The Rancher's Bride

With a tired grunt, she swung the saddle over the top rail of the empty stall, then slapped the bridle across the seat.

“Rose?”

At the sound of the female voice, Rose turned to see Chloe standing a few steps behind her. Like her sisters, she was a redhead—although her straight, shoulder length hair was a much deeper auburn than that of her siblings. And unlike Rose and Justine, Chloe was petite. But her temper and strength made up for her small stature. At the moment she was frowning with concern.

“Is something wrong?”

Rose forced herself to breathe deeply. The last thing she wanted was for Chloe to think a man had gotten under her sister’s skin.

“I’m just hot and tired.”

Chloe moved closer, her eyes wandering keenly over Rose’s flushed face. “You’re hot and tired when you come in every evening, but you don’t always look like you’ve been tangling with a bull.”

A bull? Well, Harlan certainly had a few similarities to one, she couldn’t help thinking.

“Are you finished here?” Rose glanced down the long line of compartments to see if all the horses were back in their stalls. “We need to go up to the house and talk.”

“Talk? What’s happened now?”

A year ago, Chloe would never have responded with such a negative question. Their father had still been alive then, the ranch, or so it had appeared to her and her sisters, had been thriving and rain had continued to keep the grass growing right up until frost.

But this summer nothing had seemed to go right and Rose supposed Chloe’s usually bright outlook had finally started crumbling under the problems they’d been forced to face. As for herself, Rose was very nearly too numb to feel anything except a staggering weight on her shoulders.

“Let’s go find Aunt Kitty,” Rose said while nudging Chloe toward the open doorway of the stable. “I only want to have to tell this story once.”

Back at the house, the sisters entered an overly warm kitchen to find Kitty, a petite woman in her sixties with short gray hair. She was setting the table and didn’t stop to look at her nieces. “It’s almost ready, girls. Go wash and get the twins from the playpen. Their baby food is heating.”

Minutes later, gathered around the dining table, Chloe took on the job of feeding Anna, while Rose assumed the task of feeding Adam. The twins were eight months old and starting to cut teeth. For the past week both babies had been fussy with sore gums. But tonight they appeared to be in better humor. Rose was relieved. She adored her little brother and sister and couldn’t bear to see them in any sort of pain.

“Okay Rose, tell us what happened today,” Chloe said as she offered a spoon of pureed green beans to Anna. “You found another dead cow while you were riding fence?”

“For heaven’s sake, what now?” Kitty asked wearily.

Rose decided it would do no good to delay the telling. “The fence between us and the Flying H has been cut and cattle herded onto our land.”

“What?” Chloe practically yelled the question.

Totally bewildered, Kitty asked, “Who would have done such a thing?”

“I rode over to the Flying H and confronted Harlan Hamilton about it,” Rose told them. “He admitted that he’d done it.”

Chloe’s mouth fell open. Kitty simply stared at her niece.

When neither of them said anything, Rose made an impatient gesture with her hand. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Kitty asked with a puzzled frown.

“Like you’re wondering what gave the timid spinster enough courage to go see a man,” she said with disgust.

“Rose! None of us think of you as a timid spinster,” Chloe countered. “That’s your own way of thinking.”

Frustrated because she still couldn’t gather her nerves together, Rose closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she told the two women, “I’m still feeling sorta testy.”

Kitty and Chloe exchanged worried glances. Rose never felt testy over anything—quietly concerned maybe, but never angry or irritated.

“Why? What happened between you and our neighbor?” Chloe asked.

“Like I said, I went to see him. I didn’t want to, but I made myself.” Rose offered Adam a spoonful of pureed chicken. The baby smacked his lips in appreciation. “And I guess it’s a good thing I did, or we might have—”

“What?” Kitty prompted when Rose stopped in midsentence.

“You’re not going to believe what he showed me.”

“His naked chest?” Chloe asked dryly.

Rose shot her sister a cool look of disapproval. “The man is running out of water.”

“So are a lot of other people around here,” Kitty spoke up. “Why, Vida was just telling me yesterday they were having to haul their drinking water from Ruidoso.”

“So is that why Mr. Hamilton cut our fence and drove his cattle onto our land? To give them a drink?” Chloe asked in disbelief. “I can’t really see what good that was going to do. Cattle have to have water every day. Or—” She looked at her sister with raised eyebrows. “He didn’t leave them on our land, did he?”

Rose shook her head. “No, he didn’t leave them on our land, but he intends for us to—” She couldn’t go on. Her throat closed around the words, forcing her to swallow several times before she could speak. “He wants us to open up the Bar M to him so that his cattle can reach our part of the river.”

The two women stared at Rose in stunned silence, then finally Chloe burst out laughing.

“You know, I always wondered why that man was single,” she said once her laughter had trailed away to a chuckle. “He’s got looks to die for, but apparently he doesn’t have a brain to go with them.”

“Just hush, Chloe, you haven’t heard it all,” Rose scolded wearily.

“You mean there’s more?”

Adam was banging his fist on the high-chair tray. Rose quickly pushed another spoonful of food at the baby.

“Oh, yes. It seems that several months ago, more than a year to be exact, our father borrowed money from Harlan Hamilton.”

“No!” Kitty said with a sharp gasp.

The humor suddenly vanished from Chloe’s face. “How much?”

Rose repeated the amount and once again the two women stared blankly at her.

“The worst part is,” Rose continued, “Daddy put the Bar M up as collateral.”

Chloe rocketed to her feet. “He couldn’t have! He wouldn’t have!”

Her face stiff, Rose said, “He did. Harlan has it on document. And I’ll assure you it was all very legal.”

“You mean, if we don’t or can’t repay Mr. Hamilton, the ranch could belong to him?” Kitty asked fearfully.