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Mrs. Keeper smiled in a very courteous manner and said, “This time, let us help you. You need to know where to go and the layout of the house and yard. Ciggie will help you today. Call me if you need me.”
She left.
Directions. That’s what Mina Keeper was doing to Ellen. She was being structured. Their way. Now. Damn.
Having been raised as she was, Ellen did manage to smile at the abandoned Ciggie as she said, “Well, that’s clear enough. I feel very like a prisoner.”
Not at all taking that as bitterness, Ciggie giggled. “She loves you. You ought to see how gentle she gets when she’s mad. Well, she don’t get mad but she can be—uh—let’s see if I can find the word. Yeah. Annoyed.” That was enunciated just right.
Ciggie made Ellen smile.
Two
With time moving into the middle of another day, it was Ciggie who led the still fragile Ellen down the hall to the side door of the Keeper house. She was careful of the guest. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Just the way Ellen said that made Ciggie stop and eye the guest with some squinted doubt.
As happens in romances, Mina’s son, Tom, came along right then. He hesitated and looked carefully at the women. Then he asked Ciggie, “She okay?”
Being a sentimental person, Ciggie replied, “You ought to see to her getting out on the porch for some air. Be sure she’s in the shade but be surer she’s warm.” Ciggie grinned and her eyes danced...then she turned away and damned near fled!
That left a fragile Ellen standing there by the closed door, which led onto the side porch.
Tom hadn’t actually noticed that Ciggie had left them. His eyes were on the fragile woman. He said, “Tell her I’m a Keeper.”
There was no reply, so Tom looked over and found that Ciggie had vanished. She was no where around at all! How clever.
Since the two were alone, Tom looked at the guest... whoever she was...and he realized she was seriously fragile. He asked, “Are you going out into the sun?”
She altered the word rather vacantly, “Shade.”
Tom waited, but she didn’t move, so he suggested, “Let me hold the door for you.”
She nodded but she didn’t even look at him.
He opened the door, then the screen door and stepped outside as he held it for her.
She almost didn’t move. But finally she did step forward so carefully that Tom put out a hand and clasped her elbow to stabilize her.
She murmured, “Thank you.”
She didn’t look at him or flirt or anything. But she did hesitate.
He took a firmer grip on her arm and led her over to the sun side, and he seated her under a large umbrella that was tall and wide. It was also seriously anchored in the center hole of the table and was not at all movable. Winds only ruffled the fringe around the edge of the big umbrella.
Ellen sat in the shade and again said, “Thank you,” dismissing Tom.
Being independent, Tom sat down in another chair and watched her.
He wasn’t sure if she was ill or a morning drunk, but there was no smell of liquor. She was skinny and probably had been ailing. Tom wondered who had dropped her off on the Keeper doorstep. The guest had not found the Keepers by herself.
He asked her, “Are you all right?”
She nodded once.
That was supposed to be communication? He frowned at her. If she was sick, why had Ciggie directed her to come outside into the sun on the porch?
He asked the woman, “Do you want to be outside? You don’t seem strong enough to be out here alone.”
“I’ll ring the bell if I need help.” She indicated the table bell used for refilling glasses or plates.
Tom asked with narrowed eyes, “What meal are you eating?”
“None.”
“Then...why are you out here?”
That was a logical question. Their parents were friends. They were in an extended group who commented on others. They were distantly in touch. She managed to move her eyes over and look at Mina’s son. “I’ve met you in San Antonio. You were interested in some woman there.”
“Kayla.”
“Yes. She would be worth the attention. But she remarried that lawyer.”
“Yes.”
Then Ellen looked at Tom, having been rejected herself, and she asked him, “Were you—disappointed she married another man?”
He shrugged. “It happens...one way or another. To a man or a woman.” He looked around for someone who might be monitoring this fragile female and, seeing no one, it was he who stayed to be sure she didn’t faint, all alone, out on the porch.
It was difficult to see inside the house because the glass was tinted so the sun didn’t stream in too pushily. That way, Tom did not see the two women backed away and watching the couple on the porch. The two did not speak. That was because Mrs. Keeper had told Ciggie to hush. Therefore, Mrs. Keeper could strain her ears and listen.
However, it was interesting that Mina Keeper hadn’t told Ciggie to run along and mind her own business. But while they didn’t speak, they both watched the odd couple on the porch.
The reason Mina hadn’t told Ciggie to run along was if Tom left and Ellen needed help, Mrs. Keeper could send Ciggie out—casually—and in that subtle way could give help to their guest
Ciggie knew that was exactly so, but she understood Mrs. Keeper and didn’t mind at all. Anything Mrs. Keeper did was logical and planned.
How amazing that Ciggie understood Mina Keeper. Very few others did. Most thought the senior Mrs. Keeper was nosy and intrusive.
Back on the porch, Ellen became relaxed. She actually looked around. She said to Tom, “There’s no need for you to monitor me. I’m fine.”
He looked at her in some shock. She thought she was...fine? He looked around and considered that the jump off the flat porch was not dangerous for such a stranger. But if she went up the several flights to the attic, she might do serious damage to herself jumping from one of the windows.
Then he looked up and remembered the bars that were braced sideways across the windows in a casual, perfectly spaced row. She didn’t have a chance of doing anything drastic.
He considered her. Was she in self-danger?
He finally decided slowly that, like life, even in death she wouldn’t give a damn. She didn’t care one way or the other.
But she’d remembered he had had a serious case of Kayla.
He asked gently, “That man you used to be with...Philip? He left you?”
She nodded.
“Oh.”
“—and then I lost the baby.”
Tom hadn’t known she’d been pregnant. He frowned and looked at her. He told her kindly, “There was some reason for it. Babies sometimes can’t make it There will be another time for you.”
She slowly turned her head and just looked at Tom with ancient knowledge that he would never understand.
He asked, “Have you been ill?”
“I forget to eat.”
“Can you walk?”
She considered. “Some.”
“Let’s go around the porch to the shady side.”
She was slow in deciding. She turned her head carefully. She began to leave the chair, and he reached to help her. She said, “I can do this by myself.”
Tom rose to his feet and just anxiously watched, his hands ready to catch her fall. He wondered if moving her had been a good idea. Maybe she needed the feeling of the warm, Texas winter sun on that side of the house?
She straightened and looked around slowly. She asked, “Which way?”
He could carry her. She didn’t have to go around to the other side of—
Ellen looked at him in a dead glance and asked again, “Which way?”
Tom had never counted the steps of either way. He glanced up and quickly, mentally judged the distance one way or the other. He said, “This way.” It would be around the back.
Watching, inside the house, Mina asked Ciggie, “What the dickens is he doing?” She was huffy and appalled.
Ciggie replied, “We’ll see.”
Mina gave Ciggie a deadly look of shock. Well, she had asked the question, and Ciggie had given a logical reply. Mina breathed carefully to soothe herself and moved instantly to see where the hell Tom was taking that fragile child-woman!
The two women hurried to the various places to see...
Tom had lifted Ellen into his arms and was carrying her around the back of the house! Good gravy! If a woman was so fragile that she had to be carried then she probably should be in bed!
Tom was stopped along the wall of the porch and was indicating something to Ellen that was on beyond. It was horses. No. It was the Longhorns moving slowly and eating grass. Tom Keeper mentioned, “Their horns must be a nuisance but don’t they look elegant?”
Ellen said a nothing, “Mmm.” A response, not any opinion.
He grinned down at her lying on his arms and asked, “Not taken with Longhorn Cattle?”
“I had a steak—”
Indignantly, Tom interrupted, “You ate one? Don’t even say it! How could you?”
“—and someone told us it wasn’t actually longhorn meat, because you all didn’t let anybody kill a-one of them.”
Tom nodded as he said, “That’s a fact.”
The fragile, pale woman smiled.
He asked softly, “Want to go inside now? You’ve been out a while.”
She said, “All right.”
He not only carried her into the house, he asked, “Which way?”
She pointed to a guest room down a hallway on that floor.
Beyond, Mrs. Keeper and her cohort had scurried so as not to be seen. It was frustrating to them not to see what was happening!
As he carried Ellen, Tom offered, “Since I’ve already learned to carry you, would you like a review of the house? The layout is simple and—”
“This time, I’ll just go to my room.”
“Have I bored you?”
“Oh, no. I’m just tired.”
Not having let her go, he asked, “Along here?”
“Yes. The third door.”
He carried her to the door as he said, “I’ve got to be out and about, but I’ll be back for lunch and we’ll eat on the south side. Okay?”
She hesitated, then she said, “Okay.” But there was no enthusiasm.
His foot nudged her door open as she turned the knob and he carried her across the room and carefully laid her on the made bed. Well, he wasn’t cognizant about blankets—and she was dressed.
“Want to change?” He asked that watching her soberly. He smiled. “I could help?”
She lay quietly and barely shook her head as she watched him. She said a formal, “Thank you.”
“I’ll be back at noon.”
“Don’t bother. I’ll probably sleep.”
