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“Where are you going?” She frowned at his abruptness

But Benteen didn’t answer as his long-legged strides carried hiht of him when he walked behind the shed-barn to the corral where the horses were kept A fewout

Over by the area they called the Broken Buttes, Benteen found Zeke Taylor dousing a coith a bad case of screorent Benteen reined his horse to a halt and stayed on the sidelines as Zeke untied the cow’s feet andrace, with Zeke dodging to avoid the hooking horns of the ungrateful cohen it charged him After its initial rush missed hi straight up in the air

Zeke walked his horse over to Benteen “Hot day,” he said, and removed his hat to wipe the sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm

“Find Woolie and Bob Vernon,” Benteen ordered “Pass the word that I want the three of you to ht want to shave We’re riding into town”

“It can’t be payday already” Zeke frowned in an attempt to recall the number of days since the last one

“It isn’t” Benteen wheeled his horse to the side and spurred it into a lope

Zeke sat there for aas in Benteen’s craw He wasn’t concerned by the failure to explain what he wanted with hiarette makin’s

Lorna had supper ready a little before dark When Benteen didn’t return, she went ahead and fed the boys and tucked them into bed She kept the food warm another hour, then fixed herself a plate She lost count of the nuht Finally she took the food off the stove and changed into her nightdress

With Benteen gone, she couldn’t sleep She sat in bed with her knees hunched up and her ar a little in an atteh the chinked walls of the cabin were the htbirds The loneliness of the place seemed to shiver over her

The slowly building echo of horse’s hooves began to separate fro beat of her heart It had to be Benteen Lorna sprang from the bed and pushed aside the curtained wall to run barefoot to the door She had a glio-dark sky before it was gobbled up by the shadow of the barn-shed

Shutting the door, Lorna hurried to the stove and stoked its fire, then set the food back on it to warle of spurs as Benteen approached the cabin The anxiety she had felt, not knohere he was, changed to a kind of irritated relief when he walked in the door

“I waited supper as long as I could,” she said “It’ll take me a few minutes to warm it up for you”

He stopped inside the door to re Without looking at her, Benteen raked a hand through his hair and crossed the room to the crude shelves that served as cupboards

“I’ry,” he said, and reached to the back of the top shelf, taking down the bottle of whiskey and a glass