Page 61 of Midnight Rider

She chuckled. “Yes, she did, the wicked old darling, and never said a word to you.”

“She has been enjoying her situation lately. She adores you. As I do.”

“And I adore her. She was only afraid that you were going to be hurt as your father was. Because she didn’t know me, she thought I might be like your mother.”

“You could never be like her,” he murmured. He drew her closer. “Bernadette, when things are better here financially would you like to travel to Maine and visit your brother?”

“Oh, I’d love to!”

He lifted his head and smiled down at her. “Then it’s a bargain.” His eyes narrowed. “Our lives aren’t going to be easy for a time. I have done all I can do to pull us back from the edge of bankruptcy, even with the loan your father made me. It may be very difficult.”

She reached up her hand and touched his lips. “I don’t mind,” she said honestly. “We’ll do it together.”

He nodded. “Together.”

* * *

ITWASALONGANDHARDCLIMBback to prosperity. Bernadette proved an amazing asset because of her natural aptitude for bookkeeping and budgeting. She took over the accounts that had been left idle when the stock manager had resigned weeks ago to go back East, and only then did Eduardo begin to see that his latest losses were directly attributable to the man’s lack of financial expertise.

“But I had no idea!” he exploded when Bernadette sat him down in the office and began to show him the enormous outlay of cash for supplies, some of which were nothing more than luxuries. “I assumed that he knew what he was doing here.” He slapped his forehead and broke into outraged Spanish.

“Now, now,” she comforted. “It’s not so bad. He wasn’t stealing from you, at least, and some of these things are actually in good enough condition to be returned for credit.” She bent over the books, rattling off items like saddles and duplicate parts for the new mechanized plow he’d added to his meager store of equipment. “Mr. Jakes at the hardware will take these back and probably be glad to get them, because old man Harrod just bought a mechanized plow himself.” She grinned at Eduardo. “He’ll be happy to have spare parts.”

He shook his head as he looked over her shoulder at the accounts. “You have a natural ability,” he marveled. “Amazing!”

“And you thought I was just irresistible physically,” she teased with a demure smile.

He touched her hair lightly and then kissed it, just at the temple. “You surprise me constantly. How did I ever manage without you?”

“I have no idea.”

He sobered then, as he scanned her penciled figuring on the account book. “We must find other ways to conserve our funds, so that this doesn’t happen again.” He shook his head. “I could kick myself for trusting the man so completely. I assumed that because he’d managed a ranch before, he knew precisely how to manage the bookkeeping.”

“Don’t blame yourself. It would escape most people who weren’t familiar with the small details of everyday ranch operation.” She glanced up at him. “A livestock manager only deals with one aspect, the beasts themselves. Because I had to do all the ordering for our ranch when I was at home, this is something I know very well.” She smiled. “My father can scarcely read or write,” she confessed. “He’s very touchy about having people know it, but it’s made life difficult for him in a lot of ways. My mother, I understand, was quite the genius at managing money, and helped him grow rich in their early years together.”

Eduardo hugged her. “I can see that my own fortune is assured with her daughter taking care of my ranch for me!”

She chuckled. “It’s early yet. But I don’t see any reason why we can’t pare down these expenses and start making money on cattle, instead of losing it.”

After that day, Eduardo came to depend on Bernadette’s uncanny financial sense. Her father had to do without it, of course, but Bernadette had found him a good substitute, a former bank clerk who had a way with accounts.

Meanwhile, Eduardo shared his plans and his dreams with her, and when it was time to buy and sell cattle, he made sure that she went with him to the various meetings with other cattlemen. The ranchers were surprised at first when Eduardo insisted that his wife join the discussions. They weren’t accustomed to a woman who knew how to evaluate the rise and fall of cattle prices in the market, or the factors involved in successful marketing. But Bernadette made an immediate impression on them when she pointed out some recent news about cattle price fluctuations and the reasons for them. She advised selling off certain stocks and buying others and related her theories for doing it. The ranchers only half listened, convinced that Eduardo was off his head for letting a woman make such decisions.

But when he doubled the price he received for his culled stock, and bought more at a steal, they started listening. Thereafter, when Bernadette advised a strategy for Eduardo, there was an interested audience.

Eduardo found their acceptance of her amusing. “Most of them have wives who sit and sew all day and want to talk about fashion,” he confided. “They don’t quite know how to deal with a woman who can understand cattle prices.”

“I’m enjoying myself.”

“Indeed you are,” he said solemnly. “Do you realize that we’ve already doubled our investment in the new strain of Santa Gertrudis cattle we purchased from the King Ranch? They’re a hardy breed. Because of their Brahman ancestry, they stand extremes of heat and cold very well, and they have the beef conformation of their Hereford forebears.”

“I like their pretty red coats,” she told him.

He made a face at her. “I like the prices they bring at auction,” he returned. “They gain weight very satisfactorily on the sparse vegetation the land can provide, so we have less need to supplement their feed with expensive grain.” He sighed. “Bernadette, for the first time, I have high hopes for our prosperity.”

“So do I,” she replied. “My father seems to have the same sense of optimism, too. He’s glad he made you the loan. And even gladder to have you in the family, I think,” she added. “He’s always thought highly of you.”

“And I of him,” he replied. “He may be rough around the edges, but he’s a gentleman for all that.”

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