To Tame a Wolf

Tally hopped up on the partition of the stall and sat there, perfectly balanced. “He told me he didn’t trust you…but I think you know that already.”

“He’s quick to decide what he doesn’t like.”

“So am I. But when it comes to Cold Creek, I follow my own judgment.”

Sim stared at her bare feet braced on the partition—strong feet, not in the least delicate but strangely fascinating. She still wore britches, but a woman’s unbound breasts pushed against the cloth of her plain farmer’s shirt. And she’d done something to her hair. He’d seen it loose before, as she wore it now, yet he hadn’t imagined it could look so clean and shining, like a field of ripe wheat rippling in the wind. And her face… He didn’t know what she’d changed, but no man in his right mind would ever mistake her for a boy.

Sim bit down so hard on the cigarette that he got a mouthful of tobacco. He spat it out and jammed a piece of straw in his mouth instead. “How’s your brother?”

“The doctor examined him and put on fresh bandages, but there wasn’t much more he could do. André…may or may not recover. He needs rest and quiet…and time.”

Her matter-of-fact tone was meant to hide the grief she must be feeling, just as Sim disguised his own disappointment. Disappointment, hell—this was disaster, if the doc’s worst prediction was right.

“I’m sorry,” he said, amazed at how sincere the words sounded in the mouth of a man who’d seldom had occasion to use them.

“I believe you are.”

He knelt and pretended to examine Diablo’s near foreleg. “You’ll be running the ranch yourself now,” he said. “You’ll be short-handed.”

“Elijah’s a very good range boss—not that we’ve ever had enough men to need one. We’re not a big outfit. Not yet.” Tally brushed her hair out of her face with a casually graceful gesture that pushed Sim’s heart into his throat. “What are your plans after this, Sim? Where are you going? To Esperanza?”

The mention of the name hit Sim like a clenched fist. He hadn’t forgotten about Esperanza. Not for a second. But she seemed very far away in that little town in Sonora, not even knowing he would be coming for her.

When? When are you finally going to do it?

He’d learned long ago that it was better to tell part of the truth than a packful of lies. “I ain’t exactly a rich man,” he said. “I planned on going to Esperanza when I had a little more money saved up, so we could get married.”

“That’s quite understandable. Where is she?”

“Mexico.”

Sim watched Tally out of the corner of his eye, engrossed by the way she bit her lower lip. He remembered the feel of those lips under his. He’d kissed Esperanza only twice, and he had difficulty picturing those distant moments in his mind.

Kissing Tally was supposed to be a cure, an end to the temptation of straying from his dream. Tally must have seen it for what it was. Of course she had.

“I have a proposal for you, Sim,” she said.

Sim snapped the straw in two. “And what would that be?”

“I’d like you to stay here and work for me. Considering the trouble we had with rustlers last winter, I can use a man to take André’s place until he’s well again. I can’t promise you good pay—you could get better almost anywhere else—”

“This time of year?” Sim leaned against the opposite wall of the stall and chose a fresh bit of straw. “Even the big spreads lay off men in summer.”

“That may be, but we scrape by at the best of times. Elijah’s here by choice. So is Miriam. Federico lost his wife two years ago, and Miriam looks after his little girl while he’s riding. Bart has a crippled hand that makes it more difficult for him to find work where the owners and foremen can afford to be more fussy about who they hire.”

“And you can’t.”

“I’ve been very lucky.”

“What makes you think an army tracker would make a tolerable cowhand?”

“You’re good with horses. My guess is that you’ve worked cattle in your day, and done just about everything else that’s required on a small place like ours.”

“Just about everything else” was right. He’d even tried a few excruciating stretches of legitimate labor, but blacksmithing and bronc-busting hadn’t panned out when he’d needed real money to begin a straight life with Esperanza. The kind of cattle working Sim knew best wouldn’t meet with Tally’s approval.

But here she was, offering him a way to stay near André and keep looking for the thief who’d taken the map. If her brother hadn’t recovered by the end of the summer, he probably never would. A steady job at Cold Creek would give Sim food and shelter and time to think through what he would do if the map…or, worst case, the treasure…was gone for good.

He’d seen enough of Cold Creek to know that Tally wasn’t being modest about either its size or prosperity. The land itself was promising, with a spring and a creek that flowed the better part of the year, but she couldn’t lay legal claim to any of it until this part of Arizona was officially surveyed. The main adobe house was serviceable, as were the barn and the few other outbuildings, but they weren’t the work of someone with lofty ambitions for wealth and status. Tally had admitted she’d lost cattle to rustlers, and she probably hadn’t owned many to begin with.

Those very disadvantages made her stubborn courage all the more remarkable. She knew what she had and planned to make the best of it, no matter the odds against her. There was no doubt in Sim’s mind that she’d always been the boss at Cold Creek.

Ay, muy loco. He was crazy to seriously consider staying anywhere near a woman who interested him the way Tally did. No good telling himself that he could look at Tally and not feel…not feel something that even Esperanza, with all her purity and goodness…

Damnation. Tally and Esperanza weren’t alike. Not anything alike. As long as he remembered that, he was safe. As long as he remembered that he had to earn Esperanza the way a man earns his way into heaven.

If he began to feel trapped, the wolf gave him a way out.

“Patterson won’t like it,” he said.

“He’ll accept my decision.” Tally slid down from the partition. “Do you want the job?”

“I’ll take it, at least through the summer.”

She hesitated, then offered her hand. He took it, feeling the calluses on her palms and the steadfast strength of her grip.

“There’s only one other thing,” she said, holding his gaze as firmly as his hand. “Everyone at Cold Creek keeps my secret away from the ranch or around outsiders like the doctor. I’m Tal, André’s brother. That’s the way I started out here, and how I intend to continue.”

He released her hand, flexing his fingers to relieve the tingle in them. “Call yourself whatever you choose. I’ve got no reason to care one way or another.”

“I didn’t think so.” She smiled at him the same way she smiled at Elijah and Miriam and probably at everyone who worked for her. “I’ll inform Elijah. Tomorrow night you can sleep in a bunk.”

Sim nodded and stepped back out of range of her scent and her touch. “Are you going to get some sleep now, boss?”

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I think I will.”

She walked out of the barn. Sim leaned against Diablo and breathed in the familiar smell of horseflesh until the stallion’s head drooped and Sim gave himself up to the merciless reckoning of dreams.

CHAPTER SIX

DOCTOR JOHANSEN LEFT Cold Creek early the next day. He offered no more hope for André than he had given when he arrived, but at least he admitted to Tally that recovery was possible.

She paid Johansen out of her very limited stock of cash and devised a schedule so that either she or Miriam remained with André at all times. He continued to lie quietly, sometimes opening his eyes without seeing, at others moaning disjointed syllables that made no sense. Miriam made up a thin gruel that he was able to eat much as a baby would, but Tally worried that his health would fail even more quickly on such a diet.

The everyday work of running the ranch kept Tally sane after she’d spent several hours at her brother’s bedside. Elijah was well able to manage the spread without her help, but Tally couldn’t have borne day after day inside the house the way Miriam did. She went back to riding the range, working with Federico and Bart as they branded stray and orphaned calves, doctored sickly cattle, and mucked out tanks and water holes.

Elijah had another task. He hadn’t been pleased when Tally had told him about Sim, but it was his job to show a new hand the ropes. The two men had to accept each other sooner or later, and Tally intended that it be sooner.

Tally saw little of Sim or Eli for several days. On the third evening both of them appeared in time for supper and assumed their places without ceremony, Elijah in André’s chair and Sim in the foreman’s seat, next to Bart.