Season of Fear (11 page)

"I've just received a wire from a mutual acquaintance of ours. We're having company at Ridley Ranch this afternoon. My old school buddy, your old employer! Herman Robinson and his wife are coming for a visit!"

Robin stopped dead in her tracks. Her mouth was dry and her mind was awhirl. Herman coming to the ranch? She couldn't believe her ears. Relief slowly flooded her body. Herman wasn't missing, after all her fears. He was coming for a visit! There was no need to bring her deception into the open right now, no need to erase the happy smile from Alex's face before her.

Herman would know what to do when he got here. Herman always knew what to do. About her job. About the lawyer. Herman would help her to solve her problems as he always had. Herman would explain everything.

She smiled brightly back at Alex. "Wonderful," she said. "It will be wonderful to see him again." And she meant every word of it.

Herman arrived in a sleek, low-slung car, late in the afternoon. His portly body emerged from behind the wheel, and he assisted his slightly built wife, Lisa, from the passenger side.

Robin saw their arrival from the dining-room window, where she was supervising the placing of the centerpiece and decorations for the festive dinner Alex had requested.

Sara thumped around behind her in her cast. "Dad cares so much about Mr. Robinson. This is the first time he's been here since before Mother died. He's so nice. The last time he was here, he took us all on a picnic up in the mountains. We drove for hours to get there." Sara's eyes looked dreamy.

"Mother was so happy. I remember her face. That was just before she died." The girl's voice drifted away as Alex greeted his guests and escorted them through the front door.

Robin wiped her hands nervously on the skirt she had worn for the occasion and stepped into the foyer to greet them.

"Robin North." Alex said gaily, "you remember Herman and Lisa Robinson?"

Robin blushed as she shook Herman's outstretched hand and smiled at Lisa. She couldn't decipher the searching look that Herman gave her. He gave no sign of giving away her secret. He was friendly, impersonal.

"Well, Herman, you couldn't have recommended a better person for our needs here at the ranch. Robin has been quite a hit around here. She's very dear to our hearts, like a part of the family."

Robin felt her throat begin to close, and feared that telltale tears would soon appear in her eyes. "And right now," she said with a forced smile, "I've got to get back to my job, or we'll all be missing dinner!"

The group laughed as she exited, but she herself felt far from laughing. She wanted to go to her cousin. Herman, immediately to pour out her woes and fears, to have him explain his actions that puzzled her so. She had ached at Alex's comment about being "dear to our hearts." How he would squirm to know how dear to his heart she wished she really was!

Dinner was a cheerful, social meal. Robin was quiet and preoccupied as she shared the table with the Ridleys and Robinsons, who chatted happily about the past. Alex seemed younger somehow. The lines of worry that usually creased his tanned face had disappeared, and he smiled gaily and easily with his guests. Was this the man he had been, the man who had existed before the tragic death of his wife had cast dark and gloomy shadows over his life? Robin silently prayed that time would heal the wounds beneath the surface and allow him to laugh in that carefree way permanently.

She excused herself at the finish of the meal and retired to her room, having installed the Robinsons in one of the guest rooms that had been hastily freshened up before their arrival.

A few hours later, dressed in a brightly colored lounge robe, she answered the soft tap at her door and found Herman's round face peering at hers from the hallway.

"Lisa is bathing," he said quietly. "Can I talk to you?"

She offered him a chair and felt reassured by the gentle squeeze he gave her hand as he sat beside her.

"I guess you're surprised to see me here," he began.

"I'm just glad to have found you. I've been trying to get in touch with you at the resort."

"And you were shocked to find old Herman gone at the height of the season?" he laughed.

She nodded.

"Well, Lisa has not been well, and she needed my total attention, so I extravagantly hired a manager for the summer and took her away for a much-needed vacation."

"Is she all right?"

"Oh, I think so, just exhausted, I think. Anyway, how do you like it here at the ranch? I could feel you hadn't lowered the boom on being related to me, so I kept quiet. Am I right?"

"Well, it's very hard for me to tell him..."

"So you've found my buddy to be an opinionated gentle man, Robin, and don't care to get on his black list?" His eyes were sparkling with laughter, "I'll bet he was shocked to find you were so young."

"You knew he'd disapprove of that," Robin reprimanded. "Why did you send me here?"

"You don't like it? I just figured you'd be good for each other. You've both been living with shadows for years. And heaven knows those kids needed a cheerful face around here, from what I've heard."

"I got a letter from father's lawyer today."

The color drained from Herman's face, and his eyes opened widely. "Yes, and what did he say?"

"That I'm an heiress. That he needed my signature for the legal matters, inheritance taxes, I guess, and the like. That you knew."

He cleared his throat. "Yes, Robin. I have known for a while. I'm sorry you have to find out this way. I thought it better to wait for a while before telling you. At least Alex can't accuse you now of being a fortune hunter, little cousin, as you've got a fortune of your own."

He was trying to joke, and Robin felt no tolerance. Her temper snapped.

"Don't you dare joke about what he thinks of me. Here I sit, surrounded by lies, taking a job on false references, pretending to know my own cousin only as an employer, then being lied to about my own inheritance by my closest relative. What can he think of me when he finds all this out?" She sat down on the edge of the bed, putting her hands over her face as she began to sob.

Herman bent over her and stroked her blond head. His face was upset and unhappy.

"Oh dear," he said to himself. "This isn't what I meant to happen. I have a feeling I've handled everything the wrong way."

He gently squeezed her shoulder, and quietly tiptoed out the door as her tears subsided and she succumbed to sleep.

Bright and early the next morning, Herman was closeted with Alex in his study in the main part of the house, where he contritely revealed his part in the story of Robin's references and her relation to him.

When Alex entered the kitchen a short while later, he found Robin alone.

"I've just learned that Herman is your cousin," he said evenly, his eyes direct and matter-of-factly looking into her own.

She swallowed hard.

"And I can't see why you both didn't lay all the cards on the table before this."

"You wouldn't have let me stay."

"Perhaps not. But why this intrigue? You didn't seem the type to me to live a lie."

She flushed to her fingertips. No use using weak explanations. No use trying to cover up her own weakness.

She raised her chin proudly and looked at her employer, "I'm terribly sorry for what I've done. I've no plausible explanations. All I can say is that I've learned a lot from this whole mess, and that it will never happen again."

Would he want her to leave? How heavy her heart felt at the thought of driving away from Ridley Ranch for the last time! So many times when she first arrived she would have leapt at the chance to escape from the sadness and terror she had felt here. But now? The problems had somehow become a part of her.

Alex interrupted her thoughts, "And what of your inheritance?"

"I imagine it will take a little while for all of the red tape to be straightened out."

"Then I hope you will stay on with us."

Her heart soared.

A happy and relieved Robin returned to her household tasks.

The twins were celebrating their seventeenth birthday the next day. After making up the shopping list for their special birthday feast, Robin drove off in the jeep to purchase the necessities and to select a birthday gift for each of them. For Sara she found an exquisite handmade leather belt, its buckle sporting the impression of a proud horse's head, nostrils flaring. Jacob's gift was much more difficult. Through all the weeks she had been a part of the household at the ranch. Robin had learned almost nothing about the handsome dark boy who was Sara's twin. Their conversations had been surface ones at the dinner table, and the only other time they seemed to cross paths was at the side of the pool each night after dinner, where they both took an evening dip before retiring.

She remembered the heated argument he had had with his father about the safety of the electric radio on the diving board. In spite of his lack of respect at the time, Robin realized that she had not seen his radio outside since. He didn't disobey his father, that was one certainty.

She was pondering over an idea for Jacob's gift when her eyes alighted on a small battery-operated radio on the top shelf of the shop she was visiting. It was the perfect gift. With a happy air, she made her purchase and watched as it was carefully wrapped.

The birthday dinner was a delightful affair. The whole family seemed to be in a good humor, the children excited and delighted with their gifts, Alex and the Robinsons happy and relaxed. The dinner that cook served was delicious and quickly devoured by the whole group. The elaborately decorated cake topped off the evening.

Like a normal family, Robin thought, looking around at the happy faces. How she hoped that each day could be the same.

Chapter 10

The next few days passed with a happier air than Robin could remember since her arrival in Hamilton so many weeks before. She was handling the running of the huge house smoothly and efficiently, ending up often with luxurious free hours to spend riding on the range, enjoying the clean, clear air and now familiar vista of the flowing acres. With Sara still grounded from the saddle with her leg in a cast, Robin took her up on her offer to keep Devil exercised and vigorous.

Since her first sudden and exciting ride atop the huge black horse, the two had developed a rapport, a kind of intuitive relationship that made a horse and rider almost seem like one.

She had traded her riding jodhpurs for a sturdy pair of jeans, her tailored jacket for a rugged plaid western-style shirt. After a few frantic lessons from Sara, who sat atop a corral fence and hilariously shouted at Devil and Robin as Robin adjusted her riding style to the western method, Robin was ready and able to handle herself out on the prairie.

She loved the feeling as Devil galloped over the miles that encompassed the ranch, his hoofs pounding the dusty ground, carrying her effortlessly on his high black back. This freedom, this exhilarating aura, this was the West, and she was rapidly falling in love with it.

During these lazy days, Herman and Alex spent many hours together, both in the house and ranch office and out on the range. Lisa spent her afternoons by the pool, relaxing and reading, looking healthier and more rested day by day.

The atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable, and Robin found her eyes wandering to the blond man who sat at the head of the table each evening at dinner, trying to define and understand the deepening feelings that she had for him, wishing that she could read his mind and his heart.

She couldn't, of course, but neither could she get him out of her mind. The words that passed between them were very trivial ones, concerning the house, the children, and short conversations with Herman and Lisa. But still, he was in her thoughts as she galloped across the prairie, in her thoughts as she neatly and accurately filled in the daily accounts and organized the running of the house. Robin knew that her feelings were unrealistic ones, that sooner or later she would have to face the fact that she was coasting along in a type of dream world, but for now, she was satisfied.

Herman watched her thoughtfully on many occasions. One evening, after the family had dispersed from the dinner table and darkness had set in, she decided to take a quick dip in the pool, something she did often after a warm summer day. She slipped into her room and donned her racing suit, ready for her dip in the pool. The house was silent as she passed through it on the way to the patio, quickly braiding her hair and pinning it to the back of her head as she moved.