People Will Talk (3 page)

''I'm sure my sins aren't that interesting,"
she said quietly, "but the friendly part sounds good."

Other than Hoyt and Janie, Bret was the only
person in town who treated her anything like a friend. The women
whose eyes seemed to be boring into her back certainly
didn't.

"I look forward to being friendly with you," he
teased, "but let's don't forget to get back to the sins sometime
soon."

Maxine approached with Bret's plate. "Here's
your order, you rascal," she declared in a rough voice, worn by
years of smoking. "Don't forget to pay for it.”

"Since when do I forget anything?" Bret called
after her.

The older woman laughed and kept on
walking.

"So tell me more about the riding school," Bret
said again before taking a bite of his burger.

Nora shrugged. "I want to teach riding to
youngsters. Right now, I'm trying to start a business and get a
bank loan."

Bret nodded. "Sounds like a good plan. But I
think it'll be uphill work to get folks here excited about English
style riding."

"Not young girls," Nora said positively.
"Pre-teen and early teen girls take to equitation like ducks to
water. It helps teach them responsibility for their mount and
themselves. I promise, once I get going, I'll never have to groom
Chessie again--I'll have kids clamoring to do it."

He looked skeptical. "Most kids around here
have horses. They're not like city kids who have never cleaned out
stables."

Nora shook her head. "Equitation is different.
It focuses on the relationship between rider and horse. Eventually,
I'd like to have a stable and ring and a place to board
horses."

"You ought to be able to find several good
pieces of property to build on," Bret said, digging into his French
fries.

"I won't be able to borrow enough to build,"
Nora said. "What I want is to find a place with the basic
structures-stables for the horses and a working ring-already on it.
Something I can fix up as I go along. I have a place in mind, but
I'm not sure I can get a loan yet."

"You have a particular property in mind?" Bret
asked before polishing off the last of his burger.

"Yes." Nora said, trying to keep a grip on her
excitement. She'd been thrilled to find the perfect spot to begin
her new life. "It's been empty for ten years now, but the barn is
still sound and there's even a small farmhouse I could live in.
It's the Turner acreage that runs along your western
boundary."

Bret's hand paused in mid French fry lift.
Surely, he hadn't heard her right. Nora wanted the Turner farm?
Here was a potential complication in his carnal pursuit of
her.

She hesitated a moment. "Mother really doesn't
have room for me. But I'm staying with her until I can find a
place."

Bret could understand why Nora was eager to
have her own place. Still, given his own plans for that piece of
land, her news about the property wasn't good.

"Have you given that place a good look-over?"
he said casually. "It's been empty more like fifteen
years."

"I know," Nora assured him, "but the buildings
seem sound."

"Be a good idea to have someone in construction
check the place out before you get too far down the line." He
swiped a carrot stick off her plate, deciding not to worry about
something that might never come to pass.

"I will," promised Nora, stabbing a bite of
salad. "Hoyt Daniels says Mrs. Turner has a CPA that handles her
business-a man named Jim Carlyle. I can't really approach him about
the property until I have some paying students, but I'm determined
to buy that land and set up my own stable as soon as
possible."

"Sounds like a plan," Bret said. She certainly
looked determined, but the woman had a long road ahead of
her.

A companionable silence fell between them as
they ate.

"Can you believe her gall?" The brittle, high
pitched voice floated from the table in the corner.

Cissy Burton went on, "She sits right here
among respectable people, just like she hadn't tried to ruin a
man's life."

Nora's hand clenched the paper napkin, her fork
settling on to the salad plate with a faint clatter.

"Some women are born tramps," another woman
spoke.

"She ought to be run out of town before she
gets some other poor boy in trouble."

Bret recognized the last voice as Wilma
Worthington's. Naturally, she'd never think her perfect son had
done anything wrong, so Nora must be to blame.

Glancing back at the woman across the table,
Bret saw her transformed. Nora sat with a closed expression on her
face. Only the firm line of her mouth gave a hint of her distress
at hearing women she'd known all her life turn against
her.

"Well, I wouldn't think she was pretty enough
to cause this much trouble," Cissy declared in a clear
voice.

Bret heard Nora's swiftly indrawn breath.
Something about the way she sat there silently drew his
compassion-and made him fighting mad.

He leaned forward. "Cissy Burton needs a swift
kick in the fanny ... or a poke in the eye. Why don't you go over
there and show her how it feels to be ground into the
dirt?"

Nora looked up suddenly, her eyes dark with
suppressed anger. "Reacting to people like that just gives them
more ammunition. Eventually, it'll die down."

She glanced at her watch and grabbed for her
purse. "I have to go now, I'm late."

He watched her exit with a bad taste in his
mouth. Between the scandal about Richard's boss and Cissy's witchy
attitude, Nora needed a friend. Bret figured he was well qualified,
having survived a few scandals in his time. And if his bonus was
getting a lot closer to Nora, well, sometimes life was
good.

******

Chapter Two

Bret slung his saddle over the fence rail and
tried not to look as if he were staring at Nora.

The mid-morning sun gleamed off Chessie's coat
with a rich, polished glow. Nora moved around the riding ring as if
she were part of the chestnut mare.

Smiling and sweet-talking her mare, she'd put
the animal through its paces, riding around the ring in the
peculiar bouncy English style.

He'd thought she'd looked good in jeans, but
Nora in skin-tight riding breeches was a sight to behold. His mouth
had gone dry when she walked past. Bret had never thought he'd get
so turned on by a woman that fully clothed.

He dipped a rag in the can of neat's-foot oil
and made himself concentrate on the saddle he was
oiling.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the
dark helmet perched on her red-brown hair, leaving only the twitchy
end of a braid visible. She trotted the horse around the riding
ring in a steady, precise manner, her voice low as she talked to
the mare.

Something about her movements kept Bret
staring. Nora held herself poised in the saddle, using her legs as
well as her hands to guide Chessie around the ring.

Bret watched her effortless communication with
the horse, the tautness of her thighs and her straight posture that
never seemed stiff. He couldn't help being impressed.

A change came over Nora when she was on
horseback-she seemed supremely confident and comfortable. Every
step, every turn was accomplished with a minimum of fuss, as if
getting a nine-hundred-pound horse to do exactly what she wanted
was as effortless as walking.

The slam of a car door drew Bret's attention
away from the woman in the corral. A flurry of small footsteps
echoed in the barn before Jessica McGarver shot through the open
door and cast herself exultantly against the fence next to
Bret.

"Gosh, isn't Chessie the greatest!" The
ten-year-old gir1looked at the mare in blatant adoration. "Nora's
gonna let me ride her today!"

"Why don't you get excited about it?" Bret said
dryly.

"Jessica, you left your coat in the car." A
slender blond woman stepped out of the barn.

"Oh, Mom." The girl made a face. "It's
warm."

"Put it on." Eve McGarver held out a jacket and
waited until the child slipped it on.

"Anyone would think you never let this kid out
of the house, the way she's so revved up about these lessons." Bret
commented.

Eve sighed. "She's always revved up, Bret, but
not usually this bad. She'll probably be a total zero in school
tomorrow."

Bret smiled. Eve taught elementary school and
everything about her looked the part. Her short hair was both
stylish and practical and, from what he could tell, her wardrobe
consisted of craft-decorated tops and skirts.

'”Jessica's teacher is at her wits' end," Eve
murmured.

With her thin, leggy body draped against the
fence, Jessica was so engrossed in watching the horse she didn't
seem to hear them.

Bret and Eve both watched the activity in the
riding ring.

"Nora's wonderful on horseback," said Eve, her
face softening as she watched her friend.

"Amazing," Bret murmured, still captured by her
skill.

"I've invited her to my classroom to talk about
riding. I think the children will be very interested."

"Bound to be," he said. "Particularly if they
get to skip an arithmetic lesson or something."

"Oh, you." Eve punched his arm playfully before
returning her attention to the ring.

"Ouch." He made a show of rubbing his arm, but
he'd lost Eve's attention.

"Nora gets on one of those huge animals and
it's like she forgets everything else." Eve's eyes rested on her
daughter before sending a meaningful glance Bret's way. "And
there's so much to forget lately."

"Richard's an as-" he broke off when Eve
frowned and looked quickly at her enraptured daughter. "He's an
idiot," Bret amended.

"What I'd like," Eve said in a lowered tone,
"is to give the old biddies in this town permanent detention for
how they're treating her."

"What I'd like," Bret said, chuckling, "is to
see Cissy Burton's face when you call her an old biddy."

An hour later, after Eve had taken Jessica
home, Nora felt ready to fly. She'd taught her first lesson and
knew she was making the right decision.

Jessica was a joy to teach. Nora was sure there
were other girls in town who would want lessons, too.

The only flaw in the morning had been Nora's
absurd awareness of Bret's presence. Why on earth couldn't he have
been out wrestling cattle? Preferably out of her sight.

Nora took care of feeding and watering Chessie,
giving her a final pat as she left the stall. "You did good today,
girl. Pretty soon we'll be working every day. "

The day had warmed up, but the barn held a
lingering shadowed coolness. Nora took her jacket from the nail
where it hung and made her way into the sunlight.

Bret stood by his pickup, loading various
things into the bed. “Jessica seemed to be enjoying her lesson," he
commented.

"Yes, she has natural ability," Nora agreed.
Compelled to escape Bret's heady influence, she edged forward. The
man always managed to disable her brain while sending her heart
racing. She didn't need the distraction. If even a straight arrow
like Richard could betray her, how much more likely was Bret to do
so? Bret had "fun" tattooed on his forehead. As sexy and disturbing
as he was, she'd be an idiot to think he'd treat her heart any
better than Richard had.

"Well, see you later," she said, turning toward
her car.

"Hey," Bret called to her. "Do you have a few
minutes to help me with something?"

Startled, she turned back. "I guess so. What do
you need?"

He threw a pair of work gloves into the truck
cab.

"I have a small windmill repair to do and all
the ranch hands are busy doing other stuff."

"Windmill repair? I don't know
anything-"

"Don't need to know anything. I just need
another pair of hands. It won't take more than an hour." Bret
smiled as if he knew the turmoil in her head.

There wasn't really a way she could refuse him.
She obviously didn't have a lot to do until her lessons picked up,
and she felt as if she owed him something for agreeing to board
Chessie at a cut rate.

"Sure. I guess I have some time." Nora steeled
herself against his smile as she threw her jacket in her
car.

"Good." Bret grinned as he got into the truck.
Nora climbed gingerly into the ranch vehicle after he swept several
tools, a paper bag and a quantity of dust off the seat.

They drove away from the ranch buildings,
taking a rough track into open pasture. Bret pointed out several
landmarks, indicating the property line between his ranch and the
Turner property. She scrutinized the land she hoped to
buy.

How would Mrs. Turner respond to her offer for
the land? Nora had known her for years and still couldn't guess
where she stood. Sara Turner was a pleasant woman, the epitome of
politeness. Even if she were scandalized by Nora's supposed
indiscretions, she'd never be ill-bred enough to show
it.