Page 8 of The Earl’s Wrangler (Cowboy Nobility #3)

RANDALL SEETHED. Hell, he had no idea where this protective instinct had come from. When Sawyer’s father hit him, Randall had seen red and reacted without thinking about it. No one should hit someone else like that.

He grabbed Sawyer’s father and yanked him to his feet, with Alan on the other side. They half poured him into his truck. “Have you been drinking?” Alan asked, wrinkling his nose.

“What the fuck, man? I got a right to talk to my kid.”

“Not if Sawyer doesn’t want to speak to you,” Randall snapped, yanking away the keys once he fished them out of his pocket. “Alan, call the police. He’s driving while under the influence.” He was furious and wanted to teach this asshole a lesson.

“Please,” Sawyer said, “let him sober up awhile and then get him out of here. The police will only make him stick around, and I want him on his way back to whatever corner of hell he came from.”

“All right,” Alan said. “Go on back to work, all of you. I got this.” He turned back to Sawyer’s father, and Sawyer hurried into the barn. Randall thought about going after him, but Chip took his arm and held him back.

“He needs some time on his own,” he cautioned.

Randall stood still, watching as Sawyer disappeared inside. He wanted to talk to him, but then thought better of it. Maybe Chip was right and Sawyer needed time. But that was so counter to Randall’s nature that he nearly followed him anyway. “Bollocks.”

Chip chuckled. “Yeah. I can agree with that.”

Alan still stood next to the truck, with Sawyer’s father lounging inside, looking about to fall asleep. “Come on. I have the cure for everything sad.” Chip hurried away, and Randall had to rush to keep up.

Chip slipped into one of the small outbuildings off to the back of the yard.

Inside, Randall found him smiling as a black dog with a white stripe on her nose lay on her side, nursing a litter of wriggling pups.

“This is Mary Jane. And that is her last litter of puppies. I’m having her spayed after this.

She’s getting older, and I don’t want the poor girl to have any more.

” He gently patted her head. “You’re a good mama.

” She panted, and Chip hurried away, then returned with some water and a few treats.

“What are those?”

“I make up bites with a little chicken, some rice, and a few supplements. She loves them, and with the pups, it’s hard for her to get enough to eat, so I feed these to her a few times a day.

She’s a special girl. George rescued her and her mama, Daisy, when he first got here.

He found them in a culvert. When we first met George, we didn’t know who he was.

But he needed help, and he came with Daisy and her four pups.

I knew he was a good man back then. Alan didn’t trust him, but that soon changed. ” Chip snickered.

“Is Daisy still here?”

Chip shook his head. “She passed away last year. Archie, Mary Jane’s brother, is in England.

George and Alan took him back with them a while ago.

I got to see him the last time I visited, and he’s a daddy too.

Really beautiful dog.” Chip sighed as the puppies wriggled and jostled each other.

He reached down and gently picked one up.

Its eyes were still closed, and Chip held the pup so gently.

It yawned and curled up in Chip’s hands.

“You’re going to grow up big and strong. ”

“Do you give them aspirations?” Randall asked.

Chip shrugged. “I guess I tell them what I hope. They are cute pups, and their mother is good at the ranch, so they should be. I’ll put the word out that I have them, and folks will give them good homes. I want to keep one, but Mom isn’t convinced yet.”

Randall smiled. “Let me guess. You always want to keep one.”

“Nope,” Chip said smugly. “I always want to keep two, but I figure I can wear Mom down to one. It is a ranch, after all, and I care for them.”

“Yeah, but what about when you go back to school?”

“Then the local vet steps in for me. He and I have a deal. I help him out when I’m on breaks, and he gives me practical experience. I’ve still got a long ways to go, but this is what I want.”

“It seems like a hard life out here,” Randall said, thinking about evenings spent in his library with a book, a glass of whiskey or brandy, and a warm fire. His life in England was very settled, and he liked it that way. He didn’t live extravagantly, but instead comfortably.

“Maybe. But this is a good way to live.” He put the pup back with its mother, and the little thing nuzzled right in to eat some more.

“I’ve been to England. Spent a month there with Alan and George the last few years.

It’s really pretty there, and everyone was nice, but it wasn’t home.

” He backed away from Mary Jane and her pups, leaving them alone, and then stepped outside.

“Look up there, at those mountains. It’s still wild.

There are wolves and bears, but no people.

That’s all federal land, and it’s just left on its own.

There’s something thrilling about that.” He paused.

“Have you heard any wolves at night? I did maybe a week ago, but not since. The dogs that are out with the herds answered and warned them off.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I was out there and I heard them. They were quite a ways away, and the dogs gave their warnings. After that the wolves were quiet. We had troubles with wolves a few years ago. They attacked a few of the calves, but Alan added the dogs in with the herd. That really seemed to make a difference.” Chip sighed.

“He wanted to kill the wolves, but I convinced him to try the dogs first.”

“But they affected your family’s livelihood?” Randall asked. He would have expected them to take Alan’s more aggressive approach.

“Yeah, but wolves are good for the environment. Not so good for the cattle, but they keep the deer and other herd animal populations under control. They’re part of the food chain, and the more people try to mess with that, the more damage we do because of unintended consequences.

Yeah, we want to get rid of the wolves, but then the deer and other animal populations grow and they eat everything, so the woods don’t get a chance to grow and mature with the grazers eating all the new growth.

It just keeps going. Alan doesn’t agree with me, but he’s gone most of the time, and Mom and I worked it out. ”

“Your mother is….” He didn’t quite have the words. She was an amazingly strong person.

“A force of nature?” Chip asked, and Randall nodded. “What is your mom like?” Chip asked. “Is she a countess?”

“She was. My mom was every bit the countess, but in a good way. She always thought that her title meant she had to use it for the benefit of everyone else. Mom was always raising money to help the village or pushing for some sort of project. She was a lot like your mom in some ways. But she died when I was fourteen.” Then everything changed.

He always wished his mother had spent as much time with him as she had with her causes.

“I’m sorry.” Chip sighed. “I don’t know what I’d do without my mom, especially after Dad died.”

Randall nodded. “Losing a parent is tough.” Though both of his were gone, he didn’t mourn his father the way he had his mother.

His father became harsh and unmoving in his grief.

Maybe he’d always been that way and his mother had mitigated it—Randall didn’t know.

But his one major regret was not getting to know his mother as an adult.

“Do you think Sawyer’s dad is still here?

” Chip asked as he went to the door. Randall followed, and Sawyer came out of the barn.

He took one look at the truck and headed over to where they stood, pointedly ignoring the vehicle and its inhabitant.

“That was pretty cool what you did. How did you learn to fight like that?” Sawyer stood next to Chip.

“I was a gay kid in a British boarding school. I learned to fight quickly, and I got really good at it. All I had to do was take down one kid and the others left me alone. I took down one of the bullies right in front of the headmaster. He pulled me into his office, and I thought I was in big trouble.” He swallowed, remembering the panic he’d felt at the time.

If he had been kicked out of school, his father would have been over-the-house angry, and Randall would have paid for it.

“Did you get a beating?” Sawyer asked. “Like on TV?”

Randall shook his head. “The headmaster sat me down and asked what happened. When I told him, he gave me a cup of tea and said to stay where I was for a little while and calm down.”

“Jesus, do you all have a tea for everything?” Sawyer asked.

“Well, yes, we do, actually. There are teas to wake you up, some to help you sleep. There are ones served at society functions as well as afternoon tea, which is like a snack time rather than just tea. But in this case, the headmaster just wanted me to calm down.”

“Did he expel you?” Chip asked.

“No. He didn’t beat me either. The other boys all thought I got punished, and I just smiled to cover it up. But the bully never bothered me again. Or any of the other boys, for that matter.”

“But my father,” Sawyer began and then stopped.

“What?” Randall asked. “Is a bully? I’ve met plenty of those in my life, and I know how to handle them. Besides, the guy was half drunk.”

Chip looked at each of them and then nodded before striding toward the house.

“Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Take him on,” Sawyer asked. “Why’d you hit him? I don’t remember anyone ever taking him on that way.”