Once Upon a Misty Bluegrass Hill (10 page)

"
Really?  Oh my gosh, I would love that
!
"
  She hesitated.
"
Nobody else lives there do they?
You know
… somebody
like Travis.
"

Patrick
cursed. 
"
Forget Travis.  Of course I do not have anyone living there of that
caliber
. 
The house
sits there empty.
I
didn't
have the heart to take the place down and figured that someone who worked for me could live there someday.
"

Jolene felt emotions driving through her in a fast cantor. 
"
Can I grow a garden
..there…I mean when I am not working
?
"

"
Of course
, and maybe you
'
ll want to share some w
ith
me
.
"

"
Yes, yes I will!
"

Michael took Mary Jane's hand.  "They have this wrapped up so let's go home so I can work on the cabinets for the kitchen."

After they left,
Patrick
turned back to Jolene with a warm smile.

"
Then we have a deal do we Jolene?  How about if I pay you a wage
and maybe you can go to school…maybe a private school somewhere for girls, where you can learn lots of things that are not in books as well as your regular studies?
"

Jolene was too excited about her new life to worry about college right now. 
"
What about my
pups
…my dogs?
"

"
Of course they are coming with you.  I
'
ll just drive you home now and we will get them and anything else you want to take
with you
.
"

"
Oh that would be so splendid.  Let
'
s go.
"
  She stopped and looked at him dead in the eye. 
"
But you promise no funny stuff like?  I mean, you won
'
t be
wanting
anything from me will you?
  I mean, at least you smell good…Travis smells awful.
"

He laughed softly
,
his eyes filled with regret
for human beings, especially men and their need to take advantage of the young for their own selfish desires
. 
"
Thank you, I think…
Jolene
.
Little
Red
, I promise you that I won
'
t be
trying to touch you or hurt you.  Does that make ye
r feel better?
"

"
Just so that I work so I earn my keep.  That is what my
mamma and daddy
would say I should always do.
  They would say you never take charity.
"
  She looked at him with
ear
nes
t green eyes.
 
"
I ain
'
t tak
ing
nothing for free.
"

"
You will have to work very hard Jolen
e.  Y
ou know nothing comes free on a big farm, everybody has to work
very
hard.
"

"
I
'
m ready.
"
  She smiled big
showing pretty white teeth
. 
"
And I always work hard.
"

"
Red
…I want
to
ask you something
.
"
 
Patrick
stopped and looked at her with those
amazing
dark blue eyes. 
"
I need you to settle something for me. 
W
hy did you come to see Storm every day?
"

"
Because Storm belonged to me, my parents owned the farm
.
"
  She jotted away a tear
before it could get too far down her face
.
"
I saw all of them die together in the barn.  Dancer
'
s Dream,
all the horses and momma and daddy.
"

Patrick
felt the pain
hit
his gut
like a body blow
. 
"
Oh my God
Little
Red
.
"

Jolene dashed away more tears. 

Didn
'
t one
'
s eyes ever dry up if they cried too much?
 

"
That white house was our h
ome and it was the only thing left after the storm...but
I don
'
t talk about it
.
I never ever want to talk about it.  S
o let us not talk about it anymore.
"

Patrick
shook the cries from his heart
and swallowed the hard lump in his throat
. 
"
Alright
then
Little
Red
, come on home then.
"

Chapter
4

Paris is home to Xalapa and Claiborne Farms, prominent thoroughbred race horse breeding operations. Triple Crown winner Secretariat retired to Claiborne Farm and is buried there, as is Buckpasser.

Although the Mary Todd Lincoln House is located in nearby Lexington, Mary Todd was born in Paris and remained there until age 14. The Todd family moved to the more widely known Lexington house in 1832. In 1842, Mary became the wife of future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and upon his inauguration in 1861 she became the seventeenth First Lady of the United States.

Jolene refused to look at
Patrick
as they
drove up to Aunt Paula
'
s battered, unkempt house in the early evening. 

Equally battered and rusted c
ars were already pulling up for the party that was
gearing up.  Finnegan and Oliver watched the activities with their typical suspicion from under their favorite big oak tree.  The latest rap tunes were already blaring from inside the house,
filtering out through the
torn
screened door and windows.

Patrick
had taken her to
eat frie
d chicken and they talked about what he would expect her to do at the farm
with the
horses.
  They picked up Bernie.  Bernie had brought his
M-16
and a
.45
in a body holster
"
in case there was trouble.
"

She was riding on magic wings before she saw the horrible house
again
.

Shame was not an even good enough word to illustrate how she felt in that moment. 

And there was the odor of course
that drifted out into the afternoon air
. 

Could she just die right now?

She would settle for hiding under the plush fresh carpet in
Patrick
'
s
brand new
red Ford 250.
  It had the name of his farm painted on the side
and his coat of arms.  Jolene knew what
a coat of arms was
from her
teen
romance books about the
medieval
times.
 

McCabe Horse Farm
.
 

In utter humiliation s
he sat there on the
dove
grey
leather seats that still smelled brand new looking out his pristine windshield at a
ll the trash
that
was on the porch in bags with holes. 

She knew she had the red patches all over her skin.  She could feel the prickly heat that came with them.  She got them when she was embarrassed…or had done something bad.

Mortified
.

She had read that word
in a book
and looked it up in the dictionary….but it
was
still
not a good enough word to describe how she felt in that moment. 

What must
Patrick
think of her to live here? 
He didn
'
t just smell really good…w
hy his fingernails were even clean.
  She h
ad tried to hide her own bitten-down
nails.  She couldn
'
t help it.  When she was nervous she bit her nails and twisted her hair.

But his hands…so clean and nice
...
gripping the steering wheel
mad her heart tickle
.

It was beyond embarrassing
that he, the enemy who stole her farm
,
should see how she low she had become after what he had done
.

Her eye caught the rusted 1973 Chevy on cinder blocks
. 

Had it ever had wheels or was it always just sitting there with rusted pegs that should have held tires?

Then
the
re was the
burn pit containing not just other inappropriate items to burn, but was topped with a
stained
, worn and
faded carpet from when boyfriend Luke had a go
o
n linoleum and failed…unfortunately no one could figure out how to put the torn old carpet back…

Could she just die right now?

"
Get out and get your stuff
and the dogs
,
"
he said quietly.  She didn
'
t turn to him.
She simply could not look at him
.  W
ould he change his mind about letting her stay with him because of seeing all of this? 
She just pulled the door handle and slid out.
"
Hurry yourself now
.
I don
'
t think you
'
ll be
needing
much here.
"

"Maybe we better go with her."  Bernie offered from the back seat.

"Not with you and
your
gun
s
and a house full of drunk men."

"Unless it becomes necessary."  Bernie said quietly, eyeing the scene outside the truck as if it was a
potential battlefield.

Jolene knew it was
in fact
a battlefield, but not like the ones that Bernie saw in Iraq.

As soon as she stepped out Finnegan and Oliver bounded over with pumping tails and short barks to welcome her and nip her like a
lamb
that had gone missing. 

Patrick
and Bernie
got out and went around to pet them. 
"
Hum, and who might these handsome devils be?
"

Fi
nn and Oliver immediately knew
friend
s
when they saw
them
and turned their wet-nosed nudges
to
Patrick and Bernie
to
battle for pets
from
these new people
. 
"
That is Finnegan and Oliver.
"

Patrick
stood and held the door open. 
"
Up, up
then, we
'
ve a new home for ye
r
.
"
 

With
a shocking lack of concern of
Patrick
'
s inten
t
ions and w
ithout question
,
the
pups
jumped right in
to the truck
and immediately made themselves comfortable.  Finnegan rubbed his head along the leather seat as if he understood completely about luxury and felt that he finally had his due.