Texas Born (39 page)

'Jenny's . . .' Elender laid down the whisk
and turned around. She smiled. 'Good. I've never seen this place
quite so busy. We can use the extra help tonight.' She sighed,
placed her hands in the small of her back, and stretched
wearily.

Elizabeth-Anne looked at her
expressionlessly. 'I don't think she came to help.'

'Oh.' Elender froze in the midst of arching
her back.

'She wants to talk to you.'

'Well, here I am.'

'She wanted me to come and get you,'
Elizabeth-Anne said pointedly.

Rosa turned around from the stove and rolled
her dark eyes expressively. She set down the plate she was holding
with a bang. 'As if there isn't enough to do 'round here without
having to drop everything when her highness say 'jump'?'

Auntie ignored her. 'Very well,' she told
Elizabeth-Anne, and smoothed her dress with her hands. 'Tell her
I'll be right out.'

'If the young lady wants to see you, why she
don' come in here?' Rosa demanded, emphasizing each word with
shakes of the ladle.

Elizabeth-Anne smiled, reached past Rosa, and
picked up three steaming plates. She balanced one on her forearm
and carried one in each hand. With a sideways thrust of her hips,
she pushed her way back out through the swinging doors.

'Well?' Jenny demanded.

'She'll be right out.'

'Good.' Jenny smiled. 'I would appreciate it
if you joined us. I want you to hear what I have to say too.'

Elizabeth-Anne nodded absently and carried
the plates across the room. She set one down in front of Mr.
McElwee, then turned and placed the others in front of the Byrd
sisters. She glanced across the dining room: Elender was coming out
of the kitchen.

Elizabeth-Anne felt a jolt of pain. She could
sense that Auntie's arthritis was exceptionally bad today, and it
hurt her to see it. It worried her, too, that she was so thin.
Elender's clothes, of which she had always been so proud, and which
had always looked so elegant on her, were hanging off her as if
from a scarecrow, and she walked painfully on flat slippers, taking
careful little steps.

Elizabeth-Anne smiled automatically. 'Enjoy
it,' she told the Byrd sisters quickly, and then went over to join
Elender and Jenny.

'Can we talk in private?' Jenny was
saying.

Elender glanced around the dining room.
'We're really terribly busy right now, Jenny. Can't it keep until a
little later?'

'It's important,' Jenny said emphatically.
'It'll only take a minute.'

'Very well.' Elender led the way out the side
door into the hall. Jenny followed her and motioned for
Elizabeth-Anne to tag along. Elizabeth-Anne fell into step behind
them. It tugged her heart to see how slowly Elender had to climb
the stairs.

When they got to the upstairs parlor, Elender
closed the door softly and looked at Jenny questioningly.

Jenny's face was outwardly calm, but an
excited gleam danced deep in her eyes. She reached out and took
both Elender's hands in her own, something she hadn't done for many
years. Overcome, Elender looked at her with speechless surprise.
Her lips trembled and tears gathered in her eyes as Jenny leaned
close and blew a cold kiss past her cheek.

'Well?' Jenny asked finally. She disengaged
her hands from Elender's. 'Isn't somebody going to congratulate
me?' She turned to Elizabeth-Anne, unable to keep the triumph off
her face.

Elizabeth-Anne stared at her, her hands in
her apron pockets. 'What's the occasion?'

Jenny smiled crookedly. 'I'm getting
married.'

'You're—' Elender swallowed and looked at her
queerly. 'But . . . but this is so sudden!' she sputtered. 'So . .
. so out of the blue!'

'Aren't you happy for me?' Jenny asked, her
voice suddenly bitter.

'Why, yes, of course I'm happy,' Elender said
quickly. She wrung her hands in agitation. 'Who . . . who is the
lucky man?'

A triumphant gleam glinted in Jenny's eyes.
'I'll give you three guesses.'

'It's Tex Sexton, isn't it?' Elizabeth-Anne
asked softly.

The triumph in Jenny's eyes faded instantly.
'How did you guess?' she demanded, and then laughed. 'Of course!
How stupid of me! Your husband would have told you I was seeing
Tex.'

Elender stared at Jenny. 'But . . . but you
don't know him, do you? I mean, how did you meet him? I didn't even
know you . . .' She turned to Elizabeth-Anne. 'What did Zaccheus
tell you?'

'Only that Jenny and Mr. Sexton were seeing
quite a lot of each other. That's all.'

Elender's face was set in a wounded
expression. 'And you didn't tell me? Neither of you?'

Elizabeth-Anne bit down on her lip. What
could she have told Auntie? That Jenny was spending a lot of time
out at the Sexton ranch? She wasn't Jenny's baby-sitter. If Jenny
was carrying on an affair with Tex Sexton, it was no business of
hers. Jenny was certainly old enough to lead her own life—without
supervision.

Jenny raised her chin. 'We're getting married
immediately. Tex wanted to wait and throw a big wedding here with
all the trimmings, but we talked it over and decided to leave for
Dallas in the morning instead. It'll be a very quiet ceremony, just
the two of us and a witness, otherwise we would have invited
you.'

Elender was stunned. 'In the morning?' she
asked. '
Tomorrow
morning?'

Jenny nodded. 'We'll get married there and
stay on a few days. I'll need to pack a few things, but not much.
Tex is going to buy me a whole new wardrobe.' She sighed happily.
'Oh, and I'll need my birth certificate, Auntie.'

'You need your . . .' Elender looked suddenly
stricken.

'What's the matter? You do have it, don't
you?'

'I . . . uh . . . yes . . . of course.'

'Well, don't be so damned mysterious about
it!' Jenny snapped.
'Get it!
'

Elender nodded, her face suddenly ashen. So
the time had finally come that Jenny would find out that she was
her daughter—not her niece. She had always known that Jenny would
eventually have to know, but she had hoped she would have time to
prepare her for it. But the opportunity had not arisen. Jenny had
never given her the chance: she had always been so wild, so sour,
so bitter.

Elender's mind swirled, turning back the
years to those horrible nights in the big house on Beacon Hill in
Boston so long, long ago. As year after year had passed, and she
had built a new life for herself and Jenny, she had shoved those
bleak memories aside.

Now the past had finally caught up with
her.

O Lord,
Elender prayed
, help Jenny
understand that the indiscretion wasn't my fault entirely. I was a
foolish young chambermaid with nowhere else to go and nothing to my
name but guilt and shame. Times were different back then. I had no
money. I had nothing. Not even my pride. All I did was listen to my
employer's son and do as he demanded. Can I be faulted for
that?

Yes, you can, and should,
her
relentless conscience replied with agonizing candor.

'Wait here while I go get it,' Elender said
stiffly.

Jenny nodded and watched, mystified, as she
left the parlor and went down the hall to her bedroom. She looked
at Elizabeth-Anne. 'I don't know what the big secret is. Do
you?'

Elizabeth-Anne shook her head. She didn't
know what was wrong either, but something had shaken Elender
terribly. She looked like a ghost.

After a few minutes, Jenny folded her arms
and tapped her elbows with her index fingers. 'I don't know what's
keeping her so long. I haven't got all day.'

After a while Elender returned, envelope in
hand. She walked with that peculiar kind of dignity which
Elizabeth-Anne realized she adopted whenever she needed armor.

'Sit down, Jenny darting, please,' Elender
said in a quivering voice. 'I think we need to have a long- overdue
talk.'

Jenny stared at her. 'What about?'

'The birth certificate. Our past.'

Jenny narrowed her eyes.
'Our
past?
What are you talking about?'

'It's a long story,' Elender said wearily.
'Please, just hear me out.'

'I don't have the time.' Jenny fished the
envelope out from between her fingers and Elender let out a
strangled cry.

'Please listen, Jenny. Please!' she implored
desperately. 'I don't care if you never listen to me again for as
long as I live. Just listen to me now, before you look at that
certificate!'

But Jenny was already sliding the certificate
out of the envelope. The paper was folded, and was old, creased,
and yellowed, worn almost transparently thin, as if it had been
handled a lot.

Jenny suddenly let out a keening howl and
slapped the paper against her thigh. 'You
bitch!
' Jenny
screamed. 'Oh, you fucking
bitch!
'

Elizabeth-Anne gasped. 'Jenny! You can't use
language like that! Not with Auntie!'

Jenny whirled at Elizabeth-Anne, her eyes wet
with tears, yet blazing with a hellish fury. 'Oh, I
can't,
can't I?' Hands on her hips, she looked Elizabeth-Anne up and down.
'Who are you to tell me what I can or cannot call that lying
two-faced bitch?' She thrust the birth certificate at
Elizabeth-Anne. 'Here! See for yourself!''

Her hands trembling, Elizabeth-Anne took the
paper and read it, her eyes flaring in disbelief.

'Jenny, please,' Elender whispered hoarsely.
'Jenny, darling—'

'Just listen to yourself!' Jenny spat. '
"Jenny darling,"
'she mimicked, rocking her head from left
to right. She howled with hysterical laughter. 'Oh, this is
precious!
My own mother treating me like a niece for all
these years!' She threw her hands up in the air and stalked about
the parlor, muttering curses under her breath. 'My own fucking
mother! My
mother!
'

'Jenny,' Elender begged. She looked as though
she had suddenly aged twenty years. 'Jenny . . .'

'I'm leaving,' Jenny said suddenly. 'Do you
hear me? I'm leaving for good. And I'll never come back! Ever! I
never want to see you again for as long as I live!' Then she
violently jerked the birth certificate from Elizabeth-Anne's
hand.

'Jenny,
please
,' Elender pleaded.
'You're my daughter. Don't treat me like this! You're breaking my
heart!' She reached up to touch Jenny's cheek beseechingly, but
Jenny recoiled. 'Jenny, you're my daughter!' Auntie appealed in a
strained voice. 'Don't turn away from me!'

'Then why, pray tell, wasn't I your daughter
all these goddamn years? Why did you lead me to believe that my
mother was dead and that you were taking care of me out of the
goodness of your heart?'

'It was the times, Jenny. A woman alone—'

'Damn, damn,
damn!
' Jenny pounded her
head with her clenched fists. 'Will you just leave me alone?'

'You can't mean you won't ever come back,
Jenny,' Auntie cried softly. 'You'll visit with me. You'll bring
your husband and your children—'

'Like
hell
I will! I never want to see
you again. Do I make myself perfectly clear? I don't want anything
from you. Not your stinking love, nor your filthy lies.
Nothing
. And I don't want to inherit a goddamn thing of
yours once you're dead, which for me can't be soon enough!'

'Jenny!' Elizabeth-Anne cried. 'Oh, my God,
Jenny! You can't mean that! Tell her you don't mean it!'

'Don't you "
Jenny"
me, you freak!'
Jenny whirled from Elender to Elizabeth-Anne.

'You're upset, darling, and that's
understandable,' Elender said in a civil, desperately soothing
tone. 'Why don't you sleep on it? Maybe you'll feel differently
tomorrow. We'll talk some more when you come—'

Jenny laughed. 'You're right about one thing.
I
am
upset. But I'm not about to sleep on anything. You
don't need me. You never even wanted me! This proves it. You've got
the daughter of your choice, anyway. Here! Hold
her!
Hug
her!
Kiss
her!
' With that, Jenny grabbed
Elizabeth-Anne by the arm and, with the strength of a madwoman,
flung her across the room, straight into Elender's arms.

'Just remember,' Jenny warned from the door,
'don't try to come and see me. Because if you're foolish enough to
try, I'll have you shot! For trespassing!' And with that she tossed
her head and stomped out, slamming the door with such force that
the walls shook and a picture came crashing down.

Elender clutched Elizabeth-Anne tightly and
stared up into her face. 'She can't mean it!' she whispered. 'She
can't!'

'Of course she doesn't!' Elizabeth-Anne
humored her softly. 'Of course she doesn't,' she repeated with her
lips, but as she stared out at the room over Elender's head, her
eyes said differently.

'She'll make up with me,' Elender sobbed. She
swallowed painfully and nodded emphatically. 'You'll see. She was
just angry, that's all.'

'Yes,' Elizabeth-Anne whispered, hugging her
tightly. 'She was only angry. She'll come around, Auntie.'

'Yes, she will.'

But Jenny didn't come around. Nor was she
above rubbing salt into wounds. When she gave birth to her
firstborn, the heir to the Sexton fortune, she made sure the news
was plastered all over the front page of the
Quebeck Weekly
Gazette
—which wasn't at all difficult to arrange, since Tex
owned the newspaper.

Elender bought several copies of that issue
and read each word religiously until she could quote the article by
heart. Carefully she cut her grandson's picture out of two of the
copies and framed them. She placed one on the nightstand in her
bedroom and hung the other one up in the kitchen of the café. Then
she purchased a present, dressed with extreme care, and rode out to
the Sexton ranch.