by Janet Dailey
Diablo was full of fire, prancing and side-stepping in defiance of his rider's efforts to hold him at a walk. Four people walked around the corner of the stable, Stacy's attention was concentrated on holding the spirited sorrel and guiding him to the pasture gate. She managed a cursory glance in their direction. Two ranch hands were walking in front of Cord Harris and Lydia. A stifled oath came from Cord as he pushed past the hands arid ran towards the mounted rider. The sudden movement towards Diablo startled the sorrel, spooking him into a half rear as he tried to turn in the direction of the approaching figure.
Before Stacy could utter a protest, Cord was by her side, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her off the horse while the other hand had a tight hold on the reins of the panicking stallion. Setting her roughly on the ground, he ordered one of the hands to hold the horse.
'What in the hell were you doing on that horse?' he blazed.
'I was going for a ride, if it's any of your business !' Stacy retorted, her own temper rising at the undignified treatment she had just received.
'You're damn right it's my business! ' Cord raged, grabbing her wrist and twisting it to force her closer to him. 'Isn't one fall enough for you, or would you rather get killed the next time?'
'That was an accident. It would have happened no matter what horse I was riding,' her own eyes flashed in anger. 'I own that horse. He's mine, and you have no right—-'
'I have every right in the world as long as I'm responsible for what happens to you while you're on this ranch,' Cord interrupted coldly, releasing her wrist with a scornful sweep of his hand. 'And as long as you're on this ranch, you're not going near that devil.'
'Thank heavens, I won't be here long!' Stacy returned sharply. Her anger was reaching a point where the powerful, intimidating man did not awe her. 'And you'd better think of a way to keep me away from that horse, because he's mine and I intend to ride him any time I please !'
In the background Stacy could see the contemptuous eyes of Lydia Marshall mocking her childish display. But her irritation with Cord's dictatorial manner and his overworked sense of responsibility ignored the malice that glinted through the black eyes. Approaching the small group from the hacienda was a tall man dressed in a blue sport outfit. There was something familiar about his walk, but Stacy's attention was directed back by Cord's voice.
'I'll lock you in the house if I have to, but you're not riding that horse. There's plenty of other mounts available if you want to ride,' Cord answered, his voice lowering in an attempt to curb his anger.
'No, thank you,' Stacy said sarcastically, turning sharply on her heel to walk in the direction of the dancing stallion.
The raised voices and angry tones had incensed the hot-blooded horse and his flashing white feet drummed the ground in a staccato rhythm. A rolling white eye glanced back to catch a flicker of movement. Pulling at the lead rope held by the ranch hand, Diablo reared slightly and just as swiftly came down and lashed out with his back feet at the unidentified person behind him. But just as quickly, Cord reacted, pulling Stacy away from the menacing hooves.
Holding her back and shoulders tightly against his, broad chest, he muttered in her ear, 'You are the most stubborn woman I've ever known!'
The sudden and unexpected physical contact with Cord swept Stacy's breath away. She felt her knees trembling and her heart racing away with his nearness. She could only hope he would attribute it to the close call she had with the spirited horse. She was too weak to step away from him, cherishing the strength of his arms and the mild aroma of cologne from his freshly shaved face. Cord turned her around, keeping his hands firmly on her shoulders. His expression was grave as he unhurriedly surveyed the pallor in her face.
'I've never met anyone in my life who needed a good spanking more than you,' he growled, releasing her and turning to the waiting group.
'Hear, hear!' came the laughing agreement of the stranger standing beside Lydia.
The happy baritone voice broke through the mist of tears that had taken possession of Stacy's brown eyes. Of course! She should have recognized him. With a broken sob, she rushed past Cord to the waiting stranger.
'Carter, Carter! I'm so glad to see you,' she cried, throwing herself in the young man's arms. Her voice was slightly muffled as she pressed her head against Carter's chest, but her unexpected greeting had brought Cord up short.
'Hey there, honey,' said Carter, surprised at the affectionate welcome he was receiving. Instinctively, his hand reached up to stroke the top of her head. 'If I'd known I'd be welcomed like this, I would have come a long time ago!'
Brushing away the tears that had trickled down her cheeks, Stacy stepped away and looked up into the gentle Hue eyes. The suddenness of Carter's appearance combined with the unsettling contact with Cord had robbed her of her control. She realized that Carter had misinterpreted her welcome, but she was too relieved at having someone she could depend on here. His presence represented a refuge from the storm of emotions that was buffeting her around to the point of exhaustion.
'I take it you two know each other,' Lydia commented dryly, breaking the silence that had settled over the small group.
Embarrassed by her emotional greeting, Stacy blushed slightly before turning to introduce Carter. She stammered an introduction to Lydia, overlooking an arched eyebrow and smug smile on the woman's face. Lydia offered a smooth manicured hand to Carter and one of her intense gazes while Cord stepped forward to complete the circle. His dark ^yes were icy cold as Stacy started to introduce Carter to him, but Carter interposed before she could begin.
'Mr. Harris, I'm glad to meet you,' said Carter, grasping Cord's right hand firmly. 'I never thought I'd see the day that anyone would be able to refuse to let Stacy ride that horse and make it stick. I want to thank you for myself and my father for looking after her so well.'
'I won't mislead you by saying that it was an easy job. Miss Adams is a very strong-willed girl,' Cord answered dryly. 'Will you be staying long?'
'Oniy as long as it takes me to convince Stacy to come back with me,' Carter smiled, glancing tenderly down at the chestnut head beside him, 'hopefully, as my fiancée.'
CHAPTER ELEVEN
STACY had been covertly watching Cord's face, protected mentally by the young man standing beside her, but at Carter's statement Cord's eyes flashed their fire upon her.
'Isn't it wonderful, Cord?' Lydia gushed, her malicious eyes flicking over Stacy briefly before she smiled up at Cord and took his arm. 'What a romantic conclusion for a reunion! It's really just perfect, isn't it?'
'Yes, it is,' Cord agreed, but his voice sounded husky as if he was struggling to control his temper.
No one seemed interested in Stacy's answer to the public proposal, not that she would have offered one if she had been asked. But it grated her that everyone was taking an affirmative answer as a matter of course.
'Carter, I'm in charge of the annual sale of registered quarter horses that Mr. Harris has every year. It's this coming Saturday. Will you be able to stay until then?' Stacy asked, anxious to change the subject.
'Oh, Stacy, you don't have to let a little thing like that stop you,' Lydia inserted quickly before Carter could answer. 'I'm sure it would be perfectly all right if I stepped in for you. After all, it would be an emergency of sorts.'
The last sentence was directed more or less at Cord. Stacy had the distinct impression that Lydia was only too anxious to get her out of the way and the sooner the better. It was all Stacy could do to keep a sigh of relief from escaping her lips when she heard Cord's reply.
'It's too late to make any replacements. The sale is too close and it would mean unnecessary confusion. I don't believe it's all that vital that Miss Adams return immediately,' Cord answered, his cold eyes turning on Carter as if daring him to disagree.
'No, of course not,' Carter added hurriedly. 'As a matter of fact, Dad gave me a week to persuade you to come back with me. We'll just call it a little vacation.' The young lawyer exchanged a co
nspiratorial smile with Stacy before turning back to Cord. 'Is there a hotel in town where I could stay? I'd like to get settled in.'
'There's no need to stay in town,' Lydia began.
'No, you can stay here,' Cord interrupted, silencing the polite protest Carter had started to make with a wave of his hand. 'There's plenty of room at the hacienda. If you'll excuse us, I have some work to do, and I believe you mentioned that you had a luncheon engagement, didn't you, Lydia?'
With a firm hand on Lydia's elbow, Cord manoeuvred her away from the standing couple. Silence descended over Carter and Stacy as he surveyed her quietly.
'You never did answer my question. It wasn't exactly a question, though; was it?' the soft voice asked. 'Don't answer it now either. I'll ask it again later when the setting is a little more romantic. Right now you can direct me to my room and tell me all the ‘tall Texas tales’ you've learned.'
With a nervous laugh, Stacy joined hands with Carter before moving towards the hacienda. Eagerly she related the happenings since her arrival, many of them taking on a humorous aspect on their recounting. Entering the adobe building, she ushered him to one of the spare rooms down the hall from hers, after suggesting that he meet her at the pool in half an hour.
Stacy was floating lazily on her back in the pool when Carter surfaced from his dive beside her. The pair swam round for an hour before pulling themselves up on the side, happy and exhausted.
Stacy studied Carter's lithe, tanned, body through lowered lashes. His light, almost blond hair was still wet from the swim and his smooth, unlined face seemed unusually young when she compared it to the ragged, sculptured features of Cord. Soberly Stacy realized Carter wasn't as indomitable as he had seemed before, but she had fallen easily into their old comradeship, unable to let him know the change that had taken place in her, the difference in her thinking.
'I know about the letter your father sent to Mr. Harris before I came out here,' Stacy said quietly, and noticed that Carter had the grace to redden.
'You understand that Dad was concerned about you,' Carter commented, squinting his blue eyes at the sun. 'As it turned out, we can be glad he did. I didn't know anything about it until after you were hurt.' Turning to study Stacy, he asked, 'What made you stay here—this auction?'
With as little detail as possible, Stacy explained the incident with Diablo, glossing over as much as she could Cord's antagonistic attitude towards her. Mischievous amusement spread over Carter's face when she finished, taking an impish delight at the implied humiliation.
'Imagine you out there chasing cows! That's too much!' he chuckled.
'Well, it wasn't too funny at the time,' Stacy retorted, unable to keep from bristling at his teasing. 'You don't exactly have a choice when Mr. Harris issues an ultimatum.'
'I rather got that impression this afternoon,' Carter said, sobering slightly, but a devilish gleam remaining in his blue eyes. 'I don't think patience is one of his virtues.'
'Hardly,' Stacy replied grimly. 'And he certainly doesn't have any patience where I'm concerned. I still think it was beastly of your father to write that letter, especially without telling me. When I remember some of the terrible things I said and did because I thought Cord was nothing but an arrogant tyrant who enjoyed ordering people about—-'
'You mean he doesn't?'
'No. That is—-' she stammered, struggling to find the right words to explain her change of attitude with out giving her true feelings away.
'Never mind,' Carter laughed, rising to his feet 'I don't care what he is or does. He managed to keep you off that horse and in one piece until I could collect you. For all I care he could be Billy the Kid. Now, I'm going to change before this Texas sun of yours turns me into a lobster.'
The following night, as Stacy dressed for dinner, she dreaded the evening to come. She had hoped with Carter here that she would be able to put Cord in the back of her mind, but Cord had very successfully squashed that. Since her brief conversation with Carter alone the previous afternoon, Cord had been around constantly. If he didn't actually take part in their conversations, he was in an adjoining room. Either way his presence thwarted any attempts for privacy that Stacy and Carter might have made.
Carter had jumped at the dinner invitation when Stacy passed it on to him. His enthusiasm coupled with her earlier agreement left no way for her to back out. The anguish Cord's nearness would surely cause made her wonder if she derived some sort of bizarre pleasure from her torment. Each day that went by brought her closer to the time she would leave for good, thereby turning each glimpse of the virile man into a cherished memory to last the eternity she would be alone.
Willowy and delicate, like something out of a misty dream, Stacy descended the stairs to where Carter Mills and Cord Harris waited in their white dinner jackets. Carter didn't speak, but the admiration in his blue eyes sparkled a compliment that was more eloquent than words. Hesitantly Stacy looked into. Cord's face for an affirmation of Carter's approval, but the dark eyes were masked and his opinion unrevealed, while the agitated twitching of the jaw muscle marred the still, stone-like quality of his brown face. Regretting that she had sought his praise, Stacy turned back to her escort.
'Are we ready?' she asked.
'And willing,' smiled Carter, possessively clasping his other hand over the delicate one on his arm.
A sleek and shiny brown Continental was parked in the drive. Stacy slid into the back seat behind the driver and waited nervously for Carter to walk around the car to join her. Apprehensively she glanced into the rear-view mirror to meet Cord's dark, enigmatical eyes that quickly looked away. The fair lawyer climbed in beside Stacy while Cord started the motor and manoeuvred the luxury car out of the drive. The conversation was sketchy during the journey to Lydia's, with Stacy too conscious of the dark head in front of her to do anything but pretend an interest in the scenery racing by.
'You're very quiet tonight,' commented Carter, after they had parked and Cord had gone into the house to collect Lydia. 'Is something wrong?'
'No, of course not,' Stacy returned, a grateful smile on her face for the concern in Carter's eyes. How could she explain that the proximity of the driver upset her? 'I enjoy looking at the land, especially when the sunset is so close. It gives everything a mysterious peace.'
'That's my girl,' Carter muttered with a mocking shake of his head. 'Here she sits beside a man who's travelled halfway across the country to see her and she's admiring the scenery.'
'Oh, Carter, you know I'm glad you're here/ Stacy laughed, fully aware of the comfort his presence was to her.
'But I wonder if you're glad because it's me of because it's an old friend.' A sadly, serious expression was in his blue eyes as he gazed at her astutely.
Stacy's protest was arrested by the approach of a white-jacketed Cord with Lydia clutching his arm. There was a satisfied smile on his face as he gazed down at the chic woman. Stacy's heart experienced a painful tug as her brown eyes flashed a jealous green. Lydia's raven black hair fell loosely about her creamy white neck, accenting the sensuous décolleté of her lilac satin gown hanging precariously by two slim rhinestone straps.
As pleasantries were exchanged, Lydia glanced at Stacy's ring hand and then looked at Carter petulantly. 'I thought we were going to have something to celebrate tonight. Or did you forget to bring a ring along to make the announcement official?'
Carter managed a joking, noncommittal reply which escaped Stacy, whose attention was caught and held by Cord's intense gaze in the mirror. She felt the colour rising in her cheeks at the inquisitive and derisive expression in his deep brown eyes. Unwilling to take part in the conversation between Lydia and Carter, Stacy again forced her attention outside the glass windows. She managed to keep the jealousy and bitter pain from showing itself for Cord's mocking eyes to see.
Arriving at their destination, Stacy became enchanted with the rambling two-storey building nestled in a sylvan setting of pine trees and lush greenery. As the foursome entered the re
staurant area, the host greeted Cord by his first name and ushered the group personally to a secluded table.
Carter held out the chair on Cord's left for Stacy, his hand lingering briefly on the filmy silk covering her shoulder. The reassurance of his touch quieted the nervous tremor in her heart. With a still hand, she raised her champagne glass with the others as Carter made a toast.
'To Texas.'
'And the happy reunion of those who've been separated.' Lydia added, her gaze taking in Cord's profile possessively before turning to include the other couple.
Stacy was relieved when the dinner was served and over. At least in the lounge the entertainment would force conversation to the minimum. Leaving the table Stacy and Carter followed the other couple into the lounge. Stacy's eyes were riveted on Cord's dark hair curling above the collar of his white dinner jacket. As if conscious of her inspection, he turned, gazing mysteriously for a moment into her startled brown eyes before speaking.
'I hope you won't be too disappointed in the band. The group is mainly Mexican in extraction, so you'll find the music has a Latin-Western flavour rather than the beat you're accustomed to.'
Inwardly Stacy flinched at the subtle undertone of censure that laced Cord's words. His opinion of her was so low already that it seemed useless to protest this statement. Without replying she and Carter followed them to a table. As soon as the cocktail waitress had taken their order, Carter asked Stacy to dance. She quickly obliged, happy to leave the disconcerting company of Cord and Lydia. Three guitars played the strains of an old ballad to the gentle tempo of drums. As she matched the familiar pattern of Carter's steps, a spray of confidence returned to Stacy.
'What's the matter with you tonight?' Carter asked suddenly, his blue eyes examining her face intensely. 'I have the feeling you're afraid or hiding something.'
Startled by his unexpected frankness, Stacy missed a step. A numbness seized her throat as hundreds of protests flashed through her mind, but before she summoned one, Carter went on.