Chapter Three
Loud banging had me hurrying to see who was calling and what they might want.
If they knocked any harder I feared the dilapidated building might surrender to the state of disrepair and collapse into a pile of rubble.
I threw the door open and my foreman, Elijah, stood with his hat in hand.
He appeared concerned. Or was he nervous?
“Elijah, is something wrong?” I asked, feeling the furrow between my eyes deepening.
“Miss Johnson, can we talk?” my foreman asked.
“Of course, come on in. I’ve been wanting to talk with you but the week flew past and it seems like I haven’t had the chance to do anything other than introduce myself and say we’d catch up later.” I threw the door wide and stepped back.
Elijah crossed the threshold and made his way in the direction of the kitchen. He was obviously familiar with my home.
“Coffee? I just brewed a pot. I was planning to sand back the kitchen walls in readiness for painting and knew I’d need fortification,” I admitted
Elijah laughed, accepted my offer, and after placing his hat on the table he sat.
I placed two steaming mugs on the table along with a pot of sugar and jug of milk and sat opposite. After adding a dash of milk to my coffee, I took a sip and set it on the table in front of me, keeping both hands wrapped around the warm ceramic mug.
Elijah sipped his coffee, giving the impression he was contemplating how to articulate his thoughts.
“Elijah?”
“I know you’ve had a lot of stuff to go through, Miss Johnson, and it’s not like us men don’t know what needs doing, but…” Elijah swallowed hard before fixing his eyes on mine. “Me and the men had a talk.”
I stiffened. Surely they weren’t going to quit and leave me to manage the ranch on my own? Where the hell would I find others to replace them in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere?
When I stayed quiet, Elijah took another gulp of coffee and looked me direct in the eyes. “Bill used to help us a lot around the place but since he died, we’ve been having to pick up his chores, and it’s becoming too much, especially with the heat.”
“Do you want me to hire someone?” I asked, relieved he hadn’t come to the house to tell me they were all quitting.
Elijah shook his head. “Miss, this ranch can’t support the four men that are here, it’s been failing for a long while and the drought has made things a lot worse.
Bill couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel which is why he took his own life.
I loved your grandfather like a father, but he was a stubborn bastard and refused to take any advice.
I figure we can only manage one more month if something doesn’t change.
On top of everything else, we haven’t been paid for the past three months and it’s getting hard to survive.
We talked about what needs doing and I’d like to explain. ”
“Before you do…During the week I was kept busy wrapping up all the legal papers that required my signature so it wasn’t until the weekend that I got an opportunity to study grandfather’s books at length and see where the ranch is at financially.
I saw you hadn’t been paid and yesterday morning I transferred money to your accounts as a priority.
Betsy finally died when I reached town and by the time I caught a ride back it was late.
I was coming to find you and let you know after I’d had a coffee this morning. ”
Elijah tilted his head, looking confused. “How…isn’t the ranch broke?”
“Pretty much but I had a modest amount of money from a recent relationship breakup…my partner bought out my share of our home and business, and I also have a large inheritance from Mom and Dad. More than enough to pay you all, support myself, and keep the ranch going for a few years. Hopefully we’ll turn things around long before then.
I need you to talk to me about what needs to be done apart from hiring an extra man which would severely impact how long we can remain viable. ”
“Thanks, Miss…”
“Harlyn,” I corrected.
“Harlyn…Bill was set in his ways and refused to take any advice. He constantly blustered about always having run the ranch the same way since he’d inherited it from his grandfather.
In the end, he wouldn’t…or couldn’t admit we needed to make changes and he saw ending his life as the best option.
He was a stubborn, cantankerous old bastard but we all loved him just the same and it’s sad he preferred to end his life than let us help. ”
“I didn’t know him but Dad used to say he was the most frustrating, arrogant prick one could ever meet.”
“Yeah, I remember them having one hell of an argument when he visited with you and your mom. You were only a little whippersnapper at the time. Your Dad wanted to come out here and help with the ranch. He had some great, innovative ideas, but your grandfather told him he’d lost any chance he had to ranch alongside him when he married your mother and ran off to start a computing business in Farrer. ”
“I vaguely remember them fighting, I was about five at the time I think, but Dad would never say what caused the blow-up. I think dad missed his father and would have liked to heal their relationship.”
“Bill was too fucking stubborn to recognize Caleb only wanted to spend time with him and help. It was a sad situation and to be honest, I think Bill came to regret his attitude. After he learned of your father’s death, I found him in the barn sobbing his heart out.
He told me he’d never get the opportunity to tell his son he was sorry and how much he loved him. ”
“Why didn’t he reach out to me? Why didn’t he ask me to come out when I phoned him?”
Elijah shrugged. “Who knows what Bill was thinking. Anyway, like I said, the men and I talked. We need help but I know we can’t afford to hire anyone. So, how would you feel about cutting the size of the herd?”
“Numbers?”
“From 3,000 head to 2,000. I know it’s stating the obvious but we’d need less feed and three of us would be able to manage the herd if you helped one take care of other chores.”
“It would probably help with the water situation too,” I mused.
“We’re having it trucked in once a week at the moment which is taking a huge chunk of cash.”
“Okay. My background is…”
“You’re a biologist/ecologist who has been studying the effects of climate on coral reefs off the coast of California.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How the hell did you know that?”
“Bill used to brag about how beautiful you were and how you were making a name foryourself as a leading ecologist.”
“I wonder how he knew?”
“Bill was stuck in the last century in many of his ways but he was a whizz on the computer and he confided there was a lot of information about you online. He was always telling us one thing or another about what you were doing.”
So grandfather had actually cared enough to search me online. Of course he must have cared, why else would he have left me everything? Tears burned my eyes and I swallowed around the lump in my throat. Elijah reached across the table and placed his hand on my forearm.
“Bill wasn’t heartless, honey, he was just a gruff old bastard who struggled to show anyone how much he cared.”
I nodded and sipped my coffee before asking, “Is it really a good idea to sell off a third of the herd at this time? Shouldn’t you be getting them nice and fat before the sales?
” I didn’t know the first thing about cattle in real life, but in the books I loved to read they were always taken to the railhead and shipped off to the sales yard once they’d had time to fatten up.
“Bill always sold his cattle at 18 months old but we have around 1000 at the moment who are between 12and 14 months old that will fetch a good price. The younger they are the more tender for eating.”
I cringed, hating the thought of Daisy, Angus, Bessie, or Buttercup being on someone’s dinner plate. Until I’d been around the cattle at my ranch, I’d never given a second thought to where the steak on my plate had come from like so many other city people.
“Very well, I’ll trust you to do what’s best. What can I do to help? I’m not afraid to shuck stables or feed horses or whatever.”
Elijah laughed. “It’s ‘muck stalls’ and that would be a big help if you don’t mind.”
“I’ve never been afraid of hard work. It will slow down the restorations on the ranch house and take time from research I wanted to do on water availability, but I think helping you men should be a priority.”
“I thought you’d be hell bent on getting back to Farrer?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I think a long break from my past will do me good.”
“Then, your help is much appreciated. We’ll start tomorrow?”
“Time?”
“0530…We start at first light with the heavy chores before it gets too hot and keep the lighter ones to when the place is baking like a pie in an oven.
I groaned. “Do you know how much I hate early starts?” I sighed. “I guess the cows don’t care about my beauty sleep. Where will I meet you?”
“At the stables. I’ll stay back and show you how to muck out while the others feed and start on fences.”
“Every romance book I’ve read has men out fixing fences, I always thought it was just a story filler. You actually do fix fences?”
“Every fucking day. The cattle are always pushing through them.”
“Hmm…I won’t be such a sceptic when I read about that in a story from now.”
Elijah gulped down the last of his coffee, stood, and placed his mug in the sink. I rose to walk him out.
“Please tell the men I’d like them to come up to the house on Friday night for dinner. We can discuss any ideas you might have for making the ranch more prosperous.”
“Will do,” he agreed.
“Oh…I didn’t think. Do any of you have wives or kids?”
“Cash and Penn both have wives but their kids are all teenagers who are off at boarding school in Austin. There’s nothing here for youngsters so most people send them away to be educated once they’re twelve years old. Ward and I are very much single and have no plans to get hitched.”