Land of Enchantment (16 page)

Rolling clouds of dust acted as ancient smoke signals to announce the arrival of a vehicle approaching the ranch yard. Matching the eagerness of the new day, Diana turned towards the car, recognizing it almost instantly as the tan sedan belonging to Ty Spalding. It was nice to have visitors, especially someone as charming as Ty. In only passing thought did she wonder why he was coming to the ranch yard instead of joining his crew at the drilling site.

'Good morning,' she called out gaily as the car slowed to a stop a few feet away. 'It's going to be a lovely day, isn't it?'

'It does make you believe spring is just on the other side of that mountain.' He had stepped out of the car and pulled his gaze away from her inwardly shining face with difficulty to look at the golden-kissed eastern horizon.

'Jim told me this morning that he was meeting your crew to take them out to the drilling site,' reverting their conversation back to practicalities.

'Yes, he did. I was just heading out there myself, but I thought I'd stop and…' He halted, a pair of dancing brown eyes turning on her with marked directness. 'The truth is I stopped because I couldn't really believe you were as beautiful as you appeared yesterday. You have my permission to slap my face if you want to.'

The audacity of his words brought a quick gasp of surprise before her sense of humour took over and Diana burst into laughter. His candour and directness were refreshing after being surrounded by the enigmatic remoteness of her husband, especially in the face of their recent quarrels.

'I think I'll reserve the right for a later time,' she ended with a laugh.

'I can't bring myself to call you Mrs. Masters. In the first place, it reminds me that you're married, which I would prefer to forget.'

'And in the second place?' She tried hard to be properly prim and serious, only to succumb to his teasing and flirtatious spirit.

'In the second place, I'd like to find out what name goes with that face.'

'Diana.'

'The name of a goddess, what else?' Ty commented with a mocking widening of his brown eyes. 'Well, Diana, you can just put Ty Spalding's name on the list with all your other admirers.'

'I'm sorry, Ty, but I can't do that.' Her expression bordered on teasing and regret. 'Since I got married, I only keep a list of my friends.'

'That's a pity. I hate to straddle platonic fences.'

'It's either the fence or the gate.'

A rueful yet respectful gleam entered his eyes at her gentle and firmly worded statement. 'In that case, you tell those other fence-sitters to move over, 'cause I'm climbin' on.'

'Welcome aboard, friend,' Diana smiled, holding out her hand to him which he shook with a warm grasp. 'Do you know that outside of the townspeople we trade with, you're the first person I've met from the area?'

'Then I count myself lucky, real lucky. Come spring and summer is when the socializing starts around here, and you're bound to be gobbled up in all that whirl of activity.'

'I can't visualize there ever being a "whirl of social activity" around here,' she laughed.

'That is an exaggeration,' Ty admitted. 'But in our rural little way, we do all right.'

'In that case, come up to the house and have some coffee and sweet rolls while you tell me all about it,' Diana invited.

As they walked to the house, Ty gave her a very embroidered account of some of the more widely attended functions in the area. Her previous assessment at their first meeting that Ty Spalding could be a very charming and amusing companion proved doubly correct. Over coffee, his lighthearted conversation kept a smile on her face, and Diana felt more at ease with herself than since the first day she had set foot on the ranch.

'Pardon the pun, but how did Lije manage to "master" you, Mrs. Masters?' His engaging smile was easy to return.

'He just swept me off my feet,' Diana retorted mischievously, the glow lighting her eyes with jewel-like brilliance at how he had devastated her from the first moment of their meeting.

'I should say how lucky he was,' a rueful chuckle emphasizing Ty's words, 'but Lije Masters is a man who makes his own luck. Ever since I can remember he's always been king of the mountain. It was inevitable that he came home with a fair-haired queen.' His brown eyes flicked around the kitchen. 'I imagine you've already made all the plans to re-do your rather dismal castle.'

Diana glanced around the room with a stranger's eyes, remembering how vivid her distaste had been the first time she had seen it. Pride wouldn't allow her to say that they couldn't afford anything major in the way of re-decorating, so she settled for a noncommittal agreement.

'You women have always amazed me. Give a woman a room, some paint and material and you inevitably turn it into a showplace, regardless of any shoestring budget.'

His casual statement gunned her. With new eyes she looked around the kitchen, trying to visualize how fresh paint and new curtains would transform the room. Before her assessment was complete, a discreet knock was heard at the door. When Diana recovered her wits enough to walk to the door, she was surprised to see Jim Two Pony standing outside. He never knocked. The question in his dark eyes puzzled her even more.

'Come in.' She stepped aside to enforce her unnecessary invitation.

'I noticed Mr. Spalding's car outside,' Jim said, venturing no further than just inside the door. His gaze moved from Diana to the man leaning back in his chair. 'I thought perhaps he wanted to discuss something about the drilling.'

'Actually I was on my way out to the site,' Ty smiled, in an unhurried and condescending manner, 'before Diana invited me in for coffee.' There was the slightest bristling in his gaze as he saw Jim glance at the empty cup on the table.

'I have to check on the herd near there. I'll follow you out.' Jim's face remained impassive despite the crackling tension that had suddenly risen.

'Why don't you have a cup of coffee, Jim?' Diana suggested, glancing from one to the other uncertain what had caused this friction.

'I have a great deal to do with Lije gone,' he declined. The barest softening in his gaze when it turned on her carried a polite but adamant refusal before it turned blandly back to Ty.

Diana could sense the reluctance and irritation that accompanied Ty's slowness in rising from his chair. He hadn't taken one step in the direction of the door as Jim reached out to hold it open for him.

'I'll be outside directly,' Ty told Jim, his hat still in his hand.

Jim nodded, glanced briefly at Diana, then walked out of the door, dosing only the screen door behind him. The smile now on Ty's face held a hint of anger
as he looked at Diana.

'I might have known Lije wouldn't leave you here alone without instructing his faithful little watchdog to look after you,' he said with a cynical twist to his smile.

His patronizing tone towards Jim Two Pony left a sour taste in Diana's mouth. This was the second time Ty had made a disparaging remark about him. She hadn't like it the first time and she found herself being more repulsed this time. But Ty took no notice of the withdrawal in her expression.

'Thanks for the coffee, Diana.' He sat the hat firmly back on his head. 'I'll be seeing you.' A wink emphasized the promise in his voice, then he was through the door, walking briskly ahead of Jim.

In that last span of minutes, the golden aura of happiness that had surrounded her morning vanished. As Diana put the dirty coffee cups in the sink, she tried to fight back at the peculiar unsettled feeling. It hadn't just been Ty's offensive remarks towards Jim, although they had definitely taken the edge off her enjoyment of his company.

She turned, leaning her back against the sink, and let her pensive gaze wander over the kitchen. It had been Ty's offhand comment about a woman's re-decorating prowess on a limited budget. For the life of her, Diana couldn't see how fresh paint and new curtains would 'transform' this disreputable kitchen. The white enamel on the metal stove and cabinets was chipped, but not even re-painting would change their appearance enough to make them more attractive to her eyes. As far as she could see, the answer was a new stove and custom-made wooden cabinets, which they could not afford.

Yet the conversation gnawed at her all the rest of the day. The reason why it bothered her remained out of reach, proving just as disconcerting as the conversation. The evening meal of meat loaf, baked potatoes, and baked beans was in the oven and the coleslaw and strawberry pie were in the refrigerator. The table was all set. The prospect of waiting until Jim arrived demanded more from her patience than Diana possessed.

There was no sign of his jeep outside, and with the memory of the previous night's delay to feed the horses still fresh in her mind, Diana slipped on her jacket and walked down to the stables. Questioning whinnies greeted her entrance as the horses stuck their heads out of the rows of stalls. There was something rather welcoming about the sound. With their graceful heads stretched out towards her, large luminous eyes watching her every move, Diana found them less formidable than before.

A soft, inquiring nicker from a sorrel horse nearest her brought her wandering gaze to it. Its ears were pricked forward in anticipation as it stretched its neck towards her. Hesitantly Diana stepped forward, her hand reaching out for the velvet soft nose to nuzzle. The strip of white that raced across the delicate, gazelle-shaped face accented the shimmering brilliance of its red-brown coat. The soft brown eyes blinked at her with incredible gentleness in their expression.

'You look like a little Bambi fawn,' she commented as she stroked the satiny smooth neck, then added with a quiet laugh, 'an overgrown fawn!'

She glanced at the storage bins where the grain was kept and wished she had paid closer attention last night when Jim had been measuring out the grain and supplements for each horse. There was really noting to feeding the horses, as she had discovered. With Lije away, it would have made one less chore for Jim to do.

Her gaze caught a glimpse of hay stacked near the entrance. There was something she could do that didn't require any measurements before feeding. All she had to do was toss some hay into the mangers. Before the decision was fully formed in her mind, she moved to carry it out. She had one side of the row of stalls completed when the sharp clamour of a bell shattered the contented sounds in the barn. It took a full second for Diana to remember the bell that Jim had hung at the house. She dropped the hay in her hands and raced to the open doorway of the barn.

'Jim, I'm down here!' she called, waving to the dark-haired man standing at the house. She waited in the doorway as he walked to meet her. 'Is anything wrong?' she asked as he drew nearer.

'I thought you might have gone for another one of your walks,' Jim said quietly with just a suggestion of a smile.

'Not after the last time.' She shook her head ruefully. She didn't want to remember that other walk and swiftly changed the subject. 'I was just giving the horses some hay. I would have given them grain, too, but I didn't know how much to give.'

'I'll show you.' Jim was already walking by her into the barn. 'The phone was ringing when I walked into the house,' he said over his shoulder. 'It was Lije calling to let you know he would be driving back in the morning.'

'When will he get here?' Diana asked eagerly, her heart dropping a bit at not being able to talk to him herself. In spite of the estrangement that marked their parting, she missed him terribly.

'The day after tomorrow, probably in the morning,' Jim answered.

'Did you mention that Ty was here to drill the new well?' Why did she ask that? Diana wondered.

'Yes.' Jim glanced at her briefly before opening the grain bins and instructing her in the amount of grain and vitamin and mineral supplements to feed the horses.

Diana was pleased to discover that there really wasn't anything difficult about feeding them once she knew how much. And it was a satisfying experience as well. This time, secure in the knowledge that their meal wasn't burning up in the oven, she accompanied Jim Two Pony when he fed the big bay stallion Malpais.

He was a beautiful animal, sleek, muscular with graceful lines like a Greek statue come to life. Yet for all his size, the stallion was light on his feet, moving playfully around Jim when he entered the sturdy paddock. The full mane and tail and all four legs were jet black, but the rest of his body was the deepest, darkest shade of brown that was still not yet black.

'Where did he get his name Malpais?' Diana asked when Jim had emptied the grain and hay into the manger and walked over to stand beside her.

'Lije mentioned to you about the lava beds on the north border of the ranch, didn't he?'

Vaguely Diana remembered him making some comment about lava beds when they had first met, but she hadn't thought about it further.

'He did mention it once,' she nodded. 'I have to admit that I wasn't curious about them until now. But what have they got to do with Malpais?'

'"Malpais" is the Spanish word for badlands,' Jim explained. 'A most descriptive term for the twisting, black river of rock that stretches for miles. The rock is black or like the stallion, nearly black.'

'I had no idea there were volcanoes here,' she murmured.

'These lava flows come from the eruptions of Mount Taylor and El Tintero. Their liquid fire spread southward, killing every living thing in its path and destroying anything else. Occasionally the river of lava would split into two streams and leave an oasis of green trees and grass, puny island remnants of productive land. Eventually the lava hardened, but usually from the outside, leaving the lava flowing within to create caverns and ice caves. In places, the roofs of these caves are paper-thin. One step on top and a man could fall through with never a way out. The human eye cannot detect the difference between the solid rock and the treacherous roofs.'