Texas Born (42 page)

He nodded doubtfully.

'The field all around you has been mown down
. . . the weeds are gone and there's short grass everywhere . . .
right behind you is a huge building facing the highway . . . one
story, but very long . . . a series of buildings, actually.' Her
voice came from a different direction now; she was walking around.
'Now, each building consists of an individual room with a bathroom
and a covered parking place for a car. And in the center of it all
is the office. In fact, the very spot where you're sitting right
now is a large curving driveway. To your left, facing the road, is
a huge sign that's lit up at night. It reads: 'Tourist Court.'
'

His eyes opened.

'Do you like the idea?' she asked hopefully,
coming back over to the buggy. She looked up at him, her eyes
shining.

'It might be a good idea,' he conceded,
nodding.

'Imagine the business this place will do!'
She looked at him closely. 'Don't you think it would make a good
spot for a tourist court?'

'It makes sense,' he said carefully.

'Just think! There won't be another one for a
hundred miles around! It'll do a booming business. But before it's
begun, I still have to convince one of the parties involved.'

He frowned and said slowly, 'And who is this
other party?'

'Guess.'

He made a face. 'I'm afraid to.'

She smiled. 'You know I'm never one to be
frivolous with money. But this isn't throwing it out the window.
It's an investment, Zaccheus! It's the opportunity I've been
waiting for. Really, darling, this is the chance of a
lifetime!'

'It's the chance to go broke, too. What
you're proposing would cost a fortune!'

'We've got money,' she said quietly.

'I don't know . . .'he mused slowly, and
rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'We'll really have to think it over
well. We can't go rushing into something like this blindly. There
are a lot of things to consider. Building costs, financing,
purchasing the property . . .'

'The property's already taken care of,' she
said softly.

'
What?
'

'It's ours, Zaccheus. I. . .I've already
bought it.'

He stared at her. 'I thought that whatever we
did, we did it
together
. That's what we always agreed
upon.'

'Yes, but I . . .' She whirled suddenly and
threw her hands in the air. 'Dammit!' she cried, 'I wanted to
surprise you.'

'You did surprise me,' he pointed out
quietly, hopping down off the buggy.

She glared at him. 'Well, you're suddenly
acting as if I stabbed you in the back. As if I cheated you.'

He tightened his lips across his teeth. 'I
suppose you've made up your mind?'

She nodded.

His jaw trembled, but somehow he managed to
keep his voice from quivering. 'I only hope to God it works
out.'

'Why shouldn't it?'

'It just seems . . . so quick.' He sought her
hands and held them desperately. 'Elizabeth-Anne, it isn't that I
don't want us to do it. Believe me, that's not it at all. It's just
. . . well, like you're rushing into it.'

'You've got to take advantage of
opportunities when they arise,' she said stubbornly. 'God knows,
they don't crop up often around here.'

Well, what is done is done
, he thought
stolidly, his cheeks ticking.
He might as well yield to the
inevitable and make the best of it. Otherwise, a battle between
them could rage, causing irreparable harm to their relationship.
Nothing was worth that. Not all the money in the world.

He took a deep breath and asked, 'Who owned
this property before us?'

'Who owned it? Why, Tex Sexton, of course.'
She laughed shortly. 'Who else owns any land around here?'

'Did the highway commission buy the land for
the highway yet?'

She shook her head. 'They're in the process
of doing that right now.''

'How far does our property reach?'

She pointed.

'And the highway?' He looked at her
hopefully. 'Is it going to run through our property?'

'If you're asking is the commission going to
have to buy the land from us, the answer is no. Everything
surrounding us is Sexton's property, and it's coming through his.'
She laughed shortly. 'You don't think he'd throw that in too, and
give us an easy profit as a present, do you? The commission's
paying top dollar for highway land. Tex Sexton has got his own
little thing going.'

Like fleecing the highway commission
,
he thought.

'May I ask,' he said slowly, 'how much you
paid for this property?'

'A hundred and fifty dollars.'

'A hundred and fifty!' Zaccheus stared at her
incredulously.

'What's the matter? Why are you looking at me
like that? It's dirt cheap.'

'That's exactly what I mean,' he said dryly.
He looked at her closely. 'Don't you think it was a little
too
cheap?'

And a pessimistic voice inside his head said:
Why would Tex Sexton have sold it this cheaply now, when it
would surely be worth so much more once the highway was built?
Besides, Sextons didn't sell land. Not ever. Somehow, their selling
Elizabeth-Anne this property didn't add up.

'You've got a bill of sale and a deed, of
course?'

Elizabeth-Anne laughed. 'What do you take me
for? A fool? Everything's in order. I consulted Eblin Keyes and
he's drawing up the papers.'

A Sexton lawyer, he thought, and sighed.
There was small choice in rotten apples. How far did you have to
travel to make sure your lawyer wasn't a Sexton lawyer? Then he put
a screeching stop to his wandering imagination. Perhaps he was
making a mountain out of a molehill. After all, wasn't he getting
along just fine with Tex Sexton? Didn't his raises come as
regularly as clockwork? Didn't Jenny carefully steer clear of him
and Elizabeth-Anne? So what was there to worry about?

Zaccheus swallowed the frog clogging his
throat. 'All right, darting,' he said hoarsely, 'if it means that
much to you, and if you're sure everything's in order, go ahead and
build it. I'll help in any way I can.'

'You mean that?'

He nodded and she threw her arms around
him.

'It'll work out, darling!' she cried
excitedly. 'You'll see! And you won't be sorry, either! This is
going to be the biggest, most successful tourist court in all
Texas!'

The long refectory table was draped with a
priceless Kashan rug. The sterling Edwardian candelabra bristled
with glowing white candles, the china was English cobalt blue
rimmed in gold, the napkins were thick, creamy Irish linen
monogrammed with the ubiquitous S, and the cutlery was sterling,
each heavy piece intricately made from a single length of silver.
The food was as splendid as the setting. There were giant shrimp,
trucked in that very morning from the gulf, and three-inch-thick
rib-eye steaks which had been aged right out back of the ranch
house.

Jenny moved slightly sideways as the Mexican
serving girl wordlessly placed the bowl of crushed ice, crowned
with four giant pink shrimp, in front of her. She ignored the food,
leaned her bare elbows on the table, and steepled her fingers. She
tapped her index fingers against her lips as she stared across the
table at Tex.

He felt her gaze as he speared a shrimp, his
lean, taut face and usually predatory eyes carefully impassive.
Without even looking over at her, he could feel the intense
excitement emanating from her face. It seemed to hit him in radiant
waves.

'Well? Have you set things up?' she asked
finally, unable to contain her impatience any longer.

He chewed his shrimp reflectively and didn't
reply.

'Did you talk to Jesse about the loan?'

He finished his shrimp in his own sweet time
and reached for the massive crystal goblet of white wine, letting
her wait, making the tension within her grow unbearably. It was
amazing, he thought, how when she wanted something badly enough,
she managed to swallow all remnants of her pride and revulsion and
barter for it.

He was waiting for that now. When she'd
initially brought up the subject of his telling Jesse to let
Elizabeth-Anne and Zaccheus have a big loan, he'd let her wait and
stew in her own juices before consenting to do so. Only after she
had promised to take him— not from the front as man and wife, but
from behind, like an animal—had he agreed to talk to Jesse. If
nothing else, he had to admit that Jenny at least kept her end of
the bargain. Despite her obvious pain and discomfiture, she hadn't
cried out once. She had, in fact, pretended to relish it so much
that afterwards he wasn't quite so sure she really hadn't enjoyed
it.

She was like no other woman he had ever
known. And yet, after nearly four years of marriage, he often felt
as though he did not know her at all. In many ways, they were very
much alike; in many others, they were still strangers. They had sex
frequently, but he knew that it was not lovemaking by any means. It
was grim and determined. Fierce and energetic. It was coupling, but
it was not love—and he knew it.

He looked across the table, eyes intent,
studying her. She was wearing a thin, low-cut blue dress, her
shoulders bare, the rows of diagonal silver fringe which trimmed it
flickering in the candlelight. He wasn't quite so sure he liked
this new 'Roaring Twenties' style she had picked up on her travels.
The flapper fashion was too boyish to really suit her, he
thought.

She was waiting with barely controlled
expectancy.

Somehow he imagined her to be a panther,
poised to pounce at a scrap of meat.

'Well, did you talk to Jesse yet?' she asked
again. 'And what about Roy? Did you ask him about jacking up prices
and delaying the deliveries?'

'Not so quick.' He smiled benignly at her.
'What's it worth to you?'

She rubbed her lips together, as though she
had just applied a layer of lipstick. 'What do you want, Tex?' she
asked finally.

He dabbed his lips with his napkin. 'Show me
your tongue.' He gestured with his hand.

She glanced quickly behind her to see if any
of the servants were looking, or if Ross had finished eating in the
breakfast room and the nanny was bringing him in to say good night.
Other than the serving girl, whose eyes were studiously averted,
the coast was clear.

She glanced significantly in the girl's
direction.

Tex shrugged. 'Let's see your tongue,' he
said again.

Jenny opened her mouth and showed him her
tongue. It was pink and moist.

'You know where that tongue hasn't been yet?'
he asked with deliberate cruelty.

Her tongue slid back between her lips and she
clamped her mouth shut.

'Well?'

Wearily she sighed.

'Are you gonna do it?'

She stared at him in sudden loathing, then
nodded.

'But you've got to
like
doing it,' he
said softly. 'You've got to promise me you'll
enjoy
it.'

Her smile was sickly. 'I'll enjoy it,' she
whispered in a strained voice.

But later, when he lowered his bared buttocks
down into her face, she had to struggle to keep from being sick.
Even then, as soon as he was through, she jumped from the bed and
barely made it to the bathroom.

As she vomited, Jenny realized for the first
time just how much she had come to despise her husband.

They applied for a loan of ten thousand
dollars at the Quebeck Savings and Loan, the Sexton-owned bank.

'Hell,' Tex Sexton had magnanimously told
Zaccheus, 'tell old Jesse to make it twelve thousand. There are
always unforeseen expenses when you're building something. Won't do
to be on too tight a budget. I've seen too many good businesses
never take off because they were underfinanced.'

'Twelve thousand dollars is . . . well, a
fortune!' Elizabeth-Anne told Zaccheus anxiously as they left the
bank. 'Maybe we should have borrowed less. After all, we have nine
thousand saved up.'

He shook his head. 'Tex is right, I think,'
he said levelly. 'Besides, we can always return what we don't
need.'

'But I still don't understand about the
collateral! Why the café?' she asked. 'Why not the rooming house?
As a piece of property, it's worth a lot more. It would only stand
to reason they'd want to protect their interests.'

Zaccheus shrugged. 'Beats me.' Suddenly he
laid a hand on her arm. 'Don't worry so much, Mama,' he said
softly. 'Maybe they're trying to give us a break. Have you ever
considered that?'

No, I haven't
, she thought uneasily.
Sextons never give anyone a break.

Out at the Sexton ranch, Jenny celebrated the
news of Elizabeth-Anne's bank loan with a glass of bootleg French
champagne. Prohibition had certainly had no effect on the
Sextons.

'I still don't understand why you wanted them
to put up the café as collateral instead of the rooming house,' Tex
said. 'It's the far less valuable property.'

'It's simple, really,' Jenny said. 'You see,
the rooming house doesn't mean half as much to her. It's the café
where she spends most of her time. And they live right upstairs.
Besides, the café brings in a lot more money than the rooming
house.' She smiled. 'It'll hurt them worse to lose it.'

In due course the highway surveyors were done
and the blueprints of the tourist court were drawn up.
Elizabeth-Anne and Zaccheus finally broke ground and work began in
earnest.

Each morning thereafter, the two Hales rode
out to the site long before daylight made its appearance in order
to be there by sunrise to inspect the progress of the previous day.
Sometimes the girls went along with them, and although they were
invariably sleepy on the drive out, by the time they reached the
site they were wide-awake with excitement. There was no playground
quite like a construction site, Elizabeth-Anne thought dryly as she
watched them get dusty and dirty and scrape their shins. When she
voiced her worries that they were all growing up to become tomboys,
Zaccheus laughed. 'They'll outgrow it soon enough. You'll see. In a
few years you'll wish they hadn't.'