“Punctuality is a virtue. So’s having guts. You’ve got ’em little lady.” He nodded his approval. “It took guts for you to show your face around here today.” He appraised her through squinted eyes. “In that respect, you’re a lot like your mama. She was no shrinking violet.”
“No?”
He chuckled. “I saw her hold her own with those two hellions—Reede and Junior—many a time.”
His chuckles faded into silent smiles of fond remembrance as he contemplated the horizon. “If she’d lived, she’d’ve become quite a woman.” His eyes came back to Alex. “She’d’ve been like you, I
guess. If I’d ever had a daughter, I’d have wanted her to be like you.”
Discomfited by the unexpected statement, she said, “I apologize for being even remotely connected to this, Angus.” She made a sweeping gesture that encompassed all the damage. “I hope Reede finds whoever did it. I hope they’re prosecuted and convicted.”
“Yeah, so do I. Most of it I can overlook.” He glanced down at the broken window glass on the porch. “But that was a terrible waste of good horseflesh. I hate like hell that Reede lost him. He took pride in saving up enough to buy him.”
“He seemed extremely upset,” Alex said, turning to watch as Reede went to his truck and spoke into the radio transmitter.
“More like enraged. He’s as jealous as a mama bear when it comes to anything that belongs to him. It’s understandable, I guess, considering how he grew up. Didn’t have a pot to piss in, not even anybody to look out for him. Lived on hand-me-downs and handouts. Once you’ve been a scavenger in order to survive, I reckon it’s a tough habit to break. He’s mean and testy ‘cause at times his life depended on it.”
Junior breezed through the front door then, beaming his famous smile. He was in an inappropriately jovial mood. Unlike Reede and Angus, his clothes were spotless. If he’d ever broken a sweat, one couldn’t tell it by looking at him now.
After greeting Alex warmly, he said, “Y’all wouldn’t believe the telephone conversation I just had. One of the owners called to check on her mare that’s in foal. Bad news travels fast in racehorse circles,” he informed Alex.
“Anyway, she had this high, falsetto voice and was saying, ‘My poor baby must have been scared out of her wits.’ I reassured her that the mare was in another barn, but she kept me on the phone for half an hour, making me swear that her baby and her baby’s baby were okay.”
He had imitated the woman’s warbling, soprano voice. Angus and Alex were laughing. Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, Alex caught Reede watching them. He was standing perfectly still, and, though it was too far away to tell, she was certain he didn’t like what he saw. His resentment seemed to ride the airwaves until they struck her with near-palpable force.
“I’d better go inside or I’ll be late for tea,” she told the men.
Junior laid a hand on her shoulder. “Mother wants to make amends for her outburst last night. She was tickled pink when you accepted her invitation. She’s looking forward to seeing you.”
Chapter 25
Lupe took her coat and led her upstairs. The maid paused outside a door and gave it a soft tap.
“Come in.”
Lupe swung the door open, but didn’t go in. Taking that as her cue, Alex stepped across the threshold into a room that could have been a movie set. Her remark was spontaneous and genuine. “What a beautiful room!”
“Thank you. I like it.” Sarah Jo looked beyond Alex’s shoulder. “Close the door, please, Lupe. You know I can’t stand that draft, and the racket those workers are making is deplorable. Bring up the tea tray right away.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The housekeeper withdrew, leaving them alone.
Alex stood near the door, feeling self-conscious in her low-heeled suede boots and long wool skirt. There was nothing wrong with her totally black ensemble, but it seemed glaringly modern and out of place in this ultrafeminine Victorian room, which smelled like a perfumery.
Her hostess looked as right in the setting as a whirling ballerina in a musical jewelry box. The ruffles along the neckline of her white blouse were duplicated around her slender wrists. She was wearing a soft beige skirt that fanned out around her where she sat on a robin’s-egg-blue damask divan near the window. The afternoon sunlight created a halo around her hair.
“Come in and sit down.” She motioned toward a dainty chair near her.
Usually poised, Alex felt gauche as she crossed the carpeted floor. “Thank you for inviting me. This was a very good idea.”
“It was mandatory that I apologize as soon as possible for what I said to you last night.”
“Never mind. It’s forgotten.” Junior and Angus seemed to have forgiven her for the unwitting role she had played in the act of vandalism. In return, she could be forgiving toward Sarah Jo.
Curious, she took in her surroundings. “This truly is a lovely room. Did you decorate it yourself?”
Sarah Jo offered a laugh as frail as the hand she raised to her throat to fiddle with the ruffles. “My, yes. I wouldn’t let one of those dreadful decorators inside my house. Actually, I copied my room back home item by item, as closely as I could. Angus says it’s too fussy.”
Alex searched discreetly for something masculine, a shred of evidence that a man had been inside the room. There was none. As though reading her mind, Sarah Jo said, “He keeps his things in another room, through there. Alex followed the direction of her gaze to a closed door.