Rebellion in the Valley (19 page)

“Well, why don’t Bruce help you tend to your
business, as you call it? When did you get in, Tobias?” he inquired
with fast words.

He bit his lip. “Earlier, that’s when.”

Duffy poked a forkful of flapjacks into his
mouth and a couple of drops of syrup dripped off his bottom lip.
His eyes never even blinked as a sick grin half-way emerged; Tobias
thought of a pig at a trough as the syrup finally splattered onto
the plate.

Richard stared him in the eye.

“Bruce can’t help us this morning; he isn’t
here, Duffy. Fact is, the sheriff and Doc Amerley don’t want Hailee
seeing him after his accident.”

“Pretty banged up, huh?”

Tobias’ mouth cringed at the man’s lack of
compassion; both of his eyebrows sloped downward as his head moved
in a slow motion from left to right.

By the looks on both Richard’s and Tobias’
faces, Duffy could tell that Hailee hadn’t been told much – if
anything – about the accident. He wasn’t sure how far to press the
subject, choosing instead to stuff another bite into his mouth.

“Got any bacon this morning?”

If Hailee hadn’t been in the room, Richard
was certain Tobias would have beaten Duffy on the head with a cast
iron skillet, judging from the look of disgust on his face.

Chapter 22

T
obias stood a protective ground over Hailee Johnson as he
continued his glared focus on Howard J. Duffman’s face from across
the room.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush here,
Duffy. There’s business and personal matters that need to be worked
out this morning, and I’d appreciate it if you’d make not only your
own self scarce for a few hours, but make sure that the word gets
around to everyone else.”

Duffy knew full well Tobias was not making a
request, and that once he’d taken his leave after breakfast, he
wouldn’t be a welcomed face until dinner, at the earliest. And that
didn’t sit very well with the man, but he just shrugged and
continued to eat what was before him. Slowly.

“I wish someone would tell me what’s
happening here,” the girl's voice almost yelled out. “I’ve got you
two staring each other down,” she accused, “and nobody’s telling me
where my own father is or what happened out there on that hunt!
Would someone around here just be straight with me?”

Duffy snorted a few words under his breath
that sounded something similar to a derogatory comment toward
Tobias, but seeing as how it wasn’t said very loudly and nobody
cared to really pay the man any mind anyhow, his words wound up
disappearing into the air.

Tobias turned his back on the man at the
table and turned his head; he wanted out of the man’s view before
mouthing to Hailee that they should take their conversation into
the formal dining room.

She nodded, clueless as to why Tobias had
treated Duffy so rudely.

Richard moved the heavy tapestry curtain
serving as a decorative divider between the kitchen and dining
room, holding it back in one hand for the other two to pass through
while at the same time, keeping his ground with one eye on the
kitchen table. And Duffy.

When she’d gotten far enough into the dining
room, she turned around and asked in a hushed tone “Tobias, what’s
gotten into you? You and I both know he’d been a little bit out of
the ordinary before you left…but what was that all about?”

The tall man just shook his head and looked
down as he grabbed a chair and sat down next to Hailee; Richard
still posted himself at the curtain, to make sure their voices
didn’t trail out of the room.

“Having this discussion with you is the last
thing I could have ever imagined. Yet here we are,” he shook his
head.

She was thankful she was having it with the
two men she loved and trusted most, next to her own father.

“Hailee,” he began, “I don’t know where to
start here. Where do you want me to start from?” A hand raked
through his hair in an anxious attempt to get a grip on these new
emotions he was so unsure of, aware of the fact that this
conversation couldn't be danced around for very much longer.

Hailee leaned closer to Tobias and waved her
hand at Richard, inviting him to take a couple steps close into
their circle.

“I want to be told what’s happened to Daddy,
but I can see that’s going to take the majority of my attention,
and I want to be calm when I hear, so what’s going on with you and
Duffy, first of all?”

“Soon as we left, he started showing a…darker
side of himself. A couple of days into the hunt, the man was making
every minute miserable for everyone including himself. Hailee, he’s
up to no good, and I mean it. You stay away from him.”

She saw the serious look in his eyes, gulped
the knot forming in the top of her throat and only nodded-not from
an understanding, but out of willing compliance.

“If you can help it, you stay out of the
kitchen during hours he might be in there, you keep clear of
talking to him even in passing, and Hailee,” he reached over to
hold her hands in his, “you have to stay out of the barns for a
while, too.”

“What? Epoenah –“

Tobias shook his head. “Will be fine. Don’t
you trust me with her? C’mon, Hailee. It’s not going to be for very
long. Just until we can get this whole mess figured out.”

The girl shook her blonde curls out of
confusion, a thick mass of questions stirring in her brain.

“Mess? I want every detail about Daddy,
Tobias, and I mean right now! I need to know.”

He looked at Richard, who nodded his
agreement to her request; with words carefully chosen, Tobias began
to unravel events from the past few days, not only including how
Bruce toppled over the edge of Puma Canyon, but also attitudes he
had seen coming out of Duffy.

Hailee remained calm as he relayed the entire
morning of the accident, noticing how his neck tensed and his eyes
became tighter as his mind remembered every detail, apparently,
reliving each second.

As he related the morning when Duffy woke up
unwilling to help find a few pieces of firewood for their campfire,
Hailee’s jaw gaped open and her curls swayed back and forth in
disbelief.

“Tobias, are you sure you weren’t just
reading him wrong? Maybe you misunderstood him.”

“No, Hailee. Every man in camp heard and
understood him; fact is, your father had to take the man aside and
set him straight. You can ask any of the others. He made the next
few hours tense. You ask me, he’s been up to something for a while
now; you and I caught some it firsthand before I even left. In case
you forgot the day in the barn when he saw us together, it was
rather evident to both of us that he’d been watching us, and now
that Bruce is –“ he stopped short of finishing that thought out
loud.

Bottom lip quivering, Hailee pressed her
thumbs into her eye sockets and rubbed them; she had to know what
happened out there, but the last hour had been so overwhelming, she
felt sick to her stomach and couldn’t bear to hear the words she
felt were inevitable somewhere in the back of her mind.

The dining room fell silent.

Richard cleared his throat, tapped on the
table, and motioned toward the kitchen.

“I think I’ll head back on in there, make
sure ears aren’t picking anything up from in here. Gonna make some
noise and get some grub on. You come get me if need be.”

One of his old hands patted Hailee’s shoulder
on the way out.

“You know I’m gonna take care of you, right?
Ain’t nothin’ gonna hurt you ever again. Not as long as I’m here. I
love you, Hailee. It’s gonna be okay, you’ll see one day.”

“One day I’m a happy young girl with
everything to look forward to, next day my entire world caves in
around me. This can’t be real, Tobias. Daddy’s okay and I’m going
to wake up from this nightmare in the morning and it will all be
behind me. That’s what this is–a horrible nightmare. I’ll wake up,”
she trailed off in a near-whisper. “Daddy’s heart broke when Mamma
died. And she died because I was born. All of this is my fault,”
she sobbed. “I don’t even deserve to live on this ranch anymore,
Tobias.”

He brought both eyebrows into a slant and
shook his head at her. “Don’t you ever say that again! Your Daddy
built this up for you,” he told her with a wave around the room to
indicate that everything surrounding her came from love. “Don’t you
ever let go of this,” he told her with a firm look in his eye.

Hailee focused on the wallpaper; her eyes
fixed themselves on the tiny blue fans in between thin white lines,
half hoping she would glance up to find Bruce standing there.

“I'll see Daddy before the funeral, though,
right?”

Tobias looked up at the ceiling, blowing out
a heavy breath of air that gave Hailee the answer she wasn’t hoping
to receive. He hated this happening to her, hated that he couldn’t
find the words to ease her pain, and he hated the fact that deep in
his heart, he knew all of it was Howard J. Duffman’s fault somehow.
He made a silent vow to make that man pay for every tear his
beloved Hailee shed over this situation.

A finger wiped at a stray tear before she
mustered up the courage to ask, “You didn’t just leave Daddy, did
you?”

With a snapping of his head, Tobias reached
out and placed one hand on each side of her face. He passed a
finger over another tear, smearing it across her cheek.

“No, Hailee, no! Of course not! Doc Amerley
was there, he and the sheriff both. We brought him back but you
gotta trust me on this one, Honey. I just can’t let you see him. I
just can’t.” His voice cracked with just a hint of how close he
could come to breaking into tears along with her.

Before even thinking about it, Tobias found
himself on his knees in front of the chair, holding her hands again
as she allowed unbridled tears to flow in heavy waves, her chest
heaving, nose running, and face drawn into the most painful look
the man had ever seen in his life. Her pain caused him to sob along
with her, molding the couple together as they shared the
moment.

“I know I can trust you and Richard,” she
nodded. “But I need to say goodbye to my daddy,” she looked up and
into his softened eyes. “Can’t you understand that? I never got to
say those words to my mamma.”

“Yes, I understand that, Hailee. And you’ll
get…to…say–“ He couldn’t bring himself to finish the last bit of
that thought when Richard opened the curtain again and interrupted
by clearing his throat and giving a small yet firm shake of his
head aimed at Tobias.

There wasn’t anything to be gained by saying
it out loud.

Chapter 23

S
natching some tools off of their rusted old hooks and tossing
them onto the work-worn counter in his tack room, the ranch worker
sniffed at his collar. A dab of sticky syrup brought the
conversation at breakfast full circle and right back into his
beyond-annoyed mind once again; the snarl flinching at his upper
lip told the tale.

Slam! Down came the sharpening stone with
such concentrated force, the other tools jumped a quarter inch off
the counter.

“Ain't got the right to order me around! No
sir. I aim to eat my dinner in the same chair I do every evening,
that's part of my paid wages, getting a decent meal at the end of
my day,” he spat in between grumbled words so audible anyone could
have heard him clearly. “Instruct me to get lost, will ya?
Hummfff!”

Just as he slid a set of tools back into
their places, his fingers grazed the tops of some old rags he’d
kept back for cleaning his hands after a messy job; he pulled a
stool up under his workbench so he could sit down and begin working
on the morning's project, but then Duffy once again became
distracted when he overheard a group of the other ranch hands
talking outside. Something about Bruce, but he couldn't quite make
out all the words and bent over closer to his tack room door so the
eavesdropping would come easier for him. His eyelids dropped a bit
as if that action enhanced the volume of their conversation.

“Yeah, I just don’t know what we’re going to
do without the Boss around here to run the place. Can’t hardly run
a man’s ranch if he’s not here.”

The man standing next to him grinned and
pushed the brim of his hat back a tad, reminding him of a of fact
they were all aware of.

“Hailee’s not gone anywhere and she still
owns the place. That gal knows her way around this ranch good as
the rest of us, you know.”

“And just in case any of you haven’t caught
on yet, we’ve already got a successor to the head of the ranch;
it’s just a matter of time now before Tobias takes his place. If
you ask me, this ranch will be safe between the two of them.
There’s nothing to worry about or even talk about, if you ask me.
Only thing I wanta know is, which one of you plans on helping me
with firewood this morning? Tobias is pretty busy and I noticed the
stack's getting low.”

Once the group decided who each of the chores
belonged to for the day and they dispersed to their tasks at hand,
the man inside that tack room had already balled up both fists.

Grunting an obscenity, Duffy stomped out of
his room, swinging the door to point of nearly busting it off the
hinges. Heading straight over to a few old empty crates stacked up
next to a couple of stalls, he punched them with clenched fists,
one after another until it appeared that his anger had been
properly emptied. With his head leaned up against a pile of hay,
Duffy looked spent – and it was no more than ten-thirty in the
morning.

Letting himself down to a empty barrel that
had long since been turned upside down to drain, he sat and wiped
the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, leaving a
blood-streaked trail under unkempt hair. Noticing his hands had
been damaged during that little outburst, he turned them over in
the sunlight to get a better look.