Free Texas Blue by JODI THOMAS Page B

deal and as he did, he took control of the game.
    First, he let Boyd Sinclair win. The rancher puffed up and informed the girls that they were no match for him. Lewt resented his superior attitude, but the ladies seemed to think it funny.
    When Lewt shuffled again he tossed Boyd the winning hand, but to Lewt’s surprise, Boyd folded. The girls consoled him once again.
    Lewt frowned. Apparently he didn’t understand the rancher as well as he thought he did.
    Halfway through the evening he dealt a few hands where Beth won. She giggled with delight. Everyone, including Boyd, congratulated her on her brilliant play.
    As the night aged and they all enjoyed the card game, Lewt found himself enjoying the game he was playing. He could tell a great deal about a man by how he acted when he was winning and, more important, how he acted when he lost. In life everyone wins and loses. The man who doesn’t handle himself well at losing usually can’t handle himself much better at winning.
    Davis Allender rarely won a hand, but he never complained. In fact, he cheered the others on. By the end of the evening all three women were giggling and showing him their hands, and then he’d advise them. Boyd fought to win most of the time, but Davis walked away from the evening the real winner.
    When the women said their good nights, Beth kissed Davis on the cheek for helping her. Lewt would have thought he’d be jealous, but to his surprise, he wasn’t. Beth was beautiful, but he had two others to pick from, and if she liked Davis, he didn’t mind.
    The young man had kind eyes and a gentle way. He’d make the youngest McMurray woman a fine husband.
    Lewt climbed the stairs to his room and collapsed. His leg still hurt, and hiding the fact through dinner and the card game had cost him energy he didn’t have. He was a man who needed little sleep, but this time he planned to take the night.
    When he rolled over an hour before dawn, the throbbing in his leg finally woke him. He stood slowly, testing his weight on the leg, then tiptoed down the back stairs to the kitchen and stirred up the fire in the stove. A gentle rain tapping against the windows washed away any sound he made. He guessed it would be a while before the others woke. He planned to soak the bloody bandage off in a hot bath.
    He found all he needed in the room they called the mudroom. Towels, a medicine box, a big tub, and lye soap. While the water heated, he lit one lamp in the kitchen and another in the mudroom. Then he put on a pot of coffee that would be ready before he finished his bath.
    When he lowered his aching body into the tub, he couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh. Every muscle had been strained while working with the herd.
    The water felt wonderful, and the slow rain outside settled his nerves. Lewt closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER 10

    S OMETIME IN THE NIGHT DUNCAN MCMURRAY WOKE to the news that the cavalry wouldn’t be coming to help them. They received orders that if McNelly and his band had attacked the Mexicans on Mexican soil, the U.S. Army was not to render him any assistance.
    Thirty rangers outside their jurisdiction. Thirty rangers against a mounted force of two hundred. The captain’s bluff wouldn’t last much longer, and they didn’t have their horses to outrun bullets this time.
    Duncan counted his bullets and waited. This cloudy November day seemed as good as any to die. He heard firing now and then but kept his head low, waiting. He had no ammo to waste, no food for the past two days and little water.
    Through the blackness, a bullet came out of nowhere and hit him in the leg as if the gods of battle just wanted to kick him while he was down. It sliced through the muscle just below his knee like a freight train on fire. Duncan swore and tied his leg with his dirty bandanna so he wouldn’t lose too much blood, but within an hour blood had pooled in a foot-wide circle by his leg and was soaking into the soil.
    “You all right,