Chapter 13

Whoa, Copper.”

Late one Saturday afternoon, Seth Anderson reined in his sorrel gelding just outside the corral and wearily slid from the saddle. He’d been riding the range, looking for a small bunch of cattle that were either lost, strayed, or stolen—most likely stolen—without success. He glanced toward the ranch house. An assortment of riderless horses and a couple of buggies littered the front yard.

Seth scowled. His earlier predictions about life on the Diamond S never being the same once Dori Sterling turned up had been fulfilled. The coming of Katie O’Riley had added to the problem. With two attractive, unmarried females on hand, single and widowed men for miles around flocked to the ranch like honeybees to a clover field.

Seth snorted. “A bunch of lovesick pups, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never seen so many duded-up visitors or smelled so much hair tonic. I can’t tell yet how Katie feels about all this masculine attention, but anyone who isn’t blind can see that Dori glories in it. She holds court as if every male age eighteen and over is her private property.”

Seth unsaddled Copper and continued to grumble while he rubbed the sorrel down. “You’re the best listener on the ranch,” he said. Copper whinnied and nudged his soft nose against Seth’s shoulder as if to agree. His master went on with his complaints.

“Curly, Bud, Slim, and most of the outfit are just as bad. In all my born days I never heard such a passel of excuses for laying off work. Curly’s had more bellyaches lately than in all the time I’ve been here. Bud can’t ride ’cause his ‘rheumatics’—whatever that is—are acting up.”

Seth groomed Copper until he shone brighter than his name. “Slim takes the cake. I heard him tell Brett this morning that he reckoned he was just ‘too tuckered out to chase rustlers or cow-type critters today.’ Matt’s gotta do something and do it pronto, or we may as well kiss the rest of the herd good-bye.”

Disgusted and discouraged, Seth turned Copper loose in the pasture, got himself slicked up, and went to find Sarah. Maybe she could do something with Dori. To his amazement, he got little sympathy.

“Dori is still young, even though she’s eighteen,” Sarah told him over coffee in the kitchen. “Of course she has the bit in her teeth. She’s been penned up at school for two years. Although she won’t admit it, I suspect she hated every minute there but was too proud to come home. Don’t let her get under your skin, Seth. She’ll settle down.” Sarah smiled at him. “Katie is good for her. Even in the short time she’s been with us, she’s been rubbing off on Dori.”

A merry laugh floated through the open hall door and into the kitchen. “From what I can see, it’s the other way around,” Seth growled. “Sounds like Dori has Katie wrapped around her little finger.”

Sarah shook her head. “Don’t you believe it. Our Irish colleen is full of fun, but she’s a strict disciplinarian in the classroom. If Dori or I don’t have our lessons prepared to her satisfaction, she looks at us with those big emerald eyes and says, ‘You’ll be for doin’ this over—as many times as it takes for it to be done right and proper.’ ”

Sarah’s imitation of the new teacher brought a grin to Seth’s face. “I’m glad to see there’s someone on this ranch who Dori can’t push around. I would have thought she’d pitch a fit at having to be taught.”

“I’m sure she’d like to, but the alternative is spending spring term at school in Madera.” His sister raised one eyebrow and smirked. “By the way, I’d say there are two someone’s here on the ranch who Dori can’t push around.” Before Seth could answer, Sarah changed the subject. “Matt says there’s going to be a barn raising soon, followed by a barn dance. Are you taking anyone?”

Feeling he had been bested concerning Dori, Seth was in no mood for frolicking. “Probably not.”

“How about Abby?” Mischief lurked in Sarah’s blue eyes.

Seth stood and glared down at her. “As Katie would say, ‘Don’t you be for matchmaking.’ It beats all that when folks get married, all they can think of is getting everyone else hitched up.”

“So do you plan on spending your life in single blessedness?” Sarah teased.

“Better single blessedness than double cursedness,” Seth retorted. He got up and stalked toward the kitchen door, pursued by his sister’s mocking laughter. A moment later, her soft voice halted him.

“I’m sorry, Seth. Matt and I are so happy. I want you to be, too.” Her voice trembled.

Repentant for acting so cussed, Seth spun around. “I know. It’s just that I won’t marry until God sends the right girl and lets me know she is the right one. Stepping into double harness any other way is asking for a heap of trouble.”

Sarah flew to his side and hugged him. “Maybe He has already sent the right one.”

Seth blinked. Why should her remark set a vision of a dark-haired young woman in a velvet cloak as blue as her eyes dancing in his mind? His heartbeat quickened. “What do you mean?”

Sarah looked innocent. “You’ve paid attention to Abby, and she’s a good Christian girl. You like her, don’t you?”

Seth felt his muscles relax. “Sure. She’s pretty and fun.” He bent a stern gaze on Sarah. “Just don’t get ideas in that head of yours. Save the room for ‘book larnin,’ as Curly calls it.” He tweaked the red-gold braid wrapped around Sarah’s head. But she had the last word.

“Why don’t you invite Dori to the barn raising and the dance?”

With a mumbled protest against females, matchmaking sisters in particular, Seth fled. But the suggestion Sarah had planted in his mind took root. Half the countryside would be on hand to help replace the barn on the Rocking R that had caught fire and burned to the ground a few weeks earlier. Seth would be the envy of Madera if he took Dori to the raising.

How ridiculous to even consider such an idea. “Escorting a young lady in order to show off is not fit behavior, God,” he prayed. “Help me stay true to Your teachings and ‘do unto others.’ I sure wouldn’t want anyone to show up at a barn raising with me just to make other folks sit up and take notice.” Yet a feeling of regret nagged at him. If Dori were as innocent and good as she appeared, what a wife she would make. Seth sighed. Since she wasn’t, he would continue to keep his distance and not subject himself to her charm.

Fate and Matt Sterling tossed Seth’s carefully laid plans to the four winds. After Dori sneaked away from her studies for the second time and took off on Splotches, Matt sought out Seth. “Ride with me, will you?”

“Sure.” Seth laid aside the currycomb with which he’d been grooming Copper. The grim expression in his boss’s eyes warned of trouble.

Matt lost no time in confirming Seth’s suspicions. Once Copper and Matt’s buckskin, Chase, swung into an easy canter, Matt abruptly said, “You know what ‘fightin’ wages’ are, don’t you?”

What on earth? The feeling that rough water lay ahead made Seth wary. “Of course. Extra pay for hands who fight rustlers and other dangers.”

“I have a proposition for you. I’d hoped Dori would settle down. She hasn’t.” Matt spit the words out like bullets. “It’s bad enough having a herd of lovesick boys and men, including a couple bad eggs from town, hanging around all the time. What’s worse is that Dori believes she can ride as well as she did two years ago. She can’t, and she’s pushing Splotches too hard and too fast. I caught her trying to jump a fence the other day after I told her not to. The pinto hesitated long enough to break her stride, then nicked the top rail and took a nasty fall. Dori sailed over Splotches’ head. If it had been hardpan ground instead of pastureland, they could both have been badly hurt.”

A brooding look crept into Matt’s eyes. “What worries me most is that Dori is bound and determined to ride every horse on the ranch, even the mustangs that haven’t been broken.”

Pity for his boss and friend shot through Seth, but he remained silent. After a long moment, Matt continued. “This is no way to start married life. I need to be with Sarah, not keeping track of my sister twenty-four hours of the day. Seth, if you’ll take over for me, I’ll up your pay to fightin’ wages.”

Had the sky opened and sent a thunderbolt down on Seth, he couldn’t have been more shocked. “Me ride herd on Dori? Excuse me, Boss, but you must be out of your mind. Rustlers are one thing. Your sister is a heap worse.”

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’m desperate,” Matt confessed. “In addition to disrupting my schedule and driving me to the point where I’m about ready to fire the entire outfit, Dori is rapidly becoming the talk of Madera because she likes being popular and doesn’t care who knows it.” He sighed. “I’d hoped her narrow escape from being trapped on the train home from Boston would curb her high spirits. Or that making her study would help. Katie O’Riley is doing her best, but she can’t compete with this.” He waved across the flat land that rolled away to the foothills, with the snow-capped Sierra Nevada in the distance.

Unwilling sympathy caused Seth to say, “I can understand that.” He found himself repeating what Sarah had said. “After all, Dori has been cooped up and away from all this for a long time.”

“I know, but she needs to learn self-control. That’s where you come in.”

Another ripple of shock went through Seth. He’d rather wrestle ornery cattle than be responsible for the wild girl. Besides, in spite of his scorn, he secretly admitted a powerful attraction hid deep inside him. It would be downright dangerous for him to spend the time in Dori’s company that would be necessary should he agree to Matt’s outlandish proposition. “I—”

Matt cut him off. “Wait until you hear what I have in mind. Before Dori went to Boston, she was a fine rider. Like I said, the trouble is, she thinks she’s as good as ever. On the surface she is. However, two years of occasional sidesaddle rides on Boston trotting paths have undermined her ability. She needs to restore the range skills you and I know are necessary to live here. This land is beautiful; it can also be harsh and unforgiving. Varmints both two-and four-legged roam the range. Splotches is a great horse, but she’s still young and relatively untried.”

A poignant light came into Matt’s troubled eyes. “Sarah and I would both feel better with Dori in your care. Take her out riding every day except Sunday. On school days, make it in the afternoon. Be sure Dori carries either a Colt .45 or a Winchester .73 carbine when she rides, and see to it that she can shoot as straight as a man. Teach her trick riding and roping, anything to hold her interest. If I know my dear sister—and I do—she will be on her mettle and determined to conquer whatever task you give her. Keep her at it, and wear her out until she’s too tired to think up mischief.”

Seth snorted. “Is that all?” Dislike for the idea warred with loyalty to Matt and the knowledge someone needed to take the high-spirited girl in hand.

Matt’s keen eyes bored into him. Seth had the feeling the boss could read his mind. “It won’t be easy,” Matt warned. “I’d say it will pretty near be a full-time job. So what do you say?”

Seth didn’t answer until they reached his favorite spot on the ranch, a place he had learned to love. The promontory that overlooked the ranch offered both privacy and beauty. The entire valley spread out below them, dotted with dark clumps of the vineyards and orchards that had sprung up north of the San Joaquin River. Diamond S cattle roamed the rolling rangeland that lay closer to their lookout.

Seth slid from Copper and let the reins hang to the ground. Matt swung from his saddle and did likewise. Unless something spooked them, the horses were trained to stand, so the men were in no danger of being left afoot. After a long silence, Matt quietly said, “Well?”

Seth squared his shoulders. How could he turn Matt down? He owed him more than he could ever repay. “I will do it on two conditions. First and most important, if I take charge of training Dori, I must be allowed to handle her in my own way. That means no matter what I do, you, Sarah, Brett, or anyone else can’t interfere. If it’s a problem, the deal’s off.” He took a deep breath and held it, torn between wishing Matt would argue and secretly hoping he wouldn’t.

Matt’s strong hand shot out and grabbed Seth’s. “Agreed.”

Seth’s breath came out in a loud whoosh. “Second, no fightin’ wages. My thirty dollars a month and keep are plenty.”

“Doesn’t seem right to me,” Matt objected. “You’ll be taking on a bigger job than any of the other hands.”

Seth didn’t give an inch. “Those are my terms. Think about it. If it ever got back to Dori that I was being paid for looking after her, she’d blow the whole thing sky-high.”

Matt’s heartfelt chortle signaled his relief. “You’ve got that right. When do you want to start?” He looked shamefaced. “Who should tell her? You or me?”

Seth ignored the tingling sensation of stepping from light into the dark unknown and nonchalantly said, “Might as well be me. If I’m going to boss her, she needs to know it right away. Just one thing. I have a feeling I’m not Dori’s favorite person on the Diamond S. What if she turns me down flat?”

The grim expression that had disappeared with Seth’s acceptance of the scheme returned. It boded no good for a wayward sister. “She won’t. I promise you that.” Matt leaped to Chase’s saddle. “Let’s go home. I can’t wait to see Dori’s face when she learns what we have in store for her.”

Seth didn’t reply. But on the long ride back to the ranch, he wondered. Lord, what am I getting myself into? I’m going to need Your help and need it bad.