Shit! Things had been going so well between them. Even though she hadn’t liked being punished from a physical sense, the structure and discipline that Luc had been providing had given her a sense of well-being, self-confidence, and if she had to admit it, love. There. She hadn’t said it to anyone or even admitted it to herself. But she had fallen in love with her strong, bullfighting cowboy.

Melody also realized that he was right... there should be no secrets between them. But if she conquered her fear on her own, then she would no longer be afraid and no longer have a secret. She wasn’t sure why it was so important to her that her friends and lover never knew that the enormous beasts they took as an ordinary part of life were terrifying to her. Well, all but Queenie. Surely there was a way to use her comfort with Queenie to get over her fear.

She was just about to call Sierra when her phone rang with a call from the very same person.

“Good morning, Sierra,” said Melody.

“Hi. You all right? Luc seemed pretty pissed under that cowboy stoic thing they do.”

“Most of me is just dandy.”

Sierra giggled. “I take it your backside not so much?”

Melody joined in her laughter. “What’s worse is I’m told I’m grounded. That is the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t push him. Ryder said you scared the both of them to death. Me too, truth be told.”

“I wasn’t thinking...”

“Obviously,” teased her friend.

“Tell me, why is it they think if they punish our ass, it’ll make our brains work better?”

“Not sure, but I have to tell you... it works.”

Melody sighed. “I know. It’s so annoying.”

“I kind of figured he might want you close to home. How about if I come over there?”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. I’ll see you in about half an hour.”

They hung up. Melody grabbed her coffee and walked out onto the porch just as Luc got to the top of the steps. In his fist was a bouquet of the wildflowers that grew out in the pasture behind Queenie and her mares. Melody threw her arms around him.

“Those are beautiful,” she said. “By the way, I heard what you said.”

“Did you?” he asked softly.

She nodded. “All of it, most especially the ‘I love you’ part.”

“You didn’t say anything.”

“I know. Let me fix that. I love you too, Luc Girard.”

He kissed her until she was breathless. “You’d better.”

“Why the flowers—trying to make up for last night?”

“I have nothing to make up for. As I recall, after you got punished, you were forgiven in a most spectacular manner, and responded with great enthusiasm. The flowers are for no reason other than we’re going to put Queenie and her band of mares out in that pasture today. The horses will most likely destroy them. I thought maybe, if you can behave yourself, I’d let you come down to the corral to be there.”

“I’d love that. Can you wait until Sierra gets here? I think she’d want to see as well.”

“Of course, but go change out of those moccasins. They wouldn’t provide your feet with any protection.”

She ran in and exchanged the moccasins for boots, joining him back on the porch in just a few minutes. With their arms wrapped around each other’s waist, they returned to the barn.

“How are the mustangs?” she asked.

“The stallion is having a meltdown, which is to be expected but he does seem to take a bit of comfort that his mares are close by where he can see them. The mares are a bit fractious but they’ll settle in. I’m going to put you and Sierra where you can see everything but still be safe.”

“Maybe Sierra could help.”

“There really isn’t anything to help with. It should be interesting. For some of these mares, it’ll be the first time they’ve ever been on grass.”

“That’s so sad.”

“It is, but at least for them, that won’t ever be their life again.”

As they got to the barn, Billy ran up to them.

“I hate to interrupt, but I just wanted to thank you for giving the job to Julie. I can’t remember when she was this happy.”

“Do you think someone should be with her when she speaks to her father?” asked Melody.

“She wants to tell him this morning and I need to be here,” said Billy.

“No,” said Luc. “You go be with Julie. If it goes badly, get her packed up and bring her back here. We’ll fix a temporary space for her until we get something permanent decided. She’s a member of this crew now. We take care of each other.”

Billy smiled. “Thanks, boss. See you in a bit.”

“Take all the time you need, Billy.”

They watched him head for his truck to go lend his support to Julie.

“Where do you think is the best place for her?” asked Melody.

“I thought we’d fix up the old foreman’s cabin. It would give them some privacy.”

“Did you mean her as in Julie by herself? Or them as in Julie and Billy? You can’t fool me. The truth is you just want to make sure you have privacy so you can ravish me in the kitchen whenever you like.”

“As I recall, sweetheart, you rather liked being ravished,” he dropped his voice from a quiet level to a whisper, “at least all the sounds you made indicated that.”

She elbowed him, laughing. “I suppose I can’t argue with that.”

They looked up to see Sierra’s truck headed into the barnyard. She parked and got out of the cab.

“I didn’t expect to see you down at the barn,” she said to Melody.

“They’re going to turn Queenie and her mares out into the pasture for the first time. Luc thought I’d want to be here. I told him to wait for you.”

The three continued down to the corral. Queenie came over to greet Luc and Melody.

“You two stay here until I get them out in the pasture. Once the gate has closed between the pasture and corral, you can come to the pasture fence. But both of you are to stay out of the pasture.”

Luc eased into the corral with the mares. Most had become used to his presence in their crowded space. Queenie always stayed close. He slowly walked across the paddock and climbed the fence to the other side. The gate swung into the pasture.

“Luc will want to pull the gate toward him and then get up on the fence,” explained Sierra. “That way if the mares stampede, he won’t get trampled.”

Melody watched fascinated as Luc slowly drew the gate open. Instead of stampeding, the mares all looked out into the pasture but didn’t venture past the opening.

“Why aren’t they going?” whispered Melody to Sierra.

“They don’t know what grass is. They don’t know that they can trust the footing.”

Luc climbed down off of the fence and secured the gate. He then walked out into the field before turning and calling to Queenie. “Come on, pretty girl. You can do this.”

Melody could see Sierra was holding her breath.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Melody asked.

“Yes,” answered Sierra. “He’s counting on Queenie wanting to follow him and his ability to stay out of the mares’ way if they charge.”

Queenie looked at Luc, shook her head, and trotted back to Melody.

Melody reached up to stroke her face. “It’s all right, Queenie. You know we won’t let anything happen to you.”

Luc called to Queenie again, who answered him with a nervous whinny.

Before Sierra could stop her and without really thinking, Melody climbed into the corral and put her hand on Queenie’s neck before walking across the corral. The big mare turned to go with her.

Melody heard Eddie whisper, “Holy shit.”

“Come on, sweetie, it’ll be okay,” said Melody comfortingly to Queenie.

The mare took step by step with her. When they got to the opening into the pasture, Melody stepped across and waited for Queenie to join her. As she did so, Melody stroked her face and cooed to her before walking to Luc. Queenie stayed at her side.

Melody could hear the other mares as they came through the gate behind their leader. As the mares realized the grass was solid ground some began to graze. Others trotted out and away to really stretch their legs for the first time.

Melody reached Luc with Queenie right next to her. He petted the big mare and whispered to Melody, “Tonight we will have a discussion about what part of ‘stay here’ you failed to understand.”

“She was scared. I thought if I came with her, she wouldn’t be as frightened and she’d lead her mares out. And now, here she is.”

“We’ll talk later.”

Luc patted Queenie and then gently pushed her to get her to leave. The mare trotted away. She stopped and looked back at Luc and Melody and then with an excited nicker, picked up a lope, which quickly became a gallop.

Not only could Melody see the other mares rushing to follow their leader, but she felt them as they thundered past and Luc enfolded her in his strong embrace. Melody was mesmerized by the sight of the mares flocking to Queenie, who then led them on a galloping and bucking spree around the pasture.

“It’s like they’re shedding all their cares and fears,” whispered Melody.

After several trips around the pasture, the mares began to settle down. Some found places to graze. Others laid down and rolled in the grass before getting back up to frolic some more. Queenie rejoined Luc and Melody, wanting to be petted. Once she seemed happy with the amount of attention she’d been given, she wandered off and Luc and Melody headed back to the barn.

Once they’d passed through the corral and were in the barnyard, the gathered ranch hands cheered.

“That was amazing, Melody,” said Eddie. “I don’t know that I’d have walked into that herd of mares like that.”

“Queenie would never have let them hurt me,” said Melody with confidence, hoping that Luc would agree with her.

“I agree,” said Sierra. “She’s the boss mare and her staying close to you like that let the others know Melody wasn’t to be harmed... don’t you think, Luc?”

Luc nodded. “I do.” He turned to the men. “Show’s over, guys. Let’s get back to work.”

The group broke up. Luc kissed Melody briefly before heading into the barn.

Sierra and Melody linked arms as they headed up to the house.

“Am I in as much trouble as I think I am?” Melody asked.

“More. That was really a dangerous thing to do with those mares. Luc is pissed and rightfully so.”

Melody sighed. “Shit. Shit. Shit. I do not want to have him pissed at me again.”

Sierra giggled. “Then quit doing stuff that could get you hurt. That’s the quickest way I know to piss them off.”

“While I’m thinking of it, we sent Billy to be there with Julie when she tells her dad she’s coming to work for us.”

“Probably not a bad idea.”

“Luc suggested we fix up the old foreman’s cabin for her. Well, actually he said them.”

“So you think Billy might be sleeping there instead of the bunkhouse? It wouldn’t surprise me. Ryder said he’s been seeing her for a while.”

“Actually what I told Luc was he just doesn’t want anyone in the house so he can have his way with me anytime he wants.”

Sierra laughed. “There’s probably some truth to that.”

“Any advice as to how I mitigate his being pissed about my going out with the mares?”

“As much as I hate to say it, you deserve whatever he dishes out. You damn near gave me heart failure yesterday afternoon with the mustangs and then this morning. I’ve grown up with horses all my life, and like Eddie I wouldn’t have walked in with those mares. But I do think Queenie would have protected you. As you don’t have a personal horse, you might see if Luc won’t get her broke to ride for you.”

“So no suggestions?”

“Sorry. My best advice is just submit—God, I hate that word—to whatever he decides to do. You might trying beating him to the punch and apologizing, but that isn’t going to save your butt.”

“Ugh! I do not want to think about that. So, I haven’t seen the foreman’s cabin. How long do you think it’ll take us to get it ready?”

“We need to clean it out first. It’s been vacant for a couple of years. Ruth and I can tackle that over the next couple of days. I’ll go down today to see if we need them to haul in a dumpster or if we can just use my truck.”

“That’s not fair. I’ll talk to Luc about...”

“If you’re already in trouble, I wouldn’t push him.”

“But this place, managing it, is supposed to be my job.”

“Luckily for you I don’t mind and I have a lot of empathy for your situation. I’m going to go run and take a peek and then we can make plans.” She turned to leave, but stopped. “But for the record... I thought what you did was really cool.”

It only took Sierra a half hour to return, declaring the cabin wasn’t as bad as she’d feared and she thought she’d get some muscle from a couple of the ranch hands and have them clean it out before she left.

Melody and Sierra finalized the plans for the renovations to the house and the old foreman’s cabin as well as the construction of a commercial kitchen and the guest cottages. They also made a decision regarding their selection of the contractor and got everything scheduled to start. The plan was to have them focus on the foreman’s cabin, then the main house, and then the guest cottages and commercial kitchen.

The day passed all too quickly for Melody. She was not looking forward to facing Luc’s wrath when he got back up to the house. Melody asked that Sierra make their excuses to everyone at the Flying M.

After Sierra had left, Melody spent some time on the computer reviewing her action plan with all the items she needed to have everything up and running on schedule. One of the guest cottages would be set away from the others. The idea was to use it as a bride’s room the day of the wedding and a honeymoon suite that evening if the couple so desired.

Melody had started dinner. She had been mindful to choose something that could be eaten regardless of what time Luc came up from the barn and whether he chose to eat before or after he punished her. She kept checking to see if he was heading up. When she saw he was coming toward the house, she went into their bedroom, stripped, and placed herself in the corner.

“Melody?” he called from the kitchen.

“In here.”