“Pa, you can’t rule us like this.” Sadie felt her anger flare up. “We’re adults. We work hard, and where we live is not for you to—” A sudden sound from Pa cut through her anger and shut her mouth.
“I love you, my precious Sadie girl. Tell your brothers I love them—all of you—more than life itself. It’s possible that this very day I will follow your grandfather to the grave, my own blood spilled out and soaked into the soil of the Cimarron. I want you to love your home.”
Ma came back in the room with the doctor, who had two cowhands right behind him carrying a door.
“We need to keep you as still as possible, Chance,” Doc Garner said. “I’m going to tie you to this door and use it as a sturdy brace on your legs, back, and around your neck.”
Pa nodded at the doctor but kept talking to Sadie. “It’s not just being gone from the CR, it’s arguing with each other. I want you to love each other.”
“We do, Pa.” Yes, they rubbed each other the wrong way and wrangled their share, especially Cole and Justin, but there had never been a question of their not loving each other.
“And I want you to claim the Cimarron as your legacy and love this land.”
Love this land. That was Pa to the core.
“Read the will, Sadie. I want Cole and Justin to know my wishes. But on my honor, you will move home today, right now. If you don’t, and I die, the land goes to Mike right now. If I live, then when I get home I’m going to forget the will and invite Mike to come and live here and make legal changes so he owns the place. Make sure your brothers understand I’m serious.”
The doctor wrapped something around Pa’s neck that made it impossible for him to talk. His eyelids fell shut.
The doctor handed out orders. Ma and the two hands did as they were told as fast as possible. Then, between one heartbeat and the next, they rushed out of the room, carrying Pa on a hard slab of wood.
Ma flung her arms around Sadie. “I know what your pa has done, Sadie. Please, just for his peace of mind, abide by his wishes, at least until we get home, then we can talk more about it. Any part of it you don’t understand, the will makes clear. Read it today before anyone leaves the ranch.”
Ma raced after Pa, through the kitchen and outside. Sadie chased her to the door. Pa was already loaded onto the wagon. Doc knelt beside him. Ma climbed into the wagon box with Pa. Soon they were off in a cloud of dust.
Sadie stood at the back door of the house and watched the wagon clatter away. One rider galloped ahead, already in the far distance. They were cutting things very close to make the train. Sadie guessed the doctor had sent a cowhand ahead to hold the train even if he had to throw himself on the tracks.
She felt as if that wagon carried her heart, as well as the two people she loved most in the world.
One of whom had just turned her life upside down.
3
Sadie sat at the kitchen table, staring at nothing. Her thoughts were with her parents, her heart beating fast with fear.
A long time had passed before rushing feet drew her notice.
“What happened?” Cole ran in. “Where’s Pa?”
“Pa was hurt in a rockslide in the narrow pass south of Skull Mesa.”
“But that was fenced off. We knew that trail was dangerous. Why—?”
“Cole!” Sadie had never shouted at her brother in her life. Well, in her adult life. “Don’t waste time right now with questions. Let me tell you what happened.” She wished Justin would come. She didn’t know if she had the strength to tell it all twice. “Pa’s leg is badly broken. It’s a serious injury, the kind that usually ends with losing the leg.”
“No!” Cole strode up to her and crouched in front of her to take her hands.
She was just done telling him about Pa’s injury when the front door crashed open and Justin tore into the room, spurs jangling.
“Where’s Pa?” Justin must have asked questions as he rode back with John.
“He was in that narrow canyon,” Sadie began. Again she told the story of what happened to their pa, filling her brother in.
Cole’s voice rose in anger. “Justin, I thought you built a good fence across that canyon.”
Blaming Justin when they all knew Pa helped build the fence, and it had been a good one.
“Cole, don’t start.” Sadie only hoped Pa didn’t wind up at the Pearly Gates instead of Denver. She had no doubt that Pa was right with the Lord. That didn’t mean she wanted him heaven-bound anytime soon. “Let’s just take a moment to pray together. We can start by praying Pa gets to Denver safely.”
“Don’t start?” Cole swept his hat off his head. “Why do you think I moved away from here? No one ever let me start. No one ever ran this ranch right.”
He wore a black suit and a matching Stetson. Though he was breathing hard, he always looked clean and tidy. More city than country.
“Not run it right?” Justin strode forward until he stood nose to nose with Cole. “I ought to run a fist through your face.”
“Both of you stop it right now.” She erupted from her chair and rushed to shove her way between them, disgusted that her brothers might end up punching each other.
They were of a similar height, both dark-haired with dark blue eyes. They looked a lot like each other and strongly resembled Pa. But there the similarity ended. Inside, no two brothers had ever been more unlike each other. The fact that they looked so similar only made their differences more pronounced.
Justin in his dusty brown pants, wearing chaps and spurs, a red kerchief around his neck, a black broadcloth shirt, and black leather vest. His tan Stetson, filthy with sweat, was crumpled and torn. He had a good one for when he left the ranch, but Justin loved this hat and had worn it for years. He had a quick temper and didn’t back away for anyone. And he’d always been quick to throw a fist, especially at Cole.
He wore a tied-down gun and a belt full of bullets. And he was broad in his chest and shoulders from doing hours of hard physical labor every day. His hair was worn long, tied back with a strip of leather. Justin’s hands were big and rough and callused.
Cole, five years older, was as different from Justin as night was from day. His finely made suit of clothes. His short hair, always neatly combed. No gun, though Cole certainly knew how to use one. Cole’s hands were as smooth as his charm, the nails clean and well-trimmed. Cole liked to talk his way out of trouble. He had an easy smile and the quick language of a trained businessman, which he’d perfected at Harvard while he lived with Grandmother and learned at Grandfather Bradford’s side how to run a company. Yet for all his cultured ways, right now Cole looked as uncivilized as a man could get.
“John sent me in here.” Heath Kincaid stepped into the room from the kitchen, before Cole could turn and walk out. “He’s beyond talking right now.”
John was as close to Pa as a brother.
Heath held up a rolled-up piece of parchment paper and pressed it into Cole’s hands. “He went into your Pa’s office and got this. He gave it to me and said you’re all three to listen to how your pa plans to divide this ranch in the event of his death. You’re to hear it now, before you leave.”
What had John told him? Heath looked like he’d block them from leaving if he had to.
“Let’s go sit in your pa’s office.”
They moved to the office, and Heath headed to the far end of the room and leaned against a windowsill, even though there were places to sit closer to the desk. Apparently he was trying to stay as far out of this as possible. Sadie appreciated that and felt some guilt for the position he’d been put in.
“You’ve been dragged into family business, Kincaid.” Cole extended the parchment back to him. “Can you read?”
“I reckon I can.” Heath’s lips curled down, as if Cole were holding out a rattlesnake. “This is private family business. I could go get someone who’s closer to the family. Maybe Alonzo—”
“No.” With surprising fierceness, Cole rejected the name of the CR ramrod,
second in command after John. Was he just upset with all that had happened or did he have something against Alonzo? “You’re here. Let’s get on with it.”
Sadie saw Heath swallow hard as he approached the desk. “‘The last will and testament of Chance Boden,’” he began.
Heath’s voice deepened until Sadie felt it rubbing like gentle sandpaper against her heart.
4
“‘To Whom it May Concern . . .’”
Heath had no idea how he’d stepped into this mess. He didn’t even know quite why it was a mess. This will split the property between the heirs. The three children were here. So divide it by three and be done with it.
But then why the demand by Chance that it be read immediately? And why did Chance’s three grown children look wound up tight enough to snap?
Heath read the will slowly, clearly, and listened as the Boden family gasped.
“‘All three of my children will live and work out of the CR ranch house or forfeit the ranch for all three. If any of them leaves for more than a run to town for brief errands or church, or if any of them sets up a place of work away from the ranch, the ranch will be bequeathed to Michael Sanders, third cousin to my wife, Veronica Boden.’”
“Sanders!” Justin surged to his feet. “That polecat? But Pa couldn’t abide him or his sons.”
“Pa must not have been in his right mind,” Cole said, crossing his arms so tight he could have squeezed blood out of a rock. “That’s the only reason he’d have left the ranch to Mike. If Pa wasn’t thinking right, we can have the will overturned. We need to—”
“Pa told me why,” Sadie cut in quietly.
Cole and Justin heard her, though, because they turned on her like a pair of hungry wolves.
She gave a sigh, then looked squarely at her two brothers. “Pa knew we’d all hate the idea of leaving the CR to Mike, even beyond hating to lose it. He knew we’d probably go along with his terms to save the ranch without a further goad. But just in case, he wrote he’d be leaving it all to Cousin Mike if we didn’t hold up our end. He knew that was something we couldn’t stand for.”
“So that’s it?” Cole erupted. “Pa’s telling us that when his time comes, he plans to rule us from the grave?”
Heath didn’t know Cole very well, but he seemed unlike most western men, a cool character who preferred to solve his troubles with words, not with force. Now he looked mad enough to draw his gun and start shootin’ . . . if he had a gun. Which he didn’t.
Justin moved to the far side of the big room. He started pacing. A man of action. Not one bit happy.
“Cole, it’s just a year.” Sadie’s hands were twisted in her lap. She looked sad, worried, as her eyes shifted between her brothers.
“That’s not the point!” Cole jammed all ten fingers deep into his hair. “Pa’s been after me to move home since the day I got back from Boston. And now he’s found a way to put me under his thumb.”
“You’re not under his thumb if he’s not here,” Sadie reminded him.
“He’ll be back long before a year is up.”
“Well, we want him back, Cole.” Sadie sounded angry for the first time. “So that’s a good thing.”
“Pa loves us all.” Justin tried to sound measured, except that Heath could see his color rising. Justin didn’t like to hear a word against his pa. “You know he’s proud of you, Cole. He said you ran our mining interests better than he could, and he gave you full control over it. Asking you to move home isn’t too much—”
“You knew about this, didn’t you?” Cole turned on Justin. “You and Pa cooked this up together. You think if you play this right, you can come out as sole owner of the CR.”
“That’s not true—I’m learning about it right along with you,” Justin said, his jaw set. “I’m the one who stands to lose everything if you and Sadie don’t rearrange your whole lives to suit Pa’s fool plans.”
“Losing the mines affects me. Running them is how I earn my money.”
“You’ve got a fancy college degree and could go earn money anywhere. I’m sure, even dead, your grandparents had connections enough to make you the next governor of Massachusetts if you wanted the job.”
That turned Cole’s face bright red with fury for no reason Heath could understand, but he didn’t know about any grandparents. Must be a sore subject.
“Sadie, well, her heart is in the orphanage, not out here. She preferred to move away and leave Ma and Pa and me behind.”
While it was covered by temper, Heath could still hear the hurt in Justin’s voice. He’d heard that same hurt in his big brother Rafe’s voice when Heath told him he was moving on, leaving the family behind.
“The only thing keeping Sadie here is the money for those children she loves. But she could crook a finger and marry some fine man and never look back.”
That drew a rude scoffing noise from Sadie. Heath had to wonder what she had against marriage.
“I’m the one who’s sunk his life into this land. Losing it would be like tearing off one of my arms. The only way to start over would be to find a job on a ranch as a cowpoke. Save to earn enough to get my own start. And it’d take me years to buy even a small spread. I need you here at home, but with you trapped here too, life is gonna be a misery.”
Heath thought that was a lot more reasonable than what Cole had said. But then Justin wasn’t being asked to give up the life he preferred.
The two men stared at each other. Breathing hard, their fists clenched. The two were almost mirror images of each other, but they dressed and moved and acted so different that no one would mix them up.
Heath waited and the silence held. He thought of his own pa and how he’d treated his children ill by having a wife in one place and a second family hidden away in another. Heath’s mother. Neither woman knew about the other. The old trapper had spent much of his time away from both homes, so no one questioned the long absences. Pa hadn’t left a will and he’d shown no sign of caring for his children.
Heath read the final paragraph of the will. “‘To the extent God allows, I will love you and pray for you and look down upon you from heaven. Cole, my educated son. So brilliant, so honorable. Justin, my son of the land. Strong of head and heart and back. Sadie, my beautiful girl. The presence of a girl child has brought me more joy than you can know. It is beyond me how a common man such as myself could have three such fine children. You are each more than I’ve ever hoped to be. I’m so proud of you, I’m near to bursting as I write these words. I want each of you to know I love you.’”
Chance’s words were something they would cherish for a lifetime. And they were lucky to hear them while their pa still lived. Heath would’ve given a lot to hear “I love you” from Pa, even once. He’d’ve given a lot to have a single memory that he could linger over and fool himself into believing that Pa loved him. There was nothing.
Heath went on, “‘I hope all the trouble my will causes will be well-settled by the time you read this.’”
“Settled?” Cole interrupted. “What does he mean by that?”
“Pa told me he had hoped to talk this all over with us.” Sadie had a lacy white kerchief in her hands, and she dabbed at her eyes with it and spoke while looking at her lap. “He made these changes just this week. He wanted to face us with his decisions and, I think, give us a chance to move home without him having to force us. I think if we had, he would’ve changed his will back.”
Justin cut in, “You never gave the CR a chance after you got home from your fancy schooling, Cole. Pa would’ve never done this if you’d lived here.”
“Living here made no sense. My work with the mines requires a telegraph and access to the mail and the train and the bank. Besides that, I have some private business interests that require—”
“Those are just excuses.” Justin slashed a hand. “He wanted you to be part of the family again. He felt like your grandmother had stolen you from us. If you’d just moved home for a while after being gone so many years, this
never would have happened.”
Cole stood and strode away from Justin so as to put some space between them. “Do you know how many job offers I had in Boston? I could have been a wealthy man back there.”
“You’re a wealthy man here.” Justin balled his fists. “And you’ve always acted like your life back east was so fine and rich. Like the CR wasn’t good enough for you to live on. You should have moved home.”
“I did move home. I came back to Skull Gulch.” Cole closed the distance between himself and Justin like he was done keeping the peace.
“He wanted you here at the ranch. Pa knew your grandmother was trying to poison you against him.”
“I saw what Grandmother was doing, what she’d always done. Claim me for herself and bind me to a life under her influence. But I put up with it because I wanted the schooling and I wanted to see a little of the world. But I no more wanted to live under her roof than Pa’s. There’s no sin in wanting to be on my own.”
“If you always planned to come back, why’d you wait until she died? You’d been out of college for years by then.”
“Because Grandfather was dead and she was failing in her old age. I couldn’t just abandon her. And I was working, building a stake.”
“You had a stake right here. While Granny lived, you were content to be her precious pet grandson for the rest of your life.”
“I’m no one’s pet.”
“Did she do this to you too, just like Pa? Offer you an inheritance if you stayed at her side like a trained dog?”
Cole shoved Justin hard. “She was good to me. She loved me and she was dying. It did no harm to stay at her side her final years. She’d named me as her only heir and why not? I was her only grandchild. Staying to comfort her was the right and decent thing to do.”
Justin snorted. “Staying to collect your money, you mean.”
Cole slammed a fist into Justin’s face and knocked him into a table. A lit kerosene lamp went flying and smashed against the wall. Flames whooshed up, fed by the kerosene and the fabric of the drapes.
No Way Up Page 3