Linda Ford - Falling for the Rancher Father

She waved a hand over her head and the horse reared on its back legs.

Abel clutched Allie tight. “She’s going to be hurt.”

“Oh, no.” Allie’s voice was round with awe. “She does it on purpose. She’s a trick rider. She’s going to join a Wild West show.”

“She is, is she?” The gal made a beautiful picture of horse and rider but she posed a threat to his children if she hung about, filling Allie’s head with admiration.

The horse returned to all fours and clapping caught Abel’s attention. Ladd stood on the other side of the horse, his eyes round with awe. “Can you show me how to do that?”

“It’s not hard.” The woman’s voice rang with humor and what he could only explain as love of life.

That was all well and good. He had no objection to her joining a Wild West show, loving life or doing dangerous things on back of a horse, so long as she stayed away from his kids.

“Can you show me?” Ladd asked.

“Sure thing. All you do—”

Abel crossed the clearing to clamp his hand on Ladd’s shoulder. The boy jerked, surprised, no doubt, at the sudden appearance of his father. Hopefully he was also feeling a little guilty at having brought Allie out to the woods when she was supposed to rest. “Ladd, take your sister back to the cabin. Allie, you know you shouldn’t be here.”

Allie patted him on the cheek. “I’m okay, Papa. You worry too much.”

“Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. I only want you both to be safe.” He set his daughter on her feet, patted them both on the back and sent them on their way. He didn’t turn until they were out of sight.

Sucking in air, he tried to calm the way his insides rolled and bucked at how this woman had intruded on his hope of peace and quiet. He didn’t want to say anything he’d later regret, so he pushed aside his inner turmoil as he slowly faced the woman. “You’re trespassing.”

She lounged in her saddle as if she meant to spend her entire day there. “I think you are mistaken. This land belongs to Eddie Gardiner. He’s given me permission to be here.”

“That might have been so at one time, but I’ve rented the cabin and the surrounding land from Mr. Eddie Gardiner.” He planned to raise cows. His ranch would be insignificant compared to the Eden Valley Ranch, but it was all he wanted. Besides— “I want peace and quiet for my children.” At the cold way she studied him, his resolve mounted a protest. “I don’t want them learning reckless ways. Nor do I want my daughter overexcited by witnessing your activities. What you do in your own time and space is your business. But what you do around my children is my business.”

The grin she wore plainly said she didn’t take him seriously.

His spine tingled as he held back a desire to tell her exactly what he thought. He mentally counted to ten then widened his stance, narrowed his eyes and gave her his best don’t-mess-with-me look, the one that made the twins jump to obey. “I suggest you leave and don’t come back.”

She laughed. A cheerful-enough sound, but one that dug talons into his backbone. It reminded him of Ruby and the way she laughed when he suggested she should settle down and be a mother to the children. And it filled him with something hard and cold. But before he could put words to his feelings, she spoke.

“Pleased to meet you. Nice to know there’ll be a kind neighbor nearby.” She reined her horse into a two-legged stand and let out a wild whoop. “I’ll no doubt be seeing you around since we’re neighbors.” She drawled out the last word in a mocking way, then rode away at a gallop, bent over her mount’s neck as they raced through the trees.

“You won’t be seeing more of me and my family if I have anything to say about it,” he murmured then headed for the cabin and his kids. He had to make sure they were unharmed after encountering the crazy wild woman on horseback.

* * *

Twenty-year-old Mercy Newell galloped through the trees, not slowing until she reached the barn on the Eden Valley Ranch—her home in Canada. She’d come from London to this raw new country a little more than two months ago with Eddie’s sister, Jayne, and their mutual friend, Sybil. Both were now married and living in small log cabins on the ranch though both said they and their new husbands would be starting their own ranches come spring. She wished them all the best, but she didn’t intend to marry and settle down. Not when there were things she wanted to do. Number one on that list was to join a Wild West show. Since the day she’d seen one in Benton, Montana, on their trip here she’d known she wanted to be part of such a show. The excitement, the thrill, the roar of the crowd’s approval...

While there, she’d even managed to get a few lessons in doing the stunts and instructions on more things she could learn. Since her arrival at Eden Valley Ranch, she’d also been taking lessons from anyone who would help her.

She reined in, pulling Nugget to a halt, getting him to rear up. She jumped from the saddle before he returned to all fours and led him to the barn where she brushed and fed him.

All the while she muttered about the man in her clearing. “Who does he think he is? Telling me to leave like I was common trash. As if he has the right. He says he rented the cabin. I’m not about to take his word on it, though. But even if he did, that doesn’t give him the right to chase me away.”

Nugget nudged her aside as if to say he was tired of her grousing.

“Fine. You’re not the only one I can talk to.” Finished caring for the horse, she stalked across to Jayne and Seth’s cabin. All the men were at the fall roundup except for Cookie’s husband, Bertie. She didn’t even spare a glance toward the cookhouse. Cookie and Bertie would both tell her to calm down and be sensible.

Mercy had no intention of doing either.

She knocked and strode in without waiting for an answer. Besides Jayne, both Sybil and Linette, Eddie’s wife, sat around the table. “Good. The three of you are here. You can all hear my story at the same time.” She plunked down on the only available chair. “I met the most rude man.”

Sybil sat up straighter. “Where? Mercy, what have you been up to this time? I do wish you wouldn’t roam about the woods as if—”

Jayne spoke as soon as Sybil paused for breath. “Please don’t tell us you’ve met a man while out there. What kind of man? What did he do?”

Mercy waved aside their concerns. “He says he’s rented that little cabin southwest of here. He informed me I was trespassing. Pfft. If he thinks he can order me around, well, he’ll soon learn otherwise.”

Linette waited for Mercy to run out of steam. “That must be Abel Borgard. Eddie told me he’d let him have the little cabin for himself and his children. Twins, Eddie said. A boy and a girl. Did you see them?”

She smiled. “I didn’t realize they were twins. The little boy is sturdy and filled with curiosity. He wanted me to show him how to teach a horse some tricks.” She ignored the way the others looked at each other and shook their heads. They simply did not understand why she had to do this. They’d asked and she’d only said it was an adventure. But it was more than that. A need deep inside. A restless itch that had to be tended to. She’d been that way most of her life. Probably since her brother died when he was eight and she, six. It was not a time in her life she liked to think about so she gladly pulled her thoughts back to her waiting friends. “The little girl is tiny but a real beauty. Her father swept her into his arms as if she was a—” She couldn’t finish. She’d been about to say a precious princess. “A much younger child.” She’d seen the way the little girl patted his cheeks and how his expression softened with what Mercy could only interpret as devotion. “He said I was too reckless to be around his children. Really? I am never reckless.”