Kay Thorpe – The Rancher's Mistress (страница 8)

‘You don’t eat enough to keep a sparrow alive!’ scoffed Cal, watching her quarter an apple for dessert. ‘A few extra pounds wouldn’t hurt.’

‘Alex has an absolutely perfect figure now,’ declared his sister with some asperity. ‘I wish I could look like she does!’

‘You’d need stretching a few inches to start with,’ he said. ‘Plus a bleach-job on the hair.’

‘What time did you intend leaving?’ asked Alex, judging it better to change the subject than go for his guts.

‘As soon as we’re through.’ From the glint in his eyes, he was well aware of her irritation. ‘You might find a hat useful. Keep the sun out of your eyes.’

‘I’ve got several,’ Margot offered. ‘You’re welcome to borrow one.’

Alex smiled at her. ‘Thanks. I’ll probably buy myself one as a souvenir to take home.’

The hazel eyes took on a sudden concern. ‘You don’t have to go soon, do you?’

It was difficult to know quite how to answer that without appearing to take too much for granted. ‘I don’t have anything particularly pressing lined up,’ she acknowledged diffidently.

‘Slack time of year, is it?’ Cal gave her no time to answer the question. ‘There’s no limit this end on how long you stay.’

‘Thanks,’ she said again. ‘That’s very generous of you.’

His lips slanted. ‘It’s no hardship. You might like to join in some of the guest activities. There’s a cookout tomorrow night, and the Prescott rodeo on Saturday, with a square dance in the evening.’

‘What about general ranch work?’ she asked. ‘Greg said the guests joined in with that too.’

‘Some of the men like to put in a spell or two.’

‘Women barred, are they?’

Cal eyed the bright cascade of her hair, freed now from its tethering scarf, the fine boning of her features; dropping his gaze to view her well-tended hands with obvious implication. ‘It’s no job for a woman.’

‘Where I come from,’ she said with purpose, ‘women are deemed capable of doing anything they feel capable of doing!’

‘Always providing they don’t overestimate their capabilities.’

‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I already showed you I can sit a horse.’

‘Think you could use a rope too?’

‘I could learn.’

The smile was tolerant. ‘I’ll consider it.’ He pushed back his chair and got to his feet, tall, dark and infuriating. ‘See you down at the corral in ten minutes.’

Margot chuckled at the expression on Alex’s face as her brother moved away. ‘You look as if you’d like to stick a knife in his back!’

‘More than one!’ Alex caught herself up. ‘Sorry about that. He is your brother.’

‘You don’t need to apologise. He makes me just as mad at times. You do realise he was needling you on purpose?’

Alex looked at her sharply, then gave a rueful smile. ‘You mean he does let the women take part?’

‘If they show any real enthusiasm.’

‘I thought that was what I was doing.’

Margot hesitated. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but you hardly look the type to enjoy roughing it.’

‘Never judge a book by its cover.’ Alex stood up purposefully. ‘I’ll just have to prove myself, won’t I?’

Cal had both horses already tacked-up when she reached the corral. Seated easily astride the grey, one hand on the rein, the other resting lightly along his thigh, he looked born to the saddle—the embodiment of all the cowboy heroes Alex had worshipped as a child. Not unlike them in essence either, she supposed: the all-male male in a male-dominated world. Fine enough in fiction, maybe, but downright insufferable in reality!

‘Glad to see you remembered the hat,’ he said. ‘Fit you okay?’

‘It’s a bit snug,’ she admitted. ‘Shall I be able to get one of my own this afternoon?’

‘Don’t see why not.’ He pulled his own hat further down over his eyes as he set the grey into motion with a flick of the rein. ‘Let’s get on the way.’

Regardless of the company, Alex found it impossible to feel anything but elated as they moved out under the wide blue Wyoming sky. It was all she had anticipated: the sun hot, the air clear, the scenery awesome in its beauty. What more could Greg want from life? she wondered. What more could anyone want? If she never saw a city street again she wouldn’t care!

There wasn’t much chance of that, of course. She might stretch this to a couple of weeks, but she had to go back some time. Whether she would take the job she had been offered she hadn’t yet decided. They had given her a month to think about it, and she had money put by, so the decision wasn’t pressing, although she could hardly afford to be choosy. Considering the kind of publicity she’d been given, she was lucky to have the opportunity at all.

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