Caleb's expression was thunderous. "Where the hell have you been?" he growled, his arms folded across his chest. "I stayed the night in a boarding house," Lily answered as she climbed down from the surrey. "Did you and Winola and Rupert have a nice dinner together?" He glared at her. "Get in that house!" "And do what?" Lily retorted. "Write 'I will not disobey my husband' a thousand times?" "Move!" Caleb roared. Lily's aplomb fled in an instant, and she dashed toward the door of the cabin. "I'll thank you to remember that I'm in the family way," she was quick to say. She was recalling that other time, when Caleb would have paddled her if Velvet hadn't happened along just in time to prevent it. Inside the cabin Caleb set Lily in a chair and proceeded to deliver a lecture that was, in many ways, worse than a spanking. He shouted, he listed the perils of traveling alone, he swore by all that was holy that if Lily ever did such a stupid thing again he'd wring her neck. Lily's eyes were wide by the time he began to wind down, and when he sent her to the bedroom she went. When Caleb came to her it was from a different direction than expected. A terrible racket arose on the other side of the bedroom wall, and Lily watched in horrified amazement as an ax bit through the new wood. Furiously Caleb shaped a rude door. "Now," he said, tossing the ax behind him, "it's all one house. Welcome to our bedroom, Mrs. Halliday." Lily was convinced she'd married a madman. "You stay away from me," she said, scooting backwards on the bed. She didn't move fast enough. Caleb caught hold of one of her legs, lifted it high, and began untying her shoelace. "There isn't a chance in hell of that, sodbuster," he said, and then he began rolling Lily's stocking down. She trembled as his hand caressed her inner thigh for the briefest moment. "Not a chance in hell." Only when the lovemaking was over and Caleb had risen from the bed did Lily's pride come back into its own. The moment he stepped through the hacked-out opening into his side of the house she moved the bureau in front of the opening. "You stay on your side," she said when she saw him through the opening above the chest of drawers, "and I'll keep to mine." As usual, Caleb had expected his romantic attentions to make everything all right between them. "Damn it, Lily," he growled, bracing his hands on the bureau top and leaning forward ominously, "we're married!" "As far as I'm concerned, we can just forget that unfortunate fact." "That's fine with me," Caleb snapped. And then he turned and stormed away. Lily
( Linda Lael Miller )
[ Lily and the Major ]
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