rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_9bd8225f-8094-5a97-b704-ba1cccda574d"> Chapter Two
Not far from his house, Ty Saunders sat atop his gray stallion, Zeus, and watched the approaching rider with interest. Aside from Sally and Toby, he and Cal didn’t get visitors often. But those two had already come and gone today.
Strange thing was, this horse looked like the Livingstons’ black mare. He frowned and waited until the rider in the billowing black cape started mounting the final hill to the house. When he could see who it was, his breath hitched in his throat.
Framed by the lush, gently sloping valley behind her, Louise Livingston looked beautiful. Dazzling, Ty would almost say. Which was either a confirmation of his belief that the eldest Miss Livingston was the most lovely and sensuous of the two sisters beneath that prickly exterior of hers, or a clear indication that he was just coming out of a long, lonely winter and desperate for female companionship.
He was more inclined to believe the latter was the case. He still remembered the distinct pleasure of dancing with her last summer at the church dance, and of holding her close in his arms afterward. For a few moments, she’d kissed him as though he were the answer to her prayers and then, for no apparent reason, she’d frozen up and backed away from him as if he’d had yellow fever. Since that time, she’d never failed to snub him. Could hardly look him in the eye, even. And every time he received the cold shoulder from her, his pride never ceased to sting.
Especially when he remembered the curt words she’d said to him after coldly extracting herself from his embrace. “You shouldn’t have taken such liberties, Mr. Saunders. I’m too involved in my work to have time for developing a liaison with a, a…miner.” She had pronounced the last word with distinct disdain, as if a miner were the lowliest creature on the earth.
As if he’d wanted to develop a liaison with her in the first place! All he’d done was kiss her, and she’d treated him like a criminal for it.
It wasn’t as if she were any prize herself. Louise didn’t smile flirtatiously unless someone made a big purchase at the mercantile. She didn’t dress in stylishly low-cut dresses that might give a man something to dream about, and rarely engaged in even the simple forms of feminine flattery that her sister threw about so easily, the type of banter that could put a little swagger in a fellow’s walk. Louise Livingston was brisk, businesslike and downright prim.
But she sure was pretty. And for those few moments he’d held her, it seemed that she was the answer to his prayers, too.
Louise eased the mare into a jogging trot as they finished the climb and her face came into view. Her cheekbones were flushed to a cherry red from the brisk ride, and her wide-set sharp brown eyes looked steadily into Ty’s as she neared. The closer she came, the more pursed her lips became.
He got down from his horse and walked forward to meet her. “Nothing happened to Toby and Sally, I hope,” he said. “Is Sally all right?”
At the repeated mention of her sister’s name, Louise’s jaw worked forward. “You’d know the answer to that better than I would, Mr. Saunders!” she said, swinging down from the saddle.
Close up, he saw that her cape was soaked through. And the tip of her pert nose was red. He smiled, understanding. Louise had risked rain and pneumonia because she’d gotten wind that his brother was sweet on Sally. He couldn’t blame her for being concerned. He’d had doubts about the two of them as a couple himself. Sally was young and reckless, and apt to stampede right over his soft-spoken brother. But Cal was twenty-four years old, and knew his own mind. Ty tried to keep his nose out of his brother’s romance.
“I take it you didn’t come out all this way to dance with me again,” he said.
Two red blotches scorched her cheeks. “You know very well what I’ve come here about, Mr. Saunders. It’s about Sally.”
“I wouldn’t worry my head about that, Miss Livingston,” he said, smiling as he took her elbow to escort her around a maze of mud puddles. “Nothing’s happened around here that’s against anybody’s raising.”
She jerked her arm from him and skated uneasily a short distance away across a sheet of wet clay. “Maybe not against your upbringing, you furry reprobate!” she said sternly. “We Livingstons hold ourselves to higher standards.”
Furry? Ty rubbed his thick black beard self-consciously, trying to keep his temper. “Higher than whose?”
“Yours, obviously!” she said. “I can’t believe you would manipulate my baby sister’s affections this way, when you know she’s just a young, innocent, impressionable girl.”
The oddly skewed characterization of Sally aside, Ty was confused. “That I would what?” What the hell was she talking about?
She drew up and wagged a finger at him. “Don’t try denying it. Sally told me all about how she feels about you.”
“About me?” Ty asked.
“Yes, you! She said flat out that she loves you. Are you telling me that you haven’t encouraged her affections?”
“Of course I haven’t.”
“My sister is not a liar.”
Why would Sally have said such a thing? Maybe she hadn’t. Maybe Louise was just confused. “Listen, Miss Livingston—”
“Don’t you dare try to lecture me,” Louise said. “A grown man the likes of you should know better than to try to steal a young woman’s heart in such a conniving manner.”
The likes of him? Finally Ty gave up trying to understand all this nonsense about Sally and puffed up in offense. “Are you saying that the Saunders name isn’t good enough for a Livingston?”
As if he had to ask! She’d made her feelings on that matter perfectly clear ten months earlier. He felt the old familiar sting again and gritted his teeth, awaiting her answer.
“You’ve been leading my sister down the garden path,” Louise said, looking at him with something like disgust. “Certainly that doesn’t lend any nobility to your precious name.”
The lady was getting him steamed. “Look, I don’t know what false impression Sally gave you—”
Her strangled cry cut him off. “Stop calling my sister a liar! You’re only besmudging your own questionable character. Sally had no reason to lie. In fact, it was clear that she suspected rightly that I would be very upset by any commingling between the two of you. Especially given…”
Her cheeks blotched with red and her mouth snapped closed. Apparently she hadn’t forgotten about their long-ago kiss, either.
Ty grinned at her discomfort. “Given what?”
“You know what!” she brayed unhappily. “I’m sure you pounced on her the moment you got her alone, exactly the same way you did with me.”
He paused, considering whether he wanted to make her even madder. Temptation won out. “Not exactly,” he assured her. “You’re definitely more of a challenge, as far as pouncing on women goes.”
Her jaw fell open in shock, and, perversely, her pretty red lips looked more gorgeous and kissable than ever.
“I’d be ready to take up the challenge again, though,” he said, winking at her. “Anytime you say.”
“What a despicable man you are! I should think it self-evident why I wouldn’t want my only sister to lose her heart to a Saunders!”
“Oh?” Ty asked with casual interest, attempting to tamp down his growing anger. “Is it the Saunders family specifically that you object to, or are you Livingstons saving yourselves for visiting royalty?”
Her lush lips pulled into a prissy frown. “Just because some of us have standards—”
“Oh, very high standards,”