Honey and the Hired Hand

Honey hung up the phone without waiting to hear Adam’s reply. She stared at Jesse, unable to move. He had put his shirt back on, but left it unsnapped so a strip of sun-warmed skin glistened down the middle of his chest. He had retrieved his Stetson and it sat tipped back off his forehead. His thumbs were slung into the front of the beltless jeans. He had cocked a hip, but he looked anything but relaxed.

“The repairs on the roof are done,” he said. “I wanted to make sure it’s all right with you if I saddle up that black stud to round up those steers that need vaccinating.”

“Night Wind was Cale’s horse,” Honey said. “He hasn’t been ridden much since—”

Naturally Jesse would want to ride the wildest, most dangerous horse in the stable. And why not? The man and the stallion were well matched.

“Of course, you can take Night Wind,” she said. “If you wait a minute, I’ll come with you.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

She didn’t ask why not. He could use the distance and so could she. “All right,” she said. “The steers that need to be vaccinated are in the west pasture. Come get me when you’ve got them herded into the corral next to the barn.”

He tipped his hat, angled his mouth in that crooked smile and left.

Honey stared at the spot where he had been. She closed her eyes to shut out the vision of Jesse Whitelaw in her kitchen. It was plain as a white picket fence that she wasn’t going to be able to forget the man anytime soon.

At least she had a respite for a couple of hours. She realized suddenly that because of Jesse’s interruption she hadn’t been able to refuse Adam’s offer of marriage.

Horsefeathers!

She should never have kissed Jesse. Not that she had made any commitment to Adam, but she owed it to him to decline his offer before he found her in a compromising position with some other man. And not that she intended to get involved with Jesse Whitelaw, but so far, where that drifter was concerned, she hadn’t felt as though things were under control. The smart move was to keep her distance from the man.

That shouldn’t be a problem. No problem at all.

Three

The black stud had more than a little buck in him, which suited Jesse just fine. He was in the mood for a fight, and the stud gave it to him. By the time the horse had settled down, Jesse had covered most of the rolling prairie that led to the west pasture. It wouldn’t take long to herd the steers back to the chutes at the barn where they would be vaccinated. Only he had some business to conduct first.

Jesse searched the horizon and found what he was looking for. The copse of pecan trees stood along the far western border of the Flying Diamond. He rode toward the trees hoping that his contact would be there waiting for him. He spotted the glint of sun off cold steel and headed toward it.

“Kind of risky carrying a rifle around these parts with everyone looking out for badmen, don’t you think?” Jesse said. He tipped his hat back slowly, careful to keep his hands in plain sight all the time.

“Don’t know who you can trust nowadays,” the other cowboy answered. “Your name Whitelaw?”

Jesse nodded. “From the description I got, you’d be Mort Barnes.”

The cowboy had been easy to identify because he had a deep scar through his right eyebrow that made it look as if he had come close to losing his eye. In fact, the eye was clouded over and Jesse doubted whether Mort had any sight in it. The other eye was almost yellow with a black rim around it. Mort more than made up for the missing eye with the glare from his good one. Black hair sprouted beneath a battered straw cowboy hat and a stubble of black beard covered his cheeks and chin.

Jesse evaluated the other man physically and realized if he had to fight him, it was going to be a tooth and claw affair. The cowboy was lean and rangy from a life spent on horseback. He looked tough as rawhide.

“Tell your boss I got the job,” Jesse said.

Mort smiled, revealing broken teeth. The man was a fighter, all right. “Yeah, I’ll do that,” Mort said. “How soon you figure you can get your hands on that prize bull of hers?”

“Depends. She keeps him in the barn. He’s almost a pet. It won’t be easy stealing him.”

“The Boss wants—”

“I don’t care what your boss wants. I do things my way, or he can forget about my help.”

Mort scowled. “You work for the Boss, you take orders from him.”

“I don’t take orders from anybody. I promised I’d steal the bull for him and I will. But I do it my way, understand?” Jesse stared until Mort’s one yellow eye glanced away.

“I’ll tell the Boss what you said. But he ain’t gonna like it,” the cowboy muttered.

“If he doesn’t like the way I do things he can tell me so himself,” Jesse said. “Meanwhile, I don’t want any more cattle stolen from the Flying Diamond.”

The look in Mort’s eye was purely malicious. “The Boss don’t like bein’ told what to do.”

“If he wants that bull, he’ll stay away from here. And tell him the next time one of his henchmen shows up around here he’d better not be carrying a gun.”

Mort raised the rifle defensively. “I ain’t rid-in’ around here without protection.”

Jesse worked hard not to smile. It was pretty funny when the badman thought he needed a gun to protect himself from the good guys.

“Don’t bring a gun onto the Flying Diamond again,” Jesse said. “I won’t tell you twice.”

It was plain Mort didn’t like being threatened, but short of shooting Jesse there wasn’t much he could do. The outlaw had kept a constant lookout, so he spotted the rider approaching from the direction of the ranch house when there was no more than a speck of movement in the distance.

“You expectin’ company?” Mort asked, gesturing toward the rider with his gun.

Jesse glanced over his shoulder and knew immediately who it was. “Dammit. I told her I’d come get her,” he muttered. “It looks like Mrs. Farrell. Get the hell out of here and get now!”

Mort grinned. “Got plans of your own for the Missus, huh? Can’t say as I blame you. Mighty fine lookin’ woman.”

Jesse grabbed hold of Mort’s shirt at the throat and half pulled the man out of the saddle. The look in Jesse’s eyes had Mort quailing even though the outlaw was the one with the gun. “That’s no way to talk about a lady, Mort.”

The outlaw swallowed hard. “Didn’t mean nothin’ by it.”

Jesse released the man’s shirt. He straightened it with both hands, carefully reining his temper. “Back up slow and easy and keep that rifle out of the sunlight. No sense me having to make explanations to Mrs. Farrell about what you’re doing here.”

Mort wasn’t stupid. What Jesse said made sense. Besides, the Boss would skin him alive if he got caught anywhere near Mrs. Farrell. “I’m skedaddlin’,” he said.

Without another word, Mort backed his horse into the copse of pecans and out of sight. Jesse whirled the stud and galloped toward Honey to keep her from coming any closer before Mort made good his escape.