Free Midnight Lady by Jenny Oldfield

had always been the two of us; Don and Donna Rose of Circle R. Him working the cows and running that side of things, me keeping house. Old-fashioned maybe, but that’s the way we liked it.”
    “It’s tough doing things single-handed,” Sandy agreed. She went into the trailer and led Silver Flash down the ramp. “You have to give it everything you’ve got.”
    “It’s kinda late in life for me to learn how to do that.” Donna stood to one side. “My answer was to hire a manager, which I couldn’t really afford, but it seemed the only way to stay on here.”
    Sandy handed over the big sorrel with the white blaze to Kirstie and went back inside. “But then, good hired help is hard to find.”
    “I’ve had three managers in as many years,” Donna admitted. “This time, I had to go out of the state as far as Wyoming to find Leon. And the problems don’t end there. Money for feed; that’s my biggest headache. And the ranch is pretty run-down; there’s more money needed to put the fences in order, for instance. Not to mention work on the house and barn.” She turned to Kirstie, who had tethered Silver Flash and come back to collect Yukon from her mom. “So in a way, your crazy little plan of last night helped me come to a decision.”
    Kirstie frowned. “It did?”
    “Yeah. It made me realize it may all be too much for me to handle. Like, one last straw that broke the camel’s back.”
    Sandy came out of the trailer with Johnny Mohawk, a pretty black half-Arabian and the final horse that she wanted to lend to Donna. She stopped on the ramp, sensing an important announcement.
    The lady ranch owner looked away into the distance once more. “Too many problems, not enough money…and then, suddenly, out of the blue just before you arrived, an offer to buy the place! Add it all up and what do you get?”
    “Someone wants to buy Circle R from you?” Kirstie repeated. Just when lending Donna the three horses was helping to salve her guilty conscience, she was hearing the news that she planned to give up. Now Kirstie felt really, really terrible again.
    “What are you saying?” Before Donna could answer Kirstie’s worried question, Sandy came down the ramp, shaking her head in disbelief.
    “I’ve had an offer!” Donna repeated, her lips quivering, her eyes filling with tears. “Not a great offer, it’s true. But it’s a cash deal; money on the nail.”
    “Have you accepted?” Sandy asked gently.
    “Not yet. I told them I’ll think about it.”
    “Told who?” Kirstie demanded, looking Donna Rose full in the face for the first time that visit. “Who made the offer? Who put in the bid to buy Circle R?”

7
    “Arnie Ash called me. I just got off the phone five minutes before you pulled into my yard.” Donna seemed to be trying hard to get her muddled thoughts in order. “Well, I knew he was loaded; the slaughterhouse does good business. But I never knew he had that kind of dough. A cash offer!” she repeated.
    Kirstie frowned suspiciously. “Why does he want to buy the ranch?”
    “Why not?” Sandy seemed to think it was a reasonable idea. “It would be a good thing for him if he went into cattle ranching, raised his own cows and so on. There could be a lot of extra profit in it for him.”
    “Especially if he modernizes,” Donna conceded. “He’d keep a manager in place who would bring everything up to date.”
    “Manager?” Kirstie echoed. Her brain ticked over faster than before.
    “Sure. He said he hoped Leon would stay on after I sold up. I haven’t had the chance to talk to Leon yet …”
    “That figures!”
Tick-tick-tick.
Leon Franks had been driving out of the abattoir as they went past. He’d been looking pretty smug. So that was what he’d been up to, running to Arnie Ash to tell him about Donna’s problems, encouraging the slaughterhouse owner to move in on the widow with a cheap offer. Yeah, of course!
    “Kirstie, don’t interrupt!” Sandy said