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"Shall we proceed?" Mike Green said, breaking the silence with his slight voice. He looked nervously at Shane, then at Josh. It was beyond his comprehension how Jared had been so sure that Shane would returnby God, though, he had
been right. There he sat, all six feet of him, an exact replica of Josh.
Josh was drowning his problems in alcohol, as usual. Well, he would damn well need it when he heard the final changes in the will. Only yesterday Mike had returned and listened to Jared give the command to make the needed changes. Once Josh heard, all hell could break loose.
"Yes, let's get this over with," Josh said, glaring at Mike.
"Perhaps you can set your drink aside for a few moments, Josh," Mike said, running a finger nervously around his tight, ruffled collar. "This will needs some strong listening."
"I can listen just as well with a glass in my hand as without," Josh growled. He went across the room to the liquor cabinet and poured more whiskey into the glass. "What I do need is to make sure there's enough whiskey in it."
"As you wish," Mike said, his eyes wavering.
Melanie stood beside Shane's chair and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. When he looked up at her and smiled, everything within her turned to mush. "It will be over soon," she whispered. "It won't take long for Mike to read the will." She glanced at Josh, who had slouched down into a chair opposite Shane. ''But it may take a lifetime for Josh to accept what's in it."
Shane turned his eyes to Josh and felt a sadness sweep through him. His own brother. His own brother cared nothing for him. It was hard enough to accept Gray Falcon's rejection and he was of no
blood kin. But to have a true brother, a twin, reject him?
It was as if his brother had taken a knife and stabbed him. Perhaps in time Shane could change Josh's attitude. But he had decided that he would not be run off. He was home. He was going to stay. His father had waited for him to come home before he drifted away to join his ancestors in the hereafterwaited to tell him how much he was loved and wanted.
His father wanted him hereand he would stay!
Mike stood up, with his back to the fireplace. He stretched the legal document out before him and began to read.
"This is my last will and testament," he began, continuing until he came to the part that he knew would shock Josh and surprise Shane. He paused, frowning, and glanced at Josh, who was refilling his glass again with whiskey, then focused his full attention on Jared's will.
"My son Shane has just returned home, alive and well, and to him I bequeath three-fourths of my land and cattle. It is only right that I do so, since Shane has suffered a lifetime of injustices since the day he watched his mother die. To Josh, my other son, I bequeath the remainder of my possessions except for my house, which is to be shared equally with Shane as long as Shane desires to live there. To Josh I must say that I do not do this to hurt him, but to make him a better man for it. Through my years of having Josh solely to myself, I have tended to spoil him by giving him
everything a son might desire. He took it all willingly and grew careless with it by gambling and drinking too much of our riches away. With Shane holding the largest sum of the inheritance in his hand, Josh will have to learn to toe the line or lose everything in the end. To both my sons, it is only my intention to do what is best for you. You have a long life ahead of you. Make the best of it."
The room was deafeni
ngly quiet as Mike refolded the will. Melanie looked at Josh. She had never seen anyone as stunned. It was in the way he held his glass only halfway to his mouth, as though frozen there, and in the way his eyes were fixed on the will, glassy with shock. She knew that Josh had expected to have to share with Shane, but now he knew he would have less than an equal share.
Melanie stepped around in front of Shane and looked down at him. The show of tears in his eyes revealed that he was realizing just how much he had missed by not being with his true father all these years that had been stolen from himand just how much his father had loved him.
Shane looked slowly up at Melanie. Tears streamed from her eyes as she bent to her knees before him and buried her head against his chest, hugging him. "Shane, oh, Shane," she murmured, warming all over inside when he twined his fingers through her hair and held her even closer to him.
Mike held the will out before him, motioning from Shane to Josh, offering it to them. "This copy of the will is for your files," he said, looking from Shane to Josh. "I have my own."
Josh turned his eyes away from Mike, holding
onto his glass so strongly it threatened to break. "You know what you can do with that god-damned piece of paper," he said between clenched teeth. He slammed the glass down on a table and stormed from the room. When he was outside the house, he inhaled several deep breaths, trying to stop the nervous beating of his heart. He raked his fingers through his golden hair and stared at the fresh grave beneath the elm tree.
"Father, why?" he said, a sob escaping from between his lips. "Was I that big a disappointment to you? Or did you feel you had to make it up to Shane for never having found him the day of the massacre? Which is it, Father? Which is it?"
Not wanting to think any more about it, feeling as though the world were tumbling down around him, Josh began running. When he reached the stable, he saddled his horse and mounted it shakily. He had already been condemned because of his drinking and gambling, so to hell with it. That's what he needed now to make him forget the follies of a dead father!
His hair flying in the wind, Josh rode away, hell bent for leather . . .
Melanie stood at the window, watching Josh. Mike went to her side and saw him ride away.
"He'll soon come to his senses and see that his father had only his best interest in mind," Mike said. "But at this moment, he probably hates Shane so much he could kill him. I'd keep my eye on him tonight. He's already reeking of whiskey.
When he returns from town, he'll be drunk as hell."
Mike turned and placed a hand on Shane's shoulder, looking up at him from his less than imposing height. "Son, I don't know how it happened that you came home when you did," he said, not wanting to accuse Shane of anything, certainly not of having heard that his father was dying and knowing that an inheritance could make him rich. "But it made Jared's last moments on this earth happy. That's all that mattered." He nodded down at the will. "What's written in that will is fair and square, but it's going to take Josh some time to accept it. Just go about your business. He'll have to come round, in time."
