Free Lady of the Gun by Faye Adams

you are," Brett told her. "It'll be dark soon, and you're going nowhere but home."
    "Hah," Cass argued. "I'll go where I want, when I want, and no one can stop me."
    "I can," stated Brett in a quiet, threatening tone. “In case you've forgotten, I'm the law around here. You will do as I say."
    Cass took a step back. She waited to see if he'd make a move toward her.
    "You're going home," he told her. "Nowhere else."
    Cass raised her chin slightly in defiance.
    Brett knew that as soon as she left his office she'd go directly to the Lazy T, ignoring completely his order to go home. "I'm taking you home," he finally said.
    Cass closed her mouth and clenched her jaw. This marshal, this man, was proving to be an irritating obstacle. "Fine," she answered shortly.
    “ Fine," Brett repeated.
    The ride to the Wayne ranch would have been almost pleasant for Brett if Cassidy had chosen to be friendlier. He knew she was completely aware of his reasons for accompanying her. Her safety was his uppermost concern. But despite this, she rode silently beside him, looking neither left nor right, giving no explanation of their surroundings. Nor did she let him know when they'd crossed over onto Wayne land.
    "Is that a river in the distance?" Brett made an attempt at conversation.
    Cass turned her eyes toward the aspen and willows that lined the river and indicated its location. "Yes," she answered.
    "The Losee?" he tried again.
    She nodded.
    "Is it a boundary to your property?"
    Cass turned her head slightly to look at him out of the corner of her eye. "No."
    Brett gri maced at her one-word answer and gave up trying to talk. Her demeanor left no room for doubt about how she felt about his presence at her side.
    Soon a little house, a barn, and some outbuildings were visible in the distance. As they grew closer, Brett could also see the remains of a burned-out structure. A stone fireplace and foundation were barely discernible in a stand of trees not far from the small house that now existed. He felt a wash of pity flow through him as he realized it had to be the home that the murderers had burned down during their raid. His eyes darted to Cass's profile as she rode closer to her home. Not once did her eyes stray to the burned remains of what had once been her home.
    "'We're almost there. You can go back to town now," Cass said without looking at the man she'd felt next to her every step of the way home. Some time since she'd seen him in the morning, he'd bathed and put on clean clothes. His dark hair glistened in the sunlight that crept under the brim of his hat, and the fresh, clean, manly scent of his body had assaulted her nostrils during the entire ride.
    Brett continued along beside her. "I'll see you safely to your door."
    Cass let out her breath slowly. "Fine," she answered.
    As they neared the house, Cass heard a commotion coming from the backyard. "What the . . . ?" Speeding up her mount, she steered him toward the noise, Brett following close behind.
    The sight that met them as they rounded the corner of the house took Brett completely by surprise. A small Chinese man in a long garment was chasing a huge chicken, which seemed to be chasing a large yellow cat. The man shouted at the top of his lungs in a foreign tongue, his long pigtail flapping behind him as he ran. The cat kept running around in large circles, stopping briefly beside trees, bushes, and fence posts, only to have the chicken catch up and begin pecking him fiercely on the head. The entire scene was being watched, and cheered on, by an old, balding man who hopped barefoot in the dirt outside the back door of the house.
    "Soony, catch that damn chicken!" shouted Cass when she saw the melee.
    "I' m trying, Missy Cass. Pork Chop won't leave Mirabelle alone!" the Chinese man shouted back.
    " Uncle Darby, don't just stand there. Do something!" Cass yelled at the old man.
    "I am. I'm bettin' on the chicken," the old man answered gleefully.
    " Uncle Darby!" Cass shouted