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  Coughing and clutching her hat, Inez reemerged with a suspicious look.

  “He’s playing,” Sam said quickly. Remembering Inez’s bruised shoulder, she couldn’t blame the trainer for being cautious.

  Relieved, Inez played back, scooting her palm along the water’s surface to splash the stallion.

  Bayfire lowered his lips and swept his head back and forth, until he’d stirred a froth of bubbles.

  It might be one of his tricks. The nudge might have been, too, but he’d decided to use them for fun.

  This had to be progress, Sam thought. Carefully, she rode Ace out of the slippery sided pool.

  She met Jake’s eyes and she must have looked expectant, because he gave a slight nod.

  “He’s loosening up a little,” Sam said. “It really hasn’t been that hard to get him to do it.”

  “Almost too easy,” Jake said.

  Even though Ace picked that moment to shake like a big brown dog, splattering Jake and Witch with water, Jake looked as satisfied with their day’s work as Sam felt.

  The three riders’ haze of satisfaction spiked as they approached the bridge leading to River Bend Ranch and caught the aroma of barbecue smoke.

  “Oh, that smells incredible,” Inez moaned. “Tie me up and gag me if I ever again suggest opening a can of soup in my camper instead of eating your grandmother’s cooking.”

  “Sure,” Sam said.

  Feeling their riders’ elation, all three horses had broken into playful trots when they spotted something purple and realized Violette Lee had returned and stood near the hitching rail, talking to Pepper.

  She must not have come by plane, this time, Sam thought, but the thought floated away like dust when Sam saw that the young cowboy, named for his chili-pepper-red hair, was enchanted by the actress.

  No wonder, Sam thought.

  Today, Violette looked more like a movie star. She still wore ratty jeans and her hair looked no cleaner than it had before, but her silky lavender blouse was pretty, even if it fit as if she’d last worn it as a child actress on that Santa Claus show.

  Despite her tight blouse, Violette looked truly interested in whatever Pepper was saying, Sam realized. Sam tried to shake off her critical attitude, but it was too late. Violette had sensed the disapproval of all three riders, and it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. Her tone turned chirpy and she rested her small hand on Pepper’s arm.

  Sam had no idea what the two had been talking about, but as Sam was dismounting in front of the hitching rail, she glimpsed Pepper’s expression. He was flattered despite his discomfort.

  “Oh, ma’am,” he said to Violette, “I’m all dirty from haying. You don’t want to come anywhere close to me.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Violette said.

  Jake had stopped Witch across the ranch yard, close to the ten-acre pasture, but Inez rode right up beside Sam.

  “Did you hear that?” Sam demanded in an outraged whisper.

  “I hope you don’t expect me to do anything,” Inez answered. “I can’t call her off like a trained animal, unfortunately.”

  Sam’s brain ticked off all the advice Brynna had given her about working with the HARP girls, remembering that bad behavior should be ignored because any kind of attention was good attention, to some people.

  So Sam really tried to ignore Violette. It wasn’t like she was jealous, but it was embarrassing to watch Pepper fall all over himself simply because the actress was talking to him.

  Swallowing back her irritation, and remarks that would have sounded dumb anyway, Sam was just closing the gate to the ten-acre pasture behind Ace when Violette left Pepper to trail after Inez and Bayfire.

  Pepper hurried up beside Sam.

  “That’s Violette Lee,” Pepper gasped.

  “I know,” Sam said.

  She tried to sound impressed. After all, only yesterday she’d marveled at the actress walking out of Gram’s kitchen. And Sam couldn’t wait to tell Jen. She would have already if this entire movie thing hadn’t been declared top secret. And if the telephone wasn’t in the middle of the kitchen where everyone would overhear her breaking her promise to protect Inez’s privacy.

  “She was talking to me,” Pepper said. “Did you see?”

  “I did,” Sam said, and Pepper didn’t notice her lack of enthusiasm. He was still floating.

  “I can’t believe it,” Pepper said. “I think I’ll call home and tell the folks.”

  Sam didn’t bother telling him the whole movie was secret. Pepper had run away from his home in Idaho several years ago and Sam had never heard him talk about his family. It was kind of cool that he wanted to call home, and it wasn’t like his parents were going to leave Idaho for Nevada, just to see Violette Lee.

  Shaking his head, Pepper stared down at his forearm. His cuff was turned back and hay stuck to his sweaty skin. There was nothing worth staring at except that it was probably the arm Violette had touched.

  “She’s even more beautiful than in the movies,” he said.

  Boy, he did have stars in his eyes, Sam thought, as she watched him set his boots meandering in the direction of the bunkhouse.

  Then she saw Jake. He’d left Witch ground-tied, and maybe because he’d told her off about Violette before, she assumed he was going to do it again.

  He was walking toward her, pointing. At what? Starstruck Pepper?

  Sam almost growled. If Jake tried to give her one more bit of advice, he was in big trouble.

  “I’m not listening to anything you—” Sam broke off as the pasture gate slammed against her back.

  The impact of wood didn’t hurt, but she knew at once why Jake had been pointing, and it had nothing to do with Violette or Pepper.

  Because she’d been distracted, she hadn’t closed the gate bolt completely.

  Ace had used his nimble lips to open it, and he was shouldering through the open gate, returning to the ranch yard.

  “What a clever animal,” Violette called from where she stood beside Inez. “Did you teach him to do that?”

  It was more important to stop her horse than answer, so Sam shouted, “Ace!”

  She knew the horse was too weary to go anyplace. He nudged the gate every single time she locked him up. It was a habit and this time he’d caught her being careless. Thank goodness Dad had already gone into the house.

  “You, there!” Violette called.

  “That’s Samantha,” Inez reminded the actress.

  Because there was no mistaking the edge of irritation in the trainer’s voice, Sam smiled at her. Violette didn’t seem to notice Inez’s tone or Sam’s smile.

  “I asked,” Violette said with false patience, “if you taught him that—oh, how precious.”

  Ace came to Sam and hung his head over her shoulder.

  “You are precious, aren’t you,” Sam said, kissing his nose. “And you think I’m such a sucker for your hugs that I’ll forgive you.”

  Of course, she did.

  Sam started to walk the gelding back to the ten-acre pasture, but Violette called out, “Please don’t take him away yet.”

  Sam stopped, and Ace whirled with wide eyes, nostrils, and pricked ears, to face Violette.

  Startled, Sam had nearly decided the actress had an uncanny knack with animals, when Violette reached in her pocket and pulled out two sugar cubes.

  “Go ahead,” Sam told Ace, when he gave a low whinny and stepped away from her and toward Violette.

  As if I had a choice, Sam thought, as Violette fed the horse and spoke to him in baby talk.

  “He’s a smart, smart boy, isn’t him?” Violette cooed as Ace licked her palm, looking for more sugar.

  Then Jake’s low laugh, entirely too close and too amused, made her look at him.

  He held both palms toward her, as if fending off an attack.

  “One more itty, bitty sugar cube won’t hurt, and he’ll go right back in that icky old pasture where him belongs, won’t he?” Violette coaxed Ace back to the pastur
e and bolted the gate behind him.

  This time he didn’t test it, of course, and Violette looked totally pleased with herself as she walked back over to Inez.

  Sam double-checked the bolt, watching as Ace trotted lazily across the dry grass. Was he on his way to share his joke with the other horses?

  Jake stood with folded arms. For a second, he watched Ace, too, but then his head turned her way.

  “Don’t say anything,” Sam told him, and then Violette started saying things to Inez that even Jake couldn’t ignore.

  She was talking about Ace.

  “With some creative camera work, he could be Bay’s double,” the actress insisted. “Don’t you think? After all, the script calls for my character”—Violette beckoned for Sam and Jake to come closer—“which at that point is the princess pretending to be the pauper…” She tossed her lank hair without disturbing her sunglasses.

  “It’s all very Elizabethan, since they’re twins, separated at birth. I play both roles. At any rate, the script calls for me to steal a horse off the street. It’s supposed to be a scrubby little thing, which is rather a stretch for Bayfire, but he was to be muddied up a bit, right?” she asked Inez, then rushed on. “So your little horse would be perfect for closeups. They’re going after this whole ‘grit and determination are more important than bloodlines’ kind of theme, you know?”

  Sam thought it sounded like a good idea for a movie, but she didn’t like what Violette was implying about Ace.

  “It’s an underdog movie,” Violette emphasized, as if they hadn’t understood her before. “I tell you he’d be perfect. Although…,” Violette paused. As she stared at Ace in the pasture, her manicured fingers plucked at the air as if she were touching the gelding’s mane. “He could use some hair extensions.”

  Hair extensions? Her mustang cow pony would never wear hair extensions.

  Sam swallowed hard.

  “I don’t think so,” she said calmly, and Inez saw the frustration in Sam’s eyes, even if Jake didn’t.

  “Sam, could you please do me a favor?” Inez asked.

  Violette’s forehead creased, as if she couldn’t imagine why Inez was being so polite, as Sam nodded.

  “I’d be so grateful,” Inez continued, “if you could check and see if the box stall is open to the corral. That way Bayfire can just put himself to bed when he’s ready.”

  “Sure,” Sam said. “I need to check on Tempest and Sunny, anyway.”

  When she got there, of course the stall was already open to the pasture.

  She let out a long, relieved breath, then leaned against the barn wall with her eyes closed.

  A tiny neigh made Sam’s eyes open. Tempest’s nostrils flared wide open as she angled her head through the wooden slats of her stall.

  “Of course I’ll pet you, baby,” Sam said.

  Her back was to the barn door and she was kneading the filly’s silky ears when she heard Jake’s footsteps.

  “What would I have to do,” Sam asked, “to get you to shut up and go away?”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Can’t think of anything that’d make me go now,” Jake said, then took a deep breath. “Hurricane, maybe.”

  “Get it over with, then,” Sam said. She could hear her own long-suffering tone. “Give me another of your stupid lectures.”

  “She’s not a real princess.”

  “Duh,” Sam said, then crossed her arms.

  She stared past Jake and saw Gram talking to Violette, probably begging her to stay for dinner.

  “She’s not a redcoat general’s daughter,” Jake said, jerking his head in Violette’s direction. “Or Annie Oakley, either.”

  “I know that, Jake. She’s an actress.”

  “Someone needs to tell her so,” Jake said, “and it might as well be you.”

  Sam gave up the idea of telling Jake, again, that such a thing would be rude. Why couldn’t he see that?

  Maybe Violette would be less unpleasant after she’d settled in—except that wouldn’t happen. Inez had said time was tight. The crew only had a few days here.

  And Jake was basically a polite guy. He must think that this was a desperate situation.

  “Why don’t you tell her?” Sam asked.

  “It wouldn’t be right,” Jake said with certainty.

  A legend crossed Sam’s mind. Something about a great hero who’d lost his strength when his magic hair was snipped off. She weighed the consequences of relating that story to Jake.

  Bad idea, she thought. If she wanted to keep Jake as a friend, she wouldn’t tell him he was a chicken.

  “She’s rich and famous, but she’s also this thin little scrap of a female,” Jake said. “I’d look like a bully.”

  Jake had a point.

  “I’ll think about it,” Sam said, then glanced out into the ranch yard, where Violette and Inez stood near the house. “But I’m not doing it at dinner.”

  “’Course not,” Jake said. “To tell you the truth, she’s kinda scary.”

  “Scary,” Sam repeated, looking at Jake, who’d never shown a speck of cowardice, at least in front of her. “What about her could possibly be scary?”

  “All that sweetie, baby, horsy stuff is weird.”

  Sam giggled, then socked Jake in the arm. “I’ll take care of her for you, partner,” Sam said. “Don’t you worry.”

  He nodded solemnly and headed for the barn door. He was almost through, and Sam had started to relax, when Jake looked back, made a cowboy gun of his hand, and said, “Don’t take too long about it. I’m leavin’ soon and this is one showdown I don’t want to miss.”

  “What I can’t understand,” Violette was saying as she and Inez walked toward the house in answer to Gram’s summons, “is why this horseback jump is done in the wrong costume. Tell the truth, Inez, wouldn’t it have more visual impact if I were wearing a medieval gown rather than the clothes of a peasant?”

  “You won’t be wearing either one in that scene,” Inez reminded her.

  Violette gave an indulgent smile. Then, amazingly, she held the door so Inez could enter the kitchen first.

  “So you say.”

  At least that’s what Sam thought Violette muttered, but she didn’t spend even a minute worrying about it. The aroma of grilled steak reminded her she’d eaten next to nothing all day.

  Seconds later, she almost stepped on Violette Lee.

  The actress knelt in the middle of the kitchen floor. She petted Blaze with one hand and stroked Cougar with the other, while the cat rubbed against her.

  When Violette looked up, her lips curved in a genuine smile. She’d taken off her sunglasses, too, and her eyes were an amazing shade of lavender.

  “Your pets are wonderful,” Violette said. Then she noticed Dad and Brynna hovered, not sitting at their places at the table. “But I’m delaying dinner.”

  She gave Blaze a kiss on the top of the head, managed to touch the tip of Cougar’s tail as he slipped away, then stood.

  She gave her hands a quick swipe against her jeans as she approached the table. Sam noticed Gram’s grimace. Gram wanted to remind Violette to wash her hands before eating, but she didn’t.

  Sam found herself seated at the far end of the table, facing Gram at the head of it. Inez and Violette sat together, across from Dad, Brynna, and Jake, who squeezed in next to them.

  “Thanks so much, again, for inviting us,” Inez said.

  “Well, I just hope it’s as good as you’re used to,” Gram said as she approached with two filled plates for the guests.

  Sam had glimpsed Gram’s preparations on the counter and stove as she came in. Steak and baked potatoes and sautéed vegetables—good ones, this time—were arranged on the plates. Spinach salads already sat at everyone’s places.

  “Oh!” Violette looked suddenly sick. She recoiled from the plate, then struggled to cover her revulsion. “I didn’t mention being a vegetarian, because I didn’t want you to go to any extra trouble, but I’m afraid I can’t eat
that beef.”

  “I see,” Gram replied. Taking the change in stride, she handed one plate to Inez and the other to Brynna.

  Sam could see Jake scoffing, but she thought it was kind of cool. Lots of people claimed to love animals, but had no problem eating them. Violette might be a self-centered brat, but she was a brat with principles.

  “I just hope you’ll have enough,” Gram said, arranging a plate with extra vegetables in place of the steak. “I don’t have tofu or anything like that.”

  “Tofu’s overrated,” Violette said, rolling her eyes. “And this will be fine.” Violette accepted the plate, and her attitude wasn’t snobbish at all.

  When everyone had begun eating, Brynna asked Inez if she didn’t find it difficult working with zebras.

  “I’ve heard they don’t shake off their wildness like wild horses,” Brynna said.

  “They’re a challenge, but they’re part of what Animal Artists has always been, and—” Inez broke off, looking distracted for a minute. “Actually, I have no serious problems working with equines—zebras, mules, horses, or donkeys. It’s communication with the directors and actors that’s more difficult.”

  “Very funny,” Violette said as she picked a small piece of bacon out of her spinach salad.

  “Not you,” Inez said. “I’m thinking more of non-horse people. They have to be taught what a horse can and can’t do. You can only shoot so many takes before the horse gets tired or bored or realizes he doesn’t like the rubber shoes on his hooves that keep him from slipping.”

  “Wyatt, do you want to put Blaze out?” Gram asked as the Border collie stood panting next to Violette. “He’s being a nuisance.”

  “Don’t!” Violette told Dad. “I mean, please don’t. I love animals. And he’s just waiting for more bacon. It’s my fault for feeding him at the table.”

  “Guess it won’t turn into a habit just this one time,” Dad said.

  As he settled back into his chair, Sam saw her own amazement mirrored on Jake’s face. Neither of them could believe Dad was allowing this.

  “Didn’t you have pets growing up?” Gram asked gently.