“I see.” She turned away, reaching up to pull cups from the cupboard.
She heard him come up behind her, felt the warmth of his body before the touch of his hands on her arms. “I’m sorry, Abby. I didn’t mean that to sound as harsh as it did.”
“There’s no reason to apologize. This is your home. I work for you and carry out orders like any of the ranch hands.”
“You’re not like the others and you know it—” His voice was tight with anger, frustration, and impatience.
“You’ve got more to worry about than my feelings. What are you going to do, Jarrod? He’s accused you of kidnapping the children.”
“Zach knows that’s not true.”
“Everyone knows that. The point is, Donovan’s not backing down. What are you going to do?” Abby pulled out a tray and set three mugs on it along with the steaming coffeepot and containers of cream and sugar.
“I’m not sure yet.” He picked up the tray and started through the doorway. He turned to her. “You coming?”
“I’m just the housekeeper. I didn’t think you’d want me there.”
“Don’t be that way, Abby. I kept his visit quiet to spare you the worry. I know you love the kids.”
“Of course I do.”
“Do you think they should go with Donovan?”
“I never thought that. They love you so much, and they’ve been through too many changes. The best thing for them is to stay here.” She shook her head emphatically. “I
only wanted you to be open-minded if the kids wanted to know him. That’s all.”
“That’s why I want you in on this. I’m counting on you to say it just like that to Zach Magruder.”
“If you think it will help.”
“I do,” he said. He put the tray on the table, then went to the cupboard and pulled another mug out. “You ready?” he asked, lifting the tray again.
When she nodded, he waited for her to precede him into the living room. The two men stood when she and Jarrod entered.
“Abby, Jarrod.” The sheriff nodded to both of them.
“Let’s all sit down,” Jarrod said, setting the tray of coffee on the table in front of the sofa. “Will you pour, Abby?”
“Of course.” She sat down with him beside her.
Zach settled himself into the wing-back chair by the hearth. He was a big man, over six feet tall, making that seat an uncomfortable fit. Abby smiled to herself. Maybe that would speed this along. Rafe Donovan stood in front of the fireplace, even after she handed him a cup of coffee.
“Now, then,” Zach began. “What’s this all about?”
“I’ve come for my brother’s kids,” Donovan answered.
“They’re my sister’s kids,” Jarrod snapped. “They’re staying here on Blackstone land where she wanted them.”
“Their last name is Donovan. Reed wanted me to take care of ‘em and that’s what I aim to do.”
Jarrod opened his mouth and the sheriff held up his hand for quiet. “We’re gettin’ nowhere fast.”
Jarrod pointed to the other man. “What makes him think he’s got more right to them than I do?”
“My brother wrote it in his last will and testament.”
Zach shifted, trying to get comfortable in the small space. “I’ve seen it, Jarrod. Looks official to me.”
“It’s a piece of paper, Zach. He could have forged the signature. Even if he didn’t, I’ve got a letter from Sally asking me to raise her children as Blackstones.”
“Seems you both got a pretty good claim.” Zach looked from one man to the other as each of them stared at him for
a solution. He shook his head.
“I got an idea,” Donovan said. “What about splittin’ the kids up? A girl and boy apiece.” He looked at them.
“Mr. Donovan! That’s out of the question.” Abby shot to her feet before Jarrod could stop her. “How could you suggest such a thing? Split up the children? Good heavens, until they came to Jarrod, all they had was each other. Why you can’t—”
Jarrod touched her arm. “Hold on, Firecracker.”
“But, Jarrod,” she cried, looking down at him. “You aren’t seriously considering it?”
“You didn’t give me a chance to say anything one way or the other.”
What he felt was a wave of relief. He knew how important family was to Abby. Still, when she’d expressed her opinion that the children get to know their other folks, he couldn’t help questioning her loyalty. He smiled inside at her outburst. When Donovan suggested the compromise, he’d lost Abby’s sympathy. Jarrod was glad to have her wholeheartedly on his side.
“How
do
you feel about separating the kids?” Zach asked Jarrod.
‘“Bout the same as I’d feel if someone tried to take my land or livestock. I’d do whatever was necessary to stop ‘em”.
Donovan’s blue eyes narrowed on him. “That a threat, Blackstone?”
“No. It’s a promise.”
“I have just as much right to those kids as you do.”
“Mr. Donovan,” Abby said coldly. “Are you really considering what’s best for the children? Or do you want them because of some misguided notion of saving them since you couldn’t help your brother?”
“A promise is a promise,” he answered stubbornly. “I gave my word and I won’t go back on it.”
“Even if the children want to stay here with Jarrod and me?” she asked softly.
“No offense, ma’am, but they’re just kids. They got no
notion of what’s best.”
“That’s true,” Abby said. “They need guidance. That’s probably the one thing we all agree on. But you didn’t see the children when they came to Jarrod. You can’t know how much they’ve grown from a scared, skinny lot, into a happy, healthy family.”
“What is it you’re tellin’ me, ma’am?”
“There’s no easy way to say this, Donovan,” Jarrod said.
Fact was he didn’t
want
to take the sting out of it for the other man. He just wanted him gone. But with Zach Magruder there, he thought it would look better if he tried to meet Donovan halfway. “I talked to the kids. Told them I’d go along with whatever they wanted. They don’t want to go with you.”
“You bad-mouth me to them, Blackstone?” His whole body went rigid with anger.
Abby moved around the coffee table and looked at him. “Mr. Donovan, Jarrod never said anything about you to the children until I convinced him you have a right to get to know them.”
Donovan smiled a little. “Someone around here’s got a brain in their head.”
Abby gazed at him sympathetically. “The fact is, they made up their own minds. They don’t want anything to do with you.”
“You’re lyin’,” he said.
A flush of angry color blotched Abby’s cheeks. “I’m going to overlook that because you’re upset, Mr. Donovan. I don’t lie. The children have nothing but bad memories of their father, and they want no part of anyone related to him. And after your willingness to tear them apart, I must agree with their instincts.”
“Abby’s right,” Jarrod said. “The kids belong together. They’ve lost their father and mother. No call for them to lose each other too.”
Donovan took a step toward Jarrod. “This has nothing to do with what the kids want, Blackstone. You think you’re better’n me—”
Zach jumped out of the chair. “Everyone hold on. This
isn’t getting us anywhere. My gut tells me neither one of you is gonna back down.”
“You got that right,” Donovan said.
Jarrod nodded his agreement.
“There’s no choice then. You need to go before the circuit judge.”
“
Lil, I think we better get us a plan
. Right quick.” Tom closed the door of her room and leaned back against it.
Three pairs of eyes watched her, and Lily had never felt the weight of being the oldest as heavily as she did now. The four of them had hidden in the shadows at the top of the stairs, listening while the adults argued for a long time. When the sheriff left with the other man, Uncle Jarrod went out the kitchen door and slammed it, rattling the windows. He was mad as a wet hornet about that man taking them away.
It made her feel good inside to know Uncle Jarrod wanted them that much and was dead set against splitting them up. Mama would be sad if they weren’t together. But their other uncle seemed just as bent on taking them away.
Now in her room, the other three were looking to her to figure something out. She had no idea what to do.
“Should we run away?” Oliver asked, taking his thumb out of his mouth.
Tom glared at the younger boy. “That’s a dumb idea.”
“We did it before, in the back of Abby’s wagon.”
“That was when Abby lived in town. And it’s different. It’s not boarding school,” Lily reminded Oliver.
“I don’t want to go with that man,” Katie said, pouting. “I don’t like him. Seems a good reason to run away.” Her curls bounced as she flopped on Lily’s bed and folded her arms over her chest.
“We’re talkin’ about the law,” Tom said. “If the judge says we gotta go with him, I ain’t sure running away will help.”
Lily thought for a moment. “What if the judge says we get to stay with Uncle Jarrod?”
Tom sat on her bed, beside Katie, and let his shoulders slump and his long arms dangle between his knees. “What if he doesn’t?”
“Are you willing to run away from the ranch and Uncle Jarrod and Abby and your horse? Do you want to give up our home if there’s one chance that we’ll get to stay?”
“What if we have to go, Lil? What if that old judge says we gotta go with him?” Tom asked.
Lily thought he looked real close to crying, something he hadn’t done for a long time, not even when Mama died. “Then we run away,” she said, nodding emphatically.
Jarrod stomped through the oak grove that stretched beyond the house. Rage and discouragement took turns churning up his insides. He wandered along the dry creek bed into Bulito Canyon for nearly a mile, not realizing where he was headed. Then he rounded a bend and came upon the falls where he and Sally had played as children.
He had nearly forgotten this place, until the kids discovered it the day after their arrival. They’d found it for the same reason he and his sister stumbled across it so long ago: no one had the time to be bothered with them.
The thought made him feel guilty. He remembered Abby telling him the children needed to spend time with him. Strange that he’d gotten her message after he’d persuaded her to come live at the ranch. Since then, she had gotten him to take time off for Tom’s birthday and the Fourth of July. She’d made a difference to all of them.
He looked around, breathing in the scent of damp earth
and the poplar leaves that rustled in the breeze. The falls were smaller and more intimate than he remembered. Water trickled from a thin stream that skipped down the rock face from far above, a high ground of oaks and shrubs. Sunlight dappling the surface of the creek turned it to diamonds.
Memories washed over him. He and Sally had talked here for hours, sometimes until almost dark, and their mother had scolded them, out of fear, he knew now. He shook his head, remembering all the grand plans Sally had confided to him. Not once had they included dying too young.
For the first time since learning of his sister’s death, he could clearly picture her face. He could almost hear her laughter echo off the rocks. He recalled her saying that if she ever had children, she wanted them to have a place like this for their own.
He knew why he’d instinctively come here. His memories. They were all tangled up with the land he and Sally had grown up on, the land she had loved as much as he did.
Now Rafe Donovan was trying to take Sally’s kids away from him. No, they weren’t hers any longer. Or Rafe’s. They were his. Sally had given them to him, and he would fight with every last ounce of strength to prevent Rafe Donovan from getting them.
“Jarrod?”
Abby. He didn’t have to turn around to know that she was here. Her soft voice, just saying his name, was a world of comfort. A vague thought slipped through his mind that her presence in this place felt right. She made his contentment complete somehow.
He turned to look at her. With a backdrop of greenery behind her, her fiery red hair gleamed. “How did you find me, Abby?”
“I followed you from the house. I was worried.”
He gave her a small smile. “Why?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. She sat on the rock beside him, her clear blue gaze intently fixed on his face. “I’d never seen you look that way before.”
“What way?”
“Like you wanted to rip someone’s head off and feed it to him.”
“How do I look now?”
She hesitated a moment, carefully studying him. “Sad. Still mad. Determined too.”
He nodded. “Did you see the kids?”
“No. Gib sent me after you. He said he’d look in on them.”
“Do they know what’s going on?”
“I don’t think so. Lily took them upstairs when Donovan showed up with Zach. I’m sure they were in their rooms the whole time. They probably didn’t hear anything.”
They sat in silence for a while as Abby looked around.
Finally she turned to him, an angry frown marring the smoothness of her brow. “You can’t let him take them, Jarrod. He was perfectly willing to split them up. He saw absolutely nothing wrong with that plan.”
“I don’t intend to let him have them.”
Her gaze snapped to his. “What are you going to do?”
“It crossed my mind to pack them up and leave.”
“Oh, Jarrod,” she said, touching his arm. Her expression softened. “This is your home, and theirs. You can’t just leave it. And what about the children? They’re adjusting so well here. Sally wanted them to grow up on Blackstone land. I think it would break Tom’s heart if he had to give up his horse.”
“Have you got another suggestion?”
“Take your chances in court.”
“I don’t like relying on chance any more than I like running. It’s a surefire road to failure.”
“I can’t see that you have any other choice. Zach said a judge will have to decide who’s got the best claim to them. Seems pretty much equal to me. Each of you can give them a home, food, and shelter. You have just as good a chance of getting them as he does.”
“I’ve been giving this a lot of thought since he showed up. I think there’s a way I can tip the scales in my favor.”
“What?” she asked eagerly.
“Do you remember the night of the Fourth when he first showed up?” She nodded, but the puzzled look on her face told him she had no idea what he was aiming at. “He’s not married, Abby.”