And then he was seeing the old man step in front of him, in front of the barrel of that shotgun. That picture went through his mind again and again, as if someone kept rewinding the tape. And last, he heard again what the old man had said, when Will told him he intended to ask Ruby Dee to marry him.
“Don’t take her away from me, just because you can.”
That plea, along with everything else, kept going around and around inside of Will.
Worn, Will sat on the cherry-wood bed, removed his boots, lay back and fell deeply asleep. He slept far past sunup the following morning. He showered and dressed but didn’t take time to make coffee. He hurried to the ranch, anticipating Ruby Dee’s coffee. Anticipating Ruby Dee.
But Ruby Dee and the old man were in the Galaxie, about to leave, with Ruby Dee behind the wheel. Despite the coolness of the morning, the convertible top was down. Instead of a hat, Ruby Dee had her hair pulled back in a ribbon. She wore a soft brown sweater. The old man was dressed sharply, in a starched white shirt and his tweed sport coat and his winter felt hat. He looked far younger than his eighty-five years.
“We’re goin’ down to Elk City to see about a caterer for Lonnie’s party,” Ruby Dee said. She removed her sunglasses, looked at him intently with her dark eyes. There were smudges beneath them, making them look more exotic than usual. “I left you some ham and biscuits in the oven.”
He thanked her, and she said she was glad he had been able to get Frank home to Georgia. “I hope she’ll be all right,” she said.
The old man asked Will about getting the cows and calves separated, and Will said he would see to it.
“Well, we can’t wait until your brother comes home,” the old man said. “You call Jeb Koss and his boys to come over and start today.” Will didn’t argue.
For a long minute he watched the Galaxie go down the drive, stirring up a wake of dust.
Will knew that the old man had thought up a reason to take Ruby Dee to town. The old man was determined to keep Ruby Dee away from him for as long as possible. Permanently, if he could.
Will tried to be angry with the old man, but the memory of so many things, not the least of which was the old man stepping in front of that shotgun in order to protect him and Lonnie, kept getting in the way.
“Don’t take her away from me, just because you can.”
The only time Will had ever heard that particular tone in his father’s voice was when he had asked their mother not to leave.
* * * *
The air blew cool around the windshield as they headed south on the blacktop highway. Hardy really enjoyed the convertible, but the air did chill him. Damned old body, he thought. He was glad Ruby Dee turned on the heat, but he wouldn’t have told her so. He remembered when he would ride a horse all through the winter and not bother with much more than a light coat. He remembered a lot of things, he told himself, but they were all gone.
When they reached Elk City, he directed Ruby Dee to the downtown area.
“Just pull over here,” he said, pointing to the bank. “I need to go in there and do some bankin’, and Dave Secrest in there’ll tell us where to find a caterer for your party.”
“I wish you wouldn’t keep callin’ it my party,” she grumbled when she came around to his side of the car and held the door.
He said, “I wish you wouldn’t keep actin’ like you have to help me out of the car.
On the sidewalk, he extended his arm to her, and she took it. It felt good to walk with her. Inside, he withdrew some cash and then went over to Secrest’s big office. The man seemed truly glad to see Hardy, but Hardy only shook his hand and asked for the name of a good caterer. “One that makes good barbecue. I figure a man in your position probably has a lot of parties and ought to know somebody good.”
Secrest mentioned a couple of people, then had his secretary write down their names and addresses. “I didn’t know a banker had to be a social secretary,” he joked.
And Hardy said, “I guess my banker holdin’ all my money can be whatever I need him to be.”
Secrest got red at that, but Hardy didn’t care.
Outside the bank, Hardy told Ruby Dee to go look up the caterer and make the arrangements. He pulled out his money clip, peeled off five one-hundred-dollar bills and handed them to her. “This ought to be enough for a down payment. Order enough food for about seventy people—I don’t want no more people than that at my place, and if it turns out that not that many come, we’ll have lots of leftovers.”
Ruby Dee looked startled. “You want me to just leave you here?”
“I don’t need you to hold my hand every minute, do I?”
“Well, no, you don’t.”
“Then you go on. Well, I might as well tell you. I’m goin’ to see my lawyer, right down the street, here—Harold Thelen, Attorney at Law. And don’t be tellin’ nobody. I don’t like people to know my bizness. I’ll be a little while, so you go fix things with one of them caterers and then come pick me up down there.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide. He turned and headed down the sidewalk. He felt the best he had in many a year. There was nothing like perplexing people to make an old man feel young.
Harold Thelen was some annoyed with Hardy for coming in without an appointment, but he got over it. Especially when his curiosity rose about the changes Hardy wanted made in the set up of the ranch and in his will. Hardy told him, “I don’t pay you to understand my reasonin’, Thelen, just to make what I want legal.”
Ruby Dee was waiting outside in the Galaxie when Hardy came out of Thelen’s office. When Thelen saw Ruby Dee, he almost dropped his teeth, which Hardy knew were false. Hardy had always been proud to have all of his own teeth.
Thelen got this look in his eye, one-fourth like he thought Hardy a fool and three-fourths like pure-D envy.
As Ruby Dee drove away, Hardy said, “You know, gal, I couldn’t feel grander if you was the queen of Sheba. Let’s go find a steak for lunch. I promise I’ll eat vegetables, too, and no sugar in my coffee,” he added.
After lunch, they went shopping, and Hardy went so far as to buy a new coat and a pair of boots for the party, and picked out four more shirts, too. Ruby Dee bought a new dress, which looked beautiful on her. As she modeled it for Hardy, he remembered Jooney. He wanted to pay for the dress, but she wouldn’t let him. So while she changed, Hardy went over to the jewelry counter. He had a pair of Indian silver earrings boxed and in his pocket by the time Ruby Dee joined him.
It was late afternoon before they started home. Only a few minutes after they hit the open road, Hardy put his head back and fell asleep. Ruby Dee worried he would get a crick in his neck, but he always had been good at sleeping sitting up.
Ruby Dee drove along in the sunshine, the wind tugging at her hair. It had been a wonderful day. She’d had such a good time with Hardy. She glanced at him and thought how different he was now from that first day she had come. It really was amazing what a balanced diet and simple care could do for a person, she thought.
Ruby Dee knew deep inside that she had brought Hardy life again. That he cared for her...that he thought of her as the Jooney he had lost, and it made no difference whether or not she really was. And she cared for him, too, in a way she could never explain to anyone. In a way she didn’t exactly understand herself. The feelings were powerful, and real, and not what she’d have felt for a father.
Then her thoughts turned to Will. Excitement fluttered in her chest as she recalled, for the hundredth time, that he had said he was going to ask her to marry him. Every time she thought of it, her mind went into a tailspin, like a horse that rears up to throw off its rider’s weight and then runs wildly away.
Miss Edna’s insistent voice came: “What will your answer be, Ruby Dee?”
“Oh, Miss Edna, if I say yes, what will happen to Hardy?”
She heard only silence. “You shouldn’t pick now to quit tellin’ me what to do, Miss Edna.”
Ruby Dee had already turned off the hi
ghway when Hardy roused himself. “Where are we? Dang, we’re here already. Slow up, gal.”
“What is it, Hardy?”
“I want to show you somethin’.... up here, on the next hill.”
They were still a mile from the ranch house when he directed her to pull into a narrow graveled road that led across a cattle guard, past the sign that read: Starr Number One. The sun was far to the west now, slanting golden across the land. The road led to a gently pumping rocker arm. Ruby Dee stopped the car in front of it, looked at it and then glanced curiously at Hardy.
It was the first well to be sunk on his ranch, Hardy told her. There were eight oil and gas wells bearing the Starr name now, and he still got royalties from them, even in today’s depressed market. He told her, too, that until those wells, he’d always had to carry a mortgage on the ranch, but the oil and gas money paid that mortgage, and he’d never again taken another.
“I own this land, free and clear,” he said, gazing out beyond the well to the hills and pastures rolling east, south and west. “Look that way...and that way. That’s all Starr land. Bought it up, piece by piece, over the years. ‘Course, I didn’t make it—the Almighty did that. But I like to think I’ve taken good care of it for him.” The pride vibrated in his voice and struck Ruby Dee clear through.
“It’s beautiful, Hardy.”
“Not everyone can appreciate this part of the country. It’s dry a lot, and the wind sometimes blows like hell. I guess there’s some that hate it. My own mama did.”
He looked at Ruby Dee. She was still staring off at the land.
He said, “If you’ll pledge to stay with me until they carry me off to the White Rose cemetery, I’ll deed a third of all this over to you.” Her head swung around, and she gazed at him with shock. “I can’t give you what a younger man can...but I can give you what most can’t, and that’s a sizable fortune, in this land and all my assets. We can get married, if you want, but we don’t have to. I’ll settle for your pledge.”
She stared at him a moment longer, and then turned her gaze out the windshield.
Well.
He was offering her a fortune. A white clapboard house and barns and pastures, and with a fortune, she could buy her babies, so she would be assured of having them. And she could still have Hardy...although probably not Will.
There just wasn’t anything Hardy wouldn’t do to have his way.
She faced him, looked at him with blurred vision. A pained expression on his face, he said, “Now, don’t go cryin’ on me, gal. Just say your piece.”
“Damn your hide, Hardy Starr. How can you think that you can buy me—chain me to you with money? I’m paid a salary, and just like everyone else, I need that salary, but that’s not why I’m here. I could work anywhere. If I hadn’t wanted to stay and be around you, I’d have left months ago. I have my own plans, Hardy! I would have left after that first day, because you can be real ornery.”
Her brown eyes were dark as gun barrels. “I’m your friend, for as long as you want. I love you, Hardy, in my way. That’s my pledge, and either it will do or it won’t. I can offer you no more...and I can’t be chained. Chains just choke hearts, Hardy.”
Then she flounced back in the seat.
Hardy was angry himself. He had made her what he considered a sizeable offer, and she had thrown it back in his face. And then she had lectured him, when he had expected her to be grateful, and at the least impressed.
He had wanted to secure her for himself. To assure himself that she would never leave him, not even for his son. He wasn’t particularly proud of cutting Will out, but he wasn’t particularly sorry, either. Will was young and had years ahead of him, but Hardy did not.
He said then, “I changed my will today. I’ve already deeded you one third of everything upon my death. You don’t need to marry me or anyone else to get it.”
Ruby Dee had known Hardy could be a hard man, but she hadn’t known he could be downright mean.
“Well, I won’t take it, Hardy.”
Then she started the car and drove them home.
Chapter 27
When Will got to the ranch house, it was nearly dark. He had taken time to shower and dress in a good shirt and jeans. As he came up the walk, he looked up and saw Ruby Dee standing at the screen door, waiting.
“Supper is just now ready,” she said, as he came through the door. “It’s only sandwiches, but I made potato salad, and we have those late tomatoes Wildcat brought from Charlene’s garden.”
Her eyes were on him, warm as velvet in sunshine, and he almost grabbed her and asked her right there, but a movement caught his eye, and as he looked over her head, he saw the old man gazing at him.
She went about putting things on the table, and he helped her. Will took his seat across from the old man, who was still wearing the starched shirt and creased slacks.
Will asked if they had gotten everything they needed in town. The old man nodded, but it was Ruby Dee who told about hiring the caterer and what they had bought. It appeared the old man was turning loose some money.
Her eyes sparkling with excitement, Ruby Dee talked about their plans for the party. Will looked at his dad in surprise. He had never known the old man to have such a hoopty-do at the ranch. Each spring they hosted the stock sale, but all they had was Jimmy Mack come in with his concession wagon and supply cheese nachos, hamburgers and cold drinks. And the old man grumbled about that, said he didn’t like buying food for a bunch of people, most who weren’t gonna buy squat and who he didn’t want on his ranch in the first place. And now he was agreeing to a party, with awnings and rugs and waiters. And all for Lonnie.
No, Will thought, understanding slicing through him. It was all for Ruby Dee.
“I thought Saturday afternoon would be the best,” Ruby Dee was saying, “but I can change that, if I call tomorrow.’’
“Saturday afternoon is fine,” Will told her.
“You can help me make a list of people to invite. You and Hardy both, maybe right after we eat.” Her gaze moved between him and the old man. The old man grunted, and Will said he’d be glad to.
Will told about getting the bulls up to the lots that day, and that he had arranged for help to separate the cows and calves. He had decided to wait until Lonnie returned to do that. The old man argued against waiting, saying that the calves were of weaning weight and some beyond. And if rain set in, there could be further delays.
Will answered that he would separate them in the rain, if necessary.
Then Hardy said, “I guess I can hire me a crew to move my cows.” He said it mean and cold as January ice.
And Will replied, “Go right ahead. I can give you phone numbers of people to call.” Anger almost pushed him to his feet, but he refused it. The old man was goading him, seeking to push him away from Ruby Dee again. With his eyes Will told the old man he wasn’t going anywhere, and when Ruby Dee rose to clear the table, Will rose to help her.
She thanked him, and her eyes were on him and it was between them, heavy and warm.
Will left the kitchen and went out to feed the stock. He worked automatically, passing out hay and grain and filling water troughs, all the while thinking of the old man inside with Ruby Dee. She was the reason for the change in the old man—the reason he was suddenly buying thirty-dollar shirts and five-hundred-dollar boots and looking ten years younger and more alive than he had in twenty-five years.
What would happen to him, if Will took her away from here?
She would just be a few miles down the road, Will argued with himself. It wouldn’t be like he was really taking her away. No doubt she would be down here with Hardy half the time anyway.
And she had said she wanted her own house. Like as not she wasn’t going to stay here forever. The old man wouldn’t see it that way, though. Her leaving for a place of her own or leaving with Will were two entirely different things.
When Will got back to the house, Ruby Dee and the old man were working on the list of people to in
vite to the party. There wouldn’t be time to send out invitations; everyone would have to be contacted personally. It was the old man who suggested having Cora Jean do some of the inviting. “The woman’s better than the radio,” he said.
Ruby Dee got up right then and called Cora Jean, and while the women chatted on the telephone, Will and the old man sat and looked at each other across the table. Then Will went into his office and began opening the two days’ worth of mail stacked in the middle of his desk, most of it junk.
He was surprised when the old man came in.
The old man said, “Once we have the calves weaned, I’m gonna let Wildcat handle things on the ranch for the winter, so you can go ahead and cut yourself loose whenever you want.”
Will’s temper flared. He managed to hold on to himself as he said, “Wildcat’s a good man, and he knows ranchin’, but he doesn’t know how to keep records. And I got them all on computer now.”
“Won’t be so much durin’ the winter. Besides, this ranch survived eighty-plus years without a computer.” The old man’s eyes got hard. “I’m shuttin’ the ranchin’ operation down. I’ll have Thelen see to it, and no doubt he’ll have accountants addin’ things up."
That announcement took anything Will might have said right out of him.
“When?” he managed to ask after a full minute.
“Over the winter. I figure dispersing the stock at the usual sale time will work out best.”
Will felt as if he had been hit in the gut. “It’s taken forty years to get the breeding stock we’ve got.”
“Ought to get some good money from it,” the old man said and walked out, smacking his cane on the floor.
Will sank into the oak chair. He couldn’t imagine the Starr shut down, the cattle dispersed...years of work gone.
And the old man hadn’t even spoken to him about the decision, Will thought, fire in his chest. The old man would sooner shut down the ranch, sell off everything, than hand it over to his sons. The old man would cut off their heritage.
The Loves of Ruby Dee Page 28
