[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
this crew are going to celebrate. In fact, he added, swinging her gently around,
we re going to buy all the champagne in the saloon and drink ourselves right to heaven.
I don t drink, she faltered.
You will tonight, he assured her, with a grin that made her head whirl. Because we have just hit one
of the biggest oil strikes in history. And there is no way I m going to celebrate that without my wife!
Chapter Eighteen
T he celebration was loud, but nobody in the saloon seemed to mind, even when glasses were broken.
Cal poured champagne and urged it on Nora, who felt conspicuous as the only woman in the place.
Well, except for two women who had come in with the men. They were dressed in low-cut muslin
dresses, and they had eyes as hard as their hands looked soft. They grinned at Nora, who grinned back
even through her blushes.
You wanted to know what they looked like, Cal whispered in her ear. Now you do.
She hit at him.
Drink up, he challenged. He was relaxed and getting more so by the minute, his eyes glittery with
pleasure as he watched his shy wife. Over two months of holding her without anything more ardent
had taken its toll on him. If he hadn t had the arduous quest for oil to occupy him, he thought, he
might have been climbing walls or treeing the town by now. He wanted Nora desperately, but despite
the gains in health she had made, he didn t want to put her at risk just yet. He d made sure that she
didn t have to do laundry or haul water from the well on the property or do anything except the very
lightest of chores. She d spent most of her time knitting and trying new recipes. He was truly
astounded at the difference between the woman he d married and the Nora who lived with him now.
But there were things that hadn t changed, like her impish sense of humor and gallant spirit. He found
himself more in love with her every day.
He often wondered about her own feelings, but she d become adept at hiding them most of the time.
He d been unkind to her. He didn t like to think that he might have killed any deeper feelings that
she d harbored before she lost the baby.
When he wasn t working, they d spent time talking about general subjects, like the continuously
changing situation in South Africa with the Boer War, and the death of Queen Victoria and the
coronation of King Edward. She mentioned that she had been introduced to the monarch, and that she
thought Victoria s death had a lot to do with the worry that stemmed from the Boxer Rebellion in
China and the Boer uprising. Once he would have bristled at the reference to her superior social
status. Now he only smiled indulgently.
It had amazed her how much time Cal had to spend on that rig. Someone had to watch it all the time,
night and day, and he took not only his own shift, but sometimes stayed even longer to help the men.
There were times, Nora told him, when she thought she had married a ghost. That amused him, but
she knew that what he was doing was for their future and she never complained.
He found her quite complex, now that she was relaxed with him, and he enjoyed their talks and
debates. She was equally comfortable discussing the political situation with McKinley s reelection and
the price of eggs in town.
When he was free, on Sundays, they went to a Methodist church in Beaumont and had the midday meal
in the boardinghouse where they stayed infrequently to have a bath and rest.
She had asked if his family was Methodist, and he assured her that they were. But she noticed that he
did not like to speak of his family and that he became irritated if she asked questions about them. He
hated being that way. It was just that his guilt was ever-present. Even though they had grown closer
together, he worried about her eventual reaction, because one day she would have to know who he
was and who his people were.
Meanwhile, he discovered that she had suffered frequent mishaps as a child, and that despite being
pampered, she had an adventurous spirit. He spoke little of his own childhood, except to recall that it
had been boisterous and he and his brothers had been happy. He wanted to tell her everything,
including how close he and King had been and the misadventures they had shared.
One day, he promised himself, he would.
You are very deep in thought, she said.
Drawn out of his contemplation, he smiled at her across the table. And you are very pretty, he said,
watching her brighten at the compliment. And uncomfortable? he probed delicately.
She was sitting stiffly, glancing around as if she were afraid someone might see her here, in a saloon.
Cal, I have lived such a stuffy life, she confessed, laughing. You must make a few allowances for
me.
You re doing fine, he said enthusiastically. Except that you aren t drinking that champagne.
It s the best they had. French, and of an excellent vintage.
Often he came out with remarks like that. He knew things that should have been Greek to a working
cowboy, like the fact that her hats came from Paris and what vintage a good wine, or champagne, was.
He spoke quite intelligently about politics in the States and even overseas, and he was perfectly at
home in the best restaurant in Beaumont, with table manners and charm that would have befitted
royalty. He amazed Nora with his gifts. She had had no opportunity before to see how versatile he
was, or how educated.
I shouldn t know that, should I? he murmured, a little less reserved than usual. He laughed at her
expression. Well, I wasn t always a cowboy, he told her. I ve worked in oil fields and I ve spent
time in New York. I ve even been overseas, over most of Europe, in fact, and not just when I was an
army officer in Cuba.
An officer! She hadn t known that.
An officer? she ventured, hoping to draw him out.
I thought I was going to be a career man. I enlisted ten years before the Spanish-American War, two
years after I went off to college, when I was young and full of vinegar. I rose to the rank of colonel
and mustered out after the war was over.
She was too impressed to be able to hide it. The revelation was shocking to a woman who d accepted
that her husband was an uneducated cowboy.
He smiled at her lazily. Would you have liked being the wife of a career officer, I wonder? It would
have suited you, giving afternoon teas and entertaining dignitaries from Washington.
She flushed. I like the oil business just as much, she said stoutly. And I even enjoyed ranching, just
at the last.
You lie beautifully, he accused softly.
Her hand lifted the glass to her lips and she sipped it. It had been a long time since she d tasted
champagne. She d forgotten how smooth and fragrant a good vintage was. Her eyes closed and she
murmured with delight.
An excellent bouquet, is it not? he asked as he finished his glassful. I have not had better since
Paris.
She was learning a lot about her mysterious husband. He was traveled and he had been an officer, so
perhaps he was in long enough to have been given a pension. That would explain where he got the
money to finance his oil well. But if he had gone to college, where had that money come from?
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]