by Ava Winters
“Besides, I don’t think I was flirting with him. I don’t know how to flirt. You’ve even told me that before, remember? I was just being friendly,” Luisa pointed out as she picked up a piece of buttered toast and bit into it with a loud crunch.
Amanda didn’t respond, but did think, Luisa knows how to flirt just fine.
Thirty minutes later, she found herself at Luisa’s side, their hats in place to keep the harsh Texas sun off their faces. Amanda watched as Luisa continued to act so eager for the grand tour.
Amanda sighed as they waited for Ian. The last thing she wanted to do was go on a tour of the ranch.
Even though she hadn’t ever been here before, she could tell anyone who wanted to know exactly where everything was located. The large red barn in the distance held all the racehorses. She was sure that another barn which had been built close to the large one was used for the horses that needed medical care.
She could easily see multiple fields where mares and their foals spent their days frolicking in the sunlight. From where she stood, she couldn’t see the two racetracks.
But she really didn’t want to spend the morning with Ian. He was still the same boring person that he’d been when she first met him at sixteen.
When Ian finally made an appearance, Amanda made sure to walk a few steps behind Luisa as he began the tour. He explained different parts of the ranch to Luisa, effectively ignoring Amanda which was fine with her.
She could tell that Luisa was very interested in what Ian had to say which kind of confused her. Luisa had never acted very interested in the running and day to day care of Thoroughbred horses on her ranch. But she had to admit that Luisa was doing a great job of pretending to be her.
After a few minutes of listening to Ian’s monotone voice, she tuned them both out. She had to admit that the grounds on the ranch were beautiful.
It was obvious that they had hired a multitude of people to maintain them. There were many flowerbeds placed in what looked like random areas. Shade trees lined a well-cared for dirt road that led from the ranch house to the main road towards Wilbourne.
When they reached the large red horse barn, she stepped inside, making sure to stay behind Luisa, and looked around.
She actually loved being in the horse barn at her ranch, and this was no exception. She could tell that. although it was larger than the barn at home, everything was kept in immaculate condition.
There were many horses in their individual stalls. A few of them neighed in greeting. Ian walked down the main aisle and began introducing Luisa to each champion horse, giving a little bit of history on each one.
What Amanda wanted to do was explore this barn on her own. She wanted to introduce herself to each horse and let them make up their mind about her, without Ian’s monotone voice giving each of the horse’s history as if it was a boring school lesson that he’d given one too many times.
She purposefully began to lag behind Luisa and Ian. There was one horse, a large black gelding with white stockings on his legs, which she instantly developed a camaraderie with. The horse seemed to know that she was interested in him and pushed his face into her hand when she reached out to touch him.
“I wouldn’t touch him if I were you,” a voice said from behind her.
Amanda whirled around to give the man a piece of her mind, but all thoughts fled when she saw who was standing there. She could tell that he was one of the horse trainers the McAdams employed. He held himself with confidence as he gave a nod towards the black gelding.
“Why ever not?” Amanda demanded.
“His name is Gladiator.”
“So?” Amanda questioned, although she had to admit to herself that she really liked the horse’s name.
“He’s a horse that likes to fight when things don’t go his way. He is also a biter.”
Amanda looked at Gladiator. “He seems calm enough to me.”
The man snickered. “Just wait. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
She turned her back on the man, determined to ignore him. She studied the black horse for a moment, trying to determine if the man was just trying to frighten her or if he really was a dangerous horse.
From what she could see, he seemed to be very mild mannered, although he had to be at least sixteen hands in height. Just when she decided to reach out and touch the side of Gladiator’s face, Ian and Luisa joined them.
“Hi, Stefan,” Ian greeted the man.
The man gave him a nod back.
“Ladies, this is Stefan Turner, our main horse trainer for Thunder Valley Ranch.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Luisa said as she held her hand towards Stefan.
Stefan glanced at her hand and then at Ian as if he wasn’t sure what was expected of him. Luisa dropped her hand to her side in embarrassment.
Amanda had to admit that she was surprised that the ranch’s main trainer seemed to be only a few years older than herself. On most ranches, the main trainers had been working with horses for decades before they were given the coveted job.
Even Luisa’s father had only been the main trainer on Whispering Horse Ranch for three years now, after having learned all the other jobs needed to take care of and train racehorses before then.
Ian cleared his throat and continued the introductions. “This is Amanda Wright and her companion, Luisa Lopez,” Ian said.
Amanda noticed that Ian only gave her a glance, for his eyes were constantly on Luisa.
“We are very lucky to have Stefan working with us,” Ian added.
“It’s nice to meet both of you,” Stefan finally replied as he glanced at each of them, before he began to take care of the horse that was in the stall across from Gladiator.
Amanda decided that she wasn’t impressed with Stefan’s manners. She wanted them all to leave so she could continue to introduce herself to Gladiator. Maybe if she could prove to Stefan that Gladiator liked her, she could ride him.
She instinctively knew that she would need to get Stefan’s approval to ride the gelding, not Ian’s. On her ranch, Mr. Lopez always had the final say in all of the horses’ care, their training as racehorses, and who actually could ride them. She was sure that it was the same on the Thunder Valley Ranch.
She suddenly knew that she would need to get Stefan on her side if she wanted a chance a riding Gladiator.
“What brings you to this part of Texas?” Stefan seemed to ask the question more out of politeness than anything else.
“Ian’s father and my father are old friends,” Luisa said as she continued her charade of being Amanda. “Mr. McAdams invited me to visit for a month and I just had to bring Luisa along since we are such good friends.”
“That’s nice,” Stefan answered distractedly, his attention suddenly drawn from them to something that seemed to be happening at the other end of the barn.
Amanda wasn’t used to being ignored by good-looking men, and she took a few steps towards him, sashaying her hips.
Luisa noticed her sudden interest in Stefan and gave her a warning look, which Amanda returned in kind. She wanted to get Stefan’s attention and she wasn’t going to let her friend stop her.
But what did stop her was Stefan’s muted and uninterested expression. Totally ignoring both women, he turned to Ian. “I just put Apache in the fifth stall, if you would like to take a look at him. He seems to be favoring his right hind leg again.”
Ian nodded, a concerned expression spreading across his face. He said to Luisa, “I had better take a look at Apache. We’ve been worried about his leg. You can wait here with Amanda if you’d like or come with me.”
Amanda watched as Luisa began to follow Ian towards the stall.
“What is wrong with Apache’s leg?” Luisa asked with interest.
Amanda decided to take advantage of being left behind with Stefan.
“How long have you been working here?” Amanda asked, determined to be friendly.
“For a few years now,” Stefan answered absentmindedly.
>
“If you have the time, I would love to have a tour of this barn given by you,” Amanda said, giving Stefan the smile that always seemed to make men do whatever she wished. Her heart thudded as she realized that her smile wasn’t working on Stefan.
Stefan glared at her as if trying to figure out her motive. “I thought that Ian was giving you a tour.”
Amanda shrugged. “He is, but his focus is on what his father owns. I’m sure that a tour given by you would be much more beneficial.”
Stefan began to walk towards the stall where Ian and Luisa stood, not seeming to care if Amanda followed him. “I have my work to do, and you obviously have yours by being a companion to Miss Amanda.”
For the first time, she felt like she was being put in her place, and she didn’t like the feeling at all. She didn’t follow Stefan as he went to join Ian and Luisa.
But her mind was working swiftly, thinking about the ways that she could do to get his attention. She had to be careful of course. She couldn’t let anyone know that she really was Amanda. She was a resourceful woman and would think of something. After all, she wanted to ride Gladiator.
Chapter 11
Stefan walked away from the flirting young woman and joined his boss, not caring if she followed him or not. He watched as Ian carefully ran a hand over Apache’s right leg. He spent quite a few minutes carefully feeling for heat or swollen tendons.
“I think you will be okay,” Ian commented with relief to the horse as he gave him a pat on his flank. Ian looked at Stefan. “Let’s just have him rest the leg for another week or so. Get one of the boys to walk him about a couple of times a day. Then we can try exercising him again.”
Stephen nodded, already have coming to that conclusion on his own. He did his best to focus on what Ian was saying. It was all he could do to keep his back turned towards the women. He couldn’t let feminine faces distract him from his work.
He was aware of why Amanda and her pretty companion were on Thunder Valley Ranch. Ian had told him of his father’s plans for marriage with Amanda a few days ago.
He felt sorry for Ian and was very glad that he was his own man and didn’t have to answer to anyone about what he wanted to do with his life. He enjoyed his job on this Texas ranch and planned to be here for a long time. The last thing he wanted was for a woman to ruin that.
Luisa confused him. He had been around young women like her before. He was aware that she thought that all she would need to do was smile at him, flutter her eyelashes, and he would be at her beck and call. He always avoided women like her.
He was confused because he had expected Amanda to act that way, not her companion. From what Ian had told him, , from his memories of when he had visited her father’s farm four years ago, Amanda was known to be a huge flirt. He hadn’t had anything pleasant to say of Amanda at all.
“Oh!”
Stefan heard a startled screech and turned around. Luisa, the companion, was holding her hand close to her chest. He knew exactly what had just happened. Luisa had ignored his warnings and Gladiator had done what he did best with people he didn’t know; he had tried to bite her.
“Are you alight?” Amanda asked her friend.
“Gladiator was just saying hi,” Luisa answered with a laugh. “I’m fine.”
Once he could tell that Luisa hadn’t been hurt, he gave a nod to Ian before leaving the barn. Maybe Luisa had learned her lesson, maybe.
***
Ian walked both Luisa and Amanda back to the house before giving a slight bow to both of them.
“I’m afraid that I’m going to have to leave you here,” he said with regret. “I have some work that needs to be completed.”
“Will we see you for lunch?” Louise asked.
Ian shook his head. “I’d generally do not eat lunch at the main house. But I will see you at dinner time tonight.”
“I will look forward to it,” Luisa said, but she felt disappointed that he wasn’t planning on spending more time with her that day. She wondered if he had forgotten his promise for a horseback ride that afternoon.
The moment that she stepped into the cool house, Mrs. Hatch appeared at her side.
“Miss Amanda, Mr. McAdams would like to speak with you. He is in his office.”
Luisa tried to act nonchalant at the housekeeper’s words, but her heart began to beat so hard, she wondered if Mrs. Hatch could hear it. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to the elder Mr. McAdams. But she gave Mr. Hatch a nod. “Can you tell me which direction it is in?”
“Just go down the hall right there. His office is at the end of the hall on the left.”
When Amanda began to follow her, acting as a companion, Mrs. Hatch stopped her. “I believe that Mr. Hatch only wants to speak with Miss Amanda.” She looked at Luisa with triumph in her eyes.
Luisa saw Amanda look at the housekeeper in shock, but then she immediately schooled her features and her face became passive. Luisa was starting to see how hard it was for Amanda to constantly pretend that she was someone who she wasn’t. Luisa herself was also finding tit very difficult to pretend that she was someone she really wasn’t.
“I’ll wait for you in our rooms,” Amanda told her, giving her a slight smile of encouragement.
Lisa took a deep breath and walked down the hall. She found his office easily. The door was shut she knocked on it.
“Come in,” a deep voice commanded. Luisa stepped inside.
“Sit down, Amanda,” Mr. McAdams ordered with a wave of his hand.
Luisa did as he asked, trying to stifle a giggle. Mr. McAdams seemed to wave his hand around in the air a lot. She wondered if he did that to make himself look like he was control in everything around him. Or maybe he did it to make himself look larger than he was.
“How was your tour of Thunder Valley Ranch?” he asked, as if he was really interested. He leaned against his comfortable chair and carefully watched her.
“It’s very nice,” Luisa responded. “There are many similarities to my father’s ranch, but there also quite a few differences.”
Mr. McAdams didn’t answer but looked at her almost fiercely. Luisa did her best to not squirm under his gaze.
“Amanda, let me ask you something. Why did you come here?”
“Father told me that you are both hoping to arrange a marriage between your son and myself,” Luisa said honestly.
“Exactly,” Mr. McAdams said with a firm nod of his head. He pounded the desk with a closed fist for effect. “You are here to see if you are compatible with my son. That is the only reason you are here. Because of this, there are certain things that need to change immediately.”
“What kind of changes?” Luisa asked, not sure that she wanted to hear them.
“If you are going to entertain any kind of thought of marrying Ian, then you need to learn your place. I will not allow you to humiliate him again.”
Luisa looked at him with confusion, trying to figure out when she had humiliated him.
“Insisting that your companion eat your meals with the rest of the household and staying in a guest room with you instead of with the rest of the household staff, is not acceptable.”
Luisa was so shocked that she didn’t know what to say.
“I’m assuming that your father never insisted that servants lived and ate separately from the household. I seem to remember that from when I visited his ranch four years ago. But it is not like that here on my ranch. From now on, your companion will eat her meals with the rest of the household staff. I won’t make her sleep in the part of the house reserved for servants since she is your companion, but don’t think I won’t take that next step if she is out of line again.” He glared at her, as if daring her to argue with him.
