Page 86 of The Honorable Texan
“Sure you will,” Leo promised, smiling.“You’ll be safe here.The only real chore you’ll have is baking.By the time you’re completely back on your feet, your father will be sober and in counseling, and your home life will have changed drastically.”
“I hope so,” she said huskily.
He watched her eyes grow tragic and haunted.He frowned.“Meredith,” he said slowly.“If you need to talk, ever, I can listen without making judgments.”
She met his clear dark eyes.“Thanks, Leo,” she said with genuine gratitude.“But talking won’t change a thing.It’s a matter of learning to live with…things.”
“Now I’m intrigued.”
“Don’t push,” she said gently.“I’m not able to talk about my problems yet.They’re too fresh.Too painful.”
“And more than just your father, or I’m a dirt farmer,” he drawled.
She shrugged.“Perhaps.”
“Anyway, just take your time and let the world pass you by.You’re going to love it here.I promise.”
“Am I?”She watched Rey come back out of the house with an elderly lady in tow, wringing her hands on her apron.
“That’s Mrs.Lewis,” Leo told her.“We talked her into coming back to bake biscuits for us, even though she’d retired, but now we’re losing her to arthritis.She’s going to show you the ropes.But not right now,” he added quickly.
“No time like the present,” Meredith disagreed with a smile.“Busy hands make busy minds.”
“I know how that works,” Leo murmured drolly.
Rey opened the back door and helped Meredith out.“Mrs.Lewis, this is Meredith Johns, our new cook.Meredith, Annie Lewis.She’s retiring.Again.”He made it sound like a shooting offense.
“Oh, my, yes, I’m losing the use of my hands, I’m afraid,” Mrs.Lewis said.“Glad to meet you, Miss Johns.”
“Glad to meet you, too, Mrs.Lewis,” Meredith replied.
“I’ll take your bag to your room, while Mrs.Lewis shows you around the house,” Rey added.
“She just got here,” Leo protested.
“And there’s no time like the present to show her the house,” Rey replied.
“That’s just what she said,” Leo sighed.
Rey glanced at Meredith, who gave him a wicked grin and followed along behind Annie Lewis, who was making a valiant effort not to ask about the terrible bruises on Meredith’s face.
“It’s a big, sprawling house, and it takes a lot of cleaning,” Mrs.Lewis said as she led Meredith down the long hall and opened doors to the very masculine bedrooms both with dark, heavy Mediterranean furniture and earth tones in the drapes and carpets.“The men aren’t messy, thank God, but they track in all that mud and dust and animal fur!They had beige carpeting when I came here.”She glanced at Meredith with a shake of her head.“Red mud just won’t comeoutof beige carpet!”
“Or anything else,” Meredith added on a soft laugh.
“They work hard, and they’re away a lot.But the foreman lives in the bunkhouse with a couple of bachelor cowboys, and they’ll look out for you.”
“I don’t know that I’ll be here very long,” Meredith replied quietly.“They offered me the job so that I can have time for these to heal.”She touched her face, and looked straight at the older woman, who was struggling not to ask the question in her eyes.
“Nobody will hurt you here,” Mrs.Lewis said firmly.
Meredith smiled gently.“My father got drunk and beat me up, Mrs.Lewis,” she explained matter-of-factly.“He’s a good and kind man, but we’ve had a terribletragedy to work through.He hasn’t been able to cope with it except by losing himself in a bottle, and now he’s gone too far and he’s in jail.”She sighed.“I tried so hard to help him.But I couldn’t.”
Mrs.Lewis didn’t say a word.She put her arms around Meredith and rocked her in them.The shock of it brought the tears that she’d held back for so long.She wept until her body shook with sobs.
Rey, looking for her, stopped dead in the doorway of his bedroom and met Mrs.Lewis’s misty eyes over Meredith’s bowed shoulders.It shocked him to see that feisty, strong woman collapsed in tears.It hurt him.
Mrs.Lewis made a gesture with her eyebrows and a severe look.Rey acknowledged it with a nod and a last glance at the younger woman as he walked back down the hall.
