Christmas Cowboy Read online

  He shifted restlessly, but he made no move to attack her as she reached up and put some of the salve very delicately on the bad places on his head. From there she moved to his injured flanks, wincing at the cuts. She put salve on those, too, but she could tell they needed stitching. It was no wonder that he was still in this condition. He’d injured anyone who came near him. He was afraid of men, because a man had hurt him. Women, on the other hand, were not enemies.

  She finished her work, smoothed her hand over his mane and laid her head against his neck. “Brave, sweet boy,” she whispered. “What a wonderful horse you are, Hurricane.”

  He moved his head against her. She patted him one more time and left the stall, securing the lock. She smiled at the horse and told him goodbye before she walked back down the aisle where the men were.

  “The cuts on his flank really need stitching, I think,” she said softly. “But he’s afraid of men. A man hurt him. Women didn’t.” She looked up at Ren. “Do you have a female vet anywhere within driving distance?”

  Ren started. She was right. The horse hated men. “There’s one over in Powell, I think. I could send one of the boys to bring her here.”

  “He’ll probably let her stitch him.”

  “You can come out and work witchcraft on him to get her in the stall, can’t you?” Ren asked sarcastically.

  She drew in a breath and turned away. She didn’t bother to answer him as she left.

  He stared after her with mixed feelings. He hated women. But that one… She was different. All the same, he wasn’t letting her close enough to bite, even if that wild horse would.

  “You shouldn’t be so harsh with her, Mister Ren,” the older cowboy said quietly. “Looks to me like she’s had some of that at home already.”

  He turned and glared at the cowboy, who tipped his hat, turned and lit a shuck out of the stable.

  * * *

  Merrie went to her room. She wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t! That bad Wyoming man wasn’t going to upset her.

  She pulled out her drawing pad and her pencils and went to work on a study of the horse she’d treated. He was so beautiful. Black as night. Soft as silk. She was drawn to him, because he was like her. He’d been through the wars, too.

  It took a long time to finish the drawing. She colored it with pastel pencils, delicately. When she finished, she had an awesome portrait of Hurricane. She smiled as she put it in the case with her other drawings. She’d do one of Ren, she decided. But she’d have to make a decision about whether to put just horns, or horns and a forked tail on the picture.

  Don’t miss

  WYOMING BRAVE

  by New York Times bestselling author

  Diana Palmer,

  available February 2017 wherever

  HQN Books and ebooks are sold.

  www.Harlequin.com

  Copyright © 2017 by Diana Palmer

  ISBN: 9781488024160

  CHRISTMAS COWBOY

  Copyright © 1997 by Diana Palmer

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