The Lone Texan. Lass Small

      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