by Janet Dailey
'I brought you some coffee,' he said, handing it to her as she plumped the pillow behind her and pulled herself into a sitting position.
'You're already dressed,' she murmured. 'What time is it?'
'Nearly seven. I've already been up for a couple of hours, but I thought I'd let you sleep this morning,' Lije smiled.
'You shouldn't have done that. Let me get up and fix your breakfast.' She took a quick sip of her coffee as she started to pull back the bedcovers.
'Too late—I've already eaten. But I left the dishes in the sink for you.' He kissed her again and let his mouth trail along her neck.
'Thanks a lot,' she gasped as his caress raised havoc with her heartbeat.
'I'll be out with the horses this morning, but this afternoon we're going into town to pick up supplies. Make a list of the things you'll need.' After bringing her hands to his mouth, Lije rose from the bed.
After finishing the luncheon dishes, Diana and Lije left for town. He dropped her off at the grocery store with the daunting reminder to buy enough to last two weeks when they would make another trip into town. For Diana that was a tall order, since she had no idea what her husband's likes and dislikes were and only a rough idea of his appetite. About Jim Two Pony she knew nothing.
Lije had told her where he would be parking his truck and that when she was done he would meet her at a local restaurant. He was sitting at a table when she walked in. Rising, he held out the adjoining chair for her.
'Are you all done?' he asked, signalling the waitress for a cup of coffee for Diana.
'I hope so,' Diana sighed, shrugging off her parka. 'I've got that terrible feeling that I've forgotten something important.'
The restaurant door opened and a young girl in pigtails walked in, slender and boyishly attractive in tight blue levis and denim parka. Something in her naturally buoyant movement attracted Diana's attention. The girl's bright questioning eyes roamed over the room, coming to light on their table.
'Lije? Lije Masters!' The girl hurried gaily towards them, cowboy boots clicking loudly on the floor. 'You're supposed to be in Houston! What are you doing here?'
As the girl reached their table, Lije rose to his feet and the girl threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly on the cheek. Diana watched in stunned silence. The girl had taken no appreciable notice of her.
'What are you doing here, Patty?' calmly removing her hands from around his neck and offering her a chair at their table.
'Libby was a little off colour when the tour started. I came back to pick him up for the Houston rodeo.' Pert brown eyes turned on Diana. 'Hi, I'm Patty King.'
'This is my wife, Diana,' Lije inserted before Diana had a chance to reply. 'Patty is a trick rider in the rodeo. And Libby is one of her horses.'
'Your wife?' Diana noticed the flicker of pain show just for a moment in the brown eyes before it was quickly concealed. A provocatively playful look was darted at Lije. 'I let you out of my sight for two weeks and you get yourself married!' Patty declared, turning to Diana with an impish smile on her face. 'You just can't trust a man for a moment! But anyway, congratulations to both of you.'
'Thank you,' Diana smiled. Although it was obvious to her that Patty was in love with Lije, she couldn't help liking her. The youthful openness was both charming and appealing.
'You still haven't told me why you aren't in Houston,' Patty turned to Lije. 'Have you left the rodeo?'
'For good.' Lije glanced briefly at Diana, letting Patty know without words the reason. 'I sold Red and I'm going back to ranching full time.'
'How is Jim? I haven't seen him in ages.' Patty changed the subject.
'He has had his hands full, but he's fine,' Lije answered.
'Tell him I said "hello". Well, I imagine you two newlyweds would rather be alone, and it's time I hit the road.' Patty rose to her feet. 'It was nice meeting you, Diana. Take good care of Lije. You've got one great guy here, I know.'
'She's very nice,' Diana commented after the good-byes had been said and Patty had left.
'There isn't anyone quite like her,' Lije agreed. 'She always has a smile.'
'She's very fond of you.' Her probing comment was intended to find out how Lije felt about Patty.
'We've known each other quite a while and we have a lot in common. Are you ready to head back to the ranch?'
That was all she was going to get out of Lije, Diana realized. Patty and Lije probably did have a lot in common, and they had followed the rodeo circuit. She shivered inwardly as she wondered whether things would have turned out the same if Patty had been at the San Antonio rodeo.
Her second day at the ranch Diana struggled out of bed before the sun. She didn't function very well the first thing in the morning, and it wasn't even morning yet. Lije exhibited amazing forbearance with her fumbling attempts to be organized and efficient. Streaks of pale light were just beginning to glimmer on the horizon when breakfast had been consumed.
'What are you going to do today?' Diana asked with forced brightness as she poured herself another cup of much-needed coffee.
'I'm going to check the east pasture. The cattle have pretty well grazed out the winter field and they'll have to be moved soon,' Lije answered, rising from the table and walking to the small closet just to the left of the door leading outside. 'I'll probably be late for lunch, so don't worry about, me.'
After shrugging into his heavy sheepskin-lined parka, Lije reached back into the closet and withdrew a rifle, its metal barrel gleaming menacingly at Diana.
'Wh-what are you doing with that gun?' she stammered.
'I'm taking it with me.' A puzzled light was in the grey eyes as he looked over his shoulder.
'Why? What for?' The paralysing numbness left her limbs, allowing her to rise from her chair and rush towards him. 'Oh, Lije, you don't have to take that gun, do you? I can't stand guns.'
'Diana, don't be childish,' he admonished gently as he reached back inside the closet and extracted a box of shells which he stuffed in his coat pocket.
'What do you need it for?' she persisted, her pale face turned up to him in a more effective plea.
'I always have a rifle in the rack of my pick-up when I'm on the ranch.' His steadying hand held her shoulder firmly. 'There are times when you need it.'
'When?' she cried.
'I told you last night that coyotes are a plague. If I see one out there, I don't think he'll wait until I drive all the way back to the ranch to get my rifle and then back.' There was a bite of irritation in his voice at her naïve, feminine fears, followed by a brisk kiss directed at her cheek. 'I have to leave now.'
As he donned his cowboy hat and walked out of the door, Diana wondered unwillingly whether Patty would have reacted the way she had before deciding that Patty King would probably be the type that could shoot nearly as well as Lije. But logic couldn't reason away her fear. Diana loathed the violence and killing that were automatically connected with guns. And her husband carried one.
'Don't worry.' His words succeeded in doing the opposite. Diana was a nervous wreck before he drove into the yard in the early afternoon. It was all she could do to keep herself from rushing out the door and flinging herself in his arms, but this time she controlled her anxiety and greeted him calmly when he entered the home. Judging by their conversation during lunch, the subject had been forgotten by both.
But the strain and tension didn't ease for Diana. Her senses and emotions during the next few days were assaulted by foreign elements. The profound silence of her new world was the first impact. No more blare of horns or screech of tyres and loud voices were surrounding her as they had done for so many years. When the silence was broken, it was by alien animal sounds that more often than not sent an eerie chill down her spine.
The days were long and lonely. Lije left the house at sunrise and often didn't return until sundown. Diana tried to fill the empty hours with familiar things. The house was spotless. The furniture gleamed from repeated, unnecessary polishings.
All the rooms were permeated with the scent of continual baking odours from the kitchen. Nothing she did eliminated the feeling that the house was her island surrounded by an ocean of unending grasslands and distant, scowling mountains.
The qualities that had drawn her to Lije, strength of purpose, arrogant dominance, and driving ambition, were the very things that kept them apart. It wasn't in him to slack if there was work to be done. For Diana, that meant fewer hours spent with her. Not even the evenings were sacred any more, as Lije spent more and more of that time at the desk in the living-room alcove. As Diana found the adjustment harder and harder to make, Lije thrived on it. He stepped out to meet each challenge head on.
Diana knew how important it was to their future that this year be successful and she knew that Lije was determined to make it that way for the security of both of them. After putting her foot in her mouth once, expressing her dislike of guns, she could not add to her husband's burden by letting him know the isolation and strangeness were getting to her. She kept silent about her loneliness, her failure to find any beauty in the harshness of her environment, and the empty feeling that again she didn't belong.
This last feeling was intensified by Jim Two Pony's attitude towards her. He did concede to taking the evening meal with Diana and Lije, but all other meals he had at his small cabin erected in the woods some distance from the rest of the ranch buildings. Never had he directed any conversation towards her and he replied to any of her questions in monosyllables. The slight air of remoteness that Lije possessed Diana felt sure came from a long association with Jim Two Pony. That knowledge made it a little harder for her to try to reach out to Lije.
After more than three weeks on the ranch with only a second trip into town to break the monotony of her days, the drab walls of the house closed about her like a prison. She had rarely ventured out of the house except to accompany Lije to bid him a last good-bye before he left. As she had never been an outdoor person, the cool mountain breeze had always seemed to brisk for walking. But this afternoon there was no other alternative. There were enough pies, cakes, and cookies in the freezer to last a month. The house was immaculate. She had read and re-read the few magazines and books in the house. Her hair was washed. Her nails were polished. And it was barely two o'clock.
With an air of resigned indifference, Diana changed into a pair of slacks and sturdy shoes. Minutes later she was buttoning her jacket and stepping out of the door. The sun had climbed its blue ladder until it rested nearly overhead preparing for its downward slide to the west. The breeze was gentle, carrying a wild mingling of smells, from horses to sheep to cattle to the fragrant pines and the scent of hay. But the odours were unfamiliar to Diana and she couldn't pick one from the other.
The house had no lawn, just a continuance of the yellow grasses that covered the hills. There were no hedges, no flowering bushes, no shade trees except for the pines behind the house and a scrubby-looking pine-type tree in the front. The white paint that Lije had bought to re-do the buildings was in the storeroom in the house. There had been too many other things that needed to be done before spring, so the painting had been set aside.
First Diana strolled towards the fenced pasture where some horses had gathered. For a while she leaned against the wooden rails watching the shaggy-coated animals as they quietly grazed. A distant, smaller enclosure held a lone horse which Diana knew from the conversations between Lije and Jim was his stallion Malpais. At this distance, he looked solid black in colour, although Lije had said he was a bay with black points.
The yearlings in the corral where Diana was became curious about this human who made no move towards them and began moving ell masse in her direction. Before they could reach her Diana stepped away. She couldn't treat them like overgrown dogs the way Lije and Jim Two Pony did.
A movement near the barn drew her attention. Jim Two Pony was arranging some gear in the back end of the pick-up before walking back into the barn. Diana hesitated. Lije was out somewhere on the range and wouldn't be back until dusk. Here was her opportunity to have a private conversation with this man who seemed so determined to ignore her presence.
Resolutely her feet carded her towards the dark confines of the barn illuminated only by the sunlight filtering through the dusty windows and the open door. Diana knew that Jim Two Pony had to have heard her steps, but he didn't glance up when her silhouette blocked the doorway.
'Hello, Jim,' she said with determined brightness.
'Hello,' was his clipped reply as he walked over and took a saddle from its rack near the door.
'Is Lije around?' Diana asked, knowing that if it was up to Jim the conversation had just ended.
'Nope.' He walked to the door, the saddle carried effortlessly over his shoulder and Diana following a few steps behind.
'Do you know where he is?' she persisted.
'Nope.'
'It's a nice day, isn't it? The sun really feels good.' Diana stubbornly refused to give up.
'Yes.' Cold, dark eyes flicked over her.
'How much longer before spring comes?' There was the barest glimmer of a twinkle in her eye as she silently dared Jim Two Pony to find a one-word reply to that.
'Soon.'
Diana pressed her lips together. 'Why don't you like me, Jim?' she asked, hoping her bluntness would shock him into revealing the truth.
'You are very beautiful,' he replied without blinking an eye.
'Is that the reason why you don't like me?' Diana asked grimly.
'Beauty is as beauty does.' His bland composure wasn't the least bit ruffled.
'What you're really saying is that you don't think I'm right for Lije. That even though we both love each other very much, I don't belong here.' Her chin tilted upwards, letting the light breeze flow over her face and catch at the silken fineness of her pale hair.
'When I first came to this ranch after Lije's mother died, she had tried to grow roses by the house. They withered away. They could not exist without her pampering and care.' The offhand way Jim was talking would have led a stranger to believe he was recounting a story instead of answering Diana's question.
Yet Diana understood his analogy perfectly. She was the rose who needed special attention from Lije in order to survive. Lije was her only reason for being here. Diana didn't comment. She knew Jim Two Pony was going to continue, despite his previous silences.
'There is a plant that grows wild on the ranch called a yucca. It thrives on this land. Its sword-shaped leaves have fibres that Indians previously used to make cloth and baskets. In the spring, its towering centre stalk is covered with waxy bell-shaped flowers. This plant contributes more than just beauty. It belongs.'
With that cold, unemotional statement, Jim Two Pony walked into the near corral, leaving Diana standing ashen-faced and alone. She had long guessed the way he felt about her, and now she knew why. Moreover, she recognized the logic and truth in his words. The argument that she did contribute by cleaning, cooking, and generally taking care of the house wasn't completely valid, because she did it for Lije. If it wasn't for her husband, she would never have ventured into this country. She had always believed that she was a city person. And Jim Two Pony had recognized that instinctively.
At the evening meal, Diana picked at the food she had so carefully prepared. She tried to follow the conversation between Lije and Jim, but there were too many terms that she didn't understand. Her fear of the widening gap with Lije stole her appetite. She kept wondering how long it would be before Lije noticed the differences between them.
Usually Diana waited until the men finished their coffee before clearing the table, but tonight she couldn't sit passively in her chair and wait. Grey eyes watched her thoughtfully as she made the trips back and forth between the sink and the table. Even after Jim left the kitchen to check on one of their mares who was sick, Lije stayed at the table, not retreating to his desk in the living-room as he usually did.
'Is anything the matter, Diana?' he asked quietly when the silen
ce continued.
She became conscious of a tear slowly wandering down her cheek. She wiped it away with a soapy hand as she vigorously shook her head that nothing was wrong. There was the scraping of his chair on the floor and footsteps bringing Lije to the sink.
'Then what's that teardrop doing on your cheek?' A finger touched her other cheek. Diana moved her face against his hand, seeking the comfort of his caress. She turned her jewel-bright eyes to look at him.
'Why are you crying?' Lije asked gently.
She swallowed the lump in her throat, then smiled, 'Because I'm not a yucca plant, I guess.'
'What are you talking about, darling?' He smiled back at her, but there was a puzzled light in his eyes.
'Oh … ' Diana hesitated. She didn't know whether or not she should tell him of her discussion with Jim. For some reason, she was afraid. 'It was just some silliness,' she laughed shakily.
'Are you sure?'
'Yes, I'm sure,' she nodded.
'Why don't you let those dishes be for a while?' His arms circled her waist as he nuzzled her ear. 'We'll build a fire in the fireplace.'
'Don't you have paperwork to do?'
She was held tightly against him, but she continued to stare at the sink full of dishes. She was becoming over-conscious of taking Lije away from his work.
'Not tonight,' he whispered in her ear.
With those beautiful words, she turned in his arms to face him, her love shining brilliantly out of her eyes. She needed him so much.
'Hold me, Lije,' she murmured fervently.
Her happiness suddenly seemed like a very illusive thing.
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Chapter Eight
A FEW days later Cord Harris telephoned and made arrangements to fly up in his private plane the following weekend. Lije and Jim both spent extra time with the yearlings he wanted to show Cord. When Cord had learned of their recent marriage, he stated that he would bring his wife Stacy with him. Not until Diana learned that Stacy was coming did she realize how much she had missed contact with other women.
