Only 05 - Autumn Lover

Listen to him and you’ll be a top hand.”
    “Cows?” Sonny asked unhappily.
    “Cows.”
    “Cows,” Sonny agreed, sighing. He turned to Morgan. “Well, I’ll be pleased to learn whatever you want to teach me. It beats all heck out of being dead.”
    Elyssa laughed. It was a sound as contagious and feminine as her smile had been.
    The men looked at her, then looked away quickly. None of them wanted the kind of trouble Hunter could deliver.
    “The rest of you men can hire on here as cow punchers,” Hunter said, “or try your luck with the Culpepper bunch, or ride on out of the Ruby Valley altogether.”
    The men nodded.
    They understood what Hunter didn’t say. If the men weren’t working for the Ladder S and he saw them again, he would assume they had joined the Culpepper gang.
    Enemies, in a word.
    “If it comes to shooting, I’ll see you get a bonus,” Hunter said, “but it won’t be the same as fighting wages.”
    One of the three Mexicans spoke up in a soft, Spanish-accented voice.
    “We are the Herrera brothers, señor . We hear what happen to your family in Texas. It is the same with our own. We do not need gunfighter pay to kill los diablos .”
    For a moment Hunter was very still. Then he nodded.
    “From the look of your rigs,” Hunter said, “you’re top hands. The Ladder S can use you.”
    “ Gracias, señor .”
    “Pick out a bunk and feed your horses. We’ll begin rounding up cattle and mustangs after lunch. You can draw straws to see who has the night watch.”
    As the men rode off to the corral, Hunter turned to Morgan and held out his hand. Morgan shook it and then thumped Hunter on the shoulder with the familiarity of an old friend.
    “Sure glad Case got you out of that prison camp,” Morgan said. “It was no place for man nor beast.”
    “Amen.”
    Hoping that the men would forget her presence and continue to talk about the past, Elyssa stood very quietly. She was intensely curious about what Hunter had done before he fought on the wrong side of the Civil War.
    “Heard you were set up to trail one of the first herds from Texas to the Kansas railhead,” Hunter said to Morgan.
    “Yessuh. Good pay, but tiresome. Some of those boys are dumber than cows.”
    “You’d rather fight than ride drag, is that it?”
    “That’s a fact, Colonel.”
    “Just call me Hunter. Everyone else does…to my face. Only the devil knows what they’ll call me in the bunkhouse.”
    Laughing, shaking his head, Morgan turned to Elyssa and tipped his hat.
    “You’re a fortunate girl to have Hunter Maxwell as your ramrod. He’ll take care of that Culpepper trash, mark my words.”
    Elyssa watched as Morgan went to his horse, glided into the saddle, and trotted off to the corral. She turned to Hunter with a considering look.
    “Hunter Maxwell,” she said. “Of Texas.”
    He nodded curtly.
    “Thank you, Hunter Maxwell.”
    “For what?”
    “Defending my honor.”
    “I wasn’t defending a flirt’s honor,” Hunter said bluntly. “I was defending discipline. Lack of respect like that can undermine an outfit faster than bad food.”
    Anger curled through Elyssa.
    “Didn’t like being called my fancy man, huh?” she asked with false sympathy.
    The flat line of Hunter’s mouth was all the answer a bright girl needed.
    Elyssa ignored the warning.
    “Ah, well,” she said. “You’ll get used to it, fancy man , just like I got used to being called Sassy.”

9
    W ith a sigh and a discreet knuckling of her tired back, Elyssa straightened from the kitchen sink. Baking for eleven extra men was hard work, especially after a day riding the rumpled, tawny grasslands and rugged piñon forests of the Ladder S.
    The first day after the men arrived, Hunter ordered Gimp to take over the bunkhouse cooking. Wisely, Hunter continued to eat in the ranch house. Gimp was a decent camp cook, but the old man’s skills didn’t stretch to baking edible bread. That job fell to Penny and Elyssa.
    Because Penny hadn’t shaken off the lingering summer ague, the work of mixing and kneading the endless loaves had been taken over by Elyssa. She also had tried to do all the laundry and cleaning, but Penny refused, saying she had to be good for something.
    “How are you feeling tonight?” Elyssa asked Penny as they finished cleaning up the kitchen.
    “Better, thanks. That herb tonic you fixed for me seemed to help.”
    “Such a face you made when you drank it,” Elyssa teased.
    Penny smiled despite the