The Lone Texan. Lass Small

the trapped, live wives and servants who were sealed inside the tomb with the corpse.

      Well, with Mina Keeper, it wasn’t that way. Not at all. It was just that Mrs. John Keeper, Sr., couldn’t allow a misdirected human to be rejected. In her mind, everyone could be straightened out and made logical. Sure.

      Mina Keeper was picky. Everybody has their own little quirks. First, Mina learned in which direction was their own stance. Everybody has one. Most of those she monitored were hostile or self-protective.

      Off the big dining room was a small, private dining room. It was there that Mina had lunch with the individual ones, subtly directing their table manners. To her, table manners were prime.

      Oddly enough, one of her current isolated lunch partners was her own son, Tom. He’d been turned down by women so many times, by then, that he’d decided to be a loner. He was silent and somewhat bitter.

      Tom was the version of always a groomsman, never the groom. He’d just stood up with yet another pair who were married. The married couple included Andrew Parsons, a man who had been lost in time; and JoAnn Murray who had—almost—abandoned the time laggard.

      Andrew, the time laggard, had a sister, Lu, who was living in one of the houses on the ranch with one of the ranch pilots, Rip. Mrs. Keeper was sure no young woman should live in sin. The fact that Lu was living on the Keeper land, with Rip, was another weight on Mina Keeper’s shoulders.

      In their bedroom, John Keeper told his wife, Mina, “It’s their business.”

      And Mina said rather woefully, “They’re so young.”

      “They’re old enough to decide their own lives. They are deciding if they match.”

      She turned her head and smiled at her husband on his back, sideways across their bed. “We did that.”

      “Hush. The walls have ears!”

      She laughed in her throat in the way a woman does when a man pleases her, and—

      Well, that finished that mind-irritating subject—for a while.

      

      It was several busy days later when an old friend from school, Jenny Little Drew, called Mina Keeper. They laughed and gossiped and exchanged memories, then Jenny mentioned, “Remember Maggie Williams Simpson? Her woebegone daughter, Ellen, needs a place to heal.”

      “Physical?”

      “Everything.”

      “Uh-h-h...”

      “Ellen is not dangerous. She’s just silent and wants to be alone.”

      Mina Keeper gasped, “Out here?”

      “I’ve always considered the Keeper Place as a haven.”

      Mina mentioned with some stridence, “I’ve always thought you were a little strange.”

      Jenny was very serious and said into the telephone, “Ellen needs a haven in which to heal.”

      “What happened to her?”

      “A man abandoned her some time ago when he found she was...with child. She lost the baby. Two losses. Him and then the baby. It was too much.”

      “The bastard.”

      Jenny was silent a blink. “Why...I’d never realized you knew that word.”

      Mina replied with some lack of endurance, “I know them all. Send her to us. We’ll see if we can help.”

      In a wavering voice, Jenny said softly, “Ahhh. Thank you. I—hoped—you—could—”

      Stridently, Mina warned, “Don’t you dare bawl on me. I can’t survive something like that!”

      Jenny’s laugh then was water logged.

      

      The odd guest, Ellen Simpson, arrived three days later! She was like a mouse in a houseful of cats. Under a wide-brimmed hat, her hair was dark and rolled into a severe knot at the back of her head.

      At least Ellen hadn’t shaved her head, but she was withdrawn and silent so that she wouldn’t be noticed.

      Greeting Ellen, Mina sent a rather strong negative thought to her old school chum Jenny who had very recently become an ex-friend. Unfortunately, Jenny was the kind who never noticed she’d been rejected and abandoned.

      Mina smiled gently and said to Ellen, “We are so pleased you could come visit. We have just the room for you.” Mrs. Keeper grinned and lifted her eyebrows as she added, “The crew was delighted to straighten the room. I do hope it’s something you like. If not, we have other choices.”

      “It’ll be fine. Mother is especially pleased you invited me here.”

      Ellen wasn’t? Mina smiled. To her the woman-child even looked like a reject. Mina said, “Let’s see if you like the room’s view. If you’d prefer another view, we’ll find you another room.”

      That gave the guest a reason to see the room and to look outside. Mina always did that to reluctant guests. The choice gave them more liberty and control. She’d had reluctant guests who’d moved immediately, and eventually moved back into the original room.

      

      Mina Keeper acted as if she had the whole day to visit and consider rooms. Ellen didn’t remove her hat for some time. She was hiding? Mina was glad that she knew the circumstances of Ellen. At least that allowed Mina to understand the withdrawn young woman.

      Gradually, gradually, Mina began to understand this woman who’d been rejected by a man she most probably loved. A woman who had also lost her child. Here was a suffering woman who didn’t know how to cope with her losses. And Mina wondered how she was to help Ellen?

      Mina looked at the sundered girl-woman and her emotions wanted to hold the raw, vulnerable girl and cry with her.

      Perhaps at a later time.

      Mina showed Ellen the house in a lazy, easy manner. They walked slowly so that the very thin Ellen wouldn’t be totally exhausted. They had morning tea, but she gave Ellen milk.

      A clue was that Ellen drank some of the milk slowly and didn’t appear to even know what she did was guided by her upbringing of courtesy. Someone had given her a tea, she’d had milk handed to her and she did not reject it but had courteously sipped it so as not to embarrass the hostess.

      Ellen was given a square cookie that was loaded with good foods and laced with raisins and nuts. She actually ate one. It took a while.

      How strange it was to Mina that she watched and waited for a guest to actually eat something, when all her years she’d been overwhelmed with hungry people who talked as they ate.

      This guest was mostly silent.

      Ellen looked at the things Mina mentioned and indicated, but she had no comment.

      It was obvious that Ellen’s mother had raised her to be courteous. She endured. How long could Mina keep Ellen by her side? When would Ellen ask to go to her room?

      Ellen’s first indication was when she mentioned, “I need to lie down.”

      But before that happened, she fainted!

      Anyone who lives out as far from civilization as the Keepers, is schooled in basics. And it was a miracle that the Keepers had good M.D.’s not even three city blocks’ distance away.

      Mina called. The female doctor came immediately. Dr. Jane Wilkins gave the guest a quick check.

      The house helpers were muscular males who lifted Ellen. It was they who quite easily carried the girl to her room.

      

      When Ellen woke, she was in a nightgown, in bed. An intravenous bottle was putting fluid into her system.

      Dr. Jane smiled and said, “You’re