Broken Promises (9 page)

"We did have something special," Zak replied, "but by then I saw no future for us. Then when I started working at the winery, Mirande was there, and her fiancé had just dumped her, and she was pretty devastated by that, and we just sort of gravitated to each other, you know, misery loves company."

...and the girl Zak left behind was long forgotten...

So that answered one of the questions, but not to Tess's satisfaction. It took a moment before she could ask the other, but the answer to it was the one she needed most. "Did you love her?"

Zak seemed to be pondering that for a few minutes. "I suppose, in a way," he said. "We enjoyed each other's company, and once we'd married, I never gave it much thought."

"But you told her you loved her," Tess said, then realized what a ludicrous statement that was. The woman wouldn't have married Zak if he hadn't told her that.

Zak nodded. "She was my wife."

...and so was I...
Tess wanted to say ...
because we exchanged vows at the grotto, and you gave me a ring, and promised me the world...

"Then you must have planned on staying in
France
," Tess said.

"No," Zak replied. "It was understood that we'd live in
America
where I was expected to work with my father at the winery and eventually take over. We moved to Navarre shortly before
Pio was born. The first couple of years everything was okay. But then Mirande started getting homesick for
France
, and she wanted to go back to see her folks, and so they could see Pio, and
 
I agreed."

"How long was she gone?" Tess asked, wondering how long a new bride would want to stay away from her husband... From a husband like Zak.

"She never came back," Zak said. "She kept extending her visit, and eventually she told me she didn't want to leave
France
. So I went over there, hoping to talk her into coming back with me, but she refused. The hardest part was leaving Pio. Mirande wouldn't let me take him to
America
for any length of time."

Tess looked at him, bewildered. "But you're his father, and Pio is American. You could have gotten custody."

"That's also the way my father saw it," Zak said. "But I couldn't do that to Pio, or Mirande. They were very close, and a young boy needs his mother. But, Mirande agreed to let me see Pio whenever I wanted, as long as he stayed in
France
. My father didn't see things that way, and he was mad at me because I had a Basque wife and couldn't hold onto her. Things got so bad between us I couldn't work with him at the winery anymore, and that's when I left home and went to college in
Washington
. Ironically, after I left, things were better with me and my father."

"You said you and your wife separated. Why didn't you divorce?" Tess asked.

"We discussed it the last time I visited," Zak replied. "There seemed little point in trying to hold together a marriage divided by the
Atlantic ocean
. Then, the time ran out."

Tess wondered if Zak continued loving his wife all those years, hoping things would work out, or if he loved her still, even though she was gone? "How did she die?" she finally asked.

"She was hit by a car while riding her bicycle," Zak replied.

"That must have been a shock."

"Yeah, it was. She was still the mother of my son. I guess it hit me hard because of what I knew it would do to Pio. You can relate to that better than I can."

"I suppose I can," Tess said, remembering the pain she'd felt when her mother died. She still didn't like talking about that period in her life.

"How long does it take to get over?" Zak asked.

"I don't think you ever do," Tess said. "You just learn to accept it. But you never stop wondering how it might have been with the family together."

Zak glanced over at her. "What about you? Why did you divorce?"

Tess stared at her hands. The problems between her and David were because of Zak, she realized now. Focusing on the other issues in the marriage, she said, "David started taking chances in business, trying to push the company beyond its capabilities, and we had a lot of heated arguments about it. But the real reason my marriage failed was--" she couldn't stop herself from looking at Zak as she said, "--I never found what I wanted."

Zak held her steady gaze, and said, "Neither did I." Leaning towards her, he moved to kiss her, but this time Tess didn't push him away. Instead, she put her arms around his neck and kissed him back, long and hard, tasting the aroma of wine on his breath as her tongue toyed with his. But before the kiss could deepen, she moved her lips from his, and said, "That was for old time's sake, Zak. Please don't make anything more of it."

Zak studied her solemnly for a few moments, then shrugged his shoulders with indifference, and replied, "I didn't plan to," then went back to what he'd been doing.

They ate in strained silence. It seemed all of Tess's questions had been answered, and Zak had nothing more to offer. But having gotten her answers, she felt a hollowness she hadn't felt in years. It was troubling and confusing, because the answers he'd given her were unsatisfactory, and she didn't know how to reconcile them. He'd married just a few months after he left her. Yet, if she'd known he was coming back, she would have waited indefinitely for him.

...they mate for life, and when one dies, the other begins a lonely journey...

The irony of it was, she'd thought she and Zak had mated for life.

But maybe it was for the best. Soon she'd be entangled in learning who was behind setting off the blast that caused the landslide, and worrying about how to pay Jean-Pierre de Neuville for his trees. And confronting her father about his part in forcing Zak out of her life and leaving her to believe he'd left on his own. Some things had to be said.

CHAPTER SEVEN

As Tess headed toward the ridge, her thoughts were on Zak. She hadn't seen him since he brought dinner to her cabin, two days before. She knew he'd spent the weekend in
Navarre
, but she also suspected that if he'd been at his cabin he probably wouldn't have stopped by. She hadn't given him a reason to, with her comment after his brief kiss. But she'd felt the sting of his specious explanation for why he married so soon after being forced to leave her, his
misery loves company
marriage. Yet, in less than a year, she would have been eighteen, and they could have married without her father's consent. But it seemed her father wasn't the only issue...

...my father wanted you out of my life because you weren't Basque...

Which meant, Zak would have been marrying her without his father's approval. So he followed the path his father laid out for him when he sent Zak to
France
to marry a Basque woman, a role the girl from Baker's Creek could never fill.

Both fathers had been determined to keep them apart. But even now, knowing that Zak married soon after he left, when she thought about the part her father played in sending him away she felt the old anger rising. To threaten Zak with statutory rape and prison was even beyond what she might have expected from an overprotective father, and as soon as she'd squared things away on the ridge, she'd address it with him.

She crossed the de Neuville land and continued to the pole-timber area where she found Curt on the bulldozer, dragging a log to the landing, and Sean Herring and
Harv
Dempsey limbing trees. The skidder sat idle. When Curt saw her, he cut the throttle and jumped down, then walked toward her in long strides. "One of the tires on the skidder's blown," he said.

A knot twisted in Tess's stomach as she considered the cost of another new skidder tire. It seemed Timber West was operating in a vicious circle. They needed to keep the equipment running in order to get the pole timber cut, and they needed to sell pole timber in order to keep the equipment running. "Skidder tires don't just blow," she said. "And since the landslide was helped along with dynamite, the skidder tire could have been helped along too."

"I don't think so this time," Curt said. "It looks like it ran over a spike."
 

Tess examined the skidder tire and found a hole in it the size of a half-dollar. "It looks more like it's been shot," she replied. "Where's the spike?"

"We couldn't find it," Curt said. "We're just assuming that's what did it."

"I'm not assuming anything," Tess said. "Meanwhile, we'll have to use the Cat until the tire's fixed or replaced." She looked at the idle machine. "Where's the new skidder driver?"

"I sent him back to camp," Curt said. "There was nothing for him to do here."

"Well, with the skidder out, we may have to let him go," Tess said, "at least until we get the skidder running again. I can't afford to pay someone to sit around. Meanwhile, I'd better go to Northwest Tire and see about getting someone out here."

She climbed in her Jeep and headed for Baker’s Creek, and after arranging for someone to look at the skidder tire, she drove to her father's house. Spotting Aunt Ruth talking to a neighbor a couple of houses down, she tooted the horn and pulled over. When Aunt Ruth peered through the passenger window, Tess said to her, "How did Dad come out with his checkup yesterday?"

"Fine," Aunt Ruth replied. "Now he thinks he can take on the world."

"Did the doctor put any restrictions on him?" Tess asked.

"Only that he isn't to start working yet," Aunt Ruth replied. "But the doctor also said we shouldn't fuss over him either... that we should let him spout off some."

"Well, he'll get his chance in a few minutes," Tess said. "I have a giant bone to pick with him. What's he doing right now?"

"Working on his truck."

"Well, I guess I'd better get this over with." Tess parked in front of the house and found her father in the driveway, his head under the hood of his truck. Walking over to stand behind him, she said, "Dad, I want to talk to you."

"Hand me that five-sixteenths open end," he replied.

Tess looked at the array of tools spread out in front of his tool box and selected the wrench and placed it in his outstretched hand. Without looking up, Gib's fingers curled around the wrench and he retracted his arm.

"How could you do what you did seven years ago?" Tess said, annoyed that her father wouldn't acknowledge her.

"Hold this." Gib extended a hand with the wrench. "Now I need the gauge."

Tess lifted the gauge from the pile. "Dad, I asked you a question," she said, handing him the tool. "You sent Zak away. How could you have done that to me? You sent Zak away with a threat of statutory rape and imprisonment and led me to believe he left on his own."

Gib handed the gauge back to her. "Now I need the wrench again."

Tess shoved the wrench in his hand. Typical. Her father's means of dealing with something he didn't want to face. Ignore it and it would go away. Well, this time it wouldn't go away. "Dad, I'm not going to let this rest. ."

"I did what I thought was right."

"Would you have prosecuted him if he hadn't gone away?"

Gib slowly backed from under the hood and faced Tess. "Yes, and he knew it. If you choose a life with him now it's your choice, but at the time you were in your teens, and Zak was a grown man, and he was using you." He looked at her solemnly then, and said, "I'm sorry, honey. All I can say is, I did what I thought was best for you at the time. Maybe it would have been different if your mother had been around, but she wasn't, so I had to decide on my own."

Tess looked into her father's eyes and realized that, right or wrong, he'd only been thinking about her. She shrugged. "I suppose I'll have to," she said. "I probably would have done the same if I'd had a wild thing like me for a daughter."

Gib smiled. "You weren't a wild thing, honey. Headstrong and willful, maybe. But not a wild thing."

Tess smiled back. "That bad, huh?"

"That bad." Gib wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Now, can we bury the hatchet and get on with our lives?"

Tess blinked away a mist of tears, and said, "I'd like that."

Gib grabbed a bundle of curls and gave her head a jiggle, and Tess caught the old glint in his eyes, and for the moment, she wanted to turn her back on the logging operation, skidder tires and land feuds, and just be Daddy's little girl again. And for the first time in years, she felt like the rift between them over Zak was finally closed. She also had second thoughts about bringing up the matter of the increased royalty, or Jean-Pierre de Neuville's threat about the trees, but decided it had to be addressed. They didn't need a law suit on their hands on top of everything else.

She went to the Jeep and got the survey map, but before getting into that, she told her father about the rock slide, the skidder tire, and finally about the feud between Curt Broderick and Jed Swenson. "What were Swenson and Broderick feuding about?" he asked.

"It has to do with where you had the men cut trees along the property line running between Timber West and de Neuville's property," she replied.
 

"Why were they feuding about that?" he asked.

Tess fingered the survey map. "Two more trees were cut on Jean-Pierre de Neuville's land. Broderick claims Swenson cut them, and Swenson claims Broderick cut them."

"What difference does it make. It's on de Neuville's land."

"That's my whole point, Dad," Tess said. "Jean-Pierre de Neuville didn't order the trees cut. You did. He claims you're cutting trees on his land."

"De Neuville doesn't know what the hell he's talking about," Gib said.

"Here's the map," Tess said, holding out the roll. "Just take a look and you'll see what he's talking about. It really does look like that strip of land is his."

"I don't care what de Neuville says, or what's on that map," Gib said, refusing to take the map. "I know where the property line runs, the same place the fence ran for eighty years. And I don't much give a damn what some nincompoop from the county surveyor’s office says."

"Regardless of what you believe, if the county and the judge disagree with you, you'll be paying the penalty for wrongfully cutting ten trees, and Timber West can't afford it. Now will you please promise you won't tell Herring or Dempsey or Broderick to cut anymore trees."

Gib looked at her, his eyes intense, and said, "No one, including Jean-Pierre de Neuville, or a judge, is going to tell me I can't cut trees on my own land."

"Then you'd better be prepared to pay out a whole lot of money," Tess said, "because Jean-Pierre de Neuville's about to haul you into court."

"Fine. He can do that. Any other problems?"

Tess sighed. "Yes, all kinds of problems. A broken hydraulic line on the Cat right after the landslide, trucks having to wait for the Cat, deadhead fees to the truckers." She looked across at her father. "And that's only the beginning. It looks like the rock slide was caused by dynamite. We found pieces of fuse in the rocks."

"Wait a minute," Gib said. "You're talking like someone's trying to shut us down."

"That's what it looks like," Tess replied. "Ever since I let Swenson go, everything started happening. I think he's trying to make it impossible for me so I'll quit and you'll hire him back."

"I'd never hire him back," Gib said.

"He probably thinks you would, and making it look like Curt cut the trees might get Curt fired, and him rehired," Tess said. "Who knows what Swenson has on his mind? He might just be getting revenge for me firing him in front of the men."

"Don't be too quick to accuse Swenson until you have some facts," Gib said.

"Well, I should have some pretty soon," Tess replied, "at least on whether the skidder tire was shot. Meanwhile, we have yet another expense."

Gib eyed her warily. "What other expense?"

"The royalty on the logs. It's gone up."

"Yaeger raised the royalty on us?" Gib said. "I didn't think he'd do that. But then, he's been trying to buy the place from me for years."

"Not Carl Yaeger," Tess said, "Jean-Pierre de Neuville. He bought the land between us and the ridge."

"I'd heard something like that," Gib said, "but I figured it was just rumor. Well, at least he's letting us go through. How much is the royalty?"

Tess's fingers curled around the map. "Ten dollars per thousand."

"
What
!"

"He's using the money to fix the road," Tess said.

"He's spending my money for nothing," Gib shouted. "That road's only an access road for hauling, not a freeway!"

"It's his land. He can do what he wants."

"He can go to hell! And if I want to cut trees on my land, I'll cut the damn trees. And you can tell that to Jean-Pierre de Neuville the next time you see him." He stormed into the garage, leaving Tess staring blankly after him.

***

When Tess arrived at the cook shack, the following morning, there was no aroma of coffee, and no biscuits baking, and no bacon or potatoes or eggs frying on the stove. Instead, she looked at a table devoid of plates or utensils, and saw a group of men standing around with scowls on their faces. "What's going on?" she asked. "Where's Ezzie?"

"Don't know," Herring replied, "but this is the third day in a row this week he's been late."

"Late from what? He only has to go from the bunkhouse to the cook shack."

"That's the problem," Herring said. "He's not coming from the bunkhouse. He's
shackin
' up with Becky."

Tess stared at Herring as visions of Ezzie courting a woman tried to form in her mind. "Becky Tyson from the Blue Ox Café?"

Herring nodded. "
Ezzie's
been picking up pies there."

"But Ezzie bakes his own pies," Tess said.

"Not anymore," Herring replied.

Tess parked her hands on her hips and smiled. "That old coot." Then her smile vanished when she realized she'd have to fix food for the crew. She looked around at the men and said, "Okay, boys, find something to do for thirty minutes while I fix breakfast."

The men grumbled and trudged out of the cook shack, while Tess started breakfast for eight hungry loggers. A half hour later, the men gathered around the table again. Tess barely finished grating yesterday's boiled potatoes for hash browns when the platter of last night's reheated dinner rolls that she'd just set on the table was empty. The room quaked with drumming fingers and tapping feet. "Pour yourselves coffee and hang in there," she said to the men, then turned to the counter to peel more potatoes to fry.

"Damn old coot can't even crawl out of the sack long enough to feed us," Mac groused.

"Come on Mac," Herring said. "He hasn't got many years of
ruttin
' left. Let him be."

Tess ignored the comments and launched a pan of biscuits down the long table, then followed with a platter of sausages and a bowl of gravy. Hands reached out, and within minutes, both platter and pan were empty and Herring was swabbing the gravy bowl with a biscuit.