Page 6 of Make Her Mine
“Nope.” She grinned. “So, you can’t fire me. I do live here though. So, I guess you could evict me. I’m going to college. I’m specializing in cattle and horses. Hopefully, I’ll be able to charge you for my services. Much the same way your grandfather did. But that’s our little secret, ’kay?”
Dyllan started coughing, Clayton’s jaw dropped, and I asked, “Do you mean that you and he,” I pointed to the room, “in this room, here?”
She nodded. “Yep. And I’m still available if any of you have that particular calling. Your grandfather paid for my college education. But I could use a new car.”
Our grandfather had been one hell of an old man! “I’m afraid none of us are into that sort of thing, ma’am. Sorry.”
Unexpectedly, she burst into gales of laughter so hard that tears filled her eyes and dripped down her cheeks. “You guys are too easy to fool. Really? Would youreallythink I’d do something like that? Oh, hell. That was fun.”
“So, you didn’t go at it with our gramps?” Dyllan asked.
“No,” she assured us. “Not in a zillion years. Not even if he’d left this place to me. But he did provide work for someone for this room. She left when he got sick last year. Hilda was his mistress for about twenty years. He took her on after your grandmother died, is what my mother told me.”
“But he never married her?” Clayton asked.
Shaking her head, she looked into the room. “Nope, just some sadomasochism when he felt like it. He did pay her well for it. She got a very nice home and quite a bit of funding for her trouble. He wouldn’t have married her anyway. He never took her out in public. She wasn’t in his class.”
“Like our mother,” I said looking at the floor, wondering what it must’ve been like back then. “To think that Mom was looked down upon makes me kind of hate this man we never met.”
Darleen smiled and lightly punched me in the arm. “Look at it this way, no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t succeed. Your parents got to keep their love, and you guys get to keep everything your grandfather ever made.”
“Yeah.” I supposed there was some justice in that. “But our parents can’t ever reap the benefits.”
With a grin, she said, “Betchya a billion bucks, they don’t want a thing that man had.”
Dyllan nodded. “That’s what Mom told me before we left Dallas. She said take it, enjoy it, and make the most out of it. She wanted nothing to do with Whisper Ranch nor anything our grandfather had ever touched.”
“Can’t say I blame her.” Darleen walked to the next door, and we followed her. “Let me show you Hilda’s bedroom.”
Pushing open the door, they saw a stark room containing only a twin bed with nothing on it. There was not a single thing else, not even a curtain covering the one window. I looked at the pitiful space and felt sick at my stomach. “Why’d he want to keep her like this?”
Darleen slowly shook her head. “He made everyone around him wretched. It was like he got off on it.” Her eyes met mine. “I don’t mean to talk badly about him, but he was an ass, you guys. The name of Gentry isn’t one many people care for around here. Hopefully, you guys can change that.”
“You and your sister are like night and day,” I said closing the door. “How’s that?”
Her narrow shoulders shrugged. “Mom had her when she was in her thirties. Maybe she was made out of a rotten egg.”
While my brothers laughed, I frowned. “Or maybe she was a casualty of a mean older sister?”
“Nah, that can’t be it,” Darleen said with a grin. “I’man angel.”
She probably wasn’t quite the angel. “I’m sure your sister can be an angel when she wants to.”
“I’m sure you’re wrong.” Darleen laughed, then turned to leave us. “I’ll let you guys check out the rest of the quarters on your own. I just heard your voices down the hall and wanted to introduce myself. I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.”
“Me, too,” I said, then added, “Even with Ella.”
Her laughter echoed all the way down the long foyer as she left us. Then Clayton’s shoulder hit mine. “Methinks you’re thinking about that petite maid too much, big brother.”
“No, I’m not.” I walked to the next door. “Hey look, it’s a massive shower.”
Dyllan wrinkled his nose as we all walked inside. “Perhaps we should board up this entire area.”
“The other two rooms, I agree with, but why this?” I asked as I held my arms out in gesture to the biggest shower I’d ever seen.
“Grandfather apparently was in here after they… you know.” Dyllan made a gagging face. “Yuck.”
I had to agree. “Yeah, yuck.”
