup of beans and carrots.
He stuck near Pearl, glad to have her as a dinner companion until he sat beside her at a corner table.
“What is the meaning of all this?” she hissed.
“All this?” Peering around her, he noticed no one else was nearby. No wonder Pearl didn’t mind speaking freely. He didn’t like the ire he saw in her flashing brown eyes. Clearly she had saved her wrath just for his ears. “Why the change in attitude? You seemed fine before.”
“I only seemed fine. I don’t like making a public spectacle of myself. Now that we’re alone, I want to know what you mean by following me like this. You have no right. I’m finished with that life—for good. I don’t ask or expect you to change for me. Why don’t you go back to the life you know? The life where you have plenty of money and more than enough eager women.” She rose from her seat. A fresh tear dripped down her cheek. “You can start by eating dinner by yourself.”
Her angry words notwithstanding, Benjamin knew he had made the right decision to join her. The tear told him all he needed to know. Desperate to stop her, he blurted, “I’m changing my ways, too.”
She stopped in midmotion, nearly spilling her soup before returning to her seat. “You are?”
He crossed his fingers behind his back. “Yes.”
She looked at him cockeyed. “I hope you really mean that, because I have news for you. If you go home with me, you’re going straight whether you like it or not.”
“Oh?” He looked at her without flinching or blinking, a skill garnered from years of gambling.
“Ma won’t allow any illegal or immoral activities on her ranch. In fact, she might not even let you stay since she knows you’re a link to a part of my life she doesn’t approve of.”
He stirred his soup as he clenched his back teeth under closed lips. His plans to convince Pearl to help him win a few dollars from bored ranch hands looked as doomed as a man holding a hand of twenty-two in blackjack. But he wasn’t giving up that easily. Not with his way of living at stake. “If she doesn’t approve of your past, why are you running back to her now?”
“Because she’s my ma, that’s why. Not that I can expect you to understand that.”
He hadn’t seen that coming. This time Benjamin winced.
“I’m sorry,” Pearl blurted. “The way you were brought up isn’t your fault.” She reached across the table and placed a comforting hand on his arm. She swallowed. “Truth be told, out of all my sisters, I’m not Ma’s first choice. She’s only letting me come back home because she’s desperate for help.” Her crying had slowed as she spoke, but now fresh tears poured down her cheeks unabated.
Benjamin reached into his pocket and pulled out his red bandanna. “Here you go.”
She accepted the gesture, and they heard the driver calling out the room assignments for the night’s lodging.
Benjamin took the opportunity to embrace Pearl, not caring about the stares and odd glances they received. “I know your ma has been judgmental and condemning of you in the past. Don’t worry. You can always come to me for a shoulder to cry on. I�
�ll protect you,” he murmured into her ear.
She pulled away. “I don’t need protection. Not from you, not from anybody.”
When pride tugged at Pearl, arguing was useless. Benjamin tried another tactic. “If you’ll let me tag along, I’ll consider it a personal favor. You can do a good deed for an old friend, can’t you?”
“I—I don’t know.”
He searched a satchel he carried and found the bottle of perfume he’d been saving for just the right time. The tuberose scent was Pearl’s favorite and one the shopkeeper didn’t always have in stock. Benjamin had been lucky to get the last bottle.
She gasped when she saw the pink glass vessel.
“This sweetens the deal, wouldn’t you say?”
She uncorked it and inhaled. A dreamy look entered her eyes, and she indulged by dipping the bottle upside down so the cork would absorb some of the scent and then using it to apply a drop behind each ear. Before she closed the bottle, she took another whiff.
“I’m glad you’re enjoying your gift already.”
“I’d better while I can. Ma won’t abide the scent of perfume around her. Says virtuous women don’t need any aroma other than soap.”
Benjamin wondered how good business would be at Sadie’s place if the women didn’t keep themselves painted and smelling pretty, but he decided not to make reference to the life Pearl was leaving. “You’ll just have to wear it when she’s not around.”
“Maybe.” She slipped the bottle into her dress pocket. He had a feeling she’d hold on to it the whole trip.
“So you’ll consent to me following you?”
“Against my better judgment,” she agreed.
Benjamin grinned. “Whether your judgment is good or bad remains to be seen.”
Chapter 3
Pearl didn’t say much during the second day of the trip. Worried, she fiddled with her skirt, a simple brown cotton affair she had worn on the day she first went to Sadie’s and hadn’t donned again until that morning. Ma would be glad to see her in a drab house dress, even though the hem had muddied from the trip. If she tried to approach her mother while wearing silk, despite Ma’s desperate illness, she’d throw Pearl out faster than a gunslinger could draw his pistol.
Why she hadn’t given the silk frocks in her trunk to her friend Eliza, Pearl didn’t know. Why were the dresses—a literal outward show of the past she wanted to shake—so hard to shed?
Musing, she realized the dresses symbolized another link. To Benjamin. She was thankful he’d followed her, even though she pretended to be mad at him about it. She could only hope he wouldn’t buckle under the pressure of Ma’s discipline and insistence that everyone in her house walk the straight and narrow. Though Ma was ill, she’d find a way to control them. She didn’t know how she could stop it.
Lord, I know I haven’t talked to You much, but I pray You’ll keep me strong now. I’m teetering on the edge of the new life and the old. Don’t let me fall off the fence and land in the muck.
They reached Rope A Steer, Texas, that afternoon. Pearl hired a buckboard to carry them to her mother’s place.
“The ranch sure is beautiful,” Benjamin remarked as they approached an unpainted gate. The sign said “M&H,” which stood for Milk and Honey. Pearl had told him the name represented the Bible’s promise and her father’s hope. The horse pulled them past a stand of brush, over a shallow creek, and down a fenced field. The simple frame home looked to be missing a few roof shingles. The house wasn’t much, but he hadn’t expected to be so taken with the acres upon acres of flat land stretching as far as he could see. Nearby a cow grazed on more land than she needed, rich green grass offering a veritable feast.
“I’ve always thought it was beautiful out here.” A wistful look covered Pearl’s face. “You should see the fields in spring when the bluebonnets are at their peak.”
“I can only imagine how pretty that must look.” Benjamin noted that Pearl couldn’t seem to take her gaze away from the land. From the moment she had stepped into Sadie’s, Benjamin knew Pearl wasn’t meant for that kind of life. Now she was back home, and the radiance in her face showed she had landed right where she needed to be. “You really missed the ranch, didn’t you?”
“I suppose I did.” Pearl cleared her throat as she put her hand on the front door latch and looked him in the eye, much like Sadie used to do when she was about to lecture him on how to be a gentleman. “Now Ma isn’t expecting you, so you need to be real quiet and let me handle her, you hear?”
“I hear.”
Pearl straightened her shoulders and crossed the threshold. Her surefootedness surprised him, considering Pearl had said Ma was quite a character. Perhaps since Pearl no longer bore the marks of one of Sadie’s girls, her ma could overlook her brief mistake, and they could start anew. At least that’s what he hoped for Pearl. He set down both of the trunks he carried—his and Pearl’s—on the kitchen floor.
“I’ll go ahead and put on some coffee. You can help yourself to a cup while you wait for me to greet Ma,” Pearl instructed. “I’ll let you know when you can meet her.”
Benjamin nodded and took a seat at the rickety oak table. Seemed a mite small if they were expecting to serve a number of ranch hands their meals. He shrugged. Maybe the hands ate in separate quarters. Smiling to himself, he fantasized about easy pickings from bored gamblers. He’d seen that the nearest town, Rope A Steer, offered an inn, a blacksmith shop, and a tiny dry goods store. Not much in the way of entertainment. Surely the men here would be more than happy to go a round or two of cards. He’d make sure to hit them for a game on payday.
Pearl said a quick, silent prayer for courage before she entered the sickroom. No matter what Ma said, she was determined to be as cheerful as any paid nurse or companion. Even more so. She remembered how Ma’s favorite daughter, Rachel, conducted herself. Rachel’s sweet demeanor and radiant peace brought life to her plain features and made Pearl wish she could be more like her. Pearl decided she’d do her best to emulate her older sister.
Opening the door, Pearl found Ma lying in the finely carved four-poster bed Pa had built out of pine years ago for his new bride. Though her eyes were shut and she lay in repose, Ma’s face looked haggard and pale. Had she really aged ten years when Pearl had been away only a few months? Her mother’s mortality, and her own, struck her.
Before Pearl could ponder her new role as a nursemaid in silence, Ma opened one eye then the other. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”
Pearl had been prepared for a cool greeting, so her heart didn’t twinge, nor did she draw near to her mother for a kiss. She summoned her best impression of Rachel. “I’m happy to see you, Ma.”
“Sure you are.”
“I’m pleased to hear your voice sounding strong even though you look a mite peaked.”
“Of course my voice is strong. It had better be if I have any intention of convincing a sinner like you to stay out here in God’s country. Sure would have been easier on me, not having to preach while I’m sick. If Minnie had come, I’d never have to say a word to her. And Emmie would open the Bible right along. I don’t suppose you have a Bible with you, do you?”
She flinched. “No, ma’am.”
“Never mind. Mine’s right here on the table. You’ll be reading at least a chapter a day to me, you know. Maybe you should start with the tale of the prodigal daughter.”
“You mean son.”
Ma’s eyes narrowed. “You would know, wouldn’t you? Guess I can’t expect to bear ten children and not have one turn out to be a black sheep.” Ma pulled herself up on her elbows.
“You sure you’re up to sitting?”
“Sure I’m sure. Wouldn’t try it if I wasn’t.”
Pearl rushed to her side, placing pillows so the older woman could situate herself in comfort.
Ma inspected Pearl with sharp brown eyes. “I see you’re wearing the same dress you wore when you left.”
Pearl winced. “You won’t be seeing any color
ful silks around here, Ma.”
“That’s good. You know red’s not a good color to wear around a bull. Maybe it works real good around a two-legged bull, but not one with four legs. Did I tell you our bull died?”
“No. I’m sorry.” Pearl pursed her lips. The bull’s death had no doubt been yet another setback for her mother and the struggling ranch. She was sure the event had only added to Ma’s agitation, which was greater than Pearl expected. She didn’t want to break the news about Benjamin’s arrival to her mother. “I’ll be fixing supper shortly. Maybe I can fry up one of those cheese omelets you like so well.”
“That’s one thing you can do, is make a cheese omelet. And I’ve got some cheese and a few eggs in the house—what I was able to gather before I got so sick I had to send for you.” Ma let out a labored sigh. “I’m mighty tired of livin’ off the atrocious food Mrs. Wilkins brings by. Not that I’m not grateful for whatever that good Christian soul is willin’ to do for me. She’s mighty obedient, livin’ the Lord’s commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. But her cookin’ is somethin’ awful.”
Pearl laughed out loud in spite of herself. “Now, Ma, you’re mighty picky for someone so sick.”
“A sick person needs edible food.” Ma crossed her arms, but Pearl detected the slightest upward curve to her lips.
Since her expression was the closest to congenial she’d seen in the few minutes she’d been there, Pearl decided to broach the subject of Benjamin. “I—I didn’t come here alone.”
All pleasantness evaporated. “What are you sayin’, child?”
“Someone followed me here. Benjamin.”
“Benjamin? Who is that?”
“I didn’t ask him to follow me, but he did.” Pearl decided she might as well tell the whole truth. “He’s the man I love. And he loves me, too.”
“Is that so?” Ma eyed Pearl’s left hand. “Then why don’t I see a weddin’ band on your finger?”
Without meaning to, Pearl inspected her ringless hand. “Maybe you will one day.”
Texas Brides Collection Page 51
