Catherine laughed halfheartedly. “I already had that happen, and I must say I found the experience less than desirable.”

Rebecca shook her head. “You know, I came to work here almost four years ago and never in that time have I heard you speak of your husband. That is who you’re talking about, isn’t it?”

Catherine nodded, refusing to meet Rebecca’s inquisitive brown-eyed stare as she moved to pump more water into the sink. “There isn’t much to tell.”

Rebecca nudged her away from the pump and took up the motion. “Come on, Catherine. All the children are in bed for the night. Why not open up a little?”

Catherine buried her hands back in the suds and sighed. “What do you want me to tell you? Plain preacher’s daughter fell in love with the gorgeous stranger who came to work for her father’s ranch? He married her a month after they first met, took her off to Nevada, and left her the first chance he got.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Rebecca paused. Her brown eyes darkened in anger. “I’ll never understand a man who could do something so cold-blooded or mean.”

“Me either,” she whispered under her breath.

“I don’t see how you stand it.”

Catherine shrugged. “I got used to it. Five years gave me time to lay aside my hatred. Besides, I have Diana to think about. I’m the only parent she has and I decided on the day she was born that I would never mention his name or dwell on what he did to us.”

“Well, I respect you for that. Me, I wouldn’t have rested until I found the polecat and skinned him alive.”

Catherine relished the image of her husband’s tawny skin being flayed from him as he screamed for mercy. Now that Rebecca mentioned it, she did rather enjoy the thought of him being skinned. It would certainly serve him right. “You know, I do want something after all.”

“And that is?”

Catherine scrubbed her pot with renewed vigor, wishing it were her husband’s head she held beneath the water. “I wish I could lay eyes on him one last time to tell him what a no-good, lousy, rabid dog he was for leaving me.”

“That’s my girl.” Rebecca laughed as she patted Catherine on the back. Then, she leaned forward and said in a low tone, “But the real question is, was he any good where and when it counted?”

“Rebecca!” Catherine gasped, trying her best not to think about just how good he had been there.

Though why Rebecca’s words continued to shock her after all these years of knowing her, she couldn’t imagine. Rebecca had never had an ounce of shame in her.