The Rancher's Christmas Princess Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the state. But I’m what they call a
natural. You heard about those horse whisperers? I can do them one better. I
don’t even have to whisper. A horse just naturally wants to please me. They know
what I’m thinking and they do what I want them to do without me having to
breathe a word.”
    Preston advised softly, “Don’t let false modesty stand in your
way, Dad.”
    “Never have. Never will.” Silas drained the last of his drink
and stood again. “Well, I guess I’ve monopolized the conversation enough for
this evening.” He gave a nod of his shining silver head. “Belle, it’s been a
delight to meet you.”
    “And to meet you, Silas.”
    Now Silas seemed almost shy. “You come back again. Anytime.
Often.”
    “Thank you.”
    He left them.
    Preston waited until the front door closed behind him. “No one
quite like my dad.”
    “He’s a charmer, definitely.”
    “For God’s sake, don’t ever tell him that. He’s impossible to live with as it is.”
    “I doubt that. I’m guessing he’s good company. And that the two
of you get along quite well together.”
    Preston looked at her levelly then. “Yeah, you guessed
right.”
    She thought of her cousin Charlotte, her companion, who was
back at their lodgings, with Ben. She counted on Charlotte in so many ways.
They’d been together for four years. And they did well together, she and
Charlotte. She imagined that Preston’s relationship with his father might be
somewhat the same.
    He was watching her.
    She met and held his gaze. It was so easy to do, to look at
him. And it felt...good. Warm and exciting to be here with him. She hadn’t
expected this. To be so attracted to him. As a rule, she was a down-to-earth,
practical person, not prone to flirtations or easy infatuations.
    It probably wasn’t a good thing to be so taken with him, when
you came right down it. It was hard enough to be calm and objective about the
task before her without these sparks flashing back and forth between them.
    He said, “You’re so quiet, all of a sudden....”
    “Sorry. Just...thinking.”
    “About?”
    “I was...” Tell him. Tell him now .
But her courage deserted her. “...wondering if you have this big house all to
yourself?”
    “I do. My dad moved across the yard when I got back from
college. He said it was a fine thing that I wanted to work with him. But the
house would be mine one day and I might as well lay claim to it. He said the
smaller house suited him. Doris, our longtime housekeeper, used to live in. But
she remarried last year and moved to her new husband’s place. He’s got five
acres not far from here. She comes in Monday through Friday to clean—here and
across the yard at the old man’s place. She also cooks for us.”
    “How many hired men do you have here?”
    “We keep two hands on year-round, and then hire at least two
more in the spring. There’s another house, the men’s cabin, with a living area
downstairs and an open sleeping loft that holds six beds.”
    She remembered. “The cabin near the barn?”
    “That’s right. Doris cooks for the hands, too, Monday through
Friday. Weekends, we play the meals by ear. It works out fine.”
    He would need a full-time nanny. Ben would change his life
completely. He had no idea....
    In her mind’s eye, she saw him, suddenly, sitting in Anne’s
lap, his blond head tipped back to smile at her adoringly, in those last days
before she grew too ill to sit up.
    Anne.
    A sudden, hard wave of loss rolled through her. Her stomach
knotted, her throat clutched and tears welled. She swallowed them down, blinked
the moisture away.
    “Belle?” He was rising from his chair. “What happened? What did
I say? What’s wrong?”
    She put out a hand. “No. Sit down. Please. It’s...all right. I’m all right. Honestly.”
    He sank back to the chair. “Why don’t I believe you?”
    Tell him. Tell him now. She opened
her mouth to break the news.

Chapter Three
    B ut Belle’s leaden tongue refused to