Chapter Twenty-Two

Jesse went to see Tom the next day to tell him he had decided to leave early, but Tom just shook his head.

“You said once you wanted to provide for her. Well, dang it, provide for her. None of this makes sense, Jess. You’re leaving because she really needs you now?” He waited for an answer but Jesse just stared blankly at the wall.

Tom got up, his aggravation keen and sitting heavily on him. He looked out the window. Alex was in the distance, coming up from the main house. “You know,” he said swiveling back to Jesse, “we’ve all let that girl down. You, me, Annie. Alex’s like one of them fine thoroughbreds you read about, sensitive and…sort of nervy-like, but they give you so much back in return. Trouble is, they have to trust you, and that there’s where we’ve failed.” He glanced at Jesse briefly. “First I let dang Calthorpe send her back when she was little and I should of stood up to him.”

“You couldn’t have done anything, Tom. No one could. You know that.”

“And then Annie and I let her spend all her money—all that money she worked so hard to save, and she went and spent it on us, on buying the Homestead.” He leaned back against the windowsill for a moment, shaking his head as if it puzzled him he could have done such a thing. “I’ve been a fool. A dang selfish fool.”

Jesse stayed quiet as the older man walked back to his desk and sat down as if he’d returned from a long journey. “She’s kept the ranch goin’, you said. She hasn’t done it just for you and Annie.”

Tom looked up. “Maybe so, but maybe it’s my fault she doesn’t believe you sent them letters. Why should she believe any of us, Jesse. Why?” He busied himself with papers on his desk, as Jesse pulled the door open to find Alex standing there.

There was a moment’s hesitation as they stood facing each other.

“I just received a letter from David,” she said at last, “with this in it.” She pulled out a crumpled envelope addressed to her. Jesse took it, turning it over in his hand, then gave it back. “It arrived after I left,” she said. “So that’s one.”

Tom watched the scene from his desk and shook his head.

“You haven’t read it,” Jesse mumbled. He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something more, than stopped. He noticed a small tremor. The letter fluttered in Alex’s hand like a moth finding the light. Alex looked down at the sealed letter. “No. I suppose I’m a coward. Does it matter now?” She searched his face for an answer.

“Looks like we’ve got a caller.” Tom nodded toward the window. Jesse and Alex moved to see Nigel Henderson getting off his horse.

Alex strode out, the two men behind her.

Henderson was a stocky figure with a large square head, which sat on his body as if it had been dropped there. He had a neat little moustache, too small for his face, and round deep-set eyes, invariably squinting. Alex hadn’t liked him when she first met him when she was eight. Her feelings for the man had not changed through all the social occasions Oliver had made her attend.

“Ah, Mr. Henderson, what can I do for you?” Alex stood with her thumbs in her belt, her face masked with a smile.

“Yost. Makepeace.” He nodded to the men. “Lady Alex, I heard you ran into a few of my guests the other day?”

“Oh, were they yours? That’s too bad. Me, I’ve stopped having guests here at the ranch. Don’t really like people on my land.”

“So I hear. Is that why your treatment of my friends wasn’t so special?”

“It wasn’t meant to be special. We have fences now. They were trespassing.”

“By accident.”

“Accident? There’s an old English proverb, Mr. Henderson, ‘good fences make good neighbors.’ You should know that.”

“Yes, well, it was your choice to put up those fences, Lady Alex. I can understand the drift fences, but the others? Out of respect for Oliver—”

“Ah, my uncle sometime father. I’m never really sure.”

“You certainly are one tough lady now.”

“Yes. I’ve learned my lessons well.”

“You haven’t had it easy, I’ll give you that.”

“If you’ve come here to commiserate, you’re a bit late, Mr. Henderson. I never felt sorry for myself and I sure as hell don’t intend to start now. In fact, things were really looking up until you came along.”

Henderson was silent for a moment. Alex’s hate for the man welled up inside her as she remembered the last dinner party with him, to which Oliver had brought her, against her will. The man had sat staring down her dress and then accused her of being arrogant and judgmental. And he had always stunk of whiskey.

“If you’ve come for an apology I’m afraid that’s not forthcoming either,” she continued. “In fact, I’m thinking of sending over a bill for that golden eagle. I hear hunt outfitters make quite a bit of money from these easterners and Europeans.”

“Why, you...”

Jesse shifted behind her.

“I really think you ought to go now, Henderson. My foreman here, he gets a bit itchy sometimes, if you know what I mean. Has something of a short temper, I’m afraid.”

“Yost, can’t you talk some sense into her?”

Tom guffawed. “She’s got a sight more sense than the most of us, Mr. Henderson.”

“These men practically brought me up,” Alex went on. “Everything I know about this land I owe to them.”

Henderson shook his head. “I know you don’t have two dimes to rub together now, Lady Alex, but an apology for ruining those guns might’ve been nice.”

“Well,” replied Alex, considering this, “I guess I’m as stingy with my apologies now as I am with my cash.”

The three of them stood there for a moment as Henderson rode off. Tom gave Alex’s shoulder a squeeze and went back to his office.

Alex faced Jesse. “I thought you were going.”

“It’s the children’s birthday party next Saturday. I’ll go after.”

Alex stood there for a moment, thinking. She heard the horses coming in, Garrison and Coates running a small herd into one of the corrals. Jesse went to the corral fence to watch, but Alex stood as if glued to the spot. She began to tear open the letter but changed her mind and stuffed it back into her pocket. She wasn’t going to start crying out here in front of Jesse, as no doubt she would. She started back to the house when Coates came up to her and stopped her.

Jesse watched the two of them from the corner of his eye. He saw Alex shrug and nod as if she were sorry about something, then head toward the house. Coates came over and put a foot up on a rail, pushed his hat forward a bit scratching the back of his neck, and then leaned against the fence next to Jesse.

“She is one dang woman, that one,” he said at last.

Jesse looked at him. “What d’ya mean, Coates?”

“Well.” The other man turned to him. “I got up my courage, like, and thought I’d ask her to the church social next Sa’day. Thought all she could do was say no or fire me for oversteppin’ the line.”

“So she accepted and now you’re stuck?” offered Jess.

“No. Wish she had.” His forehead creased. “Heck, wouldn’ta asked her if I hadn’ta meant business. No, she turns to me and says she’s been in love with the same man since she were eight year old, ain’t about to stop loving him now and since the sonovabitch don’t love her—”

“Did she say sonovabitch?”

Coates’ brow creased again. “No, why? She said ‘the gentleman concerned.’”

“Just curious,” said Jesse moving off with a smile.