"Cecil," Tucker acknowledged the man. "Would you like something to drink?"
"No, I'll get on back over to the rig."
"Why don't you eat with us? There's plenty. It'll be ready in a few minutes." Tucker looked right at Clara, who was frowning.
"Much obliged. I'd love a home-cooked meal. I'll go tell those guys that they're hired and put them to work, then come right back. Got time to do that?"
"I figure it'll be fifteen minutes until the hot rolls are done" Tucker grinned. If Clara could invite a viper like Olivia to give him grief over lunch, then he'd invite Cecil as well as Briar. She could have a double portion of evil oil well riffraff.
"Hot homemade bread! I'll be back in ten minutes," Cecil bailed off the porch and took off in a jog.
Olivia sipped lemonade and congratulated herself on her good fortune. Three unattached men. Granted, Tucker was the big fish. Briar was next in line since he had enough power to hire and fire men. Then the new fellow, Cecil; the best looking one. Oh, yes, she had fallen into a pile of soft rose petals when she turned her bicycle up the Anderson lane.
Tucker had not been exaggerating when he said his cleaning skills left something to be desired. Although the dining room could have been as lovely as Clara's, it lacked a woman's touch. Curtains had been removed from the windows and harsh summer light streamed through wide windows. The cushions in the chairs needed airing and fluffing. Though clean, the napkins needed pressing. Wallpaper crinkled in the corners and around the wide mop boards. At one time, the oak hardwood floors had probably been as shiny as Clara's, but now they were dull and scratched. Newspapers were stacked at least a foot high in three corners and Briar could have drawn up plans for a new rig site in the dust on the buffet.
However, the food spread out on the table made him forget all about Tucker's lack of handiness with a dust rag and mop. A huge pork roast, surrounded by potatoes, carrots and onions, rested in the middle of an enormous meat platter. Steam rose from a bowl of freshly snapped green beans seasoned with bacon. Another bowl held lettuce wilted with a hot vinegar and sugar sauce, and a basket offered hot bread, still piping hot from the oven.
Tucker assigned chairs, keeping Olivia as far from him as possible.
Cecil was the last one to sit. "Good lord, man, you'd make any woman a good wife. If you want to cook every day, I can guarantee you a healthy profit"
"No, thank you. I've got too much to do to cook every day" Tucker grinned at the compliment. "The extra plate there is for Tilly, who seems to be running late. She'll probably be here about dessert time."
Clara picked up the napkin and carefully placed it in her lap. "You didn't say Tilly was joining us."
"She's plowing this morning, so I told her to stop by if she had time." Tucker began passing the food around the table.
"So you're working with Briar?" Olivia asked Cecil.
"I guess you could say that," Cecil said. "Tucker, this is wonderful. I'm glad I came over to discuss the new recruits with Briar."
"Thank you," Tucker said.
Olivia stole glances at Cecil while she ate. He really was handsome and that deep voice sent shivers down her spine. "And is your job as dangerous as Briar's?"
"Yes, ma'am, I guess it is. I'm the derrickman and the general manager in this area for Rose Oil. How long have you known Tucker?" he asked. Good grief, the woman was out and out flirting with him. Her leg had actually touched his for a moment. There was no way he'd come between Tucker and his lady friend-and besides, Judith, the love of his life, would scalp him.
Olivia turned to him with a sugary-sweet smile. "Oh, Tucker and I've known each other ever since I moved into Clara's boarding house in Healdton. I grew up in Ardmore and got a job last year at the bank here in town. Tucker comes by sometimes for supper with us. After lunch, do you suppose you might give me a working man's tour of an oil rig? I've never been up close to one when it was going into the ground. I was always afraid Clara would evict me if I did."
"I would not!" Clara exclaimed.
"Well, the way you hate Briar, everything and everyone involved with oil, I didn't want to chance it," Olivia said.
Cecil sputtered. "It might not be appropriate for me to take you to the rig. Rumors could start and since you and Tucker are-"
Clara giggled.
Briar chuckled.
Tucker steamed.
Olivia's eyes widened. Even though Tucker Anderson was the absolute catch of the county, she couldn't have another prospect thinking she was spoken for already. No, sir, that would scare Tucker off and, besides, Cecil was so good looking. A girl could give up a little bit of prestige and money for something that handsome. "Tucker and I are friends. Clara is the one who invited me to lunch today. Besides, Clara can go, too. She and I will be chaperones for each other."
Tucker breathed a sigh of relief.
Clara gasped. "I will not go around a dirty old oil rig."
Tilly walked into a room that had suddenly gone silent as a tomb. "Hi, folks. Sorry I'm late. Everyone must have been talking about me, the way every word just stopped on a dime. I know I'm a mess in my overalls and all, but it doesn't have to strike everyone mute"
"That's not it," Olivia said. "Cecil here has just invited me to go to the oil rig for a tour and Clara won't go with me."
"I didn't actually invite you," Cecil said.
Tilly took her place and began filling her plate. "Thank goodness. It's just a typical Anderson family meal. Arguing and bickering. I did wash my hands and face so pass me the roast, please, Briar. Don't think I've met you. I'm Tilly, Tucker and Clara's cousin. Are you Olivia's new beau?"
It was Cecil's turn to blush. "No, I am not!"
Tilly loaded up her plate like a field hand. "Well, we got that settled. Now, why won't you go to the rig site, Clara? Don't you think you're taking this too far? I went over there this morning and introduced myself to the fellows. I was plowing right next to their fence. Seemed the neighborly thing to do. Did tell them that if I caught a single one of them on my side of the fence, we'd have a proper funeral for the culprit. Didn't see you over there."
"I was in a different area. You downright scared my boys," Cecil tried to regain his composure after that statement about being Olivia's new beau.
"It should scare them," Clara said. "Tilly can't clean worth a dime, but she can outshoot anything that walks upright on two legs."
"Never did like housecleaning. Granny Anderson said I was made for better things so she taught me to shoot. Momma insisted I learn to cook, though. Said someday it might come in handy. Hasn't yet, but maybe someday hasn't got here," Tilly said between bites.
"So would you like a tour of the rig? I'd be glad to show you around" Briar looked right at Clara.
Silence so thick it threatened suffocation filled the room. Clara was practically struck mute. If she said no, there'd be another long-winded debate. If she said yes, she'd be admitting defeat and she'd never hear the end of it.
"You plannin' on answering Briar?" Tilly finally asked. "While you're sitting there trying to figure out a way to weasel out of it gracefully, pass me the hot rolls and butter."
"Yes, I would like a tour of the rig," Clara finally announced in a clear voice. After all, one should really get to know the enemy. "And thank you for the invitation, Mr. Nelson. I'm sure it will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am absolutely right in my hatred for anything to do with this oil boom."
From a distance, the oil derrick looked like a windmill without the fan blades. It wasn't the first time Clara had seen one of the eyesores ruining the landscape of the whole area. They all looked alike, down to the bare, muddy area surrounding them. The whole thing was symbolic of the way they'd changed society. Where they had been quiet little towns, now there were entire communities full of hoboes. Ragtown, in spite of its new founded name of Wirt, was little more than a lawless tent city of people searching for riches in the oil field. Just a big muddy mess where there used to be nothing but green pastures.
The closer she got the more she could feel the energy of the thing. Men working. The noise. The smell. A power like nothing she'd ever seen before. Up close it reminded her of a tower and she had the craziest urge to kick off her shoes and climb to the top, barefoot and with her hair flying in the breeze.
Olivia hung on every word, but Clara would be willing to bet dollars to horse apples that she wouldn't remember a single thing Cecil told her about the operation of the rig. Heaven help the man if Olivia found out he had money. She'd have a ring in his nose and her brand on the third finger of his left hand so fast he'd wonder if he was dreaming.
"So is it the devil reincarnated?" Briar asked Clara.
"The jury is still out," she said.
"Oil is the future. There's no limit to what all this will mean, Clara. It's not just gasoline for engines and oil to heat houses. There's no telling what it will open up for our children and grandchildren," Briar said.
"What we had was a nice quiet life for the next generation. I can already feel a change in the air. This oil boom is going to destroy a way of life," she argued.
"But it will put a new and better way in its place," he said.
"I disagree. I liked Healdton just the way it was."
"I like Healdton, too. Made an offer on this piece of land but the owner won't sell to me," Briar told her.
"I'm not surprised. I am surprised that she even sold you the oil lease on it. If her husband was still alive and she didn't need the money you wouldn't have even gotten a lease."
"If I don't buy this property, I may look at another one," Briar said.
"Why would you want to live in Healdton?"
"Looks like a good place to raise children to me," he said.
Children? Clara's heart skipped a beat. She'd always wanted a big family. Raised as an only child, she'd yearned for brothers and sisters. With the Percy ordeal and looking thirty right in the face, she'd long since given up on ever meeting that fanciful goal in her life. She looked up at the tower getting smaller at the top and imagined little boys climbing up three or four feet and then throwing themselves into Briar's arms.
That scoundrel would have the whole thing; a future with children and grandchildren.
Clara would hang onto a dying past with nothing but a suitcase full of rotting clothing and a purse with a loaded derringer inside.
"Oh, Clara, isn't this just the most exciting thing? Just look at all this stuff to get oil out of the earth. Who would have ever thought it took so many men to get the job done," Olivia gushed.
Clara tried to sort out a heart full of jumbled feelings. "I've seen enough"
A roughneck shouted at Briar. "Hey, boss, we just hit a thousand feet. Thought you said this oil was layin' on the surface"
A rumble made Clara plant her feet more solidly on the platform and grab Briar's arm. The rippling mus Iles under the shirt sleeve surprised her. He'd looked so gangly that first day he checked into her boarding house. But she didn't have time to think about the contrast in the way Briar looked and the way he felt; she was instantly and literally swept off her feet. Briar scooped her up into his arms and ran toward his car.
The grumbling earth suddenly spit a flume of black oil straight up into the sky. Men rushed every which way to cap it off; some of them laughing at the nasty crude covering them from head to foot, most of them forgetting there were women close by and using language that would singe the hair out of the devil's ears. All of them working together in a brotherhood of activity.
Briar and Clara were halfway to his car when the wind picked up the oil and slung it in their direction. Her dress was ruined and all she could think about was the excitement of trying to outrun the gusher. Then Briar slipped in the oily substance and the mud mixed up together. His feet went out from under him and no matter how hard he tried to get his balance it was impossible to stay upright. He landed on his back, staring straight up at a splattering shower of oil coming out of a cloudless blue sky. She wound up on top of him, her hands planted firmly on the ground beside his head, her face barely inches from his. Up that close, his lips, which she'd originally thought too thin and severe, suddenly looked very desirable.
Briar battled the urge to wrap his arms tightly around her and kiss her right there in front of the whole crew, Olivia, and God Himself. Even with crude all over her face and dripping from her hair, she was so danged cute.
He apologized in a raspy voice. "Sorry, I hoped I could get you out of it."
"So that's what they mean when they say they've hit a gusher." She tried to slip her foot to one side, but couldn't get traction on anything in the slippery earth.
He reached for her waist and sat up with her. "Yes, ma'am, you've just seen a gusher come in."
"This is ridiculous," she sputtered. "Help me up."
Reluctantly, he stood to his feet and offered her a hand. "Careful. It's greasy"
She hoped the high color creeping up her cheek bones would be disguised by the mess. "I'm going back to Tucker's."
"I'm sorry, Clara, but I've got to help get this under control." Briar hurriedly joined the men, all of them acting like little boys the first time they went swimming in the summer. Jumping around. Patting each other on the back as they worked. Big grins on their filthy faces. And Briar right in the middle of all it.
Clara headed off toward the stile in the fence but stopped when she'd only gone a few feet. She watched in stunned silence, feeling the excitement in the men's movements, hugging herself against the reaction she'd experienced when Briar picked her up. Still feeling the excitement when she'd been thrown on top of him. She'd actually enjoyed the closeness of his chest next to her face when he sat up with her and the sparks tingling against her fingers when he helped her to her feet.
I will not like Briar I won't. He is just a passing physical attraction.
She turned her back on the whole messy business and started up the stile steps. She should be angry at him but strangely enough she wasn't. He'd tried to save her from the oily mess; it just hadn't worked. She reached up and pushed a limp strand of hair away from her face. Lord Almighty, it would take a dozen washings to get that horrid mess from her hair.
Wait a minute, she thought as she cleared the steps over the fence. What was it that man had called him just before everything went crazy? Boss? Why would he refer to Briar as the boss? If that were the truth, what did it mean? Was Briar the foreman on this rig? No, Cecil had mentioned he was the foreman and something called a derrickman. So if he was the boss and owned the company, then why was he working in a lowly position as a roustabout?
"Oh my." Clara put her hand over her mouth.
Olivia yelled from a few feet back. "Wasn't that the most exciting thing? Hey, Clara, wait up. I was wondering if you would bring my bicycle home when Tucker drives you back into town. Cecil is going to take me home in the company truck. Says it'll be a couple of hours, but I can go into the shack over there and clean up. Even offered me a pair of his overalls. Said they'd be hanging on the nail behind the door."
"A couple of hours? Olivia, you can not stay out here with all these men for two hours. I've got a better idea. Tucker can take us over to Tilly's place. She's got extra clothes and a bathtub"
"I really want to stay and see what happens next," Olivia said.
"Think, Olivia. Use your brain for something other than flirting. Those men are going to be hard at work for the rest of the day. You'll just be in the way" Clara motioned for her to climb over the fence.
Olivia sputtered, but she climbed the wooden stairs over the fence. "But, Clara, he's so cute"
"And you are not so cute right now. You look horrible and there's probably only a wash basin in that shack. How are you going to get all that out of your hair in a wash basin? Tucker can give us a ride in the farm truck over to Tilly's."
"But, but-" Olivia protested even as she followed.
"No buts. If the man likes you he'll come around when his work is finished," Clara said.
&nbs
p; "You're acting like my mother," Olivia grumbled. Clara could have gladly slapped the girl until her face was crimson with bruises rather than smudged brown with oil. "Someone evidently has to guide you. You'd have a ruined reputation if I didn't help you."
"I'm nineteen years old. I'm grown and I can do whatever I want," Olivia shot right back. "You were my age when you were going to run away with that preacher man. No one told you what to do"
Clara's ego was so flat by then she felt like sitting down and crying. "No, they didn't. I might have been better off today if they had told me that Percy was a scoundrel. But no one knew. He was a preacher and they all have angel wings and haloes."
Olivia shrugged. "Not all men are cruel like that. I could really like Cecil or even that really cute fellow they called Danny. When the noise started from way down deep under the dirt, Danny grabbed me and hugged me tight. I wanted him to pick me up and run like Briar did with you. I guess he didn't feel like it was proper. Is there something going on between you and Briar? Looked to me like he thought of you first and the rig second."
"There's nothing going on between us," Clara insisted.
Tucker looked up from the back porch. "What on earth?"
"Briar's well came in with force," Clara said.
Tucker bit the inside of his lip to keep from grinning.
"And the force got both of you?" he asked.
Olivia wiped at her face with a dirty hand. "Boy, did it ever. Briar picked Clara up and tried to outrun it, but he slipped and fell, and there was Clara all tangled up in his arms. It was a sight."
"Oh?" Tucker raised a dark eyebrow.
"You may hush," Clara said.
"I didn't say anything but `oh?' " Tucker chuckled.
"You were thinking more and I won't have it. It's your fault anyway for inviting him to dinner," Clara argued.
"I didn't make you go over there to look at his rig, did I?"
Clara pointed at Olivia. "No, you did. It's your fault, too."
Olivia pointed right back at her. "And it's your fault that I'm not still there, so we're even. Tucker, it was so exciting, and Cecil offered me the shack to get cleaned up in. He even said I could wear his overalls, but Clara said I had to go with her to Tilly's and take a bath"
Morning Glory Page 6
