Della’s body stiffened and her face was as still as a beautiful stone statue. Then she began to laugh; it was high, and shrill and ugly and meant to intimidate. Kain, watching, knew it wasn’t going to work. Ellie had turned her back on Della and was speaking to Joseph.
“You heard what I said, Joseph. I am Mr. Clayhill’s wife. I am here to stay. I want to see the rest of the house. I’ll need a room for myself and one each for Mr. and Mrs. DeBolt and for my son and his wife.”
“Yes’m.”
“Joseph! You black bastard! Don’t you dare obey her. They’re not staying!” Della moved around to face Ellie. Ellie ignored her and spoke to Cecilia.
“You’re Cecilia. What do you do here? Are you the cook? The maid?”
“Oh, my God! This is rich. She’s Adam’s whore!” Della’s voice rose to a screech and the look Cecilia shot her was pure hatred.
“If that’s the case, I doubt Mr. Clayhill will be needing your services.” Ellie spoke in a calm, unruffled voice. “Does your family live here, Cecilia?” The woman shook her head. “If I told you to leave, would you have somewhere to go?” She shook her head again. “Very well, you may stay and work in another capacity. Is that agreeable?” Cecilia nodded and cast a gloating look at Della. “You can show me where things are.”
“This has gone far enough! Far enough, goddamn it!” Della threw the hairbrush against the wall. “I don’t care if you married Adam a hundred times, you’re not coming in here and taking over.”
“Oh, but I am.” Ellie’s calm blue eyes looked directly into Della’s blazingly angry ones. “And I believe that as long as you have this resentful attitude toward me, you’ll be happier somewhere else. I’ll have someone drive you to town. Be ready to leave by noon.”
“You are telling me to leave? This has been my home for twenty years! I’ll not leave because one of Adam’s . . . little diversions tells me to. Jesus Christ! He’s amused himself with dozens of women like you!”
“No, the other women were not like me. Mr. Clayhill and I are married. The marriage is recorded. Our son’s birth is recorded. We were already married when he went through the ceremony with your mother. The poor woman was taken in by his charm, as I was. You have no claim here, and you are no longer welcome, even if you are Kain’s sister. Joseph, I’ll need your help to get settled in. But first you can help Miss Della pack and get ready to leave.”
“Goddamn it. Kain—” Della looked at her brother. Kain lifted his shoulders and grinned.
“You may as well go, Della. Your reign at the Clayhill Ranch has ended, and you can kiss Adam’s money goodbye.”
“Adam’s lawyer will put a stop to this,” she threatened.
“Why don’t you go on down to Denver and talk it over with him? I think he’ll tell you you haven’t a leg to stand on.”
“I’ll do that. I’ll just do that!” Della flounced up the stairs and turned at the top to look down. The people in the hall below were making themselves at home and didn’t even seem to notice that she left them.
“Well, that’s settled,” Ellie said. “Henry, you and Jeb bring in our things. Vanessa, you and Mary Ben go on upstairs and find rooms to sleep in. I’m going to look over the kitchen with Cecilia, then she’ll take me to see Mr. Clayhill. Is there someone with him now, Cecilia?”
Vanessa put her hand into Kain’s. “Isn’t she amazing? I’m so proud of her.”
“So am I, honey. I haven’t had so much fun in a long time.” He chuckled.
“Shame on you.” She reached up and kissed his chin.
“I’ll go out and talk to the men and find someone to drive Della to town. She’ll not go in style this trip.”
“Do you think she can stir up trouble with the men?”
“She might try, but it won’t do her any good. Della hasn’t been very tolerant of the workers here. She’ll want to get down to Denver and see what she can find out from Adam’s lawyer. Logan said he was going to tell Randolph to get in touch with him and tell him what’s what. She’ll know when she gets there what she’s up against.”
“Will we go home as soon as Aunt Ellie is settled?”
“There’s a lot to be done to get her settled in, honey,” he hedged.
“I want to go home to our house.”
“We’ll have to wait and see if Clayhill’s going to live awhile. He could get well enough to be up and around, and in that case Ellie’s life would be hell.”
“The doctor didn’t seem to think he would.”
“What does that little pip-squeak know? Most doctors tell you what they think you want to hear. I don’t have too much faith in any of them.”
“My father wasn’t like that.”
“Not if he was like you, he wasn’t. Give me a kiss so I can go.”
Vanessa and Mary Ben went up the wide stairway to the second floor. They could hear the sounds of banging and slamming coming from the big room at the front of the house. The door to the room opposite Della’s was closed, so they went on down to the next room and cautiously opened the door.
“Oh, ain’t it grand?” Mary Ben gaped at the beautiful room with the heavy walnut furniture, silk-covered chairs, and satin spread and draperies.
“There doesn’t seem to be anyone using it. Do you want it for you and Henry?”
“No! I’d be ’fraid to sit on them chairs. Me ’n Henry don’t need nothin’ but a bed ’n washstand. The grandest ort a be Mrs. Hill’s.”
“We might as well look at all of them before we decide.”
They went up narrow steps to the attic rooms, moving quietly, as if they expected to be discovered and told to leave. Two of the four rooms there were occupied. Vanessa suspected this was where Joseph and the girl Cecilia slept. They hurried back down to where Henry and Jeb were piling their boxes in the entrance hall.
Ellie and Cecilia emerged from the kitchen.
“We found a room we think you’d like, Aunt Ellie, and we’ll use the rooms at the back.”
“That’s fine, dear. Cecilia and I have been getting acquainted. She’s showing me up to Mr. Clayhill’s room.”
Ellie went to the closed door at the front of the house, and Cecilia went back downstairs after a fearful glance in the direction of Della’s room, where sounds of things being thrown and Joseph being thoroughly cursed came through the closed door.
Ellie was strangely calm as she opened the door to Adam Clayhill’s room. She entered and closed it behind her before she looked around. The bed was a tall four-poster made of heavy dark wood. The rest of the furniture matched it in both size and color. It was a luxurious room, and definitely masculine. The wine colored draperies were drawn across two sets of windows, one set was on the front of the house, the other on the side. The only light in the room came from the pane of glass in the door that opened out onto the upper veranda. She opened the draperies on the side to let in more light before she went to stand beside the bed and look down at the husband who had deserted her twenty years before.
Adam stared up at her, his face expressionless and immobile. His cheeks were covered with a stubble of beard and his heavy jowls sagged. Food stains dotted his white mustache, his shirt, and his bedclothes. He lay like a marble statue with no movement except for his eyelids. His huge hands lay at his sides, fingers spread. On the finger next to the crooked forefinger was a huge diamond ring, a monument to the wealth that was of no use to him now.
As she looked down at him, she suddenly realized he was not worth despising. Perhaps he had done her a favor by leaving her. She and Henry had been happy; certainly they would not have been happy with him. Nevertheless, an inner voice told her, the Bible said “cleave unto your husband”; and as sorry as he was, he was her husband.
“Good morning, Mr. Clayhill. I suppose you are wondering what the gullible, naive woman from Missouri is doing here. I am here to take my place in this house as your wife and see that you have adequate care.” Ellie spoke slowly and firmly. “I know that you understand what I am saying. I hav
e nursed patients with apoplexy, and although you can’t move or speak, there is nothing wrong with your mind. The doctor has explained your condition to me. You may get better and you may not. You could have another fit and go at any time. I want you to understand, Mr. Clayhill, that I didn’t come here out of any love for you. The love I had for the man I thought you were died a terrible death that day in Junction City. I sincerely regret all those years I wasted grieving for you. How foolish I have been!” She shook her head sadly.
“Our marriage papers, along with the certificate of record and the tintype we had made on our wedding day, have been sent to Denver. I also sent the names of witnesses—the preacher who married us is still in Springfield, as is the banker you went to see when we met. It’s airtight, Mr. Clayhill. There’s no way out for you. You can’t simply cast me and my son aside as if we were so much garbage. We are here. We are staying. I mean to see to it that my son has what is rightfully his. You owe us twenty years of support, Mr. Clayhill.
“I also want you to know that I have met your other sons, Logan Horn and Cooper Parnell. They are both fine men. I’ve met your grandson, little Henry, with the crooked finger like yours and like my son’s. I’ve met Sylvia Henderson, Cooper’s mother. You have hurt so many people it’s a wonder God didn’t strike you down long before now.”
She looked down at him for a long time before she spoke again. His lids had narrowed and his eyes glinted angrily. He knew what she had been saying. Good. She was relieved to find out that there was not an ounce of pity in the feeling she had for him.
“As I said, I will see that you are cared for, and that is all. I would do the same for any of God’s creatures. Do not expect pity or companionship from me or my son. You will be fed and kept clean, and I will give you whatever medicine the doctor prescribes. From the smell of this bed you haven’t had very good care these last few days. That will be remedied simply because I can’t abide slovenliness.
“There’s one more thing. Della is leaving. She is no longer welcome in my home even if she is Kain’s sister. Cecilia is staying on, even though you are unable to avail yourself of her services. She tells me the laundress and the girl who helped her left when you struck her. They will be back because you will pay them to wash your dirty bed-clothes.” She opened the drawer of the bedside table. “It brings up another matter. I will need money to pay the doctor and for household expenses.” She closed the drawer. “Never mind. I’m sure the safe is in your office. If it is locked, I’ll have the men take it outside and blow the door off.”
A rap sounded on the door, then it opened. “Ma? Are you in here?”
“Yes, son. Come in. Leave the door open. It’s too close in here.” Henry stood in the doorway and made no move to enter. “Come on in and say hello to Mr. Clayhill.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t like it here, and I don’t like him. Can’t we go back to Kain’s place?”
“No, son. This is our home now. I don’t like him either, but he’s your father. Out of respect for the one who gave you life you must at least be decent, even if he doesn’t deserve it.”
Henry came forward reluctantly. “Hello, Mr. Clayhill,” he said without looking at him. “Ma, that woman threw something at that little nigger and cut his head. It’s bleeding something awful. Van is putting a cool rag on it. She said it might need a stitch.”
“Oh, dear. The sooner we get that woman out of here the better. I’ll be back, Mr. Clayhill, with Cecilia and Joseph, if he isn’t hurt too badly, and they can clean you up before the doctor comes.”
She went to the window and opened it a bit to let in some fresh air. She and Henry left the room, and she closed the door firmly behind her without giving him as much as a glance.
Della left and the doctor arrived all in a matter of minutes. Henry and Jeb carried Della’s boxes down and put them in the back of an open wagon pulled by two mules. Kain could hardly contain his mirth when he saw the look on her face when she saw what was taking her to town.
He had talked to the men, told them Della was leaving, and asked for a volunteer to drive her. A middle-aged drover said he was going in to get a load of grain, and she could ride along with him if she’d ride in the grain wagon. Kain assured him she wouldn’t mind at all. There were smirks from some of the men and the twitching of his own lips made them hide grins behind their hands.
Della exploded in rage when she came out onto the veranda and saw the dilapidated old wagon with her fancy boxes piled in the back and the two mangy mules. The driver sat on the seat, chewing his tobacco. Jeb offered to help her climb up the wheel and onto the seat, but she struck him on the arm with her parasol and climbed up by herself, tearing her skirt on a jagged board.
“Damn you, Kain. You’ll pay for this.”
“Did you say good-bye to . . . Papa, Della?” Kain couldn’t resist the parting shot.
“To hell with the old bastard!”
“H’yaw! Hee-yaw!” The driver cracked the whip over the backs of the mules, and startled, they jumped, jerking the wagon. Della almost went over backward. A loud gaffaw came from the direction of the bunkhouse.
“Damn it!” She righted herself without any help from the driver, then sat rigidly in the short-backed seat, looking straight ahead as the wagon circled the yard to leave the ranch.
Kain watched his sister leave. She was more like a stranger to him. There had never been any love between them. This was a setback for a woman who was not used to setbacks. But she would survive. He wondered if she would have turned out the same if their mother hadn’t moved West with Adam Clayhill. More than likely she would have been just what she is now. Her brothel would be in New York City or Paris. People were what they were, he mused, no matter where they were.
Kain greeted the doctor, who drove in as Della was leaving. He had stopped by Kain’s and John had told them where they were. They entered the house together.
Ellie went upstairs with the doctor and they stayed for a long while in Adam’s room. When they came out she led him downstairs to the parlor where the family had gathered.
“I’m glad to see Mr. Clayhill is clean. The most important part of the treatment of apoplexy consists in sanitary regulations and precautions. Once the blood has seeped into the brain little can be done to remedy the disastrous effects. His head may he kept raised and cold cloths should be applied to it. Mustard plasters may be applied to his feet and to the calves of his legs to help drawing the blood from the head. Another thing, Mrs. Clayhill, a drop of croton oil should he placed on his tongue in order to promote early and active discharges from the bowels.”
“Do you foresee another attack?”
“It is extremely likely. You should be prepared for it. You may leave him to return minutes later to find that he is gone. All you can do for him is keep him as comfortable as you can, give him liquid and soft food. I’ve brought a glass tube that he can use to suck it into his mouth.”
“Thank you, doctor. Would you like to stay for dinner?”
“I would be delighted.”
* * *
Several days went by. Ellie had taken over the house easily and completely. Joseph and Cecilia hopped to obey her kindly given orders. The laundress and her helper, who had moved in with a family that lived on the ranch, were glad to return when they were told Della was no longer at the ranch house.
Joseph was now wearing loose, soft trousers and a clean, soft shirt. Ellie had told him it was ridiculous for him to be in a tailed coat and stiff collar while he was working around the house. His dark face beamed when he looked at her and he went from one chore to the other humming happily. Her kind but firm manner had also won over Cecilia, and the girl was gradually getting over her sulks.
Cecilia and Joseph tended to Adam under Ellie’s supervision. Cecilia fed him and she and Joseph bathed him and changed his bedclothes every morning. Ellie was usually in the room, but she never touched him, and rarely spoke directly to him. When they finished, they left the room. After the morning w
ork was done, Ellie would send Cecilia up to look in on him, but the girl never stayed very long.
Kain reported that the men were well aware of what had happened to their boss and were wondering about their jobs. They had not had a foreman since the roundup had been completed. He had been quite a decent sort, one of the men told Kain, but he and Adam had had a violent quarrel and the man left. Kain asked Jeb if he wanted to stay on at Clayhill Ranch, but he declined. He said the place was too big and fancy. He would rather be with his brother and John back at Kain’s, and decided to head on back. Kain then asked Bill Cooney to step in until other arrangements could be made and to carry on with whatever was necessary.
Surprisingly, most of the men were understanding about Henry. Stan Taylor had been the one Kain had worried about. But he was the one who was the most tolerant after Henry told him how sorry he was for hurting him and that he would show him the moves Kain had taught him.
A lawyer was brought out from town who attested to Adam’s condition, and papers were being drawn up to give Ellie access to Adam’s bank accounts so the men could be paid.
At the end of the week the doctor seemed to think Adam would linger for awhile, and the house settled into a routine. When Ellie began the task of thoroughly cleaning, Kain knew she had truly settled in.
Adam Clayhill, the egotistical lord and master of the northwest Colorado Territory, was completely at the mercy of a wife who despised him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kain was in a dilemma. He wanted Vanessa to stay with her aunt while he went to look for Primer Tass. He had given his description to the Clayhill men, and earlier that day one of them had told of seeing a man in a black vest and hat sitting his horse on the east ridge overlooking the ranch. The cowboy said that when he turned to ride toward him, the rider disappeared into the trees. Kain reasoned that Tass had followed the buggy tracks to the ranch and was waiting for them to leave.
He also knew that Vanessa would rebel when he asked her to stay. She didn’t care for the large house. She didn’t like having people other than family underfoot all the time. And most of all she didn’t like being confined to the house. The last words she’d said before she fell asleep were, “When are we going back to our house? I want to go home.”
Dorothy Garlock - [Colorado Wind 03] Page 34
