Abediah Thornton

Chapter 13 - Wednesday

Abediah was not feeling comfortable. She was sitting in Mr Goodman's office. She had gone in her jeans and old, big pocketed Barbour coat, but now, in the presence of Mr Goodman and his prim secretary, she was feeling rather under dressed. He had called yesterday, asking her to come in and visit. He had said it with the most appropriate words, but he had made it clear that this was a summons that could not be avoided, rather than a kindly meeting with an old friend of her husband's.

'Mrs Thornton, how are you?' he asked. The way he said it suggested he had absolutely no interest in how she was, but recognised that this was the correct way to begin.

'As can be expected, Mr Goodman,' she said, matching his tone. 'You wanted to see me,' she added.

'Indeed. Indeed,' he said, shuffling some papers on his desk. Outside she could hear the secretary answering a call. For someone who must surely make confidential calls, the woman had a voice that carried rather too well.

'I just wanted to check, Mrs Thornton, when you wanted to get started on the sale of the farm.' He said it in a very casual throw-away manner.She had been ready for almost anything, but not that. It was starting to feel like her life was a roller coaster. Every time she felt she'd got a handle on things a new loop-the-loop appeared out of nowhere! But, perhaps because of these endless surprises, she felt for the first time as though she had more control.

'Mr Goodman,' she said calmly, 'I'm not sure I understand.' And just left it at that, she wasn't going to make anything easy for him.

'Ah... Well... You see,' the big man bumbled. But he soon rallied and some of his normal blustering confidence returned.'Mrs Thornton, you obviously can't manage such a big farm on your own, as old as you are.' She could feel the ball of anger in her stomach heating up again. Who did this man think he was! But she stayed quiet and pasted a look of questioning innocence on her face.'And besides,' he continued, 'it's what Frank would have wanted.'

'Is it?' she asked sharply. 'How can you be sure it's what Frank would have wanted? You told me yourself there was no will.'At this Mr Goodman made a sound, it was nothing more than a sharp intake of breath but it could have been a 'tsk' of disapproval.

'Mrs Thornton, please!' he said in an exasperated tone. 'I know you have met Charlie. You must know that Frank would want to support her future!' He seemed a bit agitated now. She looked at his reddening face and could see a bead of sweat start to make it's way down his neck.

'Thank you for the insight Mr Goodman. In fact, as I'm sure you know, I did not know about Charlie's existence until four days ago. Frank never mentioned her to me. He never told me about any of his wishes for the future, his, my own or Charlie's for that matter.' She was getting into the swing now. 'In addition, Mr Goodman. My farm was bought with the money my parents gave me on the occasion of my marriage. I have run my farm almost single-handedly for at least the last two decades. I am absolutely capable of running it by myself. But thank you for your concern,' she finished, her tone quite a lot louder than she when had started.

'Mrs Thornton,' began the now quite flushed lawyer. 'Without Frank how are you going to continue? He was in charge of the bills, he has been the only one buying or selling cattle this whole time!'