“Maybe?” Clovis demanded in outrage. “Hell, son. That pony can cut the flour out of a biscuit and not break the crust.”
Ed nodded his lean balding head. “Well, everybody’s sure looking for another Grayboy.”
Jake nodded, obviously knowing what the man was talking about. “Well, he may just get him this time. I’ve always had good luck with Grayghost get, and this one looks to be no different.”
Amanda waited for the rest of the discussion on horse lineage to pass before asking the obvious.
“Grayboy?”
Jake was turning back to her as Clovis jumped in. “Best damn cuttin’ horse in the U.S. He’s won more money for riders on circuit than any other horse in the last decade. Foaled right at the Diamond K.”
“Circuit,” Amanda echoed. “Rodeo?”
“Cutting horse competitions,” Clovis said. “The National Cutting Horse Association Futurity and World Championships for the last three years runnin’ were won on Diamond K horses.”
Jake lifted an eyebrow at her. “You’re not familiar with cutting horses?”
“I’m not familiar with the species at all,” she admitted. “I’ve been on a mule, but I have a feeling it’s a little different.”
Jake’s expression was one of disbelief. Clovis put it into words.
“You don’t know horses? Then what are you doin’ a book on the West for?”
Amanda grinned at the outraged little man. “I’m doing folklore,” she admitted. “Not a dictionary.”
“But all your good stories is about horses,” Clovis protested. “Wouldn’t be no West without ‘em. Would there, boss?”
Jake hadn’t taken his eyes off her. Amanda could feel them like a brand, an accusation, and it unsettled her. She didn’t know what Jake was thinking, what he suspected or expected. She just knew that she was making him unhappier by the minute.
“Is this how you do your research?” he asked quietly. “Just show up someplace and try and figure out what’s going on?”
Amanda’s first reaction was to bristle. She had a dual master’s degree. If there was only one thing she’d come away with from higher education, it was the ability to research. And no rancher who’d been never farther from home than the local diner had any right to question her.
But then she realized that she hadn’t been allowed yet to present her case. Jake had judged her on sight for some reason, and left the rest to supposition. It was high time to set him right.
“I came to the Diamond K,” she allowed, “for a chance to do my research and writing in peace. My schedule has been a bit hectic the last few years, and I was having trouble getting into this new book. As for research, I have enough books, journals, maps and tapes back at that cabin to sink a good-size ship. I usually start there and then go out in the field. In fact, I’m due up at the Wind River Reservation in about six weeks.”
“Then why are you trompin’ all over my ranch?”
Clovis stiffened at his employer’s words, even more his tone. If Amanda’s reasons had been a little more altruistic, she would have stiffened right alongside her new friend. But she had to admit, at least to herself, that it was more than research that was bringing her over to the other side of that long, silent meadow.
“I came,” she said with great control, “to introduce myself, just like Lee said. When Betty found those papers for me, I couldn’t help reading through them. They’re just what I want. More than anything I already have.” She looked down at her pie, still whole and fragrant before her, before braving Jake’s expression again. “And, I guess, I’m not quite used to all the quiet yet. I miss voices. I figured I’d try doing my on site and existing research simultaneously.”
Jake seemed to be making some kind of judgment. “That outdoor john a little too realistic, after all?”
Amanda couldn’t help a short bark of laughter. “Mr. Kendall, I grew up with one of those things in my backyard. Don’t patronize me.”
“Here you are, Jake,” Lila announced, bringing the table to a sudden silence as she slapped down a plate brimming with a slab of charcoaled meat, French fries and coleslaw. “Eat up. I’ve already got your pie out.”
Amanda looked away from the raw surprise in Jake’s eyes and finally attacked her pie before either of them had a chance to say anything more.
The pie surprised her. After that leaden lump of meat somebody called meatloaf, the delicate crust and delicious crisp apple filling didn’t seem to be possible. Amanda took a bite and looked up at her dinner companion where he was knifing into a steak that was thick, juicy and as red as blood on the inside. He must have noticed the look on her face. He immediately turned to Clovis.
“She had the blue plate, didn’t she?” he demanded.
Clovis looked a bit confused. He looked to Amanda for verification.
She nodded.
