“No trouble at all. Fact is, I’ve got him in mind already,” he assured her promptly. 59
“Oh!” A pulse of excitement was beating in her throat.
“You don’t ask me who he is,” suggested Norris boldly, crouched in the saddle with his weight on the far stirrup.
She had brought it upon herself, but now she dodged the issue. “’Most anyone will do, and me going on eighteen.”
“You’re wrong, girl. Only one out of a thousand will do for your master.”
“Master, indeed! If he comes to the Bar Double G he’ll find he is at the wrong address. None wanted, thank you.”
“Most folks don’t want what’s best for them, I allow. But if they have luck it sometimes comes to them.”
“Luck!” she echoed, her chin in the air.
“You heard me right. What you need is a man that ain’t afraid of you, one to ride close herd on you so as to head off them stampede notions of yours. Now this lad is the very one. He is a black-haired guy, and when he says a thing——”
Involuntarily she glanced at his sleek black head. Melissy felt a sudden clamor of the blood, a pounding of the pulses.