by Ava Winters
Her door opened a few seconds after Hannah left, and a young woman that Amanda didn’t recognize walked into the room. Amanda knew immediately that this woman was her new maid. Molly, the woman who had been her maid for the last year, had quit a few days ago. She was glad to see that her father had been able to find another one.
“Hello, Miss Wright,” the young woman greeted her. “I’m to be your new maid.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Amanda answered as she resisted the urge to cover her eyes because of the bright light from the windows. “What is your name?”
“Jamie Boone, miss,” the young woman said as she dipped into a curtsy.
Amanda wanted to tell Jamie not to curtsy around her, but she decided that she didn’t want to address that issue right then. Her head was killing her.
“I am supposed to meet with my father for breakfast. Can you help me dress? After breakfast, we can go over your duties,” Amanda said.
“Of course,” Jamie answered, and she walked towards Amanda’s large wardrobe. “Do you have a specific dress that you’d like to wear today?”
“Why don’t you decide?” Amanda suggested. She wanted to see what skills Jamie had. She didn’t want to have a maid that needed to be told all her duties.
“What are your plans for today?” Jamie asked.
“I’m supposed to go into Dallas with my father,” Amanda replied.
Jamie didn’t seem concerned about Amanda’s suggestion. Instead, she opened the wardrobe and spent a few moments looking through Amanda’s dresses. She picked out a light pink lawn gown.
“How about this dress?” Jamie asked as she held it up for Amanda to see.
Amanda was pleased that Jamie had picked out a simple but comfortable dress. It was perfect for traveling in her father’s buggy and wouldn’t wrinkle. The fabric was also light weight, which would help her stay cool in the hot Texas weather.
“That is perfect,” Amanda praised her.
Jamie helped Amanda remove her nightgown. She had Amanda’s corset ready and helped her put it on. Amanda was pleased that she didn’t tighten it too tight, like her last maid consistently had. There were times when she had tightened it so much, Amanda would feel faint. After she slipped on the pink dress, Jamie quickly had it buttoned.
After Amanda was completely dressed, she sat at her dressing table. Her new maid began to show her skills by arranging Amanda’s hair in the latest style, a chiffon. After securing an ivory comb in the top of Amanda’s black hair, Jamie stepped back, letting Amanda know that she was done.
“My hair looks good,” Amanda told her as she turned her head back and forth in front of the mirror. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll straighten your room while you are at breakfast,” Jamie said.
Amanda nodded. “You don’t need to do any cleaning. We have other help who perform those duties.”
She was glad that her stomach didn’t seem to be protesting at getting up so early, and her headache was starting to subside. She hoped that once she ate breakfast, she would be feeling her normal self. Since her father had promised her a trip into Dallas that day, she didn’t want anything to put a stop to the plans.
Mrs. Jewel, the woman who made most of her dresses, had promised her a new one the next time she could travel into Dallas. Amanda was anxious to see what the new dress looked like.
Her father usually made a trip into Dallas every few months because he had business meetings with men at the bank and he always took her with him. Usually Luisa also went with them.
While her father was attending his meetings, Amanda and Luisa would spend a few hours shopping in their favorite stores. They always met her father for a late lunch at a nearby restaurant before they headed back to Albertson.
When Amanda arrived in the breakfast room, she found her father was already there, seated at the head of the long dining room table with a full plate of food in front of him. He had a newspaper in one hand and was reading it while holding a cup coffee in the other.
“Hello, Papa,” she greeted him with a bright smile, doing her best to look ready for the day, although her head still hurt a bit.
He immediately stood up and waited for her to sit down before taking his own seat. “You look well this morning, Amanda. After the events of last night, I wondered if you would really meet with me this morning.”
Amanda cringed inside, wondering how he knew that she had come home sick. “I feel fine this morning,” she lied, hoping that he wouldn’t suddenly announce that their trip to Dallas would need to be postponed.
“That’s good to hear.” He gave her a long look before turning his attention to his newspaper.
Amanda wanted to ask him what he wanted to speak with her about, but she also knew she couldn’t push him, and that he’d tell her in his own time.
A few minutes later, he put the newspaper aside and began to ask a few questions about the dance while another maid placed a plate full of eggs, bacon and sausage, toast, and potatoes in front of her, along with her usual cup of morning tea. Just the thought of eating made her head hurt even more, but she took a small bite of the eggs. She discovered that they actually tasted good, so she took another bite.
“Would you like a cup of coffee, miss?” the maid asked.
“No, thank you,” she answered since she had just finished a cup in her room only a few minutes before. “I’d love a glass of orange juice, though.”
“Very good, miss,” the maid responded before retrieving the pitcher full of juice and pouring Amanda a small glass. She was glad that their few orange trees on the ranch were producing fruit. She loved to drink freshly squeezed orange juice in the mornings when it was available.
When the maid finally left, her father cleared his throat.
“You will be turning twenty-one in a few months.”
Amanda nodded, trying not to frown. She immediately knew where this conversation was going to lead: marriage.
“Do you remember Ian McAdams? He visited our ranch with his father about four years ago.”
She nodded again and this time she did frown. A picture of the young man popped into her mind. He had been about four years older than her and quite tall and gangly for his age.
She remembered being fascinated by how blond his hair had been; it had been almost white from his long hours in the sun. His father, Patrick McAdams, also owned a large Thoroughbred horse ranch and lived about two hours away in Wilbourne.
She remembered that she hadn’t been impressed with Ian at all. Even though he had been very good-looking, he had also been boring and pompous. Those traits had, in her mind, canceled his good looks out.
It seemed to her that everything he had done had been to impress his own father, who also had been boring and pompous. She remembered that whenever Ian had talked to her, he’d constantly looked at his father as if needing reassurance that he was saying the right things.
“How can I forget?” she muttered but wisely kept her thoughts to herself.
Ian had been at Mr. McAdams’ beck and call. Every time his father had given him an order, Ian had instantly obeyed it.
She had actually felt sorry for the young man because he seemed so desperate to obey his stern father’s every command. It wasn’t the fact that Ian had wanted to obey his father that bothered her the most. After all, she had also been raised to obey her own father. It was how he had done it.
She also remembered that his father hadn’t treated him very well at all, like Ian wasn’t worth much in his eyes. In fact, now that she remembered the visit, she had disliked Mr. McAdams much more than she had Ian.
“I have been in correspondence with Mr. McAdams over the last few months,” her father said, pulling her out of her memories of Ian’s visit.
“How are the McAdams’ doing?” Amanda asked politely, knowing it was expected of her to do so.
“They are doing very well. Their horse ranch has become very successful in Texas, almost as good as ours. In fact, Patrick and
I have come up with an excellent idea.”
“What is that?” she asked, as she picked up a piece of toast and began to spread some delicious strawberry jam on it.
“We feel that it would be adventitious for both of our families if you and Ian marry.”
Amanda took a bite of her toast and began to cough as she swallowed it just as her father said his last words. She quickly took a drink of juice while she replayed the words her father had said. For a long horrible minute, she stared at her father, wondering if she had heard wrong.
“What did you say?” she finally asked, her voice sounding small in her ears.
“You heard me. We would like our children to marry. It would strengthen the alliance between our two families. We could combine our horse businesses, and they would become the largest in Texas.”
“I don’t want to marry just yet, Papa,” Amanda said firmly. Her stomach began to churn again, although she wasn’t sure if it was because of the effects of the punch from the night before or the horrible news she had just heard.
Father looked at her sternly and she became aware that she wasn’t going to be able to talk her way out this awful idea. She knew that whatever plans he had made for her had already been set into motion. His next words confirmed her suspicions.
“I have made arrangements for you to visit the Thunder Valley Ranch for the next month so that you and Ian can get to know each other better.”
Amanda leaned back against her chair and closed her eyes for a moment. She wished that she had been too sick to join her father for breakfast. She would have heard of his plan eventually, but it would have given her some time to go throughout her day blissfully unaware of how her life was being planned for her.
“When am I supposed to leave?” she finally asked.
“Next week.”
“I can’t leave. I have signed up to work in the orphanage in town next week, remember?”
She was pleased that she had come up with a perfect excuse to put the visit off. Her father had always taught her to be responsible with whatever she agreed to do, around the ranch and their town.
But her heart fell as her father waved her concern away. “You can make arrangements to do that another time. I’m sure that they will understand.”
“Father, I really don’t want to go. I have no desire to get to know Ian better,” she pleaded. “I’m not ready to get married just yet.”
Her father stood up; his large form looked formidable, and used to intimidate Amanda when she was younger, but now she just scowled at him.
“There is nothing more to discuss. The arrangements have been made. You will go to Thunder Valley Ranch and give Ian a chance.”
“But…” she continued to argue, doing her best to keep tears from falling. She couldn’t believe that her father was actually threatening to force a marriage on her to a man she disliked.
He held up a hand to keep her from saying anything else. “You must promise to give this a chance for the next month. If, after the month is up, you truly feel that you and Ian aren’t compatible, I won’t force you to marry against your will. But you must promise me one thing.”
Amanda looked at her father suspiciously. “What?”
“You need to promise me that you will give this a chance.”
She stifled a sigh, knowing that her father didn’t like it when she sighed to indicate that she didn’t want to do something. “I promise.”
He smiled at her before picking up the forgotten newspaper, and left the dining room. Amanda spent the next few minutes pushing her now-cold breakfast around on her plate.
She didn’t want to go to Wilbourne to get to know a man she already knew she didn’t like, but she had made a promise to her father. She would need to do her best to get through the month-long visit.
Chapter 4
Ian McAdams led a black horse into the barn and tied the halter rope to a ring in the wall. He took off the saddle and slung it over a nearby stand, and then removed the saddle blanket.
He picked up a brush and began to run it over the horse’s smooth hide. He had just spent the morning going through some preliminary training of this horse and he was pleased with the results.
His father, Patrick McAdams, had just purchased him from a ranch in Georgia, hoping to have another champion horse to represent their own Thoroughbred horse ranch. The horse was a yearling, but Ian could tell that he had a lot of potential as a racer.
He heard some footsteps behind him and turned to see who was coming. His good friend and horse foreman of the Thunder Valley Ranch reached his side. Stefan had been working for them for three years now and had made quite a few prosperous changes to the ranch.
“I just received a message that your father wants you to go to the house,” Stefan said, a knowing look in his eyes. “He wants to meet with you.”
Ian stifled a groan. The last thing he wanted to do was go talk to his father. He still had a lot of things that he needed to do that day, but he knew that if he ignored the summons, the lecture he would receive later would be worse.
“I’ll go up as soon as I’ve taken care of Midnight,” he responded as he gave the horse another swipe with the brush.
Stefan took the brush from him. “I’ll finish taking care of Midnight. You better go see what he wants.”
Ian nodded reluctantly. “He worked hard this morning. He deserves a good feed when he’s back in his stall.”
Stefan nodded and Ian left the large barn. He began the long walk towards the main house. It was almost a half a mile away. He knew that he could have saddled another horse for the short trek, but he’d discovered that he enjoyed the walk and liked to use the time to ponder things.
He had grown up on this ranch; this life was all he’d ever known.
His father had started it before he was born and over the years it had grown into one of the largest Thoroughbred horse ranches in the state of Texas. His father was a shrewd businessman and practically everything he touched seemed to grow and prosper. Ian had grown up thinking that his father was almost as powerful as God.
He remembered that he had done everything he could to stay on the good side of his father. He had seen many times what happened to people who lost his father’s trust and respect, and he never wanted that to happen to him.
But now that he was almost twenty-five, he also could see his father’s faults. One of them was that he always had to be right, no matter what the situation was. Ian knew that his father had been grooming him to eventually take over Thunder Valley Ranch ever since he was a young boy. He loved this ranch and its land. He loved working with the horses, but he didn’t know if he would ever be able to be the harsh businessman his father was. He knew that his father was aware of this “fault,” and was trying to drum it out of him through intense control. Ian would much rather work directly with the horses and help with training and care. His father rarely had anything to do with the horses, except for decisions regarding breeding, selling, and of course, racing.
This was one way his father tried to control him, by demanding his presence in the middle of the day when he should be on the racing track with the next horse that he wanted to work with. In Ian’s mind, there were few conversations with his father that couldn’t wait until he returned to the house for the mandatory evening meal.
When he finally arrived at the house, the housekeeper, Mrs. Hatch, smiled at him as he walked inside. He suspected that she had been ordered by his father to wait for him in the entryway.
