Читать книгу Madison's Children - Linda Warren, Linda Warren - Страница 12

MADDIE HURRIED TO THE BARN to catch up with Coop and Ru. A little exercise was what she needed to untangle all the anger inside her. After all, Walker was the children’s father and she was sticking her nose into his business. But she cared. Children were her weakness. In this situation, though, she needed to tread carefully. Or not. Annoying Walker might become the highlight of her day.

In the doorway to the barn, she stopped short. Cooper was shoving bullets into a rifle, and Rufus held another one in his hand. Her heart skipped a beat.

“What’s going on?”

Coop turned to her. “Ru got a call from Mr. Peevy. Wild dogs killed two of his baby calves last night. We have to be prepared.”

“Prepared?”

Coop handed her the rifle, and she just stared at it. “Put it in the scabbard of your saddle.”

She shook her head. “Oh, no. I don’t do the gun thing, and since you’re on probation, you shouldn’t, either.”

His face darkened. “I promised Cait to help you run High Five, and I’m not going to let a pack of feral dogs slaughter our calf crop.”

She could see the anger in his eyes, which was very rare. Ever since he had the fight with the man who had framed him, Coop kept his anger on a tight leash. Although Coop was cleared of all wrongdoing in the killing of the horses, he was on probation for the assault. The man refused to drop the charges. Maddie understood Coop’s anger. Anyone would have lashed out at being used as a scapegoat in an insurance scam, but she didn’t want him to get into any more trouble.

Gently, she touched his arm. “I know High Five means a lot to you, but you have to be careful.”

He took a deep breath. “I’ll be very careful. Out here no one knows.”

“Let’s keep it that way.”

“Okay.” He raised the gun in front of her again. “Learn to use it. You have to be able to protect your animals.”

Against every objection in her head, she took it. The gun felt heavy and deadly in her hands. Her first instinct was to throw it on the ground and say no way. But High Five was still struggling and they couldn’t afford to lose a calf crop. The last hurricane had ripped through the ranch and had caused tremendous damages. They were still rebuilding. She had to step up and do her job, like she’d told Cait she could.

But a gun?

This is where the city girl and the country girl collided. Who was Madison Belle?

“There are six bullets in the magazine,” Coop was saying. “It’s already loaded.” He pointed to a spot on the gun. “There’s the safety. Always keep it on. If you have to shoot, push it to off and line up your prey with this guide on top. Then pull the trigger.” He tapped a forefinger against the guide.

“I’m not sure I can do that,” she admitted.

“Would you like to practice?”

“No, thanks.” Firing the gun wasn’t on this city/country girl’s agenda. “Hopefully I won’t ever have to use it.”

“Mr. Peevy’s place is about five miles away. The dogs could travel in another direction, but like I said we have to be prepared.”

She placed the gun by her saddle, not able to hold it one minute longer. “How do they become feral dogs?”

“People haul dogs they don’t want out to the country and leave them. The dogs begin to scrounge for food. They meet up with coyotes or wolves and mate. Suddenly there’s a pack of them, all hungry and killing everything they can to survive.”

“How awful.”

“Yeah, animal activists have tried to change things to no avail. Sometimes you just can’t stop people. Animal shelters are full and now charge if you bring in a dog. People who don’t want a dog are not going to pay. It’s a vicious cycle and ranchers pay the price.”

“Miss Dorie used to take in every stray dog that showed up at High Five,” Rufus said, shoving his gun into his saddle scabbard, “but since Mr. Bart died she lost interest in a lot of things. If one shows up, I take it to the shelter so they can find it a home.”

“Good for you, Ru,” Maddie replied.

“And Booger’s a stray we kept. He’s part Australian blue heeler and learned to work cattle. He’s a natural. Wish we could keep ’em all, but we can’t.”

“If everyone did that, there wouldn’t be a problem.”

“But we have a problem now,” Coop said. “Ru and I were talking, and we think it might be best to round up all the cows fixing to calf and keep them in the pen next to the corral. Except the hurricane took down the fence, so we have to repair it first.”

“Go for supplies and we’ll get busy.” That was an easy decision to make.

Coop hesitated.

“What?”

“Cait always went for supplies. Ms. Nell doesn’t want me in her store.”

“Well, that’s insane.” Maddie couldn’t believe Cait tolerated such behavior. “Make a list and I’ll pick up everything.” And she’d have a talk with Ms. Nell, too. Since she was sticking her nose in other people’s business, she might make it a trend.

THIRTY MINUTES LATER she walked through the double worn doors of Walker’s General Store. A bell jingled over her head, and it reminded her of the summers she’d spent at High Five as a kid. This was a favorite spot of the Belle sisters—candywise the store had everything.

She breathed in the scent of apples, spices and cedar, a hint of the upcoming holidays. The store was the same as it had been when she was a child: faded hardwood floors, a rustic wood ceiling from which sundries hung, and shelves of gallon jars filled with every candy a child could want.

The aisles were cluttered with everything imaginable, from buckets and fishing poles to barrels of apples, pears and oranges. Homemade quilts hung on a wall. A couple of Christmas trees were propped in a corner. A feed and hardware department was at the back. Every now and then the scent of oats wafted through the tantalizing aroma of the holidays.

Maddie walked over to the counter where Nell Walker stood waiting on a customer. Cigarettes took pride of place in the glass case beneath. A gallon jar of jawbreakers sat on the counter among chewing tobacco, gum and tempting candy bars. She always went for the jawbreakers—they were her favorite. She resisted the urge to stick her hand in the jar.

Instead, she studied Ms. Walker. She had aged since Maddie had last seen her. Her gray hair was cut short like a man’s and the lines of her stern face were set into a permanent frown. A tall, big-boned woman, Nell Walker exuded a persona of toughness and rigidity, the same as her nephew.

The customer left and Nell swung her gaze to Maddie. “May I help you, Ms. Belle?”

She noticed that Nell’s eyes were a cold gray like a winter’s day. As she pulled the list from her pocket, she thought that Nell looked very unhappy.

“I’d like to pick up some supplies.” She placed the list in front of Nell.

Nell looked it over and then shouted, “Luther.”

A man in his sixties ambled from the back.

“Is your truck out front?” Nell asked Maddie while glancing at the list and scribbling it into a record book.

“Yes.”

“Give Luther your keys and he’ll load your supplies.”

“Oh, okay.” She’d never done this before so she wasn’t sure how it worked. Digging in her purse, she found her keys and handed them over.

As Luther took the list and walked out the door, Nell said, “I’ll put everything on your bill. Anything else I can help you with?”

Maddie swung her purse strap over her shoulder. “Yes, there is.”

Nell raised frosty eyes to Maddie’s, and for a moment, a tiny moment, her resolve weakened. She stepped closer to the counter. “A lot of days I’m busy and don’t have time to come in for supplies, so I’ll be sending Cooper Yates, my foreman, in for them. I hope that’s not a problem.”

“I don’t want him in my store.” The words were delivered like an errant baseball smacking someone against the head. Unexpected and painful.

Nervously, her hand tightened on her purse strap, but no way would she bend. Coop deserved better than this kind of treatment. “Fine. If that’s the way you feel, I’ll just take High Five’s business into Giddings, and I’m sure Caitlyn will agree to do the same for Southern Cross.”

A telltale shade of pink crawled up the woman’s face. Losing two ranches’ business would hurt the store. Evidently hitting her in the pocketbook was talking her language.

“I don’t want ex-cons in here. It’s bad for business, but—”

“Is there a problem?” Walker strolled from the back, Georgie on his heels. Georgie smiled and she smiled back for a second.

Then she glanced at Walker, tall and imposing in a white shirt, snug jeans and boots. His Stetson was pulled low and hid his eyes, but just the sight of him made her heart go pitter-patter.

She took a breath. “Yes, there is. Ms. Walker refuses to allow Cooper to pick up supplies.” She stood her ground when she wanted to take a step backward. The man was just so…so intimidating, frustrating and…handsome. There, she’d admitted it. He was too handsome for her peace of mind. And that sincere note in his voice was sidetracking her.

“Is this true?” Walker asked his aunt.

“We can’t have ex-cons in here. Business will drop.”

“Caitlyn and I will certainly take our business elsewhere if the status quo doesn’t change.”

“It will change, won’t it, Nell?”

Nell puffed out her chest. “I was just about to tell Ms. Belle that.”

Walker swung his gaze to her. “Good, then there’s not a problem.”

Her insides did a crazy flip-flop. What was wrong with her? Earlier she was annoyed at his attitude, but now she was acting like a ridiculous teenager. Before she could gather her wits, Georgie stuck his hand into the jar for a jawbreaker. Nell quickly slapped his hand with a resounding swat. Georgie let out a wail.

Walker gathered the boy into his arms, his eyes turning as cold as Nell’s. “You will not hit my child.”

“He eats too many sweets and he’ll choke on those things.”

Maddie walked over to a jar on the shelf and used the scoop to fill a bag with jelly beans. “Put this on my bill,” she said to Nell, and handed them to Georgie. She waited for Walker to say he could pay for his own kid’s candy, but he didn’t say a word, just looked at her. “It’s okay, isn’t it?” she asked, to hide her nervousness under that gaze.

“Yes.”

“See?” she said to Georgie. “These are smaller and chewy. They’re good.”

Georgie wiped away a tear and poked his hand into the bag. He popped two into his mouth and nodded with a grin.

The door jingled and Luther came in and handed Maddie her keys. “All loaded and ready to go.”

“Thank you.” She looked at Nell. “I trust we won’t have any more problems.”

“No, ma’am.”

“Bye,” she said to Walker and Georgie, and headed for her truck.

Walker watched her leave with a funny feeling in his gut. God, he was falling for her caring attitude. No. It was just a natural reaction to her kindness to Georgie. He had enough problems without even thinking of Ms. Belle and her pure, pure blue eyes.

He had parked out back. His office was next door so it was always easy to leave Georgie with Nell. After resigning from his search-and-rescue unit in Houston, he hadn’t planned on going back to work. But Mr. Pratt, the constable, had passed away, and the commissioner’s court, by way of Judd, begged him to take the job.

There were two years left on Mr. Pratt’s term and Walker thought he could handle that. Then he would decide if he wanted to run for the office or not. He was already a state-licensed law enforcement officer so he’d agreed. After in-service training, he was appointed the constable of High Cotton and the surrounding precinct.

As an associate member of the Texas Department of Public Safety, his job was to keep the peace, enforce traffic regulations, go on patrol, undertake investigations and arrest lawbreakers. Since he didn’t have a jail, he coordinated his activities with the sheriff of the county.

At the time he’d taken on the job, he thought he would need something to keep him busy. But now he wished he’d thought it over a little more. He was needed at home.

Juggling his kids was getting harder. He never knew Nell was using physical discipline. That he wouldn’t tolerate.

He’d gotten a call that the Grayson brothers were fighting again. He’d planned to leave Georgie for just a little while with Nell. Now he’d changed his mind. He’d take Georgie with him. He didn’t have any other choice. His part-time deputy constable, Lonnie, was in Brenham visiting his parents.

The Graysons weren’t dangerous, just idiots fighting over a fence that was ten inches over the line. He had to talk to them about every six months to defuse the situation.

He walked closer to his aunt. “You might try losing that holier-than-thou attitude, because if the Belles and the Calhouns take their business elsewhere, Walker’s General Store will be in trouble.”

“I handled it, didn’t I?” She tucked a receipt into the register and slammed it closed.

“Yes, in a disagreeable fashion.”

“Now…”

“No.” He held up a hand. “This discussion is over. When Cooper Yates comes into the store, you will treat him cordially.”

“People don’t know their place.”

He gritted his teeth and let that pass. “And you will never slap my kids again—ever.”

“They need discipline.”

“Ever, Nell. Are we clear on that?”

She raised her chin. “Yes.”

“Okay, Georgie.” He jostled the boy, who had a mouth full of jelly beans. “Let’s go see what the Graysons are doing?”

“Aren’t you leaving him here?” Nell called.

“No,” he said over his shoulder, “not ever again.”

As he strolled toward his car, he thought about Ms. Belle. No one stood up to Nell. Most people in town would rather diffuse a bomb than cross her, yet Ms. Belle had no qualms about speaking her mind. About Cooper.

Although he was appalled at Nell’s tactics, he had to wonder if there was something going on between Ms. Belle and Cooper. When the crisis at High Five had been settled, she was supposed to return to Philadelphia. But she’d stayed. Why?

And what did he care?

MADDIE WALKED TO HER TRUCK and saw that the barbed wire, steel posts and bag of steel-post ties were loaded. As she was about to get in, she saw a young girl crossing the street to the store. It was Ginny. The school was just across the highway, but school wasn’t out. It was too early.

Ginny sat on the bench in front of the store, huddled in her Windbreaker, which didn’t reach across her protruding stomach. Her face was pale.

Maddie walked over to her. “Are you okay?”

Ginny looked up. “Oh, hi, Ms. Belle.”

“Why aren’t you in school?”

“I felt sick and the nurse said I could go home. My dad delivers eggs here and I’m waiting on him.”

“Maybe you should see a doctor?”

“No. I’m okay—just pregnant.”

“Still…”

“We can’t afford it, okay?” The words were angry, defiant. Ginny rested her head against the wall. “God, I wish Brian had been at High Five and then I could be out of this awful place.”

Maddie eased onto the bench beside her, thinking the girl might need someone to talk to. “Haley doesn’t know where her mother is, so you could have been stranded, too.”

“That would be better than this dump of a town.”

“Ginny…”

The girl sat up straight. “Please don’t give me a lecture. I’ve heard enough from the school counselor and the teachers.”

“They have a point. You’re so young.” Maddie had a good idea of what the counselor and teachers had told her.

“And stupid, like my dad is always telling me.” Ginny chewed on a fingernail that had been gnawed to the quick. Her greasy hair was pulled back into a limp ponytail. Food stains speckled her jeans, even the Windbreaker, and her sneakers were a dirty tan. The girl needed a bath. Maddie wondered at her home life.

Suddenly Ginny turned to her. “Ms. Belle, please help me. A social worker came to our house and my dad told her I was giving the baby away. He says he can’t afford to feed another kid. I want to keep my baby.”

“Ginny…”

“I have an aunt who lives in Temple, and she said I could stay with her. She’d let me keep my baby and she’d help, too. I just need money to get there. Please, Ms. Belle, help me.”

Maddie could feel herself weakening under that desperate tone, but she had to be careful. So many times she let her emotions rule her head. She had to remind herself that Ginny had a family.

“Why doesn’t she come and get you?”

“She’s had knee surgery and she’s not driving yet. I can help her, too.”

“What about your mother?” Maddie kept holding back, trying not to let her emotions get involved.

“My dad hates my aunt. She’s my mother’s sister and my mother can’t even visit her. My mom won’t go against my dad.”

This was all sounding very odd to Maddie. “How did you hear from her?”

“I called her from school to tell her what my dad was planning. I need to see a doctor and she told me to come, but not to tell my father.”

“You haven’t seen a doctor?” This one thing stuck in Maddie’s mind.

“No, ma’am. We can’t afford it.”

“But there are free clinics—if not here, then in Giddings.”

Ginny shook her head. “My dad wouldn’t let me go. He said if I was so stupid to get pregnant then I could have the baby at home just like my mom had all of us.”

Good heavens, this was terrible. The girl needed to see a doctor.

“Do you know when the baby is due?”

“No, ma’am.”

Maddie took a deep breath and looked off to the vehicles traveling on the country road, some stopping at the gas station/convenience store across the highway, others at the local café and the rest continuing on to their homes and ranches. A cool breeze wafted Ginny’s unwashed scent to her.

Everything in her told her not to get involved with a girl she didn’t know, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that Ginny needed medical attention and more.

Oh, she hoped she didn’t regret this. “What’s your aunt’s name?”

“Thelma Jenkins.”

“Do you have her phone number?”

“Why?”

Maddie bit her lip. “I’ll give you the money to get to Temple, but I want to talk to your aunt first.”

Ginny smiled and her whole demeanor changed. “Oh, Ms. Belle, thank you.” Ginny glanced at the pay phone beside them. “I’ll call her now if…if you’ll loan me two quarters.”

Maddie cursed herself for not bringing her cell, but she’d been in such a hurry to catch Cooper and Rufus that she’d left it behind. Opening her purse, she dug for change and handed it to Ginny. The girl jumped up to make the call.

The traffic was deafening, and Maddie couldn’t make out what Ginny was saying. Ginny held out the phone to Maddie and she spoke to Thelma Jenkins.

The lady assured her she would do everything to help Ginny. Hanging up, Maddie felt much better.

“I’ll give you the money for bus fare, but you have to tell your parents where you’re going.”

“Sure. They won’t care.”

Maddie couldn’t imagine a parent not caring.

“And I’d like your aunt’s number and address.”

Maddie pulled a pad from her purse and handed Ginny a pen. After Ginny scribbled the name and number, Maddie tucked it into her purse. She then reached for her wallet and counted out fifty dollars.

“That should be enough for the fare and a little extra.”

“Oh, thank you, Ms. Belle. You’re so nice.”

“And please check in at the school and let them know you’ll be gone for a while.”

“I will.”

Maddie motioned toward Ginny’s stomach. “Take care of that baby.”

“I plan to.” Ginny hugged her briefly, and Maddie got into her truck and drove away, hoping she was doing the right thing. If Ginny wanted to keep her baby, she should be allowed to. Every woman had that right.

As she neared High Five, she met Walker going in the opposite direction. She would call him tonight and let him know about Ginny. That was the least she could do. After all, he was worried about Haley and her involvement with Ginny. She’d probably get a lot of attitude and a sermon about minding her own business.

She’d call, anyway. He had been nice today, and maybe they had reached a new understanding.

Maybe.