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“It’s possible,” Ty conceded.
“Don’t wait to find out,” his father advised him, and they discussed the best way to block any moves Dyson might make. “You’ll have to watch him. He’s clever, very clever.”
“I will.”
After the phone conversation with his father was finished, Ty began making calls to summon the managers of the various operations and outlying camps to the headquarters.
Over the next hour and a half, they trickled in one by one from their various districts. Most of them were stiff and cool toward him, ready to take his orders but not ready to like them. They had lost trust in his judgment; his previous decision had gone against the values they’d been brought up to believe. But their opinion underwent a change once they heard what he had to say.
“When a man’s made a mistake, he’s got two choices.” Ty said the same thing to Wyatt Yates that he’d told the others before the manager of the horse-breeding operation had arrived. “He can grit his teeth and bull his way along, pretending that he’s right. Or he can own up to his mistake and do his damnedest to change it. I thought mining coal was the answer to the financial problems we’ve been having. But it’s only going to bring more problems. I’m going to break the deal and fight to stop it.”
“Do you think you can do it?” Yates eyed him, still wary.
“I won’t know if I don’t try.” Ty wisely didn’t claim he could do anything. “In the meantime, I want you to get on the phone and start calling breeders around the country and sell those two studs. Find buyers for all the young stock you can, except for that two-year-old stud out of that San Peppy mare. We’ll keep him back for future foundation sire. Keep the Cougar-bred mares and sell the rest.”
His instructions to Arch Goodman were similar when he came. “Sell off all the fat cattle in the feedlot and save the grain to fatten our young stuff coming off the range this fall. We’re cutting our losses now before the cattle market drops any lower.”
“Dumping that many cattle in a depressed market is liable to drive the prices down still more,” Arch warned.
“At the moment, I can’t worry about what lower prices are going to do to the other guy. Make arrangements to get the cattle shipped, and get the best price you can for them.”
As Arch left the study, Tara came in. There was curiosity behind her smile. “What’s going on here this afternoon? People constantly coming and going all the time?”
“I’m implementing some more cost-cutting measures, ranchwide,” he replied, still businesslike in his tone, although the look in his eye gentled under the stroking touch of her hand. “Some of which you aren’t going to like.”
“Such as?” She cocked her head to one side.
“You’re going to have to give your cook and that housekeeper notice that we won’t be needing their services after the end of the month,” Ty stated.
“You can’t be serious.” The smile left her face as she reacted first with incredulity, then with indignation. “You can’t do that. I need them. We have guests coming nearly every weekend for the rest of the summer.”
“You’ll simply have to explain to your guests that they’ll either have to make their own beds and wash their own dishes or entertain themselves while you do it. This is a working ranch, not a hotel equipped with maids and room service.”
“I have never heard anything so absurd in my life,” Tara flashed. “These are important people. I can’t ask them to come out to the kitchen and wash the dishes.”
“Who knows? They might get a kick out of it.” He shrugged lightly.
“Well, I’m not going to find out,” she informed him, breathing deep and fast in anger. “Neither Simone nor Mrs. Thornton is leaving. This is my house, and you’re not going to tell me how to run it. I don’t tell you how to run the ranch.”
“You’re wrong. This is our house and our ranch. The house isn’t strictly your domain and the ranch mine. Both belong to both of us,” Ty argued roughly.
“I don’t care about the ranch or what you do with it. I’ve told you dozens of times to hire a manager and let him run it, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”
“I listened and disagreed.”
“Then I’m disagreeing with you about letting Simone and Mrs. Thornton go,” Tara countered.
“I’ve had to cut expenses all the way across the board—that includes the household budget. So if you want to pay them out of your own money, that’s your business.”
“Why are you so worried about money again?” Impatience and confusion ran hotly through her voice. “I thought the partnership with Daddy settled all that. There will be more than enough money for everything once you start selling the coal.”
“There won’t be any money because there isn’t going to be any coal sold,” Ty stated flatly as the front door opened.
“What do you mean? Since when?” But her questions were interrupted by the sound of Dyson’s voice calling out her name. “In here, Daddy!” she answered and started across the room to meet him when he entered. “Ty was just telling me some nonsense that you wouldn’t be selling the coal. I—”
Ty interrupted her before she could go further, standing as Dyson darted him a puzzled glance. “I’m glad you’re here, E.J. I was just about to explain to Tara that I’ve decided to back out of our deal.”
“I don’t understand.” Dyson laughed his confusion. “It’s all been agreed. What is it? Aren’t
