What do you have in mind?” He found he really wanted to know, had a desire to search out the crevices of her mind, seek out the dreams she sheltered there.
“Horses, maybe. I’d like to breed my mares. There’s money to be made. It just takes time and a lot of effort.”
“Do you have a stud available?”
She shook her head. “My nearest neighbor has a sorrel he might be persuaded to let me use for my riding mare. I need a bargaining tool, and I haven’t figured it out yet.”
Tyler nodded, thinking about the unknown neighbor and what he might ask for payment in exchange for the use of his stud, and found his thoughts straying into forbidden territory. The woman was too vulnerable, too open to hurt.
“How much hay do you have here?” He waved a hand at the far-off field, where the crop of hay was tall, ready to cut, awaiting the scythe of harvest.
“About twenty acres. I’m thinking about having him bring his crew over to cut it and keeping some for my own use. I had a man from closer to town come out last year and we worked out a share plan. I thought I might gain the use of the sorrel stallion for a few days in exchange for my hayfield.”
“Keep what you need and offer him the rest,” Tyler advised.
“Easy for you to say,” she said with a harsh burst of laughter. “You’re a man, and men make the rules in this world, I’ve found. I’ll no doubt have to abide by whatever he’s willing to offer me.”
“So long as you have enough from the first cutting to fill your loft, you can stake your animals all summer and probably have another cutting of hay to bargain with in August.” He looked around the space behind the shed. “Where did your straw stack come from?”
“The same farmer. He kept the wheat from my back acres and left me the straw for my animals.”
“I think you came out on the short end of the stick.” And he bristled as he thought about the neighbor who had taken advantage of a woman alone. “He kept all the wheat?”
“I have enough from my eggs and butter to cover what flour I need at the general store,” she said readily. “I’m well aware that the man takes advantage of me, but as long as my needs are met, I can afford to be generous.”
“Is your neighbor married?”
Her eyes widened again at his query and she nodded quickly. “Of course, with several children. He has a profitable operation.”
“And is he a gentleman?” His gaze pinned her and he watched as his meaning struck home.
She shifted her gaze, her lip trembling as she sought a reply. “He hasn’t had much choice. I won’t put up with any shenanigans.”
“You’re a woman alone, Debra. You’re in danger of his shenanigans, no matter that you have a gun and a lot of spunk.”
She was silent for a moment and then her words told of the fear she lived with. “I’m careful. Usually,” she inserted, as if she thought of her rash behavior last night, when she’d stumbled into danger in her own kitchen.
“If your neighbor knows you have a man here, he might not be so eager to take advantage of you.”
“And he might spread the word around town that the Indian has taken a man into her bed.” She spoke the words in a rush, as though she’d already considered the idea.
“And would that be difficult for you to live with?”
“Only if I plan on buying from the general store and being made welcome in town. A woman alone is always under scrutiny, with men waiting for her to make the wrong move. I can’t afford to leave myself open to public scorn. I walk alone, and I have to watch every move I make.”
“Well, your neighbor might be more amenable to a fair division of your hay if I’m out there in the field doing your share of the work. You can tell him you’ve hired a man to help out.”
“And ruin my name in town? I don’t think so.”
“You’ll let him take advantage of you instead?”
“It’s the price I pay for being what I am.” Her tone was one of a woman beaten down by circumstance, and Tyler could not countenance it.
“You’re a woman alone, a woman who should be given the respect due her.”
“I’m a half-breed.” Her words were spoken firmly, as if they were familiar to her.
“And I’m a white man, which makes me neither better nor worse than you. You are a woman, first and foremost, Debra. Was your mother white? Or your father?”
“My father. He owned this place, and brought my mother here when they married. When he died, she took the deed with her. He’d made it out to me, and it was my legacy after my mother was gone.”
“How long have you been here alone?” And how had she survived? How had a young woman alone been able to cope with the running of a farm?
“Three years, since I was sixteen. It hasn’t been simple, but I’ve managed to support myself. And now I have the beginnings of my herd of horses.”
“Where did you get the mares?”
“Bought them from a man who sold his place and moved farther west. He had too many animals to take along, and gave me a good price on the three out back. One is already bred.”
“I can see that.” He looked out beyond the corral line she’d drawn in the dirt, out to where the meadow grasses grew and flourished. Where one of her mares stood apart, her sides bulging a bit with the foal she would drop months from now. She might one day have a herd of horses if luck was with her and the mares she cherished produced colts and fillies of merit.
“Have you thought of expanding? Buying more horses?”
She laughed, a short, sharp sound that scorned his idea. “And what would I use for money? Horses are expensive. I was fortunate to get the ones I already have.”
“Where did you get your mare? The one you ride.”
“I brought her with me from the tribe. She’d been running wild and I caught her and tamed her for myself. Then after my mother was gone, I left and came back home, brought the mare with me.”
“You tamed her?”
Her chin tilted and a look of pride lit her eyes. “Yes. The finest day of my life was when I got up on her back and rode away from the village of my mother’s people.”
“They weren’t your people?”
She tossed him a look of scorn and disbelief. “I don’t fit there, any more than I do in town. I’m an outcast, Tyler, as you well know. I don’t have a place in this world, but the one I make for myself.”
“Will you take my help, Debra Nightsong? Will you let me give you a hand, and work for my keep for a while?”
“Why?”
