by Janet Dailey
After giving it a moment of thought, Cat was forced to agree. “Yes.” She nodded. “Yes, it does.”
But Culley wasn’t there to hear her response. He had already slipped out the back door, only a faint snick of the latch marking his exit.
Chapter Ten
Flies buzzed around him, drawn by the salty smell of sweat, while Laredo worked to tighten the water pipe’s connection and stop its slow leak. The ground at his feet was slick with mud, making for poor traction. Unable to tighten the connection another centimeter, he disengaged the wrench and straightened to watch for any telltale beading of moisture. Seeing none, he stowed the wrench in the tool chest, flipped it shut, and wiped the sweat from his face on his shirtsleeve.
He idly threw a glance at the cattle in the lot. They were a contented bunch, their bellies full with their morning rations. The sun’s rays streamed over their backs, creating a mottle of highlights. But it was the interested lift and turn of their heads that caught Laredo’s attention.
When he looked beyond them, he noticed the fast-spreading boil of dust on the road, signaling the approach of a vehicle. Satisfied that it wasn’t some critter that might spook the herd, he checked the pipe connection one last time. It was still dry, so he walked over to the faucet. The day was young, but already he was hot and sweaty. Desiring nothing more than to cool off, Laredo gave the handle a turn, and a steady gush of water flowed from the tap. Pulling off his hat, he didn’t bother to look around when a vehicle crunched to a stop somewhere close by. A door slammed as he stuck his head under the water and let its coolness stream over him, then pulled away from it, shaking off the excess water.
He had a hand on the tap, ready to turn it off when he caught a movement in his side vision. Glancing toward it, he saw a petite brunette striding toward him with fire in her eyes. He knew at once who she was—Chase’s daughter, Cat.
“Exactly what do you think you are doing?” she demanded hotly.
A bit taken aback by the hostility emanating from her, Laredo was a split second slow with his answer. “Just cooling off, ma’am.”
“You’ve done it. Now turn that water off.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He didn’t bother to tell her that he was about to do that very thing. He simply gave the handle a turn. Metal squeaked against metal, cutting off the flow.
“I don’t have to ask who you are.” Green eyes raked him with a look of contempt and disgust. “You’re the new man Uncle Culley told me about. The one called Smith from Texas.”
“That’s right, ma’am. Laredo Smith.” Using his fingers he combed his wet hair into order and settled the hat back on his head. “And you are Chase’s daughter, Cathleen. I saw you at the funeral.”
But Cat didn’t warm to his smile. “Water is a precious commodity in this part of Montana, Mr. Smith. I don’t know what you do down in Texas, but up here we don’t waste it by letting it run on the ground.”
“Actually, ma’am, neither do we.”
Her hands snapped to her hips as she adopted a challenging stance. “Really? Then how do you explain all this mud?”
Laredo glanced at the tool chest, then decided against telling her about the leaky pipe he had just fixed. “Something tells me you didn’t drive all the way out here to lecture me about wasting water.” But it was possible she had come just to get a look at him. Laredo wished he knew what O’Rourke had told Cat about him.
She seemed momentarily thrown that he had offered no argument in his own defense. Recovering quickly, she fired back an answer. “As a matter of fact, I didn’t.” With that, she turned on her heel and started back to her truck.
“What was it you needed?”
She jerked open the driver’s door, glanced at the cattle in the lot, and threw a glare in his direction. “I have already seen what I wanted.”
The pickup’s engine roared to life almost before she had the door shut. An instant later she drove off, fast-spinning tires kicking up another dust cloud.
Amidst all the swirling dust, Laredo smelled trouble, but he wasn’t sure what form it would take. One thing was certain, though—Chase’s daughter didn’t seem to like him very much. That in itself didn’t worry him. But knowing she was married to a lawman made him a tad bit uneasy.
Pen in hand, Jessy scratched her signature across the bottom of the check, picked it up with its attached invoice, and passed them both to the Triple C’s bookkeeper, who hovered next to her chair. She remembered all the times in the past when Ty and Chase had complained about the seemingly endless stream of paperwork involved in running the ranch. It was a sentiment she totally echoed now.
When she caught the sound of Laura’s happy squeal coming from outside, Jessy looked up, welcoming even this momentary distraction. But she wasn’t exactly thrilled when she recognized the cause for her daughter’s excitement, although Tara had always made a habit of showing up unannounced.
“It looks like we have company,” she told the bookkeeper and laid the pen aside. “I’ll sign the rest of the checks later. You go ahead and take these.”
Leaving him to collect the stack of signed checks, Jessy rose from the desk and made her way to the entry hall. She arrived as Tara walked through the door, carrying Laura. Laura had both hands fastened on a brightly wrapped gift.
“Look, Mom. Aunt Tara got me something.” Laura’s dark brown eyes shone with pleasure.
“I hope you thanked her for it.”
“I gotta open it first,” Laura declared as Tara set her down. Immediately she dashed into the living room.
“I wish you wouldn’t bring her presents all the time.” Jessy didn’t attempt to hide her irritation. “You are spoiling her.”
“I know. That’s what aunts do.” There was a suggestion of taunt in the smile Tara flashed her before she followed Laura, moving with her usual gliding grace.
“Sit here, Aunt Tara.” Laura patted the sofa cushion next to her.
Obediently Tara sat down beside Laura while Jessy reluctantly joined them in the living room, her temper at a low simmer.
“Go ahead and open it, sweetie,” Tara urged while Jessy looked on from her post by the living room’s overstuffed armchair.
Eager fingers tore into the package, making short work of discarding its pretty bow and ribbon. Laura ripped off the bright paper to expose a slender white box. With barely contained excitement, she pried it open and pushed aside the tissue.
Deflated by what she saw, Laura turned her disappointment on Tara. “It’s panties.”
“Very, very fancy ones.” Tara picked up the top one, a silky looking pink-flowered pair with fussy lace edging. “You’re too old to still be wearing those plain old white ones.” She tipped her head closer to Laura’s blond curls in a confiding attitude. “We girls should always have beautiful underthings like this to wear.”
“Do you wear them?” Laura asked, still not sure how thrilled she was with the present.
Nodding that she did, Tara whispered, “Today I’m wearing ones that are mint green. See?” Delicately she pulled aside the collar of her blouse just enough to give Laura a glimpse of her bra strap, then took another item from the box. “And you have a little undershirt to match your panties, too.”
Laura’s mouth rounded in a little “o” as she began to embrace this new fashion idea. “I’m gonna put ’em on now.”
When she started to grab for them, Tara held them just out of her reach. “But you must remember that after you put them on, you must never show them to anyone. Pretty undies like these are a secret just between us girls.”
“I promise.” All in one motion, Laura took the underclothes from Tara, pushed the box off her lap, and scrambled off the couch.
“You forgot something, Laura,” Jessy prompted, to remind Laura of her manners.
After a brief hesitation, Laura swung back to Tara and flung her arms around her. “Thank you, Aunt Tara.”
“You are welcome, darling.” She kissed the child lightly on the cheek, then gave her a p
ush toward the stairs. “Go put them on.”
Needing no second urging, Laura raced upstairs to change. Jessy waited until she was out of earshot, then let some of her temper boil over.
“I could throttle you for this, Tara,” she said, her voice thick with contained anger. “Every morning she argues with me over what she’s going to wear. Now I’ll have to fight with her over underclothes.”
“Laura has a natural sense of fashion, doesn’t she,” Tara remarked with a feline smile that seemed to take delight in Jessy’s anger.
“No more presents,” Jessy stated, determined to lay down the law. “You are not to bring Laura one more thing unless it’s her birthday or Christmas. If you do, I swear I will take it from her and burn it. I don’t care how big a fit she throws. Is that clear?”
“Don’t you think you are overreacting just a bit?” Tara chided ever so mockingly.
“Probably. But that seems to be the only way I can get my point across to you,” Jessy replied, gripped by a steely calm now. “If you should choose to ignore me and attempt to give Laura something behind my back, then understand that you have set foot on Triple C for the last time. And I hope you know that isn’t an idle threat.”
Tara’s lips thinned in a tight line of displeasure. “You would be just mean enough to do it even though you know it would break my heart not to see Ty’s children.”
“There are times when I have serious doubts whether you have a heart.” Remembering all the misery she had created for Ty, Jessy grew angry all over again.
As if sensing this was not the time to push Jessy, Tara rose from the couch. “But even you can’t question that Sally has one. And she is the real reason I’m here. The present was merely an afterthought. I never dreamed you would be this offended by me giving Laura something so trifling as matching underwear.”
“It wasn’t the underclothes; it was the fashion lessons that came with them.”
“You wish that she would wear jeans all the time and be a little tomboy, just like you probably were. If that were Laura’s nature, nothing I might say would influence her. But that isn’t the case, and that is what really galls you, isn’t it,” Tara stated with infuriating certainty.
Jessy wasn’t about to give Tara the opportunity to point out her lack of fashion knowledge. “What about Sally? You said she was the reason for your visit.”
Tara’s smug smile said she knew exactly why Jessy had changed the subject. “When I spoke to Cat yesterday, she mentioned that Sally seemed on the verge of collapse. Cat felt that Sally is finding it much too difficult to cope with being surrounded by constant reminders of Chase. Cat thought that Sally should go away for a while.”
“I agree, but Sally won’t hear of it.”
“I understand that better than anyone,” Tara said and let her gaze roam familiarly about the room. “It is impossible to be in this house without feeling their presence. There is pain in knowing they’re gone. At the same time, you feel oddly close to them here. And more than anything you want to feel close to them again.” She leveled her gaze once more at Jessy, a faint sparkle of challenge in her dark eyes. “Whatever else you might think about me, Jessy, I did love Ty very much.”
Jessy didn’t give an inch. “I’m sure you loved him as deeply as you can love someone other than yourself.”
For an instant she thought Tara was going to unleash her claws. “You have to believe that, don’t you,” Tara purred instead. “It makes it easier for you to justify stealing him from me.”
“You walked out on him,” Jessy reminded her. “You were the one who insisted that he choose between you and the Triple C. Only a fool issues an ultimatum like that to a Calder. Don’t blame me because you misjudged him.”
“I never said I didn’t make mistakes.”
“But you made one too many.”
“And you didn’t make any at all, did you?” Bitterness coated the challenge Tara hurled.
“I guess I always knew if Ty was the man I thought he was, sooner or later he would see beyond your blinding beauty.” Even now Jessy suspected that Tara’s interest in Laura was based mainly in a desire to steal something of Ty’s from her.
“You are always so sure of yourself, aren’t you?” Tara all but spat the words.
“No,” Jessy replied calmly. “I was always sure of Ty.”
“How disgustingly noble you sound,” Tara murmured with contempt. “None of this has anything to do with Sally except in the most indirect way. And she is my main concern at the moment.”
“We’re all concerned about her.” But Jessy knew of nothing that would help the woman except time.
“Sally needs to openly grieve for Chase. Loving someone without being loved in return makes that difficult. It somehow forces you to hold in your grief. I know this from my own experience,” Tara stated. Jessy couldn’t recall Tara ever holding anything back, but she was too tired of trading barbs with the woman to point it out. “Sally understands this, I’m sure,” Tara continued.
“I think all of us are aware that Sally loved Chase. And we have made it known that we understand his death is a deeply personal loss to her.”
“No doubt you have, but coming from his family that can be embarrassing,” Tara said. “In its own way, it is a reminder that she doesn’t truly have the right to grieve. But I thought if I could persuade her to come to Dunshill and stay with me for a while, she would finally be able to speak freely about her feelings for Chase. I know her regrets must be enormous. Mine were. But she wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about them to you.”
“I’m not the one you need to convince that it might be good for her to go away. It’s Sally. I don’t know how successful you’ll be, but you are welcome to try. You’ll probably find her in the kitchen.”
“Not right now, I won’t,” Tara said with utter certainty. “When I drove in, Sally was on her way to the cemetery. I don’t know whether you are aware that she spends a great deal of time at Chase’s grave.”
“I know she makes sure there are always fresh flowers on his grave.” Jessy didn’t pretend to know more than that. “Obviously I have been busy.”
“Obviously,” Tara echoed in a voice dry with criticism.
“Aunt Tara!” Laura hollered as she peeked out the door of her upstairs bedroom. “Come see.”
Tara arched a jet black eyebrow in Jessy’s direction. “Is it allowed?”
In answer, Jessy called up to her daughter, “She’ll be right there.”
“Thank you,” Tara murmured. “I didn’t want to overstep my bounds.”
Jessy held her tongue with an effort and glared at Tara’s back when she crossed to the staircase. Every time she was around the woman she swore that she wouldn’t allow Tara to rile her. It was no use. The woman’s all-knowing, superior attitude rubbed her the wrong way.
Sighing, she turned toward the den. Before she had taken a step, Trey burst into the house. “Mom, Quint’s here! I’m gonna take him to the barn an’ show him Laura’s pony!”
Out he went, giving Jessy no chance to reply. But his exuberance was like a tonic that banished the bad taste Tara had left with her.
There was nothing forced or false in the smile she gave Cat when she walked in. “Hi—” she began but got no further before Cat attacked.
“Why did you do it?”
Jessy drew back in surprise. “Do what?”
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” Cat challenged in full temper. “For your information, I just came from the feedlot. It happens to be full of cattle, but not a single one of them carries the Triple C brand.”
“I leased it to a group that Monte represents—”
“What right do you have to take it upon yourself to make a decision like that without first consulting me?”
“It was business. We agreed—”
“We agreed that you would have full say in running the ranch.” Cat impatiently waved off the words. “But this goes considerably beyond that and you know it.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Jessy protested, struggling to understand why Cat objected so strongly. “Financially you have to see that it’s a wise move. This will be the first time the ranch will see a return on the money it invested since the lot was built.”
“The Triple C has always been a cow-calf operation. It was a mistake to build the feedlot in the first place. Dad realized that. That’s why it has stood empty all this time. He would never have agreed to this, and neither do I.” Cat paused, green eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Something tells me you knew that. That’s why you were careful not to say anything to me about it.”
“That isn’t true. It simply never occurred to me that you might object.” Jessy felt trapped, unable to explain that Chase was the one who had made the decision to go ahead with the lease agreement.
“Well, I do object.” Cat was emphatic.
“Object to what?” Tara inquired from the staircase landing, her glance running between the two women with intensifying interest.
Cat never took her eyes off Jessy. “She leased the feedlot without my permission.”
“How could she do that when, technically speaking, you own half the ranch?” There was something in Tara’s voice that hinted at a delight in the news.
“That is exactly what I would like to know,” Cat stated.
“I didn’t do it deliberately. I simply didn’t regard it as anything major—”
“Not major?” Cat jumped on that. “How could you not think it was major when it changed the policy of this ranch?”
“I wasn’t looking at it that way.” Everything Jessy said sounded weak.
“But that is precisely what happened. Not for long, though,” Cat added. “I want those cattle gone, Jessy.”
She was flabbergasted that Cat would make such a demand. “That’s impossible. The agreement has been signed. It’s a legal document. Until Monte decides to ship those cattle to market, he has possession of the lot. Even if I could break it, I wouldn’t. I gave Monte my word.”
“But I didn’t give mine,” Cat reminded her. All the while Tara stood to one side, a very interested spectator. “I don’t care how you do it, but you get those trucks back here and ship those cows someplace else.”
