"Give me a minute, Clara. Come here, baby, and let me explain." Briar scooped Libby up into his arms and returned the swing.
Clara backed up to the railing and leaned against a porch post.
"It's not the family who's taking her away, Libby. We talked about this. Remember? You're going to stay with Clara and the ladies every day now" Briar ran his fingers through her dark curls.
"They came and she's going away. Make them all go home now," Libby sucked in a fresh batch of sobs.
Briar looked up at Clara in exasperation.
Clara ached to take the child into her arms. Libby was four and losing the only mother she'd ever known. Clara had been nineteen and had the same hollow ache in her heart when her mother died. She sat down on the swing beside Briar and touched Libby's hand. "Honey, Judith and Cecil are going to Texas. Not very far away, and when they've got everything all fixed up, your daddy is going to take you to see them for a whole week. Until then, would you please come to my house every day and keep the little ladies for me? They need someone to take care of them. They get awfully lonely."
"But that's in the day. Who's going to stay with me at night?"
"I am. I've always been there for you at night," Briar told her.
Libby shook her head. "Sometimes you go away."
"Not anymore. This is our home. I'll be home every night."
"But what if I need Judy? Clara, will you stay with me at night?"
Clara's tongue affixed itself to the roof of her mouth and she couldn't utter a single word.
"Libby, I'm sorry your Aunt Judy is getting married and she and Cecil are moving away from here. I really am, but Clara can't stay with you at night," Briar soothed her.
"Please." Libby turned her blue eyes toward Clara and stuck out her lower lip in a perfect pout. "Just one night. What if I get sick in the night? What if one of those mean things get in my sleep and-"
"I'll be here, Libby." Briar patted her head.
"I'll be glad to stay, but not tonight. You'll have all the family around you all day and lots of cousins to sleep in your room, so you'll be fine tonight. We'll talk about it after church tomorrow. How's that?" Clara said.
"Okay." Libby finally drew her lip in and gave them a brilliant smile. "Tansy can sleep in my room. But Clara is staying with me when they all go away."
"Whew!" Briar wiped his forehead when she'd run off to join her cousins again. "Thanks, Clara. She'll forget by tomorrow night. I'm sorry she put you in that spot"
"And if she doesn't forget?"
"Then I'll just be firm. I may have to sleep in Judith's room a few nights until she gets used to the idea."
"She's four. She's just a little girl. If she wants me to spend a few nights here, I can. I don't want her having nightmares. Those mean things in her sleep must be fears," Clara said.
"You can't stay here, Clara. Not just me and you and Libby. There'd be talk," Briar told her.
She nodded. "Yes, there would"
"I'm divorced. I'm an oil man. I have a small child who certainly isn't old enough to be a chaperone"
"Who are you trying to convince? Me or you?" she asked.
"You. You cannot stay in my house."
"You stayed in mine."
Briar was getting more frustrated by the minute. "Yes, but that was a different situation. You run an inn. This is my private home."
"I'm staying with Libby until she's comfortable with Judith leaving," Clara said and wondered where in the devil the words had come from. Briar was right. The rumors would be scandalous.
"I can take care of my child," Briar said stiffly.
"Are you saying you won't let me stay here to help with her?"
Briar gritted his teeth. "That's what I'm saying. I won't have her spoiled. She's already got her mother's looks. I damn sure don't want her to have her attitude, and spoiling her at this age will lead to just that"
Clara bowed right up to him. `Briar Nelson! I thought that was ashes. Buried. In the past and all that stuff. You've still got that woman sitting on your shoul der. Let Libby be whomsoever she wants to be. She's only four."
"I won't spoil her."
"You don't spoil children with too much love, Briar. You spoil them with too little discipline. What she's asking is just love. Judith has been her stability when you had to be out of town. It's not the time to discipline her."
"She's mine. Not yours," he challenged.
"That's right, but I love her and she's not going to be afraid. Besides, I have changed. You can't. You've got an albatross hanging around your neck and her name is Lorianne Lawdry. You're the only one who can take it away. Not your family. Not even your child. I'm going to go find someone to dance with and it dang sure isn't you, Briar."
She waited a few moments to see if he'd answer her. When he didn't, she walked away.
"Miss Clara, would you care to dance?" one of Briar's employees asked.
"Yes, I would. You are?"
"Andy Matheson, ma'am. Met Briar the first day he came to Healdton. He gave me and Danny and some others a ride from Ardmore over here, then when things didn't go well at Crystal Oil, he hired us," the man explained as he waited for the musicians to gear up for a slow song.
"I see" She stepped close to him when the fiddler hit the first whining notes of a hill song. She put one hand on his shoulder and held out the other for him.
Clara fit right well into his arms but she was the boss's territory and he'd never jeopardize his job for any woman. He liked working for Rose Oil and there was room for advancement. Cecil had just been made manager of the new territory down in Texas. Andy was eyeing the job he'd left vacant in Healdton.
"Briar's a good man to work for," he said as they kept time with the music.
"I'm sure he is," Clara said.
"I'm glad to see Cecil and Judith get together. They are so happy," he said.
"Yes, I'm glad they are together, also. Thought for a while there when you first hit that gusher that Cecil might take up with Olivia," Clara said.
"No, that was just Olivia flirting around. When Danny went to Cecil and asked him about Olivia, Cecil told us he had a woman back east. Course we didn't know that it was the boss's sister," Andy told her.
"So are Danny and Olivia next in line for a wedding?"
"Could be, but he's sure enough outrun better chasers than her," Andy laughed. The music stopped and he stepped away from Clara in time to see Briar coming across the yard, determination on his face and determination in his walk. Good grief, Andy sure hoped he hadn't offended the man by dancing and talking to Clara. "I thank you for the dance, Miss Clara. Maybe before night ends, we can have another one. Right now I promised that young lady over there the next fast one and I think the fellers are getting ready for a real stomp"
"My pleasure" Clara watched Andy almost run to one of the older cousins. A girl of eighteen or nineteen with cornsilk-colored hair and brown eyes.
"So how are you at fast dancing?" Briar asked, so close behind her that she jumped.
She started toward Beulah and Bessie. "Not interested. I'm going to sit this one out."
He grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him, eyes boring into hers with steely challenge. "Didn't ask you if you were interested. Asked if you could do it?"
"I can do anything." She shook his hand away.
"So can I," he said.
"I'll believe it when I see it."
"So, I'll believe you can do a fast hill-country reel when I see it." His very tone challenged her.
The fiddle and banjo music started in her shoulders and traveled to her feet. She'd danced like this a few times when she and Tilly were younger. Back when they rolled up the rug in the parlor and Granny Anderson taught them the dances of the hills in eastern Oklahoma Territory. She began to whirl and twirl around Briar, ignoring everyone around her and keeping up with every beat. She'd teach him to dare her to try anything. He'd find it hard put to keep up with her anyway. He had a millstone strapped to his heart. Sh
e was as free as a bird.
"They're fighting," Beulah told Bessie.
"She can sure dance. Reminds me of her grandmother back when she was young"
"Think we'll have a wedding by Christmas?" Beulah asked.
"Oh, it won't be that long. Maybe Thanksgiving. She's not been this alive since that damned preacher man left her sitting in front of the drug store. And to think it took an oil man to wake up her up."
"Prince Charming with an oil company," Beulah agreed with a nod. "You think we're too old to run a boarding house?"
Bessie huffed. "You might be. I'm not. Old! I might be too old to run `shine all over the country in one of them fancy automobiles, but I could run that boarding house standing on my head and cross-eyed. We'll give Dulcie a raise and she'll stay on as cook"
"Dulcie's too old to ride a horse three miles every morning out here to be Clara's cook so she'll stay with or without a raise, but it would be nice to give her a little more money. And Clara can find her own cook. Girl might dance like her granny but, honey, she can't cook like Kate. I could do the cooking. Been a while but I'm a good cook. Besides, Olivia's going to marry that boy soon as she runs him to ground. All we'll have is the two of us and them teachers. Pretty soon they'll move on and then it'll just be me and you to rattle around in that house. I know I can keep our body and soul together until the good Lord comes calling for us," Beulah said.
"Countin' our chickens before they're hatched, ain't we?" Bessie asked.
"Yep, but we can do whatever we want. We made a cloth for the church and we been good a long time so we can be pretty sure we're forgiven for our sins. Lord, look at that girl. Didn't know she knew how to flirt so good"
Bessie kept time with the music with her foot. "He's still angry. Maybe we'll have to do a little meddling."
"I think she's got it under control," Beulah said. "Here comes Libby. Come here, sweetheart, and let me hold you. I need a nap. Maybe you can help me go to sleep for a spell."
Libby crawled up in Beulah's arms. "I'll help you take a nap" She popped a thumb in her mouth and nestled down into Beulah's lap.
"I know you will, honey" Beulah began to rock back and forth and by the time the dance ended, Libby's eyes were closed.
"You don't call that meddling?" Bessie asked.
"For an hour she won't be getting between them, so I suppose it is meddling," Beulah told her.
"Look at Libby," Clara said breathlessly. "Beulah has her asleep. You think you better rush over there and wake her up since she's yours and not theirs?"
Briar motioned to the musicians. Another fast song began. "So, you got enough energy for another one?"
"How about you?" she asked right back.
He took her hands and began to spin her around. "I told you I can do anything."
"Anything but shut the door on the past"
He twirled her out and then brought her back into his arms so fast the trees were a blur. "Don't you talk to me like that."
"If you don't like it, then don't come around me. Why didn't you shoot Lorianne? I would have helped you bury the body"
"You are serious?" he asked.
She deliberately put two feet between them and propped her hands on her waist, her feet still moving without missing a beat. "Dead serious. I would have shot Percy. And I'm staying here tomorrow night if Libby is still afraid."
"Oh, honey, you are not. I'll call the new lawman and have you thrown out. That should give you back your fool's crown."
"You'd have to take that crown off your head to give it to me" Clara swished her lilac skirt tail back and forth like Coralynn was doing. She'd never had so much fun nor felt so terrified. Briar could be so exasperating, but she was more alive than she'd ever been in her life. She wondered if he really could put the most beautiful woman in the whole United States out of his mind and life. Especially when he had a living, breathing replica of her in front of him every day in the form of a precious four-year-old daughter.
The sun was bright, promising a clear, hot day that Sunday morning when Clara and Tilly drove to church. Clara wore a bright blue dress of silk crepe de chine with a matching jacket. It was styled to fit tightly in the bodice and had a full, pleated skirt that swished around her ankles. The full length sleeves of Georgette crepe were cuffed and trimmed with pearl buttons. Her white Panama hat sported a bright blue ribbon knotted on the side. The whole outfit said she was confident and mature. In her heart, she was neither. She'd made her brag that she'd go right out to Briar's farm, even against his will, if Libby wasn't comfortable at night without Judith. He'd said he'd call the new sheriff and have her tossed out in the middle of the night or taken to jail if she tried. When she left the wedding reception at dusk, right after Judith and Cecil departed, they were still bantering about the issue.
Tilly's crimson dress was made from the same pattern as Clara's but with brass buttons and a bit of black lace trim on the jacket sleeves. Her hat was a smart toque with a brim of satin-finished straw braid. A shirred and draped crown of satin covered the top and four tiny black rose buds graced the front. The veil that fell to her chin was made of black netting and sported a bit of lace around the edges.
"You sure got all dressed up today," Clara said. "You decided to flirt with the preacher after all?"
"No, the lawman. I want him to see me as this little innocent lady who goes to church on Sunday, runs a farm and wouldn't think of staying up past nine o'clock at night."
"In that get up, you're going to have trouble convincing him that you are innocent of anything. You look like the madam of a brothel," Clara laughed.
"Well, what about you? You're going to make old Briar's eyes pop out of his head"
"I doubt it. You keep forgetting in all your new-found innocence that Briar was married to Lorianne Lawdry. It would take a lot to make him look at me twice."
"Girl, you need to wake up and look in the mirror. That man is besotted with you. Good grief!" she moaned as she turned the corner to go the last block to the church and found herself behind a wagon pulled by a team of mules. "There's Truman Fanley and his brood"
Truman sat in the driver's seat. His wife Meredith beside him and the whole wagon bed full of children. He kept the mules going at a steady speed and from the way his wife kept nodding, was having a lively conversation with her at the same time.
"How many kids do they have now?" Tilly asked.
"Ten, last count, but Beulah told me Meredith is expecting another one about Christmas time."
"Hell's bells. Don't they know what causes that?" "I expect they do and I also expect they don't care. Kids seem well-fed, dressed, clean and happy. No one can ever say Truman doesn't take care of his own family. Hard-working man and the children are all smiles. Look at them. I'd like a whole wagon full just like that"
"Well, honey, you'd best get started right soon if you want to beat out Father Time and get that many children. Does Briar want ten more kids?"
"I don't have any idea how many children Briar would like to have and why do you keep bringing him into the conversation? Besides, what about you? You want a family or do you think we're too old to start one at thirty?"
Tilly pulled the car into a parking place and watched the Fanley kids jump out of the wagon and scatter six ways to Sunday. "Never thought about it. Figured I'd best have a husband first or you and Tucker would have a hissy fit. Since I can't find one of them, the family isn't an option just yet. Thank goodness we're here."
"Clara! Clara!" Libby came running from the church steps, leaving her father to stare after her as she wrapped her arms around Clara's legs and hugged her tightly. "You are coming to my house tonight."
"We'll see. You better go on in with your daddy now." She hugged Libby.
Tilly cocked her head to one side. "What's this?"
"Nothing," Clara said.
"Clara" Briar held the door for both Anderson cousins.
"Thank you, sir," Tilly said.
"Good morning, Briar." Clara wondered if
God could see the sparks dancing around them in the church. And if He did, would lightning bolts start jumping from the cloudless blue sky?
"I guess I'll be picking you up after supper to spend the night at my house," he said.
"Do you have a problem with that?" Clara asked.
"Not at all. Libby asked and I said that would be fine. You can have Judith's room, which has a connecting door to Libby's."
Inez Potter poked Minnie Corman in the ribs and set her jaw in disgust. It was bad enough when Clara used to sit in front of Inez and George's drug store every day, but now she was spending the night with that rich oil man and talking about it right out in public. Had they no shame at all? What kind of man was he anyway? He had to be crazy, to be letting a woman of her questionable mental abilities keep his little girl every day. There were lots of women in Healdton who would be a much better choice. Inez could hardly wait until church was over so she could spread the news of what she'd heard. Why, she might even go out to his house this afternoon and tell him what she and the other ladies in town thought. She could offer to keep that little girl, train her up in the drug store to dust lower shelves and wash dishes.
"I bet that hurt to give her permission for me to stay with her a few nights," Clara whispered.
"Not at all. When I thought about it, I decided I liked the idea. Talked to Bessie about it and she agreed with me. So I'll pick you and Bessie both up right after supper. Libby gets her way and sleeps better. Bessie is there to chaperone and the town won't hang you from a cross. And I won't be called upon to make an honest woman of you."
"You did what!" Clara exclaimed too loudly. Several heads turned to see why she was raising her voice.
"Shhhh." He put a finger over his lips and grinned.
"Looks like you met your match, dear cousin," Tilly whispered as she sat down on the back pew and patted the empty space beside her. "He sure don't want to have to make an honest woman of you, does he?"
"Hell's bells," Clara hissed.
"Ahhh, swearing in church. I expect the preacher will say a prayer long enough to put me to sleep if he gets a whiff of a cuss word," Tilly whispered.
Morning Glory Page 16
