Free Kilkenny 03 - Kilkenny (v5.0) by Louis L’Amour

maybe we can do something.”
    “I’ll be damned if I will!” Carpenter flared. “Leave my place? Be driven off what’s rightfully mine? I will not!”

    T HE STORY OF the cattle drive reached the KR with the story of the challenge to Tetlow issued in the streets of Horsehead. It was no garbled account, but was given concisely and definitely by Doc Blaine over lunch at the ranch house. Aside from Nita, only Jaime Brigo was there.
    Blaine’s story started casually enough. “Lots of excitement in town. Fellow whipped three of the Forty hands in less than that many minutes and then called old Jared Tetlow to his face. Dared him at point blank range. I never saw such a thing.”
    Brigo’s eyes were steady on Blaine’s face. The big Yaqui sensed what was coming.
    Nita called Maria to pour some coffee. “He moved cattle on the Carpenter place this morning. He’ll ruin the man.”
    “That seems to be the idea,” Blaine agreed. “Have you thought about yourself?”
    “Of course. He can’t run as many cattle as he wants without my place.” Doc Blaine watched her as she talked. She seemed scarcely more than a girl, yet there was an assurance about her that puzzled him. He knew nothing of her beyond the fact that she had bought out a previous rancher for cash, had built here a ranch home that was far superior in every way to anything around, and she lived in the saddle, worked cattle herself and yet supervised a home that was the most perfect thing he had seen this side of a French chateau. “If he tries that, he will have trouble.”
    “He has a lot of men.”
    “And I have Jaime. And Cain Brockman and some others.”
    “Is Brockman as tough as he looks?”
    “Far tougher. I only knew one man who could handle him. Jaime might. I don’t know.”
    “That fellow who faced down Tetlow,” Blaine mused, “he’s a drifting cowhand, and I think a gunfighter. There are rumors around that he was the man who killed young Bud Tetlow, but he seems like a good man. Why don’t you hire him?”
    “I don’t think we’ll need anybody else,” Nita smiled, “but thanks just the same.”
    “You’d better think it over,” Blaine insisted, “this man Trent—”
    Her head came up sharply. “Who? Who did you say?”
    Doc Blaine was surprised. “Why, Trent. At least, that’s the name he uses. You can’t tell about names, especially with drifters. They might use any name.”
    Nita was looking accusingly at Brigo. “Is it…?” There was no need to repeat the question for she could see the answer in the Yaqui’s eyes and her heart began to pound. Unable to control herself, she came quickly to her feet, then, not wanting them to see her face, she turned quickly and walked to the window. “You…how long have you known?”
    “The night before last. He came by here, and stopped outside.”
    “You…you talked to him?”
    “No. He did not see me. I don’t think he saw me.”
    Blaine looked from one to the other. Too wise in the way of the world and women to be fooled, he could see that Nita Riordan was upset. This surprised and intrigued him, for he had never seen anything startle her before. She was annoyingly self-possessed, and Blaine had been puzzled and disturbed by that self-possession. It was something he was not accustomed to in women, and it disconcerted him.
    “You know this man called Trent?”
    “I…I don’t know. I think perhaps I do. I…we knew a man once who used that name.”
    “What was his real name?”
    She turned on him. “That, Doctor, is something he would have to tell you himself.” Then she remembered what the doctor had been saying, that this man had faced down Tetlow. Yes, she told herself, her heart pounding, that would be like Lance. He could never stand tyranny of any kind, and he would not hesitate because of numbers.
    Lance…!
    The thought of him disturbed her, and she stood staring out the window, remembering every line of his face. The way he smiled, the way the laugh wrinkles