Section I, Next Section
Jump to new as of November 30, 2003
Posted on Friday, 19 September 2003
As someone who had been born and raised on a ranch, Lizzy knew better than to dawdle in between the backdoor of the large horse barn and the nearby corral. It was high traffic area and you just never knew who or what might pass through. Despite having had the mantra pounded into her head for all of her eight years, Lizzy still could not resist the draw of the irresistible lull the new litter of barn kittens had on an impressionable, young child.
Squatting near the ground, she took her time petting the mama cat and then each one of her four progeny. As her hands danced over the dappled gray fur of the runt of the litter, the ground beneath began to tremble in an ominous manner. The mama cat, lifting her head, seemed to sniff the air before giving a commanding meow and led her children off in a hurry. Lizzy watched them retreat to the safety of the barn, realizing as she did so that the ground was not just shaking, but that a thundering sound of hoof beats was also growing louder. She heard shouting sounds, some of them sounding awfully like her own name.
Lizzy turned around and stared wide-eyed at a runaway bull headed straight towards the open corral door, which was located right behind her!
Riding ahead of the rest of the crew, which had spent the better part of the last two hours trying to herd the spooked and fired up, runaway bull into an enclosed area so he wouldn't harm himself and others and could calm down, was Will, who was also the first person to spot Lizzy standing in the middle of the enraged bull's path.
"Lizzy! Lizzy!" he shouted out. "Get out of the way!"
Will waved his arms, trying frantically to get the little girl to heed his words. He saw a flicker of awareness in her eyes, but he could also see that she was too scared to move. Her feet, always on the go, had suddenly, and in a most inopportune moment, taken root.
"Damn!" he swore to himself.
Will knew it was too late to try and head the bull off in a different direction. Making sure his cowboy hat was firmly seated on his head, he leaned forward and dug his heels into the side of his horse, egging the horse to overtake the bull. Will wasn't an expert rider for nothing. Within seconds, he had passed the bull and pulled ahead of it. Making sure that he was holding to the horn of his saddle with one hand, with his other, he leaned to the side and grabbed Lizzy by the waist, hauling her over the saddle in front of him to safety.
The cheering sounds behind him turned into distant, whispering sounds of roars as he exhaled with relief.
The rest of the cowhands, still applauding and calling out loud accolades, followed the bull, making sure that it was penned safely within the corral where it wouldn't get out and hurt passersby, or hurt itself. Will walked his maple-colored horse, cooling it down, before sliding off its back, Lizzy still safely ensconced within his arms. Once his booted feet were firmly down on the ground, he threw the horse's reins around a wooden pole, and turned Lizzy around in his arms. She still had the look of shock and fear on her face.
"Dammit, Lizzy! You know you're not supposed to play back there," Will cried out, his voice still hoarse from all the adrenalin.
The reproof in his voice caught Lizzy's attention and as always, she turned petulant. Shaking off the remainder of her fear, she stuck her childish tongue out at him and snapped in her imperious voice, "I don't have to do anything you say! You're not my daddy!"
Absolutely stung and shocked by the lack of gratitude in the senseless child, Will did the first thing that came to his mind without even thinking about what he was about to do. He kneeled down on one knee, grabbed the little girl, and laying her over his bent knee, gave her a spank. "Yes you will listen to me, you ungrateful, little girl," he bellowed. "If you know what's good for you, you'll listen."
Standing her up straight again, he looked into her face and said sternly, "If you don't want to get yourself killed, you'll do as I say. You hear me?"
Lizzy stuck her tongue out at him again before wrenching free from his grasp and running towards her mother who had just come running outside from the kitchen where she was both the head cook and housekeeper. "Momma!" she cried. "Will hit me," she tattled.
Fanny bent down and caught her youngest daughter up into a large hug, holding her close. She'd just heard what had happened outside and her heart was still lodged deeply within her throat where it had risen after hearing the news and then stuck.
"I didn't hit you, brat," Will said, coming up behind the hugging mother and daughter pair. Will took off his hat and slapped it against the back of his dusty jeans. "I spanked you," he corrected.
Addressing Fanny, he said, "I'm sorry, Fanny. I shouldn't have presumed, but I was so shaken and she was so . . .." Will searched for an unoffending word.
"Unrepentant," Fanny finished for him. "Yes, I know how my daughter is. It's all right, Will. Thank you so much for saving my daughter's life."
Standing up, she leaned over Lizzy's head and gave the lanky teenager a hug of undying gratitude. "Bless you, Will," she whispered into his ear.
"As for you," she turned back to her daughter. Now that the shock of the moment had passed, Fanny put her hands on her wide hips and stared sternly at Lizzy. "I would spank you myself if my hands weren't still shaking so hard! You know better than to play behind the barn, young lady."
"But Momma," Lizzy gazed up at her mother with those doe eyes and long, thick lashes, and Fanny almost buckled. Almost.
"Don't you start sassing back at me, young lady. You've caused enough trouble around here for one day. Now you turn around and thank Will properly."
"Yes Momma." Head hanging, she turned around and grumbled a semblance of thanks.
Will nodded sagely, taking note of the gesture at least and then in a somewhat gruff voice said, "Well, I gotta go and see about the bull." Doffing his hat once again, he headed back in the direction of the corral. Without turning back, he called out, "I'll see y'all at dinner."
Peeking out from her lashes, Lizzy stared at his back. Tattle tale, she thought and stuck a tiny bit of her tongue out. She then quickly and covertly pulled the tongue back in lest her mother catch her in the act.
"Just you wait until your father hears about this," she heard her mother say behind her.
But Lizzy smiled to herself. She wasn't worried by her mother's threat. She knew her father wouldn't say anything. She had him wrapped tightly around her little finger. She knew that when he heard what had happened, he would simply hug her tight and say, "I'm glad you're safe, Lizzy-Bear."
And that's precisely what he did when he came in from the fields that night, much to Will's chagrin.
William Fitzgerald Darcy IV, the Boss Man, cut a pretty powerful image behind the heavy, oak desk that had been in his family for years. Every Boss Man before him had also sat at that desk, doing exactly what he was doing now. Most of them, however, hadn't been as young as him when they'd begun their tenures as the Boss Man. Though only thirty-two, with at least half of the cowhands having more years of experience under their belts than him, he'd been the Boss Man for five years, ever since his father had passed away when he was only twenty-seven, and the ranch had passed into his ever capable hands.
Mike cleared his throat and Will's bent head lifted up. He put down his pen and waved the young cowhand forward. "What's up, Mike?"
Mike took off his hat in a jerky movement, as though he'd just remembered he was inside and it was impolite to wear a hat indoors. Passing the rim round and around in his hands, he shuffled nervously.
Will took pity on the young man, who'd just started working for him three months ago, bringing with him his equally young wife and their two young children. Mike was a hard-worker with good values, and already Will had taken a liking to the man and his family, hoping that they would stay with the ranch for the years to come. "You're lookin' a little nervous, Mike? What's bothering you? I'd offer you a drink, but I don't like my men drinking on the job and it's afternoon yet."
"Um, no, that's all right. Thank you, sir. I don't drink anyways. What I came to say is, do you remember that fallen roof on the back cabin?" he finally managed to ask.
Will nodded his head slowly, "Yeah. I thought we agreed that after we put down the tarp we'd worry about getting it fixed next week, after the cows have been moved to the south pasture." Moving the cows that would be later sold for their meat to better pastures had seemed more important than an old cabin that wasn't being used at the moment anyways, especially when the weatherman hadn't forecasted any rain for weeks.
"Right, well," again Mike shifted in his stance. "A couple of the boys and me, well, we happened to be riding past there on our way back from mending that fence you told us to fix last night and we just happened to glance up and well, you see, sir . . .."
Growing increasingly impatient with Mike's rambling story and wondering what was wrong with him since Mike was known for his terse, to the point statements, Will tiredly asked, "Mike, what exactly is it that you're trying to tell me?"
"Lizzy Bennet's on top of the roof trying to fix it by herself," he blurted out in a rush, and then he breathed in just as quickly as though he had just committed the greatest sin by tattling on Will's one thorn in his side.
Will leapt up from his seat, his face an amazing shade of red. "The devil she is!"
Mike hadn't seen anything like this before. Wasn't he just telling his wife last night that his Boss Man was the coolest person he'd ever met? There was always a calm, controlled look about Will Darcy. Nothing ever seemed to set him on edge. He just took it all in stride, confident that the underlying strength of steel that he held within would see him through his problems. Yet, here he was completely, and surprisingly, aggravated.
"I," Mike gulped.
Will closed his eyes and pressed two fingers against his temple. He tried to stay calm. "Please. Tell me you and the boys are yanking my chain. She can't possibly be up there . . . all by herself, did you say?"
"No, sir!" Mike protested. "Me and the boys, we'd never play a prank like this. I saw her with my own eyes, sir. We asked her what she was doing and she said that she was gettin' done what the rest of us didn't have the time to do. Don, he tried to get her to come down, but she refused. You know how she gets, sir. Tom's not back from town and we figured that the only other person she'd listen to after Tom is you."
Will tried not to snort at that. The only person Lizzy Bennet listened to was herself . . . not her father, not her mother, and certainly not him.
"What is that girl trying to do?" Will asked no one in particular. "Kill herself? If she doesn't kill herself first, then she'll surely kill her mom by giving Fanny a heart attack. I'm surprised she hasn't already. Sometimes I swear that girl doesn't have an ounce of sense in that pea-sized brain of a hen that she has." He grabbed his black Stetson hat from the corner of the desk and jammed it on his head before striding out of his office.
Mike followed the string of curses out of the house and down to the stables where the men fetched their horses. It was strange, he thought. When he'd first met Will, he'd been surprised to find that the Boss Man didn't swear, like most men of his ilk did. In the three months that he and his family had moved to Pemberley Ranch though, he'd come to learn that there were occasions where the Boss Man did swear. And when he did, the name Lizzy Bennet was usually strung along with the swear words. It would appear then that she was the only person that could ever raise his ire.
The men raced along to the back cabin where they found Lizzy on top of the roof, just as Mike had described. Watching her from the back of his horse, Will seethed. Did the girl lack all senses? There she was, on top of a roof, with no one around to notice were she to trip and fall, blithely singing at the top of her lung as if it were a normal every day occurrence to find a girl hammering away atop a roof all by herself.
Will threw his reins to Mike and jumped down from the horse. Planting his feet firmly in the ground, one hand fisted at his side with the other shielding his eye from the bright sun, Will looked up and yelled, "Elizabeth Joyce Ann Marie Bennet just what do you think you're doing up there? Get your scrawny butt down here this instant! You know you're not supposed to be up there! Don't think I won't spank you for doing something idiotic and irresponsible. I've done it before and I'll do it again!"
Lizzy had been just about to stand to fetch more nails from the nearby pail. At the sound of the loud, booming voice, the shock and surprise caused her to lose her footing, and her back foot began to slide.
"Lizzy!" Alarmed and afraid, Will went running to the backside of the cabin where she'd propped the ladder.
Lizzy quickly bent back over, her hands seeking for something to grab, all the while cursing at Will. She would've recognized that nagging voice anywhere. It was always yelling at her and threatening to spank her even though he'd never done it but that once when she was eight and had been almost run over by a runaway bull. Not to mention, he was the only one that ever dared to call her out by her full name. Not even her parents did that.
She hated that she'd been named after every single one of her blasted great-aunts. Growing up, she'd been mercilessly taunted for having a name that spanned the entire width of a piece of paper, and sometimes, if you wrote big enough, you even had to go to the second line. Why couldn't her parents have gone for something simple, like they had with her older sister Jane, whose middle name was simply Liliana?
After some flailing and a few swearing words interjected in between, Lizzy caught the edge of the roof, just in the nick of time, and managed to get a firm foot holding, which allowed her to stand without a problem.
Meanwhile, Will had nimbly climbed the ladder and was now perched on the edge of the roof. "Lizzy, what are you doing up here?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked cheekily. "I'm fixing the roof!"
Knowing this conversation could take forever Will leaned against the edge. "And who told you to fix the roof?"
"Nobody, of course."
"Of course," Will said drolly, as if that answered everything. "So, again, why are you fixing the roof then?"
Lizzy turned to stare at him and gave him a look as though he had sprouted three horns in the past minute. Will thought she looked pretty scary too what with the five nails she had sticking out of her mouth. He shook his head knowing that he had warned her about that bad habit time and time again. But, in true Lizzy fashion, each time he had warned her about the possibility of one day swallowing those nails and choking to death on them, she had tossed her head in derision avowing that she had more sense than to do something idiotic like that.
"Well," she drawled, taking out the nails one by one so she didn't choke on them. "I happened to hear one of the guys mentioning that the roof needed fixing, but everyone was too busy to get to it until next week. Since I happened to have some free time today, I thought I'd take a whack at it myself. I'm almost done," she said proudly, sweeping her arms in a ground gesture to show off her work.
"Hmph," was all Will could say. Even he had to concede as he took a brief survey with his eyes that neither he nor any of his men could have done a better job. She'd been efficient and neat in his work, not that he was surprised. He knew that Tom, his foreman, had taught his daughter everything she knew and you couldn't find a better cowhand than Tom Bennet.
"You shouldn't have come up here by yourself without telling anyone," he finally said. "That was stupid. You could've gotten yourself hurt, like you almost did now, and no one would have found out about it until it was too late or something. Gees, Lizzy, you're twenty-two now. Don't you ever stop to think before you go off and do something brash? That's what this is for," he lightly beat against the side of his head with his knuckles.
"Now get down before you break your neck and your daddy comes hunting after me for letting you stay up here. One of the other men can finish what you've started tomorrow."
As he started down the ladder, he muttered to himself, "Sometimes, I swear that brat was put on this earth to give me a heart attack and drive me to an early death."
"I heard that," Lizzy yelled at him, probably the only person on the ranch that dared to raise her voice to the Boss Man. But then, he was the only person on the ranch that called her "brat" too. "And I'm not coming down until I've finished fixing this roof! I'm a Bennet and I start what I finish," stating proudly the oft-repeated phrase of her father's.
Will slowed in his steps, narrowed his eyes, and began the climb back up the ladder. From his vantage point on the ground, Mike gleefully thought this was better than that daytime soap his wife was so keen on watching.
"You really are one stubborn mule of a person, you know that, Lizzy Bennet?"
"It takes one to know one," was the perhaps childish, but very accurate response.
"Then you know I won't leave until you leave. It's not safe for you to be out here by yourself," he pressed.
"I was doing just fine until you came along."
"Yeah, and you almost slipped and fell! How do you think I'd explain to your momma and your daddy that their 'Lizzy-Bear,'" he mimicked her parents, "had fallen and broken her neck while working on one of my cabins on my land?" He tried to keep a rein on his temper. He didn't think he was succeeding.
"You wouldn't have had to if you hadn't come along. I was doing just fine all afternoon, by myself, until you came, hollering at me. I wouldn't have lost my footing if it hadn't been for you startling me just as I was about to stand."
Will winced, knowing that she was right. He could have approached her in a calmer way instead of leaping upon her like a surprise attack. But, it was just that the sight of her up there had him crawling out of his skin.
"Besides, I really don't know what you're afraid of. You know I can walk the length of a ridgepole and back without falling."
Will narrowed his eyes once more, knowing exactly what she was referring to. She'd been thirteen at the time, and with no more sense then as she had now, he reflected. One of the Bingley girls, Caroline, had been over visiting with her mother from the neighboring Netherfield Ranch. Caroline was only a scant two years older than Lizzy, but they'd always rubbed against the grain with one another. Caroline had taunted the younger girl with an impossible tale of how she had climbed atop the barn roof and stood there for a full minute before losing balance and having to come down. Lizzy immediately boasted that she could do better, declaring that she could walk the ridgepole. And then she'd done just exactly that.
Just remembering that afternoon made Will shudder with goosebumps.
"You really aren't going to come down are you?" Will asked resignedly.
"Nope," Lizzy cheerfully replied.
"Got an extra pair of gloves and a spare hammer?" he asked with a sigh.
Lizzy pointed to the open toolbox and patted the right side of her tool belt. Nodding, Will climbed onto the roof and then clambered over to the edge closest to Mike. Leaning over, he yelled down, "Tie him up by the truck and then get back on the fence with the others. I'll see you at dinner."
"Sure, Boss," Mike yelled back.
Once Mike left, Will went back to Lizzy's side, fetched the gloves, tugging them onto his large, callused hands and then silently held out his left hand as he waited for Lizzy to relinquish one of her hammers. Tucking it into his back pocket, he grabbed a handful of nails with one hand and a wooden plank with the other. Then, he turned his back on her and proceeded to nail the plank into its place. Lizzy let herself pause for a second to look over her shoulder and smile at her success.
While she watched, she let herself appreciate the view his backside afforded. She had to admire his quick and efficient movements, the way his muscles flexed as he raised the hammer and then lowered it to the nail. She was also glad cowboys wore jeans, especially Will. They hugged his hardened thighs and backside perfectly.
All of the sudden, finding the rooftop to be incredibly warm, Lizzy fanned herself with her leather enclosed hand and made herself get back to work.
They worked in silence, but they worked in harmony. In no time they had the roof completely finished and cleaned.
As Lizzy searched for the last scraps of sandpaper and errant nails, Will stood and admired their handicraft. "It looks good," he finally said. "We did a good job."
"You mean I did a good job. You just came in at the end, even though I would have done fine without your help."
"But we got things done faster working together," he pointed out. Lizzy nodded in reluctant agreement.
"And just in time for dinner. Come on, let's get back to the house and see what grub your mom's cooked up tonight. All this work has made me work up an appetite!" And he still had the account books to finish, he remembered. It would be another long night poring over the tedious accounts. Running the ranch was a 24-hour job he thought not for the first time since he'd taken over his father's reign five years ago.
He swatted Lizzy's backside with his gloves as he walked past her on the way down. She yelped predictably. Will stopped on the third rung, held up his hand, and said, "Why don't you had me the toolbox and I'll carry it down."
"I can carry it down," Lizzy staunchly avowed. "I carried it up here and I can carry it back down, thank you very much."
Will wanted to lower his head and bash it into the side of the house repeatedly. Surely that would have been more comfortable than this persistent throbbing located somewhere near the front of his head.
Why did everything with Lizzy have to be a competition? A constant battle? "Lizzy, are you going to make me argue about this too?"
She grinned ruefully and said, "Fine, here. Take the stupid toolbox." She'd won one battle already anyways, and it had definitely been the bigger battle.
She waited until Will was back on the ground before beginning her own descent. She wrinkled her nose with distaste when she saw that he was holding onto the bottom of the ladder. But, she shrugged her shoulders, knowing that that was simply the way Will was. After she'd made her way back to the ground, he helped her fold the ladder and insisted upon carrying it to the truck and strapping it in. Lizzy chafed a bit at that. After all, wasn't it she who had packed the truck for the short drive to the cabin?
Once Will had secured the last rope, he gave it a final pat and said, "Well, I guess I'll see you back at the house then. Get someone to help you take down the ladder when you get back to the tool shed."
Lizzy rolled her eyes and bit back the words threatening to escape. She knew that if she didn't, they'd be stuck having another half our argument and her stomach was growling with hunger. Even Lizzy knew how to prioritize. She'd only taken a peanut butter jelly sandwich and a thermos of lemonade for lunch. Without saying a word, she climbed into the truck and took off without a backward glance. Will followed at a more sedate pace.
By the time Lizzy finished putting away the supplies and cleaned up, she was already fifteen minutes late for dinner. She rushed to the dining room and paused just outside, catching her breath, and then walking sedately through the doorway, hoping to slip in unnoticed. Without looking up from the pile of mashed potatoes he was heaping onto his plate, Will drawled, "So nice of you to join us this evening, Lizzy."
Lizzy grimaced and took her seat next to her father who, as the foreman, sat in the middle of the long table. He smiled indulgently at his youngest, the one most like him, and with a mouthful of peas said, "Heard you did some roof patching this afternoon, Lizzy-Bear."
"Yes I did, Daddy. And I did a good job on it too, ask Will."
"Oh? Did he help you with it?"
"Yes I did, and yes we did do a good job on it."
"No you didn't," Lizzy retorted. "Well, a little. But I did most of it by myself," she admitted proudly.
"That was a foolhardy thing to do, Lizzy-Bear. You could have gotten yourself killed working on the roof by yourself. You should have at least had the decency to let someone know you were going out there."
"But if I had, Daddy, you wouldn't have let me patch the roof!"
Tom Bennet narrowed his shrewd eyes and said, "Bingo."
He'd trapped his daughter fair and square and Lizzy knew it. She tried hard not to blush, knowing that everyone else at the table was struggling not to stare at the family discussion. She knew that at least one person at the table was grinning and thinking, "I told you so."
"What would you have done, Lizzy, if you had hurt yourself or worse, fallen off the roof. Who would have helped you then? How long do you think it would take for us to realize you were even missing before we sent out a search team?"
Lizzy stared down at her plate and played with the food, pushing it from one side to the other, with her fork. She couldn't help but notice that they were practically identical to the words Will had said to her just this afternoon.
Tom brushed the back of his daughter's dark, silken locks with his gnarled hands and said gently, "I just want my Lizzy-Bear to be safe. And I want you to promise me that next time you'll ask before you go flying off to work on some project, or at least tell someone where you're going if it involves something dangerous like climbing on rooftops. Okay?"
Lizzy nodded her head and tried to pretend that she hadn't heard her mother mumble, "There'd better not be a next time."
Tom bent over and kissed her on the forehead, whispering for her benefit, "I'm sure you did a fine job, Lizzy-Bear. I'll take a look at it first thing in the morning," knowing that her handicraft on the roof deserved praise, much like her artwork had when she'd been a little girl and brought home finger painting portraits of cats and dogs only she could have discerned.
The magic had been lost for Lizzy though. For the first time in her life her father had sided with Will, and in front of the entire dinner table no less. How could her father have sided with Will?
Deep down, Lizzy knew how. Will was perfect. He was the golden boy who had grown up and succeeded where his father had succeeded before him.
Many had predicted, with hope and glee, that Pemberley Ranch, the most successful ranch in western Texas, would crumble in the youthful hands of an inexperienced rancher when his father died. They were jealous of the ranch's continuous prosperity. But, Will had proven all the doubters wrong. He'd not only stepped in and done a superb job of running the ranch effectively, but he'd also made it even more lucrative, something most had considered impossible given the ranch's already vast and considerable wealth. The thing Lizzy had to grudgingly admire was she knew that Will didn't work as hard as he did because he was driven by greed. He did it because he was a man filled with purpose and he saw the ranch as a challenge to conquer. He was a man that simply wanted to be the best. And was.
Sometimes she found him incredibly nauseating.
Lizzy, rousing herself from her ruminations, was relieved to find that the dinner conversation had turned away from her and moved on. It was now focused on Georgiana, Will's younger sister, who sat at the other end of the table. One day, when Will married, the mistress of the ranch would sit there. But until then, the seat was reserved for the only daughter of the house.
Georgiana Mae Darcy was only fifteen years old and her brother doted upon her, as did the rest of the household. But for all the attention she received, she was not a spoiled child. She was the sweetest, most unaffected person Lizzy had ever met and she genuinely loved the girl. Since Will's mother had died when Georgiana was just a baby, Fanny had been a mother to the girl and Lizzy a sister. Their relationship was a very close one, and Georgiana looked sympathetically at Lizzy, knowing how she must be feeling.
"Lizzy," Georgiana said now. "Are you coming to my piano recital?"
Lizzy shook away the cobwebs of her disappointment. "I'm sorry, Georgie, what's that?"
"My piano recital. It's on Friday night. You will come, won't you?" Georgie bit her bottom lip nervously. She loved playing the piano, but she wasn't keen on performing in front of others. Having Lizzy there would help though. She was the only person Georgie felt comfortable performing in front of since Lizzy so often sat in on her long practice sessions to keep her company.
"Of course I will, Georgie. With my bazooka and whistle in hand too," she managed to tease, in spite of her depression.
"Your two hands will be enough, I'm sure," Georgiana laughed.
"Well, who wants dessert?" Fanny asked as she stood up from her seat across her husband.
Don, one of the senior cowhands, leaned back in his seat, propping his hands on his belly, and said, "Fanny, if you've got some of your apple pie hiding in the kitchen, I'll have me a big ol' slice of pie."
"Me too," her husband agreed. "My mouth's been watering ever since I smelled that sugary cinnamon of your pie."
"I'll have some vanilla ice cream with mine!" Georgiana called out.
"That sounds good," her brother agreed.
"What about you, Lizzy?" her mother asked.
Lizzy's stomach churned at the thought of ingesting any sort of pie. "I'm stuffed and tired. May I be excused?"
Will zeroed in on her plate, still filled with food that had been mashed together.
"Sure Lizzy-Bear, if that's what you want," her father patted her gently on the back. "You're probably tired after working on the roof. What you'll need is a good soak and then get yourself on to bed early tonight, hm?"
The thought of Lizzy soaking in a bathtub conjured up all sorts of images that Will knew he shouldn't be having, especially at the dinner table where her parents were sitting right in front of him.
"Night, Daddy." She gave him a quick buss on the cheek, repeating the same with her mother when they crossed paths in the doorway. "Night, all," she called out, before retreating to her room above stairs.
Most of the ranch hands lived separately from the Boss Man and his family in the big house. The single men lived in a bunkhouse and their dinner was carried down to them from the kitchen, though they did have a kitchen for their own use too. The married men lived in cabins, with their families. Some of the wives worked in the nearby town, a half hour drive away; others worked in the big house. A few of the senior cowhands, though single, also lived in cabins and they came up to the big house to share their meals. Only the Bennets lived with the family in the big house; the family had their own suite of spacious rooms over the garage.
Lizzy entered the bedroom she'd once shared with her older sister, who now lived on the neighboring Netherfield Ranch with her husband, and without turning on the light, navigated her way to her twin bed by the window. It was on nights like this, when she was feeling blue, that she especially missed Jane, her best friend. But, Jane was happily married now and had been for the past year. It wasn't going to be long before they had their own brood to be worrying about, Lizzy thought ruefully.
The house was absolutely quiet when Lizzy finally got up from where she had been lying awake for the past four hours, thinking of absolutely nothing. The summer's night was warm, but there was a cool breeze that fluttered through the window. Grabbing a short-sleeved blouse to don over her tank top and shorts, she pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail and crept silently down the stairs and out the back door, heading for the pool out back. She sat on the edge of the deep end and dipped her bare feet into its cooling depths, swaying them back and forth slowly in circles.
From two-stories above, Will leaned against his window and brushed the curtains aside. He watched the way she stared at the water. He wondered what she was thinking and wished he could see her eyes; they were always so expressive. Every time he wanted to know what she was thinking, all he had to do was look into her eyes and he would see all the answers he ever needed, waiting to be plucked like wildflowers in an open field.
Then, he also remembered how she had eaten nothing at dinner. She must be hungry. Something in his heart tugged, knowing that he was at the root of her sadness tonight. Will grabbed a shirt and rummaged through his drawers for a pair of shorts. When he was dressed, he made a stop in the kitchen to raid through the refrigerator for some cheese and crackers before joining Lizzy by the poolside.
Lizzy was so completely absorbed that she never heard his footsteps, and gasped from shock when he stopped right next to her and asked, "Can I sit here?"
"It's your pool, your house," she shrugged while catching her breath. "You can sit wherever you want."
"You aren't going to toss me over if I say something you don't like, are you?" he asked warily.
Lizzy cocked her head to one side and asked, "Do you really think so little of me?"
Will shrugged, but Lizzy didn't notice as she was still staring at the water. He seated himself and held out the plate of cheese and crackers. "I noticed you didn't eat much at dinner. I thought you might be hungry. This is the best I could do on a pinch. You know I'm no gourmet."
Lizzy had to smile in spite of herself, the gesture was sweet, and her stomach was beginning to show the telltale signs of hunger. She took the plate gratefully and nibbled on a hunk of Swiss cheese. "Thanks."
"So," Will said at length, "you're probably really mad at me, huh?"
"Actually, no. I'm not," Lizzy confessed after a while.
"Really?" He sounded shocked. And pleased.
Lizzy nodded. "Yeah. I guess I'm mostly feeling a little chagrined, being set down like that at dinner in front of everyone tonight."
"There was no one there that would laugh at you, Lizzy, or think worse of you. Everyone there at that table has seen you grow up since you were a baby girl, well, except for Georgiana, and loves you very much."
"I know," Lizzy sighed. "I was just surprised by my father's reaction. I never thought he'd feel that way."
"Why? Because you have him wrapped around your little finger and you know it?" Will teased. When he saw that she was being utterly serious, he sobered.
"He . . . he actually took your side," a lone tear rolled down Lizzy's cheek, wrenching Will's heart in two.
"Aw, Lizzy, it wasn't like that, and you know it. I know we often have our differences and we like to go back and forth about who's right and who's wrong. But, this wasn't about winning and being right tonight, Lizzy. Your father was concerned for your welfare, as was I. That's the only reason we happened to agree on this matter."
"I know he loves me and I know he wants me to be safe," Lizzy sniffed, rubbing her nose and cheek with the back of her hand. "But usually he just lets you do all the blustering and then he pats me on the head indulgently."
"Maybe he was afraid his Lizzy-Bear would turn too reckless unless he said something," Will suggested gently.
Lizzy nodded her head after some time. "I know I was wrong," she said remorsefully. "I should've at least told someone where I was going, but I really was afraid that if I told someone I was going to fix the roof they'd try and hold me back."
"Would that really have been such a terrible thing, Lizzy?"
"You wouldn't understand," she sighed.
"Try me."
"All right," she said eventually. "You're perfect, Will, and you lead the perfect life. There's nothing you can't do and there's nothing you're not able to do. Everyone trusts your judgment and everyone listens to what you say. All you have to do is stand there, without lifting a finger or saying a word, and you command respect and attention. On top of that, you have the entire world at your disposal. The ranch is entirely yours to do whatever you want to do with it. Me, on the other hand, there's nothing I can't do or say that doesn't raise an eyebrow. I feel hemmed in here, with nothing to do."
"I never knew you had such a high opinion of me," Will said lightly.
"Don't let it all go to your ego," Lizzy charged, some of their usual rapport returning. "It's just that I don't do anything here. I'm twenty-two years old, I've just graduated from college with a dual degree in agricultural science and business planning and what am I doing? I'm sitting around at home with no job, no future, no purpose.
"I want to have a reason for being, Will. You have the ranch, Jane has Charlie, Georgie has the piano, my parents have each other, and even crusty old Dan has his poker night to live for. Everyone has something except for me."
"I never knew you felt this way."
"That's why I'm always clamoring to do something. You know I've never been able to sit still, even when we were children."
Will rolled his eyes. Yes, he did know how Lizzy could never keep her two feet planted on the ground for more than a minute straight. Once, on a car ride into town, he'd been charged to hold her on his lap and keep here there since she had a tendency to unbuckle her belt and climb all over the car, distracting her mother. Will had been incredibly close to killing the young child by the time they pulled into the grocery store parking lot because she'd jumped and pulled and tugged at him the entire car ride, trying to wiggle out of his clutches.
"My problem," she announced, "is that I'm nothing like other girls."
Will heartily agreed, and secretly approved.
"I've never been interested in clothes, make-up, and I don't like to gossip and go all googly-eyed over boys, though I do like boys," she finished slyly. Something in Will's chest tightened at the thought of Lizzy having a crush on another male.
"I'm the product of my father. I'd much rather be riding a horse, working the ranch, but I'm a girl and everyone seems to think that a ranch is a man's work."
"It is physically demanding," Will pointed out.
"But I'm up to the challenge. It's not like I haven't worked on the ranch before."
"No," Will agreed. He wasn't sure why, but he took the hand Lizzy had just seconds before been gesturing wildly in the air in front of him into his own, caressing her palm. It was so soft in comparison to his work-roughened hands. He didn't like the thought of Lizzy's delicate hands becoming like his.
A sudden burst of inspiration came to him. Her hand still held firmly within his own, he gave it a shake. "I've got an idea. You majored in business planning, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"So, you're good with numbers and you like working with numbers."
"Uh-huh." Lizzy wondered where this was going.
"Perfect! Until you find something else you'd rather do, how about you take over the ranch and household accounts."
"I thought you had an accountant already," she said guardedly.
"I do, but he doesn't do the day-to-day entries. I do that. And to be honest, it takes up a lot of my time. It's hard you know, working out in the fields all day long and then having to come home at night and work on the books. But if I don't, I'll fall behind and then everything will be shot to hell."
No wonder he didn't have a social life. Ever since she'd moved back home after graduation, she'd wondered about that. She knew he never brought anyone out to the ranch, so she'd always supposed that he just went into town to meet girls. But now she knew he didn't even do that. He stayed at home and worked on the books so that the ranch would continue to function and turn a profit. Maybe his life wasn't as free and unencumbered as she had always supposed.
Lizzy was beginning to see Will in a new light. She liked knowing that he was a conscientious employer, one who was determined to see his responsibilities through. She decided at that moment that if helping him with his books really would help ease his burden a little, then she was willing to do even that much.
"All right," she said. "If you're really sure you need the help, I'll take the job. But you really have to need the help. I don't want some hand out just because you're feeling sorry for me." She still had her pride, after all.
"I really do need the help," Will insisted. "And I need someone I can trust."
Lizzy nodded her head. "You can trust me. Not only am I good at keeping books, I'm scrupulously honest too."
"I know you are, Lizzy. You don't need to reassure me of that. We'll start going over your responsibilities tomorrow night. Every week, we'll meet Monday morning at ten a.m. to go over the accounts. At the beginning, I'll check up on you more often than that though just to make sure that you have the hang of things. How does that sound?"
"It sounds fine," Lizzy admitted. Indeed, the idea was starting to sound better and better the more she thought about it. She'd finally have something with which to preoccupy her time. She'd no longer have to loll around the house being swatted from one room to another as the maids tried to clean around her.
"Good. And of course I'll pay you a salary." He named a sum that had her mouth gaping like a fish.
"I'll try my best to make sure you get your money's worth," she promised.
"I'm sure you will, Lizzy. You may be impetuous, but you put your heart and soul into everything you do, at least."
It was the kindest thing he'd ever said to her, she thought with awe. All of the sudden, her evening didn't seem so bad anymore. Good had come out of evil, and maybe something more she thought as she gazed at Will's profile in the star-lit night. Searching deep within herself, Lizzy realized that something had changed that night.
"Well, brat? Are you coming back into the house or not?"
Brat.
Well, perhaps not everything had changed.
Posted on Tuesday, 7 October 2003
Will ran up the wide steps of the portico, taking a quick look at his watch as he did so. His watch read 10:23 a.m. He was late. Bursting into the front hallway, he almost tripped. With a scowl on his face he glanced down and saw a pile of area rugs that were usually spread around the house.
Fanny chose that moment to walk into the hallway, her arms piled high with some newly cleaned and folded linen. "Oh, good-morning, Will. I'm so glad you're back. Lizzy's been waiting for you and you know she hates to be kept waiting, impatient little thing." She took in the mud-caked state of his jeans and t-shirt and said, "Though, you might want to clean up before your meeting. You don't want to ruin your furniture.
"Are you hungry?" she continued. "I'll prepare a tray and bring it into your office if you'll just give me a minute to run these sheets upstairs."
Will nodded. He was kind of hungry now that he thought about it.
"Fine. I'll have it ready in a jiffy. Now, you'd better get a move on it, Will. You don't want to be any later than you already are."
Fanny was already halfway up the stairs before Will could finally ask, "Fanny, what are all these rugs doing down here?"
Without having to turn her head, she said, "Lydia's going to beat the rugs this morning. She went to fetch the broom. She'll be back right quick and once she's done the rugs will go right back where they came from. Don't you fret, Will."
"I'm not," he muttered, and knew it to be true. He trusted Fanny implicitly and knew that he could count on her to get things done around the house, just as he could trust her husband to get things done around the ranch. Now, all that remained to be seen was whether he could trust their daughter to get things done with the business side of the ranch.
Will ambled his way down to his office where he'd moved in a smaller desk to make space for Lizzy, and stopping in the doorway, he peeked in and called out, "Hey."
Lizzy looked up from her notes and accused, "You're late! I've been sitting here for the past half hour waiting for you. If you know you're going to be late, you should at least have the decency to send a message to let me know. You're not the only one with things to do and places to be, you know."
"I know and I'm sorry. Something unexpected came up. Daffodil," just saying the name made him want to cringe, but that was what he got for allowing his sister to do the naming of his cows, "was feeling a little cranky this morning and I had to make sure she was all right."
"Oh, is everything okay?" Lizzy was immediately contrite. She knew that Daffie was one of Will's pregnant shorthorns and how important it was to make sure that pregnant cows were made comfortable lest something terrible happen, jeopardizing both the mother and unborn calf.
Will drew a weary hand across his brow. "Yeah, she's fine. Cranky, and a little temperamental, not at all like her usual sweet self, but otherwise peachy."
"That's good."
"Yeah. Look, before we meet, I have to clean up first." He cast a rueful glance at his dirtied clothes. "I'll be quick," he promised.
"Fine," Lizzy crossed her arms, accepting what she had no choice but to accept.
Will raced upstairs and had himself stripped in minutes. He splashed himself clean in the shower and pulled on clean clothes in under ten minutes flat, all the while thinking about what a good idea it had been to take Lizzy on. It had been several weeks since he'd introduced her to the account books and already he'd long since stopped checking up on her every day. Now, he felt content enough to check in during their once-a-week meetings wherein they discussed ranch business. He rather liked the idea of giving her more responsibilities now that she'd proven herself more than capable. He thought Lizzy would make an excellent sort of steward for the ranch.
Cleansed and clothed, Will returned to the office, sitting behind the oak desk in his customary chair. The Boss Man's chair. Snagging a cup of coffee and a Danish from the tray Fanny had already brought in for him, he motioned for Lizzy to join him. "Would you like something to drink? Something to eat?"
Lizzy shook her head. She stood from her own desk and crossed over to his with her stack of carefully marked files. Together they went over each one. It didn't take long as Lizzy had been impeccably precise in her report. He had a few questions, most were for clarification, and Lizzy was able to answer them to his satisfaction. For all her impetuousness, Will was pleased to see that she was diligent and exact in her work.
Now, he leaned back into his chair, propping his arms behind his head. Lizzy fidgeted under his studying gaze and standing up from where'd she been propped against the corner of the desk, she went back around to sit in the chair on the other side of Will's desk.
"I have a proposition for you," Will said.
"Hmm . . . that's not something I hear every day," she smiled and said impertinently.
"Really?" The idea pleased him.
"What do you have up your sleeve, Will?" Lizzy asked, taking the leash and leading him back on track.
"I was thinking that you have done such a good job with the account books that you are capable of handling more responsibilities. In fact, I was thinking about changing your job title to that of something akin to a steward."
"A steward," Lizzy repeated carefully. "And what exactly would that entail?"
"Well, I was thinking that in addition to paying the bills and cutting the paychecks you could also place the order for supplies and oversee the other household expenses. Pretty much, you'll oversee the general expenses and take care of anything else that I might throw your way."
"But, Will! I don't know how much feed or seed to order and stuff like that."
"Given enough time, you'll learn," Will reassured. "You've already proven yourself to be a fast learner. And in the meantime, you don't have to worry because I'll be looking over your shoulder to make sure that you order supplies in a timely manner before it gets too low. So, any mistakes that you make will be just as much my own for not catching them. As for any other ranch expenses, everyone will have to clear them with you first."
Lizzy gulped. This was more than just bookkeeping, what Will was asking her to do would require judgment as well. Sensing her fear and doubt, Will just grinned and said, "Don't worry, brat. You may be a spoiled brat, but you're a trustworthy brat."
It took a great deal of resistance on Lizzy's part to not stick her tongue out at him like an eight-year-old child.
"Now, before I get back outside, I have one more thing to discuss with you."
"Okay," she rubbed her sweaty palms along the length of her lime-colored skirt. This nervousness was so unlike her, she thought.
"The annual Cattlemen's Barbecue will be held at the end of next month."
"Yes?" Everyone knew that the barbecue hosted by Pemberley Ranch for all the neighboring ranchers and their cowhands was held the last Saturday of July, so Lizzy wasn't sure what Will was trying to get at.
"I'd like you to plan the event and make all the arrangements."
"What?!? You've got to be kidding. I don't know the first thing about planning an event, let alone one as huge and important as the Cattlemen's Barbecue!"
"So you'll learn," Will shrugged, his arms relaxed and propped behind his head. "I have complete faith in your capabilities."
"Just where exactly, may I ask, is all this trust and faith you keep heaping upon me coming from anyways," Lizzy asked with narrowed eyes. "I always thought your opinion of me was rather low, like a brat."
"Well you still are," he clarified. "But that doesn't mean you're not a capable brat. I already told you you were a trustworthy brat. I think you're beginning to fish for compliments, Lizzy," he teased. "That's not like you."
"No, I'm just having serious doubts as to your sanity, that's all."
"Is that all? You question my sanity at least twice a day."
"Come on, Will. Be serious. You know I've never even planned a birthday party and you expect me to pull off the annual Cattlemen's Barbecue, the one event that everyone around here looks forward to all year round? That's insane!"
A thought suddenly occurred to her. "If you're expecting me to fail and want me to look like a fool in front of all our family, friends and neighbors, I'll tell you right now to save the trouble and just strike a pole out front and hang me up by the collar."
"Lizzy, Lizzy," Will tsked. "Where is your imagination running? I'm not expecting you to fail. I'm expecting quite the opposite, in fact.
"Look, all you really have to do is set up the entertainment and make sure that the place is decorated and that there's plenty of food to go around. The food's the trickier part, but your mother has years of experience in that area. I'm sure Georgie would get a kick out of helping you with the decorations; that kid has style. And my men will be at your disposal when the time comes to haul around any furniture you need to set the place up however you see fit."
"If it's as easy as snapping my fingers together as you're making it out to be, then why aren't you handling the arrangements yourself?" Lizzy challenged.
"Because you're the steward now. And besides," Will gave a pained expression. "Not only do I not have the time for it, I really hate planning social events. For the past five years it's been like pulling teeth just to make sure it's done right. Now, I can just pass it off to you. I'm so glad I have a steward in you!"
Will stood up and gave Lizzy a comforting pat on the head as he walked past. "I'll talk to you later, brat. I gotta get back to work outside."
Outside, working the cattle, that was where he belonged. It was where he was happiest. For the briefest of moments, Will felt a twinge of remorse, knowing that he had in essence dumped everything he didn't like about running a ranch on Lizzy. But, he assuaged his guilt by reminding himself that that was what she was being paid to do.
A week later, Lizzy was still heaping swearing epithets onto Will's head although they had lessened some. She'd found that Will had kept detailed records on what sort of ranch supplies were needed, how often they were ordered, and the quantity. She figured that if she kept to his timetable, the ranch would never run low on supplies. The only hard part now was making sure that she remembered to put in the orders.
As to authorizing expenses, Lizzy found that it wasn't as hard as it had first seemed either. Not to mention, she kind of got a kick out of the fact that her mother now had to come to her for grocery money these days. The only remaining blight on her existence was the Cattlemen's Barbecue. It was still six weeks away though and surely that would be enough time to throw things together. In the meantime, she had other immediate matters to take care of.
Don walked Lizzy back to the big house. "Thanks so much for agreeing to let me get new carpeting in my cabin, Lizzy. I sure do appreciate it and I'm sure it'll be mighty nice once summer's over and we move into winter."
"It's no trouble, Don." She leaned over and gave the old man a buss on the cheek. The old cowboy rarely asked for anything and she'd just checked the carpet herself. It really was threadbare. "That carpeting of yours is as old as Moses himself. Will would want you to have something livable. I'll call and get some samples. Once I have them, you can pick out a color you like."
"I appreciate it, honey. And if you just get the carpeting, I can put it in myself."
"Now, Don. I'm sure the carpeting company would . . ."
"There's no point in wasting good money," Don cut her off. "'Sides, I like doing carpentry work," he tried to reassure. "You just listen to old Don on this one."
"Well, all right then," Lizzy relented. "If you insist. You'd best get back to the fields before Will cuts you down for shirking your duties."
"That boy?" Don scoffed. "He wouldn't hurt a hair on this old head of mine. He may bluster around like a termagant, but he's a real softie at heart."
Lizzy crossed her arms and smiled at the old man. It was amusing to hear such affection in the old cowboy's voice. She waved him off and turned around to find Georgiana at the door. "Lizzy, it's Jane on the phone for you."
"Oh!" Lizzy's face brightened considerably. "Thanks, Georgie. Tell Jane I'll be right in. "
She took the call in the den because it was the nearest phone. Wrapping her legs underneath her, and twirling the phone cord around in her hand, she picked up the receiver. "Hello, Jane?"
"Lizzy, there you are. What took you so long?"
"Sorry, I was outside talking with Don. What's up?"
"Well, I was wondering what you were doing tomorrow and if you wanted to go shopping with me."
"Shopping?" Lizzy asked with distaste in her mouth. If there was anything she hated, it was shopping. For some, mucking stalls would have been considered a chore. In this instance, Lizzy would much rather clean out the horses' stalls than spend an afternoon traipsing through the mall.
"Yeah, for the Cattlemen's Barbecue next month," Jane explained. "Charlie just found out that Caroline is flying in from California for the party and I'm not going to be shown up by her and her Hollywood duds."
Caroline Bingley. It figured. Ever since she had been six she'd been clamoring to get out of Texas and the ranch life. At sixteen, much to Caroline's relief and everyone else's around her, she'd finally gotten her wish when her father had caved and sent her packing off to her mother who had moved to California after their divorce. It came as such a welcome relief to all those who knew her that they would no longer have to listen to Caroline's complaints and derisive remarks about Texas and living on a ranch; yet, every year, for the Cattlemen's Barbecue, Caroline returned to Texas on a private jet with her expensive, and what Lizzy thought garish, clothing.
Caroline was not exactly known for her subtlety and it was well known that she came every year with the hope of snagging the most eligible bachelor around these parts, namely Will Darcy. What Lizzy wanted to know was what she was going to do if she ever did manage to catch Will, the likelihood of which was less than nil. After all, Caroline had all but decreed that she would never live in Texas again and Will's heart and soul was here, with his land. Consequently, Lizzy thought Caroline's money would have been better spent on gaining some sense than on the outlandish Western clothes she insisted on parading around in whenever she came to visit.
"I hope you're not planning on showing up to the barbecue dressed like Caroline," Lizzy frowned. "I thought you had better sense than that."
"What? You don't think stiletto heels, white, denim shorts, and a low-cut midriff top would be appropriate for the occasion?" her sister teased.
"Well, maybe if you made the shorts into designer jeans and put some diamond studs on the practically non-existent shirt," Lizzy deadpanned.
Jane laughed. "Nothing so extravagant, I assure you. I just want to get something new. Everything in my closet is so old and faded. I thought it'd be nice to dress up a little, even if it is just for a barbecue."
"And just who are you trying to impress, sis? You've already caught the finest man on this side of the state."
"On this side of the country," Jane corrected. "And just because I'm married doesn't mean that I don't want to still look good. After all, I've got to do something to keep the spice sizzling in my marriage, right?"
Jane would never tell her sister that the real reason she wanted to go shopping was because their mother had called her that morning and asked her to persuade Lizzy to go shopping over the weekend. Both women knew that left to her own devices, Lizzy would show up at the barbecue wearing her faded, everyday wear. Fanny practically despaired of ever getting her youngest married off.
"Oh, gawd," Lizzy groaned, playfully making gagging noises over the phone. "Spare me, please. I do not want to hear about you and Charlie in that capacity!" Jane chuckled. "Anyways, I can't go shopping with you tomorrow, sis."
"Why not?" her sister demanded to know.
"Because I have work to do."
"Work?" Jane whined. "On a Saturday?"
"Yup. Didn't Momma tell you? I'm working for Will now."
"Really? Doing what?" Jane was going to have to have a little chat with their mother later for leaving her out of the loop on that one, she thought to herself.
Lizzy wrinkled her nose, not sure how to exactly explain it. "Well, I'm not sure how you would define my title, exactly. But, I guess you could say I'm his steward. I take care of his finances and other administrative stuff."
"Really? Huh. I always thought Will took care of that stuff himself."
"Well he did, and still does. We meet once a week to review everything I've done, and believe you me that man is thorough! But, he's turned the day-to-day stuff over to me."
"I wonder why he did that."
"I think he wanted to spend more time working outside, on the ranch. He said that the books were keeping him up at night and it was a constant tug between the two. This way, he has the best of both worlds. He's still involved in the administrative side of running a ranch, but he spends most of his time doing the thing he loves most."
"Sounds like things have worked out for you too," Jane said, speculating. "I know you were looking for a job. With your background, this job couldn't be more perfect for you. Are you sure Will wasn't looking out for you when he offered you the job?"
Lizzy didn't want to probe into the inner-workings of Will's mind; it was too dangerous a task, as one never knew what he or she might find. "It was a mutually beneficial arrangement," she said simply.
"Hmm . . .." was Jane's reaction.
"What???" Lizzy demanded to know.
"What?" Jane echoed.
"What was that 'hmm . . .' all about?" Lizzy clarified.
"Nothing. It just seems like you and Will have been getting along a lot better since you've come home from college," Jane finally said after a moment's pause.
"Are you kidding me?" Lizzy snorted, immediately reverting back to how she normally described her relationship with Will. "We get along as well as a cat and a mouse. Do you know, that overstuffed boor still calls me 'brat,' threatens to spank me every two weeks, and he nearly flayed me alive couple of weeks ago just because I deigned to get up on a roof to fix it. It's not like I haven't fixed a roof before, as you know."
Jane had heard all about the story from her mother, so she didn't dare to try and point out that Lizzy had had the help of their father the two other times she'd fixed a roof.
"Anyways, now that I've taken most of the organizational stuff, Will's left the preparations for the Cattlemen's Barbecue up to me this year. I know he did it just to torture me because he knows how socially inept I am. I think he's counting on me to fall flat on my face, even though he swears he's not."
"What?!? You're planning the Barbecue this year?" Jane asked in shock, completely missing the other half of Lizzy's comments about Will purposely setting out to make sure that she failed.
"Well, don't sound too shocked or anything," Lizzy said dryly.
"Well, I mean, it's just that . . .."
"I know. I pretty much said the same thing," Lizzy admitted. "Jane, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know anything about planning a barbecue, let alone the highlighted event of the summer."
"I'm sure you'll do great," Jane soothed. "One of the greatest things about you is that you've always been able to rise to the occasion. I swear you work best under pressure. Challenges are your forte."
"I suppose . . . if you say so," Lizzy said, not sounding the least bit convinced.
"You're the most organized person I know, Lizzy. If anyone can throw together a party, it's you."
"But . . . being organized is one thing, planning a party is another. You know I'm a totally socially inept person. So, how am I supposed to throw together a party?" she demanded to know.
The more Lizzy talked about it, the more heated she got. "You know what I think? I think that Will's doing this on purpose. He knows I'm a complete idiot when it comes to stuff like this and that's why he put me in charge. He's doing this on purpose all in the guise of being nice, giving me something to do. Ohhh . . . he's a slick one alright."
Jane just rolled her eyes on the other side of the phone. She wasn't even going to dignify her sister's rant with a comment. "Have you talked to Momma about your concerns?"
"Yeah. We've discussed the menu and I think she's going to do most of the cooking. I just hope the kitchen can handle all the food." Her focus shifted, Lizzy forgot all about her murderous thoughts against Will.
"Well if you want to borrow ours, you can," Jane offered.
"Thanks, Jane. That's sweet of you. I might just take you up on that later."
"Sure, no problem."
"Georgie's got some real nice ideas about how to decorate outside too. The kid's got style and we've been having a lot of fun with that. All that's left really is the entertainment."
"Why don't you get the same band that played last year?" Jane asked. "They were really good and everyone liked them."
"I would, only they're not available. They're playing at some other function out of state next month and there was no bribing them away. Believe me, I tried."
"Oh."
"Yeah, so I'm going to be spending tomorrow afternoon auditioning several groups. Hey, you wouldn't want to come over and give me your opinion, would you?"
Just remembering the trauma she and Charlie went through when they were picking a band to play at their wedding reception was enough to have her immediately say, "Um, no. That's all right. I think that I'll just call Charlotte and see if she doesn't want to go shopping with me tomorrow since you can't."
"Well, if you wanted to wait to go some other weekend, I could go shopping with you then."
"Unfortunately, Charlie and I are all tied up the next couple of weekends. This was the only one I had free."
"Oh. Well, I'm sorry then. Say hi to Charlotte for me. I haven't talked to her in a while. Tell her to give me a call some time soon." Charlotte, a year older than Jane, had been their best friend from grade school.
"I'm sorry too, Lizzy. Have fun tomorrow. Maybe Char and I will stop by afterwards, if we're not feeling too exhausted."
"That sounds like a plan. I'd like that very much."
Lizzy hung up the phone after they said their good-byes and went upstairs to mentally prepare herself for a long day on the morrow.
Will rolled his shoulders back and around, and then swung his arms in wide arcs, stretching out his sore muscles. It'd been a long morning and he was looking forward to jumping into a hot, steaming bath to relax. Chasing steer out of sagebrush was not easy work, he reflected with a groan. He walked past the living room and caught a glimpse of Lizzy, leaned over in a chair. She held her forehead in her hands and he thought she was moaning.
"Hey," he called out. "You okay?"
Lizzy looked up, confusion reigning as she struggled to see past the haze of pain throbbing deep in her forehead. "Huh?"
"You look like you've been through hell and back."
Lizzy took in the sight before her and noted the way Will was still massaging his shoulders. "You don't look so pretty yourself."
"I've been chasing steer all morning long, the dumb animals," he said by way of explanation.
"I've been listening to one band after another all morning long," Lizzy said. There were times when she thought she would die from agony if she had to listen to one more note. For some of the groups, she wondered if they ever got a job they were so bad. Who, for example, would hire the one-man band that played the accordion, kazoo, cymbals, and triangle all at one once? Thankfully, just as she had run out of hope and was about to cry at the thought of having to subject herself to another weekend of hopeless auditions, the last band on her list pulled through.
"Oh yeah? Did you find someone?"
"Yeah, I did," Lizzy brightened immediately, glad to be able to relay some good news. "They were fantastic. I think everyone's really going to like them."
"Then why do you look so glum?"
Lizzy groaned. "You didn't hear the twelve other bands I had to listen to before I found the one."
"Twelve?" Will muttered in disbelief.
"I'm a picky person with high standards."
"And they say thirteen is an unlucky number."
Lizzy smiled. He liked seeing her smile. All thoughts of a hot soaking bath were forgotten as he held out his hand and said, "Come on."
"To where?" Lizzy instinctively leaned back.
For some inexplicable reason, it grated his nerves that her walls went shooting up so easily. "You'll never find out unless you take the plunge," he said. "Trust me?"
Something tugged deep within and Lizzy knew that for all her opinions of the man, she did trust him. "Okay."
She didn't take his hand, but she did follow him out of the house and to the barn. When she saw him reach for his saddle, she blurted out, "You want me to saddle up your horse? Isn't that just a little above and beyond the call of duty for a steward?"
Will turned around and frowned. He also gave her look that asked if she had any sense. "No. I can saddle my own horse, thanks. Though, you might want to saddle up your own horse."
"Buttercup?"
"Do you have another horse, Lizzy?" he asked with extreme patience.
"Well, no, but . . ." she was clearly still confused.
"I thought we'd go for a ride," Will finally explained.
"A ride," Lizzy repeated, disbelief saturating her words.
Will finished cinching the buckle on his saddle and then leaped onto the back of his horse, Thunderbolt. "What's a matter? Afraid you'll fall off your saddle with me watching?"
The challenge issued, Lizzy's eyes flared. She had her Buttercup saddled in record time, and was soon riding east side-by-side with Will. "So where we going?"
Will shrugged. "I thought we'd just take it slow and easy, enjoy ourselves. It's a beautiful day and there's no sense on wasting it groaning about our painful mornings."
"Good call." Lizzy gently tapped the sides of her horse with the heel of her boot, egging Buttercup on.
It was the first time Lizzy and Will had ridden anywhere solely for pleasure. Much to her surprise, Lizzy found that she was actually having fun. Having been cooped up into the house learning her new job for the past several weeks, Lizzy relished being back outside again. She told herself that she would have to take more time to ride Buttercup now that she had a better handle on her job.
Will led her down a rambling path that was so hidden even she, who loved to ride and explore, had never found before. "Wow, I've never been down this way before. And here I thought I knew every acre of this ranch."
Will chuckled. "No. I know ever inch and acre of this land."
"You really love this place, don't you?" she looked at him sideways, admiring his patrician profile.
"Yeah, I do. It's not only my home, it's my legacy. From the time I was a child and could manage to stay upright on my horse, I was taught to live and breathe this land. I can't tell you the number of times I have traveled these grounds alongside my father. Most days, I just go about my business and do what I have to do to keep this place running. But some times, on days like today, I like to take the time and really enjoy what I have. I love knowing that I'm seeing the same things that my forefathers saw when they were alive. It's an incredibly powerful and moving thought."
Lizzy could see his family pride fairly bursting from his chest, and listening to him speak, she wanted to puff out her chest and do the same. She'd ridden all over the ranch many times before, by herself, with her father, with others, and every time she had, all she had ever thought about was how nice it was to be surrounded by such untouched, natural beauty. Never before had she stopped to consider that this land could be so much more than that, though. Seeing the land through Will's perspective brought new admiration to the fore. Whatever his faults, she thought, Will was definitely a compelling orator.
Will took a sudden turn up a rocky, jagged path. "Be careful," he warned. "It's a tricky climb and your horse will stumble if you're not careful."
"I hope you know where you're going."
Will laughed quietly again and tried to not be insulted. "Didn't I just tell you that I know every centimeter of this land? Have faith, brat."
Lizzy had left her watch back at the house, but she estimated that they must have been climbing for almost an hour. The sun, still relatively low when they had started out on their ride, was now prickling at her back.
Will caught her wiping her brow and asked, "Tired already?"
"Not at all," she straightened her back. "I just didn't realize it was so warm out today." Just as she was about to fear for her horse's poor hoofs, they cleared the rocky path and entered onto a level field. She looked up and gasped, holding in her breath. "Wow. This is beautiful!" she breathed when she could no longer hold in her breath.
"You like it?"
"Like it?" Lizzy didn't think she'd be able to find the right words to express how she felt. "I love it!"
"It's my favorite spot," Will confessed. "Whenever I need to get away and hide, from people, the ranch, the job, this is where I come."
"I can see why." Lizzy swallowed. Will was sharing his private hideaway with her?
"Come on, let's have a seat." Sliding off Thunderbolt's back, he took the tether and tied it securely around a nearby tree. Lizzy followed suit and did the same.
"I can't believe how beautiful it is up here." They sat as close to the end of the ledge as they dared, ignoring the dirt and grime.
"I should've thought to bring a blanket for you," Will frowned, as he watched her seat herself gingerly amongst the pebbles and sand.
She waved away his concern. "It doesn't matter. Would you look at that, though?" she pointed her chin towards what was in front of them.
From where they sat, up above, they could see as far as the sky allowed. The ranch and its surroundings buildings were but spots in the distance. The moving ants were, Lizzy guessed, the cattle grazing on the land. The entire ranch was surrounded, protected by a valley. Tree-covered hilltops wrapped around the ranch like a fortress. This was a place that would be priceless in any season. Briefly, Lizzy wondered if Will would bring her back in the autumn when all the leaves had turned into a symphony of rich, bright colors.
Breathing in deeply the fresh air, she stood up and flung her arms wide open. "I feel like I could fly!"
Will watched her teeter dangerously to the edge. "Lizzy, gees!" With his heart in his throat, he leapt up and gathered her by the waist. The force of his actions had them tumbling backwards to safer ground.
"Will?!? What are you doing?" She rolled over and jumped up, furiously brushing off her jeans. "Have you gone mad?"
"Me? Mad?" Will rocked himself into a sitting position. "What about you? Do you ever watch what you're doing?"
"I wasn't doing anything!"
"You almost had yourself falling off the cliff, Lizzy!"
"No, I didn't. I knew where I was standing. I was perfectly fine . . . until you came charging after me like some quarterback."
"Fine, whatever. Just consider me some errant savior."
"I don't need you to save me," Lizzy muttered.
"I'll remember that for the next time," Will answered sarcastically. "From now on, you're on your own."
Standing, he stormed over to Thunderbolt and untied the tether. The harmony they had reached earlier was now been broken. It was time to return to reality.