The Rancher's Wife.

by Agatha Kristenson.

Chapter 1.

The late afternoon sun was still blazing hot. Kate Sutherland wiped the sweat from under her ponytail and bent again to pull tender green onions from the crusted earth of the garden. The flies and bees sped by in a monotonous tune of buzzing through the corn stalks and over the tomato plants. It hung in the still heat that shimmered over the fields beyond.

Kate straightened again and wiped her brow, looking out over the green- gold rolling plains through the big poplar that stood guard over the edge of the garden. It was almost a blinding color, the wheat gold that burned the eyes and leeched their moisture in a Van Gogh painting.

Arles must have been very much like South Dakota she decided.

She moved over to the cuc.u.mber patch and pulled three big ones for dinner, feeling their slick green silky length in her hand. Cole would be home tomorrow. She blushed then, realizing those phallic vegetables had made her think of her husband. Well, it had been a long time. Six weeks in France while she'd been here alone on the ranch except for the hired hands.

Kate wandered over to the strawberry patch, her basket almost laden now with vegetables, the good things she grew every summer in this unpromising earth. If the foreman hadn't been so new she could have gone with Cole. She still didn't quite understand what was that special about a Limousin bull but Cole studied every night after dinner, the breeds, the blood lines, the beef per pound, the proportions of bone and gristle and fat. A Limousin bull was finally what he had to have ... and so he'd gone.

There were times when she almost hated the pedigrees and charts of the cattle that Cole studied. He kept meticulous records and knew every calf and the day it was born and who its great great grandparents were.

For this was the excuse he used every time she mentioned adopting a child. "h.e.l.l no! I know too much about genetics. Adopting a kid from one of those agencies would be like buying a bull or a heifer without knowing the pedigree. You're liable to get stuck with anything! A runt or worse!"

A sigh of apprehension escaped Kate's dry lips. What was Cole going to say when he got home tomorrow and found out about the two high school boys she'd hired to help for the summer. They were not of the "best"

bloodlines certainly. From the inner city, not much better than foundlings. Hard tough city boys who knew nothing about ranches or ranch life.

But that ad in the magazine had been irresistible. In her frustrated maternity, she mothered everything, Cole said. Even the calves and the cats and the dogs and the geese. Stubbornly she clung to the idea that it was a good thing to give a high school boy a job, particularly boys from the city who'd wind up on the street and get into trouble if someone didn't help.

A small voice in her head whispered that she also wanted to convince Cole that genetics weren't all that important. If she could make this experiment work this summer. If Cole got fond of the boys, then maybe he'd listen to reason about adopting a child.

Here she was, surrounded by all the fruits of the earth and she had no bounty of her own. All the animals on the ranch gave birth and multiplied and she alone was barren. Actually she really didn't know if she was the culprit. When the doctor had wanted to do further tests on both of them, Cole had adamantly refused.

Kate straightened up again and blew a long strand of chestnut hair from her sweaty forehead. The angled sun sent an elongated shadow of her across the ground. Short shorts and a sleeveless jersey did not distort the ripe sensuousness of her body. Long, long shapely legs, sleek curved hips, narrow waist and b.r.e.a.s.t.s that looked as though they were made for suckling a man's children.

It was two years ago she'd decided there weren't going to be any. Even the fertility drugs hadn't helped. It had been then that she'd started her campaign to adopt a child but for two years now Cole had remained stubborn and refusing.

Their whole relationship had been affected. Kate walked back toward the house, past the willow and the fish pond. Lately even their lovemaking. Cole didn't want her as often and when he did it was as though he were only going through the motions. A few times when he was drunk he'd even wanted her to do awful things ... lurid, debasing perverted things. She'd have done even that if it would have given her a baby ... but those ... well, "positions" couldn't possibly give her a baby. It was physically impossible.

Kate stopped at the fish pond and looked down at the glinting darts of gold flashing through the water. She popped a strawberry, warm from the sun into her mouth. There was mama goldfish and papa goldfish and three babies shooting through the clear green water. Stop it, she told herself. Everywhere she looked everything reminded her that Kate Sutherland had no child ... and all her brooding through ten years of marriage had not brought her one ... nor all the tears ... nor all the begging.

The gate squeaked and Kate looked up to see the two boys coming through it toward the house. She smiled and waved. They lifted a hand halfheartedly. Poor things, they looked exhausted. City boys weren't used to hard ranch work.

Kate hummed to herself as she washed the vegetables in the sink. She could hear Eric Petersen and Angel Orellio in the office-family room a few steps down. They were sighing and slapping their knees and talking. It was almost like listening to horses or bulls snort when they were hot and tired. She rushed down to refill their beer gla.s.ses.

"How about another beer, boys?" They both nodded dumbly, sprawled in the leather director's chairs with their shirts off and their legs spraddled out in exhaustion. Kate took their beer mugs and held them in front of the spout on the old brown refrigerator door. The beer refrigerator was indispensable on a ranch and Cole liked it here in the office where he could get to it without having to go to the kitchen.

She poured theirs and then reached inside to get an icy gla.s.s for herself. They hardly looked at her, just stared vaguely into s.p.a.ce, getting their breath.

"There you are. A few beers and a shower and you'll feel better."

Angel snorted, his black eyes snapping. He was a dark Indian looking Mexican American boy, wiry and strong looking but with the concave chest of the perpetual sloucher ... terribly handsome in spite of his att.i.tude.

"It will take more than a few beers. That heat will kill a man," he said bitterly.

"Stop beefing," Eric advised, grinning. He had the quiet smiling blondness that indicated his Nordic ancestry. A giant of a boy at eighteen. He had fair almost white blonde hair and deep blue eyes that crinkled when he smiled. Already his fair skin had reddened and burned and was now turning to a deep tan. His shoulders were immense and his hands like two rather dirty hams.

He was going to be fine. The foreman had told her that Eric worked with a slow measured intensity and that he was strong as a bull. No, it was Angel that was going to be a problem. He'd complained from the moment she'd picked them up at the bus station. But then, heavens knows what he'd had to endure in the city. Living in a ghetto with too many brothers and sisters and only his foster mother to feed them with a too small welfare check. Kate felt a rush of pity for him. She must remember to tell Frank to go easy on him. And then she remembered.

Cole would be home tomorrow and he wouldn't go easy on anyone when it came to working.

If only somehow she could make Cole see that the boys really could be a help to him for the summer. There was so much to do. Cole complained that the few hands that drifted through were really no help. Somehow she had to make it work ... and if she did ... maybe ... just maybe she could get Cole to realize that a stranger in the house wasn't so terrible. A little stranger.

The dinner table was laden as usual with all the good things the ranch grew, a big stew full of beef and green peas and beans and parsley and potatoes and carrots. Platters of icy cuc.u.mbers and red tomatoes and a cut gla.s.s tumbler sprouting crisp green onions. Two huge pans of hot corn bread were pa.s.sed and mounds of sweet b.u.t.ter. Tall gla.s.ses that held at least a pint each were full of amber iced tea to wash all the food down. An enormous strawberry shortcake stood waiting in the refrigerator.

The men ate with silent absorption making occasional grunting noises and sighing a little. They wolfed the food as though it might be their last, their faces trickling sweat despite the air conditioner. Kate didn't mind their silence in the least; she had someone to talk with-- Gwen Carter--at the other end of the table. The two women chatted gaily with each other and left the men to their eating.

Gwen was their new school teacher and would start teaching in the fall.

She was a sweet girl, but Kate felt she was completely out of place here in South Dakota. As the Sutherland woman looked down the table at her pet.i.te figure, daintily eating her food, she marveled once again at the Dresden doll quality of the girl. Although Kate was only five years older than the 23 year-old school teacher, she felt as if Gwen were still a high school girl. She was perfect--in miniature!--but like any fragile work of art, pretty unsuited for the rough life of the plains. The girl obviously had come from a green house, sheltered environment, and she frequently blushed when one of the ranch people forgot about her and cursed a blue streak about something. Gwen had said she came to South Dakota for the summer, before the school term began, to learn about "real" people. Kate knew that if the young teacher didn't watch her step with some of the ranchers, Sandy Gayman the Meacham Ranch foreman especially, she might learn more about "real people" than she had bargained for.

"Think you're going to last the summer, Gwen?" Kate asked.

"Oh, Kate, I'd never have made it this long if it weren't for you ...

but I think so ... maybe." She stopped and wiped her lips daintily with her napkin, glancing involuntarily at the crude table manners of the men and their rude silence. Delicate eyebrows lifted faintly in their direction. Her blonde hair was twisted high on her head and her fair skin was exposed by the scoop necked flowered cotton dress she wore.

Simple as it was, it was much too dressy for summer on a ranch.

Kate shook her head slightly at Gwen, glancing down the long table at the ravenous males, bunched over their plates. No matter how few she thought she had for dinner, she always wound up with a full house.

Frank, the foreman usually ate with them, then the boys, Eric and Angel, then there was the tractor salesman who'd conveniently stopped by at supper time to see Frank. Old Joe showed up frequently too, an Indian who still trapped up north when he could and who wandered all through the ranch country for free meals. Usually he managed to do some odd job of work before he left. Then there was Frank's no good cousin who just happened by. In the country you fed whoever "happened by." It was an unwritten law. Anything else would have been inhospitable.

The men went out on the front lawn to smoke after supper and to swap stories and belch. Gwen helped Kate clear the table and load the dishwasher.

"You know, Kate, I really want to help children ... but sometimes I think the whole thing was a mistake, especially after I had all that trouble with the ghetto kids. They just didn't seem to care about school. I guess maybe that's my fault ... but no matter what I tried with them ... it just didn't seem to work."

Kate turned from the dishwasher to take the stack of plates from Gwen.

"Well, you have to remember they haven't had any contact with what you and I think of as civilized things. All they know is the slum and its values ... so nothing else means much to them.

"My folks tried to warn me ... I guess that's why I want to do well here."

Suddenly there was music coming from the living room, gay guitar music, Mexican music. Gwen and Kate went running in, drying their hands on towels, to find Angel strumming and picking away on Cole's big golden guitar. He held the instrument as though it were alive and sensuously female.

"Angel ... that's wonderful!" Kate cried out appreciatively.

Immediately he stopped and looked up sullenly.

"Don't ... please."

He drew himself up and leaned the guitar against the piano in the corner of the room. "It was for myself ... not for anglos." Without another word he brushed past them and went outside.

"Oh, dear," Kate sighed in spite of herself.

"That's the kind of defensiveness I can't seem to get used to with the children," Gwen retorted, somewhat angrily. They went back to the dishes.

"Well, we just have to work it out, that's all," Kate answered determinedly. She was going to make it work. She had to. She loved Cole dearly but there came a time when a woman had to have a child too.

There was a shrill screech of tires on the gravel driveway and a squeal of brakes. "I think you've got more company, Kate. Here, let me do those pots."

Kate blew the stubborn strand of hair from her eyes and shook her head.

"No. Frank's out there. Probably someone to see him anyway." She scrubbed the pots harder. "How's the coffee doing? They'll be bellowing for a cup soon, even in this heat."

A few minutes later the sound of heavy feet on the steps coming up from the office caused Kate to twist around from the sink, her hands still immersed in the soapy water.

"Cole ... oh, Cole!"

A tall handsome dark man stood grinning at her. His hair was styled in a longish cut with thick sideburns, the suit was a rich brown that matched his twinkling brown eyes. South Dakota had never been exposed to a suit like that. Why, it was ... well ... voguish and smart and showed off his handsome broad-shouldered, lean-hipped physique to advantage.

d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n! Why did he have to come a day early and surprise her like this? Kate felt like a fool in her old shorts and jersey, up to her elbows in suds. And she'd bought that lovely slinkly jumpsuit for his homecoming. d.a.m.n him!

Gwen smiled and slipped out. It must be wonderful to have a man of your own ... your very own. And she could have too. Peter Miller wanted to marry her before she left New York ... but no, she'd had to prove herself, had mostly to prove to her father that his art galleries weren't the world ... the real world ... where it was with real people.

But, so far, the only one she'd found was Kate. Ironically Kate was an artist too.

Kate just stood there as the tears welled up in her eyes. d.a.m.n Cole.

He looked so smart and elegant, a new suit, new side burns and hair cut and here she was all hot and sweaty and house-wifey looking. No make- up, her hair stringing. "d.a.m.n you!" she finally blurted aloud.

"For what?" Kate felt his arms wrap around her from behind and his lips brush her temple. "h.e.l.lo, wife woman."

"Ohhhh ... just d.a.m.n ..." she wailed.

Cole dropped a kiss on her neck and tightened his arms around her slim waist. "I can go back where I came from, you know. Those chicks in Paris thought I was pretty hot stuff," he teased.

"It's just that I wanted to be all dressed up and pretty for you ...

and you have to go and spoil it all ... barge in and find me looking like a hag ... and ... oh, h.e.l.l ..." She was sniffling now, not only at how she looked but the apprehension over hiring Eric and Angel and how Cole might take that. She'd never interfered with the operation of the ranch before.

"Go on. Go on outside and let me get cleaned up at least.

"Okay, baby. I'm going to get a drink and you grab a shower while I get rid of the delegation ... and then ..."

"Ah ... don't go ... oh, Cole ... I'm so glad you're home!"

For answer he twisted her face around and kissed her soundly, then whacked her bottom affectionately with a resounding slap of his hand.

"Hurry up."

When he'd gone, Kate just stood for a moment at the sink. He looked fit and wonderful but different ... younger, more attractive, like a swinger. She wondered about that. What had happened while he was in Paris? Had he really been just teasing about the chicks? Was it all just a haircut and a new suit or had something else happened?

Shaking herself from her speculation, Kate dried her hands hurriedly and left the pots to soak. She raced up the stairs to their bedroom, flinging off shorts and jersey as she went. Frantically she jerked off bra and panties too on her way across the beige carpet to the bathroom.

She felt sticky and sweaty all over. Even her skin glowed a little from the sheen of perspiration as she stood before the mirror in the bathroom untying her ponytail. d.a.m.n. Even her hair would have to be washed.

Quickly she showered and shampooed. Standing on the carpet dripping now, she dried her naked body quickly. One good thing about not having had any children, her figure was still remarkable. Slim and supple, her legs were still firm and shapely and long, her hips taut and curved, waist narrow and lithe and her b.r.e.a.s.t.s as tanned as the rest of her, thanks to the sunning spot down by the lake that was hidden by the brush from everyone but low flying planes and they didn't get many of those in South Dakota.

She wrapped her dripping long chestnut hair in a thick towel and twisted it into a turban. Then she smoothed her whole body with lotion and touched perfume behind her ears, between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and into the fold of each elbow.

Carefully then Kate made up her face, still standing naked before the gla.s.s. A little liner to accentuate her large blue eyes, mascara for the long lashes, a hint of blue eye shadow in the crease of the lid. A blushing gel for a little color in her smooth cheeks and lipstick. She was beginning to look like herself ... or rather like herself when she bothered with make-up. Feeling a little giddy now from the excitement and the repressed apprehension, she giggled and touched the blushing gel to her nipples too. They hardened instantly to the touch.

She stood back and looked at herself. Cole couldn't have done too much better in Paris, she thought smugly, except that she didn't really have that smoldering s.e.x look that the French movie stars affected. Well, he was just going to have to make do with the gal next door type that he'd married.

Laughing, Kate shook the towel from her wet hair and bent forward from the waist to rub it dry. She rubbed and brushed vigorously, feeling the blood rush to her face. Suddenly she stopped, listening to the voices outside in the still air. Not a single word could be understood from up here.

As she used the hand held hair dryer to blow her hair she heard a lot of door slamming. The muscles in her naked stomach knotted. If only there'd been time to tell Cole gently about Eric and Angel. She'd had it all planned for tomorrow night ... but he'd taken her by surprise.

It had to be all right. It just had to!

Suddenly she heard the bedroom door fling open and then slam. Kate grabbed her yellow silk kimono from the back of the bathroom door and threw it on. d.a.m.n! She wasn't quite ready for Cole yet.

"Where are you, baby? Getting all prettied up for the old man?" There was a vicious sneer in Cole's voice. Kate rushed into the bedroom, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s bouncing under the thin silk.

"Yes. I was, darling. I'm not quite through yet. My hair isn't dry ..." Her voice trailed off. Cole was leaning against the closed door he'd slammed shut, a drink in his hand, his tie off and his jacket gone.

He looked at her coldly, his eyes hard and flinty. Kate felt her stomach tighten. He looked furious. Oh G.o.d. What was she going to do? She couldn't very well send those boys packing.

She'd known he'd be mad but not this vicious tight-lipped mad that was so palpable she could almost feel it hanging in the room like heat.

"Well, that's mighty kind of you ... seeing as how you took care of yourself pretty well while I was gone. How are those two young studs?

Pretty good bucks?" Kate could see that either he'd had a lot of liquor before he came home or he had simply turned the bottle up and guzzled downstairs. He was drunk and he was livid!

"Oh, Cole ... how could you think such a thing? Eric and Angel are just high school kids ... I thought they'd be permanent help for you during the summer. The bunk room in the bas.e.m.e.nt was empty ... and they've never had any ranch experience ... but Frank says they work hard ... I ..."

"Help for me ... or for you, baby?" he sneered, finishing his drink in one gulp.

"I won't listen to such talk, Cole." Kate whirled and went toward the bathroom. "It's too ridiculous." She'd been so worried that he'd see she was trying to get him to agree to adoption through the boys ... but to have him think that she ...

Cole set his gla.s.s down and with one lunge caught her and jerked her around against his chest. His hands bit into her arms through the silk like iron claws. "You'll listen to anything I want to tell you!

What's more ... you'll do anything I want you to, b.i.t.c.h!"

Kate's head was shaking faintly and the tears sprang to her eyes. A terrible pain like a knife was splitting her breast bone. Cole had always had a temper and didn't hesitate to use it ... but she'd never seen him so angry. She'd so looked forward to his homecoming and now this!