The Texas Rancher

by Jane Corrie

  CHAPTER NINE

  'You can forget Carella,' The words pounded through Josie's brain as she drove home after her shattering encounter with Kade.

  As for the kiss, she simply refused to even acknowledge it, even in her thoughts. To her, it was just one more shock to add to the previous one and as she wished to put the lizard episode out of her mind, so too did she want to forget the kiss. .

  Concentrating on what he had said about Carella was tar safer than recalling the hard pressure of his lips on hers. At this thought Josie swerved to avoid running into a ditch. No, she must think about Carella, nothing else mattered.

  Her brow creased in an effort to recall his exact words. Carella had been taken care of�or words to that effect�and Kade was not a man to make idle statements. Did that mean that he had come to some arrangement with her grandfather? If so. why hadn't her grandfather mentioned it to her. Her frown deepened; she knew he was worried about her trying to do too much. Carella was a large house, and the fact that she was tackling the garden as well had not gone unnoticed by him.

  Josie sighed and shook her head; she just

  couldn't see him going over her head, it wasn't like

  him; especially since she had asked him not to sell

  up. By the time Josie arrived home, she had got no

  [ 14:Q

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  further with her queries; she was more perplexed, if anything, and knew she would have to wait until an opportunity presented itself to enable her to tackle her grandfather about it. To ask straight out would be bound to bring a few facts to light, and Josie preferred things as they were.

  It was all very well telling herself to wait and try to forget Kade's words, or entertain the hope that for once he hadn't meant what he had said, and was trying to bamboozle her into co-operating, not only with the children's schooling, but more importantly with helping him gain Carella.

  As Josie walked up the drive to the house, she stopped in mid-stride as a-thought struck her. She had offered him assistance, hadn't she?�or at least shown him she was willing to co-operate on the last score, but it hadn't gone down at all well consider

  ing his furious reaction. So much, she thought bit

  terly, for her decision to put the matter out of her

  mind. She couldn't, and before long the memory of

  that devastating kiss would awaken yearnings she

  had managed to keep at bay so successfully until

  now. What she needed was a change of scenery, and

  on this thought she decided to pay Lucy a return

  visit that evening. If anyone could make her forget

  her troubles, Lucy could.

  After clearing away the remains of their evening

  meal, Josie duly set out on her visit to Lucy. As she

  made the journey, walking slowly to savour the

  evening air, she thought of her grandfather's nod

  of approval when apprised of her destination.

  She knew he was still a little peeved that none of

  the townsfolk had made the expected calls to make

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  her acquaintance, and had eventually come to accept her hurriedly thought up explanation that they were giving her time to settle down. How long this excuse would last, Josie had no idea, but it had served to allay his suspicions, for the time

  being anyway. On finding Josie on her doorstep, Lucy practic ally fell on her, and dragged her into the sittingroom. 'Am I glad to see you!' she enthused. 'Nat's taken the kids to see the new school. It's considered the local show,' she grinned. 'I said I'd wait until the paths were completed, I don't fancy leaving m.v dainty footprint in a patch of damp cement.' Josie grinned, and felt better already, and soon the talk continued on more general lines, and inevitably landed up at Blue Mount. Josie had foreseen this, of course, and had guessed that Lucy would demand to know what had actually hap pened between Kade and Jessica Hanway, for she would have got some of it from Billy, who had been present. Not being in the vicinity, Josie would be unable to fill this particular gap in for her, and she thought with an inward smile that she was going to let Lucy down again. However, to Josie's surprise no such question was asked, and when Lucy did not refer to the lizard episode Josie came to the conclusion that Billy had not mentioned what had happened that day at school. She was grateful for this, and won dered if Kade had had anything to do with it, but didn't see how he could have done, for the boys had taken off pretty quickly when given the word. Lucy did know that Jessica Hanway had ceased visiting Blue Mount. 'Guessed there was some

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  thing up,' she told Josie. 'Mrs Carver met her on the way back from school. She'd done me a favour by fetching my two back at the same time,' she en- lightened Josie. 'Well, was she in a paddy�er� Jessica, I mean,' she grinned. 'Said she'd finished going up to Blue Mount, and took the trouble to explain to Mrs Carver that she went up there to give Miss Boston music lessons, but the child simply wasn't musical. And that was the first time she had mentioned what she was going up there for. So all her putting-on of airs and letting everyone know she was visiting there came to nothing. If you ask me,' she confided to Josie, 'she overstepped the mark. Kade's not one to stand on ceremony over things like that. I couldn't understand why she was given the job in the first place. Of course, if the child asked for her, I suppose there wasn't much he could do about it,' she mused thoughtfully.

  Josie listened but said nothing, but it did occur to her that it would be nice if some other subject could be discussed, in fact any other subject but Blue Mount.

  'She's making sure she gets her story in first,' went on Lucy, unaware of Josie's thoughts. 'Not that Kade would say anything, he's too much of a gentleman for that.'

  Again Josie kept her thoughts to herself; a gentleman he might be, until things didn't go his way�then he could be positively ungentlemanly.

  Fake the way he had used blackmail to make her toe the line�and not only blackmail, she thought as she remembered the way he had kissed her, as if putting his stamp on her. At this thought she felt her face go hot, and hastily picked up a cardigan

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  Lucy was knitting for one of her daughters, and commented on the intricate pattern, successfully turning Lucy's attention away from the previous subject.

  On the way home she wondered where the idea of Kade's kiss putting a seal on her had come from. From what she knew of him it didn't make sense, unless he was peeved because his smiles hadn't enslaved her. For they had been deliberate, she knew this, and they had almost worked. It was probabh the first time, she thought ruefully, that he hadn't impressed a female, and it must have rankled. She almost sighed with relief at this thought, so it made sense after all, and was a tar more comfortable answer than the one that had been hovering at the back of her mind since he had kissed her.

  Having got that little worry off her mind, she was rather dismayed to hear her grandfather's news when she arrived back at Carella.

  'Dan called,' he said with an air of suppressing some important news. 'There's a shindig at the town hall on Friday. Seems the Mayor's come up with the idea of giving a party for Kade�thinks it's a good way of saying "thanks" for the school.'

  Josie eyed him warily. If he was going to suggest she should go, then she would have to make some excuse, tor she had no intention of going to any party that Kade was attending�not at this stage of

  their relationship, if it could be called such. Joseph went on. 'They've asked me to do the speech,' he

  said, clearing his throat loudly, showing Josie that

  he was pleased, 'me being the oldest member of

  the committee, that is.'

  Josie swallowed. This was worse than she had

  imagined. What sort of a speech would he give

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  when he heard that his niece had not been recommended for a post at the new school? She blinked; it d
idn't bear thinking about. One thing was very clear, and that was that he would expect her to accompany him, and no amount of excuses would serve to cover her absence.

  It was also clear that Josie could no longer put off telling him that she would not be included in the staff. Trying to inject a careless note into her voice, she said brightly, 'Well, that's nice of them. I'm sure you'll do them proud, even though I've failed to get a place at the school,' holding her breath for his reaction to this news.

  He stared at her, and the familiar scowl came over his weatherbeaten face, and Josie sighed inwardly. 'Who said so?' he demanded.

  Josie linked an arm in his. 'Well, I did mean to warn you that it wasn't as cut and dried as you

  thought it was going to be,' she said soothingly. 'I was trained in England, remember, and couldn't expect to take precedence over teachers trained here.' It sounded reasonable, she thought, and

  hoped her grandfather would think so too.

  'You might have been trained in England, but you're American,' he snorted. 'Can't see that that's anything to do with it. You've as much right to a job as anybody else.'

  Josie gave a small sigh at this. 'Gramps, you're biased,' she scolded mildly. 'I'm not worried about it' she lied. 'There'll be other opportunities, you'll see. I haven't really started looking yet.'

  'Guess I'll have a word with Boston,' muttered her grandfather darkly. 'Seems he forgot you'd be looking tor a job when the new school opened.'

  'Don't you darel' Josie got out swiftly, fervently

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  hoping the panic she felt at this news hadn't shown in her voice. "Look, Gramps,' she said, managing to inject a note of calm into her words, 'can't you see that that's the last thing I want? I want to be independent. I'm not afraid of competition. I want to get work on my qualifications, and not on someone else's say-so. I'd never feel I'd earned my place, you see,' she ended lamely, and giving her grandfather a quick glance saw that he was having trouble accepting this explanation. 'All right,' she went on wearily, 'call it pride if you like, and if it is, then I can't help it. I must have inherited it from you anyway.' Her eyes met the faded blue ones resolutely. 'I thought you'd understand,' she added sorrowfully.

  Joseph squeezed her hand, reacting in the way that Josie had hoped he would. 'Okay, girl,' he said gruffly. "They're fine sentiments, and I guess we always did have more pride than was good for us.'

  Nothing more was said, and Josie was thankful that she had been able to make him understand. but she didn't see the puzzled look he sent her that rested on her bowed head as she stared at her clenched hands.

  Josie went back to Blue Mount the next morning, and half expected to find Kade waiting for her to put in an appearance. However, when she arrived at the school, she found the boys and an extremelv subdued Maryanne waiting for her. Apart from Maryanne's hastily mumbled, 'Sorry, Miss West,' all was as normal, and although Kade did not put in an appearance, Josie was almost certain that he

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  was well aware of the tact that she was in attend

  ance. The rest of that week passed by without a hint of the earlier disturbance. For the first time, Josie learned what it was like having a class of not only interested pupils, but happy pupils. She marvelled at the change in Maryanne, and was curious to know how Kade had worked the miracle. Maryanne not only gave fervent attention to her lessons, but went out of her way to please the boys as well, and practically insisted on fetching the drinks at the break periods each day. All this was accepted with the natural resilience that children have; they did not question the fact that Maryanne had turned over a new leaf, or looked for what might be termed as 'the catch' in her exemplary behaviour, although they might have been forgiven if they had. Friday, the day Josie was secretly dreading, came at last. It was not only Kade's expected appearance at the close of school that was causing her apprehension, but the party that was being given in his honour at the town hall that evening, and she wondered if he would make any mention of the party during his visit. She fervently hoped that he wouldn't, for she was still working on an excuse to give her grandfather as to why she couldn't attend, but she knew with gloomy certainty that she was not going to be allowed to get out of it. However, Kade was not to know that her grandfather had been elected to give the speech that night, and if Josie had to attend, it ought to be possible to keep out of Kade's way. There was bound to be a lot of folk at that party, and she could see no

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  difficulty in avoiding him. As long as her grand

  father knew she was there, that was all that mat

  tered, and as Dan would be there too, she had no

  doubt that he would keep her grandfather com

  pany, giving her ample opportunity to fade into

  the background.

  As long as she could keep the conversation on purely scholastic lines, all would be well, she told herself on the way to school that morning. On the other hand, if Kade did ask her if she was going, and she had to answer yes, then she wouldn't put it past him to seek her out�and if she happened to be with her grandfather�� She swallowed; why couldn't she have a tiny accident, such as breaking her leg? She wouldn't have to worry then what might or might not happen.

  Josie might have known that she wasn't going to be given a chance either of getting out of the party or of manipulating the conversation she thought she was going to have with Kade later, for a cheerfully given message from Kade relayed by Maryanne that, 'Uncle Kade said he'll see you tonight,' ended all further speculation on Josie's part;

  For the rest of that day, her mind was busy thinking up ways of keeping her grandfather and Kade apart. On no account must she give her grandfather a chance of a word alone with Kade, for she was certain that he would take the opportunity of tackling Kade and reminding him that she was looking for a job, in which event, she thought miserably, she would be lookmg for a job a great deal sooner than either of them had anticipated!

  If it only concerned the question of a job for her, Josie might have actually looked forward to the

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  confrontation between Kade and her grandfather. She had wanted to leave Blue Mount anyway, but it wouldn't stop at that. She was no longer sure of what Kade was up to; at one time she had thought he was using her to obtain Carella, now it seemed he had found some other way of obtaining his goal, and Josie was sure that her grandfather was as unenlightened as she was on the method he had decided to use. Not that her grandfather had any inkling of what was going on, and Josie would have hated him to find out. The way Kade would have told it, it would have looked as if she had become Kade's accomplice in pushing him out of his home, in spite of her plea to him to try and

  keep the house and what was left of the land.

  With these thoughts at the back of her mind, Josie's nerves were far from calm when Dan collected them to take them to the town hall. To make matters worse from her point of view, her grandfather had insisted on an early arrival. It wouldn't do, he had said, for the guest to arrive before they did, as it was planned to give the thankyou speech to Kade on his arrival at the hall.

  On hearing this, Josie hoped Kade would put in a late appearance; that way she could enjoy at least part of the evening, and with any luck her grandfather would depart soon afterwards. Social occasions had never been his forte, and with his duty done, he would be anxious to get back home and rid himself of the stiff collar and equally uncomfortable best suit that Josie had searched out for

  him and pressed in readiness for the occasion. As for her dress, she had wanted to wear an ordinary one, as she saw no occasion for her to

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  dress up. In any case, she didn't possess a dress that might be termed evening wear, only a long black velvet skirt that could pass muster as such if the situation warranted it�and, according to her grandfather�it did, and the exasperated Josie had

  to search around for a suitable b
louse to go with it, eventually coming up with a white long-sleeved

  one that received her grandfather's approval.

  It was as if Kade had sensed her wish that he should make a late appearance, for like everything else that Josie had hoped for where he was concerned, he disappointed her, and arrived ten minutes or so after them.

  Her prediction that there would be a crowd at the party was fulfilled however, and very soon after her grandfather had welcomed him on behalf of the town committee, and conveyed their thanks to him for his generosity in supplying them with a new school, Kade was surrounded by a small crowd of the grateful townsfolk.

  From her position on the fringes of the gathering, Josie took good care to keep out of range of ' those eagle eyes of his, and with a cover of at least a , dozen people in front of her she was able to watch him, yet not be seen. In particular, she kept an eye ; on her grandfather, hovering on the outskirts of " the nearest group to Kade, and saw with a certain ! amount of relief that Dan had claimed his atten- | tion, for she had a nasty suspicion that her grand- | father was waiting for a chance to have a private |

  word with Kade when and where the occasion I offered. | Her glance left her grandfather and rested on | Kade again. He was listening to something an |

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  elderly lady was saying, and her heart jerked

  treacherously as she saw him smile. No matter how

  much she disliked his methods in getting what he

  wanted, she had to admit he was an extremely

  handsome man. Wearing a tuxedo, he stood way

  out from the crowd, although he was not the onlv

  one to wear evening dress. The Mayor, for one,

  had honoured the occasion by wearing an evening

  suit, and needless to say, Jessica had taken the opportunity of attiring herself in a dreamy gossamer dress in the classical style, and Josie had to admit the style suited her dark sensuous good looks.

  As she watched Jessica talking to a small group

  of people, and keeping a hopeful eye in Kade's