Looking After Lily

After a succinct and colorful recap of events in the well-received Lily , this sequel set in 1880s Texas plunges into its own series of rousing adventures. Twenty-year-old Haywood Beatty knows he's been called a murderer, coward and thief; at the very least, he admits that ``nobody had ever said I was a good man.'' Still, Woody succumbs to his jailed brother Marion's pleas to look after his pregnant, 16-year-old wife Lily until he has served his two-year sentence. But who is looking after whom? Lily is feisty, independent and fearless, and as the two start a 400-mile journey in a rickety wagon to a north Texas farm, an uneasy alliance develops in the face of challenges that might have undone a lesser couple. As the harsh countryside drifts by, Lily barely escapes a rape attempt, Woody slits a man's throat and an impoverished but generous Mexican family helps deliver Lily's baby girl. A finely evoked Texas landscape, a wide variety of mesmerizing and frightful villains, an absorbing story tempered with sweetness and good humor all triumph over the inherent predictability of this romantic western. Lily's fans will be glad to know that another sequel is in the works. Author tour. (Mar.)