Once in a Blue Moon (9 page)

The door opened, Sully
looked her over, smiled, and opened the door all the way.

Melissa stepped
outside, only to have her hopes dashed. The guy was even worse than
Sully.

A large, bearded,
muscular man in his early forties or so, he had a bush of grey and
brown hair bunched under a beat-up cowboy hat. He wore brown slacks
and a tan shirt with disgusting sweat circles under each arm. He
quickly hid a whisky bottle behind his back, then simply ogled
her.

Melissa was
disappointed, but unsurprised that Sully had such low friends.

Sully gestured toward
the behemoth. “Mrs. Kendal, this here is Jed Peterson.”

Jed quickly took off
his hat, revealing the matted, unwashed state of his hair. “Nice to
meet you ma’am. Missus? You married then?” His disappointment was
obvious.

“Yes I am.” Never in
her life had she been so relieved by that fact.

“It’s gambling night.
Jed’s here for the party,” said Sully.

Melissa stared at him
and dread crawled up her spine. “What do you mean?”

“I mean we’re gambling,
just like we do every Monday night. Henry’s coming too. You girls
might need to bed down early. We’ll try to keep it quiet.”

Melissa stared at Sully
in horror. His smelly friends were joining them in the cramped
quarters? And here she’d thought things couldn’t get any worse.
Feeling trapped, Melissa looked around as if to find a way out.

Something moved at the
top of the hill and Melissa turned her head. Hope died quickly as
another nasty-looking man came down the hill, disgusting and dirty,
a big smile on his face.

Where was Richard? She
wanted out of there, out of that place. Maybe she should take the
kids, start walking and hope to meet Richard on the way.

“How far is it to the
ranch?”

“About three
miles.”

She considered it for a
moment, looked at her high-heeled shoes, then turned and walked
back into the cabin. She didn’t have a choice–-hadn’t from the
moment she’d woken up that morning.

She’d simply go to
sleep. That was her only escape from this nightmare. Even the hard
floor of the loft seemed like a sanctuary at the moment. Besides,
the way she saw it, the spiders had to be a better option than the
vermin.

* * *

Richard topped the hill and saw Melissa, wearing the old-
fashioned dress, walking toward the door of the cabin. Sully and
two rough-looking men stood behind her. With the cabin in the
background, it looked like a scene from a Louis L’Amour novel. He
cupped his hands over his mouth. “
Hello
the house
!” He grinned. He’d always wanted
to say that.

Focusing on Melissa, he
headed down the hill, excited to share his news and set her mind at
ease. She turned and he tried to gauge her mood.

A sudden smile animated
her face.

She
looked happy to see him, very happy, an expression he hadn’t seen
directed toward himself in a long, long while. He
liked it!
His grin
widened as she ran to meet him and he opened his arms.

She stopped short.

Heat warmed his neck
and he let his arms drop. Their discussion of divorce--just the
night before?--flashed through his mind, and he felt the pain of
her rejection once more. His gazed dropped to her clothes, but
wisely, he didn’t mention the dress.

“So, what happened?”
she asked impatiently.

Richard tried a smile,
determined to recapture his good mood. “I got the job.”

Both her hands flew up.
“That’s wonderful!”

“And it includes a
place to live!”

She closed her eyes for
a moment, relief evident on her face. Her eyes popped open. “How
much money will you make?”

The dreaded question.
He’d been hoping she wouldn’t ask right away, but should have known
better. “Ah--” He tugged at his ear. “Thirty dollars--”

”A day?” Melissa’s
shock was evident. “That’s ridiculous!”

Oh, this could only get
worse. He thought about lying but, of course, couldn’t. She’d find
out eventually. “A month.”

Horror tightened her
face. “We’ll be paupers!” She whispered the words.

“It’s not that
bad.”

“Richard, couldn’t you
have found something better?”

His gaze dropped to the
ground as her words pierced him painfully and what little joy was
left leaked out of the situation. Chest tight, he swallowed a
sudden lump in his throat. She always seemed to be disappointed in
him. Her criticism especially hurt after the way she’d smiled.

Again, he was reminded
of her easy acceptance toward the idea of a divorce. Could he ever
make her happy again? Odds seemed against it lately. He quickly
stifled the thought. He’d been known to buck the odds before and
win. He’d better start talking. He took a deep breath. “Melissa,
what you haven’t realized is that things are dirt cheap in this
century.”

He
searched for something to say, something that would make the whole
situation better for her. “Anyway, things don’t matter.
We
matter. Our family
matters. As long as we’re together, we’ll be okay.”

Melissa shot him a
killer look. “On thirty dollars a month?”

He tried a smile, one
he knew used to charm her. “It does seem a pitiful sum, but things
cost much less now.” He glanced up to see the three men watching
them. “Sully, how much for a pound of flour?” Immediately he
realized that wouldn’t mean a thing to her. “No, how much for a
yard of cloth?”

“Dress fabric? About
seven cents a yard, maybe eight.” He eyed Melissa. “Unless you want
the fancy stuff; then you’ll have to pay as much as twenty cents.
Robbery and foolishness if you ask me.”

Melissa laughed.

Granted it seemed a bit
hysterical, but Richard laughed with her. “See?” The pressure eased
in his chest. “It’ll be fine.”

She looked anything but
convinced, but there was resignation in her expression. “Well, can
we at least leave now?”

He shook his head,
regretful that he couldn’t grant her request. “It’s getting dark,
and they’re not expecting us until morning. We’ll stay the night,
then walk there tomorrow.”

Melissa simply turned
and walked toward the cabin, murmuring something about vermin.

Richard blew out a
breath and moved forward to meet the men. Sully eyed him. “So ya
got the job?”

Richard grinned. “Yeah.
I just mentioned your name, and it was mine.”

Sully nodded. “Thought
so. Couldn’t help but overhear. You’re going to be flush with money
soon. You a gambling man?”

Melissa stopped in the
doorway, and Richard took in her rigid shoulders and could
practically read her thoughts. If he tried to gamble away their
pitiful sum, his life wouldn’t be worth living. He turned back to
Sully with a grin. “Only in love, gentlemen, only in love.”

The three men roared
with laughter, and he couldn’t be sure, but he got a glimpse of
Melissa’s cheek when she ducked in the door and it looked like she
might be smiling.

His heart lightened and
he tried to shrug off his sadness. Everything would work out; he’d
make sure of it.

* * *

How much farther could
it be? Melissa trudged slowly through a patch of soft, powdery dirt
before the road once again smoothed into hard-packed terra
firma.

A while back, they’d
passed beneath a wooden structure with a hanging sign proclaiming
them on the MacPherson ranch. But they’d walked on this dirt road
forever, and still, there was no ranch in sight.

And what was she doing
walking down a road she wouldn’t drive her Lexus on anyway? Her
life was becoming a series of new lows.

She sighed loudly, and
not for the first time. They needed to reach their destination
soon. Her back hurt. Her feet hurt. The chunky lace-top boots Sully
had given her pinched her toes. For fashion, Melissa could endure
pinched toes, but found it galled her to endure pain while wearing
shoes she wouldn’t put on an ugly mannequin.

The muscles in her
right arm burned, so she shifted the feed sack full of
hand-me-downs Sully had foisted off on her: another hideous dress,
a ridiculous apron, handkerchiefs, and a cape. They were his dead
wife’s possessions and she felt like a desperate graverobber with
extremely poor taste.

She staggered as a wave
of dizziness engulfed her. Was she about to pass out from hunger?
Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. She could escape this
horrible situation for a while.

At the thought, her
spine stiffened. She hated whiners almost as much as she hated
quitters, and had no intention of letting this untenable situation
turn her into either.

Richard started to
whistle an upbeat tune, no doubt something they played on that
stupid country music station he listened to.

She turned to glare at
him. He was also carrying a sack of odds-and-ends Sully had pawned
off. The geezer was probably just trying to dejunk his cabin, and
destitute as they were, they’d been suckered into hauling away his
garbage.

Richard ditched the
whistling in favor of humming.

His
happy attitude turned hers even darker. What did he have to be
happy about? She glanced at the kids, walking through a pile of
dirt about ten feet in front of her, laughing and joking.
What did any of them have to be happy
about
?

When Richard started
whistling again, she gave him a sweet smile. “Anxious to earn your
daily dollar?”

Richard chuckled and
gave her a half-grin, his good humor undiminished. “Actually, I
am.” He said it almost apologetically, but she wasn’t fooled. He
was looking forward to their life here.

“If you think
that--”

Jessica turned around
and started walking backwards. “Mother, don’t start. We were
enjoying the peace and quiet.” She jerked back around.

Melissa’s lips
tightened. She really ought to give Jessica a verbal blasting, but
didn’t want to expend the energy. She was too tired after passing
half the night waiting in the moonlight for something to happen,
and the other half on the hard floor of the loft. She’d simply
ignore them all.

She searched what she
could see of their surroundings. Trees, green grass, and the big
hill that continued to block the view. Surely they’d reach their
destination soon?

Thinking about their
new place of residence didn’t exactly fill her with excitement. She
wasn’t expecting much. But after staying with Sully, anything would
be a step up and at least they’d have their own housing.

She shuddered. She
never wanted to stay with Sully again. She never wanted to meet him
or his loud, uncouth friends again. Her back hurt from sleeping in
the loft and her head hurt from being kept awake all night by their
raucous laughter.

When she and her family
returned home, she was definitely razing the cabin. No more
revering the ancestors. She’d met one of Richard’s ancestors and he
wasn’t exactly someone she’d build a shrine to.

They finally came to
the bend in the road and Jeremy was first around the corner. “Would
you look at that!”

“Horses!” Jessica
sounded equally enthralled.

Melissa hurried forward
to see what looked like a little community. There was a big ranch
house with a wrap-around porch surrounded by huge trees, one of
which contained a swing. Several barns and structures that could be
cabins or store-houses sat off to the left, and stables and horse
corrals lined the edges. To the rear of the buildings sat three of
the dreaded outhouses and in the distance she could make out a
snaking river as well as cattle; a lot of cattle.

Her heart sank. It
looked like a Hallmark movie set. She glanced at the kids and at
Richard. Much to her disgust, they were obviously excited, eyes
shining, grinning like fools. Irritated, she had the urge to
deflate some of the enthusiasm. “Richard, might I remind you that
you’re no cowboy?”

Richard turned his
smile on her. “Aw shucks, honey, just give me a few days.”

She rolled her eyes and
he chuckled as they started walking again. Soon they reached the
outskirts of the little community, passed a huge garden, a well, a
horse corral, and continued to the big house.

Everything looked so
foreign: no phone wires, no cars, not a drop of concrete in sight.
Instead, a wagon sat off to one side. Cows bellowed, and chickens
pecked the ground. And the stench! Unfamiliar smells assaulted her.
What was she doing here?

People stared at them.
A couple of young cowhands, both wearing rough pants, high boots
and wide hats, stood working by one of the corrals. They
respectfully lifted their hats to Melissa. She ignored them while
Richard exchanged a greeting.

A pretty woman came out
of one of the cabins and smiled. Embarrassment flooded Melissa.
They must look like somebody’s poor relations come to stay. She
kept her gaze trained straight forward, careful to make no eye
contact.

Richard, of course, had
to wave at everyone as they walked by, calling out greetings as he
passed.

As they neared the
house, he slung his free arm around her shoulders and pulled her
close. “Melissa,” he whispered in her ear. “Be nice. And when we
get to the house, don’t say a word. Let me do all the talking.”

“Gladly.” She jerked
away. What did he think she was going to do? Start making demands?
Negotiate a pay raise? You needed leverage to do that, and they had
nothing to offer.

And then they were
there, the house looming large before them. She had a sudden
foreboding as a dark helpless feeling engulfed her. What if they
could never get back? What if they were stuck here forever? What if
this were her life now? Living at the mercy of others. Having no
control. She’d been in that place before and had sworn never to
return; yet here she was. Her chest tightened painfully at the
thought and she took a deep steadying breath. Three months, she
reminded herself. This was only for three short months.