Alma's Mail Order Husband (Texas Brides Book 1) (11 page)

Allegra stared at her. Her voice came out as
a husky whisper, and her words pleaded for an irretrievable outcome
that slipped through her fingers when she wasn’t looking. “But
you’re my sister. I don’t want to lose my sister.”

Alma’s eyes stung with tears. She threw the
dress down into the open trunk and rushed to Allegra’s side. She
wrapped her arm around her youngest sister’s shoulders. “I’ll
always be your sister, no matter what I change into. I’ll never
change into anything that will take me away from you. You never
have to worry about that.”

“But where will I find you?” Allegra
whimpered. “Where will I find the sister who I know? If you’re
being a wife and a mother here in the house and wearing Mama’s
dresses, where will I find the leader of our ranching operation?
Where will I look for the sister I used to count on to show us the
way and keep us on track? That sister will be gone forever.”

Alma listened in silence. “Maybe you could
become the leader that you need. Maybe you could be the guiding
force for the ranch. You know everything I know. Maybe you don’t
need me anymore.”

“But I
do
need you,” Allegra cried. “I
don’t want to work on this ranch without you. It just won’t be the
same if all three of us aren’t out there anymore. If you go, what’s
to stop Amelia from going, too? Then I’ll be all alone.” A tear
rolled down her cheek, and Alma felt her own sobs threatening to
overwhelm her.

“I’ll stay with you as long as I can,” Alma
promised. “I’ll ride the ranges with you as long as you need me.
But it’s only a matter of time before being married catches up to
me, and then I’ll have to give it up.”

“Is that what you want?” Allegra asked. “Do
you want to give it up?”

“Yes,” Alma told her. “I want to be a woman.
I want to be soft and gentle and loving and comforting to my
husband and children. I don’t want to be a cattle puncher all my
life. I want to come home to the fireside and stay there. I want to
be the home that cattle punchers like you come home to. I want you
to know there will always be a fire on the hearth and a hot meal on
the table because I’m there to make it.”

Allegra hung her head, and the tears fell
into her lap. “I thought the three of us would always stay
together. I never knew you wanted anything different.”

“I didn’t want to let you down,” Alma
admitted. “I didn’t want to have this conversation we’re having
now. I didn’t want you to think I was leaving you.”

Allegra nodded and sniffed. “I understand why
you want to come home to the fireside. I really do. I only wish I
could, too. But I can’t.”

Alma put her arms around her sister and
hugged her against her chest. “You have a different destiny. But
let me be the one to give it to you. Let me be the one to make a
home for you. Let me make a soft place for you to land when you
come back to the nest. If you never get married, you’ll need
someone to look after you. Let me be the one.”

Allegra’s shoulders shook in Alma’s arms with
sobs long unshed. Alma cried into the back of Allegra’s head. “All
right,” Allegra whispered. “All right. You be the one.”

When they both wiped their eyes and blew
their noses, Alma put her mother’s dresses away in the trunk and
closed the lid on that dream. The time wasn’t right yet. Allegra
still needed her, and Amelia probably did, too. Jude wasn’t ready
to ride with them on his own yet. He needed her support before he
could hold his own with the sisters.

Alma went back to her bed and sat down in the
same place. She unbuckled her belt. If only she could change into
one of those soft comfortable dresses now. If only she could take
these stiff heavy pants off once and for all. They chafed her until
she was sore, especially when she sat in the saddle all day.

A bitter loathing for the cattle puncher’s
life overwhelmed her. What made her live that life so
enthusiastically over the last few years? She had to get up
tomorrow morning and ride out to the range with her sisters the
same way she always did. If she didn’t have to go, she would throw
her pants, boots, hat, and belt on the fire right now and be done
with it.

She sighed. To think, it was Jude who wanted
so badly for her to be a woman and act like one. It was Jude she
had to ride out to take care of, to make sure he didn’t cross her
sisters so badly, he lost his place on this ranch. He probably
didn’t understand that himself.

She glanced across the room. There he sat in
his chair, staring blankly ahead of him, too tired to think. A
surge of affection for him made her want to run to him and throw
her arms around him. But her father sat just a few feet away. He
wouldn’t approve of that sort of display.

Just then, Amelia put the food on the table.
Allegra crossed the room to the table and pulled up her chair. Jude
roused himself slightly and glanced toward the tortillas, the meat,
and the bowl of grilled vegetables. At least he didn’t grimace in
disgust the way he did last night. He might just be hungry enough
to eat something.

Alma took the chair next to him. Amelia sat
opposite them. One chair remained vacant for their father. Clarence
heaved himself out of his rocking chair and shuffled over to the
table.

But he didn’t sit down. He stopped a little
distance away, his bleary eyes focused somewhere in the direction
of the table.

“Come sit down, Papa,” Amelia called out to
him. “Supper’s on the table. Come and eat before it’s gone.”

The old man didn’t move. He swayed on his
feet. Alma glanced over at him. Could he fall over? Maybe he wanted
to come to the table and couldn’t. Maybe he was having trouble
walking. That happened sometimes.

“Do you want me to help you get into the
chair, Papa?” Alma asked. “There’s a chair right here for you.”

She started to rise from her own chair to
take him by the arm, but his words made her stop. “I won’t come to
the table. I won’t come to the table as long as
that
….” His
bony finger stretched out. “As long as
that’s
there.”

They all craned their necks to see what he
was pointing at, and they followed the line of his finger toward
Jude.

“What’s the matter?” Allegra asked. “It’s
only Jude. He’s Alma’s husband. Don’t you remember?”

“I don’t care if he’s the Lord Mayor,”
Clarence spat. “I won’t eat at the same table as that man!”

“What’s the matter, Papa?” Alma cried out.
“What’s wrong with Jude? You ate with him last night. What’s gotten
into you now?”

“I didn’t think of it last night,” her father
rumbled. “I didn’t have a chance to think it over. But I’ve been
sitting here thinking about it all day today, and I’m determined
not to have that….that thing in my house.”

“He’s not a thing,” Alma corrected him. “And
I won’t have you calling him names as long as I’m around. He’s a
man.”

“You may think he’s a man,” Clarence shot
back. “I say he’s a monster. If I could undo your wedding, I
would.”

“What is the matter with you?” Alma gasped.
“What has made you turn against Jude all of a sudden?”

“I didn’t remember everything before,” he
told her. “I didn’t have a chance. But I remember now. I remember
plenty. And I know enough to get that creature out of my house
while I have the chance.”

“You still haven’t told us why,” Allegra put
in. “Can you explain why you want him out of your house now, when
you were happy to have him last night?”

“I’ll tell you,” Clarence replied. “I don’t
have to, but I will. I told you last night about those Yankee
soldiers who killed our men at the Battle of Little Crooked Ridge.
Well, he’s one of ‘em. I know that now.”

“But Jude told you,” Alma recalled. “He never
even heard of that battle before you mentioned it yesterday.”

“Maybe you believe that story, but I don’t.
He was there, and he helped butcher our men, and I won’t have him
sitting at my table eating my food.” He turned his half-blind eyes
on Jude. “You’ve had your fun, Mister. You’ve had your way with my
innocent daughter here, and you’ve told us all a fine story about
your life up there in Amarillo. But now you’ve been found out, and
I’ll thank you to get out of my house, and don’t let the door hit
you in the backside on the way out.”

Jude froze. His eyes sought out the sisters.
Alma and her sisters exchanged glances. “Papa, Jude and I are
married now. You can’t just boot him out without so much as a thank
you very kindly. He has the same right to live in this house as the
rest of us. If he goes, I’ll have to go with him. Is that what you
want?”

Her father’s expression made Alma’s heart
quail in her chest. “If you want to stick with him, you go right
ahead. If you want to take him over me, you better get out of here,
too. I won’t have him around, and if you see fit to stand by him
against me, then I don’t want you around, either.”

Alma gasped in shock. “Papa!”

“You can’t mean that,” Allegra put in. “You
can’t be serious about kicking Alma out. I can understand you
wanting to get rid of Jude, but you can’t throw Alma out, too.
She’s your own daughter.”

“No daughter of mine would support a monster
like him against me,” Clarence thundered. “He’s one of ‘em, I tell
you, and no one can convince me otherwise. I won’t have him here in
my house, and I won’t share my bread and meat with him, either.
He’s my enemy, and he won’t share the shelter of my house with my
family.”

Jude leaned forward to push his chair back,
but Alma restrained him. “Do you really intend to throw both of us
out over this? What proof do you have that he’s the man you think
he is? I’m sure if we sit down and discuss this, we’ll figure out
it’s all a misunderstanding.”

“I have all the proof I need,” her father
shot back. “I don’t need to discuss anything with anyone to know
what I know. He lied to you about who he was to get you to marry
him. Now get out of here!”

This time, Jude broke free from Alma’s grip
and rose from the table. “If this is how you feel, I’ll go.”

Alma leapt to her feet. “Wait, Jude! Don’t
go!”

“I don’t have to sit here and listen to
this,” Jude snapped. “If he doesn’t want me in his house, then I
won’t stay where I’m not wanted.”

“And what about me?” Alma cried. “What if I
want you to stay in this house? Doesn’t that mean anything to
you?”

“If you want me to stay in this house,” Jude
replied. “You better straighten your father out. I won’t stand
around being called a monster and a liar and a butcher. If you want
me to stay here, you better take it up with him.”

He stomped out of the house. The door banged
shut after him, and a terrible stillness descended over the little
house.

Allegra broke the silence. “Well, this is a
fine how do you do.” She reached for another tortilla.

Alma knocked over her chair getting away from
the table. Her sisters watched her fly across the room and burst
out of the house into the darkness outside.

Alma followed the sound of tinkling metal to
the barn. She ran over to the circle of lantern light at the end of
the building. Jude straightened his horse’s bridle and laid out the
leather reins as if he planned to go somewhere.

“Where are you going?” Alma asked.

“I guess I’ll head back up north,” he
replied. “I have friends on ranches up north of Austin who will
give me work for the rest of the season. I can make enough money to
keep me going until I find a more permanent position
somewhere.”

Alma’s heart pounded in her ribcage. “You
can’t be thinking of leaving. We just got married.”

“I told you,” Jude growled. “I won’t stay on
the same patch with a man who calls me a bunch of hateful names and
thinks I butchered a bunch of Confederate soldiers.”

“He’s a doddering old man,” Alma told him.
“He probably can’t see well enough to recognize your face. You
can’t hold this sort of thing against him. His mind doesn’t work
right at the best of times. You have to make allowances for his
age. He’s infirm. You shouldn’t take anything he says very
seriously.”

“Is that the way you handle him?” Jude asked.
“Well, I won’t excuse him for that. I don’t care how old or infirm
he is. If he can’t control himself, he shouldn’t be allowed to
interfere with normal people’s lives. And if he’s that mentally
unsound, then maybe he shouldn’t be in the house with the rest of
us. He should be put out by himself where he won’t trouble anyone
with his ranting and raving.”

“We can’t put him out,” Alma maintained.
“He’s our own father.”

“And you can put me out instead?” Jude
returned. “Very well, then. You keep him and I’ll go.”

“Please don’t leave, Jude,” Alma pleaded.
“I’m your wife. Stay with me. I’ll deal with Papa for you.”

“And how will you deal with him?” Jude shot
back. “What exactly will you do about these accusations he’s
making?”

“I won’t do anything,” Alma told him. “I’ll
pretend this never happened. You and I will go back into the house
and finish our supper. Papa will go back to his chair by the fire
if he hasn’t already. And the rest of us will continue to live our
lives without the least thought about his accusations.”

“You can’t just ignore this sort of
behavior,” Jude insisted. “You have to make a stand against it now.
Otherwise, you’re just encouraging it and it will have it going on
all the time.”

“You sound like you’re dealing with a child,”
Alma pointed out. “He’s an old man. You can’t just whip him and
send him to bed. You have to indulge him a little bit.”

“Indulge him?” Jude sneered. “And what about
me? Are you going to indulge me by whipping him?”