This Calder Range (Calder Saga 1)

“What else has slipped your mind?” He wasn’t amused. In fact, he was close to furious.

It wasn’t her intention to make him jealous, and Lorna sighed tiredly. “Nothing, Benteen. Nothing else.” Then she pulled herself together and smiled at him. “Will you be here tomorrow when she comes? I’d like you to meet her.”

His gaze studied her, then swung to the rider leaving the ranch. “I’ll be here when she arrives tomorrow.”

It suddenly dawned on Lorna that Bull Giles would probably escort Lady Crawford to the ranch. He was the reason Benteen was going to be here. He wasn’t interested in meeting Lady Crawford, and he hadn’t agreed just to please her.

“You think Mr. Giles is coming tomorrow,” Lorna murmured to let him know she was aware of his reason.

The look he turned on her was cool. “Don’t you?”

“I am married to you, Benteen,” she declared with quiet force.

“Then I want to make sure he doesn’t forget it,” he replied without any change in his hard expression.

23

A tall wooden structure towered above the unbroken tedium of rolling plains. Elaine sat up straighter in the carriage seat and leaned forward slightly to study it. Its proportions were grand, but anything less would have been dwarfed by the vastness of this empty land. The house was claiming do

minion over the sprawling reaches of this wild country.

“Is that where we’re going?” she called to Bull Giles to confirm the certainty that already burned in her heart.

“Yes, ma’am. That’s the Triple C up ahead.” He turned slightly in the driver’s seat to answer.

“Did you say Triple C?” Elaine questioned sharply.

“Yes, ma’am. That’s the brand Calder uses. The Triple C.”

Settling back against the seat, Elaine kept a hand on the carriage side for balance as it rolled along the rough and rutted track leading to the ranch. Considering the remark Judd Boston had made, it seemed her son’s ranch wasn’t as secure as the house implied.

Lorna pulled at the neckline of her dress, trying to force it higher so not so much of her breasts would show, but her bustline had increased since having the boys. The bodice of the dress simply wouldn’t stretch to cover the swell of her breasts.

Her eyes critically studied her image reflected by the mirror. Immodest or not, Lorna was going to wear it. This was her best dress. She refused to entertain her English guest wearing one of her plain, everyday dresses. Her fingertips traced over her cheek, testing its smoothness.

A second image appeared in the mirror, startling her. Benteen had come up behind her with cat-soft steps. His rugged, lean-jawed face was next to hers in the mirror. Their eyes locked together for a long second before Lorna turned around to face him. His hand moved to lightly stroke the curve of her throat while his gaze followed its path.

“Giles will appreciate the time you’ve taken to make yourself beautiful,” he remarked cynically while his fingers continued their downward journey to wander over the exposed swell of her breasts.

“I didn’t do it for him,” Lorna insisted sharply, irritated that he should say such a thing and all the while aware of the way her flesh tingled under his touch. “Besides, I don’t even know that he’s bringing Lady Crawford.”

“He is,” Benteen stated. “And he’ll notice how you look.”

“I can’t help that,” she protested as his fingers forced their way under the already strained material of the dress’s neckline and followed its dipping line. “Why must you keep harping about him?”

“He wants to do what I’m doing right now with you.” The flat of his hand spread across the small of her back as his fingers finished their climb to her shoulder. “He’d like to take you away from me. You know that, too.”

His eyes challenged her to deny it, but she couldn’t. “There isn’t any reason for you to be concerned about that.”

“Isn’t there?” His hand applied pressure to bring her against the lower half of his body. “Then tell me you don’t like him.”

“But I do like him—as a friend,” Lorna qualified her answer, but refused to lie about her feelings for Bull Giles.

“He’ll use that someday, Lorna,” Benteen warned. “That’s why he’s hanging around this area—because of you. Nothing else is keeping him here. You can’t trust him.”

“You’re exaggerating.” But there was a grain of doubt within her. “This isn’t the time to talk about it anyway. They’ll be coming any—”

“They,” Benteen cut across her words. “You are expecting him to come.”