Читать книгу The Girl of O. K. Valley - Robert Watson - Страница 5

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With his shaggy brows down and his hands at his back, rancher Jackson was pacing the floor of his large airy kitchen. He was in one of his oft-recurring tantrums of anger-madness over small matters. His gloomy personality was hanging over the farm-house like an impending cloudburst, ready, on the slightest provocation, to break into a torrent of abuse.

A woman, shabbily clad, her bent back alone visible, was busy over the kitchen range stirring the contents of a large pot. This woman was Colin Jackson's wife—a three-quarter witted nobody who was at the beck and call of everybody; of little or no account to anybody, and likely to die as she was living, in pitiable obscurity.

"Colin, the train should be in soon. Aren't you thinking of sending Jim in with the buggy to bring your niece up?" she ventured timidly without raising her head or slackening in her stirring of the pot. "She's had a long journey and is sure to be tired out."

Jackson stopped to make sure that he had heard aright, although in reality he had been waiting, almost anxiously, for some considerable time, for a remark of such a nature. The storm was precipitated. To Jean Jackson it was almost more welcome than the tension and the gloom of its gathering.

"She can walk," he snapped. "It'll do her good after her long rest in the train. If she has managed over the Atlantic and across the Continent, there's a mighty poor chance of her missing her way between Vernock and here. Worse luck! If she happened to get off her track it would be little loss. She represents just another to feed, another to clothe and—Lord protect me!—another woman to put up with. Goodness only knows!—haven't I worries enough already without her?

"It beats me to understand," he continued, warming to his tirade as he strode to the window and back again to the kitchen cabinet, "why some men get married, raise a brood, then die—as if in their so doing they had attained the height of all possible earthly ambition—dying too, generally not worth a corn-cob. Why don't they die first and be done with it? It would save their relatives a deal of trouble in looking after their brats later on."

"I know it, Colin—well I know it," agreed his wife in a piping voice, "but the man didn't die intentionally. When your sister Mary was alive she never wrote you for any help. It was but natural that she should leave word for her orphan lass to be sent out to the only brother she had. It won't hurt the horse and buggy any to send them in to the station. It would be a kind of welcome to her besides."

"Hold your talk, woman!" interrupted the rancher. "I've said 'no' and that's an end of it. The oftener a horse runs the sooner it has to be shod. I don't believe in keeping horse-flesh for the pleasure of my ranch help. And a ranch help is what this lass will have to be so long as she is under my roof. She'll have to work here just as sure as she will want to eat here. The sooner too that she learns where she gets off at the better for her and all concerned with her. She's to be started in right. Do you understand? No ten days' wonder about it!

"But I tell you, this one thing on the top of another is enough to drive a man to the asylum. Here have I been waiting for three years to lease Broadacres—a ranch that can grow as much on one acre as mine can on five—and now, when the chance comes, Menteith throws my offer aside and rents Broadacres, with the option of buying, to that interloping, sun-baked, retired British Army Captain who knows as much about ranching as a dog does about the whooping cough. And has robbed me of Tom Semple besides—the best ranch foreman in the whole Okanagan Valley.

"There's a payment due on the mortgage and nothing to pay it with; interest overdue, wages a month behind, the flume requiring repairs, seed to pay for, new implements to make a first payment on before I can get them. Now this!—the place is to be turned into a damned orphanage.

"For two peas—ay, for a pea and a half—I would pack her off elsewhere. And, its as sure as God made little apples, she'll be of the strawberries-and-cream, ice-drink, afternoon-tea variety, always with a headache or a pain. That's what her father was, I'm thinking. And they say she's him over again.

"But—mark my words—into the barn and the dairy she goes, neck and crop, just as soon as she gets here."

Jackson took a long breath and sighed.

"Oh, well!—there's one grand consolation, she'll be something new for Lizbeth to put her spite out on. That'll maybe give me a rest from that sarcastic tongue of hers."

He sighed again.

"The Lord alone knows where Liz got her temper from!"

Dull as she was, Mrs. Jackson had her own opinion on that last point, but she wisely held her peace. She had long ceased to argue with her husband on any matter whatsoever, knowing only too well the futility of it. Colin Jackson's brow-beating, his senseless rage and his niggardliness had taught their lessons years before, had reduced her to the level of a kitchen drudge and, imperceptibly to herself, had sapped her individuality and were now slowly undermining her reasoning powers.

Jackson's daughter, Lizbeth, however, was a horse of a different colour. She possessed too many of her father's own characteristics to be easily, if at all, over-ruled by him. He got to know it early in her life and wisely left her to her own devices—at least so long as the devices did not clash too openly with his own.

For a brief moment, the light at the kitchen window was shut off as Lizbeth passed by. She came in at the open doorway, deposited a can of milk on the floor and wiped her hands hastily on a towel.

She was handsome in a buxom way, with full red lips and deep, expressive eyes; nicely featured, tall and well-formed; in every way good to look at as she stood there, breathing a little heavily from her exertions, her lips apart, her stout, shapely arms bared above her elbows and her full white throat exposed.

Lizbeth Jackson gloried in her virility and knew full well how to hide the darker sides of her nature under the visible charms of her blooming, almost flamboyant, maidenhood.

"I guess she's here at last, dad," she remarked with a backward nod of her head. "There's a slender slip of a miss, with a grip, coming up the road."

"Isn't anyone going to lend her a hand?" inquired Mrs. Jackson, turning round.

"No, siree!" replied Lizbeth. "She's to be lending me a hand before long. It would be kind of crazy starting her in the wrong way round. She might think she was coming to a sanatorium."

Mrs. Jackson made to go out, purposely to give the new arrival some assistance.

"Stay where you are—can't you?" commanded the rancher gruffly, barring her progress with his arm.

The woman drew back with a look of resignation, and resumed her work.

The sound of nervous feet was heard outside, then came a sigh and a plaintive exclamation.

"Oh, dearie me!"

The exclamation bespoke distress, also relief.

A slender girlish figure, with a pale, eager face, stood in the doorway, and a quiet little voice with a soft accent asked:—

"Is this Mr. Jackson's,—Mr. Colin Jackson's?"

"Yes! you're at the right enough place. Come in," replied the rancher.

"Oh, I'm so glad!" answered the girl wearily.

She clasped her hands and took a step forward.

"You'll be my sister Mary's lass?" continued Jackson. "I've never seen you. You don't favour the Jackson side in face or body. What's your name? Kate, isn't it?"

"They call me Kathie," she answered, trying bravely to smile and to thaw the iciness of her welcome.

"Ah, well! Kate or Kathie, it's all the same. Come over to the window and let's have a good look at you."

The girl came forward, looking about her timidly.

Jackson caught up her hands and examined them with the same scrutiny as he would have given to the mouth of a horse.

"Soft as butter! Never knew hard work, I'm thinking!" he said, more to himself than to his far-travelled niece.

His stern eyes went to her face and to the long plait of thick, jet-black hair which hung over her left shoulder.

"Bonny!" he soliloquised again. "Too bonny for your own good."

He turned to his daughter, who had been surveying the scene as one apart.

"Lizbeth, I'm fearing you'll have to keep her well hidden till you get first pickings of the men who have their ranches well stocked and their pockets well lined." He laughed coarsely.

Lizbeth did not answer, but continued to stare at her cousin in a rude way.

Colin Jackson resumed his questioning.

"Hum! Thought you were just a bairn! I see now you must be sixteen or seventeen."

"I am eighteen, uncle," she answered, looking down timorously before the cold gaze, a blush mantling her cheeks.

"Eighteen, eh! Well—I guess they don't grow so big or ripen so fast in Ballywhallen, Ireland, as they do here in the West. Lizbeth is only a year older, but she looks twice as big and half a dozen times as knowing as you.

"Kathie!—this is your cousin, Lizbeth," he exclaimed at last, ignoring the fact that so far he had monopolised the entire conversation.

"You'll get to know Lizbeth better as you go along," he continued slyly. "That's your aunt over there. I'll leave you with them."

He strode away, confident that he had performed a duty to the satisfaction of everybody—or rather, of himself, which, in his opinion meant everybody else as well. He made for the dairy where Meg Shaw, a Scotch farm lass and Lizbeth's chief help, was hard at work. He watched the girl intently for a while before he spoke.

"Meg—I won't require you after this month."

The girl looked up in surprise.

"What's wrang wi' ye noo? Have I no' been doin' my work to please ye? Am I no' worth all I get?" she inquired with just a little aggression.

Only a year before, with her old widowed mother, Meg had come out West at the urgent request of Jackson, who had known her in the Old Land and had jumped at the chance of obtaining her help on the cheap, for a time at least, until she should get thoroughly wise to conditions. Meg had learned many things during that short year, but with the expense of coming over and of keeping her old mother, combined with the low contract Jackson had made with her, her financial position was tremendously insecure.

"It isn't that you haven't been doing your work, Meg. I just won't require you—that's all."

"Oh, fine I ken!" cried Meg, throwing down the tin measure she had been using for filling the milk cans. "It's that peely-wally-faced ninny I saw comin' up the road. Another cheap one from the Old Country! Maybe you've managed to get her for her board. Weel—you're welcome to her till she gets wise. I'm glad I'm done wi' ye. I hadna the courage to tak' the step mysel', or I would have done it lang syne."

"That'll be enough from you now. I want none of your cheek."

"Oh, want or no' want, Colin Jackson,—you'll just have to tak' what ye get." Meg's eyes blazed in anger and she shook her fist. "If a woman works her fingers to the bone, you want the bones to pick yersel'.

"Ay!—and God help that new lass if she has to work under you and that she-cat Lizbeth. But I'm fired, as they say oot here, so what the de'il should I care?

"Give me my wages to date and I'll gang noo. That'll save you the three weeks o' this month that's worryin' you."

Meg shot through the weak spot in Colin Jackson's armour. The temptation was too strong for him. He grinned to himself as he thought how easily and profitably this would work out for him, for he had feared Meg might hold him to the two years' bargain—fraud of a bargain that it was—that he had made with her on her coming. Hastening to take her at her word, he pulled out his purse and counted out several dollars and small silver coins into her palm. Meg examined the silver closely.

"Bide a wee!" she exclaimed, pouncing on a fifty-cent piece. "I've seen this chappie before. It's the same Strait Settlements' one that ye tried on me last month. I wonder at a man like you no' passin' it off on some poor Chinaman lang before this."

Jackson exchanged the coin without a word.

"Thank ye for my ain," said Meg pertly. "I kent the plan would suit ye—ye cheap-skate. Lordie!—but you're weel named Colin Split-the-pea."

The rancher clenched his hands and turned upon her with rising anger. Meg edged away. When she got to the door, she turned for a parting word or two.

"Here's a bit o' advice. Oh!—it's free, so maybe ye'll tak' it. Keep you're weather-eye on Lizbeth. She's no' quite so fine and nice as you think she is. She'll lead ye a de'il's dance yet. You'll have to split two or three mair peas, and skin them too, before you're through wi her."

When Meg disappeared, Jackson, still in an ugly mood, returned slowly to the house.

His niece had eaten heartily of the meal which had been placed before her and was just rising from the table.

"Meg's away," said the rancher curtly, addressing no one in particular.

He turned to Kathie.

"I hope you are strong and able for hard work. There's lots of it here. This is a worker's country."

She looked over at him.

"Yes! uncle. I'm strong. At least—kind of strong! I shall soon get stronger and—I do want to work hard and be nothing of a burden to anybody. I'll do anything and everything I can to help."

"That's talking," said Jackson in a more conciliatory tone. "You can make a start with Lizbeth in the morning. And mind—it will have to be in coarser clothes than these you have on. Liz will rig you out.

"We bed early here and we rise early. It's a plan that saves artificial light. Now, you had better go upstairs with Liz and make the most of your time. You and she are to sleep together I hear."

Kathie turned obediently and Lizbeth led the way.

"That reminds me!" he continued off-handedly. "It will be better for everybody concerned and it will save a lot of questions and trouble if you call yourself Kathie Jackson from now on. Forget the other. It never brought you and yours much luck anyway."

Kathie gasped and her face grew more than ever pathetic-looking. She loved her own surname—her father's name. It held many pleasant recollections, many sad ones; but all none the less dear to her. But, somehow, she felt afraid of her big, bullying uncle and she was so anxious to be obedient to all his wishes right from the beginning. She answered him in almost a whisper.

"Ye-yes, uncle! I'll remember."

"This is our room," said Lizbeth a moment later. "We are to sleep together as father said, although, to tell you the truth, I'd much rather sleep alone. I'm more used to it."

The room was neatly, though plainly, furnished. Kathie went over to the window and sat down. It was a large window and opened to the south, overlooking acres upon acres of fruit trees in faultless rows, among which snugly sat the homes of the many neighbouring ranchers. Beyond the cultivation, Kathie could catch a glimpse of the blue waters of a lake, while, all around, the Valley seemed fringed with undulating ranges, walled in by purple tinged and fir clad mountains.

To the left, not very far off, a wood of small firs, with grassy lanes running through it—planted evidently at some time through the eccentric fancy of some wealthy rancher—divided her uncle's farm from the others beyond.

"I have packed my own clothes in the two top drawers of that bureau. You can have the bottom two," remarked Lizbeth in an easy off-hand way. "There's the peg you can hang your hat on. You'll require a bigger one than that if you don't want sunstroke."

Kathie rose and made use of the vacant peg.

She was tired almost to stupefaction.

"Your trunk is in the corner there. It arrived at the station yesterday and was hauled here two hours before you came. Your grip looks heavy. I wouldn't care to carry it as far as you did."

"Oh!" replied Kathie wearily, "there was nothing else for me to do but try with it, as nobody seemed to be coming the road I was coming. I was tired long before I was half-way here. I certainly never could have managed it all the way by myself. A gentleman overtook me and carried the handbag most of the way."

"A gentleman!" exclaimed Lizbeth, full of interest. "Who could he be, I wonder? Are you quite sure he was a gentleman? Guess I know most of them round here."

"Yes, quite sure! The kindly aid of him when I was standing in trouble, his quiet manner of speech and his well-bred way of not asking questions and refraining from unnecessary conversation, proved that he was a gentleman."

"I wonder—I wonder who he was," went on Lizbeth. "It might have been Bob Crawford, the Provincial Police Chief. No!—I don't think it would be, either. Guess Bob couldn't keep his tongue quiet. He would have gabbed to you all the way along."

"He was tall, with fair hair and big, honest eyes," said Kathie reflectively. "He wore a flower in his buttonhole and he had a book under his arm. He was quite young—twenty-three, or twenty-four, maybe twenty-five."

Lizbeth laughed.

"Oh, I know!" she cried, "Mr. Simpson, the Principal of the Vernock High School. He's some favourite in town, especially with the old women. Believe me! Personally, I don't know very much about him. He's too sober, too silent, too precise for me,—thank you!

"Still, Miss Kathie, you had better watch out whom you talk to here. You're a Jackson now and you better hadn't forget it, Jackson's don't pick up stray acquaintances. Better not let dad hear of it."

"Cousin, please don't think me of that kind," pleaded Kathie. "I never would think such things of you, even if I did not know you;—besides, I am so terribly tired to-night."

"Oh!—I'm not saying and I'm not thinking anything," answered Lizbeth, "only putting you wise to some things. It looks bad meeting and talking to men before you are right in the Country. It reflects back on the ranch, on dad and on me, that's all."

Kathie refused to continue the argument. She took a few articles from her grip, undressed, tumbled into bed and soon was fast asleep.

An hour later, she awoke, startled by a noise. She looked up. The light was still burning. Lizbeth was seated before the mirror, brushing and plaiting her dark, brown hair and coquetting the while with her own reflection. Kathie lay quietly watching her cousin, who in turn smiled, looked disdainful or laughed outright to herself as fancy led her.

Kathie could not help admiring Lizbeth's round, supple arms as they reached to the longest strands of her curling hair; the full white bosom, the graceful ripple of her moving shoulders and the easy poise of her shapely head. She envied that healthy, rosy face with the large, languid, hazel eyes. She felt her own thin limbs and wondered if work on the ranch would ever make her so strong and so beautiful; and she vowed she would strive hard to attain her desire—never to be found wanting at her work.

It was not Lizbeth's wont to linger quite so long over her toilet as she did that night, but she was brooding over this newly-acquired cousin who was sharing her room and now lay, as she thought, asleep in her bed. She did not like this new cousin nor her intrusion, and she had no intention of making believe that she did.

This Kathie, this poverty-stricken interloper from over the seas, with her quiet, refined manner! She was far too pretty for one thing—too apt to share in some of the attentions that had been lavished on her alone. Lizbeth had no love for this sharing business—it was too one-sided for her taste. Again, her cousin talked too nicely; too like the well-bred and better class of English ranchers in the neighbourhood. She never seemed to have to resort to a localism to express her meaning—an accomplishment which Lizbeth had tried so hard to acquire but with moderate success and an attainment which she fancied so necessary to the setting of a real lady.

But as she sat there, Lizbeth found deep consolation in the knowledge that Kathie would have to take all her orders from her at all times and would require to execute them in the way she wished them done. It would be a pleasure for her to watch the growth of a tired and care-worn expression in that face which now looked so refined, and to note the gradual appearance of toughness on her white delicate hands. Kathie would have few idle moments. She would see to that, for the more Kathie got to do, the less it would leave for Lizbeth. And, in Lizbeth's mind, that was as it should be. Why should she, the only daughter of Colin Jackson, have to soil her hands when there were servants for the work?

She did not mind seeing that the work was done. Oh, no! That was something of a pleasure. And she knew how to drive. She had been at it and watching it done long enough to know. She had driven girls, and men, too, away from the ranch. But now she had one at last who would not be driven away, for she was alone in a strange country and had nowhere to go.

Lizbeth smiled again and forgot her troubles. She passed her hands lovingly over her shapely arms. She raised her firm shoulder and laid her cheek against it. She admired her lips, her eyes and her glossy curls in the mirrored reflection, blew a kiss to herself and smiled again, happy and confident in the security of her apparent and abundant beauty.