“Wake up,” Tamsan nudged Anna out of sleep. It was a tactical error, for if there was one thing Anna liked less than getting up in the morning, it was being woken before sunrise.

“What?”

“We need to get to work.”

“You need to get to work. I need to get at least three hours more sleep.” Anna pulled the covers over her head. Tamsan pulled them back down.

“You need to get up,” she insisted. “The cattle need to be…”

“You deal with it,” Anna said, tugging the blankets back up again.

“I’ll deal with you.” Tamsan’s tone had turned a bit grim.

“You run a ranch now, that means five am starts and early bed times. It means riding out and checking your stock daily. It means feeding and watering and…”

“You do it,” Anna said. “Draw a salary from what’s left of the bank account and let me sleep.”

There was a rush of cold air as Tamsan drew back the covers, and then a flashing sting as her hand landed hard against Anna’s rear. “Get up.”

“Stop that! It’s not funny.”

“I don’t mean it to be funny. I mean it to get you out of bed.”

Anna rose from the mattress scowling. She supposed Tamsan was right, but that did not improve her mood at all. Without sleep, it was impossible to be anything but annoyed at the world. Tamsan ignored her ill-temper as they both got ready for the day ahead.

The hours that followed reinforced Anna’s concerns. Ranch life was not what Anna would describe as a fun life, or an easy life, or even a good life for that matter. It involved spending long hours in the saddle, wandering from one place to the next, chasing errant cattle who seemed to have an innate knack for going precisely where they weren’t meant to go.

Tamsan was used to the work and saw no hardship in it, but about a hour into the day, Anna still wanted to go back to bed. Hell, she wanted to go back to the city. She was almost ready to call Rex and tell him all was forgiven if only he’d come back and take over the physically rigorous duties.

“Anna!” Tamsan shouted her name. “Get around the back there and cut those cattle off before they make a break for it!”

“I’m not Dash,” Anna shouted back, confusing the poor dog by saying his name. “Bark your orders at him.”

“Do it!” Tamsan insisted.

Tamsan seemed to know what the animals were going to do before they did it. Sure enough, as Anna turned her mount, the cows made a break for it. It was left for Dash to loop around and scoop them up, which he did with tongue lolling glee. That was what Tamsan really wanted, cheerful and total obedience, puppy like devotion. Anna was not in the mood for that.

“Come on, Fern,” she murmured to her mount. “Let’s get moving before Tamsan tears stripes off both our hides.”

Fern was a decent horse at least. Anna had first ridden Tex for all of two minutes, but he’d seen fit to start the day by dumping her on her ass and snickering about it. Okay, maybe not snickering, but he’d had a distinctly smug look about him as she got up off the ground.

After checking her over, Tamsan had told Anna to take another mount. Tex had been ridden out by one of the few remaining hands. Over half of them hadn’t shown up for work, apparently in an expression of solidarity with Rex. That meant there was more work to do than normal and not nearly enough people to do it.

“It’s going to be a long day,” Tamsan said, riding up beside Anna. “Now we have these guys where we want them, we need to go feed out the rest…”

Anna held up her hand. “We’ve been riding for three hours. Can we take a break already?”

“Lunch time is break time.”

“Now time is break time,” Anna disagreed. She swung out of the saddle and stretched her legs and butt muscles by bending over to touch her toes.

Just as it was starting to feel good, the tail end of a rope was whacked against her behind. “Mount up, cowgirl,” Tamsan ordered whilst Anna rubbed her butt.

“In a second,” Anna frowned. “What’s the flaming hurry?”

“Hungry cattle,” Tamsan said. “And we need to check the cows for mastitis, there’s been a few of them…”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The sun cut across under the brim of Tamsan’s hat, making her blue eyes gleam with determined fire. “You’ll learn. You have to learn. Every animal on this place is your responsibility. Now mount up, before you feel my spur against your hide.”

Anna’s frown grew more fierce. “Don’t threaten me,” she said. “I’m the one in charge, remember. I’m, the one who owns this ranch. I’m the one…”

“You’re the one who is about to get a butt whipping if she doesn’t get on her horse and do her job.” Tamsan’s eyes narrowed with what appeared to be serious intent. “I don’t have time to babysit a lazy city brat.”