Justice at Cardwell Ranch

Dana didn’t like the idea of bringing in a stranger to take care of Hud and the kids, but the babies kicked and she nodded.

“Doc said I was going to have to watch you like a hawk,” Hud told her on the way home. Apparently while she was getting dressed, Dr. Burr had been bending his ear, down the hall in her office. “You always try to do too much. With the kids, the ranch, me—”

“I’ll be good.”

He gave her a disbelieving look.

“Marshal, would you like a sworn affidavit?”

He grinned over at her. “Actually, I’m thinking about handcuffing you to the bed. I reckon it will be the only way I can keep you down for a day let alone weeks.”

Dana groaned as she realized how hard it was going to be to stay in bed. “What about Hank and Mary? They won’t understand why their mommy can’t be up and around, let alone outside with them and their animals.” Both of them had their own horses and loved to ride.

“I’ve already put in for a leave. Liza can handle things. Anyway, it’s in between resort seasons so it’s quiet.”

September through the middle of November was slow around Big Sky with the summer tourists gone and ski season still at least a month away.

Dana knew October was probably a better time than any other for her husband to be off work. That wasn’t the problem. “Hud, I hate to see you have to babysit me and the kids.”

“It’s not babysitting when it’s your wife and kids, Dana.”

“You know what I mean. There are the kids and the ranch—”

“Honey, you’ve been trying to do it all for too long.”

She had been juggling a lot of balls for some time now, but Hud always helped on the weekends. Their ranch manager, Warren Fitzpatrick, was getting up in years so he had really slowed down. But Warren was a fixture around the ranch, one she couldn’t afford to replace. More than anything, she loved the hands-on part of ranching so she spent as much time as she could working the land.

When she’d found out she was pregnant this time she’d been delighted, but a little worried how she was going to handle another child right now.

Then the doctor had told her she was having twins. Twins? Seriously?

“Are you all right?” Hud asked as he placed his hand over hers and squeezed.

She smiled and nodded. “I’m always all right when I’m with you.”

He gave her hand another squeeze before he went back to driving. “I’m taking you home. Then I’ll go by the shop and pick up the kids.” Her friend Hilde had the kids in Big Sky. “But I’d better not find out you were up and about while I was gone.”

Dana shook her head and made a cross with her finger over her heart. She lay back and closed her eyes, praying as she had since the spotting had begun that the babies she was carrying would be all right. Mary and Hank were so excited about the prospect of two little brothers or sisters. She couldn’t disappoint them.

She couldn’t disappoint anyone, especially her mother, she thought. While Mary Justice Cardwell had been gone six years now, she was as much a part of the ranch as the old, two-story house where Dana lived with Hud and the kids. Her mother had trusted her to keep Cardwell Ranch going. Against all odds she was doing her darnedest to keep that promise.

So why did she feel so scared, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop?

Chapter Two

Jordan watched Deputy Liza Turner ride her horse out of the pines. The past six years had been good to her. She’d been pretty back then. Now there was a confidence as if she’d grown into the woman she was supposed to become. He recalled how self-assured and efficient she’d been at her job. She was also clearly at home on the back of a horse.

The trees cast long shadows over the stark landscape. Wind whirled the dried leaves that now floated in the air like snowflakes.

“Jordan Cardwell,” she said as she reined in her horse at the edge of the cemetery.

He came out through the gate, stopping to look up at her. “Deputy.” She had one of those faces that was almost startling in its uniqueness. The green eyes wide, captivating and always filled with curiosity. He thought she was more interesting than he remembered. That, he realized, was probably because she was out of uniform.

She wore jeans and a red-checked Western shirt that made her dark hair appear as rich as mahogany. She narrowed those green eyes at him. Curiosity and suspicion, he thought.

“I’m surprised to see you here,” she said, a soft lilt to her voice. She had a small gap between her two front teeth, an imperfection, that he found charming.

“I don’t know why you’d be surprised. My sister might have inherited the ranch but I’m still family.”

She smiled at that and he figured she knew all about what had happened after his mother had died—and her new will had gone missing.

“I didn’t think you’d ever come back to the ranch,” she said.

He chuckled. “Neither did I. But people change.”

“Do they?” She was studying him in a way that said she doubted he had. He didn’t need to read her expression to know she was also wondering what kind of trouble he’d brought back to the canyon with him. The horse moved under her, no doubt anxious to get going.

“Your horse seems impatient,” he said. “Don’t let me keep you from your ride.” With a tip of his hat, he headed down the mountain to the ranch house where he’d been raised.

It seemed a lifetime ago. He could barely remember the man he’d been then. But he would be glad to get off the property before his sister and her husband returned. He planned to put off seeing them if at all possible. So much for family, he thought.

WHEN DANA OPENED HER EYES, she saw that they’d left the wide valley and were now driving through the Gallatin Canyon. The “canyon” as it was known, ran from the mouth just south of Gallatin Gateway almost to West Yellowstone, fifty miles of winding road that trailed the river in a deep cut through the mountains.

The drive along the Gallatin River had always been breathtaking, a winding strip of highway that followed the blue-ribbon trout stream up over the continental divide. This time of year the Gallatin ran crystal clear over green-tinted boulders. Pine trees grew dark and thick along its edge and against the steep mountains. Aspens, their leaves rust-reds and glittering golds, grew among the pines.

Sheer rock cliffs overlooked the highway and river, with small areas of open land, the canyon not opening up until it reached Big Sky. The canyon had been mostly cattle and dude ranches, a few summer cabins and homes—that was until Big Sky resort and the small town that followed at the foot of Lone Mountain.

Luxury houses had sprouted up all around the resort. Fortunately, some of the original cabins still remained and the majority of the canyon was national forest so it would always remain undeveloped. The “canyon” was also still its own little community, for which Dana was grateful. This was the only home she’d known and, like her stubborn ancestors, she had no intention of ever leaving it.

Both she and Hud had grown up here. They’d been in love since junior high, but hit a rocky spot some years ago thanks to her sister. Dana didn’t like to think about the five years she and Hud had spent apart as they passed the lower mountain resort area and, a few miles farther, turned down the road to Cardwell Ranch.

Across the river and a half mile back up a wide valley, the Cardwell Ranch house sat against a backdrop of granite cliffs, towering dark pines and glittering aspens. The house was a big, two-story rambling affair with a wide front porch and a brick-red metal roof. Behind it stood a huge weathered barn and some outbuildings and corrals.

Dana never felt truly at home until they reached the ranch she’d fought tooth and nail to save. When Mary Justice Cardwell had been bucked off a horse and died six years ago, Dana had thought all was lost. Her mother’s original will when her children were young left the ranch to all of them.

Mary hadn’t realized until her children were grown that only Dana would keep the ranch. The others would sell it, take the profits and never look back until the day they regretted what they’d done. By then it would be too late. So her mother had made a new will, leaving the ranch to her. But her mother had hidden it where she hoped her daughter would find it. Fortunately, Dana had found it in time to save the ranch.

The will had put an end to her siblings’ struggle to force her to sell the land and split the profits with them. Now her three siblings were paid part of the ranch’s profit each quarter. Not surprisingly, she hadn’t heard from any of them since the will had settled things six years before.

As Hud pulled into the ranch yard, Dana spotted a car parked in front of the old house and frowned. The car was an older model with California plates.

“You didn’t already hire someone—”

“No,” Hud said before she could finish. “I wouldn’t do that without talking to you first. Do you think the doctor called one of the women she told you about?”

Before Dana could answer, she saw that someone was waiting out on the broad front porch. As Hud pulled in beside the car, the woman stepped from out of the shadows.

“Stacy?” She felt her heart drop. After six years of silence and all the bad feelings from the past, what was her older sister doing here?