The split-eared steer had a way of moving that drew attention. A loose and powerful stride that was not showings exactly, but was visible. The way a well-made thing is always visible to the people who know what well-made looks like. Calder saw them looking too. He rode the right flank, and his posture didn't change, but she saw the set of his jaw shift slightly, the way it did when he was absorbing information and recalculating.
They're noticing, she said quietly. Don't react to it, he said. She didn't. The livestock grounds were organized around a central ring with holding pens arranged on three sides. An auction official in a heavy coat was moving through the area with a clipboard and a small man near the gate who had the focused and slightly impatient bearing of someone who has run this event for 12 years and has a very precise idea of how it should go and therefore was fetcher the auction manager.
He looked at the Danner animals as they came through the gate. He looked at them with the particular professional neutrality of a man who has learned to make his assessments invisible. He wrote something on his clipboard and moved on. Good sign or bad sign? Tessa murmured to Calder.
He wrote it down. Calder said. That's good. They settled the cattle and Tessa went to the registration table with the ownership papers and breeding records while Calder stayed with the animals. The clerk at the table was a young woman who processed the paperwork with efficient speed and handed back the registration receipts without looking up.
And Tessa took them and turned from the table and nearly walked directly into the woman who had been standing behind her. The woman was perhaps 60, dressed in good wool with the deliberate practicality of someone who was comfortable and knew it, but didn't feel the need to advertise it. She was looking at Tessa with an expression that's not unfriendly, but was very direct. You're the Danner woman, she said not unkindly. Just as a statement of established fact.
Tessa Danner, Tessa said. Yes, Miriam hot. The woman said, my husband runs the hot spread south of the river. We've known Warren for 20 years. She paused.
I heard you were from Missoula. I was Tessa said bookkeeping work. And now you're running cattle at the Danner place. I'm helping Warren run the ranch. She said there's a difference.
Miriam H. Thought looked at her for a moment with an expression that could have been approval or could have been assessment. It turned out to be both. Those six animals yours Danner animals, Tessa said. Yes, the split-eared one is exceptional.