Diana Palmer - Connal

B ecause of the date, Penelope knew she wouldnt find him at the barn. That was where he usually was at this hour of the day. Any other time, C. C. Tremayne was always two steps ahead of his men in feeding the animals, especially with the drought that had turned the grass brown and brittle these past few weeks. The drought had been a bad break for her father. Even with the Rio Grande only a few miles away, water was a precious commodity and wells kept going dry, leaving the tanks they filled empty.

West Texas was usually hot in mid-September, but the wind was up and it was unseasonably cold this evening. Penelope had worn a jacket outside, and now she was glad she had. She shivered a little in the late afternoon chill.

It was just beginning to get dark, and Penelope knew that if she didnt get to C.C. before her father did, it was going to mean another nasty quarrel. Ben Mathews and his foreman had been at each others throats enough in recent weeks and Penelope didnt want any more arguments. Her father always got bad-tempered when money was tight. Things couldnt be much worse right now.

C.C. was drinking. She knew it; it was that time of year again. Only Penelope knew the importance of that day in September in C.C.s life. Shed once nursed him through a flu and a raging delirium and hed told her everything. She didnt let on that she knew, of course. C.C.he was called that, although nobody knew what the initials stood fordidnt like anyone knowing private things about him. Not even the girl who loved him more than life.

He didnt love Penelope. He never had, although shed worshiped him since she was nineteen and hed been hired as foreman when her fathers oldest hand retired. It had only taken one long look at the lithe, lean, dark-eyed man with the hawkish features and unsmiling face for her to fall madly in love with him. It was three years later, and her emotions hadnt undergone any changes. Probably they never would. Penelope Mathews was pretty stubborn. Even her dad said so.

She grimaced when she saw the light on in the bunkhouse, and it was not even dark. The other men were out riding herd, because calving was in full swing and everybody was in a mean temper during calving. It meant long hours and little sleep, and it wasnt normal for any of the men to be in the bunkhouse at this hour of the day. That meant it had to be C.C., and he had to be drinking. And liquor was one thing Ben Mathews wasnt about to tolerate on his ranch, not even when it was being abused by a man he liked and respected.

She brushed back her light reddish-brown hair and nibbled on her full lower lip. She had her long, wavy hair in a ponytail and it was tied with a velvet ribbon that just matched her pale brown eyes. She wasnt a pretty girl, but she had a nice figure even if it was a little on the plump side. Not overweight, just rounded, so that she filled out her jeans nicely. Her hair was almost red-gold when the sun hit it, and she had a line of freckles over her straight nose. With a little work, she could have been lovely. But she was a tomboy. She could ride anything and shoot as well as her father. Sometimes she wished she looked like Edie, the wealthy divorcee C.C. dated frequently. Edie was a dish, all blond and blue-eyed and bristling with sophistication. She seemed an odd choice for a ranch foreman, but Penelope tried not to think about it. In her mind, she knew the reason C.C. dated Edie and it hurt.

She paused at the door of the bunkhouse and rubbed nervously at her jeans, tugging her nylon jacket closer against the cold wind. She knocked.