Chapter 6

I had trouble falling asleep after I crawled into bed. I hadn’t gone into Amelia’s room, just saying good night at the door, knowing what kind of night I had before me. I was slightly hurt about Molly, but I had never felt like this. Yes, and I had caused a few women to be hurt by leaving them when they were transferred to a different posting.

I attempted to reason about Molly. Molly was an equestrian that was for sure. She pointed out different horses we had seen on the other ranches as we drove by or rode our saddle horses. Usually, she was familiar with one horse and a horse that had a winning history. Even dining in Maggie’s, some woman or man would rush up to the table and want to know the pedigree of some horse. Molly would know what stud sired it and the dam that birthed it. She was a walking registry of an untold number of winners and losers in the area, spanning three generations of a particular horse.

I considered Molly and my situation if we were to marry and have children. I doubted kids would turn Molly away from her love of horses. There wouldn’t be time for her to do justice to both. What was in it for me if I ignored it and won her heart? I enjoy riding horses and watching them graze in a pasture.

I was well on my way to making Grandfather happy. He dotes on Molly, and putting the ranch back in order was well on the way to accomplishing that for both. No way was I going to walk away before I had finished what I had come south for.

I’m sure Molly had a plan to make horses on this ranch a profitable business that she hadn’t shared with me. I burst out laughing, thinking about how I would fit into a company like that. I couldn’t imagine getting excited over some stud horse, covering some particular mare, and producing a wonder horse that would win all kinds of races. Let’s see, eleven months before the colt or filly was dropped after breeding, two years of training before it was old enough to enter its first race, more likely three years and not two.

It took another hour before I settled down to sleep. During this hour, I turned to the layout of what I wanted my future to be. Molly, who held a 20 percent ownership stake in the Ranch, was present. I determined she did deserve that much for her care and companionship of the Colonel all these years. I would consider the business concerning horses; everything I had in mind for replacement would be included in Molly’s portion of the property.

The Colonel had willed our shares to us as undivided. I would speak with Macain and Macain, Grandpa’s law firm, about dividing it into two parts. I could then claim the parts identified and permanent to each of us. Molly had received a portion of the property because she was someone he could love when his own family left him to his own resources. Molly should agree to this. She would receive property with the upgrade, which would be several times the value of the ranch on was arriving.

Hell, the cost of the new posts for fencing was double the ranch’s value when she and I took possession. The barn with the twelve horse pens, the pasture, and the small racetrack, rejuvenated, would double her share again one more time. She should have a business that was her dream, owning a horse ranch and ready to operate.

For my 80 percent share, I would rebuild the house and receive all the land across the driveway from the pastures. I would have my own home forever. Okay, what I was planning might cost me upward of two million. It would be worth it. Grandfather had paid well for my upbringing and education. Yes, he had sent the alimony to Mother when she didn’t have anything, and my father skipped out and disappeared.

I turned over in my bed and reviewed my thoughts again. I smiled, feeling satisfied, and went to sleep.

In the morning, the Colonel, Amelia, and I boarded the bus and arranged it. There wasn’t much to do except for Amelia’s three small pieces of furniture. Molly was not with us and was busy ordering posts and rails for the racetrack and around the 60-acre pasture. Rather than attempt to drive the posts and attach the rails ourselves, I hired a fencing company to install them. They had a surveying instrument to ensure each post was vertical and aligned with the row. These posts and rails were already white or stained white. The Colonel watched every post going into the ground. He was shaking his head, unable to believe this was happening.

He asked me repeatedly, “Are you sure you can afford this?”

“Absolutely, I’ll start building the house as soon as we install the fence. I’ve already spoken with a firm. I’ve seen pictures of what the house looked like before it burned. I’m making some changes to the front. I’ve noticed in the South that many large houses have columns to support a balcony and a roof overhang. I’m going to have them hold up the roof. Anyway, I’m asking you to pass on the final design.”

“Will I be living with you?”

“Of course, that’s the main reason I’m building it. I haven’t decided on two or three floors. It won’t matter getting to the top floor because I’ll have an elevator installed. With my foot, I won’t want to be climbing stairs. The size of the floor plan is to see if Maggie would like to have a restaurant on the first floor. If so, that will occupy at least half of the first-floor area.

“I’m including Maggie in my plans because she will correspond with Mom from the beginning. “Mom and Bill, her husband, will visit shortly and meet you and the rest of us again. You have paid what my father should have paid, and must be thanked.”

“Jim, build what you want if you can afford it.”

“I can. Consider walking out of your room and onto the balcony with a coffee in hand in the morning and seeing horses feeding in the pasture. I believe you will be able to see all sixty acres at one time. There may be horses exercising on the track around the pasture as well. I’ll be beside you, and that’s what I want to see. Maybe I’ll have some seating beside the track at the back of the barn. Take an extra minute and think about it if you would?”

“Okay, Jim, you have me sold on it. On a different subject, what do you have plans for Molly for her future?”

“Has Molly said anything about me, and do we have any future together?”

“Just a little; Molly thinks that you have rushed to put the ranch back together so you can sell it. I told her I didn’t think you would do that to me. Is she right or not?”

“No, she isn’t right. I plan to sign the horse business over to her. You made a living for many years until the house burned. I have little interest in the horse business. The only plan at first was to make you happy for giving me a good education and providing Mom with enough to live on until she remarried after my father abandoned us. If I include all the business’ you intended for Molly to have in her 20 percent; she will have a good chance of making a living from them. I don’t need to repay any money I have spent on the restoration.”

“Jim, you must want more than that?”

“I did at first, maybe, but I don’t know anything about the ins and outs of getting that much involved in the intricacies of running the business, especially horses. I’m almost finished with that part of what I came here for. I thought Molly would fall right into my arms, but I repeat, this isn’t a debt, and I’m too late to get involved in something I know nothing about.

“I am looking for a woman; finding one shouldn’t be hard. Rebuilding the house is the next step. I want a beautiful home, and I can have it within the next two years. I’ll concentrate on that for the present. I’m sure that I will meet someone that I can become interested in. Maybe I’ll start writing about my time in the Service. It should be interesting to many soldiers, especially since I was in command at various postings. As they say, we’ll see.”

“What is this home you are building going to look like?”

“I’m going to use the present foundation. I’ll have it look like an old-time plantation manor with columns, etc. There will be a second floor for rooms and a covered balcony. I may add a restaurant with a bar. I’ll see Maggie about that and maybe get her involved. Perhaps she would want to give up the restaurant in town where she serves all three meals and concentrate on serving dinner here in the evening.

“According to the architect I’m talking to, there is room for a lounge with a small dance floor. There would be a bar in that. Between the bar and the meals, she should do very well.

“Jim, you must have a pile of money even to consider this?”