Hardscrabble Pt. 02

"Am I making sense to you?"

"Yes, Mother, Gwen, Kathleen, each of you made an important point or points, and I know you are looking out for me as well as Lilly. Now I'll be frank with you: I stopped seeing Lilly as 'my skinny little friend' long ago. In fact, I'll state unequivocally that she is the most beautiful girl, from head to toe, that I've seen. Add that high intellect, her quick wit, her sense of humor, and her ability to charm most anyone she has a conversation with, and you have an almost perfect young woman. I would happily date her; I would be proud to have her on my arm anywhere I went.

"But it seems Lilly wants more than that, and I don't; not right now. She is far too rash, too flighty, and too quick to make decisions without all the needed information. Add that we would be seventy miles apart, and those characteristics would leave me concerned about her actions. I don't see how we could have an exclusive relationship under these circumstances, and that is what she wants, isn't it?"

Gwen smiled, looked at Kathleen, and she smiled as well. "What she wants, based on what she practices writing in her notebook, is to become Mrs. Silas Carr. Obviously, based on your reservations, that is an impossibility now... but is it forever impossible?"

"I've described my attraction to her, but perhaps we should try dating BEFORE we get engaged and wed?" he answered with a smile.

All three laughed, and he became the midst of a group hug. "Will you promise to go easy on her? Nothing you could say would make her feel worse about herself than her own condemnation," Gwen asked.

Silas promised he would, and they went their separate ways.

Lilly was dancing with Samuel to Goodbye Liza Jane when they made their way to the slab where the band was playing a combination of old and modern music. She appeared to have recovered, or perhaps she was putting on a brave face.

Silas waited while Samuel deposited Lilly at her seat beside Mary Jane, and walked away. Lilly looked around, but quickly averted her eyes when she found Silas. He began walking toward her, hoping the band would stay would not venture into Ragtime, which, while fun, but not serve his immediate purpose. He was almost to Lilly, who was looking anywhere but at him, when the band began playing Mollie Darling; he smiled, thinking that he couldn't have chosen a better song for their first dance.

"Lilly, would you like to dance?" he asked, with his hand extended. She looked up at him, and he saw an odd combination of sheepishness and defiance in her face. "Well?" he asked again, when she hesitated.

She stood, but stated, "I would, if you won't be mean to me!" His chuckle almost caused her to sit back down, but he grabbed her by the hand, addressed her properly, and they began to dance. She followed him flawlessly, with grace and balance he had rarely encountered.

She continued to look over his shoulder rather than at him. "Lilly, would you look at me? I have something to ask of you."

She turned her eyes to him, but retained her haughty appearance. He found that ironic, given that she initiated the entire mess, but smiled and asked, "I need a companion for rally being held in Pleasanton next Saturday. Governor Roberts and Attorney General McLeary will both be there, and the General has requested that I attend. There will be speeches, a meal, and such, but that evening there will be a ball. Would you do me the honor of being my companion for this event?"

She almost faltered in her dance step, and a surprised look crossed her pretty face, but she tried to maintain the façade. "Why would you ask me? You seem to think I'm a terrible person!" she sniffed, but her countenance demonstrated excitement and hopefulness.

"I think I said you used poor judgement in inviting a known scoundrel to the celebration. That was a mistake, but I hope it was not a character flaw."

With a tilted head, the hint of a smile playing along his mouth, and a twinkle in his eyes, he continued. "However, if being in my company is too great a price to pay in order to meet the Governor and Attorney General, and to be presented to some of the most important people in south Texas, I'm confident I'll be able to find someone else with lower standards who would be willing to go with me."

Lilly's blue-green eyes were alight with excitement, but she continued to feign reluctance. "Perhaps you should tell me more about your plans, Silas. That would require an overnight stay, and you know I would never stay alone with a man."

"One of my closest friends from University lives on a ranch just south of Pleasanton. His parents have invited me and my guest to stay with them, so your virtue will remain as unblemished as it is currently."

"That is an interesting choice of words, Mr. Carr: it seems you may doubt that my virtue is unblemished," she replied with a cocked eyebrow.

Silas responded with wide-eyed innocence. "Not at all, Miss Thomson; I have no way of knowing whether your virtue has been blemished. I merely assured you it would remain as it is while serving as my companion on this trip."

"Another interesting choice of words, Mr. Carr; do you believe that my participation in events of polite society indicates I'm a woman of loose morals?" The eye remained cocked and disbelieving.

Silas turned the question around, "If I believed you are a young woman of loose morals, would I invite you to accompany me to meet my new employer and the Governor? To stay in the home of my friend and his parents? As I said, your elevated social standing aside, I have no way of knowing one way or another, but if I believed you were a loose woman, either I would have failed to invite you, or we would be staying together in a hotel there." He added the last with a wink and smile.

She feigned indignation at his boldness, but thought that was actually an intriguing idea.

"I suppose I can forgive you for the unkind way you addressed me earlier, and go with you. When would we leave and return?"

"We will leave Friday morning and return Sunday evening. I can pick you up at the ranch, of course." She smiled brightly, and all seemed to be forgiven.

The music ended, but they remained standing in the middle of the floor, still in dance position. The band cooperated, playing other recently written and published songs like Red River Valley, In the Pines, and The Language of Flowers, before featuring the fiddler in a traditional Appalachian fiddling song, The Lost Indian.

Lilly and Silas danced every song together, not leaving the floor until the band took a break. Even then, they didn't return to their seats, but stayed on the floor talking and teasing, with a hearty helping of flirtation thrown in. The four parents were ecstatic about the sudden change, and joined the kids in dancing to the new-fangled music.

The dance floor had been crowded when the band took their break, and most returned when they did. But Silas nearly cleared it when the band announced the celebrant had requested they play a new kind of music that mostly young folks liked, but they enjoyed playing -- Ragtime music. They began playing the upbeat melody, and the only two who stayed were Lilly and Silas; they were the only ones who had been introduced to the music and complicated dance steps. The others 'young people' watched for a moment, learning the steps, and then began joining them and trying to follow along.

They had so much fun the band agreed to play one more, and this time Lonnie and Gwen, who had been practicing in the dark, joined in. That brought a few other 'older' couples to the floor, and it was half full when the band thanked everyone, said that is all the Ragtime they knew, and played another song written in the 1970s, Home on the Range.

That filled the floor to overflowing, and it stayed that way until the final song of the night, a recently written hymn that celebrated Christ's birth: There's a Song in the Air. Everyone sang rather than danced, and then goodbyes were said among the few leaving for home at this late hour, the many camping out around the Quad, and those who lived nearby.

Somewhere in the midst of all the confusion, everyone lost track of Lilly and Silas. They had slipped into the barn and scrambled up into the hayloft, where they were sitting on a bale watching the three-quarter moon come up in the east, and chatting easily with one another.

Silas was growing more enchanted every moment by the intelligent, quick witted and gorgeous woman-child beside him. He had dated scores of young women during his four years at University, but never before had he felt so captivated. Only a few hours ago, he remembered, he had been furious with her; now, as she giggled, tossed her shimmering hair, looked at him with those twinkling eyes, and licked those plump lips, he had great difficulty remembering why.

For her part, Lilly felt the angels had descended, bringing her personal heaven to earth. From the moments she had watched him dig her beloved Daddy's grave, carefully wrap him in canvas, lay him down gently, and invited her to read words from the Bible over him, she had been infatuated with Silas. Getting to know him better during the months they resided with the Carrs, before he left for university, only increased her obsession.

He was four years older, he was university bound, and she was still a skinny girl, but she had promised herself she would become the woman he would accept as his equal, want as his partner for life, and claim as his one true love. She had made mistakes and miscalculated several times, the last being nearly fatal to her dreams, but each moment with him she learned more about what he wanted and expected in a woman.

Suddenly, she was about to go spend three days and two nights in his company! That they would also be in the company of the Governor and she would meet the Attorney General was nice, but largely irrelevant to her plans and schemes. The center of her universe was Silas.

They were sitting close, arms and shoulders touching from time to time, and she was having trouble keeping her hands from capturing his. A shooting star raced across the horizon, and they exclaimed and pointed in unison! Silas leaned his shoulder against her, placed his mouth by her ear, and whispered, "When you both see a shooting star, you're supposed to kiss."

She looked at him with as sense of wonder, and, for fear he was only teasing, kept her eyes open until just before his lips met hers.

At the moment their lips touched, both felt a surge of... something... something powerful! Electricity, pure sensation, lust, love -- neither knew, because neither had experienced anything like that before. Nor had they ever heard of such a thing happening to their friends or family.

Whatever it was seemed to draw them in deeper and deeper, until her lips opened with a whimper and Silas plunged his tongue into her mouth. Oh, she had been 'French kissed' before, but she only allowed it because she wanted to have the experience to draw on when she got her chance with Silas, but now she could only react. Whatever she thought she had learned flew away, and her tongue instinctively flicked at his.

She whimpered again when Silas ended their kiss and fervently whispered, "You are overwhelming my senses, Lilly!" He placed his right arm across her shoulders, fell to his knees facing her, pulled her upper body tightly to his, and kissed her even more passionately. She moaned into his mouth, and she felt her nether region flutter, wetten, and tingle as his passion set her afire.

Silas' cock was so hard it hurt, and his body was aflame with desire for his irresistible young companion. His left hand was resting on her hip, his right on her shoulder, but dangerously close to the tantalizing breasts swelling out of the dress. Her lips were crushed to his, and her body was trying to meld itself against his. His left hand slid down and squeezed the roundest and most delectable rump he had every felt, and his passion flared beyond his control.

"Lilly, Silas -- are you in the loft?"

Neither processed the question immediately, lost as they were in a state of desire, but both realized a female was near. They very reluctantly ended their kiss, and Silas returned to his seat beside her. He looked at her, moonlight glinting off her flawless face; he could see her lips were swollen and there were red circles on her cheeks.

A male voice echoed the question, "Silas, Lilly, are you in the loft."

Silas cleared his throat and responded, "Yes, we are. Come on up, if you wish." He turned to the ladder and watched Kathleen appear, followed by Samuel.

As she walked to them, Kathleen asked, "Did you work out your differences? I hate to see you fight like..." When she got a close look at them with the moonlight, she stopped, clasped her hand over her mouth, and stood still, staring. Samuel appeared beside her with a puzzled look, turned to Lilly and Silas, looked back at Kathleen, and laughed.

"It appears they indeed made up, Kathleen! Either that, or they had a wrestling match!"

Kathleen's face turned from incredulous to delighted, and she laughed with Samuel. The almost-lovers averted their eyes and looked guilty, adding to their mirth.

"We're sorry -- we didn't know! We only wanted to check on you, and it appears you are fine, so we will retreat back downstairs and let you resume... whatever you were doing!"

Kathleen's explanation and offer make Samuel laugh even harder than before. "Resume whatever you were doing! Oh my god!"

Lilly and Silas looked at each other, and joined in the laughter. Silas protested, "Actually, your intervention was fortuitous. We had just seen a shooting star and shared a brief kiss that left us feeling uncomfortable, and..."

Samuel bent over in laughter, looking at Silas' crotch, and repeated, "You 'shared a brief kiss that left you uncomfortable'! I can see that, my friend; you certainly do appear 'uncomfortable!'"

Silas slammed his legs together and turned orange in the silvery moonlight. Kathleen joined in the uproarious laughter, and he cringed. Lilly sternly came to his rescue. "Okay, you two will stop harassing us, or I'll tell Silas tales about the pair of you!"

Kathleen got wide-eyed, and Samuel looked stricken; seizing the moment, with a frown Silas asked, "And what are these tales? Surely the two of you..."

Samuel stood straight and tall, concerned but unafraid. "We were going to tell you tonight, after the dance. After all, you would have seen us dancing together all night, had you had eyes for anyone but your partner."

"The very partner you chastised quite severely earlier," Kathleen added. "The very partner who promised me she was quite over you once she experienced how cruel you can be! Yet, only hours later we catch you doing who knows what in a dark barn!

"It seems your bark is much worse than your bite, Brother, and that your promises are transitory, Lilly!"

Lily made a face at her, then turned to Silas and began, "Silas, your sister and your friend have...."

"Fallen in love! I can see that with my own eyes -- I don't need to be told! I'm sorry I was inattentive earlier; today has been challenging! So, has this reached the point that you have plans?"

Samuel put his arm around Kathleen, pulled her to him, looked her in the eyes, and said, "I told you he would approve! Now, can we finally being planning? Our parents are quite aware of our feelings, and your father has even asked 'what are your intentions for my daughter, young man?' I know he was teasing because he and my father collapsed in laughter at my red face."

"As I understand the rules, Mr. Townsend, the next step is yours," Kathleen responded with an arched eyebrow.

Samuel replied, "Well, then..." He knelt on one knee, and took her hands in his. "Kathleen Carr, will you marry me?"

Kathleen was framed by the moonlight flowing through the loft door; Silas and Lilly could see both faces perfectly. She was able to maintain as sincere a countenance through his proposal as he did, and they remained sincere as she answered. "Yes, Samuel Townsend, my love, I will marry you!"

Samuel stood, reached into his pocket, and held out a dainty ring with a single diamond that sparkled in the moonlight. "As you know, this was my paternal grandmother's ring. She told me before she died that she expected me to give this to the love of my life, and to remain eternally faithful to her, as her husband had been. I promised her then, and I promise you now: I will remain eternally faithful to you, for you are the love of my life!"

Kathleen pulled him to her, and kissed him in a way that promised faithfulness, and much more.

After congratulations were spoken and accepted, they made their way down the ladder and to the Carr home, where they knew their parents and other Settlement members were gathered to finish cleaning and discuss the day.

Samuel and Kathleen entered hand in hand, with smiles covering their faces; Silas and Lilly entered the same way. Conversations stopped, and the curious attention of the small assembly was directed at them. Kathleen merely raised her left hand to shoulder height, wrist bent, to display the ring on her reserved finger. The subsequent uproar was joyous, and they endured seemingly unending congratulations, hugs, and handshakes.

Silas and Lilly stood back, happily letting the spotlight shine on their best friends. Tracks of joyful tears streaked Lilly's angelic face, and her bottom lip quivered slightly.

Looking at her in profile, Silas realized that he had feelings for her that far transcended what he had believed. She was immature, but she was also kind, caring, personable, intelligent, a great friend to his sisters, as well as stunningly beautiful, and, he had learned tonight, quite passionate.

For the first time, he accepted that, with a wee bit more maturity, she would be everything a man could want in his life's companion.

That realization may have been seen on his face, because when he looked up he saw their parents standing side by side watching them while others congratulated the newly engaged. Gwen had her arms around Silas' mom, and they walked toward Lilly and Silas with mischievous looks on their faces, followed by the grinning men.

Gwen asked, "And where did you two disappear to? We were about to form a search party when Kathleen and Samuel volunteered to go find you. We were afraid you had harmed each other, given all the vitriol, but they come back thirty minutes later engaged, and you two look... I can't tell if it is enraptured, or guilty! What do you think, Madelyn?"

"I think they have been off somewhere working out their differences and arriving at a consensus of some kind. I'm not certain what form those negotiations took, but they certainly bring a blush to Miss Lilly's cheeks, and my son has suddenly assumed a proprietary air about her.

Augustus, Lorenzo, what do you think?"

"My brother and I agree that you two should stop teasing them and give them time and distance to figure out what has happened," Silas' father chided.

Then, with a small grin, Lonnie added, "It's obvious neither has any idea what they have wandered off into, anyway, so perhaps we should give them time to figure things out!"

"Harrumph!" Gwen exclaimed. That means we need to watch them like Nighthawks! We can't have my daughter's reputation sullied!"

"Mother," Lily said in a smug voice, "I have an opportunity meet the governor and attorney general next weekend. Don't you think that would be an important step in my education and elucidation?"

Without missing a beat, Gwen responded, "And in whose companionship and care would you be while you travel to Pleasanton and spend two nights, young lady?"

Lilly was surprised by her mother's response, and especially by her knowing she would travel to Pleasanton for two nights. "How did you..."