Roz Denny Fox

by Precious Gifts

  “In that case maybe we should ride in waving a white flag of truce.”

  “The thought has crossed my mind. I’m not forgetting she took a shot at Jake and brandished a shotgun at Wade. Of course, Jake did blunder into her camp at sunset. We’ll go in daylight and carry our gifts in plain sight.”

  “You know,” Eden said, “add up all we know about this woman and she doesn’t sound very appealing. What do you suppose Jake sees in her?”

  “That, my dear Watson, we won’t know till Friday. Let’s go early, shall we?”

  NELL STOPPED her four-wheel-drive Range Rover outside Eden’s house at the time they’d agreed on. A gaily wrapped package lay on the backseat. In a box on the floor behind the seat sat a hot crock filled with a mild tortilla soup.

  Before Nell could climb out and go to the door, it opened and Eden came out juggling a wrapped gift, another foil-wrapped package and a small covered dish.

  “What’s that you’re bringing?” Nell asked, hurrying around the car’s hood to take one of the items so that Eden could lock her house.

  “I baked bread last night. And churned butter. I get domestic when Dillon’s gone.”

  “Ah,” Nell said. “You couldn’t sleep, huh?”

  Eden, who would never admit such a weakness to her mother-in-law, denied it. “Actually I started thinking it wouldn’t hurt to butter up the Ryan woman.” She giggled. “So to speak.”

  Nell chuckled. “I stayed up and cooked up a batch of Grandmother Cooper’s tortilla soup. I craved that stuff when I was carrying Dillon.”

  “No wonder he cajoles me into making it whenever he can. But isn’t it too spicy for someone who’s pregnant?”

  “I used chicken and the mild chilies I grow to pickle and make into relish. She must be in fair health if she’s out there chopping holes in the hills.”

  Eden set her things on the backseat, climbed into the passenger side and buckled her seat belt. “Makes sense. Of course, we don’t know if she’ll break bread with us or not. We’re assuming a lot.”

  As Nell eased into the lane that led up and over a ridge that cut the ranch off from Hayley Ryan’s camp, she looked doubtful for a moment. Then she said, “I owe it to Jake to go once. He’s worried about her pregnancy and asked me to pay her a call. Men think having babies is something to worry about, although most are too embarrassed to broach the topic.”

  “Aren’t ranchers matter-of-fact about life and death? At least, Dillon acts like our getting pregnant is an inevitable evolutionary process.”

  Nell’s face erupted in a smile. “Are Wade and I going to be grandparents?”

  Eden blanched. “Uh…no. Sorry, Nell. I shouldn’t talk behind Dillon’s back, but having a baby is the only thing we’ve argued about. To him, it’s no big deal, but I want it to be a big deal. I want my carrying his baby to be special.”

  Patting Eden’s tightly fisted hand, Nell said gently, “It will be. Wade is ten times more pragmatic than either of his sons. But with both of my pregnancies, he was a basket case from the minute I started to show.”

  “He always treats you like a queen.”

  “Yeah, but that didn’t come without a lot of reminders that I wasn’t just part of the stock.”

  “You’re kidding?” Eden gave a little laugh. “Dillon’s not as unromantic as that.”

  “He’d better not be. I hope I raised both my sons to be caring men. I expect them to remember birthdays and anniversaries. Their father was notoriously lax the first few years of our married life. When he forgot our third anniversary in a row, I ordered myself the biggest bouquet the florist could stuff in one vase and had the flowers delivered all the way out here from town. I also had the credit-card statement sent to Wade, so he opened it along with the feed bills.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He’s never forgotten another special date.”

  “I feel guilty for complaining about Dillon,” Eden said. “He’s forever buying me little gifts.” She donned a complacent smile and wore it all the way to Hayley Ryan’s camp.

  Hayley was in the clearing washing rocks when the dusty vehicle bounced to a stop next to her pickup. Her jumper was streaked with water, her boots caked with mud. She wore an out-of-shape khaki bush hat to hide her tangled hair. Even though she hadn’t talked to another human being for more than a week, she was wary enough to retrieve the shotgun braced against a nearby log.

  Expecting men to emerge from the range vehicle, Hayley let her mouth fall agape when two women climbed out, instead. She was even more surprised to see their hands filled with what looked like wrapped packages and food containers. Both women wore fashionable boots, jeans and pretty blouses tucked under leather belts that spanned narrow waists. Hayley felt dowdy by comparison—and a little intimidated. For that reason, she didn’t offer a welcome. Not even when the older of the two women—and they both looked energetically young to Hayley—greeted her with a winsome, somehow familiar smile. Hayley was quite certain she’d never met either woman before. They weren’t the forgettable type.

  “Hello. I’m Nell Cooper and this is Eden.” Nell inclined her head toward her daughter-in-law, never taking her eyes off the restless fingers clamped around the shotgun. “You’ve met my husband, Wade and Eden’s husband, Dillon. But it was my son Jake who suggested you might enjoy a woman’s company. Sorry if we’ve come at an awkward time. We know how it is to have your work interrupted. I throw pots and Eden designs jewelry. Neither of us likes to leave in the middle of tasks. We did bring lunch on the off chance you’d take a midday break. If it’s not convenient, we can leave soup, bread and fresh butter. Oh, and a couple of things for the baby. Jacob mentioned that you were expecting.”

  Hayley ran a tongue over lips gone suddenly dry. “You brought things for my baby?” Letting the gun slide through her fingers, Hayley blinked rapidly in an effort to halt the tears that fell without warning.

  Nell quickly covered the ground separating her from the crying woman. “Oh, my dear, you haven’t lost the baby, have you?” It was impossible to tell, given the shapeless cotton jumper Hayley wore.

  “No,” Hayley said through chattering teeth. Her bottom lip quivered badly. “I…I…I don’t know what to say. Food and gifts. I…well, Jake and I argued last time he was here. He even took Charcoal with him. Not a day’s gone by that I haven’t regretted my words. I should be used to my own company by now, but the days get long and the nights even longer when a body has only squirrels to talk to.”

  “And chickens,” Nell said, her attention drawn to the pen filled with her fat laying hens. She set the things she carried on the small table next to a single lawn chair and slid her arms around Hayley. “I shouldn’t kid, you poor thing. Solitude is great up to a point, but no one can survive a steady diet of it. Come, sit down and open your presents while Eden and I heat up the soup and slice the bread.”

  Hayley pulled away and ran her hands nervously over the front of her jumper. “You shouldn’t touch me. I’m a mess. I’ve been working. Did I get your nice clothes dirty?”

  “I’m not afraid of a little dirt. Neither is Eden. We work up to our elbows in clay and silver dust. I don’t think either of us buys clothing that isn’t washable. Relax.”

  Hayley tried to blot her eyes. She didn’t know why she was crying when her heart felt lighter than it had in days. “I…I can’t seem to stop these pesky tears,” she admitted, burying her face in the crook of her arm.

  “It’s part and parcel of being pregnant. Weeping over nothing comes with the territory.” Nell ran a soothing hand over Hayley’s hunched shoulders. She felt the sharp outline of a narrow backbone. Something shifted inside Nell. Her heart went out to this waif her son had befriended. She was probably working too hard and not eating right. At least not eating regular meals.

  Hayley’s teary eyes widened and locked with Nell’s. “The booklet my doctor gave me mentions mood swings. But not crying jags. This past week I’ve found myself sobbing over nothing. You’re sayin
g that’s normal?” She let her unsure gaze drift toward the younger woman, Eden, as if wanting her concurrence.

  Eden placed her offering on the seat of the lawn chair. “I’ve never had the PG experience. Too newly married,” she said with a shrug. “But my best friend cried from about the sixth month on if anyone so much as looked at her cross-eyed. She was weepy up until her baby was a month old. So if she’s any example of what’s normal…”

  “That’s often the way it goes,” Nell agreed. “Would you prefer we heat this soup inside your trailer or out here over the open fire?”

  “It’s like an oven during the day in my trailer,” Hayley said, again acting uncomfortable in the presence of strangers. “I live pretty primitively. Jake probably told you he disapproves. We had words over him wanting me to move my trailer to the Triple C.”

  “He didn’t say that, no,” Nell admitted. “However, it sounds like something I’d expect of him. Of the Cooper men in general. You’ll find they speak their minds.”

  “That’s certainly true of your husband and hers, Mrs. Cooper,” Hayley said, her expression suddenly cool. “Is that what’s really at the bottom of this visit? Did they send you to soft-soap me into giving up my claim?”

  “Goodness, no! And call me Nell. When Eden and I are together, it’s too hard to figure out which Mrs. Cooper a person means. Anyway, I doubt Wade and Dillon will follow up on what they said last week. It depended on your failure to find anything of value. According to Jacob, you’ve made a significant find.”

  Hayley dusted her hands. “I haven’t had a formal chemical or mineral assay done yet,” she said as if afraid to predict good things.

  Eden went down on one knee next to a tray of robin’s-egg-blue rocks. “You’ve done preliminary testing, haven’t you? These samples look like tectosilicate.”

  Hayley used a toe to push the tray out of Eden’s reach. “Nothing’s official.”

  Nell clasped Eden under the arm and raised her to her feet. “Why don’t we sample the goodies we brought? Talking business on a full stomach is more palatable, don’t you think?”

  “So this isn’t a social visit?” Now Hayley’s eyes turned positively flinty. “It is a social visit,” Nell insisted. “Eden sets her silver designs with local turquoise, citrine and tourmaline. Her antennae went on alert when she heard Jake mention opal to me. But I insist we table any work-related discussion until after we’ve eaten and you’ve opened your presents. The soup will only take a few minutes to heat. Eden, I’ll hang this crock over the fire. Why don’t you slice the bread? Hayley, if I may call you that, have a seat. We’ll put this together in a jiffy.”

  “Oh, but I only have one chair!” Hayley exclaimed, once again worried about her ability to play hostess.

  “Not a problem,” Nell assured. “I have two or three folding stools in my Range Rover. I use them at craft fairs.”

  “I’ll get them.” Eden headed to the vehicle immediately.

  Nell bustled about. She hung the soup crock over the fire, brought water from the spring and poured it into a washbasin Hayley already had sitting on a stand. “The spring is getting low. We could do with another rain. Rainstorms have bypassed us this season.”

  Hayley squinted at the blue skies overhead. “It won’t hurt my feelings if the rain holds off another month or two.” She clasped her hands over her stomach. “I don’t have any idea how much rock I need to earn enough to pay for the delivery and then get the baby and me through until next summer, when I can dig again. I figure I’ll need to spend every day until the end of my eighth month just digging ore.”

  “How far along are you?” Eden asked as she opened the two stools she’d carried over and set them next to the chair.

  “I’m due around Christmas.”

  Nell looked concerned. “Have you allowed time to close up here, get out and still buy the supplies you’ll need once the baby’s born? You certainly don’t want to risk hauling heavy rock and bringing on premature labor.”

  “I don’t want to, no. This is just what I have to do.” Hayley lifted her chin.

  “Of course. I didn’t mean to meddle.” Nell bent and stirred the soup a bit more vigorously than necessary.

  “That sure smells good.” Hayley had finished washing her hands and now sniffed the air. “I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I’ve been hungrier than normal lately, and I’ve got to make my supplies last.”

  “Nell and I both have gardens,” Eden said. “The veggies are spoiling on the vines faster than I can pick them. You’re welcome to come get all you’d like. It’ll be the end of them soon. Or Jake can bring by a sackful. But he might not be free until roundup’s over. That could be three or four weeks yet.”

  “Since no one’s come to open the valves recently, I assumed roundup was over.”

  Eden shook her head. “Only the north range. They’re working the south sections now. Here,” she said, thrusting two packages into Hayley’s hands. “Open these. I don’t know how you’ve resisted. I can’t stand to let wrapped packages alone.”

  Hayley hugged the gifts a moment before she sat and patiently untied the bow on the gift from Nell.

  “You can rip the paper,” Eden said dryly. “Honestly, I’d have torn it apart by now.” She’d no more than said it than Hayley parted the outer paper, then the tissue.

  “Oh!” she cried. “This is beautiful. Did you…? It looks handmade.”

  Nell shrugged it off as nothing.

  Hayley lifted the soft folds, then jumped up and ran to wash her hands again. She washed twice before she was satisfied her hands and fingernails were clean of the red clay. All the while, tears rolled unchecked down her cheeks, leaving the other two women at a loss as to what to do.

  “This is so beautiful,” she crooned over and over. “Mint-green is my favorite color. Oh, but I can’t let it touch my dress. I need to go change. My jumper is gritty with ore.” She carefully set the blanket on the chair and ran to her trailer.

  Eden paced the clearing. “Will she be gone long enough for me to get a look at those stones? I’m not an expert on opal, but blue ones are rare. If the stone doesn’t shatter when it’s scratched, she may have stumbled on a real find. I’d pay her a fair price. A good price. Do you think she’d trust me to do that?”

  “I don’t know, Eden,” Nell said impatiently. “How can you focus on rock when what we need to do is talk her into getting good prenatal care? Think how much effort it takes to dig this much rock.” She gestured at the ore Hayley had spread out. It’s backbreaking labor. And speaking of labor, what if she’s out here alone when her labor starts?”

  Eden shook her head. “There’s enough Coopers to keep tabs on her. She sounded pretty adamant to me about staying and following this through.” She shrugged. “It is her life, after all.”

  Hayley returned then to open her other package. Eden fell silent, letting Hayley exclaim over the sleepers and cap and sweater she’d purchased at a local baby store.

  “You don’t even know me, and look what you’ve done! My baby will come home from the hospital in style. Thank you both so much. Jake said nice things about you two. I think he understated the case.” Hayley seemed reluctant to put the baby gifts aside and accept the bowl of fragrant soup Nell handed her.

  Hayley had her teeth sunk in a thick buttered slice of bread when Eden again brought up the subject of her gems. “If these samples are opal, Hayley, I can do more for you than a few baby items are worth. Should it cut, polish and set well, I’d be willing to buy all the raw material you can provide. Even discarding the potch or matrix to get to the usable stone, I’d like to purchase what you have here.” Eden figured in her head a moment and came up with an amount.

  Hayley gasped. “So much? I…thought maybe half that amount…in my wildest dreams.”

  “That’s conservative, depending on the grade. If you’d trust me with a slab to take back to my shop, I’d know better by the end of next week. Are you familiar with how consignment works? If the ore is
high-grade, I’d advance more as my jewelry sells.”

  “And,” Nell broke in, “to keep tabs on what she’s doing, you could come and spend a few weeks at the Triple C, Hayley.”

  “Now I know you’re related to Jake.” Hayley smiled, but she kept shaking her head. “If the ore isn’t high-grade, I’ll have to dig twice as much. I appreciate your wanting to help, but I’m not going anywhere. Take a sample or two, Eden. All I ask is that you don’t let anyone know where you got it.”

  “That’s the least I can do,” Eden murmured. “A good jewelry designer never reveals the source of his or her materials. I’d like to nail down an exclusive contract, but in all fairness, I have to tell you that you’re free to sell to any market.”

  “To save us all a major disappointment,” Hayley said, “why don’t we wait for the assay results?”

  “Fair enough.” Eden stood and collected the soup bowls. “I don’t want to rush you, Nell, but you know how I am when I face the prospect of working with a new stone.”

  “Yes. You’re as obsessed as I am when I discover a new clay or dye. Are you sure you won’t reconsider, Hayley? We’d make you comfortable at the ranch.”

  “Thanks, but no. Maybe I’ll drive over at the end of next week for those vegetables. And if you could spare a gallon of milk—I’ll buy one,” she added quickly.

  “Nonsense. It’s a gift. That’s settled, then,” Nell said, clasping Hayley’s work-roughened hands between her own callused palms. “If I see Jacob in the interim, shall I tell him you’ve had a change of heart and would welcome Charcoal back?”

  “Would I ever.” Hayley’s eyes brimmed again. Because she wasn’t used to so much kindness, she hugged each of the women awkwardly, then stepped back and waved while they climbed into the Range Rover. Her campsite seemed twice as lonely after they’d gone. Yet Hayley knew her decision to stay and extract additional ore was the right one.

  A memory of Jake’s kiss taunted her. She wondered if his mother would be so chummy if she knew about that—and the words he’d said to her.