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doing?”
    The horn-rims rested on his face, sharpening the gaze he directed at me. “What are you doing?”
    I considered not answering. I had asked first. Then I thought about how ridiculous the whole conversation was.
    I smiled at him. “Working the kinks out of my thoughts so I can sleep. How about you?” My smile grew. “Plotting?”
    He scowled at me. The moonlight limned the angles of his face and shadowed his hair and eyes. “Let’s just say, I was working.”
    I hid the laughter that welled up; maybe Lenore was right about him. If he wanted to act out his spy novels, let him. Fantasy is healthy for the soul.
    I looked beyond him. “What were you doing in the barn?”
    “I wasn’t in the barn.”
    He had been, I thought. But what difference did it make? He had as much right as I did to wander around in the darkness, no matter what he was doing.
    “Good night,” he said abruptly, as if he had no more to say to me. He probably didn’t.
    I watched him go. He disappeared into the darkness quickly, so dark and silent, and within a minute or two I became aware of how vulnerable I felt. The world seemed huge and I so small; I started to head back toward my cabin, intent on rediscovering sleep, but yet another individual stopped me. “Midnight assignation?” crooned Harper’s drawling voice.
    I spun around and clapped a hand over my mouth to keep from crying out, but also to stop the curse that came leaping to my tongue. My heart was doing flipflops again. “No,” I told him curtly, still frightened half to death.
    “I see.” He obviously didn’t, but that was immaterial. He was wearing a hat and a down vest, holding a big flashlight. But it wasn’t turned on.
    I sighed and hugged my ribs against the cold. “Since you ask—I was out walking. I couldn’t sleep. ”
    “Hungry, I imagine. You should be, with no supper.”
    I smiled at him. I doubted a denial would do much good. He smiled in return. “Ma’am, if you’ll permit me, I’d like to escort you up to the Lodge for a bite of something. I doubt you can stand to lose even a pound off those skinny bones of yours.”
    I blinked at him in shock. “Do you talk to all your guests like this?”
    “No. Just the ones who deserve it.” He smiled inoffensively. “Want some food?”
    I sighed, regaining some of my composure. Not enough, but some. “You didn’t come down here just to find a dinner partner. What are you doing?”
    “Checking the place. Part of my job.”
    “That’s right,” I agreed at once. “It is something glue might do.” I grinned at his frown of incomprehension. “Cass called you that. Sort of the glue that holds the ranch together. But why,” I asked, “are you doing it in the dark?” I looked pointedly at the flashlight.
    He hefted it briefly. “Batteries went out on me. But the moon’s bright, so I don’t really need it. I saw you easily enough.”
    “And the writer?”
    “I saw him. Now—shall we go?”
    I thought about food. I thought about my empty stomach. I thought about the cowboy’s company and decided I could overlook a little plain speech in exchange for something hot and filling. But I couldn’t let him get away with it. “People pay me for looking like this, you know. ”
    “They don’t pay you to starve,” he retorted bluntly. “Come along. ”
    Harper Young took me up to the Lodge and into the big, gleaming kitchen. On the outside the Lodge looked like an old-fashioned ranch house; the kitchen was a showplace of modern fixtures and utensils. Copper-bottomed pots and pans hung from a giant pegboard, gleaming accents to the adobe-colored walls. Counters held blenders and microwaves and other modern items of convenience. Not much of the old chuckwagon here, I thought, even if I was in the company of a genuine cowboy.
    Harper gestured toward a breakfast bar and I climbed up on a tall stool. I watched as he set a frying pan on a burner and filled it with a steak from the huge refrigerator.
    I