Chancy's Cowboy. Lass Small

her parents’ suite for herself? He asked, “Where are the rest of the bedrooms?”

      She replied simply, “Upstairs.”

      He already knew that the cook and the yardman slept in rooms in the back of the house.

      That was all she said. Cliff found a brief surfacing of curiosity in that he wanted to see her room.

      Having shown him his section of the house, Chancy took him to the house’s separate barn to introduce him to his horse.

      The meeting of those two would be interesting for her to watch. Jasper was a big horse. He was independent, curious, self-directed and willing to share. He was an individual animal that was also pretty smart.

      As they walked to the barn, she lied. She said, “Here, we trade horses around so that we can know them all.”

      That caused Cliff to pause and look at the neophyte. So he settled that right away. He told her firmly, “If I take a horse as mine, I’d rather no one else rode him.”

      Chancy glanced over at him as she considered him with a tilted-back head. “That’s a little stingy.”

      He looked around as men tend to do. He was stem. “It’s the way I work. Then I don’t have to remember which horse I’m on and what quirks it has. I can understand the animal better.”

      “You call them... animals?”

      He grinned. “I’ve never ridden a human.” As soon as he said that, he sunk his teeth into his lower lip.

      Apparently she didn’t understand the unintended innuendo.

      She was twenty, by then, and all the crew had treated her as if she was isolated and had never read nor heard anything.

      The two went into the barn. Cliff asked, “The other horse. Is that yours?”

      And she smiled. “Yes.”

      He asked softly, “Anybody else ride it?”

      “No.”

      He was firm. “Nobody else’ll ride mine.”

      “That’s selfish.”

      He looked at her unduly, with his slitted eyes considering. Then he told her in that soft voice, “I’m selective.”

      She figured he’d decide on his own horse and then keep it to himself. She just hoped he liked the one they’d chosen for him.

      Inside the barn, Cliff looked at her horse with interest and even petted it, but he asked, “Which of these is the one for me?” He’d already decided on the stallion but he could be reasonably tactful.

      So she showed Cliff Jasper. He was the one.

      The horse and man observed one another, and it was Cliff who went to the horse. Jasper was steady and waiting. And the man gave the horse a sugar cube.

      The bribe made Chancy smile.

      But Cliff’s hands went over Jasper, getting the horse familiar with him. He took up each hoof and looked at each one. And during all that time, Cliff was running his hands over the horse and talking to him.

      It was interesting but not unknown for Chancy to watch. The man and the horse were getting acquainted. Cliff was showing the horse that he was his. And the horse appeared to consider that quite easily.

      She wondered why the horse accepted a stranger when she hadn’t been able to get his attention at all. He’d been reasonably tolerant of her, but he had discarded being her horse.

      It was rather irritating to see a man get that close to a horse so quickly.

      

      In the next month, Cliff worked as if God had sent him to them to spare the rest of the crew of the responsibility for...the Chancy one.

      Probably the biggest surprise was that she was a jolt to a single man who was diligent in his activities. Those that concerned the place. Without any warning, she was in the group and determined to be a part of it. She owned the place.

      She simply did not have the muscle or the strength to handle what a man could do so easily.

      She did not obey rules laid down that were brief, logical and few. She went off when she chose. She joined and intruded on smooth work and jostled them all. She startled placid animals and infuriated busy men...who loved her.

      It was Cliff who took the reins of the days and the rest could just watch and be critical.

      That critical didn’t last long. Cliff offered for any of them to take the budding female on—to direct and control her. Nobody volunteered.

      Clashes between Chancy and Cliff happened. And some arguments. Those were courteous, so far.

      Chancy did ride a horse. Not the calm one Cliff allotted to her. No. She sneaked onto Cliff’s horse. There were sharp whistles so that the whole, entire crew all watched what Cliff would do about that.

      When he saw what she’d done, he got on her horse and whistled at his, who was under her and riding away like the wind.

      The whistle was to stop... and his horse did stop. The horse almost had to rear, clear up, to keep her on his back. With his rider stable, the horse had turned and looked at Cliff with some interest.

      Of course, Chancy was flicking the ends of the reins against the horse and urging his sides with her naked boot heels to get him to go again. She was earnest and determined—but even her rein strokes were kind. She was simply indicating seriously that she wanted the horse to do as she chose.

      That was logical.

      Cliff pulled her horse up alongside her and the prancing Jasper. Cliff took the reins from her hands as he got off her horse.

      He told her through his teeth, “They are both brown coated. But if you look closely, you’ll be able to tell which is Jasper and which is your own horse.”

      Then he put his arm around the lower part of her torso and lifted her effortlessly from his horse. He had the audacity of lifting her then onto her own horse, as if she’d made a mistake.

      She glanced around, but no one else was anywhere around that she could see. So she looked again at Cliff. She tilted her sober-faced head, waiting for an apology from Cliff.

      He gave none.

      Cliff swung up on his own horse and just trotted it away, leaving her there with her own horse. She was owner of the land. He didn’t give a damn.

      He had told Chancy that his horse was not trained as an exercise horse. He was a working horse. He obeyed enough. He didn’t need any stranger getting up on him and demanding other rules. He was not a pet.

      The horse, Jasper, was a partner. He was willing to carry a saddle and a man...if there was a reason. But he did not take to just roaming without some goal.

      Cliff had learned to call the horse’s name of Jasper. If Jasper hadn’t anything to control or find, he’d get bored and just stop. Or he’d go looking for something interesting.

      The horse’s curiosity sometimes led to a real wrangle of wills. He’d take the bit in his teeth and just...go!

      Actually, Jasper was a whole lot like the male version of the budding female. Like Chancy. But Chancy was more kind.

      There were increasing times that Cliff wondered how had her daddy known to name her thataway, right away, when she was born?

      From what Cliff had heard, her parents hadn’t been ordinary. And maybe not even—normal. They’d been a little weird. Their attachment had been too intense. But from what Cliff had heard, they’d understood limits.

      How come their daughter had turned out as curious as she was? As determined and independent? And yet. And yet, with all that, she kept her courtesy and interest in others.

      But she was a handful.

      Chancy was