you keep them on, I’ll think you’re a man.”
“I don’t care what you think.”
“I know,” he said softly. “I think that’s why you’re so much fun to be around. No matter what I do or how hard I try, you’re still not going to like me, right?”
“Right,” she answered.
“So I guess there’s little chance you’ll help me figure out which one of the McMurray sisters to marry?”
“Right.”
The waitress sloshed their coffee on the table as she slammed the cups down and rushed past.
Lewt tried again. “Come on, Em. Can’t we be friends?”
She couldn’t help but smile. “The last friend of yours has a half dozen stitches in his hand.”
Lewt shoved his hat back and smiled at her. “You’re right. I guess I’m a dangerous man to know.”
“Why do you want to marry one of the girls, anyway? There must be a hundred girls in any big city you could marry.”
“I need a wife,” he said simply. “A good wife.”
After a few moments he leaned on the table and whispered, “I’ve got to have a lady from a good family. I need to get married right away.”
She met his gaze. “In a family way, are you?”
He laughed. “Something like that.”
Em decided she liked this strange man who must have been raised by rich moles and who could throw a knife better than anyone she’d ever seen. “I’ll help you learn ranching, but that’s all. You’ll have to court the girls all by yourself.”
“Fair enough.”
CHAPTER 12
LEWT USED HIS OWN HANDKERCHIEF TO COVER HIS eyes for the ride back, thinking that riding through the mountains blindfolded was about the dumbest idea he’d ever heard.
He spent most of the time asking questions about the ranch, the land, and the history of the family. Now and then he asked a question about one of the McMurray girls, but Em never gave him anything that would help. In fact, she seemed to know less about them than he’d observed. She sounded surprised when he said Beth was unsure of herself and he wondered why Rose worried herself sick trying to make everyone happy.
They came back through the far north pasture. When Em told him to pull his blindfold off, the sight before him almost took his breath away. Horses for as far up the hill as he could see. He guessed a hundred, maybe more, and all beautiful.
He knew this was a working ranch that had raised horses for fifty years, but watching them graze and run across the land made him think they were living wild.
“They’re really something,” Lewt whispered.
“That they are. The first McMurray came to this land with a dozen. There are cattle down by the river and we grow wheat and corn on land on the other side of that hill, but here, in the heart of the ranch, we care for the horses.”
The weather was sunny after the rain, leaving the air feeling frosty. Lewt waited for her orders, but for a few minutes she just watched the animals as if they were hers.
Finally, she turned to him, all business. “There’s a storm coming in. I can feel it in the air. We ride the borders of the ranch until dark.”
His body had taken a beating on the horse yesterday, but this morning when he’d climbed back on for more torture, he’d found the ride easier. Thanks to her constant shouting, he’d learned to distribute his weight more evenly and control the animal with far less effort. She’d told him it was probably far more comfortable for the horse, but to his surprise it was also more comfortable for him. His new heavy twill trousers and boots protected his legs, and the gloves buffered the blisters on his palms.
When she shot off toward the west, he was only a few lengths behind. They rode what she called the border, as though Whispering Mountain were its own country. They looked for breaks in the fence or places where the animals might get themselves in trouble. They stopped three times to mend a fence and once to check out tracks. She told him that once in a while big cats would come down from far back in the hills looking for food in winter.
Lewt didn’t like to think about what one of the mountain lions could do to a newborn horse. He was starting to understand why she cared so much for the beautiful animals and why she wore a gun to keep them safe.
When he bumped her for the third time as