Lily and the Major Quotes

“Caleb had taken his son out of the room to be bathed, and when he returned carrying the squalling bundle his face glowed with delight. “He’s mad as hell, isn’t he?” Lily smiled despite her weariness. “You would be, too, if you’d just been through a birthing.” Caleb kissed her forehead and laid the baby beside her on the bed. “I love you, Mrs. Halliday,” he said, “but I think maybe we’d better stop with Joss here.” Lily shook her head resolutely. “Oh, no. I want more children, and I’ll have them. Doc Lindsay may be an old sawbones, but I think he could handle the task of delivering me of a few more babies like this one.” Little Joss was still howling, so Lily picked him up and put him to her breast. Even though her milk wasn’t in yet, he seemed to be comforted just by suckling, and Lily smiled at that. He was just like his father. As”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Lily was exasperated, but she knew arguing with Caleb would only waste valuable time. It was like having words with a hitching post. They”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“She was sitting out a dance when Caleb took her hand, pulled her into the shadowy alcove off the ballroom, and presented her with a worn velvet box. “This belonged to my mother,” he said quietly. Holding her breath, Lily lifted the lid. Inside was a delicate silver filigree necklace accented with a snowfall of diamonds. “Oh, Caleb.” Caleb took the splendid creation from its box and moved behind Lily to put it around her neck and fix the clasp. He bent and kissed the place where the two ends of the chain met. “Someday our son will give this to his wife.” Lily turned to look up into Caleb’s eyes. If she had ever doubted his love for her, those feelings were behind her for all time. No man would have given such a cherished heirloom to a woman if he didn’t care about her deeply. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me, meeting you,” she said. She smiled, remembering that day in the hotel dining room in Tylerville when the soldiers had been teasing her and she’d dropped her tray. “Though I must admit I didn’t think so at the time.” Caleb put his hand under her chin and gently lifted her face for a light, brief kiss. “I knew the instant I saw you,” he confessed when his lips had left hers, “that I wanted to be with you forever. I just didn’t have sense enough to see that you were made to be a wife, not a mistress.” Lily was full of quiet joy. All that was needed to make her happiness complete was some word of her sisters. “While you’re dancing with all these admirers of yours,” Caleb went on, with a wicked light glittering in his eyes as he nodded toward the contingent of handsome young men gathered in the ballroom, “I want you to remember whose bed you sleep in.” Lily”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Caleb rolled over and slid down to kiss her belly. He seemed to love touching it now that it was rounding with his child. “You know, as soon as you get over having this baby, I think we ought to start another one.” Lily sighed. “I have no doubt that we will.” He”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Everyone in Pennsylvania must know what you just did to me,” she managed. Caleb chuckled. “It would help if you didn’t carry on like a she-wolf, Mrs. Halliday.” Lily laid her head on his bare shoulder. “You wouldn’t like it if I was quiet, and you know it,” she answered. “You go off like a shotgun when you hear me.” He clasped one of her plump buttocks in his hand and squeezed it gently. “Oh, you’re right there, Mrs. Halliday. I do like knowing that I’m putting you through your paces.” Lily punched him in the ribs for his arrogance. “It’s not as if I don’t do the same thing to you,” she pointed out. Caleb”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“This is Joss’s place,” he sighed, running one hand through his hair in a distracted gesture. “He built it into what it is now, not me.” Lily began to massage the knotted muscles in his shoulders, carefully avoiding his rapidly healing wound. “You were born here, Caleb. This land—or half of it, at least—is your birthright.” “I want to go back, to build something with my own hands, something that’s yours and mine. Our homestead seems like the best place to start.” Lily was so happy that she rose up on her knees and flung her arms around Caleb’s neck from behind. “I do love you, Major Halliday!” He laughed. “Damn it, woman, you’re choking me.” Playfully Lily bit the back of his neck. “I don’t care!” Caleb whirled on her, flinging her down onto the mattress. “Don’t you?” he teased, and he began to tickle her ribs through her lightweight nightgown, causing her to writhe and shout with laughter.”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Joss’s littlest child, a girl with her father’s curly hair, came bounding down the path toward them. “Papa, is Uncle Caleb really a damn Yankee?” she chirped. Joss didn’t so much as glance in Caleb’s direction. “Yes, Ellen,” he said gently. “He’s the damnedest Yankee I ever saw.” Caleb smiled. “You wouldn’t have Susannah and all these beautiful kids if I’d done what you told me to do that day,” he pointed out. “You’d be nothing but a pile of bones moldering in the brush somewhere.” Joss glowered at him. “I guess that’s so,” he conceded. “But don’t get the idea things are settled between us, little brother, because they aren’t. I’m still going to beat the living tar out of you the day your arm comes out of that sling.” This was the old Joss, the Joss whom Caleb remembered and loved. “Don’t be too confident, big brother,” he replied. “Just in case you haven’t noticed, I’m all grown up.” Lily”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Your Lily is a pretty little thing, but she’s as fractious as my Susannah.” Caleb grinned. “It’s going to take two hands and all my wits to keep her in line,” he confessed. Unwillingly,”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Do you know what it was like in that goddamn hellhole of a prison?” The words were torn from his throat. Caleb shook his head. “I wouldn’t presume to say I did.” “There were rats the size of house cats. Toward the end we ate them just to stay alive.” Caleb closed his eyes against an image that would never leave him. “I’m not sorry that I let you live,” he said after a brief silence. Joss glared at him in rage. “You’d put me through that hell all over again, wouldn’t you?” he demanded. “Damn you, you would!” “If it meant your life? You’re damned right I would. I’d put you through it a thousand times.” He paused and drew a deep, tremulous breath. “Joss, step into my boots for a minute. Go back to that day. Remember the screaming, and the cannon fire, and the sound of bullets whistling past your head. This time you’re the one that’s on your feet, and I’m lying on the ground with my arm gone. I ask you to shoot me—hell, I beg you to shoot me. What are you going to do?” Joss’s throat worked as he swallowed. He hesitated for a long time as a variety of emotions moved in his face. Then he said, “I’d shoot you.” “You’re a liar,” Caleb answered. The giant, the man he’d loved and admired from the first day he’d known what it meant to have a brother, glared at him. “God damn you, Caleb—” “You wouldn’t have been able to kill me, because I’m your brother. Because you taught me to ride and shoot, because the blood in your veins is the same blood that runs in mine. You would have done exactly what I did, Joss, and somewhere inside yourself you know it.” Joss shook his head as if to fling off an image. “You listen to me,” he yelled, waggling a finger in his brother’s face. “I hate you. Do you hear me? I hate your miserable Yankee guts, and I plan to go right on hating you from now until they put me in a box and throw dirt on top of me!” The”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“That’s it, Johnny Reb,” Caleb challenged. “Turn tail and run.” With a bellow Joss whirled and came at Caleb with all the restraint of a runaway freight train. His powerful fist caught Caleb squarely under the chin and sent him flying backwards into the grass, past his mother’s headstone. Blood trickled down Caleb’s chin, but he grinned at his brother as he got to his feet. “I’m still here, Joss,” he said. “And I’m not going anywhere until you sit down and talk with me like a sane man.” Joss’s thick chest heaved with the effort of his breathing. Sweat glistened on his face, and his hand was still knotted into a fist, but his eyes were wet. “Damn you,” he spat, and then he walked away. This”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“You were wonderful,” Caleb said, giving Lily’s bottom a little pat. “Like I said, if it weren’t for me, you’d probably be dead.” Caleb laughed and pulled her down onto his lap. “Probably so. You win, Lily. You were right to believe you knew how to take care of yourself, no matter what the circumstances.” “Of course I was right,” Lily said, unbuttoning her fancy shirtwaist, which was now dirty and speckled with blood. An”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Hank, if you could see your way clear to ride to the fort for a doctor, I’d appreciate it” “I don’t need a doctor,” Caleb protested. But he winced and drew in a sharp breath when Lily poured some of his best whiskey onto the wound. “Well, those men out in the shed do,” Lily answered, preparing to douse the injury again, this time from the back. When she did, Caleb let out a string of curses that reddened even Velvet’s cheeks.”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Lily pushed up the window and took careful aim at the man who had probably shot Caleb—the fat man with the funny hat. “Drop that gun and let him pass,” she said clearly, “or I’ll blow you into pieces so small they’ll be able to sweep you up and carry you off in that hat of yours.” Caleb grinned at that, despite his wound. When the bandit dropped his rifle into the dust Caleb dismounted, strode over to collect it, and entered the house through the back door. If the others were looking on, they were apparently afraid to move—Lily couldn’t see them from where she stood. Caleb glanced at Baker, still lying unconscious on the floor, his hands bound behind him with a cloth that had part of the word Tuesday embroidered on it. “What happened to him?” “He met up with the big skillet,” Lily answered, peering at Caleb’s wound. “Let me have a look at that.” “It’s nothing,” Caleb answered, shuffling her aside. “How many are there?” “Four, I think,” Lily answered, frowning thoughtfully. “Besides this fellow and the fat man, I mean.” “What do they want?” “Me,” Lily said succinctly. “Can’t blame the poor bastards for that,” Caleb remarked with a wry grin, striding to the gun cabinet and taking out a rifle. “Too bad I’m going to have to kill them.” “Caleb, you’re hurt—let me take care of you.” “That’ll have to wait,” Caleb answered, going to the front window to stand just to one side of it, looking out. “Get out of the middle of the room, Lily, before they take a potshot at you.” Lily ducked behind the wing-backed chair, her teeth biting into her lower lip. The glass in the window shattered in the next instant, and Caleb fired. “Never pays to stand out in the open!” he called to his victim. “Is he dead?” Lily’s fingers were digging into the leather of Caleb’s favorite chair. “No, but his mama will probably never have grandchildren.”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“She had one knee up on the bureau and was just about to crawl through when she felt two hands close around her waist and pull her down. She turned her head and saw Caleb grinning at her. “Trespassing, were you? Well, sodbuster, there’s a penalty for that, you know.” Lily put out her chin and turned to crawl over the bureau. She wasn’t about to dignify his remark with an answer. “If that’s how you want it, fine,” he said, and he pinned her right to that bureau, with her bottom making a plump cushion against his masculinity. “Caleb Halliday,” Lily sputtered, “you let me up!” Caleb was lifting her skirts. “I don’t deal lightly with trespassers,” he said in a conversational tone of voice. “Give ’em an inch, and pretty soon they’re swinging from the rafters.” Lily felt her drawers begin to slide downward. She squirmed, but she was stuck between Caleb’s thighs. “Caleb,” she said, “I am not amused.” He laid a brazen finger to the rosebud between her legs and chuckled when she started with a little moan. He continued to caress her, making her go all warm and moist. Considering that he’d already had her, and well, earlier that day, her involuntary response was doubly humiliating. “You know,” he remarked, “in some places they hang a chicken thief. I think the penalty’s probably even stiffer when dumplings are involved.” “I hate you!” Lily sputtered, her hips twisting.”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“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

“You are impossible,” Rupert said. “I have half a mind to take you straight to the woodshed and blister your behind.” Lily wasn’t worried; she knew her brother didn’t have a violent bone in his body. “Good night, Rupert,” she said, and then she turned and walked down the path to the gate. “Lily!” Rupert shouted after her. “You come back here this instant!” “Do give my regards to Winola!” she called back, practically singing the words. Finding”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“You needn’t think you’re going to take me to bed,” Lily said airily. “Not, that is, until you apologize to me and tell Rupert you won’t lend him the money to build a boarding school unless he allows girls to attend.” Caleb turned Lily to face him. “You’re free to disagree with my opinions any time you like, Mrs. Halliday, but you will not refuse me your bed. Is that understood?” Lily’s cheeks heated. “I don’t guess you give a damn about my opinions,” she said, “but you’ll come around soon enough.” “Sometimes I think you enjoy baiting me. It makes the pleasure more intense when I lay you down and take you, doesn’t it, Lily?” She”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“You look beautiful,” Caleb said softly, laying his hands on the sides of her slender waist. Lily smiled at his reflection in the glass. “Don’t you try to flatter me, Caleb Halliday,” she warned. “I think you’re a brute with a despicable attitude toward women.” He cupped her breasts in his hands. “I love women,” he said, bending to nibble at the exposed flesh of her neck. “When they obey, of course.” “Of course,” Caleb replied. He was untying the ribbon of Lily’s hat, taking it from her head, setting it back in its box. “You needn’t think you’re going to take me to bed,” Lily said airily. “Not, that is, until you apologize to me and tell Rupert you won’t lend him the money to build a boarding school unless he allows girls to attend.” Caleb turned Lily to face him. “You’re free to disagree with my opinions any time you like, Mrs. Halliday, but you will not refuse me your bed. Is that understood?” Lily’s cheeks heated. “I don’t guess you give a damn about my opinions,” she said, “but you’ll come around soon enough.” “Sometimes I think you enjoy baiting me. It makes the pleasure more intense when I lay you down and take you, doesn’t it, Lily?” She raised her hand to slap him, then thought better of the idea. “You are reprehensible.” Caleb”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Why young men,” Lily demanded, “and not girls?” Caleb put a hand over hers in a gesture that had become familiar. She knew he wasn’t silencing her, but merely asking her to wait. “I’d be willing to invest in something like that,” he said. Rupert looked embarrassed and chagrined. “I couldn’t take money from you.” “Why not?” Lily wanted to know. She was still ruffled and spoke peevishly. “He must have piles of it, the way he throws it around.” In that instant the tension was broken and both men laughed. “Perhaps I should discuss this with Winola,” Rupert conceded. “I still want to know why it’s going to be a boarding school for boys,” Lily put in. Rupert smiled at her and took her hand. “Lily, dear, so many people don’t believe in educating girls. Boys, now, they have to make their way in the world—” Lily was outraged. “And girls don’t?” she snapped, looking from Caleb to Rupert. Caleb was distinctly uncomfortable, while Rupert wore his prejudices and complacency as easily as a pair of old slippers. “You and Winola are both notable exceptions, of course,” Rupert allowed with a benevolent smile. “Mostly, though, girls just need to be taught to cook and sew and care for children, and they can learn those things right at home.” Caleb closed his eyes as though bracing for an explosion. Lily leapt to her feet, waggling one finger in her brother’s face. “Is that what you’ll want for daughters of your own?” she sputtered. “Nothing but babies, and slaving for some man?” Rupert’s expression was one of kindly bafflement. Obviously Winola’s progressive ideas had not affected him. “It’s what a woman wants—” Lily wouldn’t have begrudged Rupert a penny if it hadn’t been for his narrow and unfair views. “If you give this man money for a school that admits only boys, Caleb Halliday,” she railed, “I’ll make you sleep in the chicken house!” “Sit down,” Caleb said quietly. Lily sat, but grudgingly. “I’ll be happy to give you the money you need,” Caleb told Rupert. Lily favored him with a horrified glare. “You mean you would support such a prejudice?” She was back on her feet again. “Tell me this, Caleb Halliday—do you want your daughters to be ignorant? I can assure you they won’t be, because I will not permit it!” “That,” said Caleb evenly, “is enough. You and I will discuss this later, in private.” Lily’s cheeks were flaming, but she resisted an impulse to storm off to the hotel in high dudgeon because she knew Caleb would not follow or try to assuage her anger in any way. “Yes, Major,” she said sweetly. Caleb narrowed his eyes at her but said nothing. Rupert looked concerned. “I can’t be the cause of trouble between the two of you,” he said. “Winola and I will think of some other solution to the problem.” “You could at least include girls in the classes,” Lily said stiffly. But Rupert shook his head. “Their parents would never permit them to live in such close quarters with young men, Lily,” he reasoned, “and rightly so.” Lily still felt as though her entire gender had been insulted, but she kept silent. Finally,”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Why are you building that house, Caleb Halliday, when we both know you’re going to hightail it back to Pennsylvania and drag me right along with you?” She couldn’t read his expression, but she saw that he was climbing deftly down the roof. He reached the ladder and descended to stand facing her, his shirt in one hand, his muscular chest glistening with sweat even as the first chill of twilight came up from the creek. “Half of that farm is mine,” he said. Lily sighed. “So go back to Pennsylvania and fight for it,” she said, exasperated. “You’re not the only one with problems, you know.” Caleb looked at her closely as he shrugged back into his shirt and began doing up the buttons, but he didn’t speak. He seemed to know that Lily was going to go on talking without any urging from him. “It just so happens that my mother is dead, and I’ll probably never find out where my sisters are.” “So that’s why you were willing to marry me all of a sudden—you’ve given up. I don’t know as I like that very much, Lily.” “What you like is of no concern to me,” Lily said briskly. She started to turn away, but Caleb caught her by the arm and made her stay. “You can’t just up and quit like this. It isn’t like you.” “You’ve said it yourself, Caleb: The West is a big place. My sisters could be married, with no time in their busy lives for a lost sister they haven’t seen in thirteen years. They might even be dead.” Caleb’s mouth fell open, but he recovered himself quickly. “I don’t believe I’m hearing this. You’ve fought me from the day we met because you wanted to find your sisters, and now you’re standing there telling me that it’s no use looking for them. What about that letter you had from Wyoming?” “It said Caroline had disappeared, Caleb. That’s hardly reason for encouragement.” “Maybe we’d better go there and find out.” Lily had never dared to think such a thought. “Travel all the way to Wyoming? But what about the chickens?” “What’s more important to you, Lily—your sister or those damn chickens?” Despite herself, Lily was beginning to believe her dreams might come true after all. “My sister,” she said quietly. Caleb reached out at long last and laid his hands on Lily’s shoulders, drawing her close. “Lily, come to Fox Chapel with me,” he said hoarsely. “I’m going to need you.” Lily looked up at her husband. He was, for all practical purposes, the only family she had, and she couldn’t imagine living without him. “What if I hate it there?” she asked, her voice very quiet. “What if I miss my house and my chickens so much I can’t stand it?” He gave her a light, undemanding kiss, and his lips were warm and soft as they moved against hers. “If you hate Fox Chapel, I’ll bring you back here.” “Is that a promise?” “Yes.” “Even if you work things out with your brother and want to stay?” Caleb sighed. “I told you—your happiness is as important to me as my own.” Lily was not a worldly woman, but she’d seen enough to know that such an attitude was rare in a man. She hugged Caleb. “In that case, maybe you won’t be mad that there’s nothing for supper but biscuits.” Although his lips curved into a slight smile, Caleb’s eyes were serious. He lifted one hand to caress Lily’s cheek. “I’m sorry about your mother,” he said quietly. Lily straightened in his arms. “I didn’t even know the woman, really,” she said lightly. “So it’s not as though I’m grieving.” She would have walked away toward the house, but Caleb held her fast. “I think you are,” he said. Lily swallowed. Damn the man—now he had her on the verge of tears. She struggled all the harder to maintain her composure. “If I wept for her, Caleb, I’d be weeping for a woman who never existed—the woman I needed her to be. She was never a real mother to us.” At”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“The major set Lily in a chair near the fire, and he dropped to one knee in front of her, took her hand in his, and kissed it He looked so like a prince from a fairy tale that Lily was nearly overcome. “I didn’t make a proper proposal before,” he said quietly. “Oh, Caleb.” “There’s never been anyone else for me, Lily,” he went on, “and there never will be again. I’m promising you right now that your happiness will always be as important to me as my own.” Lily’s eyes brimmed with joyous tears. Why had she waited so long? She put her arms around Caleb’s neck and embraced him, and his head was cradled against the plump cushion of her breasts. “I love you so much,” she whispered. He looked up at her, a glint dancing in his eyes. “Show me, Mrs. Halliday.” Lily”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“The moment they were inside, away from the eyes of interested neighbors, he covered her mouth with his in a consuming kiss. Lily felt her bones melt within her, along with all her misgivings. Her arms wrapped around Caleb’s neck, and she responded wholeheartedly to the kiss. When it was over she took his hat from his head and tossed it away. “I love you, Major Halliday,” she said boldly. “How much?” he teased in a low, husky voice. “I couldn’t possibly tell you.” He nibbled at her lower lip for a moment, still holding her in his arms. “Will you show me?” “Oh, yes,” Lily whispered, kissing him lightly. Caleb”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“You’re going like that? In trousers?” Lily nodded. “They’re much handier for riding than a skirt,” she informed him, though she privately thought any idiot would have been able to figure out such an obvious thing on his own. “You’ll be arrested,” Caleb fretted, climbing down from the framework of his house to stand on the ground facing Lily. “I don’t believe it’s against the law for a woman to wear trousers, Caleb.” “Don’t be too sure of that. If they can throw you in the hoosegow for wearing lip paint—and they can—I figure trousers probably won’t endear you to them either.” He paused, grinning, to turn Lily around once, and then back to face him. “They do look pretty good on you, though.” Lily glared at Caleb, but not out of any real ire. If she didn’t keep him at a distance, he’d soon have her sprawled on the bed or bent over a sawhorse, and she’d be carrying on fit to shame Jezebel herself. “I didn’t ask for your opinion, Caleb Halliday,” she said. He laughed and caught his hands under her bottom, lifting her against him. “If you’re going to strut around in pants, sodbuster, you have to be prepared to face up to the consequences.” Lily hated herself for the way her blood was heating and her heartbeat quickening. “Put me down, Caleb,” she fussed. She was mildly disappointed when he did. “All right,” he agreed. “But if you’re going to town, change your clothes first.” Lily started to speak, then closed her mouth. She went into her house and closed the door. When”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“When will you be back?” he asked. It was an odd question, Lily reflected, coming from a man who usually went wherever he wished without so much as a word to her. She shrugged. “I don’t see where that’s any of your business, Major Halliday,” she replied primly. Caleb touched the brim of his hat, and it seemed to Lily that he was struggling to hold back a smile. “I’d like to make it my business, but you insist on living in sin.” Lily barely restrained herself from slapping him. Without speaking at all she brought down the buggy reins on Dancer’s back and was off. Her cheeks didn’t stop throbbing until she was halfway to Tylerville. Arriving”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“What are you thinking?” Caleb asked, coming up behind her. She could feel his breath on her nape, warm and gentle. His arms slipped around her, pulling her close. “That I envy Hank and Velvet,” Lily said honestly. “It’s so simple with them. They’re just—well—together. And they’re not sure but they think they’re going to have a baby.” Caleb turned Lily to face him. “And so are we,” he reminded her, his arms around her again. She looked up at him. “Yes,” she answered, “it would seem so.” She drew a deep breath and let it out again. “I don’t think we should make love anymore, Caleb.” “Why not?” “Because we’re not married, and we don’t have any intention of ever being married. That’s sinful.” Caleb bent to taste her lips. “I couldn’t agree more. That it’s sinful for us not to be married, I mean.” Lily stiffened when she felt herself beginning, already, to respond to Caleb’s touch. “But you aren’t willing to concede anything, are you?” “I won’t promise to stay here for the rest of my life, if that’s what you mean.” An overwhelming sadness filled Lily. What wild impulse had made her hope that tonight would be different? She pulled out of his arms. “Good night, Caleb,” she said, turning and starting toward the new house, where Lily would sleep for the first time. Caleb”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“What’s it like for you, Velvet? Being married, I mean?” Velvet permitted herself a dreamy sigh and gazed into the bonfire as though she saw some wonderful pageant being played out there. “It gets better every day,” she answered after a long time. “Hank and me, we work together, side by side, all day through. And come night, we—well, we’re together then, too.” Lily was touched, and a little amused, to see that her worldly friend was blushing. “Do you think that’s enough, though—liking what a man does to you in bed?” Velvet shook her head. “Wouldn’t be enough by itself, I reckon. It’s if you can laugh and talk together, and if you know you’d stand by him no matter what, and he’d stand by you.” Glancing toward Caleb, Lily let out a long sigh. “I just don’t know. That man is so stubborn, sometimes I think I’d better just give in and marry him.” “Why don’t you?” “He’d own me then, just like he owns his horse and his land and his shotgun.” Velvet smiled. “I don’t mind Hank ownin’ me,” she said. “That’s silly, Velvet,” Lily protested. “You’re a human being, not a saddle blanket or a wheelbarrow. Nobody can own you.” “Can if you let ’em,” Velvet insisted. Lily”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“I emptied the tub and put it back under the tarp,” he said, “so Corporal Pierce and the others won’t get any wild ideas about you bathing in the middle of the prairie.” Lily blushed, embarrassed by what she’d done. She wondered why she never suffered these agonies before the fact, when it might do some good. “Corporal Pierce is a gentleman,” Lily said stiffly. “And I’m not?” Lily shook her head. “No gentleman would do what you just did.” “And no lady would howl like a she-wolf while riding a man,” Caleb retorted. Lily”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Turn around,” Caleb said gently when she didn’t speak, “and I’ll wash your back for you.” The experience sounded too pleasant to refuse, and Lily shifted until she was kneeling, facing away from Caleb. The breeze made her nipples stand taut, and she was glad he couldn’t see. “I have another bone to pick with you,” she said as he began a delicious process of washing and massage combined. “Umm?” There had been so many things happening that Lily hadn’t had a chance to pursue this particular subject. “Charlie Fast Horse.” Caleb’s tone was sober. “Oh.” “Yes,” Lily said, looking back over one soapy shoulder, “oh. Caleb Halliday, that was a nasty trick you pulled, pretending that Mr. Fast Horse might buy me for two horses and carry me off to his camp. I was terrified.” He began rinsing away the soap, and when he spoke he didn’t sound the least bit contrite. “It wasn’t prearranged, if that’s what you think. Charlie and his friends just happened by, and there was sort of a tacit agreement to have a little fun with you. You must know that I wouldn’t let anybody hurt you.” Lily”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Why are you doing this, Caleb?” “Doing what?” He was washing industriously under one arm. “Going to all the trouble to homestead and build a house when you have no intention of staying here.” Caleb soaped the other armpit, then cordially handed the bar to Lily. “I can’t leave you out here alone, can I?” he reasoned in pleasant tones. “I haven’t resigned my commission yet, so I can’t board a train for Pennsylvania either. I might as well do something constructive while I’m waiting for you to come to your senses.” Lily”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major

“Your bath is ready, sodbuster.” Lily stood. “I’m not going to bathe in the open,” she said. “All right, then,” Caleb answered, pulling his shirt from his trousers, “I will. No sense letting all this nice hot water go to waste.” Lily might have loved Caleb Halliday, but she begrudged him that clean, steaming bath water in the worst way. “Don’t you dare step into that tub,” she said, marching over to where he stood. “It’s mine.” Caleb smiled and folded his arms. “Fine,” he said. He didn’t show any sign of moving, and the fire around the tub was getting low. Soon the chilly evening air would cool the water. “You could at least give me some privacy.” He smiled and sat down on the nearby stump of a long-gone maple tree. “I could,” he said. It was perfectly clear that he didn’t intend to, however. Lily looked with longing at the water, then turned her back on Caleb and pretended he wasn’t there. Quickly, before her courage could desert her, she removed her clothes and stepped into the tub. The feel of the hot water closing around her tired, achy flesh was so delicious that she made a little crooning sound as she settled in. She was caught completely by surprise when Caleb joined her, naked as the day he’d left heaven, and sank into the water. Some of it splashed over the edges of the oblong tub and sizzled as it met the fire. “I suppose it would be a waste of breath to ask you to get out of this tub,” Lily said. “Absolutely,” Caleb replied.”
― Linda Lael Miller, Lily and the Major