The Horseman

by Jillian Hart

  The stallion nickered, a low warning sound that sent shivers down Katelyn’s spine.

  “We’ve got lassos ready,” one of the ranch hands said as he led the others toward the fence. “Stand back, Hennessey. Let the real cowboys take care of this one.”

  “Fine, Ned, but you boys will scare him off.” The horseman lifted a coiled whip from his belt. “Go ahead. You catch him. I’ll just lean back, take a few minutes to rest and watch you rope him in. It shouldn’t be too hard for a seasoned wrangler like you.”

  “You’re a son of a bitch, Hennessey. There isn’t a horse I can’t break.” Ned crawled through the fence, then shook out his lasso.

  Dillon Hennessey had learned long ago how to manage fools like Ned Ritter, so he was careful not to let anger get the best of him. He had a quick trigger when it came to the way men treated horses. It was just the way he was. He believed in respecting animals.

  And women, too.

  He’d noticed her before tonight. What man wouldn’t? He’d caught sight of her in the windows of the house, quiet and pale and moving slowly, as if in pain. She’d lost a child. That was hard on a woman. He could understand that.

  What he couldn’t understand was why any man would have set her free.

  She was beautiful. Probably the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. She was delicate, refined and as fragile as those china dolls he’d seen in the store window in town. She was far too fine for the likes of him. Why are you even looking at her, Hennessey?

  Because while he tried his best to make wise decisions, he made mistakes. And watching the owner’s daughter out of the corner of his eye had to be the worst mistake a man like him could make.

  “You’re spookin’ him, Ned.” Dillon couldn’t believe his eyes. What were the four men going to do? They could toss all the rope in the county around that stud’s neck, and it wouldn’t do any good. They couldn’t hold him.

  The truth was, nothing could hold that horse.

  Nothing except his loyalty. A stallion like that one decided if he’d trust a man or not. That was the secret to dealing with difficult animals. That, along with no small bit of kindness, did the trick.

  It was a secret Ned didn’t seem to know as he tossed the fat noose through the air. The hemp smacked the horse in the head.

  With one great shake, the stallion knocked the rope aside. Another sailed through the air and he pivoted, a blend of shadow and substance, and fled.

  “I got him! I got him!” Ned braced his stance and whipped the lasso tight.

  “Hold on, Ned!” the hands advised.

  This ought to be good. Dillon settled back to watch, wondering how long Ned would last. Thirty seconds at most. The stallion bunched up into a powerful jump that sent him sailing like Pegasus himself over the fence railing, hauling Ned into the fence with a crash.

  Ned’s groan of pain was followed by a long string of vile curses as the end of the rope sailed out of sight along with the horse. The stallion returned to his herd of mares and galloped for the foothills of the Big Horn Range, until there was nothing but the faint drum of their hooves. Then nothing but wind and storm.

  “You stood there, you lazy cuss!” Ned moaned, finding his feet and swiping the snow from his backside. “If you would’ve helped, I could’ve held him.”

  “You said to let the real cowboys handle it, and I did.” That comment only made Ned mad, but Dillon didn’t care. He ignored the ranch hand’s tirade.

  What Dillon did care about was the stallion. He was a runaway, was he? From this ranch? Interesting. Dillon figured he’d find out about the reward. And why the stallion had returned to this spread.

  A mare’s nicker sounded from inside the stable, lifting on the rising wind, and it was a sad and lonely sound.

  A female. It always came down to that. When she was special, what was a poor male to do?

  Suffer, that’s what. Dillon glanced over his shoulder to the shadows near the far fence. She was gone. There was only shadow and a thin blanket of snow. Fat flakes tumbled relentlessly, covering over her footprints.

  Dillon stared down at the imprints. Small and delicate.

  Just like her.

  Warmth filled him. It was a strange thing. A dangerous reaction.

  He was lonely. He wanted a wife. But there was no chance in hell that beautiful Katelyn Green would want a man like him.

  Yep, he knew when to draw and when to fold. He stood in the storm a long while with the snow falling all around him and thought of her, as elusive as that stallion in the night.

  And twice as unreachable.

  Chapter Two

  Katelyn carried her morning cup of tea to the dining-room window to watch the snow fall. Peace. It covered the landscape in a blanket of white, the gentle rolling whiteness covering up the mud and dirt and the season’s dead grasses, making the world new and beautiful. Heavy ice-gray clouds hung low on the horizon, masking the proud peaks of the Rocky Mountains on one side and the Big Horn Range on the other.

  With the snow falling, it felt as if the sky was so close to the ground that if she went outside, she could almost touch heaven. Wishful thinking, she knew, but it remained a hard longing within her. Probably because she wanted to escape this house and this pain.

  “I told you, hot tea in the mornings. Hot, not tepid. This is entirely unacceptable.” There was a clatter from upstairs and an angry tap of shoes on the staircase that echoed through the downstairs room.

  It didn’t sound as if Mother was in a good mood this morning. Katelyn cradled her teacup in her hand and hobbled to the kitchen. She was still too tender to hurry, but she ignored the shooting pain that radiated from her midsection as the beat of Mother’s angry footsteps knelled closer. Thankfully the kitchen doors swung shut behind her a second before Mother entered the dining room.

  “She’s in a mood this morning.” Effie stirred scrambled eggs on the stove. “I don’t blame ya for wanting away from her. Stay here with me, and I’ll give you the best bits of bacon I saved. With all you’ve been through, you need to eat. Else how do you expect to gain back your health?”

  “Just the tea for now, thanks.” Katelyn brushed a kiss along the older woman’s cheek. Effie Kerr had been a fixture in this kitchen for as long as she could remember and more kindly to her than her own mother could dream of being. “I’m too upset to eat.”

  “And little wonder, with the way they was carryin’ on, as if you’d done somethin’ bad.” Effie put down her wooden spoon to brush a handful of blond locks from Katelyn’s face. “That husband they made you marry is the bad one. Everyone knows it. Never heard of such a thing, undoing the marriage the way he did. Suppose he knows how to do it, but it ain’t right if you ask me.”

  “Don’t work yourself up, Effie.” Katelyn caught the older woman’s callused hands in her own and gave a squeeze. “I wasn’t happy being a wife to that man.”

  “I should think not.” She returned to the stove, shuffling like a woman far older than her years, her back beginning to stoop. Her sadness was as palpable as the heat radiating from the stove.

  Losing her son had been hard on her. Katelyn recalled how Old Pete Kerr had wanted to kill the stallion, and remembering that majestic creature made her breath catch. He’d been remarkable, like poetry moving in the darkness, something bold and beautiful and striking like William Blake would have written, a wild animal burning in the night.

  “Sit down, child, and finish that tea if nothing else.” Effie pulled out a chair at the small table in the corner. “Maybe some of my biscuits fresh out of the oven will tempt that appetite of yours.”

  “They smell good.” Katelyn obliged, grateful to rest in the comfortable chair. The cushion was soft, and the view remarkable. She leaned her elbows on the edge of the table, since there was no one to reprimand her, and stared out at the world of white.

  If only the world could stay like this, comfortable in a cold layer of snow, and made new every morning. Although she knew the temperatures w
ere bitter outside, sitting with her back to the stove and tea warming her up was the most pleasure she’d felt during the years she’d been married to the county’s most respected judge.

  She shivered, remembering Brett. Her stomach coiled into a tight ball and the peaceful moment was ruined. Breathing in the sweet spicy tea, she tried to banish thoughts of him from her mind. She needn’t think about him or any man ever again.

  She was better without a husband. Without a ring on her finger. Safer.

  “It’s good to see you feeling better, dear. To have you up and about.” Effie slid a covered basket onto the edge of the table. “Don’t be afraid to eat them all. Go on, now.”

  The warm yeasty scent of fresh roll with melted butter, sugar and cinnamon made Katelyn’s mouth water. Her stomach growled in anticipation. “Maybe just one.”

  “Thata girl.” Satisfied, the cook ambled away. The bang of pans against the stove filled the kitchen with a merry sound.

  Katelyn took one sticky roll from the basket and tore off a bite-sized morsel with her fingers. The gooey icing reminded her of when she was a little girl, sitting at this same table and unrolling the coiled cinnamon roll so it was one long strip of sweetness.

  Something stirred in the white downfall outside and distracted her. She absently placed a bit of roll in her mouth and chewed, squinting through the smudged windowpanes. All she could see was the steady cascade of snow falling like rain outside, obscuring the mountains and the plains, giving her only a view of the yard directly outside the window.

  There it was again. She held her breath as a blur of dark color moved closer. A deer, perhaps? An elk? Or what if it was a moose? She’d missed the wildlife coming to visit, living in town for so long. At least that was one blessing. She’d grab her coat, head straight to the barn and snatch a bag of grain. Maybe the animals would come close enough so she could watch them eat.

  But it wasn’t a deer or an elk or even a moose that broke through the veil of snow and into her sight. It was Dillon Hennessey riding a big black-and-white mustang. Sitting tall and straight in the saddle, he looked rugged and as invincible as a warrior of old. As if nothing could defeat or diminish him.

  A strange tingle began at her nape and slid down her spine. What kind of man was Dillon Hennessey? Why did she want to know? She didn’t like men. She wasn’t interested in them. Not after what she’d been through.

  So, why couldn’t she tear her eyes from him? Why did that tingle in her spine strengthen when he rode so close to the window?

  He was dressed well for the weather, and she couldn’t see his face. Couldn’t see anything more of him than she had last night in the dark. But the wide cut of his coat suggested a man of muscle and strength. The shadowed profile hinted at a man hard as stone.

  She shivered. He was probably a harsh man. Weren’t they all? Stronger than a woman, and he was probably the worst, breaking horses with whips and spurs and cruelty.

  The image of Brett’s raised fist flashed into her mind and she shook harder, willing it away. She was safe from him here. Whatever happened to her now would not be as bad as being married to that man.

  She wrapped her hands around the teacup and lifted it to her lips. The dark liquid sloshed up to the rim but didn’t spill. She took a deep breath. She had to relax. She didn’t need to be so jumpy. She was safe, remember?

  She felt something, a strange sensation like the brush of a feather against the side of her face. She snapped her head up. There, on the other side of the glass, the horseman was staring at her. He’d turned in the saddle, his face shadowed by the brim of his hat, and in the storm all she saw was his dark blue gaze, compelling and calm, before the snowfall swallowed him whole. Leaving her watching the flakes tumbling past the window and with a strange quickening in her chest.

  “Effie, do you know anything about that new man?”

  “The wrangler?” The wooden spoon scraped on the steel fry pan. “Came in about a month ago. Your stepfather brought him in to work with his new mares. Dillon Hennessey’s supposed to be the best. There ain’t a horse he can’t break.”

  “How unlucky for the horses.” Her stomach tightened and she stared at the roll. She was no longer hungry.

  “Horses aren’t useful for much if they can’t pull a buggy.” Effie dropped the empty pan on the counter, untroubled by the clatter, and rescued the sizzling bacon from the heat. “I hear he comes up from Texas way, but worked in Wyoming for a spell. Been all around. California. Colorado. New Mexico. He always comes back to Montana. Folks say this here territory is his home.”

  “I thought you said he was from Texas?”

  “I don’t rightly know. He isn’t given to talk much, and you know my Pete is as deaf as a turnip. Can’t hear anything right, so that’s probably what he thinks he heard about Hennessey. Haven’t spoken to the man myself. He keeps to his own.”

  A loner. A drifter. Katelyn remembered how he’d stood apart from the men last night, and it hadn’t only been the distance between the others that separated them and made him distinct, as if he were above those other men.

  And yet how could he be? He was no different, being a wrangler, a man who wore spurs and dominated wherever he could, and at whatever cost. Like any man.

  “Eat up, girl, you haven’t eaten enough to keep a bird alive.” Effie thrust a plate of bacon and eggs onto the table.

  Katelyn wrinkled her nose. “I’m not hungry.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Eat. Or there will be hell to pay.” Effie’s stern words were forceful enough to echo in the small kitchen, but her eyes shone with kindness.

  Hers was the only caring Katelyn had known since she’d been a little girl. Grateful, she lifted the fork off the edge of the plate. For Effie, she’d do her best, even if her stomach felt as if it were tied into a hundred knots.

  Effie’s attention drifted to the window. “Was there any reason you wanted to know about Dillon Hennessey?”

  Was it Katelyn’s imagination, or did Effie sound unusually pleased? “It was idle curiosity. So much has changed since I’ve been gone.”

  “True. You were married how long?”

  Effie knew full well how long. “Five years. A lot has changed. I wondered if my stepfather has been any more successful in keeping his hired men.”

  “Not a bit. If Pete wasn’t your mama’s cousin, we’d be long gone ourselves. Cal Willman is a tough man to work for, I’ll grant you that. A man like Hennessey, he’s a drifter. He moves from ranch to ranch. Gets paid well, I hear. We had a year and a half wait for him, he’s got that much work. That ought to say something good about him, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I suppose.” Katelyn stared at the eggs in front of her. She never should have asked a single question about the horseman.

  Effie snatched the pot from the counter, moving casually, but there was nothing the woman did without purpose. “He’s pleasing to the eye, wouldn’t you say? A woman can’t help but notice Dillon Hennessey’s about as tough as a mountain and good-looking to boot.”

  “I hadn’t noticed.”

  “You are a terrible liar, dear heart.” Effie sounded as pleased as a new mother as she tipped the pot, warming up Katelyn’s cup. “Even at my age, a handsome man still catches my eye. He’s not truly handsome, though, is he? Rugged. Striking. That describes him better. He looks like a man who could protect a woman from any threat. Any danger. Now that’s what a woman needs in a husband.”

  Katelyn groaned. “Stop, please. I’ve had one husband. I will never want another.”

  “But whatever will become of you?” Effie set the pot on the table and drew up a chair. The sharp scrape of the wooden legs against the floor came as harsh as the fear on the woman’s face. “I’ve heard what they’ve been saying, the two of them, when they think no one can hear. They intend to find a situation for you, and it won’t be a pleasant one.”

  “I don’t need them to find anything for me. As soon as I’m well, I can leave.”

  “What if th
ey ain’t planning to wait that long? And where would you go? This is a cruel world for a woman alone.”

  “It can be a cruel world for a married woman.”

  “No, only if the woman marries the wrong kind of man. I promise you, you could do much worse than Dillon Hennessey.”

  “What? Effie, I asked you to stop. I can’t stand it.” She laid down her fork and rested her aching head in her hands. She was still weak from one man’s beating. Did Effie think that she couldn’t wait to give control of her life to another man?

  “There, there.” The cook’s hand lit on Katelyn’s shoulder blade, a gentle, comforting touch. “Didn’t mean to overset you. But keep in mind, you need a situation better’n the one your stepfather will find for you. The best way to get out of here is to marry a man of your own choice. One that’ll treat you good, the way you deserve.”

  “Oh, Effie.” Tears burned behind her eyes, blurring her vision, and Katelyn blinked hard, refusing to let them fall. What would she do without Effie? She’d be all alone. Utterly, completely alone. “The food will get cold. You’d best go. You know how my mother gets.”

  “Well, I do.” With a dramatic roll of her eyes and a heaving sigh, Effie hauled her bulk from the chair. “Now you think on what I said. Mr. Hennessey has never married, at least that’s what they tell me. At his age, a man wants to be settled and have sons to pass on his wisdom to.”

  With a smile of approval, Effie hustled from the room, snatching two platters of food on her way out.

  I can’t give him sons. Effie knew that. Everyone did. Hadn’t it been the topic of gossip around the ranch for the past month? The doctor had told her she couldn’t give any man a child. Not that she wanted the horseman-she never wanted to be at a man’s mercy again-but the fact that she would always be completely alone without a child, without a family, hurt like a mortal wound.