She Got the Chuck Wagon as a Punishment — One Roundup Later the Trail Bosses Fought Over Her

Chapter 2

Benjamin Hollister came home two days later, and Eleanor’s first sight of him was through the kitchen window—a tall, deliberate man stepping down from a tired horse, standing in his own yard like a stranger in it.

Up close he had quiet eyes with weather behind them, and he took off his hat and said, “Ma’am, I expect you’d be Miss Cade,” in a voice that was courteous and careful and gave away nothing.

But when she mentioned something from one of his letters—just a small thing about the spring grass—a stillness crossed his face, quick as a cloud shadow, and was gone.

Eleanor noticed. She was made of noticing.

She filed it away.

He said supper could wait, that she should settle in first, and he gave her the room at the end of the hall and treated her with a gentleness so cautious it felt like being handled with gloves.

Some women might have found it cold.