Free Diane R. Jewkes by The Heart You Own

intense conversation.
    What were they up to? If it had anything to do with the ranch, she wanted to know. Suspicions about their reason for investing in the ranch flared. She needed to find out what the devil those two were up to. She was sure it was no good.
    Looking at the incredibly handsome man standing with his friend, she decided there probably wasn’t too much difference between him and the devil.
    • • •
    Consuelo had put Kara and Alicia to work doing an inventory of supplies that morning. Dusting off her skirts as she walked from the cool, dark storeroom into the bright light of day, Kara looked up and saw her father, Austin, his father, and the English … no, Scots — she’d been corrected by Mr. MacCairn the evening before — in the corral.
    Beyond the men were a large blood bay and a dapple-gray. Both horses were gorgeous, but the gray caught her eye. Even from where she stood, she could see his enormous size and the beautiful balance of muscle under his gleaming coat. She started to move towards the gathering for a closer look when she saw Lord Stoneham walk up to the horse and the way the animal thrust his muzzle into his master’s chest. She felt an unfamiliar tightening watching the man laugh and give the horse a friendly pat.
    “So, which do you find more fascinating,” Alicia teased, looking at the men in the corral. “Mr. Pryce or his horse?”
    Kara stopped. “Why, the horse, naturally. Would you have thought otherwise?”
    Laughing, Alicia hustled her off to the house where more chores waited.
    • • •
    Kara made sure to stay out of her father and his partners’ way all the next day. She had yet to decide the best way to handle his lordship without upsetting her father. She managed to be quiet at supper and tried not to be interested in his discussion of improved breeding techniques and ideas he had feeding cattle over the winter. Despite her best intentions, her curiosity got the better of her.
    “You think creating new breeds of cattle will be the way to not only improve the health of the animal, but also the amount of meat each one will yield?” she asked.
    “It will take several years of careful breeding and record-keeping to be sure, but yes, I truly believe this will be what sustains the cattle-growing industry. The blizzards of the eighties proved that many of the traditional methods of ranching needed changing. I’m trying to expand on those theories.”
    “You’re right there, Hawke,” Case leaned forward stabbing the air with his finger. “You read about those days … I lived through them. Thousands of cattle starving to death in vicious snow and ice storms, not only in Texas, Oklahoma, and the states to the north of us, but even here. The cold was bitter. It reminded me of the hard winters back east. Ranchers thought with open range grazing and the hardiness of the longhorn, they would make it through.” Sadness tinted his voice. “But so many were wiped out. A lot of good cattlemen died trying to save their herds those winters.” He caught Kara’s eye. “You listen to him. This young man has the right of it. There is a lot we can learn.”
    Mr. Roberts and Austin were nodding their heads in agreement while Hawke leaned back in his chair, basking in Case’s good opinion. The conversation continued amongst the men about methods and other ideas they had read or heard of, and what benefits they might see from them.
    Alicia and her mother excused themselves to finish their packing. Alicia leaned over to get Kara’s attention to help them and leave the men to their talk.
    She could learn from him ? On one level Kara knew her father was right, but it was like rubbing the fur the wrong way on a cat for her to admit it to that … that man.
    Looking up, she knew Hawke could see the consternation on her face and was amused by it. Sputtering, she shoved back her chair and left the table, unaware of the silvery eyes following the graceful sway of her skirts as she left