Page 63 of Wyoming True

“I’d never indulged, you see, so I didn’t really have those feverish urges people talk about.” She sighed. “He was a good and kind man. He spoiled me, took care of me, pampered me. I adored him. We had five wonderful years together, just as friends. Then one day he left a note for me, went to the top floor of his building, onto the roof and jumped off.” She swallowed, hard. It was a painful memory. “His lover, a younger man with an attitude problem, came to the funeral and pretended to grieve. I had him shown to the door. Then he sued for damages, saying my husband had mistreated him.” Her dark blue eyes were spitting fire. “You know, corporate attorneys are very good at civil law. They pinned him to the wall and stuck him with court costs after he lost the lawsuit. He went on to a new lover, who, sadly, killed him a few months later.” She looked at Maude. “I didn’t grieve. Not at all. My poor husband!”

Maude was thunderstruck. She’d never known anyone who wouldn’t have been raging about a man keeping that sort of secret from her. And here was Ida, with her scandalous reputation, furious because her husband had been hurt.

“You didn’t suspect?” Maude asked gently.

Ida shook her head. She finished her meal and sat back to drink the strong coffee. “I heard other women talk about their husbands, of course, but I had no practical experience.” Her eyes twinkled, just a little. “From some of the things I heard, maybe it wasn’t so bad that my husband wasn’t interested in me that way. Of course, then I was widowed, and I found Bailey Trent.” She sipped coffee, her face showing the anguish of saying that name aloud.

“A bad husband?”

Ida’s eyes, haunted, met the housekeeper’s. “You never know what a man really is until you’re behind a closed door with him.” She swallowed, hard. “Bailey was a sadist, and I didn’t know. He swept me off my feet. I’d had five years of no physical contact, and he kissed me coming and going. He was a little rough, but I put that down to his hunger for me. Was I wrong!” She shivered. “He was brutal. I was so afraid of him. He was insanely jealous. I smiled at another man and he turned around and threw me off the first level of a parking garage. If I hadn’t landed in grass, I guess I’d be dead or brain-damaged. I hit in such a way that only my back and hip and upper thigh were impacted. It still took surgery and a long time in physical therapy to get me back on my feet.” She laughed. “I limp when the weather gets stormy. They did a partial hip replacement, and I’ve got a metal rod and pins down my right leg where the femur was broken. At least it doesn’t show. Not that I’m vain about it,” she added. “I’ve had a bait of men. I never want anything physical, ever again.”

“I can’t blame you for feeling that way,” Maude said. “But didn’t you want children?”

“I would have loved having them with my first husband.” She laughed. “He was overweight and balding and a little slow. I loved him with all my heart. His children would have been like him, gentle and sweet and kind...” She fought tears and brought the coffee cup to her mouth. “I still miss him, after all this time.”

“It just goes to show that looks don’t matter much, if you love someone,” Maude said gently. “The boss said your ex-husband abused your animals.”

Ida drew in a breath. “Yes. I can’t prove it, but I know he was responsible. He even made threats. My poor horses. Poor Butler...” She hesitated. “Mrs. Barton, Jake says you like cats?” she added.

“Well, yes. I have several at home,” she said, puzzled by the question.

Ida grimaced. “Mr. McGuire wants us to get married...”

Maude actually smiled. “Hallelujah!” she said. “About time he stopped mooning around here miserable because Mina wouldn’t marry him.”

“It’s not going to be that sort of marriage,” Ida began. “We like each other, and we like the same things,” she added. “He said we had enough in common that we could make a good marriage without the drama.”

Maude chuckled. “The drama is what makes a marriage. My husband and I used to have little spats when we first got married. Oh, the making up! What fun!”

“I don’t really think Jake is going to want that.”

“Well, you never know, do you? Why do you want to know if I like cats?”

“Because if we live here, and I guess we will, Butler will come with me.”

“He won’t bother me,” Maude assured her. “I’ve had cats all my life. Three of them pile into the bed with my husband and me at night. They’ve all got Maine coon in their ancestry, so they’re huge. My male, Calipher, weighs almost twenty pounds, and he’s just a baby!”

“Maine coon?” Ida asked, curious.

“It’s an expensive breed of cat, if they’re purebred. They were named for Captain Coon, who sailed to New England in the early eighteen hundreds. Apparently, there were Persian cats on board his ship who got loose and, legend says, bred with lynxes in the wild.”

“What a fascinating story!”

“You might want to get one to keep your cat company,” Maude suggested. “If you ever do, I know a good breeder who lives right here in town.”

“Did you get yours from her?”

“Lord, no,” Maude laughed. “They’re horribly expensive. I got mine because one of Jessie’s tomcats got loose and had a bit of fun with a neighbor’s Persian female. Jessie sent me to the Persian cat lady.”

“She sounds very nice.”

“She is. Most of the people around Catelow are. You know that. You were born here, weren’t you?”

“Oh, yes. I was away for a long time. But it was nice to come home. Or it would have been, except for Bailey trying to force me to pay off his gambling debts.”

“You’ve had a hard time of it. But there are always rewards for living through hard times.”

Ida beamed. “I’ve noticed that.”

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