Only 05 - Autumn Lover

than a hired housekeeper.”
    Hunter looked over his shoulder at Elyssa. She had the silk shawl clutched around her shoulders like a suit of armor.
    Women sure put stock in finery , Hunter thought, remembering Belinda.
    And they sure do sulk when they don’t get fancy clothes .
    Hunter dropped Bugle Boy’s hoof and picked up another. Caked dirt flew as he went to work with the pick.
    “Penny is like family,” Elyssa said. “It was the same for Mac. He was no blood relation, but he was a great friend of Father’s. And Bill’s, too. Without Mac, the Ladder S would have fallen apart long ago.”
    Hunter barely heard. He was still thinking about Belinda. When he realized it, he was angry with himself.
    Living in the past does no good , Hunter thought. It can’t bring back the dead.
    But it just might prevent me from making the same mistake twice. Elyssa is just like Belinda was, a liplicking little flirt.
    I’d better never forget it, no matter how hot Elyssa makes me with her scent and swinging hips .
    “Bill,” Hunter said, dragging his attention back to the matter at hand. “Would that be Bill the Hermit?”
    “That’s what some people call him.”
    “But not you.”
    “No,” Elyssa said. “He’s a good man, despite…”
    Hunter heard the softness in Elyssa’s voice and wondered just how friendly she was with good old Bill.
    Even though Hunter knew it was none of his business, he found himself too curious for his own comfort.
    “Despite what?” Hunter pressed.
    Elyssa hesitated. Then she pulled her shawl more closely around her throat.
    “Every man has his blind spots,” she said finally.
    Especially if big-eyed little girls are involved , Hunter thought sardonically. More men have gone to perdition on the swing of a woman’s hips than any other way .
    “Besides the Culpeppers, is anything else troubling your ranch?” Hunter asked. “Drought or bad water or not enough feed to carry stock through the winter?”
    Again, Elyssa hesitated.
    There had been small things, more annoyances than troubles, really. A wagon axle that broke, spilling hay into the wind. A mower whose blades were so badly dulled they ruined more hay than they cut. A dead cow in the little reservoir on House Creek, which forced them to haul water all the way from Cave Creek until the fouled spring cleared.
    Just bad luck , Elyssa told herself. If you complain of it to Hunter, he’ll think you’re a spoiled, whining little girl .
    “No,” she said firmly. “No other troubles. So many cattle have been run off that wintering over the rest—after we fulfill the army contract, of course—won’t be a problem.”
    “How many go to the army?”
    “Three hundred is the minimum. We’re their only local source of livestock.”
    “How many head of breeding stock do you have?” Hunter asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Guess.”
    “Fewer than two hundred.”
    Hunter looked at Elyssa, wondering if she knew just how close to the edge the Ladder S was skating.
    “If you have to sell cows instead of steers to meet the army contract,” Hunter said, “you’ll be between arock and a hard place when it comes to increasing your herd. Or can you afford to buy more breeding stock?”
    “If I don’t meet the contract, I’ll have barely enough money to buy supplies for Penny and myself for the winter,” Elyssa admitted.
    Hunter was frowning as he went to work on another of Bugle Boy’s hooves. Lack of breeding stock would doom the Ladder S as surely, if more slowly, than Culpepper raids.
    Not my problem , Hunter told himself curtly. I came here for Culpeppers, not to manage some sassy little flirt’s life. She’ll find some nice, gullible fool of a boy to do that for her .
    Hunter released the hoof and smacked Bugle Boy on the haunch, signaling the end of the grooming. The horse looked up momentarily from eating, snorted, and buried his muzzle deep in the grain again. Hunter checked the bucket hanging over the side of the stall, saw that the water was fresh, and turned to Elyssa.
    “So,” Hunter said. “It’s just Culpeppers troubling you.”
    “Just?” Elyssa made a disgusted sound. “If you say that, you don’t know Culpeppers. Those ruffians are the worst of a bad lot of renegades set on the loose by the end of the war.”
    “So I’ve heard.”
    Without looking at Elyssa, Hunter unlatched the stall door and motioned her through.
    Although the opening was big enough for three men to stand side by side, Elyssa