allow anyone connected to the rodeo to stay on his ranch. “If that’s true,” he sighed, “my beef is with Rafe. But it changes nothing. Stow your gear and be on your way.” He glanced away as huge brown eyes blinked up at him, then retreated into blankness again.
Liz’s brain stalled. She saw all her hopes, all her dreams for Melody, slipping away.
“I see you still doubt who’s giving you your walking papers,” the man said harshly. “Here’s my driver’s license.” He pulled a plastic sleeve out of his wallet and sailed it toward her. It plopped at her feet, kicking up a tiny cloud of dust.
Night Fire reared again and pawed the ground. Liz scooped the plastic out of the dirt before climbing through the rails. A terrible crushing weight trapped the air in her lungs as she scanned the picture of a ruggedly handsome clean-shaven man who bore scant resemblance to this scruffy cowpoke. Except for maybe the cool hazel eyes that could freeze a woman’s soul. And the name, Gilman Spencer, that leapt off the paper to taunt her.
Liz tried to speak. The words stuck in her throat. Shaking her head, she handed back his license. “I don’t understand,” she stammered. “The friend who recommended me set it up with Mr. Padilla, but I assumed you had hired me.” If only she’d asked Hoot more about Spencer. Not that he’d have said anything, closedmouthed as he was.
Gil jammed his license into his wallet and returned the worn leather case to his back pocket. “If I hired women on the Lone Spur, which I don’t because they distract my wranglers, I most assuredly wouldn’t hire a rodeo groupie.”
“I beg your pardon.” Liz drew herself straight up. Even then the top of her head barely reached his shirt pocket. “Rafe told Hoot Bell—that’s my friend—that you were desperate for a good farrier. I am that, Mr. Spencer. And for your information, I am not a rodeo groupie. I shoe horses as well as any man alive. Better than most.”
“Not on the Lone Spur. I’m not that desperate.”
“Really?” Liz arched a brow. “Wasn’t it a man you fired? Padilla probably thought you wanted the shoeing done right this time.”
A muscle twitched along Gil’s cheek. “Look,” he muttered, “I’ve had a hell of a day—three in a row if you want to get technical. I’m not up to sparring, Miss—”
“Mrs.,” Liz supplied. “Mrs. Corbett Robbins. Lizbeth. You may not believe this, but I usually get along with everyone—” Liz broke off. She’d be darned if she’d grovel. If he had an ounce of decency, he’d have told her up front who he was.
Gil frowned. “Corbett Robbins? The name rings a bell.” The frown deepened. “I knew someone once who spouted rodeo stats. Robbins—isn’t he national bull-riding champion?”
“Was,” she whispered, eyes unexpectedly misting. “Corbett was champion. It’s been awhile.” Spencer’s blunt statement hurled memories at Liz, the kind, of memories that normally woke her out of a sound sleep. But in the dead of night she had time to conquer her demons, even if she’d never truly forget the horror of watching her husband die in that narrow chute. Some made allowances because she’d been eight months pregnant. Not Liz. She knew that if she’d thrown her jacket, instead of freezing to the bench, she might have distracted the bull and saved Corbett’s life.
“I see,” Gil sneered. “Old Corbett lost a few purses, so you left him for greener pastures. Well, not on my ranch, sister.”
Liz stared vacantly at the man whose bitter accusation broke into her private reverie. Her fingers dug into her thighs as the old pain rocked her heart.
Night Fire whistled and kicked over her shoeing box. The clank of metal jerked Liz fully back to the present. “Corbett was trying to beat his record in Houston—and he drew a rank bull. It was his last ride. Ever. Not that my personal life is any of your business, Mr. Spencer. I hired on at the Lone Spur to shoe horses.”
“You’re quite right about the first part, Mrs. Robbins,” Gil said stiffly. Although something in her quiet dignity tweaked his jaded conscience. Not enough to make him relent, but enough to niggle. “I’m, ah, sorry about your husband. I’ll give you till, say, three o’clock to vacate the premises?”
He squinted up at the sun as if calculating the time. Indeed Liz saw that he didn’t wear a watch. She didn’t know why she found such an insignificant fact intriguing, unless it was because she assumed all men who built empires like the Lone Spur were slaves to the ticking of a clock. Especially men like Gil Spencer. Men like her father. The only difference between them was that one raised quarter horses in Texas, the other thoroughbreds in Kentucky. Her attention snapped back to what he was saying.
“…and it’ll take me at least that long to make myself human again. Maybe by then Night Fire will have calmed down enough to let me assess any damage you may have done. I think it’d be wise if you’re gone by then. I’ll deal with Rafe when he gets back.”
Liz couldn’t remember ever having the desire to hit anyone. Yet she’d have liked nothing better than to smack the arrogance right off this man’s face. Instead of acting on that desire, she stripped off her heavy apron. “Three hours won’t make you human, Mr. Spencer. But I wouldn’t leave by then even if my daughter’s school bus had arrived—which it won’t. There remains a little matter of two weeks’ pay. Not to mention that Padilla promised reimbursement for travel expenses and for the carpet and curtains I put in the cottage.”
“Surely you don’t expect me to believe Raphael let you shoe my stock for two whole weeks without telling me?”
Liz peeled off one glove and retrieved the clipboard that lay beside the corral. “I don’t care what you believe. These,” she said coolly, “are the horses I’ve shoed.”
Gil’s eyebrows rose to meet a tumble of mahogany curls. “Some of these are the most ill-tempered horses on the ranch.”
“Like horse, like owner, I always say.” Liz ripped off the second glove.
“Why, you’re no bigger than a peanut. Frankly I don’t believe you got within spitting distance of some of these corkers.”
Liz cut in. “Horseshoeing isn’t about size as much as know-how. Funny, I had a feeling I was being tested. Maybe Padilla had second thoughts and figured if one of those nags put me in the hospital, he wouldn’t be raked over the coals for giving me a job.”
Gil frowned at the list, then at her. “Look, my accountant has the ranch ledgers in town. And the ranch checkbook—for quarterly taxes.”
“Things are tough all over, Mr. Spencer.”
“I can’t go get it this minute. I need some sleep. Besides, regular payday isn’t for another two weeks.”
“That’s your problem.” Liz left him standing while she systematically stored equipment in her pickup. The shock of meeting him was beginning to wear off. Suddenly she found despair crowding out the need to have him acknowledge her worth. All she’d wanted out of this job was a chance to give Melody a normal life. But she couldn’t expect a man like Gil Spencer to understand.
She shot him a dark glance and was surprised to see he hadn’t moved. In fact, he looked as if he’d been hit by a freight train. How had she missed the tired slump of those broad shoulders? Her glance slid away to his drooping black mare. At least she thought the horse still waiting
