Keegan's Lady Read Online Free PDF Page A

Patrick she wanted to vomit. Shooting someone's bull was a hanging offense in a community that owed its survival to the successful breeding of beef cattle. "There must be some mistake. Patrick wouldn't do something so stupid."
    Behind her, the men who stood around Patrick's horse seemed to exude malevolence. She sensed their readiness—no, their eagerness—to slap the rump of the pinto and watch her brother kick at the end of a rope.
    "Stupid," Keegan said. "Now there's a word. Stupid drunk, to be exact."
    Caitlin flashed a horrified glance over her shoulder at Patrick. He said nothing, just gazed at her with imploring eyes. His silence attested to his guilt.
    "I, um ..." She turned back to Keegan. "Please, Mr. Keegan." She gestured toward the hanging noose. "This is no way to settle things. Let's go in the house, have a nice cup of tea, calm down. If we put our heads together, I'm sure we can resolve this matter in a way that will be satisfactory to us all."
    She thought she glimpsed a humorous twist of his firm lips. "Tea?"
    By the way he said "tea," Caitlin guessed he considered the stuff scarcely better than poison. She searched frantically for an alternative. "Coffee, then?"
    He made a low huffing sound under his breath that she presumed was meant to be a laugh. "I don't think so, Miss O'Shannessy. Your brother has been a thorn in my side since the day I got here. You know it, I know it, and so does everybody else in town. In short, I've taken all the shit off of him I'm going to."
    "I know Patrick has tried your patience, Mr. Keegan. And I can't really say I blame you for wanting to take a strip out of his hide."
    "Caitlin!" Patrick interjected in a hushed voice. "What in God's name are you saying?"
    Striving to ignore her brother, she went on, "And if he did kill your bull, I’m in absolute agreement that he should be punished. It's just that hanging him seems a little extreme. Don't you agree?"
    "If I agreed, I wouldn't be here." Holding up a large hand, Keegan began to take count on his long, blunted fingers. "In the last three months, your brother has insulted me in public and called me a coward for not meeting him in the street with guns blazing. He's poured rock salt in two of my best watering holes and poisoned another, costing me twenty-three head. He's cut my newly strung fences on countless occasions, spooked my cattle, and taken pot shots at my hired hands. Trust me when I say that, at this point, nothing I might choose to do strikes me as being extreme."
    With each count Keegan named off against her brother, Caitlin flinched. Stupid, so stupid. When he got drunk, Patrick didn't have the sense to pour water out of a boot. "I know he's been difficult. But has it occurred to you that perhaps you're as responsible for this ongoing battle between the two of you as he is?"
    "Me?" Keegan said incredulously. "Me, responsible? I don't think so."
    Her voice going squeaky with desperation, Caitlin plunged on. "Maybe, just maybe, if you tried to put yourself in his shoes, the things Patrick has done would be a little easier to understand."
    "I'll tell you what, Miss O'Shannessy. You understand him. I'll get even for the loss of my bull by hanging his ass. Then we'll both be happy."
    Tucking her rifle in the crook of her arm, she held up a shaky hand. "Let's not be hasty. You're about to make a mistake you're bound to regret. Just look at it from Patrick's side. In a manner of speaking, you've provoked my brother into doing most of those things."
    Caitlin took it as an encouraging sign that Keegan didn't interrupt her. Her voice still tremulous, she said, "The very first thing out of the bag when you came to town, you lured him into a poker game and relieved him of the deed to several thousand acres of prime ranch land. Then, while he was still upset over that, you began making all sorts of allegations against our father and his friends, accusing them of a swindle, not to mention murder. You even had the effrontery to