Heartstrings by Rebecca Paisley Page B

work for? Some good grades on your schoolwork, maybe? How would you like to work for twenty-five thousand acres of prime grassland? Do you even know the price of that much land? It’s costing me over two thousand dollars, Miss Worth, and I’m only five hundred dollars away from owning it. I’ve been working for ten years to earn that much money, and if I have to, I’ll work ten more to get the rest!”
    “Is it your intention to grow corn?” She knew full well he would not be growing corn. He was too impatient to tend to plants, but she suspected her question would lead him to reveal more of what she knew he was trying to conceal. “You could grow quite a lot of corn on twenty-five thousand acres.”
    “ Corn?” he shouted. “The only use for corn I’ll have is for feed! I don’t plan on being some squatting farmer, for God’s sake! I’m going to raise horses!”
    Theodosia’s eyes widened with pleasure. “Horses! Why, my father happened to—”
    “Yes, horses, Miss Worth. Got that? Horses. On the finest prairie you’ve ever set eyes on. The grass grows waist-high there. When the wind blows across it, it looks like a green sea. And the spring-fed streams and creeks flow with the clearest, sweetest water you’ve ever tasted.”
    She watched his horse paw the ground nearby. Moonlight coated the stallion’s gray coat with shining silver, and Theodosia thought him a beautiful sight to behold. “You’ve a magnificent mount, Mr. Montana. How do you call him?”
    “His name’s Secret.”
    “He is your pride and your joy, isn’t he?”
    So she wouldn’t realize just how precious Secret was to him, Roman gave his horse a disinterested glance. “He’s just a horse.”
    Theodosia disagreed. The stallion was not just a horse. There was something unusual about him, something very special, but she couldn’t understand what it was.
    She looked at Roman again. “Why must you buy the land, Mr. Montana? I’ve heard that many men simply work land that is vacant. They make quite a good living without having to purchase the land.”
    He sneered. “And what’s going to happen to those men if the owners decide to use the land. Miss Worth? They’ll be run off, that’s what. I’ve made sure every blade of grass on the land I want will really belong to me. It took me a while, but I found Senor Alvaro Madrigal, the man who holds the original Spanish land grant. He lives in Templeton, and when I asked him about the land, he was more than willing to sell it. He has no family to leave it to, and no plans to return to it. Every so often, when I have a fair amount of money, I go give it to him. That’s what I was doing in Templeton when I met Dr. Wallaby. Once Senor Madrigal signs the warranty over to me, no one is ever going to take the land away from me.”
    She knew by the way he spoke that his horse ranch was his passion, as going to Brazil was hers. “Do you plan to raise a family as well as horses?”
    “No,” came his swift and adamant reply. God, the very idea brought back the desperation and frustration he’d been dealing with for thirteen long years. There was no way in hell he’d go through it again.
    He’d been a fool to go through it the first time.
    “You don’t want a family,” Theodosia deliberated out loud. “Why?”
    “Weren’t we talking about Dr. Wallaby?” he flared.
    Evasion, she mused. A sure sign that something about family was highly disturbing to him. “I’m sorry if talking about your future upsets you.”
    “My future doesn’t upset me at all, Miss Worth. You do. Can we just have a normal conversation without you picking apart every damned word I say?”
    “Very well. Dr. Wallaby is not a wealthy man, and that is why he is unable to give you a higher salary. Indeed, his financial straits are the reason for his being in Texas. He is awaiting funds from his benefactors in New England. Once he receives them, he will return to Brazil. And if he finds me suitable to be his