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His cohorn was essentially a wild breed of cattle that had been doet But it was the wildness that made them special, a kind of freedom that was part of their nature, like the horns They could fend for the after them

“I don’t think any cowreed “It’s a case of circu what they are, you can’t hold a Longhorn on the range until he et hi a range for six years when a Hereford is ready in less”

“Yeah, I know all the argue is too valuable, so the breed’s gettin’ phased out I guess there coet phased out I reckon he had his tih”

He touched his hat to Lorna, then reined his horse away to resume his roundup activities It was a moment before they turned their horses fro their horses Lorna watched Benteen scan the range, its vastness pulling his gaze and stretching it out until it hurt

“It still bothers you to see fences, doesn’t it?” she murmured

“It isn’t soe man would choose, but it was forced on us,” he said “Just like getting paper title and lease rights to all this land to keep all the little ranchers fro others out Cattle have become too valuable to be allowed to stray A cow somebody else’s cows instead of his own It’s a combination of econoe”

“And the cowboy,” Lorna murmured It had been hard for sooff the back of a horse with a rope in their hand Then it had changed, and they were expected to cut hay, dig holes for fenceposts, and string wire

As they neared the pens, a pair of riders was leaving Lorna recognized her son with a rown into a tall, rawboned young man with brown, nearly black hair and dark eyes Since birth the cowboys on the ranch had treated hi his work for hi yet, but he already showed signs of independent thinking

“Webb has been hinting that he wants toto break it to rown up”

“You can tell hiovernor and his fa for a visit the first of the month I want Webb there”

“I had forgotten” She gri if she were here”

It was still difficult to accept that she had died three years before, taken swiftly by a heart attack Lady Crawford had been such a wo entrances and exits that it always seemed to Lorna that she had left too abruptly It hadn’t been her style at all They had received a telegraton, where Lady Crawford had journeyed on one of her many political missions

“She was an extraordinary woman,” Benteen murmured To this day, everyone believed her association with Benteen had been purely a financial one He was content to leave it at that It had eventually become a close relationship, based on deep respect rather than affection, so that few people would have understood

“It’s been a while since we’ve heard froht aloud

“From what I’ve heard fro quite a na to the upper crust, I understand,” Benteen said “He had a lot of practice over the years as Elaine’s uard, and … friend”