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

“I didn’t think you thought I was going to sell the ranch today,” Maddie said, and with a bland smile. “That’s all. You wouldn’t want to find out later that you didn’t actually own it…?”

“No. Of course not.” He made a face. “All right, I’ll be back in, say, two days? Will that give you enough time?”

“Yes,” Maddie said.

He picked up his briefcase and looked around the living room. “This house will have to be torn down. But if you want some pictures and stuff, I can let you have it after we wrap up the sale. The furniture’s no loss.” He laughed coldly. “I’ll be in touch. And if your answer is no—well, don’t be surprised if your cattle suddenly come down with unusual diseases. Anthrax always comes to mind… And if federal agencies have to be called in, your operation will be closed down immediately.”

He left and Maddie had to bite back curses. “The furniture’s no loss,” she muttered. “These are antiques! And anthrax! What kind of horrible person would infect defenseless animals! Maddie went inside, a chill settling in her heart.

“Nasty man. You can’t let him have our house!” Sadie glared out the window as the developer drove off.

Maddie leaned back in her chair. “I wish I didn’t,” she said heavily. “But I don’t know what else to do.” She felt sick to her soul at the man’s threats. “Cort is going to marry Odalie, you know.”

Sadie wanted to argue, but she didn’t know how to. It seemed pretty obvious that if he hadn’t told Maddie he was leaving with Odalie, he had a guilty conscience and was trying to shield her from the truth.

“Should have just told you, instead of sneaking off together,” Sadie muttered.

“They didn’t want to hurt me,” Maddie said heavily. “It’s pretty obvious how I feel about Cort, you know.”

“Still…”

Maddie looked at the bills lying open on the table. She leaned forward with her face in her hands. Her heart was breaking. At least she might be able to walk eventually. But that still left the problem of how she was going to walk herself out of this financial mess. The ranch was all she had left for collateral.

Collateral! She turned to Sadie. “We can take out a mortgage, can’t we?” she asked Sadie.

Sadie frowned. “I don’t know. Best you should call the lawyer and find out.”

“I’ll do that right now!”

She did at least have hope that there were options. A few options, at least.

But the lie she’d told Lawson turned out to be the truth.

“I’m really sorry, Maddie,” Burt Davies told her. “But your dad did take out a lien on the property when he bought that last seed bull. I’ve been keeping up the payments out of the ranch revenues when I did the bills for you the past few months.”

“You mean, I can’t sell or even borrow on the ranch.”

“You could sell,” he admitted. “If you got enough for it that would pay off the lien… But, Maddie, that land’s been in your family for generations. You can’t mean to sell it.”

She swallowed. “Burt, I’ve got medical bills I can’t begin to pay.”

“Odalie and Cort are taking care of those,” he reminded her. “Legally, even if not morally, they’re obligated to.”

“Yes, but, they’re getting married, don’t you see?” she burst out. “I can’t tie them up with my bills.”

“You can and you will, if I have to go to court for you,” Burt said firmly. “The accident wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it was,” she said in a wan tone. “I ran out in the road to save my stupid rooster, who died anyway. As for guilt, Odalie and Cort have done everything humanly possible for me since the wreck. Nobody could fault them for that.”

“I know, but…”

“If I sell the ranch,” she argued gently, “I can pay off all my debts and I won’t owe anyone anything.”

“That’s bad legal advice. You should never try to act as your own attorney.”

She laughed. “Yes, I know. Okay, I’ll think about it for a couple of days,” she said.

“You think about it hard,” he replied. “No sense in letting yourself be forced into a decision you don’t want to make.”

“All right. Thanks, Burt.”

She hung up. “Life,” she told the room at large, “is just not fair.”

The next day, Ben came walking in with a sad expression. “Got bad news,” he said.

“What now?” Maddie asked with a faint smile.

“Lost two more purebred cows. They wandered off.”

“All right, that’s more than coincidence,” she muttered. She moved to the phone, picked it up and called King Brannt.

“How many cows does that make?” King asked, aghast.

“Four, in the past few weeks,” she said. “Something’s not right.”

“I agree. I’ll get our computer expert to check those recordings and see if he can find anything.”

“Thanks, Mr. Brannt.”

He hesitated. “How are things over there?”

She hesitated, too. “Just fine,” she lied. “Fine.”

“Cort’s coming home day after tomorrow,” he added.

“I hope he and Odalie have had a good time,” she said, and tried not to sound as hurt as she felt. “They’ve both been very kind to me. I owe them a lot.”

“Maddie,” he began slowly, “about that trip they took—”

“They’re my friends,” she interrupted. “I want them to be happy. Look I have to go, okay? But if you find out anything about my cows, can you call me?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks, Mr. Brannt.”

She hung up. She didn’t think she’d ever felt so miserable in her whole young life. She loved Cort. But he was never going to be hers. She realized now that he’d been pretending, to keep her spirits up so that she wouldn’t despair. But he’d always loved Odalie, and she’d always known it. She couldn’t expect him to give up everything he loved just to placate an injured woman, out of guilt. She wasn’t going to let him do it.

And Odalie might have been her enemy once, but that was certainly no longer the case. Odalie had become a friend. She couldn’t have hard feelings toward her….