WM02 - Texas Princess Read Free Page B

saw anger in her wild eyes. He offered no words to calm her as he usual y did.
    She pul ed back, raising her head and mane out of the straw. A moment later Glory stood on al four legs and jerked her head out of his reach.
    Tobin laughed. “It’s al right, pretty girl. You don’t have to smel that anymore.” He wrapped his thumb, then lifted her water bucket with his unharmed hand. “How about we start with a little water for breakfast?”
    She smel ed the water, hesitated, then drank. The water splashed across the end of her nose washing away Tobin’s blood.
    He’d just fed her oats when he heard Sage. “Tobin!” she cal ed as she strode into the barn. “I’m so glad you—” She walked around the end of the stal and froze. “Oh, Tobin, it worked. It worked.”
    Tobin nodded as Sage took over the care of her horse. He stepped back and watched as his little sister babied the big animal as though they were best friends. He felt like he’d tried everything to make Glory better, but he hadn’t tried anger.
    “The medicine’s al gone.” He stayed with the truth.
    “It doesn’t matter,” Sage answered as she began brushing Glory down. “She’s better.
    That’s what counts.”
    Shrugging, he walked toward the house. He’d never understand females, even the four-legged kind. That’s one reason he never planned to marry. If he had to live with a woman, be around one al the time, his brain would probably explode from trying to
    gure her out. People in general confused him, but women seemed to have their own brand of mystery.
    Once, several years back, when Sage had been running around yel ing at them and crying over nothing, Teagen had demanded to know what was wrong with her. Martha shook her head and, after wishing they had a parent to talk to, said that Sage had gotten Eve’s Curse. The brothers sat on the porch for an hour trying to gure out what Eve’s Curse was and hoping it wasn’t catching. They nal y elected Tobin to go back in the kitchen and ask Martha more about the strange disease. He’d barely got the rst question out when she thumped him on the head with her our-covered wooden spoon.
    End of discussion.
    Martha now met him at the back door as his steps creaked across the porch. Tobin couldn’t keep from smiling at the old housekeeper. To learn anything from her always came with the threat of brain damage.
    She didn’t bother to return his smile. “About time you got here. Sage jumped from the wagon before I could stop to run check on that old horse. I had to carry al the pots in by myself, and I’m no spring chicken.”
    Before he could apologize, she caught sight of his hand. “Lord, boy, what have you done?”
    He raised one eyebrow. That was the second time he’d been cal ed a boy today, and it was starting to irritate him. He didn’t answer the housekeeper as she unwrapped his thumb and pul ed him toward the sink. From the day she’d arrived on the ranch, Tobin always had the impression Martha hated al men, and boys were simply shorter versions.
    Teagen hired her to take care of baby Sage and run the house. Their parents were both dead and the three boys had been ghting off rustlers for two months when Martha showed up with everything she owned in a pil owcase. She took one look at Tobin and declared that he was the dirtiest living thing she’d ever encountered. Martha bul ied and bribed them al until they “cleaned up” enough to come inside. At one point Tobin claimed he’d rather live with the horses than fol ow her rules, but like his older brothers, the smel of home cooking eventual y changed his mind.
    In al those years, the only crack in her attitude toward the McMurray boys came when one of them was hurt. Then she was worse than any mother hen with a single chick.
    “Soak that hand while I get the medicine box. I’l not have you getting that cut infected.”
    Tobin didn’t argue. He fol owed orders. Within minutes she’d doctored his thumb,