Palomino by Danielle Steel

again. “He’s quite a different ride than Navajo.” But there was an implication in his words that suggested that Navajo was all she could handle. “Looks like he gave you a little bit of a hard time when we started out.”
    “And you thought I couldn’t handle it?” She was almost amused.
    “I was concerned. After all, if you get hurt, it’s my responsibility, Miss Taylor.”
    “Spoken like a true foreman, Mr. Jordan. But I don’t really think Miss Lord would hold you responsible for what happens to me with a horse. She knows me too well.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “That I’m not used to riding horses like Rusty.”
    “But you think you’re up to a stallion like Black Beauty?” He knew that neither Caroline Lord nor Bill King would let her ride him. Hell, they’d only let him ride the exquisite Thoroughbred once.
    Samantha nodded quietly. “Yes, I think I could ride him.”
    He looked amused. “Do you? You’re that sure of yourself, are you?”
    “I just know how I ride. I ride hard. I take chances. I know what I’m doing, and I’ve been riding since I was five. That’s been a while.”
    “Every day?” There was a challenge again. “Ride much in New York, do you?”
    “No, Mr. Jordan.” She smiled sweetly. “I don’t.” But as she said it she vowed to ride Black Beauty as soon as Caroline would let her, because she wanted to, and because she wanted to show this arrogant cowboy that she could.
    A moment later he strode back toward his men and gave them the signal. They mounted up and spent the rest of the afternoon checking the boundaries of the ranch. They found some more loose heifers at the outermost reaches and drove them home at sunset, when once again Samantha wondered if she would even be able to get off her horse. But Josh was waiting for her outside the barn when they got there, and he gave her a hand as she swung her leg over Navajo with a groan.
    “You gonna make it, Sam?”
    “I doubt it.” He grinned at her in answer as she untacked her horse and almost staggered to the tack room to put her saddle and bridle away.
    “How’d it go today?” He followed her and stood in the doorway.
    “All right, I guess.” She realized with a tired smile that she was beginning to speak like the rest of the cowboys, in the same sparse fashion. Only Jordan spoke differently than they did, and only when he was speaking to her. Then the education he’d had was obvious; the rest of the time he sounded just like them. Not unlike Bill King, who was subtly different when he was with Caroline, but not as much. Bill King and Tate Jordan were very different men. Jordan was much less of a rough diamond than most.
    “Long way from New York, ain’t it, Samantha?” The wizened little old cowboy grinned, and she rolled her eyes.
    “It sure is. But that’s why I came out here.”
    He nodded. He didn’t really know why she had come. But he understood. A ranch was a good place to be when one had problems. Lots of hard work, fresh air, good food, and good horses would cure almost anything. Your belly got full, your rump got tired, the sun came up and went down, and another day went by with nothing more complicated to worry about than if your horse needed new shoes or the fence on the south forty needed fixing. It was the only life Josh had ever known but he had seen plenty of other people try other things and come back to it. It was a good life. And he knew it would do Sam good too. Whatever she was running away from, it would help her. He had noticed the dark circles under her eyes the previous morning. They already looked clearer today.
    Together, they wandered past Black Beauty, andalmost instinctively Sam reached out and patted his neck. “Hello, boy.” She spoke softly to him and he whinnied as though he knew her. She gazed at him thoughtfully, as though once again seeing him for the first time. And then an odd light came into her eyes as she left the big barn with Josh at her side, bid him