Craving My British Cowboy novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Founders' Barn

At eight o'clock sharp I sat at Orville's kitchen table with my laptop propped on the lease folder and mud still in my hair.

Sir Ferdinand Pengelly filled the screen.

He was sixty-six, silver, and tall even sitting down, in a charcoal suit that cost more than my car.

"Jemima," he said. "My dear girl. My deepest sympathies."

"Thank you, Sir Ferdinand."

"You will have heard that the partnership vote has moved to the first of December."

My heart did a small, shameful skip.

"I had not."

"It will be a close thing. The board admires you." His eyes were pale and kind. "It would give me great personal pleasure if you came to that table with the Texas matter closed."

"Closed?"

"Sold. Cleanly, and soon."

"I've had one offer already," I said. "It was a poor one."

"From whom?"

"A neighbor. Lamar Ullrich."

Something crossed his face and was gone.

"Well," Sir Ferdinand said smoothly. "Neighbors. And is the property vacant?"

"There's a tenant. A grazing lease, ten years, signed by my great-uncle in August."

"A tenant." He did not blink. "His name?"

"Mr. Carew."

Sir Ferdinand turned a pen over on his desk, very slowly, once.

"Carew," he said. "How charming. Do keep me informed, Jemima. Everything."

The screen went dark.

I sat looking at my own face in it.

Then Rex came in from the barn smelling of horse and asked if I wanted eggs, and I forgot the call entirely.

Saturday night was the Cedar Gap Founders' Barn Dance.

"You have to go," Zelma had said, appearing on the porch at five in a sequined denim jacket. "Everybody in the county will be there, Lamar included. Show your face or they'll talk."

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