Rebellion in the Valley (6 page)

Lacing an arm around her daddy’s, she
snuggled up against him and rested her head against him.

“You miss her a lot, don’t you, Daddy?”

“More than you know,” he nodded.

“I wish she was here, too…there’s things a
girl wants to talk to her mom about.”

Hailee was thinking about her situation with
Tobias but couldn’t say that to her father. Not tonight.

Bruce nodded, patted her hand.

“I know. And there are just some things I
could only talk to Cammi about,” he grinned. “I remember when the
doctor gave us the news about you,” Bruce continued. “You know, she
started to crochet that afghan on your bed the very next day? Spent
every waking moment on it. She told me her little baby would be
sleeping in it for years to come and it had to be perfect,” her
father reflected.

Turning to Hailee, Bruce allowed his eyes to
rest on her face. How she resembled her mother, even standing
outside in the glow of an oil lantern.

He would never forget what a pretty woman she
was, that wife of his, and he would always remember the first time
Camilla saw him.

She had been making a quick
sweep of all the attendees there at the community barn dance,
making mental notes of who she might consider dancing with and who
would be on the
avoiding
list forming in the back of her mind.

When Bruce first took note of Camilla, she
tried not to even acknowledge him and instead glanced away as if
she hadn’t noticed him at all. But it was too late; he had seen the
grin emerging across her lips as he tried to dig for one more sign
that she might be interested in meeting him.

Her uncle caught the looks the kids were
trying to conceal from each other and gave his niece a playful
nudge with his shoulder. In return, Camilla gave her uncle one of
those looks that warned him not to embarrass her that evening.
Bruce remembered how he caught their eye conversation and
chuckled.

“Hailee, you’ve made me one heck of a proud
father,” he sliced through the early morning air. “I couldn’t have
asked for any better than you. No matter what the situation in life
may be, you do know you can always come to me, don’t you?”

He silently hoped there was not a situation
brewing between her and Tobias that she felt compelled to actually
speak to him about, but could not tell her so.

She nodded, fighting the tears. The sleepy
father and daughter leaned against one another, staring at the pigs
and nothing at all, all at the same time.

Chapter 6

R
ichard scraped his two brand-new knives together, producing
the familiar sound he liked so well and grinned. What a thin cut of
meat he was gonna shave off for tonight’s roast beef
dinner!

“Hey, Bruce! I sure do appreciate these,” he
said yet again as he held them up, allowing the sunlight to sparkle
against the shiny edges. “Ain’t nothin’ like new kitchen tools-just
feast your eyes on that shine,” he added.

The Boss just shook his head and grabbed a
cup of coffee.

“You might be using them to ready us some
travelin’ vittles. That dang cat was back again last night, just
before we got home; Duffy found the tracks headin’ both in and out
of the hen house.”

Richard peeked over his shoulder and walked a
few steps around the door frame to make sure they were alone.

“Ain’t gonna say it to Hailee, but that
calico kitty of hers ain’t been around for a week or so now; I fed
it leftover breakfast meat every morning since it came on the
place, and then all a sudden, it disappeared.”

Bruce shook his head again.

“Yeah, I know it. I haven’t said anything to
her, either,” Bruce said, trailing off in thought before adding,
“Do me a favor, will ya? Keep an extra eye on her for a while.”

Richard grinned.

“Worried about her since you’re heading off
on that cat hunt?” He shrugged his shoulders before adding, “You
know, that girl of ours is turning out to be quite the young
lady.”

Out of the corner of his eye, the old cook
saw his friend glance out the window.

“I’ll ask her to lend me some extra help in
the kitchen, if you’re worried about her bein’ around them boys out
in the barn for too much time outta the day.”

Bruce knew the only one he was worried about
would be with him on that cat hunt...or was he the only one?

The thought sent shivers up his spine and his
hands instinctively went straight to the sides of his head; he
squeezed both it and his eyes in an effort to ward off an incoming
headache.

The only reason he let go of his temples was
because he could hear his daughter’s laughter drifting into the
house from outside.

Richard gave a quick slice through a loaf of
bread and grinned in satisfaction at the new tool before inserting
it again and inquiring offhand, “Now what are those two up to?”

“What do ya mean?”

Richard rolled his eyes. “Oh, Tobias and
Hailee. Those two have been at it for an hour now.”

“In an argument, are they?” he asked with a
gleam of hope.

“Are you kidding me?” Richard laughed. “Those
two? I don’t think they’ve ever had a cross word to say about the
other one. No, they’ve been chasin’ one another around the horse
pen the whole morning long; not sure if they’re cleaning it or
messing it back up,” he commented with a grin. “I’d give two bits
for that kind of energy, myself,” he added with a yawn and a long
stretching-out of both arms over his head. “It’s going to take me a
week to recuperate from our trip into town.”

The owner of the ranch was already standing
at the back door with his eyes in a firmly focused gaze on the
scene not far enough from him: Tobias held the rake out in front of
himself with a playful grin plastered across his face, taunting his
daughter with the rake.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he pleaded with a
laugh.

Hailee pretended she to pour a bucket of
water onto the pile of manure that Tobias had just pulled up, and
as she laughed, her head tossed blonde curls across her shoulders
and down her back.

It was a scene Bruce had witnessed many times
between the two of them; they had a regular way of cleaning out the
pens and had worked together for years now. The man knew they were
close, and he never gave a second thought about it…until now.

He had to scold himself and laughed aloud at
the mere thought of those two being anything more than friends.

“Those two couldn’t be any closer if they
were brother and sister,” Bruce reported confidently to the man
standing behind him.

He had already shoved the door open to join
the pair in the fresh mountain air as Richard shook his head.

“Believe what you want,” he grinned, pushing
some potatoes into a heavy cast iron skillet.

“Tobias! Don’t let her get the best of you,”
Bruce teased as he opened the pen gate.

Hailee gave a mock pout.

“Whose side are you on, Daddy?”

Bruce patted Tobias on his back and gave a
quick nod of his head.

“Well, I’m for my fellow man here,” he
winked. “And if you get the best of him, then who am I gonna have
on my side when we take after that cat?”

Tobias poked the rake into the ground and got
more serious.

“Yeah, about that. I think we best get goin
in the next couple of days at most; me and the boys are fixin’ to
get that fence repaired this afternoon, and once it’s good ‘n
sturdy, I’ll be ready whenever you are, Boss.”

Bruce had to agree. With winter approaching
and the livestock coming up missing right and left, not only would
the winter meat supply be dwindled away, but the spring babies
would be in danger as well.

“Then it’s all settled,” Bruce affirmed with
a firm pat on Tobias’ shoulder. “We’ll leave on Wednesday if that
works for you.”

Duffy overheard the conversation; he had been
eye-balling Tobias the whole morning, strutting around the ranch
like he practically owned the place.

He surely was getting sick of that man,
walking in and out of the ranch house at all times of the day. He
wasn’t like the others, who only went inside at meal time and left
promptly after they had finished eating, the way all paid hands
should do.

No, that Tobias would just open the kitchen
door without so much as a knock-just march right in and jaw with
Richard in the middle of the day, drinking a glass of sweet tea or
lemonade, just making himself to home. And he took it on himself to
linger on after dinner, too! Drinkin’ one cup of coffee after
another, just sittin’ there and actin’ like he was one of the
family!

‘What gives him the right?’ Duffy thought in
a burst of inner anger. ‘Bruce is my friend! That kid ain’t got any
right to sachet in and out of the main house whenever he darn well
pleases!’

The moody ranch hand reached up to a pair of
pliers hanging on a rusty nail and grasped a long wire in them,
emptying his anger out on the metal line as he twisted it back and
forth in an attempt to snap some of the wire off.

Just the look on the man’s face as he dwelt
on the images replaying in his mind’s eye, a person could see how
worked up Duffy had allowed himself to become by the pale red flush
in his cheeks.

If Bruce wasn’t careful, that boy was gonna
get his daughter cornered into thinking that she was in love with
him, the way he flirted with her so.

“Disgusting. That’s what it is. Just plumb
disgusting,” Duffy spit out.

The wire popped off the end of the pliers and
the ranch hand proceeded to cut seven more strips the same way. He
intended to take them along on the hunting expedition to string
meat on; he’d found it easier to pack that way when going on a
hunt.

The more Duffy thought about it, the more it
riled him up; here, he’d spent the good portion of his life slaving
away for a fella, building up his land and his property-and for
what? To groom it so some young whippersnapper could just march
right in and take the whole dang thing away when he up and flirted
with the boss’s daughter?

“Well, I won’t have it!” he told the
wind.

P

Tobias and Bruce finished the raking of
manure as Hailee left their stinky mess in favor of feeding
Epoenah.

She turned when she had enough space in
between them and hollered out, “I still don’t think you rake manure
right!”

Tobias waved a hand at her and rolled his
eyes.

“That girl,“ he said out loud. He hadn’t even
realized he said it until Bruce chimed in.

“Yeah. Some days I don’t know what I’m gonna
do with her. She’s growin’ up on me, Tobias, and there ain’t a
whole lot I can do about it.” His face turned toward the man
standing next to him and he opened his mouth to say something, but
stopped short when he couldn’t help but notice that Tobias was
still watching Hailee as she stooped under Epoenah’s pen
fencing.

The look on her daddy’s face made it clear he
wasn’t so sure he was comfortable with the way Tobias was still
looking at his only daughter.

P

After dinner that very evening, Duffy stood
at his work bench, putting a match to the oil burning lantern he
kept hanging on an old hook and pulled the wick down some.

“Best to keep the light down low right now,”
a guilty conscience cautioned as he tugged at the tack room door
again to make certain it was shut tight.

His eyes followed the words scrawled out on
the paper and he bit at his bottom lip without even thinking about
what he was doing.

‘
An
opportunity like this one don’t come around but once in a man’s
life
,’ Duffy rationalized.
‘
If I play my cards right, the kid will be
done away with and I’ll be top dog again.
’

Yanking a worn-out wallet from his back
dungarees pocket, he opened it and re-counted the number of
greenbacks he owned. If he decided to go ahead and buy those shares
in the Pocahontas Mine, it would show Bruce he was better than that
kid. He would prove to be the smarter one, the one with a mind for
business.

Nodding to reassure himself that he was
making the right decision indeed, Duffy closed the wallet and slid
it back into place in his pocket.

“Yep,” he mumbled. “I’ll
head on over to the Bank of Rosita first thing in the morning and
get that taken care of,” he nodded in satisfaction.
‘
Now to take care of that dang
kid
.’

Duffy’s arm reached high over his head,
fingers wiggling around the top shelf until they grasped a leather
pouch.

A lump filled his throat and a trickle of
perspiration rolled down his forehead; he swallowed hard as his
fingers pulled at the thongs tied around the top.

He slid the smaller blades back out of the
pouch, scowled at his own indecision.

Should he or shouldn’t he?

Chapter 7

C
limbing up on his Palomino, Duffy rode off the ranch early
enough so nobody even realized he was gone; he’d planned it that
way. It wasn’t anybody’s business where he went or what he did,
anyhow.

Just as the hill caused him and his horse to
disappear, a dirty grin eased its way across his mouth. Images of
the reaction he would get from Bruce when he realized Duffy had
purchased stocks in such a profitable business deal played in his
mind over and over again, each time the scene being just a bit
different from the one before; he would have to be quiet about
buying these shares in the mine or people would be worming their
ways out of the woodwork little by little to borrow money or try to
buddy-up to him. And Duffy would have none of that!

The man on horseback pulled a worn-out pocket
watch from his vest.