“Don’t go!” Les swallowed, and lowered her voice. “Ward admires you, you know. He’d like to hear about your home in Boston and your life there.” She glanced over her shoulder at the gig wheeling into the yard. “After we win our inheritance, we’re thinking about moving East.”
Alex hesitated. She had not liked Ward Hamm when she first met him during Joe’s illness, and she liked him less now that she suspected he had struck Les. But she also sensed that Les was not eager to be left alone with her betrothed. “I’ll stay for a moment, then I really must go inside. I’m tired tonight.”
They waited in silence while Ward extinguished the lanterns on the gig. If Alex hadn’t guessed that Les dreaded telling Ward about hiring Dal Frisco, she would have left at once.
“Good evening, ladies. How lovely you both look tonight.”
Les flushed with pleasure as if her betrothed’s compliments came widely spaced, but Alex doubted Ward could see either of them well enough to judge their appearance since they waited beyond the spill of light falling through the front door. The compliment impressed her as empty.
As Ward stepped through the light, Alex noticed he wore a broadcloth suit of an uncertain brown that matched the thinning hair exposed when he removed his hat. His collar and cuffs were made of stiff paper but it was a fresh set, not wilted from a day in his general store. Her first thought was that Payton wouldn’t have dreamed of wearing paper collars or cuffs, no true gentleman would. Her second thought was that she had turned into a judgmental snob.
Before Alex realized what he meant to do, Ward lifted her hand from her lap and brought it to his lips. The gesture was stunningly inappropriate and presuming. Ridiculous coming from a man who had been wearing a soiled apron less than an hour ago. It was all she could do not to express her irritation by wiping the back of her hand across her skirt after he released her fingers.
“Well, Alex—may I call you Alex? After all, we’ll be brother and sister soon.” Without waiting for her permission, he continued. “Are you finding Klees as provincial as Les and I do?”
That was exactly how she considered Klees, but she couldn’t bear to align herself with an unctuous little shopkeeper with grandiose pretensions. “Actually it’s been refreshing to rediscover the charming simplicity of rural life,” she lied, a smile on her lips. “I miss Boston’s cultural advantages, of course, but a constant round of society can be tedious.”
She was laying it on thick and felt ashamed of herself for doing so. It wasn’t Ward’s fault that she considered him unappealing—his mouth thin and meager, his eyes set too closely together. He was hardly to blame for the fact that she had disliked him on sight. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll retire now,” she said, smiling at Les and nodding to Ward.
She started to roll forward, but Ward blocked her exit. “I find your observations puzzling, Alex. Surely you recall how smothering it was to live in a rural community composed largely of people of the lesser sort. You did, after all, seize your first opportunity to leave.”
His rude reference to her elopement brought a rush of color to her cheeks. And impeding her exit was a petty act that she considered offensive in the extreme.
“Good night, Mr. Hamm,” she said coldly, fixing him with the same chilly stare she would have leveled at an errant servant. “Please step aside.”
At least he had the sense to grasp that he had offended her. He threw a frown in Les’s direction, then moved to one side. “Shall I push you inside, sister?”
His use of the word sister made her wince. “No thank you.” Though her arms were tired, she lifted her head and pushed on the wheels. “Good night, Les.”
“Good night,” Les answered in a toneless voice.
Once inside the door and out of their sight, she paused to smooth the irritation from her brow. Once the cattle drive began, she would not see Mr. Hamm again. Surely she could tolerate him for the few short weeks their acquaintance would endure.
“The whole town’s talking about you idiot women hiring Dal Frisco,” Alex heard him say. “What in the name of God were you thinking? If you want Lola to have the money that badly, why don’t you just hand it to her now? Why wait?”
Ward’s tone had altered from obsequious to furious. Alex hesitated, then sighed and shamelessly eavesdropped. The conversation was none of her business, but Les was.
“Oh Ward. It was thoughtless of you to refer to Alex’s elopement. I told you it caused an estrangement between her and Pa, and it upsets her to be reminded.”
“Are you listening? I’m talking to you!”
“Please, Ward. That hurts.”
What was he doing? Alex wished she could see, but she didn’t dare move for fear her wheels would squeak against the wood floor.
“Answer me. Why did you hire Frisco after I told you not to?”