She managed to avoid running into Amanda that week in town. Her sister was pretty much keeping to her new home, though Marian had heard she was enjoying herself in the evenings in the saloon, acting somewhat as a hostess for the establishment. Whether Amanda and Spencer were getting along, she had no idea, and despite her curiosity, she wouldn’t pay Amanda a visit to find out.
Not that Amanda would admit to any problems if she had any. If anything, she’d pretend that the marriage was all her idea and she was quite happy with it. There had been one report that made the gossip rounds, of Spencer running down the stairs with a vase thrown after him, and that he’d avoided his wife for the rest of that day. But that had been an isolated incident. For the most part, they were putting a good face on their shotgun marriage.
Albert Bridges’s reply was late in arriving. Marian wasn’t concerned though. He could have been out of town and not even received Kathleen’s telegram yet. But by Friday there still wasn’t any word, and Kathleen would arrive the next day to take Marian back to the ranch, with nothing really having been accomplished during her week in town other than the purchase of some new painting supplies and a few blouses she’d bought ready-made. Amanda was probably getting impatient as well. Until Albert acknowledged her marriage, he wouldn’t be releasing her inheritance.
His letter arrived about thirty minutes before Kathleen was due on Saturday. It wasn’t expected. For it to be there by then, delivered by normal post, it would have had to be sent prior to Kathleen’s telegram to him. And the envelope was bulky, so it probably wasn’t just a short note to find out how the girls were getting on.
Marian’s curiosity was pricked, but the letter was addressed to Kathleen, so she had no right to open it. It was probably just some legal formality or forms to sign, nothing to get anxious over. She put it out of her mind and went about gathering up her belongings in the preacher’s house because she’d be spending the night in the hotel again with her aunt.
Kathleen arrived within the hour that she’d been expected. With her had come most of her ranch hands for their Saturday night on the town. Chad rode in as well with some of the Kinkaid cowboys for the same reason. Marian had hoped she wouldn’t see him again now that he was no longer working for her aunt. It wasn’t that she couldn’t tolerate his presence, she just didn’t want to. And she was afraid that he might turn his attention to her, now that Amanda was unavailable. She really didn’t want to have to deal with that, or with explaining why she didn’t want him now. She didn’t. She really didn’t.
She wanted a man to call her own, yes, but she didn’t want to be any man’s second choice. It still hurt, that Amanda had won in the end. It still hurt, that Chad didn’t even know he’d made love to her.
He’d never know now, unless Amanda bothered to fess up to her lies, which was highly doubtful. Marian certainly wasn’t going to tell him at this point. She might have made an attempt to tell him the truth if he had been forced to marry Amanda, but now that that was no longer an issue, there was no reason to, and a lot of reasons not to. Mainly, she didn’t want him thinking he would now be obligated to marry her instead, nor her aunt holding yet another shotgun wedding, because she certainly wouldn’t agree to one.
“I heard there was no telegraphed reply,” Kathleen said when she came by the preacher’s house to pick Marian up. “Whole town knows by now, since Eddy yelled it at me as I was walking down the street.”
Marian grinned. It probably was hard to keep personal business personal in such a friendly town, where messages got passed along with shouts, and the latest news and gossip could be found in just about every store and saloon.
“That’s probably why this got delivered to me a while ago,” Marian replied as she handed the letter over. “Since most of the town already knew you were riding in today.”
“Yes,” Kathleen agreed, and merely glanced at the letter before she stuck it in her saddlebag. “They usually do keep my mail in town if it arrives right before the weekend, then deliver it on Monday if I don’t show up. You ready, sweetie? Chad has offered us the use of the Kinkaid town house for the night. He stopped there to let the staff know.”
Was she ready to sleep in his house or even see him again? No. But she merely nodded and said her goodbyes to the family she’d spent the week with.
She rode double with her aunt to the Kinkaid house, which was at the opposite end of town. Kathleen dropped her off at the seamstress’s, though, with the advice to go ahead and get a few of her selections started, and to meet her in the general store next door when she was done.
She found Kathleen on one of the benches outside the store, reading Albert’s letter. She didn’t interrupt, just sat down beside her and smiled at the people who passed by tipping their hats. It really was a very friendly town, predominantly male in population, where everyone knew everyone else, so any strangers were easily identified.
Although there wasn’t an extreme shortage of women, those who lived there were mostly all married already. Which might be why Marian had received four proposals of marriage during her short stay there, and nine other men had shown up at the preacher’s house with one excuse or another to pass a little time with her.
It would be much easier than she’d thought to find a husband here. She just had no present desire to start looking. Which was his fault. All of the emotions she shouldn’t currently be experiencing were his fault. And she couldn’t seem to shake the anger, or the disappointment. Dammit.
When she finally glanced at her aunt again, it was to find her leaning her head back against the building with her eyes closed. She didn’t really look tired, just like she didn’t want to deal with whatever she’d just read.
“Is something wrong?” Marian asked hesitantly.
“Depends on how you look at it. From a Texan’s point of view, not really. Folks get along fine out here without much money, and no one expects a woman to have any anyway. Men don’t marry a woman here for her fortune.”
Marian went very still. “There’s a problem with my father’s estate, isn’t there?”
Kathleen sighed as she opened her eyes. She was grimacing as she glanced at Marian. “You could say that. Seems he died broke.”
Chapter 45
MARIAN WAS NOW THE one leaning her head back with her eyes closed. There was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach from going so quickly from being a rich heiress to a pauper. With no warning whatsoever. And there had been none. Her father had acted no different than usual, before he left on that last trip. Surely there would have been some sign that he had lost all his wealth.
“Sweetie, don’t let this get you down. Things really are different out here. The men who’ll be wanting you for a wife, will be wanting you, not any money you might have brought to the marriage.”
“I understand that, Aunt Kathleen. I just don’t understand how my father could have lost all his money. He was rich according to his will, owned many businesses, many more income properties, much more than Amanda and I ever realized, and he had a very large bank account as well.”
“I know, and all of that was undoubtedly true when he made his will. He was extremely prosperous at that time. But apparently in the last couple of years he greatly overextended himself. One too many improvements on his current properties without waiting for them to pay off. Too many new purchases that he was sure he’d make a profit on when they were sold, but they didn’t sell. It sounds like his intent was a period of expansion, but he just didn’t spread it out over enough time. So he started selling at huge losses just to cover costs, and when his investments still didn’t start paying off normally, he started borrowing as well.”
“But he never told us.”
“Of course he wouldn’t. He still probably thought he could recover, which could be why he never updated his will to reflect so many changes. That last business trip he made was actually to borrow more money.”
“Then his estate can still be salvaged?” Marian asked hopefully.
K
athleen sighed. “Unfortunately, no. There’s nothing left to salvage. When he died, everything had to be sold to pay off the debtors.”
Marian was still having trouble digesting this news. It was just too much of a surprise. In the weeks before he’d died her father had gone about his business as usual, with no worried looks, no frustration or anger that things weren’t going well for him.
She remembered one expansion, when he’d built a new shoe store, and she and Amanda had gone to the grand opening. He’d crowed for weeks that business was booming. She didn’t recall his mentioning any other improvements.
“Wouldn’t Albert Bridges have had some inkling of this?” Marian asked. “Why didn’t he warn us?”
“Oh, he knew,” Kathleen said in disgust. “The bastard didn’t have the guts to tell you before you left Haverhill. Well, he mentions not wanting to deal with Amanda’s histrionics, so I suppose that’s understandable. It’s all here in his letter, sweetie. He was hoping you’d be well settled in with me before he had to break the news to you.”
“The money he gave us for the trip?”
“Was his. A small price to pay for his cowardice. Those are his words. Go ahead and read it.”
Marian did. The letter actually wasn’t that long. The bulk had come from the accounting that was included, of all the properties that were sold, all the debts that were settled. Their home had been the last thing to go, auctioned off at a ridiculously low price just to satisfy the last few remaining creditors.
“I’ll have to cancel that order I just placed with the seamstress,” Marian realized.
But Kathleen rolled her eyes. “Don’t be silly. A few dresses aren’t going to break us. And Chad has turned my own finances around, with the help he’s given me. He’s lined up quite a few small beef contracts in nearby counties as well, that won’t require major cattle drives to fulfill. Financially, I’m pretty much back to where we were before Frank died, and the situation will be even better off soon thanks to Chad.”
Marian said nothing to that, not caring to hear any more about how nice Chad Kinkaid was. She already knew how wonderful he was. Her emotions wouldn’t have gotten so tied up in knots over him if he wasn’t. She just didn’t want to hear it.
“And its not as if you lack spending money,” Kathleen continued pragmatically. “Or even a means to make money for that matter.”
“You mean get a job? Yes, I suppose I could, though then I’d have to stay in—”
“No, no.” Kathleen chuckled. “I mean you can sell some of your paintings if you were so inclined. Believe it or not, this town craves such things. The few that Orvil at the general store manages to get shipped in sell pretty much before they’re even unloaded. It’s why he stocks painting supplies. He’s hoping someone in town here will take up the hobby and create something worth selling.”
“So that’s why he was so pleased to show me to where he had those supplies tucked away.” Marian grinned.
“No doubt. Feeling a little better now?”
Actually, she was. It wasn’t as if she’d depended on her inheritance for anything in particular. It was just that she was used to coming from wealth and had never expected to be without it, she supposed. She would have to start thinking along the lines of not being able to afford everything she might need, but she could deal with that as it occurred.
“I’m adjusting,” she said. “But I really doubt Amanda will.”
Kathleen groaned with the reminder since she hadn’t thought that far ahead herself. “No, she’s placed too much significance on her inheritance,” she agreed. “Though Lord knows why.”
“Because she was counting on its buying her a husband who would treat her just like Papa did.”
“You mean let her do whatever she pleases?”
“Yes.”
“But she’s already married,” Kathleen thought it prudent to point out.
“Not if she doesn’t consider herself married,” Marian returned. “She could already be thinking of a divorce for all we know.”
“You haven’t seen her since that night at dinner?” Kathleen asked.
“No, I made a point of avoiding her.”
Kathleen frowned. “But Spencer would have to agree to a divorce.”
“Believe me, Amanda would know how to make him think of nothing but. But that’s what she may have been planning. Now, she’ll have to reconsider. She won’t like that. She won’t like that she has no other options, that she’ll have to make do with what she already has.”
“Well, at least she’s already settled, and Spencer isn’t exactly poor. He’s not exactly hard on the eyes either. She’s better off than she thinks.”
“She won’t see it that way,” Marian warned.
“I know.” Kathleen groaned again. “I think I’ll just have this letter delivered to her after you and I leave town tomorrow. There’s no reason why we have to listen to her theatrics when she finds out about this.”
Chapter 46
KATHLEEN HAD ONLY BEEN joking, about having Albert Bridges’s letter delivered to Amanda after she and Marian had left town. Their aunt wasn’t the coward Albert had turned out to be. She sent over an invitation for the newly wedded couple to join them for dinner that night at Chad’s house. Oddly, though, both declined.
Not so odd actually. Saturday night was the biggest night for business at the Not Here Saloon. And as it happened, Amanda was turning out to be the star attraction of the place, not in an entertainment capacity—well, that would depend how you looked at it. But just being her catty, sharp-tongued self, she’d been responsible for bigger than normal crowds all week. And just by doing what she was good at—insulting admirers in whom she wasn’t interested.
Amazing as it seemed, apparently born-and-bred Texans found her insults amusing. It didn’t matter that they knew she was a married woman now, men were still flocking to her, flirting with her, going out of their way to gain her attention, listening to her every word. And no one took offense when she cut some cowboy to the quick. The crowd would roar with laughter—even the men who were insulted took it as a compliment that she’d singled them out.
Amanda really had fit right in to this risqué night life. And by all accounts, she was having fun being the belle of a saloon. Spencer would see it as a boon for business, so he wasn’t complaining.
Marian marveled when she heard all this that night at dinner. Kathleen had made the rounds that afternoon to pick up the latest gossip, so she wasn’t surprised that they were eating alone that night.
“It’s not the sort of life I would have wanted for one of my nieces, but in Amanda’s case, it seems to be just the sort of environment she can thrive in.”
“Yes, but I wonder if that’s occurred to her yet, or if she’s still devoting her energies to going ‘home,’ “ Marian replied.
Chad hadn’t said much yet. Even the news about the lost inheritance hadn’t raised his brow. Of course, their inheritance had nothing to do with him, now that Amanda couldn’t be his. Not that he’d probably been interested in it to begin with, when he was heir to the biggest cattle spread in the area.
He did seem somewhat distracted that night. Still nursing a broken heart? Possibly. He’d get no sympathy from her. He certainly wasn’t showing her any for her new loss.
“I’ll go over to the saloon in the morning after church, before we head out,” Kathleen said.
“They’ll still be sleeping,” Chad remarked.
“Then they’ll just have to wake up,” Kathleen replied. “I really hate being the bearer of bad news, but I don’t exactly have a choice here.”
“Want me to handle it?” Chad suggested.
Oh, sure, he was jumping at a chance to see Amanda again, Marian thought in disgust. Kathleen even gave his suggestion some thought, but then she shook her head.
“No, it’s my responsibility.” And then Kathleen grinned. “I’ll just allow myself barely enough time to say what needs saying before I have to leave to get home by dark. Th
en I can avoid most of the tantrum.”
As it happened, there was no tantrum. Amanda took the news as a joke at first. Granted, she was barely awake when she heard it. When Kathleen averred that it was true, she went into shock, barely said anything else.
Marian was skeptical about her sister’s being in shock, when it was typical of Amanda simply to ignore things that she didn’t like. It was a greater possibility that she simply refused to believe her inheritance was gone.
Kathleen left the letter with Spencer. It would be up to him to make his wife understand the consequences of it—if he cared to bother. Like Chad, he didn’t particularly see it as a disaster, so he might not bother.
He must have explained the situation to Amanda, though, because he brought her out to the Twisting Barb the very next day. And tantrum didn’t come close to describing Amanda’s “enlightened” reaction.
Stuart and Chad were also there. Stuart had gotten a lot more friendly with Red during the barbecue and had stopped by that afternoon to let her know he was leaving on a trip to Chicago in a few days. Actually, he’d just stopped by for dinner, since he could have sent one of his men over with the message about his trip. Although he no longer escorted his cattle to Chicago, he did go there once a year to wine and dine the buyers. Chad had merely come along for the ride, Marian assumed.
But they were all on the porch enjoying the sunset that evening when Amanda and Spencer arrived right before dark. And Amanda was barely out of the carriage, Albert’s letter twisted in her fist, before she was screeching at Kathleen, “This is a pack of lies!”
Marian couldn’t help but sigh. She wondered if anyone would notice if she just slipped away, grabbed an early dinner, and retired for the night. She really didn’t want to have to listen to her sister’s enraged disbelief. Of course, she’d probably have to close all the windows in her room to avoid hearing it. Amanda could get that loud.
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