Only 05 - Autumn Lover

night, Hunter.”
    “Good night, ma’am. Rest easy. Those Culpeppers won’t make a move until all the work has been done for them.”
    “What?”
    “They might snipe at the boys from time to time, but the Culpeppers are raiders, not ranchers. They don’t know one end of a cow from the other.”
    “Then why do they want the Ladder S?”
    “They’re being hunted for what they did after the war.”
    Though Hunter’s expression didn’t change, there was a quality to his voice that made Penny glad her name wasn’t Culpepper.
    “They’ll wait for us to round up all the cattle and break the horses,” Hunter said.
    “And then?”
    Hunter smiled slowly. It wasn’t a warm gesture.
    “Then the Culpeppers will make a bad mistake,” he said. “So sleep easy, ma’am. We’re weeks from any shooting.”
    Hunter turned and went outside. He expected to find Elyssa in the barn, fussing over Leopard. In the time he had been on the Ladder S, he had discovered that she often went to the stallion when something upset her.
    And Hunter had no doubt that Elyssa was upset. He had seen a turmoil in her eyes that belied the coolness of her words when she left the kitchen.
    The barn was dark and empty but for Bugle Boy and Leopard. Hunter lit a lantern and walked down the wide center aisle. The stallions had their heads over the stall doors as though they were carrying on a silent equine conversation with each other.
    Bugle Boy nickered at Hunter in greeting. Leopard lifted his head, sniffed audibly at the man’s scent, and returned to hanging his head over the stall door.
    Hunter talked to both horses for a few moments before he checked the feed and water in each stall. Though it wasn’t necessary, he brought more fresh water, hay, and grain to both animals, for both had been worked hard in the past week.
    Leopard accepted Hunter’s presence in the stall without a fuss, even when Hunter ran his hand down the stallion’s sleek, muscular neck.
    “Maybe Sassy is right about you,” Hunter said softly.“Maybe you only fight if a fight is offered.”
    After a final pat to Leopard’s spotted hide, Hunter blew out the lantern and left the barn. Though his voice had been gentle with the horses, his expression at the moment was savage.
    Sassy must have run off to dance with her lover , Hunter thought bitterly.
    A full moon poured light over the land, caressing the darkness with a thousand subtle shades of silver. The beauty of it squeezed Hunter’s heart.
    Once he had courted Belinda beneath a moon like this.
    And many times she had betrayed him beneath the same ravishing light.
    Which one of those faint paths did Sassy take ? Hunter asked the night silently. And where will he meet her? On B Bar land or on Ladder S ?
    For a time Hunter stood motionless in the moonlight. In his mind he went over the faint web of paths that began out beyond the kitchen and herb gardens. Though no one path stood out, together they bound the Ladder S and the B Bar as surely as a spider’s web.
    A man sitting on the ridge above Wind Gap could look out over all of those vague trails. The full moon would offer plenty of light to a sharp-eyed watcher.
    Won’t she be surprised when she finds me waiting up on the ridge for her to come back ?
    Then I’ll tear a strip off of her for risking everything just for some slap and tickle with her lover .
    With long, impatient strides, Hunter walked the length of the barn. Once he was behind the barn, he skirted the large kitchen garden and headed down the row of fruit trees that shielded tender garden plants from the cold winds of spring. To his right House Creek seethed and foamed musically, a liquid counterpoint to the elegant silver light of the moon.
    Hunter was so certain of his goal—and Elyssa’s—thathe almost missed seeing her. She was walking away from him, down one of the long rows of the herb garden. She looked ethereal, a woman spun from moonlight and pale silk, a silver wraith that left no trace of her passage on the ground.
    Reflexively Hunter froze, merging his outline into that of a big apple tree. Dark clothes, dark hair, dark beard stubble, sun-darkened skin…Hunter was invisible.
    Then he turned his head. A bar of moonlight fell between apple branches and touched his face. His eyes gleamed like hammered silver.
    This time she hasn’t gone to her lover , Hunter thought with harsh satisfaction.
    This time.
    But that didn’t explain away all the other times whose only evidence was the