Cynthia picked up another potato and eviscerated an eye. "No, I didn't know. And it's none of my business. And Mr. Cade has done nothing to make me think he is anything but a normal man who simply enjoys his solitude." She felt sick to her stomach. Was it possible that Cade actually was a homosexual? Was it wishful thinking that made her so certain that he wasn't?
Claudette shrugged her lovely shoulders. "Well, he did spend a lot of time with his mother. She was such a strange woman - just like Russie. I never did understand why Dad married her. Did you know she actually spun the wool to knit sweaters? I mean it wasn't like we didn't have the money to buy clothes or anything like that. And that old furniture she brought here. Dad would have given her anything she wanted. He was crazy about her. She hated this house, though. Not that I blame her." She glanced at Cynthia. "Oh, you have it fixed up nice, but don't you think it's a monstrosity?"
"No. As a matter of fact, I think it has character."
"Anyway," Claudette continued. "When Dad died, he left this ranch to his wife and stepson and his fortune went to the rest of us kids." Claudette turned her palms to the air. "As far as I'm concerned, good riddance to the ranch."
Cynthia frowned. "You have other sisters and brothers?"
Claudette nodded. "A brother in Maine and a sister in Washington DC."
The diversion didn't last long. Claudette brushed some lint from the bodice of her dress. "Like I said, Russie's mother was always strange, but after Dad died, she really became eccentric. Locked herself in her room for days working on layette sets for the grand children Russie would never provide. I actually felt a little sorry for her. It was so pathetic. Anyway she finally got so lonely and depressed that she locked herself in her room one day and shot herself. Russie came home that night and found her."
The mental picture of Cade finding his mother that way made Cynthia's stomach lurch uncomfortably. So that was why Cade felt responsible for his mothers' death. How sad. She thought of the layette sets in the chest. Obviously Cade's mother didn't subscribe to the gay story - or was that what finally drove her over the edge? Yet Cade had kept the baby clothes - and the furniture.
Claudette shook her head. "That's when Russie got the ranch." She made a face. "Now he's as strange as his mother was. Hanging on to this place and working it like a cowboy. I don't know why he doesn't he get the proper equipment and run it like a modern ranch. I swear, sometimes I think he's completely against progress."