Page 78 of Trickster King

Well, that would make things complicated. “STARI?”

She shook her head. “They tested me, and I’m negative. It’s just morning sickness again.”

I breathed a relieved sigh. “I’ll do my best to convince the food-thieving tyrants that they must behave. I do believe a fresh serving of yams and chicken shall be first on the treatment plan. A pork-sausage lasagna to go with the barbecue shall be tonight’s treatment plan.”

To my amusement, my wife began to drool, although she swallowed a few times in her effort to hide her reaction. “Cream puffs?”

“I’ll need ingredients, Randy.”

He relayed the queen’s wishes for cream puffs to the RPS, who’d handle the ingredient acquisition so I could otherwise keep my wife amused until it was time for me to cook.

With a smile, I captured her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I have been told there shall be promising calves at this ranch. Shall we go see the offerings, my queen?”

“Why, my king, that does sound like a most marvelous plan. And what shall you do with these calves upon meeting them?”

“Cuddling them in bad pastures comes to mind,” I confessed.

My wife laughed until she cried, and once she wiped her eyes, she said, “Whatever makes you happy, Pat.”

NINETEEN

“Now you’ve done it, Your Majesty.”

It took Eddie two hours to wrangle the truth out of the ranch operator, and the story broke my heart and ultimately led to me buying her ranch above market value but still for a pittance.

Her father had loved cows as had her mother, and they had lived and breathed the ranch life, finding joy in everything from the wrangling to the yearly roundups and sales to the market. The woman, who refused to give me her name, felt like she’d brought shame to her family.

She loved animals, but she hated everything about running a ranch, and as such, everything had come crumbling down.

Sunshine had been more than her heart horse.

She had been the only thing keeping the woman going on.

To my relief, the cattle were well fed, and the woman had done her due diligence keeping cows and bulls separated, preventing an inbreeding disaster. As promised, she had calves, ten of them, all as pretty as a picture. Their DNA tests came out as clean as I could hope for.

As I could give her what she needed, I did so with little regret.

I bought her animals, I bought the land, and I put her in touch with a real estate agent who could get her a small place with enough land for a few horses and a garden, the type of place she had dreamed about as a youth.

At Randy’s insistence, he drove the SUV while I sat in the back with my wife. Rather than discuss the pending sale, I stared out the window and wondered how much heartache I could witness before I, too, crumbled under the weight of it. Jessica took hold of my hand and gave it a squeeze. “I know you didn’t want to have to buy that ranch, but we can work it into the budget. It’s a good size to be a schooling ranch, and we can use it for RPS training in addition to the equestrian center. It wasn’t that expensive, either. Not even after you talked her up on it.”

“I’m not worried about the money,” I confessed.

“Randy, we need to take him to the hospital immediately.”

The RPS agent laughed. “Relax, Your Majesty. Your husband is fine. He’s weary because he does have a functional empathy talent, but he’s in no danger. We’ve been monitoring him. He’s handling the strain well, and all the rescues are improving. If the gold mine pans out like I think it will, he’ll be able to pay the ranch off as a personal asset if he wants.”

I twitched at the RPS agent’s weaponization of words.

“Why do you think the gold mine is going to pan out?”

Yep. My wife was going to take me to task for my various adventures without her, but before she got around to making me enjoy every moment of it, she’d assault me with her choice of words.

“I think it’s going to pan out because nobody has found just where the gold in this part of Texas comes from. The mine is completely flooded, which tells me it’s connected to the underground rivers in the region. That’s likely flowing to the above ground rivers, and there’s a spring somewhere nearby sending flakes and dust along the way. He filled his pockets with gold—and then he filled the pockets of numerous agents with more gold. He filled several saddlebags with gold, not even realizing he’d run every agent on the site out of pockets, requiring someone to get fetch bags. We’re measuring his haul in pounds, Your Majesty. He can afford the ranch without thinking about it.”

Did the pair realize how they made me suffer? I hadn’t even done any actual panning; I’d used my hands, without gloves, like a child set free and given permission to play in a puddle.

My wife squeezed my hand again. “What’s the going rate for gold right now?”

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