Chapter 14 #2
“You’ll have to hire a woman to stay with her. She can’t be alone or she’ll get worse.”
“That makes sense. She also needs a water source, so the house should to be close to the river or I’ll have to dig a well.
I’ll build the house close to the river.
No way do I want to dig a well. Besides I can’t until spring.
We’ll be pushing it to build the house at this time of year.
I’ll leave only as many men here as are needed to tend the cows.
The rest of us will build the house, as fast as possible. ”
“I’m sorry, Ben. I feel like this is somehow my fault. Maybe if you didn’t like me, she wouldn’t feel so threatened.”
“No. I don’t think that has anything to do with it. Her mind has been going for some time now and I just refused to see it. I didn’t even believe her threats to you until tonight. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to see her for what she is…a very disturbed woman.”
The pounding stopped.
Emily raised her head and listened for movement in the other room.
“Do you think she wore herself out?”
“More than likely she’s taking a break or maybe she hurt her hands. In either case, I’m not opening that door until morning.”
“We should try and go to sleep while she’s quiet. Goodness knows how long it will last.”
“True. Goodnight.”
He grinned as Emily felt her way up his chest to his neck to his face, lifted herself and after a couple of tries, and a round of giggles, found his lips.
“Goodnight.”
She scooted back to her side of the bed and turned on to her good side, facing him, her back to the wall.
An hour and a half later the pounding started again, waking her and Ben out of sleep.
“I think she waits until she thinks we’re asleep before starting up again.”
Ben threw back the blankets.
“That’s it. We’re making a bedroom out of the office downstairs. You can sleep on the sofa and I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“That won’t be very comfortable for you.”
He shrugged into his pants.
“I’ll pretend I’m on the range, sleeping on the ground. I’ve done that more than once. I’ll be fine.”
“What will we do with your mother during the day? Keep her locked up? I don’t particularly like that idea.
Maybe we can have her do the chores that don’t involve cooking…
no blades of any kind. She can do the laundry, wash the floors, dust the curtains and windows, but I can’t trust her with just me, especially now that I’m injured.
I have no way to protect myself. I need another woman to help me. ”
“I’ll check in town and with Maggie. Lots of ladies stop by her office looking for work. It’s become a local ladies haunt.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. I should have protected you. I’m sorry, sweetheart. I should have realized she’d gotten as bad as she has.”
“You’re too close to her to see the changes.”
The next morning Emily cooked breakfast .
After the men had gone to their jobs, Emily, Ben and Rory sat at the table. Emily was stiff and sore but was doing her best not to complain. She had a splitting headache.
“My head is killing me. I’m telling you that whiskey is bad stuff. I don’t know how people drink that stuff. I think I’ll brew a cup of willow bark tea.”
“Are you sure you can handle feeding us three meals a day, the laundry, ironing, everything about the house that you do, without Mother’s help?”
“If she hadn’t injured me, I probably could have managed but I’ll need help now like we talked about last night. I was planning on finding someone after the baby was born. I’d been thinking that maybe Rory will be married by then and his wife can help me.”
“You think that’s possible?” asked Rory.
“It is if you go see Maggie Black about a mail-order bride,” said Emily.
“That’s right. From when I saw Maggie and Emily arrived on the train was about a month, not much more.”
Emily stood and went to the stove to get the coffee pot.
“Of course, they may not find you a bride as quickly or they could find you one right away. The situation depends on the girls they have available and whether one will be a match for you. Maggie and Sally take great pride in their ability to match the right bride with the right man.”
“I guess I better go see Mrs. Black right away.”
“I guess you better,” said Emily.
Ben and Emily both chuckled.
“What about her fee? I don’t have any money for that.”
Ben clasped Rory on the shoulder.
“I’ll get you the money for the fees. We’ll call it your first earnings from the ranch.”
“Thanks, Ben. I appreciate it.”
“That’s what brothers are for.”
Suddenly, a loud pounding sounded from the upstairs.
“Benjamin! Benjamin! Let me out of here!” Doris shouted through the locked door.
Emily looked up at the ceiling then walked to the sink and started getting the water ready for the dishes.
“You’ll have to let her out for meals, during which time you can gauge the status of her mind. Whether or not she is lost further into the past she wanted rather than the one that was.”
“I don’t envy you, Ben,” said Rory.
“I don’t envy myself. But I envy you even less.”
“Why?” asked Rory.
“I want you to go back to hanging out at the Branch so Melissa can contact you again. She’s got to be half out of her mind wondering what has happened with your job to kill Emily.”
“What should I tell her when she asks why I didn’t do the job?”
“Tell her the truth that murder isn’t your kind of business, but kidnapping for profit is something you can do.”
“Okay, but I burned all my old clothes.”
Ben laughed.
“I don’t blame you, I would have, too. If she notices, tell her you used some of the money she gave you, to make yourself more presentable.”
“Right.”
“You tell Melissa the truth about Mother that she’s lost her mind and won’t be of any help to either of you now.”
Rory narrowed his eyes.
“Doris and Melissa were in cahoots, at least to begin with. They thought they’d get me to carry out their plans and they’d get to walk away while I went to jail. I’m not that stupid.”
Ben sat, elbows on the table, hands circling his coffee cup.
“You’re not stupid at all. I’ve been watching you rustle from me for years, but you never took a lot, just what you needed to survive. I couldn’t turn you in for just trying to live. Selling a cow here and there so you can have money for food, clothing, a roof over your head, is not much.”
“I appreciate that. I’d hoped that was the reason, so I never took more than a cow or two at a time.”
“And it paid off,” said Emily. She stood at the sink doing the morning dishes while the two men sat at the table making plans.
“But what if Melissa doesn’t contact me? What if she decides to take matters into her own hands?” asked Rory.
Ben slapped the table and stood.
“We better hope she doesn’t. If you’re right about her needing to marry in a hurry, she could be desperate and a desperate Melissa is someone we don’t want to deal with.”
Melissa paced the floor of her small house in Golden.
The house had three rooms, a kitchen with dining space, parlor and bedroom.
There wasn’t any need for any more space.
Just because she had money didn’t mean she liked to squander it.
She’d learned her lesson with Richard. He’d taken her for quite a tidy sum and what made her mad was she fell for all his charms.
She hadn’t heard from Rory which was never a good sign. She had no choice but to assume Emily was still alive. This was not good. Her condition would not remain hidden for much longer.
She went to the trunk she kept the items for her hope chest in and dug to the bottom of the chest and felt around until she found it.
Her derringer. She’d have to do the deed herself.
She shoved the small gun in the pocket of her skirt.
Now to figure out where to do the deed and how to get Emily to meet her.
The house for Doris was almost done. The weather had cooperated and stayed clear. Ben had ten men working on the house. Just a few more days and his mother would be able to stay there during the day and only sleep in the main house at night and then only until her companion came.
Until the companion came they were stuck with having Doris at the house, but she’d been acting normally and only doing what she was told to do.
She’d been good enough that Emily was beginning to wonder if she really needed a companion or whether she could be by herself in the little house.
Ben had built the house on the south end of the property toward Golden. That was still a good two miles from the main ranch. Far enough away that she could be seen approaching. She wouldn’t be able to sneak up on Emily again.