"But you can"t go on living like a vagabond," Adora protested. "You"ll never find a decent man to marry you."
"I will," Guy said.
"I"m not sure I want to get married. At least not for a while. People like Mrs. Esterhouse will always draw attention to my size or some other part of me that"s not socially acceptable. I don"t want to be apologizing for myself for the rest of my life. Nor do I want my husband doing it for me," Daisy said when Guy started to voice another protest. "Besides, I like living out here. Maybe I was meant to be a rancher."
"No woman was meant to be a rancher," Guy said with conviction.
"It looks like a lot of hard work," Adora observed.
"It is, but now my muscles have gotten used to being on a horse, I don"t mind it. My parents did me a great disservice by teaching me only how to live back East."
"Couldn"t you run your ranch from Albuquerque?" Adora asked.
"I"d let you run it any way you wanted," Guy added.
"You"d soon start telling me what to do and expecting me to do it," Daisy said. "Men are like that."
"What about Tyler?"
"He works for me. If I don"t like what he does, he doesn"t do it or he leaves."
"He looks like he"s here to stay," Adora said.
"He"ll leave," Daisy said. She had never questioned that. The only question was would she go with him. Would he ask her? But she didn"t mean to tell Guy or Adora that.
"Then you"ll have to come back to town."
"By then I intend to have my own crew and start rebuilding my house," Daisy said. "This is my land, and I mean to live here."
"But you don"t belong here."
"I"m beginning to think it"s the only place I do belong."
"Then you don"t mean to return to Albuquerque?"
"I don"t know what I mean to do," Daisy said, honestly. "I may change my mind next month or next year. But for the time being, I like where I am. I don"t mean to give it up."
"And marrying me isn"t good enough?" Guy asked.
"We"ve already been through that."
"I"m not giving up. I"ll be back."
"I hope you"ll always be my friend."
"I want to be more than that."
"Guy . . . " but Daisy didn"t finished her sentence. Tyler rode up unexpectedly.
"The rustlers struck again last night," he said. "What do you want to do about it?"
"Follow them, of course, and get my cows back."
"Good. I"ll need Rio."
"Rio can stay here. I"m coming with you. They"re my cows."
"You can"t," Guy exclaimed. "It would be indecent."
"You said you trusted me before," Daisy said, turning to Guy. "Can"t you trust me again?"
"It"s not me, it"s--"
"I only care what my friends think. n.o.body else."
Guy wiggled uncomfortably under her gaze. Tyler"s was just as intense.
"I"ve always trusted you. You know that."
"Me, too," Adora added, "but that doesn"t mean you ought to be chasing after rustlers. You could get hurt."
"I imagine they"ll give up the cattle rather than risk a gun battle," Tyler said. "You can rest a.s.sured I have her back safe and sound before nightfall. Now if we"re going, we"d better get started."
Neither Adora nor Guy appeared happy with the decision. Tyler went off, to get things ready Daisy supposed.
"Don"t worry," she told her friends. "The men compete with each other to make sure nothing happens to me, especially Rio and Tyler."
"I don"t trust that man," Guy said.
"I was safe before," Daisy said, beginning to become impatient with Guy. "I"ll be safe again."
"But you"ll be going after rustlers this time."
"I know. My life has never been so exciting."
"I don"t understand you," Guy said. "You were never like this before."
"I don"t understand me myself, but then I don"t know myself either."
"Be careful, and let us know if there"s anything you need," Adora said. "Anything. Your feelings haven"t changed, have they?"
Daisy shook her head. "Neither have his."
"There"ll always be a place for you with us if you want to come back."
"I know. I can never thank you enough for what you"ve done for me."
"You don"t have to thank us. All you have to do is--"
"It"s time to go," Adora said, patting Guy on the leg. "We can come again after Daisy catches her rustlers."
Daisy watched Guy drive away with a lingering feeling of sadness, but without regret. She actually felt relieved. She had made another step forward. Now if she could just manage to control her feelings for Tyler.
"Kill her!" Regis Cochrane shouted at Frank Storach. "She"s broken her engagement." Regis had found Frank at his small adobe down one of the twisted alleys off the Plaza.
"You still owe me from the first job," Frank insisted. "I"m not doing nothing "til I get paid what I"m owed."
Regis Cochrane glared at Frank Storach. Now that Daisy had refused to marry Guy, killing her was the only way to get his hands on her land. Once she was dead, he could produced forged unpaid loans to her father. n.o.body would question that.
His rustlers were poised to drive off Greene and Cordova"s herds if they didn"t sell out soon. The small raids had just been a warning. Daisy"s land was the last piece in his puzzle, and he needed it now.
Regis handed Frank the hundred and fifty. "How long will it take you to hire some help?"
"I don"t need n.o.body. I can do this one on my own."
"You"d better get it right. And this time, head for Montana when it"s done. I don"t want to see you again."
"You sure were d.a.m.ned glad to see me today."
"I didn"t count on that girl turning difficult. She"s always done what she was told before."
"You never can tell about females," Frank said. "I stay away from them myself."
"I don"t care what you do," Regis said. "Just get rid of her and get out of the country. If they catch you, I"ll swear I"ve never seen you."
For a moment Regis was tempted to kill Frank and hire someone else himself. The man was nothing more than an ambitious bungler, but Regis was impatient to get his hands on that land. It would give him a stranglehold on those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who"d tried to cut him out because his mother was half Spanish and half Navajo. They were always looking down on him, trying to ignore him. What the h.e.l.l were they but upstart immigrants! This was his town. He"d been born here. He"d destroy anybody who tried to ignore him.
As Daisy watched Tyler ride just ahead of her, never once losing the trail of the rustled steers, she realized she wanted him to make love to her. That"s why she had insisted on coming with him. If she"d just wanted her cattle back, she"d have sent Rio. She knew that. So did Tyler. She wondered what he was thinking. He hadn"t stopped talking since they found the trail of the rustled cows.
"No reason for that many cows to be together on the range," he had said, pointing to the hoofprints. "No reason for them to be heading up into the mountains. But it"s the horses" hoofprints among them that"s the dead giveaway."
He identified all the plants they pa.s.sed, told her which grew in what season, which had medicinal value, which the cows liked best, about the gra.s.ses, range conditions, bits of information that would be indispensable to her in the coming years. She hoped she would be able to remember some of it, but she could hardly think of anything except his nearness, and the kiss he would give her tonight.
He kissed her every morning and every night. He didn"t make a big production out of it. He just kissed her and went on with his work. It had thrown her completely off stride at first, but she quickly got herself under control. What had started off as a tug of war had turned into a Mexican standoff. He was going to say anything until she admitted she needed him. She wasn"t going to give in until he admitted he loved her.
She had started to feel very much on edge as each evening approached. She found herself waiting, antic.i.p.ating, wanting. She could never have felt this way about Guy. She certainly would never have followed him off on a wild chase after rustlers. He wouldn"t have offered. He"d have stayed home and sent someone else.
She also found Tyler"s presence comforting. Despite his unrealistic dreams, he was the most capable man she"d ever met. He could cook, live alone on top of a mountain, build a cabin a professional carpenter would admire, do the work of a ranch foreman, all without missing a stride. Now he was taking out after rustlers like it was no more than a jaunt to meet friends.
Occasionally the trail narrowed, and she found herself riding behind him. She felt safe when she had to look up into his eyes, not down. She felt secure when he picked her up like she weighed no more than Julia Madigan. She felt very important and valuable when he didn"t want to leave her with Guy. She felt desired when he looked at her with those sultry brown eyes.
"We"ll soon be off your land," Tyler said. "That might make it more dangerous."
"Why?"
"If the cows are unbranded and on open land, they belong to whoever has possession. Under the law, he has as much right to them as you do."
"But they"re my cows."
"You can"t prove that."
"What do you plan to do?"
"I won"t know until we catch up with them."
Daisy tried to imagine what might happen when they found the rustlers, but it was much more interesting to let her mind dwell on her antic.i.p.ation of tonight"s kiss.
The longer she rode alongside him, the more it occupied her mind. Would it be different now they were alone? She remembered the last night in the cabin and wondered if she was prepared for the consequences of touching off the volcano of desire she knew he kept under tight control.
"We"re not going to catch up with them today," Tyler said. "Maybe we ought to go back."
"That means we"ll just have to cover the same ground tomorrow."
"We"re getting into rough country. It could be dangerous. These men aren"t going to want to give up what they"ve become used to taking at will."
"That"s all the more reason to go on," Daisy said. "I won"t tolerate any more rustling."
"And how are you going to back that up?"
"With you right now. I"ll hire somebody else later."
Tyler laughed. "You"ve certainly got a side to you I never suspected."
"And you"ve got several you"ve kept safely tucked away. But that"s beside the point. I"m not going back."
"Good. Let"s find them before night. Then I can decide whether it would be better for us to confront them tonight or wait until the morning."
The rustlers might wait until the morning, but Daisy knew she couldn"t.
They found the rustlers shortly after dusk. They were holding the cows in a small canyon.
"They"re not even guarding them," Daisy pointed out. "Anybody could ride in, let down the poles, and drive them out."
"They probably don"t see any need to post a guard."
"What are you going to do?"
"We"re going to find a camp about a mile from here. I"m going to fix supper, and we"re going to sleep."
"Don"t treat me like I"m an idiot," Daisy said impatiently. "I may not know anything about capturing rustlers, but these are my cows and I expect you to let me know exactly what you intend to do."
Tyler had the stubborn look. It was clear he was trying to decide just how much to could withhold.