The Cattleman And The Virgin Heiress. Jackie Merritt

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СКАЧАТЬ photo again when Matt returned and handed her a mirror.

      Looking into it, she saw blue eyes and dark hair. It was the face in the photo, though heaven knew that snapshot wasn’t a flattering likeness.

      “It’s me,” she said, and bit down on her bottom lip. “I’m Hope LeClaire.” She paused, then murmured, “Hopeless would be a more appropriate name.”

      “Knowing your name doesn’t help your memory?” Matt realized he was beginning to believe her, and it didn’t make him happy. What did the medical profession do for amnesiacs? As a layman, what could he do? He’d been in prickly, uncomfortable situations before, but none of them compared to this one.

      “No,” she said quietly, though blood was rushing through her veins at a furious pace. “It doesn’t help.” What would help? she thought. Certainly this man, this acquaintance of only a few hours, couldn’t help. Maybe there was more information in the wallet and purse. She pulled some cards from the wallet. “There are credit cards, and this. It reads, ‘In case of emergency, please notify Madelyn LeClaire, mother, and there’s a telephone number.”

      “The phone’s dead because of the storm.”

      “There’s a storm?”

      “It started yesterday and is still going on.”

      “Then I guess I can’t call Madelyn, can I? But if she’s my mother and my last name is LeClaire, then I’m not married.”

      “There could be exceptions to that rule. A career where you prefer using your maiden name, for instance.”

      “Please don’t cite exceptions when I deduce some information about myself,” she said sharply. “How would you like to know absolutely nothing about who you are and then when you think you’ve come up with one tiny piece of data, somebody punches holes in your theory?”

      Unaccustomed to chastisement of any kind, Matt felt his spine stiffen defensively. “Forget I said a word. How about something to eat. Are you hungry?”

      Hope thought about it. “Yes, I think I am.”

      “Bowl of soup and a sandwich sound okay?”

      “Anything.”

      “Glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea?”

      “Hot tea, please.” She watched Matt McCarlson leave the room, and she sighed, because she felt totally miserable in her ignorance. Truth was, she felt like bawling her eyes out, but what good would it do?

      She pulled out the other items in the purse with anxious fingers. Knowing her name was a plus—and her mother’s, who would certainly be able to tell her all about herself—but maybe there were other clues in the purse. To her disappointment, all she found was a small assortment of cosmetics, an unopened chocolate bar, a pocket-size book of crossword puzzles and a pen.

      Lying back, she stared at the ceiling. I’m Hope LeClaire and I live in Massachusetts. So what in heaven’s name am I doing in Texas? And why am I in the bed of a man who, by his own admission, has known me for only a few hours?

      That was when the trembling started…and the tears…and the panic she’d been battling so hard.

      She could no longer keep a lid on the all-consuming fear that had been threatening her sanity, and she turned to her side, buried her head under a pillow and wept.

       Chapter Two

       I n the kitchen, Matt set the teakettle on the stove to heat water for tea, then started putting together some food for Hope LeClaire. Glancing out the window he could hardly believe it was still raining so hard. He took a moment to try the telephone again, and put down the dead instrument with an impatient grimace.

      His gaze fell on the mail and newspaper on the table, and he picked up the paper to check the weather report. But he never got past the front page. In large print the headline read, Newest Stockwell Heiress Missing.

      Quickly he read the article and felt his blood pressure rising. The missing heiress’s name was Hope LeClaire, and she had allegedly disappeared from the Grandview, Texas, airport after deplaning. Airline personnel were positive she’d used her ticket to get to Grandview, but no one could recall seeing her in the airport after the arrival of her flight. The Stockwell family had announced a fifty thousand dollar reward for information that would lead authorities to Miss LeClaire, and the newspaper would print a photo of the missing heiress in the next edition.

      “Well, isn’t this just great?” Matt mumbled. “Just what I need, another rich woman mucking up my life.”

      His attitude was based on his marriage to a woman who had been born and raised to wealth. She’d gotten tired of playing rancher’s wife after only a short stab at married life and had wanted to get back into Texas society. She was about to leave Matt for the son of a rich Texas banking family, but she was killed in a freak accident. Matt had been helping her load her car with her worldly possessions, and they’d been arguing. A Jeep had come flying down their private road, and it had been filled with drunken, joyriding kids. Matt had tried to pull his wife out of the way, but one of the kids shot his leg full of buckshot and he’d fallen before he could pull Trisha to safety. The Jeep crashed, the kids had all been killed, and so had Trisha. Matt had never stopped feeling guilty for their argument and breakup. He had learned to live with community censure, but he’d vowed many times to never get involved with a woman again—especially a rich one as Trisha’s lifestyle had left a bad taste in his mouth.

      But he was involved with one now, wasn’t he? She was occupying his guest room, and he was waiting on her hand and foot. And he could only shudder and guess how long they’d be stuck there in his house with the storm still raging and the roads already impassable, plus no phone service.

      Not that he couldn’t use fifty thousand bucks. Hell, with that much money he could bring his mortgage payments current with the bank and even catch up on his vendor accounts, all of which were past due. The only bills he paid faithfully every month were his utility bills, and it was a scramble most of the time to do that. His present crew, including Chuck, was about half the number of men he used to have on the payroll, and they were mostly working for room, board and loyalty.

      The McCarlson ranch had been a successful operation until a fast-moving virus had spread through the area’s cattle population only last year, financially crippling at least half of the ranches. The owners of those hard-hit operations were struggling to survive, just as Matt was doing. Times were tough now, make no mistake, and Matt worried almost constantly about how much longer he could hang on.

      So yes, he could use that reward, but before he told anyone anything about Hope, he had to uncover what happened to her last night. Right was right, after all, and there were a lot of things he wouldn’t do for money. For instance, maybe she didn’t want to be found. Maybe her amnesia was a deliberate ploy to avoid the Stockwell family. Maybe she’d slipped out of the Grandview airport, and…

      “Aw, hell.” He could come up with “maybes” until doomsday and never know the truth until it came from Hope’s own lips. But it was possible that her reading this newspaper article and realizing that everyone in the area—including the Stockwells—were on to her disappearing act would bring about a miraculous recovery.

      With a wry little shake of his head Matt folded the paper and laid it on the tray he was preparing for Hope. He quickly made a sandwich and warmed a can of soup. The tray СКАЧАТЬ