by Merry Farmer
Vivian blinked. Then her eyes went wide with anger. Her jaw tensed, and red splotches spread across her cheeks. But worst of all, underneath the anger lay fear and hurt.
“What kind of nonsense is this?” Vivian demanded, her voice more shrill than usual.
Bebe swallowed. “I love Hubert. I’ve always loved Hubert. No one but Hubert. You know that.” She didn’t sound half as strong as she hoped she would.
“I don’t care if you love Mitch the baker’s son. You’re marrying Price.”
“No, Vivian.” Bebe did her best to keep calm. “I’m marrying Hubert.”
“After everything I’ve done for you?” Vivian’s voice shook. “After the way I put a roof over your head and kept you from starving.”
“We all worked together,” Bebe reminded her.
“And you would abandon us now?” Vivian threw out her hand to the stove.
An unexpected twist of guilt filled Bebe. But no, what reason did she have to be guilty? Her sisters had made her life miserable for years. They…they….
She tried to think to herself that they deserved what they got, but the cruel thought only made her more miserable.
“You can’t really want me to marry a man that I don’t love, can you?” Bebe appealed to her.
“I married Rance,” Vivian shouted back. “Do you think I loved him? Of course I didn’t. But Papa wanted me to. For the sake of the family. If I can do it, you can do it too.”
“No, I can’t,” Bebe argued, strength building inside of her. “I don’t think I can do it. You may have married Rance because Father said so, but you didn’t do that when you were in love with someone else.”
“Love is just a stupid fantasy.” Vivian too was gathering steam as the argument went on. The hurt was gone from her eyes, leaving a dangerous combination of fear and fury. “It doesn’t exist. I won’t let you destroy our family for something that doesn’t exist.”
“Love does exist,” Bebe said, feeling it down to the core of her being. “I didn’t think it did for a while,” she admitted. “I was so hurt by Hubert when he walked away from me. But that doesn’t mean that love isn’t real. And Hubert came back.”
“For how long?” Vivian snapped.
Her words hit their mark, whether Bebe wanted them to or not. Hubert had abandoned her once. He might do it again.
But before the fear could take hold, Vivian railed on. “All we have is this ranch. Without it, we’re nothing. We’ll end up working at the whorehouse instead of owning it. Is that what you really want? Is that what you want to happen to me and Melinda? You have to marry Price.”
“I don’t love him,” Bebe implored. “I can’t marry a man who I don’t love when the man that I do love is waiting for me in town.”
“Why, you ungrateful cow!” Vivian gasped. “You—”
She surged toward Bebe, looking as though she would slap her. But before she could raise a hand or hurl any other insults, the kitchen door burst open, and Price strode in.
“What’s going on in here?” he asked. His voice was concerned, but oddly cool in contrast to the heat pouring off Bebe and Vivian.
She’d already declared her intentions to Vivian, so it wasn’t difficult for Bebe to turn to Price and say, “I’m not marrying you, Price. I’m marrying Hubert.”
Silence filled the kitchen. A heartbeat later, Price relaxed into the kind of smile a man would give to a disobedient but adorable child.
“Bebe.” He slid to her side and took one of her hands in both of his. “I know that it must be quite a shock for you to have your former fiancé return to town so soon before our wedding.”
Bebe eyed Price skeptically. He was taking her announcement strangely well. “I love Hubert,” she said.
“I know you do, pet.”
Bebe’s suspicion grew. “I don’t love you.”
“I never thought you did.” Price continued to smile, continued to hold her hand with a strange degree of tenderness.
Bebe had expected a fight, had expected shouting and carrying on, like she’d had from Vivian. She didn’t have the first clue how to respond to Price’s calm. “So…so you’re not angry?”
Vivian darted a wide-eyed glance between Bebe and Price, looking as though she might either scream or weep.
“Angry?” Price flinched back. “No, no why would I be angry?”
“Because I’m not going to marry you?” Bebe suggested.
Price laughed, low and slow. It made the hairs on the back of Bebe’s neck stand up. “I’m sure this is just cold feet,” he said. “Clearly, everything has been upsetting, what with Christmas upon us and all. Especially since we’ve all been struggling so much with money.”
“I…I don’t think that’s it.” Bebe tried to draw her hand away and was shocked when Price let her.
“All I’m saying is that I can understand how difficult it is to scrimp and save and fight your way through a holiday as intense as Christmas when there is so little money to be had. Why, it makes perfect sense that you would be distraught, considering how tenuous the ranch’s situation is. I marvel at how you’ve been able to keep your head up at all when your home is so close to being whipped right out from under you by the bank.”
The prickles at the back of Bebe’s neck began to stretch down her spine. Price was still far too calm. He smiled much too much.
“I’m sure we can come up with some other way to appease the bank that doesn’t depend on the money my family is planning to send as our wedding gifts,” he went on. “Although I did receive a letter from my Aunt Helen the other day that hinted she would be doubling the amount of her gift and wiring the money directly to the bank on Christmas Day. She’s so eager to meet you.” He brushed an eyelash off of Bebe’s cheek.
The gesture almost made her recoil, and yet, she couldn’t put her finger on why. Price was being kind to her, understanding, even. So why did she want to run for her life?
“We don’t need the money,” he went on. “We’ll find another way. I’m sure the bank would be willing to make concessions if we proved we could pay back the debt eventually. We could learn how to tend the cattle ourselves, for example.”
“We could become ranch hands?” Vivian balked. She glanced at the stove as though that was bad enough.
“I’ve heard of plenty of women who wrangle their own herds,” Price continued, all optimism. “Sure, it means a lot of hard work and sacrifices. Consider it a different kind of dignity.”
The image of Melinda astride a horse, herding cattle rushed to Bebe’s head. It was absurd and impossible.
“And there’s the house,” Price went on. “We could rent out the rooms.”
“Turn our home into a boarding house?” Vivian squeaked, pressing a hand to her chest.
“It’s a respectable means of income,” Price said. “We could even build inexpensive housing on the fringes of the ranch for people who have just come west and haven’t established themselves yet.”
“You mean, turn the ranch into a town full of squatters and vagrants?” Vivian looked as though she might faint.
Bebe was just as alarmed, but for entirely different reasons. She knew what Price was doing. As gently as a nightingale, he was painting a picture of just what would happen if she backed out of their marriage. Vivian had every right to recoil. They would have to manage things on their own, and likely sell more land or even turn their home into a boarding house, as Price hinted. Her family would be humiliated, and it would all be her fault.
“I love Hubert,” she said, as much because she needed to hear it as to tell Vivian and Price.
“And a noble love it is,” Price said, patting her arm. “I only hope that someday, a woman such as yourself will love me like that.”
“Really?” Vivian looked at him with a mixture of incredulity and hope.
“Certainly.” Price nodded. “When a woman loves a man that passionately, that steadfastly, in spite of the way he abandoned her to a cruel fate? That’s true love.”
<
br /> The knot of dread in Bebe’s gut began to unfurl, spinning doubt through her. “He left to seek his fortune so that we could be together,” she said, her voice hoarse and quiet.
“Of course he did,” Price said in a soothing voice. “Although seven years is a long time to seek a fortune. You’d think that after a few years, once he had a steady living and a place of his own, he would have sent for you. If he loved you the way he said he did.”
Heat that had nothing to do with the arousal she’d felt earlier in Hubert’s arms crept up Bebe’s neck to her face. “He was busy. His newspaper kept sending him to report on stories. He said it wasn’t any kind of life for a woman.”
“And it wasn’t,” Price agreed. “All those late nights. He probably had to spend time in some unsavory locations to get the stories he needed. That’s not the kind of life for a sweet, innocent woman from the wilds of Wyoming. Not at all.”
Bebe pulled herself out of the dark spiral her thoughts were heading down and met Price’s eyes. “Don’t do this,” she whispered.
“Do what?” He shrugged. “I’m simply telling you that I admire you for your selfless devotion to a man who left to experience a full and exciting life without you. And didn’t he travel abroad as well?”
“To Japan.” Bebe’s voice was nothing but a raw scratch. Everything that she’d been thinking since Hubert returned, every fear and worry she’d lay awake rolling over and over in her mind, was right there, on the tip of Price’s silver tongue.
“Fascinating place, Japan,” Price said. “I’d love to see it someday myself. I’m not sure I’d be able to stay away from a land so beautiful and exotic. I’d want to go back.”
Bebe took a step back, sitting heavily on the edge of the kitchen table. “Hubert wouldn’t leave me again. He promised he wouldn’t. You’re only saying those things to stop me from changing my mind and marrying him.”
Price moved to her side and gazed into her eyes with what any outsider would see as earnestness. “You’re right. You shouldn’t believe a word I say. I certainly wouldn’t. Why, I most certainly have ulterior motives. Because I do still want to marry you, Bebe. I think we could have a wonderful life together. So of course I’m going to try to convince you to leave this idea of yours behind and to stick to our plan.”
Every word he said made perfect sense. She shouldn’t trust him. He did have an agenda of his own. The problem was that too much of what he had just said fit perfectly with the fears she’d been carrying in her heart. It was one thing to worry by herself. It was another to have someone else confirm those worries.
“Hubert loves me,” she said, barely above a whisper.
“We all know he does,” Price agreed, glancing to Vivian, who looked beside herself. “Your family loves you too.”
Bebe arched a brow at Price.
“I do,” Vivian yelped, taking a step forward. Her eyes were round with understanding. “You’re my sister. I’ve known you your whole life. I love you, and I couldn’t get by without you. Why, you just helped me light the stove. I couldn’t even eat without you.”
The wave of guilt that washed through Bebe had her tasting bile. Vivian was lying, but not about everything. She would be in a tight spot without Bebe’s help.
“But I love Hubert,” she whispered.
Price took her hand again, raising it to his lips and kissing it. “You’re distraught. We’ve said too much. The wedding is still five days away. Why don’t you take some time to think about it, and if, by the time Christmas rolls around, you still want to call things off, we’ll call them off. And then we’ll all face the bank and the foreclosure together.”
Bebe stood. “I do need some time to think about this,” she said, then swallowed hard. “I think I need to lie down.”
“But I need you to help make supper,” Vivian started.
Price held up a hand. “Let her rest, Viv. She’s in a delicate place, and it’s important that we don’t abandon her.”
Bebe pressed a hand to her stomach. Price’s sentence didn’t fit together, except as yet another way to remind her that Hubert had left her. She marched out of the room, wishing she could leave everything behind. Her heart still wanted to run to Hubert and even flee Haskell as soon as possible, but her feet felt impossibly rooted to her ranch. And on top of it all, doubt was once again gnawing at her.
Chapter 8
At last. Hubert didn’t know whether to whoop for joy or sigh with relief after his afternoon in the stable with Bebe. He’d let his desire for her get the better of him, and did some things that, arguably, he shouldn’t have done. But Bebe had enjoyed it, and he had been left with the confidence that he could make her happy once they were married.
And since they were going to be married now, he had a lot of things to get in order. They would need a place to live, first and foremost. So he marched through town, looking for signs of apartments to rent. They’d have to start with an apartment. He wanted to build a house eventually, but he wasn’t about to jump into that without getting Bebe’s input every step of the way. She’d be surprised how much money he had stored away, waiting for this moment. But for now, an apartment would do, and there were a couple just off Main Street that would suit them.
He was just leaving an apartment above the festively-decorated Haskell office of King Cole Builders when he came face to face with Price Penworthy.
“Stay away from my fiancée.” Price shoved Hubert’s arm.
The attack—if it could even be called that—came out of nowhere and left Hubert more startled than shaken. He blinked a few times, then stared Price down. “She was my fiancée long before you ever met her.”
Price didn’t seem to be the least bit deterred. “You left. You’re not a part of her life anymore.”
“I beg to differ,” Hubert said with a smirk. “I think you’ll find Bebe begs to differ too.” In fact, the only reason Price was giving him a hard time now had to be because she’d declared her intentions to leave Price and marry him. That thought brought a smile to Hubert’s face.
“Bebe is confused,” Price said. “She has cold feet. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“She does. We’ve been in love for years.”
“You were in love years ago,” Price corrected. “Bebe and I are in love now.”
Hubert snorted. “The two of you aren’t in love.”
Price’s face pinched. “We might not be in love, but we have a deal.”
“A deal?” Hubert arched a doubtful eyebrow.
“I don’t think you understand what I mean to Bebe, to the entire Bonneville family.” Price met Hubert’s stare with a sly grin. “I’m the only thing standing between them and foreclosure.”
“So I’ve heard,” Hubert said. “But I seriously doubt Solomon Templesmith would foreclose on his wife’s family’s ranch.”
“That goes to show what you know. That jumped up slave has always had his sights set on destroying Rex and his legacy.”
There was something a little too harsh and shifty about Price’s reply. It set Hubert’s teeth on edge. It was true that there’d been no love lost between Rex and Solomon, and even though Hubert didn’t know Solomon well, what little he did know was that Solomon wasn’t vindictive. Not like Rex was, and not, as he suspected, like Price was.
“You say you love Bebe,” Price went on before Hubert could say anything else. “Do you really want to see her and her sisters lose their home? Do you want to see them lose everything their father worked to build?”
Hubert let out a breath, but before he could admit that he didn’t want to see more harm come to Bebe and her sisters than was necessary, Price went on.
“Do you want to end up with Vivian and Melinda and that brat Reese living with you?”
Hubert winced, then swallowed the guilt that his reaction raised. “I’m sure something can be done to save the ranch,” he said.
Price snorted. “Something can be done. Bebe can marry me. I have enough money coming to me
when I marry to pay off the debt and then some. As of Christmas Day, Bebe will be mine and the ranch will be saved.”
Hubert let his arms drop and shifted his weight. “That’s what I keep hearing, but what I can’t figure out is what’s in it for you.”
Price’s face splotched with color. “What’s in it for me is that I get to marry a beautiful girl, whom I love, and save her family at the same time.” He couldn’t quite meet Hubert’s eyes as he said it.
Hubert squinted. “You just said you didn’t love her. You’re lying.”
“Why would I be lying?” Price’s voice shot up. He cleared his throat. “I’ve been serving the Bonneville family for almost two years now. I’m fond of them. I just want to help.”
“No one is fond of the Bonnevilles,” Hubert said, planting his hands on his hips. “What’s in it for you?”
“The ranch,” Price stuttered. “It’ll be saved, and we’ll all be happy.”
“Uh huh.”
Price was after the ranch. Hubert was convinced of it. He was doing a poor job of hiding what he really wanted. But why would any man want a failing ranch? Why would he be willing to sink all the money his family was supposed to be sending him into a ranch that would take all that money and more to get back to making a profit like it had in Rex’s day? Unless there was a whole lot more about the ranch than Price was letting on.
“Listen.” Hubert glared at Price. “I care about Bebe more than you ever could. If you think you can—”
“You don’t know who my family are,” Price interrupted him, suddenly going on the attack. It was enough of a surprise to have Hubert flinching backward. “They’re important people in Denver.”
“So?”
“So we’ve got connections,” Price went on. “Important connections. Financial and, shall we say, physical.”
Hubert shook his head and shrugged.
Price leaned toward him. “If you think you can meddle in my plans, then you’d better stop and think about what a family like mine could do to you. Think you’ve got a future in journalism? My family can make that disappear. Certain your finances are in order? What would you do if they suddenly disappeared? Why, I’ve got a few cousins who would make you disappear.”