At The Rancher's Bidding

The temperature was ten degrees cooler in the dim interior of the high-ceiling great room than it was outside, the recessed windows in the wide adobe walls preventing direct sunlight from penetrating. Heavy oak furniture and comfortable leather couches were arranged around a large fireplace that no doubt heated the room efficiently in winter. Paintings of horses and Western landscapes decorated the walls.

He dropped her bag on one of the couches. “Brianna!” he shouted.

“In here,” a woman’s voice answered.

“Come meet our new, uh, housekeeper.”

Troubled, Allie frowned. She had not thought to ask of Cord’s marital status or if he had a concubine living with him. But perhaps Brianna was simply one of his servants.

A pretty woman with a long blond ponytail appeared from down the hallway. Fresh faced and no older than Allie, she wore jeans and a cotton blouse tucked in at the waist.

“Leila, I’d like you to meet my sister, Brianna Taylor. She handles the ranch’s bookkeeping and keeps the paperwork flowing for me.”

“Hi,” the young woman said, smiling. “I didn’t really think the sheikh would, you know—”

“Sheikh Ashraf does very much as he pleases,” Allie said, wishing she didn’t have to defend her brother.

“I, uh, made a deal with Leila to put her on the payroll as a housekeeper while she’s here,” Cord interjected.

Looking puzzled, Brianna nodded. “Fine. I’ll put together the paperwork.”

He cleared his throat. “I thought maybe you’d show Leila to Maria’s room, get her settled there, at least temporarily.”

“Maria?” Allie questioned.

“Our housekeeper,” Brianna explained. “She’s visiting her daughter in El Paso to help with a new baby.”

“Oh, but you do have other servants, yes?”

“Five or six hired hands, depending on the time of year,” Cord said. “They stay in the bunkhouse out back, but I sure wouldn’t want them to hear you calling ’em servants.”

“There is no one else?”

“Nope. With just me and Brianna, we don’t need a whole lot of help around the house.”

Panic twisted in Allie’s belly. How could such a big ranch have only one servant? She would not be able to hide. Too soon they would know the truth.

Picking up her satchel, Cord tried to pass it to his sister.

Brianna stepped back a pace, her gaze dancing between her brother and Allie, a curious smile playing across her face. “Look, I was right in the middle of doing the quarterly reports. Why don’t you show Leila to her room, give her a tour of the place?”

Allie leaped at the possibility. Surely a woman would more quickly discover her masquerade than a man. She would be better off with Cord as her guide. “Yes, a tour would be nice. Thank you.” She smiled her warmest smile.

Hesitating, Cord looked as if he was about to refuse, his eyes roving over Allie in a probing way that started her heart beating faster. Then he nodded curtly. “Okay. Your room is this way.”

Without giving his sister another glance, Allie followed Cord through a spacious dining room in the opposite direction from which Brianna had earlier appeared. The more distance she kept from the other woman, the better.

In the large kitchen, there was another table, though not as big as the one in the dining room. Stainless-steel appliances looked new and efficient. At least she supposed they were efficient. Allie had little idea how any of them operated. The kitchens were not a part of the palace she visited often, not since she’d sneaked in there as a child.

Immediately adjacent to the kitchen, Cord stopped at a doorway. “Okay, here’s your room.”

She stood at the threshold while he stepped inside. A handmade quilt covered the modest-size bed, doilies edged with crocheting protected the top of a walnut chest of drawers, and a small, colorful hooked rug lay beside the bed on the wooden floor. Quaint. And smaller than her dressing room at the palace.

“You’ve got your own bathroom and TV,” Cord said.

Swallowing her dismay at the simple quarters, she said, “I am sure I will be quite comfortable.” Gaining her freedom, however briefly, had its price.

“You can get settled in and—”

“I would very much like to see the rest of the ranch, if I may.” Feeling the cloak she wore was no longer necessary, she unfastened the plain, gray garment and tossed it on the bed, revealing the simple sheath dress she wore. The gold bracelets and necklaces she normally wore she had sent home with Leila. “I have never before visited a cattle ranch.”

Cord’s eyes widened. Damned if they didn’t nearly fall out of their sockets, he thought. He stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets, trying to look anywhere except at Leila. Without her billowing cloak, she was more slender than he had imagined, but every inch a woman. The swell of her small breasts pressed against her bodice; her bare arms were as graceful as a dancer’s, with tiny wrists a man could span with his finger and thumb. Long, straight hair the color of Texas pecans streamed down her back.

Desperately, he tried to think of some reason to send her back to her home in Munir right away. Or at the very least come up with an excuse why he couldn’t give her a tour of the ranch.

He failed on both counts.

“Sure. I’ll show you around a little. Then you’ll probably want to get dinner started.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what housekeepers do. Cook dinner. Clean house. You know.”

“But I don’t know how to cook.”

His brows tugged together as he struggled with indecision. This was not what he had expected. In fact, nothing about Leila was quite what he had expected, including her soft accent with traces of British school English. “Tell me just what is it you did for your, uh, princess.” Lord, he hadn’t stammered this much since he’d invited Marijane Morgan to the eighth grade dance and then gotten her braces locked with his when he tried to kiss her.

Allie thought fast, trying to recall what it was that Leila did so competently for her, serving her in their women’s quarters.

“I prepared my mistress’s bath daily, oiled her body, helped her to dress in the finest silk gowns that money can buy. I brushed her hair.” Feeling slightly wicked and more adventuresome than she had thought possible, she stepped forward and ran her fingers through the thick waves of Cord’s saddle-brown hair. “I could do all of that for you, if you wish.”

“No. That’s okay.” His ruddy complexion flushed even darker and he edged away from her. “Let’s, uh, take that tour and we’ll deal with the rest of your, uh, responsibilities later.”

Shifting her hair in front of her shoulder, she smiled. She had no wish to argue with his decision. The longer she could put off the reality of being a housekeeper, the happier she would be. Cord, too, if he knew how few domestic skills she possessed.

CORD WAS PROUD of the Flying Ace. Since his father’s death five years ago he’d upgraded the facilities and added to the herd through careful breeding and management. It was his home, his life. He poured all of his energy into the ranch and it never disappointed him, even in bad times.

Which was more than he could say about the women in his life.

When Cord had been twelve, his mother had deserted the family. A year ago he’d discovered that she’d gone off because of his father’s infidelity—an infidelity that had resulted in Brianna’s birth. The unexpected news that he had a half sister had surprised him, but didn’t excuse the fact that his mother had abandoned Cord.

A few years ago, he had decided he was ready to settle down, start a family of his own. He had the rings in his pocket when he flew to Houston, where Sandra Maddox, the woman he’d been dating, was working. Problem was, she’d gone off to California the day before with a married man. Cord had been played for a besotted fool.

Nope, these days it didn’t pay to trust a woman.

Or perhaps he was the problem. He wasn’t lovable—either in the eyes of his mother or the woman he’d finally chosen to marry.

He slanted Leila a glance as they walked toward the weathered wood barn and adjoining stables. He couldn’t deny that she got his juices going, but she sure wasn’t suitable for ranch life. He’d give her a week, two at the most, and she’d be long gone, very likely back to her home country. He loved Texas as much as the next man, but it wasn’t an easy place to live, not on a ranch, anyway. The summer could be hotter than Hades, the winters cold enough to freeze the teats off a heifer. In between there was plenty of hard, demanding work, wide-open spaces and a sense of accomplishment he’d never be able to find with a desk job.