| Tony was laughing as he kissed her offered
lipsThen he lifted his trouser leg to show them all the high-heeled
boots he was wearingEveryone got taller in Texas, he said; he
wouldn't be surprised if it was a law thereAlex Fontaine smiled over
Tony's shoulder"You'll hear more about Texas than anybody rightly
needs to know," he drawled, "that is, if Tony lets you come in the
houseHe's forgotten about things like thatIn Texas they all live
around campfires under the stars instead of having walls and a roof
Alex was glowing with happinessHe looks like he'd like to hug and
kiss Tony himself, thought Scarlett, and why not? They were close as
two fingers on a hand the whole time they were growing upAlex
must
have missed him something awful
Sudden tears pricked her eyesTony's exuberant fake louis vuitton bags return home was the
first joyful event in the County since Sherman's troops had devastated
the land and the lives of its peopleShe hardly knew how to respond
to such a rush of happinessAlex's wife, Sally, took her by the hand
when she entered the shabby living room"I know just how you feel,
Scarlett," she whispered"We'd nearly forgot how to have fun
There's been more laughing in this house today than in the past ten
years put togetherWe'll make the rafters ring tonight Sally's
eyes were full of tears, tooThen the rafters began to ringThe
Tarletons had arrived"Thank heaven you're back in one piece, boy,"
Beatrice Tarleton greeted Tony
"You can have the pick of any one of my three girlsI've only got
one grandchild, and I'm not getting any younger"Oh, Ma!" moaned
Hetty and Camilla and chanel quilted handbag Miranda Tarleton in chorus
Their mother's preoccupation with breeding horses and people was too
well-known in the County for them to pretend embarrassment
But Tony was blushing crimsonScarlett and Sally hootedBefore the
light ebbed, Beatrice Tarleton insisted on seeing the horses Tony had
brought with him from Texas, and the argument about the merits of
Eastern thoroughbreds versus Western mustangs raged until everyone
else
begged for a truce"And a drink," said Alex"I've even found some
real whiskey for the celebration instead of 'shine Scarlett
wished-not for the first time-that taking a drink was not a pleasure
from which ladies were automatically excludedShe would have
enjoyed
oneEven more, she would have enjoyed talking with the men instead
of
being exiled to the other side of chanel wholesale purse the room for women's talk of babies
and household managementShe had never understood or accepted
the
traditional segregation of the sexesBut it was the way things were
done, always had been done, and she resigned herself to itAt least
she could amuse herself by watching the Tarleton girls pretend that
they weren't thinking along exactly the same lines as their mother: If
only Tony would look their way instead of being so wrapped up in
whatever the men were talking about! "Little Joe must be thrilled half
to death to have his uncle ? home," Hetty Tarleton was saying to
Sally
Hetty could afford to ignore the menHer fat one-armed husband was
one of themSally replied with details about her little boy that
bored Scarlett sillyShe wondered how soon they'd have supperIt
couldn't be too imitation chanel handbags very long; all the men were farmers and would have to
be up the next morning at dawnThat meant an early end to the
evening's festivitiesShe was right about an early supper; the men
announced that they were ready for it after only one drinkBut she
was wrong about the early close to the partyEveryone was enjoying
it
too much to let it endTony fascinated them with stories of
hisadventures"It was hardly a week before I hooked up with the
Texas
Rangers," he said with a roar of laughter"The state was under
Yankee
military rule, like every place else in the South, but hell- apologies,
ladies-those bluecoats didn't have the first idea what to do about the
Indians
The Rangers had been fighting 'em all along, and the only hope the
ranchers had was that the Rangers would keep on protecting gucci mens wallets them |
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