was," said Bill, the corral boss, who was doing the selecting, not too graciously.
But by the beginning of the second week Kay had got herself in hand once more, was determined to fight her infatuation. For an entire day she stayed around the ranch: house, listening to the conversations on the verandah; New York, San Francisco, Chicago. The wealthier ranchers, it appeared, had been in the habit of going East or West to escape the bitter winters. And that night she made her own effort to escape.
"Why don't we go on to Santa Barbara, mother?"
"I thought you loved it here," said Katherine, astonished.
"So I do, but—I don't think it's very good for you."
"I can't leave your father."
And, as if he had missed her the day before, the next morning Tom came to the house and asked her to ride with him.
"I've got to go up the North fork to look for some horses, and I thought maybe you'd like to come along."
She almost paled with excitement.
"If I won't be in the way."
He looked at her with his attractive smile.
"You're going to work," he told her. "You can ride, which is more than your little friend Percy can do." He glanced toward the office window. "I'm taking out an assistant wrangler, and you're it."
She ran into the house, caught up her hat and gloves and flew out again. She never heard Jake's voice from the office: "I figure if we would put that lower fifteen hundred into wheat" The golden haze over the valley was star dust, and Tom McNair waiting at the foot of the steps was a young god, condescending to her.
"We're going into the mountains, aren't we?"
"Unless the North fork's moved down!"
It was only later that she realized how sure of her he had been. The chestnut gelding she had been riding was already saddled beside his horse in the barn. He had even provided a lunch for two, rolled in a slicker and tied to his cantle. She was too breathless, too tremulous, to notice it then.
