Free Widow Woman by Patricia McLinn Page B

Circle T again. Do you understand?"
    Harris kept blustering, but he wasted no time heading for the horse he'd ridden over from the KD Ranch. Rachel followed at some distance to make sure he didn't have any ideas about slipping into the barn to surprise Nick.
    "Thomas Dunn will hear about this, I can guarantee you,” Harris said, once safely mounted. “And he does not take kindly to having his friends insulted so."
    "I hope Thomas Dunn does hear of it—all of it. And I can guarantee you that he will hear from me that I don't take kindly to any of his friends acting in such a manner on my property."
    She finished that speech with a slap of her hand to his horse's rump, just enough to get the animal started. Also just enough to catch Harris unprepared making him grab awkwardly for the saddle horn.
    After she'd satisfied herself that he was well on his way off the Circle T, Rachel turned, her gaze skimming over the barn where Nick had disappeared, then coming to rest on Fanny, tied to a fence post in the shade of two cottonwoods while Davis tended to her.
    Rachel joined them, as the young cowhand squeezed cool water from a cloth into the filly's mouth and on her tongue. His voice was a soothing murmur. Rachel made sure to keep her own movements slow and her voice in that same reassuring register.
    "How bad is she, Davis?"
    He'd already removed the saddle and bit, and wiped down her sides, removing the lather, which revealed the welts more clearly. He continued his ministrations to her mouth now as he answered.
    "He cut her some."
    "There's that balm you mixed up in the barn."
    He nodded. “I didn't want to get it until somebody else could be with her here, talking to her. We got to keep her trusting us, can't let her get to thinking all humans'll treat her like that."
    "I'll stay with her.” He nodded again, and held out the cloth. Rachel dipped it in the bucket Davis had brought and repeated the gentle soothing of Fanny's mouth, murmuring to her all the while.
    Davis returned, and began wiping her down again, cooling her and cleaning the area before he applied the balm.
    "He must've sawed at her mouth something fierce.” Davis's voice was as gentle as ever, but Rachel saw something hard and angry in his face she'd never seen there before. She understood it perfectly.
    "I'd understand with a nervous horse—somebody who's not much of a rider can have a problem with a horse like that,'’ he went on. “But with Fanny ... I swear, Mrs. Terhune, only thing I can figure is he whipped her to make her go, then jerked back on her mouth out of pure meanness."
    Rachel had come to much the same conclusion.
    "Why would a man do that to an animal?"
    "I don't know.” But it was something she'd talk to Shag about. Could it have been pure accident Thomas Dunn had sent a man who treated animals that way to look at one of her horses?
    "Men like that should have their bal—"
    Davis gulped down the last of his judgment on Harris, a horrified embarrassment flooding his eyes as raw color suffused his face.
    "I'm terrible sorry, Mrs. Terhune, for saying such a thing before a lady,” he said stiffly.
    Rachel had all she could do not to laugh. It felt good.
    "It's all right, Davis. I agree completely.” But she could see that the only thing that would ease his discomfort was being relieved of her presence.
    "I'd best get on with my chores, ma'am,” he suggested. “If you'll see to Fanny now, Mrs. Terhune?"
    Rachel couldn't see denying the horse his attentions. “No, no, you stay here and take care of Fanny, Davis. I have, uh, some other duties to see to."
    The first one was seeking out Nick Dusaq.
    She wanted to reassure herself that the storm of emotions she'd seen in his face that instant he had turned under her touch and before he'd released Harris had passed.
    She also wanted—desperately—to turn and walk, maybe run, in the opposite direction.
    At the open barn door, she drew a deep breath, aligned her posture to her mother's strict