The Valentine Legacy Read Online Free

the three of them, and old Bramen is older than I am, James. Have you seen those skinny legs of his and that huge paunch? He’s probably more shriveled than a two-year-old potato. I just shook my head at Nelda and told her she was a fool, but her mother told me to mind my own business, which is horses, and not to interfere. Old Bramen is rich, I’ll give him that. What’s a father to do, James?”
    â€œNelda seems happy,” James said with no hesitation, lying cleanly. “I saw her today. Don’t worry about it. It’s done. Enjoy life, Oliver. Enjoy your aches and pains. A son-in-law will turn up. Glenda is pretty, well dowered, and men flock around her. What are you worried about?”
    â€œThere’s Jessie to consider.”
    â€œWhy?” James took a drink of claret. The glasses were old and chipped, but they were of good quality; at leastthey’d once probably graced a grand table. He wondered if Mrs. Warfield had believed them long ago tossed on the trash heap. “She’ll outgrow her nonsense. She’ll want to be a wife and a mother, just give her a while.”
    â€œPoor child. She should have been a boy. Just like me is Jessie, all pride and vinegar and stubbornness. She’s even got my red hair. As for those freckles across her nose, well, Mrs. Warfield claims that’s my fault for letting Jessie run wild as the colts in the fields since she was just a little mite.”
    James remained quiet. He and Oliver both knew a lady shouldn’t have freckles. Nor should she have chapped lips.
    Oliver Warfield beetled his thick red eyebrows. “Jessie doesn’t want to marry. She told me so just last week.”
    James became even more quiet. He looked at the nearly empty bottle of claret and wished he’d brought two bottles.
    â€œShe said that all men were pigs and selfish and short-sighted.”
    â€œThat’s quite a lot, even out of Jessie’s big mouth.”
    â€œJessie never learned restraint. Except with horses.”
    â€œI’ve never thought I was shortsighted.”
    â€œYou’re young. Of course you’re shortsighted. That’s why Nelda married old Bramen. She was tired of waiting for you, not that it matters now. Bramen’s got more money than either you or I will ever earn in a lifetime. Just mind that you don’t become Nelda’s lover. Aye, James, I hear things. I know that Nelda would like a lusty young man in her bed and it’s you she wants. What am I to do with Jessie? Yes, that’s right, give me more claret. You have a good cellar, James. Damn, I think we should have the loser bring two bottles. Just ain’t enough tonight. Did I tell you that Mrs. Warfield blames me, claims Jessie is unnatural and I made her that way, letting her ride astride wearing men’s breeches will bring her to no good. She says I’m taking away Jessie’s womanness. Jessie says womanness is boringand the skirts are too tight. She says she doesn’t want to mince around in shoes that make her feet hurt. She doesn’t want to have to treat men like they’re smart and charming, which they aren’t. She says men get married and get fat and belch over their dinner. She says they’re clods and can’t ride worth a damn. I don’t know precisely what she means by all that, but there it is. But she’s a damned good rider, is Jessie. Now Glenda, there’s a beauty for you, the perfect lady. Don’t you agree, James?”
    James took another drink of claret. He didn’t know Glenda all that well, but from Ursula’s glazed expression of social pain, he imagined that Glenda was probably just as spoiled as her lovely sister. At least Jessie wasn’t a spoiled brat. She was just a brat, no spoilation about her. As for Glenda, she played the harp and recited poetry that she herself had penned. He’d been spared the poetry but not the harp.
    â€œGlenda would make any man