Page 64 of Texas Honor

“No,” Janet said firmly, “this is my home, too. I have a right to invite people here. He won’t stop me. Or you.”

“Janet, I’m so tired of fighting....”

“We’ll keep out of his way,” Janet assured her. “He’ll be back at work in no time, you’ll see, and then we’ll have the place all to ourselves.”

But she sounded no more certain than Maggie felt. And her apprehension intensified when Janet hesitantly asked Gabriel the next morning if he had a horse Maggie could ride.

“Please, I don’t need to...” Maggie began quickly, noticing the dangerous look in Gabe’s pale eyes.

“No, I don’t have a spare horse,” Gabe replied with a cold glare at Maggie. “I’m trying to get my calves branded, tagged and inoculated, and my herd out to summer pasture. Meanwhile, I’m being driven crazy by new hands who have to be led around like kids, I’m trying to keep supplies on hand with my ranch foreman off on sick leave, I’m a week behind on paperwork that my secretary can’t do alone... I don’t have time to be hounded by tourists!”

“Gabriel, there’s no need to be rude,” Janet chided.

He stood up. “She’s your guest, not mine,” he told his mother. “If you want her entertained, you entertain her.”

And without another word, he left them sitting there, arrogantly lighting a cigarette as he went.

Maggie shivered as she stared after him half-angrily. “A person could freeze to death just sitting near him,” she muttered.

Janet shook her head and reached for her coffee. “I’m so sorry.”

“You aren’t responsible for his actions, and at least now I understand a little better than I did,” Maggie told her with a smile. “It’s all right. I’d like to stroll around a little, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind,” Janet returned. “Just do stay out of his way, darling,” she cautioned.

“You can count on that!” Maggie laughed.

She went out the back door, in fact, tugging on a yellow windbreaker over her beige blouse and jeans. It was still a little nippy, but she loved the coolness. She loved the outdoors, the land stretching lazily to the horizon, dotted with mesquite trees and prickly-pear cacti and wildflowers.

It was so different from her home in the middle of downtown San Antonio, so removed from urban traffic. Although the city was delightful and there was plenty to see and do, and colorful markets to visit, she was a country girl at heart. She loved the land with a passion she’d never given to anything else. Even now, with an enemy in residence, she could hardly contain her excitement at having so much land to explore, to savor.

She walked from the backyard down to the fence that stretched to the stables and stared over it at the few horses that were left. Most of them had gone out with the cowboys who were working the far-flung herds of cattle.

Her eyes were wistful as she stared at a huge black stallion. There wasn’t a patch of white anywhere on him, and he looked majestic in the early-morning light. He tossed his mane and pranced around like a thoroughbred, as if he knew that he had an audience and was determined to give it its money’s worth.

“Do you ride?”

The rough question startled her. She whirled, surprised to find Gabriel Coleman leaning against one of the large oak trees in the backyard, calmly smoking a cigarette while he stared at her.

She shifted a little. He looked bigger than ever in that old long-sleeved chambray shirt, and its color emphasized the lightness of his eyes under the wide brim of his hat. He was formidable in work clothes. So different from Dennis, who’d always seemed a bit prissy to Maggie.

“I...don’t ride very well,” she confessed.

He nodded toward the stallion. “I call him Crow. He was a thoroughbred with a bright future. But he killed a man and was going to be put down. I bought him and I ride him, but no one else does. There isn’t a more dangerous animal on the place, so don’t get any crazy ideas.”

“I wouldn’t dream of taking a horse without asking first,” she said levelly. “Perhaps you’re used to more impetuous women. I’m careful. I don’t rush in without thinking.”

His eyes narrowed at the insinuation, and he took a long draw from his cigarette. “Then why are you down here?” he asked coldly.

“Your mother invited me,” she said.

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” she countered.

He smiled, and it wasn’t friendly. He threw down the cigarette and moved toward her.

It was a deserted area. The house was hidden by a grove of oaks and pecan trees, and none of the men were around. Maggie, who’d had nightmares about physical intimacy since her marriage, began to back away until the cold bark of another oak tree halted her.

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