James Treenery had little choice but to follow her out the door and away from the incriminating ledger. Not that it mattered anyway. He had so little regard for her intelligence, he probably wouldn’t have believed what he was seeing even if he had caught her working on the books for The Silver Springs Express. Nevertheless, she was thankful for Martha’s timely warning.
“I trust you had a good trip,” she said over her shoulder as he followed her down the hall. “We haven’t seen you for a while.”
“I’ve had other business to attend to. What do you hear from your father?”
“He and Vanessa were still in New York last I knew. I don’t know what Father’s plans are, but Vanessa will be staying at least until the end of next month. She says it will take her that long just to get back into civilization.” Angel opened the doors into the parlor. “Please, come in and sit down.”
Angel had a difficult time keeping a straight face as James Treenery chose the chair her father habitually used. He’d been there often enough, she was sure it was intentional.
“Have you and my grandson set a wedding date?” he asked.
“My year of mourning isn’t over yet.”
“It will be soon, won’t it?”
“Yes, but we haven’t gotten around to discussing the wedding yet.”
“Probably never will, either,” he muttered.
Angel was startled. “I beg your pardon?”
“If you’re waiting for Jamie to make the first move, you may be waiting a long time. He isn’t the marrying kind.”
Angel frowned. What was the old conniver up to now? “You seem to forget, he proposed to me.”
“Yes, and he made his mother very happy when he did it.”
“Are you saying he asked me to marry him just to please his mother?”
“Jamie is a very dutiful son.”
“I don’t know Mrs. Treenery all that well, of course, but she didn’t seem the type who would want her son to marry a woman he didn’t love.”
“Ah yes, love. That’s what it all boils down to, isn’t it?” James Treenery sighed. “Beth Ann was ecstatic when he proposed to you. She figured you could thaw his heart if anyone could.” He shrugged. “But it’s beginning to look like the scars go even deeper than we thought.”
“What scars?”
“Did he ever tell you about his first marriage?”
“Only that his wife was dead.” Angel knew she should change the subject but was intrigued in spite of herself. “How did she die?”
“In a carriage accident.” He suddenly looked years older, as though the tragedy was still fresh in his mind. “Little Jonathan died with her.”
“Little Jonathan?”
“Their son.”
“Son?” Angel was shocked. “I never knew Ox had a child.”
“Jonathan was the spitting image of his father. Jamie doted on him. As far as I know, he’s never even thought of marrying again.”
“He must have loved her very much.”
“Deanne was the sort everyone loved. Jamie—”
“Digging in the dirt again, old man?” Ox said sarcastically from the door. “What do you expect to accomplish by raking up old memories better left dead and buried?”
“Alexis has a right to know,” Treenery said defensively.
“She has no interest in ancient history, do you, my dear?”
“N-no,” Angel stammered, taken back by the stark anger in his eyes. “But your grandfather was only—”
“I know what he was doing.” Ox said. “The question is why?”
Treenery shrugged. “Alexis and I were discussing your wedding date, that’s all.”
“And you wanted to make sure she knew what she was getting into, I suppose.”
“I suspect she already knows that. You’re giving her quite a taste of your bad manners right now.”
“My manners, or lack of them, have nothing to do with Alexis, and she knows it.” He crossed the room and dropped a kiss of greeting on her forehead. “We understand each other very well. Don’t we, my love?”
“Perfectly.” She covered the hand on her shoulder with her own and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
He squeezed her shoulder back. The simple exchange sent a surprising ripple through her.
“I’m sure you had some purpose besides muckraking when you came here,” Ox said to his grandfather.
“I do.” Treenery glanced at Angel. “But it’s business and best discussed in private.”
“Alexis and I have no secrets from each other.”
“That’s all right, darling,” Angel said, standing up. “I have some work I need to do anyway.”
She reached out and took his hand. Unexpectedly, Ox leaned down and gave her a hard fast kiss. Angel felt branded by the heat, but she didn’t fool herself. The show was entirely for his grandfather’s benefit.
She gazed up into Ox’s glittering green eyes. “I’ll see you later,” she said, giving his hand another squeeze.
“Don’t worry, my grandfather won’t be staying long.”
“I’m glad we got this chance to visit, Mrs. Smythe,” Treenery said smoothly. “Perhaps we can finish our conversation some other time.”
Angel glanced at Ox’s unyielding profile. It might have been carved from granite. “I think we’ve already completed it. I’ll leave you two gentleman to your business.”
Though Angel was curious about what James Treenery wanted to discuss with Ox, she found herself wondering about Deanne Treenery instead. Ox must have loved her very much to have the mere mention of her name still affect him so strongly.
Angel was halfway down the hall when the front door opened behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw her siblings. “Well, well, what do we have here?”
“Oh, hello, Angel,” Jared said with feigned nonchalance. “How are you feeling today?”
Angel raised her brows. “Just fine, why?”
“You...uh...you look a little pale.” Shannon squinted at her sister in the dim light. “Are you sure you don’t need to go outside for some air?”
Angel crossed her arms. “All right, you two. What’s going on?”
“Going on?” They glanced at each other, then looked at Angel with identical expressions of innocence. “We just figured it was time for tea.”
“Is that right? Why today, when you haven’t been in for tea once since your mother left?”
“We’re hungry,” Shannon said.
“Hungry, huh?”
Jared nodded eagerly. “That’s right. Practically starved.”
“Nice try.” Angel said. “Now, are you going to show me what you have hidden behind your back, Shannon, or am I going to have to come see for myself?”
They exchanged another look, then Jared gave a deep sigh. “It’s supposed to be a surprise. We were going to sneak in and put it on your pillow.”
“On my pillow? Oh no, what is it, a snake?”
“No!” Shannon brought her hand out and showed Angel a single perfect rose.
Angel was astonished. “You brought me a rose?”
“Not exactly.” Jared squirmed a little. “We promised to do it for…for a friend. You weren’t supposed to know where it came from. Could you pretend like you never saw us?”
Ox. Angel smiled to herself. What a sweetheart he was. “I suppose so, but you can tell your… friend it won’t make any difference.”
“Difference with what?”
“Never mind. Run along now. If you’re still starving, Martha is putting some refreshments together in the kitchen. She might find some extra for you if you ask nicely.”
“You won’t tell anyone you know where the rose came from, will you?” Shannon asked anxiously.
“I won’t mention it to a soul.”
Angel watched them run up the stairs two at a time, then continued down the hall to the study. A warm glow settled in her middle and stayed there, even when she got to the end of her bookkeeping chores and confirmed what she suspecte
d all along. The Silver Springs Express was just barely solvent. As long as nothing unusual happened, they’d be all right, but the slightest difficulty could prove disastrous.
She had just finished making her last notation when Ox walked in and sat down.
“We may have a problem,” he said.
“Your grandfather?”
“No, your father.”
Angel raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me they got together and compared notes.”
“Not as far as I know.” Ox frowned. “Your father is sending a team of horses to The Silver Springs Express.”
“He’s what?”
“It doesn’t make any sense, does it? One of my grandfather’s men was following your father when he bought the horses. It was a simple matter to find out their final destination. My grandfather brought it as irrefutable proof your father owns The Silver Springs Express. What I can’t figure is why your father would send horses to the competition.”
“There must be something wrong with them.”
“I know, but I don’t have any idea what. I guess we’ll just have to keep them separated from the others until we find out.”
“It will be hard to quarantine them. Our stables aren’t all that big.”
“No, but The Flying T’s stables are. That way, if there’s a problem, it will affect them, not us.”
Angel chuckled. “Once again, I’m glad we’re on the same side. You make a formidable enemy.”
“You aren’t so bad yourself.” Ox’s smile faded, and his expression became troubled. “I suppose you want to know about Deanne.”
“Not if it’s painful for you.”
“It’s painful all right, but not in the way you think. Her death marked the beginning of my war with my grandfather.”
“You must have loved her very much,” Angel said softly.
“I thought I did, but I’ve often wondered since then if it wasn’t more of an infatuation. She was very beautiful, you see.” He gave a deep sigh. “I suppose you’ve already guessed it was an arranged marriage.”
Angel nodded. “Your grandfather?”
“Right, and I’ll never forgive him for it. I don’t know why he didn’t marry her himself. It would have been a far better solution for everyone.”
Angel blinked in surprise. “Surely he was too old for her.”
“They were closer in age than you and Duncan.”
“And Duncan was far too old for me.”
A sad little smile flitted across his face. “I’ll bet you led him a pretty dance, too. Anyway, it was right after my father died, and my grandfather was worried about an heir for his empire. I was only twenty, but I’d joined the army when the War started. He was afraid I’d die without a son.” Ox shrugged. “I never questioned the match, even though Deanne was several years older than me and far more experienced.”
“Was she happy with the marriage?”
“I think grateful is a better word. She was pregnant, you see. I didn’t know it when we got married, of course, but I figured it out when the baby arrived several months early.”
“Oh, Ox.”
He shook his head. “I believed her story about confederate soldiers raping her and even thought I understood why she didn’t tell me about it. Actually, I was pretty happy. I had a beautiful wife who seemed devoted to me and a son I thought the world of. Jonathan looked enough like me that no one questioned his parentage.”
“Your grandfather said he was the spitting image of you.”
“He was, right down to the green eyes. I’ve often wondered if I would have figured it out eventually anyway.” Silence fell as Ox gazed out the window broodingly.
“Figured out what?” Angel asked softly.
“Who Jonathan’s father was.” He sighed. “There was a thunderstorm one day while Deanne and the baby were out for a drive, and the carriage overturned. I found them shortly after the wreck, but there was nothing I could do. Deanne didn’t realize Jonathan was already dead and was frantic to tell me the truth about him before she died. If I were to have a son of my own, Jonathan would no longer be my heir. She wanted to make damn sure her son got his fair share of my grandfather’s fortune.”
“His fair share?” Angel frowned in confusion. “But he wasn’t even related to your grandfather.”
“That’s what she was afraid I’d think if I didn’t know the truth.” A muscle jumped in his jaw as he stared out the window. “Actually, Jonathan had as much right to the Treenery fortune as I did. My grandfather was so desperate to make sure he had a legitimate heir from his own bloodline that he married me to my father’s pregnant mistress.”
Chapter 27
Ox’s revelation put many things into perspective for Angel. His hatred for his grandfather, his aversion to marriage, even his dislike of children suddenly made sense. The agony she suffered for his pain made her realize how very much she loved him. Defeating the elder James Treenery became fully as important as getting the best of Richard Brady. When Ox sent a note three days later, she dropped what she was doing and rushed downtown.
“I got your message, Ox,” Angel said, hurrying through the door of The Flying T’s office. “Sam!” She came to a halt and stared at her friend who was standing next to Ox. “What are you doing here?”
“We have a big problem,” he told her gravely. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Uh oh, what’s wrong?”
“Some of our horses have epizootics.”
“Epi what?”
Ox looked grim. “Epizootics. It’s some kind of sickness that’s been sweeping through the eastern United States and Canada, killing horses right and left.”
“Killing them?”
“It’s so bad in New York and Toronto, they’re using men and boys to pull the wagons and trolleys.”
“New York!” Angel paled. “The horses my father sent.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.”
Angel frowned. “But we stopped them before they mixed with ours.”
“The horses we intercepted day before yesterday weren’t the only ones. Another five arrived last week.”
“The message said they came from Ox,” Sam said, “so I didn’t give it a second thought. I just turned them in with the others.”
Ox ran his fingers through his hair in agitation. “When they started dying, Sam decided he’d better come see me. We spent the morning sending telegrams back East until we got some answers. We didn’t much care for the ones we got.”
Angel bit her lip. “Will our horses get sick?”
“I don’t know how the disease spreads exactly, but somehow, it goes from horse to horse.”
“What can we do?”
“That’s a damn good question. I wish I had an answer.”
“Ox, everything we have is tied up in The Silver Springs Express.” Angel couldn’t keep the worry out of her voice. “If we lose it—”
“We aren’t going to lose it!” he said emphatically. He walked to the window and glared through the dusty panes as though he might find the answer to their dilemma on the street outside.
“I’ve already separated the new horses from the rest of the stock,” Sam said. “I don’t know what else we can do there.”
Angel looked thoughtful. “We need to move cautiously. Whoever my father has watching us is going to be suspicious if we start shifting horses around.”
Sam nodded. “‘Specially if they aren’t sick yet. The last thing we want is for him to realize Ox’s grandfather isn’t the one behind The Silver Springs Express.”
“If this sickness moves through the horses the way it did back East, our horses won’t be the only sick ones for long. That brings up the problem of replacements.” Angel rubbed her forehead tiredly. “Even if we had the money to buy them, where would they come from?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said. “It may not spread as fast out here. There’s a lot more distance between towns. Maybe we can wait the epizootics out and then go north to find replacement stock on
ce the sickness has run its course.”
“That makes sense,” Angel agreed. “But it still doesn’t solve the problem of what to do in the meantime to keep The Silver Springs Express running. We can’t very well use human power the way they are back east.”
“It doesn’t help the problem of how to pay for them either. Maybe—”
“What the hell?” Ox said suddenly. “Isn’t that Jessie?”
Sam broke off in mid-sentence to stare at him. “Did you say Jessie?”
“Yes. She’s running down the street as if she has a pack of dogs on her heels.”
Angel and Sam joined him at the window and followed the line of his gaze. “Oh, dear,” Angel murmured. “Everything was going so well, too.”
“Obviously not as well as you thought,” Sam said, striding to the door.
Ox and Angel were right behind him as he crossed the street on a course that would intercept Jessie’s head-long flight.
“Jessie!”
Her head jerked up at the sound of his voice. “Sam? Oh, Sam!” With a sob, she ran straight into his arms and buried her face against his shoulder.
Sam closed his arms around her in a paternal embrace. “It’s all right, sweetling. Old Sam’s here to protect you.”
“And nobody in their right mind would challenge him,” Ox murmured.
Angel glanced around. “Let’s go back to the station. This is a little too public for my tastes,” she said, glowering at a matronly woman who was whispering behind her hand to her companion as they walked past. “I’ve never understood what people find so interesting about the lives of strangers.” Under Angel’s intense scrutiny, the woman flushed and looked away.
“That one will think twice before she sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong again,” Ox said with a grin as they walked toward the station.
“I certainly hope so.”
“What do you suppose has Jessie so upset?” Ox asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know, but I’ll bet it means I’m going to have to find her another job. I don’t think there’s any respectable work left in this town we haven’t already tried.”
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