The Test of Love

by Irene Brand

  Kim and Connie glanced at each other curiously, but Joseph had joined them, and Jean said nothing more.

  The room contained massive leather furniture, with a recliner chair placed prominently in front of a large-screen television. This was definitely a man’s room. Virginia must have loved Joseph very much, Connie thought, and designed this room for him. It was the kind any cowman would like. The knowledge brought no comfort to her heart.

  Jean’s next words confirmed that her surmise was true. “Virginia furnished this room to please Joseph. She preferred more feminine things, and the key to her personality is in her sitting room next door. Which,” she said to Eric, “is where I’ve put you for the weekend. There’s a comfortable sofa bed in the room, if you can overlook all the feminine furbelows.”

  “No problem for me,” Eric said. “I’m sure I’ll get used to feminine things before many more weeks.”

  Jean laughed heartily. “I’m sure you will. Joseph tells me that you and Kim are marrying soon.”

  Kim and Connie peeked into the room Eric would occupy, and Connie learned a bit about the character of Joseph’s wife based on the pastel colors, lacy curtains, plush cushions, dainty furnishings and white carpet. The room seemed out of place in this ranch setting. Had Virginia been a misfit here, too?

  “I would ask you to sit down, but you’re probably tired of sitting after that two-hour drive, and besides, dinner will be ready in a half hour,” Jean said, “so I’ll show you to your rooms, and you can settle in. Kim, you and Connie will share a room, if that’s all right.”

  “Eric and I will bring in the bags,” Joseph said.

  After seeing Virginia Caldwell’s private sitting room, the presence of Joseph’s wife was heavy on Connie’s mind as she followed Jean and Kim upstairs and down a narrow hallway. Had Joseph built this home for his wife? Did he still love her? They passed a closed door adjacent to Joseph’s room, and she wondered if that had been Virginia’s room. In light of her attraction to Joseph, Connie felt like an intruder.

  Connie and Kim’s room was comfortably furnished with twin beds, racks for their luggage and an empty closet ready for garment bags. Short white draperies matched the brocade bedspreads. Jean pointed to an open, screened window. “There’s no air-conditioning here, so I’ll close these windows now and pull the blinds to keep out the heat. You can open the windows when you go to bed. We get a nice breeze from the mountains, and it cools down considerably at night. Your bathroom is at the end of the hall.”

  Jean appeared to be several years older than Joseph. She didn’t wear a wedding band, and Connie couldn’t remember Joseph ever commenting on her marital state.

  “It’s nice of you to look after us this weekend,” Kim said.

  Jean carelessly waved her hand. “No bother. I live alone in the house my grandfather built, so I enjoy having company. In this area, ranches are scattered far and wide, and we don’t get together often.” As she left the room, she said, “Come on down to the living quarters when you’re ready. I have iced lemonade waiting for you.”

  After dinner, Joseph suggested a tour of the ranch buildings. When Kim volunteered to help with the dishes, Jean said, “Of course not. You’re guests, and it won’t take me long to fill the dishwasher. As soon as I have the kitchen in order, I’ll go home and be back in time for breakfast.”

  “Do you want to walk or ride on the tour?” Joseph asked. “There’s an ATV handy,” he added, smiling at Connie.

  “Don’t remind me of that!” she said.

  “Let’s walk,” Kim said. “If I don’t get some exercise, Connie will probably make me go jogging at daybreak in the morning.”

  “She’ll have to go,” Joseph said, “whether she wants to or not.” He fixed a stern gaze on Connie. “You forced me to walk and run when I didn’t want to, so be prepared to roll out of bed at six o’clock in the morning. I’ve laid out a two-mile running track around the corral fence.”

  “You shouldn’t punish Eric and me just because Connie was a hard taskmaster,” Kim said, her eyes bubbling with mirth. “I’m on a holiday, so none of this early stuff for me. What can we do along about midmorning?”

  “We can go riding, if you like. I have lots of horses,” Joseph said. “There’s a nice place for a picnic about an hour’s ride away.”

  “That will be far enough for me to ride,” Eric said with a laugh. “Remember I’m a city boy from Louisiana. I know nothing about horses.”

  “You will after tomorrow,” Joseph said. “I’ll ask Jean to pack a lunch for us. And I promise you,” he added with a sly grin at Connie, “the food will be full of calories, but I don’t believe that will hurt you. Have you lost weight?”

  “No, but if I looked peaked, it’s because we’ve had a rough week. Thanks for inviting us here—we all needed to be away from NLC for a few days.”

  “Your folks are in charge, I suppose?”

  “Yes, and they sent their greetings to you.”

  “How about explaining your ranch work to us,” Eric said. “Kim and Connie may know more than I do, but I’ve never been on a ranch before.”

  “We run about five hundred Hereford cattle, and a few Charolais. You may have seen them in the fields as you drove in. We harvest about twenty thousand tons of prime grass and alfalfa and raise enough grain to feed the cattle and horses. Most of my cattle are in summer pasture. I rent about five thousand acres of rangeland in the mountain valleys, and we take the cattle up there each spring. The summer range is thirty miles away, and one of my workers and his wife stay up there all summer, living in a somewhat primitive log cabin, but they enjoy it. Someone goes up once a week to take their mail and food supplies.”

  “I didn’t realize ranching was such hard work,” Kim said.

  “I have three hired hands, and during haying, or when we’re rounding up or vaccinating cattle, we work twelve to fifteen hours a day. Summer is our busy season—that’s the reason I fretted so because I had to be away this summer.”

  Still the therapist, Connie asked, “Does your injury give you any trouble when you ride?”

  “I’m aware of it when I’m in the saddle for several hours, but I’m thankful it’s no worse.”

  After they’d looked at the horses in the corral and inspected the farm buildings, which were neat and in good repair, Kim and Eric turned back toward the house. “I want to try out those rocking chairs on the back porch, Joseph,” Eric said.

  “Help yourself—the view is great from there.” To Connie, Joseph said, “Shall we walk down to the lake? It’s not as scenic as the one at NLC, but it’s a peaceful spot.”

  After they’d walked for a few minutes, Joseph said, “How are you managing this week since Ray Blazer left you without any warning?”

  “We have been shorthanded, but I’ve hired a retired gymnast from Denver to help out until we can find a replacement for Ray. For months, Ray has been belligerent and impudent, and his attitude kept me upset most of the time, so I’m relieved he’s no longer in our employ.” She withheld her suspicions that Ray had tampered with the equipment.

  Eyeing her keenly, Joseph said, “No sadness then over what might have been?”

  Meeting his gaze unflinchingly, she said, “Not at all. I don’t like to be on the outs with anyone, but in this case, it’s unavoidable. I don’t suppose I’ll ever see Ray again, and that will suit me.”

  Deeming it time to change the subject, Connie said, “I wanted a chance to talk to you privately. I’ve not had much luck tracing the newspaper clipping, but I studied the enlarged picture with a magnifying glass. There’s a newspaper in a rack that is fairly plain, and I believe the date on it was six years ago. The lettering on the window is Taylor Pharmacy, but I don’t know if Taylor is the name of the town or of the people who own the business.”

  “I’ve also been studying the enlarged copy you gave me, and the female robber is wearing a large turquoise necklace, identical to one Virginia had. If it’s still in her jewelry box, that would be a de
finite clue to place her at the crime scene.”

  “That would be valuable evidence. I’m checking out towns named Taylor, and if they have a newspaper, I’m contacting the paper, describing the clipping, asking for information. It’s a slow process. There are many towns in this country named Taylor, or Taylorsville,” Connie said with a sigh.

  “If it’s too time consuming for you, I’ll go to my lawyers. Probably I should have anyway.”

  “No. I want to help. It’s just frustrating that I’m not accomplishing anything. Give me a few more weeks.”

  After walking in silence for several minutes, Joseph said, musingly, “If that date is right, and Virginia was involved, the robbery occurred a year before our wedding.”

  “How long did you know Virginia before you were married?”

  “About six months. George and I had been friends in college, and I’d visited his home a couple of times, but Virginia hadn’t been there. We kept in touch after college, and I was best man at his wedding. That’s where I met Virginia.”

  Joseph took Connie’s hand, and his touch was warm and welcome. They reached the lake and paused to watch a great blue heron stretch his long neck and, with one quick movement, snatch a fish from the lake. Quacking incessantly, a pair of mallards and their half-grown ducklings headed toward the bank when Joseph dipped a plastic scoop in a covered bucket hanging on a post and scattered cracked corn on the ground. Connie and Joseph moved away when the flock hurried up the bank to eat. Several Charolais cattle lay in the lush grass surrounding the lake, contentedly chewing their cuds.

  The setting was peaceful, but with Joseph’s next words, Connie’s enjoyment of the scene diminished. “Jean has been pestering me to donate Virginia’s clothes to the local hospital’s charity bazaar. I’d like to get them out of the house, but I don’t want to dispose of them in this area. I wouldn’t want to walk down the street of Fort Collins and meet someone wearing my wife’s clothes. Do you know of anyplace around Denver to take them?”

  Connie hadn’t expected this visit to be a continual reminder of the presence of Joseph’s wife, and every word about Virginia Caldwell pricked her heart, but she answered evenly, “My home church, the place where Mom and Dad attend, operates a clothes pantry for low-income families. They price the items at a reasonable rate, but if the person is destitute, or if they’ve lost all of their possessions in a disaster, there’s no charge. They would make good use of her clothes.”

  “Can you check with Beverly? If it’s all right, the next time I come to Lakewood, I’ll have one of the workers’ wives pack everything in boxes, and I’ll deliver them to your parents’ home, or to the church.”

  “When there’s a mystery about Virginia’s death, do you think it’s wise to give away her wardrobe without checking for clues?”

  “Probably not, but I can’t do it.”

  “Then, I will. We can store them in an empty room at NLC, and I’ll check through the items when I have time.” What better way to face the memory of Virginia than to inspect her garments and discard them! “Since I didn’t know Virginia, it won’t be an emotional experience for me, as it would be for you or Jean. In fact, I’ll volunteer to do the packing while we’re here. I want to see your name cleared, Joseph, and we shouldn’t overlook any possible clue.”

  “You’re sure you don’t mind?” he asked.

  “Not at all—I’ll do it after the picnic tomorrow.” Connie knew it wasn’t a Christian attitude, but, as much as she dreaded handling Virginia’s possessions, she couldn’t bear the thought of Joseph examining his wife’s clothing and reminiscing about their lives together.

  “It won’t be an easy task. Virginia had lots of clothes. And I’ll need to check the small safe where she kept her jewelry. It could hold a clue to help our search. The Perrys bought her many things, and she also inherited her mother’s jewelry. I suppose I should give that to George—he has a daughter, and she should have her grandmother’s jewels.”

  “That might be a good excuse for you to contact George and see what he knows. You could tell him you want to give Mrs. Perry’s jewelry to his daughter, and while you’re there, start questioning him.”

  “I don’t know if I’m ready to talk to him yet.” Joseph frowned, but then he laughed. “I guess I’ll have to stop calling you ‘Doc,’ and start thinking of you as Sherlock Holmes. You’d make a first-rate detective.”

  “You were the one who suggested I might help you.”

  He put his arms around her shoulders and kissed her lightly. “And I appreciate it, too. There aren’t many people I’d trust with the information.”

  After his guests went to their rooms for the night, Joseph sat on the porch, deep in thought. One reason he’d invited Connie to the ranch was to see her in his home. Virginia had never liked the ranch. He’d built the house to please her, and she’d been intrigued at first at the opportunity to decorate the house to her own tastes, but it had never been home to her.

  Virginia hadn’t learned to ride. She’d thought horses smelled, and she hadn’t liked feeling their sweaty hides on her legs. Before they were married, he’d anticipated that the two of them could spend long weekends in the cabin at the summer pasture, but Virginia had gone with him once to the area and dubbed the cabin a “primitive shack.” Her idea of a weekend getaway was to Palm Springs, a Caribbean cruise or to Las Vegas. After a year, Joseph admitted to himself that he’d made a mistake, but he didn’t complain to anyone. He’d married until “death do us part,” and he lived with his mistake.

  But he couldn’t make another mistake! If he married again, he wanted a partner, someone to share his life. Connie had seemed to enjoy the ranch tonight, and she’d asked lots of questions about his methods of operation. Still, she had her own profession, and that was a two-hour drive away. If it was a nine to five job, she could commute back and forth to the ranch, but as director of NLC, she was on call most of the time. He couldn’t ask her to give up her life’s dream to marry him. Even if he was exonerated in Virginia’s death, he couldn’t see any future with Connie.

  Discouraged, he didn’t go to his room until long after midnight. He changed into his sleeping shorts and looked for a long time at the closed door between his room and Virginia’s. He hadn’t opened it since Virginia’s death. Joseph walked slowly toward the door, where he grasped the knob with a trembling hand. As he hesitated, sweat broke out on his forehead, and he turned away.

  Determined to overcome his fear of the past, he approached the adjoining room quickly and forcefully opened the door, and experienced again the pain of losing Virginia forever. The room was ready for her—just as it had been nine months ago. Before she’d left the house for the day, the maid had turned down the heavy comforter, and the pink silk sheets and pillow-cases were ready for Virginia’s rest. A white nightgown and matching robe lay across the foot of the bed. His wife’s cosmetics were laid out on the vanity dresser.

  He went to the wall safe and opened a chest that contained her Native American jewelry and found the turquoise necklace. He no longer doubted Virginia’s guilt, and he closed the safe and spun the combination. He walked slowly around the room, remembering the pleasures and the problems his marriage had brought. He paused in the doorway, and quietly said, “Goodbye, Virginia,” before he returned to his room.

  Joseph awakened at five o’clock, as was his custom during the summer months. Should he disturb Connie’s sleep? He was half joking when he’d threatened her with an early-morning run, but it might be a good idea. He changed into shorts and a sweatshirt, walked down the hall and tapped lightly on the door where Kim and Connie slept. He tapped a second time, and received a sleepy reply, “Yes?” He thought it was Connie’s voice.

  He cracked the door. “Connie, I’m going for a run. Do you want to go with me?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  While he waited for her, Joseph went to the kitchen and poured two small glasses of orange juic
e. He was sipping on his when Connie hustled down the stairs, wearing a pair of gray sweatpants and a matching shirt. He handed her a glass of juice.

  “That was quick,” he said as she drank.

  “I laid out my clothes last night, so it didn’t take long.”

  “Kim still asleep?”

  “Yes. She stirred a little, but she wants to rest. We’ll be busy next week getting ready for her wedding.”

  They walked toward the corral, hand in hand.

  “Oh, I hear a meadowlark,” Connie cried. “We never hear them at the Center.” They stopped, and located the large bird with a black V on its yellow breast, perched on the corral fence. They were close enough to see its pulsating throat as the bird bubbled with song. “What a way to start the morning!” She laughed. “It sounds to me as if he’s saying, ‘Fill up the teakettle.’”

  “My mother was born near Litchfield, Nebraska, and she always said the meadowlark’s song was, ‘Used to live in Litchfield.’”

  “Whatever he’s saying, it’s a beautiful song.”

  A four-foot strip had been mown along the periphery of the corral fence. “I’ve only run on this a couple of times, and it may be a little rough, so be careful. When I mowed this path, I didn’t anticipate having company when I jogged, so it may not be wide enough for the two of us to run abreast.”

  “You start out, and I’ll keep a few feet behind you,” Connie said.

  Joseph’s thigh and leg had healed, but for the first quarter mile, his leg was stiff and painful, and he ran slowly, but when his leg muscles warmed up, he increased speed and ran smoothly. As they passed the lake, they disturbed flocks of red-winged blackbirds which flew out of the cattails, noisily scolding the runners.

  When they reached the halfway mark, Joseph glanced quickly over his shoulder, and Connie flashed him a smile. The trail widened, and she sped up to run beside him. His heart warmed to hear her steps pounding in unison with his. Was this what marriage to her would mean? Could they travel through life side by side sharing their dreams and spiritual commitments?