his attention to refilling his drink. “You won’t get a better offer. Best take this one. His being twenty years older is a great advantage. He’ll die and leave you comfortable.” He looked up at her through bloodshot eyes. “In the meantime, he’ll make a woman out of you. You’re stiffening up, drying on the vine, girl. You need a man to fill your belly with his seed so you’ll ripen.” He looked down at her blouse. “You look more like a boy than a woman. Most men aren’t interested in a woman like that.”
She stood silent and took his abuse. All her life she’d never been right, she’d never passed muster. She’d been too thin, too tall, too flat, too shy, too ordinary. But tonight, his cutting ways didn’t hurt so badly because Rowdy had touched her if only for a moment and he didn’t seem to find her lacking.
She went up to her room, changed into her cotton gown and stood in front of the mirror for a long while. For the first time she saw herself through another man’s eyes besides her father’s and she liked what she saw.
Chapter 5
Rowdy was up and shaving when he heard Laurel drive a wagon into the front yard. He wiped the last of the soap off and went to meet her. She’d been on his mind so thick all night he didn’t feel like they’d been apart.
“I have news,” she said as if she thought she needed a reason to visit him. “And breakfast.”
“For me or Cinnamon?” He smiled when he noticed she’d left her bonnet at home.
“Both.”
She handed him a basket and a campfire coffeepot, still steaming. “I hope it’s still hot.”
“Looks grand,” he said, but he was staring at her, not the breakfast. Something was different about her. She seemed more confident, happier.
They ate on the porch steps laughing about how she’d managed to fix breakfast, even coffee, without waking anyone up. “In my father’s younger days he would be in the saddle by dawn, but after twenty years of drinking late, he’s decided the sun could come up without him. Since my sisters never rise before nine, the cook doesn’t bother to ride over until full daylight.”
“And you?”
She looked surprised that he asked. “Me? I like to get up early and ride. Before I hear anyone else out of bed I’ve usually finished half a pot of coffee and worked on the books for an hour or more.”
“With the size of your father’s spread, it must be a job to keep up with the paperwork. You like managing the books?” Rowdy shifted to face her. His knee was almost touching her shoulder. He wondered if she was half as aware of him as he was of her.
She shook her head. “It’s what I was trained in school to do.” She stared down at her hands and added, “My father thought I’d never marry so, ‘a girl like me needs a skill,’ he said.”
Rowdy watched her closely. He’d heard the rumors about her and the banker yesterday and wanted to know if they were true. “Do you plan to marry, Laurel?”
She shrugged. “My father told the banker I’d marry him by fall.”
“But you don’t want to?” he guessed.
Her eyes were filled with a thousand unshed tears when she looked up. “But I don’t want to,” she repeated.
Rowdy saw it all then. He knew without asking why she needed the money. Her father thought he could control her. “You plan to leave as soon as I win.”
She nodded. “My father thinks room and board are enough pay, so I’ve never been able to think of a way out. When you win, I know where we can get a good price for the herd. You’ll have enough to go somewhere and start a new life and so will I.”
She was as much of a prisoner as he’d been. “Then we’d better win.” He grinned, wishing he felt half as confident as he sounded. “How soon can we change the cattle into money?”
“An hour after the rodeo. They are already in the pens by the station,” she answered. “I plan to make the Monday morning train. Once my father learns we’re partners, there will be no going home. I can spend the night in the hotel and be ready to leave at dawn.”
“That sounds like a great plan, partner. I might catch it and ride along until a place looks right.”
“What are you looking for?”
He shrugged. “Any place but here where