Rocky Mountain Ride (Rocky Mountain Bride Series Book 7) by Lee Savino Read Free Book Online

of good breeding stock, and caught hers, pulling neck and neck.
    The lord and lady shared a glance, her cheeks flushed and dark eyes dancing, distracting him to the point where he accidentally guided his horse to a bush and had to take a jump. As his horse leaped through the air, Francesca looked back with a sharp, satisfied curve to her lips. His heart leaped. It was the first time he’d seen her smile. He pantomimed surprise, waving his arms a little, and she turned away to hide her laugh. With his stallion well in hand, he rode closer to her, and she let him sprint beside her horse.
    “There.” She pointed to the large, sprawling hacienda, built in Spanish style, surrounded by a few outbuildings, courtyards, fruit trees and gardens. The architecture looked a bit drafty for a Colorado climate, but lovely. Sebastian and Francesca slowed their horses as they filed through the orchard, enjoying the fragrant, flower filled world.
    They hadn’t reached the first garden before a dirty-faced boy came running up. “Señora, we are glad you are here. There is trouble in the fields. A broken fence allowed the cattle to get into hay fields and trample all over the crops. We are trying to get all the cows out now.”
    “ Ay dios mio, ” Francesca muttered. “I do not need this.”
    Juan and the others arrived, and the boy explained again, this time in rapid Spanish.
    “I will go,” Francesca said. “Juan, will you take our guests to Ana, and tell her I will be back as soon as I can?”
    Juan gave his horse to the boy, and without another word, Francesca wheeled her mount to follow the lad.
    “I’ll go with you,” Sebastian said, signaling his men to continue to the house. His stallion raced to catch his black-clad lady, and the three rode hard in silence on the roads between the fields.
    “That’s the broken fence.” The young farm hand pointed and Francesca led the way, following another acequia that ran between the fields. As they approached the scene of the disaster, Sebastian saw the heart breaking sight: a well planted field, with rows and rows of tiny green plants broken by large swathes of cattle tracks. The animals roamed around, with a few riders trying to corral them.
    Sebastian watched the young widow snap into action, calling orders to her vaqueros, directing their efforts to drive the cattle as she rode carefully between her crops. By dusk, the cows were banished and the fence repaired. About a third of the field was destroyed. Juan arrived; he and Francesca dismounted to walk along the rows, checking to see what could be salvaged or replanted.
    “Hard turn, old boy,” Sebastian said to Juan as the two of them rode to check all the fences.
    The vaquero grunted, but after a half hour working side by side, he opened up to the fair-haired English lord.
    “This land is very fertile, but we’ve had a few bad years. Señor De La Vega, Francesca’s father, died with a few debts. Señor Montoya and my lady have been trying to catch up ever since. It is a hard life, señor.”
    “I can see that.” Sebastian followed Francesca’s straight-backed form as she rode around the field’s perimeter. Hours of travel and work, and she hadn’t once stopped to rest.
    “Señor De La Vega…she didn’t take her husband’s name?”
    Juan shrugged. “It is not the way, though her children would’ve had her husband’s name.”
    “Not a fertile marriage, then?”
    “Cyro Montoya was old. He was closer to her father’s age than hers. But he was good to her. His death will bring trouble. It takes a strong hand to lead a ranch to profit.”
    “The señora seems strong.”
    “Yes. But she will need all the help she can get.”
    Francesca met them at the fence. “Any other weak places?”
    “Not that I can tell,” Juan said.
    “If I may,” Sebastian said. “I examined the fence the cattle broke through. My thought is that it had been tampered with. Why would a cow press against the fence at just the right