Chapter 2

It was almost four months later when Jacob saw a buckboard come rattling up the dirt lane that led to the house. Even from a distance, he recognized Marnie's red hair.

"Damn it," he said. He could have used a little notice. Nothing he could do about it now.

He turned to the men working in the field and told them to carry on and he headed up to meet the homeowner. About halfway there, Jacob noticed a second person on the buckboard.

Still, he rode to the main house and stood on the porch as the horses approached. He noticed Marnie looking around urgently. The downtrodden farm she left was now bustling with activity. She saw several horses and cows in the pasture and several men spread out working across two fields.

Her mouth dropped when she came to a stop. Jacob noticed a girl sitting beside Marnie. The girl had a sullen look. Jacob guessed that Marnie's sister-in-law had died.

Marnie alighted from the carriage with a bound but the girl crawled off slowly.

"Jacob," Marnie said while looking around. Still, she sounded pleased to see him.

"Mrs. Lambert," he answered.

"There seems to be some changes here," she answered.

"There have been," he replied. "Do you plan to introduce me to your visitor?"

Marnie seemed aware of the girl at her elbow.

"This is my niece, Susan," she answered.

"Miss Susan, it's my pleasure," Jacob said. "I'm Jacob Dunleavy, Mrs. Lambert's ranch hand."

Susan did not appear pleased to meet Jacob.

"Jacob, since it appears that we have plenty of hands, would you ask some to help bring Susan's things inside?" she asked.

Jacob nodded.

"Then we'll discuss what has transpired here," she added.

Jacob nodded again.

Once the hands had been given instructions, Marnie pulled Jacob out to the back porch.

"How am I affording this?" she asked quickly. "I do still own this place, don't I?"

Jacob nodded.

"Free and clear, Ma'am," he said.

Marnie sat down hard on a chair.

"Will you please call me Marnie?" she asked. "I thought we had resolved that."

Jacob stifled a smile.

"Yes, Ma'am," he said. He dreaded what would come next.

"Marnie, I guess you want to know how you can afford ranch hands and two planting fields," he said.

"You might say that," she answered. She appeared to be half-dazed, half-angry.

"Well, a week or so after you left, I was digging a post hole for the fence on the north edge," he said.

Marnie seemed to be getting angrier.

"Mrs. Lambert, this is going to take a while to explain," Jacob said. "If you want to yell at me, then go ahead and get it over with. But if you hold it in, you'll explode and maybe miss the story."

Marnie's mouth twitched and then she smiled.

"I wasn't planning to yell," she said.

"Liar," he said.

"No, really," she said. "I'm surprised. But I'm happy. I was trying to keep myself from hugging you. Luckily that feeling has past."

Jacob chuckled softly.

"So, continue your story," she said. "You were digging holes. And..."

Jacob shook his head and continued his tale.

"Well, I was digging and I hit something hard," he said. "I dug it up and found it was a bag — full of nuggets."

Marnie couldn't help herself.

"No shit?" she asked.

"No, not shit," Jacob joked. "It was gold. I used some of it to get the crops in. Then I took the rest of it over to Pueblo to get it assayed."

Marnie was enthralled.

"It came to over $8,000," Jacob said quietly.

"Eight-thousand dollars?" Marnie exclaimed.

"Yeah," Jacob said.

"That explains a lot," she said.

"But that's not all of it," Jacob said. There was a sadness in his voice. He had practiced it from time to time.

"I," he faltered. "Marnie, there is no easy way to say it. I stole some of the money. I took $100 while I was in Pueblo."

Marnie laughed out loud.

"Well, that's a salary of $2 a week," she said. "I think you earned it."

Jacob shook his head.

"Part of it is taking it," Jacob said. "I figured you would forgive that. It's what I did with it."

Marnie's eyes went from laughing to angry. She knew what happened in New Mexico Territory.

"I gambled it, Marnie," Jacob confessed. "I've always been a risk-taker. I took the $100 and I went to the poker table. When I left 12 hours later, I had $5,000. I was hooked again. I went again the next night and the next. By the time I was done, I had almost $30,000."

Marnie gasped. Even though her husband's gambling had almost cost her everything, she was realistic enough to know that her aversion to gambling was mostly to the losing part.

"So you came back from there with $38,000," she said.

"Not quite," Jacob said. "The last night I was there, I won a huge pot at the end of the night. The man, well, he bet more than he could afford. You know how that goes. He lost his ranch, Marnie."

Marnie's face was a mask. Jacob could not tell whether she was angry, happy or relieved.

"I rode out," Jacob said. "I was firmly planning to take control of it. But the man, he had a wife and a couple of kids. I let him off with six heifers and a stud bull. I picked three pregnant cows. So you really got 9 cows."

"You got 9 cows," Marnie corrected.

"It was your money I was using," Jacob stated. "I never asked for salary and you never offered one. We said we would discuss it once things were settled. We didn't discuss it so the money is yours."

The tone of Jacob's voice let it be known that he would brook no opposition.

"I brought the $38,000 back," he said. "Along with the animals. I traded a couple of newborn calves for horses. I paid off the debts but I replaced it from sale of last year's crops. You've made a sizable profit in the past few months. All of it — every cent — is in a safe in the house."

"A safe," Marnie prodded.

"I had one put into the bedroom beside yours," Jacob said. "I hid it in an alcove near the back wall."

"I know how you feel about gambling," Jacob said. "Once you get settled and pick someone to replace me, I'll be moving along. I know you'll not trust me again."

Marnie held Jacob's gaze.

"You took $100 from money that you found," she said. "You used that $100 to play poker. You won a lot more money which you used to bail me out of my husband's debts. You have made this place into a profit farm. It was never profitable. We mostly eked out a living but we never had money. Now there is $38,000 in a safe in the house."

"About $45,000," Jacob interrupted. "I've been studding out the bull and the stallion. And you own the McMahon homestead off the south edge."

"I do?" Marnie asked incredulously.

"Her husband died over the winter," Jacob said. "She wanted to go back East. She only wanted enough money to get her back there and to have a little nest egg. I've rented it out to another family. You get 10 percent of their crops."

Marnie shook her head.

"My point remains the same," she said. "You believe that I won't trust you again. And I confess that I'm disappointed that you chose to gamble. But you only took a hundred dollars. You could have taken it all. In fact, you could have taken it all and left me high and dry. I could have come back to squatters sitting in the only place I have to go. Instead, you brought the money back here. You have given us a stake in something worthwhile and we have more money than what you brought back."

Marnie stopped suddenly. She had been doing math in her head and things didn't add up.

"Jacob, why are you lying to me?" she asked quietly.

Jacob glanced up sharply. He had never expected Marnie not to take his story at face value.

Jacob glanced over the woods in the back.

"Well, parts of it are true," he said. "I did find the gold and I did turn $100 into everything I told you about. But I didn't take money from you. I used my own."

"And how much more do you have?" she asked.

"Some," Jacob answered. "Not as much as you," he added with a smile.

"Did you rob a stagecoach?" she asked.

"No."

"Did you steal it from a bank?"

"No."

"Did you kill a man for it?"

Jacob was silent.

"You killed a man for money?"

Jacob shook his head.

"I killed a lot of men for money," he answered silently. "I killed a hell of lot of men for a hell of a lot of money."

Jacob busied himself around the ranch for the next few hours while Marnie and Susan rested from their return trip.

He hadn't quite figured out why Susan was here and how long she would be staying. It didn't matter to Jacob. He had done what he set out to do.

Marnie Lambert's life was back on an even keel. She had her farm back and she should never want for anything again.