Shifting Calder Wind (Calder Saga 7)

“What right do you have to take it upon yourself to make a decision like that without first consulting me?”

“It was business. We agreed—”

“We agreed that you would have full say in running the ranch.” Cat impatiently waved off the words. “But this goes considerably beyond that and you know it.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Jessy protested, struggling to understand why Cat objected so strongly. “Financially you have to see that it’s a wise move. This will be the first time the ranch will see a return on the money it invested since the lot was built.”

“The Triple C has always been a cow-calf operation. It was a mistake to build the feedlot in the first place. Dad realized that. That’s why it has stood empty all this time. He would never have agreed to this, and neither do I.” Cat paused, green eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Something tells me you knew that. That’s why you were careful not to say anything to me about it.”

“That isn’t true. It simply never occurred to me that you might object.” Jessy felt trapped, unable to explain that Chase was the one who had made the decision to go ahead with the lease agreement.

“Well, I do object.” Cat was emphatic.

“Object to what?” Tara inquired from the staircase landing, her glance running between the two women with intensifying interest.

Cat never took her eyes off Jessy. “She leased the feedlot without my permission.”

“How could she do that when, technically speaking, you own half the ranch?” There was something in Tara’s voice that hinted at a delight in the news.

“That is exactly what I would like to know,” Cat stated.

“I didn’t do it deliberately. I simply didn’t regard it as anything major—”

“Not major?” Cat jumped on that. “How could you not think it was major when it changed the policy of this ranch?”

“I wasn’t looking at it that way.” Everything Jessy said sounded weak.

“But that is precisely what happened. Not for long, though,” Cat added. “I want those cattle gone, Jessy.”

She was flabbergasted that Cat would make such a demand. “That’s impossible. The agreement has been signed. It’s a legal document. Until Monte decides to ship those cattle to market, he has possession of the lot. Even if I could break it, I wouldn’t. I gave Monte my word.”

“But I didn’t give mine,” Cat reminded her. All the while Tara stood to one side, a very interested spectator. “I don’t care how you do it, but you get those trucks back here and ship those cows someplace else.”

“Cat, you’re not being reasonable. I admit I made a mistake in not discussing it with you first, and I’m sorry for that. But this last couple weeks haven’t exactly been easy for me.”

“I suppose you expect me to overlook this.”

“I wish you would.”

For a long second Cat didn’t say anything and simply stared at her. “I might be inclined to do that if it was the only thing I found out you had done.”

Jessy knew immediately what was coming. Culley had told her about fixing up the old line shack as well as about Laredo and Hattie.

“There is something else?” Tara asked, nearly smiling with pleasure over the prospect.

“Jessy decided to fix that abandoned line shack up in the foothills. So far she hasn’t run electricity to it, but I understand it now has running water.”

“It was something Ty and I often talked about doing,” Jessy repeated the lie she had told Culley.

“I wonder why you never did anything about it until after my father died,” Cat murmured coolly.

Put that way, it didn’t look right. Jessy scrambled to come up with an explanation. “Mostly because there wasn’t a reason to do it. But the Smiths needed work and a place to live. There weren’t any openings here at the ranch. Then I remembered the Boar’s Nest. I knew Laredo was handy at such things so I hired him to fix it up and make it habitable again.”

“Laredo, what an odd name,” Tara remarked. “Who is he?”

“The Smiths are presumably friends of my father. Supposedly they have a ranch in Texas. What happened to that?” Cat asked Jessy.

“They ran into some financial difficulties after”—for the life of her, Jessy couldn’t remember the first name of Hattie’s late husband, or if she had even heard it—“John passed away. They were forced to sell it. There wasn’t much left after the debts were paid.”