Nelson's Brand. Diana Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ were much better off financially than the Hathoways had ever been, but Mrs. Manley and Allison’s late mother had been best friends. As they grew up, Winnie and Allison became best friends, too.

      They’d all lived near Bisbee, Arizona, when the girls were young and in school. Then the Manleys had moved to Pryor, Wyoming, when Mr. Manley took another job with an international mining concern. The Hathoways had been reassigned and Allison had gone with them to Central America.

      The last few weeks could have been just a bad memory except that Allison was alone now. She’d called Winnie the minute she’d landed in the States again, and Winnie had flown down to Tucson to pick her up. It had been days before Allison could stop crying. Now, at last, she was beginning to heal. Yesterday was the first time Winnie had been able to coax her out among people. Allison was running from the news media that had followed her to Tucson, and she didn’t want any attention drawn to her. She’d successfully covered her tracks, but she didn’t know for how long.

      “The barbecue is tonight. You have to come,” Winnie told Allison. “Don’t worry,” she added quickly when the taller girl froze. “They’re all rodeo people that Dwight’s introducing me to. Nobody will bother you.”

      “Dwight’s brother said he might be there,” Allison murmured.

      Winnie groaned. “For God’s sake, don’t tempt fate by getting too close to Gene. You’ve just come through one trauma; you don’t need another one.”

      “I know.” Allison cupped her cold hands around her coffee cup and closed her eyes. “I suppose I’m pretty vulnerable right now. It’s just the aloneness. I’ve never been really alone before.” She looked up and there was faint panic in her face.

      “You’ll never be alone as long as the Manleys are alive,” Winnie said firmly. She laid a warm hand over Allison’s forearm. “We all love you very much.”

      “Yes, I know. Do you know how much I care for all of you, and how grateful I am for a place to stay?” Allison replied sincerely. “I couldn’t even go back to the house in Bisbee. Mom and Dad rented it out… Well, before we went to Central America.” She faltered. “I was afraid to go near it even for possessions, in case somebody from the press was watching.”

      “All the furor will die down once the fighting stops,” Winnie assured her. “You’re being hunted because you have firsthand information about what really happened there. With the occupation forces in control, not much word is getting out. Once the government is well in power, it will become old news and they’ll leave you alone. In the meantime, you can stay with us as long as you like.”

      “I’m in the way. Your marriage…”

      “My marriage isn’t for six months,” Winnie reminded her with a warm smile. “You’ll be my maid of honor. By then, all this will just be a sad memory. You’ll have started to live again.”

      “I hope so,” Allison replied huskily. “Oh, I hope so!”

      * * *

      Back at the Nelson place, Gene had just gone into the house to find his half sister, Marie, glaring at him from the living room. She looked like Dwight, except that she was petite and sharp-tongued.

      “Dale’s been calling again,” she said irritably. “She seems to have the idea that she’s engaged to you.”

      “I don’t marry one-night stands,” he said with deliberate cruelty.

      “Then you should make that clear at the beginning,” she returned.

      His broad shoulders rose and fell. “I was too drunk.”

      Marie got up and went to him, her expression concerned. “Look at what you’re doing to yourself,” she said miserably. “This is your home. Dwight and I don’t think of you as an outsider, Gene.”

      “Don’t start,” he said curtly, his pale green eyes flashing at her.

      She threw up her hands with an angry sigh. “You won’t listen! You drink, you carouse, you won’t even pay attention to the lax discipline that’s letting the men goof off half the time. I saw Rance with a bottle in broad daylight the other day!”

      “If I see him, I’ll do something about him,” he said, striding toward the staircase.

      “And when will that be? You’re too busy having a good time to notice!”

      He didn’t answer her and he didn’t look back. He went upstairs, his booted feet making soft thuds on the carpet.

      “What about Dale? What do I tell her if she calls again?” she called after him.

      “Tell her I joined a monastery and took vows of chastity,” he drawled.

      She chuckled. “That’ll be the day,” she murmured as she went back into the living room. At least he had been sober when he got home last night, she thought. And then she frowned. Not his usual style on a Friday night, she pondered.

      It wasn’t until later in the morning, when Dwight told her about his meeting with Allison, that his behavior registered.

      “You mean, he looked at her and put the shot glass down?” Marie asked, all eyes.

      “He certainly did,” Dwight replied. Gene had gone out to check on the branding. Considering the size of the ranch and the number of new calves, it was much more than a couple of days’ work. “He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off her.”

      “Is she pretty?” Marie asked.

      He shook his head. “Nice. Very sweet. And a passable figure. But no, she’s no beauty. Odd, isn’t it, for Gene to even notice a woman like that? His tastes run to those brassy, experienced women he meets at rodeos. But Allison seemed to captivate him.”

      “If she influenced him enough to keep him sober on a Friday night, I take my hat off to her,” Marie said with genuine feeling. “He was like his old self last night. It was nice, seeing him that way. He’s been so different for the past few months.”

      “Yes. I know it’s hurt him. I never realized how much until I saw him coming apart in front of my eyes. Knowing about his real father has driven him half-mad.”

      “We can’t help who our parents are,” Marie said. “And Gene wouldn’t be like that man in a million years. Surely he knows it?”

      “He mumbled something about never having kids of his own because of his bad blood, one night when he was drinking,” Dwight confided. He sighed and finished his coffee. “I wish we could find some way to cope with it. He has no peace.”

      Marie fingered her coffee cup thoughtfully. “Maybe he can find it with our Miss Hathoway,” she mused, her eyes twinkling as they met his. “If she had that effect from a distance, imagine what it could be like at close range?”

      “Except that she isn’t Gene’s kind of woman,” he replied, and began to tell her all about the quiet Miss Hathoway.

      Marie whistled. “My gosh. Poor kid.”

      “She’s an amazing lady,” he said, smiling. “Winnie’s very fond of her. So fond that she’ll discourage her from even СКАЧАТЬ