The Rancher's Bride

“I must tell you…at the present, there’s no way we could find the money to pay you back. Even if we sold the last head of cattle we had, we couldn’t come up with what our father borrowed from you.”

She was telling the truth. Harlan could see that plainly. He could also see that Rose Murdock was not a frivolous woman. She was plainspoken and no-nonsense. What surprised him about her admission was that the Bar M could be that drained of funds.

Harlan had lived here for seven years. His neighbors to the west owned the largest ranch in the county, perhaps one of the largest in the whole state of New Mexico. They raised good cattle and even better horses. They had plenty of rich grazing land along the Hondo river and several skilled cowboys to take care of it all. But what she’d just said about repaying the loan and the fact that she’d been line riding herself told Harlan things had changed drastically on the Bar M.

The whole idea was hard for Harlan to absorb, but not nearly as hard, he figured, as it was for Rose Murdock. “I’m not worried about you paying me back right now.”

Nerves clenched her stomach like a vice. “You should be.”

“I need water more than I need money.”

He took off his battered straw hat and ran a hand through his hair. It was the color of sable and just as shiny. Worn a bit longer than the current fashion, the dark strands fell haphazardly across his forehead and curled around his ears and neck. The front of his shirt was soiled and a large patch of sweat had soaked through the gray material in the middle of his chest. Rose thought he looked a bit like she’d imagined the cowhands did who worked this land when it was still a wild, dangerous territory. Rough, tough and just a little reckless.

“I can’t understand you,” she said. “You have the power right there—” she pointed at the piece of paper “—to take the Bar M. It could legally be yours now if you wanted to push the issue.”

He frowned at her. “I don’t want to take your home away from you.”

Suddenly it was all too much for Rose. Pressing the heel of her hand against her forehead, she closed her eyes and let out a long, weary sigh.

“I came over here,” she said, “to ask you about a simple cut in the fence. Instead, I learn that the Bar M owes you several thousand dollars!” Opening her eyes, she turned her gaze to his face. “You could have at least warned us about this!”

She sounded both accusing and defeated. Harlan wanted to comfort her somehow but realized there wasn’t much he could do. He couldn’t tell her to simply forget the loan, that he would dissolve her father’s debt. The money had been a big part of Harlan’s savings. He’d worked, scrimped and sacrificed for years to obtain that much money. He couldn’t afford to give it away, no matter how bad he felt for this woman.

Draining half his tea, he ran his hand through his hair again, then got to his feet and moved to the other side of the room. He’d never had a woman in his kitchen before. His wife had died before he and Emily had moved to New Mexico. The sight of Rose Murdock sitting at the table with her hat hanging against her back, her light red hair curling wildly about her face and her small breasts jutting against her denim shirt was more than a little distracting for him.

“I’m sure this was the last thing you expected or wanted to hear,” he said, moving over to the sink filled with dirty dishes. “And I wish like hell your father had never borrowed the money in the first place.”

“But he did,” Rose said quietly. She looked over at him as he turned on the tap and squirted soap over the mound of plates and glasses. “How soon will you need a payment?”

“It isn’t necessary to discuss the money part of it now. I’d rather talk about water.”

This man literally had the Bar M in his hands if he wanted it, yet he chose not to move in for the kill. Rose couldn’t believe he was being so bighearted. What was he doing, waiting like a hawk for his prey to weaken?

“How can we help you?”

His back turned to Rose, he said, “You can open up part of your land to me.”

Chapter Two

Of the three Murdock sisters, Rose had always been the quiet, levelheaded one. She was sweet tempered and rarely ever showed an outward display of emotion. But the shock of Harlan’s words shot her to her feet. “Open our land to you?”

Harlan glanced over his shoulder. Her breasts were heaving and her hands were fluttering helplessly at her sides. He could see she was struggling not to be upset, but the flash in her gray eyes and the quaver in her voice told him she was losing the battle to hold on to her emotions.

“Back in east Texas my friends told me I was crazy to move out here on the New Mexico desert But I’ve come to love this place and I don’t want to lose it, or my cattle.” He turned and leveled his dark eyes on her. “I expect you’d rather let me use a pasture with water than meet the stipulations of your daddy’s loan.”

Something about this rancher made Rose forget to keep her distance. With a boldness that was completely foreign to her nature, she marched over to within a step of him.

“Are you threatening me? Is that what this is all about?”

Suddenly there was a comical twist of frustration on his face. “Look, Rose, if I’d wanted to take your home away from you I could have done it legally several months ago! I’m not a vulture. I’m just a man trying to make a living. All I’m asking for is a little help from the Bar M. And under the circumstances, I don’t think that’s asking too much.”

Of course he had every right to ask for water. In fact, Rose knew she should be down on her knees thanking God that Harlan Hamilton wasn’t demanding more. Still, the idea of opening the ranch to someone else was like inviting a stranger into her bedroom. The Bar M had been Murdock land for more than forty years. No one had so much as leased a foot of it, or even walked across it. Each section of pasture was like a room in the ranch house. She didn’t want interlopers in her home.

With a surrendering shake of her head, Rose said, “No, you’re not asking too much. But I must tell you I’m in the same situation you are, Harlan. What bit of grass I have left is burning and I need it for my own cattle.”

Harlan wasn’t a man to take advantage of anyone who happened to be down on their luck, and that included a beautiful woman. But at the moment he was having tough luck of his own.

“I can understand that. But I need water wells drilled and pumps installed. Doing that takes lots of money. Money that I loaned to Tomas,” Harlan replied. “I have no intention of going into debt, and I’m not going to sell my cattle. If it makes you feel any better, you can count the use of your water as the first payment on the loan.”

Rose was backed into a corner with no way out. She had no choice but to let him have what he asked for and hope and pray his wants would stop there.

Squaring her shoulders, she jammed her hat back on her head, then tugged the brim down on her forehead. “I’m not a difficult woman, Harlan, nor am I foolish. I’ll meet you tomorrow at the boundary fence and we’ll decide what to do with your cattle and mine. Now I should be heading home before dark catches me.”

She turned to go. Harlan immediately called her back.

“If you galloped all the way back to the Bar M you couldn’t beat the dark. I’ll take you.”

“My horse—”

“The stock trailer is already hooked onto the truck. It won’t be any problem to take you both home.”

If it wasn’t for Pie stepping on a sidewinder in the dark, she would have insisted on riding back alone. She didn’t want to climb into a vehicle with this man. In fact, if she didn’t get away from him soon, she was certain she’d never be able to breathe properly again.

“Very well,” she conceded.

Harlan walked over to an open doorway leading to other parts of the house. “Emily?”

A few moments passed before the teenager appeared in the doorway. “You wanted me?” she asked her father.

Harlan introduced his daughter to Rose, then added, “I’m going to drive Miss Murdock back home. Would you like to come with us?”

The girl threw a suspicious glance at Rose. “No.”

Harlan sighed. “You haven’t been off the place for several days. It would do you good to get out of the house, Emily.”

Having been a schoolteacher the past five years had taught Rose many things about children. She knew that underneath petulance was usually a need for attention or love. As for Emily, there was a sad, depressed look about the girl that tugged at Rose’s heart.

“I know what the Murdock place looks like,” Emily said with a toss of her head.

“If that’s the way you feel about it,” Harlan said to her, “then I expect you to have this kitchen clean by the time I get back.”

The bored look on the girl’s face suddenly turned indignant. “But, Daddy,” she protested. “I’ll miss my program and—”

“No buts. You didn’t want to go, so stay here and make yourself useful. And turn that darn TV off. If I come back and hear it on, it’s going to stay off for a week.”

Turning to Rose, he nodded toward the door leading to the back porch. “If you’re ready, let’s go.”

Rose looked at the teenage girl. “Goodbye, Emily. I hope we meet again, soon.”

For a moment, Rose thought Harlan’s daughter was going to rebuff her but then a faint smile crossed the girl’s thin face.

“Goodbye, Rose.”

Once the two of them were outside the house, Harlan said, “I hope you’ll overlook Emily’s rudeness. She’s been in one of her moods lately.”

“I used to be a schoolteacher, so I’m accustomed to teenagers’ moods,” Rose replied.

They rounded the house and Rose was relieved to see that Pie was only a few steps away from where she’d left him. She reached for the horse’s reins, but Harlan immediately took them from her. As he led the horse toward the barn Rose followed him. The sun was already down and shadows were lengthening on the dry, cracked ground beneath their feet. While they walked, Rose kept her eyes on the dusty toes of her boots.

“You say you were a teacher. Does that mean you’ll not be teaching when school begins in September?”

“The ranch needs me now,” she said frankly.

Harlan glanced over at her downcast head. Things were obviously much worse at the Bar M than he’d expected and that worried him for more reasons than one.

A few minutes later they were traveling west across Flying H land. The evening air was beginning to cool. Rose removed her hat so that the breeze coming through the open cab would blow her hair.

As the ranch house disappeared behind them, Rose couldn’t help but wonder if Harlan’s daughter was cleaning the kitchen or watching TV. Did her daddy spoil her, misunderstand her, love her? The questions pestered her until she finally said, “It must be a very quiet life for Emily during the summer months. Does she do any activities with friends her age?”

“Sometimes. But it’s not exactly easy for me to drive her into Ruidoso for entertainment.”

“I understand. We live a long way from town, too, you know.”

She was hugging the door. Her hands were folded primly on her lap, her eyes fixed straight ahead. Each time Harlan glanced her way she remained as stiff as when they’d first left the house.

“I don’t think Emily’s problem is all boredom. The way you saw her is pretty much how she’s been for the past year. At first I thought it was her age. But now I’m not so sure.”

Rose never encouraged conversation with single men. She found it usually led to awkward situations. Especially when the man insisted on getting personal. But she couldn’t remain indifferent to Harlan. With his long, lean body sitting only inches away, his earthy, masculine scent swirling around her, she was more aware of him than she could ever remember being of any man.

“How long has your daughter been without her mother?”

A grimace marred his face. “You know she doesn’t have a mother?”

Rose nodded, then quickly explained, “When I came to your house I asked Emily if I could speak with you or her mother. She told me she didn’t have a mother.”

“She can be blunt at times.” Harlan downshifted the truck and stopped as the dirt road they’d been traveling intersected with the main highway. Glancing at her, he added, “Karen died when Emily was going on seven years old. She’s thirteen now.”

Pulling onto the oozy asphalt, Harlan headed west toward the foot of the mountains and the Bar M ranch.

Three miles passed before Rose could think of a reply. She said, “That’s a long time for a child to be without a mother.”

Harlan let out a snort. “I damn well didn’t choose it that way.”

The sharpness of his voice swung Rose’s gaze around to him. His profile was hard and unmoving, making it obvious to her that he was still bitter over losing his wife.

But that wasn’t her problem, Rose quickly reminded herself. Nor was his sullen daughter. The Bar M was drowning in debt, and if he had a mind to, this man sitting next to her could push her the rest of the way under.

Dear God, how was she going to tell her sisters, Chloe and Justine, and her Aunt Kitty that Tomas had borrowed several thousand dollars and put the ranch up as collateral? Just thinking about it left her numb with fear.

“I’m sure you didn’t choose to lose your wife,” Rose said quietly.

Harlan rubbed a hand over his face. “I thought you meant—” He turned his head and his eyes searched her face. “Some people think I’m being cruel to Emily by not marrying again. I figured you were thinking the same thing. Were you?”

Rose couldn’t believe they were having this discussion. She didn’t even know this man. She didn’t want to know him. But each passing minute seemed to be showing her another slice of his personality.

A faint frown drew her dark auburn brows together. “I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to advise you about your family life, Mr.—Harlan.”

A quirk of humor moved his lips. “I wasn’t asking for your advice. I was asking what you thought.”

“Why?”

“I beg your pardon?” he asked.

He’d mentioned east Texas and from the sound of his drawl, Rose figured he must have grown up in that part of the country. She couldn’t deny the soft lilt of his voice did pleasant things to her senses.

“Why do you want to know what I think? You don’t even know me.”

Shrugging, he fixed his eyes on the darkening highway. “It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to a woman and since Emily is a girl, well, I sometimes wonder if I can see things the way you females do.”

“Have you met a woman you’d like to marry?”

He cast her a dry glance, then suddenly burst out with a short laugh. “Rose, there isn’t a woman on earth I’d want to marry.”

His mocking attitude stiffened her spine to a rigid line of indignation. There wasn’t a man on earth she’d want to marry either, but she didn’t go around telling any of them such a thing. She didn’t like men, but that hardly made her want to insult them.

“Then I think it best you stay single and—forget about what your friends say.”

The little grin he gave her said she’d spoken the very words he’d wanted to hear. “You know, Rose, I think you’re gonna be my kind of woman.”

* * *

Ten minutes later, Rose was back home on the Bar M unsaddling Pie in the dimly lit stables. As she jerked on the worn latigo, Harlan’s words continued to gnaw at her craw.

His kind of woman.

She’d wanted to reach across the seat and slap his face. She, who had trouble bringing her boot down on a scorpion, wanted to commit an act of physical violence against another human being! What had come over her?

With a tired grunt, she swung the saddle over the top rail of the empty stall, then slapped the bridle across the seat.

“Rose?”

At the sound of the female voice, Rose turned to see Chloe standing a few steps behind her. Like her sisters, she was a redhead—although her straight, shoulder length hair was a much deeper auburn than that of her siblings. And unlike Rose and Justine, Chloe was petite. But her temper and strength made up for her small stature. At the moment she was frowning with concern.

“Is something wrong?”

Rose forced herself to breathe deeply. The last thing she wanted was for Chloe to think a man had gotten under her sister’s skin.

“I’m just hot and tired.”

Chloe moved closer, her eyes wandering keenly over Rose’s flushed face. “You’re hot and tired when you come in every evening, but you don’t always look like you’ve been tangling with a bull.”

A bull? Well, Harlan certainly had a few similarities to one, she couldn’t help thinking.

“Are you finished here?” Rose glanced down the long line of compartments to see if all the horses were back in their stalls. “We need to go up to the house and talk.”

“Talk? What’s happened now?”

A year ago, Chloe would never have responded with such a negative question. Their father had still been alive then, the ranch, or so it had appeared to her and her sisters, had been thriving and rain had continued to keep the grass growing right up until frost.

But this summer nothing had seemed to go right and Rose supposed Chloe’s usually bright outlook had finally started crumbling under the problems they’d been forced to face. As for herself, Rose was very nearly too numb to feel anything except a staggering weight on her shoulders.

“Let’s go find Aunt Kitty,” Rose said while nudging Chloe toward the open doorway of the stable. “I only want to have to tell this story once.”

Back at the house, the sisters entered an overly warm kitchen to find Kitty, a petite woman in her sixties with short gray hair. She was setting the table and didn’t stop to look at her nieces. “It’s almost ready, girls. Go wash and get the twins from the playpen. Their baby food is heating.”

Minutes later, gathered around the dining table, Chloe took on the job of feeding Anna, while Rose assumed the task of feeding Adam. The twins were eight months old and starting to cut teeth. For the past week both babies had been fussy with sore gums. But tonight they appeared to be in better humor. Rose was relieved. She adored her little brother and sister and couldn’t bear to see them in any sort of pain.

“Okay Rose, tell us what happened today,” Chloe said as she offered a spoon of pureed green beans to Anna. “You found another dead cow while you were riding fence?”

“For heaven’s sake, what now?” Kitty asked wearily.

Rose decided it would do no good to delay the telling. “The fence between us and the Flying H has been cut and cattle herded onto our land.”

“What?” Chloe practically yelled the question.

Totally bewildered, Kitty asked, “Who would have done such a thing?”

“I rode over to the Flying H and confronted Harlan Hamilton about it,” Rose told them. “He admitted that he’d done it.”

Chloe’s mouth fell open. Kitty simply stared at her niece.

When neither of them said anything, Rose made an impatient gesture with her hand. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Kitty asked with a puzzled frown.

“Like you’re wondering what gave the timid spinster enough courage to go see a man,” she said with disgust.

“Rose! None of us think of you as a timid spinster,” Chloe countered. “That’s your own way of thinking.”

Frustrated because she still couldn’t gather her nerves together, Rose closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she told the two women, “I’m still feeling sorta testy.”

Kitty and Chloe exchanged worried glances. Rose never felt testy over anything—quietly concerned maybe, but never angry or irritated.

“Why? What happened between you and our neighbor?” Chloe asked.

“Like I said, I went to see him. I didn’t want to, but I made myself.” Rose offered Adam a spoonful of pureed chicken. The baby smacked his lips in appreciation. “And I guess it’s a good thing I did, or we might have—”

“What?” Kitty prompted when Rose stopped in midsentence.

“You’re not going to believe what he showed me.”

“His naked chest?” Chloe asked dryly.

Rose shot her sister a cool look of disapproval. “The man is running out of water.”

“So are a lot of other people around here,” Kitty spoke up. “Why, Vida was just telling me yesterday they were having to haul their drinking water from Ruidoso.”

“So is that why Mr. Hamilton cut our fence and drove his cattle onto our land? To give them a drink?” Chloe asked in disbelief. “I can’t really see what good that was going to do. Cattle have to have water every day. Or—” She looked at her sister with raised eyebrows. “He didn’t leave them on our land, did he?”

Rose shook her head. “No, he didn’t leave them on our land, but he intends for us to—” She couldn’t go on. Her throat closed around the words, forcing her to swallow several times before she could speak. “He wants us to open up the Bar M to him so that his cattle can reach our part of the river.”

The two women stared at Rose in stunned silence, then finally Chloe burst out laughing.

“You know, I always wondered why that man was single,” she said once her laughter had trailed away to a chuckle. “He’s got looks to die for, but apparently he doesn’t have a brain to go with them.”

“Just hush, Chloe, you haven’t heard it all,” Rose scolded wearily.

“You mean there’s more?”

Adam was banging his fist on the high-chair tray. Rose quickly pushed another spoonful of food at the baby.

“Oh, yes. It seems that several months ago, more than a year to be exact, our father borrowed money from Harlan Hamilton.”

“No!” Kitty said with a sharp gasp.

The humor suddenly vanished from Chloe’s face. “How much?”

Rose repeated the amount and once again the two women stared blankly at her.

“The worst part is,” Rose continued, “Daddy put the Bar M up as collateral.”

Chloe rocketed to her feet. “He couldn’t have! He wouldn’t have!”

Her face stiff, Rose said, “He did. Harlan has it on document. And I’ll assure you it was all very legal.”

“You mean, if we don’t or can’t repay Mr. Hamilton, the ranch could belong to him?” Kitty asked fearfully.

Rose nodded. “That’s just about the size of it.”

“So what are we going to do?” Chloe asked sinkingly. “If we sell our stock there’s no way the ranch can make money!”

Adam began pushing away the offered spoon, indicating to Rose he was full. She wiped the baby’s face and hands, then began filling her own plate. She wasn’t going to let what her father had done, or what Harlan might do, ruin her supper.

“We’re going to open up our land to Mr. Hamilton and hope that he’ll be patient about the loan. Right now, he says water is the only thing he wants from us,” Rose told the two women.

Like a fallen rock Chloe dropped back into her chair. “Oh Rose, you’re so gullible where men are concerned. You haven’t been around them enough to know they’ll tell you anything that suits them—no matter how far from the truth it is.”

Rose leveled a dark look at her sister. “Oh, I think you know I learned all about men a long time ago, Chloe. That’s exactly why I stay away from them. But as for Harlan— we have no choice but to trust him. He’s holding all the cards.”

Chloe sagged against the back of her chair.

Kitty looked at Rose. “What do you think about this Mr. Hamilton, Rose? Do you think he can be trusted?”

Did she? Since her ordeal with Peter more than eight years ago, Rose had never trusted any man, except her father. And even that had turned out to be a mistake. She’d be a fool to believe Harlan was sincere. Yet for some reason she wanted to think he was different from the rest, that maybe he was one of those few men like her sister’s husband, Roy Pardee. An honest man with morals and a good heart.

“I don’t know, Aunt Kitty. I found out he’s a widower with a teenage daughter. He appears to be a responsible man and father, but who’s to say? We thought Daddy was a responsible man and father.”