stop by and collect ten bucks for the lot. I’ll even write you up a bill of sale.”
“All right.” Hayley, who understood that something in their give-and-take had shifted, folded her money and tucked it back in her pocket. “Goodbye until then,” she said.
Jake, who’d hardened his resolve, who’d argued internally that he couldn’t keep riding out of his way to check up on this woman, gave a curt nod. He jerked the mare’s reins sharply to the right. The surprised horse wheeled and bolted up the trail. It was all Jacob could do not to turn back and offer a friendly wave, but he kept his shoulders square to the saddle and let the momentum carry him out of sight.
Hayley lifted a hand. Once she realized he wasn’t going to return her wave, she curled all four fingers into her palm. She didn’t try to gauge how long she stood there smarting at his slight. Longer than she should have, she acknowledged with a grimace. Who was Jacob Cooper to make her feel like an insignificant bug? He was nobody, that was who.
The day she’d filed for divorce from Joe, she’d seen pity on the face of the clerk as she read what Hayley had written: for reasons of abandonment. Hayley had promised on the spot that no man would ever make her feel pitiable again. Certainly not an arrogant cowboy. For all she knew, he might be feeding her a line about his relationship to the owner of the Triple C. He could be any old saddle bum.
She would have collected her gear and stomped off into the hills at that moment, if not for the fact that her stomach decided to act finicky again. Very likely because she hadn’t eaten breakfast. Hayley chose to place the blame on Cooper’s effrontery. “I’ll give him back his chickens.” She fumed aloud as, with jerky movements and roiling insides, she filled a pot of water to heat for tea. After hurrying into the bushes to empty her stomach twice, Hayley dug out the booklet Dr. Gerrard’s nurse had given her, outlining what she could expect over the ensuing months of pregnancy. Without the book, she’d probably have panicked over the sudden bout of weakness and flulike symptoms.
Fortunately she’d read the booklet cover to cover before heading into the wilds. Now she had to hope one of the book’s recipes—a tincture of horehound, peppermint, ginger and fennel, which she’d bought at a healthfood store—would have the promised calming effect on a stomach gone amuck.
The booklet also indicated that staying calm tended to ease many problems associated with pregnancy. Her seeming inability to do so was something else she laid at Jacob Cooper’s door. “Insufferable man,” she grumbled, sitting down to drink the concoction she’d brewed. As she glared at his morning gift, one of the hens spread her wings and flapped them frantically, then squawked and made gross noises as she burrowed into a pile of dead leaves. When she stood, a pristine white egg lay atop the heap.
Grinning like a fool, Hayley ran to the pen and plucked up the egg. “So, girl,” she said, adding a soothing layer to her voice to disarm the bird. “It’s high time your new mistress learns to think before she shoots off her mouth. After all, the man went to considerable trouble to cart you ladies here. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hasty about throwing you all back in his face.”
She promptly soft-boiled the egg, layered it between two halves of a toasted biscuit and ate every morsel. By the time she’d polished off the meal, her nausea had disappeared. With an improved disposition, Hayley gathered her mining tools and set off to coax the rocky hillside into giving up its secrets.
I T WAS STRAIGHT UP NOON when Jake reached the Mortimer ranch that abutted the fenced perimeter of the old ghost town of Ruby. He’d turned up another hundred head of Triple C stock. They looked fat, sassy and content, so he jotted their approximate location in his log; he’d let the wranglers flush them out during roundup.
Ruby was a
“All right.” Hayley, who understood that something in their give-and-take had shifted, folded her money and tucked it back in her pocket. “Goodbye until then,” she said.
Jake, who’d hardened his resolve, who’d argued internally that he couldn’t keep riding out of his way to check up on this woman, gave a curt nod. He jerked the mare’s reins sharply to the right. The surprised horse wheeled and bolted up the trail. It was all Jacob could do not to turn back and offer a friendly wave, but he kept his shoulders square to the saddle and let the momentum carry him out of sight.
Hayley lifted a hand. Once she realized he wasn’t going to return her wave, she curled all four fingers into her palm. She didn’t try to gauge how long she stood there smarting at his slight. Longer than she should have, she acknowledged with a grimace. Who was Jacob Cooper to make her feel like an insignificant bug? He was nobody, that was who.
The day she’d filed for divorce from Joe, she’d seen pity on the face of the clerk as she read what Hayley had written: for reasons of abandonment. Hayley had promised on the spot that no man would ever make her feel pitiable again. Certainly not an arrogant cowboy. For all she knew, he might be feeding her a line about his relationship to the owner of the Triple C. He could be any old saddle bum.
She would have collected her gear and stomped off into the hills at that moment, if not for the fact that her stomach decided to act finicky again. Very likely because she hadn’t eaten breakfast. Hayley chose to place the blame on Cooper’s effrontery. “I’ll give him back his chickens.” She fumed aloud as, with jerky movements and roiling insides, she filled a pot of water to heat for tea. After hurrying into the bushes to empty her stomach twice, Hayley dug out the booklet Dr. Gerrard’s nurse had given her, outlining what she could expect over the ensuing months of pregnancy. Without the book, she’d probably have panicked over the sudden bout of weakness and flulike symptoms.
Fortunately she’d read the booklet cover to cover before heading into the wilds. Now she had to hope one of the book’s recipes—a tincture of horehound, peppermint, ginger and fennel, which she’d bought at a healthfood store—would have the promised calming effect on a stomach gone amuck.
The booklet also indicated that staying calm tended to ease many problems associated with pregnancy. Her seeming inability to do so was something else she laid at Jacob Cooper’s door. “Insufferable man,” she grumbled, sitting down to drink the concoction she’d brewed. As she glared at his morning gift, one of the hens spread her wings and flapped them frantically, then squawked and made gross noises as she burrowed into a pile of dead leaves. When she stood, a pristine white egg lay atop the heap.
Grinning like a fool, Hayley ran to the pen and plucked up the egg. “So, girl,” she said, adding a soothing layer to her voice to disarm the bird. “It’s high time your new mistress learns to think before she shoots off her mouth. After all, the man went to considerable trouble to cart you ladies here. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hasty about throwing you all back in his face.”
She promptly soft-boiled the egg, layered it between two halves of a toasted biscuit and ate every morsel. By the time she’d polished off the meal, her nausea had disappeared. With an improved disposition, Hayley gathered her mining tools and set off to coax the rocky hillside into giving up its secrets.
I T WAS STRAIGHT UP NOON when Jake reached the Mortimer ranch that abutted the fenced perimeter of the old ghost town of Ruby. He’d turned up another hundred head of Triple C stock. They looked fat, sassy and content, so he jotted their approximate location in his log; he’d let the wranglers flush them out during roundup.
Ruby was a
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