Love Under Two Benedicts(57)

They’d decided not to say anything to Benny. Not until they had something positive to report to him. For the most part, the little boy seemed happy. He certainly loved all the new toys the people of Lusty had given to him, and he enjoyed the attention they were lavishing on him. Yet there were moments when his little lip quivered, and Kelsey knew he really wanted his mother.

“Come on, sweetheart. There’s nothing we can do for Benny right now. Mom’s taking good care of him,” Steven said.

The tenderness in his expression and in his voice told her more than his actual words how attuned he was to her. She’d never believed men could be so macho and so caring at the same time until she’d taken up with these Benedict brothers.

“I know you’re right.”

Steven handed her the reins of her horse, a chestnut mare named Daisy. When he offered her a leg up, she accepted, swinging her right leg over the horse.

“That hurt,” Steven said as she settled herself in the saddle.

He’d obviously seen her wince. She wasn’t going to lie to him. “Just lifting my own weight hurt my arm and shoulder a bit. It’s all right. I can’t baby it too much, or it’ll just get even more painful and stiffen up to boot.”

“I know. Damn it. I hate like hell that you’re in pain.”

Steven swung up on the back of his black gelding. Kelsey thought both man and beast appeared strong, arrogant, and in charge of the world.

The brothers had been careful to make sure she knew they respected her right to be an independent woman. She also had no doubts whatsoever that they each had definite limits in mind for that independence and would do what they felt necessary to take care of her and keep her safe.

It surprised her some that she was okay with that.

“Did you read the story of how the Benedicts came to be settled on this land?” Steven asked as the horses began to move.

“Didn’t Sarah bring the ranch into the family when she married Caleb Benedict? She’d been widowed, hadn’t she?”

Steven raised both eyebrows as he shot her a teasing look. “You only skimmed the barest amount of information when we took you to the museum, didn’t you?”

“You expected me to read and retain when I was still trying to adjust to the fact that you and your brother wanted to share me? When all the hormones in my body were jumping up and down with fevered excitement, yelling at me to strip and get started?”

Steven grinned. “We got to you right away, did we?” He brought his horse to a stop, and she mimicked the move. Then he leaned over and kissed her quickly. He sat back, apparently not really expecting an answer. “I suppose for someone who didn’t grow up in Lusty, the concept would be a strange one.”

“You think?” Kelsey asked.

Steven only laughed and clucked at his horse.

Kelsey followed him as he led the way away from the house and barns out into the open fields of the ranch. “I only employ a handful of men now,” Steven said, “as the ranch is more of a tradition than anything else. Most of the family’s wealth comes from investments, land and property development, and manufacturing businesses purchased over the years. And then there’s the oil, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Actually, I think it could be said that oil was the foundation of the whole damn thing.”

When he didn’t say any more, Kelsey fell silent, wondering if she was going to have to drag the story out of him. He led her to a small hillock or one that looked small. Once they were on top of it, he brought his horse to a halt and turned in his saddle. When she turned her gaze in the direction he indicated, she gasped, for she could see the big house, and the “new house,” and most of Lusty.

“When Caleb, Joshua, and Sarah moved into the big house, it was shortly after the death of its owner, a man named Maddox. Maddox had struck a business deal with Sarah’s father for her hand in marriage. They discovered after several attempts were made on her life that Maddox had married Sarah solely for the inheritance left to her by her paternal grandfather. He’d planned to have her killed to get it.”

“That’s horrible! Oh, I’m so glad I didn’t live in those days. Why, women were little more than chattel in the eighteen hundreds!”

“That’s a fact,” Steven said. “Anyway, in the end Maddox died at the hand of Joshua Benedict, and Sarah inherited his entire estate as well as the one left to her by her grandfather.”

“I’ll bet she shared it with her men,” Kelsey said.

“You’d win that bet.”

Daisy responded well to Sarah’s guidance. “I’ve missed this. I really love riding.”