Harnessed Passions (67 page)

There were three other ranches in the area
also breeding thoroughbreds, so it wasn't likely she would see all
of the buyers who had come to Kentucky with the intent to purchase,
whether for breeding purposes or racing intentions. Those she did
know however, she was certain she would see this weekend. Turner
Stables had the finest reputation for quality horseflesh than any
other breeder in this part of the country. A reputation her father
had prided himself on and made certain everyone within two hundred
miles knew of his horses. A reputation Daniel was quickly becoming
known for himself.

Julia stopped her small carriage in front of
Margie's house and climbed down from the seat as her red-headed
friend opened the door waving with enthusiasm at the woman.

"I thought you'd never get here. I was
expecting you hours ago," Margie complained as she hugged
Julia.

"I thought you said I was to see Dr. Stewart
at one thirty? It's only half past one now," Julia was quick to
point out.

"But I assumed you'd want to take in a few
shops first. You're going to need new clothes you know. You can't
wear those tight things for long and if I know our good doctor as
well as I think I do, he's going to tell you to let out those
expensive seams."

"I'll worry about all of that later, right
now I just want to get this thing over with and get home. There's
still a lot of work to do before the buyers start arriving tomorrow
night."

"Good heavens, you're not actually going to
work more today, are you? Why, just look at these hands," Margie
scolded, pulling Julia's hands up to reveal the many callouses
splattered across her palms. "How can Daniel stand to be touched
with all these rough spots?"

"He hasn't complained so far," Julia teased
with a blush, pulling free of the other woman’s grip.

"I'm sure he's just been too preoccupied to
notice. And look at your face, why you're as brown as a dry piece
of leather. If you don't slow down and start paying a little more
attention to your looks, you'll have a face full of wrinkles before
you're twenty-five."

"I'm sure you're exaggerating, but I
promise, starting this Sunday I'll stay completely away from the
stables. I might even indulge in taking naps during the day."

"Well you'd better. Heaven's sake, how you
can keep going at this rate is beyond me." Julia smiled at her
friend's concern and climbed back into the carriage beside her,
pulling the horses back out onto the road that led to Dr. Stewart’s
office. Margie had insisted on going with her in case anyone became
suspicious or curious. They would think it was Margie in for a
checkup rather than Julia.

The small waiting room was
nearly empty with four upholstered chairs and a desk where Millie
Aimsley, the town nurse sat to greet patients. Julia was shown into
a small exam room and sat on the leather covered table to wait the
doctor. She looked around at the many books that lined the shelves
and the metal instruments lying across the top of a nearby counter.
She blushed scarlet when she saw the familiar device Daniel had at
his flat and wondered how many of the town’s socialites visited
here for a
treatment
.

The examination took less
than half an hour, much to Julia's delight; the old man who had
nursed her through measles, colds, broken arms and the more recent
occurrences, confirmed she was indeed pregnant. He told her she was
nearly four months along and promised she would soon be over the
morning sickness. He ordered her to take it easy for a few days,
stating he was concerned with the swelling in her ankles and
calves, yet insisted there was nothing to worry about; it was all
part of the
package deal
. He repeated what Margie had told her; get rid of the tight
clothes and let out the seams on the better fitting
ones.

Reluctantly, and with a great deal of
persuasion from Margie, Julia stopped in at the dressmaker's just
as soon as they left the small stuffy office. She ordered several
new, yet casual and functional dresses, along with two sunbonnets -
at Margie's insistence. She purchased a number of new petticoats,
chemises and knickers all of various sizes to last the next five
months, before hurrying back out to the late afternoon heat. She
felt a sudden rush of adrenaline, feeling for the first time the
real excitement of her condition. Margie insisted she stay and have
something to eat and since she had left her supply of biscuits at
home, Julia eagerly accepted.

It was half past seven o'clock before Julia
began her twenty minute ride back home. Margie persuaded her to
join her on the short ride home since Harold had been called away
on urgent business, leaving the two alone early in their meal. She
left a message for Harold, instructing him to pick her up at the
ranch and bid her children good-night as Miss Sally, the family’s
nanny began the task of preparing them for bed.

The sun was setting in the west as the
carriage clattered down the road toward Browning Estates. The sky
was illuminated with a brilliant sunset of red, orange and pink.
Julia watched the splendor for several minutes, while her friend
sat next to her in silence.

Julia had decided shortly after leaving
Mayfield she would tell Daniel about the baby that night, and
accept whatever restrictions he put on her. The sale would soon be
over and there was no longer a need for her to help prepare for the
steady flow of buyers that would soon arrive. Louise would be there
to help out, so Julia would be able to rest if that was what her
beloved husband insisted on; which Margie insisted he would
certainly do. The idea of telling Daniel her news at last, of the
passion they would share when they privately celebrated their joy
and the love she felt for the father of her unborn child, stayed
with her as the horse plodded along noisily.

Somehow, she thought with a wistful smile,
going home held much more excitement than she had anticipated when
she left that afternoon. Daniel would be waiting for her when she
arrived and she would rush into his arms and tell him her secret.
She would tell him it was her love for him that had given her this
miraculous gift; this new life that sealed them together for
eternity.

Daniel finished his work earlier than he had
predicted, allowing him time to have a bath before Julia returned.
It would be his last chance for the next two days to spend any time
with his wife and he wanted to make certain he was clean and ready
for her when she came home.

Allowing Julia to go without a chaperone
hadn't been easy, yet he found waiting for her to return to be even
more difficult. It took all his strength not to run after her the
very instant she left the ranch. He knew she needed a break, but
being without her in the barn all afternoon seemed strange. Daniel
smiled to himself, removing his dirty sweat soaked clothes and
climbing beneath the hot water. Jeremy had been right; Julia did
know more about running this place than she let on, a fact that
made her seem all the more intriguing.

With quick actions from tired stiff fingers,
Daniel washed his hair and removed the thin layer of filth from his
bronzed muscles before climbing out of the tub. He pulled on a
clean pair of jeans and a freshly pressed cotton shirt then headed
for the door. He would order a small supper to be brought to their
room once Julia was home, so they could spend their last few hours
of rest, in privacy. Daniel spotted the unopened letter Harold had
left for him last week, sitting on the table next to the bed and
picked it up; then found Victor's ledger and carried both
downstairs with him.

He made his orders for the evening known
before retiring to the library to wait for Julia. He filled his
long neglected pipe with tobacco and sat in the large chair next to
the fireplace, stretching his legs out in front of him. He hadn't
felt this relaxed or this at home since he moved in here nearly six
months ago. He used to think the only thing that could make him
feel relaxed were his pipe and books, two acts he used to swear by;
that was until he found out how comfortable life could be in the
arms of his beautiful wife.

Daniel opened the book with a content smile
and began reading through the pages. A few minutes passed by before
he realized he was having to force himself to stay awake. His eyes
drooped and his mind wondered as he continued reading through the
pages. Victor hadn't exactly been an intriguing or attention
grabbing writer, but then he wasn't trying to win any award with
his personal journal, either.

Page after page was turned and Daniel
yawned, swearing the next one would be the last. He tried to
concentrate on the words written and the events described with
little success until he read a familiar name that caused him to
straighten upright in his chair. He turned the page back and reread
the words Victor had written. With a frown Daniel turned the page
and continued reading, his interest peaked and his fatigue
forgotten. He stood and headed to the door, calling for Louise in a
tone that seemed to shake the rafters of the old mansion. Louise
hurried to the library, a frown of concern on her aging face.

"Good heaven's Daniel," she scolded. "Your
yelling could wake the dead."

"When did you say Sharon claimed to have
arrived here?" he demanded, ignoring her comments completely.

"The day of Victor's funeral. Why?"

"According to his journal, she was here
months before that. Victor stated a dark haired woman was seen
after several of the incidents at the stables. According to this,
he finally had his fill of the mystery woman and set a trap for
her. He caught her when she tried to set fire to the stables."

"Victor never said anything to me about
it."

"He goes on to say, he warned her to get out
of town or he'd call in the sheriff. He states he ordered Rally
Overton to tell me about her being here, in case there were any
further problems. The same time she was supposed to leave town,
Julia arrived home from Boston."

"Oh Daniel, you don't think she stayed just
to hurt Julia, do you?"

"Victor said,
Sharon still blames Julia for Heather’s death and
has admitted to me that she was seeking vengeance by trying to ruin
Turner reputation. She said she had moved back into her childhood
home and has lost contact with her family since her sister’s death.
She said her parents divorced because of their grief and her
brother hadn’t been heard from in years.
He
thought the more recent problems were done by someone here at the
ranch. He believed Sharon left after he threatened her, so the only
logical assumption would be that the incidents were created by an
internal worm. I'll bet Sharon knows who assaulted Julia at the
funeral and the swimming hole."

"Do you think Sharon could have been
involved with setting the stables on fire?"

"Dourn Overton said the stable hands saw a
dark haired woman riding away just after the fire broke out. Given
her history of causing trouble, I'd say it's a good bet she was
involved, but I can't figure out who else is in it with her. Damn,
why didn't Rally tell me about all of this?"

“
Who’s Dourn Overton?”
Louise asked.

“
Rally’s son; he asked me
to hire him on shortly before Victor died, but he didn’t tell me at
the time who he really was.”

"Rally’s doesn’t have a son named Dourn. The
only son I know of is Michael."

“
Michael?” Daniel’s frown
increased as he felt the pieces of the past few months beginning to
fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

“
Yes, Michael Overton. He
used to work here, but Victor fired him about four or five years
ago. He started drinking heavily and nearly caused one of the
horses to break his leg, then one night he got arrested for
fighting. That was the last straw; Victor didn’t have a choice but
to get rid of him.”

“
I met him at the saloon
after I arrived in town. He was drunk and tried to start a fight
with me. The sheriff took him to jail and I never heard about him
again. I’m the reason he was fired.”

“
People still insist that
he was fired because Victor learned that he was messing around with
Julia, but of course there was no truth to it. I'm not even sure if
Julia knew his name, though several people around town swore they
had seen them together.”

"Dr. Stewart told me and Harold the doctor
in Graves County claimed to have examined Heather just before she
died. He told Stewart she was pregnant and insists she brought a
young man in with her, introducing him as her husband."

"Pregnant? Heather would never do anything
like that and she wasn't married or Julia would have told me."

"That is, if Julia even knew. The nurse
working for the doctor said she couldn't remember the man who was
with Heather, but she remembered a scar on his arm. She told Harold
it ran from his elbow to his wrist."

"Michael has a scar like that,” Louise said
with wide eyes. “He got it in a fight with a couple of the stable
hands. Rally was pretty put out at the boy at the time."

"It would seem our Mr. Overton has some
questions to answer." Daniel stood and walked to the open veranda
doors, looking out onto the night.

"I can't believe Heather would have been
involved with a man like Michael Overton. He's just not the type of
person she would notice, let alone allow to get her in
trouble."

"A person can do some strange things once
their emotions are involved, and if Heather was as innocent and shy
as I've heard, it's possible Overton recognized that and took
advantage of her insecurities."

"Her parents would have put a stop to her
seeing him before things got so far out of hand that he got a child
on her."