For Bitter Or Worse by Janet Dailey

Author:Janet Dailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 1977-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

THE NIGHT AIR WAS SULTRY from the afternoon’s heat. The starfire shimmering from the sky cast soft shadows on the whitewashed arches of the veranda.

Cord murmured a terse “thank you” when Maria set the tray on a table near his wheelchair. His gaze riveted itself on the two cups sitting on the tray, recognizing the significance of them and knowing he wasn’t alone.

Stacy paused behind him, feeling the invisible crackle of electricity in the still air. Her heels clicked loudly on the cobblestones as she ignored his silent demand to leave and walked to a chaise longue beside him.

“What are you doing out here?” he muttered impatiently, then continued without allowing her an opportunity to reply. “If you’ve come to tell me that I’ve rudely left our guests, you can save your breath.” His voice curled sarcastically around the word “guests.” “If I’d stayed inside, I doubt if I would have kept my promise. So be grateful for a small show of bad manners.”

“I am.” Stacy leaned back in her chair and sipped at her coffee, refusing to respond to his baiting tone.

The starlight glittered over the tightly clenched line of his jaw. “Shouldn’t you go back inside with our guests?” There was a savage undercurrent in his biting mockery. “One of us should be in there to entertain them.”

“Travis isn’t exactly a guest,” she replied evenly. “He can keep Paula company for a while.”

“You make it sound as if he’s practically a member of the family instead of the foreman,” Cord jeered with disdain.

“I guess I do think of him in that way,” Stacy admitted. “I don’t believe you realize how much help he’s been to us through all this.”

“To you, you mean,” he corrected. His mouth quirked bitterly. “Do you confide all your troubles to him and cry on his shoulder?”

“I don’t cry on anyone’s shoulder.” She was too independent to do that and she knew it, even if at times she wanted to pour out her troubles to someone. “The help I referred to that Travis had given us was shouldering the bulk of the ranch operation. I didn’t mean help that he had personally given me,” she explained.

Travis’s knowledge of her problems was gleaned from what he had witnessed or guessed and not from any confessions from Stacy, regardless of Cord’s accusation to the contrary.

“And you’re so grateful for his assistance that you’ve left him in the house alone with that barracuda,” Cord jeered.

Stacy breathed in deeply, fighting to control the spark of temper before it burst into flame. He seemed determined to incite an argument and she was just as determined not to oblige.

“Cord, I came out here for some fresh air,” she said slowly and distinctly, “certainly not to become embroiled in a bitter dispute with you. If you don’t want to enjoy the peace and quiet, then I’ll move to another part of the veranda where I can.”

His cup clinked loudly in its saucer. Stacy’s heart thudded rapidly in the heavy silence that followed.

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