Porcupine Ranch. Sally Carleen

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ reminded himself, his guard automatically going up. Being late for the first day wasn’t a good sign. Out here they didn’t have the luxury of being late, especially in the mornings.

      He tried to push his doubts aside. Maybe she’d had car trouble. Maybe she’d gotten lost. Considering the peculiar way she’d acted yesterday, that was certainly a possibility.

      The important thing was, Hannah was here. He had a cook and housekeeper. That was the only reason he was so glad to see her.

      Then he saw her slim figure heading across the yard, back toward her car. Was she leaving? No, he couldn’t let her do that! He urged his horse to a full gallop.

      She stopped with the car door open and looked toward him, apparently hearing the sound of his horse’s hooves. Her dark, luminous eyes were visible even from a distance.

      He reined up beside her and dismounted, amazed at how excited he was to see her in spite of his earlier misgivings. But he supposed that was understandable. He was as tired of eating sandwiches as the men were. Not to mention that he was running out of clean underwear.

      “Hi,” he greeted her, smiling as he pulled off his hat and wiped the perspiration from his brow in one practiced movement. “When you didn’t show up this morning, I was afraid you’d decided not to take the job.”

      She looked puzzled, pushed the car door closed then checked a large, black-banded watch that was much too big for her thin wrist. At least it was practical; not one of those thin gold things. He told himself that was a good sign.

      And with that observation, he realized that he was looking for good signs. He was desperate for good signs, and Hannah didn’t carry many with her.

      She lifted her deer-caught-in-a-headlight gaze from the watch to him. “It is,” she said. “Morning.”

      Clayton bit the inside of his lower lip and clenched his hands. This was not a good sign.

      “I don’t know what kind of a schedule your former employer had, but around here, morning comes quite a bit earlier, like about 5:00 a.m.” He spoke as softly and calmly as possible. He didn’t want to scare her off.

      Nevertheless, she flinched as though he’d slapped her.

      “Five? Is the sun up then?”

      Oh, brother. They were in trouble. And yet he felt like a jerk just for telling her the hours she was expected to work.

      That was a dumb thing to feel. If she couldn’t handle it, she had no business being here.

      Taking a deep breath, he slid his hat back onto his head, momentarily blocking his view of her. It was easier to scold her when he couldn’t see that vulnerable look on her face.

      “No,” he said. “The sun isn’t up at that hour. We have to get an early start. I should have told you yesterday. Never mind. You’re here now. Think you can put together a quick lunch?”

      “Lunch?”

      Well, he wasn’t hiring her to make speeches. Surely her cooking skills were better than her verbal ones.

      “Where are your bags?”

      Reluctantly, it seemed, she looked toward the car. “In there.” Her voice sounded as if her throat needed to be oiled.

      He took the key from her, opened the car door and hauled out two designer suitcases. He wasn’t paying her what she’d earned before if she could afford bags like those.

      But by the end of the season, he should have the mortgage paid off. Then next year he’d turn a profit, and he’d make it up to her.

      As though she was likely to be around next year. Mrs. Grogan had lasted for three years. Except for his mother who hadn’t had anywhere else to go until she met her new husband, that was pretty much a record. His father and grandparents were gone before he even arrived on the scene. Most people didn’t fare well out here. Nothing was permanent except the land and him.

      But he could hope Hannah would last a year or two. Hiring and training new employees took time away from work.

      “Come on. I’ll show you where everything is in the kitchen. Mrs. Grogan always stayed pretty well stocked up, but if you need anything, you can order it this afternoon and it’ll be delivered in the morning. I know that’s harder than going to the store and getting things yourself, but we’re so busy this time of the year, nobody leaves the ranch unless it’s an emergency.”

      “Nobody leaves?” Hannah repeated, somehow managing to fill each word to bursting point with panic.

      What on earth was the matter with her? Clayton wondered. She sounded as though she’d been sentenced to life in a maximum security prison. She’d just taken the job. Surely she wasn’t already planning to leave. That would set a new record, even for this ranch.

       Chapter Three

       Nobody leaves the ranch unless it’s an emergency?

      Clayton’s words hit Hannah smack in the gut like a bad case of botulism.

      So much for her plans to be out of there before night. Clayton wasn’t talking about just a day or two. Did this emergency thing mean she’d have to burn down the house to get out? Or would a complete nervous breakdown be sufficient?

      Hoping for a sudden time warp to fold around her and drag her anywhere but where she was, Hannah followed Clayton’s towering figure across the yard and into the house.

      His broad back and denim-clad thighs made her blood run hot on the way to her heart and cold on the way back as she thought of having to face him, talk to him. Or maybe it was all running at the same time, sharing the same vein. The way she felt right now, anything was possible. Except, apparently, that time warp. She remained stuck in the here and now.

      Clayton led her upstairs to a large, dark room at the end of the hall. Large dark furniture, including a four-poster bed, loomed at her. She was supposed to sleep in this mausoleum?

      He deposited her bags inside the door. “Your bathroom is two doors down. Sorry it’s not private. This house was built before we had indoor plumbing this far out of the city.”

      Not private? Hannah gulped at the thought of sharing a bathroom…and sharing it with this overwhelming male person.

      “Of course, the only visitors we ever have are my mother and her husband. So, except for the fact that you have to go out in the hall, it’s pretty much private.” Hannah released a soft sigh of relief mingled with a tiny hint of disappointment that Clayton apparently had his own bathroom. “Clothes closet through there, linen closet in the hall,” he continued, obviously unaware of her personal drama.

      Clayton checked his watch, and her gaze followed his, noting the sunbleached hairs curling from his shirt sleeve, surrounding the leather band.

      “Ready to fix a little lunch for six hungry cowboys?” he asked.

      She nodded, wondering if a lie had to be verbalized or if movement СКАЧАТЬ