Bittner, Rosanne (59 page)

She closed her eyes just to listen. Pearl was practicing piano, playing a lovely waltz. She imagined Luke and herself floating around a ballroom floor, Luke wearing a fine black suit, she in a magnificent new dress, with Luke a territorial delegate, or perhaps governor of the new state of Montana. But then, for now it was just good to know he was going to be all right, that his heart was strong and all he needed was a good long rest. Thank God, Robbie would also be fine. He had finally stopped slipping away from her, finally stopped having the awful headaches. He was eating better, his eyes brighter, and the few burns on his back were healing.

She felt a presence in the library then, opened her eyes to see Luke standing in the doorway wearing denim pants and a cotton shirt that hung loose. "You're awfully quiet for such a big man," she told him.

He looked down. "Bare feet don't make much noise on all these fancy rugs." He came inside. "What were you dreaming about?"

She reddened. "I was just thinking how glad I am that you and Robbie are going to be all right." She pointed a finger as though to scold him. "And quit trying to sneak up on me. I know you, Luke Fontaine. You think if I know you're coming I'll hide this ledger." She rose. "You look good today."

He moved his arms around her. "I feel useless. I should be out there with the rest of them rounding up cattle. This is ridiculous, Lettie. I'm perfectly fine."

"Dr. Manning said complete bed rest for at least a month, and you should take it easy the rest of the winter. At least it's the time of year when there isn't so much to do anyway."

"Except a lot of rebuilding." He left her and walked to look out the window at the burned barn. "And a lot of that will have to wait until spring." He sighed. "I'd like to go see Tex's grave later."

"I guess I can allow that."

He turned to look at her with a wry grin. "Are you giving me orders, woman?"

She folded her arms. "I'll do whatever I have to do to make sure my husband is with me for a long, long time. Dr. Manning said part of your problem was the shock of thinking you had lost Robbie, but that was made worse by just plain exhaustion, and he said it's not something to take lightly."

"What about you? You've been through just as much as I have."

She walked closer and placed her hands at his sides. "Different people handle certain situations differently. Look how we each reacted when Paul died. It pulled us apart. Doc Manning said he suspects you never really got over his death. Is that true?" Her heart ached at the devastation in his blue eyes.

He placed his hands on her shoulders. "I guess maybe it is, or at least was. I think almost losing Robbie woke me up to a lot of things." He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I hate this, Lettie. I'm the man. I'm supposed to be the strong one."

"You
are
the strong one. For a lot of years you've had to be
too
strong. In those early years when I thought I'd go crazy, you were there to lean on. You've always been my strength, my protection, my defender. I put you through hell after Nathan left again and then Paul died. You almost got killed rescuing Katie, and you have blamed yourself for every bad thing that has happened in this family. But there is a little thing called fate, over which none of us has control. Right now God or someone is telling you to slow down for a while. There's no shame in that, Luke. It's only a means to an end—and in the end you will be stronger than ever. Maybe God is preparing you for something bigger...." She smiled, moving her arms around him then. "Like maybe territorial delegate, or the future governor of the state of Montana."

He frowned. "Who have you been talking to?"

She laughed and walked back to the desk. "Ty. He told me about the men prompting you to run. I can't think of a better man to represent Montana. Any man who knows as much about this land as you do, and who loves it the way you do, can't help but do a good job of leading us toward statehood."

He followed her to the desk and opened a box of thin cigars, taking one out. "You wouldn't mind?"

"I'd be very proud."

He walked to the fireplace to light the cigar with a long match, taking a moment to puff on it. "It could mean having to be away from the Double L, sometimes just me, sometimes both of us."

She gave it some thought. "The children are getting bigger. In three or four more years, Ty will practically be able to run this ranch by himself. We've talked about Pearl studying music in Chicago by then, and Robbie will be in college. By then the Northern Pacific should be coming through here, which will make it a lot easier to travel east, and which also means no more cattle drives, even to Cheyenne. And you have a good crew of men, many of whom have worked for you for a lot of years. They know as much about how to run this ranch as you do."

He kept the cigar between his teeth and walked back to the window. "Well, I have no plans for anything like that for at least two years yet. This next year will be one of rebuilding. Thank God for the copper mines and our other investments. I hear that up around Butte the new find is copper. The gold is just about played out. There's still some silver, but copper is all the news now. Might be the biggest find in the country. I just might do some investing there." He puffed the cigar for a few seconds. "You're a forward-thinking woman, Lettie Fontaine. You told me years ago not to rely just on the cattle." He turned to look at her. "Which reminds me. What's the damage?"

She looked at the ledger. "Well, about fifteen hundred cattle were lost, as far as the men can tell. Brad lost about six hundred sheep. He wants to go to Utah next spring and see if he can buy some from the Mormons, but we'll have to loan him the money to do it. He has already made sure to tell me that he'll pay the loan off when he makes his first shipment of lambs to the slaughterhouses in Omaha, was very adamant that I know he intends to pay it back with interest."

Luke grinned and shook his head. "What about the buildings and all?"

Lettie looked up at him. "We saved the big barn and two smaller horse sheds. The wind shifted just in time. We fared a lot better than some others, Luke. We lost thousands of acres of grassland, but the rain brought what's left back to life, and already new grass is growing in the burned areas. Doc Manning says Hank Kline lost everything, all his outbuildings, his home, at least half of his stock."

She sighed, and Luke saw the sudden sadness in her eyes. "What aren't you telling me, Lettie?" He sat down in the leather chair he liked best, where he always sat to read and smoke. "Is Hank dead?"

She looked down. "Yes, but not from the fires. He... shot himself."

Luke closed his eyes. "Jesus," he whispered.

"His wife is going back East to live with one of her sons. She's only staying around long enough to sell the Lazy K. I thought... maybe we could buy it. It would help her out, and Brad and Katie could build a house there and use it for a sheep ranch. I like the idea of having them right here on the Double L, but I think deep down Brad would rather be more on his own. He's a proud, independent young man. We can't keep Katie right under our wing forever, Luke. She's a wife and mother now, and the Lazy K isn't that far away. It's closer than Billings, so we'd still be close enough to see each other often and to help them when it's needed."

Luke watched blue cigar smoke curl into the air. The thought of Hank killing himself pained him deeply. Another friend gone. He wondered what he would have done himself if he had lost absolutely everything, but then he had Ty and Robbie, Pearl and Katie, and a new grandson. Hank's sons were grown and had never even bothered to come out and see their father's ranch. It was all Hank had ever really wanted to do, and he had lost it all. "All right. Buy it. Have you talked to Katie and Brad about this?"

"Not yet, but I know they'll like the idea. They've never said anything straight out, but I know they'd rather have a place they can truly call their own."

Luke nodded, listening quietly for a few minutes to his daughter's piano playing, ever amazed at her talent. Her playing had soothed him these past two weeks, the moving music somehow giving him strength. He set the cigar in an ashtray and folded his hands over his lap. "Tell Lucy Kline that we'll also see that a nice headstone is put up on Hank's grave. Was he buried in the Billings Cemetery?"

"Yes." She laid down a pen. "That's good of you, Luke. I get the impression they did not have a lot of extra money. I think a good deal of what she gets for the ranch will have to go to pay off debts."

Luke ran a hand through his hair. "Is there anything else you aren't telling me?"

"Well, from what I hear, the other ranchers didn't fare so badly. They all suffered some losses, just like we did, except that it's harder on them because they don't have as much to fall back on, but they'll be okay. I told Sven to tell all of them they can use some of the grazing land we have left if necessary. It will mean us buying more feed, but we can get it wholesale from the granary we own in Cheyenne. Is that all right?"

He studied her lovingly. "I'd have done the same. They've all helped us at different times, and some of them literally taught me a few things about ranching. We've ridden together after outlaws and rustlers, and they all contributed to the ransom money for Katie. We'll manage."

Lettie stood up and came to sit in a chair across from him. "There's one more thing."

He leaned his head against the back of the chair. "Go ahead."

"Nial Bentley. He lost a lot of grassland and cattle, but that's not the worst of it."

Luke frowned. "Did that stone mansion of his burn?"

"No. You know Chloris was with child."

"I know. Don't tell me she lost the baby."

Lettie folded her hands and studied them as she spoke. "About a week ago. She went into early labor, and she nearly bled to death."

Luke let out a groan, rubbed at his eyes. "Good God."

"I'm told through the grapevine that it was not a normal pregnancy to begin with. According to Dr. Manning, it's unlikely she'll have any more children. I guess Sydney and Helen Greene are in a terrible grief. Chloris was their only child, and now there will never be any grandchildren." She reached out and took hold of his hand. "The whole thing made me grateful for all my normal births, and the fact that God gave us several children. We've been through so much, Luke, but we're also very blessed."

He sighed deeply. "Well, Nial Bentley is not my favorite person, but every man wants children to carry on the name, to give everything to some day." He reached out and touched her cheek with the back of his hand. "You're right. We sometimes have to just stop and count our blessings. Maybe we should do something for them, maybe send a letter of sympathy or something." He leaned back in the chair again. "God knows he doesn't need money. His backers in merry old England will help replace his losses. But there are some things money can't buy." He thought how beautiful his wife looked this morning. "Like the love of a woman who belongs to someone else."

She smiled sadly. "Luke, that is in the past."

"Not for Nial. He doesn't love Chloris the same way he loved you, probably still loves you."

She walked back to the desk. "Well, that's all beside the point now."

Is it?
Luke wondered. He had no worries about Lettie, but he could not quite get over the fact that another man had tried to steal his wife, and that man probably still loved her. In spite of what Nial had suffered, Luke could not totally sympathize with the man. He would never be able to forgive him for thinking his money and title gave him the right to take what belonged to another, nor the fact that the man had used their son's death as an opening to take advantage of Lettie. He had no doubt that Nial never loved Chloris the way a man should love his wife. She was just a replacement for Lettie, and now that she could not give Nial children, she would be even less important to him.

Lettie looked over at her husband, knew by his eyes what he was thinking. Nial still loved her. She knew it in her own heart, but it was something they never talked about anymore. She hated Luke's father for instilling in him a feeling of worthlessness and insecurity that continued to make him worry about men like Nial, and that had caused him to work himself nearly into the grave just to prove himself. And she hated the man for never answering any of Luke's letters and for never coming to see the magnificent ranch his son had built. "I love you, Luke. A couple of weeks ago I thought I had lost you. Please do what the doctor says and take it easy this winter. I need you."

He grinned. "Come here, woman."

She walked back over to him, and he put out his arms. She sat on his lap and rested her head against his shoulder. He embraced her, moving one hand over her breasts lightly.

"This is all your fault, you know."

"Oh? Why is that?"

He kissed her hair. "You remember what we were doing the day of the fire. You had me all worn out before I even went to dig that trench. You've got to quit being so man hungry, Lettie Fontaine."

She laughed lightly. "We both know whose idea it was to go playing in the bushes like a couple of children." She turned her face up, and their lips met in a gentle kiss. Lettie felt the possessiveness as the kiss lingered and grew deeper. He was reminding her that she belonged to Luke Fontaine, trying to assure her that in no time he would be strong as ever. His collapse had devastated his pride. Didn't he know that in her eyes there was no one stronger or more manly than he? She had had her own taste of possessiveness, had seen how other women looked at her husband, and not just the single ones.

"Maybe we should go upstairs and see if I can—"

Lettie got up off his lap. "Luke Fontaine! It's almost lunchtime. I will not have everyone in this house looking for us and knowing what's going on. Besides, you're supposed to
rest."

"Might make me heal faster."

She cast him a chastising glance. "Don't try playing on my sympathy. For the next few months you are under my command. Someday you will be spending part of your time in Helena, maybe even as governor of the new state of Montana, fighting for whatever Montana needs. You've got to prepare yourself. Use the winter to do some reading up on how our government works. Katie can probably help you find the right books."