The women began to play, laying down cards, and requesting more as their turn arrived.
“So this is a fairly new meeting of yours?” She watched the faces of all the women in the group. No one seemed ashamed. No one shocked by their behavior. Their demeanor proved they banded together to have this time, and they intended to enjoy it.
“Why the secrecy about it all?”
“We work the farms and ranches with our fathers and husbands,” Bethany answered. As she spoke she motioned toward various women in the group. “Keep house, cook, clean, raise children, even manage the mercantile. We want something for ourselves. Something the men can’t come in and take away from us.”
“So you secret away and play cards?”
“We take time to simply exist,” the widow answered. “No responsibilities, no life pressures. Only fun. For two hours on the third Tuesday of the month. The losers stand lookout the next month.”
“Someone’s coming!” Georgiana yelled.
Like children caught in the midst of misbehavior, the women scrambled to cover the cards with the needlework from their lap. Bethany scooted Victoria’s cards beneath her craftwork just as Wall walked into the clearing.
“Ladies.” He tipped his hat at no one in particular.
“Wallace,” the widow greeted with a slight bow to her head. “How’s your mamma?”
“Doing well. The girls have no doubt told you, she sends her regrets. She couldn’t make it today. Something about getting the new cook settled.”
“What can we do for you, brother?” Willa said, the impatience in her tone evident behind every word. Victoria stifled a giggle. In all her dealings with the man, she’d never understood his reason behind the way he responds to women. To her. His deference for her opinion. Allowing her to take the lead…well, in most instances.
She blushed as the thought of his hands on her body cascaded through her memory like a waterfall.
At one point she’d thought him weak. That he’d allowed her to walk on him, but now she understood him better. Saw him with his sisters. His was a respect for the role women played in his life. An allowance for them to stand beside him, and not behind him.
He was exactly as he appeared to be. Pure gentleman cowboy. Clearly loved by all the women around the table. Even the widow, given the way she now batted her eyes at him.
“I’ve come with a message. Mrs. Yancy is to pick up a parcel at the mercantile, and when you’re done with the meeting, Mrs. Harborough is needed back at the store with all haste. It seems he cannot keep up without her.”
The woman who must have been Mrs. Harborough rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Anything else?” Willa said, her tone still impatient.
“Not off the top of my head.”
“Then if you wouldn’t mind,” Willa continued. “We still have a good half hour left of our meeting, and we need complete privacy.”
“I wouldn’t dream of interfering with whatever is going on here.” He waved toward the table, and turned to leave, sliding a long stare at Victoria before walking away.
Even the one glance, so innocent, sent flutters to her stomach, and stole the very breath from her lungs. She was positively a ninny whenever he was around.
But she needed to get back to business. Securing a contract with Widow Yancy.
She leaned over, trying to bring them in as much secrecy as the moment would allow. “I heard you have a lot of trees on your property.”
The widow glanced out of the corner of her eyes, and then back down at her card hand. “You hear odd things for someone so new to Hartland.”
Victoria straightened, and pretended to care about her own cards, setting down two she hoped were bad, and trading for two she didn’t quite think were much better. “I’m in the tree business.”
The widow traded her cards. “That would explain your interest in my trees.”
“I’d be willing to lease the rights to your trees.” Victoria’s heart beat faster as the sensation spread to her stomach. Hoping she didn’t give away her desperation. She needed this. Her first real deal, and one made after losing all of the land she’d inherited with the mill.
“Don’t think I got enough to do anyone any good.”
Victoria shrugged. “It’ll start me out.”
The widow fell silent as one by one the players dropped out, leaving only her and the widow holding cards. The widow smiled. “Tell you what. Why don’t we let the cards decide if we make a deal or not?”
“What?” Victoria didn’t know what else to say. How was a game of cards any way to decide the fate of her company? Although, she supposed men have used worse tactics to make back-room deals.
“Even if Pa is against the whole thing?” Layla asked from across the table. Only then did Victoria realize the whole group listened to her conversation.
She wasn’t aware Wall’s sisters knew about her business dealings, or the troubles with their father. Victoria threw Layla a questioning glance, who shrugged. “We overheard Pa talking in the barn with Wall last night.”
“Arguing more like,” Bethany said, and fiddled with her needlework.
“Just so you know,” Willa said. “If we had any influence over my father, we’d have been right there with Wall pleading your case.”
“Right.” Another woman Victoria didn’t even know said, “This valley could use a little trimming down. It’s positively overgrown.”
Victoria gave them a genuine smile. One she reserved mostly for herself, and Wall. “Thank you all.”
“Well, how ʼbout it?” The widow wiggled her cards.
“All right.” Victoria set her cards down, unsure as to what in the world the outcome would be. In all honesty, she hadn’t paid attention to her hand one whit since she’d picked up the cards.
“Well look at that,” the widow said. “I win.”
She laid down her cards, all neat and in a row. Victoria knew enough to know she’d lost. Blast!
If she were a typical woman, she’d cry. For the stress of everything she’d experienced over the spring and summer. For the loss of the first business deal she’d ever handled on her own. By herself with no one to help her out. She’d cry because she needed to.
Except she didn’t cry because she was Victoria Harrison.
“I guess you can come by whenever you want to check out the trees.” The widow stood, and extended her hand.
Victoria clambered to her feet in a way most unlike her, and shook her hand. Confusion did not begin to describe what she felt.
The widow chuckled at what Victoria’s expression must have looked like. “I bet you thought you had to win, eh? Nah, the way I see it, you’re giving me the money and clearing my land so I can finally use it. I’m the one who’s winning. I go to church on Sundays, and here when we have our meetings, but other than that you can find me at my homestead.”
“I’ll be by sometime this week.” Victoria glanced around the table to the other women’s smiling faces as they gathered their possessions, stowed them in their bags, and then began to clean up the table and chairs.
Victoria helped, reeling with the thoughts and emotions of the last two hours. The sheer freedom she felt hiding away behind the church with a group of women, playing cards in secret. The sense of belonging and acceptance the women of Hartland gave her without even so much as a question.
Here she existed as a guest as though she were a part of the community. She felt at peace. As though here, in Hartland Montana, she belonged.
* * * *
Wall held Victoria’s horse still as she mounted, and then swung up into his own saddle. She’d went to the Women’s Society meeting looking slightly nervous, and a bit unsure. Now, she shined. Hell, even the lighter strands of her dark hair picked up the sunrays with a golden sheen. Although it may be she’d spent more time outside on his fath
er’s ranch than her normal routine allowed, but he liked to think her body responded to her happiness at his home. “How’d you fare with Widow Yancy?”
“Secured the trees. Like I said I would.”
“I had no doubt.” He raised his chin to show his approval. She seemed to need the extra encouragement whenever possible. She wasn’t unsure about her ability to lead, but she needed the support of those around her. And since Paul left to find her father, she had only him.
They began to ride down the road toward Old Man Jones’s homestead. He waited until they were out of earshot from anyone traveling around town, and then caught her attention with his eyes. “How much land do you need to cover your contract for next year?”
Victoria searched the sky as if the clouds would drop down the answer. “For a year? And with the new contracts? I would say what we harvested at the old Grove.”
“We were there for two years.”
“Yes, but we only had river logging, so we only had half the contracts we do now. With your inventions, and Garrett’s trains, we’ve doubled the needed harvest.”
Wall mentally ran through the ranches in the area, and shook his head. Even if they got every farmer at the base of the mountain to agree, they’d barely be able to cover one season. They needed his father’s thousands of densely forested, mountainous acres in order to have a solid foundation to reinvent the mill. Or for the bid he’d placed on the land next to Seeley Lake to go through.
God willing.
The day Victoria fought Luther in court and lost her land, he’d visited the land office and offered every penny he had. He’d told her about it while they drove to Hartland. Had needed to confide in her, but didn’t tell her that every dollar he’d saved while working for her, he’d placed in the bank. His money. Not his father’s or the Lazy Heart’s, but his hard-earned cash to do with as he would.
And he wanted to buy her land to rebuild the mill. Land his father’s pocket politician planned to mark for cattle use. Which was another way of saying he wanted the land so he could force out the lumber companies not controlled by him.
Wall suspected his father wasn’t the mastermind behind the scheme, but simply supplied him with a well-placed parcel of land that would aid Hamilton in getting Wall to come home for good.
“I checked the post, but I haven’t heard anything about the land yet.”
“We’ll have to take it one year at a time, I suppose. Until we get a solid stance on a section of land.”
“If only your father would fold.”
She spoke the words even he was thinking. He couldn’t fault her for saying them. “My father is stubborn as hell. Which is probably where my sister’s get it from.”
“They’re charming. Wish I could have grown with a family like yours. Stubborn or not.”
Wall’s stomach dropped as he realized she still hadn’t heard from her father.
Old Man Jones’s road came into view, and he motioned toward the copse of trees up near the base of the mountain. “That’s where we’re going.” He turned his horse down the road, and she followed.
“How are you doing with your father’s situation?”
She shook off his words. “I have to leave it up to mother to worry about. If I don’t keep the mill alive, he won’t have anything to come home to once he’s discovered.”
Wall didn’t react. In all honesty, didn’t know how to. She coped the best way she knew how, and with her it was diving into work apparently. “Let’s hope he gets home sooner rather than later.”
“He will.” She kicked her horse to lope down the long road that ended at the small ranch where they were headed.
His horse panted hard between his knees by the time he caught up with her as she skidded her mount to a stop in Old Man Jones’s yard.
Like every other time in his youth when he’d visited, the scene before him felt lonely. A small cabin sat to the right of the lush clearing, and outhouse to the left. Back farther sat a small barn where chickens pecked the ground around it, and out to the side Old Man Jones’s sheep milled about in a constant state of confusion.
Farther back, past the farmer’s corn field, sat the grove of trees intended to be cut since before the young Jones went and joined the army. Now, not only would he benefit from Victoria’s offer, but she would as well.
Hopefully.
Old Man Jones trudged from his barn, wiping his hand on his pants as he approached. His face drawn together in an unwelcome scowl until his eye met Walls.
“Young Wallace,” he said, and smiled. “How’s your pa doing?”
“Good as can be.”
Wall dismounted, followed by Victoria. Wall waved toward her, hoping to draw focus away from his father. “This is Miss Victoria Harrison from Great Mountain Lumber Company.”
“Miz Harrison.” Old Man Jones bowed his head in greeting.
“I’ve come to make you an offer I’m hoping you’ll find quite enticing,” she said.
“Oh?”
“I heard you have some trees you don’t need. I was hoping I might talk you into letting me lease the rights to log those trees. Take them off your hands for you.”
Old Man Jones shook his head. “Did you say lease the rights?”
“Yes, sir. We offered Mrs. Yancy the same deal.”
“Ah, yes.” Old Man Jones firmed his chin and dropped his gaze to the ground. “Problem is Widow Yancy needs the money. Way I see it, what I need is them trees gone. I wouldn’t need to be paid for you to take them away. You’d be doing me a favor.”
“So you’ll sign with us?” Victoria shuffled her feet and fiddled with the reins in her leather gloved hand. Wall smiled, but held back from grabbing her hand to help calm her excitement. She would be a terrible poker player.
Old Man Jones motioned toward Wall. “If young Wallace here is with you then you must have Hamilton Adair’s blessing, so I don’t see why not.”
With those words, Victoria’s shoulder dropped, and she stopped moving. “Oh…well…we don’t have his blessing. That I—”
Old Man Jones slid him a questioning stare. “I don’t understand. Why would you be riding with her if you aren’t representing your family?”
“I represent me.” Wall stood taller. Hoping his next words would help to sway the man in their favor, but his gut dropped. He didn’t have the clout of his father, or even grandfather for that matter. “Miss Harrison has my approval, and I am supporting her in her endeavor.”
Wall’s stomach dropped even lower when Old Man Jones shook his head and frowned. “I’m sorry, son. Your pa’s the one who runs the ranch, and Hartland. I can’t go against him. I’d be more than happy to let you take these trees once you get your father’s approval. Come back with that, and we have a deal.”
“What if Pappy backed us?” Wall countered.
Old Man Jones still shook his head in response. “Can’t do it.”
Wall ran his thumb over his lip and studied a pebble on the ground at the old man’s feet. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but he’d honestly thought Old Man Jones’s would at least be one to jump at their proposal. Being as he’d needed the trees gone for years. “His approval, huh?”
“Bring it back and we’ll talk.”
Wall shook the man’s hand, and then turned to help an oddly quiet Victoria mount. She settled, and he did the same. They turned toward the road with a nodded goodbye.
Once clear of Old Man Jones’s property, he chanced a glance at her, but to her credit she didn’t cry. “It’s a minor obstacle. We can stop by all of the ranches between here and the Lazy Heart on the way home and see if we can get any takers.”
“And what if we don’t?”
“Then we’ll move on to our next plan.”
“The air is already starting to turn cold in the mornings, Wall. If I don’t find something more substantial th
an the widow’s grove soon, it’ll be winter before I can get something going up here. I wanted to have Garrett up here with the railroad by mid fall at the very latest.”
“Did you write him already? Getting Garrett and his trains up here isn’t a bad plan, even if you haven’t secured the contracts. I’ll talk to my father tonight. Get him on board with that much at least.”
“Is there any way to get him to change his mind about supporting Great Mountain being in the valley?” She blinked several times, holding back tears now filling the bottom of her eyes, but she didn’t cry. He wanted to hold her. Caress her hair, and make everything okay again.
Take her to a time when her biggest concern was what party to attend, and her father ran the mill. But if he did, they wouldn’t be together, and he needed her now more than he needed the rush the white water gave him as the logs beneath his feet shuddered under the river’s pressure. He needed her more than he needed the freedom being the leader of the Devil May Care boys allowed him.
He needed her like he needed the very heart she’d stolen with her fiery ways, and stubborn pride.
“There is one way.”
“How?” Her face beamed with hope. He refused to be the man to take it away.
He didn’t want to tell her. Not yet. First he needed to find out if he was granted the land by Seeley Lake. If so, then all his troubles, all his fears would be for naught.
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll talk to my father. I’ll figure things out for you. I promise, you will have at least a thousand acres to harvest by winter.”
Even if he had to give her up to get her the land she needed to make the mill survive, he would.
“Are you enjoying your time here?”
Victoria gave one of her smiles meant only for him. “Your family is delightful. Even if your father doesn’t agree with my way of life.”
“He’s the only one, I assure you.”
“What about your mother? She and your father seem to be close.”
“They are, but they don’t always have the same views on things. Have you had much time with my mother?”
Fiery Passion Page 20
