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“Drink this first.” Daisy poured from the tea service and handed him a cup, squarely meeting his gaze. “Verbena tea with a touch of mint will strengthen you faster. That’s the point here, Mr. Parker. I owe you for saving my and Ollie’s lives earlier, but that’s where this ends. I want nothing else from you than for you to get well and continue on down the road.”
“Clear enough.” He took a sip of the tea. She intended to continue fighting his good intentions. He wouldn’t allow that. He couldn’t go on to California with no closure about Knox. He must somehow make her understand he felt it a duty he owed them and he didn’t leave duties undone. As soon as a room at the hotel or boardinghouse became available, he’d thank her for her caregiving and find another way to convince her to take the money she should have accepted long ago.
But first he needed to find out what had happened to his clothes. “May I ask who put these bloomers on me and why?”
She hesitated and looked uncomfortable for a moment. “We left your belongings at Doc’s office and my supplies at the mercantile to be quicker. I had to pick up Ollie and we thought it best to get you here as soon as possible and settled in, then go back and load everything else. Teague will help me fetch them in a—”
“Stop spit and sputtering about those bloomers, Parker.” Myrtle’s fists rounded on her hips now that her hands were free of the tray. “That handsome drink of water out there and me managed to put those on ya. Bloomers was all we had handy. You best be glad Daisy had an old pair and she’s so tall. Otherwise, you’d be wearing mine.”
Ollie giggled.
The widow shooed Ollie out of the chair and took her place. “Why don’t you and Myrtle go see about those poor chickens or they’re going to lay sour eggs. You can ask him more questions tomorrow after he’s good and rested.”
“Ahh, Mama,” Ollie grumbled. “He was tellin’ me all about Daddy. He said he met him.”
The widow’s body stiffened and long golden lashes closed over her eyes. It took her a second, but she finally spoke quietly. “After you get your chores done, Ollie, I want you to take a bath and scrub yourself good. Don’t worry about the bathwater. I’ll pour it out later.”
“But I took one last night, Mama. Can’t I skip one?” Ollie complained.
“I won’t have you running around at the race tomorrow looking like a dust storm. You know what your uncles will say.”
“Uncle Maddox will dunk me in the horse trough and pin me to a clothesline, but that’s kinda fun sometimes.”
“They’ll be out here afterward trying to tell me how to raise you, that’s what.” The widow exhaled a breath, obviously attempting to keep calm. “I’d like to skip at least one gathering without them knocking on my door afterward to tell me what I’m doing wrong with you, please.”
“Best come on now, before you get yourself in a heap of trouble,” Myrtle warned, taking Ollie in tow and heading out the door, deliberately raising her voice but looking over her shoulder at Bass. “Ain’t you learned when your mama’s about to blow her top at somebody and doesn’t want you to see it? Let’s go ruffle some chicken feathers.”
Bass waited for the yelling to begin, but instead Widow Trumbo stared quietly at his cup.
“Are you finished with your tea? Would you like some more?”
He handed it back to her, aware something had changed in her but he couldn’t define what. “No, thank you. It tasted as good as it smelled, though.”
She stood and took a cover off a bowl on the other tray, grabbed it and a spoon then sat back down. “This is stew. Are you ready to eat now?”
Her words were neither friendly nor stiff, just precise and efficient to the task. Bass wondered if this was the quiet that came before her storm.
He blinked at her unwavering gaze. A yawn filled him, though he tried to squelch it. “I’m suddenly feeling a little sleepy again, although I am hungry. I’m not sure I won’t spill it.”
“I intend to feed you.” She leaned over to offer him a spoonful of stew. “Doc gave us something to put in the tea to make you rest. Take a bite. You need to eat as much as you can.”
Bass accepted the spoonful and enjoyed the beef, particularly the broth. He appreciated her treating him with such kindness, though he suspected she was doing her best to hold her temper in check.
She lifted another scoop after he finished the first. “I make one demand of you while you’re in my home, Mr. Parker.” The authority in her voice brooked no argument. “You and your sister are not to talk to my child about Knox without my permission. I, alone, will tell her what she needs to know about him.”
Petula knew so little of Knox, she would be no threat in the matter. Bass sipped the second spoonful as he mulled over why Widow Trumbo might want him to keep such information secret from her daughter. Did it have anything to do with the other woman he’d thought was Knox’s wife? Did Daisy know about her?
“Mama,” Ollie hollered from downstairs. “All the uncles just rode up. Uncle Maddox looks madder than a rooster run out of the chicken coop.”
“Tell him I’ll be right down.” Daisy stood and offered Bass the bowl. “You’ll have to finish this without my help.”
Bass shook his head. “I don’t want any more. Please put it on the tray before you go.”
Her cheeks paled, though her back stiffened once again as she braced herself to face this new turn of events.
The widow had quite a day so far. A daughter who’d held hostages, surviving a shoot-out, saving his life and now nursing someone she clearly didn’t want in her home. Rarely had he seen such grace under pressure.
Bass thought he should ease her mind before she went downstairs to face the new trouble that had come calling. “Mrs. Trumbo...Daisy...I give you my word. I won’t talk with Ollie anymore about Knox unless you say it’s all right.”
“I’ll hold you to it, then, Mr. Parker.” Her hand trembled as she set down the bowl, rattling the porcelain against the tray. “But you may not have to concern yourself with it after today. Her uncles may take her away from me if they found out you’re here.”
Chapter Four (#ulink_5f3de085-703d-5790-8864-b17c28d19724)
Daisy stepped aside as her brothers-in-law carried the Parkers’ baggage inside the house without bothering to knock or offer a greeting.
All three claimed the broad shoulders and considerable height of the Trumbo clan, but the doors of this house had been built to accommodate the comings and goings of Viking-sized kin. The only real differences in the three sandy-bearded men’s appearance were the angle of their broken noses and the length of their tied-back hair. From the looks of things, one of them had enjoyed a recent fight. She supposed she’d hear about it in church tomorrow.
Maddox, the oldest and tallest of the trio, shifted his gray eyes upstairs then glared at her looking like a wolf studying its next supper. “Doc says these belong to a couple’a boarders you took in. Figured we’d save you a trip and bring out these and the supplies you left. Where do you want ’em?”
“Just set the baggage by the coatrack, please. I’ll carry them up later. And thanks for being so thoughtful. I was just about to head into town and pick up everything.” Daisy’s pulse did double time as she maneuvered her body to block the Trumbos from heading upstairs. What else had they learned about today’s events?
“Myrtle will want the supplies in the root cellar and salt shed like usual.”
Maddox nodded at his brothers. “Y’all drop what you got and I’ll do the rest in here. See that you make Myrtle happy with the storing then find out where Ollie ran off to and fetch her inside. Meet me upstairs after you’re done.”
They dropped their load and the door shut abruptly behind them.
Daisy stepped backward and stood on the first stair, blocking the way, trying to appear calm and in control. It wouldn’t be fair to subject her patient to Maddox’s fury until he was stronger.
The fact that Maddox wanted Ollie present didn’t bode well, and Daisy wasn’t all that sure why she felt so compelled to protect Bass. She ought to just turn him over to her in-laws, but keeping her word had to be honored. “I’m sure Doc Thomas told you what happened. My guest is hurt and needs some rest. I can deliver their belongings to them later.”
“We heard one was a man. I’m going to look him over some. Make sure I don’t need to run him off now.” Maddox moved up and stood there waiting for her to let him pass with the baggage under each arm. “Got any reason why I shouldn’t?”
Maddox would go up whether she liked it or not. A sigh of resignation escaped Daisy as she finally relented and stepped aside, allowing him to take the stairs two at a time. All she could do was pray that he would control himself in dealing with Bass Parker. He was already injured enough.
* * *
Any thought of dozing fled from Bass as a giant of a man barreled into the bedroom and dropped baggage on the floor without ceremony. If the stranger meant him any harm all he’d have to do was pull off the covers. Bass would have died of pure embarrassment being caught in a pair of pantaloons to defend himself. The giant didn’t need to offer any introduction. Clearly this must be one of Knox’s brothers. The resemblance to Knox was jarring.
“You Parker?” A scowl hardened his features into stoned angles as he towered over the side of the bed.
Bass tried to clear his head from the tea-laced medicine he’d drunk to make him sleep. Though at a disadvantage since he was unable to stand in Trumbo’s presence, Bass leaned forward, offered a hand and answered the question. “I am and you must be one of the Trumbos.”
To his surprise, the man accepted and returned the handshake. Not knowing how the brothers felt toward him and his role in Knox’s conscription, he half expected to be flipped out of the bed and his skull crushed.
“Maddox,” the giant introduced himself. “Oldest. Grissom and Jonas will be up here in a minute.”
“I see the resemblance.” Knox’s facial features had served him long whereas this brother’s had obviously been adjusted occasionally, yet there was no denying the kinship. Bass could sense someone standing behind Maddox and noticed the black hem of Daisy’s skirt, but the breadth of her in-law consumed the space and didn’t allow a better view of her.
“Heard what you done for Ollie and Daisy. Much obliged for that but don’t much care for you staying here. We want you gone once the crowd clears.”
Silence ticked by as Bass studied Maddox’s fixed gaze and knew the man would tolerate no compromise on the subject.
Bass nodded. “I hear you. I’ll get a room elsewhere as soon as one opens up. And so that you know, my sister and I will be no burden while we’re here. I’ll pay our board and keep.”
“If Knox hadn’t took money to stand in for you, you’d be six feet under by now for getting him killed,” Maddox assured him, “but fighting’s in our blood and he always wore restless boots. He was headed to war anyway. Just happened to be your thousand dollars that got him there.”
“I’d like to offer more than that if Daisy or you and your brothers would let me.”
Quickly explaining his purpose for being in High Plains, Bass hoped Maddox might see reason where Daisy had not concerning the memorial.
“Just how much money we talking about?” Maddox swung around to eye his sister-in-law before turning back to Bass.
When Bass told him, Maddox shot around quickly, his voice thundering across the room at Daisy. “You mean you had that kinda money all this time and done nothing but plant a few flowers around my brother’s grave? Taken up all that fancy footracing and shoemaking to prove you can feed my niece a decent meal? Let her run around in clothes not fit to use for tote sacks? Done all that so people won’t know how much you don’t need Knox and probably never did? He deserves to be remembered, Daisy, no matter his failings, and Ollie needs more.”
Regret filled Bass. He hadn’t meant to break open an old wound between Daisy and her brother-in-law.
Though her face paled, Daisy’s gaze dared to lift to Maddox’s as she defended herself. “I see to it Ollie and her clothes, which she loves to wear, by the way, are clean and warm. That she’s fed before any of us eat. I don’t give her everything she wants, but she gets all she needs. No, I’ve never touched a penny of Mr. Parker’s money. If it’s still in the bank then he kept it there, not me. I’ve never even seen it. Check with Sam Cardwell if you don’t believe me.”
“Plan to first thing tomorrow if he’s up to it.”
“But if you think that I didn’t accept or use it because I wanted to dishonor Knox in any way,” Daisy responded, anger darkening her eyes to burnished gold, “you’re sadly mistaken. I wish every day since he died that he could be here to watch Ollie grow up. That I could have been enough to keep him settled in one place. I’ll go to my grave making sure Knox is held in honor by this town, but I’m not going to take anyone’s blood money to do it with.”
Knox may have been the one who’d gone to war, but Daisy Trumbo apparently had waged her own here. Bass decided she could be a formidable opponent and he definitely needed to tread cautiously about his plans to honor Knox or help her any other way.
She took a deep breath and continued, “And, if there’s any way I can stop that money from being used, Maddox, neither will you or your brothers.”
Her anger focused on Bass, including him into her vow. “What you all don’t understand is that this is Ollie’s and my right, not yours, to see that he’s remembered well. Until Ollie is old enough to truly understand the sacrifice her father gave, it’s going to be our decision when and how we honor him. Can I make that any clearer?”
Bass knew he’d been sorely put in his place, but silence claimed the Trumbos as if battle lines were being drawn again. The two headstrong people had challenged each other’s will before. He remembered Daisy had feared openly that her in-laws might take Ollie from her upon their arrival, but here she was standing her ground with the giant of a man.
Admiration for her grew and Bass sensed that she was holding herself together as best she could on what she felt was right.
She needed a friend. Someone to support her decision. Maybe she would accept his friendship and that, in turn, would eventually help her accept the money. He’d already separated Ollie from her father. Bass didn’t want to cause a rift among the in-laws.
“How about if I just leave the funds in Ollie’s name and she does with it what she wants when she reaches the point you think best?” Bass suggested, trying to ease the tension and let her know he was on her side.
“The money is not the real issue here, Mr. Parker,” Daisy insisted. “My brother-in-law doesn’t think I’m capable of caring for my own child. I’ve done just fine without anyone else’s help and I’ll continue to do that until I have no further breath in my body.”
An undercurrent of words were being spoken and Bass realized Maddox resented that Daisy had proven herself worthy so far of being both mother and father to Ollie. What lay behind such resentment?
“She’s a handful, that’s for certain,” Bass defended Daisy again, feeling that the scamp would be a challenge for anyone to handle. A whole room of men and women had failed miserably earlier this morning.
“Hey, Uncle Maddox! Uncle Jonas said you want to see me.” Ollie came running into the room and skidded to a halt, interrupting the adults’ serious discussion.
Maddox’s palm shot out and ruffled Ollie’s hair setting the braids to bouncing. He swept her up into his arms and let her straddle his right shoulder. “You being good?”
Ollie seemed to weigh her answer carefully. “Uh, good as I get most times.”
Maddox chuckled and Bass was grateful the child’s words cooled the tempers that had been simmering moments ago.
“You got plenty to eat?” Maddox’s gaze swept over her as if examining her for good measure.
“Yep. Too much sometimes. Mama always says to clean my plate and not waste stuff, but I get Butler to help me if I can’t.”
“Butler?” Maddox frowned. “You still keeping that goat in the house?”
“Not since he ate Myrtle’s darnin’. She made me turn him loose in the barn a couple of days back. Says he needs to butt heads with somebody else but her. All he does is knock himself silly.”
“Is your mama doing right by you?” Maddox faced her mother.
Ollie didn’t hesitate, not looking threatened at all by Daisy’s intense expression. “She’s huggin’ on me a lot and I don’t like it much, but she could’ve taken a switch to me this mornin’ and she didn’t. Old Miz Jenkins will prob’ly pray about me tomorrow for sure.” Ollie proceeded to tell him about holding the men hostage.
Maddox chuckled as he set her down and bent on one knee to search her eyes. “Ya little wildcat. Guess ya can’t help yourself. Ya got your daddy’s fire in ya, don’tcha? You’d tell me if ya ever wanted to come live with me and your uncles instead, wouldn’t ya?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” She shrugged one shoulder. “Y’all snore a bunch.”
Maddox snorted, wrinkling his nose into a twisted angle. She giggled. “See what I mean? Mama don’t snore like that. She snuggles me up when the lightnin’ comes. You uncles just snore it all away. I’m gonna stay with Mama, if that’s okay with you and God.”
Maddox tucked a thumb up under Ollie’s chin and raised it. “What’s God got to do with this, Little Britches?”
“He didn’t let Daddy stay with Mama. I’m just hopin’ He’ll hurry up and let me find her someone to hug on in case He don’t let me stay with her, too.”
* * *
Daisy’s heart tightened as if someone had struck her with a mallet. She never dreamed that the reason Ollie wanted to find a new daddy was because she feared leaving her mama alone. She’d assumed Ollie was tired of being smothered with affection and wanted it focused on someone else. At first, her interviewing and list-making seemed endearingly funny and sometimes frustrating, but now Daisy felt only selfish and unworthy of her daughter’s true concern. Ollie had lost a father and feared losing her as well to her uncles’ decisions.
“You’re not going anywhere, Ollie.” Daisy crossed the room to stand beside her. “So there’s no need to worry about that, is there, Uncle Maddox?”
Daisy stared at Maddox, hoping that her voice sounded more certain than she felt, praying it held no hint of begging. Surely he could see that Ollie needed the security of all she’d known, of a mother’s love, of living with someone who would never let her father’s name be dishonored. Even by the truth.
“I’ll chew on it for a while. No need to pick more bone for now.”
“What does ’zat mean?” Ollie looked puzzled.
Bass Parker chimed in. “That means he needs some time to make up his mind. Right, Mr. Trumbo?”
“If you’re gonna sleep under my brother’s roof you might as well call me Maddox.” Maddox rose to his six feet five inches of height. “And you’re right. I’ll hold off ’til you move to town. By then I’ll know more what I’m going to do about you and why you’re here. Ain’t decided if I’m gonna tolerate it yet. Can’t speak for the boys. They’ll decide for themselves.”
He held out his bear-paw-sized palm. “It’s been a waste of good boar-hunting weather meeting you, Parker. I can see by your knuckles you got more than good manners in ya and you can see by my nose I ain’t squeamish about shifting bones. So I hope we get through this without having to trade blows. We’ll be checking in on ya and making sure you’re healing good. People’ll get to gossiping and such if ya take too much time mending, being you’re under Daisy’s roof, ya know what I mean?”
Bass started to speak but Daisy interrupted him. “He’s hurt in the shoulder, Maddox. His ears are just fine. And don’t be threatening him if you want him out of here as soon as possible. The more he’s hurt, the longer he’ll have to stay.”
Her defense filled Bass with gratitude and more than a measure of surprise.
Ollie leaned over the side of the bed and took a good look at his knuckles. Her eyes softened as she studied him. “I better pray good and hard for ya tomorrow at church, Bass. Nobody, but nobody’s ever whupped Uncle Maddox. It would be the best fight ever, though, but you’d get hurt for sure.”
Maddox roared with laughter just as his brothers came running up the stairs and entered the already crowded room.
