The Belles of Texas

“Son, son.” Renee clicked her tongue. “It’s been fourteen years. Just let it go.”

“I can’t.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “She destroyed everything I believed about relationships and trust. I’m thirty-six years old and should have a family. Caitlyn Belle will pay for what she did to me. And it’s only just starting.”

“Why, son? Why do you need this revenge?”

“I don’t have to justify my actions.”

“You can’t even see the forest for the trees.”

He frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means Caitlyn loved you, but you pushed too hard and so did Dane. She was nineteen years old and all she wanted was to finish college, to be young and have fun. But neither you nor Dane would listen to her wishes. Y’all had to control her every move, and look what happened. If you had given her the time she’d wanted, you’d be married today.”

“Loved me?” His jaw clenched. “Why do women have to always drag out the L word? It was a business arrangement solely.”

“A pity no one mentioned that to Caitlyn.”

“She couldn’t handle it. She was weak.”

Renee gave a laugh that grated on his nerves. “Weak? Caitlyn Belle? Oh, son, you’re in for a rude awakening.”

“Mom, just drop it.”

But his mother never listened to him. “You can’t see Caitlyn as a person. All you see is a woman who has to be controlled. You get that from Jack. But Caitlyn proved she can’t be controlled, not by you and not by her father.”

His eyes narrowed. “This doesn’t concern you.”

Renee waved a hand. “You sound just like your dad. He thought I needed to be told what to do. And I was to overlook his little infidelities. I couldn’t, so I walked away and lost my son.”

“I don’t want to go over this again.” Judd had heard the story so many times it was burned like a brand into his brain.

“He said he wasn’t cheating on me with that bitch, Blanche, but he was lying. As soon as the divorce was final, he married her.”

“You left a five-year-old kid behind.” Judd couldn’t keep the accusation out of his voice.

She brushed back her blond hair, pain evident in her green eyes, pain he didn’t want to see. But it was hard to ignore. “I had no choice. I couldn’t continue to take that type of humiliation, but I never planned to lose my son. Jack had the money to make sure I stayed away from you.”

“Mom, it’s over, and you and Dad had twenty years together before his death.”

“Yes, and we learned from our mistakes. Jack didn’t cheat again. At least, not to my knowledge.” She gazed at Judd. “You were the casualty of our mistakes. Do you remember what you did when your father brought me back here?”

He stared at the horse sculpture on his desk, not willing to speak.

“You walked out of the room and wouldn’t say a word to me. That hurt. I cried and cried. Your father said you’d come around. It took a solid year before you accepted me back into your life.”

Back then he couldn’t understand how a mother could leave her only child. He still didn’t, but she was his mom….

“Sometimes I don’t think you’ve ever forgiven me, or that you can forgive anyone. That’s my fault and—”

“This trip down memory lane is over. I’m going to check on the cowboys.”

“Dear son, listen to me. I was weak, but Caitlyn Belle is not. She will come back fighting. I’ve known her all her life and she will not bow easily. Be careful you’re not the one who ends up begging.”

“Mom…”

“I’ve said enough.” She raised a hand. “I’m not arguing with you. I came to tell you that if you don’t get rid of Brenda Sue, I’m going to strangle her.”

“Just don’t listen to her.”

“Not listen to her? I’d have to be stone deaf not to. Her voice rivals nails on a chalkboard. The woman never shuts up.”

“I’ll handle it.”

“If you don’t, I’m buying a gun.”

“Okay, okay.” He strolled from the room, headed for the back door and freedom from his mother’s words.

And freedom from the shattered look in Caitlyn’s blue forget-me-not eyes.

CAITLYN SLAMMED ON HER brakes at the barn, causing dust to blanket the truck. Unheeding, she jumped out and ran for the corral, whistling sharply.

Whiskey Red, a prize thoroughbred, her father’s last gift to her, trotted into the open corral. Cait hurried into the barn and Red followed. Within minutes, she had her saddled.

Cooper Yates and Rufus Johns, her only cowhands, came out of the tack room. “Hey, Cait, what are you doing?” Coop asked. “We just checked the herd.”

She swung into the saddle. “I’ll catch you later.” Kneeing Red, she bolted for fresh air.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Coop shouted after her.

She didn’t pause. Red’s hooves kicked up dirt as they picked up speed, moving faster and faster. If she was lucky, maybe she could outrun the pain in her chest.

Thirty minutes later, she lay in the green grass along Crooked Creek, her body soaked with sweat, her heart bounding off the walls of her lungs.

She sucked in a much needed breath and stared up at the bright May sky. The temperature was in the upper eighties, a perfect day.

A squeak of a laugh left her throat. Perfect? Far from it.

Your father sold me your oil and gas royalties.

Now what should she do?

I’m taking it all. It’s just a matter of time.

Not as long as she had breath in her body.

She sat up and stared at the plum trees growing close to the creek, dried dewberry vines nestled beneath them. She and her sisters often got sick from eating too many sweet plums in the summer, and they’d gotten drunk a time or two sneaking Etta’s dewberry wine.

Memories. High Five. A piece of her childhood.

Her life.

It seemed as if her father had reached out from the grave to try and still control her. He’d never understood her need to be a person in her own right and not a trophy on some man’s arm.

The fight for independence probably began when she was small. Her great-grandfather, Elias Cotton, had had three daughters, and it was a woeful happenstance that God had given him daughters instead of sons to carry on the tradition of High Five.

Dorothea, Caitlyn’s grandmother, had married Bartholomew Belle. Bart eventually bought out the sisters, and he and Dorie had run the ranch. After several miscarriages, they were blessed with a boy, Dane. All was aligned in the heavens. At last there was a son.

But once again fate struck. Dane had the misfortune to produce daughters. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Dane and Meredith, Caitlyn’s mother, had been high school sweethearts. They broke up when Dane went off to college. Years later they met again and married, but it wasn’t meant to be. Meredith died giving birth to Caitlyn.

He didn’t grieve for long. Six months later he’d married Audrey, but again the marriage didn’t last. Audrey was very religious and didn’t take to Dane’s gambling trips to Vegas and Atlantic City, or to his weekly poker games with his buddies. A year later she moved out with her newborn daughter, Madison.

Dane met Julia, Skylar’s mother, in Vegas, and felt he’d finally met the woman for him. Julia was from a Kentucky horse family, so it had to be a match made in heaven. It wasn’t. Although Julia knew Dane’s bad habits, she didn’t enjoy living with them on a daily basis. After two years, she’d packed her things, including her baby daughter, and left.

Three wives. Two divorces. And three daughters, all with different mothers. After the third wife, Dane gave up and accepted his fate. Without sons, High Five was doomed.

Cait had heard that all her life and didn’t understand it. She’d told her father many times that she could run High Five as well as any man. That always brought on a sermon about how a woman’s place was in the home, producing heirs.

That stung like a rope burn. But nothing had ever changed her father’s thinking.

Then she’d fallen hard for Judd, to the point that all she could see was his dark eyes, all she could feel was excitement when he looked at her. He was three years older, more experienced and more man than she’d ever met before.

Judd was popular in school, but he never glanced her way. Then one summer Renee threw a party and the Belle daughters were invited. Judd asked her to dance and Caitlyn thought she was in heaven.

After that, they met often, and before long heated kisses were taking her places she’d never been before. She was so in love that she never questioned Judd’s love or his attention.

He had a power about him that frightened and attracted her at the same time. When she was around him she couldn’t think. All she could do was feel.

And that caused her to fall right into her father’s plan. Marrying Judd would unite two powerful ranching families, and High Five would continue to prosper.

Cait was prepared to fulfill her duty. She loved Judd and wanted to spend her life with him. Her first year in college was fun, but nothing was more exciting than rushing home to spend a weekend in his arms. It was bliss. It was perfect.

Then Dane had said there was no need for her to return to school in the fall, that doing so would be a waste of money. She needed to focus on Judd, a home and babies. They’d had words, and she’d run to Judd, wanting him to take her side.

But he hadn’t. He didn’t understand her viewpoint. Why wouldn’t she want to think about a home for them and babies? he’d practically shouted. That’s what a married woman should want.

In that instant Cait saw her future. She would be like his mother, Renee, ruled by her domineering husband. She would decorate his home, serve his dinner guests, warm his bed and produce children. As Judd’s trophy wife, she would want for nothing. Except being treated as an equal.

Caitlyn made the toughest decision of her life in a heartbeat. Taking off her engagement ring, she’d said, “I can’t marry you. I can’t marry a man who doesn’t respect me as a woman.”

She waited for the magic words, his profession of love and respect, but they never came. He slipped her beautiful ring into his jeans pocket and walked out of the room. Her heart broke, but she held it all inside.

Her father wouldn’t speak to her for six months. Judd spoke to her for the first time today. But she’d gotten that education and she’d traveled. In the end, it brought her home to High Five.

Her grandfather had passed on and Gran had grown older. Cait was needed at home. Her father was gambling heavily and the ranch was neglected and in disrepair.

Cait had a degree in agriculture management and worked her butt off to keep High Five afloat, but her father’s debts were slowly taking them under.

Then they got the news: Dane had lung cancer and was given mere weeks to live. Cait was blindsided by grief, love and anger. Through it all she was determined to prove to him she could be the son he’d always wanted.

Sadly, he never saw her as a competent woman and rancher—only a beautiful daughter who needed a husband.

Lying in the grass, remembering, Caitlyn glanced toward the sky. “You never gave me a chance. And now…”

Tears stung the back of her eyes, but she refused to shed a single one. No one was taking High Five, especially not Judd.

Reaching for Red’s reins, she stood. In a flash, she was headed back to the ranch. She had to call her sisters. Maybe together they could save their home.

But the ranch wasn’t Madison’s or Skylar’s home. They’d been raised by their mothers, and spent only summers and a week at Christmas here. Cait had always looked forward to those times. Back then money hadn’t been a problem and their father had spoiled them terribly, giving them anything they’d wanted. But their best times had been just being together as sisters, racing their horses and exploring all the special places on the High Five ranch. It was always sad when the others left to return home for school in the fall.

For Caitlyn, the ranch had always been her home.

And always would be.

She glanced east to the Southern Cross.

Cait knew she had a fight on her hands, the biggest one of her life. There was no room for error, no room for losing.

And no room for feminine emotion.

CHAPTER THREE

CAITLYN RODE INTO the barn, feeling more determined than ever. Judd Calhoun would not take everything she loved.

As she unsaddled Red, it crossed her mind that she had once loved Judd. And if a psychologist chiseled through the stubborn layers of pride encased around her heart, a flicker of love might still be there. But Judd had just killed whatever remaining emotion she had ever felt for him. Guilt, her constant companion for years, had just vanished.

Now she was fighting mad.

“Hey, where did you take off to?” Cooper asked, walking into the barn, with Rufus a step behind him.

Her cowhands were outcasts, both of them ex-cons who worked cheap. She trusted them with her life.

Cooper Yates was bad to the bone—that’s what people in High Cotton said about him. He’d had a nightmarish childhood, with a father who beat him regularly. In his teens he’d been in and out of juvenile hall.

Coop had been a year ahead of her in school and she’d always liked him. They were friends, sharing a love of horses.

After high school, Coop worked on several horse farms, determined to stay out of trouble. But trouble always seemed to follow him. When he’d hired on at an operation in Weatherford, Texas, several thoroughbred horses died unexpectedly. An investigation determined that the pesticide mixed with the feed to kill weevils had been incorrectly applied.

The owner pointed the finger at Coop. They’d gotten into a fight and the owner had filed charges. Cooper was arrested, tried and convicted. He’d spent six months in a Huntsville prison.

When Caitlyn heard the news, she was convinced Coop was innocent. There was nothing he didn’t know about horses or their feed. She’d been proved right. The cover-up soon unraveled. The owner had mixed the feed and had used Coop as a scapegoat. Her friend was released, but the damage had been done. No one would hire him.

Caitlyn had urged her father to take a chance on Coop. He’d been working on High Five for three years now.

Rufus, the husband of Etta, their housekeeper, was now in his seventies. Years ago he’d been in a bar with friends when he saw a guy slap his girlfriend and slam her against the wall. Rufus pulled him off her and the man took a swing at him. Rufus ducked and managed to swing back, hard. The man went down and out—for good. His head hit a table and that was it.

Rufus had been tried and convicted. He’d spent three years in a Huntsville prison for involuntary manslaughter. When he was released, he came home to Etta and High Five. They were a part of the Belle extended family.

Cait threw Red’s saddle over a sawhorse, then pushed back her hat. “I have a heap of problems, guys.”

“What happened?” Coop asked. He was always the protective one.

She figured honesty was the best policy, so she told them the news.

“Shit,” Rufus said, and quickly caught himself. “Sorry, Miss Caitlyn. Didn’t mean to curse. It just slipped out.”

“Don’t worry, Ru. I’ll be doing a lot of that in the days to come.” She took a breath. “I don’t know how much I’ll be able to pay you, so it’s up to you whether you go or stay.”

“I’m staying,” Coop replied without hesitation. “I’m here until Judd forces us out.”

Rufus rubbed his face in thought. “I go where my Etta goes, and she ain’t leaving High Five or Miss Dorie. I’m staying, too.”

“Thanks, guys. Now I have to go tell Gran.” Cait had had no doubt about the men staying. They were close. They were family.

“We’re going to fix that fence in the northeast pasture,” Coop said. “I guess we now have to play nice with the lofty Calhouns.”

A smile touched her lips for the first time all day. “We’re going to play, but I’m not thinking nice.”

Coop grinned and it softened the harshness she often saw on his face.

She waved toward her horse. “Would you please rub down Red and feed her? I have to see Gran.”

“You’re gonna let me take care of Red?” One of Coop’s eyebrows shot to the brim of his worn Stetson. “Did you hear that, Ru?”

“Yes, siree, I did.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Okay, I don’t like other people taking care of my horse, so what?”

Cooper bowed from the waist. “I’ll treat her with the utmost care, ma’am.”

She shook her head and walked toward the house. The two-story wood-frame dwelling wasn’t as fancy as the Calhoun spread. John Cotton, her great-great-grandfather, who’d settled High Cotton with Will Calhoun in the late 1800s, had had simpler taste.

The exterior was weatherboard siding that desperately needed a coat of paint. The hip roof sported four chimneys, but since Grandfather Bart had installed central air and heat, they were rarely used.

Brick piers supported Doric half columns along three sides of the wraparound porch. A slat-wood balustrade enclosed the porch with a decorative touch. Black plantation shutters added another touch, as did the beveled glass door that had been there since the house was built.

In the summers Cait and her sisters used to sleep out on the porch in sleeping bags, laughing and sharing secrets. What she had to share now wasn’t going to be easy.

She picked up her stride and breezed through the back veranda into the kitchen. Etta was at the stove, stirring something in a pot.

“Where’s Gran?”

“In her room.” Etta always seemed to have a spoon in her hand, and she waved it now. “I’m almost afraid to go up there.” The housekeeper was tiny and spry, with short gray hair, a loyal and honest woman with a heart of gold. Cait had never met a better person.

Etta was fiercely loyal to Dorie, and worried about her. Since her son’s death, Dorie tended to live in a world removed from reality. As kids, playing make-believe with Gran had been a favorite pastime for Caitlyn and her sisters. But lately it had gotten out of hand.

“What is she doing?” Cait asked.

“She had me help her get that old trunk out of the attic. She was pulling clothes out of it when I came down to start supper. We’re having stew and cornbread.”

“Etta…” Cait sighed. “Neither you nor Gran are to pull trunks out of the attic. I’ll do it or Coop will.”

“She was in a hurry, and you know how Miss Dorie is.”

“Yes.” Cait turned toward the stairs in the big kitchen. “I’ll go talk to her.”

CAIT KNOCKED ON her grandmother’s door, stepping into the room when she heard her call, “Come in.” Then she stopped and stared.

Gran stood in front of a full-length mirror, in a dress from the 1930s. It fit her slim figure perfectly. She wore heels and a jaunty hat that were also of that era.

“Gran, what are you doing?”

“‘I’ve been betrayed so often by tomorrows, I don’t dare promise them.’”

Cait blinked. That made no sense. Though it kinda, sorta exemplified their situation, she thought.

“Remember that line, baby?” Gran primped in front of the mirror, turning this way and that way.

“No, I don’t.” Cait was thirty-three and her grandmother still called her “baby.” She wondered if Gran would ever see her as an adult.

“Bette Davis.” Dorie whirled to face her. “As Joyce Heath in Dangerous. Let’s play movies of the thirties.”

“I really need to talk to you.”

“Oh, posh.” Gran knelt at the trunk, pulling out more clothes. She held up a white blouse with a big bow. “I know you remember this line. ‘Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.’”

Cait could say that was apt, but decided to leave her grandmother with her playful memories for the moment. Cait was worried whether Gran was ever going to be able to cope with her son’s death. Soon, though, she was going to have to face facts. Cait hoped to make it as easy as possible.

She hurried down the wooden staircase and across the wide plank floors to her study. She had to call her sisters. Since Cait was in charge of their inheritance, they depended on her to make decisions that would benefit them. How did she tell them they wouldn’t be receiving any more checks? By being honest.

She called Madison first. Their middle sister was easy—that’s what she and Skylar often said. Not easy in the sexual sense, but with her emotions. Madison was easygoing, loving, compassionate, and felt other people’s pain. Cait and Sky often played on Maddie’s sensitive nature because they knew she would never do anything to hurt or disappoint them. Cait was counting on her understanding today.

Madison answered on the second ring.

“Maddie, it’s Cait.”

“Hi, big sister. What’s going on? Is there a ranch crisis?”

It was the opening Caitlyn needed. “Yes.” She told her about her meeting with Judd.

There was a long pause on the other end. “Cait, I need that money. I depend on it.”

Cait was taken aback. This didn’t sound like her easy, understanding sister.

“I’m sorry, but it’s gone.”

“Can’t you do something?”

Cait heard the desperation in her voice. “You need to come home so we can discuss this.”

“I…I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t, okay?”

“Maddie, we need to discuss our options face-to-face. That’s all I know to do.”

There was another long pause.

“I’ll try to get the next flight out of Philadelphia. I’ll let you know.”

“Good. I can’t wait to see you.”

“Cait…”

“What?”

“Nothing. We’ll talk when I get there.”

Cait hung up, knowing something was going on with Maddie. But what? She’d find out soon enough.

Sadly, as they grew older, the sisters spent less and less time together. Maddie had come home when their father became ill, and had stayed until he died. Before that Cait hadn’t seen her in three years.

Maybe they could reconnect and become family again. There was that hope, but she knew her sisters would pressure her to sell. She closed her eyes briefly, realizing she was facing the biggest fight of her life. And not only with Judd.

Calling Skylar was more difficult. She was the wild, defiant one, and was not going to take this news well. When Sky came to visit their father in his last days, it had been four years since Cait had seen her. Skylar had her own life, living in Lexington, Kentucky, with her mother, but had a stake here, too.

Without another thought, Cait made the call. Usually she had to leave a message on voice mail, but today her sister answered.

“Hi, Sky. It’s Caitlyn.”

“What’s wrong? You only phone when something’s wrong.”

As with Maddie, she told her the truth, not sugarcoating any of it.

“You’re kidding me.”

“No. The cash flow has stopped and the ranch is in dire straits.”

“Why, Caitlyn? Why isn’t High Five making a profit? It’s a big ranch with a lot of cattle, and it’s always been profitable. What’s the problem?”

Skylar was pointing the finger straight at her. How dare she! “Maybe if you came home more often, you’d know.”

“Maybe if you were a better manager we wouldn’t be in this fix.”

“If you think you can do a better job, then get your ass here and try.”

“Don’t get huffy with me. If you’d just married the damn man, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Excuse me?” Both of their tempers had flown the coop, so to speak, and Caitlyn wasn’t backing down or admitting fault. This was typical of their relationship, with the two of them always at loggerheads.

“You know what I mean.”

“My relationship with Judd or lack thereof has nothing to do with this. Dad sold our oil and gas royalties and now we have to decide what we’re going to do. You need to come home.”

“There is no way I can just drop everything and leave at a moment’s notice.”

“That’s up to you. Maddie and I will make decisions without you.”

“Like hell.” There was a momentary pause. “Listen, Cait. I need that money.”