Marian was still having trouble digesting this news. It was just too much of a surprise. In the weeks before he'd died her father had gone about his business as usual, with no worried looks, no frustration or anger that things weren't going well for him.

She remembered one expansion, when he'd built a new shoe store, and she and Amanda had gone to the grand opening. He'd crowed for weeks that business was booming. She didn't recall his mentioning any other improvements.

"Wouldn't Albert Bridges have had some inkling of this?" Marian asked. "Why didn't he warn us?"

"Oh, he knew," Kathleen said in disgust. "The bastard didn't have the guts to tell you before you left Haverhill. Well, he mentions not wanting to deal with Amanda's histrionics, so I suppose that's understandable. It's all here in his letter, sweetie. He was hoping you'd be well settled in with me before he had to break the news to you."

"The money he gave us for the trip?"

"Was his. A small price to pay for his cowardice. Those are his words. Go ahead and read it."

Marian did. The letter actually wasn't that long. The bulk had come from the accounting that was included, of all the properties that were sold, all the debts that were settled. Their home had been the last thing to go, auctioned off at a ridiculously low price just to satisfy the last few remaining creditors.

"I'll have to cancel that order I just placed with the seamstress," Marian realized.

But Kathleen rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly. A few dresses aren't going to break us. And Chad has turned my own finances around, with the help he's given me. He's lined up quite a few small beef contracts in nearby counties as well, that won't require major cattle drives to fulfill. Financially, I'm pretty much back to where we were before Frank died, and the situation will be even better off soon thanks to Chad."

Marian said nothing to that, not caring to hear any more about how nice Chad Kinkaid was. She already knew how wonderful he was. Her emotions wouldn't have gotten so tied up in knots over him if he wasn't. She just didn't want to hear it.

"And its not as if you lack spending money," Kathleen continued pragmatically. "Or even a means to make money for that matter."

"You mean get a job? Yes, I suppose I could, though then I'd have to stay in—"

"No, no." Kathleen chuckled. "I mean you can sell some of your paintings if you were so inclined. Believe it or not, this town craves such things. The few that Orvil at the general store manages to get shipped in sell pretty much before they're even unloaded. It's why he stocks painting supplies. He's hoping someone in town here will take up the hobby and create something worth selling."

"So that's why he was so pleased to show me to where he had those supplies tucked away." Marian grinned.

"No doubt. Feeling a little better now?"

Actually, she was. It wasn't as if she'd depended on her inheritance for anything in particular. It was just that she was used to coming from wealth and had never expected to be without it, she supposed. She would have to start thinking along the lines of not being able to afford everything she might need, but she could deal with that as it occurred.

"I'm adjusting," she said. "But I really doubt Amanda will."

Kathleen groaned with the reminder since she hadn't thought that far ahead herself. "No, she's placed too much significance on her inheritance," she agreed. "Though Lord knows why."

"Because she was counting on its buying her a husband who would treat her just like Papa did."

"You mean let her do whatever she pleases?"

"Yes."

"But she's already married," Kathleen thought it prudent to point out.

"Not if she doesn't consider herself married," Marian returned. "She could already be thinking of a divorce for all we know."

"You haven't seen her since that night at dinner?" Kathleen asked.

"No, I made a point of avoiding her."

Kathleen frowned. "But Spencer would have to agree to a divorce."

"Believe me, Amanda would know how to make him think of nothing but. But that's what she may have been planning. Now, she'll have to reconsider. She won't like that. She won't like that she has no other options, that she'll have to make do with what she already has."

"Well, at least she's already setded, and Spencer isn't exactly poor. He's not exactly hard on the eyes either. She's better off than she thinks."

"She won't see it that way," Marian warned.

"I know." Kathleen groaned again. "I think I'll just have this letter delivered to her after you and I leave town tomorrow. There's no reason why we have to listen to her theatrics when she finds out about this."

Chapter 46

KATHLEEN HAD ONLY BEEN joking, about having Albert Bridges's letter delivered to Amanda after she and Marian had left town. Their aunt wasn't the coward Albert had turned out to be. She sent over an invitation for the newly wedded couple to join them for dinner that night at Chad's house. Oddly, though, both declined.

Not so odd actually. Saturday night was the biggest night for business at the Not Here Saloon. And as it happened, Amanda was turning out to be the star attraction of the place, not in an entertainment capacity—well, that would depend how you looked at it. But just being her catty, sharp-tongued self, she'd been responsible for bigger than normal crowds all week. And just by doing what she was good at —insulting admirers in whom she wasn't interested.

Amazing as it seemed, apparently born-and-bred Texans found her insults amusing. It didn't hiatter that they knew she was a married woman now, men were still flocking to her, flirting with her, going out of their way to gain her attention, listening to her every word. And no one took offense when she cut some cowboy to the quick. The crowd would roar with laughter—even the men who were insulted took it as a compliment that she'd singled them out.

Amanda really had fit right in to this risque night life. And by all accounts, she was having fun being the belle of a saloon. Spencer would see it as a boon for business, so he wasn't complaining.

Marian marveled when she heard all this that night at dinner. Kathleen had made the rounds that afternoon to pick up the latest gossip, so she wasn't surprised that they were eating alone that night.

"It's not the sort of life I would have wanted for one of my nieces, but in Amanda's case, it seems to be just the sort of environment she can thrive in."

"Yes, but I wonder if that's occurred to her yet, or if she's still devoting her energies to going 'home,' " Marian replied.

Chad hadn't said much yet. Even the news about the lost inheritance hadn't raised his brow. Of course, their inheritance had nothing to do with him, now that Amanda couldn't be his. Not that he'd probably been interested in it to begin with, when he was heir to the biggest cattle spread in the area.

He did seem somewhat distracted that night. Still nursing a broken heart? Possibly. He'd get no sympathy from her. He certainly wasn't showing her any for her new loss.

"I'll go over to the saloon in the morning after church, before we head out," Kathleen said.

"They'll still be sleeping," Chad remarked.

"Then they'll just have to wake up," Kathleen replied. "I really hate being the bearer of bad news, but I don't exactly have a choice here."

"Want me to handle it?" Chad suggested.

Oh, sure, he was jumping at a chance to see Amanda again, Marian thought in disgust. Kathleen even gave his suggestion some thought, but then she shook her head.

"No, it's my responsibility." And then Kathleen grinned. "I'll just allow myself barely enough time to say what needs saying before I have to leave to get home by dark. Then I can avoid most of the tantrum."

As it happened, there was no tantrum. Amanda took the news as a joke at first. Granted, she was barely awake when she heard it. When Kathleen averred that it was true, she went into shock, barely said anything else.

Marian was skeptical about her sister's being in shock, when it was typical of Amanda simply to ignore things that she didn't like. It was a greater possibility that she simply refused to believe her inheritance was gone.

Kathleen left the letter with Spencer. It would be up to him to make his wife understand the consequences of it—if he cared to bother. Like Chad, he didn't particularly see it as a disaster, so he might not bother.

He must have explained the situation to Amanda, though, because he brought her out to the Twisting Barb the very next day. And tantrum didn't come close to describing Amanda's "enlightened" reaction.

Stuart and Chad were also there. Stuart had gotten a lot more friendly with Red during the barbecue and had stopped by that afternoon to let her know he was leaving on a trip to Chicago in a few days. Actually, he'd just stopped by for dinner, since he could have sent one of his men over with the message about his trip. Although he no longer escorted his cattle to Chicago, he did go there once a year to wine and dine the buyers. Chad had merely come along for the ride, Marian assumed.

But they were all on the porch enjoying the sunset that evening when Amanda and Spencer arrived right before dark. And Amanda was barely out of the carriage, Albert's letter twisted in her fist, before she was screeching at Kathleen, "This is a pack of lies!"

Marian couldn't help but sigh. She wondered if anyone would notice if she just slipped away, grabbed an early dinner, and retired for the night. She really didn't want to have to listen to her sister's enraged disbelief. Of course, she'd probably have to close all the windows in her room to avoid hearing it. Amanda could get that loud.

Kathleen tried to inject a note of calm. "Sit down, Amanda. We understand your disbelief. I found it incredible myself, that Mortimer could make so many bad decisions, one on top of another."

"Then you should have known better than to accept this rubbish without—"

"Proof?" Kathleen interrupted, still trying for calm. "You're holding the proof. A full accounting was included, or did you neglect to read it?"

Amanda snorted. "You mean this forged account? You aren't listening, Aunt Kathleen. I'm not here because I refuse to believe what this letter implies. I'm here because I know this isn't true. My God, do you think Papa never talked to me? I'm the one he shared all of his successes with, whether I cared to hear them or not."

"Perhaps, but did he ever share his failures?" Kathleen replied. "Or did he keep those to himself, too ashamed of them to let anyone know?"

"You still aren't listening," Amanda insisted. "His businesses were booming. They paid for themselves. There were no hidden costs to drain his wealth."

"Too many improvements can overextend anyone. He did too much in too short a time."

"No—he—didn't!" Amanda exclaimed. "That's where your misconception lies. If you knew him like you think you do, you'd know he was too satisfied with his profits to waste them on improving the working conditions of his employees. But of course you hadn't seen him in years, so how would you know?" Amanda ended with a sneer.

"I was making reference to the facts given," Kathleen replied stiffly.

"I'm giving you the facts. If his employees didn't like where they worked, they could go work somewhere else. I've heard him say that hundreds of times. Even Marian has heard him say that. And why not, when he had people lined up to work for him because he paid so well, not because he supplied ideal working conditions. He opened only one new shoe store in the last several years, and that was only because a new cobbler had moved in on the other side of town, and Papa wasn't about to let him steal any of his longtime customers. And even that store was thriving."

Kathleen must have finally experienced some doubt, because she turned to Marian for confirmation. Marian hated agreeing with her sister about anything, but in this case she was forced to nod.

"Its true he said that a lot," she remarked. "He did pay his employees extremely well, and because of that, he really didn't care if they complained that his stores were old and drafty. His philosophy was that people would always need new shoes, no matter where they had to go to buy them. I don't recall him improving any of his existing stores either, not that I would have noticed, since I didn't get to that part of town often."