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well as the scene she had inadvertently stumbled upon, she hurried after Juanita.
    It was only later that Lily wondered how Cade would keep a child without a woman to care for her—and visions of glowing gold curls began to dance in her head.

 
     
     
    Chapter 3

     
    Cade didn't arrive Sunday morning as promised. Lily set her jaw and stoically went about her chores, ignoring the grumbles of the men as she set them to their various tasks. She had promised them a foreman, and they were certain she was reneging on her promise. Hung over as they were after a Saturday night on the town, they weren't exactly willing to listen to reason. Nor were they particularly interested in listening to a woman's decisions. She read the rebelliousness in their eyes as she sent some to riding the fields and others to mending fences.
    Normally, Lily didn't allow herself the pleasure of anger, but she couldn't stave it off now. She had spent well over a month worrying herself to death over Jim's disappearance, but no one seemed to care about that. Their only concern was for their own male pride. She could lose everything she had worked for these last nine years, and it would all be the fault of every infuriating male she had ever come in contact with. The whole gender was highly overrated in her opinion. She only wished she could tell them all so.
    Instead, Lily hitched the wagon, checked her rifle, and headed into town. She had a very good idea where she would find one Cade Whatever-his-name-was.
    * * *
    Lily drove directly to the little shanty on the back street of the now-silent town. She was too angry to know what she intended to do when she got there, but Cade saved her the problem. As she drove through the dust she could see him sprawled along the front step where the child had sat the day before. His long legs appeared to take up half the narrow side street as he leaned with elbows back in the doorway. As she watched, he lifted his arm to drink from a flask in his hand.
    He was drunk. Fury flared even higher as Lily stopped near a conveniently placed public pump. Filling the pail with a few hard strokes, she stalked to where the man half-sat, half-lay, blissfully ignoring her. With a single swing of the pail, Lily drenched him from head to toe.
    Before Cade had time to do more than splutter and shake his head from the force of the deluge, Lily stepped back and launched into the tirade that had been building all morning.
    "You're going to cost me my ranch! Do you have any idea how long and hard I've worked and slaved on that blasted piece of dirt, and you'll throw it all to the winds feeling sorry for yourself? Hell, my husband's gone and I don't even know where he is, but I'm not sitting around moping about it. I'm keeping that ranch if I have to drown you to do it."
    He was beginning to rise like some great monolithic beast, stirring massive legs and flexing arms that resembled small tree trunks. If she hadn't been so blamed mad, Lily would have felt fear. Instead, she caught sight of a small golden head peeping out the doorway, and with more courage than sense, she darted forward, grabbed the child, and headed back for the wagon.
    That brought the monster to his feet with a roar.
    The child laughed and clapped her hands as Lily set her on the wagon seat and her father stormed down the road with murder in his eyes.
    Lily picked up her rifle and calmly aimed it at him. "I'm taking her out to the ranch. When you're sober enough to ride out, you can come claim her."
    Cade stalked right past her to the oxen's heads. With a swift jerk of his bare hands, he dismantled the yoke, rendering the reins useless. Giving Lily a look of pure rage, he stalked past her again, this time in the direction of the house.
    For the first time, Lily acknowledged the trickle of fear running down her spine. She had dealt with the ignorant and the stupid, she had learned how to handle violence, she knew how to demand respect from the best and worst of men, but she