Loving Will should have been the easiest thing Idalou had ever done, but her fear and distrust had made it nearly impossible. She had to make up her mind what she was willing to do, what she was willing to sacrifice, to love Will. It looked like the first thing she had to do was give up the ranch, but the Double-L was Carl’s only inheritance. She would have to talk to him when he got out of jail. She couldn’t abandon her brother, not even for love.
Much to her surprise, Idalou didn’t feel an overwhelming sense of loss when she looked at what used to be her home. A couple of hard rains had washed away the mud. Already, fresh shoots of grass had sprouted in what had once been the barren area around the ranch buildings. Except for the corral and the house’s foundations, nearly every sign of their ranch would be gone by next summer. She should have been devastated. Instead she felt that a burden had been lifted from her shoulders.
Immediately she was nearly crushed by guilt. She didn’t understand how she could feel so uninvolved. For years the ranch had been at the center of nearly every thought. This was Carl’s inheritance, yet now it was just an annoyance that clung to her despite her indifference.
“I thought about this place the whole time I was in jail,” Carl said.
Will hadn’t been in his office when Emmett let Carl and Van out of jail. He’d been called to investigate some rustling on one of the small ranches west of Dunmore.
“I know it looks rather hopeless now,” Idalou said, “but it’s not that bad. We still have the land and the cows.”
“But now Will owns a big chunk of both.”
She tried not to think of that because it made it harder to admit to Carl that she was in love with Will. “I’m sure he won’t press us to pay him back.”
“You mean he won’t press me. He wants to marry you.”
After the fight and Carl’s night in jail, the trip back into town had not been a good time to discuss personal issues. Idalou understood why Will had jailed both Van and Carl, but she was still angry. Van had instigated both fights, not Carl.
“Will and Junie Mae are leaving in a week.”
Carl looked surprised. “When did he tell you that?”
“Last night. He had just gotten a letter from his parents saying Junie Mae could stay with them.”
“Are you still worried that it’s his baby?”
“No.”
Carl leveled a searching glance at her. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, but I don’t like his leaving with Junie Mae.”
“Then go with him.”
“He hasn’t asked me.”
“Only because you won’t give him a chance.”
“I was going to give him a chance last night, but your fight put an end to that.” Carl’s pugnacity vanished. “I don’t mean to blame you,” she said. “It’s my fault for being so stubborn.”
Carl waved away her apology. “I don’t see much point in trying to rebuild.”
“Why not?” It was easy to see he was depressed, but she hadn’t expected anything like this.
“You’re going to marry Will. If he doesn’t ask you before he leaves, he’ll come back. I’m not going to marry Mara, so I won’t need a ranch house.”
“She still loves you. She told me so last night. Don’t you still love her?”
“It doesn’t make any difference unless she makes up her mind to defy her father.”
He dismounted and kicked a rock, sending it rolling toward the stream. They’d been sitting astride their horses in what had been the area between the house and the bunkhouse, but the sun was growing hot so they moved to the shade of the cottonwoods that anchored the bank of the creek. The empty space felt strange, unfamiliar.
“I don’t need a house to watch the herd,” Carl continued. “We don’t need a bunkhouse, because we don’t have any hands. Come fall, I think we ought to sell the herd and put the land up for auction.”
The suddenness and unexpectedness of this about-face was a shock to Idalou. She had finally accepted that she’d be relieved to be rid of the burden of the ranch, but Carl was a born cowman and he loved the Double-L. “You can’t do that. You won’t have a home.”
It didn’t look like home anymore. It didn’t even feel like it. All that was left of their house was the rocks that had been used for the foundation. Even the housing for the well had disappeared, leaving behind a hole filled with foul water.
“I’m thinking about moving away. With my experience, I ought to be able to find a job. Maybe I’ll see if I can work for Will’s dad.”
“This is my home, too. What do you expect me to do?”
“Marry Will.”
“That still doesn’t mean you have to give up the ranch. You’ll hate working for somebody else.”
“Not as much as I’ll hate seeing Mara married to Van. Do you think I could stay here after that?”
No, not any more than she could stay here if Will married Junie Mae. “Think about it before you make up your mind. The ranch is your future. I don’t want you to give it up for any reason except that you don’t want to be a rancher anymore.”
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.”
“Then don’t think about selling. We’ll work out something.”
“Damn that bull!” Carl exclaimed. “Where in hell can it have been hiding all this time?”
“I think it’s gone. Somebody stole it, or wolves got it.”
“I’m going to keep looking. Will says he thinks it’s still here.”
It irritated her that everybody in town, right down to her own brother, accepted every word out of Will’s mouth as gospel. The man wasn’t infallible. “Will can’t know any more about the whereabouts of that bull than you or I.”
“Van told me he thought I ought to look in some of the canyons off the river.”
“It’s a waste of time. A calf couldn’t stay alive on the little graze in one of those canyons, much less a bull.”
“What else have I got to do with my time?”
Idalou felt sorry for Carl, but she didn’t know what to tell him. She couldn’t make up her mind about Will. He seemed more concerned about Junie Mae than about her. She couldn’t trust her heart to a man who didn’t put her before everyone else.
She needed to get back to town. She was still working in Ella’s shop. Will refused to accept any money for the hotel room because he said they didn’t charge extra for letting her share a room with Junie Mae, so she gave most of the money she earned to Carl so he wouldn’t have to depend on Will for supplies. She refused to get further in debt to Will. The money she owed him was already crushing her spirit.
Will had spent three days looking for Ben Janish’s cows. They’d finally caught up with the rustlers about twenty miles south of Ben’s ranch. Cornered, the rustlers had pulled out sometime in the night. Ben was delighted to have his herd back, but Will was frustrated because he believed Newt Mandrin was involved in the rustling if not the instigator.
Once Ben’s herd was back on his own land, all Will had wanted to do was get back to town and talk to Idalou. He’d started out the night of Mara’s birthday party with hopes of convincing Idalou that he loved her and wanted her to marry him. But he’d been sidetracked before he could declare his feelings.
Now that he’d finally returned to town, gotten a good night’s rest, and persuaded Idalou to drop by the sheriff’s office before she went to work, Mara had to show up crying on his shoulder that Carl hadn’t believed her when she told him she was still in love with him.
“Give him some time.” Will had had breakfast, but no one had yet tried to overwhelm him with coffee and sweets. This morning he would really have appreciated the extra coffee. “After spending a night in jail because of you, I doubt he’s very receptive just now.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Mara said. “It was Van’s.”
“Regardless of who instigated the fights, you were the reason for them. All you have to do is make up your mind which of them you love and stick with your decision.�
�
“I have,” Mara wailed. “I love Carl. I want to marry him.”
Will pinched the bridge of his nose, closed his eyes momentarily. He was too old to put up with teenage tragedies first thing in the morning. “You keep thinking like that for a whole week, and I’m sure Carl will believe you.”
“He does believe me, but he says it doesn’t matter anymore.”
Will hadn’t seen Carl since he’d put him in jail, but he didn’t believe the boy could have lost his mind in just three days. “Did he say why it didn’t matter?”
“He said he didn’t have a house, he didn’t have a ranch, and come fall he probably wouldn’t have a herd. He said marrying him now would be the same as marrying a pauper. He said even if my father would let me do something that stupid, he wouldn’t.”
At that point Mara burst into tears again immediately giving Will a headache. He never had been much of a morning person.
“What am I going to do?” Mara wailed.
Will thought honor was a fine thing, but he was reaching the conclusion that Idalou and Carl had a little too much honor for their own good. And for the good of the people who loved them.
“First of all, you’re going to stop crying. Men hate it when women cry. They know they probably did something to cause it. And even when they haven’t, they know they have to do something to make it stop despite having no idea where to begin. All they can think about is getting on a horse and riding away.”
“That’s stupid,” Mara said.
“That’s what Isabelle says.”
“Most of the time, all we want is somebody to hold us and tell us everything will be all right.”
“Isabelle says that, too.”
“Then why aren’t you holding me?”
“Because nothing will ever be all right again if Idalou and Carl walk in on me cuddling you.”
“Carl won’t care.”
“If he didn’t care about you, he’d have begged you to marry him so your father could support both of you.”
Mara looked up, her eyes wide with indignation. “Carl would never do anything like that.”
Will released a fatalistic sigh. “I know, and neither would his sister.”
Mara’s eyes grew wider. “Idalou refused to marry you?”
“I haven’t gotten around to asking her yet, but I already know the answer as long as she owes me money.”
“But it’s not the same with women. They’re supposed to marry men with money.”
Will welcomed the sound of the office door opening because it would bring an end to this fruitless conversation. “Try telling that to Idalou,” he said to Mara before turning to his visitor. “Good morning, Mrs. Truesdale. You can’t know how glad I am to see you.”
“I thought you might be ready for some fresh coffee,” Mrs. Truesdale said. She cast a reproving glance at Mara’s tear-stained cheeks. “The path of young love still proving to be thorny?” she asked.
Mara sniffed dolefully.
“The hunter who can’t make up his mind which deer to shoot risks losing them all.”
Will thought that was a rather inappropriate metaphor, as well as an unfeeling one, but he wasn’t willing to take on more than one female at a time.
“Thank you for the coffee,” he said. “I think we’ll both feel better after a cup.”
“I saw Junie Mae headed this way,” Mrs. Truesdale said and smiled sweetly. “All you need is Idalou and you’ll have every female in distress hanging on your sleeves.”
Will was about to reach the conclusion that listening to Mrs. Truesdale was too high a price to pay for coffee.
“You need a wife, Sheriff. A man like you is a danger to all unmarried women.”
“He’s not a danger to me,” Mara declared. “I love Carl.”
“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to hear that . . . again.” Mrs. Truesdale turned back to Will. “Mabel Thornton will be over with some blueberry muffins shortly. Try not to give all of them to the town brats. Mabel’s daughters picked those blueberries by hand.”
She spoke as if there were some other way to pick blueberries. “I’ll make sure I have at least two,” Will promised.
Junie Mae entered the office and came to a stop when she saw Mrs. Truesdale.
“I’m just going,” the matron said sweetly. “Try not to take up all the sheriff’s time. We don’t want the rustlers to feel neglected.”
“Don’t pay her any attention,” Mara said to Junie Mae after Mrs. Truesdale left. “Mama says Gladys Truesdale has the sharpest tongue in Dunmore.”
“I’ll come back,” Junie Mae said, casting an apologetic glance at Mara. “I don’t want to interrupt.”
“I’m sure the sheriff hopes you will interrupt,” Mara said. “I’ve been crying on his shoulder, and you know how much men like that.”
Junie Mae smiled. “The sheriff is very good about letting us poor females cry on his shoulder.” Her smile faded. “It’s fortunate that at least one man cares about us.”
Will had a sinking feeling that Junie Mae was about to tear up.
“A lot of men care,” Mara said. “They just care about the wrong things.”
Will was relieved when the door opened and Carl entered the office. He was about to direct the younger man’s attention to the distressed Mara, but Carl turned to her without any help from Will.
“I want you to come outside,” he said in very unloverlike tones. “I have something to show you. You come, too,” he said to Will. With that, he turned and stalked out of the office.
Mara jumped to her feet and dashed after him. Though he was tempted to stay inside and let Carl and Mara settle their problems between themselves, Will paused only long enough to tell Junie Mae to have some coffee.
“That’s my bull,” Carl said to Will when he stepped outside. There in the street stood the long-lost creature. “I found him in one of the river canyons on her father’s property.” He pointed at Mara.
“I told you Jordan McGloughlin was a liar and a thief. I hope you’ll believe me now.”
Will didn’t have to turn around to know it was Idalou speaking. He was in for it now.
“My father has always wanted your land, but he wouldn’t cheat to get it,” Mara declared.
“The bull had been barricaded in and was being fed,” Carl shot back. “From the looks of things, he’d been moved there recently.”
“If he was on our land, why didn’t you find him before?” Mara asked. “Daddy gave you permission to look anywhere you wanted.”
“All your father had to do was know where Carl was looking and move the bull somewhere else,” Idalou pointed out.
Will didn’t miss a word of the exchange, but at the moment he was more interested in the bull. He was a truly fine-looking animal, worthy of the fuss being made over him as well as of the price Will would have to pay to get him. For an animal that had had to forage for himself in the wild, he seemed remarkably calm and accepting of captivity. His presence in the street was attracting a lot of attention. Will wasn’t happy when Van was one of the persons attracted.
“Where did you find him?” Van asked Carl.
“In one of the river canyons, just like you thought.”
Will’s attention was caught. “You told Carl where the bull was?” he asked Van.
“I was only guessing,” Van said.
“I’d looked everywhere else,” Carl said. “I hadn’t thought of the canyons because most of them are barren.” He turned an angry glance at Mara. “I never thought her father would hide him where he had to be fed and watered.”
Mara looked devastated. At this point, it didn’t matter whether Carl believed she still loved him. He had no reason to lie about where he’d found the bull, and every reason to believe a future with her was impossible.
“Daddy wouldn’t do that,” Mara said, her tears beginning to flow again. “He just wouldn’t.”
“Regardless of what your father might or might not have done,” Will said to Mara, “it�
��s not your fault.”
“I think you ought to arrest Jordan,” Van said.
With a wail, Mara threw herself on Will and began to cry with loud, gusty sobs that seemed to draw people out of their homes and shops. Will did his best to comfort Mara. Finally he cast a mute appeal to Idalou, who had watched the entire episode with a jaundiced eye.
“Come on,” she said to Mara as she peeled her from Will’s chest. “Let’s go into the sheriff’s office until you feel better. You don’t want to give people any more reason to gossip about your family.”
“I don’t care,” Mara sobbed. “My father’s going to jail, and Carl won’t ever believe I love him. My life is ruined.”
“Just because the bull was on his land doesn’t mean he’s responsible for hiding him,” Will said.
Idalou looked at him with shocked surprise, but it was Van who expressed what Will figured everyone must be thinking.
“Who else would have done it?” Van demanded. “Everybody knows Jordan wanted Idalou’s ranch and let his cows run all over her land to breed with her bull.”
“Don’t forget the dam,” Idalou said.
“Or the rustled herd,” Carl added.
Mara wailed so loudly Idalou had to take her into the office before she collapsed.
“If he gets away with this, none of the rest of us will be safe,” Van argued.
Will wasn’t about to deny that someone seemed mighty determined to drive Carl and Idalou off their land, but he couldn’t make himself believe that Jordan McGloughlin was cruel or a criminal.
“Newt tried to steal the herd,” one of the gathered crowd said.
“Jordan has hired Newt lots of times,” Van said.
“So has your father,” Will reminded him.
“I found the bull on McGloughlin land,” Carl said to Will. He looked angry, as though he believed Will was trying to defend Jordan. “You can’t ignore that.”
“I don’t intend to. I’m going to see Jordan right away.”
“I’m coming with you,” Carl said.
“Me, too,” Van said.
Texas Tender Page 26
