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Cat grimaced wryly. “Let’s don’t think about tomorrow until it gets here.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Jessy lifted her tin cup in a mock toast and called a goodbye to Quint when he raced off to meet his father.
Convinced that her muscles would stiffen into stone if she didn’t keep moving, Jessy made her way to the pens and joined Chase by the loading chute. Cup in hand, she propped a foot on the lower rail.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
Chase acknowledged her presence with a sideways glance, then brought his attention back to the work at hand as the first cow reluctantly clattered up the chute and balked at the entrance to the trailer. “Better than I expected.”
“We only have one day left. Are we going to make it?”
“With luck, we should.”
Crowded from behind, the first cow was forced into the trailer. The others followed, lowing in protest. “Where are you taking this bunch?”
“Back to headquarters for the time being,” Chase replied. “South Branch was able to handle only another fifty head. Broken Butte is already at capacity. Trumbo is checking the Lone Tree range to see if it can handle any more cattle. If we’re lucky, we can scatter another twenty or thirty head around the ranch, but that’s about it. The majority we’ll have to hold at headquarters until we find out whether we’ll get the grazing permit reinstated.”
“What are the lawyers saying?”
“They claim to be as surprised as we are by all this, and insist they didn’t see it coming.” The grimness in his voice didn’t entirely mask its underlying note of anger.
“Have you heard anything more from them?”
Chase leaned on the top rail, his big hands folded together. “Farnsworth called this morning. So far, all their inquiries have been met with a wall of silence. They haven’t found anybody who will admit to knowing anything about the government’s decision.”
“Then we still don’t know why it was done,” Jessy murmured thoughtfully.
“I don’t give a good goddamn why it was done.” The low-voiced words fairly exploded from him. “I just want the rights to this land back. We can’t hold all these cattle at headquarters forever. If we don’t get the land back soon, we won’t have any choice but to sell them.” His hands clenched tightly together, knuckles showing white. “Dammit, we need this land, Jessy. We get more hay out of these coulees than we get from all the rest of the ranch combined. Even more than the hay, we need the water from it. I can’t remember a single time when any of its wells went dry, not even during the worst droughts. Losing this land cripples our entire operation.”
For the first time, Jessy felt a clutch of fear. “Ballard thinks Dy-Corp might be behind this.” Which was something she hadn’t mentioned until that moment.
“That possibility already crossed my mind.” When the last cow was prodded into the trailer, Chase pushed off the rail and hollered to one of the hands, “All right, close it up and take ’em home. I’ll meet you there.” To Jessy, he said, “Ty is still out there somewhere. You might as well ride home with me.”
Aching from head to foot, Jessy walked into The Homestead and headed straight for the stairs. The house seemed unnaturally silent. She was halfway up the steps when she met Sally on her way down. At that instant, Jessy knew why it seemed so quiet.
“Where are the twins?”
“Your mother, bless her heart, decided they should spend the night with her. She knew you would be late getting home, and tired as well.”
“She was right on both counts.”
“Did Chase and Ty come with you?” Sally glanced downstairs expectantly.
“Chase is down at the corrals getting the cattle unloaded. Ty was still at Wolf Meadow when we left.” Grabbing hold of the smooth banister, Jessy started hauling herself up the steps again. “You better not plan on dinner for at least another hour. I’m going to go climb in the tub. If I’m not down in an hour, you’d better check to make sure I didn’t fall asleep and drown.”
Entering the master bedroom, Jessy swept off her hat, hooked it on a corner of a chair back, paused long enough to unbuckle her spurs, then crossed directly to the master bath. She filled the tub with water, hot as she could stand, stripped to the skin, piled her hair atop her head, and climbed into the tub.
A groan of pure pleasure slipped from her throat as the water’s heat flowed over and around her. Eyes closed, she stretched out full length and let it work its magic on her sore muscles. For the time being Jessy was content simply to soak and enjoy. There was time enough later to think about scrubbing away the day’s grime.
Distantly she heard a door open somewhere, but the sound didn’t really register. Nothing
did but the relaxing warmth of the bath.
Something, perhaps the sensation of being watched, prompted Jessy to open her eyes and send a heavy-lidded look at the bedroom door.
Ty stood motionless in the doorway, lines of tiredness etched across his strong-boned features, his expression unreadable. His hat was off, and his dark hair showed the rake of combing fingers. But it was the darkness of his eyes that held her attention, their depths impenetrable as their gaze made a slow survey of her nude length, easily visible beneath the clear bath water.
Made oddly uncomfortable by the look, Jessy sat up, breaking eye contact as she reached for the loofah sponge and bar of soap and began the task of lathering herself down.
