Chapter 3 #2
Silence slid between the three women. Lizzy’s mind instantly began to tackle the problem, as it was prone to do. Emily had come of her own volition. Troy hadn’t invited her. He clearly wasn’t happy to see this woman. So, why was she here? Was she running away from something?
Julie broke the silence. “Ah, there is your tent,” she said. “It’s right here by mine and Andrew’s and Lizzy’s. She lives with her little brother, Timothy.”
“Tent?” Emily asked, bewildered. “I’ll be staying in a tent?”
“Of course,” Lizzy said. “Most of us live in tents. Some of the founders have little huts. We fetch our own water as well, and the outhouse is down that way.” She pointed past all the tents to where the roof of the outhouse stuck out above the row of bushes that shielded it from view.
“Our town is still very new,” Julie said proudly, like a mother speaking of her little child. “Are you familiar with Texas at all?”
Emily shook her head. “No.”
“Right. Then there are some things you need to know,” she said. “Watch out for scorpions; they like to hide in your bedding and boots.” She looked at Emily’s feet.
Lizzy almost laughed. Emily’s shoes were dainty things with a heel, not at all suited to life away from the city.
“Well, I would put my shoes up on the table if I were you,” Julie said. “Do you have boots?”
“Riding boots,” Emily said. “I didn’t realize how rural this place was.
” She looked around uncertainly, and Lizzy was struck by a pang of pity for her.
Clearly, she had her reasons for being here, and they had caused her to make a snap decision without knowing too much about the place she was heading to.
“It’s okay,” Lizzy said. “I have a spare pair. I think our feet are around the same size.” She lifted her foot and gestured for Emily to do so too.
She did, and Lizzy’s guess was good. Their feet were almost the same size.
Emily’s were a little smaller. “With some thick socks, they should work until we can get you some proper boots.”
Emily looked close to tears. “Thank you. I know this is a great imposition.”
“Think nothing of it,” Julie said kindly. “Now let’s get you settled.”
The tent was the standard type that Lizzy lived in with Tim, but this one was a little smaller. There was space for a bed, a table, and a chair, and then all of Emily’s luggage.
As she put things where she wanted them, Emily said, “I seem to have gotten it in my head that this was a town. You know, with buildings.” She chuckled self-consciously.
“It goes to show that perceptions and ideas can influence one’s interpretation of what one reads rather a lot.
I must remember that when I begin lessons for the children. How many children are in this camp?”
Julie blinked. “You’re opening a school?”
Emily nodded. “Naturally. I’m a teacher.”
“Right, there are currently nine children of school-going age,” Julie said, rallying swiftly to the idea. “Another two are on the way.” As the apothecary, she knew everyone in camp.
“I have to get going,” Lizzy excused herself, still rather overwhelmed by Emily’s appearance. “It was nice to meet you.”
She stepped out of the tent and walked right into Kyle.
“Were you eavesdropping?” she asked.
“No,” Kyle said, walking a little way from the tent with her. “I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay. You’re my friend—kind of like a little sister to me, Lizzy— so I worry about you.”
She raised her brows. “Really?”
He shrugged. “Got no blood sister. Figured adopting one couldn’t hurt.”
She smiled, touched.
They headed up to the gardens and the paddock.
“So, what do you think of all this?” she asked him.
“I think that, as usual, Troy was too wrapped up in his machines and all the projects you two are working on to pay much attention to anything else,” Kyle said.
“So, do you think he asked her out here and forgot about it?” Lizzy asked.
Kyle shrugged. “I have no idea. No, that’s not true. Troy may be distracted, but he isn’t careless with people’s feelings. I think this woman decided to come out here because she was tired of waiting for him to ask.”
Lizzy nodded. It was a possibility.
As they approached one of the crates they used for storage, Lizzy heard a strange sound. It sounded like a scuffle.
She frowned, looking at Kyle. He had heard it too.
They rounded the crate and found two boys fighting. They had clenched fists and were rolling around on the ground, trying to hit each other.
“Timothy Adrian Lupo!” Lizzy exclaimed as she recognized the boy pinned to the ground. “What in heaven’s name is going on here?”
The other boy, who was bigger and went by the name of Carl Jurgens, turned in surprise at the sound of her voice, and Tim landed a slap against his ear. Carl reeled and brought his fist down on Tim’s jaw.
Then Kyle, who seemed to finally unfreeze, grabbed Carl and wrenched him off Tim. Lizzy knew her little brother well. He shot to his feet, trying to get to Carl and lay into him, but she was quicker. She grabbed him and wrapped her arms around him, pinning his fists to his sides.
“Let me go!” Tim roared. “Let me go!”
“No!” Lizzy retorted, trying to force him away from the other boy. Tim might be small for his age, but he was sinewy and surprisingly strong.
Kyle managed to drag Carl away. “I’ll take him to his folks,” he called as he forced Carl to walk away.
“He started it!” Carl called.
“No, he started it,” Tim said through gritted teeth. “He had no right to say the things he said.”
Lizzy held him as he strained against her until he finally calmed down. Then she let him go. Tim glared at her, but he didn’t try to fight anymore. Instead, he paced up and down.
Lizzy sighed. “What did he say? Not that someone mouthing off is any reason for you to pick a fight with them. Did he call you names? You know that doesn’t mean anything.”
Tim glared at her. “He didn’t call me names.”
There was something in the way he said it that pricked her ears up. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Who did he call names?”
Tim wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“Tim. Talk to me.”
“It was you, okay? He called you things that if Papa had heard him, he would have beaten that little runt black and blue for. He had no right to say anything about you!”
Lizzy swallowed. This was going to be tricky. “Words don’t hurt,” she said gently.
“These did,” Tim said, wiping his nose with his sleeve. It left a snotty, bloody streak on the fabric. “He called you a bad word and said that Troy was just playing around with you and would marry that new woman instead because she was a lady.”
She’d been called a lot of things in her life, but what Tim was insinuating Carl had called her … that was new. And unpleasant.
“Well, Carl doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Troy is … Well, Troy has a lot to deal with now.” She sighed. Though she wasn’t one to be quickly offended, this really should be addressed before ugly rumors spread. “Let’s go and speak to Carl’s father.”
With her arm around Timothy’s shoulders, they set off.