Corinne finished her lunch and stood looking out over the plains. She wanted to see her brother and tell him and Barnette about her new land. She wanted to see her big cook stove surrounded by her bricks in her new home but she couldn’t get excited about the long ride home. Boomer was doing well and seemed to suffer no ill effects from the race and she missed Mince terribly. She tried to put the trip out of her mind and decided she would leave in the early morning. She saw a rider approaching and stiffened. For a moment she thought it might be the man who had been coming around in the night but then she recognized the lieutenant’s huge stallion. Still, she wasn’t sure she knew the man on his back. When he rode up close to her, Corinne stepped back in surprise.
She had never seen him out of uniform and, although he cut a handsome silhouette in his soldier blues, she could not believe how different he looked now. Corinne stepped back another step. Lee Highland was a man who would definitely catch her eye. And, he had finally come. Not only had he actually shown up, although later than expected, his horse was loaded with supplies. He had come to work. Corinne could not believe it.
“Hello,” he said as he dismounted. Highland had breathed a sigh of relief when he had seen her. Since the day earlier he had been plagued with worry over her, imagining the worst after the storm. He stood waiting for her response.
“I thought you might not come,” she said, trying to sort out her feelings. Corinne was overcome with the sensation that she wanted to run up to him and thank him for coming but that would not do at all. “I’m glad you did,” she said instead. “You kept your word.”
“I couldn’t get away as quickly as I would have liked,” he replied. He could see she was uncomfortable. “I brought some tools and things, if that’s alright.”
Highland looked past Corinne and saw the stacks of neatly piled bricks alongside the carefully carved out hill. He stepped past her and walked around in the leveled area and then picked up one of the bricks, examining it carefully.
“I made plenty, I think,” she said, stepping up to him. “I have an idea of how I want to build everythin’, but my math is simply terrible and I can’t for the life of me figure out exactly, or even close, the number of bricks I need for what I want.”
“You did all this? Alone?” he asked.
“That soakin’ rain helped,” Corinne laughed. “It made the best mud.”
“Show me,” he said.
Corinne took him to the hollow where she had mixed the straw and clay and explained her technique. “I learned it while I was in New Mexico one summer with…” her voice trailed off.
Lee watched her as she looked away briefly.
“I learned how to make them,” she went on. Corinne walked to the building site and tried to explain her plan. “I want a front wall here, a door here, and walls along each side goin’ back into the hill there. I have a big ol’ cook stove I’m goin’ back to get in Texas. It’s just as fine as any stove could be,” she added. “I want it against the back, next to the hill. A dugout stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter. What do you think?” Corinne did not know why, but suddenly his opinion mattered to her.
Lee paced around looking at the brick and then the area she had leveled for her building. “You’ll want to dig down and set some bricks into the ground before you start the wall,” he said in a distracted manner. “I agree you need to face south for the light. On this side where the hill falls back you should think about a doorway in the wall.” He walked along the west side of the site. “You have plenty of bricks and you can put in another room along here. Bedroom, storage maybe. Attach a shelter for Boomer here.”
Corinne looked at him and shook her head. “I completely forgot that the wall has to be dug in. How foolish of me. Do you really think I made enough bricks for another room?”
“You made enough bricks for a castle I think,” Lee chuckled.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Lee pulled his bundles from Chief’s back while Corinne watched. He had brought so many tools and supplies that she was completely at a loss.
“Lieutenant,” she said. “We need to talk.”
He set down the last of the supplies. “Alright. But I’m not a lieutenant now. Please call me Lee.”
“Fine,” she said. “Call me Corinne, but I need to say somethin’ and I need to be clear.”
“Alright,” he said.
“All of this. It’s so much. You brought so many things. I need you to tell me what you’re thinkin’.”
“Thinking?” he asked.
“I don’t know what is on your mind. I thought you understood I don’t want a man, not, well, you know, not a lover or anythin’, understand? Are you thinkin’ you’re my partner, a friend? I’m really confused.”
“A friend would be fine,” he said genuinely. “Let me explain.” Lee paced around for a moment looking for the right words.
“I envy you,” he began. “Staking out your own land, building a place, starting anew. It’s very exciting and I can help you. I’ve got a strong back and I’d like to be part of it. I can help you get your place built and get you started. After that I’ll go.” Lee felt a pang at the last comment, but continued. “So let me be a friend. I ask nothing in return. No expectations, no commitments. Let me be a part of your experience and I’ll eat pie and go.”
Corinne watched his face. “That’s an awful lot to be givin’ to someone. All those tools and back breakin’ work just to get a piece of pie and then walk away. Are you sure?”
“Perfectly,” he stood tall. “I’ll start right away.”
“Well,” Corinne turned away from him and thought hard, then she turned to face him.
“I’m leavin’ for Texas in the mornin’. I’ll be goin’ to my brother’s and then to my cabin to load my things to bring back here. The brick needs to dry anyway so it’s a good time to do it. And I have a dog waitin’ for me.”
“Oh,” Lee said, obviously disappointed. “I can wait here I suppose. I’ll find something to do.”
“Come with me,” Corinne said, against her better judgment. She knew Daniel would have a million questions and Barnette would probably not approve, even if Lee wasn’t a lover.
“What?” Highland said.
Corinne’s words came out in a rush. “I don’t want to make that long trip alone. I have an entire wagonload to haul back and the stove is heavy. It’ll take several men to load it and I’ll need to get it back here safely and my brother was goin’ to come back with me but he’s got a family to take care of and…” Corinne realized she was rambling.
“Alright,” Lee said, smiling broadly.
Corinne bit her tongue. She could barely keep from telling him to wipe the smile off his face. What had she done?
“Fine,” she said. “We’ll leave early in the mornin’. Did you bring anythin’ to eat by any chance?”
Lee smiled again and pulled open his packs. Corinne rubbed her forehead.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Scraping the total number into the dust, Lee figured how many bricks Corinne would need for her home, including the two rows they had decided to use below the ground level and what they would need for an additional room.
“I can’t believe I will still have so many more,” Corinne said.
“Build a good shelter for Boomer. You have enough to put in a back wall against the hill and a nice hearth under your good stove as well. What are your plans for a roof?” Lee asked.
Corinne had only barely heard what he was saying. She watched him calculating their plans in the dirt. His arms were tanned and he looked so comfortable and rugged and he was genuinely caught up in her plans. Plans that didn’t even include him. Once they had finished he would never sleep inside the house. He’d not sit by the fire on a winter night or rock a child to sleep while the wind howled through the night. Corinne stood up suddenly and walked away.
Lee watched her run troubled toward the horses and leap onto her Boomer’s back. She kicked him to a fast run and rushe
d out over the prairie.
He could not imagine what he had said that had upset her so terribly and nearly went after her. Then he stopped. How many times had he left some young woman who had professed her love to him standing alone on her door step while he excused himself quickly and rode off never to see her again? He had not told her he loved her. He’d said nothing of the sorts. He knew that kind of thing would certainly send her running. He looked out over the plains until he saw her disappear from view. He’d wait, he decided, until she returned on her own.
Lee stoked the fire and filled a pot with water. He peeled several potatoes and tossed them and a dozen carrots into the pot. The beef he had brought was rich with bits of fat clinging to it and he put that in the pot as well. He had not cooked in years but soon the rich aroma of his stew drifted out across the prairie.
It was over an hour before she returned, soaked in perspiration and her face red from crying. She nodded to him in embarrassment, gathered a clean dress and headed for the pool in the creek.
“I’ll be back,” she muttered under her breath.
When she returned she looked cool and resigned and she threw her washed and soaked clothing over a tree limb to dry.
When Corinne tasted the stew she looked up at Lee in appreciation.
“Again and again you are provin’ that I was completely wrong about you.” Corinne looked at him in his white shirt, his hair still neatly combed. “At least I was partially wrong.” She smiled.
Chapter Forty
Their tents pitched side by side, Corinne shook out her now dry dress, flattening it and rolling it smoothly. She packed it into her saddle bags for their morning trip. She watched Lee out of the corner of her eye as he removed his shirt and folded it neatly and inserted it carefully into one of the two packs he had that hung on either side of his saddle.
“Let me guess,” she said. “One for clean clothin’ and one for dirty.”
Lee looked up at her and considered her remark. “Cavalry training, I guess,” he said. “I suppose I don’t think about it anymore.”
“You can’t stay clean and pressed all the time.” Corinne suspected it wouldn’t matter with him. Even after he pulled her from the river he’d put on his jacket and somehow still looked dignified. She looked down at her tattered fingernails. Corinne vowed that once she had finished her house she was going to get a bathtub for herself, and a mirror, and even use that old iron she had at the cabin that she had never once heated up. One day Lee Highland would see her all dolled up.
Corinne watched him brushing both horses. Even the animals looked shiny and fresh. She mumbled her good-night and climbed into her tent.
Sometime later she heard the flap of Lee’s tent fall closed and heard him settling down inside. When he lay quiet she spoke softly in the darkness.
“I’m sorry I rode off before,” she said. “I guess I’m havin’ a little trouble figurin’ you out.” Corinne heard him roll over in the tent beside hers. She could not see him, his handsome face or whatever expression he might be making. It made it that much easier for her to talk.
“What don’t you understand?” Lee’s voice was deep and low in the darkness.
“I know you want some of the adventure and all,” she said. “But it’s a lot of work we’re talkin’ about. When it’s all done, then what? Are you just goin’ back to the fort and soldierin’? That’s it?”
Highland lay in the confines of the tent listening to her soft Texas drawl. Her voice was always smooth, her words drawn out in an easy gentle dialect.
“I’m on leave for a few weeks. Then I have to go back until my tour is over. Then,” he hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“Do you like the cavalry?” Corinne rolled towards his voice.
“I did once. Now, I don’t know. I’d like to do something else, I think.”
“I want to you know that it’s nice havin’ some company.” Corinne decided he didn’t need another lecture about being alone.
“I look forward to meeting your family. Tell me about them,” Highland said. He wondered if he should just shut up and go to sleep. He didn’t want to press her, but he was concerned what would happen when she brought him home to Texas.
Corinne laughed and lay flat on her bedroll looking up into the tent.
“My daddy was a drunk. I guess my brother Daniel likes to think that he took over for him a bit. He always tries to watch over me. Barnette is his wife. I never knew her at first. Daniel settled right down, you know. Started hemmin’ and hawin’ about not needin’ to go off to have fun. Well, you know my man, Hank, was the complete opposite. He just wanted to be ridin’ off and havin’ fun. Hank called Barnette the ball and chain ‘round Daniel’s ankle. I guess I kind of believed him. Until I learned different for myself.
“When I was at their place, Daniel and Barnette’s, it was different. They were the same, I guess, I was different. They have a baby, you know. Just gettin’ up on his feet. He’s looks so damn much like my little Dustin.”
Lee listened in silence. He knew it, he thought. She had a child. He couldn’t say how he’d known it, she’d said nothing at all before. He waited in the silence.
Corinne felt the hot tears run down her temples and into her ears and she wiped them away. “Well, Daniel’s a good man. He takes good care of his family. I expect little Elijah will grow into a good man himself one day. Maybe even better than Daniel, if that’s possible. If a man can do well after the way my brother grew up I expect he can do real well with a lovin’ family. Don’t you think?”
“I had a good family,” Lee said. “They had some strong ideas about how I should grow up. They didn’t always agree with my ideas but they always were there when I needed them.” Lee thought about the last time he had seen them. It was the year he was promoted. He could see they were proud but they had never liked the reason he had enlisted. “Enlist to make a difference,” his father had said. “Not to run away.”
Lee listened for any response from her and then spoke quietly in the darkness. “Corinne,” he began. “Where is your son?”
Chapter Forty-One
Lee Highland couldn’t even count the list of questions he had about Corinne and her life before he had met her. He saw much of his own past in her. He recognized her obvious, open and honest nature and her survival skills. She was strong by nature and afraid by way of experience. He’d moved quickly next to her one time and seen her flinch. It wasn’t much. In fact, he was sure she didn’t even realize she had done it. He’d seen it however, and he knew what it meant.
She’d not mentioned a man before. Lee knew there had been one though, one who had made her afraid, one that had torn up her heart. Now he knew it wasn’t one man, it was two. Her father, and Hank.
There had been no talk of a husband, but now there was. And she talked about a child.
Lee waited for her response to his question about where her child was.
Corinne pulled her blankets to her chin and lay on the soft bedroll he had brought for her. His voice was kind, she thought, and his question made perfect sense. If he were her friend he deserved an answer. If he wanted more he should know that she had a past and understand why she wanted and needed no man.
“At my cabin,” she said, “in Texas. We had a place there, Hank Fisher and me. Maybe just me,” she added. “If he’d raised a finger to help with it then he honestly could have called it his. I say now, it was not his. In a few days it will belong to the bank anyway.
“We had this fool idea that we didn’t need to be gettin’ married. I was the fool actually. There’s a big difference between a promise and just talk.
“I had my son. Alone. In that cabin. My son. Poor baby got sick one night. Bad sick. Fool that I was, I sent Hank for the doctor. In the end I took that baby into town a long time later. It was too late.
“Now that sweet child is restin’ on the hill in the cold ground. When I go back this time it’ll be the last time I say goodbye to him.”
Corinne cleared
her throat. “I don’t know why I’m even sayin’ this to you, but I made all my choices as I came across them. They might not have been the same as any other woman’s, but they were mine. You want to be my friend then that’s who I am. I was a fool for a promise once, now I know better.” Corinne rolled over. “If you still want to ride with me in the mornin’ I’d appreciate the company, and your help. If you want to head back to the fort I’ll say goodbye to you there and wish you all the best.”
Corinne lay quiet, now waiting for his response. Lee Highland was incredibly handsome and intelligent. She still could not make sense of his wanting to join her. He could go anywhere he liked. Corinne held her breath.
Lee thought about her laying alone in her tent. He had heard her voice crack when she spoke. He could hear her heart breaking. He wanted to be close beside her, or if he could not, then at least say something to ease her way.
“Let’s get some sleep,” he said. “We have a long ride to Texas tomorrow. It sounds like I’ll like your brother and his wife.”
Corinne let out her breath.
Chapter Forty-Two
In the light of day Corinne felt a bit embarrassed about her twilight admissions and at first avoided looking into Lee’s kind grey eyes while they prepared for their trip. When she realized that he behaved normally and did not press her for more information about herself she began to feel more comfortable. In contrast to her earlier apprehension, she now found that she was looking forward to the trip. She examined the area but did not see any prints with the broken shoe.
She set her broad-brimmed hat upon her head, looked up and found Lee smiling at her. She’d seen him shaving by the creek and again he was wearing a fresh, clean shirt. He looked easy and handsome and Corinne enjoyed having him around to start her day.
Piecrust Promise Page 10
