LITMIR.BIZ

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improvements. I run this ranch the way my dad did, and his dad before him. We rotate crops, and cattle, avoid unnecessary supplements, and maintain organic crops and grass strains. And we don’t allow oil extraction anywhere on this ranch. Lots of fracking farther south in Wyoming to extract oil from shale deposits, but we won’t sell land for that, or lease it.”

      She knew they were environmentally sensitive. The family had been featured in a small northwestern cattlemen’s newspaper that she’d seen lying on a table in the bunkhouse.

      “What’s fracking?” she asked curiously.

      “They inject liquids at high speed into shale rock to fracture it and allow access to oil and gas deposits. It can contaminate the water table if it isn’t done right, and some people say it causes earthquakes.” His dark eyes were serious. “I’m not taking any chances with our water. It’s precious.”

      “Yes, sir,” she replied.

      He shrugged. “No offense. I’ve had the lectures on the joys of using genetically modified crops and cloning.” He leaned down. “Over my dead body.”

      She laughed in spite of herself. Her elfin face radiated joy. Her dark eyes twinkled with it. He looked at her for a long moment, smiling quizzically. She was pretty. Not only pretty, she had a sense of humor. She was unlike his current girlfriend, a suave eastern sophisticate named Gelly Bruner, whose family had moved to Wyoming a few years previously and bought a small ranch near the Kirks. They met at a cocktail party in Denver, where her father was a speaker at a conference Mallory had attended. He and Gelly went around together, but he had no real interest in a passionate relationship. Not at the moment anyway. He’d had a bad experience in the past that had soured him on relationships. He knew instinctively that Gelly would only be around as long as he had money to spend on her. He had no illusions about his lack of good looks. He got women because he was rich. Period.

      “Deep thoughts, sir?” she teased.

      He laughed curtly. “Too deep to share. Get to work, kid. If you need anything, Darby’s nearby.”

      “Yes, sir,” she replied, and wondered for a moment if she was somehow in the military. It seemed right to give him that form of address. She’d heard cowboys use it with her father since she was a child. Some men radiated authority and resolve. Her father was one. So was this man.

      “Now you’re doing the deep-thinking thing,” he challenged.

      She laughed. “Just stray thoughts. Nothing interesting.”

      His dark eyes narrowed. “What was your favorite period? In history,” he added.

      “Oh! Well, actually, it was the Tudor period.”

      Both thick, dark eyebrows went up. “Really. And which Tudor was your favorite?”

      “Mary.”

      His eyebrows levered up a fraction. “Bloody Mary?”

      She glared at him. “All the Tudor monarchs burned people. Is it less offensive to burn just a few rather than a few hundred? Elizabeth burned people, and so did her father and her brother. They were all tarred with the same brush, but Elizabeth lived longer and had better PR than the rest of her family.”

      He burst out laughing.

      “Well, it’s true,” she persisted. “She was elevated to mystic status by her supporters.”

      “Indeed she was.” He grimaced. “I hated history.”

      “Shame.”

      He laughed again. “I suppose so. I’ll have to read up on the Tudors so that we can have discussions about their virtues and flaws.”

      “I’d enjoy that. I like debate.”

      “So do I, as long as I win.”

      She gave him a wicked grin and turned back to her work.

      The bunkhouse was quiet at night. She had a small room of her own, which was maintained for female hires. It was rough and sparsely accommodated, but she loved it. She’d brought her iPad along, and she surfed the internet on the ranch’s wireless network and watched films and television shows on it. She also read a lot. She hadn’t been joking about her passion for history. She still indulged it, out of college, by seeking out transcripts of Spanish manuscripts that pertained to Mary Tudor and her five-year reign in England. She found the writings in all sorts of odd places. It was fascinating to her to walk around virtual libraries and sample the history that had been painstakingly translated into digital images. What a dedicated group librarians must be, she marveled, to offer so much knowledge to the public at such a cost of time and skill. And what incredible scholarship that gave someone the skills to read Latin and Greek and translate it into modern English, for the benefit of historians who couldn’t read the ancient languages.

      She marveled at the tech that was so new and so powerful. She fell asleep imagining what the future of electronics might hold. It was entrancing.

      JUST AT DAWN, HER CELL PHONE rang. She answered it in a sleepy tone.

      “Sleepyhead” came a soft, teasing voice.

      She rolled over onto her back and smiled. “Hi, Mom. How’s it going at home?”

      “I miss you,” Shelby said with a sigh. “Your father is so bad-tempered that even the old hands are hiding from him. He wants to know where you are.”

      “Don’t you dare tell him,” Morie replied.

      She sighed again. “I won’t. But he’s threatening to hire a private detective to sniff you out.” She laughed. “He can’t believe his little girl went off to work for wages.”

      “He’s just mad that he hasn’t got me to advise him on his breeding program and work out the kinks in his spreadsheets.” She laughed. “I’ll come home soon enough.”

      “In time for the production sale, I hope,” Shelby added. The event was three weeks down the road, but King Brannt had already made arrangements for a gala event on the ranch during the showing of his prize Santa Gertrudis cattle on Skylance, the family ranch near San Antonio. It would be a party of epic proportions, with a guest list that included famous entertainers, sports figures, politicians and even royalty, and he’d want his whole family there. Especially Morie, who was essential to the hostessing. It would be too much for Shelby alone.

      “I’ll come back even if it’s just for the night,” Morie promised. “Tell Dad, so he doesn’t selfdestruct.” She laughed.

      “I’ll tell him. You’re like him, you know,” she added.

      “Cort’s a lot more like him. What a temper!”

      “Cort will calm right down when he finally finds a woman who can put up with him.”

      “Well, Dad found you,” Morie noted. “So there’s hope for Cort.”

      “You think so? He won’t even go on dates anymore after that entertainment rep tried to seduce him in a movie theater. He was shocked to the back teeth when she said she’d done it in all sorts of fancy theaters back home.” She laughed. “Your brother doesn’t live in the real world. He thinks women are delicate treasures that need nourishing and protecting.” She paused for a moment, then continued. “He really needs to stop watching old movies.”

      “Have him watch some old Bette Davis movies,” Morie advised. “She’s the most modern actress I ever saw, for all that her heyday was in the 1940s!”

      “I loved those movies,” Shelby said.

      “Me, too.” Morie hesitated. “I like Grandma’s old movies.”

      Maria Kane had been a famous movie star, but she and Shelby had never been close and theirs had been a turbulent and sad relationship. It was still a painful topic for Shelby.

      “I like them, too,” Shelby said, surprisingly. “I never really knew my mother. I was farmed

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