Widow Woman by Patricia McLinn Read Free Book Online

so I'll say good-day to you and get about earning that wage Mrs. Terhune pays me. I'll get my rope later, ma'am."
    With a nod, he was gone.
    Dunn's eyes followed horse and rider. “That's a nice animal,” he murmured. He turned to Rachel with a rather pitying smile. “I'm not so sure about the man, Mrs. Terhune. It can be hard to tell with a man like that. You'd best be careful."
    Anger spurred at her, but she gave her blandest smile. “His work's satisfactory, though I'll be sure to pass on your thoughts to Shag."
    As Dunn dismounted and moved in for a closer look at the filly, jumbled reactions kept Rachel's insides jumping. With a low-heat anger that he had tried, as he so often did, to put Nick in his place. And with a reluctant admiration for how the cowhand dealt with it. But mostly with a surprisingly vehement relief. Because one thing was certain: Thomas Dunn wouldn't try to hire away Nick Dusaq.

Chapter Three
    Dunn didn't take the filly.
    That didn't surprise Nick any.
    The powerful rancher left with slick compliments for the horseflesh he'd seen and smiling promises that with visitors from the East coming to the KD Ranch in the next few months, he'd send any looking to purchase quality horses Rachel's way.
    Rachel said thank you, pretty as you please. But Nick didn't believe for a second she had cause for gratitude, not now and not in the future.
    He didn't figure the man had come to look at horseflesh at all. He'd come to see the outfit's condition. And maybe to look over another kind of flesh.
    That last thought left Nick so edgy that two days after Dunn's visit he volunteered to go to town for mail and to fill a supply list that had grown long since spring's outfitting in Cheyenne.
    "Could use you here,” Shag protested.
    "I got business."
    The foreman studied him, then gave a curt nod of acceptance, without asking what business.
    Nick would have told if he'd asked, and that likely would have ended his stay at the Circle T. Because what he did in town was talk to the banker handling the estate of a certain Enoch Wallace.
    Nick had seen it his first time through Wyoming. Even then the buildings hadn't counted for much more than piles of logs. But there'd been something in the sweep of land toward the grand, brave mountains of the Big Horn range that pumped into his lungs. He'd ignored that, and methodically checked the water and grass. Both were good.
    It was the kind of place a man, with a little help, could run some cattle and get a start. A safe place to bring his sister for now. Maybe over time and a lot of hard work, a place to build up to the size of the Circle T or even the Lazy W or KD.
    But a man working cattle for someone else wasn't supposed to own any of his own. It was cattle-country law—some places unwritten, some places on the books. He'd heard owners say it kept the hands from a temptation to turn an owner's calf into their own. He'd heard hands say it was the owners’ way to keep anybody else from getting rich. Some cowhands broke the rule and kept meticulous count. Some broke the rule and weren't so meticulous. Either way, a hand caught was near sure of being fired.
    Even with no cattle yet. Nick figured buying this land would end his working for the Circle T. That might be for the best.
    The Widow Terhune needed him on the Circle T, but she didn't enjoy having him around. She made that clear enough.
    Between not being wanted, and the itch under his skin he'd carried since first seeing her, it sure as hell would be easier to get on with his own business.
    The land Enoch Wallace had claimed and searched for gold never brought him the riches he'd sought, and all the son he'd left back in Baltimore wanted from it was cash. Nick had made an offer right before he'd walked into the Texas Rose the first time.
    Now he'd hear what answer the banker had gotten.
    "May I ask to what use you intend to put the land?” Carter Armstrong asked after leading Nick to his office.
    "No."
    The banker's