Page 1 of Inventions of the Heart

CHAPTER

ONE

JULY1872

TWOHARTSRANCH

DORADARIO, CALIFORNIA

AT LEAST YOUKNOW YOU CAN TRUST ME.”Michelle Stiles slashed a hand about an inch from Zane Hart’s face.

They sat in his kitchen. His roof over her head. His food in her stomach. And safety thanks to him. Still, the man was so stubborn. She wanted to help, and besides, she was bored, and she knew she could do this job better than anyone else.

Zane slammed both fists down on the table, and his dark blue eyes flashed like summer lightning. “This subject is closed. Don’t you have a husband to find?”

Michelle never should’ve told him about the terms of Papa’s will. He’d been goading her about it ever since. And anyway, he shouldn’t be able to torment her so smugly about her finding a husband after he’d kissed her.

She shoved her dark curls out of her eyes and tried tooverpower him with the force of her will. “I don’t need to find a husband right away. Things are better now.”

Zane glared at her, looking remarkably un-overpowered.

She thought of what a terrible job her stepfather, Edgar Beaumont, was doing running Stiles Lumber, the vast company her father had founded and raised her and her sisters to take over.

When Mama married Edgar, their lives had turned ugly. They discovered Edgar’s plot to marry his stepdaughters off to loathsome friends of his and had no choice but to run.

And because he had them virtually held prisoner in the mansion her parents had built on top of a remote mountain, the fastest way to escape had been to ride down a flume in half barrels. They’d survived the reckless escape and found a place to hide on the edge of Zane’s ranch.

And Zane was right about marriage. Each sister inherited her one-third of the company when she turned twenty-five or when she married. Now with Laura married, all Michelle needed to do was round up a husband, and she and Laura could combine their shares of the company and take controlling interest in Stiles Lumber. Jilly could be next to get married, of course, but she seemed overly resistant to the idea, and Michelle couldn’t guess why.

Their company was still in danger from Edgar. But Zane didn’t need to keep bringing it up. The fact that he was right only made it more irritating.

“At least Mama isn’t in danger anymore. And Laura is all safely married and back there with Caleb and Nick to protect her and Mama.” Michelle trembled to think of Edgar’s violent anger toward Mama when he’d found the girls gone.

They’d tried to bring Mama along, but she’d fallen andsprained her ankle, and they had no choice but to abandon her.

Michelle had hated it.

But then they met Zane and his cowhand Nick Ryder, who knew of the Stiles Lumber dynasty and had worked for them last summer.

When Nick heard Mama was in danger, he jumped on his horse and rode off to the rescue.

After that, they found gold near Purgatory, a rough settlement on Zane’s property.

“Let me run the mining operation.” There was no mining operation yet, because when Laura had found the gold and told Zane, all of them had known gold caused trouble.

No one had figured out what to do about a gold strike, so it remained a secret. Michelle wasn’t just offering to run his mining company. She was offering to create the company, work the mine, and count, ship, and sell the gold. She’d figure out security and how to protect the gold. She had no doubt in her mind she could manage it.

She wanted to do it all.

“You’re leaving,” Zane said. “I need someone permanent.”

“Let me do it until I leave. I promise to train my replacement.”

“Michelle, you know you’re going to have trouble keeping men honest. I need someone who’s not going to hesitate when they need to beat the living daylights out of one of my miners.” He glared at her in such a way as to say he doubted she’d manage that.

With some justification.

She couldn’t see herself winning a fistfight with a man half-mad with gold fever.

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