Silken Threads Read Free

Kirk had been adamant. “When I do the job properly. When I show a profit, then I’ll take the raise,” he’d told the man. His words and tone had brooked no argument.
    What would happen now?
    Shaking his head, he stood and stretched his six-two frame. Easing his stiff muscles, Kirk wished he were on a horse, instead of sitting in a chair today. Then he ran his fingers through his wavy brown hair. As he did, his eyes fell on the aerial photograph of the ranch.
    Kirk enjoyed his responsibility of the one-hundred-and-twenty-thousand acres of prime Arizona land, along with the thirty-thousand head of cattle, and five-hundred head of Appaloosa horse stock. The ranch house itself was large—eight bedrooms, five baths, a formal living room, and a dining room seating thirty, a library, a study, and a den. There was also an immense kitchen and servants’ quarters.
    At one time, before the large corporations had invaded the area of ranching, Twin Rivers had been the center of ranching in the Phoenix area. Now, like many of the old-time spreads, it was a corporate venture.
    The large house was not a place to live, except occasionally when the corporate people came and used the two main suites upstairs. The main floor of the house was the ranch’s offices; Kirk’s office had once been the library.
    A hundred yards from the main house was his own house. As the general manager, he was entitled to private quarters. Near his house was another, smaller than his was, but just as nice. Right now, it was housing the only female ranch hand working at Twin Rivers. Set back another thirty yards from his house was the main housing complex, where the unmarried ranch hands bunked.
    Kirk’s eyes wandered along the aerial map, taking in the various ranges. On the far side of the ranch was a five-thousand acre farm, where they grew a good deal of the grain and hay.
    A series of livestock corrals were set a quarter-mile from the main house, along with a complex of barns, stables, and silos.
    Why wasn’t the Leeds Corporation worried about taking a loss two years in a row? he asked himself again. The puzzle was beginning to show signs of becoming an obsession with him. Something wasn’t right, and he wanted to know what that something was.
    Returning to his desk, he sat and faced the computer. A moment later, he was gazing at long rows of figures. Even as he did, he laughed and his face softened.
    Kirk wondered just how a rancher from fifty or a hundred years ago would react to modern ranching, run by corporations, computers and boardroom logic.
    “ Not very well,” he told himself aloud. Kirk knew there was one important aspect of ranching big business did not understand, and probably never would: Ranching was a business; but, it was also personal. You could not be a rancher if you felt nothing for the land around you. That’s where the corporations made their mistakes.
    However, Kirk could not imagine himself doing anything but ranching. Especially after what he’d been through before. Shaking away those thoughts, Kirk concentrated on the ranch’s figures, and on the thought continually plaguing his conscience. Kirk knew he would do his best to find out what was going on, no matter how long it took.
    ~~~~
    Cassandra lay restlessly in her bed, listening to the chiming of an old grandfather clock. Her mind churned endlessly, and she could not make herself relax at all.
    She had still not fully recovered from this afternoon’s harsh confrontation with her father and had hoped she would be able to talk to him tonight; but her hope had been dismissed when she’d spoken to her mother, who had been on her way out of the house when she’d come in.
    “ Cassie,” Eleanor Leeds had cried happily when she’d seen her daughter.
    Cassie had hugged her mother through the ermine stole and kissed her cheek. Then she’d seen her mother’s brow wrinkle with a frown as she’d studied her.
    “ I take it you’ve already talked with your