AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Isabella just shook her head. “Have a good evening, Pedro.”
“Thank you, Senorita, I will. Juan asked me to tell you that he’d bring the ranch reports to you after the evening meal.”
“Thank you. Please tell Juan that will be fine.” They parted and Isabella entered her home, giving her coat to another gentleman who’d been in their employ for as long as she could remember. Pedro asked if she needed anything, but she declined. “I think I’ll retire for the evening, if I get hungry, I’ll raid the kitchen later.”
“Very good, Senorita.”
Before heading upstairs, Isabella walked through the house, checking to make sure all was well. Terra Dura was a traditional Spanish style house, stone walls and terracotta colored marble helped keep the temperature comfortable. Lola joined her to make the rounds. Isabella picked up the dog and gave her a kiss. “Miss me?” To her relief, everything was in order and in its place. She smiled, this was her home and Isabella loved it. Everywhere she looked, she could see her mother’s touch.
There were times when Renata begged for them to share an apartment in the city, but so far Isabella felt no desire to leave home. Living with Don Luis was difficult, yet tolerable since they shared the hacienda with several employees. She was never truly alone with him, and that’s how Isabella liked it. Even though she’d been young, she could still remember the jealousy and the tension between him and her father. Their rivalry had even extended to her mother. Valentina hadn’t liked Don Luis, Isabella could still remember walking into a room where the two of them were alone together and seeing the strain on her mother’s face and the relief in Valentina’s eyes because they’d been interrupted.
Isabella sat the dachshund down and rubbed her own forehead where the beginnings of a headache was forming. When she thought of everything she’d been through in the past couple of days, it was a wonder her head was the only thing hurting. Sometimes she questioned her own judgment. Was she doing the right thing? How would it be if she stopped her crusade? Never went one on one with the bulls again? An unsettling dissatisfaction filled her. Maybe she should back off for a time, give things a chance to settle down. Oh well, she had one more bout scheduled in Veracruz in approximately a week’s time. After that, she’d give this whole thing a little more thought.
Climbing the stairs to her private suite, Isabella was glad to see all her reading materials were still laid out on the desk awaiting her attention. Even though she was tired, she intended to do a bit of work before calling it a day. For the last five years, Isabella had spent a great deal of time learning as much about the ranch and how it worked as possible. Her uncle might have the connections, but she’d studied the books and memorized all the notes her father had left. Every article and journal she could get her hands on that would teach her more about the cattle business was read by lamplight as she lay curled up in bed. The pedigree of each animal on the ranch was as familiar to Isabella as her own. All the ranch’s communications might have her uncle’s name on the letterhead, but the decisions and the bargaining behind those deals were her doing. Don Luis pretended he didn’t realize this, but the vaqueros who ran the ranch turned to her when a decision needed to be made.
Maybe this immersion in the ranch and its workings was why she was so into American cowboys. In her daydreams, she could picture a powerful, handsome man riding the range at her side. Walking to the window, she gazed out at the beautiful expanse. Juan had been right, a storm was blowing in. She could see the branches of nearby trees beginning to move in the wind and a flash of lightning shone brightly in the distant sky. A blanket of weariness settled on her shoulders and she bowed her head. She was so tired of battling her uncle for every inch of progress Terra Dura made. Sometimes she wished for a champion, a man who loved her enough to set everything aright.
Unbidden, her thoughts turned to Benedict Redford. She wrapped her arms around herself, imagining she was held tightly in his embrace. Would she see him again? Isabella smiled. She wanted to…more than anything.
