"He isn't spoiled," she argued. "There was no problem with him in the East, and something was wrong from the minute he arrived here. No one has been able to do more than try to ride him a few times. We exercise him by turning him out in a large paddock for several hours, and by leading him between two saddle horses, but it's hard to do even that when everyone's afraid of him."

Cord's last experience with this kind of thing was with Lathrum's useless yellow horse, and he wasn't going to be drawn in. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but no."

Mrs. Stone then played what she obviously thought was her trump card. "I understand you worked a difficult horse for Alferd Lathrum last year, that you agreed because you wanted to improve your stock with some of his Eastern breeding, and that he cheated you so that you don't have the young stallion he promised. Would an offer of breeding one of your mares to this horse change your mind? I wouldn't cheat you."

Cord had seen the big red horse in the distance once or twice and talked to Windon about him. He thought the horse was probably the best looking animal he had ever laid eyes on. He was tempted, but he had been burned badly last fall.

"That's generous of you, Mrs. Stone, but the colt I got from Lathrum is doing fine.

My wife did some nursing on him and brought him around. I don't...."

Right then he made the mistake of glancing at Anne. He could see her face falling as if he were telling her no. Oh, h.e.l.l, he should have known. If they were going to shoot the d.a.m.n horse if n.o.body could do anything with it, she'd be h.e.l.lbent for saving it.

When he hesitated, Mrs. Stone pressed her advantage. "Please. He's such a beautiful animal. There just has to be something wrong no one has found. He's been checked from head to toe - teeth, everything, but there must be something. Mr. Windon told me...." Her voice trailed away.

Good old Bob, Cord thought acidly. He'd probably filled her full of magic stories. He said, "All right, Mrs. Stone, I'll come look at the horse, say Tuesday morning. If I can figure out something so you don't have to destroy him, I'll expect the breeding. If I can't help you, you don't owe me anything."

Her face lifted in a genuine smile. "Thank you very much, Mr. Bennett." She surprised him again by holding out a gloved hand, and solemnly shaking hands to seal the bargain.

Leona and Rob had come in during this discussion and were as awed by Virginia Stone's presence as Martha. As soon as the door closed behind her, Rob said, "Now there's a real lady."

Anne just made a face at her brother. "Which mare will we take to him?"

Cord felt like laughing at her, but didn't let it show. "d.a.m.n it, Annie, quit. Probably the horse needs to be shot."

Luke broke in to share what he knew on the subject. "Boy, are you right. He took the last couple of bronc busters tried to ride him straight through a fence. Broke one man's leg."

This slowed Anne down fast enough. "Cord," worry was written all over her, "you won't...."

He stood up and headed for the parlor. "No, I won't. I've had enough of you nursing me and pouring soup stuff down my throat for a lifetime."

Over Anne's shoulder, Cord saw Frank scowl. His brother and the rest of the family could take the words anyway d.a.m.n way they wanted. All that mattered was allaying Anne's fear, and her smile told him he'd succeeded at that.

Chapter 26.

THE PEOPLE OF MASON REFERRED to John and Virginia Stone's property as an estate, and as she rode up the winding driveway beside Cord, Anne could see why.

Maybe the house wasn't quite as big as her Aunt Clara's mansion in Chicago, but set on a hill with acres of land on all sides, it looked even more impressive.

The barn had also been built as much to impress as for utility. Everything was white with green trim. Two long rows of stalls were separated by a wide center aisle, and the hay loft above gave the barn more height than a two-story building.

Even though she had never been to the Stones' before, Anne was struck by the familiarity of the scene. As on the day they delivered Adamson's horses to the train, there was an unexpected crowd of curious townsfolk already leaning against most of the pretty white fence surrounding the riding areas. When they were close, she could see Ephraim and Martha, Frank, Pete, and Luke in the crowd.

Following Cord's lead, she ignored them all, and they rode right to the barn and tied Keeper and Lady outside. John and Virginia Stone and her stableman, introduced only as Lennie, were waiting.

John Stone was as elegant as his wife, a slim man of moderate height with dark hair frosted with silver on the sides and a sharply trimmed short beard. He and Lennie seemed to be having a contest to see who could look more bored by having to put up with this hopeless, last ditch effort.

Virginia Stone was upset and more than slightly embarra.s.sed. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mention this to anyone, but it seems my husband has."

John Stone was not apologetic. He just leaned against the barn wall and crossed his arms.

Cord ignored them all and walked over to look at the horse through the barred top of the stall. Beside him, Anne caught her breath. The horse was a glowing deep red without a single marking. Quality showed in the shapely ears, the broad, flat forehead, small muzzle and tracing of veins visible under the satiny coat. Everything about the animal seemed to flow smoothly together. He looked powerful, yet refined.

Restlessly pacing the stall, Firebrand gave evidence of the quality and athletic ability that had lured Virginia Stone to buy him, and also of the foul, dangerous att.i.tude that made John Stone want to see him shot.

Anne was ready to leave right then, but Cord moved to the Dutch door to the stall and opened the top half. The stallion immediately charged at him, not just with teeth bared, but with his whole mouth gaping wide enough to seize a man's shoulder and crush it.

Cord evaded the charge easily, then left the top door open and leaned against the opposite wall of the aisleway. "Tell me about what he was like back East in a stall and what he was like when he first got here."

Nervously, Mrs. Stone said the horse was docile and good natured in the stall when she first saw him. The breeder claimed he had an unusually fine nature and it had seemed so. When he had first arrived in Colorado last November, the horse was restless and nervous, as might be expected, but he only started biting and kicking weeks later. His stall manners degenerated parallel to the difficulties under saddle. At first he was uncooperative, then totally unwilling, and finally he began to fight a rider violently and aggressively.

"Mm. Till he took two men through your fence."

Mrs. Stone had the grace to look ashamed.

Cord again walked to the open stall door, and the horse charged again. He hit the horse with a hard fist right in the soft skin over the teeth at the side of the muzzle with such force the horse rocked back. The stallion retreated to the back of the stall and stood working his lips and thinking it over.

Anne felt sick with fear. If Cord were hurt by this monster, it would be all her fault.

"Cord? Maybe...." He just looked at her, and she stopped.

At a jerk of his head she followed him down the barn aisleway out of hearing of the others. "If you're going to fuss, we'll walk out right now."

"I don't want you hurt is all."

"Annie, I'm not going to get hurt over a d.a.m.n horse. If you can't believe that, let's go."

She bit her lower lip. Trusting is the hardest part. "I believe you."

"All right then. Want to help?"

She nodded, unable to see how she could help. They returned to the horse's stall, to John Stone's sarcastic, "Strategy all planned?" Anne controlled an urge to slap him. Cord didn't seem to hear.

The horse was still standing along the back wall of the stall, motionless, ears slightly back. Cord's instructions horrified Anne, but she took the position he indicated, as did Mrs. Stone.

"Now, I'm going to stand with my back to him. Mrs. Stone, you start telling me everything you can remember about when you saw him back East. Every detail. He's going to come at me, and you do your best to just keep talking when he does in a normal voice. Don't jump. Don't scream. Doesn't matter what you say right then. Try to keep it conversational is all. Annie, keep your eyes on him. He's going to pin his ears when he comes. Not just a little, they'll flatten right out on his head. When you see that, you move your hand, like this." He demonstrated.

Anne heard Mrs. Stone's voice droning on and on and couldn't understand a word.

She stared at the big red monster until her eyes hurt, and then the ears went! She waved her hand instantly, clamping down on her already aching jaw even harder to keep from crying out.

Cord was positioned in the doorway so that the horse could only come at one side, and he whirled and smashed the stallion in the mouth again, with the same result.

Anne could see Mrs. Stone trembling and knew she was doing the same.

Cord said, "That's good. Now we do it again. This time he's probably going to mosey over looking as innocent as he can and take a good look at me. He'll get close and then try it again. Watch his ears."

The women watched wide-eyed, Mrs. Stone no longer making good sense in her nervous attempts at ordinary sounding speech. The horse meandered closer and closer, nosing the bedding and trying to look uninterested in the man. Near the stall door his nostrils dilated as he took deep suspicious breaths. Then the ears pinned. Cord didn't have time to turn. He smashed the horse with an elbow in about the same place.

Anne just managed to suppress a moan. "Now what," she whispered.

"Try it again. We'll give him half an hour. If he comes again, Mr. Stone is right - best thing is to shoot him."

Mrs. Stone took up her nervous recitation again, steadied by questions from Cord, and finally, he questioned Lennie about the horse's behavior. Young and c.o.c.ky, Lennie was not pleased to see this man unafraid of the horse that terrified him. He was sullen and uncooperative, giving monosyllabic answers, but the half hour pa.s.sed.

The horse had moved up behind Cord and was looking him over and testing his scent, but made no further move toward him. Cord walked in the stall and attached a rope to the horse's halter with no fuss. When he tied the animal and began running a brush over him, Mrs. Stone said, "He kicks."

"Bet not."

He was right. The horse lifted a hind leg several times but never tried a kick. Minutes later Cord had his saddle off Keeper and on the stallion. He rejected the bridle Lennie held out and asked for one as similar as possible to what the horse was ridden with back East. With this on the horse's head, he began to gently play with the reins. In seconds the horse's ears were pinned flat to his head and fury was in every line. The bridle came off.

"Annie, get the bridle in the saddle bags, will you?" Cord's saddle was stripped down in antic.i.p.ation of riding the stallion. The only saddle bags were on Lady.

She ran. The crowd outside was restless and noisy, but had grown, not diminished.

With his own bridle on the horse, Cord began to play with the reins again.

Mrs. Stone objected, "But that's a colt bridle. He's gone through the fence with quite severe bits. You'll never hold him with that."

Cord didn't even answer. Almost right away Anne could see a difference. The horse's ears were flicking uncertainly, but he was no longer hardening his jaw and sticking his nose straight out with every touch of a rein. "How many people were around the day you saw him ridden?"

Anne knew he was wondering about the effect of the crowd on the horse.

Mrs. Stone said, "Quite a few, really. There was a hunt that morning. And they were very noisy. It was a cold morning and there was some brandy pa.s.sed around."

"Let's go see." He walked the horse out of the barn and headed for the smallest of the fenced riding areas. As he walked out with the horse, the noise of the onlookers subsided.

Anne followed along with the Stones, taking up a position right beside the gate. She watched Cord walk along beside the horse, still gently twitching and feeling the reins as the animal walked around. Suddenly she was surrounded by Bennetts.

"That took a while." Frank was looking not at her but at his brother.

She needed to tell somebody. "It was awful. That horse really is vicious. I wish I could go back and relive last Sunday, and we wouldn't be here."

Frank said, "The thing you've got to learn is that Cord's meaner than most of what he comes up against. You were worried about him the day he half-killed those poor yahoos too, if I remember."

Anne clamped her mouth into a hard straight line. Frank probably wouldn't be bothered a bit if the d.a.m.n horse stomped his brother. Surely the Bennetts couldn't be any more aggravating, but then Luke proved her wrong.

He said, "Most people are betting he won't even have the nerve to get on that killer, you know."

Anne forced words through tight lips. "What do you mean, 'betting'?"

"The real thing. There's a lot of money going around. Most people think he won't even try to ride the horse. Some say he'll try and get thrown. Windon says he'll get it done. Personally, the way he fiddles around with horses, I figure he will ride it - someday."

Anne turned to Frank, doing her best to hide anger behind a polite smile. "When I left home I had twenty dollars, but I don't have it with me. Would you loan me twenty dollars until Sunday?"

Frank pulled twenty dollars from his pocket and handed it to her without a word.

"Thank you, Frank. Now, Luke, I've never placed a bet. Would you or Pete bet this for me? Bet it that he'll ride that horse."

"Ah, come on, to win the bet he has to really ride it, not just be on it when it goes through the fence."

Before Anne could draw breath to answer, Frank intervened. "Just go bet the money for her, son." Luke gave his father an uncertain look. "Go." Shaking his head, Luke went and got Pete from a few feet off, and the two disappeared into the crowd.

Anne could see that Cord was no longer just walking beside the horse but directing it.

They stopped, began again, turned each way. Time pa.s.sed. The crowd was bored and getting louder once more. The horse halted, as it had a dozen times, but this time Cord eased into the saddle so smoothly some of the watchers, involved in their own conversations, didn't immediately notice.

Soon all eyes were on the big red horse and the lithe figure in the saddle. The horse continued to walk quietly, following the same patterns it had with Cord on the ground.

Moments later he eased into a trot and began to execute more little circles, turns, and patterns, the same ones he had Anne put Lady through. The horse dropped back to an easy walk then was off again around the pen's perimeter at a relaxed canter. After a few small circuits of the pen's perimeter, the horse glided through the center of the pen, effortlessly changing his leading leg as he changed direction.

Anne loved to watch Cord ride. He was straight in the saddle, not in a stiff military fashion but in a relaxed, easy way. No matter how complicated the maneuver he put a horse through, his cues were almost too subtle to be seen. He was always still and quiet, very much one with the horse. She felt the tension drain away. He was right. He wasn't going to get hurt.

He brought the horse back to a walk and stopped in front of the Stones. John Stone did not look particularly happy at the success of this venture. Virginia Stone looked ecstatic.

Leaning one arm casually on the saddle horn, Cord ignored John and addressed Virginia. "Ma'am, if you've been exercising this horse enough he's muscled up, I'd sure like to ride him outside. This is the best horse I've ever been on."

Mrs. Stone's smile faltered, and she looked nervous again, but she nodded jerkily.

Frank swung the gate open. Cord took the horse to the big open area where the Stones and their friends played polo and began to experiment with what the stallion could do.

Anne watched lead changes, side pa.s.ses, half pa.s.ses, and pirouettes with growing delight. Concentrating on the graceful figure in the saddle, she didn't realize Frank was beside her again until she heard his voice.

"Have you see him ride like that before?"

"Yes. He's shown me things on both Keeper and Lady, but this horse is so beautiful.

It's impressive with Keeper, but not like this."

The patterns were beginning to flow together until it looked as if the horse were dancing.

Frank spoke again, "That's two things he got a lot better at those years he was away."

Anne didn't move her eyes but asked, "What's the other?"

"Fighting."

Anne took several steps forward then, letting Frank know she wasn't pursuing the subject and getting closer to admire both the horse and her man. Cord was on the far side of the graded area now and turned the horse straight towards her. Backlit by the sun, he was an erect dark shadow on the red horse with its halo of fire. His eyes were invisible but she could feel them fastened on her, compelling.

Breathless, Anne watched the horse bearing straight towards her, changing leading leg every other stride. It was the most difficult maneuver he had ever demonstrated for her, and she knew this was for her, a gift. The stallion turned only feet from her, cantered by. It ended too soon. All at once he was on the ground, walking toward her, as cat-like as the horse in his own way.