Luke’s Eyes

Story Summary

Luke Bennett came to Denver to find cattle to buy. Instead he found trouble — and a woman worth fighting for.

Copyright Information

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is strictly coincidental. Some historical entities and events mentioned in this book did exist or happen, but details may have been modified to suit the story.

Copyright © 2013 by Ellen O’Connell

www.oconnellauthor.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations used in critical articles and reviews.

Author’s Note

Although this novella is based on the characters of Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold, I do not believe it is necessary to read Eyes in order to enjoy Luke’s Eyes. I do believe those who have read Eyes will enjoy this novella more.

If you read historical romance and wonder about the real history behind the stories, yes, the auction in Luke’s Eyes bears a resemblance to the beginnings of the National Western Stock Show, which is held in Denver, Colorado, every January. The first National Western didn’t occur until 1906, however, and was not only a stock auction but a stock show. It was held under tents.

Cattle auctions and stock sales were held all over the country long before then, though, so I used artistic license and set a sale in Denver in February 1892 for this novella.

Readers who are familiar only with modern-day polled (hornless) Herefords may wonder at the references to horns. Polled Herefords were bred from naturally occurring individuals in what was primarily a horned breed (by one man who started with only a few animals in 1889), so polled Herefords for sale in my 1892 auction didn’t strike me as reasonable. Although the breed was separated into two registries at one time, today’s American Hereford Association registers both polled and horned Herefords.

For those of you who notice the reference to toothpaste and wonder, toothpaste was available fairly early in the Nineteenth Century, although the earlier you go back, the more likely it was that a person used tooth powder. In doing research for Sing My Name, I spent some time on sites showing Civil War paraphernalia and was fascinated to find soldiers back then carried toothpaste or tooth powder and tooth brushes. The toothpaste didn’t come in tubes, of course, but the little tins it did come in are fascinating in their own way.

See, for instance: http://www.history.com/photos/civil-war-artifacts/photo4

I hope you enjoy Luke’s Eyes, and if you have read Eyes, visiting with Anne and Cord again.

Ellen O’Connell

Chapter 1

MONDAY

ROWS OF PENS extended before him almost as far as the eye could see, some empty, some already filled. Cattle brought in early for the sale had to deal with hoof-churned, half-frozen mud underfoot. A man with a warm hotel room waiting did not.

Luke Bennett contemplated the acres of posts, rails, and cows without enthusiasm. By the time the auction started Friday morning, every pen would hold cattle — hundreds of local Colorado mixed breed stock leavened with enough Angus, Hereford, and Shorthorn purebreds to be interesting.

Finding the type of Hereford bulls he’d come to buy meant traipsing up and down each row, evaluating, noting lot numbers. Some animals required no more than a glance to dismiss, others required careful observation to see past dirty, shaggy winter coats.

Pushing thoughts of a hot bath followed by a drink at the hotel bar out of his mind, Luke shoved the scarf at his neck higher, pulled his coat collar tighter, and forged ahead. Two empty pens. One with a nice Shorthorn bull. Herefords in the fourth, but cows and with a look to them that hinted at less than illustrious ancestors not too far back.

Up ahead, weak rays of winter sun set the red coat of a short-legged, deep-bodied bull on fire. The bull had already caught the eyes of a small group of people who clustered around the gate. Luke kept moving at the same steady pace, pausing briefly to glance at each animal he passed. The longer it took other ranchers to realize he had come to buy for the Bennett Ranch and what he had come to buy, the better. He’d swing back this way later and take a good look at the bull after the others had left.

“Get away from this gate, you back-stabbing four-flusher! I have the papers, and you have no right!”

Luke froze mid-stride at the sound of the furious female voice and sight of one of the men by the bull’s pen shoving a woman so hard she fell. None of the others made a move to interfere or to help her up.

As the woman struggled to her feet in a flurry of red flannel petticoats and black-stockinged legs, Luke started moving again — fast, his eyes locked on the scene ahead.

A boy climbed over the gate. “Leave her alone. Leave her alone.”

The boy yanked on the sheepskin coat of the man who had done the shoving. The man swatted the boy away effortlessly and took advantage of the woman’s concern for the boy to seize her arms and pin her against the fence.

Intent on what Sheepskin was doing to the woman and boy, none of the others saw Luke until he was among them. Luke yanked Sheepskin around by the coat and plowed first one fist then the other into the man’s jaw. Sheepskin went down on his back with a satisfying thud.

Luke whirled to face the other three men. Two backed away, one with hands raised, palms up. The fourth, built more like a wrestler than a boxer, lowered his head and charged. Slipping away from the trap of the Wrestler’s outstretched arms at the last moment, Luke smashed both clenched fists on the back of the thick neck and drove the man face first into the muck.

Sheepskin should be back on his feet, attacking from behind. Luke pivoted to meet an attack that wasn’t coming. The woman and boy sat on Sheepskin’s chest and stomach. Their combined weight probably wasn’t enough to keep him down, but the heavy wooden bucket she waved and threatened him with when he cursed and moved was.

The Wrestler rolled over, looking ready to try again. To hell with that, Luke dove a hand under his coat and came up with his Colt. He cocked the hammer. The sound froze everyone in place.

“This ain’t some nothing town out on the prairie,” the Wrestler said sullenly, feeling the back of his neck. “The police in Denver don’t think much of that kind of thing.”

“They probably don’t think much of knocking women and children around either,” Luke said.

“Nobody hurt her. She stole Mr. Pierce’s cattle, and we’re taking them back. I had to get her out of the way.”

The woman threw the bucket to the side, got up, and pulled the boy up.

“I didn’t steal anything,” she said. “Merlin and the girls are mine.”

With things temporarily under control, Luke assessed the situation. The men who had fought were rough looking, but neither one was as dirty or as shabby as the woman and boy. She really did look more like a thief than any of the men scowling at Luke. The fresh coat of muck she wore wasn’t her first of the day. The bull’s tail had to be cleaner than the strands of hair straggling out from under her shapeless hat.

The men who had watched the fracas without taking part or lifting a hand to stop it stepped forward now. One was past the age for brawling, white haired and bespectacled. The other, fleshy and soft, probably didn’t know how.

Unlike the woman and the men Luke had knocked to the half-frozen ground, these two were clean except for their boots. In fact Wouldn’t Know How had on a fine wool coat that was a triumph of tailoring. Maybe he’d been on his way to a meeting of the Cattlemen’s Association in some warm barroom.

Past the Age held out his hand. “I’m Lyle Griffin, sales manager for the auction,” he said. “I’ve given Mr. Pierce permission to remove his stock from the grounds.”

“They aren’t his,” the woman said, desperation leaking through her anger. “I have proof. I have bills of sale. I have signed papers.”

Ignoring even a female thief seemed rude, so Luke asked. “What proof does Mr. Pierce have?”

“None of your business, you interfering pup,” said Wouldn’t Know How. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

Luke waved the gun, just enough to remind everyone. “If you want that bull, you do.”

“Mr. Pierce inherited his brother’s ranch. That includes the Flying AP brand,” Mr. Griffin explained. “He has a copy of the court order saying he owns the whole shebang — land, equipment, and livestock. And the brand. That bull and those cows all carry the Flying AP brand.” The sales manager pointed to the next pen, where half a dozen Hereford cows watched the proceedings with interest.

“What about the bull Pa sold Mr. Jonathan Dereham last year,” the woman said angrily. “Is his bill of sale no good either? Since Uncle Walter inherited the brand, does he own every animal that ever carried it, no matter who we sold it to?”

Brother? Pa? Uncle? This whole thing was a family dispute? Luke stifled a groan and holstered the gun, ready to leave these people to sort out their own troubles any way they could.

Except the woman had been so grand in her fury just a short while ago, and now her shoulders slumped in defeat. One of her gloves was missing a finger, and the hem of her coat was raggedy. Worse, Uncle Wouldn’t Know How, the arrogant son of a gun, was already starting to gloat.

“Maybe I tend to be on the cautious side,” Luke said to Griffin, “being as I come from a family with a couple of lawyers in it, but if it were me, I’d want some judge to tell me the lady’s papers don’t matter, and Wouldn’t Know — err Mr. Pierce’s do. Nobody’s going to bid on stock with contested ownership. I’m Luke Bennett by the way.”

“Bennett. Frank Bennett’s son? Where is he?” Griffin looked back along the row as if expecting to see Frank Bennett materialize.

“He’s back home with a broken leg. His horse went down under him a couple weeks ago, rolled right over him.”

“Merciful Heaven, I hope he heals quickly.”

Merciful indeed. His father was lucky to be alive. Just remembering destroyed some of Luke’s pleasure in being here, trusted to buy new breeding stock for the ranch, but Griffin didn’t need to know how bad the fall had been.

“You look like your father,” Griffin said.

Luke nodded.

“Can we count on you not to spread tales of this — controversy around the sale tent on auction day?”

Luke glanced at the woman. She stood behind the boy, holding him by the shoulders. Hard to tell with the winter coats, but they both looked to be shivering.

“No,” Luke said, “you can’t.”

“I don’t care who he tells what,” Pierce said. “I’m not selling my ranch’s best stock here. I’m taking them back.”

Griffin stared at the ground, at the bull, at the woman. “I’m sorry, Mr. Pierce,” he said at last. “The reputation of the sale is involved now. Show your papers to a judge, let Miss Pierce do the same with what she’s got. I’ll release the stock when I have an order from an authority that protects the sale.”

“You can’t....”

“Yes, I can,” Griffin said more firmly. “And I can make sure my stockmen don’t let anyone take any of these animals out of the pens until I get what I need.”

Griffin ignored Pierce’s blustering arguments and walked away down the row. Luke watched him go with satisfaction.

Pierce switched his anger to his niece. “All you’ve done is dragged things out another day or so. Look at yourself. Your father would be ashamed at the sight, and so am I, and if you think you can crawl home after this, think again. Even if you could convince me, I’m not sure your aunt will allow it.”

The woman gave an unladylike snort. “What home? There’s nothing left, and you know it.”

Pierce didn’t answer, snapped a command to Sheepskin and the Wrestler, who had risen to their feet and were ignoring the argument while wiping mud off themselves. The three of them left without another word, although both Sheepskin and the Wrestler threw looks at Luke that didn’t promise amiable future encounters.

The woman checked the latch on the bull’s pen before turning and thrusting her hand at Luke. “Teddy Pierce. Thanks for trying to help.”

Her voice was deep for a woman, throaty. Between that, the dirt that hid her features, and the outfit, the man’s name suited her. Still — trying to help?

“So you really don’t have a valid bill of sale,” Luke said, aggravated at the futility of it all.

“Yes, I do. I have a bill of sale for every head, but he’ll be at whatever court he needs to be at first thing in the morning, probably with some fast-talking lawyer who knows the judge, and he’ll get his court order.”

Her voice had gone even lower, trembled, and she turned away, but not before the sun caught the silvery sheen of extra moisture in her eyes.

Part of Luke wished he’d never gotten involved in the whole mess, and part still wanted to help a woman, even a grubby, mannish, unattractive one. “Then you need to be in court with your own lawyer and papers.”

She kept her back to him and fussed with the latch on the gate. “I can’t. Getting here with Merlin and the girls took.... You saw how Mr. Griffin didn’t even pay any attention to me. No judge would either, and if I can’t sell Merlin and the girls for enough to set me and Ben up somewheres....” She waved a hand toward the boy. “This is Ben.”

Luke nodded at the scrawny boy and moved closer to the penned cows. Herefords, like the bull, with quality in every line of their thick bodies. “Didn’t you think your uncle would come after them?”

“Of course not. Why would he come after seven measly head he knows are mine? He must have a cash buyer. Knowing Uncle Walter he probably has half a dozen cash buyers, and he’ll sell Merlin and the girls to all of them.”

She faced him again, stumbling a little as she turned, all signs of tears gone. “Thank you again. Ben and I need to get back to the hotel and clean up. Good luck at the sale, Mr. Bennett.”

Definitely shivering. The wanting to help part of him won out. “I ate at a café not far from here yesterday. Why don’t we go over there, warm up, get coffee and something to eat, and you can tell me the whole story.”

“No, thank you. We can’t.” She brushed at the mud on her skirt.

“I ate there yesterday, and it was full of cattlemen. We won’t stand out.” He grinned at her. “If you’re so grateful, the least you can do is tell me what I walked into. Those two could have beaten me to a fare thee well, you know.”

She gave him a hard eye. “From what I saw they never had a chance.”

Muddy, raggedy, and prickly. Luke banished one last vision of the warm bar he could have retreated to before he ever laid eyes on these two.

“The boy’s shivering,” he said, “and I bet that café is closer than your hotel.”

He waited until she gave in before soaking his handkerchief in the icy water of a cow trough and handing it to her. He didn’t need to say why. She scrubbed her face as they walked across the sales grounds toward the street.

FROM BITTER EXPERIENCE, Teddy knew men were not reliable. The best of them ruined your life for your own good and died young without ever having to face what they had done. The worst of them — well, Uncle Walter wasn’t even the worst, and what he was doing to Teddy paled compared to what he had done to his own wife and daughters for years.

A man as handsome as Luke Bennett must wreak havoc wherever he went. Innocent women going their own way would look into those blue, blue eyes and stumble over their own clumsy boots. Foolish hearts would go pittipat the way Teddy’s was right now.

Getting rid of him shouldn’t be that hard. She’d tell him only as much as she had to, satisfy his curiosity, and he’d be on his way, leaving her to be on hers.

Cold to the bone, Teddy took a seat at the plain wood table in the café without so much as unbuttoning anything. Once she warmed up a little, she’d start shedding layers. Before she could advise Ben to do the same, he imitated Bennett, who shrugged his fine blue wool coat off and draped it over the back of the chair.

Sure enough, his broad shoulders and chest tapered across flat stomach to narrow hips. Teddy tore her eyes away, concentrating on shoving her holey gloves deeper in her pockets. The right one would soak up the damp from his handkerchief she’d stuffed in there earlier, but she wasn’t giving the hanky back to him covered with the dirt from her face. He’d have dozens more anyway.

“I ate here yesterday,” he said. “The stew wasn’t great, but it was tolerable, better than a lot of what I’ve had from a cook wagon at roundup.”

“In a place like this I’d rather have meat I can see on the plate and know what kind of critter it came from.”

“Maybe that’s smart,” he said agreeably. “There’s not a lot of choice, but have anything you like.”

He didn’t even have the decency to be the kind of blond that looked all bleached out. Brows and lashes a few shades darker than his golden hair set off clear blue eyes just fine, the same as his tanned skin did white teeth that flashed at her with every smile.

Why couldn’t he look like one of Uncle Walter’s bullies? For that matter, why couldn’t he tell her what she should order instead of being so dratted agreeable?

Trying to ignore the man across the table from her and her own reaction to him, Teddy gazed around the room. This little place was a working man’s eatery. Muddy floor, rough furniture and walls. The scent of frying meat warred with those of cow and coal smoke.

More and more men from the stockyards and railroad walked in and filled the tables as noon approached. A big woman moved from table to table with a coffee pot. At the sight of the other female, Teddy relaxed muscles she hadn’t known were tense.

The woman thumped three heavy mugs on the table and poured coffee. “What will it be?”

“Can we get something other than coffee for Ben, please?” Teddy asked.

“I don’t need anything else,” Ben said. “I like coffee.”

“I could bring milk,” the waitress said doubtfully.

“No,” Ben said, sticking out his lower lip. “I want coffee. Hot coffee.” He emphasized his point by cupping both hands around the cup.

“One cup of hot coffee on a day like this won’t hurt him,” Bennett said, winking at Ben. “I’m sure I had a cup or two by the time I was his age.”

Bennett, the waitress, and Ben all ignored Teddy’s protests. Before she knew it, the waitress was gone with an order of steak and potatoes for her and beef stew for Bennett and for Ben, the little traitor.

She understood an eight-year-old boy admiring and imitating a grown man who had taken on two others and made besting them look easy, but still it annoyed her. If she tried to add that much cream and sugar to Ben’s coffee, he’d throw a fit. When Bennett did it, Ben slurped happily at coffee doctored until it looked white.

Teddy frowned down at her hands. What could a man like Luke Bennett be up to with the likes of her? Most probably he was bored and entertaining himself, seeing how far he could push and lure her down the road to perdition. Maybe he was just the kind who enjoyed interfering and throwing his weight around. To be fair, maybe he really didn’t like seeing Ben tossed through the air like trash and her shoved to the ground, but why hadn’t he tipped his hat and walked away after stopping that?

Well, she’d already decided to give him the story he wanted and be done with him. After that — Uncle Walter really hadn’t looked at the cows today. Merlin was what mattered to him. If tomorrow there were only five cows in the pen, would he remember there had been six today? Griffin had talked as if he’d set guards, but he wouldn’t. His men would keep an eye out, that’s all, and by the middle of the night, with the temperature heading down toward ten degrees....

Encouraged by the direction of her thoughts and the beginning of a plan, Teddy straightened and took off her coat.

“I’m glad you’re starting to warm up,” Bennett said. “You were looking a little blue around the edges.”

“No, I wasn’t, and I’m fine, thank you.”

“Good. If your lips aren’t stiff with cold, you can tell me what’s going on. How is it you and your uncle both claim to own the same stock?”

“It’s exactly what you already heard. My father left everything he owned to Uncle Walter. Well, except a little to me so I wouldn’t be a charity case, but pretty much everything. And Pa didn’t own Merlin and the girls when he died. He already gave them to me.”

“Gave? They were a gift?”

“No,” Ben said. “Teddy earned them. She earned them by nursing all the dogies and anything that got sick.”

Bennett eyed her thoughtfully over the rim of his cup as he took a swallow of coffee. She knew he must wonder why a man would pay a daughter for helping on the ranch.

“It started as a joke,” she said, feeling defensive. “Pa was going on about what girls should and shouldn’t do, and I said if he thought all I should do is stay in the house and cook and clean, I’d do just that and he could stay up all night with the sick calf in the barn. He said it wouldn’t make much difference, and I said I figured I’d saved a whole herd over the years, and so he pulled out his records, and went back and counted. It didn’t add up to much of a herd maybe, but he was surprised how many there’d been. I’ve been nursing calves and foals and puppies and kittens since I was Ben’s age, and I’m good at it. He joked about it and said it made sense his daughter would be more use than most females, and he let me pick one calf or yearling for each five I saved. He called it my dowry.”

“But he died before you married.”

Ben piped up, telling more than he should again. “Teddy was supposed to be married before her Pa ever got sick, but she caught Jack kissing Lydia Symmons and threw the ring back at him and wouldn’t talk to him any more.”

The minute they got back to the hotel, she was going to have a talk with Ben about telling strangers things they didn’t need to know. Thank goodness he was too young to understand it wasn’t just kissing and wasn’t just Lydia. From the look on Bennett’s face he did understand, and he could just keep his sympathy.

“Mr. Bennett does not need to hear about that,” she said firmly. “The fact is Pa didn’t think a woman could run a ranch or should, and so he left it to his brother. The only blessing there is that Pa can’t see how bad a mistake that was from the grave. So Ben and I left with my cows, I’m going to sell them and have a good start, and we’re going to settle down in some nice town where I can find work and Ben can go to school.”

“I don’t want to go to school,” Ben muttered.

“Maybe you don’t want to go, but you’ll be glad you did,” Bennett said. “You don’t want to be a fellow who spends his life swamping out saloons because he can’t read and write well enough to do anything else.”

Ben’s jaw dropped a little as he absorbed this bit of advice from his new hero. Teddy’s resistance to Bennett slipped enough she was relieved when the waitress returned and thumped plates down on the table. By the time their meals had all been delivered and cups topped up, Teddy had shored up her defenses.

They ate in silence for a while before Bennett asked, “If your uncle isn’t willing to recognize your claim, why did he let you leave with them?”

Teddy concentrated on cutting her steak, which resembled shoe leather more than anything edible. That’s what she got for being contrary. The stew was probably fine, good even. When Ben stirred beside her, she quelled him with a glare.

“He took the family to Pueblo for a few days. Shopping and such.”

“So you spirited them away behind his back.”

She nodded. “I knew he’d fuss over me taking them, but I never figured he come after us. He knows they’re mine, and he knows how it happened. He needs cash pretty bad. He must have cash buyers.”

“He can’t sell the same stock more than once.”

“Sure he can. Show them to the poor suckers, take their money, write bills of sale, and disappear.”

“Other than landing in jail, they’d sue, put liens on your father’s ranch.”

The potatoes were good. Crispy and buttery. Teddy nodded as she chewed, swallowed. “They’d be putting liens on liens. He’s already sold everything he can and ruined what he can’t.”

Bennett frowned, and not at his stew. “Why would your father leave anything to a man like that instead of you?”

“Because he didn’t know. He and Uncle Walter hadn’t seen each other face to face since they were boys, and Uncle Walter writes good letters.”

“It’s a shame. Your bull is the best I’ve seen here so far, but I wouldn’t risk ranch money on an animal someone claims is stolen, and no one else will either.”

“Putting them in the sale was a big mistake, I guess,” Teddy said, “but I couldn’t keep them long with nowhere to put them. I should have written letters to some of Pa’s friends the day I realized what Uncle Walter was really like. I can’t take anything back out of the sale. I signed a paper saying I wouldn’t, but Uncle Walter didn’t sign anything. After he gets some judge to say they’re his, Mr. Griffin will let him take them. He was going to let them go today until you came along.”

“You’re too pessimistic. You need to show up in court yourself, tell your story, and show your papers. Get the judge to find for you.”

“I’m not pessimistic. I’m realistic. You saw how it was today. Mr. Griffin saw my paperwork when I entered the sale, and it was fine then. As soon as Uncle Walter showed up, nobody would even listen to me.”

“Make them listen. Get your own lawyer and make them listen.”

“I need every penny I’ve got left. I can’t waste money on a lawyer.”

“You don’t have to. I have an uncle who’s a lawyer. Actually I have two, but one of them is right here in Denver. We’ll go see him, you can show your papers and tell your story, and he can tell you what your chances are. You’re not giving up without trying, are you?”

The thought of fighting in a world that was inhospitable to young women with no money hadn’t even occurred to her. “You’re not listening. I can’t waste money on a lawyer.”

“If you win, it won’t be wasted. That bull is probably going to go for more than I’d be willing to spend. Top of the sale maybe. Talk to my uncle. Well, he’s my half-uncle by marriage, but talking to him for a half hour or so won’t cost you anything. I’m going to visit him and my aunt while I’m in the city anyway.”

“Half-uncle by marriage,” Teddy said, trying to work out what that meant.

“His wife is my pa’s half-sister, so she’s my half-aunt. She married a lawyer, and they live right here in Denver. As soon as we finish here, we’ll go see him and see what he has to say. You’ll like him.”

No, she wouldn’t because she wasn’t going to meet him. “I’m not taking charity from your half-uncle or anybody else.”

“A little talk about the problem isn’t charity. My other uncle, the one back home, does that for people all the time, and he doesn’t charge them.”

“Your other — how big is your family?”

“Middling, I’d say. Pa has a brother and sister. That brother is the one who lawyers back in Mason, and then he has a half-sister and a half-brother. They’re all married, and I have a slew of cousins. My mother’s kin are all back East where she came from, and I never met any of them.”

To Teddy, who had no one except Uncle Walter and his family, it sounded wonderful. People who had enough kin to have some good ones didn’t know how lucky they were.

She glanced at Ben, who had no kin at all, saw how he was pretending great interest in his empty bowl, and patted his hand. Bennett noticed the pat, of course. Let him wonder. Ben was none of his business, and neither was she.

“It’s kind of you to offer. I wish I never put Merlin and the girls in the sale, and I could sell him to you right now for a fair price, but I can’t, and we need to get back to the stockyards. I forgot to chop the ice off the water troughs what with Uncle Walter bothering me and all. I have to get after Griffin’s men to make sure they give out as much feed as I’m paying for too.” She reached for her coat, expecting an argument.

“I’m sorry,” Bennett said, “I mistook what I saw back there at the pens. If you want to let your uncle have his way without a fight, it’s none of my business. I’ll walk you back.”

Want to let Uncle Walter have his way! Teddy bounced out of her chair, ready to tell Mr. Luke Bennett what she thought of him, realized how many eyes had turned their way, and walked outside without another word.

Once outside, she told him all right. “We’re not going to any lawyer with you now.”

He gave her a rueful smile. “You already made that clear.”

“You give me the address, and we’ll meet you there in two hours.”

There. That fixed him.

“I’ll come get you.”

“We can hop on a streetcar and get there just fine.”

She squared her jaw and forced herself to stare at the spot at the top of his nose right between his eyes. Pa always got mad when she did that, so did Jack, that faithless no-count.

Bennett grinned. “All right, Miss Pierce. Two hours.”

LUKE CAUGHT A tram back to his hotel, lost in thought. Miss Teddy Pierce was very different than she first appeared. Wiping some of the dirt away had revealed she was as close to a girl as a woman, mid-twenties at the most.

Cleaned up and dressed up, she’d probably be presentable. Beauties didn’t have snub noses like that, and his sister, who had a fit if the sun touched her face, would die over that pale tan, but it sure made a nice setting for the big brown eyes flecked with gold and green.

The tram stopped at Seventeenth Street. Luke jumped off and walked toward his hotel.

Yes, Miss Teddy Pierce was intriguing, but he’d wouldn’t take a bet on her showing up at Paul Howlett’s office the way she promised. The two hours she claimed she needed had to be a ploy to make him go away and stop trying to give her help she didn’t want.

Standing in the way of her uncle’s thugs to stop them from taking the bull showed she didn’t lack courage. What she must lack was proper bills of sale. She must know whatever her father wrote as a joke wouldn’t stand up legally.

His hotel came into sight, and Luke grimaced at the sight. The brand new Oxford Hotel had steam heating, electric lights, and a bathroom on each floor with a separate water closet. The desk clerk would be happy to introduce a guest to the wonders of the telephone, and Luke would be able to talk to Paul or someone at his office like magic.

The contrast of everything awaiting him at the Oxford with the derelict building where he’d left Teddy and Ben made Luke want to go back to get the pair of them. He’d have to truss her up like a calf for branding, but the boy would come happily enough. Then he could throw them in the elevator that would lift them all to his fourth-floor room, and....

And what? Trying to help a woman who didn’t want help was a fool’s game. Miss Teddy Pierce was undoubtedly right now packing her raggedy clothes into some raggedy valise, intending to take off for parts unknown before her two hours were up — although she had insisted on going back to the stockyards to break the ice in the water troughs for Merlin and “the girls.”

Luke rang the bell at the hotel’s front desk and waited for the clerk. He’d learn how to use a telephone and call Paul, be at the front door of the Barclay Building at the end of her two hours. The only way to figure out what the intriguing Miss Pierce was going to do was to wait and see.

LUKE DUG UNDER his coat and pulled his watch out of a vest pocket for the third time since he’d arrived at the Barclay Building. Her two hours were up. Only up by five minutes, but how long should he wait before heading inside to the warmth of Paul’s office and apologizing for asking Paul for an unnecessary favor?

When she first approached, he didn’t recognize her. Alone, and wearing a stylish dark green coat with a matching hat perched on upswept, honey-colored hair, Teddy Pierce looked like a female of a different species from the one he had met at the stockyards.

“Stop gawking at me,” she said. “Did you think I’d visit your lawyer half-uncle by marriage in my mud clothes?”

Luke closed his mouth and rediscovered the ability to speak. “I suppose I didn’t think you had anything else with you.”

“I have everything we own with us.”

She was more miraculous than a telephone. “I guess that excuse for a hotel has a bathtub.”

“No, it doesn’t, but there’s a bath house right down the street.”

Luke didn’t want to think about her in a bath house in that neighborhood. Trussing her up and taking her to the Oxford flashed through his mind again. He suppressed the thought, opened the door to the Barclay lobby, and escorted her to the stairs that were still the only way to the fourth floor here.

“Where’s Ben?” he asked as they climbed.

“Sound asleep at the hotel. A bath on top of everything that happened today wore him out, and he promised to stay in the room with the door locked if he didn’t have to dress up and come with me.”

As Paul’s clerk went to announce them, Luke helped her with her coat. His fingers accidentally brushed against her shoulder, and only force of will kept him from doing it again — just another small touch to see if the jolt of sensation was real or maybe something caused by dragging his feet on the wool carpet.

Still toying with the idea, he hung their coats on the tree by the door and followed Miss Pierce into Paul’s office.

The room was as Luke expected, dark with wood paneling and heavy mahogany furniture. The light spot was Paul himself, an outgoing, friendly man with enough silver in his dark hair to lend a distinguished air that must be an asset in court. He chatted about the weather and local Denver events as they settled into the leather upholstered chairs in front of his desk.

Luke watched Miss Pierce relax and tried not to stare. Her dress, a few shades lighter green than the coat, clung to a curvy female figure. If she wasn’t a conventional beauty, she was something better, something that made him wonder what had been wrong with the faithless fiancé. He shifted restlessly in his chair, not listening to the story he’d already heard but watching her.

When she finished her tale, she pulled a sheaf of papers from her small leather purse and handed them across the desk. In the silence that descended as Paul went through the pages one by one, Luke smiled at her, and for a moment she smiled back as if the two of them were together in this fight. Her smile disappeared suddenly, as if she remembered she didn’t trust him. After that she kept her eyes on Paul’s bent head.

“So you are Miss Theadora Pierce,” Paul said after a moment.

She shrugged, looking vaguely embarrassed. “That’s my legal name, but it’s too much, and no one ever thought me a Thea or Dora, so I’ve always been just Teddy.”

Teddy might fit the mud clothes, but right now? Luke liked Theadora.

“Is this your father’s ordinary signature?” Paul asked, finally finished with the papers.

“Yes, he always signed everything just like that.”

“Has your uncle seen these?”

“He did, and he tried to take them away. That’s why they’re torn on one edge. I had to pull them out of his hand.”

“Have you seen the court order your uncle has?”

“No, but from what he says it’s the same as the will, and I did see that.”

Paul cupped one hand under his chin and rubbed his fingers over the side of his face. “Can he make any other claims? For instance, are your cows bred to your own bull, or to one he owns? Can he claim you owe service fees?”

Miss Pierce frowned. “He can claim that, I guess. My girls are all carrying calves from one of Pa’s other bulls because I wanted to have heifers that I could take to Merlin, but Pa used Merlin for a lot more of his cows. If somebody wanted to add up fees, I’d be the one owed.”

“Cost of feed? Pasture? Medical treatment?”

“I guess he could claim those,” Teddy said uncertainly. “I guess he could claim I owe him board for me and for Ben — he’s a boy I took in — from the day Pa died until I left.”

Luke had already decided Ben, with his black hair, pale blue eyes, and sharp features, couldn’t be her brother or her son. Aside from the fact there was no physical resemblance, in either case, the boy would have inherited, not Uncle Walter. Ben must be an orphan she decided to fix up the same as her father’s orphaned and sick livestock.

Paul’s somber attitude disappeared in a wide smile. “Your uncle can claim what he wants to, but he’s going to look like a greedy skinflint when he does it, isn’t he?”

The tension in the room dissolved as Paul added, “The only way he’s going to get your cattle, Miss Pierce, is if he can convince a judge your bills of sale are forgeries. Without witnesses or other examples of his signature, that will be a hard charge for him to prove or for you to refute. Did your father ever mention anything about this to friends or other family members?”

“He teased me about it in front of everyone he knew.”

“Is there any chance anyone he knew lives in Denver? Or is here for the sale?”

Miss Pierce looked uncertain again. “No one who lives here. Maybe someone’s here for the sale, but I don’t know....”

Voices sounded in the outer office, and Paul rose to his feet. “Any reasonable judge is going to rule that Merlin and his harem-to-be are yours, but a witness would be good insurance. When I’m through here, I’ll see if I can find Judge Harcourt and find out if he has time for us tomorrow. Being first is always better than second, so we’ll try to get a hearing set before your uncle can do it.”

Luke rose, ready to leave, when Paul added, “And don’t worry about charity, Miss Pierce. After you sell your cattle for an outrageous price, I’ll send you an outrageous bill.”

Mouthing a thank you at his half-uncle by marriage, Luke opened the door for Miss Theadora Pierce, the better-than-beauty.

WHEN TEDDY STOPPED in the lobby of Mr. Howlett’s building, she couldn’t remember putting her coat back on, leaving the lawyer’s office, or walking down three flights of stairs.

“Do you think he meant it?” she whispered as much to herself as to Bennett.

“Of course he meant it, but we need to look for a witness for him.”

That brought her out of the her daze. “We?”

“We,” he said, taking her by the arm and turning her toward the door. “And before you start fussing about charity, consider that you can’t go searching through hotels, restaurants, and saloons by yourself. You can pay me back after the judge says your cattle are your cattle by helping me search for bulls almost as good as Merlin that my father won’t skin me for paying for.”

She shouldn’t spend that much time in his company. He was dangerous. But he was also right. “All right, it’s a deal,” she said, stopping again and holding out a hand. Ignoring her own reaction when he wrapped his larger hand around hers was impossible. Heat spread from her fingertips to her toes, missing nothing in between. Her eyes locked on his until sounds of footsteps on the stairs above made her pull away.

“Now that we’re a team, I think you should call me Luke,” he said, “and I like Theadora.”

“No one calls me Theadora.”

“Good. Whenever you hear it, you’ll know it’s me.”

She considered arguing and abandoned the idea, admitting to herself she liked the way her real name sounded in his smooth, undoubtedly troublesome, male voice. After all, when the sale was over, he’d go back north to Mason and his family’s ranch, and she and Ben would go — somewhere else.

“Let’s start looking through the hotels in the area,” Luke suggested, holding the door to the street for her. “We’ll finish up at the Oxford. That’s where I’m staying and where Paul will leave any message about tomorrow for us. We can eat there and I’ll take you back to....” He waved a hand, his opinion of her choice of hotel clear on his face.

“It may not be fancy, but it’s respectable and inexpensive,” Teddy said defensively, turning left with no clear destination in mind and walking faster.

“You’re not going to have to worry about money in a few days. Why don’t we see if something decent is available in one of the hotels we’re going to check out?”

“Because it’s not a sure thing, no matter what Mr. Howlett says, and where I stay is none of your business!”

He made a disapproving sound but didn’t argue, and they set out on their witness hunt.

Teddy soon found the whole business discouraging and exhausting. At one hotel and restaurant after another, she and Luke walked in as if ready for a meal, she searched every face in sight, and they walked out again as if they had changed their minds.

The mountains to the west were on fire from the last rays of the setting sun, and the temperature was plummeting when Luke finally stopped at the Oxford Hotel. The desk clerk had no messages from Mr. Howlett.

Dropping into a chair in the hotel restaurant, Teddy almost moaned with relief. Her feet hurt. No one had shoved her down in mud, but she had far fewer layers of flannel and wool on than this morning, and the cold had worked its way in deep again.

A cup of coffee revived her enough to notice her luxurious surroundings. “Are you really staying here?” she asked Luke, unable to keep the awe out of her voice.

“I am, and you should be too. I could arrange it.”

She arched a brow and gave him a cynical look.

He grinned. “That would work, and it would be even cheaper than staying in the rat hole.”

Speaking of rats, some men had similar traits. Good-looking ones probably didn’t have to work as hard at rattiness as ordinary ones. “Ben and I are happy where we are.”

Luke sobered. “How are you going to get him anything to eat tonight? Tell me you aren’t going to take him out in that neighborhood after dark.”

“Of course not. We have — supplies with us. I need to get back before he starts to worry is all. He’ll feed himself.”

“You have.... You really are squeezing pennies until they squeal, aren’t you?”

She studied the ornate menu and changed the subject to the weather until after the waiter had taken their orders and left.

“Thank you for this,” she said then. “Pa took me with him on trips sometimes, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been anywhere half this nice, and I know you don’t really need me to help you decide what to bid on or not at the auction.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. If you think on it, I’m between a rock and a hard place. I’d never be here by myself except my father is laid up. If I go home with nothing, no one will believe there was nothing worth buying. They’ll figure I lost my nerve. If I bring back mediocre stock, they’ll be disappointed, and if I blow every penny I’m authorized to spend on one like Merlin, they’ll be more than disappointed, unhappy.”

“Is your pa hard to please then?”

“No, he can be loud and he has a quick temper, but for the most part he’s pretty reasonable. It’s not like he’d ever say, ‘I can’t believe any son of mine was dumb enough to do that.’ He’ll just say we need to start contacting ranchers like your pa and see about private sales. But I’ll know he’ll think if he could have come himself, he’d have done better, and he’s probably right.”

For a moment Teddy couldn’t think of anything to say. From the moment he’d barreled into her life, knocking her uncle’s henchmen one way and the next like rag dolls, Luke Bennett had seemed so confident and sure of himself in every way. She expected arrogance. This show of worry about fulfilling his father’s and his family’s trust made her almost willing to forgive him for the way he looked and the effect it had on her.

“No matter what happens with some judge, I’ll help you find what you need. I know Hereford pedigrees right back to England, and between us we’ll see past ribs sticking out on the ones coming off overgrazed land, and we’ll see past shaggy coats and muck too. Most folks don’t have the sense to brush and curry and bring them to the sale ring looking their best.”

“Brush... You groom your cattle?”

He sounded so incredulous, she laughed. “See? You wouldn’t do it either. Tell me part of why Merlin and the girls stood out wasn’t because I curried and brushed this morning.”

She thought he’d deny it, but he didn’t.

“You’re right. When I first caught sight of them, the way their coats glowed red in the sun caught my eye.”

The waiter brought their food, and they fell silent for a while. Teddy savored her roast chicken without envying Luke’s steak. Maybe tomorrow she’d be willing to try beef again, but for now the memory of the shoe leather was too much.

“What will we do if we don’t hear from Mr. Howlett tonight?” Teddy asked once the edge was gone from her hunger.

“If there’s no message when we’re ready to leave, I’ll try to telephone. They have a telephone in their house.”

“Do you wish you could live in the city and have electric lights and a telephone?”

“I wouldn’t mind having them, but I’m not willing to live in the city to get them. How about you?”

Teddy didn’t have to think about it. “No, I don’t want to, but Ben and I can’t go back to the ranch. If Uncle Walter’s so desperate for my cattle, he probably can’t go back either. I’m going to find a place in a nice town and settle in. Ben is going to go to school, and I’m going to find work of some sort.” She looked around the elegant room. “Maybe we would do better in a city, but anyplace we rented wouldn’t have electric lights, and in a small town we could at least walk out and visit open spaces.”

“What’s wrong with the closest town to where you grew up? Surely you have friends there.”

“Starkey is the nearest town. It’s no place a woman can find a job, and the school’s not much either. Pa sent me away to boarding school for years.”

They spent the rest of the meal in casual conversation about the things they’d seen in the city since they’d arrived. When they left the restaurant and checked with the desk clerk again, Luke had a message from Mr. Howlett.

“What does it mean?” Teddy whispered, reading the message along with Luke.

“It means you have a hearing at ten tomorrow morning before Judge Harcourt, and your uncle already has notice to be there,” Luke said. “I wish we’d found one of your father’s friends.”

“Me too. I was thinking of asking Mr. Griffin in the morning if he’d let me see the list of who consigned stock to the auction, but even if he says yes, and even if I recognize a name, we won’t have time to track someone down and get to... Oh!”

Teddy pushed away from the desk and ran across the lobby. “Mr. Rollins, Mr. Rollins, please wait.”

A short, florid-faced man stopped halfway through the elevator door, showing no sign he recognized her. “Miss?”

“Teddy Pierce. Do you remember me? I’m Asa Pierce’s daughter.”

Rollins stepped away from the elevator. “I do remember you, of course, although you looked very different out on the ranch, forcing milk down some half-dead dogie. I was sorry to hear about your father. I hope you received my condolence letter.”

Teddy didn’t remember his letter. She had barely been able to force herself to look at any of them, but she smiled now and said, “Of course. It was very kind of you to write.”

She hesitated, unable to ask a man who hadn’t recognized her if he remembered what she needed him to remember.

“Well, now, is this your young man?” Rollins said. “I believe I heard you were engaged to marry.”

Teddy knew Luke had come up behind her and bit back her quick denial. If he wasn’t her young man, what was he doing here? She avoided confirming or denying the older man’s assumption by introducing Luke.

Afterward she said, “Mr. Rollins, I know this is a strange question, but did Pa ever say anything to you about how he decided to transfer title to some calves to me because of how many I saved for him?”

Rollins looked puzzled for a moment, then his expression cleared, “I do remember. It was that same time. You were down in the straw with the calf, and he said you saved so many he had to pay you by giving you your own herd. He tried to act put out, but I could tell he was proud of you. He called it your dowry.”

Rollins’ gaze flicked to Luke. “Luke Bennett, is it? That’s one way for the Bennett Ranch to get some of the best Hereford stock in the state. I’ve switched to Angus myself. Thrifty animals. Top dollar for the beef.”

Teddy tried to ignore the possessive way Luke threaded her arm through his and concentrate. “Mr. Rollins, I’m in a bit of a pickle. I know it’s a terrible imposition, but you could really make a difference.”

She described the situation as concisely as possible, her words wavering now and then as awareness of the warmth and strength of the arm linked with hers intruded.

Mr. Rollins was indignant on her behalf. “You bet I can be there. It’s the least I can do for your father, because we both know this isn’t what he wanted to happen to you.”

Teddy watched with a feeling of triumph as Mr. Rollins disappeared into the elevator after further assurances. “Elevators and electric lights aren’t the only miraculous things in this hotel,” she said, trying to pull away from Luke.

“They aren’t. Have you decided on a wedding date yet?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “What could I do to explain, tell him we only met this morning when you punched out two of Uncle Walter’s men for me?”

“That would be hard to believe.”

His eyes were dancing, and he looked to be suppressing laughter.

“Luke....”

“Theadora. We need to get you safely back to the rat hole before Ben gets so worried he does something foolish.”

Out on the street she let him tuck her arm through his again. This time he didn’t make her feel uncomfortable. This time he made her feel safe.

Chapter 2

TUESDAY

THE COURTHOUSE INTIMIDATED Teddy. The high-arched entry with its huge, heavy doors. The echoing halls with their marble floors and high ceilings. The courtroom with rows of oak seats like church pews and the judge’s bench set up high behind a railing meant to keep people like her at a distance. The room was cold, the scent of wax heavy in the air.

Ben, who more and more often these days refused to hold her hand, clung tight today, eyes wide. Teddy had an aggravating urge to grab Luke Bennett’s hand in a like manner. Instead she squared her shoulders and raised her chin.

Bad enough that Luke had been waiting outside her hotel at the crack of dawn this morning and gone with her to the stockyards to chop ice from water troughs and make sure Griffin’s men left enough feed for Merlin and the girls. Bad enough Luke had come back a second time to escort her here.

Much as she appreciated what he had done for her so far, relying on Luke Bennett would be ignoring every hard lesson she’d learned in the last few years. Giving him any hint of the feelings he provoked when he said her name or brushed against her would be asking for worse trouble than ever. She sat straight beside him. The skirt of her coat lapped over part of his pant leg. She pulled it away, tucked her coat tighter around her legs, and avoided looking at him, sure she’d see laughter in his eyes.

Voices sounded behind them. Uncle Walter strode up the center aisle followed by half a dozen men. Teddy recognized Mr. Griffin, the brand inspector, and the two men Luke had fought with the day before. The two strangers had the same rough look as the ones Luke called Sheepskin and the Wrestler. Why would Uncle Walter bring his hired ruffians to court?

Two other men, one in a uniform, entered the room through a door in the back wall. The one in a plain suit took a seat at the desk near the judge’s bench. The other remained standing and began what sounded like a chant.

Everyone else rose to their feet, but Teddy fought a wave of dizziness, heart pounding. Luke’s hand closed over hers, helping her up, steadying her. His hand was so warm, and hers so cold. She held on, unable to remember why she shouldn’t.

A heavy man in black robes entered, steel gray hair shining in the light from the high windows. Everyone sat back down after he took his seat looking down at them. Teddy stared at the Honorable Henry Harcourt, the judge who would decide whether she and Ben would spend the next years struggling, always on the brink of poverty, or with a comfortable cushion of cash to protect them.

The judge bent his head to read from a paper on the desk. “We’re here on a petition by Miss Theadora Pierce for an emergency hearing to decide a question of ownership of seven head of registered Hereford cattle. The petition is opposed by Mr. Walter Pierce. Are all parties present?”

Mr. Howlett and Uncle Walter’s lawyer, a Mr. Quentin, introduced themselves and agreed their clients were present. Mr. Quentin had more to say.

“Your Honor, my client asserts the petition is groundless and objects to this hearing. The ownership of these animals has been adjudicated in the county court where both my client and Miss Pierce reside. We further object to lack of timely notice.”

The judge peered at Quentin over the top of his spectacles. “Was your client served notice?”

“Yes, but only last evening right here in the courthouse when we were here to object to....”

“It sounds to me as if he was planning on spending time here anyway. Objection as to notice denied. Now do you have a copy of this court order?”

Teddy watched Quentin present the order to the judge and waited for Mr. Howlett to say something, do something, but he stayed quiet and seated. Her heart sank lower in the short time the judge took to read the order. Across the way, Uncle Walter smirked at her.

Judge Harcourt put the order to one side. “Mr. Howlett?”

“Your Honor, my client doesn’t contest the order or its validity. The fact is my client’s father, Mr. Asa Pierce, bequeathed only a small sum of cash to his daughter and left the remainder of his estate to his brother, Mr. Walter Pierce.”

Teddy heard her uncle snort at the “small sum of cash reference,” but kept her eyes on Mr. Howlett.

“However, the fact also is that beginning four years before his death and continuing until shortly before his final illness was diagnosed, Mr. Asa Pierce transferred ownership of the animals in question to his daughter in payment for her diligence in nursing orphaned and sick animals on his ranch. Even if you conclude the transfers were in fact a gift, they are valid, and the animals were never part of his estate.”

Mr. Howlett handed over Teddy’s papers, and silence again descended as the judge read them, one by one. Ben gave a small squeak, and Teddy realized she was squeezing his hand too hard. She loosened her grip and gave him an apologetic smile. When she loosened her hold on Luke, he tightened his on her. On the other side of Ben, Mr. Rollins beamed at them.

Judge Harcourt finished reading and looked up. “Does your client contest these bills of sale, Mr. Quentin?”

“Yes, Your Honor. We believe they are a joke at best, and forgeries at worst.”

Mr. Howlett had warned her to remain in her seat and silent no matter what was said until he called her to testify, but Teddy couldn’t stand the lie. She gasped and started to rise, only to be held down by Luke’s hold on her. “Sshh. You’ll have your turn,” he whispered, and she subsided.

Sitting through the brand inspector’s brief testimony as to his inspection of Merlin and the girls was not difficult. Teddy had no objection to Mr. Griffin’s testimony about how she had entered her stock in his sale, but Mr. Howlett did.

“Mr. Griffin, you saw Miss Pierce’s proof of ownership and accepted her cattle into your sale. Mr. Pierce came to you two days later with his court order, is that correct?”

“Yes, it is.”

“And you saw that every one of Miss Pierce’s bills of sale predates the court order and Mr. Asa Pierce’s death by more than a year, did you not?”

“Yes, I did.”

“So tell us please why you gave Mr. Pierce permission to remove the animals from the stockyards yesterday as if his ownership were uncontested.”

“Because he’d rather believe an old goat like Uncle Walter than any female, that’s why,” Teddy muttered. On her right, Ben grinned at her in agreement. From her left she heard another warning shush from Luke.

Mr. Griffin wasn’t admitting his reason. “It was a mistake, and when the problem was pointed out to me, I insisted the controversy be cleared up before the animals were moved. That’s why we’re here,” he said self-righteously.

“So if Miss Pierce prevails today, her animals are still entered in your sale?” Mr. Howlett asked.

Griffin’s eyes flew to Uncle Walter, to his lawyer, to the rough men on the benches behind them. He swallowed hard but admitted, “Yes, I suppose they are.”

“Thank you, Mr. Griffin.”

Uncle Walter swore to tell the truth next, and Teddy would have to admit he did that for a sentence or two. He told about his long distance relationship with his brother and how neither of them believed a female should or could run a ranch.

“Asa wanted me to act as a second father to Teddy and give her the life she should have until she married, and I did that until she stole the bull and those cows and ran off.”

He went on to claim the signatures on her bills of sale didn’t look right to him.

“That polecat!” Luke and Ben both shushed her this time, and Mr. Howlett gave her a stern glance.

Every exhausting minute she and Luke had spent searching for someone like Mr. Rollins had been worthwhile, Teddy realized, watching her uncle leave the witness stand with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. If the judge had any tendency at all to be like Mr. Griffin and simply accept her uncle’s version of things because he was prosperous-looking, self-confident, and male....

Mr. Howlett called her to the stand, and Teddy went on shaky knees to tell her story. She followed her lawyer’s advice and didn’t say a bad word about Uncle Walter. She didn’t say staying at the ranch would be impossible with creditors pounding on the door every day. She said staying there with Pa gone would be just too sad, which wasn’t a lie really.

“I’m going to make a new life for myself, and I need what my cattle will bring at that sale,” she said. “Uncle Walter knows why Pa gave me Merlin and the girls back when they were itty bitty calves, and I never thought for a minute he’d say different or call me a thief.”

Mr. Quentin questioned why she left when her uncle and his family were gone from the ranch.

“I knew he and Aunt Ida would try to talk me out of leaving,” she admitted. “I didn’t want to argue.”

At last she was done and able to watch Uncle Walter’s expression change from smug to angry as Mr. Rollins happily told his tale.

“Asa was proud of her. He called her his own little veterinarian, although I think he worried a little about the way she went without sleep for days at a time taking care of some of those calves,” Mr. Rollins said.

In answer to one of Mr. Quentin’s questions, Mr. Rollins explained further. “No, I don’t believe Asa had any idea she’d go out on her own. He wouldn’t have wanted that. He called those cows her dowry,” he said, beaming over at Teddy and Luke, “and if she wants to present her young man with cash instead of four-legged critters or keep it all for herself, who’s to say she shouldn’t do that.”

Teddy moaned. Luke and Ben shushed her again.

The entire hearing was over before noon. Judge Harcourt ruled from the bench that Merlin and the girls were Teddy’s. She whooped, hugged Ben. Let Luke hug her before she remembered she shouldn’t. Shook Mr. Howlett’s hand, and agreed to have dinner with Mr. Rollins and Luke at the Oxford Hotel before she remembered she shouldn’t do that either.

“He’ll want to know about our wedding,” Teddy said as she and Luke left the courthouse, Ben skipping ahead. “I hate to let him know we misled him.”

“We didn’t mislead him. We just didn’t disillusion him, and let’s not disillusion him now. We’ll get him talking about cattle. He won’t care about a wedding. If you ever see him again, tell him you found me as lacking as Jack the Faithless and threw me over.”

“You, of course, would be constant and true every day of your life,” Teddy said cynically.

“I will. My Uncle Ephraim....”

“Is that your by blood whole-uncle or your half-uncle?”

“Whole. Uncle Ephraim says Bennett men are like big trees, we fall hard, and once we fall we stay where we land.”

“Hmph. Until someone drags you off maybe.”

“He never said anything about that. If there are no ladies around he does sometimes have more to say about the way we burn.”

Teddy never found out if she was enough of a lady to be spared Uncle Ephraim’s ideas about burning because her own uncle caught up to them then, his hired men fanned out behind him.

“Your father would be ashamed of you,” he said to Teddy.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “If he could see everything that’s happened, he’d be sorry he can’t come back long enough to change his will.”

Uncle Walter ignored her and switched focus to Luke. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t bid on those cattle. This isn’t over, you know. You’ll lose your money and the cattle.”

Luke gave no sign of being bothered by the verbal threat or the ruffians behind her uncle. “I plan on bidding on the bull, even though he’ll probably go too high for me. If you want him or the cows, you’re going to pay through the nose.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m going to have them and have them for less than meat prices.”

Luke shook his head as if Uncle Walter was the saddest thing he ever did see. “The buyers at the sale won’t be that stupid. Maybe old Merlin will set a record.”

Teddy and Luke continued up the street toward the Oxford, but Teddy no longer felt like a victor. Uncle Walter might not worry Luke, but he worried her.

AFTER THEIR LUNCH, Luke and Theadora headed back to the stockyards. On the way, they stopped at her derelict hotel. Theadora disappeared inside.

The woman in mud clothes who rejoined Luke where he waited outside on the walk was undeniably Teddy. Maybe two women in one package was a good thing. Maybe it wasn’t, but it sure kept things interesting.

After clearing ice out of the water troughs again, Luke and Teddy worked their way up and down the rows of pens reserved for the sale stock, Ben running ahead, darting back now and then to give his own opinion on one sight or another.

When Luke had suggested Teddy could pay him back for his help with her uncle by helping him decide which bulls to bid on and how high to go, he’d been fibbing a bit. The responsibility of buying for the ranch did sit heavy on his shoulders, but Luke never doubted his own opinions of cattle. He had grown up living, breathing, and dreaming about cattle.

He didn’t believe Teddy could see through shaggy coats or evaluate an animal in poor condition any better than he could, and she couldn’t. But she sure made it more fun, and she did know Hereford pedigrees.

He’d hoped to find at least six bulls and a dozen would be better. Other than Merlin, so far there were only three possibles entered in the sale.

“You could settle for a few crossbreeds,” Teddy said doubtfully.

“Not unless I want to give Pa apoplexy.”

“Some breeders sell dozens at a time,” she said.

Her smile was something to behold, even when she was teasing.

“And half of what we’d get should be steers.”

“Mm hm.”

They ended up laughing together at their inside knowledge of how that worked.

“It’s not as if we expect to have nothing but registered Herefords on the ranch by next spring,” Luke said. “I’ll buy what I can here, and we’ll keep shopping.”

“Have you thought about my girls?”

“No, I’m not looking for cows or heifers.”

“All six of them are carrying by Jupiter, Pa’s best bull, and some of those calves will be bulls.”

“I thought Merlin was your pa’s best bull.”

“Merlin’s mine.” She leaned back against the nearest fence, picking at the wool around the hole in one glove, hair straggling out from her floppy hat, very much Teddy. “That’s just a fudge, though. Jupiter’s the best because he’s proven. Merlin’s first calves will come this spring, and I’ll never even see them. Uncle Walter sold every cow on the ranch to anyone with cash in hand.”

“Sold them half a dozen times?” Luke said, still not believing it could be done.

“No,” Teddy said seriously. “He has to save that trick until he’s ready to run, and if he’s desperate enough to be here after my seven head, he’s ready to run.”

“How did anyone find him when your father died then?”

“Oh, Aunt Ida always stayed on the farm in Missouri. Best I can tell, he’d show up every year or so, give her another mouth to struggle to feed and take off again. All the letters we got from him over the years came from there, and he sounded as respectable as Judge Harcourt.”

“You hear stories about men like that, but you never expect to meet one.”

“Or find out that’s what you’ve got for your only kin.” Returning to the subject of cattle, Teddy said, “So you’re not interested in my girls.”

“With my luck, if I bought those cows, every one of them would have a heifer, or half of them would have perfect little heifers and the other half would have three-legged, cross-eyed bull calves.”

“You should think about it.”

Maybe he would. “How closely are those cows related to Merlin?”

“Not too close. I have pedigrees for all of them back six generations. I’ll show you. If things were different, I’d be putting Merlin out with them this spring, and I could cross him to any heifers by Jupiter too. That was my plan,” she said, sounding sad.

“If you could, you’d keep them all and start your own herd, wouldn’t you?”

She shrugged. “There’s no use talking about what can’t happen. Women can’t run ranches, you know.”

“I know a few women who could run anything.”

“Are they half kin to you, or whole?”

“Both.”

The sun had almost disappeared behind the mountains by the time they left the stockyards, walking in companionable silence back to her hotel. Even Ben had wound down.

As Luke wondered if Teddy would decide to leave the boy at her hotel again rather than wrassle him into washing and getting into clothes suitable for dinner with Rollins, something about two men walking rapidly on the far side of the street caught his eye. Sheepskin and the Wrestler. Footsteps echoed from behind. A quick glance showed two more men closing in fast.

“Run,” Luke said to Teddy as he whipped around to face the closest threat. “Grab the boy and get out of here.”

He saw her catch Ben by the shoulders and jerked his attention back to business. Luke ducked the Wrestler’s first punch, but not Sheepskin’s.

“Pulling a gun on me was a mistake you won’t make again, you son of a bitch.”

Luke recovered, hit a jaw, knocked someone into the street, almost went down from a blow to his back, struggled to free his arms from men taking hold. A fist in the stomach doubled him over, another drove the air from his lungs and filled them with pure pain.

Did they have killing or crippling in mind? The thought no more than flashed through his mind when the night fractured with a sound that crawled up his spine with icy claws.

“You let him go! You yellow-bellied skunks, you let him go!”

The men on his arms were letting go, at least enough. Luke broke free and slammed Sheepskin in the jaw, panic giving him strength. Teddy had jumped on the back of one of the men, her arms around his neck, shrieking to outdo a Sioux. Ben was clinging to the legs of another like a burr. Luke gave the Wrestler a taste of what he’d been dealing out, putting him down with a jab to the throat.

Not in time, damn it, not in time. The big man Teddy had tried to strangle knocked her off and threw her down. Luke lunged, but the man took off running. People were peering out of buildings along the street now, some coming toward the fight. All Pierce’s men except the unconscious Wrestler ran, dodging out of sight between buildings.

“Teddy!” Luke wanted to shake her. Instead he cradled her in his arms. “Damn it, Teddy. How bad are you hurt?”

She smiled at him, her mouth already looking a little crooked from swelling on one side of her face. “I’m fine. Did you think I’d run off and leave you with four of them?”

“Are you crazy? He could have killed you.”

She touched gently beside his eye, which was rapidly swelling shut. “They could have killed you too, but they didn’t. Now we’ll look like a matched pair. Mr. Rollins will like that.”

Ben’s voice came from the shadows near the steps of the nearest building. He sounded much younger than eight, his voice quavering. “Teddy? Teddy? My arm’s hurt.”

Luke helped Teddy to her feet, and they both hurried to the boy. One look at the unnatural bend in Ben’s left forearm, and Luke wanted to howl — or track down Pierce’s men with a rifle in his hand — and the Wrestler had already crawled off.

One of the strangers who had come to see what the noise was about said, “There’s a doctor on the next street over. He’s a good man. He’ll fix the boy up.”

Luke picked Ben up, as careful of the arm as he could be. First the doctor. After that he’d get Teddy and Ben out of the rat hole, whether she liked it or not. Then Uncle Walter and his henchmen were going to wish they’d never heard the name Bennett.

Chapter 3

WEDNESDAY

ANNE BENNETT STARED out the back window of her kitchen, not seeing the winter landscape or the creek in the distance. The breakfast dishes waited, but she made no move to fill the empty dishpan.

She didn’t hear her husband walk up behind her, became aware only when she felt his warmth along her back, his arms around her waist, his breath on her cheek.

No one ever heard Cord unless he wanted to be heard. Abandoning her reverie, she leaned back into him, soaking in the sensations the long, lean body pressed against her evoked.

“Not so happy about it this time, are you?” he said softly, too softly for their four-year-old son, busy building castles with blocks in the parlor, to hear.

“Yes, I am happy. I just....” She turned in his arms, looked into his concerned amber eyes, and admitted the truth. “We lost each other for a while after Ty was born.”

“He needed you more than I did. We found each other again, didn’t we?”

Oh, yes, they had, but that first year — exhausting, frightening, frustrating. Exhilarating too in a way, but even so....

“Mother was such a help, but she stayed so long, and she’ll be worse this time. She’d like to sell her house and come live with us, you know.”

“Mm. Been thinking about that.”

Oh, no. She shouldn’t have said anything. Most men didn’t treat their mother-in-laws like queens. Why did hers have to?

Cord disappeared into their bedroom. She heard a drawer open and close, and he returned with paper and a pencil. Sitting at the kitchen table, dark head bent over the page, he drew a rectangle. Anne leaned over, one hand on his back, watching as he sketched in details.

“This house,” he said, using a dotted line to show the porch running along the front. He didn’t have to explain as he drew lines showing the one large room the front door opened into, parlor in front, kitchen behind, or the two bedrooms to the right.

He tore the sheet off the pad and started a second sketch. Anne tensed. “Please, no. I love this house. I don’t want to build another somewhere else.”

Ignoring her, he kept drawing lines. Finally she looked. The new sketch had even more dotted lines. Understanding dawned. “Could we do that? Just add rooms?”

“Easy enough to add two over here,” he said, indicating the left side of the drawing. “Your mother could have her own room across the way from us. If we get a girl this time, she’ll have her own room too. A boy, and you’ll have a sewing room, and he can share with Ty.”

Anne stared at the magic solution to at least some of her worries.

“While we’re at it, how about we move this out a few feet,” Cord said, indicating the line of the back wall of the house, “and we might as well put in water while we’re doing it. Maybe a little pump over a sink that drains outside.”

Any other plans he had would have to wait. She kissed him. Dropped into his lap and kissed him more thoroughly.

Outside, the dog barked sharply. Ty’s blocks clattered to the floor. “Foxface says someone’s coming,” Ty shouted, running to the front window. “I see them. They’re coming fast.”

Anne jumped up and followed Cord to the front door and the rifle hanging above it. Hands on Ty’s shoulders, ready to pull him away from the window, she peered out over his head.

“It’s all right. It’s only Pete. Pete and Ephraim,” she said, even though she knew Cord had already seen them. “They are coming awfully fast.”

By the time her brother-in-law and nephew dismounted and made it into the house, Anne knew this was no social call. Something was wrong.

Pete took the time to greet Ty, lift him up for a hug, but Ephraim ignored the boy and Anne. He pulled a yellow paper from his pocket and handed it to Cord. Anne pressed close and read the words printed on the Western Union form at the same time as Cord.

NEED CORDS KIND OF HELP STOP. LUKE

“If we hurry,” Ephraim said, “we can catch today’s train to Denver.”

Cord eyed his brother. “You’re coming?”

“You bet we are.”

Cord nodded and reached for the rifle. “If I leave you the pistol, is that enough?” he asked Anne.

“Take the pistol too,” she whispered, knowing he wouldn’t.

After a single hard kiss to her and hug to Ty, Cord walked out with his brother and nephew.

Anne raced to the bedroom, gathering everything he might need and be able to squeeze into saddlebags. Extra shirt. Underclothing. Comb. Shaving gear. Soap, toothbrush, toothpaste. Or could he buy soap and toothpaste in Denver?

Seconds ticked off in her head. She knew exactly how long it would take him to catch up Keeper, run a brush over the gelding, and saddle up.

“What’s happening?” Ty wanted to know. “Why did Uncle Ephraim bring that paper?”

“The paper is a message for your father. People send messages called telegrams from town to town, and your cousin Luke sent this one to Uncle Ephraim because he lives in town. The message is really for your father, though, and Luke knew Uncle Ephraim would bring it to him right away.”

“What does the message say?”

“It says Luke needs some help.”

“So Pa’s going to town to help and then he’ll come home? Will he be home in time for supper?”

Anne swallowed past the lump forming in her throat. “No, sweetheart. I think he may be away for two or three days.”

Ty’s face, so like his father’s, reflected Anne’s own feelings, but he didn’t say anything more.

Two or three days would likely be four or five. Since they’d married, she and Cord had never been apart more than a few terrible days before Ty was born. How long would it be this time? How much trouble was Luke in and how dangerous?

No matter. Cord didn’t need to see a long face on her before riding away. She would trust he could handle whatever trouble Luke was in and pray he’d be home soon.

Anne gathered the things she had collected and ran for the barn.

TEDDY WOKE TO bright sunlight streaming through the hotel room windows. Windows in Luke’s room at the Oxford Hotel. She never would have agreed to it — should never have agreed to it. Except she had hurt so bad, and she’d been so tired, and Ben’s face had been so pale with pain and fear.

The fact Luke had been so wild was part of it too. He acted as if it were all his fault instead of hers. As if he’d brought trouble down on her instead of the other way around.

She turned her head, relieved the movement didn’t make anything hurt worse. Her left eye ached. The entire left side of her face throbbed. Mr. Rollins would be delighted with the way she and Luke matched with their shiners and bruised faces.

Ben slept peacefully at her side, curled up small except for the outstretched cast. Of course he’d had a little laudanum to help him sleep. She had refused, hadn’t needed it last night to fall into a dreamless sleep, but something that would erase the pain would be welcome right now.

She needed to get up, not fall back into a drugged sleep. She needed to get out of Luke’s shirt and back into her own clothes before he showed up, fresh after a night spent at Howletts’, and probably still ready to tear Uncle Walter limb from limb.

Voices sounded faintly outside in the hall. What were those respectable people in this first-rate hotel going to think if they saw her on the way to the wash room and water closet down the hall? The mud clothes she’d peeled off before falling into bed were all she had here. The hotel staff would never have let her and Ben past the front desk last night, which was why Luke had brought them in through a side door, ignored the elevator, and all but carried them up the stairs.

Luke. Did she dare hope he was going to such lengths to help her for reasons other than chivalry? Believing in anyone except herself again would be so stupid. After all, even Jack would have intervened Monday morning to stop Uncle Walter’s men. Even if his moral fiber had proved weak in some regards, Jack wasn’t all bad, and he was no coward.

Still, Jack would never waste time on a woman with an eight-year-old boy attached. He’d have helped her up out of the mud, decided she wasn’t a candidate for flirting or more, and been gone once Uncle Walter told his tale.

A soft knock sounded at the door, and Teddy almost groaned out loud, as much from knowing who that must be as from the pain of sitting up. She padded to the door, unlocked, and opened it a crack. “You can’t come in. I’m not decent.”

A gloved hand pushed the door wider. Her own leather bag appeared in the opening. “I stopped by the rat hole early and brought these things from your room,” Luke whispered. “Here. I’ve got more.”

Teddy took the bag, took her good coat and hat and Ben’s, and shut the door. She dumped the contents of the bag on a chair. He really had done a good job of bringing what they needed, but how exactly had he gotten into her hotel room, and where had he learned that much about a woman’s unmentionables?

Maybe she didn’t want to know the answers to those questions. Teddy yanked off Luke’s shirt and wriggled into her own clothes as fast as she could tie, hook, and button.

He’d included her hair brush, thank goodness. Working on tangles in the thick mass she’d barely remembered to pull pins from the night before, she walked to the washstand and froze at the sight of herself in the mirror on the wall.

She had a shiner, all right. A black and blue wonder surrounding her red, half-open eye. Below that, her cheek was more of a blotchy purple. After sticking her tongue out at the mirror, she went to let Luke in.

“Be very quiet,” she warned. “Ben’s still asleep.”

The two of them would make a matched pair all right. He looked as awful as she did. She touched her fingertips to the scab at the corner of his mouth. “That’s not the worst of it, is it?”

“No, I feel like I’ve been run over by a train, but I bet you do too.”

“Not quite that bad, only a wagon maybe.”

As they stared at each other, something powerful tugged at her. She wanted to touch him again, wanted to lean against him and forget everything except the comfort of not being alone. She tore her gaze away.

“We need to talk,” he said.

“I know, but I need to make a trip first. You didn’t remember to bring our toothbrushes, did you?”

“Sorry, no, but mine’s still here.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You slept in my shirt,” he said, looking at the slightly rumpled shirt where she’d left it on the bed. “You could have taken a clean one out of the bureau, you know. That one was headed for the laundry.”

“I didn’t want to go through your draw.... I didn’t have anyth.... A shirt’s not the same as a toothbrush, and you know it.” She forgot to keep her voice down. Ben made a soft sound, and his head moved restlessly.

Luke sat on the edge of the bed. “You go ahead. I’ll watch him.”

Teddy slipped out the door. Her eyes watered as she walked down the hall, and she wiped away tears, careful of her bruises. The injury to her eye and all the other places that hurt were why she was crying. It had nothing to do with the sight of Luke, his face just as battered, watching over Ben.

When she returned to the room, they moved to the corner farthest from the bed to talk.

“I should just sign whatever Uncle Walter wants and let him have the cattle,” Teddy said.

“You can’t want to do that.”

“I don’t, but I don’t want to get you killed or Ben hurt worse either.”

“No one’s getting hurt from now on except your uncle and his men. I sent for reinforcements.”

“What kind of reinforcements?”

“My half-uncle. One look at Cord and your Uncle Walter will be running all right, and without your cattle. My cousin Pete will probably come with him. I hope they can talk my Pa out of crawling into a wagon and making someone drive him to the train too.”

“Your family is going to drop everything and come to Denver to help someone they never met and you only met two days ago?”

“You bet. They ought to get here this afternoon.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“You will. Now tell me how broke is your uncle anyway? So far he’s hired a lawyer and four men. He’s staying in Denver somewhere. Even if he sold off all the cattle on your place, the land is valuable, right?”

Teddy leaned back against the wall, eying the chair near the bed wistfully. Not only did she hurt, but they had never eaten last night. She felt vaguely light headed, but she didn’t want to wake Ben, and if Luke could stand here, so could she.

“He started selling anything he could for cash as soon as a judge said he could. He beat out a lot of creditors that way, but I told you, the ranch has so many liens against it now nobody will get a penny on the dollar. I don’t know if it’s sold yet, but Uncle Walter won’t get another dime out of anything Pa left.”

“So where’s the money he got early on?”

“Spent probably. Did you see his clothes and the diamond ring? And he gambles.”

Luke hadn’t noticed any diamonds, but he had noticed Uncle Walter was a pompous, overdressed ass.

“So he’s got enough left to hire help to get your cattle, but not much more.”

“He won’t pay those men or the lawyer. He probably gave them a little and promised them more, but he won’t pay in the end.”

“Not paying men like that is dangerous.”

“Only if they can find you.”

Luke had trouble wrapping his mind around the idea anyone could inherit a ranch stocked with animals like Merlin and Teddy’s cows and throw it all away. He was getting there, but still having trouble. “What will happen to your aunt and cousins then?”

“He bought them all sorts of clothes and jewelry when they first moved to the ranch. I suppose they’ll sell enough of it to get back to Missouri and make do like before.” Teddy couldn’t help but smile at the alternative that occurred to her. “I think Aunt Ida has been working on getting Jack Trenton to marry one of my cousins. If she gets that done, they’ll be in gravy.”

“Gravy you didn’t want to swim in.”

“I had unreasonable expectations. My own father said so, and so did everyone else.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I miss Pa something awful, you know. He didn’t mean to land me in this mess with that will. Now Uncle Walter’s the only kin I have, and that’s worse than not having any. I wish I had halves and wholes that would come running when I called like you do.”

Luke laughed, soft and low. Teddy’s stomach flipped.

“Be careful what you wish for. They’re coming, but my family has its ups and downs too.”

“Not like Uncle Walter.”

“No, not like that.”

She tried to straighten off the wall and fell back. Luke caught her and didn’t let go. Calloused fingertips brushed over her swollen cheek. Long fingers slid into her hair and cupped the back of her head. His mouth closed over hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and melted into him, wanting more of his warmth, more of his strength, more....

“Teddy?”

At the sound of Ben’s voice, they broke apart. Teddy hurried to Ben. “I’m right here. We’re in Luke’s room at the big hotel, remember?”

“I remember, but I need to — I don’t know where?” Ben pushed up in the bed, dark hair mussed, face so pale, the slight tinge of pink staining his face resembled a fever flush.

“They have a water closet here, right down the hall. I’ll take you.”

“A girl can’t take a boy down the hall,” Luke said. “I’ll do it.”

Teddy pulled out the clean clothes Luke had brought for Ben, hoping Luke didn’t notice that while she had stripped down and used his shirt for a nightgown, she had been satisfied to leave Ben in his own underclothing. Or wonder about the why of that.

LUKE WALKED BEN down the hall, grateful the other occupants of the fourth floor rooms seemed to be early risers and gone. At least no one was waiting in the hall and no one already in the wash room. He showed Ben how things worked, remembering his own first experience with modern plumbing.

Standing outside the door, waiting for the boy, Luke thought about the way Theadora Pierce looked with her hair still down around her shoulders, the silky feel of that hair against his palms. He relived the kiss, the feel of her molding her body to his.

He’d kissed more than a few girls in his time and enjoyed every one. The physical thing was always there, the pleasure of the kiss, the lust it provoked. He’d never before wanted to swoop the woman up in his arms and carry her off somewhere, growling mine every step of the way, never before heard a voice whispering in the back of his mind. This is the one. You’d better get this right.

The sound of running water jerked Luke away from his thoughts, and he sighed. From kissing to pissing made one hell of a contrast. Then again, without valleys there wouldn’t be mountains.

The door opened and Ben came out. “I never been anyplace like this before,” he said. “The way the water goes.... I never used nothing but a privy before.”

“I know. I’ve only been places like this a few times myself.”

“I hope you can talk Teddy out of going back to the other place. This is sure better.”

Luke hoped so too, but he had a feeling talking Teddy around was going to be a high mountain to climb.

Sure enough, she was full of objections. “Sneaking in and out of your room up the stairs and coming to a different place for breakfast instead of eating right there in the hotel makes me feel cheap,” she said. “If they caught us, they’d kick us right out in the street, wouldn’t they?”

Luke couldn’t argue that. The Oxford wasn’t the sort of hotel that would turn a blind eye when a man who registered alone brought a woman to his room, whether she was accompanied by a boy or not. Luke didn’t care. They’d just have to be careful.

“You are not going back to the rat hole,” he said, giving her an intimidating stare over the rim of his coffee cup.

“Don’t you give me orders, mister.”

So much for intimidation. “What would you do if they grabbed Ben and threatened him, not even threatened, hurt him? Or you? Do you think they couldn’t hurt you enough to make you sign whatever they wanted? Your uncle probably doesn’t want to hurt his brother’s daughter, or a boy, but he may convince himself it’s necessary if he gets frustrated enough.”

“He already hurt us.”

Luke wasn’t sure if she meant last night’s injuries or the way her uncle had thrown away her home and everything that should have been hers. Most likely both.

They finished their breakfast in silence, Ben shooting worried looks from one to the other until Luke winked at him.

Teddy finished her last piece of toast and sighed. “All right, we’ll hide in your room at least for today, but tonight I’ll get us our own room on a different floor, or if they’re filled up here, in another hotel.”

“Sure, you do that. If I started asking about a woman this tall,” Luke held his hand over her head, “with honey-colored hair and brown eyes and a boy with a cast on his arm, how long do you think it would take me to find you? There are four of them to split the job.”

“My eyes are hazel,” she said, her mouth a narrow slit.

“And if they said brown instead of hazel, they’d never find you.”

“I never asked for your help.”

“I never said you did.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I’m being a shrew, aren’t I? Rude and ungrateful and....”

“Tired and hurt and fed up,” he finished for her.

She sniffled, and he handed over his handkerchief, watching her pocket it after wiping her nose and trying to remember how many of those he had brought with him.

“Did you really go chop ice for Merlin and the girls this morning?” she said.

“Of course I did. I used your hatchet and put it right back under Merlin’s manger where you hide it.”

“What if they saw you?”

“Men like that are bound to be too lazy to be up and about at the crack of dawn. Besides, without you rushing to the attack, I could turn tail and outrun them.”

“You wouldn’t run. Without me and Ben, you’d go after them instead of wiring your family for help, wouldn’t you?”

“Without you and Ben, they’d have no beef with me, and it wouldn’t matter. If I got into it with them over something else, who knows? It would depend on what happened and why. Maybe I’d duck for cover, maybe I’d try to pick them off one by one. We’ll never know how it might have been if things were different.”

“I know.”

The way she said it made him want to charge right out, find Sheepskin and his crew, and do something stupid. He shoved the urge aside, along with renewed thoughts about dragging and growling, and finished his coffee.

On the way back to the hotel, Luke watched both sides of the street, glanced back over his shoulder every few strides. None of Pierce’s men lurked in the shadows, at least none of the four Luke would recognize. Even so, he didn’t relax until they were back in the room, the door locked.

“So what are we going to do until your reinforcements arrive?” Teddy said, throwing her coat over the back of a chair as if she’d really rather kick it.

Luke opened the drawer in the bureau where he’d stored odds and ends he’d brought with him and took out a pack of cards. “How about a few hands of poker?”

She gave him the same look she had over his toothbrush suggestion. “Ladies don’t play poker.”

“Ladies don’t jump on a man’s back and pound the side of his head with a fist while shrieking like a cougar in pain.”

“Will you teach us?” Ben said eagerly. “We’re fast learners, aren’t we, Teddy? We can learn.”

Her expression softened. “Well, you are. You’ll be a sharp and taking Luke’s money in no time.”

The boy was a quick study but still some ways short of sharp status when he began to droop. He didn’t even argue much when Teddy made him get back in bed for a nap.

“Should I give him more laudanum?” she whispered to Luke. “His arm still hurts.”

“Better not unless he mentions pain. He’s worn out by everything that’s happened, and the cast is heavy. Let’s make him a sling when he gets up again. The hotel would probably agree to donate a pillowcase.”

“No, it wouldn’t. It’s bad enough we’re hiding here. We’re not ripping up their linens. I’ll tear a strip from the bottom of a petticoat. You brought me enough of them.”

“I like petticoats.”

“But not toothbrushes.”

“You tasted fine in spite of my negligence.”

She jumped to her feet and started fussing, pulling the blankets higher over Ben.

“If you keep that up, you’ll wake him.”

Her hands stilled, but she kept her back turned. “I scrubbed my teeth with your toothpaste on the corner of a towel.”

“I know. I had to do the same this morning.”

Luke carried the chairs they’d moved by the bed for their card games to the corner where they’d talked before. After a moment she followed and sat with him. They talked quietly, comparing their lives, their schooling, their disappointments and hopes.

“Tell me about Jack the Fool,” Luke said finally.

“I thought he was Jack the Faithless.”

“The Faithless Fool. Tell me what happened.”

She didn’t want to talk about it. He could tell she didn’t, and she proved it by changing the subject. “Do you have sisters?”

“One. Two brothers and one sister.”

“Ben already told you how it was. He just did what men do. You didn’t learn to kiss like that out on the range with the cattle either, and you didn’t learn what a woman wears under her dress from having one sister. There’s no reason for you to be kissing me except that I’m here.”

So she wasn’t changing the subject, not exactly. “Don’t you try to stamp me with the same brand he wears,” Luke said. “I’ve never been engaged, I never made a woman any promises, and I never aspired to be a liar and a cheat.”

“The only reason you kissed me is because I’m here, and it was easy.”

Heat from anger and something else knifed through his chest. “I kissed you because I figured I’d like it, and I did. And I figured you’d like it, and you damn well did. If you want to pretend different next time I try it, shove me away, and that will be the end of it.” Or maybe he’d just kiss her right now until she melted into a boneless heap on the carpet and admitted how much she liked it.

She swallowed so hard he saw her throat ripple. “I wish Ben would wake up and save me again,” she whispered.

Luke’s anger dissolved. “Maybe we could shout at each other and give him a hint.”

Ben did wake up not long after. Having him between them helped, but the ease of the morning was gone.

THE HOURS ALONE with Luke stretched out before Teddy like a prison sentence. Ben helped, but not enough. Going out to eat again helped, but not enough. Why had she said anything?

To make him back away, that’s why. Except she hadn’t wanted him to start treating her the way he was, like a maiden aunt he was responsible for but didn’t much like.

She didn’t share his faith that anyone from his family would come to help or that anyone from Mason, which had to be close to a hundred miles north of them, even could come that quickly. By mid-afternoon, Teddy could barely pretend to focus on cards as she considered how to tell Luke she was going back to her own hotel whether he liked it or not and how to make Ben accept it with a minimum of fuss.

Two sharp raps sounded on the door. Teddy froze, still unwilling to believe. Luke opened the door to three men. Big men with hard faces who made the room smaller. They dropped their gear on the floor by the wall, each thud causing Teddy to flinch. Two of them looked enough like Luke she knew they were Bennetts, but the third....

Ben’s already pale face went whiter. His breathing accelerated, and his eyes darted around the room. Teddy took a firm hold of his good arm and moved him to the bed. “Here. If you and I sit on the bed, there’ll be enough room for everyone.”

Keeping Ben from throwing himself to the other side of the room or crawling under the bed wasn’t enough because she couldn’t keep him quiet. “That’s an Indian,” he said. “How come the hotel let an Indian in here?”

Amusement flickered across all the faces except the expressionless dark one that had Ben so frightened.

“Cord came in the same way you did,” Luke said. “And he’s only half Indian, the same as he’s half my uncle.”

Teddy concentrated on the introductions. The blond men who looked so much like Luke except with lighter eyes and blond hair more ash than gold were father and son, Luke’s Uncle Ephraim and Cousin Pete. She smiled and nodded, and the whole time she wanted to stare at the still, dark man. How could he be related to Luke in any way?

Cord and Luke were built the same. Long and lean, as if their strength was coupled with speed and agility. Even so. Any woman who laid eyes on Luke Bennett would think handsome. If she saw his smile, she’d think charming.

Even without that scar on his cheek, any woman who saw Cord Bennett would think run! How dangerous was he? His eyes. She’d never seen eyes like that on a man. They belonged on some predator.

Ben held her hand. She held back.

Ephraim and Pete took the chairs. Luke sat on the bed next to Ben. Cord didn’t move from where he stood by the door. Teddy concentrated on Ben’s hand in hers and stared at the carpet.

“How’s Pa doing?” Luke asked Pete. “Can he manage without either of us?”

“He managed before either of you were born, and he can manage a few days without you now,” Ephraim said, “although your wire didn’t do him any good. What’s going on? We expected to find you here with more wrong than a black eye.”

Teddy listened to Luke tell her story, wanting to correct a few details, saying nothing.

“The problem is,” he finished, “we need to keep Ben and Teddy safe until after the sale, but we can’t just stay out of sight here. Her stock needs looking after, and who knows what Pierce is up to now.”

Keep Ben and Teddy safe. As if she was the same as an eight-year-old. As if the whole thing wasn’t her problem but theirs. Anger struck a tiny spark in her belly.

“We could take them to Marie and Paul,” Ephraim said.

“I don’t think so,” Luke said. “Paul went to court with her. They must be looking for us, and they might suspect her lawyer would help her and look there.”

“You spent last night with Mr. Howlett and your aunt,” Teddy said.

“That’s different.”

The tiny spark ignited into a flame.

“I figure somebody needs to stay on guard here,” Luke said. “Will you do that, Uncle Eph?”

“Leave me a shotgun, and it will take more than four to get past me.”

“Good. Then the rest of us will go back to the stockyards. I’ll walk around and draw them out. When they come after me, Cord and Pete can help me convince them working for Pierce is a mistake. After that we’ll see if we can find him.”

The flame burst into a bonfire.

Teddy yanked her hand free from Ben’s and shot to her feet. “Just who do you think you’re talking about as if she wasn’t here, mister? He’s my uncle. This is my problem. Nobody’s standing watch over me and taking care of things for me as if I’m some helpless, fluffy-headed female who can’t manage on her own. I got Merlin and the girls off the ranch by myself, I got them here to the sale by myself, and I’ll sell them to somebody smarter and richer than you by myself.”

Luke’s one normal and one swollen eye both stared at her as if she’d sprouted horns. “Now, look, Teddy.”

His reasonable tone added fuel to the fire.

She snatched up her coat and Ben’s. “Ben, you get off that bed and come with me. She marched the few steps to the door and stopped in front of Cord. “You can give up on scaring me, and you better get the blue blazes out of my way.”

Cord took a single sidestep, leaving her way to the door clear. One corner of his mouth looked like it twitched before he moved. She must be so mad her vision was wavering.

Ben spoiled her furious exit. “Teddy, I don’t want to stay at that other place again. Let’s stay here. Pleeease.”

As she went back for him, not intending to argue or cajole but to take hold of his good arm and pull, she heard Cord behind her, deep voice, neutral tone.

“She’s right, you know. Her problem, her cows, her decisions.”

“I asked you here to help, not make things worse.” From the sound of Luke, there’d be a fistfight right here in the room after she left. She hoped the whole lot of them pounded each other to a pulp.

“He is trying to help you, you knucklehead. Listen to the voice of experience,” said Ephraim.

Luke muttered something she was glad not to hear clearly and pried her fingers off Ben’s arm. “Stop that before you hurt him.”

Taking the hint, Ben whimpered. “Please, Teddy. That hurts.”

She considered leaving the little traitor here with his new friends.

“All right. All right,” Luke said. “Your problem, your decision. So what do you want to do?”

“I’m going to the stockyards, with or without you.”

“Theadora.”

The way he said it banked the fire. A little. “It’s not that your idea isn’t good,” she admitted. “You know I’m grateful for your help, but you can’t leave me out of my own problem, and the two of us are much better bait for a trap. Uncle Walter only wants to stop you from helping me. He wants to make me give him Merlin and the girls so he can take them out of the sale.”

Luke raked his fingers through his hair. “No. Letting you get in the middle of it is crazy. No.”

From beside the door came the sound of a throat clearing. Teddy glanced over her shoulder. Cord’s eyes weren’t really yellow like she’d first thought, more of an unusual light brown.

“Letting me?” she said softly, turning back to Luke.

He closed his eyes, and his chest heaved with the size of the breath he took. “Fine. Just fine. We’ll go be bait together. After all there’s four of them and only three of us, so we need you. You can jump on Sheepskin’s back and deafen him. With luck he won’t break anything worse than your arm.”

“Teddy.” Now Ben sounded worried.

“Don’t you Teddy me. You got what you wanted. You’re going to stay here and show Mr. Ephraim Bennett what you’ve learned about poker.” She looked around the room. “And right now the whole bunch of you are going to get out of here because I need to put my mud clothes back on.”

The Bennetts filed out of the room without another word. Pete’s one eye did something that looked like a wink as he passed her, but that had to be the remnants of her vision problem.

GETTING OFF THE tram at the end of the line, Teddy and Luke walked toward the stockyards in silence, Cord and Pete trailing far behind.

“I suppose you’re so mad at me, you wish you’d never laid eyes on me,” Teddy said finally.

“I got over that at least a mile back. Fear is taking over now.”

“You’re not afraid of those men. Don’t pretend you are.”

“I’m afraid of what could happen to you. Do you have any idea how bad any one of those men could hurt you?”

“Of course I do. Even without last night’s lesson, I have a good imagination, and I know how much stronger even pint-sized men are. Do you think I’ve never been hurt? Never sailed right over a horse’s head when it stopped unexpected? Never had a steer mash me into the ground? I know about hurt.”

“Then why...?” He didn’t finish the thought and changed tactics. “Will you at least promise to stay out of the middle of it? You may make the bait more enticing, but if you get in the middle....”

“I’m not stupid. Getting in the middle of seven men going at each other would be like trying to stroll through a stampede.”

They walked with their uninjured sides toward each other. His jaw had a knot in it the size of a walnut, and his eye was so squinty it must match the bruised one. “That means you’re planning on nipping at heels around the edges like a cattle dog, doesn’t it?”

That’s exactly what it meant, but she wasn’t fool enough to admit it. “I want to go see Merlin and the girls first when we get there,” she said. “Today’s so cold nothing’s melting, even a little, and I bet the feed men haven’t given them half enough hay. I need to be there when the hay wagon comes around.”

Mangers without so much as a stalk of hay caught in the cracks proved her suspicions about the feed men to Teddy’s satisfaction. The cows began a mournful lowing at the sight of her. Merlin contented himself with the kind of baleful glare only bulls could achieve.

Teddy let Luke go for the hatchet and chop ice. After all maiden aunts didn’t do that sort of thing. She pulled a currycomb out her pocket.

“Can you skip that today?” Luke said. “There’s not much daylight left, and if we want them to see us, our chances are better if we walk the grounds. Any ruckus we get into will go better outside the pens than in them.”

Teddy put the currycomb away. “I understand, but the minute I see the hay wagon near here, I’m coming back and having a talk with them. You’d think the cost of the hay was coming out of their pockets, but I paid for feed.”

Walking the rows, Teddy and Luke stopped at pen after pen for a minute or two as if observing the cattle, but in truth neither of them paid any attention.

Teddy could see Cord, one row to their left, and Pete, one row to their right. Both men were also pretending to look at cattle, sometimes moving ahead, sometimes falling behind, but always moving parallel. As the temperature plummeted, the few other people around the pens disappeared. Teddy hunched in her coat, grateful at least there was no wind.

“Most people who wanted to look around probably came in the middle of the day,” she said. “Winter may be the best time for ranchers to get away and come to a sale, but it’s not the most comfortable time.”

“We’ll quit as soon as you talk to the feed men,” Luke said. “If we keep marching around longer than that, any fool could tell what we’re up to.”

He hadn’t finished speaking when Teddy saw them. Sheepskin and a man with a scarf tied over his hat came from one direction, the Wrestler and another with a full beard halfway down his chest from the other. All four men carried stout sticks. Grinning in anticipation, Beard bounced his club rhythmically off his gloved hand.

Luke pushed Teddy back against the pen. “Stay here. Better yet, as soon as you can, climb over and stay on the other side of the fence.”

She would have argued, but he didn’t give her time. Teddy’s nerves stretched tight. The small white puffs of her breath came so fast one still hung in the air as the next appeared.

The four men closed in rapidly. “I guess you didn’t learn much last night,” Sheepskin taunted. Motion blurred in the pen to his side. Sheepskin only had time to turn his head as Cord launched over the fence, driving into Sheepskin feet first, knocking him into Scarf Hat.

Both men went down. Before they rolled free of each other, much less made it halfway to their feet, Cord threw one club into the pens, picked up the other, swung it high, and brought it down as if he was chopping wood, not breaking bones.

Teddy jerked her head in the other direction. Luke was moving very slowly toward the Wrestler and the Beard.

“Not in any hurry to get some of this, hey?” Beard swung his stick through the air viciously.

As Pete came over the fence behind the two, Luke broke into a run, catching Beard off balance. Ignoring the Wrestler, Luke took an ugly whack across the shoulders in order to help Pete get Beard’s club away.

Teddy did as Luke had suggested and climbed over the fence behind her into the pen. From there she watched Luke duck the Wrestler’s next swing.

Flapping her coat, she shooed and shoved among the Angus calves in the pen until she spotted the club Cord had thrown there. Shoving it through the fence rails, she climbed back over.

Luke and the Wrestler circled each other warily. Luke ducked another swipe, then caught the end of the stick on the next. He could never win a tug of war with a muscle-bound thug like the Wrestler. Teddy ran.

Intent on their struggle, neither Luke nor the Wrestler tore their eyes from the other as Teddy darted in and brought her stick down on the Wrestler’s forearm with all her strength. He let go and fell back, as a hard arm circled Teddy, pinning her arms to her sides and dragging her away.

Teddy kicked and struggled against the iron band around her as the grunts of effort, thuds of leather-gloved fists on flesh, curses, and howls of pain gradually stopped. Cord let Teddy go as silently as he had held her. The only sounds now were moans. Pete had a gun pointed at Wrestler and Beard.

From the look on Luke’s face as he approached, Teddy expected fury. He was still breathing fast and deep, his eyes dark with emotion. She braced herself. His hands landed on her shoulders hard, and he kissed her just as hard. She tasted blood and didn’t care, kissed him back. No one watching would doubt they’d done this before, and she didn’t care about that either.

“You’re better than a cattle dog,” he said when he finally raised his head.

“I should hope so, and you tell your half-uncle he better keep his hands off me.”

“Tell.... Uh oh, that can wait.”

Teddy followed his line of vision, saw what he saw, and froze in place as Luke ran to where Cord crouched over Sheepskin. A knife shone in Cord’s hand. He had a handful of Sheepskin’s hair stretched back. The tip of the blade started a cut along the sobbing man’s forehead.

“Stop that,” Luke said.

Cord looked up, his eyes glowing like coals in the setting sun. “Just one.”

“Don’t you dare. You know what Pa said. We are not bailing you out of that kind of trouble again. We’re in a city here. They have police, not some lazy town marshal.”

Cord let go of Sheepskin with obvious reluctance, picked up the club he had used and threw it so hard it sailed over pens and bounced in the next row over.

Shaking his head, Luke searched the two men and confiscated pistols and knives. He unloaded one of the guns, used the butt to hammer a hole through the ice in a water trough, and dropped everything in the water.

Unlike the men Cord had worked over, who lay curled on the ground like frightened children — or ones with broken bones — Wrestler and Beard had managed to sit up. Luke searched them also. Two more revolvers, a derringer, and two knives joined the others in a watery grave.

Cord stared down at the two. “You never want to leave a man able to come at you a second time,” he said to Luke. “You made that mistake last night.”

“I didn’t have any choice last night,” Luke said, “but you’re right.” He stomped the heel of his boot down on the Beard’s right hand with his full weight behind it, and ground down. “This is the one who broke the boy’s arm.”

The Beard screamed and cradled his hand and arm to his chest when Luke finally let up.

“It was an accident. The little bastard was biting me, and I swatted him away is all. It was an accident.”

“This the one hurt the girl?” Cord said, looking down at the Wrestler and tossing the knife in his hand a little.

“No, it wasn’t me,” the Wrestler said sullenly. “That hellcat already broke my arm, and I never touched her or the boy.”

“She couldn’t hit you hard enough to break anything through your coat,” Luke said.

“I could too.”

The men ignored her.

“Crippling me won’t get you anything that letting me walk away won’t,” Wrestler said. “Pierce ain’t paying enough for this. Let me out of here, and you’ll never see me again.”

“He’s telling the truth about not being the one who hit Teddy last night,” Luke said. “It was the one with the scarf around his head over there who hit her.”

“No one hit me last night,” Teddy said. “I got swatted away just like Ben and went down face first on the walk.”

“Well, that makes a difference,” Luke said. “If Cord had only known that, he could have been gentle with the son of a — gun.”

Not only was there blood around his mouth, he had a cut over one eye, and the side of his face that had been uninjured this morning was scraped. The eye that had been swollen to a slit last night was almost all the way open now. Her shiner made her look like something children would run from. He looked good enough to kiss some more.

“So Miss Owns the Cows, Makes the Decisions, what do you want to do?”

Teddy considered the men on the ground. “Let them go. These two can help the others up and get them to a doctor.” She told the Wrestler where the doctor who had set Ben’s arm had his office.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go along and hold their hands?” Luke muttered.

“No, I need to get over to Merlin and the girls. The hay wagon is almost there.”

“If you bring out that blasted currycomb, I’m going to leave you there alone.”

Teddy smiled and started down the row in the opposite direction from the one her uncle’s men had gone. Luke fell in beside her.

“Did you ever consider simply telling me about your half-uncle?” she said.

“I wouldn’t know how to tell you about him, and if I could figure a way, you wouldn’t believe me.”

She had to give him that. “I wonder if the Wrestler knows how lucky he is that he’s bald and would be hard to scalp,” Teddy said solemnly. She managed to keep a straight face for all of two seconds before a strange sound escaped. Thank goodness pressing her lips together hard had distorted the giggle to where no one would recognize it for what it was. She never giggled. Only helpless, fluffy-headed females giggled.

Luke stopped and regarded her with suspicion. Nothing helped this time. She giggled — helplessly. “I know I shouldn’t....” The giggles strengthened into peals of laughter, and she bent double. “I know I shouldn’t laugh,” she choked out. “But you don’t want to bail him out again. The two of you could earn money with that act.”

“They believed it.”

“If he’d just broken my arms, I’d believe it too. I did believe it for a minute.”

“That’s a comfort.”

“You’re still angry.”

“How can I be angry at a woman who charges into a fight and rescues me?”

“I didn’t rescue you. I just helped a little, and you’re the one helping me instead of doing what you came for.”

“Helping you is more fun.”

Fun.

Teddy watched bemused as Luke turned and walked backwards. He held one hand over her head, and yelled at Pete, who was walking beside Cord a little ways back. “Hey, Pete. I found one!”

Pete laughed. “You sure did, and you’re the last to figure it out.”

“At least Cord can hold a woman back out of trouble better than Uncle Eph. She says don’t ever do that again, Cord.”

Cord pulled his hat lower over his eyes. “Make sure I don’t need to.”

Luke turned back around, and Teddy said, “What do you mean you found one?”

“It’s a family joke. I’ll tell you sometime.”

Teddy said nothing, but regret twisted through her. Sometime had better be soon or it wouldn’t happen. One more day before the sale and Luke Bennett, his charming smile, male pride, bloody kisses, and strange family would be only memories. She had looked forward to starting a new life somewhere with Ben. Now she wished she could suspend time.

Chapter 4

THURSDAY

TEDDY TACKLED HER breakfast with enthusiasm the next morning. Although nothing would make her admit it, being the only female at a table with two handsome, albeit battered, men and one scary devil who didn’t have a mark on him would give any girl a thrill.

For that matter, Ephraim Bennett, all dignified and distinguished, would thrill a woman if his son and nephews weren’t so dratted distracting. Ben all but glowed with excitement at being at the table with the men. Teddy hoped her feelings were better disguised.

To her surprise, the Bennetts weren’t planning on heading back to Mason right away.

“You can’t believe Uncle Walter’s men are in any shape to make more trouble,” she said.

“Better safe than sorry,” Luke said, not looking particularly worried. “He could hire more.”

“Maybe he can’t. Maybe word is out that he makes promises but never pays.” Her own words triggered another thought. “And I don’t want anybody thinking I’m like him. I haven’t seen a bill from Mr. Howlett, and it’s time to put the hotel room in my name so I can pay.”

“I already talked to the hotel people,” Luke said. “You don’t have to hide any more, but wait till you sell your cattle before you go hunting for bills to pay.”

He had a point there. “At least today you’ll finally get to spend enough time at the stockyards to know what you want to bid on.”

Luke nodded. “I hoped for at least six, and I’ve got four on the list now. Five if you count high-in-sale Merlin, which isn’t realistic.”

Teddy smiled, feeling torn. On the one hand she’d rather give Merlin to Luke than watch him go to someone else, on the other, she and Ben needed every dollar. Since she’d signed the contract when entering her cattle in the sale, she didn’t have to choose.

“Is everyone going to follow us around the stockyards?”

“No,” Ephraim said firmly. “I’m too old to spend hours looking at cows even in warm weather. I’m going back to Marie and Paul’s, and Ben can come with me if he wants.”

Ben only looked undecided for a second. Warmth and luxury on one hand. Freezing cold and heroes on the other. No one, including Ephraim, showed surprise when Ben chose heroes.

Teddy eyed the Bennetts wistfully. She and Ben would have to change into mud clothes to go to the stockyards. Luke and the others all wore heavy woolen coats and clothing, a little plain for the restaurant but nothing worn or shabby. After the sale, she’d buy clothing like that for herself and for Ben. In the meantime, they needed to go back to their room and change into mud clothes.

One last swallow of coffee, and Teddy prepared to excuse herself and Ben. Before she said a word, a familiar voice rasped her name.

“Teddy, I need to speak to you,” Uncle Walter said. “Come out to the lobby with me.”

Teddy met Luke’s eyes with a challenge, daring him to point out he’d been right. As soon as the hotel staff knew her name, someone had remembered her uncle wanted the information and collected a few dollars for giving it to him.

“Good morning, Uncle Walter,” Teddy said, ignoring what he wanted. “Let me introduce you to the new friends I’ve made here in the city.” She went right around the table, introducing Luke last as if Uncle Walter had never seen him before.

“I said I need to talk to you,” Uncle Walter said, clamping a hand on her shoulder so hard it hurt.

Luke reached over and did something that made her uncle flinch and drop his hand away.

Her uncle gave one last try. “Do you think your father would want you ruining yourself on ruffians and ’breeds and ruining me in the process? Is that how you honor your father’s memory?”

Teddy crossed her arms under her breasts, swiveled around on her chair, and looked into an angry red face so like her father’s it made her heart ache. “I think if Pa had any idea what you’re like, you’d still be running all over the country trying to stay ahead of creditors, and I’d own a ranch, not seven Herefords. The day you hired those four men to come after me and Ben and Luke, you severed any claim as kin, and Pa would say the same if he could. Go away. Go away and don’t ever try to talk to me again.”

He went, and Ben said, “That’s telling him, Teddy. We’ll be fine without him. You’ll see.”

No one else said anything. Older and wiser than Ben, Teddy suspected the Bennetts knew that telling him was one thing, and the misery of having to tell him another.

And that they weren’t done with Walter Pierce yet.

LUKE KNEW PETE had been unhappy to be the one who had drawn the short straw and had to stay home instead of coming to Denver. Of course if Pa hadn’t been hurt so bad, he’d have come himself.

In that case he and Pete still would have drawn straws, but coming here would have meant watching his father make the decisions and do business, one more learning experience with neither the burden of responsibility nor the heady pleasure of being the decision-maker.

Decision-maker or no, leaning over corral rails with Pete on one side and Teddy on the other, Luke appreciated hearing Pete agree with his plans on what to bid on and how high to go for each animal. Not only that, but while Ben still avoided Cord, he showed signs of widening his boyish admiration to include Pete.

Maybe there was some way to use that to send the boy off with Pete and get Teddy alone for a while. Taking her to eat somewhere different and maybe to the theater or another entertainment right in town couldn’t be that dangerous.

He wished he could soothe away what had been in her face dealing with her uncle this morning. If she’d never known her father’s brother until this past summer and recognized him for the four-flusher he was almost immediately, there couldn’t be any deep emotional bond. Still, watching a lowlife uncle inherit what should have been hers and throw it away must hurt like the devil.

Most women, most men, would be bitter and raving. Teddy just put on her raggedy mud clothes and headed for Denver to make the most of what she had left.

Good thing they’d foiled Walter Pierce so thoroughly he’d have to slink off. Pierce was too old to plant one fist in his soft belly and the other in his jaw, and Luke’s urge to do just that had been strong when the old weasel had laid a hand on Teddy this morning.

Ben tugged on Luke’s coat. The boy usually just spouted anything that crossed his mind out loud. Curious about what would cause him to decide on discretion, Luke bent down.

“Don’t you get tired of everybody staring at you because of that Indian?” Ben whispered.

An eight-year-old could not be expected to differentiate between stories he’d heard of the Indian wars and a member of the Bennett family, Luke reminded himself, straightening up, undecided what to say. He needed to have a serious talk with the boy, but maybe he ought to discuss the problem with Teddy first.

The cluster of men moving ahead of them in the row were staring, though. People didn’t stare at Cord. They took quick peeks, pretending they weren’t doing it, and that bunch ahead weren’t looking at Cord but at him. And Teddy. He scowled at them, and they turned away and moved on.

They passed more groups, some buyers, some sellers tending to the stock they’d brought. Almost all of them stared, some openly and rudely, some covertly.

They reached Teddy’s pens, and Luke didn’t offer to chop ice or try to hurry her with her currycomb. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” he asked Pete and Cord.

Both nodded.

“You don’t see too many people with matching shiners like you and Miss Pierce, and I’m coloring up nicely too,” Pete said, fingering his bruised jaw, “but back at the hotel, most people looked once or twice and got over it.”

“Teddy and I looked worse yesterday, and we passed a few people before the cold drove them off. They didn’t act like this. There’s something going on, and I bet Uncle Walter is behind it.”

“She know anyone around here well enough they’d tell her?” Cord asked.

“As soon as she finishes sprucing up that bull, I’ll find out,” Luke said.

But Teddy didn’t know anyone well enough for them to tell her, and if Griffin the sales manager knew, he refused to admit it.

Luke saw his chances of an evening alone with Teddy slipping away. They needed to find out what was going on before the sale started tomorrow to have any chance to counteract it.

He let himself fantasize for a moment about siccing Uncle Eph on Walter Pierce. They were of an age, so it would be fair enough. Pete might object, though. Oh, hell, Luke gave up on the idea. Pete would object.

TEDDY FELT LIKE the fifth wheel on a wagon again, and this time there was nothing she could do about it. Luke and Pete proposed to visit one bar after another, looking for cattlemen they knew well enough to use either respect for Luke’s father or liquor to pry out information about Walter Pierce’s latest plan.

She couldn’t go, and either Cord couldn’t or wouldn’t because he was the one who would be staying with her and Ben. She didn’t want to deal with Ben’s ridiculous fears, and she didn’t want to deal with Cord Bennett’s stolid silence. By the time they returned to the Oxford from the stockyards, gloom had settled over all of them.

“Don’t worry about them,” she heard Cord tell Luke. “I can see the door to the room from the stairwell.”

Oh, that was just too much. Cord was going to stand guard over the helpless female and boy who was behaving abominably toward him and be noble about it into the bargain. As soon as they got out of the lobby and to a private place, she was going to get shed of the whole lot of them faster than greased lightning.

Except she didn’t want to be shed of Luke. He looked as tired and discouraged as she felt, and hard as she’d tried she couldn’t find a lowdown of selfish motive for what he’d done for her.

Sure, he’d kissed her, but she hadn’t tried to stop him, and he hadn’t tried to push her into the mistake Ben’s mother had made. He’d called her ordinary light brown hair honey-colored. He called her Theadora sometimes as if a man’s name didn’t always suit her.

For that matter she liked all these Bennetts. A family like that would be a comfort, even if they did have rough spots sometimes. Selling a few head of cattle shouldn’t be so hard. That must be what was turning her mush-headed.

Yesterday she had giggled like Lydia Symmons and kissed Luke out where anyone could see and at least half a dozen men did see. Today she was going to cry right here in front of everybody if she didn’t stop feeling sorry for herself.

Searching for any distraction, Teddy felt a wave of relief at the sight of Mr. Rollins waiting for the elevator. He had been gracious about the missed dinner and sympathetic about the bruises Luke had ascribed to would-be robbers.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Rollins.”

The usually jovial man gave Teddy an unhappy look. “Miss Pierce, Mr. Bennett.”

Teddy recognized more than a distraction. Mr. Rollins must know what was going on that had every cattleman in Denver looking at her and Luke like escaped criminals. “I apologize for even talking to you like this,” she said. “Ben and I have been out to the stockyards, and these clothes are all we have to wear around the cattle.”

Rollins glanced down at Ben, whose mud clothes were even more disreputable than Teddy’s. “That’s perfectly understandable.” His mouth firmed and the line between his eyes smoothed out. “As it happens I’ve been debating trying to find you this evening. Your father was my friend. I still honor that, and no matter what anyone says, you and Mr. Bennett strike me as a nice young couple. I think you need to know what’s being said around town.”

No matter what anyone says? Teddy’s heart quickened. Luke’s hand cupped her elbow, and she leaned toward him instinctively.

“We can’t talk here,” Rollins said. “There’s an alcove in the restaurant. I’ll see if I can reserve the table there and in any case meet you in an hour. You do owe me a dinner.”

Teddy didn’t want to wait an hour. She wanted.... The pressure on her arm increased.

“It’s my pleasure, Mr. Rollins,” Luke said. “An hour will be enough time for Miss Pierce to change and for me to get to my own hotel and do the same. We’ll see you then.”

Rollins disappeared in the direction of the restaurant. Cord and Pete reappeared from around the corner where they’d retreated out of sight.

“You just told a lie,” Ben said disapprovingly. “The only hotel room you had is ours, and your clothes are still there.”

“That’s what’s called a white lie,” Luke said, “and Pete’s going to explain it to you while he takes you to spend the night at the Howlett mansion with Uncle Ephraim.”

“I don’t want....”

Teddy pinched Ben hard enough right through his coat to stop his complaint. “Yes, you do. You’d love to see a real mansion, and you’d love to ride there with Pete, and you’d love to spend the night there.”

“You just want to get rid of me.”

“Yes, we do, and if you don’t go quietly, Cord will take you.”

Ben subsided. Teddy decided she wasn’t going to work on changing his attitude toward Cord for another day or so when it was no longer useful.

Teddy managed a quick bath in the tub down the hall, luxuriating in the hotel’s hot water. Not that no one else wanted the same, but being regarded as like escaped criminals had advantages. Luke glared, and first one potential bather and then another disappeared. She only had to wait for the one already shut in the bathing room.

“We’re going to be thrown out of here,” she whispered to Luke as they hurried back to the room.

“It’s not the only hotel in Denver. Decent hotel,” he added as if she had to be reminded.

She put on her only really elegant gown, happy that she’d had the foresight to send a few of her best dresses to be pressed this morning when looking nice tonight and at the sale had seemed the only worries left. Maybe amber silk would give her hair a honeyish look in the dim lights in the restaurant, although purple would go better with her bruises.

Luke waited in the hall, gorgeous in his black suit, bruises and all.

“Theadora.”

His voice sounded unusually hoarse. No compliment had ever left her floating the way the sound of her name from him did. That one word and the look in his eyes held her worries at bay into the elevator, down to the ground floor, and across the lobby. The sight of Mr. Rollins, waiting for them by the entrance to the restaurant, brought reality crashing back down.

They exchanged meaningless pleasantries until after they ordered. Mr. Rollins abandoned his false heartiness then and came straight to the point. “Your uncle is once again asserting that your cattle are stolen,” he said.

“He has no right,” Teddy said furiously. “You were there. He looked like the greedy liar he is, and the judge said the cattle are mine.”

Rollins nodded. “Your problem is no one wants to buy trouble. I came to buy myself, and if I heard rumors like that about a certain lot of stock, I’d pass them by. I’ve told everyone who will listen about the court ruling, but he’s claiming the Bennett family used their influence with Judge Harcourt, and anyone who buys your stock at the sale will be in for a lawsuit and even criminal charges in a court with a judge who can’t be bribed or threatened.”

“Why would the Bennetts do that for me?” Teddy said. She remembered that Mr. Rollins thought she and Luke were engaged and stopped, embarrassed and hoping she wasn’t turning bright red.

Mr. Rollins’ heavy face did flush red. “The worst of the rumors flying are that you have....” He coughed and sipped from his water glass.

“Have what?” Teddy said, unable to think of anything dreadful enough that mention of it would cause the man such distress.

Luke said, “Led me around by my — nose.”

Mr. Rollins’ cough turned to a choking sound, but he nodded. “And poor Jack Trenton is down there in Starkey, believing he’s engaged to you also.”

Teddy had only figured out what part of Luke’s anatomy he had referred to as his nose when she heard Jack’s name. Her voice rose in outrage. “Poor Jack Trenton? Are we talking about the Jack Trenton whose ring I took off and threw at him? That Jack Trenton?”

People’s heads were turning, and Teddy didn’t care. Luke patted her hand. “Shush now. It’s all right, but I wish you’d kept that ring. We could have used it.”

“If I had a ring from you, I’d throw it right now.”

Luke grinned at her, unrepentant. “What good is all that going to do Pierce?” He said to Rollins. “He has to know he’ll just be giving me a bargain if no one else bids, and I’ll keep him from getting Teddy’s stock for next to nothing.”

Mr. Rollins fiddled with his silverware and didn’t answer.

“That’s not all, is it?” Luke said.

“He questions the validity of your letter of credit,” Mr. Rollins said finally.

Teddy gasped, and all signs of good humor left Luke’s face. “He’s questioning the credit of the Bennett Ranch?”

“N-not the ranch, I think, so much as you. You’re young, people are used to dealing with your father.” Mr. Rollins looked as miserable as if he had started the slander himself. “It’s not anything definite, you see, just rumors, but Mr. Griffin is refusing to answer inquiries about any of this.”

“Talk about someone taking bribes,” Teddy said hotly. “I hope Mr. Griffin has accepted promises as to what he’ll get when the sale is over because he’ll never see a dime from Walter Pierce.”

“I wish I could help you,” Mr. Rollins said unhappily, “but I only have enough....”

“You’ve already helped,” Luke said, his face hard. “Unless Pierce has another dirty ace up his sleeve, he’s going to lose this war.”

“I’M SORRY,” TEDDY said miserably as soon as they got off the elevator on the fourth floor. “You should never have gotten involved with me. I never thought he’d go so far as to blacken your family’s name.”

“Don’t worry about my family’s name,” he said. “We could survive a hundred Uncle Walters, although the thought of a hundred like him might have the hotel’s fine food coming back up.” Luke paused before knocking at the door to his — her — their — room. “You sure look beautiful tonight. Don’t let this get you down. We’re going to win, and he’s going to scuttle out of town with his tail between his legs, and lucky to still have legs at that.”

Beautiful. If Teddy knew anything it was that she’d never looked beautiful on her best day, and on her best day both sides of her face matched. That didn’t mean hearing it from someone who could say it with a straight face didn’t sound awfully good.

Luke kissed her, softly and leisurely, tasting of coffee this time. She had enjoyed Jack’s kisses, but they were a thing of lips and mouths. The sensations Luke’s kiss evoked started there, traveled everywhere, racing along nerves, heating and arousing everything along the way. Teddy pulled away, trembling and disconcerted.

Luke’s brows rose, questioning. Wanting, needing to touch him again, Teddy ran her fingertips lightly over the rainbow of colors under his eye, traced the bruising across his cheek to his jaw.

“How can you shave this side of your face?”

“Very carefully.”

“I don’t want you hurt again because of me.” She didn’t want him hurt again ever, for any reason.

He caressed her face as she had his. “We can’t wrap up in cotton wool against all life’s bruises, but Walter Pierce won’t be the cause of any more.”

The door to the room opened, and Pete looked out, not trying to hide his amusement. “We thought we heard voices out here. I started to worry you couldn’t find your key.”

“How do you think my cousin would look with two black eyes?” Luke said, his voice all but a growl.

“I’d look like a dashing raccoon,” Pete said, not sounding worried but retreating.

Cord and Luke’s Uncle Ephraim both threw down the cards they were holding and pushed their chairs back from the table.

“So did Rollins spill the beans?” Pete said. “Pa came back with us in case we need his help drinking our way through every bar in town tonight.”

“I came to make sure you don’t all land yourselves in the Denver city jail by morning,” Ephraim said. “Besides, Ben is doing so well with Marie and Paul interfering would be a crime.”

“You did your duty entertaining the little dev — err, Ben, Uncle Eph,” Luke said. “Thanks. No, we’re not going drinking. Rollins did spill the beans, and they’re nasty, dirty beans at that.”

Teddy sagged on the edge of the bed, the glow from the compliment and kiss fading. No matter what Luke said, how could they overcome the avalanche of lies her father’s brother had spread? If she knew anything, she knew that when you walked through mud, some stuck to your boots.

Luke told the whole sorry saga pretty well, but she noticed he left out the slander on her, so she told it herself, although she also left out references to his — nose.

Pete was incredulous. “They believe Luke is so innocent he could be....”

“Influenced,” Ephraim said firmly. “Anyone can be influenced.”

Pete snorted.

“The question is what do we do about it,” Luke said, fetching the notebook where he had recorded his opinions of the livestock he’d seen. “Once we get to the sale, killing or disabling me in the middle of a crowd of witnesses isn’t an option, and Pierce has to know I’ll bid on Teddy’s stock.”

“Knife,” Cord said.

Everyone looked at him. “You want to kill someone in a crowd, quiet and with no one noticing, you use a knife.”

And how exactly did Cord Bennett know that? Maybe she wasn’t going to have that talk with Ben after all.

“I’ll give him the blasted cattle,” Teddy said. “I’ll tell him in the morning he can have them.”

No one paid her a particle of notice, of course.

“Easy enough to watch your back,” Cord said to Luke.

“I want you to watch Teddy’s back.”

“She stays close enough to influence you, watching you both is no problem.”

With his head bent over the notebook, Teddy wasn’t sure, but she thought a smile flitted across Luke’s face. “So much for safety concerns. Teddy, how much were you expecting to get for Merlin?”

She looked around the room, strangely reluctant to admit her hopes and dreams. “You said you’d go a thousand for those other bulls that aren’t anywhere near as good as Merlin.”

“How much were you hoping to get for him?”

“Pa imported his grandfather right from England. It cost him over three all said and done.”

“Merlin isn’t imported, and his horns aren’t gold plated.”

“No, he isn’t, and they aren’t,” she conceded, slumping a little.

“This is influence?” Pete said to no one in particular.

Luke ignored him and made a note. “We’ll figure two. Now how about the cows?”

Teddy closed her eyes. “Four. Four hundred each for sure, and six if someone had good sense.”

“Wait a minute,” Pete said. “Cows? Uncle Frank will levitate out of his bed and throw it at you.”

“Don’t worry about Pa. I’ll talk him around, and we can resell them if I can’t.”

“Not for six hundred dollars apiece we can’t.”

“No, we’ll figure two thousand for the bull and five hundred each for the cows. A thousand maximum for the other bulls. I spotted nine. We won’t be high bid on all, but just in case. The sale starts at nine, and the first one I’m looking at is Lot 23, but after that there’s some time.”

“Who’s going to do the bidding?”

“Rollins will help, and he knows a few others. Shorthorn men or Angus who won’t be after the same stock we are, but we have to have cash there to guarantee them they won’t be stuck with what they buy for us.” Luke looked up, his brow furrowed. “So how early tomorrow can we come up with fourteen thousand in cash?”

He had to be joking. Teddy looked around the room and didn’t see any laughter.

“The banks don’t open until nine,” Ephraim said, getting to his feet, “but if we’re standing there, we might make it. Better yet, let’s talk to Paul. He probably knows a banker or two.”

After a little more talk, discussing the plan and possible problems, the three of them left, and not as if they expected Luke to go with them. Panic fluttered in Teddy’s throat.

“I’ll stay here tonight and keep an eye out,” Luke said.

“No, you won’t. I’ll lock the door and put a chair under the doorknob, and I’ll — I’ll keep that shotgun right by the bed.”

She held the door open until he walked through it, started to close it behind him, and hesitated. “Don’t you dare spend the night in the stairwell or the hall to keep watch over me, Luke Bennett. You and your family are doing too much for me already.”

She shut the door before he could answer and leaned against it for a moment. Now that Uncle Walter knew where she was, Luke would spend the night somewhere miserable and uncomfortable rather than leave her unguarded. Sure enough, by the time she yanked the door back open, he had his hand on the door to the stairs.

Back in the room, he sat and bounced on the bed a little. “I remember this bed as pretty comfortable. We could bundle.”

“You’re the one fool enough to treat me like an infant, you can sleep in a chair or on the floor.”

He didn’t look surprised and didn’t argue with her either. He was probably plotting his next move the way he had plotted what to do at the sale tomorrow. After she returned from the washroom, and Luke slipped out, Teddy changed to her nightgown with button-popping haste and wrapped neck to toe in her robe. Once in bed, she pulled the covers up to her chin, heart pounding.

When he returned, she closed her eyes. Clothing rustled, a soft thump made her flinch. The inside of her eyelids darkened after the click of the electric light switching off, and she opened her eyes, straining to see what she had avoided seeing before. Was he in a bedroll on the floor, or slumped in a chair with those long legs stretched out straight ahead?

“Goodnight, Theadora.”

She smiled into the darkness and relaxed.

“Goodnight, Luke.”

PETE WOULD NEVER believe this, not that they were ever going to discuss it. Luke shifted in the chair again, knowing there was no comfortable position because he’d tried every damn one of them at least a dozen times already.

He considered the faint outline of the bed and how easy it would be to sneak onto the edge and settle on top of the covers. And if he did that, he’d kiss her. And if he kissed her.... She held some reserve in her, didn’t trust him as it was. Living down to her expectations wouldn’t get him where he wanted to go.

The thought of where he wanted to go ought to scare him as much as the attraction between them scared her, but it didn’t. A few days’ acquaintance shouldn’t be enough, would need building on, yet he already knew.

He wanted Miss Theadora Pierce in his bed and in his life. He wanted the courageous part that had her jumping on a man’s back or swinging a club to rescue him. He wanted the prickly part that had her indignant at the thought she was ever the one who needed rescuing. He wanted the soft part that nursed puppies, kittens, and calves and took in a boy like Ben.

Maybe making sure she had the money she needed to go anywhere she wanted wasn’t the best way to have her, but unless she decided to trust him, came to feel the same way he did, nothing would ever be as good as it could be, should be. He’d talk her into sticking around and investigating possibilities if he could, and chase after her until she came around if he couldn’t. His father and Pete could manage the ranch without him if they had to.

He gave up the chair and stretched out on the floor. Better but still bad. He fell asleep to visions of Theadora in the bed without all the layers of clothing and blankets she wore as barriers. In his dreams all that covered her was honey-colored hair. She wore nothing but a welcoming smile.

Chapter 5

FRIDAY

BEING AT THE stockyards in decent clothes felt strange. Everything seemed strange this morning. Teddy followed Ephraim into the big tent where the sale would be held, Luke on her right and Pete on her left. Cord followed so close no one else would touch their backs. Both princesses and prisoners must feel this way, she thought — surrounded by guards.

Even the familiar musty scents of cow and churned mud changed when confined under what must be half an acre of canvas and mixed with tobacco smoke, hair oil, and sweat from hundreds of men. If every one of the very few women in the crowd had come drenched in perfume, they still couldn’t be making much difference.

Teddy’s nerves stretched taut as newly strung barbed wire. Pete Bennett ought to be the one in the center of the circle of guards. He was the one who had 140 hundred dollar bills in his pockets, but no one, including Pete, had been moved by her arguments on the subject.

Rough wood benches sat empty on two sides of the sales ring, but few people had availed themselves of seating so far. They stood in groups, talking, laughing. A bit of silver flashed as one man passed his flask to another. Did whiskey really warm anyone?

Outside, bright sun had already softened frozen mud, but heavy canvas walls trapped damp cold in here. Teddy shivered, glad for the extra flannel petticoat and heavy shawl she had thrown over her coat.

Lyle Griffin sat safely back from the ring’s entrance gate at a battered desk, dealing with a line of men whose year-round tans and Stetsons marked them as ranchers. Teddy held Luke’s arm hard as they joined the line, wishing she could call Griffin the lowdown polecat he had turned out to be and tell him how long he’d be collecting whatever bribe Uncle Walter had promised.

Luke gave her a knowing look, his eyes looking dark blue under the brim of his hat in the subdued light of the tent. She gave him a tight smile. He knew what she wanted to do. She hoped he wasn’t worried that she’d do it.

Their turn finally came. Luke stepped up in front of the desk. “Luke Bennett. I registered as a buyer earlier in the week. I just need to pick up a bidder number and give you this.” He pulled what Teddy knew was a letter of credit from his pocket.

Griffin cleared his throat, looking everywhere but at Luke. “I’m sorry, Mr. Bennett, I can’t accept this.”

Luke leaned forward, menacing. “What do you mean can’t accept it? You accepted the same from the three men in front of me.”

Griffin’s hands shook a little, but he pushed the letter back. “I’m sorry, but this is issued for the Bennett Ranch. You may be a Bennett, but you aren’t the Bennett Ranch.”

“Of course I’m not a ranch. I’m a Bennett. I’m the Bennett authorized to buy cattle at this sale for the ranch.”

Griffin looked more sure of himself now. “I don’t know that. I’m sorry, son. You should have brought some kind of authorization for you to act for the ranch.”

Luke lifted his hat and raked his fingers through his hair. “Uncle Eph,” he said pleadingly.

Teddy tugged at Luke’s sleeve, reminding him not to get carried away.

Ephraim stroked his jaw. “Maybe one of the Denver banks would reissue, but by the time we got it done and got back here....”

Luke said a word Teddy pretended to be shocked to hear in her presence. “We’re wasting our time, and I need a drink,” he snarled. “I’ll take you back to the hotel.”

Unable to cry on demand, Teddy did her best to look woeful. “You go back. I’ll stay and see what happens to Merlin and the girls.” She did manage a quite respectable sniffle, mostly because it was so dratted cold in here and her nose had been without a surreptitious swipe of her handkerchief for too long.

Face hard with anger, Luke rolled his eyes and took hold of her upper arm. “Women.”

Teddy made a show of resisting his hold, before walking away with him. “Now who’s going to buy Merlin and the girls,” she whined.

“See?” Luke muttered when they were well away from Griffin. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“It was humiliating and embarrassing,” Teddy said. “I can’t believe you didn’t sock him right in his ugly nose.” As they walked toward the benches, which were beginning to fill, she gave his arm a friendly nudge with her shoulder. “Still, we did better than trying to scalp a bald man.”

By the time the first consignment of Shorthorn-Hereford mixed cattle trotted into the ring, Teddy was sure every person there had stared at her and Luke for at least a minute before resuming one of the dozens of conversations buzzing all around. She tried ignoring them, tried staring back, and decided waving at them was most fun.

Ben would have loved the auctioneer’s singsong chant, the way spotters roamed the crowd, pointing dramatically at anyone who bid, the bang of the hammer and yell of “Sold” before one lot charged out the exit gate and the next trotted in.

Keeping Ben safe was most important, though, and right now he was safe at the home of friends of the Howletts who had children close to Ben’s age.

Luke gave her shoulder the same kind of friendly nudge she’d given his earlier. “There will be other auctions Ben can go to.”

How could he know what she was thinking? However he did it, she liked the way it made her feel.

Teddy relaxed until the first of Luke’s bulls hit the ring. “He really isn’t as good as Merlin,” she said critically.

“His horns aren’t gold plated either.”

Their opinion was shared by the cattlemen present. Mr. Rollins bought the bull for nine hundred dollars.

Pete disappeared for a while, gave Luke a brief nod when he returned.

Single bulls, calves and cows by the lot — animals came and went with dizzying speed. The temperature rose enough frostbite no longer threatened, but Teddy’s feet stayed cold, and her rump grew sore on the hard seat.

Pete made the trip outside four times before noon. “Everyone probably thinks I spent last night drinking,” he complained as he left again.

“You have it easy. I’m the one everyone thinks should never have been let out on my own to buy a cow for the ranch,” Luke told him.

“That’s five out of the nine, isn’t it?” Teddy said.

“Yup, and Merlin’s next.”

Merlin trotted into the ring like a king, raised his head, and snorted at the crowd. Even inside the tent, his red coat glowed. The auctioneer called for bids. Silence fell over the crowd. Whatever Griffin was up to, the auctioneer wasn’t in on it. He looked flummoxed, stopped his chant and lectured the crowd about pedigree and value.

A voice Teddy recognized as her uncle’s finally hollered, “Ten dollars.”

“What would it cost me to pay Cord to scalp him?” Teddy said furiously as uneasy laughter circled the ring.

“A hundred.”

“Five hundred.”

The lump in her throat dissolved as the voices rang out one after another, taking the price up by hundreds until the last one said, “Two thousand.”

“Let’s hope nobody else gets into the spirit of things,” Luke whispered.

Teddy held her breath while the auctioneer worked the crowd, then accepted they were done. “Going once, going twice. Sold!”

Teddy exchanged a triumphant grin with Luke. “You did it! You won’t be sorry. I know you won’t. Except your father’s going to be furious, isn’t he?”

“He’ll do some yelling, but he’ll get over it.”

“The cows will make him madder.”

“Maybe not. He may decide we should have the beginnings of a herd of purebred Herefords. He’ll come around one way or the other.”

The cows were almost anti-climatic, although Teddy thought a legitimate buyer might have chimed in for a few rounds of bidding. If so, he quit at twenty-five hundred dollars, and the bids kept going to three thousand dollars, five hundred for each of the girls. Pete disappeared to do banking duties one last time.

“Do you have anything left?” Teddy asked Luke.

“Enough to buy everyone the best dinner in Denver and drinks all around.”

“I want to go somewhere warm first. My hands and feet are like ice.”

Luke took her hands between his and rubbed. Heat that had nothing to do with her hands jolted through her. She stared at the side of his face as they rose and joined the crowd flowing out into the fading light, determined to etch every line so deep in her memory she would never forget.

“Is that your uncle?”

Teddy tore her eyes from Luke’s face and followed his line of vision. There was Uncle Walter, backing away from an angry Lyle Griffin and an even angrier Wrestler. The crowd shifted and blocked the sight. By the time she could glimpse that spot again, the three men were gone.

“If he’s smart, he’ll use the ten dollars he had for Merlin and the ten for the cows and head for Mexico,” Luke said.

“He must be smart that way. If he wasn’t, someone would have carved out his liver years ago.” Teddy hugged Luke’s arm, glad for the bulk of Pete and Ephraim ahead of them, forging a path through the crowd, and for Cord’s presence behind, still watching their backs.

“Are you sure Mr. Rollins has people to see to Merlin and the girls until you can ship them north?” The fact they weren’t hers any more didn’t stop Teddy from worrying. “Mr. Griffin sure won’t get his men to do it.”

“As sure as I can be. They went right from the sales ring to pens Rollins rented across the tracks. Your girls are now hobnobbing with a bunch of Angus. Want to go see?”

“No, I want to get warm. Will you come with me tomorrow to get my money?”

“I will if you tell him his check isn’t good enough, and you want cash.”

She laughed out loud. “Oh, yes, it will almost make up for today. I hope there are a lot of people there to hear.”

Teddy enjoyed the celebratory dinner, especially the antics of Mr. Rollins and his friends, who had delighted in spending someone else’s money, especially for Merlin. Her bull had brought the best price of the entire sale. The cattlemen ate a lot and drank too much and joked about how they were just going to keep those Hereford aristocrats for themselves.

No one paid much attention to the threats since they all knew Pete didn’t parcel out any of those hundred dollar bills until he had a signed bill of sale made out to the Bennett Ranch.

When the party broke up, Teddy shook all their hands, returned Mr. Rollins’ hug.

Her escort of tall Bennett men lasted right to the door of her hotel room. Teddy felt no surprise when everyone except Luke disappeared before she got the door open.

“You don’t need to protect me any more. It’s over. We won.”

“One more night won’t hurt.”

They repeated the routine of the night before almost in silence, exchanging only a few polite words now and then. Except Teddy didn’t hide in the bed with the covers to her chin while waiting for him to return from down the hall. She sat by the windows, looking out over the city. Maybe she and Ben should just stay in Denver. She could find someplace decent to rent, and there were certainly enough schools here.

The key scraped in the lock. She turned. No man should be allowed to look so handsome at the end of a long day. The white of his shirt contrasted with tanned skin, shirt sleeves rolled up for washing exposed muscular forearms, and black trousers emphasized narrow hips.

The swelling was gone from his face, the blues and yellows of the fading bruises invisible from across the room. She could see the blue of his eyes, though. Maybe only with her heart, but she could see that pure bright blue.

He stayed by the door. She stayed by the window. Until he said the one word that shattered her resolve.

“Theadora.”

LUKE HAD A speech prepared. He walked into the room, saw her by the window, and all the rehearsed words fled. She looked the way he envisioned a bride should look.

Her hair hung neatly in a single fat braid instead of curling loose around her shoulders. Her robe and the gown underneath were plain blue flannel instead of lace and white silk, but those were minor details. She took his breath and the words away, so he said the one word he could still remember.

“Theadora.”

And she came into his arms as if she knew as well as he did she belonged there. He pulled her closer, one hand cupping her bottom and the other in the curve of her back. He kissed her gently, eyes, nose, one corner of her mouth, the bow of her upper lip, and the other corner.

Luke closed his mouth over hers, using the tip of his tongue to caress the inside of her parted lips. He tasted and felt as much as heard the soft murmur of pleasure in her throat.

The good intentions he had brought into the room with him dissolved along with the rehearsed speech. He deepened the kiss, expecting a passionate response, but not the one he got.

“No. I can’t.” She shoved his shoulders, twisted away, and stood with her back to him, shoulders trembling.

After a few steadying deep breaths, he stepped closer and peered around at her face. Tears?

He pulled out his handkerchief and handed it over her shoulder. “A girl slapped me once for kissing her. You’re the first one who ever cried.”

“How many have you kissed?”

“I don’t know. The belt with the notches wore out, and I threw it away.”

She blew her nose, mopped, and waved the hanky in the air. “I’m sorry. I never should have.... I didn’t mean to do that. I know it’s not fair, but I wanted.... I want....”

“I know. You must have noticed I have a pretty bad case of want myself.”

“But I can’t. Every day I see what happened to Ben because his mother made that mistake, and I won’t do that to another child, to my own.”

Her words brought a flash of anger the frustration had not. “I know you don’t trust me, but you don’t even like me much, do you? If you think I’d get you with child and walk away....”

“Ben’s father didn’t walk away. He was helping a neighbor dig a new well, and it caved in. They were supposed to be married only a few days after that, but supposed to doesn’t count. I heard there were men who said they’d marry her if she gave Ben up, but she wouldn’t, and her family didn’t want any part of her or Ben. After he was born, she had to — you know.”

“How did you end up with Ben?”

“She died with lung fever when he was three-years-old. Pa and I came to town for supplies and heard some of the folks talking about taking up a collection to buy him new clothes.” She hesitated and turned to face him, the gold and green flecks in her eyes shimmering through tears still welling and spilling down her cheeks. “New clothes for his trip to the orphanage.”

He pulled her back into his arms. This time she nestled in quietly, her head on his shoulder. He rested his cheek on her hair.

“You’re wrong, you know,” she whispered. “I like you too much for my own peace of mind, too much to be sensible, but I have to be.”

“But you don’t trust me. Is that because of Jack the Jackass? Did you love him? Do you still?”

She sighed, her breath fanning warm on his neck. “Yes, I’ll always love him.”

Luke’s jaw tightened. He forced himself to stay still for her.

“Not the way you think,” she went on. “His father’s ranch is north of ours, what used to be ours. Jack’s the oldest son, and he has five brothers and sisters. You can’t know how much I loved to visit there when I was little or to have them come visit us. We all used to follow Jack around and imitate everything he did, and he pretended to hate it.”

She sniffed and used the handkerchief some more. Thinking of jackasses, Luke couldn’t believe he was holding a woman while she told him how much she loved another man.

“I think our fathers decided it would be a fine idea if Jack and I married back when we were both still too young to even know what it meant. We grew up expecting it. I never even questioned the rightness of it, and I don’t think he did either. He gave me the ring for my eighteenth birthday, but we weren’t in any hurry, and we kind of drifted along like that, and then I took in Ben.”

She shifted in his arms a little, and without thinking Luke kissed her forehead.

“My nose is red, and my face is wet.”

All true. “I know. That’s why I went for the forehead.”

“Jack was furious about Ben. He said he wasn’t playing father to, well, you know.”

“A whore’s bastard.”

“You men have the nicest ways of saying things. Yes, exactly. It was the first thing we ever argued about, but I figured I could talk him around. He went from saying when we got married I had to leave Ben with Pa to saying Ben could come with me, he’d find him work helping the cook or something and he could stay in the bunkhouse.”

“And then you caught him kissing What’s-Her-Face.”

“Yes, and looking back, it was a relief to have an excuse.”

“But you said you love him.”

“I do. We grew up side by side, and he was part of my life, and I love him and always will, but not in the marrying way, more in the brother way. Disappointing brother way even.”

Luke kissed her mouth after all, quick and soft, tasting the salt of her tears, although she had finally stopped crying. “So you have an undying affection for Jack the Faithless Fool, but he’s the reason you don’t trust me.”

She tilted her head a little without lifting it from his shoulder and kissed his jaw. “It’s hard to do. Pa loved me, and look at the mess he made of my life. Jack loves me, at least the same way I do him, and look what he did. Uncle Walter never gave a hoot, but he is blood kin. Ben will probably grow up and steal everything I own and leave me penniless in my old age.”

“Ben’s going to grow up as honest as the day is long because you’ll see to it.”

“I’m going to try,” she said fiercely. “If he wants to be a cowhand, he can, but he’s going to go to school, and if he wants to be a lawyer like your uncles or a doctor or anything else, I want him to know he can.”

Bits of his speech finally drifted back to Luke. “Speaking of Ben going to school, you know there’s a school in Mason, don’t you? You said you wanted to find a quiet town and settle down, send Ben to school, and find work to stretch your money. Come to Mason. You can do all that there.”

She raised her head and met his eyes. He hurried on. “I know it’s only been a few days. It’s too soon to talk about love and marriage, and we need to get to know each other better. You need to figure out if I ever let you down it won’t be on purpose. But I’m already sure what I feel about you isn’t going to change. Come to Mason. I’ll come courting until you feel the same. If you go to China, I’ll still come courting, but it will slow things down some.”

His heart pounded as long seconds passed without her moving or speaking. When she touched his cheek, his heart gave up pounding and tried to jump out of his chest. “I already feel the same. That’s what scares me.”

“Then I’ll come courting until you’re not afraid.”

She hugged him hard around the neck and kissed him on the mouth.

“If you keep that up, we’re going to end up where we started.”

She gave him a last peck on the lips, got into the bed, and pulled the covers to her chin. Luke threw last night’s extra blanket on the floor and turned out the lights.

“Good night, Luke.”

“Good night, Theadora.”

Chapter 6

SATURDAY

ANNE BENNETT ROCKED slowly in time with the ticking of the banjo clock on the parlor wall. Her mother and son had already been asleep for almost an hour in the bedroom behind her, but sleep was the last thing on Anne’s mind.

The only word she had received since Cord left was Ephraim’s terse telegram the family had shared. ALL OK. What did that mean?

Luke’s auction had been scheduled for yesterday. That meant the earliest they could all come home, Cord could come home, would be today. Anne had calculated in her mind over and over.

The train would pull in just before four. By the time Cord got away from the others, got Keeper from the livery, saddled up, and started home, it would be dark. Except if whatever Luke bought was on that train, Cord would stay to help unload and pen the cattle, and if that took long enough, he might be talked into supper at Ephraim’s.

Let him go to Ephraim’s for supper, she prayed. Make him listen when they tell him to stay over and ride home tomorrow.

All day she had watched black clouds build over the mountains. All day the wind had strengthened, buffeting the house and barns, forcing cold air through every smallest crack. The last time she’d been out, just before dark, the wind had spit snow as hard and dry as tiny hailstones in her face.

Cord had ridden through a storm once before to get to her, but that had been an emergency, a terrible time. Tonight there was no driving need. He would stay in town, safe and warm. She wanted that, yet she sat, and rocked, and waited.

She had banked the fire in the big stove that heated the entire house hours ago, but even though the house was cooling, Anne felt snug bundled in wool socks under, and wool robe over, her flannel nightgown, and cocooned in quilts.

Before Tyler was old enough to wander into their bedroom, she had slept naked in Cord’s arms. She smiled into the dark, wondering how long it would be before they could do that again.

The dog at her feet raised his head. Anne leaned forward, heart quickening. False alarm. Foxface lowered his nose to his bushy tail again.

The clock struck ten, and the knot in her stomach loosened a little. Tomorrow. The storm would be over early, the sun would shine brightly, and Cord would come riding up the lane. In the six years of their marriage, they’d never been apart four whole days, never one really, except the bad time, and while that had seemed a lifetime as it was happening, it hadn’t been four days, and Tyler hadn’t been there asking at least once an hour when his father would be home.

Tomorrow.

Foxface lifted his head again. Anne held her breath. The wind. Only the wind. But this time the dog rose and trotted to the front window, tail wagging. Anne pressed her face to the glass, hands cupped to the sides like a child. There. A glimmer of light from the direction of the barn.

Alight with joy herself, she shoved feet in boots, arms in coat sleeves, and wrapped a heavy wool shawl over her head and shoulders.

“You stay here and watch Tyler,” she whispered to the dog as she lit the lantern by the door. Gathering the quilts in her arms and carrying the lantern, Anne took off for the barn.

The dry snow had stopped, although wind driven lines of white rolled across the frozen ground. The barn door flew open easily. Closing it against the wind took all her strength.

She dropped the quilts, set the lantern down with more care and moved toward the shadowy pool of light where Cord worked, rubbing Keeper down. Surprising her husband was impossible. He looked up before she took the third step. She ran into his arms. His mouth was cold against hers, his cheeks colder under her palms.

“Oh, I wanted you to stay in town, stay in town, safe and warm, but I wanted you here too. I was afraid you’d ride through the storm. I didn’t want you to, but I wanted you home.”

“Storm hasn’t started yet.”

“The snow hasn’t, but the wind is dreadful, and the snow could have started when you were halfway.”

“Mm. Didn’t.”

No, it didn’t, so it no longer mattered. “Is everyone back? Is everyone all right?”

“They are. How about here? Ty? Frank?”

“Ty’s fine except unhappy with you gone, and Frank’s better. Everything is healed except the leg, I think, but he looks older. He needs to let Luke and Pete do more from now on, and of course we all worried. Two words in a telegram didn’t exactly tell us what was going on.”

“Couldn’t afford a telegram long enough to tell it all.” He let her go, picked up the currycomb he’d dropped when he caught her, and started working down Keeper’s neck. Anne took a brush from the shelf and followed along after him.

“Now you don’t need a telegram. You can tell me.”

She listened in amazement to the story of what had gone on in Denver. “So Luke not only bought cows instead of bulls, he brought some girl and boy he just met back with him?”

“Not instead. In addition, and she’s the woman kind of girl. Probably a couple years younger than he is, twenty-five maybe. They’ll be married by Easter.”

“Easter is only two months away.”

“Like I said.”

They had finished with the horse. Cord pulled the brush from her cold hand and put it away. “I’m going to bed a stall for him and leave him in tonight. He’s too old to put out in a storm after he’s worked.”

Keeper was middle-aged for a horse and in superb shape, but he was Cord’s favorite, and the big gelding had earned every luxury they could give him. Anne helped Cord spread a thick bed of straw in an empty stall, still thinking about Luke and this girl.

“Luke and Pete always said they’d never marry unless they found someone like me,” Anne said when they’d finished. “I know that’s just their excuse for not getting married, but is she like me at all?”

“Close as he’s going to get. Not beautiful like you, but she’s got courage like you. So what are those rags you dropped by the door for?”

“They’re not rags, they’re quilts. I was being selfish and thinking about using them for a bed out here in the hay for a while, but I should have thought about how you’d be cold and tired and want to get in the house and warm up and maybe have something to eat.”

“So your mother’s here.”

“She is, and with the storm she’ll be here another couple of days.”

“It’s bitter cold out here.”

“It is. I’m sorry. I should have thought it through.”

“I smell like coal smoke, cow, and horse. You smell like soap and that stuff you bake with.”

“Vanilla. I like the smell of horse, and I’ll like the smell of coal smoke and cow so long as they’re on you.”

“Let’s finish with the horse, and see what we can do with those quilts.”

One corner of his mouth quirked up with what for Cord was a wide smile. Anne grinned back and hurried to where they stored hay in the back of the barn.

The barn door creaked as Cord went out to the pump and brought water back for Keeper. She forked up enough hay to fill Keeper’s manger, carried it to him, and took the quilts back to the hay.

Cord joined her and helped her spread one quilt over the hay.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “If you want to go into the house, say so. I’m just so tired of being careful and being quiet. I keep thinking about the house plan you drew and how much better that will be, but we can’t do that for months, and I want to....”

“Scream.”

Yes, she wanted to scream if she felt like it and laugh and moan and cry his name. She didn’t want to worry about the bed creaking or thumping. Here in the barn Keeper would ignore human antics, and if freezing anything not warmed by friction was the price, she had no problem with it at all, but she didn’t want her husband indulging her.

“Cord....”

“Annie, stop fussing. The day I’m too tired for you, bury me.”

She laughed, partly at his words and partly at the sensation of his cold face burrowing inside her shawl against her neck.

They sat on the quilt, pulled off their boots, covered up with the second quilt and piled their coats and her shawl on top.

It wasn’t going to work. Her gloveless hands were already numb icicles.

“Here.” He tucked her hands into his armpits and his fingers under her arms. The palms of his hands moved against the sides of her breasts.

“Oh, that’s nice.”

“Warmer?”

“No, but it feels good.”

“Try this.” He lifted one of her hands to his mouth, kissed the backs of her fingers and blew warm breath over them.

“Yes, that’s better.” She tucked the warmed fingers back under his arm and gave him the cold hand.

“How about you?” she whispered.

“Your arms are too skinny. This is better.” One cold hand pressed between her thighs. She almost jumped straight up.

“You have to keep your legs together for this to work.”

“I never thought I’d hear those words out of you. Maybe my hands would be warmer down there on you.”

“You wrap those cold fingers around certain things, and we may as well go inside.”

His hand was getting warmer down there. So was she. Even so, he deserved a taste of his own medicine. She tugged at his shirt until she could get her hands under, ran them over his back. “Cold, isn’t it?”

“Not too bad.”

He switched hands between her thighs, causing her to yelp again, running the warm one around to massage her bottom.

His hands were warm now, but their faces and lips were cold until they touched, rubbed, clung.

“I missed you so much. Four days is too long. One day is too long.”

He caressed from her bottom, across her stomach, up to her breast, rubbed his thumb across the nipple. She laughed as his head disappeared under the quilt, and he kissed her breast through the cloth of her gown.

“Are my hands warm enough to wrap around things yet?”

“Not yet.”

His hand was all heat now, moving back down, circling on her belly, slipping between her legs again, probing, rubbing. She moaned as he kissed her throat, nipped an ear. Heated flesh contrasted with the cold everywhere else. Fire and ice, his eyes part of the fire, intensifying the sensations deep inside. She arched, cried out, and shuddered.

“That wasn’t much of a scream. Must be losing my touch.”

“Your touch is just fine. That started out as a scream and froze when it hit the air. You’ll see.”

She slid her hands from his back to his stomach, tickling as she went, undid his belt, unbuttoned, and reached inside his flannels. He jerked slightly when she wrapped her hand around the hard length of him.

“Ha, you see, and I bet my hands are warmer than yours.”

“When?”

She smiled and didn’t answer, stroked, rubbed, cupped his testicles in her palm and squeezed just a little.

He rolled, and she wriggled eagerly under him. “Do I still have to keep my legs together?”

“You can try.”

She laughed out loud again, exulting in the freedom to do it because no one but Keeper and the barn cats could hear. Sneaking away in a storm to make love to her own husband made her feel like an adventuress. The challenge of getting each bit of skin to each bit of skin without risking frostbite only made it better.

Her hands slid up, around his back to his shoulders. At least her gown and robe made things a little easier. A little. She lifted her hips, helped pull the gown to her waist.

He entered her slowly, and the laughter changed to something else, something deep and dark and primitive that brought tears to her eyes and in the end the scream.

When Cord finally lifted his weight, he rolled so she lay stretched on top of him. She snuggled in, enjoying their combined heat, smiling against his neck as he pulled her clothing back down over her rear, tucked the quilt tighter, heaped their coats in the middle of her back.

In spite of it all, her feet were numb and so was the side of her face not pressed to his neck. She still didn’t want to move, didn’t want to let go of the moment. Selfish again, he had to be colder than she was. He’d come from town, hours on horseback in the wind.

Sighing with regret, Anne pushed away and got up. Without a word, they put on their coats, stuffed numb feet in icy boots. Cord finished first and shook out one of the quilts. Together they folded it and started on the second one.

Her mind wandered back to the empty days without him and the reason for them. Was the girl in Denver really like her? Would she know times like this with Luke? “Did you like her?”

“Are we supposed to be talking about other women at times like this?”

“Is she really like me?”

“A pale imitation, but she’ll keep his life interesting.”

“Do I keep your life interesting?”

“You are my life.”

Her hands stilled on the quilt. “I love you,” she whispered past the lump in her throat.

“Good thing because I love you too. Enough to drag you into the house before you freeze out here.”

He showed his feelings in dozens of ways every day, but the words were rare, making tonight even more precious.

Cord doused the barn lantern, picked up the one she’d brought from the house. They walked from the barn into a world turned white. Heavy, wet flakes flew sideways in a blinding curtain. The pattern of the wind piled the snow into drifts against the buildings and certain places in the yard and scoured the ground clear in others.

Anne hated walking even across the yard in storms like this. The stories of people who froze mere feet from their own front doors, disoriented and unable to find safety, haunted her. Cord’s arm circled her waist. She leaned in and held him the same way right to their front door.

A last fleeting thought of Luke’s girl crossed Anne’s mind. I hope it’s like this for her, she thought. I hope she feels safe in the storm.