Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carrera's Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses

“Thanks. For what you did for Pumpkin’s grave,” she said, averting her eyes. She still cried easily when she talked about him.

“It was no problem at all, Miss Maddie,” he said gently.

She looked over her hens with proud eyes. “My girls look good.”

“They do, don’t they?” he agreed, then added, “Well, I should get to work.”

“Ben, do you know where Odalie went?” she asked suddenly.

He bit his lip.

“Come on,” she prodded. “Tell me.”

He looked sad. “She went to Denver, Miss Maddie. Heard it from her dad when I went to pick up feed in town.”

Maddie’s heart fell to her feet. But she smiled. “She and Cort make a beautiful couple,” she remarked, and tried to hide the fact that she was dying inside.

“Guess they do,” he said. He tried to say something else, but he couldn’t get the words to come out right. “I’ll just go get these eggs cleaned.”

She nodded. The eyes he couldn’t see were wet with tears.

It seemed that disaster followed disaster. While Cort and Odalie were away, bills flooded the mailbox. Maddie almost passed out when she saw the hospital bill. Even the minimum payment was more than she had in the bank.

“What are we going to do?” she wailed.

Sadie winced at her expression. “Well, we’ll just manage,” she said firmly. “There’s got to be something we can sell that will help pay those bills.” She didn’t add that Cort and Odalie had promised they were taking care of all that. But they were out of town, and Sadie knew that Maddie’s pride would stand in the way of asking them for money. She’d never do it.

“There is something,” Maddie said heavily. She looked up at Sadie.

“No,” Sadie said shortly. “No, you can’t!”

“Look at these bills, Sadie,” she replied, and spread them out on the table. “There’s nothing I can hock, nothing I can do that will make enough money fast enough to cover all this. There just isn’t anything else to do.”

“You aren’t going to talk to that developer fellow?”

“Heavens, no!” Maddie assured her. “I’ll call a real estate agent in town.”

“I think that’s…”

Just as she spoke, a car pulled up in the yard.

“Well, speak of the devil,” Maddie muttered.

The developer climbed out of his car, looked around and started for the front porch.

“Do you suppose we could lock the door and pretend to be gone?” Sadie wondered aloud.

“No. We’re not hiding. Let him in,” Maddie said firmly.

“Don’t you give in to his fancy talk,” Sadie advised.

“Never in a million years. Let him in.”

The developer, Arthur Lawson, came in the door with a smug look on his face. “Miss Lane,” he greeted. He smiled like a crocodile. “Bad news does travel fast. I heard you were in an accident and that your bills are piling up. I believe I can help you.”

Maddie looked at Sadie. Her expression was eloquent.

Archie Lawson grinned like the barracuda he was.

“I heard that your neighbors have gone away together,” he said with mock sympathy. “Just left you with all those medical bills to pay, did they?”

Maddie felt terrible. She didn’t want to say anything unkind about Odalie and Cort. They’d done more than most people could have expected of them. But Maddie was left with the bills, and she had no money to pay them with. She’d read about people who didn’t pay their hospital bill on time and had to deal with collectors’ agencies. She was terrified.

“They don’t say I have to pay them at once,” Maddie began.

“Yes, but the longer you wait, the higher the interest they charge,” he pointed out.

“Interest?”

“It’s such and such a percent,” he continued. He sat down without being asked in her father’s old easy chair. “Let me spell it out for you. I can write you a check that will cover all those medical bills, the hospital bill, everything. All you have to do is sign over the property to me. I’ll even take care of the livestock. I’ll make sure they’re sold to people who will take good care of them.”

“I don’t know,” Maddie faltered. She was torn. It was so quick…

“Maddie, can I talk to you for a minute?” Sadie asked tersely. “It’s about supper,” she lied.

“Okay.”

She excused herself and followed Sadie into the kitchen.

Sadie closed the door. “Listen to me, don’t you do that until you talk to Mr. Brannt,” Sadie said firmly. “Don’t you dare!”

“But, Sadie,” she said in anguish, “we can’t pay the bills, and we can’t expect the Brannts and the Everetts to keep paying them forever!”

“Cort said he’d take care of the hospital bill, at least,” Sadie reminded her.

“Miss Lane?” Lawson called. “I have to leave soon!”

“Don’t let him push you into this,” Sadie cautioned. “Make him wait. Tell him you have to make sure the estate’s not entailed before you can sell, you’ll have to talk to your lawyer!”

Maddie bit her lower lip.

“Tell him!” Sadie said, gesturing her toward the porch.

Maddie took a deep breath and Sadie opened the door for her to motor through.

“Sadie was reminding me that we had a couple of outstanding liens on the property after Dad died,” Maddie lied. “I’ll have to talk to our attorney and make sure they’ve been lifted before I can legally sell it to you.”

“Oh.” He stood up. “Well.” He glared. “You didn’t mention that earlier.”