Chapter 3

Lily selected a somber brown riding costume and set out through the dusty streets for the livery stable. The blacksmith hurried out of the forge to meet her. “Ma’am?”

“Good morning, sir. I wish to hire a driving cart to survey the countryside around town. Would you have one available?”

He bobbed his head. “Sure thing, ma’am. When does you want it?”

“Well, as soon as possible, really. When is the soonest you could have one ready?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe five minutes, if you wanna wait for it.”

She smiled at him. “Thank you, sir. That would be wonderful. How much does it cost?”

He blushed behind his shaggy black beard. “Well, ma’am, seeing as how you’re the first person ever in my life to call me sir, I’ll give it to you for fifty cents.”

Lily’s eyes popped. “Fifty cents! That’s ridiculous. I couldn’t give you less than three dollars.”

He stole a glance at her under her hat. “Well, ma’am, I dunno about that.”

She braced herself. “Stop arguing, or I’ll have to make it five dollars.”

He burst out laughing. His big laugh rolled over the stables like surf crashing on the beach. “Very well, ma’am. You drives a hard bargain. I’ll go get it for you.”

Lily gave him her most winning smile. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” He started to walk away. “Oh, by the way…”

He paused.

She burrowed into her handbag to hid her burning cheeks. “Would you mind…you know, I have this map of the area. Could you point out the way to Bald Mountain?”

He jumped in surprise. “Bald Mountain! Why do you want to go there?”

She shrugged. “Well, you know, I just wanted to orient myself. I hear the land is good up there.”

He took the map out of her hand and studied it. “Right there. That’s Bald Mountain.”

“Thank you.”

Two minutes later, the blacksmith led a stunning bay gelding into the yard with a polished riding trap humming behind. The blacksmith wheeled the vehicle around in front of Lily. “Don’t worry about him, ma’am. He’s gentle as a kitten.”

He handed her into the seat, and she took the reins. “Thank you very much, sir. I trained horses to drive back in Pennsylvania. I’m sure I can handle him.”

The blacksmith grinned. “I’m sure you can. Have a nice day, ma’am”

She nodded. “I should be back before dark. Thank you again.”

The cart whizzed forward, and Lily drove out of town. She followed the main roads south and east, but she couldn’t get the mountain out of her mind. If it was as nice as Jude said, why hadn’t more people settled there?

She would have to see it for herself to find out, but she made a detailed search of all the arable land around town first. She followed the rivers and contours of hills. She inspected cottage gardens and chatted to old women about their experiences in the area in recent years. She pulled up weeds to examine the soil around their roots.

One thing she found out: The soil got more fertile the closer she got to the mountain. How could that be? Usually the opposite happened. The rugged granite spires around the mountain cast an eerie atmosphere over the town. The land up there should be poor and scrubby. No one in his right mind should be bragging about any carrots growing up there.

She studied her map, but she was in a different part of the area. She would have to drive all the way around the mountain to the road winding into the hills.

She steered her horse down a lane leading back to town. She ought to rest him, and she started to feel pangs of hunger herself. She could stop by the hotel and head up the mountain after lunch. Yes, that’s what she would do.

She hadn’t gone half a mile, though, when she noticed a grassy bank by the roadside. A stone well stood to nearby. She better rest her horse here before driving all the way back to town. She could go a little longer without food. The horse was a different matter. He’d been driving all day without water.

She pulled off, unhitched the horse, and tethered him on the grass. She drew a bucket of water for him and let him drink as much as he wanted. He started grazing. Lily took a drink herself and sat down in the shade.

A quaint stone cottage stood across the road. Daisies and daffodils grew around its door, and vegetables stood in rows behind the picket fence. No one could ask for a prettier spot. Jude must be right. This was a great country, and it only got better the farther you got from town.

As she watched, a shriveled old man stepped out of the cottage. He smiled at Lily when he came to the well to draw water. “Nice day for it, ma’am.”

Lily smiled back. “It’s stunning. That’s a mighty nice little place you’ve got there. I was just admiring your garden.”

He wagged his head. “Can’t keep the rabbits out of it. They get more than I do.”

She chuckled. “You need a dog or something.”

“I’ve got a dog, but he’s older than I am now. He can’t chase them. He just sits on the step and watches them eat.”

Lily laughed. “Have you been here long?”

“Only ten years. I came out with the first settlers. Now my sons are all grown and gone, there’s no one to take over after me.”

“Too bad.”

He touched his forelock. “You have a nice day, ma’am. Don’t get a sunburn.”

He hefted his water bucket and went back inside. Lily leaned back in the shade. The horse finished grazing and stood under the trees. His eyes drifted closed.

Lily sighed in contentment. A girl could get used to a country like this. If she kept seeing things she liked about it, she would visit the land office in the morning to find out what parcels were available for sale. Hopefully Luther wouldn’t control the land office along with everything else. If he did, she would have to move on. She wouldn’t deal with him again, especially not about something like this. He might take a notion to trade the land for her, and that was out of the question.

She let the horse rest for a long time while she turned the whole problem over in her mind. After a drowsy wait, she got to her feet and strolled over to the horse. The cottage door creaked open across the street. She glanced over expecting to see the old man again. Her eyes popped out of her head when she recognized Jude Farrell.

He crossed the road and came up on the horse’s other side. He nodded to Lily. “So, it’s true. I didn’t believe Sanders when he told me a lady was here.”

“What are you doing here, Mr. Farrell? What brings you down from your mountain cave?”

He suppressed a smile. “I don’t live in a cave, and call me Jude. Sanders is an old friend of mine, and he doesn’t get around the way he used to. I come by to visit him every now and again.”

She couldn’t stop herself smiling. “That’s very kind of you, Jude.”

“Hardly. He’s done me a good turn more than once. Not everyone in this place thinks I’m a haint and a witch.”

“Is that what they say?”

“They say all kinds of things. They say only a haint would live on the mountain the way I do.”

“What’s so wrong about the mountain? It looks fine to me.”

“They say some strange things about it. They say it’s haunted and a bunch of other things.”

Lily shot him a wicked grin. “If you’re a haint and you live there, that explains why it’s haunted, doesn’t it?”

Jude burst out laughing. “That’s one way of looking at it.”

Lily looked around. “I don’t see your wagon.”

“That’s because I didn’t bring it.”

“Then how did you get here?”

“I walked.”

Lily’s jaw dropped. “You walked all the way from the mountain to here?”

“It’s not that far. I do it all the time. I don’t usually take the wagon anywhere except to town to trade my furs and buy supplies.”

Her eyes twinkled. “You must be very fit.”

He blushed. “Not as fit as you, I’d say.” He studied the horse. “This is Ferguson’s, isn’t it?”

“Is that the blacksmith? Yes, it is.”

Jude whistled. “You must have paid through the nose for this. He never loans this gelding out. This is his prize trotter.”

“He wanted to give him to me for fifty cents, but I refused to take the trap for less than three dollars. He said I was the first person ever to call him ‘sir’.”

Jude nodded. “He’s a pussy cat underneath all that soot.”

“He seems very nice. I like him.”

Jude jerked his head sideways. “If you’re not in a hurry to get back to town, why don’t you come for a walk with me?”

“Actually, I was heading up to Bald…I mean, to the mountain next.”

His eyes sparkled. “Then you can come and visit my place. You can see my carrots.”

Lily snickered. “I plan to. Maybe you’d like a ride there.”

“I don’t think the trap would make it up the hills, but we could go halfway.”

“Great. Let me hitch up.”

He put out his hand. “Let me do it.”

“That’s all right. I don’t mind.”

“You’ll get your gloves dirty.”

“That’s all right. What are they for, if not to protect my hands? Besides, I’ve done it enough times in my life.”

“You have?”

She backed the horse between the shafts. “I worked for my father managing his stables. I trained the horses and managed the breeding. I’ve been around horses all my life.”

He shook his head. “I should have known.”

She set her hand on her hip. “What should you have known—that I’m not the lady I appear to be on the outside?”

“Oh, you’re a lady, all right. You’re more a lady than I realized. Any lady that can hitch up her own horse is lady enough for me.”

She started to reply when a screeching sound came from the woods behind the road. Jude pricked up his ears. Lily spun around. “What was that?”

“It’s a raccoon. Sounds like he’s got something.”

Lily jumped. “Let’s go see.”

He hung back. “Naw. You don’t want to go near them when they’ve got food. They can get vicious.”

She grabbed his hand. “Come on. I want to see, and you’re coming with me. You can protect me if anything goes wrong.”

He stumbled after her. “You’re crazy. You know that?”

Lily chuckled. “You better believe it. If you don’t want my brand of craziness, you better run home to your carrots now and forget all about me.”

A ways into the woods, Lily found herself surrounded on all sides by dense undergrowth. No sun penetrated those woods. She slowed to a stop and sniffed the air. “Where is it now, do you think?”

Jude listened, but he heard nothing. “He probably took off when he heard us coming. Those skirts of yours make quite a racket.”

Lily sighed. “Oh, well. Another time, maybe.”

He studied her. “You didn’t really want to see a raccoon, did you?”

“I want to see everything. I want to know everything there is to know about this country. I can’t wait to move out here for good.”

“Well, you won’t be living anywhere you’ll be around raccoons. They stay in the woods.”

“I will see them,” she countered. “My family plans to Homestead, just like you. I’ll be rolling up my sleeves and getting dirty with the best of them then.”

He stared at her. “You will?”

“Of course. Carving a Homestead out of the raw frontier takes work, and that means dirt. I never hesitated to get dirty in my life. Don’t let my fancy clothes fool you. These are just my town clothes.”

He scratched his head. “Huh. I never pegged you for the frontier type.”

“Most people don’t.” Lily surveyed her surroundings. “What do you want to do now? Are you in a hurry to get back?”

He snorted. “I just asked you to take a walk with me, so it looks like that’s what we’re doing. Do you want to go farther into the woods, or do you want to go back to the road?”

“Into the woods. Definitely.”

“You won’t get to see my carrots.”

She grinned. “Another time, then. Do you plan to eat them tonight? They’ll still be there when I come to visit.”

He shook his head, and they set off through the woods. “You’re some pieces of work, aren’t you? You’re nothing like what I expected.”

“I don’t even want to know what you expected, so don’t tell me.”

“I never expected a lady like you to give me the time of day. I thought you’d be too worried about getting dirty.”

She looked him up and down. “You’re not dirty. You’re just about the only thing I’ve seen in Iron Bark that isn’t—except maybe that horse.”

They came to a tree fallen across their path. Lily put out her foot to step over it, and when she raised her arm to keep her balance, he caught her hand. She smiled up at him, and a delicate heat flashed over her cheeks. “Thank you.”

He handed her over the log and let go of her hand to cross himself. Lily strolled through the woods, but she couldn’t stop her heart pattering. Did she excite him the way he excited her? Did he feel that charge of tension when he touched her hand?

For some reason, the conversation didn’t restart. That simple touch of their hands hung heavy between them. Lily kicked herself, but she couldn’t think of one intelligent thing to say.

The sunshine shone beyond the trees. The horse’s brown back stood a few feet away. Nothing remained but to leave the shelter of the forest for the real world outside. She hesitated, and Jude faced her. “Listen. I meant what I said about you coming up to see my place, but maybe you shouldn’t tell Luther about it. He would only get nasty.”

Lily smacked her lips. “Please let’s not talk about him. He makes me so mad, and now I have no choice except to deal with him. I never want to see him or hear his name again as long as I live.”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to if you spend any time in this town. No one can set foot outside their houses without him knowing about it.”

“He’s a tyrant and a highwayman. I saw that the first time I laid eyes on him. If he thinks he can threaten you in the middle of the…”

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” Jude interrupted. “He can’t touch me. I’m worried about you. You’re right there in town. All he has to do is cross the street and you can’t get away from him.”

“So what do you suggest I do?”

“Carry on your business as usual. Just don’t let him find out you plan to come up and visit me. He always wants to get in my face, but for some reason, he gets especially nasty when you’re around.”

Lily groaned. “That’s just fantastic.”

He took a step toward her. “It will be all right. You won’t be in town forever.”

The smile evaporated off her face. “No. I won’t.”

Jude peered through the trees at the horse. “I guess you better go.”

“Don’t you want a ride?”

He moved around her into the woods. “No. I’ll go this way.”

“Oh.” Her heart sank. “Well, good-bye.”

His mouth twitched. “I had a nice time with you today. I’m glad I bumped into you.”

“I had a nice time, too.”

His hand moved forward. Somehow, some way, their fingers entwined of their own accord. Nothing could stop their hands coming together, but what about the rest of them?

Lily’s breath caught in her throat. His eyes mesmerized her inches away from her face. He murmured, “Lily…”

She clung to his hand for dear life. She found herself falling into an overpowering vortex. It suffocated her. What was happening? She swam toward the air, the light. Only one place in the universe offered her any hope. She fixed her eyes on his lips. She had to get there at all costs. She couldn’t live if she didn’t get there.

His lips parted. His nostrils flared, and his eyes burned into her soul. He stared at her with the same burning intensity, and he fell towards her on the same unstoppable vortex. His lips followed the silent shapes of her name, but no sound came out.

Then the light exploded out of her. Their lips touched, and she inhaled a deep breath of his scent. Oh, that heaven scent! It spoke to her out of the primal reaches of the past. It answered every secret need in her heart. He kissed her!

His eyes glowed before her. He fought for breath before the overwhelming tide. His hand came to rest against her cheek. “Lily.”

All of a sudden, his mouth popped off hers. He broke into a grin. “That’s why you shouldn’t tell Luther.”

Lily burst out laughing. “You devil.”

He grabbed her hand. “Come on. It’s getting late, and you have to get back to town.”

She stopped next to the horse. “When can I come to visit you?”

“Whenever you please. When would you like to come?”

“Today is Friday, and I guess you don’t go to church on Sunday. How about tomorrow? Is that too soon?”

“Nothing would be too soon to see you again.”

“I thought you might want to launder your long johns before I come.”

Jude turned away with a shake of his head. He chuckled under his breath. “You’re a bad one, aren’t you? Don’t let Luther hear you talking like that. He’ll wash your mouth out with soap.”

Lily laughed with him. She took the horse’s bridle and walked him to the road. “Don’t go kissing any more girls on the way home, Mr. Farrell.”

He stood back from the road and watched her climb into the seat. “Don’ t worry. I’ll save all my kisses for you.”

She flashed him a grin and waved while the horse paced away into the lowering afternoon.