by Ruth Langan
The response was slow in coming, as the old man’s fingers fumbled over the keys. Your gratitude is thanks enough, my young friend. I hope I haven’t raised your hopes prematurely. But if anyone can find the answer to your problem, it is Dr. Ryan.
Hazard made his way to the shower, then dressed and headed off to the barn. There was no sense in thinking about sleep now. It was time to start another round of endless chores. But right now he’d just been given something even better than sleep.
Hope. It burned brilliantly in his mind. All he wanted was a simple solution to this mystery. And then he could get back to the business that consumed him. That had always consumed him. The business of ranching.
Erin Ryan drove along the two-lane highway, oblivious to the beauty of the countryside. She drove a car the way she did everything in her life. With complete concentration. Two hands on the wheel. Seat belt fastened. Rearview mirror carefully adjusted.
She’d been driving for what seemed hours without seeing another person. Except for the small town of Prosperous, which had already faded into the distance, she could have been on a deserted planet. For a young woman who had grown up in Boston, this held a strange fascination. Though she had been in Wyoming for several months, it still seemed like an alien world. One from which she was oddly detached. Except for her work in the laboratory, she seemed to have no connection to life in this rugged environment.
As the sprawling ranch house came into view, she was more than a little surprised. Built of stone and weathered gray wood, there were charcoal-gray shutters at the windows and a charcoal shingled roof. It soared to three stories, with a wing added here, a wing there, but all coming together with a sense of style and grace. It seemed perfectly suited to its surroundings. As though it had taken root and had been nurtured by the very land itself.
She drove around to the front entrance and stepped out of the car, careful to smooth down the skirt of her navy suit. As she climbed the steps she took note of the covered porch, where a single, hardy rose vine had twisted its way up a post and across the roof, apparently having shriveled and died over the winter.
She rang the bell and waited. When no one came, she rang the bell a second time, then a third. After long minutes she walked around to the back of the house. From here she had a much better view of the barns and outbuildings. And in the distance, on all the surrounding hillsides, she could see the cattle. The land seemed almost black with them.
She was just about to knock when a truck rolled up and a woman stepped out. A woman as wide as she was tall. Two long, gray braids bounced against her ample bosom as she walked. In her hands were several trays and what looked like a Crock-Pot.
“Hello.” Erin smiled. “I’m here to see Hazard Wilde.”
“Huh.” It was more of a grunt than a greeting. “He’s out in the barn. You mind getting the door?”
Erin held the door while the woman waddled past her and clumped into the kitchen, setting things down in the sink. When she turned, Erin was still standing in the doorway.
“The barn’s out there.” The woman pointed.
Erin glanced over her shoulder but made no move to leave the kitchen. “Is there some way to let him know I’m here?”
“Yeah.” Though the woman’s face was as wrinkled as ancient parchment, her eyes were as sharp as a blackbird’s, studying Erin as though she were addled. “You can walk out there and tell him.”
“Yes. Of course. Thank…thank you.” Flustered, Erin turned away and let herself out. She was careful to pick her way through the melting snow and pockets of mud, wishing she’d worn boots. But when she’d left for the Double W, the sun had been shining, the highway dry. Not that it mattered. She had another pair of shoes in the suitcase in her trunk. “Always prepare for the unexpected,” her mother had told her. And so, whenever she left for a lecture, she always carried spare shoes, spare pantyhose, a second blouse, in case of an emergency.
She would have time to change before getting back on the road. She figured she’d get a blood sample, perform one or two simple tests, and, if her luck held, she’d be on her way in a couple of hours.
If not, she’d have to accept whatever hospitality was offered her and hope for the best. She didn’t require much. A bed. A meal. That had her hoping that the woman she’d seen up at the house wasn’t the one who prepared the meals around this place. The thought had a disquieting effect on her already-jangling nerves.
She stepped into the dim interior of the barn. Hearing voices nearby, she made her way toward them.
“That’s why I brought her in. She’s half-crazy with the pain, Hazard. You’re going to have to give her a hand with that calf.”
Erin paused, watching as a white-haired cowboy leaned on the rail of a stall, talking to someone just beyond her line of vision.
“You could have taken care of this out on the range.” The voice was low with anger.
“Could have. But there’s nothing I like better’n watching the expert do his job.”
“Why you old…” The man’s voice was warm with laughter, even while he uttered several rich, ripe oaths, followed by a string of insulting names.
There was another sound now. A rumble of heavy breathing that was unlike anything Erin had ever heard. Intrigued, she moved closer, until she was standing beside the cowboy. He had yet to notice her. His interest was focused on the activity inside the stall.
Erin turned her head to see what it was.
And froze.
A man with his back to her had plunged his hands inside a cow and was viciously tugging. The cow’s head was raised, its eyes glazed with pain. A series of shudders seemed to pass through the animal, and a low, keening sound came from its throat.
The man swore viciously as his hands slipped and he fell backward into dung-encrusted straw. He righted himself and plunged his hands even deeper inside the animal, pulling until the veins in his neck looked as though they might burst.
“Now you got ’er, Hazard,” the cowboy shouted. “Come on, boy. Put some muscle into it.”
Erin was absolutely horrified. And though the scene repulsed her, she couldn’t look away. The man and animal continued in this slow, agonizing ritual that went on and on without relief. Finally, after another series of shudders, the cow seemed to tense, and suddenly a slimy blob came sliding out, landing in the straw. Seconds later there was more slime, along with what seemed to be enormous amounts of blood, drenching the man before he could step away.
While the cow began to lick at the sack of fluid, the man crossed the stall to a bucket of water, plunging his arms up to the elbows. By the time he snatched up a towel and turned toward the cow, the sack of fluid had been cleaned away and a newborn calf was already kicking its legs, struggling to right itself.
“Well, isn’t she a beaut, Hazard?”
“Yeah. I just wish I could have gotten a better grip on her. I thought for a minute I’d lost her. You were right to bring her in, Cody. She’d have never made it out in the range.”
“Well, well. What’ve we got here?” Russ Thurman spat a yellow stream of tobacco. “Looks like some city chick just got dropped here by mistake.”
Hazard turned. And spotted the woman standing beside Cody at the same moment Cody did.
In her prim suit, her hair pulled back in a tidy knot and little round glasses perched on her nose, she looked as out of place in the barn as if she’d been wearing a ball gown. Worst of all, her skin was as sickly pale as the snow outside the door.
“Excuse me, ma’am.” While Russ snickered, Cody put an arm beneath her elbow. “How’d you get in here?”
“I was…” She struggled to get the words out. Her brain didn’t want to cooperate. She seemed to be fading in and out. She couldn’t seem to put the grizzly, bloody scene out of her mind. “I was told I would find Hazard Wilde in here.”
Hazard stepped out of the stall and offered his hand, unaware of the blood that had smeared his clothes, and even splattered across his face. “I’m Hazard Wilde. And you are…
?”
“Dr. Erin Ryan.” She could hardly recognize her own voice. The words sounded stilted to her ears.
She was aware of dark eyes staring at her. And somewhere nearby, the sound of crude laughter.
Calling on every ounce of effort, she struggled to extend her hand.
At the same moment she felt the barn begin to tilt. Her legs turned to rubber. And then, to her complete humiliation, her world turned upside down and she could feel herself slipping into a long, dark tunnel of unconsciousness.
Chapter 2
“Please. I’m all right now.” Erin was mortified to realize that Hazard had scooped her up and was carrying her out of the barn. With a single sharp word he’d silenced the man who’d been laughing at her.
His arms were unbelievably strong. As he crossed the distance from the barn to the house, he carried her as though she weighed no more than a petal on the breeze. And with such care. As if she were some fragile doll that might shatter at any moment.
“Really, Mr. Wilde.” She turned her face, and to her consternation, found her lips pressed against his throat. Mortified, she turned her face away, but it was too late to undo the damage. Her heartbeat was fluttering against her chest with such force she knew he had to hear. And her breathing had become strained, as though she’d been racing up a hill. “I’m…fine now. I can walk.”
In response he increased his pace, while Cody hurried along behind him, struggling to keep up.
Once inside the house he stalked toward the great room, where he gently settled her on a sofa.
She’d never seen a room quite this large. Fifty people could have gathered here without feeling crowded. The room was dominated by a raised, four-sided fireplace, with sofas drawn up on all four sides to take advantage of the warmth. There were two walls of floor-to-ceiling shelves and two walls made entirely of glass, overlooking the sweeping landscape.
“Get me some water, Cody,” he shouted.
Minutes later the old cowboy was beside him, holding out a glass.
“Drink this.” His tone was still gruff with worry.
Erin did as she was told, all the while aware that he was studying her with such intensity that the simple act of swallowing was painful. There was a frown line between his brows. And those deep, liquid-brown eyes were boring into her.
When the glass was empty, she handed it back. “I’m so embarrassed. I don’t know what came over me. This has never happened to me before.”
“How long since you last ate?” he demanded.
“This morning, I think.” She tried to recall. Had she taken time to eat? It didn’t matter. Food had never been a priority in her life. “It wasn’t a lack of food. It was…all that blood.”
“You get sick at the sight of blood?”
“No. Of course not. But…I’ve never seen a calf being born before. I never realized it was so…”
“Ah. I see.” He nodded. “It does get a bit messy. Sorry you had to see that.”
“No. It’s really quite—” She stopped, bit her lip. If she wasn’t careful, she was liable to start blubbering. She was still feeling a little overwhelmed. It had been the sight of the cow, licking her infant, that had been her undoing. Even in nature, it seemed, there was an instant bond between mother and child. She was sure the tender, poignant moment would be etched forever in her memory.
She still wasn’t certain what had caused her blackout. Was it the pain and horror of the birth? Or the sight of the cow, its pain forgotten as it licked its newborn with such care?
She took a deep breath. “Could we start over?”
Hazard nodded, relieved that the color was returning to her cheeks. What an odd little thing she was. Not at all what he’d been expecting. In truth, when Professor Wingate had said he was sending a brilliant laboratory researcher, he’d anticipated someone like his old college professor, with a bushy beard and thick glasses, constantly forgetting to button his lab coat. Now he would have to readjust his thinking.
He offered his hand. “Dr. Ryan, I’m Hazard Wilde, owner of the Double W. And this is Cody Bridger, who can answer just about any question you might have about the operation of this place.”
“Mr. Wilde. Mr. Bridger.”
Hazard’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “Mr. Wilde was my father. As for Cody, if you call him Mr. Bridger, I doubt he’d know who you were talking to.”
She managed a shy smile. “All right. I’ll remember. And my name is Erin.”
Just then the door opened and Maggie and Chance came in arm in arm, their cheeks flushed, their faces crinkled with laughter.
“Do you really think you could have it done by late summer?” Maggie was so wrapped up in her husband, she hadn’t yet noticed the others.
“I don’t see why not. I’ll get the architect started right away.” Chance pressed a kiss to her lips, then glanced over in surprise. “What’s this? Are we having a party in the middle of the afternoon?”
Hazard shook his head. “Cody and I were just getting acquainted with Dr. Ryan.” He turned. “Erin, this is my brother Chance and his new bride, Maggie.”
They stepped closer and offered their greetings to the young woman seated primly on the sofa.
Chance turned to study his brother. “Is this the latest ranch fashion?”
Hazard glanced down at his shirtfront and realized it was streaked with dirt and blood.
“Sorry. I was just playing midwife to a first-time mother. I’ll go clean up.”
Maggie turned to their guest. “Could I interest you in some tea, Dr. Ryan?”
“I’d love some. And I hope you’ll call me Erin.”
“All right, Erin. Come on in the kitchen.” She turned to Cody. “How about you?”
The old cowboy shook his head with a laugh. “I put tea drinking right up there with getting dressed in a suit and tie and going to fancy parties. It’s okay for some, but it just isn’t my style. If you don’t mind, I’ll head on out to the barn and check on our new mama.”
Erin followed Maggie into the kitchen and glanced around in admiration. “Are all the rooms this big?”
“Yes.” Maggie filled the kettle before setting it on the stove. “It takes some time to get used to. Each of the brothers has his own wing. If you’re not careful, you could get lost trying to find your way from one end of this house to the other.”
“I doubt I’ll be here long enough for that.” Erin took a place at the table and watched as Maggie filled a plate with biscuits and several little pots of jam.
She broke open a biscuit. “Did you make these?”
Maggie nodded. “I love to cook. It’s what brought me to the Double W.”
Erin tasted and gave a sigh. “Oh, this is wonderful.”
“Do you cook?”
Erin merely laughed. “Not a lick. Oh, I can microwave oatmeal. And I can heat up a pretty mean pizza, if I’m hungry enough. But food has never been very important in my life.”
Chance happened to stroll in at that moment and overheard her remark. “I might have said something similar just a few short months ago. But now that I’ve had the opportunity to eat Maggie’s fine cooking, I could never go back to eating carry-out.”
“See? I’ve spoiled you for any other woman.” Maggie filled two cups with tea.
“I’m sure you planned it that way.” He brushed a kiss over her cheek. “Is there any coffee?”
“I just made a fresh pot. After seeing Hazard, I figure he’ll need something hot and strong.”
“Good thinking.” Chance poured himself a cup and lifted it to his lips for a long drink. Then he hoisted his cup in a toast. “Well, Dr. Ryan, welcome to the Double W.”
Hazard stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower. As he washed away the blood and dirt, he couldn’t stop thinking about Dr. Ryan. She was so small. When he’d carried her from the barn to the house, she felt as if she weighed no more than a feather. But it wasn’t just her size that was surprising. There was a fragile quality about her. He would ha
ve expected an educated woman like that to be aware of the messy side of birthing. Still, Professor Wingate had said she was a brilliant laboratory researcher. Maybe such people never actually went into the field. Maybe all their work was done under the sterile conditions of a lab. He supposed it was possible, after a few years in such an environment, to become completely detached from reality.
As he snatched a towel and began to dry, he thought about her pale, porcelain skin. He’d never seen anything quite like it. He’d wanted to reach out and touch her cheek, to see if she was real.
He tossed aside the towel and began rummaging through the closet for a clean shirt. As he began buttoning it, he paused. Yeah, she was real. At least, if that press of her lips against his throat was any indication. He’d experienced the most amazing response. In the space of one instant he’d felt a flare of heat that had his blood pulsing and at the same moment a tingle of ice along his spine that nearly stopped him in his tracks. Fire and ice. And all from one pale little female who was practically out on her feet.
What’s more, in the great room, he had actually been able to see the color return to her cheeks by degree, until her skin had once again taken on a healthy glow. Funny. It was only then that his heart had returned to its normal rhythm and he’d had time to notice that her eyes behind those round glasses were the most incredible shade of blue. And the hair pinned back in that neat knot was light brown.
He slipped into clean denims, then tugged on his boots. The thought of her prim, navy suit and matching pumps had him grinning. Talk about your fish out of water. Still, as long as she could solve his problem, what did he care? He’d give her some vials of blood serum, turn her loose in his lab, and let her do the job she’d come here to do.
Running his hands through his damp hair, he pulled open the door and headed toward the kitchen. As he drew close, he could hear Chance and Maggie laughing about something.
“It must be fun planning a new home.” Erin sat back, sipping her tea, grateful for this pleasant break in routine.
