Pearl

  “What in the world were you thinking of, coming into my room...?”

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Books by Ruth Langan

  About the Author

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Epilogue

  Copyright

  “What in the world were you thinking of, coming into my room...?”

  Pearl asked in surprise.

  The need to feel her was so great, Cal reached out a hand to her, cutting off her words. For the space of a heartbeat he thought about dragging her into his arms and kissing her lips until she was breathless. Then, suddenly coming to his senses, he snatched his hand away as if burned. His eyes hardened. His voice deepened with anger. “Go back to bed.”

  “Not until—”

  “I said go back to bed, Pearl.”

  “You’re drunk,” she said accusingly.

  He swore. “Not nearly drunk enough.”

  “Then you should have stayed in town until you did a proper job of it.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Cal retorted, stepping through the doorway and pulling the door shut behind him.

  Dear Reader,

  Pearl is the second book in Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award winner Ruth Langan’s new

  THE JEWELS OF TEXAS series featuring four sisters, brought together by the death of their father. Pearl is the story of an Eastern-bred schoolteacher and the rough-and-tumble ranch foreman who wants her sent back home where she belongs. Don’t miss any of this terrific new series.

  In Liz Ireland’s delightful new Western, Millie and the Fugitive, an innocent man running from the law is forced to take along a spoiled rich girl who turns out to be the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

  Margaret Moore’s new medieval novel, The Baron’s Quest, is the story of a rough-edged Saxon who falls in love with the refined gentlewoman whom he has inherited along with his new holdings. Badlands Bride, by Cheryl St John, is about a newspaper reporter who goes west pretending to be a mail-order bride, only to find herself stranded in the Dakotas for one long cold winter.

  We hope you’ll keep a lookout for all four titles wherever Harlequin Historicals are sold.

  Sincerely,

  Tracy Farrell

  Senior Editor

  Please address questions and book requests to:

  Harlequin Reader Service

  U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: P.O. Box 609. Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  Ruth Langan

  Pearl

  TORONTO NEW YORK LONDON

  AMSTERDAM PARIS SYDNEY HAMBURG

  STOCKHOLM ATHENS TOKYO MILAN

  MADRID WARSAW BUDAPEST AUCKLAND

  Books by Ruth Langan

  Harlequin Historicals

  Mistress of the Seas #10

  †Texas Heart #31

  *Highland Barbarian #41

  *Highland Heather #65

  *Highland Fire #91

  *Highland Heart #111

  †Texas Healer #131

  Christmas Miracle #147

  †Texas Hero #180

  Deception #196

  *The Highlander #228

  Angel #245

  *Highland Heaven #269

  ‡Diamond #305

  Dulcie’s Gift #324

  ‡Pearl #329

  Harlequin Books

  Harlequin Historicals Christmas Stories 1990

  “Christmas at Bitter Creek”

  †Texas Series

  *The Highland Series

  ‡The Jewels of Texas

  RUTH LANGAN

  traces her ancestry to Scotland and Ireland. It is no surprise, then, that she feels a kinship with the characters in her historical novels.

  Married to her childhood sweetheart, she has raised five children and lives in Michigan, the state where she was born and raised.

  To Taylor Langan Shrader

  The newest jewel in our family crown.

  To her proud parents, Mary and Dennis,

  And Caitlin Bea, Bret and Ally.

  And, of course, to Tom.

  Always.

  Prologue

  Hanging Tree, Texas

  1870

  “Oh, Daddy. What have I done?”

  The lone figure stood on a windswept hill, her gaze fastened on a mound of earth covered with rocks. Pearl Jewel looked exactly as she had two months previously, when she stepped off a stage from Boston. Her gown was painstakingly starched and pressed; her hair was neatly beribboned; her everpresent parasol shielded her skin from the sun’s scorching rays.

  Even now, she could hardly believe her bold reaction to news of her father’s murder in this faraway place called Texas. The first thought that occurred to this prim, proper young woman had been to lock herself away with her grief. Instead, acting completely out of character, she had booked passage on the next stage out of town, determined to visit her father’s burial site. And here, in this strange land, she had discovered so much more than she’d bargained for. Three half sisters, as different as possible from each other. Diamond, Texas-born and -bred, was tough, strong, defiant. Jade was a fragile Oriental beauty with a mind as sharp as the jewel-encrusted dagger she carried at her waist. Ruby was a sultry bayou beauty whose voluptuous body turned men’s heads wherever she went.

  Best of all, Pearl had discovered a home, the Jewel ranch. Her father’s will accorded each of his daughters an equal share of his Texas empire, along with a share for his devoted ranch foreman, Cal McCabe.

  Why, then, was she feeling so distressed?

  “I feel so useless here,” she cried, dropping to her knees. “So helpless. Everything is so foreign to me here in your home.” She thought of the dusty, sleepy little town, so different from the streets of Boston. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this primitive place,” she said with a sigh. “There’s the weather. Everyone says this is a typical Texas spring. Rain. Drought. Heat. Cold. From one day to the next, I don’t know what to expect. Then there are the wild animals. Some of them coming right up to the house and barns. And the people. So rough. So...uncivilized. Fear has become my constant companion.” A shudder trembled through her. “Perhaps I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

  She touched a hand to the stone marker over her mother’s remains, which she’d had shipped from Boston, so that her two parents could be joined in death. “Was I wrong to come here, Mama?”

  She could still hear her mother’s words, fearful, cautious, whenever she’d mentioned following her father to Texas. “It’s a wild, fearsome place, Pearl. Women like us would wither and die in such a wilderness.”

  Women like us.

  She shivered again. Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked them away.

  Touching the great mound of stones over her father’s grave, she whispered, “Oh, Daddy, if only you were here to tell me what I should do.”

  In the silence that followed, the wind picked up, catching a strand of her hair, blowing it across her cheek. With her eyes closed, it felt exactly like the caress of her father’s hand. Strong. Sure. Gentle.

  Sh
e was jolted by a sudden memory.

  She was eight years old. Her father had come to Boston for one of his rare visits. As always, her mother had dressed her little daughter in her finest dress, arranging her long blond hair into fat sausage curls, and commanding her to greet her long-absent father with a recitation. In a clear voice, Pearl spoke the first lines of William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence.”

  “To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour...”

  Her father’s jaw dropped, and he sat, enthralled, as his little daughter recited the entire lengthy poem flawlessly.

  “Why, that was amazing, Pearl,” he said. “What a delightful, serious little creature you are. What will you do with that facile mind of yours, my child?”

  She stared at the floor, fighting tears. “Mama says I have no talents worth developing. I have no ear for music. No patience for sewing a fine seam. Mama says I am useless.”

  “Useless?” He drew her into his arms and pressed kisses over her upturned face. “Do you know how proud you make me?”

  The sad, solemn little girl shook her head.

  “Oh, my dear little one. A fine mind is a precious gift. If I give you a promise,” he whispered against her temple, “will you give me one in return?”

  She nodded, bewildered by the excitement trembling in his voice.

  “This I promise you. You shall have the education I never had. And I ask that someday you will use it to teach others. Ah, Pearl. There is no nobler calling than to shape and mold children’s minds, to lift them out of their dreary lives and lake them to places they might never see, except in books. Will you do it? Will you use this fine mind to teach others?”

  Pearl’s eyes snapped open. She was alone. Except for the wind, there was no sound. But she had heard her father’s voice, as clearly as if he’d been standing here, speaking to her aloud, instead of in her memory.

  A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. She paid it no heed as she bent and reverently kissed the boulder.

  Maybe it was her imagination. Or maybe it was a sign. She knew only that she felt a rare sense of peace. In the blink of an eye, she’d been given her answer.

  “Thank you, Daddy. I’ll do it. I’ll do my best to make you proud.”

  Chapter One

  “If you good folks don’t mind, we’ve been asked to stick around after the prayer service for a town meeting.”

  Lavinia Thurlong stopped fanning herself and glanced about in surprise. Several other women did the same, as the congregation came to attention.

  Not that they hadn’t been attentive throughout the hour-long service. Reverend Wade Weston, a charismatic young preacher with flowing blond hair and resonant voice, had begun to attract quite a following. Townspeople and ranchers alike came together every Sunday to have their consciences poked and prodded.

  The service was being held in the back of Durfee’s Mercantile. It was the only room in the town of Hanging Tree big enough to hold the growing crowd. Besides, Rufus Durfee had agreed to act as mayor for the next year, since no one else wanted the job.

  He’d scoured the town, bringing in all those who didn’t bother coming to Sunday services. Among them were the marshal and a couple of ranchers in town for supplies.

  “Is something wrong, Quent?” Gladys Witherspoon turned to Quent Regan, the federal marshal, who straddled a chair in the back row. He was assigned to cover most of Texas, and made his home in Hanging Tree.

  “Not that I know of.” He shook his head for emphasis.

  “Rufus Durfee doesn’t call a town meeting unless there’s bad news,” Millie Potter remarked aloud. Millie ran a tidy boardinghouse at the end of the dirt track that formed the main street of Hanging Tree. “There’s got to be trouble afoot.”

  A murmur ran through the crowd as heads began to nod in agreement.

  “Now, now. This isn’t bad news,” Reverend Weston hastened to assure them. “In fact, I’d say it’s downright good news for all of us.” He glanced at the mayor. “Rufus, would you like me to do the honors?”

  When Durfee nodded, Reverend Weston cleared his throat. “Miss Jewel, if you’d come up here, please...”

  All heads swiveled to study the young woman who made her way to the front of the room. As always, Pearl Jewel was spotlessly gowned and coiffed. This day she wore a pale pink confection with a high neck, tiny sashed waist and flounced skirt. Matching pink ribbons held her long blond hair away from her face. In her hands was an elegant pink parasol, carefully closed, which she held pointing downward, like a walking stick. Despite the fact that she’d been here for two months, her skin seemed untouched by the harsh Texas sun. It was as cool and pale as when she’d first arrived, fresh off the stage from Boston. She would have looked fashionable in her hometown, but here in Hanging Tree, she looked just plain frivolous. Everybody knew the Texas dust didn’t discriminate between silk and calico.

  “Miss Pearl Jewel has offered to teach our children.” Reverend Weston’s voice rang with pride.

  “What could she possibly teach our kids?” someone called out.

  “Miss Pearl attended...” Reverend Weston glanced at Pearl for guidance.

  “Miss Thackery’s School for Young Ladies,” she finished for him.

  “Yes, indeed. A fine school in Boston,” he added. “Where she earned a certificate for teaching reading, writing, ’rithmetic and such.”

  “What do children need with that stuff?” Rollie Ingram, a burly rancher who had already buried a wife and three children, got to his feet and started for the door, signaling for his two sons to follow.

  Rollie never bothered with Sunday services. As a matter of fact, Rollie didn’t bother much with anything or anybody in town. The only times he was seen were when he needed supplies, or those rare occasions when he scraped enough money together to visit Buck’s saloon.

  His older son, a head shorter than his father but almost as muscular, dropped an arm around his younger brother, who appeared to be no more than six or seven. The two hung their heads, avoiding eye contact with the people around them.

  “Wait.” The young preacher held up a hand. “I don’t think you understand the gift being offered.” He looked out over the faces of the congregation. “A town like ours could never afford to pay a teacher. Or build a schoolhouse. Why, we can’t even afford a house of worship. But Miss Jewel is asking no pay. She’s willing to teach our children just for the pleasure of it.”

  “What about a schoolhouse?” one of the women shouted.

  The preacher turned to Pearl.

  “I—” she thought quickly “—hoped we might convert a building on our ranch for that purpose.”

  “On sacred Jewel land?” Rollie Ingram’s tone was filled with sarcasm. “What does the almighty Cal McCabe think about that?”

  At the mention of the foreman of the Jewel ranch, Pearl bit her lip. Cal would be furious when he heard the news. But that was nothing new. He seemed always to be angry in her presence. She sensed his disapproval over her simplest attempts to bring order and civility to this rough land. At the dinner table, when she sipped her tea, he frowned. In the parlor, when she opened a book, she would look up to see him watching her, scowling. Always scowling.

  What did he see when he looked at her? She had no idea. But whatever image she evoked, it must be thoroughly unpleasant. She thought back to the first days after she’d arrived, after her father’s brutal murder. In all this time, she couldn’t recall ever seeing Cal McCabe smile at her. Oh, he was civil. But just barely.

  “Cal is...up at one of the line camps,” Pearl replied. “He doesn’t know about my offer of a school.” She saw the way several of the men smirked, and quickly added, “But as soon as he returns, I know he’ll give his approval.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll believe it when I hear it from McCabe.” Rollie’s words had the others nodding.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Pearl lifted her head a fraction. “Diamo
nd, Jade and Ruby have already given their approval.”

  Lavinia Thurlong wrinkled her nose and whispered to her friend Gladys, “That pack of misfits.”

  Overhearing, several women nearby snickered.

  Pearl tried to ignore the little knot of tension that had begun creeping into her neck and shoulder. Though she and her half sisters had met as strangers, they had developed a strong, loving bond that grew stronger with each passing day. A bond that had begun in sorrow, and had now become joy. Though the initial shock of discovery had been prickly, they were slowly becoming a family.

  Still, in the eyes of these small-town citizens, the Jewel sisters would always be the object of ridicule.

  “So, Miss Pearl. It appears you and your sisters are planning to stay in Hanging Tree.” Arlo Spitz, deputy to the marshal, nudged his wife in the ribs, and the two shared a look.

  “I can’t speak for my sisters. But as for me, I’ve decided to put down roots here.” Pearl glanced around, seeing the doubt and suspicion on their faces. “I would like to be of some use. And I think the best way to do that is to share my knowledge with your children.”

  “Schooling’s for rich kids.” Rollie spat. “We’re simple ranchers, scratching a living out of the land. We need all the help we can find. In case you didn’t notice, city woman, it’s springtime. Time for planting crops.”

  He heard the ripple of laughter in the crowd, and saw the flush that crept over Pearl’s cheeks. That made him even bolder. “Our kids work right along with us, from sunup to sundown. There’s no time left over for schoolin’. Besides, the things you can teach our children aren’t things they’ll use out here in Texas. If you want to teach, Miss High-and-Mighty Jewel, go back to Boston.”