Judd directed a triumphant look towards Amy. “There you go, Amy. That’s how you can make some money off that ranch.”
Amy frowned.
“What do you mean, Judd?” Tim asked.
“I’ve been wondering if we shouldn’t get rid of the ranch,” Judd continued. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Amy stared past her father, suddenly angry. So that’s where he was leading the last time she came to visit. His careful questions about living on the ranch and how much work it was for her.
Tim shot a surprised look first at Amy, then at Judd. “Are you serious?”
“It’s up to Amy, of course,” said Judd. “She does most of the work, but now with me sick and Rick gone, I don’t think it’s fair of me to expect her to keep working it.”
“I think selling it would be the best solution,” Tim said reasonably.
Amy stood and ignored them both. This was all she needed. Both her father and Tim aligned in the same camp. She looked sightlessly out of the window. You’re moving to Vancouver, what difference does it make. The thought settled deep within her, disquieting and fearful.
She leaned her forehead against the cool window and wished she could stop thinking, planning and trying to make things fit that just wouldn’t. All she wanted was…
Amy’s heart thumped in fear. All she wanted was…
She couldn’t complete the thought.
Things that had seemed relatively tidy a month ago were now all mixed-up. It reminded her of a wagon of blocks she had received as a child. When the blocks were taken out, they could only be put back in a certain pattern, otherwise they wouldn’t all fit.
Her life had been dumped out, and she didn’t know how to put it together again.
“Amy?” Her father’s voice pulled her back to the present and the persistent problem of what to do. “Are you okay?”
She gave herself a shake. “Yes,” she said softly. “I’m fine.”
“I really think you should sell the ranch, Amy,” Tim continued, his voice calm and reasonable. “I’m not only talking as your fiancé here, I’m also talking as your banker.”
Tim tried to catch Amy’s eye, but she couldn’t look at him right now. She didn’t want to hear his logical arguments, didn’t want to hear sensible solutions. It was all too quick and easy for him.
“I know it’s not what you want, Amy,” Tim continued, reaching out for her hand. “I know you love living out there. I’ve always known that, even though you seem to think that I haven’t understood that. But I have.” He stroked her fingers, looking down at the ring that sparkled back at them both. “I didn’t always give you the encouragement you wanted, but don’t you see?” He looked up at her then, touching her cheek lightly with one finger. “I couldn’t. And as your banker I still can’t. We have other plans now, other dreams.”
Amy let Tim’s soft, reasonable voice wash over her, and she gained some measure of comfort from his words. He did understand her. Amy only nodded, her eyes on the polished floor, on the toes of her cream-colored shoes. She let him convince her that he cared, that he had her best interests at heart.
But we’re still moving to Vancouver, she couldn’t help but think. And you had that all planned. “So what’s the best thing for me to do?” she asked, looking directly at him. She wasn’t going to say it and put an end to her own hopes. She didn’t want to speak the words aloud.
“As things stand right now, the ranch could keep operating if you were to rent it out. However, with the loans you’ve got against it and the money you still have to put out, it’s going to be too close to the bone, and renting it out won’t give you enough money to cover everything and realize any kind of income for yourself.” Tim dropped her hand and sat back. “The only way it can keep going is if you stay there.” He shrugged, avoiding her eyes. “Rick isn’t there anymore, Judd just recommended that you sell it and—” he hesitated, then looked her straight in the eye “—you and I won’t be living there. I would suggest that the sooner you put it up for sale, the better.”
Amy released her breath, praying for peace, patience, anything to stop the chill his words laid on her heart.
She had fought against it and twisted and turned, but her life was headed in this direction. There was no way around it.
If she wanted to be married to Tim.
Amy rolled slowly over and blinked at the clock beside her bed. It read 5:00 a.m. She smiled as she gathered the blankets around her, relishing one more hour of sleep.
She needed it. Monday had been busy. At Tim’s urging she had gone into town to list the ranch. She had paused in front of the real estate office, frowned, then had written up her own advertisement. She’d pinned it alongside all the other “Real Estate for Sale” postings on the huge bulletin board in the grocery store. A real estate agent would just take an eight-percent cut anyhow, she reasoned, looking over the mobile homes, houses and parcels of land posted by people who felt the same way she did.
Tim had been only too willing to give her a figure that he said was nonnegotiable, and Amy put a few more thousand on top of it as insurance. She knew even better than he did what the value of their land was, anyhow. She had worked it most of her life, had fenced it, had hayed and fertilized it. If anyone knew how much money had gone into it, she did.
She had stopped in to see her father. He asked her if she had put the ranch up for sale. Thankfully she could tell him, yes.
She could give the same answer to Tim when she met him in town.
Once home, she spent the rest of the afternoon getting the baler ready. It made a paltry two rounds around the field, then quit. She dragged it to the yard and called Rick. He said he would take home the parts she needed, and work on it tonight. Then he phoned later to say that he had an emergency up in Likely that he had to work on.
Amy took a stab at fixing it, literally. She ended up with grazed knuckles and parts scattered all over the garage as a result. At 11:00 p.m. she gave up, showered and had fallen into bed only to end up tossing and turning, thoughts of her father and mother and Tim and the ranch chasing themselves in circles as she tried to neatly categorize feelings and emotions.
She couldn’t do it.
From a shadowy figure whose features had been dim for most of her life, Noreen had become real and solid and had raised in Amy feelings of love and caring—emotions she didn’t think she would ever have toward her mother.
Emotions that, pure as they may be, made her feel as if she betrayed her father.
Betrayal seemed like a constant companion now, thought Amy, turning over once again, frowning up at the ceiling now lit by the early-morning sun. Betrayal hovered around her every time she saw Paul, every time she was with Tim.
She questioned Tim’s advice to her and when she had put that notice up on the bulletin board, she’d felt as if she betrayed the ranch. Her brother didn’t want it. Her father didn’t. Tim didn’t. Even her mother hadn’t.
Which brought her back to Noreen and her father’s cryptic request that she would forgive him. What did she have to forgive him for? What had happened?
With a disgusted sigh, Amy threw back the covers and sat up, pushing her tangled hair back from her face. She needed to keep her body busy so her mind would have something else to think about.
A quick shower chased the remainders of sleep from her body and mind. On her way through the living room, she paused at her father’s recliner.
She missed him. He had never been much help since she’d started doing more of the work. She had always thought her labors and encouragement would inspire him to keep going. But it wasn’t enough. She always knew, deep down, that she had wanted the ranch for herself, but she had also hoped her love for the land and the work would be absorbed by those around her. It hadn’t worked that way.
She dropped in the chair, pulling her father’s Bible off the table and letting it fall open. Her devotions of late had been quick and hurried. Too often she rattled through them, hoping for some kind of i
nstant inspiration. She filtered what she read, taking what she needed and ignoring what she didn’t think applied.
Now she stopped at Psalm 20. “May the Lord answer you when you are in distress…” Well that certainly applied. “May he send you help from the sanctuary…” She could use all kinds of help right now. “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” Amy placed a finger on that verse, rereading the words, trying to let them become a part of her.
Trouble was, she no longer knew what the desires of her heart were.
She wanted the ranch. She was attracted to Paul.
The ranch was for sale, she and Tim were planning their wedding and further than that, she didn’t want to think or plan.
She dropped her head against the back of the recliner, closing her eyes as the words of the Psalm filtered through her mind.
Trust in the Lord.
Let go.
She closed her eyes as her mind drifted over her needs, lifting each one of them to the Lord.
Trust, trust, trust. She knew she failed each day. She loved Tim, but the thought of moving to concrete and stone and leaving the soft hills and trees and open spaces of her home was too painful to contemplate.
A shrill ring shattered her thoughts and propelled her out of the chair. The phone.
A quick glance at the clock on the wall made her frown in puzzlement. It was too early for someone to call.
That must mean…
The hospital.
Amy leaped off her chair and ran into the kitchen, grabbing the phone off the hook. She fumbled in her haste, almost dropped it, recovered and caught it with both hands.
“Hello.” Her tone was abrupt, her voice breathless.
“Amy Danyluk?”
“Yes.” Please don’t be a doctor. Please let my father be all right. She clutched the phone with one hand, her chest with the other.
“Chester Drozd. Sorry to call you so early in the morning, but I was scared to waste any time. I saw your ad on the bulletin board. The one putting your place up for sale. Is it sold yet?”
Amy leaned back against the kitchen cupboard, her hands suddenly clammy both with reaction and a new fear. “No, it isn’t.” Her mind struggled with the name, familiar to her.
“I don’t know if you know me. We have a place up by Lac La Hache.”
Amy finally placed him. “Yes, I remember you.” She sucked in a deep breath as her mind realigned itself. She didn’t know what was worse. The hospital phoning or this.
“Well, then, I guess you know why I’m calling.” He paused a moment to let the reality of it all sink in. “I’m interested in having a look at your ranch. I think it could be a perfect place for one of my boys.”
Amy listened, each word falling like a piece of lead into her heart, weighing it down with a heavy sadness. So soon, she thought.
When she had composed the ad, she tried to be fair, but deep in her heart she hoped no one would want to purchase the ranch. She had tried to look at it dispassionately. She knew its faults. The house needed some work. The corrals needed some more. As a matter of fact everything needed some work. She had consoled herself with the notion that no one would want to buy it.
But the voice on the other end of the phone quickly dispelled the one hope she clung to.
“I’d like to come and have a look at it,” Chester continued. “It will take me about three quarters of an hour to get there. I can be there around two.”
“Today?” Amy asked, almost breathless with the speed with which things were moving.
“If that’s okay.”
“Sure.” It was why she had put the ad up on the bulletin board.
“I’m glad you decided to list it on your own. No sense dealing with a real estate agent if you don’t have to,” Chester continued. “Well, I guess I’ll talk to you more in a while. See you then.” He hung up the phone with a decisive click.
Amy stood, motionless, pressing the receiver of the phone against her chest, as if trying to absorb the reality of what had just happened. For a moment she wished she had gone through a real estate agent. It would have taken at least a week before it was even listed. Now, this afternoon, a potential buyer was coming to look at the place.
He might not like it, she thought. He might decide that there’s not enough here for his son, that it will all be too much work.
But when Chester arrived with his two sons, Amy could see from the eagerness on his face that here was a man who looked like he had made his decision even before he had seen the place.
He stepped out of the truck and looked around, a grin stretched across his wide face. “Been looking around for a place up in this area for a while,” he said as he shook her hand. He put his hands on his hips and looked around with a satisfied smile. His denim shirt strained across his barrel chest. “Buying this place is like getting a toehold in the valley,” he continued. “Don’t you think that’d be a good idea boys?”
He tilted his chin toward his sons, one a carbon copy of his own short girth, the other taller, but also heavy set. They nodded, grinning at Amy, but said nothing. They didn’t have to. Chester said it all.
“The way I figure, boys, some of the ranches around here will be coming up in a few years—Kincaids’, Hendersons’.” Chester looked back at Amy and grinned. “This place is going to do us just fine.”
Sold even before he’s seen it, thought Amy ruefully.
“So, can I have a look around?”
“Sure,” Amy took a deep breath, readying herself.
“Fine.” Chester nodded to his sons. “Let’s go.”
And go they did, thought Amy as she hurried to keep up with him. In the space of twenty minutes they marched around the corrals, zipped through the barn and checked out the hay sheds. Despite Chester’s short legs, Amy almost ran to keep up with him and his sons. While they made the whirlwind tour, he snapped off a few questions about the pasture, the hay crop and, of course, the price.
His easy acceptance of her answers made it easy to be dispassionate about the ranch’s flaws. Not that Amy could have hidden much from him. Chester noticed every broken board, every missing piece of fence. He even made a quick diagnosis on the baler still scattered in pieces in the garage.
“The barn is solid, but it needs some repairs,” she said trying to keep the note of apology out of her voice as she heaved open the heavy door. It needs more than some work, she thought ruefully, seeing it through a buyer’s eyes. It needs to be knocked down and replaced with a new structure. “There’s a few calving pens in the lean-to. I just put those in a while ago,” she gestured to the pens that stood ready. “I’ve got some heifers that we bought that will be calving in a couple of weeks. The stock isn’t included in the price, however, neither is the machinery. The price is just for the land, buildings and the house.”
“Fine by me. I’ve never particularly cared for fall calvers. Use a lot of feed over the winter with them,” mused Chester as he noted the pens. He tilted his head to the boys, and in unison they turned and strode outside. “Just out of curiosity, though, what breed are they?”
“Purebred Fleckvieh Simmental…”
“Lousy exotics,” he grumbled. “Give me Hereford or Angus any time.”
Amy felt her back stiffen at his easy disclaimer of her stock. But she didn’t want to get into a discussion over the economics of raising animals that raised a high price at the auction or animals that were the traditional stock for this country.
Chester grabbed a corral post and shook it. “How long these posts been in the ground?”
“Some for about ten years. I’ve replaced others.”
Chester nodded in acknowledgment, then turned to the shorter of the two. Amy guessed he was the oldest. “What do you think, Jason? How would you like to start up here?”
“I think we’ll take it,” Jason said, smiling.
“Done.” Chester turned to Amy. “We’ll take it,” he repeated.
Amy heard the words twice
, but they still took time to register. She felt as if someone had pulled the earth out from beneath her and if she looked down, she would see emptiness below her.
“We’ll take it,” Chester repeated, obviously noting the dumbfounded look on Amy’s face.
“I’m not moving on the price.”
Chester waved a hand dismissively. “The price is right, the location is good. Needs work, but a Drozd has never been shy of that.”
“Sure,” she said, exhaling then inhaling, trying to find her breath. “Okay.”
“You’re not going to change your mind on me, are you?” Chester leaned forward, his cap pushed back on his head.
“No.” Amy thought of Rick working in Williams Lake and the conversation she had with her father yesterday. She was the only Danyluk who wanted it, and once she and Tim were married, they would be living elsewhere.
“No, it’s still for sale,” she replied softly.
“So. I’ll make an appointment with the lawyer in town and we can get the papers drawn up.” Chester rubbed his hands as if in anticipation. “Who are you going to get to auction off the stuff?”
Amy frowned, her mind still trying to absorb the implications of his whirlwind visit. “Auction?”
“You said the stock and machinery aren’t included in the price. I presumed you were going to have a farm auction. It’s the best way to get rid of this stuff.”
Amy looked from Chester’s bobbing face to Jason’s grinning one, trying not to resent them and their easy dismantling of a place where all her childhood memories were stored. It was just a ranch, and they wanted to buy it. His suggestion was a valid one. This was a good lesson in letting go of the things of the world. The way things were headed, she knew it was what God wanted of her.
It had to be. It was the only way things made sense to her.
“I’ll probably call Vanderwell’s Auction,” Amy was pleasantly surprised to hear how casual and even her voice was. “They can take care of everything.”
“They’re good.” Chester nodded in approval.
As they walked back to the truck, Amy remembered.
“Did you want to see the inside of the house? We re-sided it a couple of years ago and hoped to do more work inside.” She forced a smile, thankful she could act as if none of it mattered. As if she was merely getting rid of the calves, like she did every year.
Ever Faithful Page 19
