The Lady's Arrangement (Help Wanted)

by Colleen L. Donnelly

  Chapter 43

  A man likes facts. Even when he’s only twelve years old. ~Rex

  I had struck Regina’s little family with flint and steel the evening before. It sparked. I saw the shock on their faces—the heat of hearing they had more consequences than options. If I didn’t torch what little they had to make things better for them, someone else would, but not with Regina and her boy in mind. I felt it in my gut. I’d seen too much in the Oklahoma plains of Indian Territory, and somehow this area was starting to feel the same.

  The wagon was ready, dried grass packed into a bed in the back so my arranged stepson could go for a ride.

  “Sorry, Boss,” I whispered in the soft light of dawn. “You’re gonna worry your boss for a little bit. Enough to put him under my nose where I can watch him.” I hooked a burr under his belly, up below the shoulder. Just enough to make him squirm. I slapped him on the rump, stepped over the corral, and strode to the house.

  “Good morning,” I said as I came into the kitchen. “Boy up?” I poured coffee, wishing the cup was four times bigger. I took a sip, Regina’s frown as hot as her coffee was on my lips. My lips. Her lips. I set the cup down. “Good coffee, by the way.” I walked to her bedroom door, tapped, and pushed it halfway open. “You up, boy?” I went in, leaving the door ajar behind me, which her tiny figure immediately filled.

  “Is this jaunt really necessary?” She followed me into the room.

  “I’ll try not to jaunt him.”

  “Jaunt means trip.” Her spark was still hot.

  “If we keep that leg straight, and the weight off it, he should be fine on our jaunt. Walter will take it slow and easy. To Liberal to see Doc, first, then to where Jess can show us Flynn’s land. I hope.” I held onto the crutches as Jess pulled himself up.

  “I was going there when I got hurt.” Jess looked up at me. “I always kind of knew from Pa’s hints he had land out there.” The boy hobbled past his mother and out of the room. Successfully. She didn’t even stop him, so I decided to do the same, tipping my head as I passed her and hightailing it after her son.

  “Something’s wrong with Boss. What the…” Ted stood in the kitchen doorway blocking our way, but he pressed himself to the side as Jess brushed past and through. Lickety-split. Like me, when I was a boy. But not now. I stood back and watched Jess’s hobbling speed that got him out of the house and out of range. Lickety-split. That’s how my stepmother would have described his boyish rush.

  “Watch your language, Ted. What’s wrong with Boss?” Regina came from behind me and looked past Ted at her boy barreling toward the wagon. Ted was watching with her, questions in his stance as to how and why the boy was up.

  “He’s limping worse than Jess.” Ted turned my way. “Who has no business up.”

  I excused myself, squeezed between him and Regina, and hurried alongside Jess to study the bed of grass in the back of the wagon.

  “Ben,” Regina called from behind me. “Ted is going with us.”

  “All right, Jess, up you go.” I’d accomplished what I intended—Regina and her son getting what was theirs, and Ted where I wanted him. And when.

  Chapter 44

  My cousin, Clyde. Yet one more man to maneuver around. ~Regina

  “Here we go, nice and close.” Ben brought the wagon to a halt in front of Doc’s office. He hopped down while Jess worked his way off the grass bed, scooted to the edge of the wagon, and slid out onto his crutches as Ben held them.

  Doc wasn’t going to like this. Any of it.

  My son steadied himself and swung up on the boarded walk before I could stop him, Ben right alongside Jess and pointing to gaps between the planks.

  “I see them.” Jess placed the tips of his crutches in the middle of the planks and headed toward Doc’s door. Quick. He could at least look like he was being mindful of all the care Doc had given him. Even if I didn’t.

  “Wait. Slow down. I’m going in with you.” I hopped up on the walk.

  “I don’t need nobody to come with me.” Jess balanced on his crutches and one leg long enough to give me a scowl.

  “Anyone. You don’t want anyone to come with you, but I’m your family, and I’m going in with you.”

  “I want to talk to Doc on my own, Ma. I’m not just the boy on this ranch, anymore, I’m more. I’m also not so busted up I’m going to keep lying there counting holes in your lace curtains until you shoot me.”

  “Counting holes? Shoot you? I’d never shoot you. Whatever gave you such a ludicrous idea?”

  Jess glanced at Ben. “Like a horse, Ma. They shoot horses with broken legs.”

  “Cowhands sure do,” Ted said from beside the wagon. He’d been quiet the whole ride, his only and last words, “I’ll drive,” right before Ben beat him to the reins and the seat.

  “We’ll meet you right here later.” I turned to Ted. The bank was in the look he gave me, and a solid “no” in mine. I had my own questions for Mr. Gulliver, and I didn’t want Ted around. Questions Flynn probably should have asked. Ted tipped his head my way and turned down the walk.

  “Well, I’ll be.” Doc’s door opened. The shock was clear in his voice until I turned. It traveled to his eyes, then, and changed to hurt as he looked from my son to me and then to Ben. “Well, I’ll be,” Doc said it again, quieter this time as he backed aside and held the door for Jess to clunk and drag himself through.

  Ben and I followed.

  “I can’t believe my eyes.” Doc looked at me as he spoke, then stepped past me and focused on Jess.

  I braced for the anger Doc should rightly have, for the reprimand, the certainty Ben had ruined Jess’s chances of ever walking normally again. And for the hurt I’d caused when I married another.

  Doc circled my boy as he studied him, saying nothing terse, looking at Jess in ways even I hadn’t. He considered my boy with a doctor’s perspective instead of a mere man’s, an eye for straightness, for posture, for strength. Nothing about how we’d insulted him. Nothing about shooting Jess or comparing him to a lame horse. Doc ran his hand down the brace and touched the crutches. “These are as good as any I’ve ever seen. Where in the world did you get them?”

  Jess tapped the tip of one crutch Ben’s direction. “He made them. And they work just fine.”

  Doc glanced at Ben, then back at my son. “I hope you thanked him.”

  I saw Doc in a way I hadn’t before. The way Ben saw him. Maybe more. Doc was good and gracious, humble and honest. I looked from him to Ben, who was watching me, the two of us staring at each other as I heard Doc walk Jess around the room, offering suggestions regarding his movements, and answers to my son’s questions.

  “Now this way.” Doc took Jess the other direction, I turned from Ben and watched. Doc stayed with my son. Back and forth, around and around, close enough I could have touched them at first, but farther and farther away as Doc cut a path beyond my reach.

  “You’ll be like this for a while,” Doc said to Jess across the room. They stopped, and Doc talked to my son about adjusting the brace, gauging his progress, and what was best as he healed. “No horse riding. Not for a long time. And stick to both crutches until I say you can switch to one. Or a walking stick. Don’t try to hurry, either. And I’ll give you some exercises to help strengthen that leg. Do everything I say…” Doc looked toward Ben. “And do what he says, too.” Doc laid a hand on Jess’s shoulder. “Then you’ll be out running and riding again before you know it. Okay?”

  “Definitely,” I answered for my son.

  “And how about you?” Doc asked Jess again.

  “I suppose.”

  “I hope that means yes.” Doc squeezed my son’s shoulder.

  “Doc.” I stepped across the small office to stand in front of Doc as Ben followed Jess to the door. It was Flynn’s blue-eyed gaze again, catching me as Doc turned toward me. Blue eyes I’d hurt in more ways than one. “I want to pay you. How much for today?”

  I heard the door open and close as I stared into that
faraway blue. What a different sort of arrangement it would have been with a man like Doc. It would have been a marriage, instead.

  “This enough for starters?” Ben’s arm stretched between me and Doc, money in his hand. I looked at that hand, the length and strength of it. I would have had a marriage with Doc, a nice gentle stroll into the next life, never touching hands like Ben’s, never having them touch me.

  “I should be paying you.” Doc’s gaze went from me to Ben, some of the blue fading from his eyes. “You did my job. Took over the one I especially wanted. So easy, the way you did it. Before I even knew it.”

  Ben laid the money in Doc’s hand. “Trust me, nothing I’ve done here has been easy.”

  Both men looked at me.

  “Well, I… Well, thank you,” Doc said.

  I looked from one to the other. “Honestly, I don’t thank you. Either one of you.” It sounded every bit as brusque as I meant it, and I was glad. “Come on, Jess, let’s go.” I marched to my son and took him outdoors.

  “Can we go to Pa’s other ranch now?” Jess asked.

  “I need to mail a letter, and I believe your ma wanted to go to the bank.” Ben answered before I had a chance, stepping behind me from Doc’s office.

  “I need to mail a couple of letters myself. Why don’t you walk with me?” I spoke only to Jess.

  “You mean all three of us? Like a family?” Jess frowned.

  “Like there’s important work to be done, and we aim to do it,” Ben answered again before I had a chance to say a word.

  “Work? Like a job?” I had my chance now, and I took it. “One that isn’t easy? I know what you meant back there.” I rounded on Ben. And if Doc stepped out that door, I’d round on him, too.

  Ben glanced toward the closed door, probably hoping for help. “I doubt he was referring to you as a job.”

  “He was indeed, but he wasn’t the one that made me sound like a chore.”

  “You’re not a chore.” Creases formed at Ben’s eyes and mouth, giving away the beginnings of a grin. “Truthfully…” The creases were gone when he looked back to me. “You’re an arrangement.”

  It wasn’t a slap in his gaze, but it stung, and I felt it, just the same. He may have, also, the fun gone out of his eyes. Business. That’s what Ben was saying. I was a job. Something he had to do. That’s what this relationship was. Business. And a parting.

  “Let’s get going.” Jess thumped his crutch the direction of the postal building and headed that way.

  Yes, let’s. I heard it in my head, but nothing came out of my mouth. I fell in behind my son.

  I stood back in the postal office. A job. Ben handed two letters to Mr. Greene. An arrangement I’d set up, but he agreed to and was carrying out. I didn’t bother to strain to see the names he’d written to.

  “Your turn.” Ben tipped his hat as he moved aside.

  Making as broad a circle as I could, I stepped around him. “One to my mother,” I said to Mr. Greene. “And the other to my cousin.” Clyde. I thought of Flynn as Mr. Greene slid my cousin’s letter across the counter. Flynn’s gravesite and schemes. The questions I had for his banker.

  “Wait. I should take that one back…” I laid a hand on the letter. Clyde shouldn’t come out west. He wasn’t man enough to survive. But I was.

  “Ma’am?” Mr. Greene looked at me.

  “I need to add something more.” I turned to Ben. “Go on and do whatever other chores you need to. I’m going to fix this letter before I send it off.”

  “I’ll go tend to Walter.” Ben glanced out the window. “Ted’s probably waiting for you at the bank anyway.”

  “I told him not today.” Just like you advised, since I’m that work you have to do. I took my letter from Mr. Greene. “Go see to Walter. I’m sure he’s not that much of a chore.”

  Ben nodded to Mr. Greene and gave Jess a look I didn’t quite understand—some manly fact look, maybe, like the noises he made at his horse. I waited until, finally, he left.

  “This will only take a minute,” I reiterated to Jess. He tapped a crutch on the floor, impatient little beats while I told my cousin to stay where he was. I asked who he’d done business with and promised I would have them looked up. Just let me know, and I’d see to it for him. My cousin was cowardly. He would send me their names.

  Ben was nowhere in sight when Jess and I stepped out onto the walkway, the wagon and Walter gone, also. “Let’s go to the bank,” I said. “Then we can leave.”

  I listened to the tri-thump of my son beside me. Two steps for me, three for him. Crutches, a slight drag, and a thump of his good foot. Jess looked strong, his color better. Impatient to see the surviving piece of his father. If there was one.

  “Amazing coincidence.” Ted appeared around the corner of the bank as Jess and I came to the door. He tipped his head and latched onto the handle with his good hand.

  “If you have business here, it’s your own.” I shouldered close to my son.

  “I don’t mean to upset you, but I’m doing you a favor. You’d best see Mr. Gulliver with me. I just spoke with him. He caught me in there earlier, and I told him you weren’t interested in having me sign. What he said wasn’t good. That’s why I’m back. Thought maybe he’d hold off before he did anything hasty, if we talked to him together.” He tugged the bank’s door open and held it for us.

  “I told you, Ted, I’m here to speak with Mr. Gulliver myself.” I walked through the door, Jess’s thumps and slides behind me. People glanced up, and customers parted like the Red Sea as we entered. The thump and drag waned as Jess came to a stop.

  “I’ll wait here.” Jess leaned against the tall central table, his crutches close to his side.

  “I’ll be quick.”

  “Just a minute or two, son,” Ted added. He touched my elbow, but I drew it away, and walked ahead of him to Mr. Gulliver.

  The banker stood when I reached the front of his desk. Mr. Gulliver’s desk was clean, the top shiny and polished, clear enough his reflection stretched across in front of me. “Welcome, both of you.”

  I turned to the side, Ted there at my right. “I’m here on my own…” I began.

  Mr. Gulliver smiled, gestured toward two seats that faced him. I settled into one, and Ted dropped into the other.

  “Ted, I told you…”

  “Is that your son?” The banker leaned across the shiny pool of his desktop. He gazed past me at Jess, at the uncomfortable way he propped himself at the table, ignoring passing stares.

  I waited for sympathy, held my breath against something neither Jess nor I wanted to hear.

  “He favors your husband,” Mr. Gulliver said. Then he looked at me. “But he must have some of your courage. The two of you have borne a lot together.”

  “That they have,” Ted agreed beside me.

  The banker turned Ted’s way. “So did the two of you decide it’s best to settle the deed for the ranch the easy way? Today? Might be good to hurry. Looks like that boy needs to get off his feet.”

  I glanced back at Jess. Some of his color had drained. My boy. The ranch. My plan. “As I was saying, I’m not here with Ted. I have questions of my own that…”

  Ted put a hand on the arm of my chair. “We’re here about settling things as best we can. Then we’re going to go look for that property Flynn must have bought before he…before he had the accident. Regina and me, her son, and that man who married her.”

  The banker’s brows raised. “I don’t think…”

  “Mrs. Howard—I mean, Mrs. Miller,” Ted continued, “feels it’s time to find it, so she can decide what to do with it. Maybe we can get all of this settled at the same time.”

  “Mrs. Miller, no matter what you decide, there are rules…” Mr. Gulliver leaned back in his chair. “We’ll have to go through this all over again. If only you’d listen to reason…”

  “Ted is not here to speak or sign for me, Mr. Gulliver, and I don’t need you to lecture me on things you’ve already said. I intend to
secure all of the land that has been mine since Flynn bought it, and then I’ll decide what’s to be done.”

  “But the deed…” Mr. Gulliver leaned forward.

  “I’d like to see it. Both of them. I no longer want just your word, Mr. Gulliver. I want proof.”

  Mr. Gulliver tapped his fingers on his desk, the reflection in the polish as clear as if he thrummed them on a mirror. “There is only one deed here, and that is for the land you’re on. And as I’ve made clear, we’re willing to waive all of the debt Mr. Howard accumulated against your ranch, with Ted’s signature.” Mr. Gulliver’s fingers stilled. “Not intending to cast doubt on your choice for a mate, Mrs. Miller, but I have no history on that new husband of yours. Nothing. That may be all right for you, but when it comes to finances…”

  “Mr. Gulliver, I’ve heard all of this before, and what you’re saying isn’t consistent.” I came to my feet. “Flynn Howard was a stranger when he came here and bought land, and I don’t recall him saying anyone balked at his name or signature in this bank. So balking at Ben Miller’s name makes no sense.”

  “Mrs. Howard, in answer to your claims that we didn’t balk at Flynn when he came here as a stranger, well, that was a much smaller debt than what he finally amassed. He left the bank in a rather touchy predicament.”

  Ted touched my sleeve, but I remained on my feet. “Let her see the deed,” he said to Mr. Gulliver.

  The banker gazed at Ted, then called for a young man seated several desks away. At a smaller desk, one full of papers and files. The young man stood, listened to Mr. Gulliver’s instructions, and disappeared through a doorway. He re-entered with a piece of paper, set it in front of Mr. Gulliver, then returned to his own desk.

  “Here it is,” the banker said. “The only one we have.” He twisted the document my way and I dropped to my chair. Swirls of cursive arched before me. It looked like art, a document in a graceful pen. Long and flowing lines creating waves, undulating like the prairie Flynn had bought. And at the bottom—his name. Flynn Howard. His name and mine, together, as owners of the land.