by Ava Winters
Ian didn’t respond for a long moment. He wondered what kind of game his father was playing now. It worried him to know that his father and Mr. Wright had been talking. He finally gave his father a nod, letting him know that he was listening.
“You asked me a question that I couldn’t get out of my head, about your mother.”
Ian felt shocked again. He hadn’t expected his father to start talking about his mother. But he did remember that he’d asked his father if he would have let anyone stop him from marrying his mother.
“I loved your mother very much,” Patrick stated.
“I know, Father,” Ian answered softly.
“Your question hit me in my gut. No, I wouldn’t have allowed anyone to stop me from marrying her. In fact, what you said to me reminded me that our marriage almost didn’t happen.”
Ian looked at him in surprise, but didn’t say anything.
“I don’t know if you remember her older brother, your Uncle Doug.”
“I think he was gone by the time I was old enough to remember anything about him.”
“He didn’t like me much for some reason. He didn’t think I was good enough for his sister and did everything he could to pull your mother away from me. He almost succeeded, too. He told many lies about me, both to your mother and to our friends and other family members. Luckily, your mother didn’t believe most of them. But there was one she did believe. We almost broke up over it. I won’t get into the reasons why. It doesn’t matter now. I’m telling you this because if she hadn’t believed in me, we never would have married, all because one person didn’t like the decisions she was making.”
Patrick looked off into the distance and Ian was content to let his father talk. He also found that he was kind of enjoying this. He couldn’t think of the last time he’d had a conversation with Patrick that didn’t have anything to do with the horses, racing, or the ranch.
“Your Uncle Doug didn’t attend our wedding, although I admit that I didn’t feel too bad about that fact. Life with your mother was almost perfect, until you came along, and then it was perfect.”
Ian couldn’t help giving his father a look of disbelief.
Patrick immediately picked up on it. “I know you might not think so. Son, when your mother died, it just about killed me. I didn’t know how to handle it. All I knew was that my wife, the woman who loved me enough to give me a chance, was gone. I know that was when I started to be hard on you. I don’t have any excuse for the way I treated you and I hope that you will someday forgive me.”
Ian just stared at his father. “I don’t know what to say,” he finally admitted, his voice cracking. “I think I will need some time to think through things.”
“Fair enough.” His father nodded and then changed the subject. “How is your visit going with Luisa?”
“It’s going well,” Ian told him. “We are planning to spend the afternoon together.” He glanced at the parlor doorway, ready to make an excuse to leave.
“The situation with Luisa and Amanda was another thing that I thought about while you were gone. I’m afraid I didn’t get much done with the ranch like I usually do.”
Ian didn’t comment, although he was surprised his father was admitting this. He usually hated to take any time off from the ranch, even if he was sick.
“Like I said, I shouldn’t have pushed Mr. Wright to send Amanda here for the sole purpose of marrying you. I can see now that I pushed her back into a corner which is probably why she made the decision to switch places with Luisa.”
“I think it ended up working out the way things were supposed to,” Ian said, his eyes daring his father to contradict him. “I wouldn’t have gotten to know Luisa if Amanda hadn’t come up with her plan.”
Patrick nodded and Ian thought that his father might have looked pleased with his news. “I did enjoy getting to know Luisa, even though I thought she was Amanda. I have to admit that I was a bit confused as to why she had changed so much since our visit to her ranch. I remember Amanda as being quite a bit more … talkative than Luisa portrayed. Luisa is much quieter.”
Ian allowed himself to smile. “I actually suspected the first day they arrived.”
“You did?”
“Yes. And later, I remembered that Amanda had a small mark on her face, near her mouth. Luisa didn’t have that mark. Those types of facial marks don’t just disappear.”
Patrick nodded. “Why didn’t you say anything then?”
“Because by then I was becoming very intrigued with Luisa. I didn’t know why they had decided to switch identities, but I figured that they had a good reason. I have to admit that I enjoyed being around Luisa. I also knew that once you found out, you’d ship them back to Whispering Horse Ranch. I wanted some time to get to now Luisa, even though she was pretending to be Amanda. She tried, but she didn’t do a good job with acting like Amanda. Those two women are too different.” Ian shrugged and then grinned at Patrick. “I’m surprised that they are such good friends because of how different they are, but maybe that’s why they are able to be good friends. You have to admit that you did enjoy at least a few conversations with Luisa during dinner.”
Patrick actually smiled and Ian did his best to not look as shocked as he felt. He couldn’t remember the last time his father had genuinely smiled. “I did. She has excellent taste in literature.”
“So what happens now?” Ian asked. He wanted to know if his father was going to accept his decision to marry Luisa, if things worked out that way.
“I will no longer fight against a marriage to Luisa, if that is what you want. I can tell that you do love her because you stood up to me, because of her. I’ve actually talked with Mr. Wright and we have an understanding between us. Mr. Wright also regrets his role in sending Amanda to our ranch for the sole purpose of marriage between the two of you. I have also apologized to him for the way I treated his daughter while she was in my care.”
“You did?” Ian asked with disbelief. He couldn’t think of one time when he had ever heard his father apologize to anyone.
Patrick smiled. “I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. I have realized that if I want to have a relationship with you after your marriage to Luisa, I need to make some changes, and talking to James was the first step.”
“Good,” Ian said with relief. He liked that his father was talking as though a marriage between him and Luisa was really going to happen, even though he hadn’t officially asked her yet. He felt like that was a good sign.
He stared at his father for a long moment. Part of him was still wondering when his father was going to suddenly start yelling at him for the decisions he had been making. He slowly shook his father’s hand, receiving a firm squeeze.
Ian knew that he needed to tell his father of his plans to purchase land with Stefan and of their new business endeavor, but part of him wanted to put off the conversation. What if he pushed his father too hard, and then lost Patrick’s support of Luisa all over again? He also knew that he might as well lay all his cards down on the table, so to speak.
“I am making some other plans for my future,” Ian said.
Patrick looked at him sharply. “Do you mean for our ranch?”
Ian shook his head. “No. I have been thinking about something else that I want to do.” He quickly told his father what his plans were for the new horse ranch he wanted to purchase. As he talked, he didn’t realize that he became excited at the idea of being able to save so many retired racehorses, but Patrick picked up on it. Ian mentioned that Stefan was thinking about joining him. When he finished he leaned back against his chair and waited for the reaction he fully expected, with a pounding heart and dry mouth. But Patrick surprised him.
He didn’t say anything for a long time, but then he finally nodded. “I had hoped to pass the ranch on to you.”
“I understand that. If Luisa and I do marry, maybe one of my children will grow up wanting the responsibility. I just feel like I should do this.”
Patr
ick cleared his throat. “I did take a trip to the barns a few days ago. I saw a strange black horse in one of them.”
Ian met his father’s gaze head on. He didn’t regret bringing that horse onto the ranch.
“That’s Gladiator.”
“One of the hands explained to me the reason why he was there.” He sighed. “You know that I never condoned to the harsh treatment of any horse.”
Ian nodded. His father actually did treat his horses very well and had fired a few men who tried to do otherwise.
“I will need some time to think about what you have told me,” Patrick added.
“I’m not asking your permission, Father.”
“I realize that.” Patrick nodded. “But maybe we can come up with an option that will work for both of us.”
A few minutes later, Ian let himself out of the house, and headed to pick up Luisa. He was very confused at the sudden change in his father. Part of him wondered how long it was going to last.
Chapter 31
Luisa quickly finished washing the last of the lunch dishes and then wiped down the kitchen table. Ian was supposed to be coming by in a few minutes and she wasn’t anywhere near ready.
She hadn’t seen him since the evening before and was looking forward to spending the afternoon with him, although she didn’t know what they would be doing. After cleaning the table, she rinsed out the washrag and set it to dry before rushing into her room.
She quickly took off her faded working dress. She had been sewing a new dress all week and had stayed up past midnight to finish it. She had chosen a fabric that was off-white with small red flowers.
She had used ribbon and colorful buttons to make the dress look nicer than those that she usually wore. She actually felt quite proud of herself and the new sewing skills she had learned over the last few days. She had added tucks and ruffles and was very pleased with the result.
She remembered that her mother had been a skilled seamstress and she liked the idea that she was learning to do something that her mother had been good at.
It made her feel closer to her mother since she couldn’t tell her about Ian and what was developing between them. She wished that she could talk to her mother and tell her all about the wonderful man that she had fallen in love with. Tears came to her eyes and she suddenly wanted to sob in her hands.
She missed her mother so much. But she blinked them away. She didn’t want to have red and swollen eyes when Ian came to get her. Besides, she hated to cry, she always had.
She usually ended up with a headache and it never solved any problems.
She quickly brushed out her hair until it shone and then braided it so that it hung down her back. Just as she tied a red ribbon around the end of the braid, she heard a knock on the door.
She left her room and walked to the front door. Taking a deep breath for courage, she opened it. Ian stood on the other side, his hat in his hands. He grinned at her as his eyes took her in, from the top of her head to her feet.
“Hi,” she said breathlessly, not because she had been hurrying so much over the last hour to get everything done, but because of the look in Ian’s eyes as he glanced at her again.
“You are beautiful, Luisa,” Ian said.
Luisa’s heart flipped in her chest. She loved that he now called her by her own name and not by Amanda. He was here on her doorstep because he wanted to be, because he wanted to get to know her as Luisa. He had accepted her for who she was.
“Thank you,” Luisa said, trying not to stutter. “I need to get my hat and then we can go.”
Ian waited on the porch while she picked up her brown-colored hat. She hadn’t had time yet to purchase another hat, so she had to wear one of her old ones. As she secured it to her head, she promised herself that she would remedy that situation as soon as she could. It wouldn’t do to make new dresses if she wore old boring hats with them.
She joined Ian on the porch and shut the door behind her. He stretched a hand towards her, and she placed her hand in his.
They began to walk away from her house and away from the main buildings of the ranch. She was glad that he obviously wanted to spend time alone with her as much as she wanted to with him. As they walked, he kept her hand tucked in his.
“You know, I realized something last night. I don’t know very much about you.”
Luisa flushed at his words and she realized that he was right. “You only know what I told you when I was pretending to be Amanda.”
“Tell me what I don’t know,” Ian invited her. “I have so many questions. How long have you been living on Whispering Horse Ranch? Do you have any siblings? What does your father do on this ranch? What about …”
Luisa laughed. “I’ll answer all of your questions. My father moved us to this ranch when I was ten years old. Mr. Wright hired him to be a horse trainer, like Stefan is. My mother was alive then.”
“She was?”
“Yes, although she died a few months later from an illness.” Luisa didn’t want to talk about that terrible time, so she skipped over to after the funeral. “I met Amanda around that time and we became good friends.”
“I have to admit that I’m surprised that the two of you are good friends. You seem so different from each other.”
Luisa shrugged. “Maybe that is why we are good friends. I know that Mr. Wright encouraged us to be friends. He allowed me in his home whenever I wanted to be there. I sometimes spent more time there than I did at my own house. We went to school together. Amanda is very smart and helped me a lot in school. I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish on time if it wasn’t for her.”
“I think that you are quite intelligent,” Ian argued. “There are different definitions of what being smart means.”
“Amanda did a lot of crazy things and I did my best to keep her out of trouble.” Luisa laughed, thinking about some of the fun things that they had done together.
“Like switching identities?”
“Yes. I think that her idea of us switching places has been the worst idea she’s come up with,” Luisa said softly.
“Oh, I don’t know if it was the worst idea. It probably shouldn’t have happened the way it did, but I never would have been able to get to know you if she hadn’t come up with that grand plan.”
Luisa looked at him and saw that he really did mean what he had just said. “I could have told her no. I think that I’m glad now that I didn’t.”
Ian suddenly stopped walking and placed his hands on her shoulders. He looked deep into her eyes so intently that Luisa almost wanted to pull away. She felt like he was seeing deep into her soul.
But then something began to happen between them and she forgot about her nervousness as he slowly began to kiss her. She had only experienced Ian’s kisses a few times before she was sent back to Whispering Horse Ranch, but she was starting to discover that they were powerful and binding.
Everything Ian couldn’t say in words, Luisa felt in this kiss. When he finally moved away, Luisa wanted to protest. She felt like she could spend the rest of her life in his arms.
“Wow,” Ian finally said after a few moments of silence.
Luisa looked at him in surprise and then laughed before they began to walk again.
Over the next few hours, they walked all over Whispering Horse Ranch. Luisa showed him the pond where she had gone swimming when she was young.
She pointed out a large tree where she and Amanda had tried to climb before Hannah had put a stop to it. She showed Ian the garden she was starting to grow. He seemed pleased that she was taking his mother’s idea and creating her own garden. He liked the few plants that she had already transplanted.
