Page 18 of Make Her Mine
I smiled under the scarf. “It helps. Thanks.”
Stopping in front of the barn doors, we jumped off and headed inside. I pulled the scarf off my nose as Brandon looked at the many stalls. “Are these all full?”
“No. We’ve got some empty ones.” I walked over to the first one and pointed to the gold plaque on the wooden door. “This is Arnold’s Burden. Dad said he’s named after your father.”
“Why did my grandfather name him that?” Brandon reached in to run his hand over the black stallion’s nose. “Hey there, boy. How’re you doing?”
“No one knows the reasons behind anything that man did.” I walked to the next stall where Fiona’s Secret stood, waiting for some attention. “He didn’t believe in the need to explain things or respond to anyone.”
Brandon turned to face me. “Did you know about my grandfather’s mistress?”
“Hilda?” Everyone who worked here knew about her. “I felt sorry for her. It was like she felt guilty or something. Like she deserved to be treated like that.”
“Why was that?” he asked then his eyes went wide. “Ella, do you know Hilda’s last name?”
“Stevens, why?” I asked him.
“That’s why!” He leaned back on one of the stalls. “She’s my mother’s aunt. She used to live in Shreveport.”
“Yeah, she did.” I never did understaand everything about that woman. “Mom told us she just showed up one day. It was before Fiona died. Your grandmother was beyond pissed and told her to get out of the house and to never set foot on the property again. Fiona yelled that she’d set her up in a nice house in Shreveport if Hilda had promised she’d never come back to Carthage.”
“So, my grandmother made my mother’s aunt leave town.” Brandon looked puzzled. “My mother was taken to her aunt’s. My grandfather had paid off her family to run her out of town. It’s making more sense, but not entirely. When did Hilda start coming back around?”
“Mom said it wasn’t long after Fiona passed away.” That was odd, too. “Your grandfather brought Hilda here. He kept her at the mansion for a while, then took her back to the house he bought her in town when he got tired of having her here. Not that she got to do anything other than stay in her rooms when she was here.”
“This is all so confusing.” Brandon looked at me. “Could you could take me to meet Hilda?”
“Why?” Apart from being his great aunt, why would he need to meet her?
“I’ve got questions.” He bit his lower lip. “Lots of questions, Ella.”
Chapter Nine
Brandon
Climbing into one of the estate’s trucks, Ella and I set out to meet Hilda. I hadn’t been so excited about anything in a long time. Part of it was getting some information on my family. The other part was spending time with Ella. And she wasn’t being snippy with me, either. She was actually being nice for a change.
“So, who’d you meet at the bar, Brandon?” she asked as we made our way into town.
I turned off the county road to head to the main street. “It would be a lie to say I remember anyone’s name. I don’t know why I drank so much.” I did know why; I was trying to get Ella off my mind! And I did for a while. But then I came home and dreamt about her.
“That’s not a very nice place to hang out,” she said, then pointed up ahead. “Take a left there.”
“It’s a little rough, I’ll give ya that.” I looked over at her, liking the way she had her dark hair up in a loose bun. She looked adorable. “I can see why you think that way. It’s certainly not a place for you.”
She looked at me with narrowed eyes. “You think I’m some little girl, sure, you’ve told me. That’s not why I don’t like that bar. It’s because only trampy women go there.”
“Darleen said she’d gone there more than a handful of times.” It’s a valid point that not all the women who went to The Watering Hole were tramps.
“Do you know my sister’s reputation, Brandon?” Ella shook her head. “It’s not good. Last year alone, she had three different boyfriends!”
“She’s single now,” I said.
“How do you know?” Ella’s sapphire eyes had a fire in them.
She seemed to be jealous? Even though I shouldn’t have been trying to make her that way, my mouth kept on chatting, “She told me.”
Ella crossed her arms over her chest. All it did was accentuate her cleavage that peeked out from underneath her pink sweater. “Why’d she do that?”
