Stacey, Trampas, and the Virginian watched the wild mare buck wildly, trying to escape the corral they had just caged her in, but there was escape. They were her superior, and no matter how hard she fought, she would bow to them in the end.

"She is going to be a hard one to break," muttered Trampas.

"It will take time; a long time," added the Virginian, who was an expert when it come to horses, but unlike many other cowboys in the west, he was gentle when breaking. He had found the best mounts were befriended, not broken. A friend could make the difference in life and death on the range.

At the sound of rampant hooves approaching, the three men turned their gazes.

"Oh, O," gasped Trampas. "What do you suppose she wants?"

"She thinks that damn horse belongs to her," growled Stacey, not in the mood to tolerate the whims of a woman today. He had more important issues to deal with, like finding a way to boot Jameson out on his ass so that he could graze his cattle.

The cowboys watched and waited as Evie stormed her way to them. Her face was in an unintentional pout, the kind of pout that men, especially Stacey, found alluring. Her hair was windblown and disarray, adding to her defiant hull. She had barely dismounted when she hollered, "I want my horse!"

"What horse would that be?" Stacey asked, unable to hide the smile on his face. He couldn't help it. The scene was hilarious. A little trick like that barging on to his property, demanding a horse that he captured fairly. If she had been a man, he would have shot her.

"You know damn well which horse I am talking about!"

"Language, little lady!" Trampas joked, only inflaming her temper hotter.

"You stay out of this!" barked Evie, then she turned to Stacey. "My lasso was around her neck. She belongs to me and I want her back!"

"Look, little girl," Stacey patronized, and she hated to be patronized by a man. "Your rope might have been around her neck, but you were not on the other end of it. We captured her on public land, legally, so you have no claim to her."What made farmers think that they can just move in and everything belonged to them?

Evie rushed into Stacey so belligerently that he backed up thinking she would strike him. "I am so sick of it! You ranchers think the world belongs to you! You see something you desire and you just take it! You hog everything! To hell with the rest of us! You don't care who you hurt!"

The Virginian crossed his arms and leaned against a fence post, amused to see how Stacey would handle this.

She was as fiery as her hair was red. Instead of her behavior angering him, it excited him in a darkly erotic way. Stacey smirked. He had definitely not taken everything he desired. If true, she would found herself pinned beneath his virile body months ago. "I haven't hurt anyone!"

"Oh yes you have! You will hurt that beautiful mare! You see her as sport! You will abuse her to break her all in the name of sport!" By now her anger had conjured tears, and refusing to weep in front of these brutes, Evie turned to flee.

Most men in the area would have jerked her up and took her inside and teach her a lesson she would never forget, but Stacey was not most men. However, he was a man and in all men there lies a primitive, almost animalist nature, and right now that part of him was raging. In the back of his mind, the urge was there and he easily conjured it. Acting on nature, Stacey seized her arm, but gently, just enough to halt her. Before he could open his mouth, she screamed, "Take your damn hands off of me! I am not one of your sleazy saloon girls! You will not grope me!"

Stacey immediately released her, taken aback. How the hell did she know anything about him and saloon girls? He stepped back, now a bit angry she thought him sadistic. "I wasn't trying to grope you! I was trying to stop you so that I can talk some sense into you!"

She stepped forward and jabbed her finger into his chest. Having to peer up at him, she rambled on, "You were trying to intimidate me! I am not Dixie! I am not Ella! I am not afraid of you and I won't be manhandled!"

Now he was at a complete loss. "I wasn't going to hurt you! Who the hell is Dixie and Ella? I don't even know what you are talking about!"

"Ella was Cattle Kate, and you and your lot killed her!"

Stacey clenched his fists, deeply offended. "I had no part in that! I've never hurt any woman!"

Evie mounted in a rush, stumbling, blindly enraged. As she fled, Stacey called out, "And I do not abuse horses either! I am as gentle with them as I am my women!"

As Evie's stallion galloped from Shiloh, Stacey turned to find Virginian and Trampas grinning ear to ear. "What the hell was that?" He threw his hands up.

The men shrugged their shoulders, then headed toward the corral, not sure what to make of what had just happened. The mare was more irate than ever. It seemed she shared the girl's anger.

After watching the mustang use her hind legs to kick at the gate, Stacey concluded, "She is as willful as that damn girl."

"It would take even longer to break her," Trampas chuckled.

Stacey wasn't sure if Trampas meant the mustang or the irrational girl who had just insulted him; either way, both would be a pleasure to break.