Page 10 of The Honorable Texan
“Oh, baby.”Mrs.Hardy winced as she reached out and cuddled Violet close, whispering soft endearments.“I’m sorry.I’m so sorry.I wanted to weed my flower bed and put out those little seedlings I’d grown in the kitchen window.I just worked a little too hard, that’s all.See?I’m fine.”
Violet pulled back, terrified.Her mother was all she had in the world.She loved her so much.How would she go on living if she lost her mother?That fear was written all over her.
Mrs.Hardy winced when she saw it.She hugged Violet close.“Violet,” she said sadly, “one day you’ll have to let me go.You know that.”
“I’m not ready yet,” Violet sobbed.
Mrs.Hardy sighed.She kissed Violet’s dark hair.“I know,” she murmured, her eyes faraway as they looked toward the horizon.“Neither am I.”
* * *
Later, as theysat over bowls of hot soup and fresh corn bread, Mrs.Hardy studied her daughter with concern.
“Violet, are you sure you’re happy working at Duke Wright’s place?”she asked.
“Of course I am,” Violet said stolidly.
“I think Mr.Kemp would like it if you went back to work with him.”
Violet stared at her with her spoonful of soup in midair.“Why would you say that, Mama?”
“Mabel, who works at your office, stopped by to see me at lunch.She says Mr.Kemp is so moody they can hardly work with him anymore.She said she thinks he misses you.”
Violet’s heart jumped.“That wasn’t how he sounded when I ran into him in the post office the other day,” she said.“But he was acting…oddly.”
The older woman smiled over her soup spoon.“Often men don’t know what they want until they lose it.”
“Bring on the day.”Violet laughed softly.
“So, dear, back to my first question.Do you like your new job?”
She nodded.“It’s challenging.I don’t have to deal with sad, angry, miserable people whose lives are in pieces.You know, I didn’t realize until I changed jobshow depressing it is to work in a law office.You see such tragedies.”
“I suppose cattle are a lot different.”
“There’s just so much to learn,” Violet agreed.“It’s so complex.There are so many factors that produce good beef.I thought it was only a matter of putting bulls and heifers in the same pasture and letting nature do its work.”
“It isn’t?”her mother asked, curious.
Violet grinned.“Want to know how it works?”
“Yes, indeed.”
So Violet spent the next half hour walking her mother, hypothetically speaking, through the steps involved in creating designer beef.
“Well!”the elderly woman exclaimed.“It isn’t simple at all.”
“No, it isn’t.The records are so complicated…”
The sudden ringing of the telephone interrupted Violet.She frowned.“It’s probably another telemarketer,” she muttered.“I wish we could afford one of those new answering machines and caller ID.”
“One day a millionaire will walk in the front door carrying a glass slipper and an engagement ring,” Mrs.Hardy ventured with a mischievous glance.
Violet laughed as she got up and went to answer the phone.“Hardy residence,” she said in her light, friendly tone.
“Violet?”
It was Kemp!She had to catch her breath before she could even answer him.“Yes, sir?”she stammered.
