“But where’s Benteen?” Lorna murmured.
It was an eternity of minutes before she spotted him with the other cowboys surrounding the herd. Her legs started shaking and she felt amost sick with relief.
“The excitement’s over for a while,” the cook stated, eyeing both women discreetly. “Why don’t you sit yourselves down and have some coffee?”
“Thank you,” Mary said. “I think we will.”
The coffee was so strong and black that Lorna nearly gagged on the first swallow.
“Ely always said my coffee was weak.” Mary’s laugh was thin. “I didn’t believe him when he said you could float a pistol in trail coffee.”
Untying the bow to her bonnet, Lorna slipped it off and smiled her agreement to Mary’s remark. She felt emotionally drained. At least the strong coffee partially revived her, despite its appalling taste.
Benteen stayed with the herd until it had been watered and thrown off the trail to graze awhile before bedding down for the night. When he rode to camp, the wrangler Yates was bringing the cavvy in so each rider could get his night horse for his two-hour watch. He dismounted at the chuck wagon.
Rusty handed him a tin cup, knowing he’d want coffee first thing. “Anybody hurt?”
“Nope.” Benteen held the cup while Rusty poured it full of coffee from the pot. “Taylor’s horse stepped in a prairie-dog hole and went down, but he went off clear of the herd. Says he’s all right.” He drank the coffee down, not giving it a chance to cool.
“All that commotion gave your bride quite a scare.” Rusty passed on the information carelessly, but noticed Benteen’s quick glance toward the wagon.
Lorna stood poised at the back of the covered wagon, an uncertainty in her manner as she stared at Benteen. He set the cup on the makeshift worktable of the chuck box and crossed the camp circle. Her gaze went over him from head to toe, inspecting him for damages. Unconvinced, she searched his face when he finally stopped in front of her.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Not a scratch.” The corners of his mouth deepened at this concern for him.
She swayed toward him, then slid her hands around his middle to hold him close, his solidness more reassuring than his words. “I was so worried,” Lorna admitted, and felt a hand on her hair.
“It’s all part of a day’s work,” he said. She shuddered that he could be so nonchalant about it. “Besides, something good came out of it.”
“What?” It seemed impossible.
“You’re not angry anymore.”
Keeping her head down, Lorna pulled reluctantly away from him. “I wasn’t angry before.” But she didn’t try to explain the hurt she’d felt at his lack of understanding about her parents and the indifference he’d shown for what she was going through. “We heard some shooting.” She changed the subject.
“A bunch of farmers sicced their dogs on the cattle.” Benteen shrugged, making light of the incident.
“Were they the ones who fenced in the water?” she asked, to see if the cook had been right.
“They said they were.”
“I suppose they were upset about it,” Lorna guessed. “Wasn’t it wrong to cut it down? I mean, you shouldn’t destroy other people’s property, should you?”
“A man doesn’t have any right to fence thirsty cattle away from good water.” His lids were shielding his eyes, but she sensed his displeasure at her questions.
“But shouldn’t you have asked before you cut it? The farmers probably wouldn’t have been so angry if you had.”
“While I sent somebody to look them up and ask permission, what was I supposed to do with twenty-five hundred head of thirsty Longhorns? They would have torn the fence down to get to that water, and cut themselves up bad.” Benteen was curt with her, and she saw the hardness in his eyes. “This isn’t Fort Worth, Lorna. Life is different out here.”
Behind them, Rusty banged a metal pan. “Come an’ get it or I’ll throw it out!”
Benteen half-turned at the sound, then faced Lorna again. “Supper’s ready. Are you hungry?”
“Yes.” Actually she was starved, but he had made her feel young and ignorant again. She resented that, and retaliated by shutting him out from her private thoughts.
He curved a hand under her arm. “I want to introduce you to the men. Some of them you know, but the others haven’t met you.”