Keep My Heart

Chapter 4

Adam and Jed sat at the table, playing cards.

“You sleep in?” Adam asked.

“No, I had to get that new girl I hired squared away on a few things. She seems scared of me for some reason” Trey sat down across from Jed.

“Scared?” Jed grinned, dealing Trey and Wes in on the game.

“Seems like it. She could just look that way. Never talks to me, hardly makes eye contact, and avoids me like the plague” Trey stared at his hand, not registering what cards were there.

“You’re not usually worried about what women think of you. Not that there’s ever any doubt of what they think. You’ve always had a way with ’em” Adam said, rubbing his handlebar mustache.

“I know. She seems… different than the rest of them women we know” Trey explained thoughtfully.

“Different?” Wes looked up over his hand of cards.

“I dunno. Give me three” Trey threw Adam three of his cards, who returned three from the deck.

“Well, you can’t allow her to distract you from this job, hear? We don’t need that bear you turned into last time we messed up” Adam said.

"We didn’t mess up, that was Wes’ fault” Trey sent a glance at Wes, who scowled and hid behind his cards.

*****

Millie finished changing Quinn and carried him downstairs. Clayton was nowhere to be found and Mariah was banging in the kitchen. Jess was sweeping the porch and it appeared that the stable boy was letting the horses out into the corral.

“Reckon we should explore a little?” Millie smiled down at Quinn. She hadn’t explored most of the house in the past week and was curious to what the rest of the mansion-like house held. She walked into the parlor and noticed a door off to the right of the large fireplace. Normally, she wasn’t so curious, but something about this house needed finding out. She pushed the door open and entered what appeared to be a formal parlor. White sheets covered all of the furniture, but one shape in the corner caught her attention. It was covered in a white cloth, but it’s shape peaked her curiosity. Carefully, she lifted one corner and gasped. Yanking the cloth away, Millie stood back and took in the magnificent shiny Grand piano. In front of the keys sat a sheet of music. Adjusting Quinn on her hip, she leaned closer to see that it was an arrangement of Auld Lang Syne. She wondered if it Trey or his wife had played the piano, and why they didn’t anymore. Now that she thought about it, what had happened to Quinn’s mother? Did she die or was she gone away? She would have to remember to ask Clayton sometime…

*****

Trey was gone until the end of that week, and when he returned, it was not at a good time.

Quinn had been crying all morning, Millie hadn’t even had a chance to run a brush through her hair, Jess had chosen that day to wash the walls, Clayton was coming down with a cold, and Mariah was at her wit’s end dealing with the lot of them.

“Clayton?” Trey called from the foyer.

Millie was in the hall, and heard his voice.

Was it already time for him to return?

She got halfway down the staircase when she saw him. Boy, did he look good at a time like this. Someone to take control.

“Trey! Trey, am I glad to see you” She said, surprised that the words came out of her mouth.

“What’s going on?” He asked, that softening smile breaking through as he saw her.

“Chaos is going on in here, Trey. Clayton has the sniffles and is acting completely out of sorts, Quinn has been crying for you all morning and poor Mariah is about to have a breakdown from dealing with all of us” Millie hated it when she was frazzled. She always babbled on like a senseless person when she was frazzled.