Page 12 of Calder Strong (The Calder Brand #5)

A S HE DROVE DOWN THE SWITCHBACK ROAD, ON HIS WAY TO THE dance, Joseph willed his thoughts to focus on the good time ahead. But memories and worries roiled in his mind like clouds before a thunderstorm.

Blake had been furious at Joseph for keeping the theft a secret from him.

“I may be sentenced for life to this chair, but I built this ranch into what it is, and I’m still the boss,” he’d stormed.

“I don’t need protecting, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let my son treat me like a …

” He’d choked on the last word. “Like a cripple !”

Joseph had taken the tongue-lashing as a lesson.

Tomorrow morning, before leaving for Miles City, he would take time to inspect the cattle operation, oversee the startup of the mill, and report back to his father.

Joseph was capable of running the Dollarhide enterprises.

One day he probably would. But Blake was still the man in charge.

For the foreseeable future, it would be Jo seph’s job to follow his orders and pay him the respect he deserved.

For now, as son and heir, that was his duty. His own needs, including time with his beloved horses, would have to wait.

The day was ending in a glorious blaze of sunset. Ribbons of mauve and flame streaked across a sky of deepening violet, the same soft hue as Annabeth’s eyes.

Joseph had vowed not to think of her again, but now the memories flooded through him like a spring thaw. Annabeth had been a girl of sixteen when he’d known her before. Now her strength in the face of a hard life made her seem older than he was. That strength lent her a soul-deep beauty.

He buried her image in memory, the only place where it belonged.

By the time Joseph turned onto the main road, headed for Blue Moon, the sky was already darkening into twilight.

The dance would just be starting. He could see the lights and hear the music through the block as he drove to the schoolhouse to pick up Francine.

His pulse danced with anticipation. When he walked her onto the dance floor and took her in his arms, he would be the envy of every man in town.

Annabeth was getting up from the supper table when Silas sprang his surprise. “Fix your hair and put on a pretty dress,” he said. “My sister’s agreed to watch the kids at her place while we go to the dance tonight.”

“But …” The word trailed off as she thought of Ellie, who was free of stickers but still sore and peevish, and Lucas, who was so exhausted he could barely eat his supper.

Earlier, knowing Ellie was liable to talk, she had told Silas about meeting Joseph. Silas’s reaction had been a cold glare. “I’d have run him off with a shotgun,” he’d muttered before turning away.

Now, he’d brought up the dance, which wasn’t like him at all. Was he planning some kind of showdown?

The children were still at the table, watching their parents in wide-eyed silence. They were old enough to understand at least part of what was being said.

“How can I leave the children tonight, Silas?” Annabeth protested. “Look at them. They need to be in bed, and I need to be here in case they need anything.”

“They can sleep at Nancy’s place,” Silas said. “I thought you’d be happy. A regular woman would enjoy a night out with her husband.”

“As I would, on any other night. But the children—”

He exhaled, his breath hissing out through the narrow gap between his front teeth.

“The children always come first with you, don’t they?

Maybe you should give some thought to your husband.

I’ve given you a home, Annabeth. And I’ve given you respectability.

You know that sonofabitch would never have married you.

You’d have been branded a fallen woman with a bastard baby. ”

Hot fury, fueled with shame, surged through Annabeth’s body. She fought the urge to lash out at him. The children were watching. Whatever the cost to her pride, she had to make peace.

Annabeth began clearing the table, stacking the dishes on the counter to be washed when she had time to heat water. “All right, Silas, as long as we don’t stay too late, I’ll go to the dance with you. I’ll need time to change.”

“Fine. We can drop off the kids on the way.” He rolled a cigarette and settled in a chair to smoke. “Take your time getting ready. I want everyone who sees my beautiful wife to be jealous of me.”

Silas rarely gave her compliments. The remark was so unlike him that Annabeth felt gooseflesh creep over her skin. Yes, he had some kind of plan in mind. She could only hope it would be harmless.

The open-air dance hall in the square was strung with electric lights and crepe-paper streamers. The four-piece band, hired out of Miles City, alternated popular numbers like the turkey trot and the black bottom with traditional waltzes, two-steps, and tangos—something for everyone.

As Joseph presented his tickets at the entrance table, heads were already swiveling toward him and his date.

Francine was a vision in an apricot silk gown that floated around her as she moved.

Tiny pearl drops gleamed her ears, matching the long strand that hung almost to her waist. Other girls and ladies glanced down at their own feeble finery and sighed.

It was as if a swan had glided in among a flock of barnyard geese.

“Oh, my,” she whispered to Joseph. “I do believe I’ve overdressed.”

“Nonsense. You’re perfect,” Joseph said, although privately, he conceded that her beauty would probably make her some enemies among the women.

As they waited for the next set to start, his eyes scanned the crowd of dancers and watchers.

Several of his mill workers and cowhands were there with their girls.

And he saw a few old friends. Neither of his aunts were there.

Kristin had never been much for dancing, and Britta’s husband, the former sheriff, was confined to a wheelchair—a tragic accident in which Joseph had played a part.

Joseph’s jaw tightened as an earlier night replayed in his memory—a dance, exactly five years ago.

Lucy Merriweather, with whom he’d been infatuated, had convinced Joseph she needed money to get away from Webb Calder’s sexual advances—a claim that turned out to be a lie.

Joseph had taken two hundred dollars from his father’s cashbox and brought it to the dance for her.

A short time later, Lucy was seen running off with the money and her lover.

When sheriff Jake Calhoun had tried to stop them, the man had fired his pistol.

The bullet had severed Jake’s spine and almost claimed his life.

In his mind’s eye, Joseph could still see Jake sprawled on the ground in a pool of blood, Britta bending over him, and Lucy fleeing with the shooter in his car. The scene would haunt him for the rest of his days.

“Joseph, where have you gone off to?” Francine was tugging at his sleeve. “The music is starting—a foxtrot. Come on. We came to dance.”

With a smile and a murmured apology, Joseph led her onto the dance floor.

She was pure enchantment in his arms, weightless on her feet, her dress flowing around her, her eyes gazing up at him with a twinkle of mischief.

The subtle fragrance of lilacs crept through his senses.

Francine Rutledge was everything a man could wish for. He would be a fool not to make her his.

The music ended, leaving Joseph hungry to hold her again in another dance. He was standing next to her, imagining how their first kiss would feel, when a voice at his shoulder shocked him back to reality.

“Well, Joseph, are you going to introduce me to the new lady in town?”

Chase Calder stood next to him. His words were addressed to Joseph, but Chase was looking down at Francine like a bear at a pot of honey.

Biting back a curse, Joseph introduced the pair. He was aware of Chase’s reputation with women. When a pretty female took his fancy, she’d be treated like a princess—until Chase grew tired of the game and turned away, leaving one more broken heart behind.

Only one girl had broken Chase’s heart—fiery young Maggie O’Rourke, daughter of a dirt poor family with a ranch in the foothills.

Chase had been crazy for her. But the romance had ended when Webb Calder hanged Maggie’s father, Angus, for stealing cattle.

Maggie’s brother, Culley, had avenged his father’s death by hanging Webb’s prize stallion from a rope in the Calder stable.

Maggie had been hustled off to live with her late mother’s relatives in California.

Chase’s heart had healed and turned to stone.

It would be useless to warn Francine about Chase, Joseph told himself. She would only think he was jealous, which was true. But that didn’t mean he was giving up. This woman was worth fighting for, and he wasn’t about to back off. Not even for the high and mighty Chase Calder.

“Joseph, would you mind if I borrowed your lady for a dance?” Chase asked.

Hell, yes, he minded. But good manners demanded that he be gracious. “Francine is her own woman,” Joseph said. “Suppose you ask her.”

In the next moment, the music had started, and the pair of them were moving around the floor to a sensual tango.

After looking for another partner and finding no one available, Joseph stood seething as he watched them.

They made a striking couple, with Chase turning on the charm and Francine beaming up at him, her head cocked like a pretty little bird’s.

The music was nearing its end when Joseph happened to glance toward the ticket table. His mouth went dry as the rawboned man he remembered from the incident in town walked in with Annabeth on his arm.

Dressed in the same blue frock she’d worn at the dance five years ago and with her golden hair brushed loose, Annabeth looked softly beautiful. But even from where he stood, Joseph could sense the strain in her. Clearly, it hadn’t been her idea to come here.