She nodded. 'Yes ... I know. But you love your brother, and his wife's family hate me, and I ... I hate them too.'
'If you hate them, you're going about it as if you tried to please them. They think they've beaten your grandfather and beaten you because you live like a hermit. What you should do is come out, let people see you, go to places.'
'You may be right.'
'Dru, what's happening to you? What are you going to do with yourself? I came here today to pay you money, but I'm glad I came and for another reason.
'Don Luis is gone, and he was a good man, but he would want you to be happy. You are a beautiful girl, Dru, and you have friends. Your very presence around Santa Fe would worry Laura and Jonathan Pritts more than anything we could think of.
Besides, I want to take you dancing. I want to marry you, Dru.'
Her eyes were soft. 'Tye, I've always wanted to marry you. A long time ago I would have done it had you asked me, that first time you visisted us in Santa Fe ...'
'I didn't have anything. I was nobody. Just another drifter with a horse and a gun.'
'You were you, Tye.'
'Sometimes there were things I wanted to say so bad I'd almost choke. Only I never could find the words.'
So we sat down and we had coffee again like we used to and I told her about Laura and Ma, which made Dru angry.
'There's trouble shaping, Dru. I can't read the sign clear enough to say where it will happen, but Pritts is getting ready for a showdown.
'There's a lot could happen, but when it happens, I want you with me.'
We talked the sun down, and it wasn't until I got up to go that I remembered the money. She pushed it away. 'No, Tyrel, you keep if for me. Invest it for me if you want to. Grandfather left me quite a bit, and I don't know what to do with it now.'
That made sense, and I didn't argue with her. Then she told me something that should have tipped me off as to what was coming.
'I have an uncle, Tye, and he is an attorney. He is going to bring an action to clear the titles to all the land in our Grant. When they are clear,' she added, 'I am going to see the United States Marshal moves any squatters off the land.'
Well ... what could I say? Certainly it was what needed to be done and what had to be done sooner or later, but there was nothing I could think of that was apt to start more trouble than that.
Jonathan Pritts had settled a lot of his crowd on land belonging to the Alvarado Grant. Then he had bought their claims from them, and he was now laying claim to more than a hundred thousand acres. Probably Pritts figured when the don died that he had no more worries ... anyway, he was in it up to his ears and if the title of the Alvarado Grant proved itself, he had no more claim than nothing. I mean, he was broke.
Not that I felt sorry for him. He hadn't worried about what happened to the don or his granddaughter, all he thought of was what he wanted. Only if there was anything that was figured to blow the lid off this country it was such a suit.
'If I were you,' I advised her, 'I'd go to Mexico and I'd stay there until this is settled.'
'This is my home,' Dru said quietly.
'Dru, you don't seem to realize. This is a shooting matter. They'll kill you ... or they'll try.'
'They may try,' she said quietly. 'I shall not leave.'
When I left the house I was worried about Dru. If I had not been so concerned with her situation I might have given some thought to myself.
They would think I had put her up to it. From the day that action was announced I would be the Number-One target in the shooting gallery.
When I was expecting everything to happen, nothing happened. There were a few scattered killings further north. One was a Settlement man who had broken with Jonathan Pritts and the Settlement Company ... it was out of my bailiwick and the killing went unsolved, but it had an ugly look to it.
Jonathan Pritts remained in Santa Fe, Laura was receiving important guests at her parties and fandangos most every night. Pritts was generally agreed to have a good deal of political power. Me, I was a skeptic ... because folks associate in a social way doesn't mean they are political friends, and most everybody likes a get- together.
One Saturday afternoon Orrin pulled up alongside me in a buckboard. He looked up at me and grinned as I sat Sate's saddle.
'Looks to me like you'd sell that horse, Tyrel,' he said. 'He was always a mean one.'
'I like him,' I said. 'He's contrary as all get-out, and he's got a streak of meanness in him, but I like him.'
'How's Ma?'
'She's doing fine.' It was a hot day and the sweat trickled down my face. The long street was busy. Fetterson was down there with the one they called Paisano, because he gave a man a feeling that he was some kin to a chaparral cock or road runner. Folks down New Mexico way called them paisanos.
Only I had a feeling about Paisano. I didn't care for him much.
'Ma misses you, Orrin. You should drive out to see her.'
'I know ... I know. Damn it, Tyrel, why can't womenfolks get along?'
'Ma hasn't had any trouble with anybody. She's all right, Orrin, the same as always. Only she still smokes a pipe.'
He mopped his face, looking mighty harried and miserable. 'Laura's not used to that.' He scowled. 'She raises hell every time I go out to the place.'
'Womenfolks,' I said, 'sometimes need some handling. You let them keep the bit in their teeth and they'll make you miserable and themselves too. You pet 'em a little and keep a firm hand on the bridle and you'll have no trouble.'
He stared down the sun-bright street, squinting his eyes a little. 'It sounds very easy, Tyrel. Only there's so many things tied in with it. When we become a state I want to run for the Senate, and it may be only a few years now.'
'How do you and Pritts get along?'
Orrin gathered the reins. He didn't need to tell me. Orrin was an easygoing man, but he wasn't a man you could push around or take advantage of. Except maybe by that woman.
'We don't.' He looked up at me. 'That's between us, Tyrel. I wouldn't even tell Ma. Jonathan and I don't get along, and Laura .. . well, she can be difficult.'
'You were quite a bronc rider, Orrin.'
'What's that mean?'
'Why,' I pushed my hat back on my head, 'I'd say it meant your feet aren't tied to the stirrups, Orrin. I'd say there isn't a thing to keep you in the saddle but your mind to stay there, and nobody's going to give you a medal for staying in the saddle when you can't make a decent ride of it.
'Take Sate here,' I rubbed Sate's neck and that bronc laid back his ears, 'you take Sate. He's a mean horse. He's tough and he's game and he'll go until the sun comes up, but Orrin, if I could only have one horse, I'd never have this one. I'd have Dapple or that Montana horse.
'It's fun to ride a mean one when you don't have to do it every day, but if I stay with Sate long enough he'll turn on me. And there's some women like that.'
Orrin gathered the reins. 'Too hot ... I'll see you later, Tyrel.'
He drove off and I watched him go. He was a fine, upstanding man but when he married that Laura girl he bought himself a packet of grief.
Glancing down the street I saw Fetterson hand something to Paisano. It caught the sunlight an instant, then disappeared in Paisano's pocket. But the glimpse was enough. Paisano had gotten himself a fistful of gold coins from Fetterson, which was an interesting thought.
Sometimes a man knows something is about to happen. He can't put a finger on a reason, but he gets an itch
