Sea Of Grass (4 page)

He nodded. “I know you’d prefer teaching about the land, but I’m sure you’ll fight to your last breath and so will I.”

“I hope it won’t come to that.” Tess turned to face him.

“You and me both.”
 

“Does Telford know I’m home?”

“Sweetie, I’m sure he does.”

“Well, maybe tomorrow I’ll take a drive into town.”

“You still love to poke the tiger in the cage, don’t ya?” he asked as they made their way back to the house.

“What? I’m home and I want to see the town. What’s wrong with that?”

“And just happen to run into Warren Telford?”

Tess shrugged. “It’s a small town.”

“And it’s going to get smaller.”

Chapter 3

“So she’s back,” Telford said. He sat behind his big desk, puffing on his cigar. “I wonder why.”

“I have no idea, but you’ll never get them to sell, Mr. Telford,” Ed Chambers said as he took off his hat and slapped it on his thigh. “Tess Rawlins will die first.”

Telford snorted. “Don’t tease, Ed, they’ll sell. Once the others see the Double R go under, they’ll all follow suit, you watch.”

Ed shook his head. “I don’t know, Mr. Telford. I’ve worked for you for many years, and in all that time, the Rawlins family has never wavered. There’s no love lost between Jed Rawlins and you, I know that. He’ll never sell, and Tess will never allow it, but I hope you’re right.”

“I’m right. I’m always right where money is concerned.”

A woman poked her head in the office, interrupting them. “Mr. Collins is on line two for you, Mr. Telford.”

The old man grinned and nodded as he picked up the phone, putting it on speaker. “Go ahead, Collins. Ed’s here. What have you got?”

“Sorry, there’s nothing on Tess or Jed Rawlins. They’re squeaky clean. If you want this land, you’ll have to find another way. Well, you’ve known him all your life. Jed was in the Army for four years. He married Emily Richardson, who died from cancer. They had two children. The youngest, Stephen, died two years ago, an apparent accident—thrown from a horse.”

Ed glanced at Telford, who was just gazing out the window, puffing on his cigar like a steam engine.

“Tess graduated from University of California, Berkley, with two degrees—agriculture and business. Got her PhD. She’s the brains
behind this, even though she’s been in California for the most part. She came back yesterday, as you know.”

Ed shook his head. “She’s the brawn, as well. She’s as strong as a
fricking
ox.”

Telford grunted. “That was years ago. We all grow older. Even Tess Rawlins. She has to be close to fifty, and she’s a woman not a man. As much as she’d like to think she is,” he added with disgust.
   

“She’ll probably take over the day to day on the ranch and the finances. And if we’re not careful, she’ll make the Double R once again the wealthiest ranch in this part of Montana.”

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Shit is right. We both know Tess Rawlins. She was as tough as the boys were. Wouldn’t take shit from anybody. When her brother died—” He stopped abruptly when Telford shot him a venomous glare.

“She’s been a thorn in my side since she learned to speak.”

“What do you want me to do, Mr. Telford? It’s your money,” Collins said.

“Keep digging. Everybody has something to hide, Collins—even the sacred
Rawlinses
,” he spat and angrily disconnected the line.

Ed winced at the vehemence.

“Those fucking
Rawlinses
…” Telford snarled, then took a deep breath. “Keep your eyes open, Ed. I want that land!”

Ed nodded and walked out.

Warren Telford narrowed his eyes as he looked out of his big second-floor office window. Through the blinds, he saw her—her tall figure confidently walking out of Tom’s feed store. She wore her old black cowboy hat pulled low over her eyes. Though she looked like she put on a few pounds, her Levi’s hugged her hips nicely, he thought. All that time in the classroom. He wished Tess Rawlins had stayed in California.

He watched Tess in deep conversation as she spoke to Tom, who nodded in agreement. After shaking hands as if sealing a bargain, she slapped Tom on the back and slid into the old Jeep.
Telford nearly growled at the Double R Ranch stenciled on the
back.

Women, he thought angrily. It started with the grandmother, who saved the ranch during World War II and Korea, selling their beef to the government at a ridiculous low price. Eleanor Roosevelt was to blame. She got them all fired up—going to college, starting their own businesses, getting in the way.
 

“God, I hate that family,” he hissed as he watched the big station wagon drive through town.

Telford remembered all the stories about how the Rawlins family kept the ranchers in the area safe from foreclosure for decades. It’s still the same. They all love the damned
Rawlinses
, he thought. Tom and the others didn’t buy their supplies from the big stores in Helena or Missoula. Single-handedly, the
Rawlinses
kept Emerson’s Feed and Grain in
Silverhill
in business.
 
He couldn’t keep up with their orders. Now Tom was buying from the smaller stores, getting distributor pricing and passing the savings along to the Double R Ranch.

That was the old man’s idea. Tess Rawlins kept it up until she left for college. Now she’s back. Damn that woman, he thought angrily. Bob Hastings followed. His small farm supplied the
Rawlinses
with winter hay, and he now bought from Tom. Telford had to be careful. The other small ranchers from Three Forks and the surrounding area would catch on, as well, then what would happen to his plans for the plush resorts he was going to build on all that land?

God, I hate that family, he thought again, and slammed the blinds closed.

As Tess pulled through the entrance of the Double R, she smiled as she looked around at the landscape. Settled at the foot of the Bitterroot Mountains,
Silverhill
, Montana, was a nice quiet town.

Since most of the men went off to war in 1941 and a good many had not come back, it had seen some changes. Some farms went under back in the 1930s with the Depression, which Warren Telford’s family gobbled up, the money-grubbing bastards, she thought angrily. Roosevelt and his New Deal helped some back then. She vaguely remembered her mother and father retelling family stories of how the Rawlins clan would sit in the kitchen listening to the radio and Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats.

With the war ending, the economy came back. Then Korea happened, and her family struggled all over again to keep the ranch going. With the war over,
Silverhill
boomed along with everything else in the fifties. Those ranchers and farmers who stuck it out through two wars were starting to thrive once again. The Double R was one of them. And now, though cattle ranching was truly a way of life that was nearly extinct, the Rawlins family was still trying to hang on, and every member did his or her part.

As a young woman, Tess felt the responsibility and was torn between staying on the ranch and going to college. She didn’t want to leave for college, but she knew the world was changing and she needed to change with it or straggle behind. She smiled openly, remembering her mother’s words on her graduation day from high school—

“Elizabeth Rawlins, you are a smart young woman. Don’t depend on anyone for your happiness. Go out in the world and find your life and your love. This world is changing, women are no longer doing what my generation has done. Find your own way—your own life. Then you’ll be ready for someone…Promise me, Elizabeth. You’ll never be ready for someone if you’re not sure of yourself and your life.”

Her mother died soon after Tess started college. She was going to come home and take care of Jed and Stephen, but her mother’s words drummed in her brain. So she stayed and learned about the soil, about the land; she learned how to keep the Double R for her father just as her great-uncle had done. When she graduated, she knew she had kept her promise to her mother. She was ready…

Tess shut off the engine and got out of the Jeep. It was a bright clear morning. The snow was nearly gone off the grassland as the sun took hold, spreading its warmth across the pasture. Tess smiled, knowing in a few short weeks the brown pasture would be a bright, plush green. She pushed the heavy wooden gate open and walked toward the pasture. She crouched down and plucked a few blades. Tess remembered her father and her grandfather doing the same thing she was doing now, and she remembered them saying the same thing. “This is fine for the cattle. They’ll grow strong and we’ll get a handsome price for them in the fall.” They were right then, but now? An anxious feeling hit the pit of her stomach at the thought of losing this ranch and the idea she could do nothing to stop it.

Her mother’s words flashed through her mind—
“Be sure of yourself and your life…”

Tess reverently held the brown grass between her fingers. “Be sure of myself, huh?” She looked around the sloping pasture. With the Bitterroots as a backdrop, it made for a majestic scene. The only thing Tess was sure of in her forty-nine years was she was a lesbian with a PhD in agriculture and failed relationships. She walked back and leaned against the fence post, chewing on the piece of grass.

She closed her eyes remembering her college experiences. Joan Danvers was her first. At the tender age of nineteen, Tess got her first taste of love…well, sex. It was remarkable. It beat kissing Billy behind the bleachers at the homecoming game. Hell, it beat anything young Tess had ever experienced.

It lasted through sophomore year, and Tess’s heart broke when Joan graduated and left without a word. “What an idiot I was, acting like a love-struck fool, chasing her car.” Tess laughed aloud as she shook her head.

An older and wiser Tess got over the pain quickly. Rhonda Monroe was her next “love” during her senior year. Tess actually thought
Rhonnie
might be the one. She had a chance to continue her education and get her master’s, which she took.
Rhonnie
had other plans, however.

Rhonnie
was a nice caring young woman who truly loved Tess but loved her work more. The research took
Rhonnie
to Europe and Asia. They kept in contact for a year, then as with most things, life got in the way, and the letters grew more infrequent. The last Tess heard,
Rhonnie
was happily living in Germany with a woman.

Over the years, there had been a few women, and finally Tess met Melanie. Tess was intrigued and captivated by Mel, who was fifteen years her junior. Though it was an enjoyable relationship with Mel, Tess knew not to make it more than it was—enjoyable and sexually satisfying, nothing more.
 

Tess laughed. “Oh, Mom. Ready for someone?” She tossed the blade of grass down and stretched, letting out a loud groan. “I sincerely doubt it.”

Off in the distance, she saw her father. “Riding out on a cold morning like this,” she said, shaking her head.

As he rode up to Tess, she looked up and waved. “What are you doing out here?” she asked as she stood.

Her father pulled the horse to a halt a few feet from her. Leaning on the pommel, he gave her a stern look. “I’ll ask you the same thing. You’re daydreaming again,” he said with a mock glare. “Just like you did as a young girl.”

Tess took off her hat and ran her arm across her brow. “I know. I stopped to take a look at the land and I got sidetracked,” she said with a sheepish grin. “What are you doing out here?”

Jed sat tall in his saddle to stretch his back and looked around. “Doing the same thing, I guess. Telford called again this morning. God, he wants this land.”

Tess grunted rudely. “Who gives a fu—?”