She should’ve thought it was funny, but she was reeling from the wonderful sensations of the “accidental” contact. It brought back vivid memories of the night they’d made love, when he’d done sinfully delicious things to her breasts until she was almost out of her mind with pleasure. No man had ever touched her before or since Win Taylor. Cait had thought about such intimacies with another man, but nobody she imagined could come close to her memories of that night’s bliss.
“You did a good job, Cait,” Win said as he watched her unsaddle Pepper.
“I learned how to cut out a horse not long after I started walking,” she said with a shrug, then faced him. “You were never impressed before.”
“I never realized how special you were before.”
“Don’t!” Her face ?aming, Cait stomped into the barn to get some oats for Pepper.
Damn him! Years ago she’d tried everything she could think of to get Win to call her special. The only thing special about her now was being a spinster without her virtue.
She remained in the barn until her emotions were back under lock and key. Returning with her composure intact, she climbed onto the lowest rail and held out the bucket containing a handful of grain for her mare. Pepper crunched noisily.
“You can go back to bed. No need for both of us to lose more sleep,” she said with forced lightness. Win’s silent watchfulness increased her awareness of him, making her vibrate like a taut wire.
He didn’t move. “I kind of like how the moon makes you all silverylike. Reminds me of that night.”
Cait’s eyes widened as her heart jumped into her throat.
She clamped down on her emotions and kept her voice bland. “You must be thinking of someone else. It was a new moon that night. No silver moonlight.”
“No, it was you, Cait. I’d never seen anything as pretty as you that night.”
“I’m not that young girl anymore, Win, and I’m not going to throw myself at you like I was stupid enough to do back then. I learned my lesson the hard way.”
She scrambled down from the rail with the empty bucket and strode toward the barn. Win caught her arm, swinging her around. Cait trembled, halfhoping he would kiss her again, then hating herself for being so weak.
“No, you’re not a girl anymore,” he began softly. He cupped her face in his palms. “You’re a beautiful, independent woman who should be married with a passel of kids tugging at her apron strings.”
Cait forced a laugh. “Have you ever seen me in an apron?”
Win dropped his hands to her hips and spanned her waist with his ?ngers. “I can imagine, just as I can imagine you with beautiful blond, blueeyed children.”
Cait propped a hand on her hip, then realized she’d only made her nightgown tighten against her breasts. She quickly lowered her arms. “That’s funny. When I was younger I used to dream of darkhaired children with hazel eyes.”
Win’s hands fell away and he stepped back. “I rode away so that wouldn’t happen.”
Cait’s smile felt more like a tortured grimace. “Don’t worry. It worked.” She spun around, set the pail by the barn, and grabbed her ri?e. “I’m going to check on the mare. Good night.”
She was fearful that Win would follow her, but he must’ve taken her notsosubtle hint and returned to his bed in the barn. The night was still, broken only by the familiar sounds of the horses, an occasional owl’s hoot, and a nighthawk’s screel. She shivered from the cool air and wished she had gone to the cabin to put on a heavy shirt before returning to the foaling mare.
Tiptoeing, she neared the pen where the mare lay on her side with a damp puddle behind her. The water bag had already broken. It would be a quick birth.
Cait laid the ri?e on the ground and stood motionless, watching as the foal’s front feet appeared out of the birth canal. She caught her breath even though she’d lost count of the number of times she’d seen a new foal come into the world.
Over the past years, the signi?cance of each birth had grown for Cait. Ten years ago, she’d felt the beginning of life ?uttering within her. Although she’d been ashamed of her condition and terri?ed of the day her father would learn her secret, the awe of a baby growing within her would make her cry at the oddest times. Sometimes she even imagined herself holding her child as it suckled her breast. There were even moments when she’d remember with joy, instead of regret, the night the child was conceived.
However, four months later she’d lost her baby and the ability to bear more. Now she would give anything, even the ranch, to be able to have a child. Instead, she brought foals into the world, tasting her bitter loss anew every time she did.
The foal’s nose peeked out and Cait found herself breathing with the panting mare.
More of the head emerged, then the knees, followed by the neck and ?anks. Cait gripped the wood rail tight, but she hardly noticed the splinters biting into her palms. Her attention remained focused on the drama in the corral.
The mare pushed again and all but the back legs and hips of the baby were outside the birthing canal.
Cait brought a ?st to her lips and gnawed at her knuckles anxiously. She’d seen this happen before and most of the time the back end of the foal was expelled some minutes later. The few times the foal remained locked in this position Cait’s pa would help the baby get free of its mother.
Long, fretful minutes passed and Cait considered getting Win, but discarded the idea almost immediately. This was her ranch now, and her responsibility. Win wouldn’t be here much longer and she’d have to know how to care for the horses on her own.
The mare tried a few more times to free the hindquarters of its offspring, but ?nally gave up, her side heaving up and down with her exertions.
Cait’s stomach ?uttered, but she resolutely slipped between the rails and very deliberately neared the mare. She could see the whites of the mare’s eyes, but there was little strength remaining to continue the struggle.
“It’s okay, girl. It looks like you might have a small problem here,” Cait crooned softly, her voice trembling. “I can help, girl. It’s okay. Easy now.”
The mare’s gaze tracked Cait and she tried to rise once, but was too weak.
“Shhhh. Relax, Mama. You’ve got a beautiful foal here, but you both need a hand.”
Cait slowly squatted beside the mare and laid her hand lightly on her hindquarters. The mare’s skin rippled, but she didn’t seem overly fearful, only nervous.
“That’s right, Mama, I’m going to help you.” Cait concentrated on what her father had done and gently took hold of the foal’s slimecovered front legs.
“It’s okay, little one.” With slow steady pressure, Cait pulled downward, toward the mare’s heels. Her hands slipped once and she regained her slick hold on the foal. Again she strained carefully, tugging the foal until the hips popped out of the birth canal, along with the hind legs. Cait fell onto her backside with the foal’s head in her lap. She remained sitting on the damp earth, eyeing the tiny ?lly with wonder and joy.
She eased away from the foal and scuttled backward, away from the mother and its newborn. Slipping out of the corral, she tried not to disturb them. The longer the mother lay there, the more blood would be given to its baby through the cord connecting mother to daughter. The mare instinctively would know when it was time to struggle to her feet and break the cord.
Cait observed the new family, drinking in the healthy baby’s appearance. The ?lly’s long legs lay tangled beneath her, and it would be a challenge for the little girl when she got around to standing.
It wasn’t long before the mare rolled, getting her hooves beneath her to rise. The cord between her and her offspring broke and only a small bit of blood was shed. Mama sniffed every inch of the ?lly, then began to lick the infant clean.
Cait smiled as her eyes misted. Another healthy foal. There was only one expectant mare left now and she hoped that birthing went as well as the previous four.
“She’s a beauty.”
Cait whirled around and collided with Win. He grabbed her arms to steady her.
“You shouldn’t go around sneaking up on folks,” she said, pulling away from him.
“I wasn’t sneaking. You just didn’t hear me.”
She’d been so enthralled by the newborn that she wouldn’t have noticed a train barreling out of the trees.
“The foal’s hips got locked inside the mare so I had to give her a hand,” Cait said.
