Red Thunder Reckoning. Sylvie Kurtz

needed to be by herself. She needed to concentrate on the horses. She needed to know her own mind, her own strength, before she allowed another man to touch her life. “I’ve got to go.”

      “Ellen?”

      He had to leave. Tonight. Bancroft and his manipulations were giving her enough to worry about without adding a man like Kevin to the mix. “He’s got Apollo in the barn. I need to go check on his legs.”

      “Sure.” Taryn hesitated. “Ellen?”

      “What?”

      “You can’t judge every man by what Garth did to you.”

      “I know that.” She jerked the pantry door open and snatched a box of spaghetti from the shelf. Horses, dogs and otherwise smart women trusted him. “He’s not Garth. I can see that with my own eyes.”

      “But can you see it with your heart?”

      She slapped the box of pasta onto the counter. “Of course.”

      Taryn sighed. “That’s what I thought.”

      Ellen muttered a curse. “All right, I’m going to prove you wrong. I’m going to let him stay.”

      Where had that come from? Was she so easily influenced that she could change her mind in the space of a second? Shaking, she turned to the window. Her gaze scouted through the encroaching darkness. Kevin’s bent silhouette walked the pasture as if he was searching for something.

      She’d forgotten about the trigger. What had started the mad stampede? Apollo was still too hurt to run for the sheer pleasure of it. Where was her mind? Why hadn’t she thought to look for the cause? Was her memory affected as well as her balance and her ability to focus her eyes?

      The shroud of evening tightened around the ranch. Shadows lengthened and stretched across the yard like the bars of a cage.

      “That’s a good start,” Taryn said. “But don’t do it for me.”

      “For the horses.” I’m healthy. I’m strong. I can take care of myself. I can handle having a simple ranch hand doing chores around the ranch.

      “Of course.” Taryn sounded amused.

      Ellen rolled her eyes. Why was it that married folks were in such a hurry to have you join in their misery? “Go back to your husband and baby. I’ve got a pair of legs to go doctor.”

      “Let it never be said I stood in the way of a good vetting.” Taryn’s voice warbled with laughter.

      “Tell me again why I called you.”

      “For my unbiased opinion about your stubbornness.”

      “Right. Remind me not to do that again.”

      “It’s a question of balance, Ellen.”

      “I know.” And right now, she was on the wrong side of the fulcrum.