A County Girl's Heart

by Dena Blake

  DJ stood speechless, letting her eyes roam across the countless filing cabinets filling the room. This was going to take longer than she’d expected.

  “Where do I start?” she asked, her bemused expression giving way to her frustration.

  “Don’t panic.” Allison smiled, apparently entertained by her reaction. “Everything is in alphabetical order. B’s are here.” She pointed to a row of cabinets at the left end of the room. “And M’s are here.” Allison pointed to the row directly in front of them. “I’ll give you twenty minutes. I’ll be ready for lunch by then.” She turned and went up the stairs.

  DJ started with the M’s, and with no trouble at all, she came upon original documents dating back more than fifty years that did, indeed, confirm the land had originally belonged to Elizabeth Belmont’s grandfather, who was also Kat’s great-grandfather, James Montgomery. The documents also proved the land had been deeded to Kat’s grandfather, Francis Montgomery, before it was split and deeded to Kathryn and Rebecca equally.

  Kat had been right all along. There was no mention whatsoever of Bartholomew or Victoria Maxwell. Somewhere along the line, without Kathryn or Rebecca’s knowledge, someone had forged new documents that deeded the land to Victoria.

  She climbed the steps, pushed the door open a crack, and peeked out into the room. When she saw no one else in the office besides Allison, she entered and went straight to the copy machine.

  “What are you doing, Dani?” Allison asked, creeping up behind her.

  “I need copies of these, okay?” DJ said discreetly, seeking her permission.

  Allison took the documents, thumbed through them, and handed them to DJ. “Make it quick.” She skimmed the front of the office, making sure it was still unoccupied.

  DJ made the copies and then took the documents to the basement, but instead of putting the originals back in the file, she replaced them with the copies. Chances were, once she started poking into the whole thing, the originals would disappear or be destroyed. She had to make sure that didn’t happen.

  DJ folded the documents into thirds and unfastened the first few buttons of her shirt. She slid the documents inside and tucked them just under the waistband of her jeans before she headed up the stairs. She turned the knob and pushed the door open slightly, cursing as it slammed back hard against her face. DJ could hear a muffled conversation through the door. One of the other ladies in the office had returned from lunch. She leaned up against the cold brick wall, turned off the light, and waited.

  Surrounded by the thick, black darkness, she let her thoughts wander to Kat. The deep, throaty resonance of her laughter rang through her mind, and her body produced a pool of wetness. Kat would be thrilled to hear the news about the land, and DJ knew she might possibly reward her in turn. Kat had made it perfectly clear last night that she’d wanted DJ as much as she wanted Kat.

  Second thoughts clouded her mind. She let her head rest against the brick. She shouldn’t become involved with this woman. Too much was at stake. The façade DJ had built around herself was beginning to crumble and was apt to come crashing down at any moment. Her gut twisted, and suddenly a blazing streak of light blinded her.

  “Sorry about that,” Allison whispered, rushing her out to the other side of the counter. “Did you find everything you were looking for?”

  “Yes. Thank you. I did,” DJ said as she patted her hand against her belly and felt the documents. “Now where are we going for lunch?”

  “How about that fancy Italian place down on Main Street?”

  “Donatello’s?”

  “That’s the one.” She took her purse out of the drawer before leaning through the doorway behind her desk. “I’m going to lunch now.”

  DJ held the door for her as she came around the counter. “One of my favorites.”

  “You knew it was going to cost you,” Allison said, her Texas drawl thick again.

  DJ smiled and gave her a wild-eyed gesture. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  After some nice conversation and a filling lunch, DJ dropped Allison off in front of the courthouse before continuing on to see Elizabeth at the Belmont estate. She took her usual route, admiring the beautiful scenery on the way. An abundance of immense oak trees flanked the entrances of the many estates and lined the road. It was hard to believe these kinds of mansions existed only a few blocks from the concrete skyscrapers of downtown Austin.

  The sunlight flickered at her eyes like a strobe, and her mind wandered back to the ranch, back to Kat, the feel of her soft, damp skin from their afternoon at the river still fresh in her mind. She relived the memory of holding her against her as she slept, and the heat of her breath upon her chest sent a surge of desire through her.

  Last night, when Kat had kissed her with such urgency, DJ had pushed right past the boundaries she’d always kept firm and steady. She had no idea what had come over her in the past few days and wasn’t sure she wanted to know. But somehow, in some way, she wanted to be part of Kat’s life.

  DJ downshifted as she rounded the corner, and after passing through the massive iron gates, she quickly regained speed and continued up the short brick road to the main house of the Belmont estate. She screeched the BMW to a stop, reached into the glovebox, and took a few minutes to spike her hair before she pushed open the door and climbed out of the car. She rang the doorbell and stood waiting between the huge columns flanking the porch. The heavy door swung open almost immediately, and beads of light swished across the marble floor.

  DJ grinned at the woman standing in the doorway. “You’re pretty quick there, Maggie.”

  “The sound of that machine is unmistakable.” Maggie eyed the BMW as she pinched her lips together. She closed the door and turned toward the kitchen.

  “How’s Mrs. Belmont today?” DJ asked before heading up the vast winding staircase.

  “Cantankerous as ever.”

  “If she wasn’t, we’d know something was wrong,” DJ said, her usual caring manner laced with antagonism. She continued up the stairs and down to the end of the hallway. Slowly pushing on the partially open bedroom door, she peeked inside to see if Elizabeth was awake.

  Elizabeth’s eyes lit with delight. “Danica, what a nice surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”

  “You know I can’t stay away for very long.” DJ bussed her on the cheek, then propped herself on the side of the bed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” She took Elizabeth’s hand in hers and stretched her lips into a warm smile.

  “Whatever do you mean, dear?” she said, the innocence in her voice clearly fabricated.

  DJ blew out a heavy breath. “You didn’t tell me the whole story.” It wasn’t so much that she’d played into Elizabeth’s hands as the fact that DJ hadn’t seen it coming.

  “Would you have gone if I had?”

  “You know I wouldn’t have.” Her tone was strong and firm.

  Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “Have you become acquainted with Kathryn?”

  “Yes. I have.” DJ smiled softly, her demeanor changing as the thought of Kat floated through her mind.

  She gave DJ’s hand a slight squeeze. “I can tell by your expression, you’re taken by her.”

  She nodded. “She is a beautiful woman.” In more ways than one.

  “And very strong-willed.”

  “Just like her mother.” DJ’s smile faded. “She doesn’t want your money.”

  “I assumed as much.” Elizabeth looked down at her hands, laced her fingers together, and dropped them heavily into her lap.

  DJ dropped her chin and stared at her. “I really don’t like being put into the middle of your family squabbles.”

  “There was no other way, Danica. She won’t talk to me.” Elizabeth’s voice rose uncharacteristically, and DJ saw something in her eyes she didn’t recognize. Hurt, despair, loss? She wasn’t sure which, but Elizabeth was expressing emotions DJ hadn’t seen in her before.

  “From what she’s told me, I don�
��t blame her.” DJ walked across the room and picked up a picture of Kat from the bureau.

  She’d seen the photo of Kat sitting on the fence rail many times before. Now, after her trip to the ranch, DJ knew exactly where it had been taken. She could just barely make out the double-J emblem on the barn in the background. She’d never paid much attention to the letters before because she’d always assumed it had been taken at the Belmont ranch.

  “This picture was taken at the Jumpin’ J.” DJ let her bewilderment show in her voice.

  “Yes. I believe it was.” Elizabeth reached into her bureau drawer, drew out a small photo album, and handed it to her.

  DJ cocked her head curiously. “What’s this?”

  “Open it.”

  She lifted the cover and thumbed through the first few pictures. Her curiosity quickly turned to understanding. “You’ve been keeping track of Kathryn all along, haven’t you?”

  Elizabeth nodded. “She looks happy there, doesn’t she?”

  DJ flipped through the sequential pictures of Kat and Arizona leading the horses into the corral, all the while stealing glances at each other and smiling.

  DJ hesitated for a moment as she studied a picture of them sitting on the front-porch swing. Kat looked perfectly content leaning up against Arizona with her legs outstretched across the swing. A flash of jealousy shot through DJ as she noticed Arizona’s arm wrapped around Kat’s waist and their fingers intertwined. Sadness replaced the jealousy as DJ realized she could compete with any living, breathing female but never replace the memory of a lost love.

  She quickly flipped to the next set of photos and stopped again. She found one with Kat leaning against the very same tree she and DJ had picnicked under the day before. No smile lit her face in these pictures. Her eyes were dark and her cheeks hollow. She looked empty somehow, locked deep in thought as she stared at the river. Her heart hammered unexpectedly at seeing Kat so sad.

  “These were taken after Arizona died,” she said softly as she tried to purge the sadness from her heart. DJ was slowly realizing that what she felt for Kat had turned into much more than physical attraction.

  “A few months after.” Elizabeth let out a ragged sigh as she took the pictures from DJ’s hand. “As you can see, her world has changed,” she said, dragging her fingers across the shot. “They fell in love the summer after Kathryn’s senior year of graduate school. She received a master’s degree in finance at Baylor University. Charles had planned for her to go to work for him at Montco Oil immediately after graduation.”

  “I see that didn’t happen.”

  “No. It didn’t. Somehow Kathryn convinced Charles to let her have one last summer free of responsibility. A decision he always regretted,” she said wryly, the edges of her mouth tipping up slightly. “Kathryn spent every waking moment of that summer at the Belmont Ranch.” She touched DJ’s hand lightly. “Arizona was one of the horse trainers there, you know. Charles had always praised her for her expertise.” Her eyes narrowed. “But when he found out Arizona and Kathryn were connecting in ways other than equestrian training, his opinion quickly changed.” She flipped her hands up in disgust. “He didn’t mind her running the stables or even the fact that she was a woman, but Charles had no intention of letting the hired help into the family.”

  “Kathryn didn’t agree, I take it.”

  “I don’t think what her father thought was even an issue for Kathryn. In her eyes, Arizona was the perfect mate.” Elizabeth’s face lit as though it were she who had been in love. “I understood fully. She was gorgeous. At an even six feet tall, with big brown eyes and dark hair, the young woman had a heart bigger than Texas. Virgil, Arizona’s stepfather, a long-time Belmont horse trainer, had raised her on the ranch. Kathryn saw Arizona frequently when they were children.” She let out a throaty chuckle. “I clearly remember the look on Kathryn’s face. She fell hopelessly in love with Arizona at the mere age of fourteen. I don’t even think she knew she was a lesbian yet.”

  DJ’s brow rose quickly. “But you knew?”

  “Yes. I saw it. The sparkle in her eye, the excitement whenever Arizona was around. It was very obvious to anyone who watched them.”

  DJ stared across the room at nothing in particular. “So they started dating when she was fourteen?”

  “Certainly not.” Elizabeth patted DJ’s hand. “Arizona always kept her distance from Kathryn. She was older, and, of course, Kathryn had a few others in her life along the way. I think Arizona was about twenty-one or twenty-two the first time she really saw Kathryn as a woman.” Elizabeth took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But when Kathryn came home from college that summer after graduation, she saw her very differently, and Kathryn’s dream finally came to fruition. I knew she wouldn’t give Arizona up no matter what her father had planned.”

  “Charles gave her an ultimatum?”

  “Yes. Charles fired both Virgil and Arizona, and ordered Kathryn to stop seeing her. I wasn’t at all surprised when she defied him. Since she was a child, Kathryn has always been a very strong-willed young woman. After they ran off and were married in California, Charles made sure she was cut off from the family completely. Financially and personally. All she had was the land my father had deeded her in his trust.”

  “Why didn’t you stop him?” DJ asked, trying not to judge but to understand how Elizabeth could let her husband force her daughter to walk out the door without a place to live or any money to start out on her own.

  “It was a bittersweet moment for me when Kathryn left the family for the woman she loved.” She closed the photo album and carefully placed it in the drawer. “I only wish I’d been that strong in my youth.”

  DJ stood motionless, staring out the window into the rose garden where the gardener was trimming away dead flowers, making way for new buds to bloom. “Forgive me, Elizabeth, but I don’t quite understand why you would let Charles make a decision like that.” She turned and gave Elizabeth her full attention again. “I can’t recall you being silent about anything since I’ve known you.”

  “It’s fairly common knowledge that at the age of sixteen, through no choice of my own, I was wed to Charles. It was an arranged marriage.” She shifted slightly, raising her hand to DJ when she attempted to help her adjust the pillow behind her. “It may come as a shock to you, but I’m not as young as I may seem.” Elizabeth pinched her lips together. “That’s the way things were done in my day, and it wasn’t considered proper to protest your parents’ wishes.”

  DJ was tickled but not surprised at her vanity. Elizabeth Belmont was a beautiful woman, and she was absolutely right. She had no idea how old she was.

  “It was difficult at first, but the Belmont family was very good to me. Even though I hadn’t married for love, Charles was a very handsome and quite charming man. Being young and naive, I thought as time went on, perhaps we would grow to love each other.”

  “And that never happened,” DJ said sadly. During the years she’d known Elizabeth, her relationship with Charles had been cordial at best. She hadn’t known exactly how far the history went.

  Elizabeth sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “No, it didn’t.”

  “Then why did you abandon Kathryn?”

  “I believed Charles when he said she’d be back for the money.” Her eyes lowered. “Deep down inside, I knew he was wrong.” She looked up at DJ, her eyes beckoning for some sort of understanding. “Kathryn isn’t like me. She’s not the kind of woman to sacrifice her dreams for money.”

  “Why don’t you just tell her all this?”

  “It’s hard for an old woman to swallow her pride, Danica,” Elizabeth admitted. “Whether Kathryn knows it or not, she’s already had more in her lifetime than I ever did.”

  “Then why are you trying to force her to return?”

  “I gave birth to two beautiful daughters, Kathryn and Rebecca. I’ve always assumed both of them would carry on my family’s place in Austin society.”

  DJ raised an ey
ebrow. “I think there’s more to it than that, Elizabeth,” she said, flattening her lips.

  “Fine.” Elizabeth slapped her hands to the bed. “If you must know, I’m not sure Rebecca can run the company on her own,” she said, seeming to corral her emotions.

  “Why not?” DJ was surprised Elizabeth didn’t have more faith in Rebecca. “She has the education, and she’s worked closely enough with Charles for the past few years to know exactly how he’s been running the company.”

  “That’s what worries me.” Elizabeth shook her head. “In the past, Charles has done some things that may have been legal, but not necessarily ethical.” She sat up straight, squaring her shoulders. “I’m tired of the Montgomery name being dragged through the mud along with the Belmonts’.”

  DJ knew Rebecca could be an astute businesswoman when needed, but she’d never known her to do anything illegal.

  “Right or wrong, Rebecca never questioned him. When Charles told her to do something, she did it.” She blew out a heavy breath. “She was always trying to please that unbearable tyrant, thinking in some way it might make him love her more, I suppose.” Elizabeth’s hands shook in apparent frustration. “I shudder at the thought. My father would turn in his grave if he knew some of the things they’ve done.”

  DJ shook her head. “She can’t be all bad, Elizabeth. She’s your daughter too.”

  “Yes, but maybe she’s become a little too much like Charles.” Elizabeth gave her an impenetrable stare. “You know exactly what I’m talking about, Danica.”

  DJ whirled around to look out the window. “Yes. I do,” she said, knowing Elizabeth’s gaze would still be fixed on her when she turned around.

  “Do you love Rebecca?”

  “Rebecca is a very beautiful woman.” She stared blindly out into the hazy blue horizon. “You know, I’ve always thought the world of her.”

  “But?”

  “She and I have some things to work out.” The poorly constructed ruse Rebecca had convinced her to participate in to keep her mother at bay had been appealing at first, thinking she might have a little fun with Rebecca while it lasted. But Rebecca was a high-maintenance woman, and DJ wasn’t up for catering to her needs.