competition.
With this thought to stir his imagination, Pete went back to work.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Millie was a busy girl during the next few days, entertaining both of Danny's brothers and also his father. She concentrated her efforts on seeing that old Gus didn't find out she was still bedding Pete and Cal, while keeping it from the boys that she was taking care of their father and each other. Her ingenuity was taxed to the utmost.
But the rewards made it all worthwhile. Millie reveled in an almost constant sexual high – getting screwed on the range, in the haymow, and on the straw pile by day, and ending up in Gus' bed at night. She made it a rule that no one was to visit her room and enforced the ban by keeping a chair propped under her doorknob. This helped her keep each Hinshaw from finding out she was entertaining the others.
Millie also took care of Danny by hand and mouth, and in a spiritual way she found this the most enjoyable activity of all. Her love for her handsome young husband remained untouched by her other sensual experiences, and his appreciation of her new lack of sexual inhibitions gave her added pleasure. They were as happy together as his physical condition would permit.
However, this contentment was soon blasted by the arrival in the mail of a menacing notice from the local water district. In precise legal language, the Hinshaws were informed that the district's board of directors had voted to divert Coyote Creek, which flowed across the rear of Stallion Ranch.
'Hellfire, they can't do that!' Cal exclaimed when his father brought the matter up for discussion that evening. 'We need that water for the back range. It'd cost us a fortune to pipe well-water back there for the stock.'
'I reckon they can do it right enough,' Gus said with a sigh. 'They tell us here in the notice that they'll put in a ditch from the new creek for our use, but we've got to pay a big assessment for the construction cost.'
Pete said, 'It's that sonofabitch Reed again! With him owning most of the land in the county, he runs the water district, too.'
Cal glanced from his brother to his father. 'Ain't there nothing we can do about it?'
'I'll see a lawyer,' Gus said without enthusiasm. 'But the district's probably within their rights, long as they're willing to put in a ditch for us.'
'This is going to bust us for sure,' Cal declared. 'That bastard Reed! He's going to get his fuckin' way after all.'
'Watch your language, boy,' Gus scolded. 'Millie's here.'
The young woman had been sitting quietly at the side of the room, listening to the conversation among Gus and his sons. Now that everyone was looking her way, she spoke up.
'This Reed doesn't sound human. He must be interested only in land and money.'
'He's human enough,' Cal said with a bitter laugh. 'The talk is, he's quite a ladies' man.'
'Really?' Millie responded. An idea was germinating in her mind.
'I reckon the time has come when we're gonna have to sell out,' Gus said disconsolately. 'Do you boys agree?'
'It sure looks that way,' Cal said, figuring Millie would go with him.
Pete nodded and looked at Millie. He believed she would choose to leave with him.
'Gus, have you talked with Danny about it?' the young woman asked.
'Not yet. I was fixin' to do that later.'
'Let me talk with him,' she said. 'I know he's had his heart set on staying here.'
Millie left the living room and went upstairs to see her bedridden husband. His eyes lit up when she entered the room.
She sat next to his bed and held his hand. As she told him about the notice from the water district and related the tentative decision reached by his father and brothers, Danny's expression clouded.
'God damn it, I don't want to sell out!' he exclaimed angrily. 'We hadn't ought to let Reed do that to us.'
'You're right,' Millie agreed. 'But the question is, how can we stop him?'
'There ought to be a way.'
'Maybe there is,' Millie said thoughtfully.
'I wish I knew how.' Danny was looking off into space.
'Cal, drive me into town, will you?' Millie asked the next morning when she and Cal were alone.
'What do you want to go to town for?'
'I haven't seen my mother since I moved out here. Also, I'd like to do some shopping. Maybe you could drive me in, then pick me up later?' She rubbed ingratiatingly against the husky youth.
He grinned, slipping his arms around her. 'Baby, when you do that, I'm damned if I can tell you no.'
Cal tried to kiss her, but Millie twisted away. 'I'll hurry up and get ready. Can we leave in about half an hour?'
'I guess,' he replied, a little disappointed that she hadn't let him go farther. But he figured he would get to her before the day was out.
Cal got out the family's pickup truck. After bathing and prettying herself up, Millie joined him.
As they rattled along the narrow paved road that crossed the lonely prairie, Cal suggested that they pull off and park for a while.
'Later,' Millie said. 'Maybe on the way home. I don't want to get all mussed up now.'
Cal didn't press his desire at the moment.
Arriving in the small town of Kenyon, Millie asked Cal to drop her in front of Connelly's store, where she used to work. She said she wanted to see the people she knew, then would walk to her mother's house. Cal agreed to pick her up at the same spot at three o'clock.
Millie realized that what she had in mind was a long shot gamble. But she felt it was worth trying, for Danny's sake. Though Gus and his other sons were prepared to sell the ranch, Danny wanted to hold on – and what he wanted, she wanted also.
The Reed Land Company occupied the second floor of a store building on Main Street. As soon as Cal's pickup had turned the corner at the edge of town and was out of sight, Millie walked down the street and entered the doorway which opened on the flight of stairs that led to Reed's office.
At the top of the stairs there was a large room with filing cabinets, maps on the walls, and several people working at desks.
The middle-aged, female receptionist glanced up. Millie had seen her around town and had waited on her a few times at Connelly's, but they had never known each other by name.
'Hello, dear,' the woman said. 'What can I do for you?'
Millie tensed. 'Is Mr. Reed in?'
'Well, he is, but… uh, did you have an appointment?'
'No. I believe he'll see me, though. Tell him it's Millie Hinshaw – Danny's wife.'
'Oh. Sit down for a minute, will you, dear?'
Millie took a straight wooden chair opposite the woman's desk and waited, her heart thudding excitedly. Though she was no longer the naive, fearful girl she had been when she had married Danny three weeks ago, what she now had in mind was daring, even by the new liberal standards she had come to accept.
She had never met Trevor Reed, though she had seen him about town, driving his big, fancy car and coming out of the cattlemen's club. He was in his late thirties and quite handsome.
'You can go in, Mrs. Hinshaw,' the receptionist said as she returned. She indicated the paneled door, marked Private, through which she had just exited. It stood ajar.
Millie got up, straightened her shoulders, and walked to Trevor Reed's private office. She pushed the door
