Part 15 (1/2)
Hillary came to put an arm about me. ”That's my girl.”
I still felt surprised. I hadn't thought that Hillary was really in this fight. He had seemed a little too indifferent to Jon's injuries, and I didn't want to play dramatic games.
Caleb's words cut through our rally round the flag. ”You are talking nonsense, all of you. You are young and inexperienced, Laurie, and this is becoming much too dangerous.”
”Dangerous enough to call in the police,” I said.
Before he could answer, the phone rang, startling us all.
”Answer it, please, Laurie,” Jon said.
When I spoke into the receiver, Persis' voice sounded in my ear, strong and indignant. ”Laurie, is that you? What has happened? Caleb said that Jon was hurt, and then he went rus.h.i.+ng off. Tell him to come back here at once and let me know what is happening.”
”I'll tell him,” I said. ”I'd like to see you myself if you'll tell me when I may-” But she had hung up with a click that expressed her displeasure and gave me neither yes nor no, I repeated her message to Caleb, and he shook his head. ”I can't leave now. Jon may have to be driven to a hospital, and I would need Hillary's help. You go and talk to her, Laurie. You're the only one we can spare right now.”
”All right,” I said, ”I'll do what I can. But you'd better call her and tell her your plans as soon as they're made.”
”Just don't upset her with your nonsense.” He gave me a light push toward the door, as though he feared I might change my mind. I glanced at Jon, whose eyes were closed again, and at Gail and Hillary. No one had anything else to offer, so I went outside and whistled for Red. He didn't come, and I thought nothing of it. With all this acreage in which to run loose, my f.e.c.kless dog could have followed his interests in a hundred directions by now. He would come back when it pleased him, and he couldn't get outside the fence.
i78 Over in the direction of Old Desolate the ranch gate that opened on the trail up the valley stood wide, as the riders had left it. I was a city girl, and I didn't even glance in that direction.
XII.
Persis awaited me in a chair by the window that looked out toward the barn and Jon's cabin. When I tapped at the open door she called to me to come in, still sounding vigorous and outraged. If Gail had tried to sedate her, it hadn't worked this time.
”Well?” she said when I stood beside her. ”Pull up a chair and sit down. I don't like to be kept in the dark about what's going on. Why isn't Caleb here? Why you?”
I found that she alarmed me less when she was out of bed and not fading away against a pillow.
”I'm glad you've decided not to die,” I said. ”Getting mad suits you.”
The lines between her thick dark eyebrows deepened. ”Don't be impertinent, Laurie. Tell me about Jon.”
”I'm sorry. Caleb sent me because Jon has been beaten, and may have to be driven to a hospital. Two men on horses came in and jumped him. They got away. I saw them go. But they wore ski masks and I could never identify them.”
Someone had helped her into a long wine-colored robe and placed a blanket over her knees. Her hands, weathered by life iSo and marked with veins and freckles, clenched themselves upon the blanket.
”That cruel, terrible man! How is Jon?”
”Gail doesn't think it's serious. She's patching him up. Why do you believe that Ingram was behind this?”
”Because it's what he would do. He's ruthless. I've had Caleb investigate that big operation of his in Kansas. There was plenty that was unscrupulous in the way he got the land, and others always suffered. But he moved just this side of the law, or bought the law when he could. I don't think he'll stop at much to get what he wants.”
”But why Jon? Even if Jon wants you to fight him, what can either of you really do?”
”He's making a threat to me through Jon. A promise of what may come if I don't give in.”
I could readily believe that. ”It's more than the ski resort, isn't it? Is there any real way he can hurt you, force you?”
She stared at me grimly, and I knew she wasn't going to answer. When she spoke again, the strength was draining out of her.
”I don't want anyone to be hurt/' she said.
”You can't give up now. You can't let Ingram get away with this!”
Her eyes came wide open. Those deep-set eyes that could see so much and that still burned with an appet.i.te for life. ”I won't give up if you can go on sounding like that. But you could be hurt too, Laurie.”
”I think we've got to try.”
She held out her hand, and I felt again the force that could still surge through her weakened body.
”Maybe you'll do,” she said. ”I can still remember you as a little girl. You were curious about everything. I taught you to ride and shoot and play a rope. Your father was always a tenderfoot, with his nose in books, so he and your mother hated what I was doing. Maybe they were right and I was wrong. But I wanted you to grow up to take over the ranch and make it the way it used to be. Now maybe you will.”
”Nothing's the way it used to be,” I said. ”And it won't ever be again. You can't go back to those days you liked best.”
”Yes, I can! I go there all the time. Even back to Domino. Whenever things get too much for me here, I go there in my mind. And when I return I don't feel so helpless anymore.”
”I haven't ever thought you were helpless.”
”They think I am. Not Jon. Caleb and that nurse. I don't need a nurse, but Dr. Burton believes she's necessary. I pack her out of my room whenever I can, and I don't always take those pills she shoves at me.”
”Then let's send her away, now that I'm here.”
”In a little while. I want to know what she's up to first. I don't trust her, Laurie. I'm not sure why she's here. I'm not sure of the real reason.”
I thought of what Belle had said about Gail sneaking over to the hotel, and I began to think I knew. Ingrain's machinations reached everywhere.
Persis turned her attention sharply upon me. ”How is Caleb behaving about all this?”
”Caleb?” I was surprised at the question. ”He seems his usual self-counseling caution, and all that.”
”Has he sent for the police?”
”He hadn't at the time I left, but I suppose he will.”
She was shaking her head. ”Sometimes he worries me. I understand him very well. All his life he has been a projection of what others thought he should be.”
”How do you mean?”
”First, his father. Always criticizing him. Never letting him breathe for himself. Not even trusting Caleb to take over the firm when his father got too old. I haven't given him an easy i82 time either. That's why-” She hesitated, letting the words die away.
”That's why-what?”
”Never mind. I'll tell you one of these days. At least Caleb has his own ways of fighting. Sometimes they can be rather tricky ways of trying to get his own back. But he's been loyal to me for most of his life, and I think he still is. Just don't trust him completely, Laurie. I'm never quite sure anymore what he's up to.”
I felt mystified by her words, and not at all rea.s.sured. ”He doesn't like me. And I don't trust him at all.”
”That was to be expected-his not liking you. But never mind about Caleb now. There's something else I want to talk about. I still don't like the way you went into the Domino house today when I'd asked you not to.”
”If I stay, Grandmother, I may not always do exactly what you tell me to.”