Before lunch, she approached Stick with a request.

"All right if I borrow one of the horses to ride? I know what I'm doing," she added quickly when she saw the look of skepticism on his face. "I can ride as well as my men, I promise you." And she desperately needed something mindless to clear out her brain. Something to relieve the tension gripping her body that was as much Mason as the job.

He shrugged. "All right with me, if the boss signs off on it."

She tried ...