Easter In Dry Creek

“I wish there was something I could do,” Clay said.

“Thanks,” Allie said. “But in the end, it’s not your problem. You’re free now and Mark’s stuck in that nursing home.”

“Now, Allie,” her father interrupted her. “Clay did his time in prison.”

“Not all of it,” Allie said. “He shouldn’t be out yet. I’ve kept track. If the parole board hadn’t sent him here, he’d be serving two more years.”

She had planned to send him a few hundred dollars just before he was set for release. She hadn’t wanted to think he might be hungry. And if it was anonymous, no one had to know.

“I got him paroled early,” her father replied.

Allie forgot the mellow kindness she’d been feeling and turned to look at her father in shock. “You did what?”

“It’s called victim reparations. I called up the parole board and said we needed help on the ranch. They were reluctant, but I said there was no one here to work since Mark wasn’t able and I asked them to send Clay. I didn’t want to mention Mark’s recovery. I figured it was best to keep it simple.”

Allie continued to stare at her father. “Is that legal? You telling them to send him like that?”

She looked at Clay and saw him wince.

“I am okay with it,” Clay said. “Especially now that I know about Mark.”

“But he’s the reason Mark is hurt.” Allie stared at her father, willing him to meet her gaze. Everyone was forgetting what was important. “Clay should go back and finish his time. I can’t believe you asked them to release him.”

She’d been prepared to accept that Clay was sorry if he was getting paroled because the authorities thought he’d done enough time. But if her father had been the one to suggest it, that changed everything. No one else necessarily thought the time was sufficient.

Mr. Nelson kept looking at the floor. “What was I supposed to do? Mark was asking for Clay. Besides, I need help with the ranch. It’s falling apart.”

She could see the condition of the ranch for herself. Each month she put what she could into a small savings account so she could save enough for some barn repairs.

“We’ll fix things up around here later,” Allie whispered fiercely. “We’ve got time.”

“No, we don’t,” her father said, and he gave a proud grin. Her mother used to call that her father’s Cheshire cat face. It meant he had done something no one would expect. And, usually, something her mother wouldn’t have approved.

Allie had a bad feeling about this. “What do you mean?”

“I bought some more horses,” her father announced. “Real cheap from a rancher over by Bozeman.”

“You bought—” Allie gasped. She wasn’t sure she had heard him right. “We can’t afford anything. Nothing. You know that. Maybe some chickens.”

Her father snorted. “We need more than chickens to turn this place around. Some prime horseflesh is what will put us back in business.”

“You bought purebred stock?” Allie asked. She didn’t even want to know how much that would cost. They had already squeezed the budget as tight as they could. The reason she wanted to start taking some accounting classes was to help with the ranch records. When Mark had received that scholarship and declared he wanted to be a doctor, she had felt free to stake her claim to the ranch. The horses themselves had lots of details that needed tracking. They’d need to buy more animals eventually, but not yet.

“The bank lent me enough to pay for them,” her father said, a note of satisfaction coming into his voice. “I don’t want Mark to come home and see the corrals empty like they are. We need some horses. They’re being delivered any day now. I’m not quite sure on the time.”

Allie stared at him. She couldn’t breathe thinking about more debt. She could barely pay back what they had now.

“They’re good horses,” her father repeated himself, the dreamy look on his face telling her that he was lost in his own world. “The best bloodlines we can find. It’s a deal. Four horses, three of them mares all set to have colts this spring. One of them is lame, but the sire, who is coming, too, is almost a purebred. At least that’s what I heard. And one of the colts could be a racer. The others might go for range horses when they’ve had a chance to fill out. All of them for five hundred dollars.”

She heard Clay grunt in astonishment, but he didn’t speak.

“That can’t be right,” Allie finally managed to say. Her head was spinning. “That’s way too low. Are the animals sick? Or was it five thousand dollars? Even that’s not enough for that many good horses. Maybe you’ve got the numbers wrong. That happens, you know, when you’ve been—”

Allie stopped. She gave a quick glance over at Clay. This was private family business. She looked back at her father. “You know.”

“I haven’t been drinking,” her father protested, sounding offended. “The man who sold them to me owed me a favor from way back. He’s giving me a special deal.”

“You’re sure?” Allie’s voice sounded distant to her own ears. It took a sharp woman to outwit a drunk. She’d searched the kitchen cupboards for alcohol and hadn’t found anything. She always did that first thing when she got home.

“Of course I’m sure.” Her father glared at her. “I’m going to go back and check on Jeremy.”

Her father turned and went back into the hallway.

It struck Allie that, if it was true that her father hadn’t been drinking, then he had likely been the victim of a scam.

“I need to sit down.” She started to walk over to the kitchen table, planning to pull out one of the chairs. She wished she could remember how her mother had handled things like this.

Allie scarcely noticed the steady arm Clay put around her. Then he lowered her into the chair like she was made of fine bone china. Once she was settled, he bent his head until his mouth was close to her ear.

“It’ll be okay,” he murmured.

“Those horses are never coming,” she said, letting her troubles spill out to Clay like she’d done so often. “My father gave someone money, and he’ll never see anything from it.”

“That’s my guess, too,” Clay said.

Then in the distance Allie heard the sound of a heavily weighted truck coming.

She glanced up at Clay. He nodded to show he’d heard it, too.

“If that is them and they’re here, that five hundred is probably only a down payment,” Allie said. “I’ll... We’ll be paying for those horses for the rest of our lives.”

She was still looking at Clay. Suddenly the years fell away and his face seemed the same as it had before. His eyes were the same warm blue. His eyebrow furrowed a little in concern. He looked like nothing was more important at that moment than what she was telling him.

“That’s ranching for you,” he said.

“We’re flat broke,” she told him and then stopped to listen as the truck slowed down at what must have been the cattle guard where their driveway came off the county road. “I don’t even want to look.”

“I’ll see about it,” Clay said as he straightened up.

Allie wondered if there was any possibility that the truck would go by on the gravel road. It was the long way around to the Redfern ranch, but maybe whoever was driving was lost and was just slowing down to ask directions.

She watched Clay. He hadn’t moved from where he stood.

“We haven’t even had breakfast yet,” Allie said.

Clay grunted. “If it is those animals, we’ll need to get them settled first.”

“You’re a good man,” Allie said as she sat there. “I have a little money saved. But not enough to pay standard wages to a ranch hand.”