“Stop worrying,” Tamsan said, reaching out to stroke her hair gently. “Let me take care of it. That’s why I’m here, remember, to help?”

Anna looked up at Tamsan, biting her lower lip. It was tempting to let Tamsan have control. Too tempting, perhaps.

“Rex is probably out by the round pen,” Anna said. “He’s been working with his younger horses a lot lately.”

“He should be doing that on his own time,” Tamsan said, striding off to confront the foreman. Anna followed, the sinking feeling turning into a plummeting sensation. Tamsan was a hell of a woman, but she didn’t know if Tamsan was a match for Rex. Rex had been all height and brawn, mustache and temper for as long as she’d known him.

They found Rex outside the round pen looking in, shouting something unintelligible to the hand working inside. He stopped shouting as Anna and Tamsan approached, turning to face them with apparent courtesy.

“Tamsan Grieg,” Tamsan said, extending her hand. Rex shook it more out of reflex than anything.

“I know you,” he said, flicking his hat back. “You’re from the Clusky place.”

“Right, but Anna’s asked me to help her out with some of the administration and a few other things here.”

“Few other things, huh.”

“Yep. A few other things.”

Rex didn’t look pleased. His mustache vibrated in a particularly hostile sort of way, not that Tamsan seemed bothered by it. She simply informed Rex that she’d talk with him a little later and carried on her way, leaving Anna to scuttle quickly after her with an apologetic look back at the foreman.

“That was sort of rude.”

“Was it? How?” Tamsan seemed genuinely puzzled.

“I mean… he didn’t seem happy.”

“Probably doesn’t want anyone getting in his way.”

“So maybe we shouldn’t…”

“You just finished telling me that this place is yours,” Tamsan said. “So stop worrying about annoying Rex. He should be worried about annoying you.”

She had a point, Anna supposed. But Rex had been Rex for as long as she could remember. Nobody messed with Rex. Even her father had given him a wide berth at times. The man was good at his job, but he had a temper. Usually the ranch hands were the ones to catch it, but if he got fired up enough then anyone in his path was a potential target.

Maybe Tamsan didn’t know that. Maybe Tamsan just didn’t care about that. She was striding toward the house with the casual, assured gait of someone who meant to get things done and all Anna could do was try to keep up.

Tamsan walked through the front door and stopped. “Where are your books?”

“Uh… in the office I guess.”

“You guess?” Tamsan cut her eyes at Anna sharply. “You haven’t looked at them?”

“Well, I er… I checked the bank accounts. There’s money in there, so I figured we were good. There’s a lady who…”

“You are the lady who,” Tamsan interrupted. “You need to know what’s going on financially.”

It seemed obvious when Tamsan pointed that out. Anna really wasn’t sure why it hadn’t been obvious before. Maybe because she’d just been coasting on grief and the hope that everything was being handled by someone. There were enough people around the place. Surely one or two of them knew what was going on.

“Where’s the office?”

“Third door on the right. Here. I’ll show you.” Anna moved past Tamsan and made her way to the door she hadn’t opened in a long time. When she pushed it open, the first thing she noticed was that the office still smelled of tobacco. It held the scent of her father in a way no other room in the house did. She tried to push the emotion of memory away, but it was difficult. There had been so many times she’d stood at the door, looked in and seen him working at the big old desk. Part of her still expected to see him there.

“This room hasn’t been touched in months,” Tamsan said, sneezing into her forearm. “It needs a clean.”

“No!” Anna heard herself almost shriek the word. “Just… no,” she said, closing the door behind them. “Not now.”

“We need to look at the books,” Tamsan said, giving her a quizzical look. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. Rex will have all the latest numbers anyway. Probably.”

“Probably? Probably isn’t good enough, is it?”

Anna stared up into Tamsan’s face and shrugged. “I guess not.”

“It’s not. Just knowing that you have some money in an account somewhere isn’t enough. You’re going to take losses. You’re going to need to pay out for feed in winter. You’re going to have expenses, and if you don’t know…”

“Okay!” Anna held her hands up. “I get it! There’s a budget somewhere.”

“Somewhere,” Tamsan said grimly. “I’m hearing that word and words like it a lot today.”