by Kate Whitsby
They found him about halfway between the barn and the river.
“Where have you been?” Alma asked.
“Just riding around,” he told them. “I was having a look around.”
“We were waiting for you up by the barn,” she told him. “We didn’t know where you were, and we were waiting for you before we went out to the herd.”
“Didn’t you notice my horse was gone?” he asked. “You should have realized I was already gone.”
“We saw your horse gone,” she replied. “But we didn’t know if you were planning on coming back and meeting up with us or if you’d gone off on your own.”
“What difference does it make?” Jude grumbled.
“Just that we’ve been standing around waiting for you when we could have been out to work already,” Alma told him. “You should let me know if you’re going off by yourself so I don’t wonder where you’re going and what your plans are.”
“I’m not going to check with you before I go somewhere,” he shot back. “I won’t be tied to your apron strings all the time. I’m used to coming and going as I please, and I won’t change now, just because I’m married.”
Alma bristled. “I didn’t say I wanted you tied to my apron strings. As you can see, I don’t even have any apron strings. You can come and go as you please and I don’t give a rip. I just said you should tell us what your plans are so we aren’t standing there waiting for you when we have work of our own to do. If you want to ride from here all the way to Mexico City, it’s fine with me. Just tell me so I know what you’re doing.”
“No man in his right mind would stoop so low as to inform a woman about his plans and movements,” Jude snapped. “If you’re gonna be my wife, you better get this into your head now. You tell me your plans and movements, so I know what you’re doing, not the other way around. You’re a woman. That’s your place.”
Alma stared at him. Then, she frowned. “First of all, I’m not going to be your wife. I am your wife. Second of all, I would tell you my plans and movements out of basic respect for your time. I wouldn’t leave you standing around wondering where I was or what I was doing. That’s just simple human consideration. Or is that too much for you to comprehend?”
Jude squinted at her from under the brim of his hat. “You better learn to watch that tongue of yours.”
Alma’s eyes flew open. “What has gotten into you? What happened between this morning and now to make you so hostile all of a sudden? After last night….”
Jude cut her off. “Don’t talk about last night. Don’t talk about anything private between you and me in front of your sisters. What happened last night is none of their business, and it doesn’t have anything to do with what’s happening right now. So don’t talk about it.”
“All right,” Alma replied. “I won’t talk about it. And I won’t ask you anything more. Just tell me if you’re coming up to the main herd with us right now, because if you’re not, we’ll go and leave you here to do whatever it is that you want to do. We’re late already, and we have to get going.”
“I’m not coming with you,” Jude told her. “I have other things to do. You go ahead.”
“Fine,” Alma snapped.
She yanked her horse’s head around and jabbed the animal in the flanks with her spurs. He shot away underneath her, and Alma galloped off with her sisters at her heels.
They charged up an embankment and down a gulley. Then they plowed up another small hill and Alma pulled her horse up on top of it. Amelia and Allegra reined in their horses as well, so that the three sisters sat side by side on their horses, overlooking the plain below them.
Their cattle ranged on the floor of the plain. Clusters of dots speckled the landscape as far as the eye could see. Alma scanned the herd with her eye, making a mental note of the number and location of their stock.
Jude’s sudden change in behavior annoyed her and distracted her. What could be wrong with him? Could she rely on him to tell her at some point? Would they reconcile whatever precipitated this conflict? Or would he let it fester and drive a wedge between them?
How could this happen so soon in their marriage? They’d been married less than twenty-four hours, and already, they’d had their first quarrel. Not a good start to their life together.
Alma closed her eyes on the cattle. She couldn’t sigh in front of her sisters without revealing to them that she gave Jude’s behavior a second thought. She wouldn’t reveal it. She wouldn’t give them any reason at all to doubt her decision. She couldn’t doubt it, either. She had to stick with it and make it work, no matter what. Isn’t that what marriage was supposed to be?
Alma opened her eyes. “Let’s get down there and start rounding them up.”
“Look over there.” Allegra nodded her head back over her shoulder in the direction from which they’d come.
A cloud of dust rose up from the far embankment. It dropped down the gulley, and the next minute, Jude drove his horse up the rise and stopped in a lather next to the sisters.
Alma smiled at him. “I thought you weren’t coming.”
Jude shrugged. “I changed my mind.”
Chapter 18
