McKettrick's Choice - Linda Lael Miller [25]
Angelina checked the kettle of potatoes boiling on the back of the stove, then peered into the warming oven at the platter of fried chicken. The heat in the room was almost palpable.
“Put that plate back where you found it,” Angelina said. “It isn’t Bannings in there with your father. It’s the banker, Mr. Sexton.”
Lorelei was both relieved and unsettled. Mr. Sexton was not the jovial sort, and neither was her father. What were they laughing about in there?
“Since when does the judge socialize with clerks?”
Angelina met her gaze. “Since today,” she said meaningfully.
Lorelei smoothed her hair, then her skirts. Sexton managed her father’s accounts, as well as Lorelei’s inheritance from her maternal grandfather. “I guess I’d better greet our guest,” she said.
Angelina merely nodded.
A few moments later, after straightening her hair and skirts again, Lorelei tapped circumspectly at the study door.
“Come in,” the judge called.
Lorelei took a deep breath, wondering if her father had heard about her ousting from the society, and turned the latch.
Mr. Sexton stood, tugging at his tight collar, and tried to smile. “Miss Fellows,” he said, in greeting. Her father regarded her smugly from the chair behind that half-acre desk of his.
Lorelei summoned up a smile. “Good evening, Mr. Sexton.”
“Tell her,” urged the judge.
Sexton flushed. Whatever he’d been laughing about earlier must have been far from his mind, because he looked miserable, and not just from the cloying heat.
“It’s about the property you inherited,” he said.
“What property?” Lorelei asked.
“Why, the ranch,” Sexton replied, after a quick glance at the judge. “The hundred acres downriver.” He fiddled with his collar again. “An offer of purchase has been made.”
Lorelei was confounded. She looked at her father, but his face gave away nothing, as usual. “It’s mine to sell?” she asked.
The judge cleared his throat. “Not precisely. But your signature is required. Just a formality.”
“I want to see the place first.”
Her father sighed. “There is no point in that, Lorelei,” he said. “It’s just an old cabin, surrounded by scrub brush and rattlesnakes.”
“Mr. Templeton is prepared to be very generous,” Sexton put in nervously, and got a quelling glare from the judge for his trouble.
“I’m sure he is,” Lorelei said, “but I’m not signing anything until I see that land with my own eyes.”
The judge pinched the bridge of his nose. “I should have known you would be difficult about this,” he said.
“Yes,” Lorelei agreed. “You should have.”
He glowered at her. “Will you excuse us for a few moments, Mr. Sexton?”
Sexton fled with such haste that Lorelei half expected to see a little cloud of dust trailing behind him. The study door closed with a crisp catch of the latch.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this land?” Lorelei asked.
“You are a woman,” the judge replied wearily. “It was of no concern to you.”
“Until you decided to sell it,” Lorelei pointed out.
“The sale will provide a substantial dowry,” the judge reasoned, but with an edge of impatience in his voice.
“God knows, you’ll need one to get a husband.”
“I don’t want a husband.”
“You have made that quite clear. Nonetheless, my dear, you will have one.”
“Tell me about the ranch.”
Another sigh, this one long-suffering. “It belonged to your mother’s family. If William had lived, the place would have gone to him. Your grandfather’s will stated that, should William fail to survive, the land would be yours.”
“I’m not surprised that I wasn’t consulted,” Lorelei said glumly. “After all, I am only a woman.” The judge would simply have appropriated the estate if he’d been able to do so, which meant there was something he wasn’t telling her.
Her father hoisted himself from his chair.