"This is my stepmother, Belle Jordan," Melody said. "Please ignore her offer. She knows nothing about horses or the ranch."

"I do know it's impolite to refuse a man in need," Belle said. "Especially such a handsome one."

Chet noticed Melody roll her eyes heavenward. "His looks don't make any difference."

Chet couldn't resist nettling Melody. Acting as he thought one of her Virginia beaux would, he bent over Belle's hand and brushed it with his lips. "You don't have to worry I'll beggar the ranch, ma'am. I only want to borrow one for a while."

"Melody, I don't see why he shouldn't have any horse he wants if he means to return it."

"What if he doesn't mean it?" Tom muttered.

"I'm certain he does. A dishonest man couldn't look this handsome. But why don't you stay here while your horse rests up? You could . . . merciful heavens! Have you been shot?"

"By Sydney," Melody informed her stepmother. "I told you about that, too."

"I know, dear, but I didn't know you meant him."

Melody rolled her eyes once more. "Speers is more seriously wounded."

"But he's one of ours. This man is a guest."

"I doubt Speers hurts any less for not being a guest."

Belle ignored her stepdaughter. "You really must stay until you've had a chance to recover."

"It's his horse that's tired, Belle, not him."

"If his horse is worn out, you can be sure he is, too."

Fortunately, since Melody's high color indicated that she had reached the end of her patience, Neill stuck his head into the room. "Bernice said dinner's on the table. Sydney is already eating." The head disappeared. Chet a.s.sumed Neill had gone to make sure Sydney didn't get too much of a head start.

"I have tried to teach those boys some manners," Belle said to Chet, "but I might as well be talking to the wind."

"It would help if you gave them some consequences and meant it," Melody said.

"Darling, you know Sydney is too strong-minded for me. I expect Neill will start running over me soon, too."

"He is already," Melody said as she swept past them.

"I sorely miss my husband," Belle said to Chet as she took his arm and followed her stepdaughter. "He was such a strong man. I'm afraid I depended on him for everything."

Chet had seen her type before. She wasn't really a bad woman, probably even quite a nice one. She simply didn't have any backbone, or preferred not to use it if she had. She thought a man, especially a handsome man, was the answer to everything.

He knew most men preferred such a woman, and he could certainly see why. She'd never disagree with him. She'd keep herself pretty and soft, be ready for him whenever he wanted her. She'd make certain everything in the household was ordered to please him. She'd flatter his vanity and mean every world of it. Yes, he could see how a man could grow mighty attached to a woman like Belle Jordan.

Melody wasn't a bit like her stepmother. She had more energy than a yearling colt, limited patience, a tongue with two sharp edges, and a stubborn streak he bet ran from the nape of her neck to her tailbone. The man who married her was in for a th.o.r.n.y marriage. She'd be yapping at his heels from dawn to dusk, keeping his toes to the mark, his shoulder in the harness.

But . . .

Isabelle was a dynamo, and his sister Drew kept the entire clan hopping to her tune. Not that he would want to be married to Drew. As much as he loved her, she'd drive him around the bend inside a month. If Drew loved you, she was all over you.

Still . . .

If he'd been able to consider marriage, he'd prefer a wife strong enough to take over if something happened to him. With his reputation with a gunnot to mention his brother Luke'ssomething probably would. It was just as well he wasn't planning to get married. He wouldn't want to make the woman he loved a widow.

They arrived at the dining room to see the end of a confrontation. Melody had apparently taken Sydney's plate from him. He was intent on getting it back.

"Give it back, or I'll punch you."

"You will wait to eat until your mother is seated," Melody said, her voice rigidly controlled. "And if you ever again serve yourself before a guest even enters the dining room, you'll eat in the kitchen."

Sydney drew his fist back.

"I'd think very hard before I did that," Chet said.

Sydney looked around, angry at the interference. "What business is it of yours?"

"Probably none. But if you hit your sister, I'll have to break your arm."

Chapter Four.

Melody hadn't heard Chet and her stepmother enter the dining room. She looked up, embarra.s.sed to have him witness still another example of her family's faults. She certainly hadn't expected him to come to her rescue in such dramatic fashion. If anyone supported her, she would have expected it to be Tom. He'd been trying to convince her that he'd make her a good husband, that he could be the male authority figure Sydney and Neill needed so badly.

Sydney's body jerked. He turned toward Chet, his eyes filled with anger. "You wouldn't."

"There's one way to find out," Chet said.

The coldness of his voice chilled Melody right through. She didn't understand how he could be teasing one minute and deadly serious the next. The change was too fast, too confusing for her.

"What are you doing here?" Sydney demanded. "Cowhands are supposed to eat in the kitchen."

"I invited him to eat with us," Melody said. The diversion gave her the opportunity to hand Sydney's plate to Bernice, who set it on the sideboard.

"He's a guest," Belle said as Chet held her chair for her. "Guests always eat in the dining room." Tom held Melody's chair.

"He's a cowhand," Sydney insisted.

"That's what you'll be when you grow up," Melody said.

Now that the ladies were seated, the men sat down.

Sydney flushed. "I'm already grown up, and I'm not a cowhand. I'm the owner."

"Your mother and Melody own the ranch," Tom said, shaking the folds out of his napkin and putting it in his lap. "You won't come into your share until you're twenty-one."

"I don't see why," Sydney said. "Blade Royal is only eighteen, and he runs his ranch."

"Blade only does what his father lets him do," Tom said.

"That's more than I get to do," Sydney said with ill grace.

Bernice set Sydney's plate before him and he began eating immediately. He didn't normally behave this badly. Melody suspected he was only doing it because he knew he was in the wrong over shooting Chet. Sydney was having a difficult time entering his teens. He was old enough to think he ought to take over his father's position at the ranch but too young to do it. He resented Melody's attempts to restrain him and to teach him how to behave. As far as he was concerned, the mark of manhood was ability with a gun. He practiced constantly. If he'd had any natural apt.i.tude, Melody doubted they would have been able to restrain him this long.

"I'm sure Tom would be happy to take you out with him," Belle said. "It can't be very dangerous. All he does is ride around and look at things."

Melody turned to Tom, but he only shrugged. He'd heard his work belittled so often, he was getting used to it. She glanced at Chet but could tell nothing from his expression. She imagined he would have nothing but scorn for any woman who understood so little of what it took to manage a ranch. Melody didn't know much yet herself, but she knew it involved more than just riding around.

"I don't think he ought to ride with Tom while things are so unsettled," Melody said.

"He's practically a man," his mother said. "He ought to be learning how to manage his inheritance."

"It'll be safer when we don't have Royal's men shooting to scare off our cowhands and rustlers shooting to kill," Tom said.

"I insist that you stop making such accusations against Mr. Royal," Belle said. "He wouldn't do anything like that."

"His cowhands are doing it," Tom said. "There's no question about that."

"Then I'm sure he knows nothing about it," Belle insisted. "It's absurd to think he would be shooting at us when he wants to marry Melody."

"He's doing it because I haven't agreed to marry him," Melody said. "He's trying to prove to me that I can't survive without his protection."

"He's right," Belle said. "Every woman needs a man."

"Possibly," Melody said, not willing to embark on an old argument in front of Chet, "but I don't need Lantz Royal."

"Then marry his son," Belle said. "He's crazy about you, too."

"He's a few months younger than I am," Melody said. "It would almost be like marrying Sydney."

"Well, you've got to marry somebody," Belle said. "There aren't any better candidates around."

"I'm here," Tom said. "I'm not as rich as Lantz, but I'm older than Blade."

"You're a hired hand, Tom. Melody can't marry you."

Melody wondered how a woman ordinarily so sensitive could be so cruel on occasion. She supposed that came from considering Tom in the cla.s.s of servants who weren't allowed to have feelings. Lantz and his son, on the other hand, were on Belle's social level, so she endowed them with all the qualities she attributed to herself.

"I am not going to marry anyone," Melody stated. "I've told you before, I want to go back to Virginia."

"Please!" Belle said, holding her hand up to halt any more words. "Don't tell me you won't consider a marriage to Lantz or his son. I don't think I can stand it."

"Very well, I won't tell you," Melody said. "But"

"I don't know what's to become of us, Mr. Attmore," Belle said, turning to Chet, who'd sat like a stone statue through this whole monumentally embarra.s.sing discussion. "I've tried to be a mother to her. I understand that she might feel uncomfortable in Texas. Our ways are strange to her. But I can't understand her threatening to go back to Virginia when the whole state is in ruins." "Only part of it."

"You told me the Union army burned Richmond."

"They did."

"Then what they didn't burn doesn't matter."

Melody had given up trying to explain the war or its aftermath to her stepmother.

"Mr. Attmore, you talk to her," Belle asked. "I can't, and I promise you I've tried."

"I've never set foot outside of Texas, ma'am, unless it was to go into Mexico or the New Mexico Territory. I couldn't very well advise Melody either way."

Why was it the sound of his voice was like velvet against her skin? It ought to be rough and raspy from all the years he'd spent in the heat and the dust. But it was just as sultry as a summer afternoon with the breeze wafting up from the James River, bearing the smell of fresh water and the deep forests on the south side of the river.

"You could at least appeal to her on behalf ofwhat's your name?" Belle said, turning to Speers.

"Tim Speers, ma'am."

"Mr. Speers," she said, forgetting him immediately. "I'm sure he doesn't want to get shot again. Lantz's cowhands would stop this irresponsible shooting at people if they had a good woman to tell them how to behave."

"I was shot by a rustler, ma'am," Speers said.

"It's all the same," Belle said. "Rustlers wouldn't dare attack a ranch with a lady in residence."

"They attacked our ranch," Melody pointed out.

"I'm sure they didn't know we were here. You never ride out."

Melody gave up. When Belle wanted to prove a point, she ignored reality as completely as she ignored other people's feelings.

"Much of Richmond has been rebuilt," Melody said, trying to give the conversation a new direction. She couldn't endure any more of Belle's embarra.s.sing revelations. "Some of the neighborhoods are even nicer than they were before. It's an exciting time to be in Virginia. If I were to sell my half of the ranch, I'd have enough money to start my own business."

"Melody! How can you even think of doing anything like that?" Belle asked.

"I'll have to support myself."

"Your husband will do that."

"I will have to support myself until I find a man I wish to marry."

"I don't see why you don't wish to marry Lantz. He"

"You won't be able to sell the ranch," Tom said.

Belle turned sharply to Tom. "What do you mean? I don't wish for Melody to sell her half of the ranch, but she can if she wants."

"n.o.body's going to touch it as long as Royal has his eye on it." Tom seemed to be struggling to control both his anger and his frustration. "They know he'll run them off like he ran off everybody else in the county except your husband. He's always had his eye on this place, and he means to have it. If he can't get it by marrying Melody, he'll take it."