by Tina Leonard
Cos met them at the door, taking a baby.
“Did you see what was going on at Green Forks?” Daphne gasped.
“I did. It’s a mess.” Cos took the baby into the parlor and laid it out on a nice clean pallet.
“Poor Alex! He’s got to be miserable!”
“I reckon so. He’s lost just about everything he loved within the space of a few weeks,” Danita announced as she laid a baby next to the one her husband had set out.
Daphne sent a sharp look her mother’s way to see if she was trying to make a point, but Danita’s face was impassive. “It’s so sad! I’m sure Alexander is turning in his grave.” She settled Alexis on the pallet, too.
“Your brothers went over to see what they could do to help. Hope they don’t get them selves killed.”
Danita’s tone was joking, but Daphne couldn’t laugh. “Anybody could, in that turmoil.”
“I was thinking about going over there and taking a gander at it myself,” Cos mentioned uncertainly.
“No, you’re not.” Danita shook her head. “You’re too old to be in the middle of that cattle circus. You stay home with me and the babies, and that’s quite enough activity for you.”
“I expect you’re right,” Cos agreed. His face brightened as if he was pleased to be let off the hook.
Daphne ran a hand through her hair, anguished for Alex’s sake. “I feel terrible about this! It’s all my fault!”
Danita sighed and smoothed her hand over one baby’s head. “Don’t fret, Daphne. That woman’s gonna run that ranch into the ground because she didn’t have anything on her mind other than money in the first place. But Alex’ll survive.”
“I hope so.” Daphne drooped.
“Beatrice didn’t have to be such a mule, Daph. It’s her choice to meddle in that which she knows nothing about. She’ll learn.”
“At Alex’s expense.” Daphne couldn’t help feeling responsible. No matter what anybody said, she knew what Alexander had been trying to avoid. She looked at her darling babies. She would have loved them just as much if they’d been boys. But that didn’t matter, because they weren’t. What mattered was that she couldn’t have any more children—and that Alex had hairy beasts tearing up his inheritance. Of course, land would repair itself.
But an auction! A low-rent, tent sale auction to sell off possessions he held dear and sentimental. Beatrice was moving fast. The woman really believed Green Forks should have been hers as much as Alexander’s. Though Daphne knew Beatrice might have rights at Green Forks, she hated what it was doing to Alex.
There was no fixing this problem. It just kept getting worse.
AN HOUR LATER, Alex was at the door. He was hot and sweaty and stunk to high heaven, but Danita swiftly opened the door wide so he could enter.
“Hello, Alex!” Daphne said. She wanted to hug him. He looked so tired, and so worn down.
“I met Cos coming around the back way,” Alex said. “I thought I should let you know I’m inviting myself to dinner. If that’s all right, I’ll go down to the barn and hose off.”
“Do that,” Danita said. “I’ve got plenty of food.”
Daphne’s eyes drank in her husband. “Is there anything I can do?”
“I don’t think so. The courts are the only ones that can straighten out my aunt.”
“Well,” Danita announced, “you and Daphne’ll just have to get along for a spell. Alex, consider yourself at home until the dust settles. You’re welcome here anytime.”
Daphne glanced away from him, her blood racing.
“Thanks, Danita. Don’t worry, Daphne,” he said softly. “You’re safe from me. I just need to get away from the craziness for a while.”
As much as she didn’t want to, she under stood. “Alex, I can’t tell you how bad I feel. I drove by and saw what she’s doing.”
“It’s okay.” His tone said it wasn’t. “I’m going to go wash.” Then he strode out the door.
“Your man’s hurting,” Danita said.
“I know,” Daphne said miserably. And he was going to hurt a lot worse before it was all over.
“I think you’re letting all that will stuff tear you up, Daphne. You oughta be comfortin’ your man, not keeping yourself away from him.”
“I can’t.” Daphne’s heart felt like stone settling into an uncertain low spot. The problem was, she had an announcement of her own, and she knew it wasn’t going to make Alex feel one bit better.
COS, DANITA, Daphne and Alex sat at the table eating a quiet dinner thirty minutes later. Alex and Cos were quiet because they were plainly tired out from talking about the ranch. Danita was quiet because that was her nature.
Daphne was quiet because she had a load of worry on her mind. She glanced toward her father, then toward her husband and put her fork down. “Dad, I think there’s some thing you need to tell Alex.”
“Huh?” Cos reared his head like a wary bull.
Alex raised his eyebrows. Danita took a drink of tea and set the glass down, all the while keeping her eyes on Daphne.
“Like what?” Cos demanded. “Don’t like jabbering at the supper table, Daphne Way. You know that.”
But his eyes glinted at her with un question able suspicion.
“Tell him about the cows.” It was killing her inside. She yearned to know he had not done what she had heard about on her shopping foray. Maybe it was all a terrible rumor.
“Daughter, we’ve done all the talking about cows that’s gonna be done in this family,” he asserted sternly. “Get back to eating your supper and leave me to mine.”
Alex watched her steadily. She saw the concern in his blue eyes and couldn’t stand it another moment. “Dad! You have to tell him!”
Cos threw down his dinner napkin, his expression disgusted as he met Alex’s gaze. “Oh, all right,” he said with too much bravado, “I reckon Daphne’s upset because of a silly little woman thing. She’s obviously heard that the rancher your aunt Beatrice bought those steers from was a family member of ours.”
“A family member?” Alex looked at Daphne, then back to Cos. Danita’s hand fell into her lap as she gave up the calm facade. “What family member?”
“Well, it’s like this.” Cos relaxed in the old ladder-back chair, as if he had a story to tell that was complicated. “You remember Uncle Bob, don’tcha?”
“I certainly do. I bought the Chevy from him for Daphne.”
“Yep. Well, he’d been down playing bingo with some of the boys and learned that one of our brothers had overseen himself in the cattle market. That would be Daphne’s uncle Herman.”
“Oh, Cos,” Danita said.
Cos waved her silent. “Now, I know it sounds bad. But you gotta see the way I was thinking. Your aunt Beatrice was of a mind to be spending her money on some thing she knew nothing about. Herman hit a bad patch in the futures market and needed to sell his stock. Prices are under valued right now, you know,” he said to Alex, as if Alex wouldn’t have been abreast of the cattle market himself, “and he knew he wouldn’t get much for draggin ’em up to auction. So I told him to call your aunt Beatrice,” he said, puffing out his chest and mighty proud of his tale.
Alex stared at Cos. He looked as though he couldn’t believe his ears. Danita threw her napkin on the table. “Are you saying you laundered over priced cattle through Alex’s citified aunt Beatrice just so Herman could have a naive buyer with ready cash?”
“Now, Danita, you don’t exactly unnerstand—”
“I do under stand! Oh, Cos! How could you?” Shooting a sorrowful glance at Alex, she said, “When are you ever going to learn to leave well enough alone?”
Cos stared at her, then at Daphne.
“Oh, Dad,” she murmured. “I was hoping it wasn’t true. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“What? What did I do?” Cos cried, apparently overwhelmed by the face of blame everyone at his table was wearing.
“You’ve made everything worse, that’s what you’ve done,” Daphne said. She cou
ldn’t meet Alex’s eyes. Shame burned all over her, like nettles on her skin. Her daddy really was a cheat, as Alexander had claimed all along. He was obviously just out to get whatever he could from the Bannings. It made her feel like a peddler’s daughter. “The only thing that could make this whole thing more sorry is if you were the one who gave Aunt Beatrice the bright idea to have her infamous garage sale.” Daphne stared at the old lace tablecloth under the white dinner plate with faded flowers. She could feel Alex’s confusion—and his eyes on her.
“Well,” Cos said slowly, “I reckon ya’ll are gonna be mad at me about this, too, then, but I heard at the barbershop that Beatrice had called down to Framall’s Auction about getting someone to run her estate sale.” He glanced around the table, measuring the effect of his announcement. “So when I heard that, ‘course I called brother Billy in Waco to let him know he should put in a bid on the business. He’s a real-live auctioneer, ya know,” he said to Alex.
Daphne jumped from her chair and rushed from the room.
“Oh, Cos.” Danita sighed. “Your daughter is never going to forgive you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Alex immediately excused himself from the dinner table and went down the hall after Daphne. No doubt he wasn’t welcome, but she was his wife. She wasn’t going to cry if he could help it.
She lay on the bed, golden-bronze hair spilling across the pillow, one hand resting on her forehead. Tears streamed down her face as she silently wept.
He couldn’t stand it.
“Daphne,” he murmured, sitting next to her on the bed. “I wish you wouldn’t allow small things to upset you.”
“It’s not small to me,” she whispered. “I’m so ashamed.”
Pulling her into his arms as he leaned against the head-board, he said, “I know what you’re thinking, but what Cos did isn’t all that bad. At least not to me.”
“That’s because your father didn’t spend every day of his life trying to think of a way to weasel a deal!”
“The hell he didn’t.” He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of Daphne in his arms, unresisting. “It’s a sure bet he spent twice as much time on it as Cos and was twice as productive. Beatrice isn’t hopping mad for nothing.”
“She’s greedy.”
“I don’t know.” Alex frowned. “I’d like to know why Dad was so selfish with her. We both know Dad bought into that feudal attitude, but the truth is, even he had to know Beatrice was entitled to some thing.” He shifted, realizing Daphne’s head against his waist was arousing him. “I’m real un comfort able with the thought he was paying her off. At least you can’t say that about Cos. His mind may always be working when it comes to money, but he’s always thinking of a way to benefit the many members of his clan.”
“We don’t know that your father was paying Beatrice off.” Daphne stared at him with large green eyes as her chin rested on his chest.
“I’ve been going through Dad’s personal effects, trying to piece the real story together. So far, I’ve found a few checks with her name on them, but no personal correspondence.”
“Why would he treat his sister that way?”
“I don’t know.” Alex ran a slow, caressing hand through Daphne’s soft hair again and again, the feel of it soothing. “Unless he truly believed he was protecting the ranch for me. When the original will from my grand parents is located, that should tell the whole tale. But I have a funny feeling Beatrice knows she’s got reason to be furious.”
“She still doesn’t have the right to hold an estate sale without your permission.” Daphne raised her chin, angrily defiant for his sake.
He smiled at her. “A letter from my lawyer put a stop to that quick enough.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s a fast mover, but I don’t get caught off guard too easily, Daph. Green Forks is my home, and she’s not selling anything without my okay. Family or not, I’ll shower her with legal papers if she keeps on the way she is. As it is, we’re countersuing her claims to the estate to slow her down so we can figure out exactly what she’s entitled to, and whether we can work a deal with her. Could be that all she wants is money.” Privately, he didn’t think so. She’d sounded determined to live at the ranch and run cattle.
As if that was all there was to it.
“What are you going to do about all those steers she bought?” Daphne’s worried gaze stayed on his.
“Nothing.” He snorted, exasperated. “It’s her money. Maybe that rodeo she’s got going on over there will keep her too busy to mess up anything else. I need her preoccupied so I can give the lawyer time to develop a strategy. And I’ve got to look through Dad’s papers for anything that might help my case.”
“But Beatrice is tearing up Green Forks! How can you bear to see the damage she’s doing to the ranch?”
“I can’t,” he replied grimly. “But I’d rather work on fixing other things. Right now, Beatrice and her cattle are the least of my worries.”
Truth to tell, his marriage worried him far more. He sighed and closed his eyes, wondering what it would take for life to get back to the way it had been before.
He wanted Daphne and his children under his roof—and Beatrice and her crew far away.
It was a goal he was determined to achieve.
“I CAN’T STAND IT,” Phillip said to Gloria. “That constant mooing and bellowing every minute of the day is about to drive me out of my mind.”
The restless steers could distinctly be heard in their bedroom. Gloria and Phillip had been given a room on the lower floor, which looked out on a paddock. No doubt the view was usually peaceful and pastoral, but with his mother’s dramatic delivery of prime rib on hooves, the noise was worse than New York City on a Saturday night.
“I think she bought too many,” Gloria said worriedly. “They don’t all seem to fit very well in their yard.”
“Corral, Gloria.” He rubbed a hand wearily through his shiny blond hair. “Damn it! I know buying in quantity is usually the way to get the best deal, but Mother went over the top with those animals. No doubt she’s sleeping in relative quiet in her room while we get treated to the Bovine Chorus.” He shot a resentful glance in the direction of Beatrice’s room.
“I don’t see what stewing about it is going to get you.” Gloria giggled. “Get it? Stew?”
He was in no mood to joke about the stew beef roaming outside. A particularly loud moo came from nearby, sounding almost in the bedroom with them. He crossed to the window and looked out into a pair of questioning brown eyes. “Damn it! They’ve gotten out of the corral!”
Gloria ran to the window. “Oh, it’s slobbering on the window! Shoo it away, Phillip! It’s looking at me!”
He couldn’t decide which party should be more frightened, Gloria or the cow. His wife wore no makeup and had plastic curlers the size of hot dogs in her hair. She’d been in the process of gluing in some extra eye lashes, so she appeared lopsided. The glamor she exuded during the day definitely did not extend to her nightly routine.
“You’re looking at it, too,” he said reasonably. “Gloria, it can’t hurt you. It’s just a harmless cow.”
The cow turned its head, banging the window abruptly with a large horn. Gloria screamed.
“Sh!” Phillip commanded. “Don’t get it more excited than it already is.” Clearly the animal wasn’t any happier to be out of the corral than they were to have it spying on them. “I’ll go see if I can convince the silly thing not to stare in our window all night.”
Sighing heavily, he pulled on a pair of expensive loafers.
“Shouldn’t you call the local animal control office?” Gloria demanded worriedly. “That thing is enormous.”
“It’s just a cow, Gloria. Worst-case scenario, I’ll get a little cow poo on my shoes.”
“Ugh. Don’t wear them back inside if you do. Sinclair and Nelly aren’t much for cleaning, and I don’t want to have to get down on my hands and knees and clean that marble entry. I’m pregna
nt, and cleaning solutions, never mind cow poo, are harmful to a fetus.”
Pregnancy or no, cleaning solutions of any kind would toxify Gloria. His wife had two maids for their small, exclusive town house in Philly. “I’m sure a little Ajax wouldn’t hurt the baby, but I’ll be careful.”
He went outside and headed to the front of the house.
“Go on,” he told the cow.
It turned its great head to stare at him. He could see the whites of large, wide-open eyes. Best he could tell, the body portion appeared to be of good size. He reached inside the door to turn on the porch light so he could see better. “Well, go on,” he repeated, flapping his hands. “Get back in your corral.”
His jaw dropped as the creature began a ponderous walk toward him. From the light in the bedroom window, he could see Gloria’s mouth become a worried O. At this moment, Phillip was feeling none too confident himself.
“Nice cow,” he said, backing up. “Now you be a good cow and go back and join your friends.”
For some reason, the cow began a swift trot toward him. It clattered onto the porch, its hooves clapping like thunder on the brick.
It was coming right at him. Phillip jerked the glass door open just in time to jump into the house. Unfortunately, a great, long horn managed to get caught between the glass door and the doorjamb.
“Moo!” the cow bellowed.
“Holy smokes!” Phillip shrieked.
“Get it out of the house!” Gloria screamed from behind him.
“How?”
The animal let out another ear split ting, moaning moo. Gloria screamed again.
“Shut up!” Phillip yelled at her. “I can’t think with you doing that!”
His wife fled. He heard their bedroom door slam. The cow tossed its head, working itself further into the house. Phillip backed up cautiously.
“Now look here, Mr. Cow. You don’t really want in here, and I really don’t want you in here. So get your head out of my door and every body will be a lot happier, don’t you agree?”
The animal’s horns banged against the glass. Phillip gasped, wondering if the door would shatter. For the moment it was holding, but he didn’t know how much longer that would be the case.