Bittner, Rosanne (65 page)

They were interrupted then by a round of introductions by Lettie. She told one of the men to ride and get Katie and Brad and tell them to come for supper if possible. "Katie has a new two-month-old son," she told Nathan, "so now there are five grandchildren! Luke had a house built for you. Oh, I wish he was here, but he's in Helena meeting with the territorial legislature. We've petitioned the government to make Montana a state, but they say it could take up to five years."

She wondered why she was rattling on about something for which Nathan probably didn't give a damn. Why was she so nervous? She still held Julie, and Nathan picked up little Luke and handed him over. "I will take Julie so you can hold your grandson for a moment."

Lettie took heart from the fact that Nathan was smiling. He seemed genuinely happy to be here. She handed Julie to him and took Luke into her arms. "Oh, Nathan, they're such beautiful children!" She asked Sven to unhitch the wagon and put up the horses.

"Them horses belongs to the army, ma'am," Sergeant Reeves said, dismounting. "The only thing White Bear owns is the wagon and what's inside it."

It seemed strange to hear Nathan referred to as White Bear. Apparently on the reservation he had continued to use his Indian name. "Well, we'll still put them up for you. You can take your own horses to the barn and get them brushed down."

Ramona spoke up firmly. "This horse is mine. I will take care of her myself."

Lettie looked up at the girl. She had not even had a chance to talk to her yet, but she realized it must be Ramona. She saw the defensive look in the girl's eyes, knew she was a little bit afraid. She handed Luke to his mother and walked up to Ramona, putting out her hand. "I am Nathan's mother. Welcome, Ramona."

Ramona looked down at her hand, finally deciding to grasp it for a quick handshake. "This is
my
horse," she repeated.

For some reason the girl seemed very defensive of her small pinto. Lettie let go of her hand and petted the horse's neck. "And a fine horse it is, Ramona. You are welcome to ride down to the barn and take care of her yourself. Anything we have is yours to use." She glanced at the Double L men standing nearby, reading their thoughts. No matter how beautiful Ramona was, they still resented having Indians on the Double L. "I want my son and his family all treated with respect," she warned them. "Show them around. Help them find what they need. They have free access to anyplace on the grounds. Please make them welcome."

Some of them seemed chagrined. "Yes, ma'am, we'll do that," Billy Sacks replied. They all knew what this meant to Mrs. Fontaine, but most of them would abide by this new intrusion because they had their orders from Luke himself. None of them cared to go against those orders. There wasn't a better ranch to work on than the Double L, and none of them wanted to lose their jobs.

"Unhitch the horses then, Sven," Lettie was ordering. "Nathan, bring the family inside. We have so much to talk about. I want you to eat supper here tonight. Katie and Brad will come. Oh, I wish Luke could be here," she repeated. "And Pearl. She would be so excited about this."

Nathan set Luke on his feet and the boy toddled off to chase one of the many puppies that roamed the ranch. Nathan caught his mother's arm before she could go inside. "Be patient with Ramona," he told her. "She is afraid."

"I can tell." She covered his hand with her own. "She'll be all right, Nathan."

His eyes showed a haunting sadness. "They took so much from us. She lost her whole family, and the army took most of our horses. That is why she is so protective of her own." A proud but hurt look came into his eyes. "I once had many horses myself. They are all gone now. I feel bad coming here with nothing to offer."

Lettie felt her throat constricting. "Just bringing yourself and two grandchildren we never knew we had is the most wonderful gift you could bring, Nathan. And there are hundreds of horses on the Double L. You can have any of them you like, or you can go riding after the wild ones. There are still plenty of those left, too."

His eyes suddenly teared. "It has been a long time since I was free to ride and hunt that way."

Lettie squeezed his hand. "Well, now you are. You're home, Nathan, and no one can take any of this away from you."

Tyler was close enough to see and hear, and his chest burned at the remark. He turned away to take hold of Ramona's horse. "I'll show you where to take her," he said with a frown.

Ramona slid off the animal and walked beside him. "You are jealous, Tyler Fontaine." He scowled at her. "What?"

"You are jealous of Nathan. I can see it in your eyes."

"I am not!" he said grumpily.

"Yes, you are. You do not need to be."

"What would you know about it?"

"I know because Nathan told us everyone welcomed us to come, except he was not so sure you would. Do you want us to leave?"

He stopped walking and looked at her, damned if he could control his curiosity at how she must look stark naked. She was so pretty, so perfect. "No," he answered. He stormed off to the barn, and Ramona hurried after on bare feet. She covered her mouth and smiled.

May 1885

Lettie opened the letter from Pearl. She sat near the hearth in the library, Luke sitting nearby smoking a thin cigar. "'Dear Mother and Father,'" she read. "'Things have gone so well that I am going to play in a concert with a local orchestra in July. I can hardly believe two years have already gone by since I left the Double L, and I miss you so; but I have never been happier, and Professor Bansen says he is amazed at my progress. I could have come home last summer or this year, but I have been so involved in concerts and my lessons. However, that is not the only reason.'"

Lettie paused, frowning and reading on silently. "Oh, dear," she commented, glancing at Luke.

He cast her a worried look. "What does that mean?"

She sighed. "I'm not sure. I just never know how you'll react to some things, and apparently Pearl doesn't either."

"What does the letter say? Let's hear it."

Lettie looked back at the letter. "She says T hope Father won't be angry and that you will both trust my judgment. I am in love.'"

Luke let out a sigh of disgust. "Pearl, too?"

"'His name is Lawrence Bansen,'" she read on, "'and he is Professor Bansen's son. Lawrence is twenty-six years old and was studying music overseas when I first came here. He came home about a year ago, and I knew from the moment I met him that I loved him.'"

"Don't all young girls think that way?" Luke grumbled.

"I
did," Lettie reminded him.

He rubbed at his eyes. "You'd defend these kids if they committed murder."

"Being in love is not exactly comparable to murder," she answered with a grin. She turned back to the letter. "'Lawrence is an accomplished pianist as well as harpist and violinist. He is also a conductor and composer, with a brilliant future. We are so happy together because we share all the same things. Our world is music, and when we marry—'" Lettie hesitated, realizing Pearl had said when, not if, as though there was no doubt about it, and her parents had no say in the matter. She glanced at Luke again, saw the disgust in his eyes. "'When we marry,'" she continued, "'we will live right here at the Bansen mansion, where other students stay. Someday I plan to help Lawrence write music, and also to teach piano. We both want to perform with the symphony in Chicago.

"'Please be happy for us. I love and miss both of you so much, and I miss my brothers and Katie. I wish I could meet Nathan and his family. Maybe someday soon I will. I have told Lawrence so much about the ranch and our life there. He is quite fascinated by it all and wants to visit someday. He imagines Father as a big, rugged pioneer, fearless and daring, like the westerners we read about here in the dime novels.'"

Luke chuckled in spite of being upset by the news.

"Well, you
are
rugged and fearless and daring," Lettie told him.

He just shook his head. "Finish the damn letter."

"'Lawrence and I would like you, Mother and Father, to come to Chicago in July for our wedding. Both of us will be playing in the orchestra concert the night before, so you will be able to attend that also. I want so much for you to see Chicago. It is not like anything you have ever seen back home, I assure you. It has been so long since Mother went to the theater and such. You are so beautiful, Mother. I want the Bansens to meet you. I am sure they are picturing a weathered, pipe-smoking old pioneer woman. They will be so surprised to see how elegant and refined you are, and how handsome Father still is. They were quite impressed to learn Father had been voted into the territorial legislature, and I have told them I believe Father will be governor of Montana when it becomes a state.'"

"She's really buttering us up, isn't she?" Luke sighed. "She's only eighteen. This Lawrence is eight years older than she."

Lettie scowled at him. "'Luke,
I
was eighteen when I married you, and you're
ten
years older! Why do you insist that it all has to be so different for your own children? It sounds as though they are very happy and certainly well suited to each other."

He puffed quietly on the cigar for a moment. "If I had been your father, I would have kicked me off that wagon train and taken you to Denver with me."

"Oh, you would not, and you know it."

He stared at his cigar. "Our Pearl left here a little girl and now she's become a woman without our seeing it happen." He rubbed at his eyes. "When is the wedding?"

Lettie scanned the letter. "July eighteenth. She has sent us a map and address to get to the Bansen home."

"I'll feel like an idiot around people like that."

"I have a feeling they will be much more impressed by you than you will by them."

"What the hell will we talk about?"

"You'll probably be busy just answering questions." She rose and came over to kneel in front of his chair. "Be happy for her, Luke. Her life has been leading in this direction for years. And we can use the trip to accompany Robbie partway to Michigan. That is just about the time he's supposed to go off to school, so he won't have to make the whole trip alone. The school found a good family to look out for him, so both Robbie and Pearl will be just fine."

He studied her, setting the cigar aside. "When did it get so easy for you to turn your children loose?"

She smiled sadly. "When I realized it's impossible to hang on to them. At least we have Katie and Ty with us, and all our grandchildren, Luke. We know Robbie will come back here someday, and we don't have to wonder anymore about Nathan. We have him back with us."

Luke frowned. "Things still aren't quite right between Nathan and Tyler. Tyler has acted as if he has a burr between his butt and his saddle ever since Nathan came back, and it's been over a year now. I've never shown one ounce of favoritism to Nathan, at least not that I'm aware of."

She sighed deeply. "Ty just can't seem to get used to Nathan. It's partly because in some ways Nathan outdoes him without even intending to do it. Ty about had a fit when Nathan tamed that wild stallion Ty caught. Ty spent two weeks with that animal, and in one day Nathan had the horse following him around like a baby. I think that embarrassed Ty."

Luke rubbed at his chin. "Some people have a better way with horses than others, that's all. Ty knows that. Tex used to be our top man when it came to taming the wild ones."

"Luke, it hurt Ty's pride. It's all right for an outsider like Tex to show him up. But his own brother is something different, especially when it's a brother who replaces him as the oldest, and one who never had a part in building the ranch in the first place. He is very possessive of you, you know, and of his station here on the ranch."

"He knows damn well his importance here isn't threatened." He shook his head. "I don't know. There's nothing I can do but let the two of them work it out."

She put a hand on his knee. "We can't make decisions for any of our children anymore, Luke. They're very determined, every one of them in their own way, just as you were. Pearl is going to marry her musician, Robbie is going to be a doctor, Katie married a sheep man, and Tyler is determined to be in charge of this ranch. He's just protecting his territory, like a wolf. Things will get better as time goes on."

"That thing over the horse opened some old wounds. Things were going pretty well until then."

"He'll get over it. Just remember that no matter what
you
do, one of them will think you're playing favorites." She rose and looked at the letter again. "We
can
go to Chicago, can't we?"

"Of course we can go."

"We only have a month to get ready. Robbie will be so happy we can go with him most of the way to Michigan."

Lettie began talking about what she should wear, but Luke did not hear. With Pearl gone, Robbie going off to college, and Katie at her own ranch wrapped up with three little ones, that left him two sons at home... two sons who were as different as night and day. He wished he could do more to bring them closer, but Lettie was right. He
didn't
dare interfere.

Tyler carried a fifty-pound sack of potatoes out to the supply wagon and hoisted it inside, then took the list of needed supplies from his shirt pocket and reviewed it. He had seen his parents off on the train to Chicago, and before he went home he was to fill a grocery list for Mae. He started back inside the store when someone called his name. "Hello, Ty."

He turned to see Alice Richards, who had come up behind him from across the street. She looked beautiful in a bright pink cotton summer dress. A matching pink ribbon was twisted through her blond hair, which was piled up into curls on top of her head. It was a perfect color for her soft, pale skin and blue eyes. "Hello, Alice."

There was a sad look in those pretty eyes, and he knew why. Ever since Ramona had come to live at the Double L, the thoughts he had once reserved only for Alice had wandered in another direction. Alice and Ramona could not be more different, and Ramona stirred a fire in his loins that was getting to the point of being impossible to quench. There was only one way to put it out, and he had been fighting it for a year now.