The Rightful Heir

Chapter Three

Mary Lou sang along for the closing hymn at Pine Haven Church on Sunday morning. The words of praise and the reminder that all her blessings flowed from God brought much-needed comfort. She’d struggled to concentrate during the service. Reverend Dismuke would not approve if he’d known how her mind had wandered while he spoke.

The tall man two rows ahead of her was a distraction she hadn’t counted on. His baritone voice carried to her. Perhaps, because he was a man of faith, she should be more kind while they were forced to work together.

The thought wasn’t in keeping with the faith she professed. Her kindness wasn’t meant to extend only to others of faith. She should count her blessings that he wasn’t an unscrupulous businessman who ranted about until he got his way.

The final prayer was said and she made her way out into the crisp October air. The preacher stood at the bottom of the church steps, greeting everyone as they left. She spoke to him just as Jared Ivy walked up behind her.

Jared’s voice came over the top of her head. “Would you introduce us, Miss Ellison?”

She took a step away from him. “Reverend Dismuke, this is Jared Ivy. He’s Jacob Ivy’s grandson.”

Jared gave a hearty handshake. “How do you do, Reverend? That was a fine talk you gave this morning. You’ll have me studying on the words until I can come again next Sunday.”

“It’s good to meet you, Mr. Ivy. I’m sorry for the loss of your grandfather. I know Jacob would be proud you’ve come back to Pine Haven.”

Mary Lou watched Jared as he spoke. “Did you know Grump well?”

Reverend Dismuke chuckled. “Well enough to know that’s the name you gave him as a boy. Said it was something about the way he talked.”

“Most times he barked more than he talked.” Jared’s eyes lit up at the memory. “I knew from the start it was just his way. He was a good man.”

Reverend Dismuke agreed. “Yes, he was. He told me you’d be back one day. Said I could count on it.”

Jared spoke to the minister but turned and smiled at Mary Lou. “The reasons I stayed away so long make for quite a story. Not one for the paper, but a story nonetheless.”

What was the story? As a newspaper woman she wanted all the details. Somehow, looking at Jared now, she didn’t think he’d be willing to share them with her.

* * *

Jared carried his saddlebags up the steps of the newspaper office. He looked again at the lettering on the door. How he wished he’d known to come earlier. Why had God let Grump die before he could get here?

He wanted more of the man than the vague memories he had as a young boy. The snatches of moments when Grump would laugh out loud, or even scold him, were all he had.

Opening the door he called out, “Are you here, Miss Ellison?”

She came through a doorway that led to a back room. “Yes.”

“I brought a few things, but Andrew will be bringing the rest in a while. My saddle and valise.”

“Oh, good. He must have gotten the job I told him about.” Her pleasure at the news lit her face.

“Andrew must be very important to you.” He set the saddlebags on the floor near the door and propped his rifle against the wall.

“He is. Reminds me of myself at that age.”

“How is that?”

Mary Lou shrugged her shoulders. “Young. Alone in the world. But he’s also determined to make something of himself.”

Jared sank into a chair near the door. “Is that how you ended up with Grump? Set out to make something of yourself?”

She shook her head. Brown tendrils fell loose from the pins and swung to brush her cheek. “When I came to stay here, all I had were the clothes on my back and my momma’s Bible.” There was a sadness in her words that belied her bravado. “The determination was a gift from your grandfather. He taught me to believe in myself.”

What had Jared missed in not knowing Grump like Mary Lou had? Grump had become the family she hadn’t had. Ironic, because he was Jared’s family, but Jared had been denied his association by a mother who’d let the pain of life harden her. Perhaps harden was too harsh a judgment. Maybe she wasn’t hard but numbed by the sorrow of so much loss in her own life.

“So where does Andrew live?”

“Jim Robbins lets him sleep in the loft of the livery in exchange for chores.”

Jared had worked hard much of his life and believed strength of character grew from honest labor. “Then he works here and now at the hotel. Is he able to do all that well?” He could almost see her bristle.

“Andrew doesn’t have much choice. He has to earn his own way. He’s as fine a young man as you’ll ever meet. I dare say, when you’ve had the chance to work alongside him, you’ll learn that soon enough.”

Jared gave a curt nod. “I’m sure I will.”

Mary Lou brushed her hands down the sides of her skirts. “All right then. Would you like to see the rooms? It’s possible it’s not as fancy as you’re accustomed to.” She walked toward the staircase in the back room.

He stood and picked up his belongings. “What makes you think I’m accustomed to fancy things?” His childhood had been spent in the comfort of his mother’s small home with her feminine touches on all the furnishings. But his adult years had passed in a bunkhouse with ranch hands. “Fancy” was not a word to describe that place.

She stopped and turned, gesturing to his vest pocket. “That watch, for one thing. And you may wear a ranch hand’s coat and boots, but you talk like a gentleman.”

“Ah, so you’re judging me by the way I look and speak? Didn’t Grump teach you better than that?” He almost laughed when she let out a tiny huff of air.

“Mr. Ivy taught me a lot of things. Most important among them was to observe details.”

“He should also have taught you that situations and people are not always as they present themselves.”

“That’s precisely what I’m saying. You, Jared Ivy, are a contradiction in every way.”

That did cause him to chuckle. “I will tell you the reason I speak as I do, but only because we have to work together. My mother became a schoolteacher when we moved back to her hometown after my father died. She required more of me than the other students. She insisted that her work would be judged by my upbringing. Her efforts were successful—except for my spelling. I never did master it like she wanted. I think the more she pushed me to conquer it, the less my mind absorbed.”

“I see. That’s understandable. But what about the watch?”

Jared gave a slight tilt of his head. “The watch is a personal matter.”

Mary Lou blinked and said, “Oh. Please forgive the intrusion.” She turned back to the stairs and led the way to Grump’s old rooms. Was she truly sorry or was her sarcastic bent peeking through her words?

At the top of the stairs a small landing stopped in front of a plain door. She opened it and stepped aside for him to enter first.

“Everything is just as Mr. Ivy left it. I’ve dusted and swept up, but I didn’t have the heart to move any of his belongings.” She sniffed and he caught a glimpse of her catching a tear before it fell from her lashes. “Leaving everything made me feel closer to him.”

“Thank you.” He set his things down near the door and wandered deeper into the space. A woodstove sat in one corner with a pipe leading through the ceiling. A large rocker stood on a rag rug by the window on the same wall.

Mary Lou cleared her throat. “He didn’t cook much, but there are basic utensils here.” She pointed to a shelf along the back wall over the cupboard. “The bedroom is through that door.” She indicated the far wall.

Jared tried to imagine Grump sitting in the rocker or leaning over a plate of beans at the small table with two chairs. Grump’s Bible sat on the same table with a lamp.

“We used to talk for hours about the Bible or the next big article we were going to print.” Mary Lou’s voice was soft and reverent. The look on her face as she stared at the table let him know her mind was visiting a dear memory.

“I hope you’ll share some of those stories with me in the course of time.” Emotion he hadn’t expected clogged his throat.

“Oh, most of those conversations wouldn’t interest anyone but me or Mr. Ivy.” She twisted her hands together.

“All the same, I came here to find Grump. I’ll have little to piece together except the memories of others.”

She looked up then and met his gaze. An open love for his grandfather shone in her eyes. “When you say it like that, I don’t see how I can refuse you.” She backed up. “I’ll leave you to settle in.”

“I guess I’ll see you in the morning.” He followed her to the door.

Standing on the landing, she paused. “I’ve got a stew simmering on the stove next door. I’ll be glad to bring you a bowl for your supper in a bit. It being a Sunday, I didn’t think you’d have much chance to prepare anything for yourself.”

“That’s very kind of you.” Her generosity was unexpected, given how she must despise the purpose for his presence. “What time do you open the office?”

“I’m always in early on Monday. Andrew comes to help distribute the papers.”

A rap on the door downstairs drew their attention. It must be Andrew with the rest of Jared’s belongings.

He stepped onto the landing with Mary Lou. It suddenly felt very small. Mary Lou Ellison was beautiful. Not in the traditional way a man defined beauty. Other women may have finer features but there was a strength in her that drew him. They stood so close he could see the black ring around the green of her eyes. He knew her skin would be as soft as a moonlit whisper. In other circumstances he might be tempted to give in to the emotional draw he felt for her.

She was close enough to touch. But the ownership of the paper stood between them like a gulf.

The door below opened and Andrew called, “Miss Ellison? Mr. Ivy?”

Jared took a step back and bumped into the door to his new residence.

Mary Lou blinked again and cleared her throat. She didn’t take her eyes from his as she answered, “We’re coming down now, Andrew. I was just showing Mr. Ivy his rooms.”

“After you.” Jared waited for her to descend several treads before he followed. He’d best keep a good distance between him and Mary Lou. He wouldn’t let his heart sway him away from his mission to honor Grump’s legacy by insuring the future of the Pine Haven Record. Not even for someone his grandfather had approved of to the point that she carried on for him in the void left by his death.

* * *

Monday morning dawned with the memory of life’s new challenges. Mary Lou checked her reflection in the mirror in her room before heading downstairs.

Jared Ivy’s presence had been awkward yesterday. She’d called up the stairs when she’d brought his stew and found the door to his rooms open. He’d asked her to leave the food on the tread at the bottom of the steps without coming to the doorway to acknowledge her. It had taken prayer and several deep breaths to keep her from taking the food back to her kitchen in the face of his perceived ingratitude.

“Well, if he thinks I’ll be cooking and cleaning for him, he’ll have to think again. I am my own woman now. A businesswoman. I don’t have the time or the inclination to tend to a man who is perfectly capable of tending to his own needs.” She pulled the bottom of her jacket down with more than the needed force and had to straighten it again before she left for work.

She entered the paper through the back entrance and found Jared Ivy at his grandfather’s desk. Her desk.

Lord, please let it still be my desk after the judge comes to town.

Jared looked up from something he was writing. “Good morning, Miss Ellison.”

“Mr. Ivy.” She heard the tightness in her voice and hated it. She needed to conduct herself as a business owner, not a woman who was out of sorts because a man had dared to enter her domain.

He nodded to the clean bowl on the corner of the desk. “That was a fine stew. Thank you.”

“I wasn’t sure you were going to eat it when I brought it last night.”

Jared continued writing for a moment then stopped. “Why wouldn’t I eat it?” He was distracted by whatever was on the page.

Mary Lou was accustomed to his grandfather ignoring her, or only half listening, but he’d been her boss. Jared wasn’t her boss. Or even her colleague. She had no intention of continuing a one-sided conversation. She began to pull down the papers from where they’d been hung to dry and stack them neatly. Andrew would arrive momentarily to help distribute them.

She jumped when Jared reached over her shoulder to take down the next paper. “What are you doing?” She put a hand to her chest and took a deep breath.

“Helping?” He added the paper to the stack behind them. “What’s got you so skittish?”

“I’m not skittish.” She moved to the opposite end of the room and began taking down the papers that hung there. “I didn’t know you’d finished whatever it was that had you so distracted.” She nodded her head in the direction of the desk. The notes he’d made were missing from the neat desktop.

He patted the pocket of his coat. “I was just writing down a list of things to check on today.” He gave a grin that reminded her of a cat who’d just eaten a brave mouse. Did he think she’d snoop behind him, so he’d taken away the evidence of his actions?

“You’ve no need to guard your notes from me, Jared Ivy. I can assure you that nothing you do outside the paper is of any interest to me.” She resisted the urge to huff out a breath as she slapped another paper on the growing stack.

Jared added his paper to the stack simultaneously, causing hers to flutter to the floor. He gave a small chortle. “You do tend to drop a lot of things, Miss Ellison. Your notes, men running by in the street, your composing stick when it’s full of type, and now the paper. Are you always so clumsy?” Was he laughing at her?

“I am not. I distinctly remember your involvement in every one of those scenarios.”

Now he did laugh. “I’ll concede that point on one condition.”

She retrieved the paper and added it to the others. Hands on hips, she asked, “What makes you think I’ll accept any conditions you have to offer?”

“I think this one will be in both our interests.”

“I’m listening.”

“I propose that you stop resisting my presence so fiercely. Perhaps that’s the reason for your mishaps.” He lowered his head and leaned toward her. “Because I’m not going anywhere.” Blue eyes sparkled beneath heavy lashes. Gorgeous eyes that could pull an unsuspecting lady into their depths. She knew the truth about men, though. They might be handsome and strong, but none ever stayed when it mattered. Even if they wanted to, death could take them.

His face was open, not hiding anything. Determination oozed from him. Determination that threatened her livelihood.

Mary Lou straightened to her full height and squared her shoulders. She surprised herself when she dared to lean closer to him. There was only room for breath between them. “Nor am I.”

Andrew opened the front door and stared at both of them as they jumped apart. Why did she feel guilty? She’d only been making her point to Jared. There was no reason to blush with embarrassment, but she felt the heat in her cheeks just the same.

“Good morning, Andrew.” Jared greeted the apprentice with a completely normal tone.

“Mr. Ivy.” Andrew looked at her then. “Miss Ellison. Are you okay?” He looked back at Jared. Mary Lou almost laughed at the idea that Andrew thought he might need to protect her from Jared Ivy when she was the one who had advanced on him.

“I’m fine, Andrew.”

The young man didn’t seem convinced. “Are you sure? I can stay here today instead of working my other jobs, if you need me to.” He never took his eyes off Jared, who’d turned to pull down more newspapers.

“Miss Ellison is under no threat from me, Andrew. You merely caught us drawing the battle lines for how we’ll be working together until the judge comes to Pine Haven.” He turned to Mary Lou. “And when I say ‘working together,’ I mean working in the same building. I’m not convinced we’ll be able to manage to accomplish anything together.”

So he felt it, too. There was a constant tension in the air between them. Try as they might, there was no removing the sense of an impending storm. The air was charged like a hot summer day with low, dark clouds rolling in on the horizon. Rumbles of thunder warned of the coming chaos. How would she survive two months in the same office with a man who wanted to take her business?

God, I need Your help. This man has me at my wits’ end. Two months on tenterhooks is more than I can manage on my own.

* * *

Jared put the last paper on the stack. He’d been watching Mary Lou’s reactions since she’d come into the office. Sure, she thought he was disinterested, but he wanted to see her true actions without his influence. Stepping up to him and daring him to take the Pine Haven Record from her showed spunk. No wonder Grump had liked her. Under different circumstances he’d like her, too.

Mary Lou was open. Honest. Spoke her mind.

His mother had shown none of those characteristics. How he hated that with her deathbed confessions she’d rubbed out all the memories he’d cherished. Times when she’d comforted him as a boy and told him she’d always protect him. Never once had she told him how Grump wanted to be in his life, too. She’d kept him away from his only connection to his father. He’d tried to forgive her before she died. Had promised her he had. But the bile in his throat over the lost opportunities evidenced his need to keep praying until the forgiveness he knew in his mind must be given, took root in his heart.

“If you’re sure, Miss Ellison?” At her nod, Andrew pulled a stack of newspapers from the table and headed for the door. “Then I’ll be back for the rest in an hour.” The wind caught the door and it slammed shut behind him.

Mary Lou put on her coat and picked up another, somewhat smaller, stack of papers. “There won’t be anything else to do until after lunch.” She headed for the door.

Jared grabbed his coat from the tree by the door and shrugged into it as he followed her into the brisk morning air. “Wait.”

She shook her head and said over her shoulder, “Don’t have time to wait.”

He trotted a couple of paces and caught up to her. “Where are you going with these?” He reached for the papers in her arms, but she pulled back. He put a hand on her arm, giving her no choice but to stop.

“Really, Mr. Ivy, I must insist you not hinder me in my work.”

“Our work.” At her sigh he added, “Until the judge decides, it is indeed our work.” He reached for the papers again. “At least allow me to be a gentleman and carry them for you. You can show me where you sell them. I need to learn as much as I can as quickly as possible.”

Mary Lou’s shoulders sagged just a bit and she handed over her bundle. “I guess it won’t hurt to let you meet the people who allow us to sell the newspaper in their establishments.” She took off at a brisk pace. “But you mustn’t slow me down.”

He chuckled and followed her. Yes, she was someone he’d like to know. If only they weren’t at odds over the only thing either of them wanted. The Pine Haven Record.

Chapter Four

Mary Lou drew on all her patience and pushed open the door to the general store. With Mr. Croft having been in the middle of the shooting scene on Saturday, Mrs. Liza Croft was bound to be inquisitive today. There was no way to explain Jared Ivy. Mary Lou would just have to make the best of the situation.

She relaxed when Mr. Croft greeted her. “Mary Lou, how are you today?”

“Well, Mr. Croft. Thank you for asking.”

Jared pulled off his hat and put it into the hand under the stack of papers he carried. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Croft. I’m Jared Ivy.”

The two shook hands. “I heard you’d come to town. Sorry about your grandfather. He’d have loved to see you again.”

Jared dropped his gaze to the floor for a quick moment before he responded. “Thank you. I’d have loved an opportunity to spend time with him, too.”

“So—” Mr. Croft scratched the crown of his balding head “—what’s in the paper this week?” He took a copy from the stack Jared held.

“There’s a fine piece about the—”

Mary Lou interrupted Jared’s attempt to answer. She wouldn’t be pushed aside as if she wasn’t the owner of the paper. “I’ve written about the contested ownership of my paper and about the harvest celebration.”

Liza Croft came through the doors that led to the stock room. “I hope you wrote about the lost business the shop owners suffer when the town closes down for a celebration like that.” Her tone was snooty, as usual. Mary Lou chose to ignore her, but Jared didn’t.

“I would imagine an event that drew everyone from the surrounding area into town would bring extra business to your store.” Mary Lou caught sight of the muscle in his jaw as it worked to contain a smile.

“You’ll never convince my wife that money is made when the hours of the store are shortened.” Mr. Croft stepped behind the counter.

Jared was apparently not a man to be put off easily. “But if more people patronize your establishment before the celebration starts, the volume of sales in a shorter time frame is bound to increase profits. Even if the store closes early.”

Mrs. Croft shifted from one foot to another and spoke to Mary Lou. “Well, I see your new business partner has a good head on his shoulders.” Mary Lou tried to ignore her ire when Mrs. Croft looked down her nose at her. “You could use someone like that at the paper. Things have gone a bit soft in recent years.”