by India Heath
Comet, Jefferson County, Montana, 1874
"I'm gonna kill her!"
Reece Morley slammed the Comet Gazette onto the kitchen table in fury. "I swear, when I get my hands on that little fire cracker I'm gonna hang her out of a second story window by her ankles and drop her."
Cora Morley didn't bat an eyelid. Nor did she ask who her irate son was referring to. There was only one woman in the whole of Jefferson County who could ignite Reece's temper so easily. Analisa Brockman had been a bur beneath his saddle ever since she came to town two years ago. "Sit down, Reece and eat your breakfast," Cora said calmly, placing a plate of scrambled eggs in front of the seething bulk of man she had given birth to nearly thirty years ago.
Reece ignored the eggs as he picked up the paper again and shook it under his mother's nose. "Have you seen this? She's accusing me of physical assault."
Cora glanced down at the part of the headline still visible in his clenched fist and shrugged. "No dear. Though to be fair, you did threaten her with violence last week. You told me so yourself."
"I threatened to put her over my knee! Since when did spanking an annoying little brat's bare bottom constitute assault?"
"Apparently when she's twenty-five years old and the editor of a newspaper rather than a naughty little school girl."
Reece snorted. "A brat's a brat, Ma, no matter how old they are. And she wouldn't be in a position to print slanderous stuff about me if she'd just accept that running a newspaper is no job for a woman. Hell, she should be at home, makin' babies or something, not working in that stuffy little printing room all hours of the night and day."
Cora sighed. How on earth had she managed to raise such a dinosaur? "Son, why don't you just accept that Analisa doesn't want to sell The Gazette to you? Her father moved her to Comet and established the paper just before he died to make sure she would be self sufficient after his passing. Seems to me the old man had faith in his daughter. Why don't you try following his example? Give Analisa a chance to prove she can make it work."
"She's had her chance," Reece growled. "Brockman died eight months ago and since then the revenues and subscriptions of the paper have dwindled week on week."
"And how would you know that?" Cora challenged.
Reece didn't even pretend to be abashed. "I make it my business to know everything about the companies I intend to buy. She's running the paper and herself into the ground 'cos she's too damn stubborn to admit defeat and sell to me." Reece picked up his Stetson and slammed it onto his dark head.
"Where are you going?"
"Where do you think? I'm gonna have it out with that exasperatin' darn brat once and for all. She'll print a retraction and an apology or find herself nursing a behind so sore she won't sit down for a week."
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