Inventions of the Heart, page 1
Books by Mary Connealy
FROM BETHANY HOUSE PUBLISHERS
THE KINCAID BRIDES
Out of Control
In Too Deep
Over the Edge
TROUBLE IN TEXAS
Swept Away
Fired Up
Stuck Together
WILD AT HEART
Tried and True
Now and Forever
Fire and Ice
THE CIMARRON LEGACY
No Way Up
Long Time Gone
Too Far Down
HIGH SIERRA SWEETHEARTS
The Accidental Guardian
The Reluctant Warrior
The Unexpected Champion
BRIDES OF HOPE MOUNTAIN
Aiming for Love
Woman of Sunlight
Her Secret Song
BROTHERS IN ARMS
Braced for Love
A Man with a Past
Love on the Range
THE LUMBER BARON’S DAUGHTERS
The Element of Love
Inventions of the Heart
The Boden Birthright: A CIMARRON LEGACY Novella (All for Love Collection)
Meeting Her Match: A Match Made in Texas Novella
Runaway Bride: A KINCAID BRIDES and TROUBLE IN TEXAS Novella (With This Ring? Collection)
The Tangled Ties That Bind: A KINCAID BRIDES Novella (Hearts Entwined Collection)
© 2022 by Mary Connealy
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3733-7
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
This is a work of historical reconstruction; the appearances of certain historical figures are therefore inevitable. All other characters, however, are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover design by LOOK Design Studio
Cover photography by Aimee Christenson
Author is represented by the Natasha Kern Literary Agency.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
To my grandchildren:
Elle, Isaac, Luke, Katherine, Lauren, and Adrian.
The absolute lights of my life.
It’s almost the weirdest kind of pure luck that the
six smartest, sweetest, most beautiful children in the
world ended up all being my grandchildren.
What are the odds?
Contents
Cover
Half Title Page
Books by Mary Connealy
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
CHAPTER
ONE
JULY 1872
TWO HARTS RANCH
DORADA RIO, CALIFORNIA
AT LEAST YOU KNOW 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 to overpower 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 and sprained 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.
“That’s the other thing I’ve decided, and it’s part of letting me run things.”
Zane didn’t hammer his fists again. Instead, he laid his face straight down on the table with a sigh that sounded like his whole body was deflating. “What now?”
She stared at the crown of his head. The dark swirl of his hair seemed much happier than he was. “I’ve decided that, for now, we shouldn’t hire miners. You should hire a few trusted men as guards and just let me and Jilly mine your gold. We’ll find out soon enough if it’s a rich vein. If it goes deep, then we can’t handle that much mining. But what if that big chunk of quartz is all there is? Jilly and I can quietly mine the gold. We can transport it back here under armed guard, and word won’t get out that you found it until you’ve sold it and used the money to buy half of California. That’s your goal, right?”
“Don’t act like I’m greedy.” He was speaking straight into the tabletop. “Not when you own a whole mountain covered with trees and live in a mansion that’d make a king blush over the excess of it.”
“You’ve never seen it.” Michelle paused, then shrugged. “It’s huge, though, and beautiful. A king would be lucky to have such a nice house.”
“I’m never going to let you run my gold mine. I’m sure you’d be good at it if you didn’t have to handle a bunch of rough men who probably have gold fever and might be willing to kill you.”
&
One of her brunette curls swung loose from the bun at the back of her head, and she twisted it in her fingers thoughtfully. “I could handle it, though. I might need a gun. Can I borrow a gun, Zane?”
That lifted his head up at least. She saw him roll his eyes. “You’re admitting it’s a dangerous job. I can’t put you at risk.”
“I’m educated enough to manage. And there’s no way to get the material in here to work on my gas engine.” She gave him a narrow-eyed look. “Is there?”
Zane shook his head. “Forget the engine. We don’t need an engine on a ranch.”
“It’s not for the ranch. It’s for, well, for lots of things. But mainly it can be used in the sawmill my family owns and the trains we’re going to own. And I also have some ideas for improvement on rolling stock.”
“You’re not rolling my cows anywhere.”
Michelle blinked at him. “Um, not stock like livestock. Rolling stock like the rolling cars the train engine pulls. I want to alter them to load logs onto them more easily and make sure they’re strong enough to take the weight. And there are issues with the braking system on a long downhill slope, so I—”
“Stop talking about trains and logs and tell me what you want to manage.”
“Well, your gold mining operation, of course. But honestly, I want to manage everything. The whole world would run better if they put me in charge. Don’t you like the hot water in your back room? In the kitchen? I could turn one of your upstairs rooms into a proper bathing room with a tub, if you’d just get me a—”
“No. The hot water in the house is a wonder, and I thank you kindly for it. But I’m not letting you run my mine.”
“We’re alone for the first time. Let me explain again how my papa raised me to—”
“Zane!” Shad, Zane’s foreman slammed into the kitchen. “Trouble. Come quick.”
Shouting sounded from outside. Screaming.
Zane was on his feet running.
Michelle gritted her teeth. Thwarted again. But as Zane ran for the kitchen door, Michelle got up and ran after. Whoever was shouting really sounded frantic.
Michelle got outside as two horses, galloping as if they were running from wolves, charged into the ranch yard. The first was ridden by a woman with . . . two heads. Michelle squinted. What she was looking at made no sense.
A woman, for sure. Oh, not with two heads, but with a small child in front. Michelle felt better to figure that out despite the madly racing horse.
The woman’s dark hair flew wildly behind her as she screamed for help. The child, with her matching dark hair, wailed like a feral creature.
A man rode just behind her, terrible in his silence.
Michelle stopped feeling better. Too much blood. The woman was bleeding, but the man made the blood on her pale blue dress look like a scratch.
“Annie?” Zane’s shout could’ve shaken a roof down.
The woman, Annie, reined her horse frantically, and it skidded to a stop, almost sat on its haunches to do it, but she brought the horse under control. The man didn’t even react. He leaned down until the saddle horn had to be poking him in the chest. His horse galloped on until it came up on the barn. It whinnied and tossed its head and reared up higher and higher. Michelle thought it’d go over backward.
Zane ran toward Annie. Four men around the place, drawn by the shouting and galloping hooves, rushed for the rearing horse. The man tumbled off the horse as Shad reached the horse’s head, leapt high to catch the bridle, and pulled the horse down with his weight. He led it away so it wouldn’t trample the fallen man. The other three cowhands hurried to the rider.
Michelle pivoted toward the house. Jilly was better at this than she was. Then she remembered Jilly was gone. Laura was gone. That left Michelle, almost certainly more educated about anatomy and medicine than anyone else around the place. Nothing even resembling any practice at doctoring, though.
She spun back for the injured man and saw Zane rushing toward him carrying a little girl, with Annie clinging to his arm.
“Todd!” the woman screamed. She let go of Zane and ran faster.
Michelle sprinted, trying to get there, see what she could do.
The horses were taken into the barn.
The little girl began crying, “Pa, my papa. Pa.” High and wild and terrified, just like her ma. Michelle didn’t blame them.
Annie dropped to her knees beside Todd and tore at his shirt.
Zane, with his hands full of shrieking toddler, wasn’t much help. He looked around and saw Michelle and made one brief move to hand the little girl off.
Michelle dodged around him and knelt by Todd as his wife got his shirt open. He was utterly still.
“A bullet into his stomach,” Michelle noted. The next words to say were he can’t survive this, but Michelle had learned a few things about handling people in tough situations, and she kept her prognosis to herself.
“Let’s get him inside.” She snapped out the order with such command that the two cowhands not busy with the horses picked him up and carried him toward the house.
Michelle helped Annie up. The woman wasn’t steady on her feet, and it looked like she was bleeding from at least two wounds. Her arm was bleeding and one leg, but both seemed to be working fine. She’d live.
Todd . . . It would likely be time wasted. But Michelle had plenty of time, and Annie would need to see someone trying to help.
That’s when it hit her.
Annie and Todd. And the toddler was . . . was . . . Michelle dug deep. Her memory for names was excellent. Caroline. Annie Lane was Zane’s sister. Married to a rancher named Todd Lane. This gutshot man was Zane’s brother-in-law. Their picture was up in Zane’s office. Zane had mentioned their names once.
The men went inside and headed straight toward the stairs.
“No, bring him back. I want him on the kitchen table.” Michelle’s voice, again, got action. She turned to Zane. “I need bandages. Needle and thread, any medical supplies.”
She turned to Shad, who’d come in right behind them, the horses dealt with. “Get me a basin of water.” From the handy boiler she’d installed. But she didn’t say that. “And cloths. The rag bag is—”
“I know where it is.” Shad leapt into action.
Zane stood across the table from Michelle, Todd’s unconscious form between them. Caroline shrieked in his arms.
Michelle pressed two fingers against Todd’s neck and found a steady pulse. Aware of Annie’s fear, Michelle spoke of what she’d found. “A very strong pulse. That’s a good sign.”
Maybe he had a chance, except Michelle only had the most miniscule notion of what to do. She found the bullet wound. The basin of water and a stack of clean rags were there before she could ask again.
Wringing out a wet rag, she wiped the terrible bleeding aside. “Two bullets. He’s been shot twice.”
She looked at Annie. “Zane, get her a chair. She’s been shot twice, too, but I want her to stay close to Todd.”
Annie grabbed her husband’s hand and pulled it to her lips. “Todd, Todd, can you hear me?”
“Shad, can you handle the chair?” Zane snapped.
Shad moved a chair behind Annie and as good as knocked her into it. Her knees were wobbly, so it wasn’t hard.
“Shad, get Jilly and the Hogan sisters back here. All three of them are fine at doctoring.” Fine was a little strong, but better than her. None of that mattered. Todd would die regardless of the skill of his doctor. Annie would live, regardless of who treated her. And Michelle, for now, was here to do her best for both of them.
Shad cracked an order to the two men who’d carried Todd in, and they left the room at a run. Jilly was riding herd with the Hogan sisters. The Steinmeyer family had ridden to town with some of Zane’s hands. Melinda and her baby had gone along. The first time to town for any of them since they’d come to live with Zane two weeks ago.
Shad hustled out of the room and was right back with a good-sized cloth bag. “Here’s what we have to treat injuries.”
Michelle had Todd’s bullet wounds wiped clean. She dug in the bag and found a long, stiff wire.
“I need to find out if the bullet went through. I didn’t see his back well enough to be sure.”
Bo, one of the steadiest cowhands, came in. “I didn’t see any blood on his back. I’m thinking the bullets are still in there.”
