Free Savage Land by Janet Dailey Page B

to her brother, who was waiting only slightly impatiently at the door. With a cheery ‘I'm ready’ from Coley they left the house.
    Coley managed to slow her anxious feet to the sedate pace her brother was taking. She fleshed a happy smile at his sombre expression, taking his arm with a childlike gesture.
    'What are you so serious about?’ she asked, hugging his arm while giving him a saucy smile.
    'What happened at the pool this morning?’ His question was so unexpected that Coley couldn't suppress a little gasp. She had no trouble now flowing her previously bouncy steps his.
    'You talked to Tony, I suppose,’ Coley replied, astutely recognizing the tale-carrying culprit.
    'He said he saw you and Jason in a little clinch.’ His words came out slowly through gritted teeth, but there was concern and speculation in his eyes when he glanced at his sister.
    'That's not the way it was,’ Coley replied, going on to explain about her to fright in the deep end of the pool and Jason's rescue. ‘I was just hanging on to him because I was frightened. And that's when Tony came along.'
    'So that's all there was to it,’ Danny breathed. The relief etched little curves around his mouth.
    'Well—’ Coley drawled, desperately seeking the words that would explain her confused feelings. She had always confided in her brother and she needed again. He was always able to put things in their right order. ‘Not exactly. You see, Danny,’ she rushed, ‘afterwards I got this feeling that I would have liked him to kiss me. I don't really understand it. That's why I got so embarrassed at Tony's teasing, because I wanted it to happen.’ She paused briefly. ‘I've never felt like that, especially after Carl...’ Her words drifted away in silence.
    'Coley, there are some things you don't know about Jase.’ Danny spoke hesitantly.
    'I overheard Jase and Uncle Ben arguing one day shortly after we came here.’ Coley spoke very low so that Danny had to bend his head to hear. ‘Uncle Ben called him a murderer. That's what you're talking about, isn't it?'
    Danny studied her very intently before answering.
    'Yes, that's what I'm talking about. I've heard things, stories, I don't know how much of them are true, but either way, he's thirteen years older than you. He's ... I don't know, only I don't want you getting too close to him or you're going get hurt.'
    That was the second time she'd been warned off, the first time by Jase himself, Coley thought as they reached the stables. Did she seem so much like a child to everybody that they couldn't trust her to judge the facts?
    As they walked down the roofed breezeway and past the stalls, Coley looked around her. She had been so engrossed in her conversation with her brother that she hadn't noticed her surroundings. This was the first time she had ventured in the actual ranch-yard and she studied the various buildings and corrals with interest. Several hundred yards away she noticed a large barn surrounded by heavy reinforced fencing. She could barely make out the distant grey shapes within the fences.
    'What's over there?’ She directed Danny's attention the distant corrals.
    'In those enclosures? Brahma cattle,’ he answered. ‘They raise them for rodeo stock. I understand Jase had been doing some experimental breeding with them, too. They're a hearty breed, able to stand up under the hot weather and insects better than the Herefords and Angus. They're awful touchy, though, so don't you go hanging around those corrals. They didn't build those fences like that for nothing.'
    Coley gave a little shudder, remembering pictures she had seen of rodeo bulls tossing riders and clowns around. No, she wouldn't be going near them.
    'Here's the little mother,’ Danny crooned, stopping beside the open foaling pen at the south end of the stable. He reached out and laid a reassuring hand on the shiny brown neck of the mare. He took hold of his shy sister and drew her up beside him see the spindly-legged colt