With his head buried in his hands, Frank didn't realize Ephraim was in the kitchen until he spoke. "For a minute there, I thought you'd have him yelling like a real Bennett."

Frank watched Ephraim help himself to coffee. "How much did you hear?"

"All of it, I think. I came when you were talking about him being gone those five years. It wasn't that I wanted to eavesdrop, but I figured he might clam up on you if I stuck my nose in. He's getting positively chatty lately, don't you think?"

"Do you believe it?"

"Yes, I do."

"Why? You didn't feel that way at the time or you wouldn't have clubbed him off me."

"I guess it was the fight this spring that changed my mind. Anne just pulled on his arm and he stopped. It took him a while to calm down, but when I thought it over, he didn't seem much like a crazed killer that day. We all made up our minds years ago over Hatch, and maybe we were wrong. Did you ever think what you would have done to Hatch, or what I would? If we hadn't had a gun handy, that is?"

Frank ran his fingers through his hair, unable to answer.

"I'll tell you something else I spent some time thinking over after that day, and that's some of the things Anne said. If someone grabbed Judith like that, or Martha, we'd have all taken a hand, but because it was him, we stood and watched like it was a circus or something. Why didn't we help him? So what if we knew he could handle them? So what if you kept him from getting shot - that's all we did. Why'd we make him fight them alone and then act disgusted because he did some permanent damage? I've been doing a lot of thinking, Frank, and maybe he's wrong, he won't explain, won't talk, but we're wrong too - about a lot of things."

Martha came into the kitchen then, and after one quick glance at her husband, moved quietly around, starting breakfast. Judith and Beth weren't long behind, but Frank didn't care what they overheard.

"You think he's changed, don't you, Eph? Think he's gentled with having the woman?"

Ephraim fiddled with his empty cup, then said, "No, actually, I don't. I think that because she's around we're seeing more of him and more of other sides of him that have always been there. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in the ranch you don't pay much attention to what's going on around you, and you aren't in town all the time like we are, so maybe you don't hear some things. Did you know that the day of the fight he stopped and talked to Noah on the way home, that ever since he stops by the sheriff's office on those walks of his, and if Noah is around they sit and jaw a while? Noah even told me he's stopped by the ranch a couple of times when he was out that way. He's had dinner with them once or twice. LeClercs have been out there too, and Windon takes his family along when he visits now Anne's there."

Frank knew if Ephraim said so, it was true, but he could barely credit his ears. "No - the way Noah talked that day, that's pretty hard to believe."

"Noah told me he hasn't changed his mind about how dangerous our little brother is, just about who he's dangerous to. And have you noticed any changes in Pete and Luke in the last month or so?"

"Sure. They're finally showing some signs of sense, growing up as hard and slow as I did, I guess."

"There's probably some truth in that, but they've also been spending considerable time around Cord. That means instead of heading out of here Sundays for a back room poker game and booze, they're playing with Windon for pennies and drinking water or coffee.

You know Cord's a prude about liquor. Pete told me he's decided he's not playing high stakes poker any more until he can figure out when Cord's bluffing more than half the time." Eph grinned suddenly. "That means he'll never play for more than pennies again in his life."

This information unsettled Frank so much he couldn't answer until after he got up, walked the length of the room and back and sat down again. Finally, "I'm not sure I like those two around him that much. I suppose that's why they're sneaking at it."

"They're not sneaking. They've walked out of here bold as bra.s.s on his heels most Sundays since that first time they went after Stones' horse with him. They've been visiting the old house too. Pete told me a couple of weeks ago he's not getting married until he can find somebody as s.p.u.n.ky as Anne. I told him he'd better reconsider that one."

"My G.o.d. You know she's in love with him, or thinks she is."

"It's written all over her."

"He treats her like dirt."

"You exaggerate, and if she's happy, why argue with it? She's not the only woman who ever loved a man who doesn't love back."

"She deserves better."

"It's not like he stole her from something better, or like there's something better waiting for her. You're probably right, she's a convenience to him, but she's content, and I can't bring myself to begrudge him whatever comfort she brings. Did you ever think about how alone he's been?"

Frank was still just shaking his head when Luke and Pete walked into the kitchen, and his questions about their recent activities ended the conversation between the brothers.

ANNE WAS THE LAST UP and dressed. Told only that Cord had "gone out," she went to the barn looking for him, finding him grooming Red. Her cheery, "Good morning,"

brought only a grunt.

"I came out here hoping for a good morning kiss. I suppose I'm out of luck."

"Suppose you'll pester till you get what you want."

"Are you angry with me because I didn't wake up and you had to take me back to bed?"

His hands stopped moving, so she ducked between his arms and faced him. "You're right. If you want rid of me, the fastest way would be to give me my kiss and send me on my way, even if you are mad."

"I'm not mad at you. Frank and I had words is all."

"Ah, so you and Frank argued, and he's in the house looking as carefree as ever, wrapped around a cup of coffee, and you're out here by yourself in a temper."

The flat, tight look began to leave his face. "Mm. He's in the house wrapped around a cup of coffee, and I'm out here, wrapped around you." His arms tightened, causing a little shiver of delight as her stomach met his, b.r.e.a.s.t.s flattened against his chest. Just before his lips touched hers, she heard him murmur, "Pore ole Frank."

When his mouth left hers and began nuzzling below her ear and down her throat, she laughed and tried to imitate his baritone drawl, "Yes, pore ole Frank."

When he faced her again the hard look had totally vanished.

"Now that I've gotten what I wanted, I'll go," she offered.

"Now that you've ruined my mad, how about sticking around and leading this horse out for me. Let's see if there's any stiffness or soreness."

Pleased at having enticed him out of his dark mood, she happily complied.

Anne enjoyed the rest of that Sunday more than any previous time around Cord's family. Winning the race, buying Red, and her secret time with Cord last night were the only reasons she told herself. She was helping with the dinner dishes when Martha answered the door and her brother burst into the kitchen, obviously incensed over something. Anne decided to ignore him. Maybe he would say something so offensive Cord would pick him up and throw him out.

The volume and tone of Rob's first words made that likely.

"Is it true?" Rob yelled at Cord. "Is it true what I heard?"

Cord had been leaving the kitchen and stopped in the doorway. "If it's about me, and if it's got you that riled, it's probably true," he said.

"I heard my sister won thousands of dollars on that race, and you spent it to buy that horse for yourself. You could have built a decent house instead of having her live in that hovel of yours. You could have gotten decent furniture, or let her spend it on clothes, or keep it for herself. Didn't it ever occur to you to let her keep it?"

As Cord folded his arms across his chest, Rob threw Anne a frantic look. She very deliberately turned her back and put the plate she had been drying away. If Rob wanted to continue being so pigheaded, he could just pay the price.

By the time she turned back around, however, she could see that Cord wasn't going to throw Rob out. He was going to give her brother a different kind of hard time.

"I've got to tell you, Rob, it did cross my mind," Cord said. "There were all those piles of bills on the table, and I thought, I could build a decent house instead of making Annie live in my hovel; I could buy all sorts of fancy furniture for the hovel instead of letting her get splinters in her a.s.s from what's there. I could let her buy another fifty dresses to help the ones already there bulge through the doors on the hovel. Then I thought, what do I care if that woman's got splinters in her a.s.s? And I took the money and went and bought me a rich man's horse."

Rob stood in the middle of the kitchen, his mouth half open.

Anne decided to chime in after all. "Actually, Rob, our house is the nicest place I've ever lived, and if he wanted to build something else, I'd argue. And our furniture might not be fancy, but it's st.u.r.dy and attractive, and I don't want anything else. I've got better things to do nowadays than spend my time polishing antiques. And he's right, I have more dresses than I'll ever wear for the rest of my life. I'm the one who wanted to buy the horse. You see, the problem I had was that ever since we've been married he's wanted to send me off as far as I had money to go. When I had twenty dollars, he kept talking about Grenerton. When I had a hundred dollars, he started in about Denver, and there I was with thousands, and he started in about France. I figured if I couldn't get rid of that money fast, he'd start in about China, or Africa or someplace."

Cord walked back to the table, turned a chair around and straddled it, crossing his arms on the back. "Been giving it some more thought. The best place to send you would be somewhere where they keep women in walled gardens with guards, where women have to wear veils all the time, and where every man gets a hundred wives. You could be some man's hundred and first wife, Ti-gress."

"Oh, my, how about if I just promise to be good?"

He looked at her intently for a moment, "Why don't you just go outside and spit in the wind?"

Uttered without expression, it sounded ugly, and Anne saw the frowns on Bennett faces, but as Cord left the kitchen, she met Rob's eyes and saw understanding there. Her brother might be stubborn, but he wasn't stupid, and he knew her better than her husband's family did. Rob had just realized that Cord had first teased him about the horse and then teased her about the money and any promise she might make to be "good." She knew Rob's ideas about her husband and her marriage had just been shaken to the core and wondered if it would ever make any difference.

CHAPTER 32.

ANNE UNDERSTOOD THAT THE MOST important work of the year on the ranch was haying in late summer. If every available nook and cranny of the ranch buildings were stuffed with hay going into the winter, there was enough to ensure that the horses had supplemental feed on the poor winter pasture and came through the snows fat and sa.s.sy.

It guaranteed that the broodmares were strong in early spring for foaling and that they could produce healthy foals and lots of milk to keep them healthy.

She also knew the season only lasted a few weeks, starting when the gra.s.ses in the hill meadows on the ranch were ripe enough to cut, and ending when they matured to overripe, tasteless stalks. That meant there would be no church on Sunday, which was more than all right with her. In fact a few weeks without any aggravation from her family or from the Bennetts and without having to control herself around Reverend Yellow-Belly sounded more than all right.

So at first Anne cooperated with Cord's plans for hay season. She stayed home, took care of the livestock and did the milking and other ch.o.r.es. However, after three days of watching Cord rise in darkness still stiff from the previous day's work and come home at night after dark almost too tired to wash in the creek and eat before falling into bed, she had had enough. On the fourth day she rode Red to the hay meadows. There had to be something she could do. "Why can't I drive the hay rake?" she asked. "That looks easy."

"If you fell off and the tines got you, they'd rip you to pieces."

"Why should I be silly enough to fall in front of the tines? If you fell off that way you'd be ripped to pieces."

Cord gave in as she'd known he would. By the end of the week they had a routine established. He rose before first light and was in the fields by daybreak. Anne took care of the livestock, did anything else that couldn't wait in the house or garden, packed a lunch, and followed him to the fields on Red.

He did the cutting. She drove Keeper and did the raking. Anne found she could pitch hay high enough to help load the first quarter of the hay wagon, and if she drove the loaded wagon to the barns, Cord could start later, riding Red, and arrive when she did to unload the hay into the barn. Cutting was the slowest work, and Anne's help gave Cord more time for it every day.

For lunch they ate the sandwiches she packed with peaches or apricots, then lay side by side on the blanket she spread for a table for half an hour, staring at the sky, too bone weary to do more than breathe.

At night they shared the milking and feeding ch.o.r.es, then bathed in the creek. Anne spared an occasional rueful thought for her oh so proper upbringing as the last of her inhibitions dissolved, victim of mind-numbing fatigue.

During the day she wore a minimum of the lightest cotton clothing with a wide-brimmed straw hat and thin work gloves for protection. More often than not she cooked dinner clad only in one of Cord's shirts. He seldom bothered with clothes at all after their bath.

Anne felt no shyness over an occasional pat on the bottom, or gentle rubbing of her stomach or a breast, and no hesitation over touching Cord the same way, running her hands across flat chest muscles or tracing the curves of his back or arms. They worked together in an easygoing intimacy, but little desire flared in those weeks. It was not so much the abusive work of the day past as the knowledge that tomorrow would be the same.

It rained twice, once an afternoon thunderstorm that cost a whole day's work - the afternoon of the storm and the next morning while the fields dried - and one entire day-long rain that cost a day and a half in drying time.

They accepted the breaks gratefully, but on those days Cord checked the horse herds and fences, and Anne caught up on baking, laundry, and the garden.

They had been driving themselves this way for three weeks when he told her. "We could quit today."

"What do you mean, could?"

"By the end of today we'll have the barns full. It's enough to get our horses through a hard winter in good shape."

"And if we keep going?"

"Only about another week before even the higher meadows will be too ripe - or there'll be a serious rain. Anything else we harvest, we'd have to stack outside."

"Then what?"

"We'd sell it."

"How much?"

"Maybe the price of a horse."

"That's a lot of money for a week's work. Let's keep going."

"Mm. Sure?"

Stretched beside him on the lunchtime blanket, Anne nodded as vigorously as she could manage. So they went back to work.

Exactly one week later, as they again lay side by side, Cord signaled the end.

"Another couple of hours and we're done, babe."

She turned to look at him. "You know, I've never done anything like this before, never been so tired, but I've never felt so good about anything either, like it really matters."

He was up on one elbow now, face shadowed by the sun behind him. As always, his eyes drew all light available, and in the golden glints was a beginning flicker of desire.

"Tired?"

Anne touched the springy black hair at his temple. "Not that tired."

He drew her close and kissed her mouth, face, and eyes, leaving a trail of awakened nerve endings down her throat and across her collar bone.

Anne lay pa.s.sive and accepting until he began unfastening the b.u.t.tons of her waist, but then stopped his hands, got to her feet and undressed for him. The mask was gone; he leaned back and watched with undisguised appreciation until she finished and was standing naked before him.

As Anne pulled the pins from her hair and shook it down in a silken cloud around her shoulders, she caught a hint of something in his face and eyes she had never seen before, but he instantly lowered his gaze, stood, and removed what little he had on, for his shirt was hanging from the hay wagon where it had been since mid-morning. The past weeks had also honed Cord down to thinness, and muscle, bone, and tendon showed in sharp relief under warm copper skin, emphasizing, not detracting from, the ever-present aura of power around him.

As she raised a hand to touch him, he came to her, tipped her chin up for the first kiss.

The taste of him always made Anne feel lightheaded and joyful. This time when she began to sag against him, clinging for support, Cord lowered her to the blanket, following her down without stopping the kiss. Once again she simply accepted his caresses in an almost trance-like state.

"Turn over."

Drugged with the kiss and the sensations it provoked now spreading through her, she obeyed, pillowing her head on crossed arms, eyes closed. He pushed her hair aside and teased the soft spot behind and below her ear with small nipping kisses, trailed across her shoulders, made her shiver with pleasure as he worked on the nape of her neck.

His fingers drew tantalizing patterns of pleasure on her sides as he kissed his way down her spine, tracing the thin line of the knife scar as if he could heal it still. Then he kneaded the cheeks of her bottom and backs of her thighs as he worked his way back to the nape of her neck.

Anne turned onto her back, wriggling with delight as he again tasted his way downward, then began to nuzzle and nudge at soft breast flesh. As he spread a hand flat across her belly, her muscles rippled with building desire. He fastened on one already hardened nipple, then the other, sucking and nipping, sending hot sparks of pleasure racing everywhere. His hand moved rhythmically on her belly, slipped down to stroke her inner thighs, and finally explored the swelling, dampening flesh hidden by crisp dark curls. She could no longer be still but pushed up against his hand moaning softly.