by Lydia Olson
“I’m so sorry,” Jane said to Sara. “I’m not sure what has gotten into her.” Sara raised an eyebrow. They both knew that Kate’s behavior was just Kate being her normal spoilt and entitled self.
“There’s no need for you to apologize,” Sara said.
Jane didn’t agree with that. She was the reason her family was in the house disturbing everyone’s peace.
“Janie?” her father asked.
Jane turned. She looked closely at the man who raised her. For most of her life, she thought him infallible. He always seemed larger than life to her, but now that she was a grown woman, she could see that he was simply a man.
“What can I do for you?” she asked. Her tone was sharp, and she knew that he heard it.
“I’d like to talk,” he said.
Jane looked closely at him. He looked more tired than he normally did. Jane thought that he might have even lost a little bit of weight. She noticed the buttons on his vest did not seem to be pulling as much as they normally did.
“Sure,” Jane said. “I’ll make some hickory coffee. Sara’s sister brought us some from the general store.”
Her father gave her a small smile before walking toward the table.
“Do you need me to help you?” Sara asked from across the room. Jane looked at her friend. She knew that Sara was only asking in case Jane did not want to be left alone with her father. She smiled to her friend in an effort to show her appreciation. Until she’d come to the ranch, she’d never had anyone care about what she wanted. Her needs and desires had come last, at least since her mother passed.
“I’m fine,” Jane told Sara.
Sara nodded and left Jane alone with her father. Jane said nothing. She started boiling water for the coffee. She generally didn’t care for the beverage, but she knew her father liked it. Part of Jane would always want to please the people around her—that was who she was.
“Are you going to say anything to me?” her father asked.
“What would you like me to say? You’re the one who wished to speak.” Jane wasn’t going to make things easy. After her mother died, Jane had done everything she could to make her father’s life easier. She thought it was her duty and what her mother would have wanted from her. The one time she needed her father to protect her, he tried to sell her off. Just because things had worked themselves out in the end didn’t change the facts for Jane, and she was angry that he had the audacity to blame her for his problems.
“Kate told me that Brandon Eimer is in town,” he said.
Jane said nothing. She focused on preparing their drinks. Keeping her hands busy kept them from shaking. She didn’t know if they were shaking in anger or in fear. Brandon had suggested that there was something about her father that she didn’t know. But Kate had beat him to the draw. She’d suggested that her father lost the ranch, not because of a bad deal, but because of Jane’s marriage.
“Did Brandon Eimer have something to do with you losing the ranch?” Jane asked.
She thought it was best to just get things out in the open. She was tired of all the secrets surrounding her life. She felt like she could not move on, and because she couldn’t move on, she couldn’t be fully happy.
Her father sighed and wrapped his hands around the steaming hot cup she sat before him.
“I wasn’t lying. I took out credit from the bank, but there was more to it than that. Brandon offered me a seat on the Philadelphia Stock exchange,” he said.
“What?” Jane asked. “Why would you want a position in Philadelphia. We lived in New Mexico.”
Her father released a heavy sigh. “Because,” he said, “I was tired of being a poor rancher. Eimer saw that, and he offered me a way out. He’d pay off my line of credit, and he’d get me the position.”
Suddenly, things were starting to fall into place for Jane. “As long as you gave him me, right?”
Her father had the decency to look ashamed. He stared off into the distance unable to look her in the eyes.
“Brandon was taken with you the very first moment he laid eyes on you. He was impressed by how well you ran the house and …”
“And you were more than happy to sell me off to him for a position in a city you don’t even reside in.” Jane was disgusted. She could understand that her father felt he had no other choice, and if he had told her then she might have married Brandon to save the ranch.
You would have been in for a big surprise, she thought as she recalled how her father told her he wanted to get rid of the ranch and move east.
“Why would you want to move east?” she asked.
Her father said nothing. He simply ran his finger over the top of his cup.
“Did you tell Brandon were to find me?” she asked. She’d been wondering since she saw Eimer in town. She assumed her father would have told Brandon what happened simply so he would know she was no longer a viable option to marry. Now, she couldn’t help but wonder if he had more selfish and dishonest reasons.
“Jane …”
“You did!” she exclaimed. She set her cup down on the table hard enough to cause coffee to spill over the sides. The hot liquid splashed on the table, her hand, and her dress. She was so angry she wasn’t sure that she cared.
“Brandon threatened to turn me over to the sheriff,” her father offered.
“For what?” Jane’s head was spinning. She couldn’t believe that her father would attempt to save his neck by sacrificing her. He knew more than anyone what kind of man Brandon was, but he was happy to marry her off to him as long as he got something out of it. It turned her stomach to think about.
“I bribed a government official,” her father told her. “That’s illegal.”
Jane gaped at him. This continued to get worse and worse. Not only had her father betrayed her, he was also a criminal.
What am I going to tell Milton? she wondered. She’d invited so much chaos into his orderly home, and he deserved to know what he was dealing with.
“You can’t tell your husband about any of this,” her father told her. It was as if he was reading her mind.
“You have no right to tell me what to do,” Jane reminded him. “You brought Brandon Eimer into our lives because you were greedy.”
Jane looked closely at her father. If she could, she would throw him out on the street. He didn’t deserve her kindness. But she wouldn’t do that. Despite everything, she knew that her mother would want her to forgive her father. She couldn’t do that, but she could make sure that he had a roof over his head and three meals a day. She would only do it for her mother.
“Jane,” he said, trying to get her attention.
“I can’t speak to you right now,” she said.
Jane got up from her seat and walked out of the kitchen. Tears stung her eyes.
How did my family end up so fractured? she wondered.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Milton and Matthew had talked for the better part of the day. Now that the sun was setting, they were heading inside for supper. Being with his friend had done wonders to lighten the load on Milton, but he almost dreaded going back to his house.
“Are they really that bad?” Matthew asked. “You look like you are heading to the gallows.”
Milton shook his head. “I don’t like the way they treat Jane. She’s a good woman. She deserves a better family.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen you care about a woman so much,” Matthew said. He’d made small comments like that whenever Milton mentioned Jane. Milton had explained to Matthew more than once that he simply wanted to take care of his wife.
“Well,” Milton said, “you’ll get a front row seat to the havoc that Jane’s family can cause this evening.”
Matthew asked to stay on the ranch while he was in town. It was an odd request, but Milton had no reason to say no. Even with George and Kate on the ranch, they still had extra rooms available.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go into town and stay with your family?” Milton asked.
“Your ma and pa aren’t going to be pleased when Sara tells them you are here, and they find out that you haven’t come to stay with them.”
Milton wondered why Matthew wasn’t going to his parents’ home. The Wileys were a tight-knit group. It was odd that Matthew did not care to go home.
“They’ll be fine,” Matthew muttered.
Milton drew his eyebrows together in confusion. He knew that Matthew and his father sometimes were contentious with one another. He’d broken his father’s heart when he decided to go to a firm in New Mexico instead of taking over the family business, but Milton didn’t think that things between them were so bad.
“Do you want to talk about what’s going on with you?” Milton asked.
Matthew shook his head. “No,” he said. His tone was sharp and brooked no argument. Milton almost chuckled, but he could see his friend was upset, and did not wish to offend him.
How the tides have turned, he thought. Normally, it was him keeping things from Matthew and not the other way around. Milton would leave things alone for now, but not for very long.
“Are you ready for the insanity?” Milton asked as they walked toward the front door.
“If Jane is as good a cook as you say, I’ll gladly deal with a bit of family chaos,” Matthew said. The smirk he generally wore was back.
“You’re only saying that because they aren’t your family,” Milton told him.
Matthew’s grin widened.
“Exactly,” he said. “For once, you are the one with the crazy family and not me.”
Milton rolled his eyes as he walked through the front door. The house was quieter than he was used to—just a reminder of the tension between the entire family. He sighed. He expected to find Jane in the kitchen. It was where she normally was at this time of the day, but as he drew closer and didn’t hear the normal clang of pots and pans, he worried.
“Jane?” he called out as he entered the kitchen.
He didn’t see her anywhere. Instead, he saw Kate sitting at the table in one of her many dresses that were way too formal for supper.
“She’s not here,” Kate said. She crossed her arms over her chest looking like a petulant toddler.
“Where is she?” Milton asked.
Kate shrugged. “Hiding in her room I think.”
Milton bit his tongue to stop himself from saying something that he shouldn’t.
“You must be Kate,” Matthew said. He pushed past Milton slightly, so that he was standing before Kate. Milton rolled his eyes at his friend’s behavior. He was trying to find out where his wife had gone, and Matthew was attempting to flirt with Kate.
“I am,” Kate said. To Milton’s surprise, she blushed. Milton expected Kate to put Matthew directly in his place, but instead, she seemed completely flattered by his attention. “And you are?”
Matthew moved closer to Kate. He carefully took Kate’s hand in his own and kissed it. Kate released a breathy giggle. Her cheeks turned red from Matthew’s attention.
“I’m Matthew Wiley. I’m a lawyer from New Mexico. I’m simply here to help this one out with some legal issues,” he explained, nodding his head toward Milton.
“How fascinating,” Kate responded.
Again, Milton rolled his eyes. Milton saw this whenever Matthew laid on the charm for the ladies. It never failed. He had not expected it to work on Kate, but it seemed as though it had. He’d been looking forward to Kate dressing down his friend. Milton was sure that he could benefit from someone telling him no once in a while. Normally, Milton would laugh at Matthew’s behavior, but he didn’t find it so funny when it was keeping him from finding his wife.
“Where is your sister?” Milton asked once more. His voice was firm enough to draw Kate’s attention away from Matthew.
“I told you, she’s in her room.”
Milton did not want to point out that she did not say so and had simply speculated, but he said nothing. Instead, he turned without a word and walked out of the kitchen eager to see what was troubling his wife.
Jane had never failed to serve a meal since her arrival on the ranch on their wedding day. Something must be wrong, Milton thought. He began taking the stairs two at a time as his heart raced with worry. He needed to talk to Jane as quickly as he could.
“Jane!” he yelled as he reached her door. He raised his hand to pound on the broad oak panel, but before he could it was wrenched open.
Jane stood before him. She was dressed in one of her new linen gowns, but it was stained with something dark. Her hair, which was normally smoothed away from her face, was unbound and wild. Seeing her did little to assuage his fears. He worried that something terrible had happened, especially when he noticed her red cheeks and tear-stained face.
“What is it?” he asked. Milton was too worried about her to wait on what polite society might dictate in this situation. He simply walked into her room, reached out and took Jane into his arms before he could even think about it.
She released a broken sob. She fell into Milton’s arms. He could feel her body shaking as she cried, and he worried about what could have possibly happened. Jane wasn’t a woman prone to extreme emotions.
“It’s okay,” Milton said. He smoothed a hand over her hair. It was the first time he’d seen it unbound. He couldn’t enjoy it though. Jane was so distressed, and he didn’t know why.
“I’m here,” he told her. “I’m here. Everything will be alright.”
For a few minutes they simply stood in the middle of the room. Jane’s tears fell on Milton’s vest, but eventually, her tears stopped.
“I need to tell you something,” she said. Her voice was quiet, and Milton wasn’t even sure that he heard her properly.
“You should rest,” he said. “You can tell me later.” Milton desperately wanted to know what upset her so much, but he didn’t want to push her. In truth, he was worried. He didn’t know Jane extremely well, but he knew that she wasn’t normally like this.
“No,” Jane said. “I’m all right, but we need to talk.”
Jane moved away from him. He watched as she wiped the tears from her face. She had a handkerchief in her hand, so Milton knew that she had been crying for some time. His stomach tightened as he thought about it.
Why didn’t she come to find me? he wondered.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. His mind was starting to create all sorts of scenarios about what possibly could have happened for Jane to be so distraught.
“We need to talk about Brandon Eimer,” she said gravely.
“We don’t need to discuss Eimer at all.” He didn’t like where this seemed to be going. He didn’t want to hear the man’s name coming from his wife’s lips. “I already told you …”
Jane held up a hand, stopping him saying anything else. “Please,” she said. “I need to say this before I lose my nerve. You have a right to know why Brandon is in town.”
“And why is that?”
Jane took a deep breath. “Before I start, I want you to know that I never set out to lie to you. I was simply scared. Looking back, I don’t know why.”
Milton was starting to feel more and more worried. He didn’t like where this was going. It caused his mouth to go dry.
“Go ahead,” he said. He didn’t want to scare Jane, so he did his best to try to keep his voice even and calm.
Jane took a deep breath, but he noticed how shaky it sounded. He was worried about whatever she was going to say. Things between them were good even if they weren’t good in the overall household.
“Brandon is here because of me,” she said.
Milton remained quiet. His curiosity was piqued, and he was longing to learn more.
“I told you before that one of the reasons that I ran away from home was because my father wanted to force me to marry. The man who he chose for me was Brandon Eimer.”
“Brandon?” Milton repeated. “He’s old enough to be your father.” He couldn’t imagine George Parrish marrying off his daughter to someone like Eime
r. It wasn’t uncommon for men to marry younger woman, especially older men, but as he recalled how lovingly George spoke of Jane, he couldn’t imagine him just marrying her off, especially not to Eimer.
“It turns out that my father was looking for Brandon’s help in some less than legal dealings,” she said. Milton watched as her bottom lip started quivering.
That’s what upset her, Milton thought. She learned something about her father.
“Why didn’t you tell me all of this when you saw Brandon in town?” Milton didn’t understand why Jane hadn’t trusted him. He understood why she’d been upset and shocked by Brandon’s presence. Milton himself wondered why the older man was going through so much effort to see a woman who was already married.