“Not everyone. Us.” She hated mincing words and wouldn’t put on pleasantries for what everyone knew was the truth. Louis Douglas had always hated the Johlmans. Alice stood and headed for the nearest large window. At least she could hide her emotions by turning away.
“Bodey suspected Louis wasn’t well, since neither you nor Alexa has been to visit in quite some time,” Ma continued as if they were having a simple conversation about quilt squares, not the mental health of a man who’d just as soon see them dead as alive.
“Armstrong sent a letter to Kent when we saw a slight shift in Louis. We’d hoped that Louis would return to a semblance of his old self when Kent returned, but he only got angrier. Armstrong thinks Louis took Kent’s leaving as personal.”
Imagine that.Alice cringed at her own haughty inner words. Fancy her agreeing with Louis Douglas on anything. “While I agree with you, Kent always said his father would welcome only having one son around. Maybe there is no cause for his change. Perhaps his mind is just slipping away as he ages.” Alice wanted to be a part of the solution, but she feared she was more of the problem in this case. And while Dosha hadn’t come right out and said Kent hadn’t ever planned on returning, she’d implied it. Armstrong had asked his brother to return. He hadn’t chosen to.
“Perhaps. . .” Dosha seemed unwilling to consider that option. “We’d like to see him go back to the man we once knew if that’s possible. He’s incredibly stubborn, even more than he used to be.”
Alice turned and crossed her arms, a valiant attempt to protect her own broken heart. Too bad it was too late for such measures. “I’m glad he was able to come help you. When will he be returning to finish school?” She refused to flinch when she heard the answer, no matter what it was.
“Return?” Dosha cocked her head slightly and her brow furrowed. “He has no plans to return that I know of. He finished school last spring.”
“So he truly didn’t plan to return.” Alice swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling the burn of her tears even as she refused to let them fall. “He planned to leave me to rot in solitude.”
“Alice, it’s not like that. I promise you.” Dosha rushed to her feet and took two steps toward Alice.
She whipped around to face Dosha, stopping her cold. “It isn’t like that? He asked me to wait. I believed that there was no other for me. I defended him when everyone else put him down. All of you, including my brothers, said he was too young to make a decision, and I defended him. Now, I look like a fool. You were right. He shouldn’t have promised and I shouldn’t have agreed.”
She balled her fists at her sides as she headed to the door. She didn’t need to disturb the visit any further. “Make no mistake, I will have my revenge.”
“Alice, don’t say that. Don’t start this feud all over again.” Ma shot to her feet. “I always hoped this feud would end with you. Don’t let me down. Don’t fight over what can’t be made right. You’ll never get that time back, but you can move on.”
Alice continued for the door, holding back any answer for her mother. Ma was right, nothing could make her heart whole again. Nothing would heal what Kent had done. But moving on was not an option.
Chapter2
Alice raced through the pasture, her hair whipping behind her loose from its braid. Blast Kent Douglas for making her feel again. Blast him for hurting her again. She saw the fence and squeezed her knees against Blaze’s flank, encouraging him to go faster even as she leaned over his neck.
Wind stung her eyes as tears raced down her cheeks. She’d promised herself Kent would never make her cry again. Blast him for making her break a promise. Blaze launched over the fence with grace and skill, landing easily on the other side and racing away from the house and her embarrassment.
Now she was on Douglas property and if Louis saw her, she would start the feud all over again. Too bad she didn’t care. She raced at top speed until Blaze’s sides were slick, then she slowed him to a trot. She craned her neck, looking for cattle. “Odd that they have this whole pasture empty when grass is so sparse.” Yet there wasn’t a hint of movement.
Part of her wanted to make a mess of something, just to be a nuisance. She listened to her inner scolding and reined Blaze around to head back home. The ride felt good but had accomplished nothing except tangling her hair. She still felt a scream burning for release.
A steady thumping behind her made her glance over her shoulder. Blaze noticed the bull in the same instant and took off toward the Douglas house. “No! You can’t go that way.” Bull or not, Louis shouldn’t see her, not in his pasture.
She yanked on the reins, but Blaze had no intention of complying. He raced full speed and now the bull’s hooves beat a rhythm Alice couldn’t ignore as it drove closer and closer. She’d never dreamed a bull could run so fast.
Blaze stumbled and Alice tightened her legs around him. He quivered, tired from his earlier run. Why had she taken out her frustration on the horse? Riding had helped her escape in the last few years, but she’d never ridden a horse so hard.
Careful to hold tight, she hazarded a glance behind her. The bull wasn’t close, but wasn’t far, either. If Blaze managed to unseat her, she’d be in dire straits. To her right, spindly cedar trees grew in a small clump, only about twenty feet tall and more shadow than anything.
Gripping the reins, she tugged hard toward home and away from the Douglas ranch. With the way things were going, Louis would probably blame her for injuring his bull. She had ridden where she wasn’t supposed to be. He wasn’t wrong there.
A snake slid toward Blaze, curving through the grass. “No. No, no, no!” Everything around her slowed as her mind raced. She tried to react in time, but her own movements seemed stuck in molasses. Blaze reared high, suddenly more afraid of what was coming at him from the front than from behind.
Alice clung to the saddle, but her legs and grip were no match for the terrified horse. He danced in an alarmed circle and raced toward the nearest cedar tree.
“He’s going to scrape me . . . ” Alice couldn’t calm her breathing. She was going to hit that spindly branch right in the chest and be knocked to the ground.
The bull gained ground with the help of the snake. Of course the bull wasn’t frightened off. She clenched her teeth at her rotten luck. “Lord, I could use a hand right about now.”
The branch hit her chest with enough force to knock the wind from her lungs and she dangled there for a moment until the bull’s hoofbeats got her shimmying as quickly up the matchstick tree as she could. He hit it with a resoundingcrackand the entire tree swayed.
He glanced up at her and snorted, then nudged the tree hard enough to make her grip the trunk with all she had in her. “That wasn’t really the hand I was looking for,” she called out to God or whoever might be listening.
If the bull pushed over the tree, she’d get trampled and no one would ever think to look for her there. She could never outrun a bull on foot. Not an angry one, anyway.