Only 05 - Autumn Lover

back to the house. You’re not dressed to be out here.”
    “And you are?” she retorted.
    “ Hell and damnation .”
    Out of patience, Hunter snatched Elyssa up like she was a child and set off through the rain toward the ranch house. Every step he took proved that she was no child. She fit against him the way only a woman could.
    By the time Hunter reached the house, he was certain that an imprint of Elyssa’s breasts was branded against his skin.

13
    F reshly picked vegetables were heaped in baskets, kettles, bins, and boxes all around the kitchen. Elyssa and Penny were all but dwarfed by the mounds of garden produce.
    The day had dawned clear and hot, a return of summer in autumn. The sunstruck land radiated heat back up to the empty blue sky.
    Inside the kitchen it was steamy from the canning that had been going on since well before dawn.
    “At least the herb garden was spared,” Penny said.
    “Only because Hunter ran him off before he could finish,” Elyssa said. “Morgan found bags of salt piled up, just waiting to be used.”
    “Funny that the dogs didn’t bark.”
    Elyssa said nothing.
    She had spent the night lying awake, alternating between wrestling with the identity of the intruder and the memory of how Hunter had looked bare to the waist.
    Neither thought had made her sleepy.
    Penny gave Elyssa a sideways look, wondering at her silence. Then Penny returned to studying the pumpkin’s rich orange skin. Though she had a brush in her hand, she hadn’t the wit or the will to use it at the moment.
    The identity of the intruder was very much on Penny’s mind.
    “It must have been one of the new men,” Penny said. “The dogs wouldn’t bark at one of them.”
    “Hunter thinks not.”
    “Really? Why?”
    “Morgan’s job is to keep track of them.”
    “He might have slipped up,” Penny said.
    For an instant Elyssa closed her eyes. The thought that Bill was the man who had destroyed her beloved garden ate like acid at her soul.
    Who else could it be ? she asked herself silently, desperately.
    Who both has reason to punish me and is known to the dogs ?
    No answer came but Bill, the one answer Elyssa couldn’t accept.
    “Perhaps Morgan was mistaken,” Elyssa said.
    But the tone of her voice said that she didn’t think so.
    “Or the dogs might have missed the scent,” Penny said firmly. “The wind was blowing the wrong way. He was downwind of the dogs.”
    Elyssa said nothing.
    “Well, that explains it,” Penny said. “The dogs just didn’t catch his scent.”
    “Vixen did. She trotted off toward him.”
    Abruptly Penny stopped scrubbing the small pumpkin. She had been mostly pretending anyway. When she looked up, her dark brown eyes were angry and haunted.
    “You think it was Bill,” Penny said accusingly.
    “Did I say that?”
    “You don’t have to! He’s the only man the dogs know who wasn’t at the ranch last night.”
    Silence was Elyssa’s only answer.
    “You’re wrong!” Penny said, her voice rising. “Hewouldn’t do a low thing like that! He’s not—”
    The kitchen door slammed behind Hunter, cutting off Penny’s defense. Hunter’s arms were full to overflowing with burlap bags of carrots, onions, potatoes, and apples. Some would be canned. Most were destined for the cellar beneath the house.
    “Who’s wrong about what?” Hunter asked mildly.
    “Elyssa is implying that Bill salted the garden,” Penny said. “She’s wrong. He’s a kind and decent man.”
    Hunter didn’t say a word.
    “Well, he is!” Penny said.
    Spots of color flared on her otherwise pale face when no one agreed with her.
    “I know him better than anyone alive,” Penny said, “and I say he wouldn’t do anything like that!”
    “Whiskey changes a man,” Hunter said finally.
    “No,” Penny said flatly. “Bill wouldn’t do a vicious thing like that no matter how much he drank!”
    “Don’t take on so,” Elyssa said, sighing. “The garden was a delight, but not really necessary for our survival.”
    Hunter remembered the sheen of tears he had seen in Elyssa’s eyes when she looked at the garden. He knew she was telling only half of the truth.
    The garden had been a rare source of peace and pleasure for Elyssa, a gentle place in a land that could be very harsh on women.
    Knowing that he hadn’t been able to protect it angered Hunter unreasonably.
    But then , Hunter reminded himself sardonically, her murderous lover has an edge in that department that I don’t. He