Craving My British Cowboy novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Porch

By ten the next morning there were eleven neighbors in the yard.

Zelma had called them for a fence day.

I was handing out gloves from the porch when a black Suburban turned into the lane.

A second one followed it.

The first stopped at the cattle guard.

A tall man in a charcoal overcoat stepped out onto the dirt.

Everything went quiet.

Sir Ferdinand Pengelly looked up at the farmhouse and the eleven faces turned toward him.

Then his pale eyes found the tall man in the straw hat coming around the barn.

Rex stopped dead.

"Reginald," his father said.

His voice carried across the yard in the thin October air.

It was soft and educated and utterly sure of itself.

"I flew a very long way to see you, my boy."

A woman beside me whispered, "Reginald?"

Behind Sir Ferdinand, the second Suburban opened, and out stepped Lamar Ullrich, and the man from Austin with the Rolex.

I saw Zelma's hand tighten on her cane.

"Jemima." Sir Ferdinand turned his head, and smiled warmly, as though we were meeting in the lift in Mayfair. "You look well. Texas suits you."

"Sir Ferdinand."

"I won't keep you. I wish to say, before witnesses, what I should have said at the start."

He walked to the porch steps.

He stopped at the bottom one, below me, and looked up.

"Your work is exceptional. The partnership is yours, effective today, no vote."

He spread his hands.

"You need only put your name to a short agreement for Hollow Oak."

Eleven neighbors held their breath.

I looked at the folded paper in his hand.

I thought of nine years.

I thought of a Christmas card with a cow on the front.

"Sir Ferdinand," I said.

"Yes, my dear."

"I resign."

He did not blink.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Effective today. No notice."

I said it clearly enough for the back of the yard.

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