This had been her and Jim’s special place and she vowed she’d clean it out and keep it like a shrine to the love they’d once shared. When she moved into the single bedroom, she thought her heart would break afresh because the bed was still there, even though it was covered in dust and cobwebs.
Jim had wanted to make it special for her and had even relined and re-varnished the old chest of drawers and an old timber dresser that had been there since old Seamus had put them there. Her quilt was still there too. It was like Jim had left everything and never been back. She could understand why he would feel like that. Standing in the room where they had finally become lovers left Maddie feeling raw.
She stretched out on the dusty bed and let the tears come, grieving for the love she still felt for the man she’d sent away. In her heart, she knew she had to try to bring him back. She would somehow have to find out if he still loved her the way she still loved him. There was no way she was going to allow herself to feel like this for the rest of her life and that included letting the bank take away the Dupont Ranch.
She knew how to make it viable again and she would ask Jim to help her. First though, she would need to ride out to the north-west boundary of the Circle O to seek out Jim, without Andrew knowing. Andrew wanted to buy the Dupont ranch and absorb it into the Circle O to make it even bigger. She would die before that happened.
The man was a cattle baron and didn’t care for small holders. It was only a matter of time before Andrew made her grandfather an offer and because he thought cows were the only animals worth raising, he’d suffer no qualms about selling it to Andrew.
Jim’s father might understand her point of view though. He’d been kind to her and knew how much Jim had loved her. Once she had it clear in her mind what she had to do, it felt easier somehow. The two problems were separate parts of a bigger problem. Solve the two smaller ones and the big one would disappear, or so she hoped.
She wanted the Dupont ranch and she wanted Jim O’Connor back, although not necessarily in that order. She got up and decided to clean up the old cabin. Even though it wasn’t hers, it had been special to her and Jim. She decided to call Red and arrange to see him in town in the next day or two. Then, she’d ride out and see Jim this afternoon.
Chapter Three
Andrew had a dream to make the Circle O bigger and better than it had ever been. He didn’t own the ranch and even though he was supposed to be managing it jointly with his brothers, in reality, it had never worked out that way. He felt he was a natural leader and to him, doing the best job of managing the ranch was the one and only way he could do his best for his father.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the people skills necessary to be a good boss. There was more to it than increasing profits and increasing the size of the ranch. It still rankled with him that Jim had had the gall to suggest buying a piece of the Circle O for himself a couple of years ago. In Andrew’s mind, it harked back to the ancient Irish tradition, where small holdings were divided up into ever smaller pieces as the sons took their own piece of land to support their new families
Andrew wasn’t having any of it. This Irish family would not be going the way of so many in Ireland, who had either starved or had been forced to emigrate in the nineteenth century. No. The Circle O would be staying in one piece and under his guidance, it would continue to grow from strength to strength.
Andrew loved his father and hoped he’d never have to have a conversation like the one he’d had a couple of years back about keeping the ranch as one holding. He also didn’t understand why Jim had spent the last two years moping about. Bad stuff happened. A man had to brush himself off and get over it, not spend the rest of his life as a hermit riding