Rancher's Girl

By Jeanne Harrell

When pretty Lily Cable moves to a small town in Nevada to rebuild her life, the last thing on her mind was falling for local rancher Sandy Johnson. Neither was interested in any romance whatsoever. But they had more in common than they thought: He's a cowboy poet and she loves Jane Austen. They might have had a chance when old family secrets are exposed that throw their love in jeopardy.
Novella

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeanne Harrell
• Release date: Sep 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301964628

Jeanne Harrell

Jeanne Harrell is an author who lives and writes romantic stories occurring in the Wild West. Her sweet and relatively innocent Western books include the Rancher series, The Westerners Series and Avila Beach Winery Series. Cowboys, Indians, stagecoaches and John Ford movies captured her interest long ago and held it. She lives in Nevada and captures many beautiful Western scenes with photos, found on her website. What she loves best is to tangle two strong characters, emboil them in conflict and let them hash it out. P.S. Jeanne also writes mysteries as SJ Slagle and children's books as Sinda Cheri Floyd.

Book preview

RANCHER’S GIRL

Jeanne Harrell

Smashwords Edition

Copyright, 2013

RANCHER’S GIRL

Published by

Jeanne Harrell on Smashwords

Thank you for downloading my book! I am happy you have made it part of your library.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

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CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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To Jane Austen for all her advice and wisdom.

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PROLOGUE

The sky was as dark and blustery as Lily’s mind. She knew there had to be more to life than this… A strange place was calling her, just as the wind picked up dust to blow in her eyes. Wiping them with a tissue brought tears as well as dirt. Her old car climbed laboriously up and down the noisy streets, looking for the sign that would show her the way out. So many people were walking along the sidewalks -- bustling, talking and laughing. The Chinese bakery with its unique smells beckoned to her one more time.

Mist from the harbor crept over her. She shivered and buttoned her jacket. Inhaling that fresh ocean smell, she would miss the port with all its diversions and familiarity. There is no place in the world like this one, but her needs were greater than the City could accommodate. A little peace was needed and it wouldn’t be found here. Not now… It was time to try something new. She would need a different reason to come back here.

Would a change of scene do it? Repair that hole in her heart and rearrange her senses? She was leaving a place she loved for the unknown. At that moment, Lily felt like she had kicked herself out of Paradise.

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CHAPTER ONE

The hot Nevada air was as dry as a bone. From her window, the low hills, in the not so far away distance, fronted the snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountain range. A hawk glided within view, tracking a motionless hare hiding in the sagebrush. Coyotes made their presence known only by sound. Old and getting older described the building where Lily found herself. There was dry rot around the door, the plumbing was questionable, paint was peeling off the walls and she was thrilled to be here.

At least her room was a good size. The room at her last job felt like a broom closet. Room space is always tight and last person hired, gets the crappy room. Apparently, that was a universal law in school management. It was her first year at Naples Elementary School and she had just landed a job here. Naples was a small community in an historic western area south of Carson City, Nevada. The town was advertised to be the oldest community in Nevada with the oldest bar, the oldest this and the oldest that. The downtown area was ringed with spacious ranches and huge homes leading up the jagged road to Lake Tahoe. You just couldn’t beat it for all out landscape beauty. Hers had been quite a rapid move from San Francisco but when she had decided to act, she did. Coming to Naples had been her dad’s idea. He had lived there for a while as a child and had wonderful memories of the area. She was hoping there were still a few people in town who might remember her family.

Lily smiled again at the four students facing her. She had a limited number because of their learning difficulties. Arturo, Jesse, Sara and Cole were all five years old and as cute as cute could be. They sat watching her and couldn’t be more cooperative. Lily knew from classroom experience that all her students cooperating at the same time was a rare event, so she decided to bring out the poetry while she could. After reading a book about horses to her students, one of them, Jesse, became quite animated.

Do you know that my daddy has bunches of horses on our ranch? They are black and brown and white and copper and…. Jesse brightened as he continued describing their horses. My daddy lets me ride all the time. We go down by the stream and fish sometimes. Lily thought Jesse was adorable. He had on a bright red Western shirt and jeans with a belt buckle that had a J on it. His clear blue eyes looked right through her with the intensity of his feelings. A mop of blonde hair that stuck out in lots of places would occasionally fall in his face that he would automatically push back. It was a never-ending struggle-- Jesse and that hair.

Yeah, Jesse has all these horses and we go and ride sometimes, said Arturo. He did his work slowly but steadily, which was beginning to endear him to Lily.

Jesse’s dad takes us all up to his ranch sometimes. I ride the black horse named Scout when I’m up there. My mommy thinks Jesse’s dad is just the greatest. She said he’s cute too! added Sara with Cole nodding his head. They were twins with attention deficit problems making it difficult for Lily to keep them focused on the task at hand.

It was obvious they were all about to burst with more comments about Jesse’s ranch and horse stories, so she decided to get going with her lesson plan before it fell apart.

Jesse, tell me one thing you remember about our story today, asked Lily.

Jesse thought about that for a minute before answering.

Well, the wild horse wanted to be free and so he knocked down the gate.

Very good! Arturo, what is one thing you remember?

Hmm…..um……I think the little girl got mad at him or something.

Okay, that’s pretty close. Let’s take a look at that page to see what she did, said Lily. She went on with her lesson to elicit more responses from the children. The twins would blurt answers out of turn, while Arturo would raise his hand.

Next Lily took out one of her poems. She was a poet at heart who loved writing down abstract notions that came into her head. This poem was about a horse that she had seen riding through a field by her house at dusk. The horse had taken her breath away with his speed and sense of purpose. Where in the world was he going? She read the lines telling of the orange and red evening sky, and the sounds the horse made as he galloped as fast he could. The children listened spellbound with an occasional oo and ah spilling out.

That’s really cool, Miss Cable, said Cole. Could we do that too?

That is exactly what I want you to do, Cole. Everyone take a piece of paper from your desks and I will help you write a special poem.

For the next thirty minutes, Lily helped the children write a poem about a horse. Jesse knitted his brow, licked the tip of his pencil and wrote what he was thinking, obviously deep in thought. Arturo broke his pencil and took his time looking for the separate parts that fell under his desk. Sara gazed absent-mindedly out the window. Cole was more industrious and kept writing while Lily instructed, although he had to tell her what he was doing every other minute.

In time, they all had a few lines written. After reading their poems aloud, Lily asked them to draw some kind of picture on their papers below their poems that took them the rest of the school time. The bell rang before they had finished putting all papers, crayons, markers and pencils away.

We’ll finish this Monday, everyone. Have a nice weekend! Lily laughed as the noisy children all bumped into each other trying to put things away and get out the door as fast as they could.

Jesse ran up to her desk.

Would you like to ride my horse sometime, Miss Cable? asked Jesse smiling. He had fallen into Arturo picking up his Iron Man backpack and was nursing a bruised knee. The mop of hair fell in his face again. Could he be any cuter? Lily looked longingly at his little heart-shaped face. She remembered something and then pushed the thought away.

I would like that very much, Jesse. How nice of you to ask me. But maybe you should ask your dad first. Don’t you think you should do that?

Ask me what? said a deep voice from the classroom door.

That couldn’t have been one of her students. Lily looked up from Jesse to his