A Woman's Touch (12 page)

Kyle was approaching astride a high black stallion. The big horse moved at an easy canter, and Kyle rode as if the animal were a part of him. A small bay mare on a leading rope loped alongside. The mare was saddled and bridled.

Rebecca watched the man and his horses ride in out of the dawn, and something within her stirred. Kyle was born for this landscape, she thought. This was where he was at home.

„Morning, Becky,“ Kyle said easily as he rode the black stallion right up to the front of the porch. Saddle leather creaked and the big black shook his head, blowing softly. Kyle leaned forward and rested his forearm on the horn. His green eyes gleamed at her from the shadow of the Stetson. „When you didn’t answer the phone in your motel room, I thought I might find you here. I came to take you to breakfast.“

Rebecca folded her arms and leaned against the door post. „We’re going to ride into town?“

Kyle shook his head. „No. Up into the mountains above this valley.“ He patted a bulging saddlebag. „I’ve got biscuits and coffee right here.“

„What makes you think I can ride?“

„Instinct.“ He smiled fleetingly. „But if you can’t there’s nothing to worry about. Anyone could stay up on Athena here.“ He nodded at the bay mare who was nuzzling the ragged bushes in front of the porch. „She’s as gentle as a lamb.“

„What about your horse?“ she asked curiously.

Kyle patted the black’s arching neck. The horse stamped a foot. „You want to tackle old Tulip?“ he asked, brows rising.

„Tulip!“ Rebecca smiled in spite of herself. „He doesn’t look much like a Tulip.“

„He wasn’t named for his looks. He was named for his personality.“

„I see. He’s sweet natured and delicate, I take it.“

„Fact is, he’s a real bastard most of the time,“ Kyle confided equably. „Especially when he hasn’t been ridden in a while.“

„The two of you seem to get along well.“

„We understand each other.“

„Two of a kind?“ Rebecca murmured.

Kyle straightened in the saddle. „Let’s go,“ he said evenly.

He hadn’t liked that. Rebecca said nothing for a moment, considering her options. One was to stay here and go hungry. The other was to go horseback riding in the early-morning light and share biscuits and coffee with Kyle.

No contest.

Rebecca pocketed the keys to Alice Cork’s house, walked down the steps without a word and slipped a foot into Athena’s stirrup. She picked up the reins as Kyle detached the lead.

„You can ride, can’t you?“ Kyle asked quizzically.

„I can manage.“

„I thought so,“ he muttered under his breath. „You always do. You are one managing female.“ He nudged Tulip, and the big black moved forward eagerly.

Athena followed and within minutes they were moving across the meadow behind Alice Cork’s house, heading for the nearby hills. Rebecca took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and settled into the mare’s comfortable stride.

The sunlight lancing into Harmony Valley was incredibly beautiful. It danced off distant peaks and glinted on the water in the wide creek. Wild flowers opened their petals to the warmth with the eagerness of young lovers.

Kyle rode in silence, glancing over his shoulder once in a while to make certain Rebecca was keeping up with him.

There was distant approval in his eyes as he saw how easily she rode.

When he finally called a halt they were high on a ridge overlooking the valley. Kyle swung off Tulip and dropped the reins casually onto the ground. Tulip stood as if anchored to stone. Rebecca followed suit. She winced as she slid out of the saddle.

„I’m going to feel this tomorrow,“ she complained. „I haven’t ridden in several years.“

Kyle grinned. „I’ve got something to take your mind off your troubles.“ He removed a thermos from the saddlebags. „Coffee.“

„I could use a cup.“ Rebecca walked over to a large boulder and scrambled up on top of it to see the view.

Harmony Valley was stretched out before her in all its early-morning glory.

„Quite a sight up here at his time of day, isn’t it?“ Kyle climbed up to stand beside Rebecca. He handed her a cup of coffee and a biscuit. He sipped from his own mug.

„Very beautiful.“

„I used to ride over here sometimes when I was a kid. I’d stand up here on this rock and tell myself that everything down there in the valley was someday going to be mine. I decided I was the Stockbridge who was finally going to get this valley once and for all.“

„You were pretty arrogant for a kid, weren’t you?“

Kyle shrugged. „I knew what I wanted. That’s all.“

„Why is it so important for you to have Harmony Valley?“

Kyle looked out over the valley, his eyes reflective. „Because.“

„That’s a compelling reason, all right,“ Rebecca observed sarcastically.

Kyle turned his head to look at her. „When a man wants something, when he knows in his gut it belongs to him, that’s all the reason he has to have to pursue it. It’s only women who insist on dissecting a perfectly normal desire, trying to figure out what makes it exist.“

Rebecca sat down on the cold granite and folded her legs tailor fashion. The coffee cup was comforting and warm in her hands. „I think there’s room for disagreement on that subject, but I don’t plan to get into it now. Did you ever bring your wife up here? Or Darla?“

Kyle didn’t move for a long moment. Then he slowly lowered himself into a sitting position beside Rebecca. „There

’s no point rehashing the past, Becky.“

„I’d like to talk about it.“

„Why?“ He sounded aggressive, as if he were bracing himself for battle. „You already know I haven’t got much of a track record in the marriage department.“

„Tell me about your ex-wife,“ Rebecca insisted gently. „According to Alice’s journal, her name was Heather.“

He gave her a startled glance. „Alice wrote about my marriage?“

„Alice kept close track of the Ballards and the Stockbridges,“ Rebecca explained. „You might say that keeping track of the doings of Ballards and Stockbridges was a hobby of hers. She was probably operating on the principle of knowing one’s enemy.“

Kyle grunted his disapproval. He looked out over the valley. When he finally started speaking, his voice was clipped and unemotional, as if he had distanced himself from the circumstances surrounding his first marriage.

„Heather was a little slip of a thing. Pretty, blond, big blue eyes. I met her in college. Couldn’t wait to bring her home to show her the ranch and have her meet Dad. Dad took one look at her and told me she was too soft for me. No staying power, he said. Too much like my mother. I explained to him that Heather was gentle and delicate. She needed protecting and I wanted to protect her. I was going through an idealistic phase, I guess.“

„What did your father say?“

„He asked me who was going to protect her from me.“ Kyle bit down savagely on a biscuit.

Rebecca studied his hard profile. „You married her over your father’s objections?“

„He didn’t object, exactly. He just predicted the whole thing was going to be a disaster. Said I was too young to know what I needed in a woman. He was right. To make a long story short, times started getting rough in the cattle business. Then Dad died. I dropped out of college in my senior year to go to work. Heather began to cry a lot.“

„That must have gone over real big with you,“ Rebecca murmured. Kyle was not the kind of man who would have a lot of patience with sobbing females.

„Things weren’t working out the way she had planned,“ Kyle explained soberly. „Money was short. She was young and wanted to have some fun. I was working long hours trying to hold on to the ranch land. I didn’t have the time or inclination to indulge her childish whims.“ He shook his head. „I guess I got impatient. Lost my temper a few times. Told her it would greatly help the family finances if she went to work. She cried some more. I yelled at her some more. Things went downhill rapidly. Then I made the mistake of talking about babies.“

„Babies?“

„Yeah. I thought maybe a baby would settle her down. Besides, Stockbridges always have sons, and I figured it was time to have one of my own.“

„And she didn’t agree?“

„Hell, no. She panicked. Said she was too young to start a family. There wasn’t enough money. She wanted to have some fun before she got tied down to a baby, et cetera, et cetera. We had one last big fight during which I really lost my temper, and she ran home to her parents. She filed for divorce the next day.“

„Did you love her?“

Kyle rubbed his jaw. „I thought I did in the beginning. As I said, I was in my idealistic phase. But whatever I felt for her at the start of the marriage was long gone by the time the divorce papers arrived. Fact is, it was kind of a relief when it was all over.“

„You might be interested to know that Alice predicted the same ending to your marriage that your father did. She thought Heather would collapse like a hothouse rose in the first major storm.“

„Sounds like everyone was a hell of a lot more farsighted than I was,“ Kyle growled.

„Alice saw things, all right. Did you know she thought of Stockbridges as a nest of fire-breathing dragons?“

Kyle winced. „Alice called me a dragon?“

„She said you were the latest in a long line of green-eyed monsters.“

„Is that right?“ he demanded with familiar aggression. „What did she call the Ballard family?“

Rebecca’s mouth curved slightly as she remembered that section of the journal. „A clan of sorcerers. She thought they used their charms to seduce and destroy others.“

„Alice may have hit the nail on the head with that one.“ Kyle looked vaguely placated.

„She may have hit the nail on the head with both observations,“ Rebecca retorted. „She had a lot of time to consider the various aspects of the two families. Tell me about your engagement.“

Kyle poured himself another cup of coffee. „You just won’t quit, will you?“

„No.“

„Well, since you’ve heard about the marriage, I guess there’s no reason not to tell you about Darla. Not all that much to tell, really. Darla is a nice person. I’d always liked her in a vague kind of way. The way a man would like a younger sister, I guess. We lost track of each other for a few years after college. But when I met her again in Denver four years ago, I took one look at her and knew she was just what I needed. She wasn’t the type of woman who would give me any trouble. She wasn’t after my money. She wouldn’t be too demanding. She would make a good hostess.

She had no objections to giving me a son. To top it all off, she was pretty. What more could a man want?“

„In other words, you were going through a practical phase.“

„Probably.“ Kyle capped the thermos and sat staring broodingly out over Harmony Valley. „But I managed to screw up that relationship, too.“

„Your temper again?“ Rebecca asked softly.

Kyle drummed his fingers on the granite. „That was part of it, I think. But not all. By the time I met Darla, I had learned to control my temper.“

„Really?“ Rebecca let her skepticism show in her voice.

Kyle shot her an aggrieved glance. „It’s true. I’m a hell of a lot mellower now than I was in my younger days.

People do change, you know.“

„I’ve certainly seen lots of examples of the new, mellow Kyle Stockbridge,“ Rebecca pointed out meaningfully.

„Damn it. I’ve never lost my temper with you, Becky.“

Rebecca slid him a sidelong glance and realized he was telling the truth. From his point of view, he’d never lost his temper with her. The moments of impatience and minor annoyance she had witnessed during the past couple of months clearly did not count as far as he was concerned. The realization that she’d never been the victim of one of Kyle’s full-blown rages was somewhat unnerving. She wondered just how bad the storm could be.

„Who ended the engagement?“ Rebecca asked quietly. „You or Darla?“

„Glen Ballard ended the engagement.“ Kyle said shortly. „Darla didn’t have the guts to tell me herself.“

Rebecca sighed. „I can just imagine that little scene.“

„I doubt it.“ Kyle turned to look at her, his expression one of challenge. „Okay. You’ve heard all the sordid details.

Now you know just how lousy my track record is when it comes to marriage. It’s a typical Stockbridge record. My father didn’t do any better and neither did my grandfather. My grandmother didn’t leave because in those days people just didn’t get divorced. But I remember how sullen and quiet she was all the time. She was obviously one miserable female and she didn’t care who knew it. When I was eight, she told me she envied my mother for having the courage to walk out.“

„What a pleasant old lady,“ Rebecca said grimly. Just the sort of sweet, grandmotherly type a motherless boy needed, she thought with sarcasm. But then she realized how trapped and bitter the woman must have been. „Sounds to me like the Stockbridge men do a lousy job of picking their women.“

„Most people would say it wouldn’t matter what woman a Stockbridge picked. The marriage would be doomed right from the start,“ Kyle said quietly.

„You mean because of the infamous Stockbridge temper?“

Kyle shrugged. „I guess you could say the Stockbridge men have trouble relating.“

„Don’t lump yourself in with your father and grandfather, Kyle. You’re not a reincarnation of either of them. You’re you. You can do whatever you want to do. You don’t have to repeat their mistakes.“

„Thank you, Miss Therapist.“ Kyle picked up a shard of granite and tossed it out over the edge of the ridge. „So much for confession time. Are you satisfied?“

„No. But we can worry about that later.“ She smiled brightly when he shot her a glowering look. „According to Alice Cork’s journal, the Bal-lards haven’t had a particularly admirable record with women, either. She said the Ballard men were all womanizers. Seducers of innocent females. Glen’s mother and grandmother apparently suffered in tearful silence for the most part while their husbands chased anything in skirts.“